Silent Surprises

Harry woke early again on Tuesday morning so he could read some more of his copy of Silent and Wandless Magic. He headed down to the common room, expecting Hermione to be there, which she was. He sat down beside her on the couch and started reading chapter one.

Hermione was much farther along in the book than he was. At one point he glanced over to see her with her wand out and a look of deep concentration on her face, but nothing happened and her shoulders slumped.

Harry returned to his book and started reading the next chapter about the basics of nonverbal spells. It contained more about concentration while casting the spell, which still didn’t help him much. Ron came downstairs half an hour later and joined them on the couch.

As the rest of the Gryffindors wandered down the stairs towards breakfast, Harry, Hermione, and Ron put up what they were doing and headed to the Great Hall as well. They ate breakfast and headed to their lessons for the day. The first one was flying. The class was taught by Madame Hooch out on the grounds near a large stadium. Harry wasn’t sure what sport was played in the stadium, but could see three large golden rings on either side of the field.

There were two rows of broomsticks lying on the ground near where Madame Hooch was standing. She waited impatiently for them to arrive and everyone stood beside a broom and waited for what to do next.

“Well, what are you waiting for?” Madame Hooch asked. “Hold your hand over the broom and say ‘up!’” Harry watched as everyone stuck their hand over the broom lying beside them and say up. Most only twitched or did nothing, while a few rose into the person’s hand. Malfoy happened to be one of these people. Hermione had no luck at all, while Ron’s flew into his hand obediently. Harry only realized that he hadn’t tried yet when Hermione nudged him looking expectant. He didn’t think his would do anything.

However, he was very surprised when he said up, and the broom shot straight up into his hand. Hermione had given up, as had most of the others whose brooms wouldn’t move. Madame Hooch explained some more about having to mean it for the brooms to listen to you and walked around helping everyone until they got it right.

“Now, I want you to mount your brooms. Keep a firm grip and rise a few feet into the air. Then come straight back down.” said Madame Hooch.

Hermione looked nervous about this and Harry realized that she was probably afraid of heights. He mounted his broom and waited for everyone else to do so. All of a sudden, one of the boys in his dormitory named Neville Longbottom shot up into the air.  

However, he did not come back down. He kept rising until he finally got the broom to move forward and back towards the ground. He came down way too fast and slammed into the ground. Everyone winced and Harry guessed that he had broken something. Madame Hooch ran over to him and quickly rushed him off to the hospital wing.

Hermione told him that he had broken his wrist when he hit the ground. She was going to say something else when she was interrupted by Malfoy. He came up to Harry and pushed Hermione to the side as Crabbe and Goyle stood next to him.

“Hey Potter,” he said, “you should have heard his wrist break when he hit the ground. He started crying like a baby too. Oh, wait, you couldn’t hear it!” He started laughing until an evil smirk suddenly appeared on his face.

“Look at this! Longbottom dropped something!” He pulled out a small glass orb from his pocket and held it out.

Harry knew whatever it was Neville would want it back from Malfoy.

“Give it here, Malfoy,” Harry said.

“No. I’ll just put it somewhere for him to find. How about up a tree?” he said and jumped onto his broomstick and took off.

Harry followed him, not even realizing that this was the first time he had ever flown. He also hadn’t noticed Madame Hooch’s warning that anyone caught in the air when she returned would be expelled from Hogwarts.

 Malfoy was obviously surprised that Harry could even fly. Harry rose into the air and stopped in midair beside Malfoy. Malfoy had a shocked look on his face, and seemed to realize that Harry wasn’t going to be a pushover.

“Give it here, Malfoy!” Harry said.

“If you want it, catch it!” Malfoy yelled and threw it into the air as far as he could. Harry quickly shot after it, rapidly gaining ground on the orb that was falling to the ground. Fifteen feet from the ground, he caught it and pulled up. The rest of the class had been following on the ground and now came running up to him. Hermione was in the lead, and she appeared to be angry.

“How could you do something like that?” she asked. “You had never even flown before!”

Ron came up at this point and said “Relax, Hermione! In case you didn’t notice, he’s a bloody brilliant flyer!”

Hermione started to reply, but stopped suddenly, as did everyone else around them. Professor McGonagall came striding up to them. “Harry Potter! Come with me!”

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Short, yes, but the next chapter will cover all the important details from the meeting with Dumbledore. I promise it will be longer than this one. Review!