Chapter 48: Chaos in the Skies
Alas, all good things come to an end, and the relatively peaceful flying lesson ended when Malfoy purposefully pretended like he had lost control of his broom and slammed into Ron Weasley, who lost control as well and was falling towards the ground.
Harry was sure that the redhead was going to die. The boy was gripping the broom as if it was his lifeline and practically accelerating towards the ground. Longbottom seemed to fly behind him trying to stop him, to no avail. Everyone had thought that the boy was done for until the professor quickly shouted, "Molliare!"
Instead of crashing, the redhead simply bounced on the ground and then a few times until he fell outside the spell. Harry had read about the incantation that the professor had used. It was for the cushioning charm, which is usually used on brooms to make them more comfortable, but Professor Hooch had somehow manipulated the spell to make sure the Gryffindor wouldn't hurt himself while falling.
Still, the redhead was whimpering and was holding his arm, which looked very bruised. The professor immediately ran at the injured student and spoke up, "Let me take a look at your arm. Hmm, it looks like a broken wrist. Why don't I take you to the infirmary? Don't worry, Madam Pomphrey will fix that right up."
She then turned and looked at Malfoy, "As for you, Mr Malfoy, I'm taking fifty points from Slytherin and another week of detention."
"But…" the boy protested.
"But nothing," the flying instructor interrupted while glaring back at him, "You injured your classmate, and you could have gotten him killed. If I wasn't paying attention, your classmate could have severely gotten hurt. You need to think about the consequences of your actions, Mr Malfoy."
Hooch then turned to the rest of the class, "None of you is to move while I take this boy to the hospital wing! You leave those brooms where they are or you'll be out of Hogwarts before you can say 'Quidditch.' Come on, dear."
As expected, the moment the woman left with the whimpering student, Longbottom walked towards Malfoy with his wand pointed and snarled, "You'll pay for that!"
The blonde immediately raised his own and smirked back, "I don't think so."
He was immediately backed up by Crabbe, Goyle, Parkinson, and Nott while the rest of the Gryffindor boys backed up the boy who lived.
For some reason, Draco gave Harry an expecting look. Which Harry simply ignored and took out his fiction book.
The entire little conflict just stood there, frozen, giving the last Potter incredulous looks. Daphne hit Harry on the side, and he looked up with a fakery annoyed voice, "What is it?"
She just pointed at their frozen classmates that were giving him expectant looks, which Harry ignored, "Mm very interesting…"
Seamus Finnigan shrieked, "What's so interesting?"
"Oh, Dresden the curse breaker just entered the temple of doom after getting past a sphinx by solving its riddle. I just find it interesting how writers often reuse common riddles in their books for some reason. Like come on, it's not that hard to be creative for once. Like seriously, the Ravenclaw knocker would probably help them. It's kinda put me off the whole series, to be honest…" Harry shot back.
Longbottom looked frustrated, "What are you on about?"
Harry just pretended to be confused and tilted his head, "Well, I was reading the book, and Seamus here just asked me what was interesting, so I told him. You need to pay attention to conversations, Neville. It's very rude to just ignore your classmate's questions."
Malfoy burst into laughter, "See, even Potter thinks you're an idiot."
The rest of his sycophants joined in.
"Shut up, Malfoy," snapped Parvati Patil.
"Ooh, sticking up for Longbottom?" said Pansy Parkinson. "Do you have a crush on him or something? Or is he too scared to talk for himself?"
Longbottom was blushing from embarrassment and looked at Harry, "Are you seriously taking their side?"
"Their side for what?" Harry answered while doing his best to look oblivious.
"Did you seriously not see Malfoy push Ron off his broom?" Neville questioned.
"Oh, yeah, I wasn't paying attention. I was too busy reading, you see."
"You were flying," the Longbottom scion protested.
"So, I was."
Harry didn't elaborate on his words and Longbottom let out a frustrated groan, "Don't be an idiot Potter, are you with me or against me."
"With you or against you for what?"
"For the fight with Malfoy!" Neville yelled back.
"Why are you fighting with Malfoy?" Harry asked.
"Because he hurt Ron for no reason!"
Harry shrugged and looked pensive, "What an unfortunate situation we find ourselves in."
Honestly, Harry had no idea what he was saying. He was just buying some time by confusing his classmates until Hooch comes here. Because they start firing spells without any adult nearby to stop them, people could easily get hurt.
Malfoy grinned at him, "It's good that you know where you belong, Potter."
"I'm afraid I don't understand, Draco dear."
The boy gritted his teeth at the familiarity Harry was addressing him with.
The blonde though, controlled himself, "I mean that you're a Slytherin. That you're with us."
"Well, of course, I'm in Slytherin. Draco, we've been having classes together for two weeks, hell, we're in the same dormitory. Were you not paying attention?"
The Gryffindors were now chuckling, and Malfoy turned in a nice shade of red, that reminded Harry of Ron Weasley's hair.
"Enough, Potter," Draco yelled at him, "Stop playing stupid, we're fighting Longbottom right now. So, you're either with us or against us. How is that HARD TO UNDERSTAND?"
Harry though had stopped listening to the blonde and continued reading his book. Daphne elbowed him to the side again. The young Slytherin noted that she had an amused gleam in her blue eyes.
He pretended to be surprised and looked up at Draco, "Oh, did you say something? This chapter is just very good and stopped listening to you."
The blonde then walked towards Harry in a threatening manner. Harry just discretely pulled up a weed with his wandless magic over the boy's shoes and watched as he fell over, planting his face on the mud.
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