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By the time they have their second flying lesson, Dora finally manages to get the broom off the floor and into her hand. And that alone is accomplishment enough but the flying teacher seems insistent on her actually mounting the thing.
Dora grips the broom tightly and, trying to tune out James's rant about what type of broom is the best for racing, kicks up off the ground. Fully expecting to just fall over, Dora is surprised to find that she's actually floating.
James is hovering about a shoulder's height off the ground, just to prove he can, while he boasts about how his father bought he a Comet 220 – best racing broom on the market at the moment, according to James – and that he can't wait until second year so he can bring it with him to Hogwarts. Dora hadn't realised first years weren't allowed brooms, honestly, she'd skim read the rest of her Hogwarts letter after the part about her being a witch! And she certainly has no idea why people would ever bother with broom travel. It's the most uncomfortable thing she's ever done, and so unstable she feels like she's about to slide off, and she's only a couple of inches off the floor.
Sirius is just as excited about James' broom as he is, and the two of them won't shut up about it.
"With a broom like that," Sirius's voice rings out and Dora tries her best not to hear it, "There's no way they won't draft you to the quidditch team next year!"
Dora rolls her eyes in their direction. She doesn't care how bad the school brooms are or how good James's is, she's just glad she managed to land her broom safely.
"What's wrong, Addams?" Sirius' voice pierces the one moment of silence Dora thinks she's heard since arriving at Hogwarts. Great, he saw her eye roll. Just her luck. "Jealous you're not as good at flying as you are in charms?"
"At least I have my own achievements, Black," Dora remarks, her arms folded, "and don't just jump on my friends' ones."
"Whatever," Sirius huffs and turns his back to her. Well if he's going to be like that, Dora thinks, and turns her back on him too, turning to face Lily. Lily grins at her.
*
Lunch time couldn't have arrived sooner as it gave Dora a much needed break from sharing lessons all day with James and Sirius. Yet even from the other end of the Gryffindor table, she can somehow still hear their obnoxious laughter.
"What have you got against them?" Kingsley asks as Dora angrily bites her sandwich.
"Nothing!" she protests, "I just don't want to hear them every second of every day."
"Doesn't mean you have to be so snide to them," Kingsley shrugs and Dora glares at him.
"Why shouldn't we?" Lily says, and Dora looks smugly at Kingsley who just rolls his eyes at her, "It's not like they don't go around making people's lives a misery..."
Dora snorts. She's never heard Lily sound so sarcastic.
Kingsley sighs, "Whatever, there's clearly no talking you two out of this."
"Nope!" Dora grins.
Kingsley nudges her and says, "C'mon, we have defence against the dark arts now and I for one don't want to be late."
"Sure," Dora says, stuffing the last of her food in her mouth, "You coming Lily?"
Before Lily can answer, James and Sirius race past them on their way out of the great hall, laughing so loudly Dora nearly flinches. She refrains, however, and manages to just roll her eyes without making any commentary after Kingsley's little rant. He notices though and shakes his head at her, a small smile on his face.
"What?"
"Of course..." He says with a knowing smile, "Addams."
"Oh don't you start!"
*
Defence against the dark arts was the one lesson everyone was looking forward to most. It was in this class that they would be taught defensive spells, the kind of magic Dora's mind had first gone to when she'd first found out she was magic in the first place. The kind of spells you use on other people, in duels and as self defence. What's the point of using magic if it's not as self defence? Dora didn't care as much about the lumos spell they'd been taught in charms, she could just use a torch, but defensive spells would let her do something she couldn't do in the muggle world. This was what being a witch was all about, she thought, as she took her seat at a desk next to Kingsley. Lily took the desk next to Dora's but to both their dismay, James and Sirius picked the one a couple of desks over, right in Dora's eyeline.
"D'you hear from Gideon?" James said to Sirius. Dora wasn't sure if he was even trying to whisper or if he was just really bad at being quiet. "Apparently they're gonna teach us the Knockback jinx!"
"Think of what we could do with that!" Sirius exclaimed and Dora didn't even need to look over and glare at them to know they both had stupid grins on their faces.
"Brilliant," Dora whispers to Lily, and is actually successful in making sure only she heard, "They're going to teach them how to be even more of a menace."
"Welcome first years," the defence against the dark arts professor began, "To your very first lesson in the art of defensive magic. I'm sure you're all very eager to learn about the vast array of spells witches and wizards can arm themselves with to protect them against dark magic."
From the corner of Dora's eye she sees James and Sirius grin at each other.
"But we shant be learning any defensive spells until I have taught you about dark creatures," the professor continues and James and Sirius' faces drop. "There's no point learning how to defend yourselves until you know what you're defending yourself from!"
The rest of the lesson was spent learning about imps, something that Dora couldn't believe actually existed. While the professor went on and on about imps for the next hour, Dora daydreamed about what other fictional creatures might not be quite so fictional as she once thought, until she is knocked out of her daydreaming by James and Sirius' incessant complaining.
Dora looks over at them, unable to hide her contempt.
"What's that look for, Addams?" Sirius glared back at her and Dora's smile faded. "Dunno why you're looking so smug. Can't prove yourself a prodigy if you can't use spells."
"I never claimed to be a prodigy, Black. All I did was use one spell successfully," she retorted. "You're the one who makes me look like a prodigy in comparison."
That seemed to shut them up for a while and Dora let herself feel smug.
Kingsley nudges her as he's writing notes on imps and whispers, "Remind me never to get on your bad side...Addams."
"Shut up," Dora said, rolling her eyes affectionately. "And don't call me that."
"Alright!" Kingsley raised his eyebrows, "Addams."
"If you keep insisting on calling me Addams, I'll start calling you Shacklebolt." Dora threatened, "Actually, that's kinda long, I'm gonna shorten it. Shackle. No, that gives out the wrong vibes. Bolt. I like that. I'm gonna call you Bolt."
Dora is pretty pleased with herself until Kingsley agrees with her.
"Alright, call me Bolt, Addams." He said without even looking up at her.
"Eurgh!" Dora exclaims and leaves the classroom the second class is over, leaving Kingsley behind, laughing.
