𝐈𝐓𝐄𝐑𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍𝐒 - Harry Potter x Fem!Reader¹

9.. THE MIDNIGHT DUEL

Y/N had never believed she would meet a boy she hated more than Cameron, but that was before Draco Malfoy showed his true colours. Still, first-year Gryffindors only had Potions with the Slytherins, so they didn't have to put up with Malfoy much. Or at least, they didn't until they spotted a notice pinned up in the Gryffindor common room that made them all groan.

Flying lessons would be starting on Thursday -- and Gryffindor and Slytherin would be learning together.

"Typical," said Y/N darkly. "Just what I always wanted. To make a fool of myself on a broomstick in front of Malfoy."

She had been looking forward to learning to fly more than anything else.

"Oh, don't be silly, Y/N," said Hermione reasonably. "You won't make a fool of yourself. I'm sure of it."

Malfoy certainly did talk about flying a lot. He complained loudly about first years never getting on the house Quidditch teams and told long, boastful stories that always seemed to end with him narrowly escaping Muggles in helicopters. He wasn't the only one, though; the way Harry told it, he'd spent most of his childhood zooming around his neighborhood on his broomstick with his father. Even Lavender Brown would whisper loudly to Parvati Patil about the time her cousin nearly gave her a concussion for knocking over his flower bed while riding around on her toy broom.

Neville had never been on a broomstick in his life, because his grandmother had never let him near one. Privately, Y/N felt his grandmother had good reason, because Neville managed to have an extraordinary number of accidents even with both feet on the ground.

Even though she didn't show it out in public, Hermione was almost as nervous about flying as Neville was. This was something you couldn't learn by heart out of a book -- not that she hadn't tried. At breakfast on Thursday she bored nearly everyone stupid with flying tips she'd gotten out of a library book called Quidditch Through the Ages. Y/N and Neville found themselves hanging on to her every word, desperate for anything that might help them hang on to their broomsticks later, but everybody else seemed very pleased when Hermione's lecture was interrupted by the arrival of the mail.

Y/N hadn't had a single letter since Hagrid's note, something that Malfoy had been quick to notice, of course. Malfoy's eagle owl was always bringing him packages of sweets from home, which he opened gloatingly at the Slytherin table.

A barn owl brought Neville a small package from his grandmother. He opened it excitedly and showed them a glass ball the size of a large marble, which seemed to be full of white smoke.

"It's a Remembrall!" he explained. "Gran knows I forget things -- this tells you if there's something you've forgotten to do. Look, you hold it tight like this and if it turns red -- oh..." His face fell, because the Remembrall had suddenly glowed scarlet.

Neville was trying to remember what he'd forgotten when Draco Malfoy, who was passing the Gryffindor table, snatched the Remembrall out of his hand.

Y/N, Harry, and Ron jumped to their feet. They were half hoping for a reason to fight Malfoy, but Professor McGonagall, who could spot trouble quicker than any teacher in the school, was there in a flash.

"What's going on?"

"Malfoy's got my Remembrall, Professor."

Scowling, Malfoy quickly dropped the Remembrall back on the table.

"Just looking," he said, and he sloped away with Crabbe and Goyle behind him.

"I doubt he was just looking," said Harry angrily to Ron. "If I knew how to cast 'Engorgio,' I'd try it out on Malfoy's head."

At three-thirty that afternoon, Y/N, Hermione, and the other Gryffindors hurried down the front steps onto the grounds for their first flying lesson. It was a clear, breezy day, and the grass rippled under their feet as they marched down the sloping lawns toward a smooth, flat lawn on the opposite side of the grounds to the forbidden forest, whose trees were swaying darkly in the distance.