Becoming Alpha

Chapter Four

The next week and a half went by smoothly. Harry and his group of friends, which had expanded to include the Hufflepuffs, had gone and talked to the first year Ravenclaws. While the Slytherins alone may not have been able to convince the Ravenclaws of the fact that they really did mean what they said, the Hufflepuffs helped convince the Ravenclaws, and their group had expanded even more. The whole group agreed that the Gryffindors would be the hardest to convince, so they left the Gryffindors to come to the group themselves.

The Ravenclaws of the group helped the others with their homework. A few of the students had an easier time in each subject, so those students helped the others with the spellwork. Between them all, the whole group was doing very well in their classes and always had free time to spare.

Draco and his friends didn't bother Harry and his friends, so there was no trouble in the Slytherin dorms. The main problem for the group was Ron Weasley and his friends, which included the entire first year of Gryffindor, though it was obvious many of those first years did not like being in the group. The Gryffindors attacked the group whenever they could. They used both words and physical means to try and upset or anger the group into retaliating and getting into trouble. The group just retaliated by telling their Heads of House each time an incident occurred so that they had a record of what was going on.

It was the second Thursday of the year, and the first year Slytherins had their first flying lesson with the Gryffindors. Draco had actually asked Harry if he and his Slytherin friends were willing to put aside their differences for the time just so that they could get through their flying lesson with the Gryffindors looking like a united group, like they had agreed to do during Potions class. Harry had agreed and all ten Slytherins were walking down to the lesson together.

When they got there, they were met with the sight of twenty broomsticks in front of them. The Gryffindors weren't there yet, so the Slytherins just hung out in a group, all talking about how the brooms here at Hogwarts were supposed to be terrible. Draco and Harry had even managed to hold a polite conversation about how they thought the Gryffindors would do. Both agreed that Neville Longbottom would have some trouble while Ronald Weasley would be okay but not the best even though he was bragging away about his skills. Harry didn't mention it but Draco had been doing the same thing the past few days.

Just then the Gryffindors arrived, stopping just in front of the brooms and glaring at the Slytherins. Well, most of them were glaring. Hermione Granger and Neville Longbottom were looking at them hopelessly before they looked back at the other Gryffindors. Harry even saw Hermione give him a look that made him think she was begging him to help her for some reason that he couldn't guess at.

Then Madam Hooch, the teacher, came over with her yellows eyes that reminded Harry of a hawk flashing at the sight of her students. She pushed some of her short, gray hair out of her eyes before glaring at all of her students slightly. Finally she walked over to the front of the two lines of broomsticks and stood there.

"Well, what are you waiting for?" she barked. "Everyone stand by a broomstick. Come on, hurry up."

The Slytherins quickly took up one line of brooms, Harry and Draco in the middle with their group of friends on their side of the line. One look at his broom told Harry that it was old as it had twigs sticking out at odd angles and the wood was cracked slightly and worn so much that it shined in a way that definitely wasn't polish.

"Stick out your right hand over your broom and say 'Up!'" Madam Hooch called from the front of the class, making everyone pay attention to her.

"UP!" everyone shouted.

Harry's broom jumped into his hand without hesitation, but he noticed as he looked around that his was one of the few that had. Next to him, Draco's had gone up, though from the look on his face, Harry guessed it had hesitated slightly. Theo's broom had flown up to his hand after the second time he called it. The rest of Harry's friends got it on the fourth or fifth try, making them all pleased with themselves. Draco's friends took much longer, finally getting it after about ten tries each.