Flare [discontinued]

Chapter 5-Quidditch and Essays Don't Go Hand in Hand

Quidditch and Essays Don't Go Hand in Hand

The next day Py met Sirius under the Beech Tree by the Lake, clutching an old Cleansweep Five in one hand and a pair of grey dragon skin gloves in the other. She approached Sirius who led her to the empty Quidditch pitch. 

“Do we have a teacher’s permission for this?”, asked Py hesitantly.

Sirius scoffed before replying, “What if we don’t?”

“Well, I don’t really care, it’s Lily who’s a stickler for rules”, she said rolling her eyes.

“Always knew she was an Acid Pop. Alright, you ready?”, he asked turning to face her as they reached the centre of the Pitch, “Why are you wearing those?”

“I’ve got sweaty hands when I’m nervous. I won’t need them once I’ve got the hang of it.”

“Ookay. First let your broom hover at your waist for a few moments and then mount it, resting one leg on the stirrups you kick off. Watch”, he instructed before mounting his broom with ease, kicking off the ground he soared a few feet above her and hovered there, “Now you try.”

She looked at the broom apprehensively and released it beside her where it remained humming silently. Swinging one leg over it she used the other to kick off the ground a little too sharply and suddenly found herself soaring rapidly upwards.

 “SIRIUS!!”, she screeched, “How do I make it stop?!?!”

“Just lean back gently”, he said breathless with laughter at her ridiculous posture- her back was upright and her legs were stretched rigidly on either side of the broom as she slowed down.

When Py came to a halt she let her legs relax on the stirrups and called out, her back to him, “Now what?”

“Now you direct it and regulate your speed by leaning. It’s not that hard, you’ll see”, he said flying ahead and beckoning her to follow.

 She watched for a moment, studying his movements as he flew in ascending spirals around her, then, having understood his actions she began to mimic them to perfection and soon she was flying beside him, whooping loudly.

Sirius looked at her in bewilderment, how had she caught up with him so quickly? And why was she so unperturbed? She flew ahead of him, leaning forward to pick up speed, her hair flew behind her, having been blown out of the neat braid it was once in, her eyes sparkled with excitement and she could hear her heart thudding loudly in her chest as she flew higher and higher.

Py cackled gleefully and flew back down to where Sirius hovered still, slightly dumbfounded, “So? How am I doing so far?”, she asked, grinning insanely.

He shrugged noncommittally, “Well, honestly mate? You’re totally rubbish.”

“Well, it’s hardly my fault I had a rubbish teacher is it, Black?”, she retaliated, rolling her eyes and flying ahead.

Sirius snorted and flew after her, she spent the rest of the evening learning several maneuvers and tricks and he explained the rules of Quidditch to her as they made their way to dinner.

                                                      *

Every evening Py and Sirius would train for at least an hour before returning, exhausted, to the Common Room to complete their homework. When James and the others learned of how well Py flew they insisted on coming to the Pitch one evening to watch her and as she dodged Bludger after Bludger from Sirius and managed to get the Quaffle in the Goals every time, they hooted and cheered her on. That evening as Py settled in an armchair opposite Lily and began to narrate her experience she noticed Lily scowling at her homework,

“Is anything the matter?”, asked Py.

Lily stopped writing and looked at her, with an expression of indignance and began, rather uncertainly, “Py, I know you enjoy training for Quidditch but you haven’t finished any of your homework in the past week. I don’t mean to say that you shouldn’t be practicing but I think you should spend more time on your essays.”

Py watched as Lily returned to her essay and mentally began to list out all the essays that she needed to complete- there was a 12inch one on Goblin Revolutions, another 11 inch one on the uses of Flobberworm Mucus for Potions, two essays in Transfiguration and three in Charms. That night she stayed in the Common Room well beyond three o’clock but still only managed to finish two of her seven essays, as she dragged herself to bed she noticed that Lily had left a note on her pillow that read,

‘Py, my essays are in my bag. You can copy the ones that need to be completed for tomorrow’

Py sighed with relief and picked the remaining two essays that had to be submitted that day out of Lily’s bag and began to copy her work. When Lily awoke the next morning she found Py curled up on the floor beside her bed, her hair spread raggedly across a piece of parchment, her quill was lying beside her and she was sound asleep. Lily slowly extricated their homework and began to roll it up neatly, she then packed away Py’s writing things and proceeded to wake her up gently.

That morning at breakfast Lily proposed that from that day onward the two of them would do their homework together in the Library or Courtyard for an hour after practice and that Severus would be there too. Py drowsily murmured her agreement and every evening starting from that day Py completed all her essays under Lily’s watchful eye. If it hadn’t been for Lily, she would probably have spent more time doing detentions than studying. Though Severus and she didn’t exactly get along they learned to co-exist, much to the amusement of Sirius who checked her hair for greasiness every time he met her.

                                                             *

On the morning of the Quidditch try-outs Sirius called out to Py as she entered the Great Hall, “Morning Blaze. You ready for today?”

“Of course”, she replied confidently, seating herself beside James, “So, I was wondering, what position should I try out for?”

Remus choked on his Pumpkin Juice as he turned to look at her, “You don’t know what position you want to try out for?”

“I think you should try for Chaser”, said Peter.

“Yeah, I agree with Wormtail”, said James.

“Wormtail?”, asked Py, “Why are you-”

“Yes I think you should try out for Chaser too”, said Sirius cutting her off, “You fly really fast and you’re pretty passable at dodging Bludgers.”

Py shrugged and returned to her breakfast of eggs, beans and sausages silently thinking about how abruptly Sirius had cut her off. On the Pitch that morning, the Chasers went first and the task that the Quidditch Captain, Drewdon Robbins, had set was for all the aspiring Chasers to fly around the pitch trying to take possession of the Quaffle from each other and score a point. By the end of the task, James had scored eleven times, Pyrena ten and Oliver Jenkins had scored nine times- they were appointed the Chasers for the team. Next went the Seekers and Keepers and last of all the Beaters. A slight, mousy haired third year named Lance was chosen as Seeker, a tall, well-built sixth year, Gregory Meiers, was chosen as Keeper and Sirius was chosen as a Beater beside Robins.

The very next day Robbins began Quidditch practice for the team, insisting that they had to learn how to work with each other or they stood no chance against the previous years’ Champions-Ravenclaw. Once again, Py was stretched to the limit with all her practices, essays and studying, but, she had now figured out a simple way to handle all her work. She charmed her quills to write as she dictated- a spell Lily was extremely fascinated by, she flew straight from the Pitch to the Common Room window and didn’t bother studying, choosing instead to concentrate so hard in class that no secondary revision was required.

James and Sirius were thought to be the geniuses of their year, though this image was slightly diminished by Pyrena’s excellence at Transfiguration, Charms and Defence Against the Dark Arts. Remus and Lily persisted that she should concentrate more on History of Magic but Py usually spent the period at the back of the class with Sirius, James and Peter, playing silly pranks or transfiguring their textbooks into Quaffles. Herbology was a bore and Potions was simply uninspiring. As the end of October approached everybody in the castle began preparing for Halloween and their first Hogsmeade visit.