The Life He Never Knew

Chapter 9

ATTENTION! If you have not read the A/N last part, please do, as it is VERY IMPORTANT.

Draco Malfoy was probably the most annoying person Harry had ever met, even worse than Dudley. He had written to both his parents about him, and couldn't help but laugh at the difference between their letters. While James had sent pranking supplies and ideas, Lily had suggested avoiding him, although to stand up for himself if needed, although she made it very clear that he was to do it in a mature way. Lily had also said to ignore any advice given by James.

Although Harry was a little tempted to prank Malfoy, he knew that one, his mother would be furious if she found out, and two, Malfoy would only retaliate, which would make the situation much worse. So instead, he followed his mother's advice, and avoided Malfoy as much as he could. Luckily, he only had one class with Malfoy: Potions. This made it much easier to avoid him, that is, until he and Ron saw the notice in the Gryffindor Common Room, which announced that Gryffindor and Slytherin would be attending flying lessons together on Thursday.

Harry groaned, knowing that Malfoy would most likely ruin the class he had been looking forward to most.

"It'll be alright mate," Ron said. "At least you can show Malfoy that he's not the only one who can play Quidditch!"

Harry smiled. That did sound appealing.

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.

Of course, he wasn't the only one. Everyone was talking about their flying experiences. Seamus Finnigan made it sound like his entire childhood had been spent zipping around the countryside on a broom. Ron would tell anyone who would listen about the time he almost hit a hang glider on Charlie's old broom. As hypicrytical as it sounds, even Harry couldn't resist boasting about his father's skill and talking about his first broom, although he tried not to talk about it too much.

Harry and Ron later got in a big argument with Dean Thomas about soccer. Harry and Ron just couldn't understand the fun in a game with just one ball and no magic. Although Harry had heard Lily talk plenty about muggle sports, they just sounded boring to him.

Harry felt bad for Neville, who had never been on a broomstick in his life, as his grandmother wouldn't let him near one, althogh it was probably for the best, as Neville had enough accidents on the ground.

Surprisingly, Hermione Granger was almost as nervous about flying as Neville was. That is, until Harry realized 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 them all stupid with flying tips she'd gotten out of a library book called Quidditch Through the Ages. Neville was hanging on to her every word, desperate for anything that might help him hang on to his broomstick later, but everybody else was very pleased when Hermione's lecture was interrupted by the arrival of the mail.

Hedwig dropped a single letter into Harry's lap. He smiled and ripped it open. It was from James.

Harry!
I'm so excited that flying class has started! That was always my favorite class. Not that I learned anything from it. I knew how to fly long before that. But it is a fantastic time to show off, especially in front of Malfoy! Show 'em how good you are Harry! (After all, you did learn from the best!) Lemme know how it goes, and kick Malfoy for me, will you?
Love,
Dad

Harry smiled and looked up. His father truly did know how to make him feel better.

A large barn owl dropped a small package in his lap. He quickly opened it and grinned when he found what was inside. He showed them all a glass ball, that looked a lot like a large marble full of white smoke.