The parseltongue Uchiha: Book 1

Flying

"Hey mate, you're a bit late, aren't you?" Ron greeted when Harry appeared after his usual workout – he had started on Water Walking today and had got completely soaked the first few times in the shallows of the lake. He had had to take a shower to get rid of the pond weed smell from him, otherwise, he would have beaten Ron to the table by now.

"Yo!" Harry greeted with a lazy two-fingered wave, ignoring the question as he dropped next to the redhead, piling his plate full of food. Well, Hogwarts food wasn't Ramen, or Dango, but it was quite good, especially after some hard training. Harry snatched up a newly baked roll, and sank his teeth into it. "Mmmmm!"

Ron laughed. "And you say I love eating"

"You do though, much more than me, I bet you even have dreams of eating food," Harry said, flashing the boy a smirk.

"Shush! You're supposed to keep those things quite!" Ron hissed at him, as if it was a secret as great as the Hokage being an avid Icha-Icha reader. He gave Harry (who was now choking on his bread) a surprised look. "How'd you know anyways?" Ron said quickly.

"You mean you do have dreams of just eating?" Harry asked incredulously as soon as he could breath again. He burst out laughing. "Hey, Ron, I was kidding!" Harry choked out past his laughter.

Ron pouted, slumped in his seat, his face turning as red as his hair, "Oh, shut up"

Harry calmed himself down, except for the occasional snicker that escaped him. Ron glared, but it looked more funny than scary. Not even at Snape level. "Okay now that you're done laughing at me," Ron grumbled, "Are you ready for flying lessons this afternoon?"

"Oh yeah! I forgot about that! It's right after lunch isn't it?" At Ron's nodded, Harry grinned. "Heh, so I'm one step closer to seeing how this Quid-Itch thing works!"

"Dammit, Harry, Its pronounced QUIDDITCH!"

"Good morning, Ha…" Hermione, who had just arrived, a large book tucked under her arm, trailed off as she saw Ron almost jumping up and down on his seat, while Harry was grinning like an idiot, his hands behind his head, occasionally dodging a flailing arm with apparent ease.

"Hermione," Harry turned to her with a polite smile when Ron had run out of energy and had dropped back in his seat panting heavily. "Good morning."

Hermione, despite her competitiveness when it came to spell work – especially in Transfiguration and Defence Against the Dark Arts – Harry's best subjects – and her occasional bossiness, was actually one of the few girls at Hogwarts that Harry could actually tolerate. (Hey, I mean, if he could become best friends with Hyuga despite a blood feud between the two families…). Perhaps it was because she reminded him so much of Neji and Iruka that first time they had met, but Harry didn't mind her too much. Or it might have been because Hermione was the only girl who hadn't been among those who stared at him during his first week until they found this was a dangerous hobby to indulge in. They weren't exactly friends, per say, but they were on speaking terms.

His red headed companion, on seeing Hermione, just frowned and grunted.

Ron, on the other hand…not so much.

"What's that book?" Harry asked, leaning over slightly to see the title half-hidden under her arm.

"Oh, this?" Hermione held up the book, "Its Quidditch Through the Ages. I borrowed it out of the library to see what it says about flying." He paused slightly before the word 'flying', something Harry easily picked up on.

"Something wrong, Hermione? You seem kind of nervous?" Harry asked.

"Umm, it's nothing really, just not to fond of flying very much." Hermione admitted, fidgeting slightly.