Harry Potter and the Hounds of Hogwarts

The Deceitful Midnight Duel

       

Harry had developed a strong distaste with Draco Malfoy. 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 Harry darkly. "Just what I always wanted. To be stuck with that miserable dollop-head for a class I actually might need to work at." Harry said, although there was a humorous smug tone to his voice. "At least if Malfoy's too annoying, we do have an escape route." He joked to Ron.

Surprisingly, Harry was actually looking forward to learn how to fly. First of all, the majority of the world had no idea people could do magic, let alone fly without a plane. Furthermore, he wasn't sure how the brooms worked, and that alone left him fairly excited.

"Madame Hooch would never let us run off like that." said Ron reasonably. "Anyway, I know Malfoy's always going on about how good he is at Quidditch, but I bet that's all talk." Malfoy certainly did talk about flying a lot. He complained obnoxiously 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, which was clearly a falsehood. Though he supposed checking with Mycroft to make sure they were was one of his better ideas. He wasn't the only one, though: the way Seamus Finnigan told it, he'd spent most of his childhood zooming around the countryside on his broomstick. Even Ron would tell anyone who'd listen about the time he'd almost hit a hang glider on Charlie's old broom. Everyone from wizarding families talked about Quidditch constantly. Ron had already had a big argument with Dean Thomas, who shared their dormitory, about soccer. Ron couldn't see what was exciting about a game with onlyone ball where no one was allowed to fly. Harry had caught Ron prodding Dean's poster of West Ham soccer team, trying to make the players move.

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

Hermione Granger 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 prattled on 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.

Since the time Hagrid wrote him, Harry started receiving much more interesting letters, especially from Sherlock. Of course the man wouldn't let Harry slack off while at school. It started simple enough, letters depicting a murder scene, with odd details that might seem boring or unimportant to others, but Harry knew Sherlock's game.

After a while the pictures were sent, and Harry soon got prohibited from opening letters from Sherlock within the Great Hall, much to the dismay of his classmates. Even Hermione was developing an odd fascination with it all. The girl had done some reading on Harry and his dads, and wouldn't stop asking about how Harry and Sherlock did what they did. Even Ron wanted to know. He began teaching them a little, starting with the methods Sherlock used when he was a kid. Solving it was reward enough for Hermione, but Ron often needed encouragement to not give up. He ended up convincing his dads to send muggle sweets, to help keep Ron to his studies.

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.