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That day it was there first flying lesson with the gryffindors but before that Cordelia decided, she would write to her dad.
She sat on the Slytherin table along with her three friends Who were all talking about quidditch.
All of them were fairly interested in watching the matches but Cordelia and Enzo were the only ones who would like to play.
She wrote the letter during breakfast.
~
Dear Pa,
I hope you are alright. The full moon is close and I want you to take care of yourself. Eat and sleep a lot or you'll be tired. I have my first flying class today and quidditch tryouts are in two days. I am going to try. Yeah, I know that first years don't play in the team but that isn't a rule, is it? First years are just not good enough at flying but since I am good , I will try out. So, wish me luck. But anyways, me and my friends are pranking a lot and all of them have been successfull. I have grown quite fond of them though. I need to go now. Take care of yourself.
Yours,
World's best daughter ever.
~
"You know, it's rude to peek over someone's shoulder." Cordelia said as she felt Julius reading her letter. Cordelia let her hair have a pretty ash grey colour ombre in her hair. The others have found out about her ability when she had gotten angry at Theodore Nott for bullying the golden trio.
Draco has been very bad to the golden trio nowadays. He told her the reason that Crabbe and Goyle were giving their father news about how he was being nice to the golden trio and their father told Lucius who had been very angry and sent him a letter about it.
So he had to be as bad he would be to someone he doesn't like so that Crabbe and Goyle can't do things like that.
The golden trio had told her that and she told them that she has indeed noticed and that she had talked to him but he was stubborn and she couldn't just leave him and not talk to him because besides her father, his family was the only family she was close with. The rest weren't in contact with her. They were very kind and understood at once and told her that it was fine and atleast she tried.
After there last class, they head off to the ground for the flying lesson.
It was a clear, breezy day, and the grass rippled under their feet as they marched down the sloping lawns toward a smooth, flat lawn on the opposite side of the grounds to the forbidden forest, whose trees were swaying darkly in the distance.
The Gryffindors still weren't there except Emily and Enzo. Twenty brooms were laying on the ground.
At three-thirty that afternoon, Harry, Ron, and the other Gryffindors hurried down the front steps onto the grounds for their first flying lesson.
The Slytherins were already there, and so were two of the Gryffindors who could always be seen with two of the Slytherins who by now had entered the gryffindor tower so many time that they have become honorary gryffindors. Harry had heard Fred and George Weasley complain about the school brooms, saying that some of them started to vibrate if you flew too high, or always flew slightly to the left.
Their teacher, Madam Hooch, arrived. She had short, gray hair, and yellow eyes like a hawk.
"Well, what are you all waiting for?" she barked. "Everyone stand by a broomstick. Come on, hurry up."
Harry glanced down at his broom. It was old and some of the twigs stuck out at odd angles.
"Stick out your right hand over your broom," called Madam Hooch at the front, "and say 'Up!'"
"UP" everyone shouted.
Harry's broom jumped into his hand at once, but it was one of the few that did. Hermione Granger's had simply rolled over on the ground, and Neville's hadn't moved at all. Cordelia and Draco were the only others who had got it at once.
Madam Hooch then showed them how to mount their brooms without sliding off the end, and walked up and down the rows correcting their grips. Harry and Ron were delighted when she told Malfoy he'd been doing it wrong for years.
"Now, when I blow my whistle, you kick off from the ground, hard," said Madam Hooch. "Keep your brooms steady, rise a few feet, and then come straight back down by leaning forward slightly. On my whistle -- three -- two--"
But Neville, nervous and jumpy and frightened of being left on the ground, pushed off hard before the whistle had touched Madam Hooch's lips.
"Come back, boy!" she shouted, but Neville was rising straight up like a cork shot out of a bottle -- twelve feet -- twenty feet. Harry saw his scared white face look down at the ground falling away, saw him gasp, slip sideways off the broom and --
WHAM -- a thud and a nasty crack and Neville lay facedown on the grass in a heap. His broomstick was still rising higher and higher, and started to drift lazily toward the forbidden forest and out of sight.
Madam Hooch was bending over Neville, her face as white as his.
"Broken wrist," Harry heard her mutter. "Come on, boy -- it's all right, up you get."
She turned to the rest of the class.
"None of you is to move while I take this boy to the hospital wing! You leave those brooms where they are or you'll be out of Hogwarts before you can say 'Quidditch.' Come on, dear."
Neville, his face tear-streaked, clutching his wrist, hobbled off with Madam Hooch, who had her arm around him.
No sooner were they out of earshot than Malfoy burst into laughter.
"Did you see his face, the great lump?"
The other Slytherins joined in.
"Shut up, Malfoy," snapped Parvati Patil.
"Ooh, sticking up for Longbottom?" said Pansy Parkinson, a hard-faced Slytherin girl. "Never thought you'd like fat little crybabies, Parvati."
"Look!" said Malfoy, darting forward and snatching something out of the grass. "It's that stupid thing Longbottom's gran sent him."
The Remembrall glittered in the sun as he held it up.
"Give that here, Malfoy," said Harry quietly. Everyone stopped talking to watch.
Malfoy smiled nastily.
"I think I'll leave it somewhere for Longbottom to find -- how about -- up a tree?"
"Give it here!" Harry yelled, but Malfoy had leapt onto his broomstick and taken off. He hadn't been lying, he could fly well. Hovering level with the topmost branches of an oak he called, "Come and get it, Potter!"
Harry grabbed his broom.
"No!" shouted Hermione Granger. "Madam Hooch told us not to move -- you'll get us all into trouble."
Harry ignored her. Blood was pounding in his ears. He mounted the broom and kicked hard against the ground and up, up he soared; air rushed through his hair, and his robes whipped out behind him -- and in a rush of fierce joy he realized he'd found something he could do without being taught -- this was easy, this was wonderful. He pulled his broomstick up a little to take it even higher, and heard screams and gasps of girls back on the ground and an admiring whoop from Ron.
He turned his broomstick sharply to face Malfoy in midair. Malfoy looked stunned.
"Give it here," Harry called, "or I'll knock you off that broom!"
"Oh, yeah?" said Malfoy, trying to sneer, but looking worried.
Harry knew, somehow, what to do. He leaned forward and grasped the broom tightly in both hands, and it shot toward Malfoy like a javelin. Malfoy only just got out of the way in time; Harry made a sharp about-face and held the broom steady. A few people below were clapping.
"No Crabbe and Goyle up here to save your neck, Malfoy," Harry called.
"Catch it if you can, then!" he shouted, and he threw the glass ball high into the air and streaked back toward the ground.
Harry stormed behind the remembrall as Malfoy dived from high up in the sky towards the ground. Cordelia who was quitely observing until now quickly figured something and mounted the broom.
"You too!? Now what are you going to do!? You will get us in trouble." Julius said exasperatedly.
Cordelia ignored him and leaned forward and zoomed towards Draco whose broom as if on que started to shake and lost control. Draco was about to fall when Cordelia reached towards him and caught him right on time.
Harry toppled gently onto the grass with the Remembrall clutched safely in his fist.
"HARRY POTTER!"
His heart sank faster than he'd just dived. Professor McGonagall was running toward them. He got to his feet, trembling.
"Never -- in all my time at Hogwarts--"
Professor McGonagall was almost speechless with shock, and her glasses flashed furiously, " -- how dare you -- might have broken your neck--"
"It wasn't his fault, Professor--"
"Be quiet, Miss Patil--"
"But Malfoy--"
"That's enough, Mr. Weasley. Potter, follow me, now."
Professor McGonagall stopped outside a classroom with Harry who was a nervous wreck. She opened the door and poked her head inside.
"Excuse me, Professor Flitwick, could I borrow Wood for a moment?"
Wood? thought Harry, bewildered; was Wood a cane she was going to use on him?
But Wood turned out to be a person, a burly fifth-year boy who came out of Flitwick's class looking confused.
"Follow me, you two," said Professor McGonagall, and they marched on up the corridor, Wood looking curiously at Harry.
"In here."
Professor McGonagall pointed them into a classroom that was empty except for Peeves, who was busy writing rude words on the blackboard.
"Out, Peeves!" she barked. Peeves threw the chalk into a bin, which clanged loudly, and he swooped out cursing. Professor McGonagall slammed the door behind him and turned to face the two boys.
"Potter, this is Oliver Wood. Wood -- I've found you a Seeker."
Wood's expression changed from puzzlement to delight.
"Are you serious, Professor?"
"Absolutely," said Professor McGonagall crisply. "The boy's a natural. I've never seen anything like it. Was that your first time on a broomstick, Potter?"
Harry nodded silently. He didn't have a clue what was going on, but he didn't seem to be being expelled, and some of the feeling started coming back to his legs.
"He caught that thing in his hand after a fifty-foot dive," Professor McGonagall told Wood. "Didn't even scratch himself. Charlie Weasley couldn't have done it."
Wood was now looking as though all his dreams had come true at once.
"Ever seen a game of Quidditch, Potter?" he asked excitedly.
"Wood's captain of the Gryffindor team," Professor McGonagall explained.
"He's just the build for a Seeker, too," said Wood, now walking around Harry and staring at him. "Light -- speedy -- we'll have to get him a decent broom, Professor -- a Nimbus Two Thousand or a Cleansweep Seven, I'd say."
"I shall speak to Professor Dumbledore and see if we can't bend the first-year rule. Heaven knows, we need a better team than last year. Flattened in that last match by Slytherin, I couldn't look Severus Snape in the face for weeks..."
Professor McGonagall peered sternly over her glasses at Harry.
"I want to hear you're training hard, Potter, or I may change my mind about punishing you."
Then she suddenly smiled.
"Your father would have been proud," she said. "He was an excellent Quidditch player himself."
"You're joking."
That same day Cordelia also went to the grounds after seeing off the other three at the Gryffindor tower. She was there for the try outs.
She was confident in herself and felt like there was no way, she wouldn't get it.
She stopped in front of the captain, Marcus Flint.
"Oh come to see the try outs. Very much welcome, please sit on the stands and enjoy." He said slyly.
"I'm not here for watching, I'm here for trying out." Cordelia retorted.
The elder students started laughing historically.
"Your a first year, you should do what you small girlies can do. Play with dolls." One who seemed quite buff said.
Cordelia could feel herself getting angry over that comment but controlled herself and said sweetly with the cold intimidating eyes.
"How about we make a deal, you let me try and if I prove you that I certainly can play better than the current beater. I get to play on the team but if I do indeed fail to play well, you can humiliate me in front of the whole school in great hall however you want." She smirked knowing there was no way he would decline.
"Alright then, we've got ourselves a deal." He smirked the same way not knowing what was coming.
"So we all will play against you. You say you want to try for a beater, yes? If you are able to hit more than half of us with a bludger while we fly all around the pitch in a fast pace, you will secure a place in our team. Otherwise, you know the consequences. We can try to knock you off your broom."
Cordelia nodded and went to change into quidditch robes while they were preparing. She tied her hair into a secured bun.
When she went out they were all geared up and waiting for her. Marcus blew the whistle as she settled on her broom with the bat in her hands.
All the brooms flew high up in the air as she set her eyes on a target who was the fastest. She observed everyone's tactic of flying. Most of them flew rough and some were smart enough to fly in a zig zag motion. She decided, she would get out the rough ones out of the way first. This way she would not need as much energy which will save her a lot of energy for the others who were going zig Zag.
She gripped her bat tight with one hand and the handle of broom from other as she leaned forward and dashed toward one of the players. She saw two players trying to sneak up behind her so she took this an opportunity and went to dive and made a 360° which landed her behind the two players whom she quickly knocked out by hitting it hard with a bludger.
2 gone, 12 to go.
This continued as she hit most of the players in just one shot. Never missing an aim. Now only two were left. A zig zag one and a rough one.
I should go for the zig zag one given Marcus is quite good and has avoided me for most of the time.
She went closer to her target and waited until he was asking a turn. While making a turn, the brooms get slower so that the player doesn't fall off. As he got slower, she hit the bludger and it went toward him in a crazy speed and hit him square on his stomach knocking him off his broom.
13 down, last one to go.
She went toward him as he sneered nastily and started spinning in circles around him making him confused, she was so fast that he was struggling to get out from the circle she has formed while flying around him.
When he found a way, he dashed towards it and finally got out when a bludger hit him right on his back knocking breathe out as he fell off his broom from 50 feet above the ground.
He was about to hit the ground when a hand caught his own and he stopped. He looked up to see Cordelia holding him up. She smirked down at him arrogantly and said, " got ourselves a deal. Couldn't just let you die and break the deal, could I?"
She didn't heave him onto her broom but instead lowered her broom down till his feet touched the ground and she let go of his hand.
She got off the broom and stood in front of him with her hands on her hips as a few strands of hair hung lost on her face.
"Well, now that you have proved yourself. You deserve a place on the team but how are we gonna get you in? You are a first year."
"Well...I can help you there." The voice of Severus Snape drawled out.
That night Cordelia found out that Draco and Harry were going to dual so she informed the others and they were off to the Slytherin dungeons to knock some sense into Draco, they all were standing outside the Gryffindor tower.
"Muffliato." Cordelia casted.
"Alright, so now that's done. Let's drink this potion." Cordelia said as she handed all of them vials of invisibility potion.
The quartet drank the potion and were on there way to the dungeons. When they reached, Julius casted a 'petrificus totalus.' on Crabbe and Goyle while Emily and Enzo pulled Draco in an empty classroom. Cordelia made sure no one could see the door opening.
Cordelia lifted the spell of them as Julius handed them the counter potion. They all drank it and Cordelia closed the door shut.
"Colloportus." She locked the door and casted another muffliato.
"What on Earth were you thinking!?" Cordelia yelled, her hair turning red and eyes flashing red for a second.
"Look at this, you will understand."
Draco handed her a letter and turned away, ashamed.
Dear Draco,
I heard you have been doing what I said that is why I would like you to invite Potter to a duel. Get him in as much trouble as you can. If you fail to do so, you will be severely punished when you get back home for Christmas.
Yours,
Father
Cordelia always expected that so she wasn't shocked but the fact that he was threatening him got her blood boiling.
"Does Aunt Cissy know about this?" She said in a dangerously calm voice and glinting eyes.
The three marauders were quite knowing they didn't have the right to say anything but the glint in Cordelia's eyes got them worried.
Cordelia was always the calm one, of course she was moody and grumpy but she was very patient. She was always calm and collected. The tidy one in their group. She knew almost every spell and could perform them brilliantly too. She was very talented and that lead to her having quite a confident personality. Of course not to the point she thought she was better than everyone but she had that Black haughtiness on her face. She was intelligent and the one who lead them.
Julius was a little bit like her. They both shared the love for reading though Dane liked studying and exams, she just liked knowledge. Dane was a also intelligent and a great student. He was the mastermind behind their pranks. Mostly always had his head buried in book and wore jumpers. He was untidy but knew where his things were.
Enzo was however intelligent, liked quidditch but he was very dumb at moments too. He always lost his things and was the most untidy. He loved quidditch too much that he mostly talked about it. He was the rule breaker of the group. He gossiped the most.
But all of them together, none of them have ever seen her eyes glint like that so Emily stepped forward and said,
"Calm down, Cordelia." She tried to keep her voice as calm as she could even though she was terrified just like the day she met her.
No one knew anything but Julius was aware that the full moon was close and both of them were on edge.
He could only do as much and send calming pheromones but they weren't that affective because he wasn't an omega and also because he wasn't her mate.
She still forced herself to calm down and said sharply, " hand me the rest of the letters by him. Tomorrow first thing in the morning, got it?"
She sent him a sharp look and forbid him to go and that was the last thing before she lift up the spells and stormed out. The three friends shared a glance worried for Cordelia and dashed after her.
She soon informed them that she was going to tell Harry and Ron to not go to for the duel.
They were on their way when they heard voices and three of them caught a smell all too familiar to them.
"Filch is coming." They all said in unison.
Julius wanted to question how the Enzo knew because him and Cordelia knew only because of their enhanced senses. But seeing this wasn't the right time, they broke into a sprint and they all dashed up a set of stairs. Cordelia falling behind to cast an aguamenti on the floor.
They were nearing a door but the problem was that door was locked. Enzo was trying to break it open when Cordelia pushed him aside.
"Aberto." The door instantly opened and they went inside.
"Uh guys. I think this door was locked for a pretty good reason." Emily said as they turned around to come face to face with a cerberus.
"Oh Merlin."
"Guys open the door and get out, I know what to do with it." Cordelia said as she pulled out her wand.
"What!? Are you crazy!?"
"Just trust me, go!" She snapped.
They hesitated but went out of the room and Cordelia pulled out a flute she charmed to be small, she pointed her wand at it. " Engorgio." It went back to its original form and she started playing a soft tune on it lulling it to sleep.
She kept playing as she retracted back to the door and went out of it and continued until she finally locked the door with the help of the others.
"I know it's not the right time but it was standing on a trap door."