"Great," he said smirking, "Just because you can get off the ground doesn't mean you can fly well."
Ron said, "Shut up Malfoy. I'll say when to start and Harry will hover where the end will be. Okay get into place."
We lined up next to each other staring each other down. When Ron said to get ready I took my eyes of him and looked in front of me figuring out the best way to get around the school.
Ron said, "And go!"
Draco and I were off. Now a few of the students had hovered successfully and Madame Hooch let them go over with us. I was about 5 feet in front of him and making the cut to go around the astronomy tower. I was still in front of him in the last stretch. Ron and Harry were smiling until their faces became panicked.
Too late I saw Malfoy cut me off and shove me off my broomstick. I performed a charm to let me stop falling and landed with my feet on the ground.
Madame Hooch came over and said to Draco, "Mr. Malfoy what was the meaning of that?"
He shrugged and said, "I'm sorry I must have lost control of the broomstick."
She looked at him and he put on his best innocent face. She walked away to help another student and I was joined by Harry and Ron.
"Malfoy what the hell! You could have killed Jessica," Ron yelled.
"I knew she wouldn't die. She would just magic herself out of that, unfortunately. Besides I won."
"What? You shoved me off my broomstick that doesn't count."
He smirked and said, "Why don't we settle this with a wizard's duel tonight?"
Harry said, "Boy you're stupid. Jessica will kick your butt."
I said, "I'm in. Who's your second?"
He looked over to his friends sizing them up and said, "Crabbe."
I said, "Okay fine I'll be there and I'll have my second decided by then."
"Good. 11 o'clock in the trophy room. I'll see you there."
He walked away to his friends and I turned to Harry and Ron, "So who wants to be my second?"
Ron shrugged, "It doesn't matter. No one is going to die so I'll do it."
Harry gulped and said, "What is a second?"
I turned to him and said, "It's who takes over if someone dies in the duel. No one will die because he won't be able to do a real spell and I'll just disarm him then leave."
"Okay. How are we supposed to get there?"
"We'll just sneak out. I know a spell to make multiple people invisible. Harry since Ron's my second you don't have to come if you don't want to."
He shook his head, "No I'm coming and I'm sure Hermione will want to come too."
"I'll ask after flying. She doesn't seem to be doing too well."
"That's an understatement," Ron muttered.
I looked and saw that he was right. Hermione was barely two inches off the ground on her broomstick and she looked like she was going to faint. Just then Madame Hooch told us that class was over and that we should make a neat pile of our broomsticks.
Since this class was over I knew that it was 5 p.m. I wanted to eat an early dinner so I would have time to rest before my meeting with all of my professors.
We walked back up to the castle. Ron Harry and I lead the way talking about Quidditch teams and explaining some of the rules to Harry. Behind us Neville and Hermione looked shaken up by flying.
I stopped once we got into the castle and faced everyone, "I have to go eat now so I have energy for tonight. Do you want to come or you can just go up to the common room or wherever."
Hermione said, "I'll go eat now."
Ron said, "Well I'm always hungry."
Harry shrugged and Neville said, "Sorry I can't I promised Professor Sprout after my last class I would come down and help her with something."
I beamed at him and said, "Oh that's great. Have fun!"
He smiled and went out through the doors down to the greenhouses. I hung back and talked to Hermione behind Harry and Ron as we made our way to the Great Hall.
When we got there I saw that the kids there were mainly the oldest students. The NEWT level students who already had a break and ate during it.
We took seats away from everyone else and I started eating.
Hermione asked, "So what did Malfoy tell you after he knocked you off your broomstick?"
I said, "Oh he challenged me to a wizard's duel at 11 in the trophy room. Ron is going to be my second."
"Oh okay. I'm coming then."
I nodded and said, "Okay. Harry is going to go to, just to watch. No one is going to get hurt. He doesn't know any spells and all I am going to do it disarm him and win then leave."
"Okay well how are we going to get there?" she asked, "I mean it's going to be after hours."
"I know a spell that will make us invisible. We can use that to get there and back."
She nodded and looked impressed. A lot of kids were starting to pile in for dinner. As more and more kids came I heard a rush of owls. My owl Lucky dropped a small note in front of me.
On the front it read "Open in private." It was written in slanted writing that I recognized as Severus'. I tucked it in my pocket and stroked my beautiful owl.
Once we were finally done eating it was 6 o'clock. We headed back to the Gryffindor common room saying bye to our friends that had come in later. Once we were in the common room I looked around and saw that there were barely any people in it; they were all at dinner.
I excused myself saying I had to go to the bathroom. Once I was in the girl's dormitories I opened the letter. It was Severus asking me if I could meet him 20 minutes before the meeting in his office. That left me half an hour to talk to my friends before the meeting. Hopefully the meeting wouldn't take long because I had an appointment with Draco at 11.
I tore the note up and set it in flames. Walking back downstairs the three of them were talking loudly teasing each other.
I came and sat on the couch next to Hermione.
When they saw me Harry said, "Hey Jessica. You said Dumbledore was going to be at this meeting thing right?"
I nodded and Ron asked, "Could you ask him if we could start that club?'
I said, "Yeah I can see what he thinks. I'm sure he will be fine with it. Why do you bring this up; have you started asking kids already?"
Ron said, "Well yeah I might have mentioned it to a couple of people. Most thought it was a good idea but didn't think they knew any spells to teach. Then I told them that you would be teaching and most of them thought it was a good idea. When I said that Hermione and Harry were going to help that seemed to put them over the edge. Most of them thought it was a good idea since Quirell is such a terrible teacher."
I laughed and said, "Okay yeah. They better not get their hopes up too high. I'm not a very good teacher."
Harry said, "According to most people I talked to you are. Throughout the day I think you helped all of the Gryffindors at least once and some of the other houses too. They said you would be a brilliant teacher."
I reddened and said, "Well that's nice of them. I'm sure having the boy-who-lived there will attract members too."
It was his turn to redden and he said, "Some of the kids with older siblings said that they think some of the older kids would come too."
"Even if it means getting taught by a bunch of first years?"
Hermione said, "Everyone knows about how good you are at magic. I heard some 5th years talking about their Transfiguration class and how they couldn't make the box turn into a match. Then someone said that a first year had turned McGonagall's desk into a pig and they seemed impressed. I think it would be a good idea to make it available to all of the years and all of the houses; well except Slytherin."
"That sounds good. As long as they are fine with it I'm sure we can handle teaching them. I'll ask Dumbledore about getting a free room then if a lot of kids are planning to come."
"That would be great, thanks," Harry said.
"No problem."
I didn't want to be rude but I had to leave, "Hey guys McGonagall asked if I could talk to her in private half an hour before the meeting. I don't mean to be rude and leave so suddenly but I have to go. I'll be back in time for the duel for sure."
Hermione said, "It's no problem. Have a good meeting."
I smiled graciously at her and said, "I hope it goes well. Bye!"
Ron and Harry waved their goodbyes and I headed out through the portrait. I felt bad about lying to them about two things. I wanted to leave early so I could collect my thoughts. Telling them McGonagall wanted to talk to me sounded better than saying Snape wanted to talk to me.
I slowly made my way down to the Dungeons. I still had 10 minutes before he was expecting me. Along the way I thought about the club everyone seemed to think was a good idea. I wasn't sure how they had found out about what magic I could do. Honestly someone probably told someone about it and off it went. If a lot of students really came and expected me to teach them could I? I am only 11 for crying out loud! It was one thing when I was trying to be nice during class and help someone out, but to purposely go in front of a lot of kids and teach them; it was crazy. I was more surprised that the older students might come than the number of kids coming. If older kids were coming would they think I could teach well? It was different if the kids knew me from being in their classes but to teach a bunch of strangers; I don't know how the professors do it. My common sense told me they could do it because all the students were much younger than them and they had been doing in for years.
I was so caught up in my thoughts that I missed the last staircase to the dungeons. I backtracked and went down the correct one. Glancing at my watch I was only 2 minutes early. I knocked on the door firmly.
"Come in," came Severus' familiar voice.
I opened the door with a smile and said, "Hello."
Closing the door behind me I went over and sat in a chair across from him. With a flourish of his quill he finished grading a potion and looked up.
"Thanks for coming. I heard other students talking about what you have been doing. Mainly my 5th years. I had one girl straight out ask me if you were my best student."
I laughed and said, "Oh I would have killed to hear that conversation."
He glared at me and I stopped laughing but held a smile on my face, "I simply told her that I couldn't tell who was my best student because I hated everyone."
"Sounds like something they would believe."
"So my main question is how do a bunch of the 5th year Hufflepuffs know about what you did in your classes?"
I said, "Well you see the four of us want to start a club to learn spells since we don't like Professor Quirell's teaching. We were asking around to see if anyone was interested and then word got out to some of the kids older siblings and so and so forth."
"What kind of club would this be?" he asked.
I sighed and said, "Well basically it started because Ron and Harry asked if Hermione and I could teach them some spells since Quirell isn't good. Then Ron suggested that other people might want to do it to. We talked about it for a while and we thought if Dumbledore would let us we could use an empty room and teach a handful of spells to some of our friends. Then when Ron and Harry were asking to see if anyone would be interested if we got permission word got out. One of Harry's friends told him that his older sister in 5th year and some of her friends were wondering if they could join too. Apparently he had told her about what I did in my classes. Soon everyone seemed to know and we decided that we would make it a club if Dumbledore would let us."
He ran his hand through his hair and said, "So basically if everything goes to your plan you will be teaching a lot of kids spells that you should learn in Defense Against the Dark Arts but can't because Professor Quirell doesn't teach anything. That last thing I agree with completely by the way."
"Well yes," I said, "Why? Do you not like the idea?"
He said, "I like the idea of the club. I'm not thrilled that you will be teaching it but if you think you can handle it I will recommend that the club be allowed to Dumbledore if he doesn't agree right away."
"Really!? Thank you."
He said, "So I know what you did in Charms and Transfiguration as well as Herbololgy. At dinner I heard you did something weird during Flying too. At first I didn't believe it because the spell is very difficult but to ease my worries what happened during your flying lesson?"
I sighed and tugged at my clothes saying, "Well we were supposed to hover and touch back down. Instead Neville went 10 feet up and couldn't get down. He fell and I slowed his falling so he landed softly."
"That's a hard spell to do. I have only ever seen Dumbledore do it. Did anything else happen?"
"Well yes. Draco Malfoy challenged me to a race and then he pushed me off my broomstick so I stopped that fall too."
He stared at me and said, "He pushed you off on purpose?"
I shrugged and said, "Well obviously."
A scowl appeared on his face and he said, "He better be glad you didn't get severely hurt or I would have his head."
"Aw that's the nicest thing you've ever said to me," I teased.
"Knowing you it probably didn't end there. What else happened?"
I hesitated and said, "We exchanged a few words and then class was over."
It was obvious he didn't believe me, "Are you sure?"
"Yes," I lied hating every second of it.
"Because I heard that he challenged you to a Wizard's Duel tonight."
I paled and Severus said, "Not that you heard this from me but don't get caught. If he doesn't back out like I think he will don't hurt him...too badly."
I grinned at him and said, "Don't worry I was just planning on disarming him and leaving before Filch can catch us."
Severus said, "I always hated Filch when I was in school. Just don't get caught and I'm fine with you going."
"Don't worry I won't. I'm just going to use an invisibility spell on the four of us just to be safe."
"Good idea. Well that's all I wanted to talk to you about. We should probably go to the meeting. You should go ahead and then I'll leave in a few minutes so we don't enter together."
I rolled my eyes saying, "You over think everything."
"That's a good thing. Now go."