CHAPTER SIX:
(A/N: Let's just ignore the title lmfao... my rhyming skills are faltering)
Third Person P.OV.:
The young Gryffindors walked out to the castle grounds to start their flying lesson with Madame Hooch. Just like for Potions, the Gryffindors were accompanied by the Slytherins, which sucked.
After everything that had happened with his father, Charlie didn't even want to listen to Draco Malfoy speak, let alone be in the same area as him for an hour. The young boy engaged in conversation with his fellow Gryffindors until he saw Madame Hooch walk out on to the grounds with a bag full of broomsticks.
As he saw what she was carrying, Charlie's face lit up. Flying was one of the things he was most looking forward to. He has flown before, however. Every now and then, he would secretly join Oliver Wood, Angelina Johnson and Fred and George Weasley while they were practicing for Quidditch. With Fred and George as beaters, and Wood as the keeper, Charlie would play the position of the chaser with Angelina.
It was frowned upon that he play with them, but he didn't tell anyone about it and neither did his friends. They would play without caring about the consequences. Quidditch had always been one of Charlie's favourite things about the Wizard World. Every once in a while he would convince Dumbledore to watch a match with him and the two would bond over their love of a specific team. The young boy treasured moments like those. Those simple moments. The ones that matter.
Madame Hooch has instructed her students to form lines facing one another. Gryffindor on one side and Slytherin on the other. There each student stood with a broom laid out on the ground to the right of them.
"Good afternoon class," Madame Hooch spoke as she walked down the middle gap in between the students.
All the students spoke together, "Good afternoon Madame Hooch."
"Welcome to your first flying lesson," The Professor began, "Well? What are you waiting for? Everyone step up to the left side of your broomstick, stick your right hand over the broom and say up!"
Charlie listened to the other students say "up" over and over again. It was no surprise that some were struggling, however what did surprise him was Harry. The Chosen One has only said 'up' once before the broomstick was in his hand.
Ron had congratulated Harry and so had Charlie, but it was Hermione who looked at him with an envious look. Then, for the first time, Charlie stuck out his hand and said, "Up!"
The broomstick wasted no time before flying up into his hand for which he smiled. Thanks to his constant practicing with the Gryffindor Quidditch team, his broom's cooperation was a no brainer.
The brown eyed boy looked around and saw classmates still struggling. When he looked over to the Slytherin side, he was shocked to see Draco had gotten his broom fly up in his hand as well. What a git. Charlie then looked towards Ron and saw what seemed to be a slow-mo shot of his friend's broom smacking him in the face.
Harry and Charlie burst out laughing at their ginger haired friend before hearing Madame Hooch tell them to mount their broomsticks and lean forward slightly to lift off the ground.
To everyone's surprise, Neville's broom had lifted off the ground a little too much. Without warning, the clumsy boy was now flying all around the pitch uncontrollably, before he fell off his broom and was now hanging on a statue by just his robes. His robes eventually gave out and Neville fell to the ground yelling, "Ow!"
It wasn't long before Madame Hooch ran over to him and assessed his injuries. She concluded that he had a broken wrist and so, she escorted him to the Hospital Wing before saying that if she is to see any broom in the air, then that person would find themselves expelled. The group of students watched as Madame Hooch and Neville walked back into the castle.
"What on Earth just happened?" Charlie asked, completely confused as to how things went south so quickly.
Harry, Ron and Hermione all simply shrugged in response.
The brown eyed boy and his friends watched as Draco Malfoy knelt down, picked up Neville's remembrall off the ground, and laughed, "Did you see his face? Maybe if the fat lud had given this a squeeze, he would've remembered to fall on his fat arse."
Draco's comment earned chuckles from the Slytherin students, but as for the Gryffindors, they were furious. Harry spoke up first with a serious tone, "Give it here, Malfoy."
The blonde haired Slytherin boy turned to face Harry, "No, I think I'll leave it somewhere for Longbottom to find. Maybe the roof?" And with that Draco had taken off on his broom with the remembrall in his hand.
Without Charlie even having the time to comprehend what was going on, Harry had too, hopped on his broom and flew after Malfoy.
The brown eyed boy heard Hermione speak, "What. An. Idiot."
Charlie shook his head at the girl while laughing, "I think it's admirable."
Ron nodded his head in agreement as he watched Harry and Malfoy argue over the remembrall while on their broomsticks.
Then, to Charlie's surprise, Draco had directed a comment towards him. The Slytherin boy looked down on the brown eyed boy and spoke with a smirk, "Look down there, it's your new best mate Mr. Charlie Hawthorne. What? All out of sly comments today Hawthorne? You sure had plenty to say the other night. Let me guess, your father didn't appreciate your 'imperfect' behaviour?"
Suddenly everything made sense. Draco without a doubt had whined to his father about their encounter, and his father had more than likely spoke with Fenwick. All the fear from his father's letter was now being channeled into anger. Without a second thought, Charlie mounted his broom.
As he did so, Hermione went to stop him, "No, absolutely not. Please Charlie, this is ridiculous!"
The young boy ignored her and kicked off from the ground to join Harry and Draco in the air. It was there that Charlie addressed the boy who had called him out only moments prior, "I should have guessed that you'd go crying to your father at the first sign of trouble. Truly pathetic you are, Malfoy. Now, save yourself the embarrassment and give me the remembrall."
Harry and Charlie each took an opposite side of Malfoy, so that he was sandwiched in between them and couldn't move. The blonde boy just smirked, "Have it your way then." And with that, he threw the ball over Harry's head.
Without hesitation, Charlie sped off after it. Thanks to his Quidditch training, he managed to catch it before it hit the castle window. He pulled himself to a stop quickly and just nearly grazed the side of the castle. He smiled to himself before throwing it back to Harry, and to Charlie's surprise, the boy caught it with one hand. The two Gryffindors flew back to ground and were engulfed in cheers from their classmates. Charlie smirked at Draco's disappointed face as the crowd cheered for him and his friend.
The celebration was short lived as Professor McGonagall came storming out of the castle.
Charlie looked at Harry, "Oh, this can't be good."
McGonagall reached the crowd, "Harry Potter! Charlie Hawthorne! Follow me. Now."
The two boys gave each other a nervous look before following quickly behind her. Minerva escorted the two boys to what Charlie recognized as Professor Quirrell's classroom. She went into the classroom for a moment while the two boys waited outside.
The brown eyed boy was surprised when Oliver Wood came out with McGonagall, "Hey there Hawthorne!"
Charlie smiled before giving the boy a high five, "Hey Wood, have a nice summer?"
The older boy nodded before looking to McGonagall and wondering what she called him out of class for.
"Wood," McGonagall began, "I have found the Gryffindor team a new Chaser and a Seeker!"
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As Charlie walked down the hallway with Harry and Ron, he overheard Sir Nicholas speaking to another ghost, "Have you heard that Charlie Hawthorne is Gryffindor's newest chaser and Harry Potter is their newest seeker! I always knew those boys would do well!"
The brown eyed boy smiled to himself before he heard Ron speak, "Chaser and Seeker! Woah, but first years never make the house teams! You two must be the youngest Quidditch players in over-"
"A century! At least that's what McGonagall told us." Harry cut him off.
As the three boys walked beside one another, Fred and George had approached them, "Well done, Charlie and Harry! Wood's just told us."
Harry looked at the two ginger twins confused, before Charlie explained, "Fred and George are on the team too. Beaters."
"Yup! Our job is to make sure that you two don't get bloodied up too bad. Can't make any promises of course, rough game Quidditch." Fred joked.
George joined in, "Brutal! But no ones died in years! Someone will vanish occasionally,"
"But they'll turn up in a month or two!" The twins said together before continuing down the hall laughing.
The young Gryffindor boys walked into the courtyard and Charlie spotted Hermione sitting on a bench reading a book. He looked at her intently while Ron was reassuring Harry that'd he be great at Quidditch. The bushy haired girl looked up to meet Charlie's eyes and he moved his head to tell her to walk with them.
"What if I make a fool of myself?" Harry asked.
Then Hermione joined in as she began walking with them out of Charlie's request, "You won't make a fool of yourself. It's in your blood."
Charlie nodded and looked at Harry, "She's right, you know. Come on, I want to show you something."
The brown eyed boy ran off, but he heard the footsteps of his three friends following closely behind him. He took the three of them to the trophy case, where the Gryffindor team plaque for 1969-1971 was located. There it was;
"James Potter: Seeker"
And right beside that was the name that Charlie smiled over:
"Julianne Dumbledore: Chaser"
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The four young Gryffindors starting walking back to their common room. Charlie led the group as they walked up the staircase. That was when he heard the freckled boy speak to him and Harry, "Don't you think it's a bit spooky? She knows more about the two of you than you two do!"
He, of course, was talking about Hermione. Who had just rolled her eyes at his comment. Charlie laughed before looking at him and saying, "Yeah, well who doesn't."
The four all smiled at one another before suddenly the staircase began to shift.
"What's happening?" Harry asked in a panic tone.
Hermione was quick to explain, "The staircases change, remember?"
As the staircase came to a stop and positioned the four of them in a different direction, Charlie spoke quickly, "Come on! Let's go this way."
"Yeah, before the staircase moves again." Ron said, as he, Harry and Hermione followed behind Charlie.
The four Gryffindors opened the door blocking their path, and walked through. They entered a dark and dusty room that Charlie couldn't recognize.
Harry looked around the room, "Does anyone else feel like we shouldn't be in here?"
The brown eyed boy looked around before answering his friend, "That's because we aren't supposed to be in here. I think this is the third floor."
Hermione gasped, "But your grandfather said that this floor was forbidden!"
"Yeah, we should probably head back then," Harry said in a nervous tone, "Let's go."
The four turned back around towards the door which they once came from, but that's when Charlie spotted Mr. Filch's cat who was now blocking their path.
"Uh that's not good." Charlie gulped.
Hermione gasped once again, "It's Filch's cat!"
"Run!!" yelled Ron as he ran in the opposite direction.
Harry, Hermione, and Charlie all followed after him quickly. The brown eyed boy was the fastest and so he reached the end of the hallway first. Once again, there was another door blocking their path.
Charlie tried to pry it open before voicing his conclusion, "It's locked!"
Harry and Ron looked nervously behind them before the ginger haired boy spoke, "That's it. We're done for."
Hermione, who was standing at the back, pushed her way past Ron and stood next to Charlie, "Oh move over!" She took her wand out and pointed it at the door, "Alohomora!"
The door quickly unlocked itself and the three boys looked at one another before piling into the room behind Hermione.
Charlie closed the door behind them to make sure that Mrs. Norris would stop chasing them. That's when he heard, Harry ask Hermione a question, "Alohomora?"
"Standard Book of Spells, Chapter 7." She explained in a tone that practically said, 'duh'.
Ron rolled his eyes at her, "Why am I not surprised?"
The brown eyed boy pressed his ear up against the door to make sure that they were safe from Filch, "I don't hear anything. I think Filch's gone."
"Probably thinks this doors locked," Ron suggested.
Hermione rolled her eyes at him once again, "That's because it was locked."
"And for good reason." Harry gulped.
Charlie turned to see what his friend was talking about. Out of all the possible ways this scenario could have turned out, the last possibility was the young boy being face to face with a three headed dog. He wasn't expecting that one, and clearly none of his friends were either.
"AHHHHHHHHH!" They all yelled simultaneously, before running out of the room and all the way back to the Gryffindor common room.
As soon as they were safe, Ron spoke, out of breath, "What do they think they're doing! Keeping a bloody thing like that locked up in a school!"
Hermione huffed in response, "You don't use your eyes, do you? Didn't you see what it was standing on? It was a trap door!"
"I wasn't looking at it's feet! I was a bit preoccupied with its heads! Or maybe you didn't notice. There were three!" Ron yelled back at her.
Charlie tried to calm down the situation, "Easy there mate. I just think she means that it clearly wasn't there by accident. It's guarding something."
"At least one of you has brains," Hermione said as Charlie came to her defence.
Harry turned to Charlie, "Guarding something? Do you think it could be the thing that Hagrid retrieved from Dumbledore's vault? They're protecting it since someone is clearly looking for whatever it is, that's why they broke into Gringotts." (A/N: as if Harry was ever this quick)
The brown eyed boy simply shrugged.
The bushy haired girl had clearly had enough of this whole situation, "It doesn't matter! Now, if you three don't mind, I'm going to bed before either of you come up with another clever idea to get us killed. Or worse, expelled."
The three boys were taken aback by the girl's sudden outburst as they watched her walk up the stairs towards the girls dormitories.
Charlie laughed a little, "Well, one thing is for certain. That girl needs to sort out her priorities."
The other two boys nodded in agreement before they too, scurried off to there dormitories.
Charlie went to bed that night wondering how the day went from him joining the Quidditch team and following in his mother's footsteps, to him finding a three headed dog stationed in a place that he had called home for so many years.
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Author's Note:
*this chapter was not proof read*
Hope you enjoyed this chapter! We're getting closer and closer to the end of the philosophers stone! Thank god ahaha. I really can't wait until the Goblet of Fire as I have big plans.
If you have any questions feel free to ask! I'll answer them whenever I have the time.
While you're here, I'd appreciate it if you could like, comment, vote and share this story with your friends!
Until next time! Much love to you all!
xo, Selena