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The first week went by quickly, and between the Wednesday evening classes on the study of the stars in the astronomy room, the herbology classes three times a week, and all the courses that the first year were required to take, Lyla had now visited and got to know the castle well, or so she thought.
But there was no time to waste, the lesson Lyla was looking forward to finally came: Quidditch's lesson with Professor Hooch.
The fact that freshman students couldn't play Quidditch seemed silly to Lyla, she was pretty good, actually she was really good. With the Weasleys she trained every summer and over time she got better, she had fallen many times but got up again and immediately put the saddle back on the old broom that her father lent her, how much she would have wanted a broom of her own, but the school didn't even allow that to the first year.
Professor Hooch walked the students into the school garden and divided them into parallel rows in front of old, messy broomsticks. The teacher was a tall woman with grey hair and yellow eyes, similar to hawk's eyes.
"Good morning class" announced the teacher
"Good morning, Professor Hooch", the boys answered in chorus.
"Very good. Everyone take a seat next to a broom. . . extend your right hand over the broom and say 'up'". Madame Hooch gave instructions and then stood in front of the students.
Lyla's broom jumped right into her hand as soon as she uttered the word the teacher had told them to say. She looked up with a beaming smile for satisfaction, she was not the only one to whom the broom listened immediately, even Draco and Harry had the broom already in their hands.
Hermione's broom just didn't listen to her, it was hilarious how the broom wriggled on the ground while the girl begged her to get up, but the even more fun thing was that Ron's broom didn't get through his hands, but came straight to his face with a loud blow that made Harry and Lyla laugh.
"Oh shut up, you two", Ron chuckled from embarrassment as he tried again with the broom.
Once everyone had their broomstick in their hands, they climbed up on it and waited for Madame Hooch's next instructions.
"Well. . . now that you're riding your broomstick, when I give you the signal, you'll give yourself a slight push with your feet, get up a couple of yards off the ground, and then come back to the ground, shall we? Right on my mark, one. . . two. . . and thr..."
But she didn't have time to finish that poor Neville LongBottom, first year of Gryffindor, all worried, got up in the air before the signal and his broom lost control, almost hit all the other first year still standing on the ground staring at him.
Eventually, after several unsuccessful attempts by the teacher to stop the crazy broom, Neville fell to the ground from a couple of feet high with a loud thud and another suspicious noise. . . something had broken.
Madame Hooch made room among the students to help the poor boy who was complaining of pain.
"Oh, here we broke a wrist. Boys, I'm going to escort Mr. LongBottom to the infirmary, the first one I'll find in the air when I get back, I'll have him expelled before you can even say the word 'Quidditch'", and having said that, she walked away with Neville in tow.
Malfoy leaned down to pick up Neville's Remembrall, most likely it had dropped during the flight,
"Hey Malfoy, put your hands back in your pockets and give it back to us, we'll take it back to Neville", Lyla said, starting to get nervous.
"No, LongBottom had to remember to fall on his fat butt, the Remembrall has done its job and now I will put it in a place where LongBottom will have to go and look for it", replies Malfoy bluntly with her usual grin stamped on her face, Lyla wanting to take it off.
"Give it back Malfoy!" shot angrily Harry, it was not a good sign.
"Come and get it, Potter", said Malfoy, and then climbed on the back of the broom and flew with the Remembrall still in his hands.
Harry tried to climb immediately on the broom but Hermione immediately stood in front of him
"Harry don't think about it, if you get on that broom now, you'll be expelled immediately, I forbid it to you" but Harry didn't listen to her, he got on the broom anyway and with a strong push, he flew up.
The two chased each other for a while, the other students just stared at them, while Ron and Lyla hoped Harry wouldn't get hurt, until Malfoy got tired of the brown-haired boy's attempts to retrieve the Remembrall and threw it at full speed towards the castle.
Harry jumped at full speed to retrieve the sphere, and at the last moment, he did. He immediately returned to the ground and all the first-year students ran to him to congratulate him.
All the festivities stopped immediately because they were interrupted by Professor McGonagall's arrival.
"Harry Potter! Please come with me..." the professor invited him. Harry was so convinced that he would be in trouble, Lyla gave him a compassionate look and watched him walk away, trying to catch up with the teacher who had already started to walk back to the castle.
Malfoy still had that smirk on his face, Lyla couldn't see anymore, she made great strides towards the blonde, took him by the shoulder and punched him in the nose, if there was one thing her father and Lyla had in common, it was the outbursts of anger, and now Lyla felt so relieved after that punch.
Class was over by now, Malfoy hissed 'you're gonna regret it' while Ron gave Lyla a five.
"Well done", he said proudly
At the end of the day, Ron and Lyla re-joined with their friend, who had apparently secured the spot as the new Seeker on Gryffindor Quidditch's team. . .
"Congratulations Harry, Wood has informed us", said George, joining the three friends with his twin brother Fred.
"You know, Fred and George are part of Quidditch's team, they're pretty good, they play like beaters", Lyla replied, trying to remove the questioning look that had formed on Harry's face.
"We manage but we don't promise anything, nobody's died for years but every now and then someone disappears."
"But it comes back after a month or two", they concluded, giving themselves the five and separating from the three boys.
"Instead of scaring us kids why don't you go back to study?" Lyla shouted to the twins
"Oh, but we have excellent grades, and school wouldn't be fun if we didn't make fun of the first year, see you later little brats". Fred concluded winking at Lyla
Lyla blushed when the tall red head winked at her, what was wrong with her?
Hermione joined them after classes were over. Ron couldn't stand her at all, so he rolled his eyes and tried to hurry as Lyla joined her.
As soon as they reached a staircase to return to the common room of Gryffindor, the staircase began to move.
"What's going on?" asked Harry as he watched the stairs change his original position.
"The stairs like to change, remember? Percy said it the first day", replied Lyla as she tried to see where the staircase might have stopped.
"No wonder, you haven't heard anything so far, you're going to end badly if you don't pay attention to the smallest things here", cried Hermione, receiving only a bad look from the two friends.
When the stairs finally stopped, the four climbed the last steps as fast as they could, they were in a corridor they had never visited, where they were not supposed to be for any reason, the corridor on the third floor.
"I feel like we shouldn't be here", Lyla turned to her three friends as she tried to see something in that dark hallway.
They would have escaped the place as quickly as possible, had it not been for the fact that Mrs. Norris, Filtch's cat, that saw them and ran immediately to warn the caretaker. The four students, afraid of what might happen to all of them, started running wildly, they had to hide and it seemed that luck was on their side, they found a door, but it was locked. . .
"The door is closed", shouted Ron as he slammed against the door
"Move", Hermione shouted at him, pulled out her wand and pointed it against the lock and cast a spell 'Alohomora' and the door opened as if nothing had happened.
The four ran inside and hid behind the door while Filtch glanced at the hallway, he waited quietly but nothing, they heard footsteps and soon he walked away.
"Filtch is gone. . . he'll think the door is closed", Ron observed as he held his ear to the door surface.
"And for good reason", said Harry looking into the room.
Lyla and the others turned to see what was worrying Harry so much. In front of them stood a huge animal, but not just any animal, it was a three-headed dog of exorbitant size, which as soon as it saw them began to bark and growl at the four boys.
At the sight of the dog, the four screamed and left the room, closing the door behind them and running wildly to the entrance of the common room.
As soon as they passed the picture of fat lady Ron screamed
"But what was Dumbledore thinking when he decided to keep something like that in a school?"
Hermione bored by the continual whining of the red head said
"You don't use your eyes, do you? Didn't you see what he was laying his paws on? He was on a hatch, which means he's guarding something."
"You know I didn't pay much attention to the legs; I was a little worried about the heads, you know. . . there were three!" Ron replied dramatically.
"But it's watching out on something, now if you'll excuse me, I'll go to sleep before you come up with another plan to get us killed, or worse expelled", Hermione concluded as she entered the girls' dormitory.
"I'm sorry to say this, but Hermione should review her priorities a bit", Lyla said to the two boys, before saying goodnight and going to bed.
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New chapter online, I want to inform you that Quidditch will play an important role in this story and especially for the character of Lyla. Here we have one of the first moments where Lyla feels there's something going on with Fred, I know it's a small moment but moving on with the story then there will be more, what do you think? Let me know in the comments and leave stars, love <3
- Jules💗