Chapter 18. Remembrall

“Good Afternoon class!!” “Good Afternoon, Madam Hooch!” She spoke quickly, and concisely to all of us standing in two lines divided by class in the courtyard. She stood at the end of us all, while commanding the class. “Now what are you waiting for!? Step up to the left side of your broomstick! C’mon, hurry!!” I stood on the end of course, while Pansy took the spot beside me, and Draco after her. I stood right beside her, and her loud commanding voice echoed in my ear, causing a slight resurgence of my headache. “Now! Stick your right hand over your broom, and say ‘Up’!”

Even with my slight agitation from her loud speaking, I followed her command, along with all the other students. “Up!!” “Up!” “Up.” Up!” Once I yelled, the broom rocketed towards my outstretched hand, causing a loud smacking sound. I had clearly used too much magic to raise the broom, however control was difficult to say the least on this rented broom, and in my current state. I looked over at Draco holding his broom with a smirk, and Pansy still slowly hovering her broom closer to her hand.

Once everyone had gotten their brooms in their hands, Madam Hooch continued the lesson. “Now, it’s time to mount your broom! Hold it with both hands, and grip it tight! You don’t want to be sliding off the end.” Everyone did as she instructed, and I was glad she was taking her loud voice away from me as she walked and talked. “Now when I blow this whistle, I want each of you to kick off hard. Hover for a moment, and then fall back down. Ready?” She asked, and glanced around to see all the students nodding.

She then moved back, and I preemptively covered my ear just in time for her to blow her whistle. The moment she did, one of the Gryffindor students took off. One that I recognized for finding his toad. He grasped onto his broom, as it flew off across the courtyard. I looked at Madam Hooch, waiting for her to take care of the situation. She continued to point her wand at him, but her strained expression showcased her lack of aiming ability to stop him.

We were all delegated to just watch him helplessly fling himself about on top of the runaway broom. “That looks like fun!!” Val happily cheered as he peeked his head out of my robe to watch Longbottom fly back to the ground. I thought it was over, however he steered his broom towards us. I felt my stomach sink watching him coming towards us. “He’s not stopping!” I yelled as I grabbed Pansy’s arm to take her with me as everyone dashed out of the way.

Everyone made a path for Longbottom to rocket past us, and take a sharp turn up the wall. His robe was then caught by a statue's unmoving sword held high in the air. I wasn’t sure if he was lucky for being stopped, or not considering he was just hanging around in shame. I was soon to be proved correct once his robe tore, allowing gravity to take hold of him, hurtling him downward to the courtyard at terrific speed. His robe was caught on an empty torch hold to slow his descent, before he slipped from his tattered robe, and fell the rest of the 15 feet to the ground.

All the Gryffindor's rushed over to him, but a glint of something in the grass beside me caught my attention. I crouched down as I overheard Madam Hooch taking Longbottom to the nurse. I held up a clear ball with a metal ring around its circumference. I immediately knew what the object was. A Remembrall. Draco beside me started talking, but I became focused on the dark, sanguine cloud inside the ball. My thoughts became confused, and muddled.

‘I’ve forgotten something… But what…’ Looking deeply into the scarlet color, I was reminded back to that fateful night. I was walking in the large backyard of my estate, enjoying the brisk fall chill that hung in the air. I investigated the brightly shining fireflies that danced in the air, leading me further into the large forest that was connected to our estate, only blocked off by a large wooden fence. After all my years, I had found a small rotted portion of the fence I could crawl under to look for adventures.

I followed the fireflies that quickly flew over the fence, and made my way to the other side myself. It was a bright night, the full moon beaming down its gentle rays through the branches of the trees. I had lost sight of the fireflies, and decided to look around the lighted forest for something else that would hold my interest in creatures. Branches, and dead leaves snapped and crackled under my feet as I made my own trail into the night.

After a while of walking through the quiet forest, I made it to an open area, free of trees. Only the grass was present on the ground. A strange difference considering the multitude of fallen leaves everywhere else. The cleared out area was a perfect circle, the moon’s gentle light shining brightly down from the stars above. The air was still, and silent. I walked into the center of the cleared area, and stared into the night sky. Only obscured by my own chilled breath with each exhale.

Like that, I stood in wonder of that extensively beautiful sky, hypnotized by its sheer splendor. Only to be awoken by a snapping branch from behind. I swung my head towards the noise, and was greeted by two bright, burning yellow eyes. Even with all the light from the full moon and the open sky, the rest of its body remained obscured in darkness. My heart quickened, my breathing accelerated, and my legs faltered in fear.

We both stared at each other, neither moving an inch. Like that, we gazed into the other's still eyes. I gulped as I felt a small breeze emanate from the yellow eyed beast. However, with that breeze, the eyes tilted slightly, as if the beast was thinking of something beyond a meal. I tilted my head in response. After some time, the beast slowly moved into the light. ‘Then what happened…?’ “I- I don’t-” Was all I could utter as my memories felt jumbled. My headache, raging back. I had remembered that night in passing, knowing I saw a magnificent creature, but now I felt something was missing. Like the rest of that night had slowly degraded without my knowledge. Only the next morning of my mother's berating, and father's book burning was what I recalled next.

I watched the Remembrall turn a red smoke into bright white. Something I had never heard of before with a Remembrall. ‘What happened next…?’ “Give it back Peterson!” A female voice awoke me from my thoughts. I took a gasp of air to try and help my fastening heart rate while looking over at the girl yelling at me, Hermione.

Hermione had heard enough of all the Slytherin’s (Namely Draco) making fun of Neville’s accident. To her, they were also making fun of all Gryffindor's as well. She glared at the boy that held Neville’s Remembrall, staring deeply at the red mist inside. She trudged over towards him. Away from Harry, and Ron and the rest of class, all yelling at the Slytherins. “Give it back Peterson!” She yelled with an outstretched hand to take back Neville’s gift.

What greeted her, made her stutter and gasp. His neck almost looked like it would break with how fast he darted his head over to look at her. His wide unblinking eyes looked at her with a primal gaze. ‘Were his eyes always this green…?’ Hermione couldn’t help but think as she silently stared back into his gaze. His eyes seemed to have a different color than she remembered. As before they were mostly blue with hints of green, it felt as if they had changed to a deep green with a hint of blue.

Peterson shut his eyes tightly and shook his head, seemingly in pain. He grunted, and moved his green gaze towards the white smoking ball. His face contorted into anger just looking at it. “You want it? Go get it!” And with that, he threw the ball at astonishing speed. It flew off to the other end of this massive courtyard faster than Neville. Hermione was astonished by Peterson’s acting. She looked back at him, grabbing his head and muttering something under his breath. ‘Something’s not right…’ She may not have known him for long, or liked him for that matter. However even she could tell that something was plaguing him.

Pansy heard hissing as everyone watched Potter take off after the Remembrall, and looked to see a perturbed Lucas frowning at her. His jade like eyes gave her pause, made her freeze as Lucas spoke in a hushed tone. “Take Val, I’m leaving this class first. I’m going to the nurse for this headache.” He held out his hand towards her, two blue eyes glowed just under his sleeve. Pansy nodded silently, moving her arm closer to his, letting Val slither across their hands as a bridge. Pansy shivered, partly because of the feeling of Val moving around her arm, but the other part…, she just watched in confusion as he hurriedly rushed off.

Pansy then noticed all the Gryffindor’s cheering at Potter coming back off his broom, the Remembrall in his hand, waving it triumphantly. The rest of the Slytherin’s, including Draco were rolling their eyes with scorn of him, however Pansy focused on the singular Gryffindor not celebrating. The same mudblood girl that she had seen together with Lucas a few times on the first day, and had now, managed to anger Lucas enough to throw the ball. The mudblood girl just squinted at the exit to the courtyard that Lucas left from. She was frowning with thought before turning her gaze over to Pansy herself. They both stared at each other from the distance of their house, neither one saying a word to their peers.