Chapter 6

After that little incident to Raphael it was time for the students to head to their next class, for Lily, George, and Fred their class was Quidditch, or in this case, first flying lesson. They made their way to the area that Madam Hooch had set up a number of brooms on the ground for each student to stand next to. The trio were the first number of students that arrived followed by Genevieve and her two henchmen, then other students arrived shortly after. "Good afternoon everyone." Madam Hooch said and some of the students said in unison, "Good afternoon Madam Hooch." Madam Hooch looked at all of the students and then announced, "Welcome to your first flying lesson, now I want you to stand on the left side of your broomsticks, stick out your right hand over the broomstick, and say 'up'." With that Lily looked down at her broomstick with her right hand over her broomstick and said, "Up!" Immediately her broomstick went up to her hand and Fred and George looked at her when that happened, they soon followed her, in unison, saying, "Up!" their brooms landed in their hands as well. Lily took a glance at the other students and her eyes laid upon Genevieve, Christopher, and Raphael. Their brooms were having some trouble going up to their hands, Genevieve continued to yell, "Up!" when suddenly it came up, but instead of going to her hand, it smacked her right in the face. Her henchmen softly chuckled at her getting hit by a broomstick, she saw them laughing, then she snapped at them, "Shut up you two!" Lily couldn't help herself but giggle a bit at this new development. However, she stopped herself immediately when she saw that Madam Hooch was about to give them further instructions. "Now, I want you to mount your brooms, hop up, hover for a moment, lean forward, and then touch back down. On my whistle, three, two." She blew her whistle, but suddenly, a student, female, silky brown hair, and dark skin, suddenly was taken off in flight without her meaning to do so, she cried out, "HELP!" as the broom flew with her on it. "MS. CATALINA, COME BACK DOWN THIS INSTANT!" Madam Hooch shouted on top of her lungs as she said those words. "Madam Hooch, would it be alright if I go save her?" Lily asked. Madam Hooch looked at Lily and responded with a gruff tone, "Yes, however, you must get her off of the broomstick, onto yours, and immediately touch back down on the ground, understand?" "Yes ma'am." Lily replied, mounted her broomstick, took off, and in no time at all reached the student. "Here! Hold my hand!" Lily shouted, holding her left hand out, Catalina grabbed her hand, Lily wrapped her hand and forearm around her, gently putting her on her broomstick behind her, and then commented, "You might want to hold on because we are going to come at a landing." Catalina did as Lily said about holding on and Lily gracefully landed on the ground. The girls got off of the broom and Madam Hooch as well as the other students ran to them. "Outstanding flying Ms. Snow! Well done! Ten points to Hufflepuff! That was truly commendable and extremely brave." Madam Hooch exclaimed. Catalina gently places her hand on Lily's shoulder which made her turn her head to face Catalina. Lily now can see more features of her now that the adrenaline has finally passed, she has now noticed that Catalina is a Gryffindor student, before Catalina spoke, "Thank you so much for rescuing me from that incident, we have never been properly introduced to each other, I'm Victoria Catalina, it's a pleasure to meet you." She held out her hand for a handshake after she said those words, then Lily took her hand, shook it, and replied, "I'm Lily Snow and it was the right thing to do to save you from that scenario. More importantly I am just so relieved that you are safe and unharmed." She beamed a reassuring smile to Victoria and she smiled back. "Now that you are both safe I think that is enough for today's lesson. We will pick this up tomorrow, if all goes well. But, if you students will excuse me I have a match to get ready for, class dismissed." Most of the students leave and talk amongst each other over what just developed during that whole ordeal, but while the trio were getting to know their new friend, Genevieve, Christopher, and Raphael walked up to them before Genevieve lashed out, "Wow! What a show you two gave! It was almost like it was rehearsed or something, which wouldn't surprise me one bit if that actually was all just an act to get you more attention and praise as well as fame and glory from everyone, what do you two say?" She questioned Christopher and Raphael and they responded, in unison, "Oh! It was so totally an act!" Then Christopher continued, "I am not surprised that those dimwitted buffoons bought that stunt of yours, but you won't trick us!" He snapped at Lily and Victoria. Lily looked unamused and almost glaring at the three of them before she stood her ground, "Ha! Seriously? You really believe in that theory of yours? Wow. You three must be so desperate to even assume all of that, by the way, for your information, I just met Victoria just now, so there was absolutely no way that was staged. She really was in danger and I couldn't just sit ideally by and do nothing! So, I don't care what you think of me, or say, let alone what you do to me, like the bullies you are. However, I will not allow you three accuse my new friend of such things!" She caught herself raging for the first time in all her life, composed herself while clearing her throat before she went any further with her words. "Now, if you bully, threaten, abuse in any way, or harm her, this will be your only warning, if you do anything to my new friend, I will report you. I don't care if I will be called a snitch or if rumors spread around me about that. As long as I stand up for my friends and those I love, that's more than enough for me. Why don't you three just run along to your next class before you embarrass yourselves any further than you already have? With the trying to turn water into rum that suddenly blew up and now getting right down smacked in the face by a broomstick. Boy, hate to see what other embarrassing moments come up around you three." All of them were dumbstruck of how her attitude was suddenly changed from being so shy and extremely timid to this ball of feistiness, brave, and now this coming out of nowhere. Lily saw that Genevieve and her two henchmen were too speechless to even move, let alone speak, so she decided she would be the one to walk away, and with her face not showing she had a proud and a new kind of smile that it felt amazing for her standing up for her friend, even if she wasn't being her quiet and soft voice that she normally has, but now, the three Slytherins know that she wasn't to be messed with when it comes to those she cares about. Later Fred, George, and Victoria follow behind Lily, trying to catch up to her, then George called out to Lily which snapped Lily back to her normal self. Lily stopped dead in her tracks and turned to her friends. "I'm so sorry I behaved like that in front of you three. It's-It's just that when she started accusing Victoria, I just got so angry and something snapped inside of me that made me say all of those things. But please know that I meant every word about standing up for you Victoria and that if they do anything to you I will do something about it, I promise." Lily said finally able to calm down some and then looks at the ground with a grim expression upon her face before she continued, "I understand if I terrified you three so bad that you don't wish to be around me. You knowing that if those I deeply care about is hurt in anyway or being bullied, I lose my composer as I did back there and going out of my way to protect them, but that is my loyalty towards them, or in this case, you three." She couldn't say anything else because she was too scared to find out that she had made her friends want to cut her out of their lives, then her mind went back to her father leaving her behind. Tears began to flow as she is starting to have an little anxiety attack, but she was able to mask it or make it seem like she isn't panicking in her mind. The next thing she knew, George ran up to her and gave her a deep and meaningful embrace which made her break, she hugged him quite tightly and cried hard in his arms, then Fred joined in the hug and then whispered so only them two could hear his words, "We love you, no matter what, we will forever love you. The fact that you care so much means the world to us, you have such a big and wonderful heart. But, please don't ever think that we will avoid you or shut you out due to this Lily. We aren't ever going to abandon you or push you away, that's not what family does, at least not with us anyways." Lily couldn't speak for they were stuck in her throat and wouldn't come out so she could only hug them tighter. Victoria is watching the three of them embrace in a enormous hug and smiles at them with a warm and caring grin. "You three are so loving to one another as if you are siblings by blood or something." Victoria proclaimed before they pulled away from each other. "Yeah, but we should really head to Defense Against The Dark Arts class before we are late."