Chapter 15: Flying Lessons (Part 2)

Once Madam Hooch was out of sight, Draco burst into laughter.

"Did you see his face, that great lump?"

Goyle and Crabbe started making exaggerated expressions, mimicking Neville wiping his eyes with his fists.

Then Draco snatched up a glassy ball from the grass - it had fallen from Neville's robes and glittered in the sunlight.

Harry immediately got into an argument with Draco. They both jumped onto their brooms, fighting over the Remembrall in mid-air. They seemed to instinctively know how to fly, hovering at the height of an oak tree's crown.

On the ground, all the students craned their necks to watch.

Jane heard Hermione shrieking: "How dare they! They'll be expelled!"

Expelled?!

That caught her attention immediately.

Wasn't this exactly what she wanted?

"Excuse me." She pushed past a dumbstruck Slytherin student, summoned her broom, mounted it, and kicked hard off the ground, soaring into the air.

She wasn't afraid of heights, though the broom was rather uncomfortable.

Should install a cushion, she thought.

The broom flew faster and faster, climbing higher and higher. The air whooshed past her ears, her black and green robes billowing in the wind - not good, too much air resistance.

On the ground, Ron and Hermione looked about to faint.

Blaise and Theodore's expressions were equally grim.

Jane quickly caught up to the two boys. She accelerated toward Draco, snatching the Remembrall from his terrified grasp. Tossing it up and down in her hand, she said with mock gravitas:

"Fighting like this won't settle anything..."

"Let's see who can catch the ball first - winner takes all."

Then she threw the Remembrall high into the air.

Two figures streaked toward the ground in pursuit - everyone screamed as Harry and Draco plummeted like falling stars.

They accelerated, trying to outpace each other, but Draco pulled up two feet from the ground, sweating profusely, staring in disbelief at Harry who showed no signs of slowing.

Harry reached out his hand at the last moment, catching the ball one foot from the ground. He adjusted the broom's angle just in time, pulling it level and rolling gently onto the grass. He raised the Remembrall triumphantly, as if he'd caught the Golden Snitch.

After they landed, Jane descended leisurely to the ground.

So Harry won - was this the protagonist's halo effect?

She marveled.

But then two angry voices rang out from afar:

"Harry Potter!!"

"Draco Malfoy!! Jane Yu!!"

Professors McGonagall and Snape were running toward them furiously.

Harry and Draco's hearts sank.

But Jane's mood, previously dampened by her failed plan, finally lifted.

"How dare you... fifty feet... your necks..." Professor McGonagall gasped.

Harry tried to argue: "Professor, Malfoy—"

"Silence!" Professor Snape glared at him murderously. Harry had no doubt he wanted to kill him. "Perhaps your mother shouldn't have saved you—"

Professor McGonagall coughed.

Realizing his slip, Snape turned to roar at Draco and Jane instead:

"Your detention starts now! Come to my office - immediately!"

...

Harry had expected expulsion, but instead, as if in a dream, he joined the Quidditch team as Gryffindor's youngest Seeker in a century.

At dinner, he told Ron everything.

Ron stopped stuffing his face with pie and exclaimed loudly: "Merlin's beard! You must be the youngest house player in—"

He was genuinely happy for Harry, sharing in his glory.

Then he thought of the annoying Malfoy and felt even more pleased:

"Mate, I bet Malfoy will cry when he hears this news."

"That dive and brake today was brilliant - Malfoy couldn't fly like that!"

Harry grinned, imagining Malfoy's incredulous face with satisfaction.

But then he thought of Jane...

After taking the Remembrall from Malfoy, she hadn't given it to him, but thrown it instead.

He felt a strange disappointment.

He looked over at the Slytherin table but couldn't find Jane or Malfoy.

"What are you looking for?" Ron followed his gaze curiously. "Looking for Jane Yu?"

He returned to battling his cold pie, commenting casually: "She's brave, saving Neville and snatching the ball from Malfoy. Never thought there'd be good people in Slytherin."

Harry mumbled in agreement, but felt uneasy.

She had no background, no friends to support her in all of Slytherin...

After today's events, could she even stay in Slytherin?

These thoughts made even the delicious steak taste like ashes in his mouth.

...

Meanwhile, Professor Snape led Draco and Jane straight to his office.

Jane glanced at Draco, finding him pale as a ghost, looking about to faint.

The door closed.

"Look at our brave Mr. Malfoy, willing to risk breaking his neck diving fifty feet headfirst into the ground," Snape said with dramatic inflection.

"Brave" was clearly not a compliment when applied to Slytherins. Draco's face showed defiance as he tried to defend himself:

"Professor, Potter..."

But Snape ignored his explanation completely, glowering at him.

"Reckless, arrogant - why didn't the Sorting Hat put you in Gryffindor?"

"Perhaps I should write to Mr. Malfoy Senior about his son's exploits."

Draco immediately shrieked, grey eyes welling with tears, pale face flushing red:

"No, Professor, please don't tell my father!"

Snape snorted coldly, turning to glare at Jane:

"And you, Miss Yu, enjoy stirring up trouble, do you?"

"So eager to referee - perhaps I should convince Madam Hooch to let you judge Quidditch matches."

Jane shrugged indifferently. She'd been hoping to lower this professor's opinion of her to smooth her path to expulsion.

"If you can manage it, that would be fine," she shot back.

Draco gasped, looking at Jane with awe, as if beholding Merlin himself.

But to their surprise, Professor Snape merely made a sardonic comment before letting her off lightly, producing two large barrels of potion ingredients from behind his desk.

"Flobberworm mucus and color-changing giant snail powder, one barrel each."

Draco would rather shell snails than touch those slimy, disgusting worms.

He quickly claimed before Jane could: "I'll take the giant snails!"

Snape looked at him with an odd smile: "What are you waiting for?"

They began working.

Collecting Flobberworm mucus seemed gross but was actually quite simple. Using a pipette to extract the green sticky substance from the worm's tail, being careful not to crush it, made the task easy. Jane quickly processed half a barrel.

But Draco's barrel was much more troublesome!

Grinding the color-changing snails wasn't hard, but after cracking the shells, removing the flesh stuck inside was difficult. The flesh had no potion value and would actually affect the potency. In the same time, he'd only ground about a dozen snails and was getting impatient.

Jane noticed him frequently glancing at her for help.

"No helping allowed - work independently—" 

Snape's deep voice carried over. Jane had no doubt he had eyes in the back of his head.

But just then he received a message from Dumbledore.

After ordering them to continue processing the ingredients, Snape hurried away.

The moment the office door closed, Draco sprang up from the floor!