CHAPTER-12 : THE BEGINNING PART-12

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Acting normal around Daphne got easier, and he managed to have many conversations with her friend Tracey. She talked a lot, and very quickly. A conversation with Tracey was fairly easy. You just had to ask her for her opinions about some class or well-known painting in the castle and she was off, holding the conversation all on her own.

"Are you looking forward to the flying lessons later?" He asked as the three of them walked to lunch.

Tracey grinned.

"Quidditch isn't for me, but sometimes flying on training brooms was fun. I had several as a I child. I had to give them up because eventually they started to misbehave, you know? The charms on them would go all fuzzy. I used to chase them around the house because I swear they started trying to avoid me-"

He caught an image of a broom spiriting out of a closet, just out of the reach of two hands. He chuckled softly at the foreign memory. He was getting better. He used to only get a single image for a memory, like a snapshot. Now he got three or four, although it only happened for strong memories. Enough to create motion, like a movie, if only barely. Two frames of a girl's arms frantically grabbing for a small broom, if that. Something between moments which helped him know what he was seeing, though it wasn't exactly an image.

"-It was probably because I crashed so much. I don't think they liked it when I flew them, but I can't be too sure. You don't think we'll be hurt, do you?"

Harry doubted it, but he had practiced the episky spell on himself nevertheless. Daphne hadn't been happy when she saw him cut the back of his hand to practice, but had relaxed slightly once he explained himself. Healing spells had always been high on his list. They were simply useful to know.

"-Do you think the brooms here have personality, like mine? The school brooms are supposed to be fairly odd, but I don't know how enchanted objects do that. Have you noticed how the armor suits moves all the time? How do you think that happens? There isn't, like, a brain or anything in them. So how do they think? Or, how could my brooms see me coming!? They didn't have eyes!"

He knew Daphne was thankful that he didn't mind Tracey's talkativeness. Why should he care? He was just glad he wasn't really expected to answer. He no longer panicked when someone would talk to him, and articulating himself, as well as responding to others, was getting easier every day. Although, his heart still jumped into his throat whenever Daphne would suddenly sit down next to him in the library, or when Tracey would stop talking to him and expect a response, blinking at him with big eyes…like she was doing right now.

"We could ask Flitwick about it, he would know."

He knew it would upset her if she thought he hadn't been listening, even if she sometimes berated herself about talking so much.

"I suppose that's a good idea." She mused absently. "Did you know he is supposed to be part goblin?" He did; she had already told him that twice, and that was just today. He nodded back all the same. She and Daphne split off from him to go to the Slytherin table while he came in and sat next near to Su Li, still at a respectful distance.

She smiled at him, waving shyly, and he smiled back in greeting.

"Hello Harry."

"Hey Su." He was close to his housemates, or closer to them than he had ever been to another group of people besides Daphne and Tracey. She turned back to her lunch and he prepared a plate.

Lunch was delicious as always.

After lunch it was time for the flying lesson. Everyone was losing their minds about it. Or seemed to be. Harry had read a little about the sport so he knew the basic rules. Though, he couldn't quite remember if the snitch was worth a hundred and twenty points or a hundred and fifty. Or maybe just a hundred.

Alright, so he didn't know much, but he knew the balls and some basic rules. That had to count, right?

Draco Malfoy certainly knew more, and he wasn't shy about saying so. He complained loudly about first years never getting on the house Quidditch teams, and told long, boastful stories that always seemed to end with him narrowly escaping Muggles in helicopters.

Indeed, every single person who grew up in the wizarding world had similar stories. Michael Corner and Terry Boot had told several stories about near misses and incredible dodging skill. The sort of death-defying stunts sure to impress their housemates. Even Mandy Brocklehurst had boasted about racing her sister.

There had been some debate in the common room about muggle and wizard sports. Terry Boot had had an argument with Anthony Goldstein about Anthony's Tottenham Hotspur's 'Yid Army' poster, which eventually moved on to muggle and wizarding sports in general. The poster had made Michael Corner nervous, he could often be seen glancing at it, sure that the players would move as soon as he would look away. Despite Harry's and Anthony's insistence that it was normal, Michael believed he was being pranked somehow.

Harry could easily see through their lies about riding brooms with a glance, their words dripped with falsehoods, but they seemed to be having fun with it. It didn't take a mind-reader to realise that, on some level, they all knew the others were lying too. It confused Harry more than why no one had banished Peeves.

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