Chapter 8

The week passed by in a blur for Rodrick. He found himself adjusting to the new school faster than anticipated, certainly better than his friends had. He spent most of his free time in the library studying, for the first couple of days he had spent them alone before Blaise joined him.

The boy seemed to open up more with Rodrick, here I thought it'd take at least a year, he was glad of course, Blaise proved to be more entertaining than he'd originally thought. Daphne had bottled down a little with her friend and jumped straight into the gossip around the school, Malfoy would skin himself if he knew wizards had such a common thing with muggles. The thought brought a chuckle out of him. Blaise raised an eyebrow.

The group minus Tracey was currently enjoying breakfast; We might just have a peaceful- It seemed the gods were tempting him, as soon as the thought popped into his head. A flock of owl appeared to fill up the Great Hall bearing letters and gifts for the students.

Malfoy rose up from his seat and made his way over to the Gryffindor table, here we go, Rodrick poked Blaise and called towards Daphne before pointing over towards the breakfast entertainment. It wasn't long before Malfoy started causing trouble, he'd taken one of the student's gifts it seemed. Rodrick squinted his eye trying to find out what it was before Daphne told him quickly. Some of the Slytherins had noticed the professors coming over towards the table as they warned Malfoy. Too bad, that would've been good. Thought a disappointed Rodrick.

...

He was on his way to his first flying lesson, hopefully not my last. Blaise was murmuring something incoherent beside him. They had received some sharp looks from Malfoy and his friends; it seemed he didn't like the competition from the fellow Slytherin stealing the attention of other fellow Slytherins. I can hardly see my friends joining you; He appreciated the thought, it felt good, knowing the blonde considered him a threat. Even for the wrong reasons. He looked forward to the day he found out the right reasons.

"Ah, Rodrick!" Shouted an excited Tracey.

Rodrick stopped himself in his tracks and turned to source of the vocice. He let off a smile when he saw her; she'd seemed to like him even more since he'd helped her through potions. Daphne had tried to ignore the commotion her friend was making, unsuccessfully. "I am glad someone's looking forward to this..." remarked Rodrick, his displeasure to flying was rather obvious.

"Why? Worried about something?" Blaise smirked.

"Leave him alone." Daphne frowned.

"No no, if I'm flying you should all prepare for me falling," The others would've laughed had it not been for the severe look on his face.

"Don't worry, I got your coffin covered." Blaise had no issue rubbing it in.

"Ha ha." Rodrick deadpanned.

"Blaise!" Tracey had an alarmed look on her face; She still wasn't used to Blaise's sarcasm, thought an amused Rodrick.

"We're going to be late," Warned Daphne.

"Good maybe we can miss the lesson," Rodrick added on.

Tracey promptly started to push Rodrick towards the field; I may have chosen the wrong friends.

In truth Rodrick was quite glad they were flying with Gryffindor, it meant Malfoy was busy tormenting someone else. If the boys non-stop chatter about flying was any basis, he didn't want any challenges with him that involved a broom.

It was probably for the best Malfoy didn't try to involve wands.

He doubted Snape would approve of sending another snake to the hospital.

"Nervous still?" Daphne asked. Blaise and Tracey seemed to speed ahead once they saw the field.

"No."

"Hm? Really? When did you get over your fears so quickly?" the words were practically dripping with sarcasm.

"I have a plan," Rodrick attempted the evilest smirk he could manage.

"Murdering someone won't make the the lessons stop just so that you know." Daphne had a worried look.

Rodrick deflated before he was pushed again towards the field after, quite obviously, slowing down on purpose. Well, it's always worth a shot.

Ahead of them, Tracey was chatting animatedly about the lessons; it seemed she'd had plenty of practice riding a broom back at her home, having done so since she was a kid. He had asked Daphne if she felt the same way receiving a definite no. It turned out Daphne was more on learning; it was commendable.

He had to admit the field looked relatively good for flying, if you could ignore the forbidden forest on the side anyway, The headmaster had spoken about how dangerous it was at the start of the year. Wizards should consider fences.

It seemed the Slytherin group was the first to arrive. Malfoy naturally already had half the class surround him as he explained his so called talent, "Think you're better than him, Tracey?", The girl looked startled before admitting she wasn't sure.

It was a breezy day; Perfect, make it even easier for me to fall, Thought an uncomfortable Rodrick.

"Don't worry, if you fall I am sure we can fix you up." Blaise's magic words didn't seem to help.

Go figure.

Daphne took a different approach and patted him on the shoulder. Rodrick gave her a wane smile. That didn't help either. Now if they offered me a parachute...

It wasn't long before their fellow Gryffindor rivals arrived, each student took their place beside a broom. Rodrick was quite pleased to note he wasn't the only uncomfortable soul there.

Unfortunately, they were all Gryffindors and therefore didn't matter.

Tracey stood to his side to try and help him, something Rodrick was too grateful for to express. Blaise was on his other side to tease. I could do without that though. Rodrick stared down at his broom; his displeasure only grew worse when he realized how bad the broom's looked. "We're supposed to fly in these?" he said with a panic.

"Oh relax, it's very safe," grumbled Blaise.

"Don't worry if you fall I'll catch you with my wand," whispered Daphne; she had apparently made her way over to his side.

"Blaise swap places with her," It's no parachute... On that thought why hasn't grandfather taught me a useful spell for this!? The man actually started him on dangerous spells and curses before going towards the more... Acceptable ones... Then again, maybe it was because he knew Hogwarts could teach him that themselves? It certainly made more sense when he thought about it that way.

In all fairness his grandfather didn't need to make sense. What he was famous for proved he didn't care much for it.

He was going to pay for that thought later.

He just knew it.

To his credit, Blaise pretended to feign an offended look before he quickly changed spaces with the girl.

Daphne looked quite surprised at the turn of events, "Feel better?" she question amused.

"Not really, but ill take a positive attitude over Blaise's grim fortune telling." This earned a laugh out of the three around him, Rodrick didn't understand the humor.

Their teacher, Madam Hooch had finally shown up. She explained the rules and how to pick up their brooms. Rodrick was fairly sure it would be faster to just pick up the brooms, to his misfortune he didn't even need to say a word before his broom made its way onto his hand. It seemed quite eager to hurt him. His friends didn't have as much trouble as most of the other students.

"Now, when I blow my whistle, you kick off from the ground, hard," said Madam Hooch. "On 3, I want you to kick off hard, rise a few feet before coming back down."

The teacher had counted to two before an impatient Gryffindor decided to push off, He couldn't control his flying. The look on his face quickly had Rodrick's broom on the ground, nope. The other students were looking on with shocked faces. The boy had reached 20 feet before he fell back down, breaking a wrist in the process.

Malfoy decided now would be the best time to be an idiot and started a fight with Harry Potter over some crystal ball or another, Rodrick wasn't sure, he took it for what it was. A blessing, he avoided flying. His pleasure seemed to show as Daphne reprimanded him for looking too happy. Blaise was paying more attention to the little show between Potter and Malfoy while Tracey was currently sulking. I almost feel sorry...almost.

Daphne had asked Rodrick to help her and Tracey more with potion's, it took a bit of coercing, but he finally agreed to spend another evening in the library, only after Blaise decided to join. "You're all hopeless." He said to the trio.

"I am sure everyone would love to hear how you almost ran out of the lesson out of fear," Daphne green eyes seemed to sharpen.

"Alright alright, forget I said it" Rodrick had his hand behind his head.

"Can always watch him suffer next week" Blaise added

Rodrick Groaned loud enough to wake Tracey out of her stupor.

.