Punishment

Now we rode back to the grounds where Draco was fuming. I could literally see smoke rising from the top of his head, while the rest of the class (including some Slytherins) were cheering us for an amazing catch. As soon as I landed Hermione came and nearly tore my ears off while screaming my head off about how disappointed will be our parents if they knew.

"Let it go Hermione or you will tear off my ear" I cried trying to get away from her grasp.

"Oh no you don't talk to me like that brother, I am going to tell Mom all about this"

"Sure but please let go of my ear"

She huffed but let me loose. Harry was looking at me with pity in his eyes while Ron was telling everyone how amazing Harry is to be able to grab the ball before me and how awesome his moves were.

"This prat" I muttered while seeing McGonagall nearly running towards us in her robes. I don't even know how was she able to get here so quickly.

"HARRY POTTER!" she screamed. Everyone just froze. Harry's face became as pale as paper.

"Never — in all my time at Hogwarts —" Professor McGonagall was almost speechless with shock, and her glasses flashed furiously, "— how dare you — might have broken your neck —"

"It wasn't his fault, Professor —"

"Be quiet, Miss Patil —"

"But Jack was there too professor" Ron said

"That's enough, Mr. Weasley. Potter, follow me, now." and she took off with potter in tow.

"It's all your fault" Ron screamed while trying to punch me.

"Me??" I asked shocked at this sudden declaration.

"Yeah if you were not there Harry could have easily caught ball and McGonagall would have not punished him"

I looked at him like he is a buffoon. Everyone saw I was ahead of harry to catch the ball Draco so generously threw and could have caught it without potter's help. If anyone was responsible it would have been Draco or Harry.

"Sorry I don't talk with idiots" I replied while making my way back to the dormitory. Now that my mood has sored due to the Plot armour and a stupid Ron I was no more in the mood to fly anymore. On the way, I realized that the rest of the day was free and I don't want to watch Ron prating around so I made my way towards the Library where a wealth of knowledge was waiting for me without any idiots.

Soon I took out books on Healing for beginners and started studying it.

"Aah, Finally inner peace" I muttered.

"Keep quiet Mr jack or I will throw you and your peace out with you"

"Sorry Mam"

So I spend the rest of the afternoon without any interference from anyone. Soon Hermione joined me with Neville and we had quite a good study session.

"Hey, are you Jack" One of Ravenclaw seniors came near me and asked?

"Yes, and who might you be" I asked politely looking at quite a tall Asian boy.

"I am Ryan Thomas" He replied " I was Suppose to inform you that you have been shortlisted to join dueling club and attend the meeting tomorrow afternoon after classes"

"Thank you and where is the meeting room" I asked.

"Come to Filtwick's class we will take you to Dueling Hall later"

"We have a Dueling hall" Hermione asked surprised.

"No, Dueling Club has a Dueling Hall, and it's not for others to use"

"We also applied so can we come tomorrow with Jack as well" She asked.

"No members are shortlisted based on their magic output and sorry to say yours are less than the required amount while Jack's barely meet the requirement."

"How did you guys measure magic output" I asked confused "I never heard of this"

"It was measured on your first charms class on Lumous, Brighter the light more is your magic output. Professor Flitwick has measuring scale in his office to see the growth of students magic capacity in his class"

"Oh, and he gave it to you guys" I asked surprised that they can measure our magic using this method.

"No, He is head of the Dueling club so he shortlists students from the names given based on their aptitude"

"So we are not invited then" Neville asked, he was the one who was most enthusiastic about joining the dueling club like his father and mother, only second to the Greenskeeper club.

"Sorry if you are shortlisted you would have been invited by now" Ryan said while looking a little bit sorry for them." But don't worry many students who failed to join in the first year are able to join next year."

"Okay thank you for telling us" I said to Ryan. He nodded and went away as he can see madam Pince coming near us.

"No talking in the library" She warned us before heading towards another group of Hufflepuff's who were whispering nearby.

"So did any of you guys get an invite for club" I asked trying to divert the topic.

"I made it into greenskeeper club today" Neville said " they just asked me to take out venom sack from venomous Tentacula which was very easy"

"That's great Neville" I whispered

"Yeah but I broke my father's wand today, Grandma is going to kill me"

"Why don't you let us buy a wand as your Christmas present" Hermione asked "Afterall we all are friends here"

I was surprised at Hermione for helping Neville in such a way. I was going to ask him about it later but it seems she beat me to it.

"Yeah take it as a gift from both of us" i said trying to guilt Neville to let us buy a wand for him.

"Are you sure guys, wands are not cheap?" he asked

"We are sure Neville, both of our parents are dentists so we are quite well off in the muggle world" I said while taking out eight galleons from my pocket.

"Take this and ask McGonagall to take you to Diagon alley and get a new wand, we will meet you later in dorm"

"Thank you" He said while hugging both of us.

"No problem Neville after all what are friends for" I replied.

Soon he headed out to find Professor McGonagall while we continued reading where we left off.

"Any club you are interested in Hermione" I asked while looking down in my book.

"Study club seems great and I received an invitation from them" She replied" though I was more interested in dueling."

Maybe in next year Hermione" i replied.

"What did i said about making noise in library" Suddenly out of nowhere Madam pince came out and grabbed our collor while dragging us out of library.

"We are sorry madam pince" Hermione tried to apologize by making a puppy face but madam pince remains unmoved.

"I have been Hogwarts librarian far longer than you may think Ms. Granger" she replied "so those faces won't work on me"

Soon we were dragged and thrown outside library.

"Talk outside and come back tomorrow" She replied while going back inside.

We collected our bags and headed towards the common room. Now we knew why seniors warned us so much about madam pince. She was like a hawk looking out for Clucking rabbits in the library. Hermione looked like she was about to cry as it was the first time she was thrown out of library.

"Don't worry Hermione, She will forgive us tomorrow"

"Easy for you to say"

Soon we reached Gryffindor's common room and made us comfortable on a couch near the fireplace.

"Hey Jack I was looking all over for you" Harry said while joining us near the fireplace.

"What happened Harry, Did McGonagall punished you?" Hermione asked.

"Well after Professor took me away, she brought me to Oliver wood and now I am Gryffindor seeker" he chuckled nervously.

"Oh, right Jack you have been appointed as reserve seeker for our team, Congratulations" he said while shaking my hands.

"How" I nearly threw out the water that I was drinking.

"Oliver asked professor so we will meet on Saturday for traning and we have detention with filtch" He replied with the same tone.

"Wait detention" I asked confused.

"Yeah, Hooch punished us after Ron blabbered in front of her" He replied looking a little depressed.

"I am going to hex that little bastard" I cursed looking for that idiot.