Fire Diamonds

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Chapter Two

"Fairly...Ummm...Difficult"

"Quidditch is a fairly...ummm...difficult game to master, so I don't expect you to pick it up right away." I almost said it was simple. The only two people that Quidditch has actually come naturally to are Harry Potter and I. (Didn't I mention him yet? Well, you should all know that story, and if you don't... Get up off your lazy ass and run, that's right, RUN, to Barnes & Noble, and buy yourself the books! And the movies, if you can manage)

"I think tackling flight would be a good place to start, Tess"

"Right. Stand over your broom and say 'Up'." She did and her broom rose about 6 feet. I reached up, and brought it back down a little, so that she could get on.

"Now what?"

"Mount, and kick off, but not too hard, you don't want to go too high too fast." This she did, and rose about twenty feet above my head.

"Good job! Lean forward a little!"

"Okay... are you sure I can do this?"

"Yeah! Don't worry about it! Just lean." She bent forward, and took off around the pitch.

"Help! I can't stop!" Jeez. I mounted my own broom, and tried to catch up.

"Rai! Relax. Sit up, and pull back." She decelerated slowly until I finally caught up.

"Thanks," she said as we touched down. "It's harder than it looks, you know?"

"Yeah, I know. Not from personal experience, of course, but I've heard things." We practiced for another half hour, when we had to stop and go back to the castle for dinner.

Next Day, Charms Class

"All you have to do is point your wand at the book and say 'Tracea'. Make you're your r is rolled or else you might end up blue." Professor Flitwick was finally teaching communication charms, and today we were set to work with the Tracea charm. He said that if two books are charmed, you could write notes back and forth between them. When I asked if it was anything like e-mail, he looked rather confused.

(When I stay with my mother over summer vacations, I always use her computer to talk to some of my friends.) Since he had no clue, I looked it up.

~*The Tracea Charm*~ One of the most popular charms for communication is the Tracea Charm. Messages can be written and received from two pieces of parchment, two books, or a number of other mediums. When someone writes something in the first book, it appears in the second, and vice versa. If three or more people are using this system under the first charm, the notes must be addressed, or everyone could possibly read them. Though very simple, this enchantment is easily exploited. To reverse the charm, one must only invert the incantation in the presence of all enchanted articles.

"Easy enough. I've totally got this."

Ten Minutes Later

"That's it! I give up! Who needs this anyway?" Grrrrr... Why can't I get this right?

"Hey, Morgan. What's wrong?" Oh, look, Darren. "If you can't get it, don't worry."

"Why not? Why shouldn't I worry?" Just humor him...

"'cause no one would want to write to you anyway!" He and his friends laughed, but I just stared at him.

"Why don't you go back to the hole you crawled out of, Darren? I'll bet the other slugs miss you."

He leaned in and whispered, "Don't think I've forgiven you for screwing up my fun yesterday, Morgan."

"Get away from me Gold, and Ravin too if you know what's good for you; because next time, I'm reporting straight to Dumbledore. I'm sure he'd like to know why so many first years turn up in the hospital wing soaked and crying."

Darren stood back up. "Do you think I care? I'm not about to be expelled for wetting kids. You'll have to do a lot more to scare me straight, Tessa Morgan"

"Don't worry about it, Darren Gold, I'll find something. I always do." The bell rang, and the class emptied.

Lunch

"Tessa! Over here! Come sit with me!" Ravin called me over to her table, and I'd rather break unwritten Slytherin law by sitting at a different table, than sit alone. Stupid, Slytherin, "Pureblood" nonsense. I'm not pureblood, but that's probably why I haven't any friends, besides Ravin and Harry anyway. (Yeah, yeah... I'm getting there!)

"Hey, Ravin! How are you?"

"Awesome! People were so jealous when they found out that an actual Quidditch player taught me how to fly."

"It's always good to make some people jealous, right? How were classes?"

"They were great, as usual! Except in charms, my desk was charred, and there was a pile of ash in the middle. Weren't you leaving that class then? What happened?"

"I'm usually really good at charms, too." I explained what happened, and we had a good laugh.

Slytherin Table (Darren's POV)

There she is again with that first year.

"Hey, Gold. What's with you?"

"Nothing, I'm fine. What's for lunch?" Damn it, O'Brien, leave me alone!

"No idea." He turned back to the group of giggling girls, and resumed telling them about what happened yesterday, again.

Jeez. Why am I even friends with him? Why am I even in this house? God, sometimes I feel so stupid.

"Are you sure? You don't look so good."

"Yeah, I have a bit of stomachache. I think I'll just go to the hospital wing."

"Alright. Bye." I got up, and walked away from the table, and my 'friends'. Just for once, I'd like to go somewhere without them following me. They clearly only follow me around because they want to see me attack first years. Maybe if I didn't do that, but I couldn't. I've worked so hard on this reputation and I can't just watch it crumble.