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Stolen Magic by coolh5000

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Chapter Notes: Thanks to Kara for betaing this so quickly. I'm going away for a week now, so the next chapter won't be up until I get home. In the mean time please leave a review!
Adrian couldn’t fall asleep that night. He was still buzzing from the success of his try-out, and not having anyone to share the excitement with meant it was still pent up inside him. He went to bed at eleven, but when he had been lying there for well over an hour and sleep still seemed far away, he decided to get up again. Sitting up in bed, he whispered a spell and his wand lit up. He thought about writing to Samuel to tell him his news - he would understand how important it was.

Using just his wand light to guide him, he began scrabbling about in his trunk, trying to find some spare parchment and a quill. Once he had hold of both, as well as a book to lean on, he sat back up in bed and began writing

Dear Samuel,

This letter probably won’t reach you until you’re back at school, but I’ll make sure Lars knows how to find you.

Guess what? I made the Quidditch team! It was between me and another girl and even though I missed the goal, they still took me as a first team player! I’ve got a lot of practice to do though. Maybe you’ll be able to come and watch one of the matches some time. I think they let family come when it’s the final at the end of the year.

School is going -


He hesitated. How was school going? All the time he had to himself meant he was doing well in classes but in truth, it was probably the worst first week of term he had had since he’d been at Hogwarts. He’d never realised how much difference having friends at school made. Still, there was no point in bothering Samuel with all this.

- well. I’ve already got a lot of work though. McGonagall never lets up! I nearly fell asleep in History of Magic yesterday - I hope your history teacher is more interesting than stuffy old Binns.

Suddenly a voice broke through the silence in the dormitory.

–What are you doing?”

Dorian was whispering even though they were the only two in the room.

–Sorry,” Adrian replied, also whispering. –I couldn’t sleep so I’m writing a letter. I can go to the common room.”

–No, that’s okay.”

There was a pause and then Dorian spoke again. –How did you get on today?”

Adrian couldn’t help grinning in spite of himself. –I made the team,” he replied, unable to keep the pride out his voice.

–Well done. I knew you would.” Dorian sounded genuinely happy for him.

There was another pause. Adrian desperately wanted to apologise, to make everything all right between them again. But he knew that no matter what was said here in the middle of the night, by the morning nothing would have changed. The disagreement was just too deep.

–Well,” he whispered at last. –I think I’ll sleep now. I can finish this tomorrow. Night.”

–Night,” Dorian replied, and silence returned to the dormitory once more. Adrian dropped his quill, parchment and book to the side of his bed and lay back down. He still wasn’t even remotely tired and it took a long time until he heard the deep regulated breathing of his friend. It seemed so stupid that they were both lying there unable to speak, but unwilling to talk to each other either.

At some point he must have fallen asleep, because the next thing he knew it was 7:30 and his alarm was waking him up. Dorian had already left the dormitory and Adrian took this as a sign that nothing had changed.

Something had changed, though, when he arrived in the Great Hall for breakfast. He was just about to sit down when someone called him over.

–Hey, Radley, don’t sit over there on your own. Come and join us.”

Surprised, he looked up to see Duncan Lewis, the Hufflepuff Beater, waving at him. He was sitting with another boy, who Adrian thought was the new team Beater.

–This is Hector Clark,” Duncan said by way of introduction. Adrian recognised the family name from some events he had attended with his parents, but he had never met Hector before.

–Hi,” he said as he sat down. –Are you fifth years?”

–Yep, both of us. I got on the team last year, but there was an older Beater so Hector had to wait a year. We’re going to be an unstoppable team this year though. You’re fourth aren’t you?”

Adrian nodded.

The two boys kept up an easy conversation throughout breakfast, with Adrian joining in periodically. He was tense, expecting the Ministry to come up at any minute, at which point he would be ostracised by this group as well. The two Beaters didn’t seem even remotely interested in talking about politics or the Ministry though. They were talking about school work and flying and the summer holidays.

–Do you get to fly much at home, Adrian?” Hector asked at one point.

–Not where I live, but my friend Dorian has a good bit of land at his house so I fly there quite regularly. It’s good to get some practice.”

–You’ve got some good technique,” remarked Duncan. –You can tell you practice.”

–Is that Dorian Whitbread?” Hector asked. –I don’t remember seeing you with him.”

–Yeah, we’ve had a bit of a…disagreement,” Adrian replied.

–Oh we’ve all been there,” Duncan laughed. –Do you remember in third year, Hector, when we had that huge falling out over a broken quill? We didn’t speak for a week!”

Hector laughed too and Adrian attempted to join in. He wished the argument with Dorian was over something that would be quite so easy to solve.

–We’d better get going,” said Duncan at last. –What have you got first?”

–My compulsory Muggle Studies,” he said, pulling a face. He couldn’t really understand the point in making everyone study Muggle Studies, but at least he didn’t have to do an exam in it.

–Oh have fun with that,” Hector replied. –Bit pointless really. Professor Carrow is a right idiot. Have you had the other one for Defence yet?”

–Yeah, a couple of times this week. Hard to know what to think of him yet.” In truth, he had found the male Carrow professor rather disturbing. He seemed obsessed with pain and violence and was constantly referring to spells that Adrian felt no fourth year should know. He wondered what Snape was thinking, hiring him as a professor.

Adrian said goodbye to the two boys and made his way to the Muggle Studies classroom. He had never been there before so it took him a few minutes longer than usual.

All the fourth years were taking the class together so his group of friends were waiting outside the door.

–Well, this is going to be a waste of time,” he heard Gemma saying as he approached. He was surprised that Gemma of all people didn’t think it was worthwhile having Muggle Studies lessons. –I was speaking to a sixth year who said these lessons are nothing but propaganda for the Ministry’s new laws.”

She looked up to see Adrian listening to her. –You’ll probably enjoy it then, Adrian.”

Adrian didn’t reply, but he couldn’t believe how much the girl, who had been one of his closest friends, seemed to hate him so much now. At that moment the classroom door opened and Professor Carrow emerged. –You may enter,” she said in her wheezy voice. Her eyes glinted dangerously, and Adrian wasn’t quite sure he trusted her.

Once they were all seated, the Professor began speaking.

–For the last three years of your Hogwarts education, you have been fed lies and encouraged to see everyone as your equal, encouraged by the spreader of lies, Albus Dumbledore. However, the Ministry is now endeavouring to set this right.”

She flicked her wand, and a pile of books that had been sitting on her desk began distributing among the students. Adrian looked at his curiously. He wondered why this hadn’t been on their reading list. His question was soon answered.

–This book has been compiled by the Ministry especially for this course. It is not available in bookshops, hence why it is being given to you now. It contains everything you will need to know about Muggles and so called ‘Muggleborns’. For your first assignment, I would like you to turn to chapter one and begin reading.”

Adrian opened the book. He wasn’t sure what he had been expecting, but on first glance it didn’t seem so bad. The first chapter covered the biological differences between Muggles and Wizards, explaining how Wizards’ larger brains gave them the capacity to do magic the Muggles simply were not capable of. It covered differences between body proportions, and how these meant that Wizards could fly on broomsticks. It was illustrated by diagrams demonstrating its points. There was also a chapter explaining Muggleborns and how up until recently they were thought to be born as wizards, but that now new research suggested this was impossible and that Muggles could only obtain magic by taking it from legitimately born wizards, resulting in the creation of Squibs. It went onto explain that the rise in numbers of Squibs correlated with a higher number of Muggleborns suggesting that this situation had become far more prevalent. Keen to protect its genuine magical citizens, the Ministry had used the most recent research to act upon this theft and had begun holding these Muggleborns accountable for their actions.

The book seemed very reasonable. It was not piled full of hate speech or propaganda as Gemma had suggested. It was based only on research and genuine facts. Seeing that he had finished before most of the other students, he turned to the contents page to see what else the book covered. There were chapters on Magical versus Muggle medicine, the ways Muggles had attempted to replace magic with ‘technology’, Muggle History and how it had intersected with Wizards, as well as accounts of Muggle persecution of Wizards and the ways Wizards had shown kindness to Muggles in the past only to be greeted by negativity.

Adrian had to concede that the book was heavily anti-Muggle. But he couldn’t really understand why this was such a bad thing. They had all learnt about the ways Muggles had burnt witches and wizards in the past for nothing more than existing. And now the Muggles were stealing their magic.

–Professor,” called out Gemma, interrupting the silence. –There’s something I don’t understand. This book talks about Muggles stealing magic but it doesn’t exactly explain how they do it. I thought Muggles didn’t know about wizards?”

–I did not ask for questions, Miss Millar,” the Professor replied, glaring at Gemma. –If you have all finished reading, you can begin to write a summary of the chapter, followed by two feet of parchment explaining how the biological differences between wizards and Muggles can assist us in assessing whether a person’s magic has been obtained legitimately or not.

There was a muted groan around the glass as everyone took out their parchment and quills.

–There will be silence in my class!” Professer Carrow snapped. She looked rather strained and Adrian wondered how much hassle she had had from students like Gemma. He quickly silenced the voice inside of him saying that Gemma’s question had been reasonable and that the book had several inconsistencies. Carrow was a Professor, while Gemma was barely fourteen. She couldn’t possibly know as much as their teacher did.

Once the lesson had been discussed and the fourth years were dismissed, Gemma, Rosa and Dorian immediately started talking furiously to each other. They kept their voices low, but parts of the conversation drifted back towards Adrian.

–Can you believe her? It was just as bad as I was expecting?”

–The worst part is that they make it seem so reasonable. There are younger years who won’t even think to question it.”

–Younger years? Ha! There’re people in our year who refuse to question it.”

There was a meaningful silence and it was clear who they were talking about. Unable to stand listening to anymore, Adrian turned down another corridor that would take him to his Ancient Runes lesson. He was surprised to find tears pricking at the corners of his eyes. He never thought that he would be listening to his best friends talking about him like that. The four of them had been so close for three years, and that wasn’t counting the years he had known Dorian before Hogwarts.

Quickly he pulled himself together. He didn’t need them. They weren’t exactly good friends if they wouldn’t support him. Yes, Mark might have been their friend too, but did they really prefer him to Adrian? Anyway, now he was on the Quidditch team, he was going to have new friends. Duncan and Hector seemed happy enough to talk to him and he liked them too.

He sat with the two Beaters again at lunch time, and while they were there Summerby came over to tell them he had booked the pitch for the whole of the next day.

–Weasley, the Gryffindor Captain, has a detention, so they couldn’t get the pitch and I got in before either the Slytherins or the Ravenclaws. I except to see you there all day, Radley, and by the end of it, I want you to be scoring every single time. This is the year we’re going to win the cup, I can feel it.”

–He’s starting early,” Duncan remarked after he’d left. –I think he’s feeling the pressure a bit now he’s a seventh year. Still, you won’t get any arguments from me against a whole day of training.”

–Nor me,” replied Adrian. Secretly, he had been dreading the weekend. Occupying himself was easy enough in the evenings, but with the long hours of Saturday and Sunday stretching ahead of him, he hadn’t really been sure what he was going to do. Now he would be flying all day Saturday, and would probably be so tired on Sunday that he wouldn’t care.

–Anyway, I’d better be off,” he said. –Transfiguration this afternoon. McGonagall is going to have to set us some homework eventually.” He left his new friends, knowing that he would be welcome with them again that evening. At the back of his mind he thought triumphantly that he would show Dorian and Gemma they weren’t the only people he could be friends with.

That evening he finished his letter to Sam and wrote to his parents, telling him about making the Quidditch team and hinting that perhaps a new broom would make a good birthday present. Then, for the first time that week, he fell asleep happy, looking forward to the next day.

***


Summerby hadn’t been kidding when he said he had the Quidditch pitch booked for the whole day. By 8:30am the entire team had eaten a rushed breakfast and were standing on the pitch in their kits, shivering slightly. It was a cold September morning, though it looked like the sun would be out later on.

–Right, everyone, in the air, ten laps around the pitch then back,” said Summerby when they were all assembled. The immediately took off, and the Captain joined them. Unlike his try-out, when he had easily been the fastest flyer, Adrian found himself working hard to keep up. By the eighth lap he was breathing heavily and was starting to fall behind.

–Come on, Radley,” Summerby shouted when he saw him slipping back. –Not far to go, push it harder! You’ll have to fly for longer than this when we play our first match.”

Trying desperately to find some more energy, Adrian leaned closer to his broom and sped up. He managed to reach the pace of the other two Chasers and they finished the tenth lap almost in line with each other.

They were all panting slightly when they landed, but Summerby wasn’t prepared to let up.

–That should have been easy,” the Captain said. –We’re going to have to get a lot more practice in over the next few weeks. The match schedule is up. We’ve got the first match against Ravenclaw in three weeks’ time. We’ve got to be ready by then.

–The most important thing is that we learn to work as a team. Clark and Radley, you need to learn to trust your counterparts and to work with them as if you’re one mind. I was impressed with you both at try-outs but there’s always ways to make things smoother and in greater sync.

–We’re going to practice some drills. Like the try-outs, I want the Chasers to approach the goal, passing the Quaffle between you, while the Beaters try their hardest to unseat you, and then shoot. Whether you score or miss, you go straight back down the other end and come again. I want to see different formations and different shooters. You’ll keep going until I’m happy with it.”

The players took to the sky once more. As Seeker, Summerby didn’t have to involve himself in the drills, which meant he could supervise.

The first run down was a disaster. Adrian began to wonder if the other two had been flying easy on them during the try-outs. Suddenly, they were so much faster, so much more powerful. He could hardly keep up. More than once he fumbled the catch and though he did his best to recover, he knew it wasn’t good enough. As soon as they were playing against another team there would be other Chasers, waiting to take advantage of any opportunity.

–Okay, okay,” Summerby called after five of these drills. –Forget the run-up, just do some practice shots. One at a time, quick fire.”

The three of them lined up and began shooting towards the goal. The Keeper - Bethany Jones - was good and she saved Adrian’s first two shots. He sent the third wide. Smith and Cadwallader meanwhile knew their Keeper’s pattern and sent ninety per cent through the goals around them.

–Take a break,” said Summerby after fifteen minutes of shooting. –Radley, come over to me will you.”

They landed and Adrian nervously headed for Summerby. He knew he was playing badly, and he was terrified that the Captain was going to kick off the time.

–I’m really sorry,” he started, but Summerby held up his hand.

–I don’t want to hear it. You’re on this team because I saw potential in you. But right now, you look like you’ve never flown before. You look terrified. You’ve got to forget that these guys are older than you and that they’ve got more experience. You’re all on the same team now. Find some confidence!”

Adrian nodded. He hadn’t realised how nervous he was to be playing on an equal level with the two seventh year Chasers. He shook his head. –I can be just as good as them,” he muttered to himself.

After a few minutes, they were called back in to the air. Cadwallader began talking Adrian through the next manoeuvre. Rather than staying in straight lines, they were going to cross each other with each pass. It would keep the Keeper and the Beaters confused as to where each Chaser and the Quaffle was.

–Do you get that?” he asked Adrian.

Adrian nodded. Taking a deep breath, he got into line.

Smith started off with the Quaffle. He passed it to Cadwallader and as he did so, Adrian swooped down and to the left, passing under Cadwallader and back up so he was now in between the other two. Cadwallader threw him the Quaffle and he caught it safely, at the same time switching places with Smith. This pattern continued down the line until at last, with one final switch, Adrian passed to Smith, who sent the Quaffle flying through the goal.

Summerby clapped. –Finally! That was a bit more like it. Now go again!”

They repeated the drill several times, each time getting smoother and better. Adrian even scored one or two goals.

The day continued in a similar fashion, with only a brief stop for lunch. By the end of the final drill, Adrian was feeling a lot more confident in his ability to score and he was finally starting to understand what Summerby meant by working as one. He began to read the little signals that the other two made before a manoeuvre and started to develop his own.

At five in the afternoon, Summerby called them to a halt. –We had a rough start,” he said when they were all gathered again, –but I’m really pleased with how the rest of the day went. I’m going to book the pitch for three practices each week. We’re going to smash the Ravenclaws!” The team cheered, and the Captain dismissed them. Exhausted, Adrian got straight into the shower and spent a long time in there, warming up his aching limbs.

He arrived at the Great Hall for dinner just after Duncan and Hector, and the two boys waved him over. For the first time that week, Adrian’s face broke into a genuine smile. In spite of everything, it had been a good day.