Chapter 21: Malfoy is a foul git, and seeing surprisingly familiar faces

                                    

                                          
Italics = Italian and Latonia's thoughts
***
Now Latte wasn't one to quickly judge a person based on first impressions...
But Draco Malfoy and Pansy Parkinson were the only exceptions so far. Those two made her furious.
Still, first-year Gryffindors only had Potions with the Slytherins, so she didn't have to put up with either of those two much. Or at least, she thought she didn't until Harry, Ron, and herself spotted a notice pinned up in the Gryffindor common room that made them all groan. Flying lessons would be starting on Thursday — and Gryffindor and Slytherin would be learning together.
Flying?!
"Typical," said Harry darkly. "Just what I always wanted. To make a fool of myself on a broomstick in front of Malfoy."
Out of the three of them-Latte, Harry, and Ron- Harry had been looking forward to learning to fly more than anything else.
"Why do you care about his opinion?" Said Latte.
"You don't know that you'll make a fool of yourself," said Ron reasonably. "Anyway, I know Malfoy's always going on about how good he is at Quidditch, but I bet that's all talk."
Everyone from wizarding families talked about Quidditch constantly, and quite frankly, Latte had had enough of it. Ron had already had a big argument with Dean Thomas and Latte, about football. Ron couldn't see what was exciting about a game with only one ball where no one was allowed to fly. Latte was obviously going to side with the sport that didn't involve Zeus's domain (though she didn't much care for regular sports to begin with.) Dean had then separately argued with Latte about how the Americans call football, soccer. Latte didn't know how to break it to the kid that she wasn't American exactly.
Neville had never been on a broomstick in his life, because his grandmother had never let him near one. Privately, Latte felt she'd had good reason because Neville managed to have an extraordinary number of accidents even with both feet on the ground.
The other girls from her dorm seemed relatively excited, but Latte suspected it was more of a show for them of which boy would be the better athlete to swoon over.
Hermione Granger, on the other hand, was almost as nervous about flying as Neville was. During breakfast, she expressed her worries by sharing her findings on flying tips she'd gotten out of a library book. Not everyone appreciated this but Neville was hanging on to her every word, and Latte, who was going to pretend to put in an effort. She had teetered over Zeus' domain before and that would be her last time if she could help it. In the end, however, everybody else was very pleased when Hermione's lecture was interrupted by the arrival of the mail.
A barn owl brought Neville a small package from his grandmother. He opened it excitedly and showed them a glass ball the size of a large marble, which seemed to be full of white smoke.
"It's a Remembrall!" he explained. "Gran knows I forget things — this tells you if there's something you've forgotten to do. Look, you hold it tight like this and if it turns red — oh..." His face fell, because the Remembrall had suddenly glowed scarlet, "... you've forgotten something..."
"That's so cool! I could definitely use one of those." Exclaimed Latte who was looking at the ball in awe. 
Maybe that thing will help me get back on track of things after getting distracted.