Rubatosis

Chapter 6

"I thought I might find you here." I heard someone behind me. I turned around to see James on the outside of the fence. "I couldn't stay away after I saw the new hippogriff." I called back while running my hands over the hippogriff's soft, stormy grey feathers. "What is it's name?" James asked while leaning his arms on top of the fence and putting his right foot on the bottom panel.

"Firstly, 'it's' a he. Secondly, his name is Fleetwing." I turned back as Fleet pushed his head against my body gently. "Can I come in?" James questioned. "Yeah, just hop the fence and walk slowly toward us. I will tell you what to do from there." He did just as I said. "Okay, now bow down gently and wait for him to do the same."

He bowed and waited until Fleetwing gave a huff and bowed down. "Okay, now come here." I said. When he finally reached me I grabbed his hand gently and guided it towards Fleetwing's neck. He slowly ran his hand down his neck over and over. "You wanna go for a fly?" I questioned, smiling at him.

"Is it safe?" He looked at me worriedly. "James, you are a quidditch player are you really scared?" I questioned, smirking at him. "What! No, not for me, for you. You are the clumsiest person I have ever met." He smirked back. "Okay, but when have I ever had a problem flying? Or have you forgotten. I am a quidditch chaser, on the same team as you." I laughed jumping up on Fleetwings' back.

"Are you coming?" I stuck my hand out to pull him up behind me. He took my hand and jumped up, wrapping his arms around my waist as I lightly kicked Fleetwing to fly. He went forward in a run and then took off soaring above the trees. We flew around Hogwarts, weaving in between the towers.

"This is amazing!" James laughed. "I know! I do this all the time!" I laughed with him. Fleetwing soared downwards and right above the lake. I stuck my arms straight out. "What are you doing! You are going to fall off!" James yelled at me.

"You have your arms around me! You won't let me fall, right!" I yelled back. "Never, you mean too much to me!" He yelled over the wind. I blushed lightly and Fleetwing turned back around and went back to the paddock with the other hippogriffs. He landed and James jumped off and helped me off by putting his hands on my waist.

When he set me down we were so close together our chests were touching. Our faces only inches apart. I could see the green specks in his hazel eyes. Reminding me of the forest behind his house where we loved to hang out to just sit and talk.

We continued to gaze at each other and get unbelievably closer. "Astra I-" Suddenly we were pushed over. "I am so sorry!" I said standing up quickly off of James' chest where I landed. "It's fine." He cleared his throat. "Uh, what happened?" He asked me but I just turned around to Fleetwing to see him staring at us. "Fleetwing! What was that for!" He just huffed and pranced off. "Unbelievable!" I rolled my eyes and turned back to James. "Uh, we should probably get back to the castle. It's getting late." James said. "Yeah." I agreed

We walked back up to the castle and to the common room. When we stepped in we saw the girls and guys sitting on the couches and armchairs. "So, are you going to tell us where you went with my sister?" Sirius questioned James. "Oh, sod off, Siri. We were meeting the new hippogriff." I rolled my eyes and stood beside James.

"For two hours?" Lily questioned us. The group looked at us suspiciously. "Well, yeah. We had to do the whole introductory thing. Then we went for a ride around Hogwarts and just talked for a while." I said, nonchalantly. James nodded his head. "Guys, really. I'm tired. I am going upstairs. Good night, James." I turned to him and he said good night to me and we both went upstairs to our dorms.

"We all know something happened, right?" Marlene questioned the remaining friends. "Oh, absolutely." Remus said. The rest of the group agreed. "So what do we do?" Alice questioned. "We pry information out of them." Sirius said determinedly. "Okay, let's do this." Lily said, putting her hand out in the middle of the group. The rest followed. "Operation Jash on three?" Sirius said. "Okay, we have got to change that." Remus said as the group chanted it together.