A Journey At Hogwarts

V. Flying and Fighting

Warnings: Description of injury, mean girl vibes, bullying, physical violence. 

Hi Ma,

How are you? Are you keeping well? Has Tilly checked in on you? Everything has been good so far on my end. You won't believe it but I got sorted into Ravenclaw like Jacob! Remember Rowan Khanna, my new friend, she's also made it to Ravenclaw with me and I've made another new friend Ben Copper. He's a muggleborn so I've been learning a lot about muggles from him. I also put in this month's budget so you don't need to worry about spending and please stick to it Ma.

Lots of love,

Juniper

A week has passed since the whole confronting Merula outside of potions, the exploding cauldron and getting snared by the devil's snare. Juniper has been avoiding Merula, so much for the smack talk about squaring up with the so-called most powerful witch. Chester made Juniper report the incident with their head of house, Professor Flitwick who then had a chat with Professor Snape. They agreed that Merula had a month of detention which was a joke but better than nothing. She was thankful that they only sat next to each other in potions and at least far away enough in D.A.D.A. The bruises have mostly faded, mainly obscured by her dark complexion but still visible enough at the neck. Rowan tried to persuade Juniper to visit the hospital wing again, just even to quickly get a healing potion but the stubborn girl remained absolute in her resolve of not stepping foot inside the wing.

The girls were finalising their essay on mandrakes for Professor Sprout at lunch. Rowan insisted that they should write it up as soon as possible even though the deadline was next week. Juniper was eager for their first flying lesson this week but Rowan didn't share so much in her excitement. Rowan was explaining about the different woods that her family's wood farm supplies to the broom maker companies.

"My dad tried to teach me how to fly a little but I fell off and broke my glasses so I decided to wait until I was at Hogwarts to learn it properly," Rowan shared her experience. Juniper felt a slight pang of envy but decided to let it go.

"Ma forbade flying," Juniper started, "From what I know is she's still quite shaken from an quidditch accident that she had back when she was at Hogwarts."

"I didn't realise that your mum played quidditch."

"She didnae, she was in the stands when a bludger or something like that hit her."

"Oh," Rowan blinked.

Ben joined them, anxiously looking around him. Unsure if he was allowed to join the Ravenclaw table.

"Hi, Ben. Ready for flying classes?" Juniper asked. The Gryffindor shook his head as the colour drained from his face.

"No, honestly I've been dreading this class all summer," A sentiment shared by Rowan. Juniper didn't want to say out loud that she was actually excited about flying. The feeling of the wind hitting her face and the sense of freedom experienced by being up so high in the sky.

"Are you afraid of heights?" Juniper queried, not wanting to offend Ben.

"More like I'm afraid of falling from height," His shaky hands managed to cling onto the squashed sandwich, "I even overheard that brooms have a mind of their own and can chuck you off if they don't like you."

"That can happen but it is not very often occurrence," Rowan tried to reassure Ben in her Rowan-like-way, but his dark eyes showed another level of fear. Rowan and Juniper were forced to drag Ben to the training grounds. Eventually, Rowan convinced him that receiving detention for being late to their class was scarier than actually flying, which spook the boy even more.