Befriending the Werewolf

Falling for Teddy

Tori's P.O.V

It was Monday night, and I had just finished History lessons with Camden, and was off to the Quidditch pitch for Flying lessons with Teddy. My mind was buzzing; I hated heights, and the thought of being on something that high up that I could so easily fall off of... Well let's just say I wasn't too excited for it. I'm not going to fall off, don't think like that. I shook my head. I needed to distract myself, so I instead thought of the people Teddy had introduced me to. First he had introduced me to the people in his group that I hadn't met yet (Ronald, or Ron as he preferred, Jake, Thomas, and Logan), and then he had introduced me to some of the Hufflepuff girls (Sam and Sophia), along with some Hufflepuff guys. Then, Cass, Haylee, and Vicky had introduced me to a bunch of girls from each of their houses and their best friends (Thalia from Ravenclaw, Fizzy and Nina from Gryffindor,  and Blue from Slytherin).  I had also learned that many of the girls had nicknames, so what they were introduced to me by weren't their actual names. Fizzy' name was actually Annafiz, and Blue's name was actually Blooma.  The girls were all really nice, and we had hung out over the weekend. I had classes with a lot of them, so we partnered up and got to know each other.

I was just walking into the pitch when I noticed that Teddy wasn't standing there. I walked out into the middle of the field and looked around. I could see his bag over on the bench next to a broom, but I couldn't see Teddy. That's weird... He should be here by now. I wonder- My thoughts were interrupted by a loud rushing sound over my head, and I looked up only to see Teddy flying back up in the clouds.

"Hey! Aren't you supposed to be teaching me to fly one of those things?" I called, putting my hands on my hips. Teddy flew back down out of the clouds and hovered just a little out of my reach.

"Put your stuff down and bring over the broom, and then we'll start."

I shook my head and trudged over to the bench. I put down my bag and my books and picked up the broom. It was light and had faded gold letters on the side. Some of the letters were peeling off, and it looked like at one time there may have been numbers on it. Firebolt. I shrugged and brought it over to Teddy who was now on the ground.

"This broom is a Firebolt. It's pretty old, but this one still flies really well." Teddy brushed his hair out of his eyes and looked at me. "My Uncle Harry used to ride one of these when he was here at Hogwarts, but they've come out with better brooms since then. These ones are pretty new to the school; they got a big sale on them, and they're better than the ones they did have here."

I nodded. The brand name on the broom obviously meant nothing to me, and that fact seemed to have just dawned on Teddy.

He cleared his throat and held the broom back out for me to take. "Anyway, to fly you need to know how to properly mount the broom without falling off. So, first you want to drop it on the ground, because you need to learn how to get it up in the air without picking it up."

Teddy motioned how to get the broom up. He made it look easy, but when I tried to do it it rolled away from me. "Here, you're doing it wrong." He came over next to me and put his broom down. "You need to say it louder, like your commanding it, and your hand needs to be right up higher, closer to the top of the broom." He moved my hand forwards an inch and then stood back. "There, try it again."

"UP!" I yelled. The broom came flying upwards, but Teddy made the mistake of leaning forward.

"Ow," he moaned, clutching his forehead. He rubbed it and then grimaced. "Okay, maybe that was a little too much commanding. You got the idea right, but try not to yell so much. You just have to mean it."

"Sorry about that." I muttered, biting my lip.

"Don't worry about it. I've been hit by a lot of Bludgers; it won't hurt after a little while."

I nodded and tried again. This time the broom came up at just the right speed, and flew right into my hand. "Very good," Teddy smiled. "Now it's time to mount your broom and fly."

I looked up at the sky and then back to Teddy. "You know what, I think I may need some more help mounting my broom."

"Come on, it's not that scary once you're up there," he chuckled. "Trust me. And if you fall, don't worry; I've had lots of girls who have fallen for me."

I rolled my eyes and pulled my hair into a ponytail. "You are so full of it."

"Hey, I'm speaking the truth," Teddy grinned. "But I'd catch you if you fell. I don't really want to be the one responsible for causing the new girl to end up in the hospital wing... Again. Does that make you feel any better, Red?"

"My name isn't Red, it's Tori." I said, looking at him. "I could call you Teddy Bear, but you probably wouldn't like that."

"I wouldn't care. My girlfriend Wendy calls me that."

"I don't think I met her."

"Yeah you did, she was the blond with the bright blue eyes. She was short."

"Oh yeah, I remember her."

"Now, enough chitchat, Red, and get on that broom."

For the next forty minutes Teddy showed me how to properly mount a broom, how to control it midair, and how to land. He showed me how to make quick turns and how to do dives that didn't look messy. I was finally warming up to the idea of flying when it started raining and my grip slipped. I was falling, falling quickly down through the rain with my clothes dripping wet and pulling me down, and all of a sudden I wasn't anymore. Instead, I was  floating midair in Teddy's arms on his broom. My heart was pounding in my ears as he brought me slowly back down to the ground at a slower speed than my riderless broom was going. When we finally landed my heart was no longer pounding because of how I almost fell, but it was still pounding (although I didn't know why). Teddy turned to look down at me, and I couldn't help but wonder why he hadn't put me down yet. He has a girlfriend, so why is he still holding me?  And yet, one small part of me, a little voice in the back of my head didn't want him to put me down.

"I told you I'd catch you, Red." he whispered, his voice barely audible. Maybe he hadn't even meant to say it out loud, but I heard him. I nodded.

If anyone had of looked out a window at us, we would have looked crazy. Our hair was soaked, and so were our clothes. There was sheets of rain pouring down, and it was getting darker by the second. Yet here we were, both of us on his broom, just staring at each other.

I tried to speak but nothing came out; no sound, so I pushed the hair out of my eyes. I slowly sat up and hopped off his broom.

"We should head in, I think a storm might be coming." I said, finally finding my voice.

Teddy nodded and cleared his throat. "Good work today. I'll see you on Wednesday for Defence Against the Dark Arts and Transfiguration." He handed me my bag and I picked up my broom but he waved his hand. "Don't worry about that, I'll put it back."

"You sure?" I asked.

"Yeah."

I handed over the broom and stood there for a moment before waving. "Thanks for helping me out today." Teddy nodded and I turned around. I walked back up to the school and into the Gryffindor common room. I plopped down into a chair by the fire for a minute before getting right back up and changing into dry robes. I ran down to dinner, hurrying so that I would get there before the food was given out. The flying lesson had gone a little longer than expected, and when I finally sat down next to Cass, Fizzy, and Nina, I was out of breath. The door opened once more just as I sat down, and in came Teddy.

"How was flying?" asked Nina, nudging me with her shoulder. "We're you able to get the broom up in the air?"

I quickly looked away as Teddy sat down next to his girlfriend and looked at me. I picked up a fork, and looked at the table. "It was eventful, that's for sure."