Harry Potter

Flying Lessons

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CHAPTER SEVEN
Airborne
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Hogwarts both was and wasn't what Harry had expected it to be. It was in the way that people were quick to dislike her (exactly as she had feared), and it wasn't because no matter how much magic she saw, it always defied reason. And Hogwarts, strange as though it sounded, was literally a magic castle.

She hadn't realized just how many trials were loaded into that sentence.

Harry was reluctantly running ahead of the group of first year Slytherins and Ravenclaws that had banded together to make it to their combined first class, dragged by Theodore who had a surprisingly solid grip. She had wanted to remain with the group to continue bonding with Blaise, but Theodore had been impatient to "explore with his friends". The only reason Blaise had escaped was because he was a crafty little sneak (that she may or may not have been jealous of) and had a concerning amount of ability to dodge. When she threw a pleading glance backwards his only response was a raised brow and a smirk. (Yeah, she so totally was not happy with him.)

It just so happened that there was a certain peculiarity about Hogwarts that no one had elected to share with either Theodore or Harry, and that was how they found out about the moving staircases just as they were going up the first level.

The ground rumbled beneath them as it popped out of place, nearly throwing Harry and subsequently Theodore down the incline to a harsh landing on the stone floor. Luckily, her dark haired friend managed to grasp the rail and keep them both anchored while the staircase hovered them up to settle between the fourth and fifth floors. The resulting knock when their mock version of an escalator settled in sent both first years tumbling back to flat ground.

"Whoa, neat," Theodore breathed. Harry shook her head, half in fondness and half in exasperation. That had most certainly not been neat, and it had set them both on the incorrect floor and apart from the rest of the group headed to the Charms classroom. Now if they got lost—which they actually already were by virtue of being on a floor they had never been on before with no clear path back down—there wasn't the safety cushion of the entire class being lost with them.

Not that she should have expected Theodore to pick up on that, she supposed.

"Well, we just have to find a staircase going down a level now, at least," she murmured to reassure herself. Theodore nodded as if the comment had been directed to him.

Without further ado, the two Slytherins set out to find another staircase, seeing as there weren't any floating up or down to their level at the moment. It turned out to be much more trouble than it was worth when the one that they found opened up into a gaping hole that quite nearly swallowed them both. Luckily for Theodore, Harry's arms were strong enough to pull them back up. After that they turned back for the area with the floating staircases; they thought themselves in luck when there was a case going right down to the third floor, but they weren't halfway down when the staircase suddenly lifted up and practically zoomed to a spot between the topmost floors.

Trial after trial came, from the stairs to the tricky doors to the animated paintings giving terrible directions. (Seriously, there were no trap doors!) By the time they made it to the correct floor, they were both panting and Theodore did not seem quite as thrilled as he had been with the "adventure". Of course, it was just their luck that they ended up in the forbidden corridor, stuck tugging uselessly at a locked door they were both convinced lead to their classroom. Being that they were technically breaking the rules, Filch—the rather haggard appearing caretaker (janitor) of the school—sniffed them out like a bloodhound.

Theodore almost fell over his own two feet in his terrified run going the opposite direction. Normally Harry would not have ran from the scene, as it always ended with a worse punishment when she did, but she couldn't help but follow the boy around the corners until finally they burst through a door to try hiding in a classroom. Ironically, it was just the classroom they had needed to be in. There was a familiar face from the head table at meal times, the diminutive professor that reminded Harry of the goblins she had seen at the wizard bank, standing atop a towering stack of books to give him the image of height and giving a lecture on what sorts of charms existed. And there were the rest of the Slytherin and Ravenclaw first years as well, of course.