Jami Evans and the Sorcerer's Stone - Year 1

Flying Class

I was lucky Snape didn't have that much of a grudge against me. The detention that night wasn't hard, just scrubbing the metal bed frames of the hospital wing without magic.

"What did Snape give you?" My dad asked, walking beside me as I headed to Flying class, the one class I thought was fun.

"Bed frame scrubbing." I sighed, rubbing my temples from a nasty headache I had. "Hey, why is that I can see you but Harry can't?" I raised an eyebrow at him.

James smirked. "I can't tell you that." He said.

We reached the place where flying class was taking place and my dad vanished.

"Miss Potter, you're late." Madam Hooch said, giving me a stare as I walked by her.

"Sorry, Madam Hooch." I said and slipped into line next to Draco.

"Why were you late?" He hissed.

"Got lost." I shrugged. He seemed to buy it.

　The other Slytherins that were already there gave me the most nastiest looks I had ever seen on someone, and so were twenty broomsticks lying in neat lines on the ground. We had heard Fred and George Weasley complain about the school brooms, saying that some of them started to vibrate if you flew too high, or always flew slightly to the left. The teacher, Madam Hooch, arrived. She had short, gray hair, and yellow eyes like a hawk. Maybe she was a Seeker when she played.

"Well, what are you all waiting for?" she barked. "Everyone stand by a broomstick. Come on, hurry up."

I glanced down at my broom. It was old and some of the twigs stuck out at odd angles.

"Stick out your right hand over your broom," called Madam Hooch at the front, "and say 'Up!"'

　"UP" everyone shouted.

　　My broom jumped into my hand at once, but it was one of the few that did. Hermione Granger's had simply rolled over on the ground, and Neville's hadn't moved at all. I also noticed Harry's had gotten the first time as well and I looked at him, quite pleased with the results. Madam Hooch then showed us how to mount their brooms without sliding off the end, and walked up and down the rows correcting their grips. I overheard Madam Hooch scold Draco he'd been doing it wrong for years.

"Practice makes perfect," I said and he merely glanced over at me with those startling grey eyes of his.

"Now, when I blow my whistle, you kick off from the ground, hard," said Madam Hooch. "Keep your brooms steady, rise a few feet, and then come straight back down by leaning forward slightly. On my whistle -- three -- two --"

But Neville, nervous and jumpy and frightened of being left on the ground, pushed off hard before the whistle had touched Madam Hooch's lips.

"Come back, boy!" she shouted, but Neville was rising straight up like a cork shot out of a bottle -- twelve feet -- twenty feet. I could see he was scared--his white face look down at the ground falling away, saw him gasp, slip sideways off the broom and --

WHAM -- a thud and a nasty crack and Neville lay facedown on the grass in a heap. His broomstick was still rising higher and higher, and started to drift lazily toward the forbidden forest and out of sight.

Madam Hooch was bending over Neville, her face as white as his.

"Broken wrist," Harry heard her mutter. "Come on, boy -- it's all right, up you get." She turned to the rest of the class. "None of you is to move while I take this boy to the hospital wing! You leave those brooms where they are or you'll be out of Hogwarts before you can say 'Quidditch.' Come on, dear."

I fidgeted. Neville was my friend--one of the few I had here.

"You think he's gonna be okay?" I asked the girl next to me who was a Hufflepuff.

"I think so. Madam Pomfrey can mend bones in less than a hour." She replied, smiling. "I remember when our Seeker--Cedric Diggory--broke his arm once while playing and he was back to full health under an hour."

I let out a sigh of relief then I noticed the commotion in front of me. The other Gryffindors were squaring up to the Slytherins--Harry getting into Malfoy's face. I sighed.

"Here we go again." I muttered, watching Harry get onto his broomstick and fly after him.

With a second thought, I joined him in the sky to Harry's shock and delight.