Memories & the Stone

First Time Flying

September 13th, 1991

Over the next week Harry and his friends developed a routine. On Monday morning there was a posting that this Thursday Flying Lessons would begin. Harry couldn't begin to express how excited he was about being on a broom.

He thought back to his very first and last time on a broom. He was only a year old at the time but there was no greater pleasure than chasing Snitch the Potter family cat around the house on the little broom he had received for Christmas his first year of life. He found himself wondering what had ever happened to the animal after his parents' death.

Standing out on the pitch on Thursday afternoon he listened as Draco Malfoy bragged about how he's been flying for years and how Hermione had read every book she could find on the subject.

"Hermione," Harry said looking over at the girl who although she had every book she could get her hands on was shaking in her shoes. "Flying isn't about know everything there is to know about the subject. It's more about feeling than understanding."

Hermione gave Harry what he could only describe as a hateful look and Harry was surprised to see it on a future friends face. He was worried about the potential friendship. Had he somehow ruined the chance of being her friend? Was there a chance anymore? What had he done?"

"How would you know?" She asked snidely to Harry. "You were raised the same as I by muggles."

"I know because unlike you the first year of my life I lived with my parents. For my first Christmas I received a broomstick. A child broomstick, it didn't do much than hover a few feet off the ground but I remember fly along the floor chasing my family cat while my father chased after me and my mother laughed. I believe I knocked over a vase once, my mother didn't bother repairing it because she didn't like it. That is how I know." Harry turned away from Hermione and Ron and Neville looked at him in shock.

"Do you really remember that far back?" Ron asked quietly.

Harry nodded and then sighed before he shrugged his shoulders. "I'm not one hundred percent positive but I like to believe that it did happen because I have so few memories of my family. I'd like to think that we were happy."

After that Harry was quiet as Madam Hooch approached the field. She didn't introduce herself or anything of the sort just jumped right into the subject.

"What are you all waiting for?" she said, "step up to a broom and hold your hand out over it and say in a firm strong voice, up."

Harry did as he was told and the broom jump right into his hand. It was one of the few that did. Neville's broom didn't move at all, Ron's had swung up and smacked him in the nose, and Hermione's broom merely rolled over as if it was tired and lazy.

Madam Hooch show them all how to grip their brooms without them sliding right of the end. Harry, Ron, and Neville all shared a laugh when she informed Malfoy that he had in fact been doing it wrong for years.

Before they were to take off Harry put a hand on Neville's shoulder and said, "Relax, the brooms can smell fear." Ron snorted at that. Neville did seem to relax a bit and gave a shaky laugh.

"On my whistle kick off the ground, hoover for a bit, and then lean forward a bit to land." Madam Hooch said and then she blew her whistle.

Harry was only about five feet off the ground but the feeling was amazing. His instincts were screaming for him to go higher and truly experience the wonder of flying. He closed his eyes and he pictured himself up high in the sky, flying with the clouds.