Fear and Brooms Open

Ever since Skylar had learned about the Wizarding world, she had absentmindedly scratched out the cliché things pertaining to witches, like riding brooms, wearing pointed hats, and having a wicked witch laugh. She had even discarded the fact that she would have to learn anything, since at first the Ministry had only told her about the magic world and not having to go to school. She was already awestruck because magic actually existed but now there was a school for kids who had powers like her?

It just kept getting even more and more amazing.

While she was staying at the Leaky Cauldron until the start of the school year, sometimes when she decided to eat lunch she overheard conversations of other magic wielders they talked about strange things, like beasts they've came across, dark wizards they've heard of, and some weird thing called 'Qudditch'. That was one of the weirdest words she'd ever heard of, but everyone who seemed to talk about it thought it was the most exciting thing ever. Most people talked about it like you were talking about sports, and it was the one day that she finally learned what it was that changed her life forever.

"I'm going to become a great Quidditch player," She boasted to a girl near her. Skylar was in Flying class and the whole aspect of it was amazing. They actually flew on brooms. Students were lined up in rows and learning how to control their Brooms, just the basics for now. But she couldn't wait to eventually learn to play.

She found that she could call up her broom with ease and she was really proud. She had a smirk on her face as she watched some other kids struggle with theirs, but some were actually not doing too bad. She made a note that they could be potential rivals for the position she wanted on the Ravenclaw team.

Skylar noticed a boy having trouble with his broom and she frowned. Walking over to him with her own broom, she said, "You're not doing it right at all, let me help you."

Mandy had been very nervous for her very first flying lesson. Of course, her mother had tried to teacher her, but in all honesty, her mother preferred any other method of travel over flying. And not to mention her muggle father absolutely not finding it safe. Not that Mandy could disagree with her father, as many witches and wizards had fallen off of their brooms on multiple occasions, but in a way that didn’t frighten her at all. Mandy was even planning on trying to become a Chaser for the Ravenclaw Quidditch team next year. But she first had to survive this first flying lesson.

Mandy looked around the small circle of students, many of them looking quite nervous, all but one girl, the one standing next to her. "I'm going to become a great Quidditch player," She boasted to Mandy as the excitement shown through her eyes. Mandy chuckled slightly, really enjoying this girls positive attitude. And she even could call up her broom with ease, making her smirk. Mandy chuckled and called her own broom, which came to her in one, fluent rise. This girl wanted to become a great Quidditch player, well then she would have to beat her first.

Wow. We've got quite some show offs here. Matt watched as everyone tried to make their broom levitate into their hand. Matt wasn't trying too hard. He wanted to pull a prank. In his pocket, he had a Homing Snowball from Weasly's prank shop in Diagon Alley. He fully intended to use it. He decided that he would do two things this lesson. Find out who is threat against Hufflepuff, and if he could, find their weaknesses.  The other was to hit someone off their broom with the snowball. The clerk at the shop guaranteed that it would hit the target, but who would be the target? Let's look at the list.

Mandy Panders. A Ravenclaw, she summoned her broom surprisingly quickly. If she could get a hang of it that quick, she would be in the air very soon. 

Skylar Motting. Another Ravenclaw. Ravenclaws seemed to be dominating the class. She too was able to call her broom easily. She was now helping another guy who wasn't as successful. 

Frey Fairchild. A Gryffindor. He was seriously suffering on the broom. It didn't even get off the ground. If it did, it would be hilarious to knock him off after so much effort to take off.

Three targets. One snowball. Quite the dilemma. 

Let's see what happens. Matt thought smiling, as he tried to get his broom to get off the ground.

Seeing the amount of people on the pitch, Rosetta ran to the line of brooms. Looking around she saw Matt, the boy from the train, two other Ravenclaws and a Gryffindor. Glancing around she noted the fact that nearly everyone had their brooms up and running, or flying. Taking a deep breath she started calling her broom

To her surprise it rose after a few calls, at least she wasn't the worst flyer, but she was definitely not the best. Gripping the broom with both of her hands, she mounted and pushed of the ground. Feeling glad that she wan't afraid of heights she tried to go as high as possible. After a while she noted that the broom was shaking a little, then was vibrating even stronger than before. Allowing her mind to float back to her books she remembered that the brooms may have been around for roughly a century or two, lowing her height as quickly as possible. Rosetta began to actually do what she was meant to be doing, practicing take of and landing- it was on the curriculum, even though learning speed boosts was probable going to be more help. Hearing the other girls talking about quidditch teams she quickly decided what she was going to do about that. The stands looked nicer that the brooms any way.

Mara was so excited to begin her first flying lesson, she was vibrating nearly as much as the brooms hovering over the ground in front of them. Looking around at her fellow students, she saw many who had expressions matching hers– and several (poor things) who looked as though they’d rather eat a bucket of slugs than mount those flimsy flying machines.

Well, Mara wouldn’t let those spoilsports ruin her fun. This would be one small step towards Mara’s goal of eventually making her House Quidditch team, and she fully intended to excel.

“Up,” Mara commanded. A thrill of excitement coursed through her veins as her Shooting Star instantly leapt up to smack her hand. She waved her other hand underneath the boomstick, grinning with a mixture of bemusement and wonder.

She flung her leg over the Shooting Star and kicked up off the ground, marveling at the physical and magical forces intertwining underneath her and all around her. Other students were already testing out their broomsticks, and one student, a daring Ravenclaw, flew higher and higher until Mara could barely see her. Mara’s sense of adventure compelled her to follow the Ravenclaw’s path, but she was distracted by a Hufflepuff who seemed to be fumbling with something in his pocket.

The mischievous look on the boy’s face clued Mara in to the fact that this kid was definitely up to no good. And if he was intending to ruin Mara’s first ever flying lesson, she was not going to stand for it!

Mara darted forward skillfully and pulled up right in front of the Hufflepuff student, blocking his view.

“Hey!” Mara said, waving an aggressive hand in front of the boy’s face. “What do you think you’re doing there? Some of us are here to learn!”

Matt was startled at the frizzy, red-haired girl. who had just confronted him. He had staked out his target and was waiting for the right opportunity. Never mind that. New plan.

"Whoa there!" he chuckled. "Yeah no, I'm here to learn too!" He gave her his widest grin. "You're pretty good! I haven't even gotten my broom off the ground!" He gestured towards his broom, lying on the grass. She had nothing on him. If she told a teacher, he would simply dispose of the evidence. The homing snowball was still in his pocket, cold as ice. Nothing could possibly go wrong. Then he realized something. 

"Wait, you're Ashlador, aren't you?" HE KNEW THIS GIRL! Loads of other kids talked about this Slytherin who was a flying fanatic. She was the girl who flew around in a rocket or something! Matt wondered if she was really good. She took off, sure. But like, fifty percent of the class took off, so that was a low bar.  He wondered if she was just tooting her own horn, or something decent. Maybe... he looked at his broomstick. Maybe it was worth a try at this flying thing anyway. "Well, lassie", he said in an Irish accent, "I'm Matt. "

Mara narrowed her eyes suspiciously at the boy’s pronouncement that he was also here to learn, but she couldn’t help but blush when he complimented her flying.

“Wait, you’re Ashlador, aren’t you?”

Mara’s jaw dropped as she looked around hastily to see if anyone was watching their exchange. How did this kid know who she was? She had been so careful, making sure that no one had seen her sneaking out to take a whirl on the school broomsticks. Of course, she had only done that after realizing that half of their first year was doing so as well--and that the other half of their first year class had already grown up on broomsticks. She was just evening the playing field… or Quidditch field, as it were.

Plus, she knew this kid was just trying to distract her from whatever he had in his pocket.

"Well, lassie,” he continued. “I’m Matt.”

Still eyeing the Hufflepuff suspiciously, she let out a short giggle at his terrible Irish accent. Though she had to admit, she did rather like his Scottish lilt.

“Erm,” Mara said, struggling to get her brain to filter down to her mouth. “Nice to meet you, Matt.” She lowered her broomstick so that her feet were back on the ground.

Come to think of it, this boy looked familiar, too. Perhaps she had seen him hanging around the Astronomy tower or the Potions dungeon,since she spent a significant amount of time plying the teachers of both classes with science-based queries after lessons ended.

“D’you...d’you want some help getting started there?” Mara asked, wondering why she was feeling so tentative all of a sudden. Usually, people deferred to her right away. This kid had caught her off guard! “I didn’t know I was a...a witch until recently, so I’ve only just learned how to use a broomstick.” A note of pride crept into her voice. “But I’ve taken to it pretty quickly.” She smiled. “Flying’s in my blood.”

"I can tell!" Matt laughed. He liked this girl. "Mind giving me some pointers?" He was confident she had forgotten about the snowball.  Mara being a Slytherin, he would have thought that she would be down for something along the lines of rule breaking. "My broom hasn't even gotten off the ground. But, to be honest..." he leaned in and whispered, "I'm not really sure if I wanna take off." This was something he had been thinking about. You were sitting on a stick, flying at about...62 miles per hour? No seatbelt, no net, flying high enough to break every bone in your body. It sounded way too risky.

She looked at him, intrigued. Matt explained. "I mean, this is probably the most unsafe sport in the world. Sure, there's magic and stuff to keep people from dying, but I mean, compare it to something like rugby? This game is damn dangerous! Not that I'm afraid or anything!", he quickly amended, "It just seems like something regular non magic people would have regulations or something on!"

He didn't mean to talk this much. He probably sounded like a scaredy cat. But eh. What are you gonna do, right? Matt smiled and hoped she didn't notice the bulge in his robe where the snowball was hidden.

Mara was all prepared to give Matt some flying pointers as he requested, but as soon as he mentioned rugby, she got so excited she forgot everything she was about to say. In fact, she was so thrilled to finally get to talk to someone about a normal – well, Muggle – sport, that her broom carried her a foot in the air as she began to talk.

“More dangerous than rugby? No way!” Mara laughed. “My dads say rugby is barbaric and violent and definitely the most dangerous sport on Earth!” But maybe they would have included Quidditch on that list, she thought, feeling a jolt of anger, if only they had told me anything about this crazy, secret magical world!

Mara gulped down the feeling of betrayal and homesickness. She was finally making a friend in this place – a friend who seemingly grew up in the Muggle world like she did! – and she didn’t want to ruin it.

She urged her broom back to the ground and shifted around to Matt’s side. “Don’t be scared,” she said bossily. “It’s all about confidence. You have to really, really want--” Her hand brushed a bulge in Matt’s pocket. “Hey. You do have something in your pocket! What is it?”