Closed A Flight That Started Out Fun Open to first years

─────Elodie was frustrated. There everyone else was, soaring through the sky, while she stood helplessly on the ground, her broom lying stubbornly besides her. She huffed, repeating the words over and over, growing more and more frustrated, until the bloody thing finally flew into her hand.

She sighed, mounting the broom and levitating a few feet from the ground, clutching the broomstick hard in a way that turned her knuckles into white stars.

The girl groaned, jumping as Minnie crashed into the tree next to Elodie, the shock sending her tumbling from her broom.

"Oh my merlin!" She exclaimed, looking up. "Are you alright?" Elodie scrambled to her feet, standing at the trunk and staring up at the girl, registering her Hufflepuff tie and blond hair. She'd never met a Hufflepuff, though she'd been quite convinced that she'd end up in that house, rather than a Ravenclaw.

She reached up a hand, pulling herself onto a branch in the tree like she'd done millions of times as a child in her village, when she'd been blissfully unaware of the magical world. It was there that she perched, her head tilted back and hair dangling in her eyes as she gazed up at Minnie.

"That crash looked quite bad. Need some help?"

─────Elodie offered up a smile, rising to her feet slowly and balancing in the branch before grabbing one above her and pulling herself up. "My name's Elodie."

She tossed her hair from her eyes, scrambling up the tree carefully. "As for how I can climb so well, I've been doing it pretty much my whole life." The girl said this as she dug her nails into the bark of the tree, ignoring the leaves that became entangled in her hair as she made her way up to Minnie with great care.

"Your broom looks like it'll be fine." Elodie said carefully, climbing up the tree expertly to help the girl. Her robes often tangled around her legs as she climbed, making her bite back a groan of annoyance.

She was still quite unfamiliar with such objects of clothing, often stumbling over them and tripping over her own feet, yet another reminder that she was painfully new to this magical world. She willfully ignored Minnie's question about her flying, her cheeks reddening as she thought about her pathetic attempts at flight.

She was a muggleborn, raised unaware of magic and the like. She'd spent her childhood with her nose buried in books, always practically invisible to the other village children.

─────Elodie blinked, her eyes flickering with concern. "Hey, that's not true. We'll get you down really quick, and you won't have to worry at all. You'll be just fine." She said in her best imitation of a soothing voice.

She'd heard those words before, had listened to them being spoken, and was washed up in a memory. Four-year-old her, screaming as she lay on the ground, her left hand oozing crimson and knees scraped. Her mother had picked her up from where she sat on the ground, soothing her with soft words and gentle touches. It had been a stupid accident, an attempt at riding the roller skates she'd gotten for Christmas from mum.

"I know it's scary, but it'll be fine. I promise I won't let you get hurt. What's your name?" Elodie's hair became ruffled by a slight breeze, her cheeks flushing slightly as the cold air hit them.

It occurred to her that she should be afraid too, being so high from the ground. But she wasn't. She'd grown up climbing trees and had always felt safe in them. It had never occurred to her that someone would be afraid while perched on the strong branches of a tree, the wind rippling your hair, able to see the land from far above the ground with the scent of leaves surrounding you.

─────Elodie sighed at this, reaching to help her. "I told you, I've been climbing trees for years. This tree is sturdy, and as long as I don't royally mess up, it'll be a breeze." She reached out to help Minnie down, balancing carefully on the branch where she perched.

Elodie hesitated slightly before taking Minnie's hand and pointing out the sturdy branch below them, doing her best to help her get down and stay as calm as possible so as to not frighten her.

"It's nice to meet you, Minnie. We'll get you down here, okay? I need you to hop down to that branch right there." She pointed to an especially thick one below them. "It'll be easy. I'll go first, if you'd like. I mean, to show you that you'll be perfectly fine."

Elodie offered up a smile, hoping her nerves weren't showing.

Who was she to play therapist? She could hardly keep control of her own anxiety, yet here she was, pretending she was good at this. What was she thinking? She should've gotten a teacher....

Elodie took in a deep breath. She didn't have time for this right now, not when this girl needs to get down.

─────Elodie blinked at the question, pausing her descent down the tree to study Minnie, her brown eyes unreadable behind her glasses.

"Oh... That's quite nice, isn't it? I'm a muggleborn. I grew up in this tiny, nameless town in Monmouthshire. Ah, that's in Wales. Everything was pretty rural, all rolling hills and farmland. I lived in my mum, half-sister, and beagle in this cottage on the outskirts of our village. Mum has a pub, which is how she supported us. My sister's named Poppy, she's 4, almost 5."

She paused to look down, feeling shame and doubts arise within her thoughts.

"I... didn't go to school much. It was a tiny, tiny village, and the school was small. Quite honestly, I was practically invisible, so nobody really noticed when I didn't go."

Elodie sighed, her cheeks beginning to flush with embarrassment as she continued. "I've never had a best friend. What's it like?" This was quite the understatement. Before Hogwarts, Elodie had had no friends PERIOD. She'd grown up isolated from the other children in the village, spending most of her time with the animals that inhabited it instead.

She still blushed every time she recalled the loneliness, the embarrassment while they told her all the ways she was a weirdo who should be kept away from others. The scariest part was, she wasn't sure how much of her perceived oddness was the result of her magic, and how much of it was simply because she was quite a strange person.

She didn't know, and she wasn't really sure she wanted to.

But that was in the past! She was here now, and this girl didn't seem to mind how utterly odd Elodie was. If she could ignore it, so could Elodie.