Take to the Sky

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Interacting with @Percival Rocier

Vera was terrified.

No, terrified wasn't a strong enough word to describe this. Scared was too soft of a word. Petrified? Okay, yes, that sounded sufficient.

As a kid, flying sounded like a dream. How convenient would it be to fly over un-moving traffic, or across countries? It would save the gas fares, the wasted time, and the hassle of customs at airports. But now, as Vera looked down at the school broom she'd been given, she would rather be in the back of the car with her chauffeur.

Vera looked around, hoping there were other people unsure of this. But it seemed as if her peers were doing just fine, flying around and having fun. Only one other student, a Slytherin boy, was left on the ground. Though, he looked like he was doing just fine, too, with the way he stood.

She looked around again, left with only the professor to talk to. So, it was between the Slytherin boy or him. Talking to an adult, however...

She cleared her throat. With a few steps, she picked up her broom and walked up to the boy. "Uhm, excuse me," Vera began, "How on earth are you supposed to stay on these brooms? Surely it would be easy to just... fall off."

Vera heard the voice of her mother soon after she asked him, nagging her about not even introducing herself properly. She extended an arm, as she had seen her parents do many times before when meeting new people. "Oh, I'm so sorry. My name is Verity, but Vera is also fine. You are?"

Percival was so caught up in the thought of flying around himself that he almost did not notice the girl walking toward him until she was right in front of him. Blinking, he sat up a little straighter, eyes flicking from her broom to her face.

She was pretty, and that realization immediately made his throat feel dry. He opened his mouth, but for a second, nothing useful came out. “Uh… I… oh, right. I’m Percival,” he finally managed, just a little awkwardly. He rubbed the back of his neck, hoping she would not notice the strange pause between her question and his answer.

Off to a good start...

He quickly got up to his feet, straightened his robes and looked down to the broom she carried. That was much easier to talk about. “They look a bit scary at first,” he admitted, “But they are charmed to make them more comfortable and easier to handle. There’s a cushioning charm, for example, so it doesn’t feel like you’re just sitting on a thin piece of wood. The broom also responds to the way you lean or shift your weight. It feels strange at the start, but once you get used to it, it’s not too hard to stay on.”

Percival glanced back at the students above them, then returned his attention to her. “If you want, we could try together. Might be easier than going at it alone.” He offered another awkward smile, clearly a little nervous, but he was excited as well. This would be the first time that he could help someone else.

It was a nice change of pace.

"You don't have to get up high either. We can stay close to the ground and take it one step at a time until you're comfortable enough to get up there." He paused and smiled a little, finally with a more relaxed posture, "The view up there is great, though. I'm sure you'll love it when you're ready for it."

@Verity Engels

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Interacting with @Percival Rocier

Vera hummed, silently dismissing the flustered introduction. "Pleasure to meet you, Percival."

(This wasn't the first time someone had stumbled over their words talking to Vera, and she had her fair share of them even before Hogwarts.)

It was hard to believe that such measly tools could be used for flying, though brooms in the Muggle world looked less like these old things. Vera raised an eyebrow as she looked at the one in her hand again. "So it's all just magic, then..." A cushioning charm? Where? It looked like a normal stick with fibers at the end. But, for better or for worse, she'd slowly learned that, in Hogwarts, it would be worth not asking and just doing it.

She nodded along as he explained the mechanics of flying. The professor had said similar things a while ago. But like most things, time had eroded her memory. It was a good reminder, nonetheless.

When he offered to fly together, Vera simply nodded. "Sounds good."

She mounted the broom exactly as they'd been instructed to by the professor the first time they did it, and exactly as how children back home used to imagine it. One leg over the broom. As she moved to sit, she awkwardly bent her legs and waited for the broom to simply hover over the ground.

Vera's face turned hot. "Uhm, how exactly do you move forward or back?"

She took a deep breath. Then, with just one small step, the broom took right off.

"WOAH!"

On instinct, Vera leaned forward, forehead against the handle, and clutched the broom until her knuckles began to burn. The wind brushed past her ears, almost stinging with the sheer speed she was going. After a few more seconds of thrashing around and not knowing where exactly she was in the air, she sat up and yanked the handle upright.

Immediately, the broom halted. Her hands still hurt, and her ears were still ringing, but at least she wasn't moving. Vera looked around as she caught her breath, a sigh of relief leaving her mouth as she saw she hadn't gone too high up. Unfortunately, she'd left Percival where he was and a little too far behind. But no matter.

Vera laughed, face still burning despite having been against the wind for a bit. It hadn't cooled her off at all. She was still laughing when she turned around to face him. "Like that, then. Sorry," she wheezed.

“Pretty much,” Percival answered with a smile when she asked if it was all just magic. He then watched her swing a leg over the broom, feeling a little proud that she was going through with it with his help. Then, he opened his mouth, ready to explain how to move forward or slow down- only for her broom to shoot off before he got the words out.

His eyes widened, and he ducked instinctively as she blasted past him, nearly clipping him with the tail of her broom. He scrambled up to his feet, heart racing faster than it ever had before.

So much for staying close to the ground...

But then she managed to pull herself upright, and the broom steadied. Percival let out a loud breath of relief and rubbed the back of his neck while he looked up at her. When she turned back, laughing despite her wild flight, he could not help but start laughing as well. “That works too!” he called out, grinning from ear to ear.

He then quickly ran to grab one of the spare brooms nearby and wasted no time mounting it. With a small push, he lifted into the air, not nearly as quickly as Vera, as he preferred no repeat of that heart-attack-inducing moment. The nervousness faded as the rush of air hit him, and he called out again with a teasing edge to his voice.

“You might be a natural after all,” he said, unable to hide the grin spreading across his face. "Do you want to head down? Or do you feel comfortable enough to go for a tour around the castle?" Students weren't really supposed to be doing that, he imagined, but as long as they stayed out of clear sight, who would notice?

@Verity Engels

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Interacting with @Percival Rocier

Being in the air was a jarring experience. If she loosened the grip on her broom handle even just a little bit, she'd feel herself tipping off even if she hadn't moved. Or, well, not really tipping, but the feeling of falling off any second. There was absolutely no way this thing was actually holding her up—except, it really was. She was actually flying on a broom like all those fairy tale books described.

Percival approached her, then teased, "You might be a natural after all."

Vera shook her head. "I'm not sure about natural..." She chuckled. "You seem to be the natural here. The broom might just be out to get me."

"Do you want to head down? Or do you feel comfortable enough to go for a tour around the castle?"

Vera shook her head. She was already up in the air, already half-way through figuring out this flying thing. Going back down meant having to figure out the take-off all over again, which could go just as well as it did the first time, or even worse.

A tour of the castle, though? Vera had already taken a walk around, though she hadn't explored all of the grounds just yet; the castle was simply too big to do it in the first few weeks with classes and whatnot. Flying around the grounds would be a different experience, and there would definitely be more things she'd see from the air than on the ground.

But flying was already hazardous enough, and she'd barely managed to stop herself from becoming splatter on the walls. Still, she hadn't heard any rules about going off course...

She looked around, then turned to Percival. "Before we do that, can you continue explaining how to move forward and back? And perhaps how to make it move more slowly before I go shooting off again."

Percival’s grin widened when she seemed to want to go for a tour around the castle. Even if she sounded a little hesitant because of her struggles with flying, he knew she'd love it as soon as she'd be able to enjoy the view!

Maybe they could even go for a little detour and see some of the forbidden forest from above...

“Alright, I'll show you,” he said with a smile. He then shifted his weight on the broom before leaning forward just a little. The broom responded as Percival began to glide forward a short distance, just enough for Verity to see how he was doing it. He then leaned back again to slow himself down and come to a stop.

"The trick is to lean and shift your body the way you want to go,” he explained, turning his head so she could hear him over the sound of the wind. “Forward to go forward, back to slow down or stop. If you want to turn, just lean a bit in that direction and you'll start making a turn." It sounded easy, and if it wasn't for the crazy speeds, it would be. Now, she just needed some time to practice it.

To show her a little more, Percival leaned gently to the left and slowly began to circlea round Vera, the air tugging at his already messy hair as he passed by her side. He gave her an encouraging smile, making sure to keep his pace slow enough for her to follow along easily.

“Like this,” he added, demonstrating one more loop around her. Then he leveled out and came close enough to meet her eyes. “Now you try. Just lean the way you want to go. Start slow and follow me.”

@Verity Engels

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Interacting with @Percival Rocier

Vera nodded. "Right, just tilting your body slightly. Got it."

It seemed simple enough, though a strange... feeling came over her. It wasn't quite déjà vu, as that would mean she had never been in this situation before, nor was it nostalgia because there was no longing involved. It was a feeling of having lived through this already, but being unable to remember it clearly.

Where had she heard those instructions before?

She shook her head. There was no point trying to remember if she couldn't. She gave a small nod to Percival, then started moving.

The entire start of the flight was just endless trial-and-error, figuring out which angle gave what speed and how far to turn without both losing momentum and risking another rocket situation. Though, once their speed picked up, Vera spent more time pushing hair out of her face than actually flying. Next time, she'd have to bring a hair tie and braid her hair. But thinking about it now, braiding her hair was going to be difficult. Her hair was short and she hadn't ever done it on her own unless it was a side braid, and side braids were even worse on short hair.

Vera huffed as yet another strand tickled her eyes shut. On the other hand, "Well, this isn't as bad as I thought." She hummed. She turned to where the rest of their classmates were, then back to Percival. "Let's not go too far in case the professor calls us in to end the class.." And potentially give us a detention... A detention in her first year was not really how Vera wanted to start her Hogwarts journey.

Percival watched while Vera did her best to try and get a feel for her broom, his grin widening every time she picked up speed a little. He hovered nearby, ready to help if anything went wrong, but the longer he observed, the more he realized she did not need much help at all. She was getting the hang of it!

“That’s it,” he said, raising his voice slightly so she could hear him over the wind. “Keep your body steady like that. You’ve got it!”

He couldn’t help but blink when her hair kept falling into her face, though he made sure not to say anything about it. Instead, he just smiled to himself, thinking that must be a problem every girl with longer hair had to deal with. Or boys with long hair too, he supposed. Either way, it didn’t seem to slow her down too much.

When she mentioned not going too far, he nodded. “Don’t worry, we’ll stay close,” he said in response. Getting in trouble wasn't on his to-do list, and he dreaded the idea that his parents would find out he had gotten detention. He had promised them to behave and do his best, after all, so there would be no getting in trouble.

Just... a little bit of adventure!

With Percival in the lead, the two flew around the Castle, where they were greeted with an open view of Hogwarts and the beautiful terrain around it. From mountains to green fields, and even the edges of the Dark Forest were out there for them

Percival smiled at the sight and glanced back at Vera, “It's pretty amazing, huh?” he asked. “I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of this view.” He slowed his broom a little to stay beside her, and did his best to keep the pace comfortable. “You’re doing great, by the way." He was no teacher, but he knew encouragement would go a long way to help someone feel confident with a new skill.

He then looked ahead again, feeling the wind rush through his hair.

"Do you want to turn back?" he asked with a little grin, "Or do you want to go just a little further?"

@Verity Engels

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Interacting with @Percival Rocier

Vera blushed. The compliments were... nice. That wasn't to say Vera absolutely hated them. They were just new. Her nanny used to shower her with them until Vera spent more time away from the house. Her tutors gave them sparingly. Heck, even her ballet teacher spent more time criticizing her form over praising the techniques she did get right. Then, the other ladies at tea parties would just call her pretty. So, to be acknowledged for not flying into the next wall was... actually pretty nice.

She gave him a slight nod. "Thank you, I do appreciate you being around."

Because she did.

The view, as Percival mentioned, did not disappoint. Vera hummed. "It is," she said. From higher up, she could see all the paths and bridges between different areas, the towers, and even a little beyond it. The Quidditch pitch, the well-kept lawns. While the architecture wasn't exactly modern, it was well-maintained. "It's much different than seeing it on the ground."

When Percival mentioned going back, Vera stopped and turned. They had gone a bit of a ways away, but nothing far to be of concern. Still, how long had they flown? She didn't have a watch ever since her Apple Watch busted on the train (something the school hadn't warned her about. All her electrical items were now useless). But surely it had been a bit already?

Vera sighed. "Let's head back. I think I should figure out my landing and dismount, anyway."

As she flew back, her head was still trying to figure where the vocabulary was coming from. She had certainly never flown before—heck, she'd never heard of real magic until now. The closest thing to riding a broom she'd ever done was... None! There was no such thing. A bike, perhaps, but that involved pedaling, which broom riding did not. But she'd done something in the past that involved similar vocabulary and mechanics, so why...?