Taking flying into our own hands Closed

Eris came out onto the grounds, head downcast. It was only her second day, and it was so overwhelming to be at Hogwarts. Already she had been in an array of magical classes, each one more fascinating than the last. All her teachers were way nicer than any she had met her in muggle schooling, and the castle was beautiful but quite easy to get lost in. Eris had already found herself late to a number of her classes. Not that it was her fault though, some of the doors were just walls pretending to be doors, and others lead to staircases that moved! Although both of those things were hard to deal with, the reason Eris was late to most of her classes was the demonic entity commonly called Peeves. Oh how he loved to mess with first-years. Already Eris had learned to avoid him, and it was hard to do so when he so often hung out near the classrooms.

Anyways, Eris had come out to the grounds to clear her head and to explore. Looking around, she spotted a girl from the train. Michelle was the only other girl with a muggle childhood, and Eris felt like she really related to the other girl. So Eris walked over to her and seated herself in the grass next to Michelle. "How've you been?" Eris asked, even though it had been a day since they'd last talked. It seemed like a lifetime ago they were on the Hogwarts Express. It was hard to believe that was only yesterday. It was even harder to believe that two days ago Eris had been a normal londoner with a letter to a strange school. Now here she was, at the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Life really was strange.

Michelle sat up as Eris approached, "How've you been?" Eris asked. Michelle thought it over before replying. "Good but it's been a strange day... I got lost multiple times after a staircase took me to a hallway that was actually a painting. The classes I made it too were very cool though and the teachers are nice," Michelle shrugged "you know I feel that I should be grateful for the chance to learn all this but I can't help but be overwhelmed and a little homesick. I miss pens so much." She joked turning to Eris and standing up.

Michelle dusted the grass off her robe and sighed. "The grounds are so big, and did you see that lake? Apparently, there is a giant squid and sometimes you can see it from the Slytherin common room," she said enthusiastically.

Michelle picked up the two brooms she snatched from the school up from the ground and gave them a quick shake. She hoped Eris would be as into this as she was. "So anyway how was your day? Did anything strange or exciting happen?" She asked she wondered if Eris was feeling homesick or at least overwhelmed, it might be comforting to have someone in the same boat as her.

Eris nodded. She had also gotten lost on her way to some of her classes and had to agree that the day had been strange so far and that the castle was a bit strange as well , but she also loved all her classes. They were extremely interesting, and the teachers were nice. Eris had to disagree about being homesick though. It had only been a day, and she was so grateful she wasn't at home with her crazy man and alcoholic father. The only thing she vaguely missed about home was her sister, but Eris didn't know where she was. Snapped out of her thoughts by Michelle's pen joke, Eris laughed. "I have to agree. All this quill nonsense isn't for me. I've spilled ink all over my hands at least four times in each class today." she aid with a good-natured laugh.

Eris grinned, "I know about the giant squid. Ava told me about it on the train. Do you reckon it's real? I would love to see a squid, but I doubt I'd be able to see it from the sytherin common room, since I'm a gyffindor and sytherins hate gyffindors. I guess it's a tradition of some sort."

Eris frowned. How was her day exactly? "It was magical," She finally responded, laughing at her own joke. "This place is breathtaking and honestly I have no idea what's going on half of the time but I love it. It's all so new and I'm so overwhelmed but I'm happy about it, just because I don't really feel like a freak here." Eris hoped Michelle knew what she was talking about.

Michelle laughed about how Eris got ink all over her hands and looked down at her own. Being left-handed really didn't help with Ink and quills and half of her work today was smudged beyond recognition, she's sure she would get the hang of it though.

"I believe the giant squid is real, I mean magic is real when I thought it wasn't, so I am just going to believe in everything now," Michelle laughed softly "and about the Gryffindor vs. Slytherin thing. I heard about the rivalry, I don't understand it though. This is such a magical place why can't everyone just get along... I guess every school has got to have it's drama though. Slytherins are really distant from everyone though so its probably just them..." she inquired.

Michelle laughed at Eris' joke and nodded she understood how she felt to a certain extent. When she was little her parents would treat her special because of the things happening around her but it never seemed like a bad thing then, but it did make her feel different.

"Well on that note look what I stole!" Michelle gestured to the dusty brooms in her hands. "I took them from the flying classroom. I hope I stole proper magical ones, It would look so silly trying to ride a regular old cleaning broom." she squinted at the brooms and examined them one more time, she hadn't seen a flying broom but these seemed a little different so she hoped she was right. She handed one to Eris, "So do you want to try?"

Eris smiled, listening to what Michelle had to say. It was nice to talk to another student with muggle heritage, and Michelle also had ink stained hands. Eris was having a great time talking to Michelle, and when she pulled out the brooms, Eris couldn't help but grin wickedly. Of course she wanted to learn how to fly!

Ever since become a witch, she had wanted to fly on a broomstick. Sighing, Eris flopped down on the grass, feeling the wet grass soaking her back to help her focus. With a huff of annoyance, Eris looked up at the sky, imagining what it would be like to fly on a broom, or even be on a quidditch team. In her books, witches always flew on brooms, and since Eris was a witch it would be perfect to fly on one, but she didn't want to wait until flying lessons, which was in a month or two. She wanted to fly now, but she wasn't sure if it would be smart to fly. After all neither her nor Michelle had ever learned to fly, although it sounded quite fun Eris didn't want to get hurt. But she wasn't a coward, so Eris simply nodded. "Let's learn to fly," she said grinning ear to ear. This was a bad idea for sure.

After hearing Eris agree to fly she was ecstatic, she would be like the witches in her storybooks. "Okay so I read a book in the library and it gave me the first few steps to flying," Michelle explained and took a step back and put her broom on the ground "so what it said to do was stand on the right or was it the left.." she held her chin thinking quickly "Yes it was left, so stand on the left of the broom and say up. It should come up then and then you get on I think." she nodded her head and held out her hand.

"Up," Michelle asked the broom, but it did not budge not even a millimeter off the ground. She frowned and tried once more. Still, the broom did not budge, she looked up to Eris sheepishly. "I swear I am doing this right." she laughed and tried once more this time she took a deep breath and didn't even look at the broom. "Up!" she commanded it and it shot into her hand. She looked into her hand with a look of disbelief, it felt good to actually do something magical. She was starting to think they had gotten something wrong. "Oh wow! I did it! Alright!" Michelle celebrated.