Et Serpens album

Part 10

They walked out of the castle to the field, Neville was in less than stellar mood he was complete garbage at flying and he didn't want to be mocked. He never set foot near one he is struggling on the ground let alone in the sky. But like everything in Longbottoms' life, it somehow got worse a joint lesson with Slytherin. 

"Just what I needed Malfoy to laugh at me," Neville said his voice dripped with sarcasm. He had been looking forward to learning to fly more than anything else.

You don't know that you'll make a fool of yourself," said Ron reasonably. "Anyway, I know Malfoy's always going on about how good he is at Quidditch, but I bet that's all talk. " Neville internally thanked Ron but did little to lighten his mood. 

 Malfoy certainly did talk about flying a lot. He complained loudly about first years never getting on the house Quidditch teams and told long, boastful stories that always seemed to end with him narrowly escaping Muggles in helicopters. He wasn't the only one, though: the way Seamus Finnigan told it, he'd spent most of his childhood zooming around the countryside on his broomstick. Even Ron would tell anyone who'd listen about the time he'd almost hit a hang glider on Charlie's old broom. Everyone from wizarding families talked about Quidditch constantly. Ron had already had a big argument with Dean Thomas, who shared their dormitory, about soccer. Ron couldn't see what was exciting about a game with only one ball where no one was allowed to fly.  

 Hermione Granger was almost as nervous about flying as Neville was. This was something you couldn't learn by heart out of a book -- not that she hadn't tried. At breakfast, on Thursday she bored them all stupid with flying tips she'd gotten out of a library book called Quidditch Through the Ages. Neville was hanging on to her every word, desperate for anything that might help him hang on to his broomstick later, but everybody else was very pleased when Hermione's lecture was interrupted by the arrival of the mail.

Vivienne didn't talk about flying much but she did say she knew the basics but confident in the fact she will be competent.

 Neville hadn't had a single letter since Hagrid's note, something that Malfoy had been quick to notice, of course. Malfoy's eagle owl was always bringing him packages of sweets from home, which he opened gloatingly at the Slytherin table. Neville wanted nothing more for something to be stuck in his throat.

 At three-thirty that afternoon,  Neville, Ron, and the other Gryffindors hurried down the front steps onto the grounds for their first flying lesson. It was a clear, breezy day, and the grass rippled under their feet as they marched down the sloping lawns toward a smooth, flat lawn on the opposite side of the grounds to the forbidden forest, whose trees were swaying darkly in the distance.

 The Slytherins were already there, and so were twenty broomsticks lying in neat lines on the ground. Neville had heard Fred and George Weasley complain about the school brooms, saying that some of them started to vibrate if you flew too high, or always flew slightly to the left. 

He saw Vivienne with a blonde girl and a brunette one in a bob-cut, Daphne Greengrass and Pansy Parkinson respectively. Vivienne noticed Neville and waved enthusiastically. The girls who she was talking to gave him a disgusted look as if he committed a sin making eye her. 

Neville walked over to the broom feeling the nervousness, knot his stomach.

"Well, what are you all waiting for?" she barked. "Everyone stand by a broomstick. Come on, hurry up. "

Neville glanced down at his broom. It was old and some of the twigs stuck out at odd angles. This look like a stick you use for a bonfire not supporting human weight.

"Stick out your right hand over your broom," called Madam Hooch at the front, "and say 'Up!'"

"UP" everyone shouted.