Weasley

Chapter 9

Today flying lessons were set for the the Slytherins. Allium was over the moon about this due to her love of flying which most of her family shares. Though there was two things that dampened her mood, the first was that the Gryffindors were partaking in the flying lessons which meant her brother would be there and she still wasn't sure if he still wanted to think of her as his sister. The second is Draco Malfoy, a pain in most people's side, she was sure that he would try and pick on everyone doing a small mistake.

three-thirty that afternoon, Allium and the other Slytherins 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.

There were twenty broomsticks lying in neat lines on the ground. Allium had heard her brothers complain about the school brooms for years, saying that some of them started to vibrate if you flew too high, or always flew slightly to the left.

Their teacher, Madam Hooch, arrived. She had short, gray hair, and yellow eyes like a hawk.

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

Allium glanced down at her broom, It was old and some of the twigs stuck out at odd angles.

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

"UP" everyone shouted.

Allium's broom jumped into her hand instantly due to her having already flown before, but it was one of the few that did. Perhaps brooms, like horses, could tell when you were afraid, thought Allium; there was a quaver in A boys voice that Allium saw was having trouble, his voice said only too clearly that he wanted to keep his feet on the ground.

Madam Hooch then showed them how to mount their brooms without sliding off the end, and walked up and down the rows correcting their grips. Allium and a few others were delighted when she told Malfoy he'd been doing it wrong for years.

"Now, when I blow my whistle, you kick off from the ground, hard," said Madam Hooch. "Keep your brooms steady, rise a few feet, and then come straight back down by leaning forward slightly. On my whistle - three-two"

But the boy with the shakey voice, nervous and jumpy and frightened of being left on the ground, pushed off hard before the whistle had touched Madam Hooch's lips.

"Come back, boy!" she shouted, but The boy she now knew as Neville from the shouting was rising straight up like a cork shot out of a bottle

- twelve feet -twenty feet. Allium saw his scared white face look down at the ground falling away, saw him gasp, slip sideways off the broom and

WHAM - a thud and a nasty crack and Neville lay facedown on the grass in a heap. His broomstick was still rising higher and higher, and started to drift lazily toward the forbidden forest and out of sight.

Madam Hooch was bending over Neville, her face as white as his.

"Broken wrist," Allium heard her mutter. "Come on, boy - it's all right, up you get."

She turned to the rest of the class.

"None of you is to move while I take this boy to the hospital wing! You leave those brooms where they are or you'll be out of Hogwarts before you can say 'Quidditch.' Come on, dear."

Neville, his face tear-streaked, clutching his wrist, hobbled off with Madam Hooch, who had her arm around him.

No sooner were they out of earshot than Malfoy burst into laughter.