Destinies Collide

Flight Forward

"But how does it know you're talking to it?" Harry frowns, looking down at the broom near his feet on the grass.

"Magic?" Cho shrugs, "just do it, then we can fly!"

"Alright," he looks down at the broom and puts his hand out hovering over it, "up!"

The broom hits his hand so fast that he jumps back a little but keeps holding it, smiling at Cho after his success.

"Nice," she smiles back before calling her own broom up to her hand, "you get on it like this," she swings one leg to the other side of the broom before putting both hands on the handle, "and you push off real slow, or else you go too high too fast," she kicks off the ground and Harry can only stare as she flies up higher than his head.

"Wicked," he looks up with wide eyes as she hovers on his left.

"Come on!" She yells down, making him look back at his borrowed broom.

Right... sit and don't kick off too hard.

"Whoa!" even without kicking off too hard, he ends up flying higher than Cho, though the broom stops after a few seconds of him staying very still.

"Great!" Cho flies up to his side, "feet on the pedals, pull up to go higher, lean forward to go faster, pull down to go lower, lean back to slow down, and lean to the sides to turn, got it?"

"G-got it!" He nods, leaning forward a bit to get the broom moving, a grin slowly spreading over his face as he gets the hang of it and speeds through the air like a bird.

This is the best feeling ever!

"Harry!" Cho's voice reaches him and he pauses in the air, looking down as she comes up to reach him, "you learn quick. Come on, let's play a seeker match!" she flies down and he follows after her.

She leads them back to the ground, pulling something small and golden out of her pocket. She pokes it a couple of times and it suddenly grows two thin golden wings that start flapping very fast.

"How do we play?" He'd read about Quidditch but just the basics, nothing about a game made for a specific position.

"I let the snitch go and we count to ten before leaving the ground, whoever catches it first gets the point," she explains, holding her arm out with the snitch, "first to five points wins."

"Alright," he moves his broom to hover by her side and they both put their feet on the ground.

She opens her hand and the snitch hovers for a second before speeding away from them almost too fast for his eyes to keep up as he counts to ten under his breath.

"Go!" Cho yells, already pushing off the ground.

Harry grins and flies after her.

~

"I thought we needed a definitive guardian before contacting any healers?" Michael can't help but ask after Chang's explanation of their change of plans.

"To walk the boy into St Mungo's, but a private healer operates under different rules than a medical institution," she explains, turning back toward the bookcase to shuffle through a couple more volumes, "it's also covered over patient confidentiality. Magically," she adds at his doubtful look, "we aren't a very trusting lot, believe me. There are oaths for everything under the sun, you still have a lot to learn."

"So I'm constantly being told," he sighs, accepts another book as she holds it out to him, and adds it to the growing pile in his arms.

"Deal with it," Chang deadpans before patting his shoulder somewhat encouragingly, "let's check on the kids and get you an extended pouch for those, I have a couple laying around somewhere in my office."