Sea and Serpent (PJO/HP)

Chapter 14. Flying? I think not

Madam Hooch was a slightly older woman with short, crazy, salt and peppered hair that stuck out as if she had placed her hand on an electrical cord.

The majority of their class was made up of all first-year Hufflepuff’s and Ravenclaw’s that stood in two lines that faced each other with brooms down by their feet. They looked worn and old as if they had been used too many times and it made Amaryllis wonder how well brooms performed after so long.

“Good morning, everyone.” Madam Hooch walked down between her and the other students with her hands behind her back. Her amber eyes swept across each student that seemed to assess their stature.

A chorus of ‘good mornings’ resonated through the open field. The castle loomed in front of her, while the sun beat down on her back, where the lake they had crossed the day prior was. It felt like more than two days had passed as she stood there and listened to Madam Hooch’s speech on how to handle a broom and the correct way to handle it. A few students chuckled, resulting in Madam Hooch scolding them as the cloak whipped around when she turned to them.

That was one cool thing she saw about the robes. The girls in her dorm had laughed when she and Amelia, who she had found out was a muggle-born, twirled in their room last night letting their robes billow out around them. It had turned into a night of chatting with each of them after retired to their rooms, leaving the common room once it began to quiet down and the older students began to work on the dreadful classwork that they were given. Amaryllis learned that Sasha and Olivia were half-bloods while Susan came from a line of pure-bloods. Though none had cared what lineage they came from, because Amelia had proven to be the best out of them all at Potions when they talked about that class and the treatment each class received from Professor Snape. Olivia was best at Herbology and although she and Susan liked Charms, she wasn’t good because it took her longer to read and although Susan had grown up around magic, she had trouble with the wand movements. But they had their fair of laughs in class when they made a mistake to the embarrassment when Professor Flitwick called on them with a smile. Amaryllis had never laughed or smiled so much before that her jaw was sore by the time her head hit the pillow and her sides hurt.

“Today you will feel the grain of wood under your fingertips and the brush of wind in your hair because you will do nothing but float in the air today. Do I make myself clear?”

The class replied in off-tune voices, “Yes, Madam Hooch.”

Madam Hooch stopped in the middle, facing down both ways with narrowed eyes that kept everyone stock still and mouths shut.

She wasn’t scarier than Professor Snape, but no one wanted to seem to cross her as they did Professor Snape. Amaryllis felt it was because Madam Hooch didn’t embarrass any students or make them feel less than what they were—first-years. Students who either knew nothing or knew very little of what their parents actually taught them.

“Now, step up next to your brooms, place your wand hand out, and say ‘up’ with a firm voice.”

Amaryllis took one step forward, standing beside the broom just before where the arch was etched in the wood. Her eyes stared at the smooth wood, wondering how well anyone balanced on something so thin without falling off, but no one asked that question and seemed fine with what they were about to do. It seemed like a very ridiculous question when they had been doing it for years and no one fell to their death—well, none that she knew of.

Susan’s broom flew to her hand the moment she firmly said ‘up’.

Others had the same results while some brooms didn’t even move off the ground and few raised halfway before falling back down. Amaryllis didn’t know whether it was the confidence one had in themselves that it worked the first try, or nerves that left nothing to show.