Afire Love

Chapter 8

We met Ginny on our way to get brooms. She apologised for not being with me, and said she had a lot to talk about with Hermione. I felt bad forgetting about her for a minute. Charlie took two brooms, gave me one, and we walked all the all to the back of the garden.

"Alright. What's wrong when you're on a broom?" Charlie asked.

"I don't know, I'm just not very comfortable."

"Are you afraid of heights?"

"I don't think so."

Charlie got on his broom, inviting me to imitate him. I flied a little and eventually just stopped to watch him. It seemed to be absolutely effortless, and it looked like he was dancing in the sky. He flied back to where I was, which was not higher than the first floor of the house.

"How are you feeling?"

"Perfect," I answered ironically.

"Relax, it's just you and me."

I breathed in and try to release the tension in my arms, without much efficiency. I was not comfortable at all.

"Okay so now you're going to teach me how to fly?" I said, regretting getting on the broom.

"You can fly. Your posture is good, but you're too straight, too tense."

I tried to release my muscles, but it did not work. After a couple of second, I simply watched Charlie, waiting for him to say what's next. He told me to follow his lead. Which I did. He did not go too high or too low at first, but he soon started flying faster, higher and I had a hard time following him.

We eventually got down on the ground. I failed to land properly and almost fell. Hopefully Charlie caught my arm. I laughed at myself for being so cliché, and thanked him.

"So, how did you feel?" He asked.

"A bit better. Less afraid of falling or something. I guess your presence helped as well. I didn't feel stared at, which was nice. I'm still not comfortable on these."

"You're honestly not bad," Charlie started. "The way you fly is actually very fair, you're just too tense on your broom, that's why sometimes your moves are too rough. If you could relax, you'd see how easy it is to go up and down."

"Not an entirely lost cause, captain?"

"Definitely not."

We brought the brooms back to where they belonged and came back to the garden.

"All right, my turn."

Charlie faced me and did not seem too comfortable. We switched roles, I was in my element, he was not.

"Relax, you'll to be fine. So, you probably learnt to disapparate with the three Ds, Destination, determination and decision. They are not entirely useless; they only help you focus."

I drew a red circle with my wand in the middle of the garden.

"The point is: you need to clear your mind, try to only think about disapparating, maybe you'd better close your eyes to visualise. First, think about where you want to go – easy: the red circle. Only keep this image in mind: the red circle on the grass in your garden. The red circle. Okay?"

"I know all that," Charlie said.

"Shut up and listen."

He was surprised and tried to hide a smile.

"Now, think of how much you need to go there. Because you have to, because you want to, because this is where you need to be, because you want to show off a little... The last thing is to not hesitate. You close your mind and only think of how badly you need to reach the circle. Don't think about anything else but the red circle. Still good?"

Charlie nodded; I could tell he was focussed now. He listened to me for another couple of minutes.

"Imagine the red circle on the grass, think of how much you need to go there. Hold your breath, visualise, and on the count of three, you switch everything on and apparate there. One, two... Three!"

On the count, Charlie turned and apparated, one foot in the circle, he arrived unbalanced and swayed a little, but he did not fall.

"There you go. How do you feel?"

"Weirdly okay. But I'm not in the circle," he said, disappointed.

"Honestly it's better for you to feel great and not be in the circle rather than being in and getting sick. Besides, you have one foot in it."

"Not good enough."

"Then try again," I suggested.

He stared at me for a second and agreed. I drew another circle and let him do his thing. He closed his eyes and breathed. It took him lesser time to disapparate, and found himself, in one peace, in the red circle. He looked dizzy for a second and eventually faced me, surprised.

"I mean, you're welcome," I said when he reached me.

"Show off," he mumbled, laughing. "But thanks. It might just be the first time I actually execute it properly. You're a good teacher."

I bowed, and we both walked towards the house laughing. On our way, Charlie put an arm around my shoulders and dragged me towards him. It was probably in a brotherly way, but I could not help but feeling weird. We stepped into the house where Harry and Ginny were kissing.

"Ugh. How disgustingly cute. Enough already, there are people in here," I said with a fake expression of disgust on my face.

The two lovers turned our way, surprised, while Charlie laughed

"There was nobody when we started," Ginny said, laughing too.

"Were you ever going to stop though, had we not interrupted you?" I mocked.

Ginny was fast and threw a pillow at me, which managed to be stopped by Charlie.

"Seeker uh? Nice," I said to Charlie, smiling.

"That's not fair." Ginny laughed.

"I have a bodyguard, what do you have?" I asked.

"A boyfriend?"

"Pff, I win." I mocked.

Harry and Charlie seemed so find us pretty fun. The four of us sat around and talked. I found out I had a couple of things in common with Harry. He was raised in a muggle family, he is sarcastic, and he still is impressed by magic. We had good conversations together that evening.

"Nora, you are sure you are not coming back to France for Christmas?" Ginny asked.

"100% sure. Why?"

"Mum wanted to be sure, I think she really likes you."

"Oh, that's so sweet," I said genuinely touched. "But then again, who doesn't?"