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Aurora Areli
I YAWNED AS I made my way down the spiral staircase to the Gryffindor common room the next Thursday morning. Astronomy class had left me sleepier than ever, so that I barely even noticed Harry's downcast expression until I plopped next to him on the sofa.
"What's wrong?" I asked.
"Didn't you see?" said Ron, gesturing toward the noticeboard across the room. "Flying lessons start today."
I frowned. I remembered Harry telling Ron and me how excited he was to learn how to fly, why did he look so upset?
"We have them with the Slytherins," Ron elaborated.
My mouth made an 'o' shape as I looked between the two boys. That made sense.
"It's typical," said Harry darkly. "Just what I always wanted. To make a fool of myself on a broomstick in front of Malfoy."
"But you don't know that you'll make a fool of yourself," I said, trying to reason with him.
"Maybe," he muttered.
"Anyway, I know Malfoy's always going on about how good he is at Quidditch, but I bet that's all talk," said Ron.
I sighed, but it was true. Malfoy really did talk about flying a lot. He complained loudly about first years never getting on the house Quidditch teams and always boasted about how he was constantly narrowly avoiding Muggle helicopters.
He wasn't the only one, though. Seamus Finnigan was always talking about how he spent most of his childhood zooming around the countryside on his broom. Even Ron would tell anyone who'd listen about the time he almost hit a hang glider on Charlie's old broom.
Harry even told me about an argument Ron had with with Dean Thomas, who shared their dormitory, about a Muggle game called football. Ron couldn't see what was so exciting about a game with only one ball where no one was allowed to fly, and that Harry had caught him poking at Dean's poster, trying to get the players to move.
Neville had also told us that he had never been on a broomstick in his life, because his grandmother had never let him near one. Although I wouldn't say it to his face, I thought she was smart to do that, because Neville seemed to be very accident prone with both feet on the ground.
I was surprised when Hermione expressed her apprehension about flying to me, because she always seemed so confident with herself and her abilities. When she explained that it was because you couldn't entirely learn to fly out of a book, I nodded in understanding. It must have been difficult to adjust at Hogwarts having come from the Muggle world.
Although she knew flying wasn't a theory-based skill, it didn't stop her from spouting out all the tips she'd read in Quidditch Through the Ages at breakfast. Don't get me wrong, I liked Hermione, but her constant nervous chatter could get a little annoying.
