Chapter 27: Flying incident

Disclaimer: 

Harry Potter and all of its characters belong to J.K Rowling.

I own nothing but the original characters I make.

"Dialogue"

'Thoughts'

$Parseltongue$

Chapter 27: Flying incident

On Monday afternoon, the first-year students were having their first flying lesson.

All of them were standing next to their broom, as structured by Rolanda Hooch, the flying instructor of Hogwarts.

"Keep yourselves focused on the broom next to you and say 'UP', loud and with conviction. The broom will listen to your magic and follow your commands."

Everyone started to yell at the same time over and over.

'This is going to give me a headache…' Harry covered his ears. He then took a glance at the broom he had been given for the class.

It was a 'Cleansweaper 260', one of the cheapest brooms in the market...from twenty years ago, and it was in poor condition.

'Is the school budget in such dire straits already?'

"Mister Potter, is there something wrong?"

It looked like Professor Hooch had noticed that Harry was the only one in the class who wasn't even trying to lift the broom so she decided to approach him.

"No, Professor. My apologies…I was merely a bit distracted." 

"Then let's better focus on the matter at hand. Go on give it a try, Mister Potter." She urged him.

Being left with no choice but to participate in the class, Harry opened his hand to will the broom up and this one instantly flew into his grasp.

"What an impressive display! You may have your father's talents for flying after all, Mister Potter." The professor smiled at him.

'Ops, I forgot to say the magical words…' He realized.

Miss Hooch looked at him like there was something she wanted to ask but was hesitant to do so, but her attention went quickly somewhere else when Neville Longbottom started to scream.

"Ahh!!, help!" Nevile was holding onto his broom while this one ascended into the sky.

"Mister Longbottom!, what are you doing? get down this instant. I still haven't explained how to control the brooms in the air!." Professor Hooch shouted at him.

"Excuse me, Professor, but I don't think Neville is doing it on purpose." Hermione looked at Neville with worried eyes.

The Griffindor students looked at him with uneasiness while many of the Slytherin, and especially Draco, seemed to be having a great time, laughing and pointing at Neville.

Harry knew that he had to do something so he carefully pulled his wand out and covered it with his sleeves.

The last time this happened, Neville got away with a fractured wrist but there was no guarantee that it would be exactly the same this time around.

What if Neville falls a bit differently and ends up breaking his neck? he could not take that risk.

Neville's broom kept going higher and higher and people getting more worried now.

Then, all of a sudden, his broom started to shake and collided with the walls of the castle, making him lose his grip and precipitate straight down.

"Oh no!" Professor Hooch struggled to get her wand out of her tunic while the students gasped and yelled in horror as Neville fell.

Harry took the chance to cast a bouncing charm on the area below the falling boy.

Many of the students covered their eyes or looked away when Neville was about to hit the ground, not wanting to be a witness to a macabre spectacle.

The ones still looking became shocked when they saw the ground deform like it was made of gelatine when Neville landed on it.

Unfortunately for him, after the second bounce, he landed outside the charmed area.

"Ouch!" Neville cried in pain.

Miss Hooch was the first one to reach his side.

"Let me see, Mister Longbottom…" She examined him up and down.

"It doesn't look like you have anything broken but let's take you to Madam Pomfrey for a check-up. You had a nasty fall."

Her eyes went up, to the place he had fallen from, it was close to one of the roofs, where the gargoyles were located, at least twenty meters high.

"A very nasty fall." She repeated.

As she helped the boy walk, Miss Hooch turned to look at the rest of the class.

"While I'm taking Miss Longbottom to the infirmary, I want no one touching the brooms, is that understood?."

"Yes, Miss Hooch!" The students answered.

"Did you see that?"

"Who cast that spell?"

"Wasn't it the teacher?"

"I didn't see her do any magic, she was struggling to get her wand out when he was falling."

The students started to talk among themselves.

"What a bloody idiot!, he can't do anything right!." Draco commented before he and his friends started to laugh.

"Is not funny! he could have died!" Shouted Hermione at Malfoy.

"Yeah, shut up, Malfoy."

"That's right!."

  Added Ron and Seamus.

Harry ignored their banter and went to the place where Neville's broom had fallen. It was still in one piece, much to his surprise.

"Let's see…"

He picked it up and examined it. It was the same model as the one given to him, a Clearsweaper 260. But this one was in even worse shape.

Harry took a closer look at the runes of the broom. He was by no means an expert in flying brooms but he had advanced knowledge of runes at least. 

He was quickly able to tell that this broom had no chance of flying correctly as many of the runes that form part of the 'control' section, were damaged.

'The reaction of the broom and his fall were a lot more violent than the one I remember…could someone have tampered with the flying broom or maybe he just had worse luck?.'

The possibility seemed ridiculous at first, but this was the 'boy who lived' we were talking about. Was someone trying to kill him perhaps?.