A lovely June afternoon, the Quidditch Pitch...
The sun was beating down, and a bunch of fifth years were gathered on the Pitch, their eyes glued to the highest hoop on the opposite side. They had gotten back from Hogsmeade early. Not because they were tired, oh Merlin no, but because a Hufflepuff girl, Violet, had bought 'Vaulting Boots of Valor' from Zonko's. Black dragonskin boots, which let the user…
"Jump up to twenty-five feet!" Rose exclaimed, reading the box. Violet had been passing the boots around, when Molly was dared to toss a particularly hyper Bludger into the hoop with the boots in place of a broom.
The scales on the boots glittered green in the sun, and they all seemed to be wearing smirks on their faces. "There's no way you're gonna make that shot." One of them said. "Jack's right, it's just not gonna happen!" Said Clara, folding her arms. "I haven't seen her miss yet, I don't think she'll start now." Lysander said, his and Lorcan's eyes darting to each other, then back to the hoop.
The trick had always been to feel in your nerves where the Bludger wanted to go; if you could feel that, you could use.
Molly reminded herself of this now as she held the violent thing that insisted on tugging her in every seemingly random direction. "If I knew I couldn't make it, I wouldn't try," she called back, careful to make no promise that she would make it. It was certainly a strange feeling, being thrust into the sky by those boots, much different from being on a broom.
She pressed the palms of her hand into the Bludger, took one last breath, and threw. She couldn't register what had happened before she was back on the ground, but the looks of astonishment were a good hint. Molly immediately kicked off the boots, not wasting time taking them off properly, and ran to Lysander and Lorcan. "Did I just do that? Really?"
Molly seemed to disappear into the sun when she jumped, but they could clearly see the Bludger fly clean through the hole...and into the lake. Some of them had their mouths hanging open, and it took a minute to process what just happened.
"BRILLIANT!" The twins exclaimed at the same time. Everyone was patting the witch on the back and clamouring to try on the boots next.
From the castle, they heard Professor McGonnagal's voice amplified. "That's ten points to Ravenclaw!"
Spring was definitely Lysander's favourite season.