Hermione was bound and determined to learn to fly. How can I be any sort of witch if I can't manage the basics of a broom? It's a first year class!
George was watching Hermione from a distance. She hadn't even noticed him moping in the woods near the clearing by the pond, where she had dragged out one of the old Weasley Cleansweeps. She kept looking at the broom, then started to mount, then hopped off again. She never got it off the ground. Suddenly, she pointed her wand at the broom, and the seat flattened out and expanded to look like part of, well, he wasn't sure what it looked like.
She dropped it then waved her wand again, and the broom started hovering about 2 feet above the ground. She hopped on the flattened seat, planted her feet about a foot and a half apart, bent her knees and said, very clearly, Volito!
The modified broom shot forward, and as Hermione shifted her weight back and forth, it wove its way through the trees, going faster as she gained confidence.
George couldn't contain himself. It was the first time anything and anyone had caught his attention since Fred's death. He never expected it to be the bushy-haired bookworm who scolded all the time.
"What did you do to modify that broom?" he asked as she whizzed by.
"Wha-oooh!" was Hermione's reply as her arms waved wildly, and she fell off the broom.
George saw her falling off the broom and just managed to cast a cushioning charm underneath her.
"Oh George, it's you. I was afraid it was Ron or Harry or Charlie," she said.
"What were those charms you used? And what made you think of riding a broom like that?" he asked, his eyes lighting up with interest almost the way they used to prior to the war.
"When I was a kid, there was one boy in the neighborhood who used to skateboard. He didn't mind that I was smart and strange, and so he taught me how. It is a muggle toy that looks like the flat part of this broom with wheels on the bottom. His cousin from America taught him," she replied.
"I bet we could take specs for that to Cleansweep, since your charms didn't interfere with theirs and sell them in the shop!" George declared.
Hermione thought about it, then saw that George was vibrating with excitement and energy in a way no one had seen since Fred died. "Let's do it!"