QLFC - Round 13 - Appleby Arrows - Seeker: S3SF / Support Staff - Write about your member of staff during the '97/'98 school year. Madam Hooch.
Wordcount: 971
Thanks to my lovely teammates for betaing {3
"Quidditch is canceled. Flying lessons for the first years will have a new curriculum, featuring how to fire spells at your opponent on a broomstick."
Alecto Carrow continued on talking about a new topic, but Madam Rolanda Hooch couldn't listen any longer. She looked around the staffroom and was relieved to see that half of the teachers shared the shocked expression that Rolanda herself wore. Carrow didn't even notice how the teachers were reacting to all the changes at Hogwarts. Well, maybe she did, but she and her brother always wore a menacing sneer no matter what.
Not once in her career had anybody forced her to change what she was teaching in Flying with the first years. Maybe Umbridge had tried, but at least Dumbledore was there to prevent it.
"... and if anybody catches a professor not teaching their class as they should, report it to Amycus or me immediately. If not, both your position and theirs will be jeopardized," Carrow finished off, dismissing them all with a wave of her wand.
Rolanda hesitated for a second but stayed where she was.
"What is it?" She wasn't certain whether she had imagined Carrow growling at her or not. It certainly was possible.
"I was… Are you actually going to cancel Quidditch? I can't teach little kids how to attack each other while flying."
Carrow's laugh was high-pitched and cruel-sounding. "Of course I'm going to cancel Quidditch. This school is not a place for kids to recklessly have fun, and no activities of the like will continue under Headmaster Snape's rule. You can and will teach the students that. Need I remind you what will happen if you don't?"
Rolanda shook her head quickly and started to back out of the staffroom.
"I think you need a reminder. Crucio!" Carrow yelled out, pointing her wand at Rolanda. It was the most pain she had ever experienced in her life. She immediately dropped to the floor and was twitching in pain. After a few seconds, she couldn't even recognize which parts of her body were in pain. It had become one combined, awful sensation.
Carrow dropped her wand, relieving the pain. "You'll do your job as we say, correct?"
"Yes, Professor Carrow," she said, carefully propping herself back up. Her joints creaked and groaned, reminding her yet again of her old age. She wobbled her way to the doorway, just barely avoiding smashing into the table.
"We're always watching."
It was early October, and so far, Rolanda had hesitantly stuck to her orders. There had been outrage at the first lesson when she had to tell them that there was no more Quidditch, but at least the Slytherins seemed to be enjoying cursing each other in the air.
"Remember to keep your broom balanced at all times before even thinking about casting a spell," she reminded a nervous Hufflepuff who was dangerously wobbling on her broomstick.
Rolanda scanned around the field, trying to keep at least one eye on all of the first years so that they didn't have their own eyes accidentally poked out.
Then her eyes flitted back towards the Hufflepuff from before. She was no longer wobbling. She was flying in a continuous loop and screaming with her eyes locked shut.
"Help me! HELP ME!" she screamed out, looping around faster and faster. Rolanda dashed as quickly as she could to the broom storage, and grabbed the first broomstick she saw. She hopped on and flew straight to the Hufflepuff girl.
Rolanda hovered in the air beside her, attempting to grab and stabilize her broom. The rest of the class had stopped what they were doing and instead were focused onto the twisting and turning Hufflepuff.
"Clear your mind," she instructed the girl, hoping desperately that she could hear her. "Don't try to stop completely, but try to loop around slower than before."
The girl's hands clutching the handle of the broomstick were ghost-white, but gradually, her twists grew slower and slower until she was in control of the broom again.
In the back of her mind, Rolanda knew she shouldn't go against Carrow, but she couldn't stop herself in time before saying, "Watch this maneuver carefully," and flying in a complicated manner that she hadn't flown in for years.
In that moment, all she knew was the sweet sensation of the wind battering at her face and the warm broom handle she was gripping.
She spared a glance over her shoulder, and the girl was following along with her. A few of the braver students tried it out too, and a few of them dared to let out whoops of joy.
She wasn't as fit as she used to be, though, so Rolanda drifted back down to the ground.
"Thank you, Madame Hooch. That's the most fun thing we've done all year!"
Before Rolanda could reply, however, Alecto Carrow was stalking angrily towards her.
"Hooch!" she screeched, only stopping her furious stride once she was an arm's-length away from Rolanda. "What did I tell you about teaching the first years?"
Rolanda didn't answer for a second, and Carrow jabbed her in the chest with her wand. "What did I tell you, Hooch?"
"You told me to not teach the students Quidditch or anything else fun," Rolanda said, staring into Carrow's eyes, determined not to break the stare.
Carrow hissed. "And what were you doing just now?"
"There's been a misunderstanding, you see—"
"What were you doing just now, Hooch?!" Alecto shrieked. "It seems like you need a reminder of what happens to people who don't follow our rules."
Rolanda broke off from staring only to have one last look at the students behind her. "You'll regret this, Carrow. Harry's going to come back and you'll all never be in this castle again. You'll regret this—"
"Avada Kedavra!"