"All right everyone! Now I want you all to stand on the left side of your broom and say 'Up'. Is that clear to everyone? And remember, don't say it too forcefully or you might hit yourself in the face with the handle bar. Alright. Now on the count of three, give it a go! One…..two…three!" Madame Hooch then blew her whistle. She was a nice enough lady. Young, spirted, and passionate about flying. However, this whole broom business was a little ridiculous.
It was the first flying lesson of the year. Well, the first real one in Thiru's mind. The rest had been the theory behind flying. What kind of spells were used on the original broom, the evolution of brooms, muggle sightings of brooms through the ages, etc. etc. etc. Hooch even covered Quidditch, the official school sport, in a little detail. It was all very nice and dandy but Thiru was dying to get up on one. Practical lessons were always her favorites.
"Whoever thought Muggles weren't making up the fact that witches ride brooms?" Tom said to her wryly. She smiled back at him.
"Up!" Arjuna whispered. The broom lay on the ground but gave flickering movement. She crinkled her eyebrows at the broom and repeated herself a little more self assured.
"UP!" The broom smoothly sailed up to her palm and she grasped it fully. Pleasure swelled up in her chest as she beamed at the little stick with bristles at the end.
'This seems rather simple. I wonder why all these people make such a big deal out of it. It can't be any more difficult than a carpet for goodness sake! Those things are so temperamental. Say the wrong thing at the wrong time and BLAM! They hate you for life. Touchy things really. These don't seem to mind being commanded too much. Maybe they really are inanimate like Tom said. Strange…..'she thought to herself. Tom had been rather excited about flying the brooms today. Well, as excited as Tom gets when in public. Which basically meant a stoic face and no hand gestures. Not even a smile. 'Those are only offered to me when no one else is there to see. It's as if he is afraid to show any emotion in front of people he doesn't know. I've tried to tell him time and again that it's ok. It's ok to be happy in front of other people. But he keeps arguing some stupid point of not wanting people to think he is weak. How is smiling a weakness? If anything, it shows strength of your facial muscles. But anyway-' and Thiru's thought process continued on for the lesson. She chanced a glance at Tom to see his progress. It wasn't very good to be sure…..actually, it seemed to be going down right awful.
"Up," he demanded. Nothing happened.
"UP!" He yelled. Nothing happened still.
"UP!"He yelled in a slightly sing song voice. Nada. Not even a twitch. Tom growled.
"UP YOU STUPID STICK!" he screamed. It came up alright. Whacked him right in between the eyes, it did. And if that wasn't enough, it decided to go down and hit his legs out from under him so he landed very hard on his bottom. Apparently, brooms DO get offended like carpets. And like carpets, they exact their own revenge on the offender.
"Uuuuuuughhhhhhhh…" Everyone in the class was laughing voraciously and even Thiru was having a hell of a time suppressing the giggle that threatened to escape. She knew Tom was going to be livid when the pain finally went away, so she wisely shoved the perpetrating laugh further down her throat and forced her grin down long enough to offer a hand to Tom. Tom stood up unsteadily, looking very much like the coyote after an especially bad run in with the roadrunner. She could practically see little brooms spinning around his head. At that she chanced a small, small grin.
"Maybe we should get you to the Infirmary so you can get a potion for that headache you're going to have," was all Thiru said on the matter. Though she was sure it hadn't escaped Tom's notice that there was a teasing gleam in her eyes. He merely glared at everyone as best as he could (He was looking slightly to the left of the offending crowd rather than directly which made him much less imposing than he had probably hoped to be) and accepted Thiru's hand. The two trudged their way back to castle with Thiru in the lead as Tom seemed very unstable right then.