First Flight

Poor Neville Longbottom looked pale since the day before, when the Gryffindors and the Slytherins had had their first flying lesson and he somehow lost control of his broomstick and ended up with a broken arm. It was very lucky that the nurse, madam Pomfrey, was an expert on fixing bones.

But the story didn't end there. After that, Draco Malfoy had grabbed the remembrall Neville had got from his grandmother during breakfast and flew away with it, daring Harry Potter to go and take it back. Harry did and when Malfoy threw the remembrall away towards the castle, he had caught it in midair. Then, Minerva McGonagall, head of Gryffindor, came through the castle door and told Harry to follow her. When everyone was ready to say goodbye to Potter, he came back as part of quidditch team. Of course nobody knew it. And, thankfully, Lily was part of the people included in the small group that was supposed to be nobody.

By the breakfast of thirteen september, everyone already knew about the fact that Harry Potter was Gryffindor's new seeker. That was why, on that mourning, Lily sat with the Weasleys at the breakfast. Harry was only eleven years old and first years were usually forbidden to take part on the quidditch teams, but McGonagall had been able to personally place him in it.

"So, Harry, when are the practices starting?" Asked Lily.

"I don't know. Don't say it so loud."

"Let me know, I would love to watch it. I never watched quidditch and… I'm intending to get in Hufflepuff team next year."

"On what position?" Asked Fred… or was that George?

"You do have the body of a seeker. Or maybe… maybe a beater, like us!" Said George. That was certainly George, she could tell. "I can't believe you didn't come to Gryffindor with us! You must be the first Weasley to not be in Gryffindor!"

"Yes, but my mom was a Hufflepuff too. And she's your mom's sister, you should know."

"They didn't talk much about aunt Violet. Everyone thought she was dead or something, after running away." Said Ron.

"Well, she was a Hufflepuff. Anyway, you should teach me how to play quidditch properly on summer break. I do want to be either a beater or a seeker."

"We can teach you!" The twins said at the same time. "If you spend part of summer break with us!" Lily grinned and nodded at them. She would love it. Ever since her father had died, Lily had been longing to feel part of a family, even though she never voiced this feeling. She occasionally thought about it, wondering why she felt lonely sometimes.

"That would be lovely."

"For now, I'll give you a tip about the broomsticks for today's class. Don't rationalize it. Feel it." Said George. Was that really George?

Lily swallowed dry. How was she supposed to feel instructions? It made no sense at all, but something told her it was supposed to be like that. She was supposed to feel the flying instead of following instructions. Maybe it was somehow like riding a bike, maybe it would simply happen when she was ready.

Truth was Lily had never truly learned how to ride the bike. Her father had tried to teach her, and technically she could do it, but she would lose control easily. Or get tired really fast. Or simply get bored. But broomsticks didn't sound boring at all. Nor did they look like one had to make true effort to ride. And especially didn't look like something someone could afford to lose control and perhaps the pressure would be something on her favor.

The first flying lesson would be just after breakfast, previous to the potions lesson. There would be occasional flying lessons throughout the year and Hufflepuff would finally share some time with Ravenclaw, even though the two houses were usually rivals. Lily and Hector had to try really hard to ignore their housemates' comments about their friendship in the past two weeks. In fact, it was already getting painfully hard, especially for Lily since it wasn't the only disagreement she had with her classmates. Her admiration towards professor Snape was a source of great displeasure to both her house and Hector.

"Lily, are you ready?" Hector arrived at Gryffindor table with an annoyed look.

The Ravenclaws nearly didn't share any period with the Hufflepuffs, except for the Flying lessons. So Hector and Lily only had time together between the last class of the day and the curfew. It truly annoyed both of them and they constantly spent time planning on ways to communicate through the common rooms. The best way they could find was, of course, was through Helga, but the owl was always too busy taking letters to Edinburgh and they had to write to each other at night by tying a piece of parchment to Plushy's neck.

"Yes, I'll be going in a minute." She said, finishing her hot chocolate as fast as she could to join Hector in his way outside. It was comfortably warm and sunny outside, so the idea of flying sounded perfect to Lily. "Aren't you happy we are learning to fly?"

"Not really. I don't really like heights."

"Really? I didn't know that. I don't think you ever mentioned." Lily truly didn't recall any time Hector had said he didn't like heights. He didn't seem annoyed when they went to the Edinburgh castle towers with Lily's father.

"Well… One thing is being up a solid place… But a broomstick..."

"Don't worry, I don't think madam Hooch will ask us to go too high." She laughed. He didn't.

"Tell that to the Longbottom boy."

"Oh, Ron reckons every sort of thing happens to Neville. I don't think anything like that will be happening again." Lily poked his cheek with her index finger. Hector didn't really smile at this, instead he pushed her hand. "What's wrong?"

"It's just that… you wouldn't understand anyway." He said in a low voice, looking down.

"What are you talking about? You know you can tell me everything."

"It's ok..." He muttered something else, but Lily didn't understand. He was clearly miserable, for some reason.

The Ravenclaws were already there and the Hufflepuffs were coming through the door, a few meters behind Hector and Lily. About twenty broomsticks were lying on the grass. Madam Hooch was already there. She was an old lady, with grey hair and yellow cat-like eyes, who seemed a little angry about everything.

"What are you waiting for? Stand beside one broom and speak 'up', until the broom goes up to your hand."

Lily and Hector stood near each other, placed one hand over their brooms and started repeating "Up, up, up."

Lily's broom didn't take too long to jump to her hand. She had remembered the thing about feeling the broomsticks instead of rationalizing the instructions. As for Hector, it didn't matter how he thought about it, he would hardly understand the feeling-over-thinking idea. He was obsessive about rationalizing things, which was the thing that worried Lily the most about his behaviour earlier. The boy would hardly ever allow himself to act that way and would always try and put his feelings into words. Just opposite to Lily, who would always feel her way into or out of everything.

It took Hector five minutes to get the broom to jump to his hand. But he wasn't the last one to do it. In fact, he was among the first ones. Susan also managed to do it fast enough. Padma Patil, who had a twin sister in Gryffindor, was having a true issue. The broomstick seemed to shake on the grass, but never went up.

Over twenty minutes later, everyone finally managed to get their broomsticks.

"Now, I want you to climb the brooms and, at the sound of my whistle, you will jump from the ground, go up just a few feet, and then come back down at the sound of my whistle." She said. "Three… Two… One." And she blew the whistle.

Lily calmly jumped. And so did Hector. And Susan. And all the twenty children were suddenly about six feet in the air, floating on the brooms. Padma Patil seemed to have some trouble with balance, and so did half of the Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs. Hector was very firm on his broom, but he seemed to be holding onto it so hard, his hands simply had to be hurting. As for Lily, the twin's advice couldn't make more sense than when she was actually flying. It was about feeling it. She could feel the air around her, she could feel the slight movements of the broom. And she could control it perfectly. She even tried to move around, leaning from side to side, flying the broom to whatever side and angle she wanted.

"Look, Hector!" she yelled, doing a pirouette in midair. "We're flying!"

"Y-yes, we are… " he answered, looking down in panic. "Well, you are! I'm just trying not to fall." he nearly lost his balance, but Lily didn't quite apprehend what was going on around her at the moment.

"Don't worry, Hector! You can't get any lower than the ground if you fall." she yelled, doing yet another pirouette.

"E-easy for you to talk!"

"Relax, Hector!"

And then madam Hooch blew her whistle once again, and then all the students got down to the ground again.

"Well, very good for a first time. You all managed to get your brooms and get them to the air. And five points to Boyd for your maneuvers!" She cheered, her yellow eyes sparkling. Lily smiled from ear to ear, as happy as she could be. She wanted to be able to fly more than anything ever since her mother had told about flying and broomsticks.

"Well, well, look at the time. Class dismissed!" Said madam Hooch. And everyone left to the great hall for lunch time.

"Did you see it, Hector? I made it! And I even got five points to Hufflepuff!"

"Oh, yeah, yeah, great." She had never heard him being so cynical in her entire life. "Look, I'll be going to library to finish my potions essay, you know? I mean, if you even know how to do them, since you are all friends with Snape now!"

"You too?!" Lily shouted. "I'm not friends with anyone, I'm just interested on potions!"

"Oh, yes? Then explain why you are the only one outside Slytherin who managed to get points in his class? Tell me why you keep following him. Tell me why you like so much a terrible person who bullies everyone. Tell me why you never talk to me, but still find time to go to his office, get detention and lose points and still be happy about it!" He was yelling very loud and speaking very fast.

"I don't care what you think about what I do, but I am using all my time to study and understand things properly! I'm sorry if you are jealous." Something was burning inside Lily. Whatever it was, it was also in Hector' eyes.

"I'm not! In fact, I- I don't want to be near you!" The boy pushed her.

"Fine, I don't want to be near you either!" She pushed back. And Hector walked away to the library.

Resolved that she would not regret whatever she had said, Lily left to the great hall for lunch. She would have potions lesson just afterwards, and Snape was a good teacher, but it was really hard to catch the content of his lessons if one wasn't fully focused on it. She sat beside Susan to eat, half blinded by tears, but she held them back as she swallowed the food and the juice in the goblet.

"Do you think we'll be able to finish that potion we started last week?" Asked Susan. Their cure-for-boils potion did look way more blue than it should, according to the book.

"I suppose we will. I think we didn't add enough ginger, that's all." Lily poked the food with her fork.

"Are you alright?"

"Yes, yes. Just an argue with Hector." She replied in a low voice, with her bottom lip shaking. "He's being an idiot today."

"Don't worry. He's angry that you've been doing better on potions and flying." Said Cedric, who was sitting across the table with two other friends. "I heard you did really good today, Lily. We'll be happy to have you in Hufflepuff team next year."

"Oh, she did great! She's a natural! You had to see it, Cedric, she even did some pirouettes!" Susan squealed. "I heard Hufflepuff hasn't been doing too well on the last cups… "

"Indeed. We do need to renew our team. Most of the players are about to graduate." Said a girl on fourth year, sitting two meters from Lily and Susan. "And it wouldn't be bad if we got one or two natural talents in it."

"If we are lucky, we can even manage to get you in the team this year. I mean, no one never did on first year, but..." Said Jeanne Kenyon, the Hufflepuff seeker.

"She would need to do even better than Potter yesterday to stand a chance on quidditch team as a first year. Just imagine her, this size, playing against the Slytherins. We would have to send whatever's left of her to hospital wing in a match box." Replied Cedric, trying to swallow a chunk of meat a little too big for his mouth.

"Lily was amazing. She was the only one doing maneuvers in first class." Insisted Susan, now completely uninterested on the remaining food on her plate.

"It's different. I showed natural skills on broom. I would have to be perfect for some position to make my way into a team.."

"Well… Not that we couldn't ask to put her in the team. But without professor Sprout's permission, there's no way we could do it, even if just as a substitute. Well, we would hardly be able to fit you as anything but a substitute since nobody would give up on their position." Poundered Jeanne Kenyon, with her eyes fixed on the teachers' table at the end of the hall. "I'll talk to professor Sprout and ask her if we are allowed to start training Lily as a future player." He moved to talk to the head of Hufflepuff, just as Susan pulled Lily, reckoning they were late for class.

The girls ran through the halls, trying to avoid the corridor where Peeves the poltergeist was singing and throwing chairs against the wall. Mrs. Norris, Filch's cat, who also seemed to be his extended-self, was meowing at him. Lily also caught a glimpse of Hector walking into a classroom along with Padma Patil.

They finally reached Snape's classroom and walked in. Everyone was already inside, including Snape. The man, who did look like an overgrown bat, checked his watch.

"You are five minutes late. What's your excuse?"

"Sorry, professor, we lost track of time during lunchtime." said Lily.

"Oh, yes. I bet you all lost your heads at the flying lessons. As idiots as first years usually are, they always think flying on cleaning supplies probably sounds way more interesting than potions that might as well save one's life." Snape talked in a mocking, sarcastic, low voice. "Two points from Hufflepuff, one from each. Now go to your seats."

Lily and Susan walked to the front seats, their heads as low as heads can be without falling from their necks. Both girls got their hair well tied behind their heads, even though the elastic holding Lily's bun seemed about to explode under the weight of all her curls.

Hannah Abbott and Ernie McMillan stared at them with judgmental eyes as Susan chopped ginger and Lily added the last snake fang and their potion reached the proper shade of blue.

"Did we put the right amount of everything?" asked Susan, taking her bangs back with a hair pin.

"Yes, I wrote everything down. Do you think they look similar?" Lily put the book illustration right beside their caldron.

"I believe you two have it ready. It's not too bad." Snape's low voice sent chills over the two girls' spines. He got a color chart with shades of blue from one pocket and compared to their potion. "Right shade of blue." Then he smelled it with his long hooked nose. "And the right smell. Doesn't look like it might poison anyone… Different from this one." He finished, looking back at Oliver River's potion, which was smoking and had a poisonous shade of green. "River, if you ever do anything remotely similar to that again, I'll make you feed it to your cat."

Lily was fully conscious that Snape wasn't a good example of how a teacher should act. She did hate how he talked to students, how he bullied Ron and how he favoured Slytherin. But something inside her told her to stick to him, even if she would keep a foot behind her. As he had said, she wouldn't expect him to be her friend, as he wouldn't expect her to be anything but a Hufflepuff. And being a Hufflepuff meant she should be devoted to help anyone. And Lily knew Snape needed help, so she wouldn't give up on trying to get on his good side.

The whole process took her about a month, but after all, Snape started to take interest in Lily, even though he didn't show anything behind his dead voice and sparkly dark eyes. But he no longer took any points from her, and even let her sit with him in his office and ask questions about what he was reading on his books about potions and defence against dark arts. His eyes sparkled a bit more when she asked about the last subject, which Lily did on purpose after she learned that his dream was being D.A.D.A teacher. He was never kind to her, though, nor let her get into his head by asking personal questions, but she could still feel he had grown fond of her.