Chapter 36: Learning to Fly

A/N: Sorry I've been out of action for so long. Life got very complicated for a while. But I'm back and I'm posting this short vignette to thank you for your patience. And I'll get to work on the next chapter now; I promise.

P.S. Sorry if I missed replying to some reviews!

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Severus and Kat went up onto the deck of the Knight Boat together.

"You start with a spell called Levicorpus," Severus said. "Do you know it?"

"I'm afraid not," Kat said. In fact, he'd never even heard of it. "It must be a British thing."

"Yes, I suppose it is."

Severus didn't like thinking about the origins of Levicorpus. He and Lily had worked on that spell together after he'd seen her floating from the swing so long ago, and they had perfected it during their early years at Hogwarts. He believed she had betrayed him and taught it to his enemies – how else could they have learned it? He certainly hadn't told anyone. And then they had used it against him on that horrible day. Her betrayal had hurt him beyond words.

Sadly, he would never know the truth: Lily hadn't deliberately given away their spell. She'd been practicing near the lake, levitating a doll when she thought she was alone, and James had been spying on her under his invisibility cloak. He had learned their secret then and taught it to all the Gryffindors.

"It takes a bit of practice, Kat," Severus told him. "You have to master it and learn to cast it on yourself before you can move on to flying. I'll show you how it's done."

He cast it wordlessly and rose up into the air, hovering above the deck. Then with a silent Finite he dropped back down, landing gently on his feet.

"That's the first step," he said. "Then once you're up, you have to learn to move forward."

"Levicorpus!" Kat cried excitedly, pointing his wand at himself. Up he went, rising unsteadily, until suddenly he tipped over and fell. Only by grabbing a railing did he stop himself from falling overboard. "I guess it takes a bit of practice," he muttered, looking a bit sheepish.

"Hmmm," Severus said, raising an eyebrow and folding his arms. "Maybe you should start by casting it on something other than yourself. That lazy kneazle, perhaps. But tie a rope on him first so he doesn't float away. It would annoy the captain if you lost him."

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Fawkes cackled heartily. "Poor humans!" he twittered to Mavis the parrot as they watched from a nearby perch. "They long to fly but they don't have wings. At least my Severus can do it without using pathetic contraptions the way most humans do."

"It's so nice of him to teach Kat," Mavis squawked.

"Yes, I think humans have wing-envy." Fawkes fluffed up his feathers. "They make clothing and dye it to emulate our feathers, too. But some of them actually steal our feathers to decorate themselves." He shuddered. "They've hunted some of our kind to extinction in their horrible greed."

Mavis nodded sadly.

They were quiet for a few moments, and then she said, "It's too bad that Kat has such an awful name. I mean, Kat? Why not a nice bird-name like 'Robin'? There was once a great outlaw named Robin, I've heard."

"Robin Hood? He was a bit of a booby, actually. Didn't live up to the name; it was all just an overblown legend, I'm sad to say. But Merlin, who was the greatest wizard of all, was named after a hawk. I knew him well."

"Oh yes!" Mavis twittered. "Did you know Jack Sparrow, the famed pirate of the Caribbean?"

"Captain Jack Sparrow? Oh yes, he was quite a loon. Never a dull moment when he was around," Fawkes cackled.

To be continued …