A/N: Enjoy!

~~ trust me (you'll fly high) ~~

"Alright, class!" Oliver declared as he walked through the two lines of first-year students. Their brooms were carefully lined up in front of them. "You're going to make your brooms fly into yours hands!"

The class looked up nervously at him. Oliver smiled reassuringly at them. This was his favourite moment of the year; when he finally got the first-years in front of their first brooms and watched them soar into the air. Their cries of joy and excitement always brought a smile to his face.

But, for a few of them, those raised in the Wizarding world. there was also another emotion in their eyes: admiration. Truth be told, he quite enjoyed the quiet whispers of: 'he was Puddlemere United's best Keeper' or 'it's thanks to him we won the World Cup four times in a row.' It always made him so glad that some of his fame had followed him.

It also helped that he usually started with an impressive demonstration of flying skills, that filled even the Muggle-borns' eyes with awe and amazement.

"I want you to say 'UP!' And as if you mean it!" he told them.

Towards the end of his professional career, he'd gotten a letter from Minerva telling him that the sports professor's spot was open, and he'd quickly applied before anyone else could take it. And though he'd wondered for a moment if he really wanted to work with kids again, he quickly realised he was meant for this, just a few months into the job.

And, the great thing was that, for some reason, the school had decided that sport lessons shouldn't just be for the first-years, so all of the years now had to have class with him. While Oliver was an expert in flying, he enjoyed teaching all of those cute little Purebloods things like football, or gymnastics.

"Are you all ready?" he asked, and a dozen eager faces nodded back at him.

"Yes, sir!" some even exclaimed.

"On my mark. GO!"

A chorus of 'UP!'s rose up and the brooms all started to lift. Oliver had begged Minerva to get new brooms when he'd taken the post up, so none of the students were struggling, much unlike when he himself had had his first lesson. Though he'd been flying a broom before his time at Hogwarts, he knew he'd had trouble with the old rickety school brooms.

"Don't get on it yet, Samuel!" Oliver warned as he saw one of them attempt to fly.

"But, sir—"

"Samuel."

"Alright, sir."

Everyone seemed to be doing okay, apart from one girl at the end of the line, but Oliver decided he would take care of it later. Instead he gave the next instructions.

"Alright, you can get on your brooms. Tilt them slightly upwards to lift off the ground."

Soon all of them were rising off the ground, laughing. Oliver had cast some charms so that they couldn't go very far, but still kept an eye on them. There were about twenty cushioning-charms on all of them—which had a few of the more experienced kids grumbling—but they were better safe than sorry.

Oliver made his way towards the only girl who was still struggling with her broom.

"Mina, right?" he asked once he got to her.

The girl nodded and wiped her eye with her sleeve. From her robes, he saw that she was a Slytherin.

"Have you ever been on a broom before?"

She shook her head.

"That's alright," Oliver told her kindly. It wasn't unusual for Muggle-borns to panic completely in front of their first brooms. Usually a bit of reassurance was all that was needed. "It's just like a roller-coaster, and you'll be just as safe."

Mina looked up at him with wide worried eyes. "What's a roller-coaster?"

"You—You don't know what a roller-coaster is?" Oliver asked, surprised. "Are you not Muggle-born?"

She shook her head again. "I'm Pureblood."

Oliver blushed, a little ashamed he'd immediately assumed the girl was muggle-born. Blood didn't matter anymore, but this sort of assumption brought back prejudice from a time when things were less than fantastic.

"Well, do you want to show me your 'UP!', so I can see what's happening?" he offered.

Once again, she shook her head, and refused to say a word.

"Don't you want to try to fly?" Oliver was surprised. He'd never had a student straight up refuse to try.

More silence.

"It's safe, I promise. You won't hurt yourself," he told her.

The girl's face suddenly turned red, a terrible red full of rage and anger. "I don't believe that!" she yelled. Then, she burst out into subs and ran away back towards the castle.

"Mina!" Oliver called, trying to chase his student, but Samuel suddenly swooped right over his head. "Samuel! Slow down!"

The girl was too far for him to reach without abandoning the class. Oliver was completely shaken by her reaction. That had never happened to him. And there was such an intensity in the girl's eyes, it had taken him aback. He wondered what was so horrible about flying that the girl had had that extreme of a reaction.

Oliver paused in the corridor as he saw a familiar head pass by. "Mina, wait!" he called.

The girl stopped and turned to look at him. He'd been meaning to talk to her all week, but so far, he hadn't managed to find her. He was glad to have found her in the corridors.

"Professor Wood?"

"I've been meaning to talk to you."

She looked up at him expectantly, but he could tell she would rather be anywhere else but here. Oliver looked for the right words to say, but couldn't find anything. He wasn't very good with words, after all.

"Why are you scared of flying?" he asked, rather abruptly.

Mina recoiled. "How could you tell?" Her voice was full of fear and mistrust. Oliver internally face-palmed. This was why you had to pick your words carefully; he didn't want her thinking he was her enemy.

"I'm your teacher, I can tell," he told her. "And don't worry, it's completely fine to be afraid of flying. I still have a friend who has to mentally prep for half-an-hour before she gets on one."

Hermione Granger, though she was brilliant in many things, had indeed never taken to flying and was still rather scared of the broomstick.

Mina hesitated.

"You can trust me," Oliver promised.

Finally, she opened up. "My brother—My brother broke his spine after falling on a broom. He can't go to Hogwarts because of that," she admitted in a small voice.

Oliver did his best not to let his mouth open in shock. How had he not known that? He read each other his students' files with the utmost attention, and yet this had escaped his notice. Or worse, it wasn't mentioned. He'd have to alert Minerva and the rest of the staff if that was the case. But it all made sense now, why Mina was so reticent. Of course she wasn't going to want to go on a broom, why it was an enemy for her.

"Can I go now?" she asked.

"Oh, uh... Of course, Mina. Thank you for your honesty," he managed to say, still taken aback by the revelation.

She bobbed her head, and ran after her friends who were down the corridor.

Oliver knew he had to do something for her, get her over her fear of flying. While it was true that there were some unfortunate accidents that would never happen at school, and she was missing out on such a thrill. Suddenly, an idea came to him…

"Mina, you're dismissed from sports," Oliver declared at the next lesson.

"I am?" she exclaimed, surprised.

"She is?" Samuel shouted. "I wanted to be dismissed, too!"

"Me too!" most of the class clambered.

"But I expect you to meet me here every Tuesday and Thursday at 6 PM," he added. The protests from the class significantly died down after that announcement, and they turned back to their warm up.

Mina looked up at him curiously. "Why?"

"Oh, you'll see." Oliver smiled and she shrugged.

As she made her way back towards the castle, Oliver began to give the instructions to the rest of the students. A few of them groaned, and shot longing looks at Mina's retreating figure, but he knew this was for the best.

Oliver grinned as he saw Mina appear at the edges of the Quidditch pitch, which had been transformed into different sports ground: there was a football pitch, a basketball court, and they could even magic a swimming-pool into existence when the Black Lake was too cold in the winter.

"Come on!"

"What are we going to do?" Mina asked nervously. Thankfully, he saw that she had had the good sense to put her sports gear on.

Oliver picked up the ball from under his foot. "Ever played football?"

She shook her head, frowning. "No… What's that?"

"A Muggle sport, you'll like it."

He kicked the ball over to her, and he was surprised to see her easily catch into between her feet.

"But what's this got to do with flying?"

"Who said anything about flying? Now, kick it back to me."

Mina complied, and soon they were easily kicking it back to each other. About half-an-hour later, she was smiling and laughing, and, just as Oliver had planned, the Gryffindor Quidditch team began to make its way off the pitch. When they saw the game of football Mina and him, their eyes lit up.

"Can we play, too, Professor?" Rebecca Jones asked him.

And soon, they were having a full-blown game, and Mina was laughing, completely unaware of how this was going to help her get over her fear of the broom.

Over the next couple of weeks, they tried basketball, did some gymnastics and swam a few laps, and while Mina was enjoying herself, Oliver knew she was still very confused about these extra sports lessons.

"But why am I doing this?" she asked him one Thursday afternoon. The sky was getting darker and darker, as Hallowe'en was slowly approaching.

"You'll see."

This time, he made her do wall-climbing, which she positively excelled at, and he knew immediately the problem really wasn't heights at all. They practised yoga, for stability, and during one of the weekends, he even convinced a bunch of students to join them for a hike in the mountains surrounding Hogwarts.

"It's beautiful, here, isn't it?" he asked her once they reached the top of the mountain.

Mina was admiring the scenery. "Wow, everything looks so much more beautiful from up here."

"I know." Oliver smiled. Things were going exactly as he had planned.

It was Hallowe'en and the first Quidditch match of the year was about to take place; Gryffindor-Slytherin: an absolutely legendary match. Even though rivalry between houses had diminished a lot over the course of the last couple of years, so much that everyone was basically friends with everyone, Gryffindor and Slytherin still positively detested each other on the Quidditch pitch. It was going to be a very promising match.

Already, the students were milling into the bleachers, all chatting excitedly. Oliver spotted just who he was looking for: the small figure of a girl looking quite uncomfortable.

"Mina!" he beckoned her over.

She smiled when she saw him calling her, and hurried over to him. "Professor?"

"Do you want to be here?"

She shifted her eyes. "Not really," she admitted.

Suddenly, Rebecca Jones appeared on their left and smiled brightly when she saw the two of them. "Mina!" she exclaimed. "You came to watch us!"

The Gryffindor team was now a usual addition to their extra sports lessons, and often hung around for a game of footie or two.

"Yeah…" Mina said, and Oliver could hear the nervousness in her voice. He noticed she was looking anxiously at the broomstick in Rebecca's hands. The other girl noticed the attention on her broomstick, but not the fear.

"Like my broomstick?" she asked. "It's a Nimbus 2020, safest and fastest thing out there! Want to try?"

Mina quickly shook her head and Rebecca simply laughed. "You don't know what you're missing."

Oliver chuckled, too. Rebecca's good nature and obliviousness was exactly what he needed. However, the game was about to start, and the Slytherins were all coming onto the pitch, too. Zaid el-Rad, the captain from Slytherin glared at them as he passed by.

"Trying to steal secrets from one of ours, Jones?" he growled at Rebecca.

"In your dreams," she replied in exactly the same tone.

Both captains were called onto the pitch by Professor Flitwick's whistle, who was going to referee the game. Mina quickly said goodbye, anxious to find her friends again, but Oliver caught her just before she could leave.

"Promise me you'll look at them," he asked her.

She hesitated.

"Just look at how happy they are."

"Okay, professor."

He let her go after that, hoping it would be enough to have her try to pay attention to the game. Both teams started with an impressive demonstration of team flying; they swooped, ducked, moved in perfect unison, much like a flock of birds. It truly was fascinating to watch.

Oliver snuck a small glance at his protégée, and saw that Mina, too, was looking up at the sky, a look of amazement, admiration and awe on her face. He smiled to himself. Yes, this was exactly what had to happen.

The rest of the game went relatively smoothly—though foul play was strictly forbidden, and more child appropriate bludgers had been introduced, it was a Slytherin-Gryffindor match, and things could still get ugly. Thankfully, no one fell from their broom, or got hurt in any other way.

It was, overall, a very entertaining match, and he hoped Mina had enjoyed it, too.

It was the last week before the Autumn break—something new, they hadn't had that back in Oliver's day, but Muggle parents had complained, and their darling children now had more holidays—but Oliver knew exactly what they were going to do today.

"It's the big day!" he exclaimed when Mina turned up for their lesson.

Mina raised a worried eyebrow. "What does that mean?"

Oliver smiled even brighter. "Today, we're doing—this!"

He brought out a broom from behind his back, and showed it to her. Mina paled a little, but she didn't faint to the floor—not that he'd expected her too, that girl was tough, but he wouldn't have liked to wake her up after that.

"Oh, no, no, no," she started to say.

"Look, Mina. You trust me, don't you?"

She nodded, but still looked unsure.

"You trust Rebecca?"

She nodded again. Mina and Rebecca had become friends, and she'd seen the older girl take the younger one under her wing on more than one occasion.

"And you saw how much fun the teams had during the game."

Mina hesitated, but finally nodded again.

"And you saw how wonderful their flying was."

She smiled. "Well, it's just so wonderful! I didn't know you could do that with a broom."

Oliver sighed internally when he heard her say that. Artistic gymnastic, ice-skating and synchronised swimming had all appealed to the girl when he'd showed them to her on the rickety old magic-television from the sports department. He'd hoped she was going to see that.

"So you know how great flying is, then!"

"I—I don't know."

Oliver laid the broom on the floor. "The only thing you don't trust is the broomstick, and you're getting over that today."

"But—my brother…"

Oliver looked into the girl's worried eyes. "Mina, I'm really sorry for your brother. What happened to him was horrible, and terribly unfair. But accidents almost never happen, and all sports have their risks. I promise you won't be hurt on this one. There are so many cushioning charms even in the extremely unlikely situation of you falling,l it would be like landing on a huge marshmallow."

She laughed a bit at the metaphor.

"And," he continued," I'll be with you every step of the way. You know I would never, ever let you fall or get her. I know it's a huge leap of faith, but I know you can do this."

Mina nodded, but he could see her legs trembling. "Alright."

Oliver grinned. "You know the magic word."

Mina's voice wavered as she ordered the broom 'UP!' Oliver knew it was too feeble for the broom to lift, so he silently spelled the broom to lift off the ground. Mina looked surprised, and he could almost see the boost of confidence in her eyes, when the broom shot up to her hand, he knew he had made the right decision.

"Now, you get on," he prompted her softly.

Oliver took his own broom, and mounted it. As she hesitated, he silently checked that all the charms were in place, but all was good. Finally, the girl plucked her courage and swung a leg over her broom.

"Well done!" he exclaimed. "And now, just tilt it upwards."

Mina took a deep breath. Oliver could read the fear in her eyes, and the mistrust of the broomstick. "I—I" she started, panic slowly gaining her. "I don't—"

"Trust the broom, Mina. You can do it," he told her.

"But—"

"Trust it. Nothing will happen to you, I promise."

Mina gulped and very cautiously tilted the broom upwards. Shock filled her eyes, and she gave a little cry as she lifted off the ground. Oliver took off too, going at her slow pace.

"Oh, Merlin! I'm doing it!" Mina exclaimed.

"You are, you are!"

Mina whooped, her mistrust completely disappearing, and Oliver couldn't help but laugh. Now, this, this, was his absolute favourite thing about being a teacher. Pride and admiration for his student filled his heart. He was so ridiculously happy for her.

"THIS IS AMAZING!" Mina yelled as she gained speed.

"Don't go too quickly!" Oliver cautioned, but they were both grinning, and he could tell she had never felt this free.

The two zoomed around the pitch. The girl seemed to be effortless on her broom, once she'd gotten rid of her initial mistrust. Oliver suddenly wondered if Mina wouldn't make a wonderful addition for the Slytherin Quidditch team, one day. After all, now that she'd trusted the broomstick once, who knew what she would do next? He was confident that this girl could do anything, if she wanted to, and maybe, one day, Oliver would be the one admiring her wonderful flying skills.

IWSC - Round 6

Hogwarts - Trusting Uncertainty - Write about a character that must trust their enemy (that enemy can be a person, an object, a mindset, etc.).

Mandatory prompt: [Character] Oliver Wood

Additional prompt: [Emotion] Admiration

Year: Year 4 (I think I'm a permanent stand-in now?)

WC: 3,097