*

"Sammy, are you sure this is safe?" Lily whispered worriedly biting her lip.

"Trust me, Lily. Flying is the easiest thing on the planet. It's even easier than Charms."

"I'm not so sure about –"

"Hey, everyone!" called a sweet voice.

All heads turned towards the pretty, smiling brunette that had now approached them, alongside a wizened witch. She was clearly a seventh year, for she had a shiny Head Girl badge pinned to her robes. Her eyes were a soft gray, with just the slightest tinge of hazel.

"First years, this is Violet Brown," said the old lady. "She is the Ravenclaw Quidditch Captain and our Head Girl this year. I have some business to attend to with some of the school brooms and the owls," her eyes flickered towards where James, Sirius, and Peter were standing, grinning mischievously, "and therefore, she will be taking over for your first flying lesson. Violet, dear, do take care that they don't misbehave. And if punishment is necessary," her eyes swept around the room, taking all of their faces, "I am sure Professor Tootlebeck and Professor McGonagall will have enough time to write out the detentions."

She turned on her heel and left everyone staring at Violet with a look of eleven-year-old-fear on their faces. She smiled at them all, hoping that it would make them more at ease, but it didn't.

"Well, I've got to warn you all. Madam Hooch is a bit of a – grouch. Um, well, like she said, I'm the Ravenclaw Quidditch Captain and the Head Girl. Um, I'm a Seeker on the Quidditch team, and – well, any questions before we begin?"

Sirius slowly let his hand into the air. Sammy, who caught James' eye, looked down at the dewy grass to keep from laughing. Lily just shook her head. Violet raised an eyebrow. It was clear from the look on her face that she wasn't sure whether or not Sirius was the kind of person to ask a – decent – question at the very least. Nevertheless, she called on him.

"Um, the little black-haired twin with no glasses…" she trailed off.

Sirius narrowed his eyes just slightly, as he said, "Well, first off, I'm not little. Second, James isn't my twin. Third, my name is Sirius, and I'd prefer it if you call me by name. Fourth, are all Quidditch Captains so ditzy?"

 Lily's jaw dropped as she looked at Violet, dreading to see what would happen. The rest of the first years were roaring with laughter. Even some of the Slytherins couldn't keep themselves from having to wipe tears of mirth from their eyes. Sirius, who was keeping his face straight, a talent of his that he had acquired almost immediately after he had acquired his thirst for mischief, was looking around at everyone as though he had no clue whatsoever as to what was so funny. James was slapping him on the back and Peter was clutching his side because he was laughing so hard. Even Snape and Malfoy were biting their lips and staring at their shoes to keep from letting even the smallest hint of a smile onto their faces. Violet raised her eyebrow once more and faked a smile.

"You'll find that we're a lot harder than you think. Sirius, eh – so you're the one who wanted to know if you could get onto the Gryffindor Quidditch team as a first year…" she trailed off.

Sirius just blinked. Everyone stopped laughing. James looked up and stared hard at Sirius, and then turned to glue his eyes on Violet along with everyone else.

"Well, if you're lucky, next year Jake Wiggins will allow you onto the team," she smirked.

The Slytherins snickered from where they were standing, all laughing and pointing at Sirius. His face burned and he glared at Violet. James held onto his collar and whispered something into his ear that no one else could hear. Whatever he said, it mad Sirius calm down.

"Well, everyone, go stand by one of the brooms over there," she said pointing. When no one did anything, she said, "Well, hop to it!"

They all flinched and then ran in the direction she had pointed. Sammy, Suzanne, Sirius, and James all rushed to find a broom that was in better shape than the rest, that is to say, one that still had all its parts intact. Lily, who had no experience whatsoever with brooms, picked the one between James and Sammy.

"Well, now that you all have your brooms, I want you all to understand carefully what you're about to do. Now, I know that some of you have probably flown already, seeing as most of you come from Wizarding families. But nevertheless, we must take certain precautions… yes, um, James, isn't it?" she asked, as she saw yet another hand wave in the air.

"How about those of us who already know how to fly, just, well, fly, and teach everyone else?" James said, hesitantly.

Lily admired his nerve. She wouldn't have dared to ask such a thing at the moment, what with Violet already so mad at them.

"You know what, James? You're a lot like my brother, Bark. He graduated two years ago, and he was Quidditch Captain of Gryffindor and Head Boy. At the same time, though, he was probably the most devilish boy in his year," she said, staring long and hard at James, who shifted his weight uneasily.

"Is – is that a good thing?" he asked quietly.

"That you're like my brother – probably not. But you've got a lot of nerve, and it's my guess that you'd make a good Quidditch player. Who knows, maybe your grades will turn out to be good too," she said, flashing him a smile.

"Does anyone else think that we've got some split-personality thing going on here?" Sirius whispered into Peter's ear.

"Well, enough talk – and to answer your question, James, no. Everyone, now, you stick your right hand over the broom and say 'Up!'"

"Good luck – you'll probably need it. We'll see you in the Hospital Wing," Snape sneered over to him as the brooms soared up and into their hands.

"You shouldn't talk to yourself like that, Snape. Honestly, people are going to think you're going insane!" James said to him, batting his eyes at him in an overly-sarcastic manner.

"Aren't you forgetting something, James?" Lily broke in, eager to do her bit. "They're already insane!"

"True, true," James said, sighing and smiling at her. "But then, it's no wonder that they got into Slytherin, once you look at them from that aspect…"

"Shut your mouth, Mudblood…" Malfoy hissed under his breath.

"Will you four please keep your mouths shut while I'm speaking?" Violet snapped at them.

"Yes, Miss Brown," James said innocently.

She rolled her eyes over to them and told them to start mounting their brooms the way they were supposed to. James and Sammy knew well enough how to, so they spent the next five minutes helping Lily. Unfortunately, Sirius wasn't as kind to his neighbor, and Peter was left to figure out why he was looking at the twigs rather than the handle on his own.

"Is everyone ready?" she asked, ignoring Peter's squeals of panic. "On the count of three, kick off from the ground – now, one – two – three!"

Lily felt a rush of air as James and Sammy both soared into the air. A thrill of excitement flooded through her as she thought of soaring up among them. She tried her best to kick off too, but something was wrong. Her foot seemed to be stuck to the ground. She tried to use the other foot, but then it got stuck too. She pulled upwards with all her might, but nothing seemed to work. Then, all of a sudden, the broom itself flew straight out of her grasp and soared up into the sky. She tried to jump and catch it, but her feet were firmly planted to the ground.

"Someone – help – me!" she screamed.

Twenty feet above her, Sammy heard her yell. She flew over to where Sirius and James were helping Peter. She prodded Sirius in the back and pointed down.

"Lily's still down there. Something's wrong," Sammy said.

James, Sirius, and Sammy flew down, leaving Peter to his own devices. They found Lily stuck to the ground, with no broom in sight.

"Lily, where's your broom?" Sirius asked. "It's no wonder you can't fly. Magic can't make you do everything. You still need a broom!"

"I realized that. And I'm not trying to fly! Well, I was, but now that's pretty pointless seeing that the broom's flown away…" she trailed off.

"It flew away? Well, why didn't you tell anyone?" Sammy asked.

"Why do you think I was shouting?" Lily said rolling her eyes.

"Oh, but, you should've gone and called Violet," James said, shrugging.

"I would have, but it's kind of – impossible at the moment…" Lily said, pointing to her feet.

"What's wrong with them? All you have to do is walk –" Sammy began.

"That's the point! They're stuck!" Lily said in exasperation.

For a second, no one said anything. Then, as if on cue, all three of them burst out laughing. Lily face flushed a deep scarlet until it was as red as her hair. She narrowed her eyes and then burst out with a loud scream.

"Violet, I'm stuck to the ground and no one's helping me so I'm getting really, really, mad!"

All three stopped suddenly. They had never heard Lily scream before, and she had always seemed to be rather soft-spoken up until now, so it was rather surprising to find her screaming so shrilly all of a sudden.

"What's that? Who screamed?" Violet asked as she approached them. "Why haven't you four started flying yet? You were the ones showing off and insisting that you teach everyone else how to fly; now what's wrong?"

"Lily's stuck," Sammy explained.

"Now isn't the time to be worrying about flowers! I said get up in the air!"

"I'm not a flower!" Lily yelled again.

"What?" Violet exclaimed, slightly confused.

"My name's Lily, and my feet are stuck to the ground!"

"Come on, now; surely you're not that afraid of flying. Just mount your broom and hold on tight and nothing will happen! Trust me!" Violet said, slapping her on the back and nearly making Lily lose her balance – which, of course, she couldn't anyway since her feet were stuck.

"No, really, my feet won't move. And even if they did, the broom's gone up, up and away…" she trailed off.

"Nice try, kid, but I've seen too many people feigning that they were in similar catastrophic positions to be dumb enough to believe you," Violet said, placing her hands on her hips.

"Jeez, woman, take a hint! She's telling the bloody truth!" James said, losing all his patience.

"Oh, really, man, well, let, me test her then, man, okay?" Violet replied.

She pulled out her wand and tapped it a couple times against her palm, making a couple of gold sparks shoot out of the end, missing Sirius' ear by inches.

"Mobilicorpus!" she yelled, pointing her wand at Lily.

However, strangely enough, nothing happened. Sirius shot her a look of defiance. Violet, however, was undaunted.

"Hmm – Finite Hexodus!" she said, this time pointing at Lily's feet.

Lily felt the bond between her feet and the ground suddenly snap, sending her flying face-forward into the ground fifty feet away from the others. She stood up, her head spinning and her hands and knees scraped from her fall.

"Well?" Sirius asked.

"She was hexed. Well, I suggest you three get back up there and help your other friend. He seems to be losing his balance because he mounted his broom backwards."

Sammy shot her a sour look as all three of them turned. James and Sirius took off again to help Peter, who was nearly falling. Sammy went over to Lily.

"Are you alright?" she asked, helping her friend up.

"Unless you count the dizziness and the throbbing in my left ear, I'm just spiffy," Lily said, holding her hand to her forehead.

"Well, do you think you can try again with the kicking off part?" Sammy asked as she retied her blond hair into a loose ponytail.

"How can I? I don't have a broom anymore!" Lily exclaimed.

"Oh yeah…"

"Do you think Violet will give me another one?" Lily asked unsurely.

"I don't know. It's worth a shot. Maybe she can get the other one back…" Sammy trailed off.

"Okay, come on. I'm going to need you to help me, anyway," Lily said, grabbing her arm.

They walked a short distance until Lily realized that she had no clue as to where Violet was. Lily looked around, tapping her foot impatiently, waiting for her to show up.

"Lily – um – you might want to move…" Sammy muttered.

"No, Sammers, I'm looking for Violet," Lily said, waving her off.

"No, Lily, I suggest you move," Sammy urged, tugging on her sleeve.

"What is it?" Lily asked impatiently.

"It's that!" Sammy said pointing at something hurtling towards them. "Lily, get down!"

Both of them dropped to the ground as they waited for the object to fly over them. For some odd reason, however, it didn't. Sammy stood up and laughed. She prodded Lily, and motioned for her to stand up.

"It's the broom, Lily! It came back! Come on, let me help you, now…"

*

"Lily, it's charms time," James said, tugging on her ponytail.

"Aah, stop it!" she said, whacking him on the head with the book she had bought to help her in Astronomy, Atlas of the Heavens.

"Fine, I will. But come already…" he said, grabbing her arm and threatening to drag her away.

There was a loud thump as Lily's chair fell backwards; causing her to do a backwards somersault, her legs flying through the air. She stood up, red-faced and glaring at James and still clutching her textbook.

"Come on, already – before I pull your hair again!" he threatened.

"Okay, fine – but – what do you want me to do?" she asked, puzzled, as she fixed her hair again.

"Help me. What else would you do?" James asked, scratching his head.

"It's not that simple, James…"

"It is for you," he replied, shrugging.

"Hey, you two – what're you doing?" Sammy asked, walking down the stairs from the girls' dormitories.

"He's teaching me how to teach him," Lily said, rolling her eyes in exasperation. (A/N: Lol – Stef – reie – I got that from you, by the way!)

"Well, isn't he supposed to be in detention again for doing something or other? Was it for the whole thing with the brooms and the owls that Madam Hooch was on about?" Sammy asked, in a tone of someone who was suddenly being enlightened.

"The detention's on Friday, Sam," he said casually.

Sammy and Lily exchanged glances, and then burst out laughing. James settled for being innocently confused. What was it with girls and giggling? Even boys like him never burst out laughing whenever they felt like it. (A/N: Lol – get it? Girls – giggling… Boys – burst out laughing! Ha – I crack myself up… well, not really, but you know what I mean! You guys do get it, don't you? They both start with the same letter! *smiles with satisfaction as she watches all the little light bulbs turn on as they hover over everyone's heads*)

"What is it?" James asked finally.

"Today is Friday, you idiot!" they said together, giggling again when they saw James' expression.

"Holy shit – catch you guys later! I've got to run!" he said.

And run he did. He was out of the Common Room in a flash, and he ran down the halls oblivious to the scolds of the Fat Lady on proper manners when opening and closing doors – namely their Portrait Hole door.

*