Author's Note: Hi again. I'm so super duper happy that I'm over my writer's block. I'm so glad to be back in "the flow"! It's stellar, which is my new word. Anyway, please R&R.

16

Flying

Hermione walked next to Draco, grimacing as he attempted to clean up his nose. "Do you think it's broken?" he asked.

Hermione looked at him analytically and shook her head. "I doubt it, but you've got quite a bruise spreading across your face there. What happened?"

"Run-in with my father," Draco said simply.

"Why would he be here? I thought he was busy with . . . work."

"He doesn't like you."

"Because I'm . . ."

"Not a pureblood."

"But why does it matter?"

Draco shrugged. "I don't know . . . but it does. It seems like everyone is against you and me. I don't see why they can't understand."

"I don't even think I understand. You've changed so much . . . It's shocking."

"For the better?" Draco asked.

Hermione nodded. "For the better."

When the pair reached the hospital wing, Madame Pomfrey tutted at the state of Draco's face and kept shooting suspicious glances at Hermione. "Where're Mr. Potter and Mr. Weasley, m' dear?" she asked kindly.

"In the common room, I suppose," Hermione said.

"Why aren't you with them as you always are?"

"I-"

"Prefect duties. She had to bring me here because . . . I was injured," Draco lied hastily.

Madame Pomfrey nodded, unaware that the statement made no sense. She smiled after she had finished with Draco and patted him on the arm. "All done, dearie," she said sweetly.

Draco and Hermione left the hospital wing.

"Is it just me," Draco said, "or has Madame Pomfrey gotten a little bit . . . stupider?"

Hermione nudged him in a scolding manner. "Draco, be nice. She's aging. It was inevitable that she would lose her hard veneer."

Draco shrugged. "Just wondering," he said, feigning innocence.

Hermione grinned against her will. "What do you want to do?" she asked.

"Do you know how to fly?"

Hermione laughed aloud. "Excuse me?"

"On a broom, I meant."

"Oh . . ." Hermione blushed. She had always been good at nearly everything, but flying was far from something she could even manage without potentially endangering herself. "I'm not . . . I've never really . . ." She smiled self-consciously. "No, I don't know how to fly."

Draco beamed. "Shall I teach you?"

Hermione stared at him, wide-eyed. "I don't know. I've never really been comfortable with fly-" It was too late; Draco had already grabbed her hand and was pulling her towards the Quidditch pitch.

They reached the large field in due time, and Draco got two school brooms from the storage shack that was near the entrance. "We'll start out slow," he said, looking distastefully at the frequently used objects in his hands.

"Draco . . . this doesn't seem very safe," Hermione said quietly.

Draco laughed. "It's fine. I do it all the time. It's just a matter of hanging on tight."

"But, Draco, I couldn't even get my broom to come up to my hand in first year."

"Who says you haven't improved since then?"

Hermione sighed. "Must I learn to fly?"

Draco stared at her quietly. "Do you trust me?" he asked suddenly.

Hermione bit her lip. She wasn't quite sure. After all, he had gone in less than a month from a tormenting, sly worm to a somewhat kind, less tormenting Slytherin boy. "I-I don't know," she said, shying away from his gaze.

Draco nodded as if he understood. "I know what you mean. I trust you," he said, "so I'm going to hope that you can trust me for just a short while. Then, you can go back to being slightly suspicious of my motives."

Hermione pondered this for a moment. "What if I fall?"

"We won't go too far off the ground."

Hermione screwed up her face in concentration, trying desperately to make a decision. "Fine," she sighed.

Draco grinned from ear to ear. "All right then!" he said enthusiastically, "Let's begin!"

He first taught Hermione how to properly mount her broom, claiming that she was doing it all wrong. "That's exactly how I used to put my hands. They're too close together. Spread them out," he said, taking her hands and putting them where they should have been on the broom.

He mounted his own broom and pushed his feet up and off the ground. "Did you see that?" he asked.

"No, I was looking over there," Hermione quipped, "Could you do it again please?"

Draco smiled. He repeated the movement as if she had been serious and looked over at her. "Go ahead," he said.

"But-"

"You won't be far from the ground. Just push up with your feet."

Hermione took a deep breath, closed her eyes, and pushed up. She half-expected her feet to touch the ground again, but they didn't.

"Excellent!" Draco exclaimed, "You have mastered the art of hovering!"

Hermione opened her eyes and looked down. She was floating! It wasn't quite like it had been her first time when she had gone a mere foot off the ground then panicked and dropped down again. "Draco . . ." she breathed.

"Yes?"

"How do I get down?" she asked, smiling weakly.

Draco laughed. "And I thought you remembered everything," he said, "Just lean forward."

Hermione did as Draco had said and sighed in relief as her feet touched the ground. Draco followed her lead. "Now, that wasn't so bad, was it?" he said, giving her a quick peck on the cheek.

Hermione smiled. "I suppose not," she agreed.

"Ready for another go?" Draco asked, hopping onto his broom again.

Hermione nodded reluctantly and went through the motions. She soon found herself in the air again. "Now what?"

"Now we fly."

Hermione gulped.

"Don't worry; we won't go any higher than this for now," Draco assured her, allowing his broom to drift towards hers.

"Right . . . So, um, how do I go about it? Moving on this thing, I mean."

"Well it's sort of a combination of tilting your broom up a ways and leaning forward at the same time," Draco said.

Hermione tried to do that but found that the two actions combined cancelled each other out and she ended up in relatively the same place as before.

"Draco . . . it's not working," she said.

"I can see that . . . Maybe it would be easier if we were to share a broom," Draco offered.

"Share a broom?" Hermione asked sceptically, "Are you sure one broom would hold us both?"

"Positive," Draco said, dismounting and taking his broom back to the storage area. When he returned, Hermione was on the ground again, staring out at the field with the broom in her hand.

Draco came up be hind her and wrapped his arms around her waist from behind. "Ready for another go?" he asked her, resting his head on her shoulder.

Hermione nodded with as much reluctance as she had the first time he had asked her that question. She mounted the broom, and Draco got on behind her, putting his arms around he in order to reach the front of the broomstick. "Comfortable?" he asked. Hermione shook her head.

Draco laughed and kicked off after making sure that everyone was holding on tight. They rose higher and higher, and Hermione became more and more tense. "Draco, don't go any higher," she said, looking down and feeling a sinking feeling in her stomach; they were at least thirty feet off the ground.

Draco stopped rising and began to fly around the stadium, and Hermione began to get used to the swooping feeling she got in her solar plexus whenever he decided to take a dive or fly a bit higher.

Author's Note: Please please PLEASE review! It would be totoally stellar if you did!