Chapter 4.
Flying Lessons.
It was a Saturday, which was surprising because Auri thought this day would never come. She had her share of assignments, angry professors, and essays for the week. She was relaxing in the Common Room, finishing her reading on Quidditch with the book Dumbledore gave her. She saw Harry walk into the room with bed-hair in his pajamas yawning and snickered. Auri laid the book on a table and quickly walked up to him.
"G'morning, Harry!" she said rather cheerfully.
"Huh? Erm… Good Morning," he said meekly.
"Will you teach me how to play Quidditch?" she said instantly, her eyes pleading.
"Quidditch?" he stopped in his tracks as if frozen to the spot. "Well… can you fly?"
She sighed and admitted, "I've never been on a broom before." He stared at her wide-eyed and then his lips curled into a noticeable smirk, "I can't help you there."
"Please? Will you teach me to fly?" she clasped her hands together. "Please, Harry?"
"Have you got a broom?" he said, the smirk not slipping of his face.
"No," she replied through gritted teeth. "But the school has brooms."
"That will be five magic ones per day," Harry said as he held out his hand. She pushed his arm away and growled, "You know I haven't any money."
"Well then," he turned his back on her and walked away. "I guess I can't teach you."
She watched him, her arms curled into tight fists and tears burning her eyes. Auri couldn't hold it any longer and cried, "Harry you bastard! Why do you hate me so much?"
He froze and slowly turned to face her. "What?" he said faintly.
"Why do you hate me so much?" she cried, tears running down her face.
"Why would you think I hated you? Disliked, but not hated," she noticed a note of surprise in his voice.
"No, you hate," she said firmly, her voice trembling. "What have I ever done to you?"
He said nothing. Auri withdrew her wand from her robes and shouted, "Expellamus!" Harry landed harshly against the wall, rubbing the back of his head.
"Why did you do that?" he said angrily, now withdrawing his own wand and pointing it at her.
"Because now, I hate you," she replied calmly.
"Good to know," he muttered, getting up. He stood there a moment and rolled his eyes, "Fine. I'll help you."
"Wonderful," Auri grinned. "You can start by getting dressed. Meet me by the Quidditch field." She returned to the girl's dormitories and searched for Hermione, who was sitting on her bed and reading Life of the Unknown: How to Handle Pesky Pixies.
"Guess what?" she said, her eyes sparkling. "Harry's teaching me to fly."
"What?" Hermione said, finally looking up from her book.
"Harry's teaching me to fly," Auri repeated excitedly. "It's going to be wonderful. I've always dreamt of playing Quidditch."
"I never knew you liked Quidditch," Hermione said, returning to her book.
"I just learned- I mean, I've got to go. Off to the field," she fumbled with the right words and sprung out of the room and into the breakfast hall. She was so eager that she ate a spoonful of oatmeal and a bite of apple and ran for the field. It was very cold outside and she wished she had brought the single jacket that she owned with her. Auri jogged towards a small storage house and pulled out a random broomstick. It was old and quite shabby looking. She thought of exchanging it, but then she remembered that the entire storage house was filled with broomsticks that weren't in their best shapes. She was examining it and wondering how it was possible to fly on such a thing when Harry appeared on the field with his new and rather distinguished Nimbus200.
"You came," she said, observing his broomstick.
"You made the impression that if I didn't come, you would duel me every waking day," Harry retorted.
"Hmm," she grunted, crossing her arms on her chest.
"I suppose you know the basics of flying. That was one of the first things ever taught when you were a first year," Harry said gruffly.
"No, I don't," she replied a matter-of-factly.
"Well then," he sighed. "Mount your broom and push off the ground. It's kind of obvious how you operate it. The broom is kind of like a horse. You use your feet and arms to move it left and right. I'll be right behind you."
Auri nodded and licking her lips nervously, pushed off the ground and rose into the air. She felt her heart thump loudly and screamed into the air, feeling a heavy breeze on her face. Auri did a sharp right turn and glanced behind her back. Harry was nowhere near her as he had promised. She felt her ears turn red from anger and stared straight ahead. It was beginning to get foggy, and Auri was encompassed in a white sheet of endless clouds. Her shoulders shivered from the cold and she licked her dry lips, trying to concentrate. She slammed into something hard and smooth, fingering the surface, and slipped off the broom, tumbling down … down…. down… The last thing she saw was the sudden burst of sunlight and the endless landscape of white distant clouds.
Auri woke up at the Hospital Wing, her arm bandaged heavily, seeping with blood, and found Hermione, Ron and Harry at her side.
"How're you feeling?" Ron said apprehensively. "You had a hell of a fall."
"I'm alright," Auri croaked and knew it was a lie. Her body was numb and stinging, and her right arm was immovable.
"When you fell… Professor Snape was at his desk and he said he saw… blood on his window where your hand was," Hermione said hesitantly.
"Oh…" she smiled meekly.
"I'm sorry," Harry finally spoke up, not looking up at her.
"I know," she said quietly. "You promised you would be there if I messed up."
"Guess I did," he said uneasily.
Madam Pomfrey bustled out of her office with a green bottle and spoon, ushering the visitors out of the hospital wing.
"Well, my dear," she said, unscrewing the cap and pouring its contents onto the spoon. "You've had yourself quite a fall. You're in for a rough night, it's no secret." The spoon made its way into Aurora's mouth and she winced and stuck out her tongue in disgust, the liquid burning her throat.
"Now close your eyes and go to sleep," Madam Pomfrey said soothingly.
Aurora obeyed and almost instantly drifted off into a heavy slumber.