Three days, Ryot thought to himself, since the first full day- since Wolfbane started acting weird- and he hasn't said a word to me. So much for friendship, I guess.

The prospect of Wolfbane just shrugging him off like that hurt. Yeah, they had only known each other for a couple hours, but Ryot had genuinely believed that they were going to be friends forever. Ryot supposed that this scenario was kind of like meeting another child at the playground and becoming good friends, only for the parents to say 'Okay! Time to go home!", with no such promise of ever seeing that friend again.

The red-haired boy sat in the Gryffindor common room, once again secluding himself from the hustle and bustle. He had made several acquaintances since the first day, but he wasn't close enough to any of them to be invited to their little groups. Ryot understood the mentality (he was, after all, the new kid among people who had been friends since they were 11), but it still stung that he wasn't invitation worthy.

The only Gryffindor who had actively tried to interact with him was a fourth year girl named Abbey Vencie. She had shown him around the common room on the first night, and had drummed up conversation with him every now and then. The girl was actually pretty funny, which was refreshing.

(An added benefit to their fledgling friendship- which Ryot hoped was more than a playground tryst- would be that she was a muggle-born, which meant that she knew all of the good songs Ryot listened to before attending Hogwarts.)

Deciding that he had had enough self-isolation for the time being, Ryot gave up his comfy seat in favor of finding Abbey. It was a Saturday, and it was a weird out-of-the-blue cold day, which meant Abbey was going to be inside. Then again, in the short time he had known her, Abbey had sufficiently shown that she did not conform to any kind of logical thought.

Eh, what the hell, Ryot thought to himself, a walk will be good.

He ran upstairs to grab his jacket and scarf, and then left the common room to start his search.

Abbey wasn't in the library studying, nor was in the Great Hall. Ryot checked everywhere he could think of, and none of them yielded the results that he wanted.

"How the hell are you supposed to find anyone in this damned castle of a school?" Ryot mumbles to himself, stuffing his hands in his pockets. It had been hard enough when he went to regular muggle public school, and now there was three times as much space he had to look around in for one person.

As if he had summoned her through his thoughts, Abbey ran full speed into him into Ryot just as he turned the corner, sending the broom she had been holding skidding across the stone floor.

Abbey stood and dusted herself off. Afterwards, she extended her hand for Ryot to use as leverage.

"Where are you going in such a rush?" Abbey said as she picked up her broom, which she then used as an armrest.

"I could ask you the same thing! I've been looking for you everywhere."

Abbey hooked her broom over her right shoulder as she said, "Oh, I was out on the quidditch pitch! The weather was nice, so figured 'why not', you know?"

Ryot called bullshit on the weather. He was freezing, and that was when he was inside the school.

"Uh, sure." Ryot said, not sounding sure at all.

"You have no idea what I'm talking about, do you?"

Damn. Busted.

"Not a clue."

"I figured."

Abbey grabbed Ryot by the hand and started dragging him the way she had just come.

"It's a good thing you have warm clothes on. It gets colder the higher you go."

"What are you talking about, you crazy person?" Ryot only half joked.

Abbey stopped, and turned around with her hands on her hips.

"Why, only the greatest sport ever, silly goose!" Her expression softened when she saw that Ryot was still confused.

"You really don't know what I'm talkin' about, do you?" She gave him a sympathetic look, which Ryot kind of really hated. "It's alright, even The-Boy-Who-Lived didn't know what quidditch was when he first started here." She said like it was supposed to mean something to him. The-Boy-Who-Lived?

Abbey grabbed Ryot's hand again, and continued down the corridor, though this time it was at a much slower pace. "Quidditch is played in the air on brooms. Normally, you would have taken flying lessons your first year, but since you didn't, I'll teach you the basics."

Flying on a broom sounded absolutely ludicrous, but then again, he was attending a magic school and one of his teachers could turn into a cat. So, I'm perspective, flying a broom didn't sound as crazy as it seemed.

Actually, Ryot thought to himself, this sounds really fun!

When they reached the quidditch pitch (which was really cool. Abbey laughed when Ryot said that out loud), Abbey set the broom on the grass and stepped away to face Ryot.

"Alright," she said, "stand beside the broom."

"What?"

"Ryot Byrne, I thought you were smarter than that." Abbey was all teasing smiles as she said that.

"Well, I mean, isn't it supposed to-" Ryot awkwardly performed some sort of wild hand gesture that Abbey couldn't really interpret, but she got the gist of it.

"Flying a broom isn't like what you see in muggle movies, Ryot Byrne." Was said with a cocked eyebrow.

A sly grin transformed Ryot's expression into one of pure mischief.

"Ouch! Double-named twice in a row? I must be in trouble!"

"You will be if you don't step up to your broom."

Ryot let out a braking laugh, but stepped up beside the broom nonetheless.

"Alrighty, trouble maker, now what you're gonna do is place your hand above the broom and say 'up' like you mean it."

Ryot imagines he must be lucky to get one-on-one instruction. He could only guess how hard it would be to concentrate with a dozen 11-year olds screaming 'up' all around.

"Up."

No response from the broom. It didn't faze RYot though. He'd only been doing this for approximately five seconds.

"Up!"

Once again, no response. Ryot looked anxiously at Abbey, who was studying him thoughtfully.

"Maybe try getting a little closer?"

"What do you mean get closer? I'm practically stepping on it already!"

"Oh hush," Abbey said playfully, "It won't bite, I promise. Might whack you in the ankles, but it won't bite."

Ryot shot her a skeptical look, and then shuffled closer to the broom.

"Up!"

The broom twitched, but remained firmly on the grass.

"Up!"

This came out as more of a frustrated growl, but it caused the broom to shoot up off of the grass with so much force that Ryot's entire arm stung with the impact.

Abbey let out a whoop, and came over to hug Ryot around the shoulders.

"Good job, Byrne!" She let go of Ryot's shoulders and walked around to Ryot's other side. "Now, you're going to mount it. Swing your leg over and straddle."

"You know, if someone were to hear this out of context, they would think something completely different is going on."

Ryot did as instructed, but not before getting a playful slap from Abbey.

"Okie dokie," Abbey said,"Now what you're going to want to do is kick up from the ground, and hold onto the front of the broom."

"Got it."

Ryot bent his legs and kicked.

The sensation of flying was something that Ryot thought he knew what it would feel like. The feeling was precisely what he thought, and completely different at the same time. His stomach dropped to his feet as he ascended, but instead of feeling like he was going to vomit, he felt like the king of the world.

A huge smile lit up Ryot's face as the wind tousled his red hair. He made eye contact with Abbey, who had grabbed his ankle to keep him from floating away. She was smiling which made him smile even wider.

Ryot couldn't ever remember a time when he felt as happy as he did now.

Once he touched back down in the grass, Ryot turned and engulfed Abbey in a bone crushing hug. Their friendship was most definitely not a playground tryst. This thought reminded Ryot about the thing he had been mentally avoiding all day.

"Hey, Abbey," Ryot began, pulling his face away from her shoulder, "do you think you could help me with something tomorrow?"