James was excited, beyond excited, standing between Corey and Jeremy, with a broomstick by his feet, it was nothing compared to his own firebolt, as much as he wished he could use it now, he decided that he should just follow along with what the teacher said, rather than just show off. The teacher was none other than Oliver Wood, James had met him previously as a friend of his dads, he was an excellent player, unfortunately during the war he had sustained a back injury, and could no longer play professionally as he had wished during his youth. Oliver told the students to put their hand over their broom, and command it simply by saying 'up'. James didn't really understand why they were being taught to do this, it didn't make any difference, you wouldn't even normally do this when you were going to fly.
Oliver went on to tell the students that regardless of their flying experience, they would be going over the very basics for the benefit of others, James was well aware that he was the only one with a significant amount of time on a broom, but he didn't mind, he wanted his friends to stay safe, rather than try and fly how he would usually. Together the four students mounted their brooms, and did a simple exercise in which they rose from the ground, flattened out to be parallel with the ground, before sliding back up so they could touch the ground again. It was very easy, but it did allow the others to become accustomed to their brooms, and used to the feeling of being in the air.
Together they did a few more simple exercises before they got to fly around on their own, it was only now that James flew ahead of the class, loving the way the wind blew his hair, enjoying the feeling of freedom that flying always gave him. He took little notice of the others, flying nervously and slowly behind him. Luckily for him, after his dad had come to the school, they changed their rules slightly, and allowed first years to try out for their house teams. James didn't understand the rule himself, if a first year made the team they would have to be a good player, so age didn't really matter, if they weren't good enough to be safe on a broom, there is no way they would actually make it onto the team. The tryouts were coming up this very weekend, and James vowed to be there. He knew he was good enough to be on the team, he had trained with his dad after all, and everyone knew his dad was the youngest player in about a century.
What felt like minutes later, but really was about a half hour, the students were called back to land, to get ready for their next class. James received a lot of praise from the others, they were impressed with his skills, James thanked them and could not stop himself from smiling. Their comments meant more to him than they would ever know. His quest to be like his dad was well on the way, they were affirming his thoughts, and he was sure he would make the team like his dad.
Running off to the changerooms, they quickly changed into their school uniforms before heading towards transfiguration class, James didn't know anything about this teacher, professor Murcia was another new addition to the staff at Hogwarts, he was less interested in this class than the others, but the thought of Jade saving him a seat made it a little better. He didn't want to be late. Leaving Corey and Jeremy behind, James went off in search of the classroom.
He knew the class was somewhere on the second floor, and found in easy to find another first year student to follow into the classroom, it just happened to be Scarlett he followed. Really she was a pretty girl, he thought, it was a shame her beauty was only skin deep. Unlike Jade, he realised, she was also a pretty girl, maybe less so than Scarlett, but she was also a very nice person. She was kind and caring, unfortunately she also cared what people thought, this was making her upset, James could tell, while he wouldn't care what people said about him, she did. He watched from behind as Scarlett walked past Jade, he heard her mutter something under her breath, he was sure he heard the word shoes, as she walked past Jade, he watched as Jade's shoulders slumped, and her face dropped. James didn't know why Jade would care what some girl thought of her shoes, but he could see that it upset her. For some reason. Girls were weird. He decided as he took his seat next to Jade.
Giving her a playful nudge, and a friendly smile, he settled in next to her as they prepared for their class. The class was rather tiresome, the teacher had them taking notes on the laws of transfiguration, James found it very hard to pay attention, and his notes began to become messier and messier as time passed. He couldn't really remember much from the class, there was something about transformations not being permanent, he supposed this meant you shouldn't eat anything that has been transfigured into food, because it would after time change back into whatever it was before. He found himself wondering what something transfigured would taste like, would it taste like what it was originally or would it taste like what it became? he resolved to test this in future, with food of course. He figured if he transfigured something like bread into chocolate it would be safe enough, he just needed to learn how. Suddenly, James was much more interested in the subject, he could turn his vegetables into something delicious, then still get the goodness they provided later. His mum was always going on about how he needed to eat healthy while at Hogwarts.
Stuck in his musings, James found the class progressed very quickly, and before long it was over completely.
There was only one class left for the day, History of Magic, it was time to see what this ghost teacher was like.
