CHAPTER SEVEN. Duck Bombing.
"That's great Hermione," Ron said a little later. "You seem to still remember the basics well enough," he said as he hovered next to her about six feet off the ground. Hermione nevertheless looked a bit nervous but was well in control of the broom and felt better than she had expected to, probably due to her having cast a cushioning charm on the ground beneath herself.
"We'll not need to go much higher than this in any case for the first few duck drops," said Ron. Then encouragingly he asked, "Perhaps just a little bit higher though, how about ten feet?" Hermione replied, "I'll give it a try and they then rose a few more feet into the air. "This is as far as I'll go for now," said Hermione. "I want to get the other cage attached to this handle, to see how it affects the broom's stability. I'll be OK at this height as long as it doesn't make it wobble too badly."
"It should be OK," said Ron. "After all, mine's hardly affected at all even with the ducks in the cage and my Starblazer's a 'hot' racing broom. That old Cleansweep is a model noted for it's stability, not the fastest thing in the sky but a nice steady plodder. Let's land and attach the cage."
Some minutes later with the birdcage attached to her broomhandle Hermione was back at about the same altitude as she had been to previously. "How is it," asked Ron, "It looks stable enough." Hermione replied, "It's not too bad at all Ron. To be honest I can't really notice it's there in fact, although of course there's no ducks moving about and weighing it down at the moment."
"You should be OK with them on-board as well," said Ron. "They aren't very heavy and they haven't got a lot of manoeuvring room in the cage. Shall we give it a go?"
The ducks had now been captured in a magically created pen about thirty feet square which had been cast by Hermione, taking up almost the entire garden lawn, it's invisible 'walls' were about four feet high and prevented the birds from bolting for the river.
Landing once again next to each other they loaded two ducks each into the under slung cages on each broom and then, with a degree of trepidation on Hermione's part took off and hovered about six or seven feet up side by side. "OK then," said Ron. "Hold on tight to your broomhandle with your left hand, grab the duck of your choice by the scruff of the neck with your right hand and on the count of three drop the bugger!"
They did as Ron suggested and both birds, wings flapping madly and quacking in alarm fluttered to the ground in what, whilst it might not have been a 'controlled flight', was at least not quite a plummet. They then repeated the action with the second set of birds, with identical results. Landing and checking the birds showed they had suffered no injuries, except perhaps to their dignity, so the cycle was repeated a few times at six or seven feet, until the birds seemed to be taking the experience more calmly. Then Ron and Hermione increased the altitude of the drops, first to about ten feet.
They noticed that not only did the birds not seem to mind the greater height they seemed to have time to be able to control their descents much better from ten feet. They still weren't 'flying' as such but seemed to be beginning to get a little lift and glide in their fall. After several such drops Ron and a far more 'broom confident' Hermione decided to 'call it a day'. They set down and released the ducks to the river.
However, before putting the brooms away Ron said, "That was great, they've done so well. It went even better than I'd expected and not only for the ducks. Hermione, you were wonderful on that broom as well my love, I'm proud of you." And he kissed her.
He went on to say, "It'd be a shame if you had to stop now though, but unless you can go a bit higher then I'll have to carry on the training by myself, would you give it a go and try coming up to about roof height with me just before we go in?"
Hermione had enjoyed the afternoon very much, far more than her school flying lessons, probably because putting it to a practical use distracted her from her initial nerves. Her fear of broom flying hadn't raised it ugly head after the first few ascents because she had become so engaged in the duck training, so gathering her courage she agreed to try going higher. Ron and Hermione then vertically ascended on their broomsticks side by side until they were at about the height of the cottage's chimney. Initially feeling a bit nervous and clinging on tightly Hermione took a look around and then visibly relaxed and smiled saying, "What a lovely view from here Ron, look along the river it really is very pretty, even better than the view from our bedroom window."
"Well that's enough for today my lass," Ron said to her with a grin, "We don't want you getting too cocky, you'll be beating me at Quidditch next and only Harry and Ginny are allowed to do that!" Then, landing alongside his wife Ron smiled, thinking to himself "That was Phase One of Operation Witchflight successfully completed, next we go to Phase Two!"
After her afternoons exertions Hermione had a good long soak in the bath to get the aches and pains of the day out of her body, particularly the specific ache that people who didn't fly brooms very often tended to get, the one known as 'Broomstick Bum' in the wizarding world. She eventually got out of the bath, wrapped a towel around her copious auburn locks and put on a fluffy dressing gown. Calling, 'Bathroom's free,' down the stairs to Ron she said, 'I can't be bothered cooking tonight can you?'
Ron replied, "Nope, I'm too knackered," as he came up the stairs. Reaching the landing he kissed her then said, "Let's order a takeaway, fancy Chinese?" Hermione replied, "That would be lovely. I'll order it Ron whilst you have a soak, what do you want, your usual?" "Yep," Ron replied, "But make sure they send enough prawn crackers this time, they're always too stingy."
Later, having had a good meal and washing it down with some a lager and a firewhiskey each they went to off bed and after having made gentle and somewhat sleepy love, they drifted off into a warm, well satisfied slumber.
On the Sunday morning in the bright summer sun they resolved to carry on with their flock's 'flight training' moving on to a higher level of drop. Ron said, "Let's give 'em a couple more static drops from about ten feet again to remind 'em what to do, then fifteen and finally twenty feet or so."
This all went to plan and by mid afternoon the young birds were beginning to show a fair degree of mastery in the making of controlled landings. Taking a break Ron sat outside with Hermione on the terrace, both of them swigging tall glasses of iced pumpkin juice and Pimms, a concoction of their own devising they'd both grown fond of whilst on their honeymoon.
Ron looked at Hermione and said, "Excellent, I think that's about as far as we can go with static drops, they seem to have the hang of landing down pat, next they need to learn about forward movement. They need to be released from a moving broom, so's they can get the idea of forward flight and get a bit more lift. I think it'll need to be done over the river, so's they don't hurt themselves too much if they muck it up to start with. Starting up slow and building up the speed should work out OK."
"Hold on a minute Ronald," said Hermione with a note of concern in her voice. "I'm not sure if I can safely fly a broom in horizontal forward flight yet. I think I need some practice before I try to launch the ducks."
Ron smiled at her and replied, "Oh that's fantastic Hermione! I thought I'd be doing the next bit by myself, but if you really want to help that'd be great!" Hermione smiled at him and said, "Well, seeing as I've got this far into this mad process without falling off and breaking my silly neck, I may as well stick with it!"
"I'm sure you'll be fine honey," Ron said. "In fact I've noticed you've unconsciously been laterally moving your broom about quite a bit anyway, all you need is a bit of practice. I'm sure you'll get the hang of it in no time. OK then, I'll give you a bit of a refresher course in flight control before we start trying it out on the ducks." Ronald was right, the 'refresher course' worked quickly and Hermione picked up a good beginner's grasp of controlled flight in no time. After just an hour or so's instruction she was able to skim her broomstick along about twenty five feet or so above the river at up to thirty miles an hour.
It was time to start 'Duck Bombing' as they'd had started calling it. The phrase came about when Ron recalled a muggle movie called The Dambusters that he'd recently seen on TV and jokingly said, "Let's hope they don't just hit the water and bounce like some sort of Barnes Wallis bouncing bomb!" And so 'Duck Bombing' became the new name for their training method. The under slung cages were modified so that their bottoms could open just like bomb bays, letting both ducks out at once, rather than having to grab them from the top and drop them one by one by hand.
Their first run was slow, they skimmed along the river at only about ten miles an hour twenty five feet up and released their ducks, which spread their wings, glided for a short distance and then landed near perfectly, if a little heavily, on the water.
The couple were jubilant as they picked the birds out of the river with their wands, put them back in the cages and returned to the starting place for another duplicate run. This time the ducks were seemingly 'getting their eye in' for water landings and all four performed brilliantly.
Gathering them up again and coming around for a faster run the couple released their birds at about twenty miles an hour. This resulted in an even longer glide and more controlled perfect landings. "They're just getting better and better Ron!" An even more jubilant Hermione beamed.
"OK then, let's see how they do at more realistic flying speeds," said Ron. 'Thirty miles an hour from forty feet this time."
"That's a bit high and fast for me Ron," Hermione said. But Ron replied, "You're doing great honey. This is just the last step and then our flock will 'win their wings', I'm sure of it. You'll be fine, trust me. Let's see that Gryffindor courage of yours."
"OK then Ron, I'll give it a go," said Hermione bravely. She then smiled saying, "At least if I fall off I'll land in the river and I'm a good swimmer." "That's my girl," Ron replied.
They lined up for the fast run and released their birds as they got to the straight stretch of water by the cottage, but this time something changed, instead of simply gliding in for a landing the birds began to flap their wings and for a hundred metres or so distance were in proper 'powered' flight. They then let down onto the water as a flock, and started quacking and dabbling happily to themselves.
"Oh you darlings!" Exclaimed Hermione with tears of joy in her eyes.
As they landed by their cottage Hermione said, "Did you see that Ron, they were flying, really flying that time!" "They sure were Hermione," Ron replied. "And so were you my love!"
Hermione looked startled at his words, as if she hadn't realised, then replied, "I was wasn't I Ron? Thank you for teaching me how, and thank you on behalf of our feathered friends." She fell into his arms and kissed him passionately.
After some unmeasurable blissful time they broke the embrace and Hermione said, "Do you think they'll get the hang of taking off for themselves now?"
"I'm sure they will," replied Ron. "All they need to do is build up their flight muscles a bit and they'll be winging around the place like veterans, I doubt they'll move away though. We've probably got 'em here for life, they know where they're well off. After all where else will they have a bodyguard who'll let 'em nick his cat biscuits?"