A/N: I do not own anything Harry Potter related.
Hermione made her way out to the Quidditch pitch and the closer she got the more nervous she got. It was not like she hated the concept of flying it was the actual flying that terrified her. Once first year was over, she promised herself she would never get on a broom again, but that did not happen due to having to rescue Harry from the Dursley's house.
It looked like it was going to be a nice day out, the sun was up and there was no rain yet. As she got closer to the pitch, she noticed that there were not very many students headed that way, actually there were none going towards the pitch. 'I wonder if there are any students besides me taking flying this early.' She thought to herself, 'Well no time like the present to find out' and with that last thought, she stepped on to the pitch. She could see someone in the air flying around, throwing a Quaffle into the goals.
Marcus was in the air, doing one of the things he loved, blowing off steam by flying. As he was about to throw the Quaffle through a goal, the sun reflected off something shiny. He looked down to the pitch and noticed a student on it. 'Who would be out on the pitch at this time of day, students should be in classes at this point.' He thought to himself, 'Though she is very pretty in an understated way. Wait what… SHE IS A STUDENT!' his mind was telling him. He slowed down and flew lower to the ground so he could see what she was doing on the pitch. 'Ok, so she is sitting down, now she is looking in her bag, wait… what the bloody hell…. She just took a book out of her bag… is that girl really reading on the quidditch pitch.' Marcus thought. He flew to the ground and dismounted quietly so as not to disturb her. He walked towards her as quietly as he could, just as he was about to open his mouth to let her know he was there….
"Professor Flint, if I were you I would not want to sneak up on unsuspecting students, especially those who are the brightest of their age. You see I knew the moment you landed and I have had my wand at the ready ever since." Hermione informed him and to prove her point she lifted her hand that had her wand in it.
"Well… Ok. Could you please inform me as to why you are on the Quidditch pitch instead of in class?" Professor Flint asked her. He had a sneer on his face as he looked at her and he was trying hard not to smile at her.
"Well Professor I am in class. I have flying with you this hour. Did Headmistress McGonagall not inform you of this?" Hermione shot back at him with well placed sarcasism.
"For your information, no she did not. But if what you say is true, then let us begin." Professor Flint turned on his heal and walked back to the middle of the pitch. "Well are you coming or not?"
"Uhmm…. Ye es. Just to inform you I do not like to fly and am sacred of heights." Hermione hesitated in answering him and was really reluctant to let him know of her fear, he was a former Slytherin.
"You should not have told me you were scared. I can use that to my advantage." Professor Flint informed her. "But being I am a nice guy, I will over look it. Now I am sure that you remember the basic's from first year. But just as a refresher you put your hand over the broom and say up. Once you have done that you mount the broom and lean forward slightly to go forward and pull up on the handle to fly up higher."
"I remember." Hermione replied. "You will be in the air with me just in case correct."
"Yes, I will fly right next to you." Professor Flint said.
"Ok, let's get on with the lesson then." Hermione then walked over to the broom supplied for her and held her hand out, said up and mounted the broom. She went up a few feet in the air and leaned forward slightly to start to fly. After a few minutes something unexpected happened, the Whomping Willow hit a bird that was flying to close to it and it flew straight at Hermione. She leaned to avoid getting hit by the bird and ended up losing her grip on the broom and started to fall.
Professor Flint saw this and flew over to her and caught her before she fell completely off the broom. He lifted her on to his broom and flew them down to the ground. He was trying to concentrate on making sure she was ok and not the way she felt in his arms.
Hermione was trying to do the same thing; all she wanted to do was get off the broom and away from Flint as the closeness of him was starting to make her lightheaded. She did not like the effect he was having on her.
"Miss Granger, are you ok? Do I need to bring you to the Hospital Wing?" Flint asked Hermione. He was really worried, because she had a faraway look in her eye and it was taking awhile for her to respond to him. So he put his hand on her arm to try and get her attention.
"What the hell was that stupid tree thinking hitting that bird over here, I mean why the hell is that thing still allowed to be on the grounds. If I was the head mistress I would have that bloody menace removed. It could have seriously hurt me. And what do you find so amusing PROFESSOR!" Hermione started to rant and rave, she was terrified from her almost fall, this was why she hated flying. But it was a new year and by the end of it she will have concurred this fear.
"Well, your face is all scrunched up and you're very red in the face. It has a very cute effect…. Well what I meant was that… never mind! Lesson over, we will continue tomorrow." With that Flint left Hermione standing there looking after him and walked to the locker room under the pitch. 'Stupid Stupid, yeah why not just tell her how beautiful you think her to be while your at it, you stupid stupid man. How could you let that slip out… SHE IS A STUDENT… keep telling you self that! SHE IS A STUDENT!' Flint was berating himself as he walked to the locker room.
Hermione was sitting in the Great Hall during lunch, when Ginny came and sat down next to her.
"Hey Hermione, so how have your lesson's been going?" Ginny asked her.
"Good, I have most of them with the Slytherin's but other then that ok. It is a little weird walking down the corridors though, you would think that the boys in this school have never seen a girl. All day they have stopped to stare at me or opened doors, even a couple have pulled out a chair for me in class. I just don't understand what the fuss is about." Hermione told Ginny. She was confused at the behavior of the boys since she got back to school. But she was glad that Ginny had no brought up the flying lesson.
"Hermione, they are just not used to seeing you in all your beauty. You'll get used to the attention and the boys will eventually calm down and the novelty of your new look will wear off." Ginny was pretty sure what she said was true. Boy's had short attention spans and girls always tried to outdo each other so in another week or so something would come up to overshadow Hermione's new look.
As they were discussing their days in details, Harry and Ron come over and sat down next to them. Harry leaned over and gave Ginny a kiss on the head, Ron just glared at him and then they both turned to Hermione.
"So, Hermione, how was flying this morning with Flint?" Harry asked her.
"It went ok, I made it a few feet off the ground, before.."
"What do you mean before… before what… What did that git do to you?" Ron interrupted her and was getting red in the face, classic sign that he was mad.
"As I was saying before you interrupted me, the Whomping Willow hit a bird, that flew in my direction and I almost fell off the broom. But no harm, Professor Flint caught me before I fell to the ground." Hermione finished explaining to them. But at the mention of Flint's name she did blush just slightly, which Ginny noticed and would have to talk to her about later.
"What do you mean he caught you? You mean to tell me that he had his arms around you?" Ron was at this point speechless and when Harry asked these questions he went pale and really quiet.
"Yes, Harry that is exactly what I mean, it was not big deal." Hermione informed them. 'Yeah no big deal, you just keep replaying how it felt to have his arms around you and how close you two were. Or how he smelled of the outdoors and spices. Yeah keep telling yourself it was no big deal' Hermione Berated herself as the others continued to talk about the day, as Harry figured it best to leave that subject alone.
For the rest of lunch Hermione tried not to look at the Professor's table or at Flint and Flint was trying to do the same thing. Finally Hermione grabbed a book out of her bag and read for the rest of the lunch period. As the bell rang to signal the end of lunch, she put her book up and headed out of the Great Hall. On her way to Astronomy, she ran into Flint, literally ran into him and fell on her bottom. He extended his hand to help her up and as she put her hand in his, she felt tingles all up and down her arm. She looked up at him and their eyes met, they just stood there staring at each other for what felt like hours, but in reality was only minutes. Until someone came along and bumped into them.