Sitting at the Gryffindor table I absentmindedly pushed my food around my plate as I tried to keep my growing migraine at bay. The continuous chatter of students in the Great Hall wasn't helping.
"Are you alright?" I looked up into the concerned eyes of Minerva. I tried to smile reassuringly, but it felt more like a grimace.
When Minerva found out I was staying in the castle where a dangerous monster was loose and petrifying students she sent me a letter expressing her concern, and to berate me for being so stupid as to not mention it. She would have been perfectly happy to invite me over to spend the break with her family.
"I'll be fine Minerva" I sighed.
We both knew it was a lie. She did not know what was bothering me and I planned on keeping it that way.
I've been hearing the basilisk slithering through the walls more often. It's whispering hisses echoing into the walls, demanding for its "prey". The sound apparently something only I could hear. No doubt Riddle would be able to hear it too, if the snake was ever near him. He was always with purebloods and the snake was supposed to go after muggleborns, it's possible he never hears it.
Remembering the unnerving sound of the basilisk's hissed demands made a shudder go down my spine.
Minerva unfortunately noticed the shudder and sighed, in a rather disappointed way. "Alright that's quite enough." My eyebrows rose and I waited for her to continue, "Something is obviously bothering you, but what ever it is you don't wish to tell me about it." I felt bad that I wasn't telling her, but I didn't know what I was supposed to do with this kind of information. Who is there to tell anyway? If anyone knew that I knew what the monster was, they would probably think it was me that set the monster loose. "If you can't tell me about it, then we can at least take your mind off of it. Come on."
I followed her from the table and she led me out of the Great Hall. We continued up to the seventh floor and we entered the Gryffindor common room. Going up to the dormitories she opened my rooms door and pointed inside, "Get your broom and meet me down in the common room." She turned around and strode down the hallway back towards the common room.
Entering my room I quickly opened my trunk and shed my cloak, not wanting to wear something so loose for my first time on a broom.
Dropping the cloak it went right through the bottom of the trunk and into my wardrobe. I then tapped the side of the trunk, "~Jester~". The bottom of the trunk clicked open and underneath in the secret compartment was the broom I had bought all those months ago. I haven't even looked at it ever since, and seeing it now I knew Minerva was about to teach me how to fly. It made me nervous, but I pushed the nervousness aside and pulled out the broom.
I closed my trunk and left the room. Making my way down to the common room I saw Minerva was already there waiting for me.
When she saw me she turned around and started walking out of the portrait whole. I quickly caught up with her and kept pace with her quick strides. "Where's your broom?"
She shrugged, "At the Quidditch pitch." After that we descended into silence as we quickly made our way through the castle halls.
With our quick pace we managed to make it down to the pitch in about ten minutes, where Minerva went to grab her own broom in the team locker rooms, and then instructed me to set my broom onto the ground. I did as she said and waited for her to continue.
"Place your hand over the broom, and say 'up' ".
I looked at her like she was crazy, "Why would you make me put it down if I'm just going to be picking it back up?"
She just shrugged, "This is how we were instructed as first years, so this will be how I'll instruct you."
Not really able to argue I did as she asked and stretched my hand out above the broom. I cleared my throat and stated, with all the confidence I had, "Up".
The broom shot up from the ground and smacked into the palm of my hand. The sudden motion and weight made me wobble a little bit, but otherwise I was ok.
A large grin overtook my features at the fact it only took me one try to get the broom to come of the ground. I turned to Minerva, "What now?"
She swung her leg over her own broom as she said to me, "Mount your broom". I followed her example and swiftly straddled my broom. I looked up at her for more instructions.
"Now, all you need to do is kick off the ground–gently!" She had rushed to finish but I had already kicked off.
Naturally I had been worried it wasn't going to work and I would have look stupid just kind of jumping in place, so I had jumped as high and as hard as I could which resulted in me shooting off into the air.
The wind stung my eyes and I forced them closed, the only thing I could hear was the whooshing sound of air as I shot through the sky. I clung to my broom because I knew if I let go I would end up plummeting to my death.
I tilted my head down and slowly opened my eyes to see the ground was very, very far away. It made me cling even tighter to the broom.
Trying not to panic I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. I wasn't scared at heights really, but the fact I was so high in the air with only a broom keeping me safe freaked me out a little.
Releasing the breath I had been holding I took hold of my magic and wrapped it around my broom. "Stop!"
I was almost sent soaring off of my broom when it came to a sudden halt. My eyes flew open and I looked around me. I couldn't see Minerva anywhere and it freaked me out a little bit, but I forced myself to be calm.
Gripping the handle of the broom and I ever so slowly pushed my weight forward and allowed the broom to tilt forward. When I was finally horizontal in the air I allowed myself to sit up straight, no longer feeling the need to cling to the broom.
"Ok. We're just going to do this nice and slow." As I was saying this I was patting the broom gently as if it were a pet. I could have sworn I felt the broom give its own version of a purr, but I ignored it.
Adjusting my grip on the broom, I pushed forward and automatically shot towards the ground, my screams stolen by the wind.
This is ridiculous I thought. It would seem brooms were rather sensitive when they're being directed.
The ground was quickly getting closer and closer and I squinted my eyes against the wind as I pressed my self against the broom once more. Only this time I wasn't clinging to the broom like my life depended on it.
As I got closer to the ground I nervously adjusted my grip and waited until I was just close enough to the ground until I yanked upwards on the broom handle. The broom slowed to a stop, and that was when I felt the ground beneath my feet. I promptly jumped off the broom and my legs gave way, causing me to collapse to the ground. Not caring that I was laying on the ground I stared up at the sky and took deep breaths. If I could I would be hugging the ground.
"Danielle!" I was suddenly dragged up from the ground and into the arms of Minerva, who promptly squeezed all the air out of me.
"Hello Minerva" I wheezed.
She quickly set me down and looked me over, most likely trying to see if I had any injuries. Not that she would find any, all the scars from that experience were now permanently etched into my mind.
"Are you alright?" The air had finally returned to my lungs and I looked up to see Minerva with her hands on her hips, "You should have been more careful. You could have been seriously injured!"
I just waved her off, "I'm alright, don't worry about it."
Minerva pursed her lips, but gave a tight nod. "We'll try this again alright. But this time, we're going to take it slow."
No longer doubting if the broom would be able to fly, I did as Minerva instructed and gently pushed off of the ground and glided around the pitch. After being so high in the air it didn't freak me out as much now that I stayed around the height of the Quidditch hoops, although they were pretty high up as well.
It wasn't long before I got the hang of flying and began making some lazy laps around the field. At one point Minerva descended to the ground and went to grab the balls used for a quidditch game.
Feeling a little awkward flying around alone, I looked around me to see if anyone was around before tightening my grip and urging my broom to go faster. The broom easily picked up speed, and eventually I was zooming around the pitch, this time instead of being afraid I had a large grin on my face.
After doing a couple laps around the pitch I began flying towards the ground and quickly pulling up to see how quickly I was able to pull out of the dive. I did this a couple times before flying high above the goal hoops–though not as high as before–and dove towards the ground until I was completely vertical.
I watched the ground and waited until I was about four feet away from becoming a bloody pancake, before sharply pulling on my broom and flying parallel to the ground. I was still about two feet from touching the ground and I once again flew into the air and dove to the ground, only this time I waited until I was three feet from the ground before pulling up on my broom.
My feet brushed against the ground and I slowed my broom to a stop before jumping off, stumbling only slightly. I grinned in triumph and looked up to see Minerva looking at me with her mouth slightly gaping open. She seemed to shake herself out of it and rushed up to me, her eyes were filled with excitement. "Merlin you're amazing! You have to be on the team!"
I quickly shook my head, "Definitely not! I don't know how to play the game. And besides! The tryouts have finished months ago, I couldn't be on the team if I wanted to."
She seemed to deflate at my words but quickly recovered, "I suppose you're right. But you're definitely trying out next year" she threatened.
I just rolled my eyes, "Yea yea."
As we were walking out of the pitch and towards the castle my mind went over the words Minerva said to me, "next year". Would I still be here next year? And if so, how long was I going to be here? Forever? The thought of staying in the magical world didn't seem like that bad of an option. It's not like I had much to go back to in my dimension. At least here I have friends. Where I will be living during the summer, however, has yet to be seen.
