I stretched as my alarm went off, curling and uncurling my toes in my strange morning ritual as I arched my back. Twenty-seven days to learn how to ride a broom. Day one. I gulped, wishing desperately that I could sleep until noon and ignore every obligation I can think of.

I groped desperately for my music player, smiling as the sound of what everyone else calls 'muggle filth' started to pound through my room. What can I say? I have a weak spot for Joanna Pacitti, and other girl-power singers. I go to America every summer - they're about as magical as the doorknob on the Queen of England's bedroom door, what am I supposed to listen to?

Oh I'm not your average type of girl - I'm gonna show the world the strength in me, that sometimes they can't see. I'm about to switch my-

I jumped midway through changing when something quite loud banged on the wall next to my bathroom. WTF? Did the boggart for Defense Against the Dark Arts get out? I grabbed my wand defensively, though I was still in only in a bra and pj pants. I eyed my window, which I had shut last night because it had been raining.

"Turn it down," I heard an accent call out, and I rolled my eyes, muttering to myself as moved to turn down my music.

"Oh, right, I've got a bloody neighbor." My tone because quite obviously mocking, "Look at me, I live next to the head girl! YIPEE!"

!!

"Oh for Merlin's miracles," Penny sputtered her... unique turn of phrase when she saw me sit down next to Siren, "Who stabbed you in the foot to get you out of bed?"

"No one," I defended, "I just... well, I've got some work to do today." By now, all of my friends knew of my 'situation' with a broom, and how I needed to spend my weekends working on it, but that didn't mean that I wanted to rave about it in the middle of the Great Hall.

"Work? What work, it's the-" I kicked Penny under the table, and her jaw dropped, "Oh, you mean that work."

"Hello, captain obvious," Siren giggled into her toast.

"I didn't think you were serious. I fig-"

"Of course I was serious. Susan is supposed to be meeting me down here in ten minutes and I was up until one in the morning last night reading about broom theory and what not."

Siren whistled, "I haven't heard you this serious about a subject since you got two D's and a T on your papers in History of Magic last year and had to get an O with no possible deductions to manage a passing grade in the class."

"Well, graduating is on the line, here, and I am not failing my seventh year and staying to repeat another just to take flying lessons with that Scottish male-scrubber."

The girls laughed, and it was only when I realized that they were laughing much too hard for it to have been my calling our newest teacher a 'male-scrubber' that I felt the terribly large presence behind me, actually standing much too close. He wonders why I call him a male-scrubber, he invades my personal space!

But I didn't trust myself enough to turn around and talk my way out of the situation - what's the worst he can do to me, anyway? I'll just sit here and look as cute as possible.

"That's a rather unpleasant thing to call your lover so early on a Saturday morning - rough night? Or not rough enough?" I turned, my eyes wide at the sound of a female voice, sans Scottish accent.

I let out the breath I hadn't realized I'd been holding, "Susan, I hate you!" Despite my proclamation of repulsion for my second flying teacher in a row, Susan and I fell into each other, laughing.

Susan smiled at me, "Ready for another flying lesson?"

"Yes sir," I replied smartly, standing to follow her out of the Great Hall.

!!

"So, today was better, huh," Susan looked at me hopefully, but I couldn't bring myself to return her nervous smile. My hair was frizzy beyond belief from stress and my pawing at it, and if graduation wasn't on the line I would've put every broom I could find through a wood chipper by now.

"I'm gonna shower," I said, pleading the fifth to Susan's question, "But tomorrow, same time, alright?"

Scared that she would break the date, I cut behind a picture and into a secret passageway up to the sixth floor without her reply. Well, okay, it isn't a usecret/u passageway, most of the students know about it, but no one ever uses it because all it leads to are a few offices and a back stairway that comes up right in front of my room. Really, it's very useful for me, just not for anyone else.

"Ow!" I swear, the only problem with this stairwell is that because it isn't used at all, when it iis/i used it's almost always by someone breaking the rules, and apparently rule-breakers are very messy. I never bother to light up the passageway and see what it is, because there is the very real possibility of me throwing up.

Sticking my arms out straight in front of me, I leaned forward to try and find the wall to get out, stumbling out of it clumsily. I wonder when I'll get used to the-

"Ahem."

I froze at the sound of the voice of someone who was either Tom or a teacher, and quite honestly I'm not sure which is worse. I mean, being stuck living with Tom was awkward enough, but for him to see me tripping? Then again, I'm pretty sure my teacher's think I'm crazy enough, so much for stumbling out of walls that hide passageways with illegal substances.

Slowly, I turned, and appreciated the irony I had been presented with for only a few seconds, "Why, Professor Wood, fancy meeting you here."

"And who were you just with?" His Scottish accent was deep, and maybe even slightly sexy... That's Siren talking, of course.

"No one," I replied, unsure whether to run for fear of detention or be offended that he thought I had been with anyone.

Wood glanced between the wall and me suspiciously before giving up, "So, how are the flying lessons going?"

He walked passed me and towards what I guess is his office, pointing his wand at the lock and muttering something as I replied, "Uh, they're going just fine."

"You're being tutored by Susan Phillips, right," Wood questioned as he pushed his door opened. I bit my lip, nodding. "Great flyer, beautiful turns. Well, if you need anymore help, you know where my office is."

Wood closed the door to his office, giving me one last civil smile, and I stood in awe for a few seconds. That was... polite. That can't be Wood. Wood is... obsessive, to a cruel point. He-

My thoughts were interrupted by a clapping, chuckling Tom, "So, that is who you plan to get over me with."

My brow furrowed, and I groaned as he stepped out of the shadows, where he had been lurking. Why the frick does everyone think I like Professor Wood? AND WHO FREAKING LURKS ANYMORE? "I am not getting over you with anyone. I don't need anyone to get over you, you were a sucky boyfriend."

"Such language for an up and coming teacher's pet," Tom tsked as he walked passed me, "You'll simply have to work on your mouth."

"Yeah, well, your mouth isn't getting worked on."

Ironically, in my head that didn't make sense, it was just a vain attempt at having a comeback. But now that it's out in the open it is pretty hilarious and comically genius. Well, if you're me, anyway.

Not risking a defeat in a battle I am pretty sure I've won, I retreated back towards the wall. "Where are you going?"

"Common room," I said, not specifying which common room I was going to. I actually didn't know. What common rooms are around here? I'm welcome in all of them except Slytherin. I used to be accepted everywhere, but then I broke up with Tom.

I haven't been to see my house all year, I thought, and made up my mind. Really, my common room was a very pleasant place, except for the fact that our password changes every freaking day. It's really ridiculous.

The walk to the common room was long, or it would've been if, as Head Girl, I hadn't been informed of so many passageways to patrol that I cut my walking distance in almost half.

The eagle-head knocker questioned me carefully, "When facing an Inferi, what is the most effective defense?"

I rolled my eyes - in light of the war, all the questions this year were about dark magic and how to defend yourself against it. It's a DADA class to get into it. "A heat or light spell," I recited - Willow is fascinated with Inferi, of all things. I retain some information.

I smiled as I found my place on the couch, nodding at my house members. I used to love being in this common room - I still do, I just don't get the chance anymore. There was always a bratty little first year who needed help on a potions report, or someone to discuss something or other with. It's just such a different atmosphere than with the girls, it's refreshing.

"Aly," I heard a girl's Irish accent call, and was immediately jumped on by a very recognizable fourth year.

Bryony Richards was a small girl by nature, very slight and airy, making her look a perfect fit for the common room, if it wasn't for her bright purple hair. She wasn't even a Metamorphmagus, she just enjoys rebelling against her parents and dyes her hair purple.

"Bry," I giggled at the fourth year, hugging her tightly, "Where have you been hiding?"

"I haven't got any projects that I need help with desperately," Bry smiled cheekily up at me.

Bry, despite being rebellious, was so ambitious I'm surprised she wasn't a Slytherin. She wanted to be an auror, the youngest ever. While that wasn't a very likely possibility, what with Harry Potter living in our time period and all, she refuses to give up the dream, and therefore sought to get an O on everything.

She managed, too, with a lot of help from older Ravenclaws, namely me. I used to tutor for money before this year, and Bry was my star student by far. It was kind of depressing to give it up this year, but being Head Girl is more time consuming.

Bry, in addition to being amazing at school, is also on the Quidditch team, now that I think about it.

"Hey, Bry," I said, smiling at her, "What would you think about giving your old tutor a lesson?"

Bry eyed me carefully as she took a seat on the edge of the couch, "In what?"

"Flying."

!!

"Alright, you feeling okay back there?"

I gripped my protégée's waist tightly, "Why are we up here?!"

"Dude, Aly," Bry scorned in front of me, "We're not even ten feet off the ground."

"And we're being held up by a piece of wood that isn't the thickness of my wrist!"

None of you can say that I have a problem with heights. I have soared to over three hundred feet in the air, but that was when I as a freaking bird. Right now, I'm on a broom! This is unnatural! The laws of nature are working against this.

"Oy, you two," I heard Wood call from the edge of the pitch, "One to a broom. And who is supervising you?"

"I happen to be supervising us," I said as Bry started to drop down, causing me to scream, "What do you think you're doing?!"

"Letting you down. Haven't you ever flown before, Aly?"

"You can't supervise yourself while flying, Darling! Who's given you permission?" Wood was starting to make his way closer.

"Alright, just take this really slow," I said, ignoring his question.

I could tell Bry was confused and annoyed, but she obliged me. The thing is, I didn't expect Wood to walk so fast, so when he yelled at me to answer his question, and was only a few feet away, I was startled... and I fell.

Granted, I only fell three feet, but I fell three feet straight to Wood's feet, and he is so not the person I want to embarrass myself in front of... again.

I rolled over to see Bry rolling her eyes while Wood smirked down at me, "Are you alright, Darling? Or do I just sweep you off your feet?"

"If you swept me off my feet, then you should catch me too, so if we go with that then it's all your fault that I'm falling everywhere."

"Yeah, you're fine," Wood decided as he leaned down, digging his hands under my armpits to pick me up.

"Aly, haven't you ever ridden a broom before," Bry questioned, dismounting from her broom and furrowing her brow at me.

"M-"

"I think you've had enough flying for the day. Time to get your land-legs back," Wood commented, turning to make his way back to his office.

"That was the first time I've been off the ground all day!"

"Really," Wood questioned, "Weren't you supposed to be practicing this morning with Susan? Right after you called me a male-scrubber?"

My face fell as I looked between Bry and Wood, He really heard that?!