"Merlin, come on you lot are taking forever! If we don't get out on the Quidditch field first all the best brooms will be taken!"
"We've got ages James," said Sirius, "and besides, I'm hungry, I'm not going to be able to eat again until twelve."
"Doesn't mean you have to take your time eating all daintily though, come on you could finish that in two mouthfuls."
Sirius had never seen anyone literally twitching with excitement before. But James looked like someone had cast tarantallegra on him the way he was jiggling about in his seat.
"If I was a troll maybe!" he laughed.
"Come on, are excited for Quidditch or not?!"
"I don't think we're actually playing Quidditch today," said Remus, "I think they're just teaching us how to fly first."
"But what if we already know how to fly?"
"I don't know," Remus shrugged, "maybe they'll make it harder for you if you're already pretty good."
"How hard d'you think it'll be?" asked Peter, "I've flown before obviously, but I haven't had that much practise yet."
"Don't worry Peter, it'll be a piece of goblin's piss if we really are starting right from the basics."
"Don't worry Peter," said Remus, seeing that James's assurance didn't seem to have helped much, "I've never even ridden a broom before, so you'll be better than me at any rate."
"WHAT?!" demanded James, whipping around and looking at Remus like he'd just announced that he was from Neptune, he actually looked quite scary, "Merlin Remus you have been missing out! Flying is amazing, it's the best thing in the world, you'll love it! How come?! Was it just your parents not letting you again? Are they really strict?"
"No," said Remus, "they're just kind of over protective and they worry too much. Maybe it's because I'm their only child."
"That's rubbish. I'm an only child and my parents let me do pretty much what I want... within reason."
"Yeah but your parents are just amazing," said Sirius, "they gave you an invisibility cloak for crying out loud!"
""I suppose I am pretty lucky compared to you two," said James, "tell me you've ridden a broom Sirius."
"Oh of course," said Sirius, "we never got much chance in London, but whenever we went and stayed at my great grandparents old estate in Devon me and Regulus would spend entire days playing two-man Quidditch together. Somehow he'd not such an annoying prat when he'd on a broom."
"That's because Quidditch is wicked and even prats can't help but enjoy it. Now bloody hurry up will you we're going to be late!"
"That's funny James, because my watch and Remus's and Peter's all say that we're twenty minutes early."
"The early bird catches the flobberworm Sirius."
"We're late for lessons nearly every day!"
"Yes but this is flying Sirius, Peter you've had enough potato cakes! If you guys aren't ready in the next minute I swear I'm leaving without..."
"I'm finished," said Remus, indicating his clear plate.
"Good, well, looks like me and Remus are getting the best brooms guys. We'll see you on the field eh. Not sure you'll see us though, we'll be the ones zooming around so fast you can't even see us while you're pootling along on moth-eaten comet 140s that are probably older than Dumbledore."
"Alright alright we're finished," said Sirius, and the three of the picked up their bags and were herded out of the hall by a still twitchy, hyperactive James.
"I'm telling you," he was saying, "it's bloody nonsense that we're not allowed to bring our own brooms. I got the new cleansweep for my birthday especially so that I could play for the Gryffindor. Are you three going to try out as well?"
"Maybe," said Sirius, "we're not allowed until next year though right."
"Yeah, but still, it's worth thinking about it now, what about you two?"
"It'd be wicked to play for Gryffindor," said Peter, "I'm definitely going to try out."
"I don't think I will," said Remus.
"I'm sure you'll change your mind after today," grinned James, "wouldn't it be awesome if we all made the team?"
"That would be brilliant," said Peter.
"I'm going to try out for either Chaser or Seeker," said James, "I'd prefer Chaser, it's more exciting, you get to actually be in the middle of the chaos instead of skirting around looking for the Snitch the entire time. But I'm good at Seeking as well so if there's no opening for the spot of Chaser then I'd be just as well to go for that instead. What about you lot? You'd probably be a good Chaser as well Sirius. I don't know though, how strong are you? You might make a good Beater, though they're normally older years, for obvious reasons. Is suppose you might make an okay Beater as well Peter, you're not exactly the right build for anything else. You look like you'd make a good Seeker Remus, are you fast? How's your co-ordination? Cause you can't be clumsy if you're a Seeker, or if you're a Chaser or Keeper really. That's he thing about Quidditch, you have to be fit obviously but it's more important to be skilful, so even people like you two could probably be alright if you trained up a bit so long as you understanding of the game's good..."
James continued his waffling all the way to the Quidditch field, and carried on while they were standing in line waiting for the class to begin until the flying instructor, Madam Hooch told him that if he didn't stop talking while she was talking he wouldn't be allowed to take part in the lesson at all.
Finally Madam Hooch finished giving them their instructions, most of which had been to do with safety, and told them all to mount their brooms, something which, for reasons Remus did not understand, began with ordering their brooms to fly into their hands.
"Up?" he said uncertainly, looking down at his broom.
Nothing happened. He look around to see how other people were doing it. He was glad to see he was not the only one who hadn't done it. In fact James was one of the few people to have done it first time.
"Up," he said again, trying to will the broom to fly up towards him with his mind.
"You're not asking it a favour Remus," laughed James, who had turned to watch how his friends were getting on, "you've got to tell it. It's your broom, it's got to obey you!"
"Thanks," said Remus, "up!"
It still took several more attempts for the broom to fly into Remus's hand, but thankfully he was not the last person to do it. The last was in fact Severus Snape. Who in the end whipped out his wand and did a subtle wingardium leviosa, something Remus thought was a actually quite clever, and certainly seemed easier than shouting yourself hoarse at a bundle of twigs. James and Sirius however seemed to find Snape's cheating hilarious. And both of them got another warning for disrupting the lesson.
Now that everyone had their broom in their hands, it was finally time for what James had got them out of bed an hour early for, flying. Though Madam Hooch made sure to stress that they were only to hover on the spot and that they were not to exceed a height of four feet under any circumstances.
"Every year there are always some students who think they already know everything there is to know about flying, and like to show off about it." She looked sternly again at James, "Apart from spoiling the lesson for those who have not had the opportunity to ride a broom before, these students are without fail the ones who land up in the Hospital Wing half way through the lesson."
James rolled his eyes at Sirius, who returned the gesture. But Madam Hooch either didn't notice or chose to ignore it, for she did not stop to tell them off before blowing her whistle and signalling for the students to rise up off the floor by pulling back on the handle as instructed.
James and Sirius immediately shot upwards, though Sirius's take off was a little more wobbly than James. The two of the then hovered at a cheeky four and half feet and surveyed the rest of the class's attempts to leave the ground.
Next to him Peter had decided to take a similar approach, only he must have pulled up too sharply, for on his first attempt the broom shot out and up from underneath him, going cartwheeling through the air like a balloon with the air let out of it and making Peter slip up and land flat in his back. Remus had to admire his determination however, as despite that rather disastrous first attempt he wasted no time in collecting the broom and trying to same approach again, with similar results.
Murmuring Madam Hooch's instructions to himself Remus tried to follow suit. Taking things slowly so as not to fall on the floor as Peter had done, he rose up onto his tiptoes, and, closing his eyes, pushed himself off the ground. He kept his eyes closed for a beat, waiting to come crashing down onto the muddy grass, but that did not happen, neither did he feel like he was falling at all. He opened his eyes and there he was, floating precariously about two feet off the ground. On realising that fact he felt himself wobble a bit and gripped tightly to the broom, adjusting his weight to stabilise himself, and soon he was steady again. He looked to his right and saw that Peter too had made it off the groud. Looking muddy but happy as he levitated slightly higher than Remus, leaning side to side to balance his own wobbling.
"Nice one," called James, "come on, try and go a bit higher, you can do it!"
Remus leaned back slightly trying to go a bit higher, but he lost balance again and ended up dropping back to the floor. Undeterred however, he repeated the process and eventually managed to join James and Sirius and Peter, who was still looking on the verge of falling off the broom but was managing to hold on.
"That's pretty good for you first time Remus," said Sirius, "you're as good as Peter at any rate and he's played Quidditch before."
"Not much," said Peter, a little put out by Sirius's comment.
"This is so boring," moaned James, "when is she going to let us bloody fly?"
"Probably not 'til Snivellus manages it," said Sirius, nodding to where Snape was still struggling to get his broom to lift him off the ground while Lily Evans encouraged him from the air.
"Oh Merlin, we're going to be floating here 'til the next ice age!" said James.
"Well, if we're going to be here that long we might as well have some fun, might'nt we?" said Sirius, a wicked grin spreading across his face, "I used to use this spell on Regulus when he was getting to show-offy and annoying on his broom, watch."
Using only one hand to hold him steady on his broom he reached into his robes and retrieved his wand. Pointing it subtly at Snape he muttered a spell Remus couldn't hear from this distance over the noise of the many excited first time fliers. Instantly, Snape's broom seemed to start twitching and jerking beneath him, as if it were a horse trying to buck him off.
Almost immediately people around him started noticing Snape's strange movements as he tried again and again to push off the ground and control the malfunctioning broom at the same time. A wave of laughing, pointing and elbow nudging spread through the crowd of airborne students. At first Remus even saw Lily Evans laughing. It was only when the broom actually threw Snape down onto the floor that she hopped down off her broom and dashed over to him, looking concerned.
James and Sirius were laughing so hard Remus was impressed they managed to stay on their brooms. The sight of the broom bucking Snape off like that had been quite funny, but Remus couldn't help but imagine what he would feel like if someone had done that to him while he was still struggling to get the broom off the ground. Fair enough, the broom hadn't flung him off so violently as to cause him any harm, but the humiliation alone of having an entire class of students laughing openly at you like that would be terrible enough.
By now Madam Hooch was over by Snape and Lily dispelling the situation.
"Up you get, come on, you're not hurt, go and collect another broom, this one seems to have developed a defect, it happens with some of the old ones. The rest of you, I want you to now slowly descend and dismount your brooms, then form and orderly line by the goalposts, we're going to attempt some low flying."
"Nice one Sirius," said James as they carried their brooms to the back of the queue, "where did you learn that one?"
"A book," said Sirius, "Curses and Counter-Curses, I brought it with me actually, it's got some pretty good stuff in there, I learnt all the good ones before I came here but if you want to have a flick through it, it's always good to have a few handy jinxes up your sleeve for when golden opportunities like that come along."
"That was you?!" came a high pitched voice from behind them, and the four boys turned around to see an irate Lily Evans, "I should have known! You're always making fun of Severus for no reason and now you're actually jinxing him! You could have seriously hurt him!"
"That jinx would only have hurt him if he was actually in the air," said Sirius.
"And there's a fat chance that's ever going to happen," laughed James.
"You think you're so funny don't you," said Lily, "but you're not being funny, you're just being stupid bullies."
"Says the person who we all saw laughing," said Sirius.
"That was before… even if you didn't hurt him, you still make him look like a fool in front of the whole class! How would you like it if someone did that to you?!"
"Impossible," said Sirius, "no one would ever be able to make me look like a fool, if they did I'd pay them ten galleons."
"You're so bloody pig-headed, both of you, and you two as well!" she added, rounding on Remus and Peter, "you're each as bad as the other, there's no good standing there and trying to look like you had nothing to do with it. You're all just such… such…"
"Are you going to insult us or what Evans, we haven't got all day you?" said James.
"Argh!" yelled Lily, waving her broom in frustration and nearly hitting Peter over the head with it before storming off right to the back of other queue.
"Yes," said Sirius, "those two are definitely snogging."