Michael Brown

"You seem remarkably cheerful today, Michael" Luna declared, giving me a small smile. We were currently walking through the castle grounds, following a cobblestone path leading to the location of our next class.

"You really think so?" I replied, my voice unusually merry. My mood had been high since I woke up and there was a very good reason for that "I suppose I am just excited about our next class"

While most of the classes I attended so far were either dreadfully boring or actively detrimental to my health, with Defence Against the Dark Magic class being a notable exception, I already knew that our next class would be amazing. After all, during that class I would finally be able to fulfil one of my greatest childhood fantasies.

"Is flying class really that interesting to you?" Luna asked, looking quite confused, though at the same time strangely happy, about my behaviour. It was as if she didn't find broomsticks flying mind-blowingly awesome.

"Yes" I declared immediately, voice full of conviction. Her horrible words, though said in good faith, filled my heart with profound pity for her. Poor Luna.

I suspected it was the fault of her magical upbringing. She has been watching people fly since she was just a child, so the sight of the flying broomstick would be something normal for her. For me however, flying brooms were a source of childish wonder, thankfully not killed by the mortal danger I was experiencing during every day of my education. Flying a broomstick was like swinging a lightsaber or throwing a batarang. It was just objectively awesome.

While I knew that all flying brooms were most likely equipped with a tracking chip and/or charm by the Ministry, which was using it to control the air traffic, it didn't really matter at the moment. The only thing that mattered was the childish joy I was feeling at the prospect of flying.

When we reached our destination, a courtyard behind one of Hogwarts castle's wings, I noticed that most of our class, this time consisting of Ravenclaw and Gryffindor students, was already here, no doubt as excited as I was about our flying class. What's more important, I could see two rows of broomsticks placed in the middle of the courtyard, just waiting for us to approach and mount them.

I smiled widely, knowing that eventually I would be riding one of these, soaring through the skies at blinding speeds, hunting order of the phoenix's members with my friend Tom. And maybe Luna, though I still wasn't sure if I could trust her enough to share my knowledge about Tom and his rebel group with her.

It didn't take long for our teacher, madam Hooch, to arrive, making the entire class silent, ready to start flying.

"Good morning, class" She said, stopping between two rows of broomsticks, from where she would be able to watch everyone.

"Good morning, madam Hooch" We responded simultaneously. While normally I would find it quite bothersome, that woman was about to teach me how to fly a broom. She deserved a proper greeting.

"Welcome to your first flying lesson" Hooch exclaimed confidently. Before anyone could respond, she continued "well, what are you waiting for? Everyone step up to the left side of their broomstick. Come on, hurry up"

Not wasting even a second, I stood next to one of the available brooms, with Luna doing the same, though with much less excitement. It took a minute, but eventually every student was able to find a broom for themselves and take the right position. Seeing that, madam Hooch continued.

"Okay everyone. Stick your right hand in front of your broom and say 'up!'" She instructed. The second she said that, the courtyard was filled with excited shouts of children, with every student trying to summon their broom. Excitedly, I raised my hand and joined them.

"Up!" I shouted, ready for my broom to fly to me. However, despite my expectations, my broom only twitched a little on the ground before becoming still again. What?

"Up!" I shouted again, this time a little louder. In response to my shout, the broom slowly raised, though it didn't even attempt to reach my hand, instead just hovering over its previous spot.

"Up!" I shouted for the third time, starting to become a little worried that something was wrong. Fortunately the broom decided to finally listen to my command and landed in my hand, making me give a sigh of relief. Succeeding on the third try wasn't bad, right?

Trying to gauge my level, I looked around to see how other students were faring so far. It appeared that about a half of the class had already managed to summon their broom and was now waiting for further instructions. Wait, did that mean I was average at flying? No, it probably didn't mean anything. I mean, there was no proof that the ability to summon the broom had anything to do with ability to fly, right? Harry Potter succeeded on his first try, sure, but it was probably just a coincidence.

It took a minute or two, but eventually everyone managed to summon their broom. Noticing that, madam Hooch continued instructing us.

"Now, once you get hold of your broom, I want you to mount it. And grip it tight, you don't want to be sliding off the end. When I blow my whistle, I want each of you to kick off from the ground, hard" I immediately did as she said, taking a described position, with other students following my suit. Seeing everyone was ready, madam Hooch continued "Keep your brooms steady, hover for the moment, then lean forward slightly and touch back down"

After finishing, she moved away from her position, giving us space to take off.

I focused, trying to get a good grip on my broom, which turned out to be surprisingly hard. I wasn't worried though. While I didn't really feel it was safe to fly high into the air using only my arms and legs to stay on the broomstick, I was sure that after I took off some broom magic would kick in and allow me to fly comfortably, without having to worry about falling. I mean, how else would people be able to play quidditch? There was no way they were able to stay on their brooms without using some spell to keep themselves connected to them.

"On my whistle: three, two …" Madam Hooch blew into her whistle, making everyone take off.

I took a deep breath and jumped like the rest of the students.

Instead of landing on the ground, which I half-expected would happen, I found myself hovering in the air, my broom three feet above the ground. Noticing that, I couldn't stop myself from smiling. I did it! I fucking did it!

However, before I was able to celebrate my newfound ability to fly, I felt myself losing balance. I immediately gripped my broom tighter, hoping it would help me stay on top of the broom, but despite my attempts I couldn't stop myself from sliding off to the side and I eventually fell off my broom, hitting the ground.

That wasn't supposed to happen. What happened?

I didn't know, but I would find out. After standing up and dusting myself off, I mounted my broom again, ready to try again.

Ginny Weasley

After hearing the whistle, Ginny gently took off from the ground and started hovering in the air, completely at ease. As someone who lived with six brothers, with most of them being big quidditch fans, she learned to fly long before she started Hogwarts, so he doubted she would learn anything new.

Not that she had anything against the class itself. While the lessons would be quite basic during the first year, it was a great opportunity to train her skills, even if she wouldn't be allowed to flight unrestricted for at least several lessons. Of course it would only happen after students with muggle upbringing learned how to fly though. Knowing she wouldn't be learning any advanced techniques for a while, she decided to observe how other students were faring.

While some of them were successful, most of the students were having some trouble with keeping balance, looking more like they were riding some wild animal instead of the broom. Some of them would even fall off, forced to repeat the exercise. She wouldn't look down on them for that though, as it was probably the first time most of them even mounted a flying broom. There was nothing shameful about their failed attempts. They would learn, eventually.

As she was watching her class, having nothing better to do while waiting for the exercise to end, she noticed two familiar faces among Ravenclaw students.

The first one was Luna Lovegood, who was currently sitting on her broom, hovering in the air in a comfortable manner. She was Ginny's childhood friend of sorts, though it would be more accurate to call her Ginny's childhood acquaintance. Their houses were quite close to each other, so she and Luna played a few times during childhood. It didn't however lead to any lasting friendship between two girls, mostly because Luna's specific brand of eccentricity made talking to her quite awkward, making their relationship quite strained.

It wasn't like Ginny disliked Luna though, she was actually quite fond of her, but she just couldn't see herself becoming a close friend to Luna.

She was however happy to see that Luna's quirks didn't make other students avoid her, as she was currently chatting with another Ravenclaw student, one she distantly recognized.

If Ginny remembered correctly, the boy's name was Michael Brown. She actually met him during her summer trip to Diagon alley, she couldn't however say she knew him very well. They only exchanged a few words, about Malfoys of all things, and she hasn't talked to him since then. He was currently clinging to his broom in a desperate manner, doing his best to stop himself from falling off.

Should she approach them? She hasn't spoken to Luna for quite a while and mom did say she should be friends with Michael. It wasn't like she had anything better to do, so there was no harm in chatting with them a little.

As she turned her broom in their direction, intending to fly to them and engage them in conversation, she heard them talking to each other about something.

"Okay, I think I got it this time," declared Michael. From what she could see from the distance, he had a confident expression on his face, despite looking like he was struggling very hard just to keep balance on the unmoving broomstick.

"Are you sure? Your posture doesn't look very steady" responded Luna and Ginny had to agree with her. Michael didn't look like someone who knew what he was doing.

"Yeah, I think my lack of balance is just an issue of insufficient speed. Accelerating should allow me to be carried by the broom without having to worry about balance. You know, like with a bike" Michael replied, his voice full of confidence. That…didn't sound right. Why would higher speed help him? If he was already having trouble with an unmoving broom, a moving one would be even harder. Ginny decided it would be better to correct him, as his misunderstanding could lead to some serious injuries. However before she was able to do anything, he exclaimed "Okay, here we go!"

Suddenly, the broom took off, dragging a screaming Michael behind it. His legs immediately slipped off the broom, causing him to cling to it with his hands alone, his body flailing in all directions. After a few seconds of intense struggle, Michael let go of the broom, unable to hold on any longer, and hit the ground hard, rolling on the grass of the courtyard.

The broom, no longer controlled by anyone, flew in the direction of other students, who were practicing in the middle of the courtyard. Thanks to her fast reflexes, one of the Ravenclaw girls dodged an extremely fast piece of wood flying straight at her by taking a sharp turn, but her move led to a collision with Gryffindor boy flying nearby, Colin Creevey. Both students crashed into another girl, setting off a chain reaction that ended with at least ten students laying on the ground, groaning from pain and confusion. The broom itself came to a halt by crashing into the castle wall, falling motionless on the ground.

Ginny stared blankly at the scene, not understanding what had just happened. Her confusion only deepened when Michael, the person responsible for the whole mess, walked across the courtyard, ignoring the students laying on his path, and picked up his broom.

"Okay, this time I definitely got this" He exclaimed before attempting to mount his broom again.

He was however stopped from doing that by madam Hooch, who was quite angered by his stunt. After she stopped screaming at him she punished him by taking 30 points from Ravenclaw and forcing him to stand in the corner of the courtyard until the end of the class. Surprisingly he looked more saddened by the second punishment than the first.

…maybe talking to Michael and Luna wasn't a good idea after all.

This time almost no paranoia, just some good, old broom flying. Because even Michael needs some relaxing activity he can enjoy (even if he isn't good at it)

Also, Ravenclaw's "We have to do something about Michael Brown" meter is at 99%