The Boy Who Couldn't See: Year 1

Halloween

"Yes, don't stop now," Ron drawls, "it's doing us so much good."

That's pushing it a little but Harry doesn't defend her.

Harry can't focus on his lessons the rest of the day, his mind straying back to the broomstick under his bed. After that first time, he can't get enough of flying and he's very excited to fly again. He and Ron eat so quickly, they barely remember eating in the first place, and quickly head up to their dorm to unwrap the broomstick, at last.

Ron sighs happily when it rolls onto Harry's bed and has fun describing what it looks like to Harry. If his description is right, the broom looks very clean and sleek.

At seven o'clock, Harry heads down to the Quidditch pitch, using his broom as a substitute cane as he walks since nobody can lead him. He wishes he hadn't been so stupid and didn't forget his cane at the Dursleys but he honestly hasn't even noticed, what with Ron leading him everywhere. He makes a mental note to thank Ron for being such an awesome friend later.

Too eager to wait for Wood, Harry mounts his broom and kicks off as soon as he reaches the pitch. He flies around and when he almost bumps into the goal posts, starts flying in and out of those. From what he can tell, there's three and they're circular.

"Hey, Potter, come down!"

Harry grins and lowers himself to the ground. Wood jogs over to him and places something on the ground.

"Very nice," he says. "I see what McGonagall meant -- you really are a natural. I'm just going to teach you the rules this evening, then you'll be joining team practice three times a week."

There's a small creak of hinges bending and then Wood starts talking.

"Right. Now, Quidditch is easy enough to understand, even if it's not too easy to play. There are seven players on each side. Three of them are called Chasers."

"Three Chasers," Harry repeats. Wood places something into Harry's hand and Harry starts to move it around and runs his hand over it to feel it.

"This ball's called the Quaffle," Wood tells him. "The Chasers throw the Quaffle to each other and try and get it through one of the hoops to score a goal. Ten points every time the Quaffle goes through one of the hoops. Follow me?"

"The Chasers throw the Quaffle and put it through the hoops to score," Harry recites, still feeling the Quaffle.

"Now, there's another player on each side who's called the Keeper — I'm Keeper for Gryffindor. I have to fly around our hoops and stop the other team from scoring."

"Three Chasers, one Keeper. And they play with the Quaffle. Okay, got that."

"Take this."

The Quaffle is taken from him and is replaced by something else.

"I'm going to show you what the Bludgers do," Wood says. "These two are the Bludgers. I can't get them out and let you hold them because they're bewitched to fly around, no matter what. I'm going to free one and I want you to try and hit it back. Don't worry, I've got a bat too, but I want to make sure you're hearing's good enough to know if a Bludger is coming your way."

Harry nods.

"Stand back," Wood warns him. There's the click of a buckle and Harry hears something fly through the air. Harry swings at it with the bat to stop the Bludger from breaking his nose, and grins when the bat makes contact.

"See?" Wood pants after a moment of struggling with the Bludger. "The Bludgers rocket around, trying to knock players off their brooms. That's why you have two Beaters on each team — the Weasley twins are ours — it's their job to protect their side from the Bludgers and try and knock them toward the other team. So — think you've got all that?"