The Sun, Moon & Stars

12. New Means of Communication

The next few days went smoother, one might say. On Wednesday, they had their first astronomy class. It took place in the evening, on the astronomy tower, and they were in pairs and were set to work to identify different stars and constellations using their telescopes and stellar maps. Ophelia was paired with Lavender, and though she didn't mind Lavender; she wasn't paying much attention and spent the entirety of the class sharing glances and giggles with Pavarti, who was paired with Hermione. It was blatantly obvious to both Ophelia and Hermione that their partners would rather be together than with them, but it wasn't their choice anyway.

On Thursday Morning came their first flying lesson. Easily the one that was causing Ophelia the most anxiety. She wasn't the atheltic type, and had spent the previous night worrying and thinking about hundreds of scenarios in which she would make a fool of herself. Hermione was thinking the exact same thing; as they had talked about it the night before when Lavender and Pavarti had drifted to sleep, and they were left sleepless and worrisome in their beds.

Madam Hooch certainly knew had to gain everybody's attention. Instead of walking, like a regular person might do, she flew to the field where the first year Gryffindors and Slytherin's were patiently waiting to start their lesson. She landed flawlessly just as Neville had turned to show Ophelia a remembrall his Gran had mailed him.

She instructed everybody to stand next to an unoccupied broom; Gryffindors on the left line, Slytherin's on the right, and eventually everybody was standing next to a broom. Ophelia stood in between Hermione and Pavarti, and across from Draco who looked eager to show off his skills. Ophelia chuckled.

'Now on my count, you will place your hand over the broom and shout 'UP!' if done successfully, your broom should fly into your hand. Understood?'

Everybody nodded.

'Right then. THREE...TWO...ONE!' And she blew her whistle.

Everybody started shouting 'UP!' at various times. Draco and Harry were the first two to do it successfully within a split second; followed shortly after by Blaise Zabini, Theodore Nott and Dean Thomas.

The others, not so much.

Parvati managed to make her broom squirm a little bit, which earned a large squeal from her in excitement, and after a couple more tries, she was the sixth person to do it successfully. Hermione was failing miserably, she was screaming at her broom instead of commanding it, which was likely her issue; Ophelia thought anyway.

'This is ridiculous. I will never get it.' Hermione groaned, and Ophelia turned to give her a sympathetic look; before Hermione shouted at it again.

Ophelia turned to look back at her broom, and with great intesnity, she tried it again. 'UP!' She commanded, and the broom flew into her hand in an instant. She was surprised she had done it, so she stumbled backwards a bit before regaining her balance.

'You've done it!' Hermione exclaimed.

'I-I guess.' Ophelia stammered, still confused.

Ron Weasley was the next to do it. Followed by Seamus Finnigan, with great difficulty, and then; defying all expectations, Hermione did it too. She squealed with happiness and high-fived Ophelia. The last person to do it was Neville, but he did it nevertheless, earning a large high-five from both Ophelia and Hermione.

'Excellent, very excellent you all. Now, we are going to mount our brooms and kick off the ground slightly to hover above the ground by no more than one foot.' She said, ennuciating the last words very slowly to ensure they were engraved in their brains.

Everyone nodded.

And with the command from the blow of her whistle, everybody began doing that too. This part was more about the balance, which some struggled with. Draco, Harry and Blaise were the first to do it.