Madam Hooch was a slightly older woman with short, crazy, salt and peppered hair that stuck out as if she had placed her hand on an electrical cord.
The majority of their class was made up of all first-year Hufflepuff’s and Ravenclaw’s that stood in two lines that faced each other with brooms down by their feet. They looked worn and old as if they had been used too many times and it made Amaryllis wonder how well brooms performed after so long.
“Good morning, everyone.” Madam Hooch walked down between her and the other students with her hands behind her back. Her amber eyes swept across each student that seemed to assess their stature.
A chorus of ‘good mornings’ resonated through the open field. The castle loomed in front of her, while the sun beat down on her back, where the lake they had crossed the day prior was. It felt like more than two days had passed as she stood there and listened to Madam Hooch’s speech on how to handle a broom and the correct way to handle it. A few students chuckled, resulting in Madam Hooch scolding them as the cloak whipped around when she turned to them.
That was one cool thing she saw about the robes. The girls in her dorm had laughed when she and Amelia, who she had found out was a muggle-born, twirled in their room last night letting their robes billow out around them. It had turned into a night of chatting with each of them after retired to their rooms, leaving the common room once it began to quiet down and the older students began to work on the dreadful classwork that they were given. Amaryllis learned that Sasha and Olivia were half-bloods while Susan came from a line of pure-bloods. Though none had cared what lineage they came from, because Amelia had proven to be the best out of them all at Potions when they talked about that class and the treatment each class received from Professor Snape. Olivia was best at Herbology and although she and Susan liked Charms, she wasn’t good because it took her longer to read and although Susan had grown up around magic, she had trouble with the wand movements. But they had their fair of laughs in class when they made a mistake to the embarrassment when Professor Flitwick called on them with a smile. Amaryllis had never laughed or smiled so much before that her jaw was sore by the time her head hit the pillow and her sides hurt.
“Today you will feel the grain of wood under your fingertips and the brush of wind in your hair because you will do nothing but float in the air today. Do I make myself clear?”
The class replied in off-tune voices, “Yes, Madam Hooch.”
Madam Hooch stopped in the middle, facing down both ways with narrowed eyes that kept everyone stock still and mouths shut.
She wasn’t scarier than Professor Snape, but no one wanted to seem to cross her as they did Professor Snape. Amaryllis felt it was because Madam Hooch didn’t embarrass any students or make them feel less than what they were—first-years. Students who either knew nothing or knew very little of what their parents actually taught them.
“Now, step up next to your brooms, place your wand hand out, and say ‘up’ with a firm voice.”
Amaryllis took one step forward, standing beside the broom just before where the arch was etched in the wood. Her eyes stared at the smooth wood, wondering how well anyone balanced on something so thin without falling off, but no one asked that question and seemed fine with what they were about to do. It seemed like a very ridiculous question when they had been doing it for years and no one fell to their death—well, none that she knew of.
Susan’s broom flew to her hand the moment she firmly said ‘up’.
Others had the same results while some brooms didn’t even move off the ground and few raised halfway before falling back down. Amaryllis didn’t know whether it was the confidence one had in themselves that it worked the first try, or nerves that left nothing to show.
She moved her hand over the broom just as a crack of thunder echoed in the distance. Everyone, including her, glanced at the dark clouds that rolled in. A few whispers of the abrupt change in weather and some who said hoped it wouldn’t rain.
“Class won’t dismiss just for a little rain or thunder, everyone. You won’t be in the air for long. Just to get a feel for the broom and the balance.”
That was easy for her to say. Amaryllis didn’t think she’d be able to keep her balance when she constantly got distracted by something else when the topic or object in front of her had become too much, or boring. Let alone be in the air while it happened. Thankfully, she only had to endure flying a broom for a year and she was done.
Some students seemed hesitant but went back to commanding their brooms to raise into their hands.
Amaryllis gave the sky one more glance, watching the clouds roll into each other before she turned her attention to the broom on the ground.
Another loud crack of thunder reverberated throughout the sky, sounding closer than before.
A few students had jumped at the sound, while others stared at the sky with thoughtful expressions. Few had ignored it while their frustrations at their brooms became more adamant.
“Rhylie,” Susan whispered, staring at her with a perplexed look. “If you’re worried about the thunder, I know they still play Quidditch in horrible weather conditions. We won’t have any problems.”
Amaryllis gave her back another questioning look that was borderline doubtful. She may be new to being a witch, but she still remembered what she learned in school before coming here. And that was that thunder didn’t bode well with being outside, and the chances of being struck by lightning were one in some ten thousand cause there was always lightning in thunderstorms. The fact she hadn’t seen any made her question everything. “Are you sure?”
“Positive.” Susan gave her a warm smile that didn’t ease much of her worries, but it wasn’t as if she could stand there for the rest of the class.
Sighing, Amaryllis spoke the command in an authoritative tone. The broom flew into her hand and the impact sent tendrils of jolts up her arm and made the palm of her hand sting.
She didn’t have time to think or smile over at Susan who had begun to cheer when a deafening boom sounded right behind them, followed by a quick strike of light.
Amaryllis and Susan quickly ducked, raising their arms in front of their faces as the ground shook beneath their feet and dirt pelted their skin. The broom still tight in her grip helped cover more of her face as some students curled into themselves and turned away.
Madam Hooch’s voice was barely heard over the ringing in her ears. She had called for any possible injuries, which, Amaryllis was thankful to hear there were none.
She turned to Susan who stared at the small hole in front of them. “You were saying?”
Susan glared at her, but Amaryllis knew there wasn’t animosity behind it when Susan shook her head with a smile. “Bugger off, Rhylie.”
Amaryllis chuckled softly as she turned her attention back to Madam Hooch. Her glare was turned toward the sky that hadn’t given way, but the thunder or lightning didn’t continue like normal. The lightning seemed to disappear just as quickly as it came, but the thunder turned to a low rumble that seemed far away, yet right above them.
“Weird storm, isn’t it?”
Amaryllis nodded, quickly glancing at Susan who held the same confused look on her face as many of the other students.
Nobody questioned anything as Madam Hooch stood between the students, staring at the sky, waiting for something to happen. Their Professor’s eyes narrowed when after a few minutes nothing else seemed to happen.
“Right then,” Madam Hooch said, turning to everyone with a hand on her hip. “Back to your spots,” Madam Hooch raised her wand, spoke a spell she didn’t know, and the hole in the ground slowly disappeared, “and for those who haven’t gotten their brooms, keep going. A firm strong voice now.”
Susan and she shrugged their shoulders at each other while they waited. She was glad to have Susan otherwise she would have been picking blades of grass when her attention had wandered. A others had picked up a mild conversation that Madam Hooch didn’t seem to care for as they all waited for the last student to get their broom to fly into their hand.
“Now, you will mount your brooms, and grip it with both hands. Do not lift off until I say so,” Madam Hooch ordered with a stern voice. Her amber eyes glanced down at every student.
The low rumble above grew louder when Amaryllis mounted the broom. She ignored it as Madam Hooch waited for everyone to mount theirs and corrected a few students who held them awkwardly.
Amaryllis watched the smile on Susan’s face grow when she rose off the ground. Her hands tightened around the broom beneath her, listening to the rumble grow from above. Laughs rang from other students around her while some lightly screeched their discomfort at heights and falling—a fear she had as well and had no intentions of going higher than necessary. With a light kick off the ground, she half expected to meet the ground again when her hesitation grew, but she didn’t. She felt the curve of the broom underneath her that wasn’t as uncomfortable as she thought it was—some sort of spell to make it that way she guessed.
“Come on, Rhylie.”
She tilted her head up, to find Susan a few feet higher than her. The ground was barely a few inches from the bottom of her feet and the muscles in her arm were coiled tight as she gripped the broom.
Following Madam Hooch’s instructions, Amaryllis tilted the front of her broom up, raising herself off the ground more.
Susan’s laughter grew softer as her ears began to ring. Her head angled upward, finding Susan staring,g down at her with a smile. Thunder cracked louder. The dark clouds rolled above them more fiercely as lightning coiled through them.
Amaryllis didn’t get to voice her concerns to Susan as a strike of lightning bolted from the clouds. Its movements seemed slow, yet fluid and direct as it headed in her direction. Shouts from below were drowned by the thunder and rush of blood that flew past her ears. She couldn’t hear Susan, who was closest to her, but she could see the furrowed brows as Susan tried to say something. She sat there frozen, unable to direct the broom anywhere to avoid when she saw it hadn’t changed course. It headed straight for her with a clear path and intent to strike her down.
She felt something wrap around her body, pulling her from the broom by a force she couldn’t see as the lightning struck her. She had never imagined what it would have felt like to be hit by something few survived, but she hadn’t imagined what the pain would have felt like either. Her muscles contracted while her insides felt like they boiled, as her blood was replaced by molten lava coursed through her veins. Her skin prickled with what felt like thousands of needles that repeatedly pierced her skin.
The dark clouds churned and rolled together across her view as her body felt weightless, seeming to follow wherever she was headed. Screams were muffled by her jaw being clenched shut tight, only allowing muffled groans of pain to be heard. A wisp of coolness had barely helped ease the burning pain she felt before her body was pulled into a cold liquid; water. The clouds became obscured by the ripples of water that surrounded her, bringing her further away from the surface as flashes of light struck above the surface. The sound of thunder boomed above, vibrating through the water in sonic waves.
Amaryllis let out a small groan, releasing the last bit of oxygen that was in her lungs and watched the air bubbles float to the surface. Everything around here was serene and quiet as whatever held her had let of go what seemed feet from the surface, away from the lightning. Away from the air she needed to live, and any chance she could to swim back up. She had no energy to even twitch her pinky finger, let alone move her arms to swim upward. Her mind slowly caved to the darkness that crept up as the coldness of the water alleviated the needles that poked her skin and the heat that scorched her insides.
Was death supposed to feel peaceful? Her thoughts slowly faded away as her eyes grew heavy. She knew her mind was muddled when she had thought she heard whispers come from around her in the water. But they gave a comforting feeling that she gave in, listening to their whispers of reassurance that she would be okay and closed her eyes, succumbing to the weight and darkness.