"Ouch!" Lily recoiled from the broom, which painfully hit her on the forehead, and pressed her palm to the bruise.
Laughter of nasty black-haired boy, resounding from the side, angered her even more. Severus also unsuccessfully struggled with this weapon of mass extermination of first-year students, angrily glancing at James who effortlessly mounted a broom and now hovered above the ground, teasing Black and other classmates.
Madam Hooch paced between the students lined up opposite each other and was giving 'incredibly valuable' instructions.
"Broom has to feel the power of your will! It's like your own wand!"
"If it's like my wand, it means I have to choose it myself, don't I?" displeased Sirius muttered. The expression of disdain and disgust on his face was conveyed so subtly that any Slytherin would envy.
"Did you say something, Mr. Black?" Madam Hooch barked, sharply turning to Black and looking at the boy with her eagle's eyes.
Sirius didn't get scared and stared at professor in response with no less obstinacy. They glared at each other for a minute, after which Sirius snorted with all possible for his age arrogance and touched the broomstick with his fingertips. James next to him burst out laughing, flying around like a comet and leaving almost visible trace of sparkling energy behind him.
"James Potter," said Madam Hooch, holding back an approving smile, "stop this childishness!"
James showed her a tongue, but after a couple of minutes landed and deftly jumped to the ground.
"Try to sit on it sideways, like a true noble lady," James whispered to Black and immediately jumped to a safe distance so that Sirius wouldn't hit him with that same broom.
Lily watched the two and just shook her head. She refused to admit to herself that something in James's behavior attracted her, so she looked at him as contemptuously and mockingly as possible.
Sirius, meanwhile, finally made up his mind and elegantly threw his leg through the broom. After that he immediately howled when it jerked, miraculously not wriggling out from under the boy. Slytherins burst into laughter but subdued a little after James turned to face them, threateningly shaking his fist. Those two were so intolerably different that only providence knew how they managed to become friends in such a short time. Rebellious, irrepressible James, who didn't understand why he should restrain his emotions, and elegant, self-collected Sirius.
Sirius took a deep breath, counted to five and tried to push himself away from the ground. The broom under him, apparently, was in collusion with Potter because with the same vigor and energy it suddenly jerked into the air and Sirius clung to the handle and clenched his teeth so as not to scream with fear.
A little angular black-haired Slytherin watched Black with an expression on her face that simultaneously was showing fear, gloating and misunderstanding of the fact how that thing was flying at all.
"It's pretty simple, Beata," a boy with dazzling white hair spoke softly in her ear. "You just – "
"To hell with it!" Beata interrupted him loudly and slammed a broom against the wall. The broom broke in two pieces with an insulted crunch.
There was silence, ready to be broken by outraged Madam Hooch. But Black broke down first.
"Aaaaaaaah!"
First-year students raised their heads to see a completely charming picture: Sirius was holding the handle with both hands, his feet were waving in the wind somewhere over the tail of a broom, and the hair on his head seemed to be flying on its own.
"Take me down... NOW!" he shouted as if he was in full control of the situation and only waited for faithful servants to free him from a meaningless pastime.
Sure there were no servants here. But there were gloating Slytherins, disheveled Madam Hooch and laughing James Potter. The latter tried to fly to his friend, dodging Sirius's feet that performed unthinkable pirouettes as if they existed separately from the body and lived their own life.
"Get down here right now, James Potter! Now!" Madam Hooch shouted.
James managed to grab Black by the collar and miraculously keep him until he landed. At the last moment, the collar of Black's shirt ripped off, and Sirius rolled on the ground, sliding the last couple of meters on his stomach.
"Never!" he said fiercely, spitting and dusting himself off. "Never! Not a single mention of it, Potter! Do you understand me?!"
James just looked at him silently with shamelessly laughing eyes.
Lily Evans shook her head again with a sigh, observing them. Black lost his elegance and left standing in a ragged cloak, a dirty shirt beneath it and with bruises starting to appear on Sirius's face under the dark gray traces of earth and grass.
"You fly like an eagle!" Beata Sprinkles said loudly and burst out laughing, Slytherins immediately supported her.
Enraged, Black turned to Beata and rushed to her with all his might, stumbling and almost falling face to the ground again. By the way, this was the first time when they had a fight.