Flying at Each Other's Throats PV Angus

Angus achieved mastery at avoiding some things. He wasn’t proud of it (well, maybe sometimes) but at the same time, he was quite impressed with how he preferred to keep borrowed books for one more day and hide from the librarian for one more day just because he didn’t feel like giving them back that day. And that is exactly how he had dealt with flying during the previous two years at Hogwarts and how he planned to deal with it this year. Avoiding and pretending that it doesn’t exist. He couldn’t skip many classes, so he just limited himself to doing minimum work.

However, the problem that Angus had with flying was more complex than it might seem at first, or at least, it wasn’t just laziness. Flying was the wizarding equivalent of PE, which he had sworn to hate even before Hogwarts, at his muggle school. He was a clumsy child and grew up to be quite clumsy teenager who run only when late for something (and luckily for his would-be-dying sport condition, he was often late). His lack of any sporting talent was painfully visible during Flying classes. Not to stand out from the rest of the class he had to practise longer and harder, but he didn't even like it that much so why work when he had his avoiding plan?

Because of people, of course. Angus couldn’t stand the looks of pity and/or superiority any more and the fact that they have started already during his first lesson this year didn’t help.
That is why he was now standing Hogwarts’ flying practice field, extremely disappointed with his attitude (that was against his great plan). Later that day he’d have another Flying class, and as long as he didn’t want another humiliation Angus had to stop avoiding the awful truth - he must practise. He mounted one of the school’s brooms. Staying low, keeping in mind his tendency to fell off definitely too often, he slowly began accelerating.

Angus wasn’t alone on the pitch, but at first, he decided to ignore that fact. Then she started flying in figure 8's which was clearly a show-off.
Not only he decided to fly up but also accelerated to a speed he had never even tried to reach.
Like, what was the worst thing that could happen?

At first, she watched the boy for a moment. His clumsy flight made her involuntarily cringe. He looked rather comparable to her as a small child, when she had first mounted a broom. Still, even if the boy was a first-year, that was some embarrassingly bad flying. At this point, all of the first years had been flying for some months, and even the worst of them ought to be able to do better than that.

Realizing that her staring at him was probably not helpful and that even if he couldn't see her expression from here, he could likely guess what it was, she tried to ignore the boy. Refocused, she began to continue with her flight work, before working on something her mother had taught her. It wasn't something that was particularly useful as a chaser, but it helped with reaction time, and anyways, Ana thought it was fun. It began with flying in relatively large circles that slowly turned into a spiral downwards and just before she hit the ground, she would pull up. She doubted she would ever actually use it in a game, but she still loved the maneuver. As she pulled up and shot back upwards, she nearly slammed into the boy from earlier. He was far higher than he'd been when she'd started her spiral, and he was going at least twice as fast. He still looked completely uncomfortable and awkward on his broom as he shot towards her. Thanks to the maneuverability of her new broom, she was able to get out of the way, but just barely. She could nearly feel the bristles of his broom as she dodged. What on Earth was he trying to do? Kill her? Kill himself? If it was the latter, she was more than happy to oblige him right about now

Braking and turning halfway, she stopped to glare at the boy and to chew him out when he turned back around. Her eyes blazing, she prepared herself for a fight. Now that he was been that close to her, she could tell he was significantly bigger than her, and more than likely older. She didn't much care. She was not about to put up with that kind of behavior from someone as crappy at flying as this boy was. "What the bloody hell was that mess?" she demanded, her jaw tight. 

Somehow, the decision to overcome his lack of talent and start kind of rivalry with a girl that was way better than him was not a good idea. Who would've thought.

Firstly, it turned out Angus has a fear of heights that he didn't know about before. However, he never felt panicky in tall buildings so it apparently worked only when he held to a disturbingly narrow household object. Maybe it was just a completely reasonable fear of feeling off from a great height when you have no flying skills. Anyway, he was too high up and fast enough to lose control over the broom. His surroundings became blurred shapes. At some point, Angus had to reach the height of his "rival" because he almost flew into her.

Secondly, the girl was way better than he thought. Somehow, she managed to get out of his way by doing a quick manoeuvre, which would be pretty impressive if not the circumstances. Surprise surprise she was also fed up with Angus' show-off of utter stupidity. She had shouted at him, and he really wanted to stop and explain himself with some excuse that would be better than the truth. Unfortunately, the broom still didn't really cooperate. Passing by her, all he managed to say was quick "Sorry!".

Thirdly, Angus didn't want to mount a broom ever again. Neither look at it nor talk about it. He could be kicked out of Hogwarts, he wouldn't do anything related to brooms or flying.
After realizing that he's not able to even slow down, he panicked a little. A little because his will to live was stronger. If he couldn't stop, his only hope was getting lower and maybe trying to land. Still dashing terribly, he managed to point his broom down.
The next minute Angus held tightly to the end of the broom, desperately waving his legs in the air.
He didn't know what it was, maybe a bird (please, not a school owl, please) or some other practising student (Merlin's beard, even worse) but he had to fly into it and lose the balance. As a result, he was now hanging from his broom a few feet too high.

Angus Watson. Brooms. Flying. Never again.

The boy's yelled apology made Ana roll her eyes. He was at least her age, and Ana was inclined to assume that he was older than she was. What kind of bloody idiot did something like this? His erratic and frankly pathetic flight pattern clearly wasn't on purpose, which meant that he was endangering the both of them. It also looked like he no longer had control of his broom, which was concerning, because she could at least tell that he had flown this far this quickly deliberately. If that was the case, then why would he do that?

She couldn't fathom a reason but assumed that it was likely his impulses got the better of him. Anastasia couldn't imagine having that little control over your emotions and impulses. Alright, maybe she was a tad impulsive sometimes, but not so much that it endangered other people. In any event, this was happening. She briefly considered attempting to help, but she wasn't sure what she would really be able to do, and frankly, she didn't want to risk damaging her lovely self or her lovely new broomstick.

She watched from a distance out of morbid curiosity. She knew she wouldn't be able to actually go get help in time, so she figured she would wait until he inevitably fell off the thing and then she would probably help him get to the hospital. She also wasn't particularly motivated to help him since he'd nearly just murdered her.

He was dangling off his broom now and she was seriously considering flying over the smack the moron. What was he doing? Trying to get himself killed? He was close enough to the ground that he could probably fall without dying. Sure, he'd get a few injuries, maybe a broken bone or two, but they could fix him right up in the Hospital Wing. "Let go, you bloody moron!" she shouted, hoping he would be able to hear him. She was reasonably certain that he would be fine, and if he wasn't, well, he was the one who decided to listen to some random girl telling him to let go.

"Let go, you bloody moron!"

Her words made Angus surprisingly clear-headed. He was still petrified but not panicky and frankly, quite annoyed. It was easy to say when the act of flying on a broom was effortless to the girl. Angus not only couldn’t fly but also do anything related. Unfortunately, because of another one of his stupid decisions he was now dangling from the very end of the broom and had to do something. Both climbing back on it and letting go, which for the girl was apparently as easy as jumping off of a short wall, seemed almost impossible.
Almost.

By means of his innate defiance, Angus decided that he would try the climbing option first just because it wasn’t proposed by the girl. As if he didn't behave childish enough today. Sadly, thanks to the magic of gravity, the broom was already almost upright and mounting it again was simply impossible. In spite of that fact, Angus tried it a few more times. Just to be sure that it was absolutely hopeless when he’ll try to kill himself.

Because that’s exactly how Angus perceived letting go of the bloody broom.
He tried to estimate how dangerous would be the fall but his newly discovered fear of heights effectively hindered the task. It couldn’t be deadly; otherwise, the girl wouldn’t tell him to do that. Of course, as long as she didn’t want him dead what actually was highly possible. Angus painfully experienced the fatigue of his hands, which held tightly to the broom all that time. The boy felt that he wouldn’t last any longer. He made a decision.

The feeling of letting go and relieving his tired hands was nice. It lasted only few seconds, then there was just the terrible radiating pain in his right arm.
Angus chose to keep lying down for some time before he would try to get up from the ground. How did he end up in this situation?
He hit something. The dread immediately took the place of pain.

“What did I hit?”

Anastasia was going to blatch the moron off his broom if he didn't listen. He was going to injure both of them if he kept this up. Instead of listening to her expert council, it appeared as though he was attempting to remount the flailing broomstick. Obviously, he failed. If that wasn't enough, he reattempted several more times. She was seriously reconsidering the blatching option when he finally released his grip on the broomstick.

At this point, she was quickly losing concern for his safety and wellbeing, since he clearly had exactly none for himself, and was focusing on her and really, her broom's safety. While the young Gryffindor girl could handle a broken bone or two, she absolutely refused to have anything at all happen to her broom.

The boy hit the ground and Anastasia watched the broom hover to make sure this moron hadn't damaged the stabilizing charm before flying to the ground. She was probably going to need to get this idiot to the hospital. She was going to worry about that once she'd yelled at him though. "Are you stupid or just insane? Or were you trying to get both of us killed with your incompetency and arrogance?" Anastasia demanded as she landed and stalked over to the boy.

She was aware that he was probably several inches taller than her, and was likely older and stronger, as well as likely knew spells she didn't. Did any of that stop her from stalking over and yelling at him? Nope. Every inch of her 5 feet was livid and she was going to let him know that. Anyway, he was clearly completely stupid, and he was currently broken, so she wasn't too worried. "Well, are you mute in addition to being stupid and homicidal? You know what, I really don't care, because I'm going to tell the next professor I see that you tried to kill me," Anastasia snapped. Having her broom at her side didn't exactly make her look taller, but she was pretty sure that between her murderous expression and her words, the boy still going to be somewhat intimidated. If not, she would just have to hex him, and possibly bludgeon him with her broom.

Right after his pathetic landing, the girl approached Angus quickly. Now, he could actually look at his would-be victim. She was shorter than him and definitely younger, however, judging by her confidence in yelling at the boy - she couldn’t be a first year. They didn’t have enough courage to shout at anyone or, at least he hoped so, otherwise, that would mean that nobody at Hogwarts has any respect left for him.

Angus wanted to repeat his urgent question but girl’s reprimand left him speechless for quite a while. The boy leaned on his left hand and sat there, listening fearfully to a furious short girl. Maybe it was her, maybe the fall, he was still a little dizzy. Angus wasn’t able to say a word in his defence.

“...because I'm going to tell the next professor I see that you tried to kill me."
These words reached his regularly inhibited self-preservation instinct quite quickly.
“Don’t. Please don’t,” Angus replied instantly. “Answering your previous incredibly polite questions - I’m both stupid and insane, thanks for considering an alternative. And no, I haven't’ tried to kill us, it was more of… trying to prove myself something? Yes, let’s go with that one. Also, as you can see and hear now, I’m anything but mute. Finally, please, pretty please, don’t report me, technically, I didn’t manage to do anything wrong to anyone except me. Almost anyone,” words spilled out of his mouth far too quickly, he began to think at his usual pace again.

Despite still being weak at the knees, Angus stood up and made a few, rather unsure steps. His hand painfully reminded of itself, but he managed to ignore it. “Where is it?”, he muttered, trying to locate the place where he collided with the unidentified flying object. Now it wasn’t only the worry that he had hit something, but also the curiosity about what he had actually hit. The boy tried to remember the details; smaller than a student but faster, much faster than a bird. He has already almost forgotten about the girl, if she wants to report him, she’ll do so. Angus will try to save himself later, he has better things to do now. He turned to her.

“Well, it was relatively nice to meet you. Now I have to find another possible victim of my stupidity. Sorry again! ”

Ana arched an unimpressed eyebrow. He was definitely older, so what on Earth was he trying to prove? Better yet, to whom? There wasn't anyone else there to see him, so even if he had proven whatever it was he was trying to prove, nobody had seen it. "What on Earth are you trying to prove? That you're an attempted murderer? Or just that you are absolute and utter rubbish at flying?" she retorted, her eyes still flashing dangerously.

She rolled her eyes when he said that he hadn't done anything wrong. Alright, maybe Ana was perfectly fine, but that was really just because of her own exceptional flying skills, no thanks to this moron. She chewed her lip as she decided whether or not she was going to report the boy. She supposed there wasn't actually anything much to report, seeing as both of them were perfectly fine, and, if she understood him correctly, he claimed that any danger had been purely a result of his utter and complete incompetence at flying.

The boy stood and seemed to have turned his focus to something else entirely, which mildly irritated her. How was she supposed to traumatize him into not doing anything like this again if he wasn't even paying attention to her? He was muttering about 'where is it'. "Where's what?" Ana demanded, her voice still irritated, but marginally less murderous. Whatever he was focusing on was somehow more interesting than her, so she was more curious than she would have liked to admit as to what he was talking about.

Another possible victim of his stupidity? Had he actually murdered someone by being a complete and utter buffoon? In any event, she was interested, and wasn't planning on leaving just yet.

Angus gazed across the sky, trying to determine the place where he collided with whatever it was. His whole body hurt, and he heard unpleasant ringing in his ears. The girl the boy almost killed. The girl! She had witnessed the whole situation from the side, so she probably also saw what he bumped into!

Suddenly enlightened, Angus turned around. To the boy’s surprise, the girl was still standing in the same place. She was as unimpressed as a few minutes before but apparently decided to stay even after his extremely friendly and I-just-fell-of-my-broom-and-I’m-not-really-in-a-good-state apologies with goodbye. It occurred to him that the girl is probably waiting for his answer to a question that she asked and which Angus decided to politely ignore due to his inappropriate excitement with the situation. “Something. The thing! I collided with it in the air so now I’m really concerned and only slightly curious about its fate,” he replied finally. The boy looked at her hoping that she understands his chaotic explanation. “I know you were busy with your brilliant evasive manoeuvres but maybe, with the corner of your eye, you’ve seen what I actually bumped into?”

He turned around again, he was almost sure he located place of the collision. Angus was never good at calculating flight trajectories, and Hogwarts didn’t provide physics lessons especially when they were learning levitation spells during Charms, but in this case, it was clear where the thing would end. He walked a few steps away from the girl, not waiting for an answer. With his hand still shaking, the boy pointed at the nearby stands, “I think that whatever I’ve hit, It must have fallen somewhere there. Of course, as long as it wasn’t unusually strong and the collision didn’t even bother it.”
In theory, he was talking to himself but frankly, he really hoped that the girl was also listening.