Taking Flight closed

Mardella had been watching lawn for a while, a few other nervous first years hovering precariously in the open space. The day was nice enough, rare in Scotland, she could attest to that! That was probably why so many were outside today, everyone was trying to soak up as much sun as they could before it disappeared again.

She was trying to do the same, to be honest. Like a bunch of others, she'd heard flying lessons were due to start up soon and well, she wasn't exactly experienced was she? Most sports just took a bit of practice to play. At least, the ones you played on the ground.

Looking at her broomstick, she was half-convinced it was some elaborate prank. There was no way this twig could hold her beanpole legs off the ground, let alone - she scanned the other nervous fliers - two feet off the ground.

"Evianna Wilson takes first possession! There she goes down the pitch! She dodges a bludger and an opposing Chaser. Wilson shoots!"

Mardella blinked at the boisterous voice, nearly dropping her broom in surprise. She glanced...up? And there, several braver meters up a blur of red and blue dashed through the bright afternoon sky, zigzagging left and right with ease.

"Evianna Wilson scores! Ten points to Ravenclaw!"

She lifted her hand to stifle a laugh at the girl as she did an exuberant victory lap. Right about now, there should have been spectators cheering, she imagined, GOAL!! aahhhh, ahhhhh, the crowd goes wild!

Well, at least that's what would have been happening if she was home at the park. The tall girl eyed her broom again, slowly.

"It's not the strangest thing you've seen." She stared at it, but made no motion to move. "Totally trustworthy."

Oh goodness. Anna’s head was filled with doubt as she grasped onto the school broomstick. How am I supposed to fly with this? She thought to herself. 
She looked around to the others and saw the other first years hover above the ground. Anna’s hands were shaking, her heart was pounding. Anna was afraid of heights but for some reason, she thought this would be a great  activity to try. 

After a small pep talk to herself, she closed her eyes and felt her body move up off of the ground. Slowly but surely she was getting higher and higher, and she could feel the wind pick up and blow her hair in different directions. She opened one eye and looked below her.  she saw that her feet were far from the ground. She started shaking even more now, making the broom hard to stay on. “Let’s try moving forward” she said quietly. 

She leaned forward and just little by little she started inching forwards. 
She chuckled nervously at her attempt, she was actually flying. If her father could see her now, he would most likely be crying tears of joy to see his little nervous wreck be flying on a broom stick. If her mother were to see her now she’s probably cry because her strange non-muggle daughter was flying. On a broom stick. 
Anna decided to take a leap of faith and leaned all the way forward, faster this time. And it was the best feeling Anna had felt in a long time. The wind in her hair, the adrenaline pulsing through her— this was better than any thing Anna has ever done in her short little life. 
If she had not crashed. 
And not only did she crash, but she crashed right into another person flying as well. 
“Evianna wilson scores! Ten points to Raven claw!” 
The voice was getting uncomfortably  louder. 
“Watch out!”
Anna exclaimed, but unfortunately it was too late. 

“Watch out!”

The sharp cry made Mardella look up. For a moment she didn't see anything, before her eyes locked on two figures on brooms in the sky, above everyone else. One of the tentative hoverers had gained some confidence and was cruising higher than before, and right into the path of the cheering flyer. The red blur on the broom seemed to be going too fast to stop and with a shocked cry of her own, Mardella watched as they crashed in to each other, brooms spinning dangerously out of control.

She dropped the broom in her hands, tensing in preparation. She wasn't sure she would of much use in the air, especially when both flyers were veering out of control. But she was good at rugby, and very tall, and surely they were small enough that she could probably catch them and roll with it. "Just like catching a high ball," she muttered, arms out and ready in case they didn't manage to right themselves. "Just like catching a high ball."

The two figures in the sky twisted into a tailspin in two opposite directions, pinwheeling fast. Mardella felt a little queasy just watching them.

Evianna pulled her broom to a stop and let it hover in midair. A cool breeze, no doubt from the mountains, ruffled her hair and blew a few beads of sweat off of her forehead. She smiled, then looked down, seeing a few students hovering or attempting to fly through the air below her. Another girl stood beside her broom, looking uncertain. Evianna decided to go down and help her. Preoccupied with the other girl, Evianna didn't notice another student barreling toward her.

A cry of "Watch out!" came from somewhere dangerously close. A Hufflepuff had plucked up enough courage to fly upward and was flying recklessly right into Evianna's path.

With a shout, Evianna attempted to brake, but she was caught off guard and the other girl was going too fast. With a cry of pain and a nasty-sounding crunch, they collided. Evianna was sent spinning off toward the ground.

Gritting her teeth and squeezing her eyes, she tried not to panic as her broom spiraled out of control. She pulled up and out of the spin, regaining control of her broom. She watched in horror for a few moments as the other girl was sent careening off toward the lake, then she leaned over the handle of her broom and flew as quickly as she could toward the other girl.

Evianna caught up with her, then stretched out a hand and grabbed the tail of the stranger's broom and braked. She jerked to a stop in midair, holding the tail of the other broom and feeling rather foolish. She turned around and flew slowly around the girl until she was facing her.

"Sorry about that. I was going too fast and didn't see you coming. I'm Evianna." Evianna offered her hand to the stranger. She almost laughed, thinking how odd it would be for strangers to see them hovering meters above the Great Lake, shaking hands.

Mardella gaped, muscles in her body relaxing from their ready position, watching in awe as the redhead regained control almost as quickly as she had lost it. Then, without much of a pause to recover, the girl poised herself over the handle of her broom and shot forwards - like something out of the Ruaridh McKinnon's playbook - towards the Great Lake. The girl overextended daringly past the broomstick to grab the tail of the other broom by the bristles, grinding both flyers to a halt several feet above the dark waters in the distance. Disappointed, she slumped, too far to hear what they were doing, or even say hello.

Eyeing her own broom, she nodded determinedly. "U-up!" It gave a twitch...and rolled over! Yes! Buoyed by a bit of success and wanting to go a little closer to the scene, she raised her voice a little, impatiently. "Up!" The broom didn't smack her in the face, but it did flick upwards into her hand, hovering a few inches off the ground. If she had time, she would have cheered but as it was it looked like the two flyers (girls she noted, squinting) were shaking hands high up in the air and talking. If she couldn't play football, Quidditch was a highly acceptable second - and it looked like the redhead was a fellow fanatic.

Seating herself, she pushed off the grassy ground beneath her feat gently, and the broomstick rose! She was never going to let Jorah drive her around town again! Grinning, she shifted her weight forwards and began to fly towards the girls. The first few feet were wobbly, unused to the magic thrumming in the wood and the wind rushing past was really distracting. Mardella was more than glad she'd opted for her usual braided hairstyle instead of loose hair like her roommates. Despite that, as she flew closer, her flying straightened out, although she moved nowhere near as fast as the other two or as high. It was almost like using your weight on a swing, she thought, although there was nothing to keep her tethered.

"Hey," Mardella called out, a few feet below the talking girls, her mouth moving into what was hopefully a friendly looking grin. She'd been told she was a bit sport-mad before. "That was pretty cool! I don't know how you two weren't thrown off!"

Anna whammed into the girl as expected. 
She started spinning out of control and getting closer and closer to the ground. This is exactly why she was afraid of heights and even though she wanted to be on the ground as soon as possible, she didn’t want to go down spinning out of control. 
She shut her eyes tight, her eyes squeezed shut holding onto her broom for dear life. 
Spinning around and around started making her dizzy and she knew that this could only end badly. Until she suddenly stopped. 
She opened her eyes, the world was still spinning and she looked down, still in the air, and saw the lake below her. She looked over to see why she had come to a stop and the Ravenclaw girl was holding onto Anna’s broom with a tight grasp. Anna couldn’t see the girls face clearly for the world was still spinning in Anna’s eyes. 
“Sorry about that. I was going too fast and didn’t see you coming. I’m Evianna.” The girl gave a small grin and stuck out her hand. Anna instinctively shook it and smiled back. “I’m Anna and it’s my fault really. I was being reckless.” Anna laughed nervously at the thought that they were high off the ground shaking hands after colliding. “How did you do that?” Anna asked referring to gaining control after spinning rapidly. She waited for the girls reply until she heard another voice, “That was pretty cool! I don’t know how you two were able to stay on!”
Anna waved awkwardly and laughed again. “Oh haha, thanks... I, uh, didn’t mean to make a collision. But i’m glad you think it was awesome!”
The three girls laughed nervously until Anna finally realized that she was still in the air and she still felt dizzy. She looked down again and felt her stomach twist and turn in knots. “Uh, can we get down now?” Anna asked trying to keep her cool. 

“Uh, can we get down now?”

Mardella felt her lips twitch at the other girl's predicament. "Are you sure you don't want another go?" She teased, not unkindly, "Just kidding, I - " She paused mid-sentence, squinting up at the sky. She didn't feel brave enough to let go of the broomstick with one hand to test it but she thought she'd felt - ah! Another! "- I think it's about to rain anyways?"

The sky had been blue before, not brightly so, but enough that most seemed to have been under the impression it would be a clear day, some clouds overcast in the distance. But the Scottish weather was fickle as per usual, and no sooner had Mardella suggested it, the girls all began to feel little droplets land on their faces. Below them, people were gathering their things off the lawn, bundles of books and snacks, and heading back inside with their robes draped over their heads so that they almost look like black sheet-on-your-head Halloween ghosts skittering through the grass. The water fell faster but it didn't seem to be heavy rain. There was enough to cling to her robes and her woolen jumpers and the broomstick, but luckily no downpour.

Still, Mardella guided her broom down shakily to land, glancing up at the other girls to see what they would do. She hadn't caught the other girls' names and resisted the urge to just shout her name up at them.

Evianna grinned, then guided her broom toward the ground.

“That was pretty cool! I don’t know how you two were able to stay on!”

the brown-haired girl yelled. "I used to play Quidditch with my cousins on their farm. They were rough, sometimes, so I had to learn how to stay on a broom," Evianna replied with a smile.

Just then, a few droplets of rain fell from the sky. Evianna looked up, confused. Hadn't it been clear earlier? Now, several clouds drifted their way across the sky, and the other students below began to gather their belongings and dash back into the castle. The broom finished its decent, and Evianna's feet touched the ground. "If you'd like, I can try to nick a quaffle from the Quidditch shed. Then we can have a proper scrimmage," she shouted upward. She stepped off her broom, then put her cloak over her head and hefted her bag over her shoulder, waiting for the other girls to touch ground. The rain began to fall more heavily, covering the grass in a thin layer of water.

When the other girls reached the ground, she extended a hand them. "My name's Evianna Wilson. I don't think I got yours."