Chapter Two.
Broomsticks are Made for SweepingThe Great Hall is filled with chatter this morning; most of the conversations between first years revolving around the dangers of flying. After Kyungsoo’s absolute disaster, the first flying class for the Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws was postponed as a number of students started to fear what flying lessons could do to them as well. Two Ravenclaw girls, Kim Minyoung and Park Sunyoung were especially scared.
“Do you think we’ll end up like Kyungsoo too?” asked Minyoung.
“Well, you, wouldn’t... but I might,” answered Sunyoung.
“What do you mean?”
“Well, your twin sister, Minhee, did really well and everybody else in your family is on the Gryffindor Quidditch team, so I’m sure you’ll do just fine too.”
“I don’t know… I’m kind of the oddball… I mean…” Minyoung gestures to her robe and points at her Ravenclaw badge, “I’m not exactly like everybody else.”
“Oh geeze Minyoung! It just means you’re smarter than them that’s all. It doesn’t mean you won’t have their skills and talents as well,” Sunyoung winks and Minyoung thanks her friend with a grateful smile.
“You really think so?”
“Yeah, and I also think that’s Do Kyungsoo looking our way,” Sunyoung her head towards the injured male and Minyoung blushes.
“Oh gosh, how’s my hair? My glasses? Do I look okay?” Minyoung tucks her hair behind her ears and tries her best to hide just how bad of a bowl cut she has courtesy of her mum.
“Way to be obvious Minyoung,” Sunyoung giggles and pushes Minyoung’s glasses up, “and your hair looks perfect, don’t worry.”
“You sure?”
“Yes, now calm down cause Jinki is coming over here to help us with some herbology questions,” Sunyoung brushes her own hair back and pulls out her notebook quill.
“Us?”
“Yes.
“Homework during breakfast though?”
“Yes. You can help a girl out right? I needed an excuse to talk to Jinki, but I’m too nervous to be alone with him,” pleads Sunyoung.
“Fine, but you owe me one!”
“What does Sunyoung owe you?” Zitao pushes past a group of Ravenclaws and takes a seat next to Sunyoung and Minyoung.
“Nothing,” the two girls reply in unison.
“Ookay…?” Zitao raises his left brow and shrugs, “whatever. So, I’ve been meaning to ask the two of you about this whole flying is dangerous nonsense.”
“Why? Why don’t you ask your friends from Hufflepuff? Isn’t it strange for you to come sit here with us?” Minyoung questions.
“Oh, about that… I had a heated discussion with an older student, Kim Junmoon or something earlier and decided to come over here instead.”
“Kim Joonmyun?” Sunyung sighs, “why would you get into an argument with him? He’s probably going to be head boy next year!”
“So? I’m gonna be on the Quidditch team next year and that’s cooler than being head boy anyday. Just watch me,” Zitao pats his own chest proudly and his chin up to the ceiling.
“Sure, sure, now shush, Jinki is actually headed our way this time,” Sunyoung pushes Zitao away and makes sure her books are neat and tidy.
“Ooooh, Jinki hey?” Zitao smirks.
“Shut up!”
“Whatever,” Zitao gets up and is about to leave, but decides to tease Minyoung as well, the girl has been a little quiet lately, “Kyungsoo is probably going to need help getting around in the halls and Chanyeol has detention tonight for flying without Mister Shim’s permission.”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“You can thank me later.”
Thursday comes by in a flash. There are nervous students all around Zitao, but Zitao refuses to let their nerves get to him. Zitao has been waiting for this day for as long as he can remember and he simply cannot wait to show everyone just how great he is at flying. Yes, he may not have ever actually flown on a broom before, but he knows he’ll be like his father. Zitao just knows that this is the class that’ll lead him to stardom. He just knows it. So, while his friends and classmates are skirting their way around the brooms on the floor, Zitao marches towards an empty spot and stands right next to a broom with his head held high.
“Good evening everyone,” Mister Shim stands in the middle of the training ground and looks at all of his students encouragingly, “I know that some of you may be worried and have heard of the rumours floating around, but I can assure you that everyone here will be fine. Do Kyungsoo’s accident was a special case and he is currently healing from his injuries. His bones are just fine and he didn’t lose feelings over any limbs, so please, stop spreading those rumours. You all have nothing to worry about.”
Some students start to whisper after Mister Shim’s speech, but Zitao remains rooted in his spot with his lips sealed shut.
“Alright, so I just want to remind everyone that the broomstick listens to you, you are the one in control. You tell the broom when to come up, when to fly, when to stop and when to turn. Do you understand?”
“Yes.”
“Good, now when you are ready, I want you to say ‘up’ and catch your broom.” After giving out his instructions, Mister Shim paces up and down the two rows of broomsticks and looks over his students.
“Up…”
“Up.”
“Up?”
Zitao catches Sunyoung and Minyoung nervously calling for their broomsticks and rolls his eyes. It’s just a broom!
“Up,” within a millisecond, Zitao’s broom flies into his hand. With a tight grip, Zitao keeps his broom in place and catches Mister Shim’s eyes.
“Excellent work Huang, very well done. Your father would be proud.”
“Thank you sir.”
A few minutes go by, and one by one, students are gaining more confidence. Zitao’s attitude appears to be rubbing off onto his classmates as it takes only 10 minutes before every single Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw has a broom in their grasp.
“Excellent work everyone, excellent work,” Mister Shim pats a couple students who were nervous at the start of class on the back, then proceeds to demonstrate what everyone should do next, “now, I want everyone to mount their brooms and be very careful while doing so. I want your dominant hand in the front holding onto your broom tightly, while your other hand is in a slightly looser grip for turning. Does everybody understand?”
“Yes!”
“Good, now… mount your brooms!”
Zitao is the first to do so with many other Hufflepuffs following his lead before the Ravenclaws join in as well.
“Good, good,” Mister Shim mounts his own broom as well then pushes his feet off the ground “now, I need you to push your feet up until your feet are hovering above the ground. Once you’re feet are no longer touching the floor, I want you to imagine flying up about half a meter.”
Once again, Zitao manages to kick his feet up and hover above the ground with absolutely no problem. Zitao’s confidence is sky high at this point and the youngster is really starting to believe that he’s simply a natural at flying. It doesn’t help that a fellow Hufflepuff, Lee Hongbin, topples over the moment his broom goes up. The poor guy falls onto his bum and everyone else around him winces.
“You okay?” Gong Chanshik, another Hufflepuff, hops off his broom immediately and helps his friend up.
“Yeah, yeah, I’m okay,” Hongbin gets back up onto his feet with the help of his friend and thanks him with a dimpled smile, “thanks Gongchan.”
“No problem, just be careful! We wouldn’t want you do get hurt like Kyungsoo. They kept him at the hospital wing for two whole days and he still has a cast on his leg.”
“Oh wow, I didn’t think he’d still need a cast.”
Zitao already checked up on Kyungsoo yesterday, so he tunes his classmates out and brings his attention back to Mister Shim.
“Alright, now we move forward… slowly. I want everyone to get in a line and follow me. Don’t worry about how you’ll form one, do the same as you would if I asked you to form a line while standing.”
With a shrug, Zitao does as he is instructed and inches forward. He notices that Sunyoung and Minyoung are in front of him in line and waves at his two friends. The two girls want to wave back, but settle with wide grins instead since they’re afraid to take one hand off their brooms. Laughing, Zitao shakes his head and follows the students in front of him.
“Excellent work, this line is perfect. Now, I need you to speed up and turn left when I turn left, then turn right when I turn right. Does everyone understand?”
“Yes, Mister Shim!”
Mister Shim then accelerates on his broom, turning every couple hundred meters and chuckling when he hears his students bickering and arguing whenever they run into one another. Oh, first years.
While his classmates struggle to keep up, Zitao is right on Mister Shim’s heels, feeling more and more in his element as he goes faster and faster. Two crescent moons replace Zitao’s eyes and a wide grin makes its way across Zitao’s face. Zitao always knew he would love flying, but this is even better than he imagined. With the wind blowing in his face and his legs dangling freely, Zitao feels like he has the entire world beneath his feet, oh wait… he does!
“Alright, I’ll be flying around to monitor everyone, but if you’re feeling like you’re capable of flying even faster and higher, please do so. You’re all doing very well.”
Laughing, Zitao zooms past all of his classmates and performs a couple spirals as he flies higher up into the sky.
“Woot!!!”
The young Hufflepuff spins, flips, and dips while on his broom, performing acts much more complex than what is expected from someone his age. Zitao’s mother was always worried about the youngster as he had planned his entire Hogwarts experience around flying and Quidditch. She was worried that he would end up not liking flying, or worse yet, being bad at flying, but it appears that she was worried over nothing.
From the corner of his eyes, Zitao spots Minyoung and Sunyoung struggling on their brooms and decides to go and help his two friends. Determined, Zitao dives straight down towards the two Ravenclaws only to panic when he realizes that he doesn’t know how to land properly. Does he hover above the ground then hop off? Does he simple think of landing and his broom will land?
Distracted by his own thoughts, Zitao doesn’t realize that he is much closer to the ground than he had initially thought. With his eyes slammed shut, Zitao tugs on his broom so that he can slow down, but the poor boy had noticed too late and barely misses some trees before he reaches the training ground in one big swoosh.
Zitao’s crash landing would have been perfect if he didn’t put his left foot down too quickly. Poor Zitao hears the crunch before he feels it.
“Ahhh!”
Letting go of his broomstick, Zitao falls to the floor and clutches his left foot. He feels the tears behind his eyelids threatening to fall and tries his best to hold them back. Sadly, Zitao has always had a low tolerance for pain and lets out a loud sob while his tears start flowing freely.
“Oh no!”
“Tao!”
Minyoung and Sunyoung get to their friend in a blink of an eye. Minyoung kneels down to check on Zitao’s leg, while Sunyoung pats Zitao’s back in an attempt to comfort him.
“Where does it hurt Tao?” asked Minyoung.
“I-I,” hic, “I think I b-broke my toe,” Zitao sniffs and clutches his left foot harder, afraid that his injury would get worse if he let’s go.
“Don’t worry,” Minyoung helps Zitao sit up and beckons a couple other students to help her, “Mister Shim told Hongbin to go get Mister Moon. We’ll have your toe checked out in no time!”
“O-okay,” Zitao is relieved that help is on the way, but also disappointed in how his first flying class ended. He didn’t expect to get hurt.
“Hey,” Sunyoung pats Zitao’s head then gives him a quick thumbs up, “you were really cool today.”
Grateful, Zitao feels more tears well up in his eyes and cries even harder.
“B-breaking my toe d-definitely wasn’t cool though.”
Hi everyone, I just moved to Seoul and it took me a while to settle in. I will be writing again asap
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