Soaring and Falling

Author's Notes: Again, new to the writing world. R/R please? Even if you hate it.

BTW: I guess this is what was about to happen during the last scene of "Flaming Red"

P.S. I wasn't really sure which house it belonged in. Oh well.

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Soaring and Falling

Chapter 1: Flying Safety 101

* * *

It wasn't very quiet for a hospital wing. Hermione could hear several familiar voices around her, but kept her eyes determinantly shut. She was afraid of what she might see. So she pretended to be asleep and listened to the furious whispers around her, trying to recollect at what had happened last.

"It wasn't my fault!"

"Shut up, Ron, you'll wake her!"

"But I was trying to hold on to her!"

"No one said it was your fault, we were just saying you should have been more careful..."

"I was doing a better job than Harry! At least I didn't try giving her a jinxed Firebolt..."

"How was I supposed to know? Besides if Ginny hadn't--"

"I'm sorry, are you saying this was my fault? I tried to stop her from falling..."

Yes, everything was starting to sink in now. Brooms... jinxes... soaring through the air and...

"OW!"

* * *

"Password?"

Hermione swallowed. "L-Licorice... Snaps," she stuttered, which was very unlike Hermione. But the thing was, the sooner Ron went to retrieve his Quidditch Through the Ages from his bedroom, the sooner she'd have to go through with it.

"CORRECT!!!!" screeched the Fat Lady, in an attempt to sing, no doubt. A very bad attempt. The four friends walked into the Gryffindor Common Room with their hands at their heads, trying to repel the Fat Lady's "singing" from their ears. Silencing Charms had been attempted on her before, but to no avail. It was as if she were immune by now.

"This is getting annoying," said Ron, practically shoving his fingers in his ears. "She can't sing at all!"

"Yeah, she sings almost as bad as you, Ron," teased Harry. Laughter burst from them all, except Ron, who was glaring at Harry.

"Does not!" He protested.

"Sure," giggled Ginny, "you inhertied it from mum..."

Harry and Ginny teased Ron for a bit longer, Hermione only half-listening. Her focus was directed solely at the red leather book she held in her hands, which she resumed reading when they'd entered the Common Room; Flying Safety 101.

"...that 'hiccoughing' sounded like a--"

"Ginny, that's enough," Hermione interrrupted, a sunddenly stern look on her face.

"We..." she gulped "...we have something to do, remember?"

The three calmed down at once, though Harry and Ginny were still chuckling a bit, only Ron didn't notice. He just ran upstairs to fetch his book. "I'll be right back."

Hermione's book still held her undivided attention. When stopping your broom--

What? Hermione thought. When did it say anything about stopping? Oh, Merlin, help me...

This had, admittedly, been Hermione's idea in the first place. They'd been in the library, Hermione, unsurprisingly, reading a book, and Ginny had been discussing Quidditch strategies with Harry and Ron for the upcoming match with Hufflepuff, when Hermione suddenly blurted out, "I want to learn how to fly!" Harry suggested they could help her learn, but she declined. He frowned.

It was a mistake ever mentioning anything about flying, as she'd simply been feeling left out with all this talk about it, but it was too late. As soon as it escaped her lips, Harry, Ron , and Ginny's newest project was born. Now Hermione had no choice. They were going to stick her on a broom and make her hover over the Quidditch field, whether or not she felt like it anymore.

Author's Notes: It was going to be a one-shot, but it would've been pretty long, so I guess I'll make it a short story (I still say a one-shot woul've been better, though. Not a chapter person.).