Finally, Ye Ting's first Flying Lesson had begun.
For this Flying Lesson, Ravenclaw was paired with Hufflepuff, and together the freshmen from both houses amounted to about thirty to forty students.
The class was held on a flat lawn, with the forest at its end. In the distance, black trees swayed in the wind.
When they hadn't even arrived, about forty broomsticks were already neatly arranged on the field.
Ye Ting had heard Cho Chang complain that the broomsticks at Hogwarts were too old, causing them to have various flaws: some trembled when flying too high, while others had the bad habit of veering left or right.
Soon, their teacher, Madam Hooch, arrived.
She had short gray hair and yellow eyes that resembled an eagle's.
"Alright, what are you all waiting for?" she snapped. "Everyone stand next to a broomstick. Quickly, quickly, make haste."
Ye Ting, in the middle of the line, picked up a crooked old broomstick with disdain. Its wooden branches protruded chaotically.
Hermione stood beside him, curiously holding an almost bald broomstick and inspecting it closely.
"Put your right hand over the broomstick handle," Madam Hooch called out from the front, "and say, 'Up!'"
"Up!" everyone echoed.
Ye Ting didn't shout along, merely speak silently it in his heart, but the broomstick still obediently came into his hand.
Silent casting of such simple commands, which weren't even spells, was no big deal for him.
But for the young wizards, only a handful could manage this.
Hermione Granger's broomstick merely rolled on the ground, while some other broomsticks remained completely stationary.
None of his three roommates succeeded either. Terry Boot and Anthony Goldstein's broomsticks got tangled up, and Michael Corner's broomstick's handle struck its owner's face hard.
After a good deal of commotion, they finally moved on to the next step.
Madam Hooch demonstrated how to mount the broomstick without sliding off. She walked around the line, correcting their hand grips.
"Alright, when I whistle, push off with your legs and leave the ground. Push hard." Madam Hooch said. She also used Neville as a counterexample: his movements weren't standard, and he pushed off too hastily, resulting in him losing control after taking flight and breaking his wrist in the Forbidden Forest.
"Hold the broomstick steady, rise a few feet, then lean forward slightly and land vertically. Listen for my whistle – three, two, one –"
Chaos reigned once again. Many fell to the ground before flying half a meter. Hermione managed to stabilize her broomstick and spent a minute hovering in the air.
Perhaps because Padma Patil was of Indian descent, her broomstick carried her through aerial acrobatics, and many young wizards looked at her with admiration.
But Ye Ting clearly saw that her face was pale, and her hands clung desperately to the broomstick – this acrobatics routine was probably not what she wanted.
Justin Finch-Fletchley's broomstick kept spinning him in place until he fell to the ground dizzy.
Ye Ting was the best flyer among them, effortlessly taking to the air.
What was that feeling like? The air rushed past his hair, his robes fluttering behind him, and everyone beneath him seemed to dwindle, while Hogwarts gradually came into full view.
He could hear the sounds from the ground – girls screaming, Terry Boot and others shouting in admiration, and as he kept ascending and accelerating, eventually even the sounds seemed left behind.
In fact, with his daily perseverance in exercise, his body had been steadily evolving and growing stronger.
Nowadays, his physical fitness, balance, and reaction capabilities far surpassed human limits, allowing him to master the broomstick better than anyone else and perform many difficult maneuvers.
Riding his broomstick, he soared through the skies of Hogwarts, diving through bridge arches and circling the towers several times, even managing to roll a few times while diving.
The high-speed flight stimulated his nerves deeply, and adrenaline made him feel invigorated.
He had always been steady and calm in the past, and even in his previous life, he hadn't done anything too outrageous. But now, this flying had revealed another side of him – a desire for excitement and the challenge of limits. The feeling of conquering life and death in the interplay of survival and peril made him unable to stop.
"Perhaps, I'm not meant to be a well-behaved person by nature." he thought.
With that in mind, he flew even more daringly.
He thought of the aerobatic performances he had seen at air shows.
Those pilots, inside the cockpit, indirectly controlled the aircraft through joysticks and instruments, yet they could complete so many dazzling and exaggerated technical moves. Now, manipulating the broomstick himself, with operability and flexibility far exceeding those of pilots, he didn't think those moves were beyond his reach.
Riding his broomstick, he returned to the sky above the lawn.
There was enough space for him to practice aerobatics – of course, there was also an element of showing off – and then he began his attempt.
This book is provided by FunNovel Novel Book | Fan Fiction Novel [Beautiful Free Novel Book]