Closed Cut Through the Clouds

[Harper Alston]

Watching the Quidditch games had made Harper realize just how much she missed flying. Between classes and her strict workout regimen, she hadn't found much time to take to the skies. It was a shame Hogwarts didn't offer flying classes after first year. She was sure there was more to flying than just hovering and changing speeds while doing laps. She wanted to learn how to somersault through the sky. But aside from joining a Quidditch team, there weren't a lot of formalized ways to improve her flying skills.

So she would just have to teach herself. Which was no big deal. She'd taught herself plenty of football and gymnastic tricks before, and she was sure flying would be no different. That was why Harper had borrowed a school broom and was currently standing on a soft patch of grass near the lake, contemplating what to do next. It'd been a while since she'd flown, so starting off slowly probably made most sense. She mounted the broom and kicked off, doing a couple of leisurely circles high up in the air, enjoying the sun on her skin. It was a lovely spring day, and she could see a couple of students out enjoying the weather, but thankfully most of them were sitting closer to the castle, out of the way.

For her first trick, Harper decided to attempt a static roll, remembering seeing a Quidditch player do one in a match. Shifting her weight to the side, she flopped over — and got stuck. Her hands grew clammy as it started to sink in just how high up she was, but she forced herself to remain calm and rolled back over into an upright position. Maybe it'd be best to start off lower to the ground. She descended so that she was a few feet off the ground and rolled over, an idea coming to her. Hanging onto her broom like a sloth, she zigzagged across the ground upside-down. Was it the most useful skill? Probably not. But at least it was pretty fun.

 

[Lillith Montgomery]

Lillith was coming back from her private quidditch practice, the weather had been all sunshine and white fluffy clouds, and she just couldn't waste the good weather. She held her broom in one hand, and her bottle of water in the other. The young hufflepuff had taken a detour, having nothing except a pile of homework waiting for her in the dorms. She was walking, humming a small little tune when the girl saw a friend of hers, upside down on a broom.

Lillith grinned and put her water bottle down on the grass, lightly jogging towards Harper. "Hey Harper!" The girl wasn't that high up but it seemed she couldn't hear her. It was like a lot of the times she's seen Harper, she was upside down, rather than right side up. Getting on her broom, Lillith kicked against the ground, and got up to the same level as her face. "Hey Harper! Whatcha doin'?" She asked, giggling.

 

[Harper Alston]

Flying upside-down, as it turned out, was a bit like doing the backstroke. For the most part, all Harper could see was sky, and she had to crane her neck in order to get a decent glimpse of the space ahead of her. She could tell that she'd probably get a cramp if she kept this up for too long, but for now, she was enjoying the novelty of the experience, and it made her wonder if backward loop-de-loops were possible.

Before Harper could test out that theory, a familiar voice rang out across the lawn, and she spotted someone who looked a lot like Lillith hovering in the air nearby. "Just hanging around," she said with a grin. Harper rolled back over so that she was right-side up. "Haven't you heard? Upside-down flying is the next big Quidditch trend. You should try it, it could help you win your next match," she said, trying but failing to keep a straight face. Harper eyed her friend and spotted the water bottle on the ground. "Did you just come back from a practice?"

 

[Lillith Montgomery]

Lillith giggled. "I see, I should maybe suggest it the next time we have practice." She said jokingly. Lillith rather doubted that she would ever actually suggest it to the team but there was still a small itty bitty chance that she'd at least tell her teammates about it. "Maybe all of the blood flowing to your brain gives you an advantage." She added.

"Yup!" Lillith replied. If she wanted to play regularly in the games she'd have to practice extremely hard. That being said, Lillith got on her broom for the second time today, deciding to join Harper in the air. "Mind if I join?" She giggled.

sorry for the extremely late reply

 

[Harper Alston]

"I think that's exactly the science behind it," Harper said seriously. "Makes it easier to concentrate and it distracts your opponent." She giggled slightly at the thought of someone barreling towards her upside-down. She would certainly be too distracted to do anything. "I'm sure if you suggest it, you'll be instantly promoted to captain." It was clear that the only reason Hufflepuff kept losing was because their captains were not forward-thinkers who tried unorthodox methods of flying.

Harper nodded, impressed that Lillith still had energy for flying after a practice. "Of course!" It was much easier to have a conversation with her now that they were level. She rolled back over so she was upside-down. "Your turn," she challenged, trying to readjust her position so she could better see Lillith. "Why do we always run into each other like this?" she asked with a laugh. It seemed that they spent a unusually large amount of their time together upside-down.

((no worries!))

 

[Lillith Montgomery]

Lillith giggled, an instant promotion from alternative chaser to captain did sound tempting. "I'll make sure to tell Elliot and Abian about it." She grinned. It would definitely serve as a challenge, but she thought it could definitely give the team some sort of versatility.

Lillith was now off the ground, not backing down from any sort of challenge, she rolled towards the left, going upside-down as well. She was glad she had decided to tie her hair up before practice, it made it much easier to see. Lillith giggled, "I think that we may secretly be bats."

 

[Harper Alston]

Harper laughed and took one hand off her broomstick so she could flap it like a bat's wing. "Now we just need to learn how to fly on our own." She was surprised there wasn't some kind of spell that could make people fly without brooms. Something like Wingardium Leviosa, but you could cast it on yourself.

It was difficult navigating upside-down. Just as Harper thought she had it down, she nearly ran into an outstretched branch. She batted it aside, causing leaves to rain down. "Maybe we should do this over the lake," she said, moving her head this way and that to try and see where Lillith was. "Less obstacles and we can go higher up." Harper may have been a daredevil, but she knew enough not to get herself killed. Even she knew that trying to fly upside-down any higher than a couple of feet was a recipe for disaster.

 

[Lillith Montgomery]

Lillith agreed, "Yeah?" She flipped right side up and flew towards the lake, expecting Harper to follow. As fun as flying upside down was, she did want to go higher up. There was definitely more fun when you could zoom around without having to worry.

The lake seemed oddly welcoming today, blue rather than the usual grey-ish green-ish tone. Lillith wouldn't have minded taking a swim if the two were to fall. "I could definitely do flips up here." She grinned, referencing her Halloween costume. She decided to go a higher, the view was extremely pretty from the lake, and the other students enjoying the sun seemed like small ants rather than people. She leaned towards the side, and let herself go upside down.

 

[Harper Alston]

Harper followed Lillith, taking her time since she was still upside down. The lake glimmered in the sun, and for a second, she was tempted to let go and just dive in. But it was still early in the summer, and she knew the water was probably colder than she expected. So instead she righted herself so that she could properly take in the view.

"Well you can't just say that and not do some," Harper said with a laugh. She had wanted to try doing flips on a broom but had never really gotten the chance. Pointing the handle downward, she attempted a front flip but just succeeded in doing a sharp dive, which she pulled out of before hitting the water. Harper returned to hover next to Lillith. "My broom doesn't seem to want to do flips. Think it's a school charm or just me?" She was pretty sure the school brooms were charmed so that they couldn't go too high, so she wouldn't be surprised if Hogwarts had also installed anti-flip charms.

 

[Lillith Montgomery]

Lillith giggled and watched as Harper started diving down. Maybe it was a new game? But the girl had come back to hover beside Lillith. "Hmm.. let me try." She said.

Lillith hadn't tried doing flips on her broom before, but she didn't think it would be too hard. She was still upside down but she decided to go back upright to attempt a loop de loop with her broom. Lillith zoomed forward and did a quick backflip, it was a little difficult to stay on the broom with the momentum but she had managed.

Lillith didn't think that it was Harper, the motion felt easy enough. "I think it may be the school broom." Lillith got her wand out and waved it, "Let Harper do the flip things!" She said dramatically. Nothing happened. If only magic were so easy.

 

[Harper Alston]

Lillith took off to do a quick backflip, and Harper let go of her broom handle to clap and cheer for her friend. "That looked so cool! If you get a chance, you should do it next game." She was pretty sure she'd never seen Hunter or the other Hufflepuff chasers do flips, so why they'd benched Lillith, she didn't know.

Harper laughed as Lillith tried to scold her broom into cooperating. "Yeah, let me do flips!" she wiggled her fingers dramatically before clutching the handle and trying to pitch herself forward. Once again, she entered into a dive, but the broom didn't seem to want to actually do a rotation. She'd have to try again with a different broom sometime.

Harper returned to Lillith and rolled over so that she was upside-down. "At least it lets me do this." The lake seemed to stretch on forever from this view. "Race you to the other side?" she asked with a lazy smile. Normally that would be a pretty terrible idea, but with the lake below them, Harper felt much freer to attempt risky stunts.

 

[Lillith Montgomery]

Lillith grinned in satisfaction as Harper cheered. "If I play, I'll make sure to do a flip." She said. Lillith hoped to be able to play the next game. As awesome as the other Hufflepuff players were, she didn't think they'd be doing any flips during a game.

Lillith watched as Harper tried to do another flip, but instead diving down. She nodded and followed suit when Harper went back upside-down. "Of course." she giggled, another race for another encounter. "3,2,1, let's gooooooooo!" She shouted, almost too quickly to be coherent. Lillith zoomed off, ahead of Harper, taking a totally fair head start.

 

[Harper Alston]

Harper knew Lillith well enough by now to know she would likely try to give herself a head start. So as soon as the other girl yelled go, Harper pulled at her broom handle, urging it forward. She shot forward with a small shriek as she tightened her grip on the broom so she wouldn't fall off.

Flying always gave her a nice swooping sensation in her gut, and flying upside-down seemed to magnify that feeling. Fluffy clouds zipped by as Harper blindly raced ahead, zigzagging slightly, though she didn't realize it. "Can you see?" she yelled out to Lillith as she tried to arch her back so she could see the space ahead of her. There weren't any nearby obstacles, so she wasn't too concerned but it'd be kind of hard to determine a winner if neither of them could see who got there first.

 

[Lillith Montgomery]

Lillith continued through, trying her best to dodge the clouds. Where did they all come from? It had been sunny just a second ago, but it seemed being higher up than usual had increased the amount of clouds, or at least it felt like it. “A little!” She shouted as loudly as she could.

Lillith decided not too look back, but she could slightly see the outline of Harper and her broom in the corner of her eye. She sped up. For some reason, the lake felt longer than it usually was, possibly it was because of the blood rushing towards the brain, or perhaps it was because of the strain on Lillith’s hands.

“Harper, I think I see the other side!” She shouted, and soon, a loud thwack could be heard. Lillith had been paying attention to the bottom of the lake, instead of infront of her. And as result, she bumped into one of the trees that surrounded the other side of the lake.

 

[Harper Alston]

The sound of Lillith shouting back came from somewhere far to her right, which was a bit of a relief. The last thing Harper needed was to crash into her friend and send them both tumbling out of the sky. She continued on, clinging tightly to her broom, the sky seemingly stretching to infinity. It was calming in strange way.

The brief moment of peace was cut short by Lillith shouting something followed by a loud thump. "LILLITH!" Harper immediately flipped over so she was upright. From this vantage point, it was clear they'd reached the edge of the lake. "Lillith! Are you okay?!" she yelled, panic rising in her voice as she searched for a glimpse of her friend. She hadn't heard a second thump — or a splash — yet, which hopefully meant Lillith hadn't fallen. They were so high up that falling to the ground would be — she didn't want to think about it.

 

[Lillith Montgomery]

"Aaaaack!" Lillith screamed as she tumbled through some branches. The tree Lillith had bumped into, was luckily, pretty bushy, so instead of falling straight down towards the lake, her fall was broken by the foliage. She had managed to get herself sprawled out on a cluster of leaves while her broom ended up on the higher bit of the tree. "Harper! I'm okay!" She shouted back when she heard Harper's yell.

Lillith felt a little disoriented and her arm hurt a lot. She was indeed, not very okay. “I’m over here!” She shouted again as she carefully tried to hold onto the tree trunk with her not-hurting arm. “Harper! I think I won the race!” She giggled as Harper approached Lillith. She was definitely not in a pleasant state.

 

[Harper Alston]

Harper heaved a huge sigh of relief when she heard Lillith shout back from somewhere amongst the trees. All of the adrenaline and excitement had disappeared, leaving behind bitter, post-injury clarity on how reckless they'd been. It was a sensation Harper was unfortunately quite familiar with, but this time, she wasn't the one who was injured, which somehow made it much worse. Never again was she going to challenge someone to flying stunts.

She followed Lillith's voice and eventually found her on a branch, clutching the tree trunk. Several meters above them was the Hufflepuff's broom. The relief Harper had felt quickly turned into horror as she realized that Lillith was giggling. Had she hit her head? Why was everyone around her always getting concussions? "Yeah, you sure did," she said, trying to smile, but it probably looked more like a grimace. She took in their surroundings, trying to gauge the best course of action. Ideally, this would be the time when she whipped out her cell phone, dialed 111, and let a medical professional do the rest. But of course wizards had to do everything the hard way.

"Can you move? Do you think you could climb onto my broom if I hovered closer?" It would've been fairly easy to retrieve Lillith's broom and hand it to her, but Harper wasn't sure she trusted the girl to fly herself down in the state she was in. "Or do you want me to get a nurse?" She also didn't really like the idea of abandoning Lillith to get help, but the magical world's complete lack of communication technology didn't leave her with much choice.

 

[Lillith Montgomery]

Lillith giggled, “Oh Harper, don't worry! I've got it all under control! No need for a nurse." Lillith tried to reach for her broom with her hurt arm, but she could barely move it. Along with the fact that the distance between her and the broom was much too far for her short arms to reach. It seemed that Lillith had forgotten that she was short and that she had hurt her arm. Her other arm strained to hold onto the tree. "Actually, Nevermind! I'll get on your broom." She said, giving up quickly and forgetting about her broom. The young Hufflepuff managed to get on her friend's broom, with much effort and wondered if the dusty old school broom could hold both their weight. Lillith gave a lazy grin as the broom seemed to strain with the two girls' weight, but managed to stay afloat. "Woooo!!!"

 

[Harper Alston]

The more Lillith spoke, the more Harper's concern grew. Her eyes widened when Lillith tried to reach for the broom, which was clearly too far away. Thankfully, she stopped, but not before Harper noticed that she had barely been able to extend her arm. "Does anything hurt? Your head? Shoulder? Arm?" There was no blood — as far as she could see — and nothing looked like it was bent the wrong way, but Harper knew from experience that sometimes the worst injuries weren't immediately obvious.

The broom sank a couple of inches as Lillith climbed aboard, and fear shot through Harper. But she remained still, not wanting to make it harder for her friend, who seemed to be struggling to get on. Thankfully, the broom held steady. "Okay, just hold on tight and don't fall off." Obvious instructions maybe, but Lillith clearly wasn't in the best mental state. Harper made a note of which branch Lillith's broom was stuck in — she'd have to retrieve it after she got her friend to the Hospital Wing — and slowly started to descend. Balancing a second person on the broom was a bit tricky, but hopefully they'd be on the ground in no time.

 

[Lillith Montgomery]

All of the adrenaline had still not gone away and so Lillith still hadn't realised the severity of her arm pain. "My arm hurts a little." She stated simply, still grinning. "Aye aye, Captain!" She shouted, but not quite as loud as she thought she did. She gripped on the broom, tightly, and soon it seemed that they were approaching the ground. Lillith giggled as the broom swayed a little.

To Lillith, this had been an extremely fun experience. At the moment she was thinking of ways to utilise the things she did today in the matches she'd have in the future. Surely she'd have to practice a bit more, but it was going to be the break soon and Lillith didn't have much to do at home, save for eating and baking. She giggled again at the thought of showing off her quidditch skills to her parents.

 

[Harper Alston]

Harper's gaze dropped to Lillith's arm, and she could feel her heart sinking. Hopefully it wasn't broken. She'd once broken her own arm after a stupid stunt, and the injury had forced her off the football field for two whole months. Harper knew magic could heal broken bones, but she wanted to make sure Lillith would be healed in time for the next Quidditch practice. Even if Lillith was an alternate, Harper would never forgive herself if her friend had to stay off the pitch because Harper had issued a dumb challenge.

At least Lillith was taking all this in good stride, though that itself was also concerning in its own way. Harper wanted to get to steady ground as soon as possible, but it would also be faster to fly to the castle, rather than force her friend to walk. So she guided the broom so that they were barely a meter above the ground and sped toward the castle. As they approached the front doors, she slowed down to a stop and made sure Lillith was safely off before dismounting herself. "Let's get you to the Hospital Wing." She picked up the broom and held the door open for Lillith. She could return the broom to the school shed after she made sure her friend was okay.