Second Hand is Better than School Hands

Linette's flying abilities left a lot to be desired. Her results in the flying lessons from the previous year had been dismal and she wanted to change that desperately. Last year it hadn't mattered. Now with her brother having looked down his nose on her with her pathetic abilities over the past summer she was determined to out fly him. Next summer she would show who was the boss of the sky.

Right now though she just had to make her second hand broom know she was the boss of it. Preferably before her next lot of flying lessons. A second year who couldn't fly? That just could not happen. Not when she had to be brilliant by the end of the school year.

She perused the book on flying techniques one last time before placing it on the bench and picking up the second hand Comet. "Right broom. I think we can come to some sort of agreement. Right? You're not as old as the school brooms so I expect you to perform better than them." Believing she'd made it clear how the broom was to behave she placed it back down on the ground and held her hand over it. "Up." To her surprise the broom actually did as she commanded it. "Guess that goes to show second hand is better than tenth hand," she remarked dryly as she remembered the number of times she had to repeat herself last school year.

The next step though was to actually fly the thing. Linette swallowed as she straddled the broom before pushing off. Now she was hovering ten feet in the air not certain if she dared take the next step. Sure she may have managed to get the school brooms to move after a manner back in first year. However there'd been the long break of summer between her previous lesson and now. What if she fell off without anyone in sight to help her? She glanced down and spied someone not far off. "Hey you?" she shouted. "Think you can keep me from falling off this thing?"