The horrors begin
Tom’s newfound routine was shattered two weeks after he had arrived at Hogwarts. The black board in front of the great hall announced a new subject for the first years: flying. Minerva, Alphard and Constance were incredibly excited. Minerva could not stop talking about her adventures with her mother’s broom in the forest behind their village and the Quidditch matches she played with her mom and brothers on a little clearing. Alphard too loved Quidditch and apparently owned a really expensive racing broom. While Constance told Tom about the races she flew with her cousins. It all got Tom really excited too. He too remembered flying with Merope and he had always enjoyed it.
At least until he saw the broom. It was... way smaller then remembered and it was so slim. Not a handle, saddle or straps were in sight. “Ahm, I don’t think I want to fly anymore.”, he mumbled to Lance. The red-head simply laughed. The flying teacher, Professor Sinclair, was a tall, muscular man with black braids and a massive pale scar. Apparently he had been a professional Quidditch player before his injury. Alphard was very excited and kept jumping up and down. Then the horror began.
Sinclair ordered them to summon their brooms by shouting “up”. Tom did. The broom quivered, but it remained on the ground, while the ones of his friend’s immediately jumped into their hands. Tom tried again. The broom jumped up, rolled over mid air and fell back to the ground. “Up!”, Tom screeched, tears in his eyes. The entire time in Hogwarts he had been very successful in all his subjects and now even Malfoy was faster then him. His eyes burned.
Finally Lance had pity on him, summoned Tom’s broom and gave it to him quickly. Tom gave him a grateful smile. But the suffering was not over. “Now swing your leg over the broom and grab the handle like this. Then push yourself up. Slowly.”, Professor Sinclair ordered. Tom did as he was told and the broom rose into the air shakily. Tom screwed his eyes shut and fought the tears back. This was horrible. He wanted back down. HE WANTED BACK DOWN! “Okay, now lean forward and fly towards the goal posts. Steady, Riddle! Not so much to the left, Underground. Jackson, don’t grip the broom so hard, Jackson.”, the teacher called out. Tom’s wobbly broom jerked forward as he followed the instructions and he had to suppress a sob. This was bad. SO BAD!
By the time the lesson was over Tom was shaking like a leave and he was covered in sweat. “I am never, NEVER going back on a broom. This was terrible.”, Tom mumbled and clawed at Constance's arm. “All right, you don’t have to be near a broom ever again.”, she chuckled. It turned out, she was wrong.
It was November, when the thing happened and it was November, when Tom was close to a broom again. The first Quidditch game of the season would be held that day and Minerva and Alphard dragged Tom along, even though neither Slytherin nor Gryffindor were playing. Ravenclaw had won the cup five years in a row and by now the other houses were out for blood. Three quatres of the stadium were yellow and black, only one, screaming and cheering quatre, wore blue and bronze. Even Malfoy, who was very proud to be in Slytherin waved a Hufflepuff flag. “Down! With! Ravenclaw!”, the Hufflepuffs, Slytherins and Gryffindors chanted. The Ravenclaws started to sing a song about being unstoppable.
The match was merciless, but quick. Whenever Ravenclaw scored a goal, Tom and his friends booed and whenever Hufflepuff managed to get a goal in, they clapped and cheered. After not even three minutes the Hufflepuff beaters knocked one of the Ravenclaw chasers off their broom and the blue clad student crashed to the ground. Professor Dippet caught them with magic in the last second. Now the game got even rougher. The Ravenclaw seeker rammed the Hufflepuff one, apparently on the hunt for the snitch. At the same time a Ravenclaw beater put a Hufflepuff chaser into a headlock. Both began to crash.
Just before they could smash into the ground the Hufflepuff seeker caught a small, golden ball. “That must be the snitch”, Tom thought, as everybody around him began to scream and screech and cheer. Someone on the Ravenclaw stands threw a live size drawing on a piece of wood of their Seeker off the railing and it crashed into the sand, breaking in half. Singing and cheering the students left the stadium. The crowd made their way back up to the school, like a very loud yellow snake. In all the chaos, nobody noticed that Alice Axman never arrived back in the castle.