Well huh, that was weird. Usually West was the first person down at the pitch at the start of term. Hufflepuffs though. Look, there they were. Badged ones. Badged badgers.

Well great.

They seemed to be talking pretty intently so West didn't bother them, just took his broom, mounted it with a running step, and began flying as high as he possibly could. Up where the air started getting thin, where you could taste the clouds and life and nothing mattered and all the bad stuff stayed behind on the ground. The bad things couldn't fly, but West could.

So he did.