No livro, o Neville está aterrorizado demais para controlar sua vassoura corretamente. Como muitas coisas no mundo bruxo (fotografias, por exemplo), as vassouras parecem ter uma certa anima e personalidade. As vassouras da escola são conhecidas por serem particularmente baratas e, portanto, terríveis de controlar.
Harry had heard Fred and George Weasley complain about the school brooms, saying that some of them started to vibrate if you flew too high, or always flew slightly to the left.
...
Perhaps brooms, like horses, could tell when you were afraid, thought Harry; there was a quaver in Neville’s voice that said only too clearly that he wanted to keep his feet on the ground.
Neville, sentindo-se muito desconfortável com a aula de vôo, decola cedo e com muita força.
But Neville, nervous and jumpy and frightened of being left on the ground, pushed off hard before the whistle had touched Madam Hooch’s lips.
‘Come back, boy!’ she shouted, but Neville was rising straight up like a cork shot out of a bottle – twelve feet – twenty feet. Harry saw his scared white face look down at the ground falling away, saw him gasp, slip sideways off the broom and –
WHAM – a thud and a nasty crack and Neville lay, face down, on the grass in a heap. His broomstick was still rising higher and higher and started to drift lazily towards the Forbidden Forest and out of sight.
Parece que ele caiu de uma altura de cerca de seis metros - algo que provavelmente será desconfortável, mas não fatal. Na verdade, ele sofre uma lesão no pulso, mas isso é tratado sem muita dificuldade. Madame Hooch não está feliz com a situação, mas ela está bem na mão.
Madam Hooch was bending over Neville, her face as white as his.
‘Broken wrist,’ Harry heard her mutter. ‘Come on, boy — it’s all right, up you get.’