Chapter 27: Flying Class
The last day of the weekend was a comfortable one for Vaughn.
He had successfully attached himself to Snape, and was about to learn the much-desired Scarping Apparition Curse, as well as more advanced Potions and Magic.
It was finally worth his painstaking effort and diligent study over the previous years.
But for the other young wizards, the joyful weekend was too short; it slipped away before they could even fully savor it. As the second week began, the first-year curriculum became increasingly demanding.
The professors explained more and more, and assigned more and more homework.
More importantly, as the first week of school passed, clear boundaries began to form in the relationships among the first-year students.
Gryffindor and Slytherin, whose classes overlapped, took a dislike to each other. Every time they had a class together, both sides would sigh and then try to trip each other up in the classroom.
Among these, the trio of Harry, Ron, and the Malfoy trio was the most classic pairing.
Although Malfoy feared Vaughn and didn’t dare to go too far.
He gradually realized that as long as he didn’t provoke Vaughn himself or Granger, the other party wouldn’t bother him much.
Especially when Harry and Ron made mistakes.
Thus, Harry and Ron’s nightmare began.
Imagine… in any class, someone is watching your every move, mocking you for the slightest mistake, and you can’t even retort; arguing would be indefensible.
“I never thought there was anyone in this world more detestable than Dudley!”
Harry complained to Ron after a Transfiguration class.
Ron echoed with feeling: “I never thought anyone could be more loathsome than Fred, George, and Vaughn combined!”
Hermione was displeased with his slander: “They are your brothers, Ronald Weasley.”
She also disliked Malfoy. Although that fellow, out of fear of Vaughn, dared not provoke her, he would deliberately hold his head high every time he saw her, as if afraid of soiling his eyes.
A few days passed, and the trio reverted to their original dynamic.
There were no overnight grudges between children.
Especially after Ron was forced by Harry to stammer an apology to Hermione one day, the small conflict naturally dissipated.
However, there was still an impact: Hermione no longer used nicknames for Ron.
She always called him “Ronald,” which always felt strange to Ron.
In this regard, Ron explained to Harry that he had developed a psychological complex from being scared by Vaughn, who always called him by his full name when he was tormenting him.
So he always suspected Hermione might have ulterior motives in reconciling with them.
Regardless, due to Malfoy’s arrogance and foul mouth, the relationship between Gryffindor, represented by Harry, and Slytherin reached an all-time low.
Throughout the entire first year, Vaughn was the only exception.
As time went by, Vaughn’s presence circulating among the various houses became gradually accepted. Then people discovered that this Slytherin, who was good at studies and liked to wander around with his cat, was actually not difficult to get along with.
It would have been even better if his personality were a bit more normal—
Vaughn didn’t like to hang out with boys, but he never refused attractive girls.
As a Slytherin, it was rumored that last weekend, on his way back to the Slytherin Common Room from Ravenclaw, he was displeased with the word “Dungeon” written at the entrance to the Common Room, thinking it was too gloomy and affected his image in Ravenclaw.
So he cast a spell to change “Dungeon” to “Sea View Room”!
Peeves reported this incident to Filch, and it quickly spread throughout Hogwarts.
No one knew why Professor Snape didn’t punish Vaughn. Given that the Prefect, who was still hospitalized at Madam Pomfrey’s, served as an example over the past week, no senior students dared to arbitrarily alter Vaughn’s spell.
The Squib Filch scrubbed for a few days but couldn’t erase the magically conjured words, and finally gave up.
From then on, Slytherin’s dungeon became a sea view room…
Every little snake passing under those shining big letters felt strange, as if the Black Lake outside the window had suddenly become sunny.
Not to mention, Gryffindor’s notorious troublemakers, Fred and George, often went to the entrance of the Slytherin Common Room, holding up two posters they had borrowed from some Muggle young wizard, depicting sun, beaches, and bikinis.
They would shout and laugh at every little snake entering or leaving:
“Esteemed customers, welcome to the Weasley Real Estate Company.”
“Beach by the lake, mermaid beauties, everything you could wish for!”
Each time, it inevitably caused a commotion.
On Thursday, both Gryffindor and Slytherin Common Rooms were filled with groans, because the first-years were officially starting their Flying class today; the course schedule had been finalized on Monday.
At first, everyone was very excited. Seamus Finnigan loudly bragged about his flying history, making it sound as if he had never dismounted a Flying Broomstick since birth.
Ron also told Harry about his dangerous experience of almost crashing into a Muggle airplane while secretly riding Charlie’s broom.
“…It was so exciting, so close, I even shook hands with a Muggle!”
he said.
This tall tale was ruthlessly debunked by Hermione: “Muggle airplanes aren’t convertibles, you couldn’t have shaken a Muggle’s hand, Ronald Weasley.”
Ron’s face turned red, and he stammered: “What do you know? How could you know there weren’t any.”
Hermione sneered: “Yes, of course, but that was decades ago. Unless you are already 80 years old, you couldn’t have seen such old airplanes in the sky!”
In the end, Harry became annoyed by their talk. Having never flown, he didn’t know who was telling the truth.
But compared to himself, who grew up in Muggle society, his classmates from wizarding families must have encountered Flying Broomsticks long ago.
Like Malfoy!
Harry didn’t want to lose to Malfoy, so before class, he specifically found Vaughn to ask for advice on riding a Flying Broomstick.
As a result, Vaughn rolled his eyes at him: “I haven’t ridden one either.”
Harry stammered, pointing at Ron: “But Ron said he…”
“Yes, he almost crashed into a Muggle airplane, right? That was a dream he had when I took him to see a Muggle movie,” Vaughn laughed heartily. “Harry, don’t worry, they’re all boasting. Even in wizarding families, very few parents would let preschool children handle Flying Broomsticks.”
Fearing that Vaughn was trying to comfort him, Harry was half-believing, until the afternoon class.
The young wizards of Gryffindor and Slytherin stood before their brooms. Madam Hooch, the Flying professor and Hogwarts Quidditch referee, urged them:
“The instructions are finished, why are you still standing there? Extend your right hand, place it above the broom, and say ‘Up.'”
“Up!”
Harry succeeded on his first try, and he looked around in astonishment.
He discovered that none of the people who had bragged earlier had succeeded; on the Gryffindor side, only Hermione’s broom twitched.
And in Slytherin, only Vaughn succeeded.
A bunch of big talkers!
Vaughn was also quite surprised. He had no particular obsession with riding a broom, and the System hadn’t listed flying as a separate talent.
He had thought earlier that it might take him a few more tries to succeed.
However, having talent was a good thing!
When Madam Hooch gave the order for everyone to try flying, it was again Vaughn and Harry who shot up into the sky.
The young wizards below were filled with envy!
