No Comparison, No Harm

Andrew suspected Madam Hooch was playing some sort of bait-and-switch game on him over there, but he didn't dare comment on it.

He really had lost his composure—he had to admit that.

Compared to the other students, he was far more eager to fly.

Still, his steady performance on the way back didn't earn him any special privileges. He still had to begin with the most basic flying exercises alongside everyone else.

Level flight, followed by a climb and landing.

Then came straight-line flight, climbing, and landing, followed by turns, climbing, and landing—every new maneuver was followed by a flight and landing.

The flying instructor flew and landed alongside the whole group, promptly pointing out anyone who made a mistake.

"Alright, now we need someone to demonstrate everything we've just learned. Who wants to do it?"

Several people raised their hands at once, but Andrew was ultimately chosen—though he had indeed nearly gotten himself killed at the start, he had at least shown that he could stabilize himself and land.

"Ready—go!"

At the professor's command, Andrew pushed off with both legs and rose smoothly into the air. He thought taking off with one leg might let him steer his direction, but he didn't dare try that sort of trick before testing it first.

"Very good, climb again! "Alright, fly straight! "Turn left! "Straight ahead—good, over here, turn again! "Lower your altitude! "Climb and level out! Stop! "Alright, land!"

Andrew drifted down as lightly as a feather, even keeping his broom hovering low above the ground after landing.

"Perfect. Two points to Ravenclaw."

Give us a few more, Professor. We've only just broken even!

But there would be no extra points. Instead, another eager student was chosen to demonstrate.

Andrew, however, was permitted to practice on his own at low altitude—no higher than ten feet. He immediately gave up watching the others perform and began tinkering with his own broom.

Abrupt stops, sudden climbs, attempting to fly backward while clamping the broom between his legs at extremely low altitude, one-legged turning takeoffs... all the tricks he had just thought up finally had a chance to be used.

Aside from the rapid dives and pull-ups he didn't even consider attempting, he tried every stunt he could think of. Though he hit the ground several times, he could just dust himself off and keep going.

"Hahaha..."

When Andrew fell off his broom yet again, a student finally couldn't help laughing out loud. Madam Hooch glanced at him, confirmed that Andrew hadn't exceeded the height limit, and ignored him.

Looks like I overestimated the danger...

Andrew rubbed his aching backside, picked up his broom from the ground, called it to him again, and started another round of stunts.

The results were obvious—before class ended, he attempted a full flight again. This time, he was as steady as if he had been glued to the broom.

"You're progressing very quickly. After one more lesson, you can try medium-altitude flying or high-speed flight. This is an exceptionally fast learning pace. If you can maintain it, you can try applying for the House team in your second year—but only if you perform just as well in your future Quidditch training."

Madam Hooch finally gave Ravenclaw another three points at the end of class, generously praising Andrew.

The House team is probably not happening...

Andrew had absolutely no desire to play Quidditch—Transfiguration alone could swallow all of his first-year free time, not to mention that he still needed to produce quality work on schedule. He simply didn't have any spare time.

He didn't show it at all, though. Madam Hooch even said that if he kept up his training and developed enough with the House team, she could recommend him for a league team tryout after his OWLs year.

That would be nice. If Voldemort dies, it could be an option...

After acknowledging Andrew's improvement, it was nearly time for class to end.

"Students who still haven't mastered broom control may apply to use brooms over the weekend. Members of the upper-year flying club will look after you. But if there are serious violations, you will automatically fail first-year flying and be banned from flying for a year. If it happens again in your second year, then don't even think about touching a broom for the rest of your time at school. "Also, students who excel at flying may apply for Sunday practice, but only after being assessed by flying club members. That's all—class dismissed."

Madam Hooch drew her wand. With a wave, the brooms obediently followed behind her like a group of soldiers awaiting inspection.

"That wasn't nearly as difficult as I imagined."

"I told you," Bell said with an easy expression. "By the way, Andrew, want to practice together this weekend?"

"Of course. Though I can probably only train for half a day. You know, my little experiment has just reached a critical point."

He needed to practice flying too—if he wanted to keep practicing later, he still had to pass that so-called assessment.

Luckily, I still have enough time...

Just when Andrew thought flying class had passed without incident, he came out of the library and heard some astonishing news at the dining table.

The afternoon flying class had turned into a huge mess...

The Gryffindor and Slytherin groups, which had been settling down, had clashed again during flying class.

Simply put, nothing had gone wrong during the earlier training. But once everyone mounted their brooms and began basic flying, the Slytherins used their greater experience—more of them had ridden brooms before—to perform insulting maneuvers over the heads of the Gryffindors who were practicing cautiously.

In the end, a Gryffindor named Neville tried to climb and ram one of them, but the Slytherin student easily dodged. When Neville tried to stop his broom, he made a mistake and fell off.

"It was nearly twenty feet up! Harry Potter—you know, the one everyone knows—charged in from far away, caught that kid Neville, and came to a steady stop at the same time! The impact only broke one of his arms!"

"Not just that! He controlled the broom with his legs and used the hand holding the broom to snatch that Remembrall or whatever it was that Neville dropped!"

"That fierce?"

Andrew joined the conversation.

"Of course. He's really that amazing. Andrew, you're pretty good at flying too. Could you do that?"

"I can't even pull someone up. There's no comparing us, no comparing us."

Andrew decisively shook his head. He could only be considered somewhat talented at flying. He probably wouldn't dare dream of such a difficult maneuver until he had trained for a year.

But why compare that? His afternoon's results had been tremendous. After repeated experiments, the duration of his transformations on the same object seemed to have reached three times what it used to be. All that remained was to test the results with new transformed items!

"I bet he'll definitely make the House team in his second year. I'm so jealous... We probably won't be able to beat them at Quidditch from now on."

"Yeah, yeah. No comparison, no comparison."

Andrew echoed them.