Flying Class (Part 1)

On the last day of the weekend, Vaughn had a very pleasant time.

He had successfully gotten into Snape's good graces and would soon learn the Scarpin Transfiguration Curse, along with more advanced potions and magic.

His years of hard work and study had not been in vain.

But for the other young wizards, the happy weekend had been far too short. Before they could even process it, it had slipped away. As the second week began, First Year classes became increasingly demanding.

The professors covered more and more material and assigned more and more homework.

More importantly, after a week of school, the First Year students' social circles had begun to divide along clear lines.

Gryffindor and Slytherin, whose classes overlapped, disliked each other on sight. Whenever the two Houses shared a class, they would sigh in dismay before tripping each other up throughout the lesson.

Among them, the most classic matchup was Harry and Ron versus Malfoy's Trio.

Although Malfoy feared Vaughn and did not dare go too far,

he gradually realized that as long as he did not provoke Vaughn himself or Granger, Vaughn would not do anything to him.

Especially when Harry and Ron made mistakes.

And so, Harry and Ron's nightmare began.

Just imagine it... in every class, someone watched your every move. The slightest mistake would earn you all kinds of mockery, and you could not even argue back because you would be in the wrong.

"I never thought there could be someone more hateful than Dudley!"

After one Transfiguration Class, Harry complained to Ron.

Ron deeply agreed. "I never thought anyone could be more awful than Fred, George, and Vaughn combined!"

Hermione was very dissatisfied with his slander. "They are your brothers, Ronald Weasley."

She also hated Malfoy. That guy did not dare provoke her because he was afraid of Vaughn, but whenever he saw her, he would deliberately raise his chin as if he were afraid she would dirty his eyes.

After a few days, the Trio returned to the way they had been at the beginning.

Children did not hold grudges overnight.

Especially after Ron was forced by Harry to awkwardly apologize to Hermione one day, their little conflict naturally faded away.

There was still some effect, though. Hermione no longer called Ron by his nickname.

She always called him "Ronald," which made Ron feel strange all the time.

Ron explained to Harry that Vaughn had traumatized him. Whenever Vaughn messed with him, he always called him by his full name.

So he had always suspected that Hermione's reconciliation with them might be driven by some ulterior motive.

No matter what, because of Malfoy's arrogance and foul mouth, the relationship between the Gryffindors led by Harry and the Slytherins had dropped to freezing point.

In the entire First Year, only Vaughn was an exception.

As time passed, everyone gradually accepted the sight of Vaughn wandering between the various Houses. Then they discovered that this Slytherin, who studied well and liked wandering around with a cat, was actually not difficult to get along with.

If only his personality were a little more normal—

Vaughn did not like hanging out with boys, but he never turned down pretty girls.

As a Slytherin, he had reportedly returned from Ravenclaw to the Slytherin common room last weekend and decided that the word "dungeon" written outside the entrance was too gloomy and harmed his image in Ravenclaw.

So he cast a spell and changed "dungeon" into "Sea View Room"!

Peeves reported the matter to Filch, and it quickly spread throughout Hogwarts.

No one knew why Professor Snape did not punish Vaughn. With the Prefect still hospitalized under Madam Pomfrey's care after setting an example over the past week, no older students dared change Vaughn's spell without permission.

After Squib Filch scrubbed at it for several days without removing the words created by the spell, he finally gave up.

From then on, Slytherin's dungeon became a Sea View Room...

Whenever the Little Snakes passed beneath those glittering words, they all felt strange, as though the Black Lake outside the window had suddenly become bright and sunny.

Not to mention Gryffindor's famous pair of troublemakers, Fred and George, who often ran to the entrance of the Slytherin common room holding two posters, borrowed from some Muggle-born young wizard who knew where, featuring sunny beaches and bikini-clad women.

They would grin and shout at every Little Snake going in or out:

"Honored customers, welcome to the Weasley Real Estate Company."

"Underwater beaches, beautiful Merpeople—we have it all!"

Every time, it inevitably sparked a noisy commotion.

On Thursday, the Gryffindor and Slytherin common rooms rang with wails again, because First Years would officially begin Flying Class that day. The timetable had been set on Monday.

At first, everyone had been excited. Seamus Finnigan loudly bragged about his flying experience. From the way he told it, it seemed as though he had never gotten off a Flying Broomstick since the day he was born.

Ron also told Harry about the dangerous time he had secretly ridden Charlie's broom and nearly crashed into a Muggle airplane.

"...It was so thrilling. We got so close that I even shook hands with a Muggle!"

he said.

Hermione mercilessly exposed his lie. "Muggle airplanes are not open-topped. You could not shake hands with a Muggle, Ronald Weasley."

Ron's face reddened as he stammered, "What do you know? How do you know there aren't any?"

Hermione sneered. "Yes, of course there were, but that was decades ago. Unless you're eighty years old now, you could not have seen one of those ancient planes in the sky!"

In the end, Harry was left thoroughly confused by their argument. Having never ridden on an airplane, he did not know who was telling the truth.

But compared to him, who had grown up in Muggle Society, his classmates from wizarding families must have encountered Flying Broomsticks long ago.

Like Malfoy!

Harry did not want to lose to Malfoy, so before class, he specifically sought out Vaughn to ask for advice about what to watch out for when riding a Flying Broomstick.

Vaughn rolled his eyes at him. "I've never ridden one either."

Harry pointed at Ron, stammering. "But Ron said he..."

"Yeah, that he nearly crashed into a Muggle airplane, right? That was a dream he had after I took him to see a Muggle Movie once." Vaughn burst out laughing. "Harry, don't worry. They're all bragging. Even in wizarding families, not many parents would let children who have not started school touch Flying Broomsticks."

Afraid that Vaughn was only comforting him, Harry was half-convinced until class began that afternoon.

The Gryffindor and Slytherin young wizards all stood before their brooms. Madam Hooch, the Flying Class professor and Hogwarts' Quidditch referee, urged them:

"I've finished explaining the precautions. What are you all standing around for? Hold out your right hand over the broom and say, 'Up.'"

"Up!"

Harry succeeded on his first try, and he looked around in astonishment.

He discovered that not a single one of those who had been bragging earlier had succeeded. On the Gryffindor side, only Hermione's broom twitched.

And on the Slytherin side, only Vaughn had succeeded.

A bunch of big liars!

Vaughn was rather surprised too. He had never been particularly obsessed with riding brooms, and the system had not listed any separate talent for flying.

He had thought it would take him several tries before he succeeded.

Still, having talent was not bad!

When Madam Hooch ordered everyone to try flying, Vaughn and Harry were once again the only ones who shot into the sky at once.

The young wizards below were green with envy!