Harley's Skyrocketing Reputation

Life at Hogwarts was enjoyable for Harley.

Every professor loved such a studious student who asked frequent questions, especially Snape.

He had praised Harley in public more than once, making no effort to hide his favoritism toward her.

After Harley went to ask a question following one of his classes, Snape even told her directly that once her progress improved a bit more, she could join the Potion Club he organized privately.

Harley was naturally very much looking forward to this.

After all, after studying for this period, Harley discovered that Snape's level was truly high.

For many potions in the textbook, Snape provided different preparation methods, and the potions produced had even better effects.

The many potion journals collected in the library, featuring papers signed with Snape's name, also powerfully proved this point—

Snape was one of the world's top potion masters, and teaching students was entirely his side job.

Or perhaps, Snape was only willing to teach students to see that kind of clear, naive stupidity in their eyes.

Harley even sincerely hoped that a top potion master like Snape would take her as an apprentice; after all, she had never been strong in potion preparation, and her mystical knowledge in this area was in urgent need of improvement.

However, so as not to appear too presumptuous, Harley did not take the initiative to mention this to Snape.

The professors liked Harley, and she was not disliked among the student body.

Although Harley had excellent grades just like Hermione, that was the only thing they had in common.

Hermione only liked to bury herself in the library, but Harley could chat with other girls about topics like makeup and outfit coordination.

Hermione would only lecture the boys who made noise, but Harley could reach a consensus with them on many topics and was happy to learn from them how to play wizard chess or Exploding Snap.

Coupled with the fact that Harley was willing to lend her completed homework and notes to other students, she had friendly relationships with almost everyone among the more than one hundred first-year students.

Only one person disliked her, and that was Mr. Draco Malfoy of Slytherin. From the train ride at the start of the term, Malfoy had found Harley an eyesore.

After all, his dear godfather, Snape, had reprimanded him in class many times, simply because he had caused trouble for Harley.

This made Malfoy furious. Hadn't he just sarcastically remarked that Harley's eyes looked like pickled toads? Why did Snape have to give him detention, lasting all the way until Halloween!

Malfoy attributed all of this to Harley and swore that he must find an opportunity to get revenge.

He decided to save this opportunity for flying class; after all, no one could be perfect. Harley was so excellent in other areas, so she couldn't possibly be talented at flying too!

Flying class was finally about to begin, but Gryffindor had to attend the class with the Slytherin students on Thursday.

Therefore, it was hard for most people to judge whether this was good news or bad news.

However, the joy of flying class itself was probably enough to dispel the annoyance of having class with people they disliked, as many students had happy expressions on their faces.

Harley was very interested in flying class, as the Witch Pathway had no ability to fly.

As a powerhouse of the Witch Pathway, if one wanted to fly without corresponding magical items, one had to advance to Sequence 2 Calamity Witch and then rely on creating wind-related disasters to barely achieve the goal of flight.

Moreover, this kind of flight could not be used for long distances or long durations, because it was essentially creating a wind disaster, a forceful attack method rather than a means of movement.

And Harley had never experienced flight at all, as such magical items were rare.

The time she killed the Ocean Songster was perhaps the closest Harley had ever been to a flight-related magical item.

However, that Beyonder characteristic was sold by Harley to the captain of a Ghost Ship, as she had no money to hire a craftsman.

And the furthest Harley had ever been from the ground was when she used the spider silk ability obtained at Sequence 6 to hang in mid-air and kite a Weapon Master of the Warrior Pathway.

Therefore, Harley very much hoped that she could learn to fly and obtain her own means of flight. Being able to fly was truly too important.

Time flew by to Thursday afternoon, and the highly anticipated flying class began.

The professor for flying class was Madam Hooch. She had short gray hair, and her yellow eyes were as sharp as a hawk's.

Madam Hooch was very cautious and repeated the instructions many times before allowing the students to start operating.

Madam Hooch had taught many generations of students and must have experienced many accidents caused by Gryffindor and Slytherin having class at the same time.

That was why she was so careful, performing multiple demonstrations and checking each student one by one to see if their movements were correct.

But despite all precautions, Madam Hooch had calculated for the students being mischievous, but she hadn't expected them to make operational errors.

When Madam Hooch asked the students to mount their brooms, Neville was so nervous that he flew straight up high toward the sun.

"Child, come back!" Madam Hooch shouted loudly from behind, but Harley felt she was doing useless work.

Judging by Neville's trembling legs and his tight grip on the broom, refusing to let go, he would have preferred to stay on the ground; it was just that the broom wasn't listening to him.

Finally, because he couldn't control the broom, Neville was thrown from the sky by the violent broom and crashed headfirst into the ground.

Madam Hooch ran over quickly, her face as pale as Neville's. After a brief check of Neville's injuries, Madam Hooch chose to send him to the school infirmary.

Before leaving, Madam Hooch warned them repeatedly not to touch the brooms. Unfortunately, the students didn't seem prepared to listen.

As soon as the professor left, Malfoy burst into loud laughter:

"Did you see his face? That big fool! Truly a stupid Gryffindor!"

While speaking, he kept glancing at Harley with a mocking look, as if trying to provoke her.

The other Slytherin students chimed in, and several of them burst into laughter.

Hearing the Slytherins mocking Gryffindor, the young Gryffindor wizards naturally wouldn't let themselves be bullied.

Ron retorted immediately, "You should thank Neville, because he gave you the chance to stay on the ground!

Otherwise, the truth that you don't know how to ride a broom would have been exposed!"

"Weasley, what do you mean by that?" Malfoy hadn't managed to provoke anyone, but he had gotten himself riled up instead.

"I think it's you who doesn't know how to ride a broom, right? That makes sense, the Weasley family is so poor they can't even afford broom bristles, so you've never had the chance to ride one!

Unlike my family, we collect every single model of broom as soon as it's produced!"

Ron seemed to have been hit where it hurt; he stopped talking and lunged straight at Malfoy.

For young wizards, using their fists was always more effective than using those few hexes they hadn't yet mastered.

Malfoy had long wanted to settle the score from the train. Although he hadn't managed to turn the fire on Harley, dealing with a red-headed Weasley brat first was a decent alternative.

"Crabbe, Goyle, get him!" Malfoy waved his hand. "Teach these Gryffindor idiots a lesson!"

How could the Gryffindor students stand for this? The Slytherin students were practically walking all over them!

So, they started fighting; after all, Gryffindor beating up Slytherin was politically correct, and even if you got hurt, you could brag about it for two years!