Flight Lessons (Part One)

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

He had successfully latched onto Snape, was about to learn the Scarpin's Revelaspell he had been longing for, along with more advanced potions and magic.

His years of hard work and buried-head study had not been in vain after all.

But for the other young wizards, the happy weekend had been far too short. It slipped away before they could even process it, and as the second week began, the first-years' workload grew even heavier.

The professors explained more and more, and assigned more and more homework.

More importantly, as a week of school passed, clear divisions began to form in the first-years' social circles.

Gryffindor and Slytherin, whose classes often overlapped, disliked each other on sight. Whenever the two houses shared a lesson, both sides would sigh and groan, then trip each other up throughout class.

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

Though 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, mocking you over the slightest mistake. You could not even argue back, because you would be in the wrong if you started a fight.

"I never thought anyone in this world could be more hateful than Dudley!"

After one Transfiguration class, Harry complained to Ron.

Ron felt exactly the same. "I never thought anyone could be more annoying than Fred, George, and Vaughn combined!"

Hermione was very displeased by his slander. "They're your brothers, Ronald Weasley."

She hated Malfoy too. Though he did not dare provoke her because he feared Vaughn, every time he saw her, he would deliberately lift his chin as though he were afraid she would dirty his eyes.

A few days passed, and the trio returned to the way they had been at the beginning.

Children did not hold grudges overnight.

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

But there were still lingering effects. Hermione no longer called Ron by his nickname.

She always called him "Ronald," which kept making Ron feel strange.

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

So he had always suspected that Hermione might have some ulterior motive for making up with them.

In any case, because of Malfoy's arrogance and foul mouth, the relationship between the Gryffindors led by Harry and the Slytherins had fallen to rock bottom.

Throughout the entire first year, only Vaughn was an exception.

As time passed, everyone gradually accepted the sight of Vaughn drifting between the various houses. Then they discovered that this Slytherin, who was an excellent student 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 away pretty girls.

As a Slytherin, last weekend, when he returned from Ravenclaw to the Slytherin common room, he had supposedly disliked how gloomy the word "dungeon" written outside the entrance was, saying it damaged his image in Ravenclaw.

So he cast a spell and changed "dungeon" into "seaside villa"!

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

No one knew why Professor Snape did not punish Vaughn. Given that the prefect was still hospitalized with Madam Pomfrey after setting an example over the past week, no upper-year students dared alter Vaughn's spell without permission.

After Filch the Squib scrubbed for several days without managing to erase the words created by the spell, he gave up completely.

From then on, Slytherin's dungeon became a seaside villa...

Whenever a little snake passed beneath those glittering words, they felt oddly uncomfortable, as though the Black Lake outside the windows had suddenly become bright and sunny.

Not to mention that Gryffindor's infamous pair of troublemakers, Fred and George, often ran to the entrance of the Slytherin common room holding two posters—borrowed from some Muggle-born young wizard, no one knew where—that showed sunny beaches and bikini-clad girls.

They would grin and shout at every little snake going in or out:

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

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

Every time, it inevitably caused a loud commotion.

On Thursday, the Gryffindor and Slytherin common rooms erupted in wails again, because the first-years were officially beginning flying lessons that day. The timetable had been set on Monday.

At first, everyone had been very excited. Seamus Finnigan loudly boasted about his flying history; from the way he told it, he had apparently never come down from a flying broom 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, so close that I even shook hands with a Muggle!"

he said.

Hermione mercilessly punctured this boast. "Muggle airplanes aren't open-topped. You can't shake hands with a Muggle, Ronald Weasley."

Ron flushed red and stammered, "What do you know? How do you know there aren't any?"

Hermione sneered. "Oh yes, of course there are—but that was decades ago. Unless you're eighty years old already, there's no way you could have seen one of those ancient airplanes in the sky!"

In the end, Harry was thoroughly confused by what they said. He had never flown on an airplane, so he had no idea who was telling the truth.

But compared to himself, who had grown up in Muggle society, his classmates from wizarding families must have encountered flying brooms long ago.

Like Malfoy!

Harry did not want to lose to Malfoy, so before class, he specifically sought out Vaughn to ask what he needed to watch out for when riding a flying broom.

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

Harry stammered as he pointed at Ron. "But Ron said he..."

"Yeah, that he almost 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 bluffing. Even in wizarding families, few parents would let children who haven't started school near flying brooms."

Afraid Vaughn was merely trying to comfort him, Harry remained half-convinced until class that afternoon.

The young wizards of Gryffindor and Slytherin all stood before their brooms. Madam Hooch, the flying instructor and Hogwarts's Quidditch referee, urged them:

"I've finished explaining the precautions, so what are you all standing around for? Hold out your right hand above your broom, then say, 'Up!'"

"Up!"

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

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

Over in Slytherin, only Vaughn had succeeded as well.

What a bunch of big talkers!

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

He had assumed it would take 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 straight into the sky.

The young wizards below were green with envy!