Harry was astonished. "It can talk!"
Ron was already rolling his eyes. "It already spoke before. It's nothing unusual. Lots of magical creatures can talk; some even have their own languages. This one's actually pretty stupid—it can only learn human speech."
Harry felt that his definition of "stupid" might be rather different from Ron's, or perhaps from wizards' in general.
Curiously, he asked, "You said before that if you swing it hard enough and throw it far away, it won't be able to come back. Is that true?"
Seeing Harry's endless curious questions, Ron, who had initially been impatient, became more enthusiastic. "Of course. I'll show you."
As he spoke, he lifted the gnome over his head and began swinging his arm powerfully like he was twirling a lasso. After several dozen rotations, he hurled it away with all his might.
The gnome screamed as it flew more than forty feet through the air before being flung into the reed beds beyond the garden.
"You're too weak, Ronald!"
A redhead swept past on a broomstick. Harry could only tell that he was one of the twins. He was dragging a string of gnomes behind him, and the air along his path was filled with their screams.
He soared dozens of feet into the air, then used the broom's maneuverability to make a wide, accelerating turn and flung the gnomes more than a hundred feet away. Then he laughed triumphantly at Ron.
Ron rolled his eyes. "Boring!"
But when he saw Harry staring in utter amazement, he thought for a moment, then dove into the flowerbed. Before long, he caught another gnome and held it out to Harry. "Want to try?"
"Of course!"
Harry was brimming with excitement, but he soon understood why Ron said gnomes were so annoying—the gnome bit