Flying Lesson

The second week of term arrived in the blink of an eye. At the long tables in the Great Hall, two little ones stared hopefully at Oren as he made spicy sauce sandwiches.

Oren was not in a very good mood today. The system had drawn him a steel helmet first thing in the morning.

A flock of owls flew into the Great Hall. One enormous owl suddenly climbed to the height of the ceiling, then dove, accurately dropping its payload from three or four meters away from Oren before climbing again.

The newspaper he had just subscribed to landed with perfect accuracy on Hermione's face... beside Oren.

Feeling greatly comforted, Oren said to Harry beside him, "After all this time, Mig still has me in his heart."

Harry...

The little witch snatched the newspaper away indignantly and began reading it, looking as though she had no intention of returning it until she was done.

Listening to Draco Malfoy brag about his flying skills from afar, Harry looked somewhat dejected. "I'm afraid I'm going to make a fool of myself on a broomstick in front of Malfoy."

Oren nodded. Exactly. Foreigners had to be the ones making fools of themselves.

Ron swallowed a mouthful of chicken leg. "Oh, come on. I'd bet Malfoy is exaggerating. I don't believe he's all that good at Quidditch."

Hermione and Neville looked a little nervous. Oren comforted them. "You don't need to be nervous. It's only a flying lesson. You have to believe in..."

"Believe in ourselves?" Hermione asked. "Or believe in the broomsticks?"

Oren...

"Believe in Madam Pomfrey's skills. As long as you don't fly too high, and as long as you still have a breath left after falling, a few days in the hospital wing should be no big deal."

Hermione, Neville...

Great. Now the two of them were even more nervous. The little witch kept flipping through a copy of Quidditch Through the Ages.

"Cheer up, Neville. It's just riding a broomstick."

"But Oren, my gran never lets me touch a broomstick. She's afraid I'll fall off and break my neck."

Oren pulled out a bundle of system-produced climbing rope from his pocket and handed it to Neville.

"Use this. Tie yourself on tightly when the time comes, and you won't fall off, right?"

"Will that actually work?" Hermione asked in a low voice.

"It'll work! Of course it'll work. As long as the school's crappy brooms don't fail, falling from the sky won't be a problem."

Glancing at the rope, Oren said, "If that fails, then it's a vehicle crash... broom crash and rider dead. You won't even get a chance to run."

Neville asked weakly, "What's a chain?"

"Muggle stuff. You're pure-blood, so stop asking." Oren raised a hand and gave Neville a sharp knock on the head.

"You two go to class first. I need to find the twins."

Ignoring Harry and Draco fighting over some stupid ball, Oren got up to find the twins.

The weather was clear, and a breeze swept across the grass beside the Forbidden Forest. Carrying his broom over his shoulder, Oren headed toward the place where he had dueled Snape last week.

Listening to the little wizards around him boast, Oren felt his teeth ache. To sum it up, they claimed they had ridden broomsticks and smashed into all sorts of Muggle aircraft.

"Oren, you're here. What are you carrying?" Ron gasped. "Is that a Nimbus 2000?"

"Gasp—" The little lions around them all sucked in a breath.

Oren shoved Ron's dog face aside and handed him the broom. "Here, here. Give it back to me later."

Hermione tugged at Oren's sleeve. "Didn't the acceptance letter say first-years weren't allowed to bring broomsticks?"

"First, I never got an acceptance letter. Second, first-years aren't allowed to bring them. What does that have to do with me being a year-and-a-half student?"

"Madam Hooch doesn't know that. Aren't you afraid she'll get you in trouble and deduct points?"

Hermione now felt that even if Madam Hooch got fired, Oren might still come out completely fine.

"Dumbledore gave me this broom. If she has a problem, she can go talk to the Headmaster."

Hermione...

"Um, Oren, what is a Nimbus 2000?"

"You can think of it as a high-end motorcycle. This thing costs a bit over two hundred Galleons."

"...Oren, are you sure your surname is Black and not Dumbledore?"

Oren casually grabbed a little snake as if he were picking up a chick. "You tell me. Do I look more like a Black or a Dumbledore?"

Dangling in Oren's grip, Draco immediately gave in. "Black! Black! All right? Put me down already!"

Once he was released, Draco quickly ran back to the Slytherin students.

"Hmph. What a troll." Surrounded by his lackeys, Draco adjusted his collar before starting to mock Oren.

Oren finally understood. The more lackeys Draco had, the straighter his back became.

Oren spread his hands helplessly at Hermione.

Madam Hooch, the gray-haired flying instructor, arrived on the grass right on time.

Ron squeezed out from among the little lions and returned the Nimbus 2000 to Oren.

"What are you waiting for?" Madam Hooch said. "Everyone, stand beside a broomstick."

Oren walked over to a broom, kicked the bald stick of a thing aside, and placed the Nimbus 2000 on the ground.

"All right, children, stretch out your right hands and shout!"

"Up!" the little wizards shouted.

Only Harry's broom obediently flew into his hand. Hermione's broom wriggled like a caterpillar, while Neville's seemed to be offline and simply could not hear his command.

Oren looked around and nodded in satisfaction. Now it was his turn to show off.

"Up!" The Nimbus 2000 obediently flew into his hand.

"Have you learned to ride a broomstick before?" Hermione asked.

"Sort of. The Gryffindor Quidditch team taught me a couple of tricks." Oren praised himself inwardly. That was a good flex.

The little witch screamed inwardly: Cheating! This was absolutely cheating! Madam Hooch, hurry up and do something!

After demonstrating the posture, Madam Hooch told everyone to mount their brooms.

"When I blow my whistle, push off from the ground. Remember, don't fly too high."

Using the rope, Neville physically tied himself and the broom together. The look of grim determination on his face made Oren want to offer him a farewell drink.

"Three, two—" Madam Hooch called. "Come back, child!"

Before she could finish counting down, Neville shot into the sky like a spring onion pulled from dry earth.

"Tut, tut, tut. Not bad, Neville. That bell maneuver was very standard."

"Damn, he even pulled off a cobra."

The little wizards around them were all drawn in by Oren's commentary.

Draco asked, "What are you even talking about?"

"You wouldn't understand. Those are Muggle fighter jet maneuvers."

"Don't underestimate Muggles. If you can learn them, I guarantee you'll dominate the Quidditch pitch."

What followed was Oren's commentary, occasionally mixed with strange nonsense like, "War flames drifted over Hanoi, and I flew higher than ghosts and monsters."

"Neville has performed a standard barrel roll. It looks rather defensive, and then he... then he pasted himself onto the ground. That fall broke at least one arm."

The little wizards...

"His wrist is broken," Madam Hooch said. "I'll take him to the hospital wing. You all put your brooms back on the ground, and nobody moves! Otherwise, when I come back, you can wait to be thrown out of the Hogwarts gates!"

Madam Hooch helped the limping Neville away. The moment she left, the little wizards began chattering. The little snakes continuously mocked Neville, while the little lions kept arguing back. Oren regretted not buying some sunflower seeds to snack on.

"Isn't this that big idiot's Remembrall?"

Draco picked up the crystal ball from the ground.

"Bring it here, Malfoy!" Harry shouted.

All the little wizards stopped talking. Oren perked up. He smelled the scent of a duel. This was going to be entertaining.

Draco said viciously, "I'm going to put it in a tree. What are you going to do about it?"

"Bring it here!" Before Harry could finish shouting, Draco mounted his broom and flew away.

Harry grabbed his broom and was about to take off after Draco.

"Stop!" Hermione shouted. "Madam Hooch said nobody was allowed to move. You'll get us all in trouble."

Harry was already too worked up to listen to Hermione.

Fortunately, Oren grabbed Harry, and the little witch sighed in relief. Thank goodness. Oren was still reliable when it mattered.

Big Brother Oren said, "Wait, Harry. Put down that crappy broom of yours and use my Nimbus 2000. Don't disgrace Gryffindor!"

Hermione!!!

"Go, Harry! Catch that kid and kick his butt hard with your pointy shoes."

Harry smiled and nodded at Oren. At that moment, he felt that Oren was his big brother.

With a push of his feet, Harry took off and began his dramatic chase with Draco.

The little witch tugged at Oren's sleeve. "How can you do this? Madam Hooch will expel Harry when she gets back!"

"Oh, please, Hermione. What authority does a flying instructor have to expel students? Who is Harry? The famous V—spit, spit, spit—Savior. Even if they expelled you, little sea beaver, Harry might not suffer a thing. Just watch the show."

After giving Oren a few light punches, the little witch stared fixedly at the two flyers.

Draco threw out the Remembrall. Harry made a dangerous dive and barely caught it at an altitude where he nearly crashed.

Harry had just jumped down onto the grass and had not even had time to show off when Professor McGonagall caught him on the spot.

The little witch said dejectedly, "It's over. Even if he isn't expelled, he'll lose a lot of house points."

Oren calmly said, "It's fine. I've earned plenty of points, enough for him to lose some. Speaking of which, Hermione, I don't think you've earned more points than I have this term."

After saying that, Oren prepared to leave.

"Oren, class isn't over yet. Where are you going?"

"To get some good stuff from the twins."

Hermione stamped her foot angrily. She was going to the library right now. She would study this cheater into the ground. It was her duty to defend the honor of top students!

Sixth-floor corridor.

Oren asked, "Did you bring what I wanted?"

"We brought it. George, let Mr. Black inspect the goods."

George said, "They're all top-quality copper ingots, very high purity."

"George is right. Filch uses these to maintain the castle during the holidays. As long as we put them back before the holiday, he won't notice a thing."

"Don't worry, you two. I'll take care of it before the holidays."

Oren gave the twins several silver Sickles as an errand fee, then carried a large bag of copper ingots to the Headmaster's office.

"Oren, class is over already? How was your first flying lesson?"

"Come on, Headmaster, quit talking nonsense. Let's get started on an intense and exciting soul alchemy experiment."

Oren took out a bottle filled with countless floating blue balls of light and slapped it onto the table.

Dumbledore swallowed and thought, Look at this child. I've educated him so well. Even when he extracts souls, he only takes them from spiders. How kind, how principled.