Magic Weighted Drop

At 1 p. m., on the flat grass outside Hogwarts, a group of young wizards stood one by one beside their flying brooms.

Unlike the anxious Hufflepuff, most of the new Ravenclaw students were very confident. In their view, they had already read "Quidditch Through the Ages" in advance and even attended a lecture held by the current Quidditch team Chaser. Flying was a piece of cake, wasn't it?

Madam Hooch was a decisive witch. In her class, she didn't take attendance and went straight to practical exercises, giving the still apprehensive young wizards no chance at all.

"Stretch out your right hand and place it above the broom handle," Madam Hooch called from the front, "and say, 'Get up!'"

"Get up!" everyone shouted.

Ryan's broom immediately jumped into his hands, but only a few brooms were so obedient. Harry's broom was the same as Ryan's, as was Ernie Macmillan of Hufflepuff, a large, somewhat arrogant, and very hardworking fellow.

You can tell how hard he works just from a conversation that happened before.

"How many hours do you think you can study in a day?" he asked Harry and Ron anxiously before Potions Class.

"I don't know," Ron said, "Maybe a few hours."

"Is it more or less than eight hours?"

"I think it should be less," Ron said, a hint of wariness in his eyes.

"I can study for eight hours," Ernie said, puffing out his chest. "Eight to nine hours. I study for an hour before breakfast every day. That's an average of eight hours. If all goes well, I can study for ten hours on the weekend. I studied for nine and a half hours on Monday. Tuesday wasn't so good—only seven hours and fifteen minutes. Then Wednesday—"

The conversation ended there when Snape entered.

The flying broom, like a horse, is a magical item that can reveal your inner fear.

Although Harry was somewhat insecure, he could freely manipulate a toy broom when he was a child, before he was attacked by Voldemort. Although he had no memory of it, subconsciously he did not believe that he could not successfully summon the broom.

Ernie Macmillan, who was Prefect in his original timeline and was quite arrogant, didn't surprise Ryan much with his success.

Anthony, who was originally destined to become Ravenclaw Prefect, perhaps because of Harry's presence, has shaken his confidence, causing his broom to only lift slightly, almost succeeding.

Ron, Neville, and the others were like Anthony's broom.

Hermione's broom just rolled on the ground, much like most young wizards, but Hermione was clearly very unhappy; this was her only Waterloo lesson.

The only ones whose brooms didn't budge at all, just like Neville's in the original timeline, were Dudley and Wayne Hopkins —an unknown guy who didn't even have a role in the novel.

My two most treasured possessions are a pair of small notebooks containing my first doodles about Harry Potter. Most of the content was never used in the series, although surprisingly, the strange dialogue lines were later published word for word.

One of the books listed the names of Harry's forty students (including Harry, Ron, and Hermione), all the assigned houses, and next to each name was a small symbol describing the origin of each boy or girl.

Wayne Hopkins is one of the original forty people mentioned in J. K. J.K. Rowling's words. In the lore, he still exists at Hogwarts, but he has never appeared in Harry's perspective.

Ryan observed the guy with great interest, but after a while, he found that he was no different from other young wizards.

Madam Hooch, who was only now beginning her formal instruction, mingled with the crowd, demonstrating how to ride a broom without slipping off her head.

They would also correct the way the hands were gripped from time to time. Here, those who made more mistakes were actually from wizarding families. Most of them had been exposed to toy brooms, which led them to master all sorts of strange and incorrect ways of gripping them.

However, Ron comes from a family with a strong tradition of ball handling; his brother Charlie is already the best Seeker in recent times. Madam Hooch could find no fault with Ron's grip and glanced at it before moving on.

Harry was even more amazing; the way he instinctively gripped the broom was already the most standard.

Dudley also did a good job in this area, perhaps because he often hit Harry with his Smelting stick.

Finally, after about 30 minutes, all the little wizards had mastered the correct way to hold it.

"Alright, when I whistle, you all push off the ground with your legs, push hard!" Madam Hooch said. "Hold your brooms steady, rise a few feet, then lean forward slightly and land vertically back on the ground. Listen to my whistle—three—two—"

Almost everyone floated in mid-air on broomsticks, except for Dudley, who inherited his Uncle Harry's attitude towards magic. Although he already possessed the talents of an adult wizard, his disbelief, fear, and rejection of magic kept him firmly on the ground.

From Ryan's perspective, Dudley's adult wizard magic was absorbed by the broom, generating an upward force. Dudley's own lack of confidence led him to create a new phenomenon: an invisible magnetic force was generated between the ground and his body, counteracting the broom's upward force.

No, that's not all. The magnetic force grew stronger and stronger, and then—click!

The broom broke, Dudley fell heavily to the ground. Madam Hooch and the students stared in disbelief, while Harry sadly curled the corners of his mouth.

Ryan was even more surprised. Goodness, Dudley is playing with Magic Weighted Drop. His footwork is quite stable. If this continues, will Dudley become a monk in the magical world?

"How could that be? In my more than twenty years of teaching, not a single junior wizard has ever managed to break a broom under their weight!" Madam Hooch exclaimed in surprise. "What's your name?"

"Dudley Dursley," Dudley said tremulously, as if trying to shrink his body to appear smaller, but his efforts were in vain.

Madam Hooch clearly repeated the name to herself several times, trying to remember it.

"Alright, wait a minute. Using the Reparo the flying broom might have negative consequences. I'll go to the broom room in the Entrance Hall on the first floor and get another one to check," Madam Hooch said. Then she turned to the other students in the class and said, "Put your flying brooms back where they belong. Don't play with them while I'm not here. If I come back and see you playing with them, you'll be in trouble with your House Points!"

A moment later, Madam Hooch strode toward the gate and disappeared.

"Anthony, did you just see that? That wasn't magic!" Michael was the first to break the long silence.