20 Exploding Brooms

For the last week, Nova continued waiting until everyone went to sleep before getting up and going to the Room of Requirement. Each night Nova would go down to the forest and pull out a few trees to use as fuel for the hearth and then store it in his ring before walking back into the castle. When he got to the Room, instead of walking back and forth three times he extended his hand and activated a small formation that he had carved into the brick wall. Now of course this didn't mean that nobody could use the Room now, as they still had to go about it the old way. But Nova just did it to save himself some time.

After the first few days, Helena sometimes stopped by to watch what Nova was doing, but since she didn't interrupt him while he worked, Nova didn't particularly care if she watched. Though she did tell him where he could find the original blueprints for the Sorting Hat and her mother's notes on the Mark of Four. But other than that she kept to herself.

Nova also noted that when he left the Room every morning at 5, he found that people were already up. Seeing people up this early impressed Nova greatly, he thought that it was the students dedication to learn that allowed them to get up like they were. Though the only thing that confused him was why everyone looked so tired after 8 hours of sleep but what he didn't know was that he his forging was still waking everyone up after they only had a few hours worth of sleep.

It was now Thursday, and Nova saw on the bulletin board that they would have flying lessons with the Slytherin first years today. This certainly intrigued Nova at first, but once he found out that they would be flying on brooms, he lost interest.

When he sat down for breakfast, Nova heard Ron and Harry having a talk about the lessons today.

"You don't know that you'll make a fool of yourself," said Ron reasonably. "Anyway, I know Malfoy's always going on about how good he is at Quidditch, but I bet that's all talk."

Nova just shook his head, the Malfoy child certainly did talk about flying a lot. He complained loudly about first years never getting on the house Quidditch teams and told long, boastful stories that always seemed to end with him narrowly escaping Muggles in helicopters. He wasn't the only one, though: the way Seamus Finnigan told it, he'd spent most of his childhood zooming around the countryside on his broomstick. Even Ron would tell anyone who'd listen about the time he'd almost hit a hang glider on Charlie's old broom. Everyone from wizarding families talked about Quidditch constantly. Ron had already had a big argument with Dean Thomas, who shared their dormitory, about soccer. Ron couldn't see what was exciting about a game with only one ball where no one was allowed to fly. Harry had caught Ron prodding Dean's poster of West Ham soccer team, trying to make the players move.

Nova didn't really see the point in the game either. But then again he didn't see the point in either of the sports teams. He turned to look at Neville and Hermione who were talking about the flying as well. Neville seemed to have never flown before and seeing how he was a walking disaster anyways, Nova didn't blame his grandmother.

Hermione for some reason was even more nervous than Neville. When she had seen the announcement, she immediately went to the library and started checking out every book about flying the quidditch that she could find. After trying to check out 50 books, someone came and got Nova out of his corner to drag Hermione away.

"Hermione, there is no need for this many books." Nova had told her.

"But Nova I need to know about this sport and flying!" Hermione said quite distress.

"Ok here get this book. It has all the information you need." Nova pulled a book from the stack.

"Quidditch Through the Ages." Hermione said, "Are you sure? I better get a few more just in case."

Hearing this Nova, picked her up and carried out of the library, while thanking Ms. Pince for her time, all while Hermione was trying to break free of Nova's grip around her waist. Now of course after reading through the book, Hermione did feel that the book seemed the most appropriate for what they would be doing, and shyly thanked Nova for helping her. Now at breakfast on Thursday she bored them all stupid with flying tips she'd gotten out of a library book called Quidditch Through the Ages. Neville was hanging on to her every word, desperate for anything that might help him hang on to his broomstick later, but everybody else was very pleased when Hermione's lecture was interrupted by the arrival of the mail.

Now after the first week of school the owls were used to Nova's presence, and could enter the Great Hall like normal unlike the first day. But if Nova made eye contact with the owl, it would still freeze up and give a stiff hoot to him before leaving. Out of the corner of his eye, Nova watched as a barn owl brought Neville a small package from his grandmother. He 115 opened it excitedly and showed them a glass ball the size of a large marble, which seemed to be full of white smoke.

"It's a Remembrall!" he explained. "Gran knows I forget things -- this tells you if there's something you've forgotten to do. Look, you hold it tight like this and if it turns red -- oh..." His face fell, because the Remembrall had suddenly glowed scarlet,

"You've forgotten something..." Neville was trying to remember what he'd forgotten when Draco Malfoy, who was passing the Gryffindor table, snatched the Remembrall out of his hand.

Nova watched as Harry and Ron jumped to their feet. They were half hoping for a reason to fight Malfoy, but Professor McGonagall, who could spot trouble quicker than any teacher in the school, was there in a flash.

"What's going on?"

"Malfoy's got my Remembrall, Professor." Scowling, Malfoy quickly dropped the Remembrall back on the table.

"Just looking," he said, and he sloped away with Crabbe and Goyle behind him.

"Pathetic." Nova said, while watching the three walk away. Now Malfoy had heard this and gave a hateful glare at Nova. But he just ignored it.

Around some time after 3:30, Nova and the rest of the Gryffindors wentonto the grounds for their first flying lesson. It was a clear, breezy day, and the grass rippled under their feet as they marched down the sloping lawns toward a smooth, flat lawn on the opposite side of the grounds to the forbidden forest, whose trees were swaying darkly in the distance. The Slytherins were already there, and so were twenty broomsticks lying in neat lines on the ground.

Their teacher, Madam Hooch, arrived. She had short, gray hair, and yellow eyes like a hawk. "Well, what are you all waiting for?" she barked. "Everyone stand by a broomstick. Come on, hurry up."

Nova looked at the brooms. He had to admit, it was a very innovative tool. The brooms had a little cylinder device with many spells and formation engraved and enchanted on it then embedded into the broom handle about where someone would grip it.

When he walked up to the broom, Nova found himself standing in between Hermione and that blonde girl from potions last week. Nova nodded his head in acknowledgement to her and she returned the gesture.

When he looked down at her broom, he found it looked kinda odd but since he didn't work with this kind of low grade device, he couldn't pinpoint the issue. But as he stared at it he heard Madam Hooch.

"Stick out your right hand over your broom," called Madam Hooch at the front, "and say 'Up!"

Everyone did so, Nova watched and saw that Harry's broom jumped into his hand at once, but it was one of the few that did. Hermione Granger's had simply rolled over on the ground, and Neville's and the blonde's hadn't moved at all.

Nova observed that Neville's broom had the same issue that the blonde's had but still could figure out what was wrong. He then looked deeper into the broom's inner workings and found that there was something extra added into the brooms core. But didn't know what it was for.

"Mr. Void why haven't you said 'Up' yet, come on stay focused." Madam Hooch yelled over at him.

"My apologies ma'am. But I was watching the other people and I feel that there is something wrong with some of the brooms are you sure it is safe to ride these?"

Nova said this to see if she was able to check the brooms. But instead this is what he heard, "Though these brooms are a little on the old side, they will still work for what we are doing today, it is not like you will be doing any intensive flying."

Hearing what she said made Nova sigh. So he extended his hand and without saying anything willed the broom up.

"How did you do that?" The blonde said.

"Well Blondie,"

"Daphne, not Blondie, Daphne Greengrass, so get it right." the blonde, Daphne Greengrass said.

"Well Ms. Greengrass, if you must know the brooms can be simply willed up. The stronger your will to use it the easier it will be. Now as for your broom, I would recommend not using it."

Before Daphne could ask what he meant, Madam Hooch started to talk after correcting people on their grips.

"Now, when I blow my whistle, you kick off from the ground, hard," said Madam Hooch. "Keep your brooms steady, rise a few feet, and then come straight back down by leaning forward slightly. On my whistle -- three -- two --"

As she was talking, Nova noticed that a trigger formation had activated in Neville's broom and when he looked over, he saw that the same thing had happened to Daphne's broom.

"Quick get off." Nova told her but it was too late. Daphne's broom suddenly jumped into the air with her on it, off to the side he saw Neville's broom activate as well.

"Children come back!" Madam Hooch shouted. Both brooms had now reached close to a hundred feet in the air. Nova then saw another formation appear in the broom, he recognized it as an ancient exploding rune.

Nova amplified his voice, "Hurry fall off the broom is about to detonate!" Nova watched as the two seemed to have heard him. Seconds after falling off the brooms both exploded. Seeing how Madam Hooch was still surprised at what happened didn't move, Nova quickly hopped on the broom and willed it to go as fast as it could towards the two. Nova managed to get to Daphne first and he a quickly caught her in his arms in a princess carry. He then maneuvered the broom straight down and turned it sharply before hitting the ground. With one last burst, Nova injected some of his energy into the broom to grab hold of Neville before he went splat on the grass. But because of how heavy Neville was and the fact that there was already too much weight on the broom, it made a sharp did on the fulcrum point causing the handle to catch the ground throwing them off.

As they go thrown off, Neville's wrist made a nasty crack as it too caught the ground and Nova, who was used to moving through the air turned to allow his back to hit the wall, instead of Daphne being the one to make impact. In order to avoid this body being injured, Nova did apartial transformation allowing his scales to appear on his back. When the castle wall made contact with Nova there was a breaking sound as the wall compressed in unable to absorb the impact.

After they landed, the class started running over. Nova looked down to see if the girl, Daphne was alright, at the same time he did she looked up at him. And then had a stunned look on her face.

"Hello Handsome." Daphne said with a shocked voice. With a puzzled look, Nova nova touched his face only to realize that his shades had fallen off his face. He quickly tried to look around for them but couldn't find them. So he just closed his eyes and waited for the group to arrive.

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