Chapter 49 - Flying Robes

Of course he didn't.

The jerk.

"Harry." She said and waited as he completed his set of runic symbols in the robe before looking up at her curiously.

"Good morning Hermione." He said cheerfully and she could instantly tell from his cheerfulness that he was about to do something reckless today.

Then he noticed her expression and asked "Is something wrong?"

"Is something wrong. Yes there is something wrong Harry. Why have you dismantled these brooms?"

"To study them of course." He said proudly as if expecting her to give him some kind of cake for his accomplishments "And let me tell you. It was really hard for me to get these older broomsticks." He said and pointed at some broom parts that looked, for the lack of a better word, ancient.

She didn't even want to ask whom he murdered for that broomstick.

"Harry." She said

"Yes Hermione?" he replied.

"Why have you dismantled your broomstick?"

"These are all my broomsticks Hermione. And as I already told you. I dismantled them so that I could study the charms and runes inside them." He explained patiently as if explaining a particularly hard piece of puzzle to a dim witted child. Oh he knew that this would get a rise out of her. The irritating boy.

"That's not what I meant and you know it." She said sharply, her anger slowly rising at his childish taunts "Why did you dismantled your Nimbus 2000."

"Why do you care?" he asked.

"Because I liked it." She shouted and he looked puzzled for a moment before shaking his head with a defeated expression.

"Alright. If you like it then I'll reassemble it when I'm done with this project." He said and went back to writing runes in the robes.

It was a brand new robe, she noted. Not the one that he usually used when he went to practice dueling with Professor Flitwick.

Which meant that this really was a whole new project for him that wasn't entirely focused on stopping harmful spells from killing him.

This was new and interesting.

So she sat down on the soft ground beside him and watched patiently as he wrote runes upon runes on the robes that she guessed that even Penelope wouldn't understand.

He had surpassed her in that field a few weeks ago after all.

He really didn't liked it when people disturbed him when he was doing something important.

In that way, he was much like her and only now she knew how bad of an impression that made.

No wonder she had no friends before this.

It didn't take long for him to finish whatever it was that he was doing and she took this chance to ask him what she wanted.

"What are you doing?"

"Carving runes" he deadpanned and at her irritated expression, he smiled smugly at realizing that he'd got under her skin once again.

The irritating prat.

"You know that not what I meant."

"Oh." He said softly in the same tone that sent buŧŧerfly down in her stomach "What did you meant then Mione?" he asked huskily as he came closer to her.

It wasn't everyday that he used her nickname. And do it so in such an affectionate manner.

Gods, she felt weak when he did that.

And now she couldn't even be angry at him.

He smiled at her in way that meant that he knew that he'd got to her and she flushed bright red and looked away in embarrassment.

"Sorry." He said with a smirk, not meaning it at all "Come. I'll tell you what I'm doing." He said and took her hand gently and brought her to a table where dozens of hand written papers filled with different kind of runes were being kept.

She understood a few words like Fly. Stability. Always on top. Fast, etc but the rest were in runic symbols that she knew nothing about.

She looked at him in confusion and he nodded before going back to his 'Professor Persona' as she and Penelope liked to call it.

"I know you'll not understand all the jargon if I went into too much detail so I'll just explain it to you as simply as I can." He said and she waited with a baited breath as he unraveled his master plan.

"I'm creating a robe that'll help me fly." He said and she blinked for a moment before the words registered in her mind.

Then it all made sense to her. The room filled with cushioning charm. The dismantled brooms. The runes. All of them and she squealed before jumping at him with a hug.

"Oh Harry. That's such a great idea." She gushed in excitement as she realized what it would mean if he succeeded in this endeavor. Which he most likely would because he was… well, because he was Harry.

No one had ever successfully created a robe that would help them in flight.

She heard about people who tried to do the same with Levitation charms and what not before meeting a greasily end.

No one tried to make the same mistake after that.

But she believed that Harry would be able to do it even though she had no idea how.

"There's no need to get so excited." He said as she broke the hug "I'm making this robe while taking myself as a basis and it'll only work because I'm quite accomplished in applying my will and intent on something. That was how I'll tell it where to go and how to move. Without my particular skillset, no one else would be able to do it. So no, we won't have wizards flying to their work place in a few years if that's what you're thinking."

That dampened her mood a bit but then she remembered that she was also learning this will and intent thing so she should also be able to fly with it. Right?

He looked at her hopeful expression and let out a loud chuckle "Yes you'll be able to fly with it as well. In fact, I guess you and me will be the only people in Britain who'll be able to do it."

She flushed at the fact that he was able to read her so well. And it did made her feel good that there was something that only the two of them would be able to do.

"In fact. You came at a good time." Harry said and she perked up at that as she realized what he meant.

"I need your help." He said and she smiled, knowing that she'll finally be part of one of his project.

"You'll be acting as my ȧssistant and take note of everything that I say. Then we'll see what we need to improve on or what we did wrong. You understand?" he asked and she nodded her head, her bushy hair bobbing up and down in excitement.

"Good then." He handed her a note and paper before wearing the robe.

"Let's start then." And he flew.

More like Levitated in fact. But the fact remained that the robe was working.

And she started taking notes.

They spent the rest of the day pointing out the mistakes and inefficiency in the robe and adding and removing runes from the robe in order to make it better.

Mistakes and improvements. Mistakes and improvements. And so the cycle went.

It was just another day with Harry that she enjoyed thoroughly and by the end of it, she had a good idea about what all of the runes in his robes meant.

She had a suspicion that if they continued like this then she would learn about all the runes without even trying.

And wasn't that a thought.

Though the fact remained that despite all their hard work and all their improvements, the robes still flew rather slowly.

The next day, Harry brought a flying carpet to the class (which was once again, illegal in Britain) and they went back to dismantling and studying why it flew so fast so that they could add the new information to the robes.

She never even asked where he bought the Flying Carpet from considering how they don't sell any in Britain.

It took them a whole week before they succeeded in making the robes fly at 1/3rd speed of a Nimbus 2000, which was an accomplishment in her eyes though as usual, Harry remained unsatisfied.

But for now, he was fed up with this project and seeing as how they'd run out of ideas for now, he proposed that they move on to another project (and there were a lot of unfinished projects) for the time.

Though she knew in her heart that they'll be returning to this project sometime in the future.

And that once she become sufficiently good at using her will and intent to control magic, she'll have her own means of flying that'll beat the blasted broomsticks any day.