Ancient Wizards Return to Hogwarts.

Chapter 44 An Accident During Flight Lesson

"Hey, Rice, are you any good? Need me to share my experience with you?" Unlike Rice, Malfoy's broom jumped into his hands immediately at his command.

But only a few brooms were so obedient. Daphne's broom, like Rice's, just rolled on the ground, while some of the little wizards' brooms didn't move at all.

Although it's not the best, it's not the worst either, but Rice still feels that her blood pressure is gradually rising.

After his body became younger, his emotions became more volatile. This was an instinct brought about by a young body, and it was troublesome to intervene. Rice did not intend to intervene.

"Lift!" He tried again, but this time the broom only trembled slightly.

"There really aren't Slytherins who can't even summon a broom, are there? No way! No way!" Malfoy's voice rang in Rice's ears.

There was no other way; it seemed that even after a thousand years, the quality of flying brooms was still quite questionable, so Rice decided to resort to his own unique methods. As for Draco Malfoy's provocation, Rice completely ignored him.

A true Slytherin should be someone who clashes with flying broomsticks; a child like Daphne Greengrass is the one who truly meets Salazar Slytherin's admission criteria.

Seeing that Daphne couldn't control her flying broom, Rice was relieved: It must be a problem with the broom. This broom is tattered and obviously not good to use. Hogwarts is so rich now, why not allocate more budget to update the brooms used in the school's flying classes?

This is where Rice failed to consider things thoroughly.

Who are the members of the Hogwarts Board of Governors? As an organization responsible for collecting donations, most members of the Board of Governors are from pure-blood families; otherwise, it would be difficult to manage the ever-increasing expenses. This results in a very high percentage of Slytherin family members on the Hogwarts Board of Governors, making the Board generally biased towards Slytherin.

In their eyes, Slytherin winning the House Cup and the Quidditch Cup would be a cause for celebration. Therefore, weakening the other three houses as much as possible was essential. How? The board of trustees, no matter how wealthy, couldn't afford to hire professional players, so they set their sights on the brooms used in the matches.

For most students, a flying broomstick is a luxury. Aside from the wealthy students in Slytherin, most students borrow broomsticks provided by the school for competitions, but there's no rule against using your own!

Just like in Muggle car racing, one group uses cars worth 100,000 dollars, while another group uses supercars. Those with supercars will definitely have the upper hand. As a result, the flying brooms provided free of charge by Hogwarts have never been updated; they're all the old models like the Sweeper and Comet, while the Slytherin Quidditch team uses the best-performing brooms.

This is one of the reasons why the Slytherin team is so likely to achieve good results.

While Rice and the flying broomstick were arguing, Mrs. Hodge was at the front of the line demonstrating to the new students how to ride a broomstick without slipping off their heads.

"There are two main riding styles for broomsticks: the side-mounted style and the straddle style..."

Rice eventually abandoned the traditional method of waking up the broom and instead used his secret technique, the Levitation Charm. However, he would soon find out exactly where the flying broom had made a technological breakthrough over the past millennium.

Medieval flying brooms were simply ordinary brooms imbued with levitation charms, allowing them to fly under the control of wizards. Brooms from a thousand years later are quite different; they are now typically equipped with a spell that effectively resists magical interference. Ordinary levitation charms have no effect on flying brooms; only powerful dark magic can achieve this.

In other words, Rice's method didn't work.

Rice: ?

His spell failed; the broom lay motionless on the ground, less effective than a verbal command. Malfoy's mocking gaze seemed to materialize, sweeping across Rice and the flying broom on the ground.

Daphne, standing to the side, faced the same predicament as Rice; unable to wake the broom, she was clearly under immense pressure. After much hesitation, she decided to bend down and pick up the broom.

Although it was a bit embarrassing, there was nothing she could do; she still had to learn how to ride a broom.

Rice snorted coldly; he would never bend down. A mere anti-spell to stop me? In his view, the spell on the broom was more symbolic than practical, a tactic used to ward off honest people, not scoundrels.

He increased the intensity of his efforts, but an unexpected event occurred: the school's brooms were old and dilapidated, and since it was the first time he had broken such a spell, Rice overestimated the strength of the counter-spell attached to the brooms.

His amplified spell overwhelmed the anti-spell like a flood, spreading outwards and disrupting the surrounding twenty-odd brooms.

Whoosh whoosh!

Only wizards like Madam Hooch, Malfoy, and Harry, who possessed exceptional broom control or whose brooms were of high quality, managed to hold onto their flying brooms. All the others lost control of their brooms, which flew into the sky like rockets.

In a short moment, more than twenty brooms flew into the sky, twenty feet high.

Rice: !

He truly hadn't expected the school brooms to be so fragile; the spell on them was broken in an instant. Rice reflected on it, realizing that if the spell's power had been reduced to one-tenth, this situation likely wouldn't have occurred.

(Flying broomstick: Rhys Lint was too strong, and I feel really bad for not being able to get him to go all out in flying class.)

Rice's reflections didn't bring the brooms down. With the flying brooms going berserk, the whole class descended into chaos. Mrs. Hodge, no longer concerned with the students, hurriedly mounted a broom and soared into the sky to "catch" the escaped brooms.

In the chaos, Malfoy noticed Harry, who was also holding a flying broomstick, just like himself.

Huh? He didn't sell it either? That's unbelievable. Wait a minute... Malfoy had a sudden flash of inspiration, and a wicked idea popped into his head.

"Hey, Pott, wanna have a go at it?" He raised an eyebrow and looked at Harry with a provocative gaze.

"What are you trying to say, Malfoy?" Harry loathed Malfoy. He had never imagined anyone could be more repulsive to him than Dali until he met Draco Malfoy.

"How about we see who can snatch back more brooms?" Malfoy pointed to the brooms flying into the sky.

"Have some shame!" Ron, standing to the side, couldn't help but speak up after hearing Malfoy's words. He said indignantly, "Comparing flying ability to someone who's only been holding a flying broom for less than five minutes, you're really 'capable'!"

"Okay, never mind." Malfoy shrugged, giving him a "you're right" look, then mounted his broom and took off.

Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.

The second update will be in the morning.

(End of this chapter)