"What a knobhead!" Ron exclaimed in disgust at dinner that night as he glared across the hall at the Slytherin table, still utterly disgusted with Draco's behavior.
Hermione was noticeably absent from the table, but so were the other Second Year Gryffindor girls. Harry had a feeling they'd heard about it and were consoling the bushy-haired bookworm up in the dorms. She'd looked up what the word 'Mudblood' meant after the fact, and it had hurt her badly when she learned what it was.
'Thank God she has friends to care for her,' Harry thought to himself.
"Language!" Percy scolded his younger brother, though it was without any real feeling behind it. More automatic than anything.
"Malfoy called Hermione a, a, well, a bad name! He deserves it!" Ron replied, furiously stabbing his Beef Wellington. Neville nodded, an angry scowl on his face. "And he has to gall to cheat by getting the Slytherins all newer, better brooms? I call it like I see it!"
"Is that even allowed?" Harry asked. "The buying his team better brooms to bribe his way onto the team thing, not the slur thing."
"Yeah, real shady what he did," one of the twins agreed.
"But, technically, not illegal. Wood checked," the other twin replied. "Just like it's not illegal to use a school broom instead of your own for Quidditch matches."
"Huh," Harry said slowly, an idea forming in his head. "I think I need to send a letter after dinner."
Excusing himself early, Harry made his way up to the owlery, pen and paper in hand. He still hadn't gotten used to quills or parchment, yet. Thankfully, most teachers didn't seem to care if he took notes or did minor assignments with a pen. As long as he turned them in and did the work, they were alright with it. Snape being the main exception. But Harry had long ago decided to not care what the bitter old bat in the dungeon thought of him.
"Hey, Hedwig," he said in greeting as his beautiful girl came swooping down to him as soon as he entered the tower full of owls. "I need to send a letter to Ed."
She barked in understanding, and Harry hastily scribbled out his request and then tied it to her leg. She then took off, flying away into the night.
Then, at breakfast the next morning, she returned, extending a leg with a reply on it.
"That was fast," Harry said as he accepted it. As he fed her some sausage as a reward, he read Edward's response.
'Dear Harry, glad to hear things have been going alright so far over at Hogwarts. As for your request, of course! I've heard the brooms used by the school are decades out of date in some cases. That doesn't sound very safe to me so I'll go ahead and get it done. Don't worry about repaying me for this, either. I'll just write it off as a charitable donation on my taxes this year. Pretty sure my accountant can swing that. Anyways, expect them around next week or so! Take care!'
Harry grinned widely when he was done, which naturally caught the attention of his friends.
"What's with that grin?" Ron asked suspiciously.
"Nothing, just some good news," Harry replied as he tucked the letter away. None of his friends believed him, but they let it drop for the moment.
Waiting for his plan to come into play wasn't all that fun, but thankfully the days passed in a blur as he got into the routine of schoolwork and studies.
Then, a week after he'd sent his letter to Edward, an owl carrying a large mail pouch flew into the Great Hall one morning, and landed in front of Madam Hooch at the teacher's table.
Curious, Harry watched eagerly as she accepted the pouch from the owl and signed something before handing it back, which the delivery owl took and then flew off with.
Then, Madam Hooch opened the pouch, and proceeded to gasp when she pulled out a brand-new broom from within. And not just any broom, but a Nimbus 2000, the same kind as Harry's!
But that wasn't the only one. With shaking hands, the flying instructor took out another Nimbus 2000. And then another. And another. Soon, other students noticed, and the Great Hall went absolutely silent as everyone watched with dropped jaws as thirty brand-new Nimbus 2000 racing brooms were taken out of the pouch and stacked up onto the table in a big pile.
Slowly, Madam Hooch took out one last item. A letter. She opened it, and as she read it, her eyes widened. Then, she looked up, and caught Harry's gaze.
"M-Mr. Potter?" she called out, stuttering a bit. "C-can you explain why it says here you bought thirty new brooms and are donating them all to Hogwarts?"
Heads immediately snapped towards him from all over the Great Hall. Everyone stared in disbelief, and Harry smoothly rose up from his seat, and cleared his throat while also working hard to keep his surprise in check.
"I remember my flying lessons from last year, and how none of the brooms were very good," he began. "And then, just last week, the Slytherin Quidditch team obtained seven new brooms. Now, I didn't think that was very fair for them to have the latest model of racing broom while the other teams had to use their older ones. So, I figured what better way to resolve this issue than to buy some new brooms. Not just for Gryffindor, but Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw to use as well."
...
....
Join my P*atreon for 100 premium chapters ahead of the public release.
Link: pa*treon.com/MysticVerse (Remove the *)
Free members also get 2 advanced chapters for free.