Chapter 65: Flight Test
"Mr. Green, very well done!"
Madam Hooch strode toward Shawn with athletic ease, hands on her hips, the curve of her smile still edged and sharp even when pleased.
"You have already mastered many flying techniques, but hovering, turning, and circling are the basics. Today, we will practice something different."
A light breeze swept the Quidditch pitch, bending the grass all one way.
Shawn stepped off his broom a bit unsteadily and felt Madam Hooch's hand catch and steady him.
"Not bad. Rest a moment, then you will face it."
With a flick of her wand, a wooden frame floated out of the broom shed, filled with golf balls.
Shawn watched as Madam Hooch tossed one upward. It shot high and fast, as if charmed, and even hovered a moment in midair.
The tall witch who had stood beside Madam Hooch moments before had already vanished. Shawn quietly pulled a potion from his bag and drank it down in gulps—he had not seen anything at all.
He slipped the empty vial back into his bag. Professor Snape's potion tasted like a kind of fruit juice, nothing like the sticky, bitter tonics described in books.
The recipe Shawn did not dare to deviate from, in Professor Snape's hands, became like a boggart aimed at Shawn.
Shawn would see a terrifying potion explosion.
And Professor Snape would give a cold snort. "Riddikulus."
Madam Hooch naturally noticed, one eyebrow lifting as she gave the small wizard an extra, appraising glance as if she had spotted something remarkable.
By now, Shawn's flying proficiency read:
[Flight Skill: Entry-level (190/270)]
[Advancement: Proficient-level flight skills unlock the Proficient title in the Flying domain]
So the new title would likely unlock in the next few days.
In the air, the golf balls behaved like a weakened version of a Quaffle.
They had been enchanted so that, if not caught, they would descend slowly, as if sinking through water.
Shawn's task was to catch them in midair.
It was difficult.
But not too difficult.
Wind roared past Shawn's ears as he cut the blue sky like a hawk stooping. His speed approached the broom's limit. Again and again, the old broom felt like it might come apart, and Shawn did not panic at all.
Because it was not only the old broom that was at its limit.
"Remarkable talent," Madam Hooch said.
She watched the small wizard snatch the golf ball in one hand and slip down out of the brilliant blue sky as if embracing the clouds.
In just three attempts, he went from uncertain to solid catches.
"Mr. Green, you are destined to be a star Seeker."
Madam Hooch studied Shawn for a long moment, her expression complex.
Such a promising lad, and yet he did not fancy Quidditch?
In Shawn's mind surfaced a passage from Quidditch Through the Ages: in the early years, nearly seventy percent of fouls targeted Seekers, and every foul trick under the sun appeared. Setting the opponent's broom tail on fire. Clubbing the opponent's broom. Attacking with an axe. And those were merely appetizers.
"If you pass the flight test next week, I will be the one to administer it," Madam Hooch said at last, hands on hips and sounding resigned. "First-years may apply for the test only once, so remember to bring a new broom. As for the Comet One-Sixty... it should stay in the shed."
She departed, leaving Shawn with his confusion and worry.
Where was he supposed to find a Nimbus 1500?
That afternoon, no Ravenclaw in the classroom dared speak.
Transfiguration was in session.
For the third time, Professor Minerva McGonagall's gaze settled on Shawn without her willing it. He was fully focused, wand moving, turning a mouse into a snuffbox and back again, over and over.
Eventually, Shawn went pale and opened Intermediate Transfiguration.
He had borrowed it from the Hogwarts Library. At a price of two Galleons, the key difference from A Beginner's Guide to Transfiguration was that the gold bead at the center of the cover's filigree had shifted from red to green.
It contained detailed instructions for many transfigurations: for example, how to turn a teapot into a tortoise.
The emphasis there was whether steam still puffed from the tortoise's tail, or whether the shell retained a wicker pattern.
Or turning a slipper into a white rabbit, the key being whether the rabbit's ears were whole.
These transformations seemed to stress turning a "nonliving" object into a "living" one.
After class, Professor McGonagall's answer confirmed Shawn's thoughts.
"Elementary Transfiguration transforms objects that cannot act on their own into other such objects. Intermediate Transfiguration converts between animate and inanimate. Advanced Transfiguration converts between two animate objects, for example, turning a tortoise into a rabbit."
Professor McGonagall seemed very pleased with Shawn's questions. A hunger for the nature of magic often carried a wizard farther.
"Mr. Green, remember this. The more advanced the transfiguration, the more power it demands. Do not attempt it lightly."
She looked at Shawn and handed him a set of notes.
After a careful read, Shawn naturally drew his wand and began to practice.
He fixed his gaze on the teapot and, guided by the professor's notes, constructed in his mind the attributes a tortoise should possess.
Transfiguration was a dangerous branch of magic. It was obviously safer to practice in front of the professor.
Even if Shawn turned himself into a badger, the professor could help him at once.
In fact, in the original accounts, there had been a first-year who accidentally turned a friend into a badger.
As Professor McGonagall said, if the Counter-Spell were not cast quickly, that small wizard might have been a badger for life.
The office fireplace crackled and spat. Outside, noise drifted from the Quidditch pitch. In the corridor, students played wizard chess, and from time to time the pieces shouted "Aha!" or "Move aside!"
Inside, Shawn practiced himself to exhaustion. In his hand, a small dark green tortoise crawled, steam puffing from the base of its tail.
The panel chimed repeatedly.
[You practiced in-depth Intermediate Transfiguration at Apprentice standard, Proficiency +50]
In-depth Intermediate Transfiguration must mean turning a "nonliving" object into a "living" one.
Even at the Apprentice standard, which is awarded +50 proficiency.
Very good.
After reverting the tortoise, Shawn looked to Professor McGonagall with open expectation, not noticing how colorless his face had become.
"Excellent work, Mr. Green. A great step forward."
Her voice was warm with pride, though her brows dipped by the faintest degree.
Shawn did not notice. He tidied the office quietly, then gently closed the door behind him as he left.
The panel had changed again.
[Transfiguration: Entry-level (800/900)]
He turned the knowledge over in his mind while the corridor's noise swelled and broke around him as if it belonged to someone else.
Professor McGonagall stood by the door, gazing after his retreating back, much as she had watched him go into the night many times.
"Minerva, you think highly of the boy?" came a calm voice. At some point, a wizard with a long, white beard had appeared at her side.
"There are no true coincidences in this world, Albus," she said.
Her eyes had gone wholly soft, touched by a nearly invisible mix of pride and ache.
"If that child is determined to find something, he will find it."