{Quidditch Pitch, Hogwarts}
{7th Sep 1991}
{3rd Person POV}
"So, future quidditch star, will you teach me how to do this?" Rigel asked as he turned his attention to Tracy. He hadn't known both Daphne and Tracy for very long, and although they weren't very close friends, he got the purest smile he had every scene from Tracy.
"Of course," Tracy said confidently. She motioned toward the broom and spoke, "Since we can't actually fly right now, I'll tell you the basics of how to control your broom."
At Rigel's eager nod, she mounted her broom, his attention shifted toward her thighs for a moment before he looked back up into her eyes.
"Madam Hooch already explained the grip to you, so I won't go into too much detail regarding that. Let's focus on the three main ways you control your broom. First and the most basic would be the angle of your broomstick." Tracy explained, her fingers pointed to the angle of her broomstick, which was a little elevated.
"After you kicked off, you noticed how your broom was pointing upwards, but when you came down, did you push the angle down?" Tracy questioned, getting a nod from Rigel.
"This is the first and most basic control of your broomstick. Your broomstick knows at which angle it is, so if you want to go up or down, all you need to do is push or pull the broomstick toward you. Got it?" she asked.
"Yeah, I got it," Rigel nodded. It was easy enough to understand, as he had unconsciously already managed to do that.
"Good, then we come to the second way to control your broom. It is posture," Tracy said, causing Rigel to look confused.
"Posture?" Rigel asked. His thoughts flashed back to how Nevellie was trembling, likely due to his fear of heights, which most likely caused his broom to go haywire.
"Yes, posture. Look at my hands," Tracy spoke as she gripped the broom with both hands, "...if I pull the broom upward, I would fly up, but at the same time, my posture would also change, and I would fly forward. Think of it this way, the runic schemes that are embedded in the broomstick could tell where your center of mass is, so if you lean forward without pulling the broom upward like this," Tracy demonstrated the standard movement of leaning forward onto a Motorcycle to gain speed, "...then you would fly forward."
She then pulled back, her back straight and perpendicular to the broomstick, "This would trigger the deacceleration of your broom, and if you lean a lot more backward along with pulling your broom back then the emergency braking system of your broom would trigger. Unfortunately, I don't think the Cleensweep VI has this feature but most of the modern broom would have them."
"Alright, got it. Pull and push the broom for up and down, and lean forward and backward for speed and brake. And turning would be just pulling the broom left and right?" Rigel asked.
"Well, yeah," Tracy acknowledged, though she seemed a bit put off by being interrupted. After searching for another set of words, she continued, "For simple low-speed turns done in an arc, yes, that would do. But if you are traveling at a high speed, most of the time, the arc of your turn would be too large, making turning a lot harder, especially on these older brooms. So, in that case, we use more advanced maneuvers like the corkscrew turn of other barrel rolls."
Rigel waved away Tracy's recommended advanced moves for now. He knew she was talking about Quidditch's moves, and he let her play in her fantasy. His attention, though, was primarily focused on the broomstick in his hands. His curiosity regarding the runic schemes kept on increasing.
From all the walls and most of the magical artifacts, he could see that runes' influence on the world was pretty deep. Since he would have to learn or cramp quite a lot of runes to create that ward in the second-floor toilet, he might as well focus on expanding his knowledge in the subject.
'And since I got a special tab when I made my first potion alone, I'm sure I would unlock special tabs for runes as well. Maybe one for Rituals too?'
'There is still time before Halloween when I have to perform the Core Expansion Ritual...' Rigel thought. Although earlier he was planning to do the Ritual with Evelyn since the difference in doing it with anyone wouldn't do much, after much research, he had realized that the number of opportunities to do Rituals was a lot less as most of them needed the power of celestial events.
'If I could only do a limited number of Core Expansion Rituals, then doing one with Evelyn and doing one with Daphne would be a difference of 25% mana,' Rigel thought. The benefits of locking himself out of Evelyn's requirements weren't worth much, but still, he was a little hesitant to give up the 2% increase in his affinity for the Dark Arts.
'I have a lot of stuff to do and not much time. With Runes, Rituals, and Dark Arts, I have three extra-curricular study projects going on at the same time, plus if you add finding the Diary and catching Pettigrew...'
Rigel's thoughts wandered for a minute as he sighed. The ever-changing situation was slightly overwhelming him. He noticed the shift in the people around him and noticed that Madam Hooch was walking back to join their group.
Her eyes scanned everyone, and after giving a slight nod to herself, she continued, "Now, I don't want any more stupidity. Each of you would hover no more than 1 foot over the ground until you get a feel for flying. No rushing around. I want you to move around a bit, but be careful not to collide with anyone. Each collision would result in the loss of one point for each of your houses."
*Piiiiiiiiii*
After giving her little speech, she tugged on her whistle again, and after the sharp sound reverberated around everyone, Rigel kicked off again. His worries did vanish for a moment as he flew around lazily. The feeling of saying fuck you to gravity was a little exhilarating.
AN—This ends Rigel's first week at Hogwarts! I know the story started a little slow, but it picks up pace soon, with days blurring by. At the same time, the next few chapters will focus more on magical theory and Rigel's sexual escapades!
P.S- 40+ Advanced Chapters on Patreon!