Back with Force

Harry's return to Hogwarts goes smoothly, aside from Malfoy trying to find his cabin and failing due to the wards he'd set up... Dumbledore welcomes everyone back and classes begin anew as if they'd never left in the first place.

A month in and the match between Gryffindor and Hufflepuff was starting in the Quidditch stadium, which Harry and Hermione had obviously decided to skip and instead spend their time in the library.

The library was almost entirely empty due to most of the staff attending the match. The only person present to watch things was Mr Filch and his cat, though, he just sat grumpily at the librarian's desk reading a raunchy romance novel that, much to Harry's shame, he knew... Unsurprisingly it was between a Pure-Blood princess and a Muggle, something the caretaker would find enthralling considering his situation as a squib.

Harry was almost tempted to sneak into the Forbidden Section, were it not for the preexisting wards and other protections. He hadn't learned enough about the subject to beat Dumbledore and the other previous Headmasters who'd added to the defences. He wasn't arrogant enough to believe himself that powerful... Yet.

"Hey, Harry, do you think the enchantments on Quidditch Brooms could be moved to something else? Like, boots maybe?" Hermione questions, mind apparently in the mood for quidditch despite them not attending.

He shrugs and lays his book flat, "I'm not sure. From what I've read all components of the broom are required for it to operate correctly. The length of the broom allows it to stabilise itself in the air, and allows you to steer it without twirling around in circles, and I think the tail twigs act as the 'thruster' if you could call it that. Each stick in the bundle acts like a miniature wand, providing propulsion."

He taps his jaw in thought, "Wood is a good material for it depending on the species, most natural and living resources are better than non-living at channelling magic. Wood is particularly good due to the way it grows, the 'grain' gives magic a direction with which to channel, as opposed to most kinds of stone which are pretty stagnant. A stick makes it easy to utilise these strengths, but even if you made a set of clogs it'd be a struggle to keep everything in line, and that's ignoring the issue of stability and the runes themselves." he explains.

Hermione blinks, "That's... Very detailed. Have you been thinking about this a lot?" she queries, pretty baffled by his in-depth knowledge. He was a first year and essentially raised as a Muggle from what he'd told her, to see the clear disparity between their knowledge basis was rather depressing, to be quite frank...

"No... Just inferring from what I already know." he smiles lightly, "After all, who wouldn't want to fly?"

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Elliot Shaun limps away from the Gryffindor stands towards the on-sight toilets. Inwardly grumbling at his crippled leg. He knew it wasn't Potter's fault, but that didn't stop him from blaming the boy. The Slytherin shouldn't have even been at their stand in the first place, the fact he'd been caught up in his murder attempt and ruined his aspirations as a Quidditch player just rubbed salt in his wounds.

Sighing and regretfully shaking his head, he enters the bathroom and closes the stall door... Halfway through his business however, the doors open again as a group whispers amongst themselves...

"So the mud blood is with him then? No matter, she'll be easy to deal with." the mousy tone of one Draco Malfoy echoes through the room.

"But Draco, are you sure you want to do this...? What if it backfires, what if you're caught?"

"I heard that Filch is the only member of faculty there, I'll stun him first and deal with the blood traitors next. Besides, I'm not going alone, you two are coming with me. He'll regret moving against us."

"B-but Draco-"

"Shut it! We're doing this now, before anyone has any idea. Now come on, no point in wasting time."

*Thud!*

At the sound of the door shutting Elliot lets out a sigh of relief. Whatever was going on was bad news, but he couldn't actually find it within himself to do anything about it... Draco wouldn't kill him, and Elliot was honestly looking forward to seeing what Harry would look like afterwards. Blood purists or not, their goals aligned in this one narrow situation.

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"There he is..." Malfoy grouses, peeking at Harry and Hermione's table from afar, Crabb and Goyle at his back. "You two handle Filch and his cat, I'll deal with Potter and his pet." he says, sneaking towards the duo.

Slipping around a bookshelf, Draco points his wand at Hermione... "Incarcerous!" he casts, shooting a thin rope from his wand, and while it's in midair he fires another spell at Harry... "CRUCIO!"

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"Incarcerous!"

Harry's head whips over at the sound but isn't quite fast enough to avoid the instantaneous effect of the Cruciatus curse. The spell hits him and his legs stiffen, toppling him to the side of his chair, gritting his teeth and writhing on the ground.

"C-Cruico!? T-that's a Forbidden Curse!" Hermione looks over at Draco who's expression was mixed between enraged and captivating. "MALFOY! STOP!... HARRY!" she shrieks.

"S-SHUT IT MUDBLOOD!" Draco growls, struggling to maintain the curse. It wasn't tall that power intensive, but maintaining that level of hate and intent to harm was difficult despite his training with Occlumency.

"STOP! PLEASE!" she pleads.

"I SAID SHUT UP!"

"HARRY!?-... H-Harry!?"

The duo look over at Harry who'd placed his hand on the side of the desk. He was slowly pushing himself up despite his muscles and nerves firing against his will. He was slamming his Occluemncy protections in place, and his experience with Quirrel's spell gave him enough willpower to bear through it.

"W-what...? G-Get down! GET DOWN BLOOD TRAITOR! CRUCIO!" Malfoy shouts again, but this time had little to no effect...

"CRUCIO! C-CRUCIO!.... C-Crucio!..." Malfoy rasps, breathing heavily as Harry slowly stomps towards him.