Brooms and Momentum

Here is the discord server if you want to discuss the novel The link is in the comment.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It was a couple of days later and Liam was in the history of magic class busy looking at his notes instead of listening to professor Cuthbert Binns, Who was driving half the class to sleep.

Today he had something he wanted to do, But to pull it off he needed to be able to cast a second-year spell, The fact that it was a second-year spell held no special significance, It wasn't that complicated, It had a theory and a hand movement and an incantation, But for some reason, He couldn't cast it, So he was reading everything once again to see if he was missing something when Harry who was setting Infront of him turned around and whispered

"Hay Liam I have been trying to talk to you but you always run off after class and you only come to the dorm to sleep ".

"Oh sorry Harry I didn't notice but can you blame me this school is full of magic, I am not going to waste time hanging around my room when I can be learning a new spell or exploring the castle you know, So what do you want to talk about, You don't have to whisper by the way I don't think professor Binns cares or even notices for that matter"

"That is not why I am whispering, It's because it's a secret, Remember what I said about the Gringotts break-in and Hagrid"

"Yes so ?"

"Well it was kind of supposed to be a secret, So can you please not tell anyone, You haven't already told someone have you ?"

"Sure thing Harry and no I haven't told anyone I was kind of busy reading the last couple of days I don't think I even talked to anyone "

"That doesn't sound that fun, Do you want to hang out today after flying class we are going to play some wizard chess"

"That sounds fun, Ok Harry, Oh and do you have any clue what kind of dare Ron has planned out for me "

"No idea mate I don't think he decided yet "

"Alright then see you in flying class"

And he turned around trying to stay awake for the rest of the class while Liam kept reading his notes until the class ended then he made his way to the grand staircase while thinking of his spell and why it wasn't working and he kept going back to intent and visualization, He could visualize it but it was more in the theoretical part of the imagination since he didn't really experience something like it before and the intent was there but it wasn't strong enough, In a vacuum of not needing the spell he success or failure wasn't that critical or impactful so his want for the spell to be cast was only so-so, But he didn't run across the same problem with the other spells he had tried so he wasn't sure.

He then noticed that the staircase had taken him somewhere between the first and the ground floor, He was annoyed that he was going to waste his time making his way back up when he had a sudden thought.

He looked around to make sure no one was looking it was a very public space but luckily for him, There weren't that many students using the stairs at the moment and all of them were on the higher floors, So he made up his mind and slowly made his way to the top of the staircase which was still in mid-transition and as he took his wand out he looked down from the edge and just stepped forward, A half a second went before his foot kept going down finding nothing there to stand on and felt weightless for another half a second before gravity started pulling him down.

----------------------------------

"Welcome to your first flying lesson, Well, What are you waiting for Everyone step-up to the left side of their broomstick, Come on now, Hurry up. Stick your right hand over the broom and say, Up."

Liam said "Up" while imagining the broom flying into his hand and trying to force his will upon it, And it floated up after he called for it twice, Smiling after his success with his confidence growing with every spell he managed to cast and being more assured in himself being able to carry the burden of responsibility on his shoulders he then stopped with the introspection and looked at his target while feeling a little guilty.

Neville was starting to float away with his broom his foot leaving the ground while madam Hooch was telling him to come back down.

Liam was thinking

'As if it was so simple and that was why he was not screaming for help right now, Oh wait he was screaming for help... why are the teachers so slow to react in this school it's like just because injuries are easy to fix, Then its no problem if they happen so irresponsible '

He readied himself to act while moving towards the back of the group with a very slight limp and at the same time he cast his version of the Flagrate spell on the grass as he walked onwards then he stopped and took a hard left standing diametrically opposed to where he knew Neville was going to end up and waited for Neville to get snatched by the spear and start falling.

And as soon as Neville got plucked from his broom and the student's attention was now split between the hanging Neville and the fire that has appeared out of nowhere forcing them to split into two groups on either side, Liam raised his wand and then cast arresto momentum on the quickly accelerating Neville, The spell took effect slowing him down but not fully stopping him making his fall somewhat more mild but painful all the same.

And while madam Hooch was now looking back and forth between the fire and the screaming students and Neville now on the ground holding his shoulder trying to figure out how her class devolved into pandemonium and organizing her priorities, Liam was observing everyone and everything around him trying to act normal while at the same time trying to determine if anyone noticed his use of magic his hand tracing his now pocketed wand while breathing heavily like he just ran a marathon.

'Huh Flagrate isn't really made to be used like that, It takes a lot out of me, I need to be more efficient with it for my idea'

Liam was relieved when he noticed that no one was looking at him at the moment everyone was busy trying to parse what happened into a logical chain of events, And to him that marked his successes, He knew from the beginning that he didn't want to stand out but he also knew that certain things needed to be done, So his solution was that sooner or later he was going to need to do things under everyone's noses and before silent casting and wandless magic he had to make do with distractions, But he also needed to make sure there wasn't a pattern to his actions that can be traced back to him, No one single spell he always used and he needed to act sometimes in places where Liam Murphy wasn't there to throw off anyone from his trail.

But he also knew there was a difference between theory and practice, So arouse the need to get his hands dirty and have a test run of sorts, Something with low stakes but stakes non-the-less and that was when he remembered the first flying lesson from the movie and what happened to poor old Neville, His first impulse was to grab Neville off his broom when he started floating but like every action he takes he agonized over the consequences, If Neville doesn't fly and fall, Madam Hooch doesn't leave and potter doesn't stand up to Malfoy and he doesn't join the team and who knows how that affects the future, So he settled with trying to lessen Neville's injury while at the same time that presented him with a stage and an opportunity to put his plans into actions and see what happened.

This is what led him to study the arresto momentum spell with little to no success until he decided to jump the stare case and put his legs where his wand was so to speak, Which gave him motivation in spades to make the spell work along with getting the actual sensation of falling so he contrasts it with the felling of halting, His leg still hurt from the fall but he considered it a positive experience and wondered if the legend about the castle leading you to where you need to be was true, And the fact that the staircase sent him to the first floor was because that was what he subconsciously knew he needed.

He looked at the now smoldering grass after madam Hooch put the fire out and walked to Neville to check on his injuries and stood him up and started leading him towards the castle while giving a warning about no one leaving the ground and or starting a fire.

What followed was more or less the same as the cannon, Neville still dropped his remembrall and Harry and Draco still argued and the argument led to the sky and ended with Potter grabbing the remembrall and a few minutes later McGonagall came to fetch him.

And while Liam was observing all of this progressing someone else was observing him with an apprehensive look trying to see his bored yet attentive expression as he was seeing things unfolding in front of him, But his feeling about what he was seeing was undetectable as he just kept a small fake smile that didn't tip over what he felt, But the owner of the look looked away quickly when they noticed Liam was starting to look around again.

After Harry left Hooch came back a few minutes later only to now dismiss the class, What was the point of standing around and doing nothing for 15 minutes Liam asked himself as he walked away but to no avail, Liam was growing disenchanted with the teaching staff very quickly and how little sense their actions make, He was wondering especially about that fiasco on Halloween when the sent all the students off on their own and went all together to face one troll for some reason, He took a breath and reminded himself.

'They are only people and at that particular moment they trusted the judgment of Dumbledore instead of thinking things through, Dumbledore excuses however was still in the mail, He probably had some suspicions about Quirrell and decided to let things play out to see his endgame, Knowing the students were safe back in their dorm rooms, But they weren't safe were they Dumbledore, How could you not count on someone being impulsive in a school full of teens, Oh whatever with the benefit of hindsight my every thought is colored with knowledge of the future, Who knows what I would do if I had to face Voldemort while flying by the pants'

'Fuck, Did I just jinx myself, I am not going to end up losing my memory am I'

Liam kept walking the hallways and climbing the staircases until he reached the seventh floor and when he reached a certain tapestry he looked around cautiously to make sure no one was around and then he walked back and forth three times thinking about the need for a very specific spell, And when the door appeared he looked around again now feeling he was paranoid, And when he found now one he walked in and closed the door behind him and stared at the snug room that was created with a single bookcase with seven books in it and two red circles drawn on the floor on either side of the room, And he smiled wildly and said

"Well hello there you beautiful room Let's get to work".