22 Euphoric!

The next morning Harry and the class were standing on the Quidditch field with broomsticks lying beside them. This was a combined class with the Slytherin so as usual there was the Malfoy Scion sneering at Harry and co.

Sometimes Harry would wonder what kind of a house the Malfoys had.

Lucius Malfoy was one of the most influential people in the world right now. His wife Narcissa was from the great House of Black and was the rock that grounded the entire family.

Then there was Draco, their son, who, for the lack of a better word, was a complete moron. He had one of the finest inheritances and almost limitless resources. But he still couldn't accomplish anything worthwhile in his life. In the original story, he was nothing more than an excuse to give Harry the elder wand which eventually leads to Voldemort's death. That was his greatest achievement as far as Harry was concerned. Although the Malfoys turned against the death eaters, in the end, Draco was still one of the most pitiful characters in the story.

If Harry had even a tenth of his resources, his timelines would have been much more relaxed. The privileges would have definitely helped him with this future plans. Just the fact that the minister of magic, Cornelius Fudge, was nothing more than a puppet in Lucius' hand, proves his influence in the current magical world.

So, to see all that being squandered away by a spoiled brat really hurt.

'Can't help it, sometimes a tiger father can give birth to a dog son', thought Harry.

"Alright listen up everyone. All of you have a broomstick to your right side. You will raise your right hand and try to summon your broomstick by saying the magical command - 'UP', just the way I showed you now. So come on now, get started", shouted Madam Hooch looking at the class.

Harry put his hand out and tried to sense the broom. He detected a faint magical fluctuation emanating from the broomstick and locked onto it.

He imagined it floating towards his hand and the broom started floating slowly towards him.

As Harry caught the broom, he could feel a sense of familiarity with it, as if there was a part of him urging him to get on it and fly away into the clouds.

It was new for him as he never thought he had such connection with flying. Maybe, he should reconsider his decision regarding free flight. But that would have to come later as the story was coming to an interesting turn of events.

He looked towards Neville and could see him struggling with the broom. But Harry knew that he would eventually cause an incident due to his poor control over his broom.

Finally, as everyone was able to summon the broom into their hands, Madam Hooch showed them how to take flight.

Harry had been waiting for this moment. He knew that his moment to shine was about to arrive.

He saw Neville trying to get off the ground on his broom.

He saw him successfully take flight.

He then saw him land back safely, although a little wobbly at the end, but still fine.

'What the hell? How did this happen? He was supposed to lose contr...', as his thoughts reached this point, he froze. He immediately recalled the Charms class where he showed everyone how to feel the magic and improve their control over it.

That's when it clicked, 'Damn it! How could I forget this? I already changed today's outcome when I helped Neville learn to control his magic better. He was already talented from birth and now he could harness that talent. So, the original incident wouldn't happen anymore. Neville isn't going to be the bumbling idiot he was in the original story.

How the hell am I gonna get the seeker role now? Do I really have to attend the tryouts like everyone else?' thought Harry, fuming inside for forgetting such a major detail.

But as he understood the reason, he was stuck. He didn't know how to proceed. Although it doesn't matter if he manages to get into the Quidditch team or not, he still wanted to do it. It's like a part of his soul was edging him towards Quidditch. Now he would have to find another way to get into the team. It's going to take too much time now.

'Wait. Gryffindor desperately needs a new seeker. McGonagall saw Harry do a fifty-foot dive to catch Neville's Remembrall in the original story and chose him for the seeker's position. But just because the plot has changed doesn't mean I can't show off my flying skills. All I need to do is create an appropriate situation' thought Harry as he had an epiphany.

He then sat on his broom and kicked off the ground slowly. He could feel the rush of air around him and the mana fluctuations helping him rise up.

He tried inputting his mana in the broom and suddenly the broom started vibrating. Harry could feel a connection with the magical core inside the broom and he knew that as long as he can control this core, he would be an expert in broomstick flying.

But then he thought about how the others were doing it. Could they also feel the magic core or it was something else?

He would have to talk to Ron about this since he was also very talented in this aspect. So, maybe, he could point out something new to Harry which might help him become a better flyer.

Harry knew that he was the only one among all the students who could 'communicate' with the flying broom on purpose. So, either the others were able to do the same subconsciously or they were using brute force method to control the broom.

The first case should be very rare and only the most talented flyers would be able to accomplish it. In the original story, Harry should be in this category along with his father and Victor Krum. They can be called natural flyers or the 'naturals'.

Then comes the second category, the brute force one or the 'brutes'.

He wasn't exactly sure how it worked but if he were to take a guess, it should be like forcefully controlling the broom's mana to do your bidding.

In simpler terms, one is going with the flow and manipulating it slightly according to your needs whereas the other one is trying to go against the flow by forcing your way forward.

It's obvious which way is better and consumes less energy. He hasn't seen any techniques for training towards achieving the natural instincts of a flyer. So he could only assume that it was something no one has thought about. Everyone has been just using the old ways without ever trying to find the logic behind it.

But it was also understandable as flying on a broomstick isn't exactly a stellar qualification. It is just one of the requirements for Quidditch and beyond that, it's just a convenient mode of transportation, that too only for short distances.

So, not much research is done on this front. Only the Quidditch teams try to do it to a certain extent and they have gotten really good with the second method. What they miss out on actual control, they compensate with team skills. This was also the primary reason why the seekers for all the major teams were 'naturals' whereas the chasers and beaters were the 'brutes'.

But Harry pushed all this out of his mind for now.

As he kept rising up, he forgot everything around him. The feeling of air rushing across his face, lightly ruffling his hair, gave him a surreal feeling.

It wasn't something he could have experienced in his previous life. Even though he was at a height of almost a hundred feet, he still felt in control, as if all the mana in the air was supporting him and carrying him into the sky. He felt a slight change in his mana network and his mana pool started absorbing the mana particles in the air at an insane rate. He hasn't seen any improvement in his mana capacity in recent months. The experience of flying for the first time in his two lives gave him the jolt he needed to break through.

He didn't pay attention to the changes happening inside his body. He was in a world of his own. He didn't want to keep sitting so he slowly stood up on the broom. With his physical control standing on a thin stick wasn't much of a challenge, especially when he was in a trance where instincts take over your body rather than your conscious mind.

He stood up and spread out his arms as if wanting to embrace the skies and everything under it.

All this time, he had been slowly rotating with his broom.

After a few seconds, he opened his eyes and could see the vast Hogwarts Grounds and the forbidden forest beyond that. He could feel the presence of dense mana in the air and felt a new connection with magic. It was like a veil has been lifted and a different world was now visible before him.

'Is this what the ancient wizards called the 'Eye of Magic'? thought Harry as he tried to get familiar with his new vision.

The world had changed colors and now there was a different tint to everything around him. As he looked down, he saw a spectrum of colors. The students had various shades of colors around them. Some of them had more than one color while others had a deeper shade of the same color.

Like Ron was surrounded by deep red mixed with a few spots of grey.

Malfoy was surrounded by a mixture of deep grey and emerald green while Hermione was surrounded by a rocky brown and scarlet red.

Madam Hooch had a white colored aura around her but her corona was much bigger than the others. Harry attributed this to her bigger mana pool. It wasn't much evident in the students except a few like the pure-blooded Malfoy and Ron or Hermione who had an exceptional magical aptitude and mana pool. The others had more or less the same corona or the same magical power.

Then he looked towards the Hogwarts castle and saw a multicolored hue surrounding the entire school. There were many bright spots and many not so bright spots mingled together.

'They must be the students' thought Harry.

He saw a few shining coronas which he could only assume were the teachers. He then looked towards the top of the school where the Headmaster's office was and almost got blinded. He saw a huge ball of scarlet fire swirling on top of the tower. It looked like a miniature sun in the hazy form of a Phoenix. It exuded an aura of Pride and arrogance which could only come from a noble-blooded creature. Harry understood it was the magical signature of 'Fawkes', Dumbledore's Phoenix.

There was another ball of mana in a slightly weaker shade of red just beside Fawkes' aura. Its size was smaller and the brightness was also weaker than Fawkes' but there was also the familiar feeling of pride coming from it. That could only be Dumbledore. Harry was shocked to see the mana signature of Dumbledore. Although it was smaller than Fawkes', its conciseness was almost similar to the Phoenix. It proved that even though he lost in terms of mana capacity, he was almost similar in terms of actual magical strength. It was a startling fact since Phoenix was comparable to a dragon in terms of its magical prowess.

Therefore, seeing Dumbledore's power is similar to that of a Phoenix was truly astounding. And it wasn't about fighting strength since Dumbledore was definitely stronger than many dragons in that aspect. It was related to your ability to use the magic power in your body. The elder wand in the hands of Dumbledore and the same wand in the hands of a rookie will give two completely different results. Dumbledore was more than a hundred years old and has definitely honed his skills for over a century. Coupled with his original talent, it could be understood, why Dumbledore was hailed as the strongest wizard alive. And Harry was looking at the actual proof of that statement.

As he saw all this, he thought about the time it was going to take him to get there. He now had a definite goal and wouldn't have to guess how powerful he needed to be to take down Voldemort.

He knew that he could achieve the mana capacity in the next few years, much earlier than the final war but he also needs to achieve the compactness of magic comparable to Dumbledore. That could only be accomplished through practice, practice and even more practice.

'Looks like I would be spending a lot more time in the Room of Requirements from now on' thought Harry as he sat back on his broom.

He had already made a considerable impact on everyone with his flying skills and now he just needed the cherry on top.

So, he looked towards Madam Hooch. He wanted to gauge her reaction first. He saw a look of awe and slight anticipation in her eyes. It's not every day she can see someone this talented in flying so she was truly hoping for Harry to show something more. And as she saw him looking towards her she understood what he wanted. She slightly nodded her head and gave him a silent permission.

Harry smiled as he saw Madam Hooch's nod and looked up. He then willed the mana in the surroundings to send him up even further. As soon as he thought of that, his broomstick tilted upwards and started flying.

He was now above the entire Hogwarts castle. This was almost the height at which a seeker usually stays during a Quidditch game. He then looked towards the Gryffindor tower and located McGonagall's room. Although he couldn't see her clearly, he could still make out her silhouette from the window.

So he turned towards that side and imagined the next step. He had to let McGonagall see him doing the 'dive'. It wasn't necessary to do something too crazy like the 'Wronski Feint' but a simple high-speed dive should be enough.

So he concentrated on the magic core inside the broom and surrounded it with his mana. He felt that he was in complete control of his broom and could use it as a part of his body. He didn't need to use any specific skills to start or stop, he just needed to think and it will happen. The broom automatically adjusted to his thoughts. This could be considered the next level of the 'natural flying'.

So, he thought what he wanted to do and the broom shot down like a bullet towards McGonagall's window. Harry could feel adrenaline pumping in his blood and a euphoric feeling rising inside him. This was it. This is what he wanted to feel from the very first day. This kind of rush could never be felt in his past world. The closest was skydiving but you couldn't exactly control it. It was just a free fall, not a controlled flight.

So, he reveled in this feeling and started laughing loudly.

As he reached the window, the broom suddenly stopped. Harry saw McGonagall looking at him with a horrified face.

'Looks like I overdid it again' chuckled Harry as he turned around and went back to join his class.

Everyone looked at him with their mouths wide open. Draco had a slight twitch in his eyes and his expression looked as if he ate a fly.

Madam Hooch was beaming while his classmates surrounded him cheering over his spectacle. Even the Slytherins cheered for him. This was the power of a sport. It makes you forget everything else and your loyalty only lies towards the game.

Harry saw McGonagall storming towards the ground and knew what was coming. Everything happened as in the original story. McGonagall took him to meet Woods, the captain of Gryffindor's Quidditch team and made Harry the new seeker.

This news wasn't revealed to anyone other than a few close friends like Ron and Hermione.

But Harry soon noticed a problem. As he told Ron about his selection into the Quidditch team, he felt Ron's aura fluctuate. So, he opened his 'Eye of Magic' and observed through it. He saw there was a spike in his positive emotions but there was also a spike in his magical corona.

He only had a few grey spots originally, but now the number of grey spots almost doubled.

Harry understood that this was all the negative feelings Ron had inside him that gave birth to a darkness in his heart which manifested in his magical corona in the form of grey spots.

This was the reason why they had a fight in the original story in the fourth year and later in the final year. Although Ron was able to overcome all of that, Harry just couldn't believe that to be a possibility here. You don't just get over your jealousy because of your feelings of friendship. Sometimes it can happen, but then the events need to work in a certain way that the one on the receiving end of such envy doesn't get a lot of benefits.

But here, Harry went on to win the Triwizard tournament in his fourth year and later became the boy who defeated Voldemort. There was no greater achievement a wizard could accomplish in his life compared to those two.

So, to think that his feelings of jealousy vanished just because he saw Harry facing huge trials in the Triwizard tournament or that he suddenly 'woke up from his idiocy' when they were on the run from the dark forces is a bit of a stretch. It was one of those 'indigestible' plot points for Harry.

Emotions related to jealousy don't go away in an instant. They linger throughout your life. You might learn to ignore them or control them to a certain extent but until and unless you can achieve something greater than the one you are jealous of, these feelings will always be there.

So, when Harry saw such feelings arise inside Ron, he knew he needed to do something fast. Ron needs to have his own achievements and realize that Harry wasn't his competition. He had his own destiny which Ron could never achieve but eventually, he could have a fulfilling life of his own.

These things were necessary for Ron to realize and that too very soon otherwise the darkness inside him will keep growing with every achievement of Harry and soon he would lose himself to it. It was similar to what happened with Peter Pettigrew and James Potter.

The four 'Marauders' were friends on the surface but Peter was always jealous of the other three. He felt like an outcast among his 'more talented' friends and that eventually turned him towards the dark forces.

It was idiotic since his talents in magic were no less than the other three as he was also an animagus like them but his own sense of inferiority destroyed him which in turn led to the death of James and Lily.

Harry couldn't let another Peter Pettigrew appear. He saw the positive emotions in Ron and knew that he was worth saving.

So, he decided to do this and bring out the real Ronald Weasley.