Chapter 77    

Not paying much attention to the details on the note, Alex headed to his dormitory and skipped dinner to focus on his broom which needed some extra care for the time being as it was the final step to finish its production.

A barrier covered the whole room, masking the inside view from the outside, making it look like there was no one inside at first glance. Inside, Alex had one long stick that looked very similar to the nimbus two thousand's main shaft floating in the air along with a few twigs and lots of feathers.

The shaft was made of beech wood and the twigs of blackwood while the feathers were taken from the grey-winged horses called Granians and Thunderbirds.

Alex summoned water which completely enveloped all of the things that were floating in front of him and slowly turned greenish in color as he continued to shoot in more and more spells that he had learned in the place that he chose to call heaven.

The green liquid soaking the feathers was the one that first turned transparent after which he separated the feathers from the water and dried them all off before shooting spells that almost no one ever used in the current times, most of which were alchemical spells that would put even Dumbledore to shame.

As spells stacked on, the feathers slowly turned ethereal, very close to something that would be in between transparency and translucency. He waited with the feathers ready as the liquid covering the twigs and shaft also lost its color.

After a few spells on the next two materials, he gently pushed the feathers into the twigs and felt no resistance as the feathers just directly glided inside and merged in with the twigs.

The twigs then began undergoing physical changes as they twisted continuously in one direction and then the opposite for four cycles before splitting themselves into thin hair-like strands before attaching to one end of the shaft, the inner threads digging a few inches into the strong wood shaft and the outer layer of strands simply stuck themselves in a way which made it look aesthetically pleasing.

After all of that was done, Alex took a deep breath as he took in the magical marvel in front of him. The broom in front of him perfectly displayed how different materials affect the finished product if done right.

The feathers were used as cores for brooms similar to the ones used in wands. The only difference was that Alex used a shit ton of cores for a single broom which did basically nothing other than please his skeptical mind.

'Hehe look at this beauty. Using an excessive number of cores not only provides a backup and extra stability but also the additional physical changes. This thing looks so much better than those simple-looking brooms like Harry's and Malfoy's'

He thought as he ran his fingers over the glossy-looking shaft which had some greenish snake-like spiral designs on it and the strand-like twigs had electricity coming out of them, only this time, it was real.

Alex put his hand near the end of the broom to test the danger level after casting a simple spell and felt nothing so he took it off and tried again, only to feel a small tingling sensation.

"Okay~" he yawned while stretching, "Now that this is done, it's time to go to sleep."

He took off the illusion and the warding spell before putting the broom in a separate case and plopped onto his bed to get some nice sleep, completely forgetting to check how much time passed.

*********

Dumbledore sat on his cozy chair as he peered at Snape through his half-moon spectacles, "So, what's your conclusion, Severus?"

"Well… from what I have observed from the past few days, that kid seems to be the same as he was last year, the only difference is that he is talking a lot more nowadays and isn't running off every time there is a break in between classes.

Also, unlike last year when he used to read random books in classes, this time all he does is stare at the board, listen, and do the things that are told. He also doesn't ask any questions nowadays." Snape said as he sat straight in front of the old headmaster.

Dumbledore nodded a few times, "Severus, what was the task I gave you?"

"You asked me to keep an eye on him and tell you if I notice him using and having things that are expensive," Snape said, repeating the exact thing that was told to him at the start of the year.

"Good. Now what should be your answer to that?"

"Nothing expensive other than the fact that he is working on brooms and his projects seem to be going pretty well as we saw earlier. That broom of his simply ran out of magic and I would be surprised if didn't find out the reason after that incident. What a waste of genius…. It's a shame really. He could do anything but he chose brooms."

Dumbledore nodded silently, this time taking off his glasses. "Did you pay attention to his books?"

"Yes. They looked old like they have been in the last year too."

Dumbledore sighed after hearing that and dismissed Snape, "All right, you can go. Continue keeping an eye on him for me. Every time I see him, I get this uneasy feeling which is… quite similar I would say."

"As you wish…. Headmaster." Snape said as he closed the doors after him, leaving Dumbledore alone in his room to ponder in silence.

'He chose to buy books instead of getting them for free from the school and there's also this…' he thought as he took out a letter addressed to him along with a wand, a wand he had used since his admittance into Hogwarts until he found something better.

'Forty Galleons…. Maybe he saved it or maybe he earned it but fate, you say… Garrick, I hope we aren't right. I really hope.'