Chapter 74    

Alex put everything back inside his trunk and climbed onto his bed before falling asleep peacefully.

Meanwhile in the Gryffindor common room, Neville and Hermione were busy stuffing their noses into a book called "Immaculate Charms and Crafty Defences" until midnight and stopped only when Neville's eyelids began shutting every now and then.

A few days quickly passed by as Alex spent most of his free time crafting his broom and Aman practiced his flying techniques on his new but unstable broom, while a few other Ravenclaws joined him in the air.

"Hey mate, where did you buy that broom? It looks amazing." A guy asked as he flew beside Aman who was focused on the broom.

"It's a gift from Alex… it's still in its testing phase." He said, not looking at the kid beside him who nodded and few away doing a complex flying maneuver.

Flitwick walked to the grounds followed by Alex and the slytherins who were already practicing began evacuating the grounds for the tryouts. The short half-goblin took out a whistle from his robes and blew, emitting a shrill sound that caught everyone's attention in the vicinity.

Aman flew down and bumped Alex's fist, "You barely trained this week so do you think you can bag any role?"

"Hopefully I can… Are you used to the broom yet?"

Aman nodded, "Not completely but I should be able to manage…"

"We can share your cleansweep if you want…" Alex said and seeing Aman shaking his head, he sighed and continued, "… Alright, let me tell this broom's secret. It's not actually a feature that I intended to add but it was an accident.

This broom's max speed is fifty miles per hour but when it goes above forty, it starts vibrating slightly and you should've noticed it already."

Aman nodded and Alex continued, "The large flame shaped part is not completely integrated with the spine and that's the reason it vibrates. If you bend forward, most brooms accelerate and this does the same but it's only the fire chunk that pushes the stick forward.

The spine of the broom is mostly charmed with all the stability and control aspects like brakes and stuff so if you lean forward and pull the spine towards yourself, the broom should start vibrating violently but you will stay in one spot if you do it right.

When it does, try to find the balance of how much force to apply when pulling the spine and how much you lean forward. When you want to move forward, stop pulling the spine but keep you grip tight. This way you will start moving at a speed based on how much you leaned forward. Here, let me show you." He said as he took the broom from Aman's hand and walked over to Flitwick.

"Professor, how long will it take for the tryouts to begin?"

"Well… I'll wait for the students for ten more minutes." Flitwick said as he noted down the names of all the students lined up in front of him.

Alex nodded and headed back to Aman before nodding slightly and hopped onto the broom. It felt uncomfortable and unstable at the same time but he focused on maintaining his balance and found the right balance between leaning forward and pulling the spine.

Slowly, he leaned closer and closer to the spine while the grip on the handle tightened as the broom began vibrating violently.

Harry, Ron, Neville and the others grouped up behind Aman and watched Alex who was trying his best to stay on the unstable broom. Sweat trickled down his forehead as he took a deep breath and stopped pulling the spine.

A loud pop that was similar to a small explosion was heard as Alex fell down on exactly at the spot where he was levitating and the broom looked like a blurry line as it flew up extremely fast and finally slowed down as it began falling back to the ground. Alex pulled out his wand and summoned the broom back towards him while the whole group stared at the him wide-eyed.

"Tch…. I told you that it still needs some tinkering. Well… I thought I'd stay on the broom but looks like I can't." he said as he looked at his bleeding palm which had no skin on it.

Flitwick ran over towards them with his wand pulled out and the moment he came close, Alex simply showed him his palms to which he responded with a few spells that healed his burnt flesh and grew the skin.

"Thank you, professor Flitwick." Alex said with a smile but the short man in front of him looked at him dead in the eye with an annoyed look on his face.

"Twenty points from Ravenclaw. Don't you dare do something so dangerous Jordan."

"Sorry professor…" he apologised, but Flitwick was busy walking back to the stands.

He turned to look at the group who simply stared back and said nothing, "So… what are you guys doing here?"

Ron was the first one to open his mouth, "We came here to experience the fun. We heard that there will be a new team formed to take out the old team so it's the only thing everyone is talking about. There's news that says that the old team was extremely bad and the head of Ravenclaw, I mean professor Flitwick is disappointed with them."

"Oh… okay. Honestly speaking, I don't really have a lot of hope on this new team but I do hope that we get a good one. If we don't, you guys and Slytherins will be the only ones competing for the first spot again."

"Is that a praise?" Harry asked, to which Alex simply nodded.

"Hey Alex…." Aman said as he shook the broom in his hands, "This thing isn't flying."

Alex looked shocked but a slight smirk threatened to escape his control which he did manage to hide by biting his lower lip which looked like he was disappointed and frustrated with himself.