HP: The Boy who saw Magic

The early morning sun shone through the blue glass windows of Ravenclaw Tower, casting mottled shadows on the floor.

"I woke up earlier than class on the weekend. I don't know why I just don't want to sleep," Wesley muttered, his reddish-brown curly hair sticking up in a mess. He jumped out of bed and put on his clothes neatly. "I can finally relax today!"

Fabian was already dressed and arranging a pile of books on the bedside. He pushed up his glasses and said, "I want to go to the library to look up some information about the stars in yesterday's astronomy class. I still want to know more."

Kevin rubbed his eyes and asked the owl Phobos to deliver the letter he had written last night. The little guy pecked his finger affectionately and flew out of the window with the letter in its beak.

At the breakfast table in the auditorium, the four boys were discussing their weekend plans.

"We should go to the Eagle's Nest to clean up a bit," Ernesto suggested, picking up a fried egg. "That alchemy table needs some adjustment…"

"Or go to the library," Kevin continued, "I want to look up information about Professor Eisenberg's planetarium box."

Wesley, his mouth full of sausage, mumbled, "I say we ought to find some open field to play football! I smuggled a—"

"Football? What's that?" a familiar voice interrupted. Fred and George stood behind them at some point, with their signature smirks on their faces.

"The Muggle sport," George explained in mock seriousness, "is kicking a ball with your feet. No hands allowed."

"It sounds much safer than Quidditch! But I'm sure it's definitely not as fun as Quidditch!" Fred continued, and the two of them worked together seamlessly.

"Speaking of Quidditch," George suddenly lowered his voice, "We have a practice match today against Hufflepuff. Do you want to come and watch?"

To everyone's surprise, Ernesto was the first to jump up. "Really? What time does it start?" He said with an unusual excitement in his voice.

Fabian's eyes lit up behind his glasses: "My dad took me to watch professional league games, but I've never watched a school game live!"

"Quidditch? I seem to have heard of it somewhere?" Wesley tried hard to recall.

"Quidditch is the greatest wizarding sport!" Ernesto explained enthusiastically. "It's played in teams of seven on broomsticks in the air. There are three scoring rings, a Quaffle, two Bludgers—"

"—and there's a Snitch!" said Fred and George in unison.

"It sounds like wizard football!" Wesley slammed the table excitedly, "Interesting, I want to watch it!"

Before Kevin could comment, Ernesto turned to the Weasley brothers and said, "Kevin's flying grades aren't great. Can you lend him a broomstick for practice?"

"Of course!" George agreed readily. "We have a whole cabinet of practice brooms. Although most of them are very old, they are more than enough for practicing flying."

Just like that, Kevin's objection was completely ignored. After breakfast, the group walked across the dewy grass towards the Quidditch field.

The September wind carried the scent of green grass, and the Black Lake in the distance sparkled.

The stadium was even more spectacular than Kevin had imagined. Three golden rings shone fifty feet in the air, and the stands surrounded the entire field in a ring. Several figures in scarlet team robes were already circling the field.

"That's Charlie, our second oldest brother, the captain of the team and the seeker," Fred introduced proudly. "He's in the seventh grade and will graduate soon."

A red-haired boy swooped down on a broom and landed steadily in front of them. Charlie Weasley was much taller than the twins, with a sunny smile on his face and several conspicuous scars on his arms.

"Freshmen? Welcome!" he greeted them warmly. "I believe that once you have watched a Quidditch match, you will definitely fall in love with this sport!"

Seeing the captain flying over, several other players on the field flew over.

Charlie pointed to a burly young boy next to him and introduced him: "This is Wood, the goalkeeper of our team and the future captain of Gryffindor."

Wood listened to Charlie's introduction and scratched his head shyly.

Then the other team members were introduced, including Angelina, who officially joined this year and was in the same grade as the Weasley brothers.

After introducing each other, just as Charlie said that Quidditch is a safe and exciting sport.

"As long as you can avoid the Bludgers and Slytherin's sneak attacks, it is indeed very safe!" A female team member who had just been introduced suddenly interrupted. Her nose was obviously crooked to one side, obviously having been broken.

Hearing this, the team members gathered together and started discussing the interesting things that happened in training and the "despicable tactics" of their opponents.

"Last term, the Beater from Slytherin deliberately hit me in the face with a Bludger!" complained a freckled Chaser.

"That's nothing," Charlie laughed. "In last year's final, their Seeker pretended to be injured and knocked over our goalkeeper when the referee wasn't paying attention!"

"But we are not bad either. After being attacked by those despicable Slytherin guys, we must fight back. Didn't Charlie elbow the Slytherin seeker off his broomstick before?" Wood said.

Kevin and Wesley were stunned. "This isn't a game, it's a fight," Wesley muttered.

"Sure enough, even the Quidditch in school is not much less intense than professional Quidditch!" Ernesto's eyes lit up, "This is real Quidditch!"

Wesley asked cautiously, "From what you said, it's so intense. Have any players died in Quidditch games?"

"Well, I'm not sure about that," Charlie replied with a wry smile, and he seemed to realize the problem.

"Okay, forget about that," Ernesto took the lead and walked towards the broom shed. "Let's try real flying!"

George went ahead and took out a few old but well-maintained brooms from the shed: "Comet 260 for teaching. Although it is not fast, it is very stable."

Kevin took it. His flying class results were indeed not ideal and he needed to practice more.

"Don't worry," Charlie patted his shoulder, "I fell right off my broom the first time I flew. The key is to relax and let the broom feel your intention."

The team began warm-up drills, and the twins joined in. Kevin and his roommates stayed on the sidelines to practice basic flying.

"Watch me!" Wesley jumped onto his broom and kicked the ground hard. The broom immediately soared twenty feet into the air and began to spin wildly. "Waaaaaaa—how do I brake?!"

Ernesto gracefully rose into the air, easily catching up with the out-of-control Wesley, and grabbed his broom by the tail: "Relax your wrist! Wherever you want to go, just gently point in that direction with your knee!"

Kevin took a deep breath and slowly floated to a height of five feet. Although the broom this time was also old, it was obviously much better than the one he used in flying class.

Ernesto rode his broom and flew to Kevin again. He found that Kevin had slowly gained control of the broom, so he pulled Kevin and Wesley along and took them to fly around the court twice to help them get used to it.

While Kevin and his team were practicing the basics, the Gryffindor team on the field were also stepping up their training and warming up in preparation for the practice match later.