Professor Potter

Chapter 42

"Ever take notice of the back end?" 

Harry thought about it for a moment and then said, 

"They tend to get more narrow towards the back?" 

"Right in one go, guv. That cone thing the kids came up with just sorta ends. Makes for some terrible airflow on the backside. The bundle of twigs on the back end of the broom is set up to handle air coming all in one direction, from the front. When it starts swirling around like they had it," he said while gesturing with his hand, "it puts too much strain on 'em. If that binding cord hadn't a let loose they way it did, those twigs woulda been snapping left 'n right." 

"Well, I'm disappointed for them, I know they had their hearts set on coming up with the Firebolt III, but at least they're learning something," Harry said. 

Eddy started to laugh. 

"If they had come up with one, it would have been bloody embarrassin' for us. We've been workin' on that for the last ten years and still have a ways to go. Your Firebolt II is still the fastest useable broom out there. Well, I guess I oughta get back to the shop. They wanna hear what I found out. I invited your three to take a tour when they get done with school. They should find it interestin'." 

"That's brilliant, Eddy. Thanks." 

"Think nothin' of it, guv. Was my pleasure." 

With a parting handshake Eddy left the Hall and Harry sat thinking. Ten years of effort on the next big thing in brooms and they still weren't done. He shook his head a bit and then went back to his paperwork. 

The following evening was one Harry had been looking forward to for weeks. It took almost a month but Luna had finally committed to coming to Hogwarts to give a talk about her search for supposedly extinct magical creatures. Once that commitment was made she spent considerable time with Harry and with Neville Longbottom putting a presentation together. It was Harry's idea to bring in Neville to help. He felt just as he had with Ginny being the better broom flying teacher that Neville's experience in overcoming his own trepidations about getting up in front of a group and speaking made him better suited to helping Luna with that aspect of the lecture. 

The lecture itself would be held in the Room of Requirements and Hagrid had made attendance mandatory for his fifth through seventh years and optional for anyone else. Harry would be there, or course, and Ginny had arranged, without much difficulty at all, to have her mum and dad babysit so she could be there as well. As the big day approached Luna had confided in Harry that she was now merely apprehensive about the whole idea as opposed to purely terrified as she had been when he first proposed it. 

So it was on the appointed evening that Harry and Ginny sat side-by-side off to one side in the Room of Requirements, with Neville sitting behind them. A fair portion of the student population was also in attendance. Luna was standing behind a podium that was positioned to one side of a large easel that had a number of large rectangular shapes under a white cloth. Mr. Lovegood was there as well, ready to assist his daughter with the large prints. Luna was looking just a bit nervous and considering her usually dreamy, detached state, and Harry interpreted that to mean she was pretty anxious. She gave a little cough and then began. 

"Ahem, well, I guess we'll begin. My name is Luna Lovegood and I was asked if I would come here this evening and share with you the results to date of my search for those magical creatures that most of our community would consider extinct. When I was a student here at Hogwarts, I had many conversations with Professor Hagrid about the possibilities that some of these creatures might still be out there to be rediscovered. Down through the years there had been many reported sightings and this led me to believe that there was something out there to be found."