The wind blew past him, caressing his face as he closed his eyes, the scenery began to change from the rough paths to a green field.
A yawn escaped his mouth as he looked at the view from the window on the train back home. He was resting his face on one hand, while he was grabbing Hestia with his other hand, sending her the Wand Raising Charm every so often to keep her happy, after all, he would need to stop using magic with a wand after arriving at London again.
"What are you thinking so hard about, looking outside?" Asked Sophia, breaking him out of his thoughts.
"I was thinking.
Why not swords?"
"???" His friends all answered in kind, with a questioning look on their faces.
"I'm sorry, what? What exactly are you referring when you say 'why not swords?'" Asked Sophia, blinking incredulously.
"Well, you know how I got a sword from my mom's vault, right?"
They nodded in agreement, signaling him to continue.
"And I've read that in asian countries, instead of using a broom, they stand on swords and just fly like that, isn't that cool?!" He exclaimed, almost shooting out of his seat.
"It sounds dangerous to me, not only are you flying standing, you are also doing it atop of a sharp object, what if you fall down? You could hurt yourself." Said Elsie as she listed down a few problems.
"All of that can happen with a broom too! Except hurt yourself with the sharp edge of it." He mumbled the last part softly.
"I still think that it's not safe."
"I think so to, and besides, they are banned, including carpets and other miscellaneous objects capable of flight." Explained Sophia as she crossed her arms.
"Even motorcycles?"
"Including moto- What?" She began to answer then stopped in her tracks, trying to understand what he just said. I don't know what motorcycles are, but yes, including them."
"There's actually a list of objects you can use as a form of air transportation, you can ask the Ministry to send you one, if I recall correctly, there's a department for that as well." Sophia said, putting a finger to her chin.
Allen nodded along, listening to her, before taking out pieces of parchment from his bag. "That's all well and good, but look at this!" He passed them photographs of people riding swords under their feet with their hands behind their backs, others had their feet apart, striking a pose to maintain balance.
"You have to admit that it looks cool." He exclaimed, looking at the pair of girls. "Even if it's dangerous."
The girls looked a bit doubtful of his remarks but Armand and William, on the other hand, their eyes shone with a light of longing, wanting to be just like them.
"What the hell. It looks so cool! I want to try that too!" Cried William as he looked at the photographs.
Armand limited himself to nod, but the sudden pink colour on his cheeks gave away the fact that he, too, was interested in trying it.
"Maybe…" Armand muttered under his breath, catching the attention of the others. "Maybe we can get a license for it? Just like how we got registered as animagus. It's not illegal if you have a permit." A smirk showed on his face.
An exasperated sigh escaped the girls' mouth as the boys began to plan for the future.
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"It is with a heavy hear that I must inform you that the reason as to why flying carpets and flying swords are banned from the country is because the Ministry of Magic fucking sucks.
I asked my father the reasons as to why they are banned, which spiraled into a five hour rant from him stating what was wrong with our government and what needed to be changed. I won't bore you with the details but from what I was able to gather after his rant is that the Ministry blocked the import of carpets and then the rest of the methods followed through.
The main reason is because of broom manufacturers, their sales began to dwindle after a few carpets began to enter the country from Persia. They are easier to control, you can bring a lot more people with only one method of transportation and last longer, since if the broom's bristles get bent, the flight also gets messed up.
Although the reason they gave to the ban on carpets was that they gained sentience, something that only a few carpets did get, but not all of them.
But that was enough for the Ministry to block the entrance of all and every other method, 'fearing' that the same thing could happen, while in reality, they just banned it because of their stupid sales! If you can't keep up then your product is bad and deserves to be pulled out of the market!
Anyway, I'll send you a few books my father got for me, they explain how broom makers enchant their brooms and what are the steps for a smooth fly, as well as a translated book from China, explaining how they enchant their swords, sabers and any other sharp objects they use for flying.
I'm not telling you to enchant your mother's sword so you can use it to fly as if it were a broom, but I think Professor Flitwick would be very impressed if you manage to 'enchant' your own broom.
With kind regards, Malfoy, Armand."
'This dude! Hahahaha' Allen left the letter on the top of the desk and kicked his bed out of anger. 'Goddamn Ministry of Magic!
'Well, might as well get started now.' He thought as he picked up one of the books that the owl left on his desk.
The book explained how the use of the broom was born as a travel method and the enchantments it requires for a smooth flight.
One of the first things it explains is that, yes, anyone can make a broom, but a homemade one is not as safe as a store bought one. Just to list a few reasons; The materials used to craft one are always top tier, even for the cheaper brooms, or so they say.
The next part of the book was something along the lines of what he read in Armand's letter, but praising the Ministry for 'protecting its people' of all the 'dangerous foreign objects'.
He gave that chapter a fast read and didn't look back.
There were a few charms that made up the whole of the concept of a 'flying broom', some were casted over the wood, others were engraved in small runes, creating a whole array of network that made up the structure of every spell on it.
'But as long as I can copy it, why bother trying to understand it?' He shrugged to himself as he continued to read the book. He made a few notes about the charms, runes and in what parts of the broom they are used.
After a few days of reading and comparing notes, Allen decided that it was enough and jumped over to the eastern book. He had been waiting to finish the first one.
The way they cast magic is completely different from the way it's used in the British Isles, for example, a lot of hand movements are involved, whether it's moving their hand in a big imaginary circle, or using both to create hand signs, which then would trigger their magic.
In the case of a sword being enchanted to fly on top of it, the wizard needs to create a type of bond with it, that's why from an early age their parents or their professors get a sense of what type of sharp weapon would suit them best.
The charms are fairly simple and are almost one to one to the brooms from Britain, just with a few differences in their casting and their meaning.
One of the very first charms to enchant the sword is, of course, an anti-cutting spell, but it has a very specific set of rules, that only if you are the owner of the sword or if the owner gave you permission to use it, you won't get cut. Then the next one is the spell who keeps you in place as you soar through the skies, the stabilizing spell, or it could be a rune as well.
It depends on the person.
Allen devoured the book at lighting speed and finished it before the matron called her for dinner.
He ate the porridge with a lot less energy than usual, and if he were to be honest, he didn't miss it.
It had been a while since he set foot in the orphanage, and while they didn't really talk about it, the rest of the kids seemed confused by his arrival.
An exasperated sigh escaped his mouth. 'Just another week and then I leave again.
Honestly, if it weren't for Ms Sarah requesting to see me at least two weeks after school ends, I wouldn't even be here.' He thought as he moved the spoon around the porridge.
After taking the last bite of his dinner, he escaped back to his room.
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Currently, Allen was looking at himself in the mirror using his Mystic Gaze, he inspected top to bottom, trying to look for something or anything out of place, but nothing really seemed to be out of sorts.
'Then it's not on the body. Is it on Hestia, then?' He thought as he picked up his wand, examining it every nook and cranny.
She almost answered back but stopped mid spell, remembering that they weren't at Hogwarts, and that if any sign of magic was detected close to the trace, it would be Allen's fault that he would need to pay for it.
The phoenix feather inside of the wood shone with the intensity of a flame, almost blinding him when he tried to look inside of her.
"Ack! He complained as the light almost blinded him. "Come on! Cooperate with me, I'm trying to look for the damn trace so I can do magic outside of school!"
Her nonexistent ears perked up at the sound of that, dimming the light from her core.
He inspected her again with a suspicious eye, one closed and the other half-open, but seeing how nothing happened, he opened his eyes completely, looking again for the trace.
'If it's not here, then I don't know where it could be, so I really hope I'm not wrong…!'
His eyes scrutinized all over her for a while until something seemed to be out of place, a small ball that constantly fluctuated around the magic of the core. It changed from a ball to a string, attaching itself all around it. Almost as if waiting for a reaction.
"Found it! If that's not the trace then I don't know what it could be, now, all I need is to-!" He stopped himself mid-sentence. "Fuck, I need to wait until I go to Armand's house, or Sophia's so I can try it. Otherwise it will trigger."
He smacked himself in the face, counting the days until it was time to leave.
In the meantime, he returned to the brooms and swords.
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The week passed by in a flash without him even noticing it. There was only one thing in his mind at the moment, build a flying sword.
He would wake up and begin theorizing in pieces of parchment the best way to incorporate each spell on a singular object. The only times he allowed himself any kind of distraction was when it was meal time, and even then, the porridge didn't provide much excitement to his taste buds so he continued to think in different ways to arrange them.
A sudden knock took him out of his thoughts. "Allen, your friend is here to pick you up." Said Ms Sarah.
"Thank you! I'll be right there!" He quickly took all of his books and belongings and put them inside of his trunk, dragging it out of the orphanage. Of course, he could've put everything in the bottomless bag that Sophia gifted him, but the rest of the kids would find it suspicious how he arrived with luggage but left without it.
At the entrance of the orphanage there were two blonde heads waiting for him, one belonged to Armand, but the other, he realized he didn't know who it was until it turned around to greet him.
"Ah, Allen, a pleasure to meet you, Armand has told us a lot of things about you and his friends." Narcissa Malfoy gave him a warm smile as she greeted him.