Alex turned towards the tall guy and said, "You did pretty well back there so why are you here for the beaters test?"
"Well…. That fourth year called Roger Davies did the best among all of us and I feel like my other two classmates Randy and Jerry did better than me, you and Su Li if we talk about pure technical skill. My name's Jason Samuels by the way." He said as he put out his hand, waiting for a shake.
Alex nodded as he shook Jason's hand, "…. You're a bit too tall for a first year, don't you think so?"
"Um… maybe I am, but aren't you a bit too short for a second year? All of your classmates are taller than you from what I've observed."
Alex smiled in response and tried to crush the guy's hand only to end up embarrassing himself.
"Tch. Height isn't the main thing you need to win duels, first year."
"Oh true. But a good body is surely needed to be a good beater. After all, you need power to hit the bludger effectively."
Alex turned back to the front, muttering to himself "We'll see about that. I don't know why professor Flitwick wants to bring first years into the team but if you really are good, I wouldn't mind having you on the team."
One by one the kids at the front of the line went forward and took their turns hitting the bludgers that shot at them from random directions. Their only task was to not miss their hits and most of them did the exact thing they weren't supposed to.
Finally, after almost thirty minutes, Alex mounted his broom and took off into the air and before positioning himself as per Flitwick's instructions, he put his right hand inside his robe, took his wand and pointed at himself.
With the meagre knowledge on blood magic, he cast a few spells and almost five seconds later, felt like he was on fire. Before he could reverse the effects, a barrage of bludgers flew into the sky.
A dozen bludgers shot at him from different directions but they all had different speeds and were shot from different distances, making sure that only one of the bludgers was in the Alex's striking range for only a second.
Only after he hit the first ball did he realize that the so called bludgers that were used for the tests were actually balls made of stone. He also felt better every time he hit the balls with all his strength.
'So... this is how it works… does the exact opposite of sloth but atleast it's less work compared to being a chaser.' He thought as he hit the last ball before continuing on with the next test which didn't happen. He turned down to look at Flitwick who motioned him to go down, to which he complied.
When he got near, Flitwick said "Stand in another line if you want to try for other spots or go join the others in the stands until all the tests are complete. I'll announce everyone's results after everything is done."
Alex nodded and headed towards the stand, giving the broom to Aman as he did so.
Jason did pretty amazing compared to the other participants as he hit ten of the twelve balls while the other two hit him instead. Unlike Alex, Jason was given more trials like stopping the balls from hitting a specific target or to catch up to a moving ball based on his positioning.
After all of it was done, he joined Alex in the stands to wait for the goal keepers' tryouts to end.
He looked down at Alex who was sitting beside him and said, "You… did pretty amazing. Looks like a good build isn't really that important…"
Alex simply nodded, smiling as he paid close attention to the test which was pretty different compared to the usual trials conducted by the team captains like it had been for the previous three tests.
Two keepers flew at two different ends of the field and waited for the red ball in the middle to fly towards them. At first, the ball flew at a speed of 20 miles an hour, but slowly the speed increased after every three attempts to block the goal.
Out of the six participants, four of them failed at the thirty mile speed mark while Aman and a guy called Grant Page held on until forty. Grant did better than Aman at blocking straight shots as he could hit the 45 mile mark but Aman was way better overall as he was able to predict and block curved shots.
"Hey Jamon, if you had to pick between a keeper who has a pretty good instinct and a keeper who has an amazing observational skill, who would you want as you keeper?" asked Alex, not moving his head away from the two best keepers who were currently taking their extra tests from Flitwick who, like Alex was also having problems with picking one of them.
"The name's Jason. Not Jamon. Also, the answer to your question will be…. Let me see… instincts are hard to train but it's a pretty important thing for a professional keeper while observational skills… are also important. Aaagh, why is this hard?
Well… If the player's instincts are like really good, I'll go with that but if it isn't, then there is no consistency so I'll pick the other. Yep, that's what I'll do." He said, while confirming his choice at the end.
Alex simply nodded while he waited for the whole test to end as the sun was almost completely down and the sky was going dark. Luckily, he didn't have to wait for too long as Flitwick told them to get down and dismissed the students from the field with an announcement that basically said that the last trial will be held the next day.
Aman and Alex headed to their common room together along with Jason, Su Li, Cho Chang, Roger and the others after Alex borrowed the Nimbus from Harry for a day, only to find a new notice stuck on the notice board that had the names of fourteen candidates on it with seven on one team each.
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.'