After finishing breakfast in the Great Hall, Kyle headed straight for the Owlery outside the castle to write a letter to his all-powerful, Alfred-esque old butler.
It was only Friday morning, yet a huge flock of owls came rushing into the Great Hall once again, carrying seven long, slender packages.
These seven packages were a bit different from the ones Gryffindor had received at the neighboring table yesterday.
Over at the Gryffindor table, they had received one Firebolt and six Nimbus 2001s.
On the Hufflepuff side, Cedric had chipped in some of his own money to upgrade the Nimbus 2001 that Kyle had intended for his own use into a Firebolt.
In other words, Hufflepuff's lineup now consisted of two Firebolts and five Nimbus 2001s.
It had to be said—the Hogwarts Quidditch Cup was becoming absurdly competitive.
The Firebolt represented the absolute pinnacle of racing broom craftsmanship. Since its release in July of this year, professional Quidditch teams playing in the Quidditch World Cup had all adopted it as their players' standard-issue broom.
However, production of the Firebolt had remained very low, and even now, many professional teams had not yet fully upgraded their gear.
As a result, a large number of professional players were still using the Nimbus 2001, which was second only to the Firebolt.
This meant that the school Quidditch teams at Hogwarts, formed spontaneously by students out of sheer passion, had already caught up to most professional teams in terms of equipment.
Furthermore, the Firebolts used by Harry, Kyle, and Cedric were a luxury that the national teams of some countries didn't even have a single one of yet.
Of course, this was only temporary. Once enough Firebolts were produced down the line, the equipment of the Lions and the Badgers would inevitably be overtaken by those national teams again.
Still, the level of competition was already insane.
Watching the little badgers happily unwrapping their packages at their long table, the little eagles at the neighboring table practically glowed with a faint green light called naked greed.
Roger Davies, the captain of the Ravenclaw Quidditch team, stared at Hufflepuff's seven brooms, practically drooling all over the floor.
Out of the four Quidditch teams at Hogwarts right now, theirs was easily the poorest.
Back in the day, the school's four teams were equipped with either Comets or Cleansweeps. That was fine, because everyone was in the same boat.
Later on, Kyle and Harry started using Nimbus 2001s. That was still fine; after all, it was just two brooms, so the impact on the fairness of the game wasn't that massive.
Then, Slytherin was the first to fully upgrade, with every single member getting a Nimbus 2001. Even that wasn't too big of an issue, since there were still two other teams just like Ravenclaw, filled with broke students.
Besides, Hufflepuff should have been the one most worried about Slytherin's upgrade. After all, a fully modernized Slytherin posed a severe threat to their championship title.
But after that, things started getting seriously out of hand.
Hufflepuff upgraded their entire roster to Nimbus 1600s, and their two star players were even riding custom-built Feidians, whose performance left the Nimbus series miles behind in the dust.
Granted, after Madam Hooch banned the engine afterburner feature, the Feidian's base performance dropped back down to the level of a Nimbus 1600.
With Hufflepuff and Slytherin setting the precedent, Gryffindor refused to be outdone. Harry, a wealthy trust-fund kid, along with the two self-made entrepreneurs, the Weasleys, generously opened their pockets to help their entire house upgrade to Nimbus 1600s.
While their rivals were trading in their old shotguns for cannons, Ravenclaw remained as unmoving as a mountain, still flying the most ancient Cleansweeps and Comets.
In the words of Professor Flitwick: "Hold steady—we're going to lose anyway."
"With the sheer dominance of the 'Sky Demon' on the pitch, forget upgrading you to Nimbus 1600s—even if we got you Nimbus 2001s and you gorged yourselves on sea cucumbers every day to build up your stamina, you still wouldn't stand a chance of snatching the Quidditch Cup from under his nose."
Hearing Professor Flitwick's words, Roger Davies, as the captain, naturally refused to accept it.
A team's performance, of course, depended on individual effort, but one also had to take the equipment factor into consideration.
In the Ravenclaw changing room by the Quidditch pitch, Roger had recited two lines of poetry on the spot: "To preserve my life on the pitch, seeking no..."
Pah! Wrong lines!
Instead, Roger slammed his broom onto the floor as a signal, and the three hundred axemen lying in ambush inside the wardrobes all came out of the closet together...
Pah! Wrong again!
At Roger's command, the other six players in the changing room pounced on Professor Flitwick all at once...
Then, grabbing Professor Flitwick's short legs, they wailed and wept, wiping tears and snot all over his wizard's robes as they cried about how utterly pathetic their house team had it.
Skills? At the very bottom. Morale? At the very bottom. Training? At the very bottom. If their equipment hit rock bottom too, then Ravenclaw might as well pack it in.
Besides, upgrading their gear would give Ravenclaw plenty of motivation to train and boost their drive to succeed.
Whether their actual skills would improve, however, was up in the air.
Cough, cough. Some truths are better left unsaid.
Thinking of this, Roger Davies couldn't sit still any longer.
He looked over not far away at Professor Flitwick's favorite student, who also happened to be the only Ravenclaw player whose Quidditch skills cracked the absolute top tier at Hogwarts—Cho Chang.
Cho Chang noticed his gaze and slowly turned her head.
The two exchanged a look, instantly understanding each other's intent.
Fortunately, it wasn't that kind of intent, or else Cedric would have been sporting a nice shade of green on his head.
Standing up in unison, the two made a move to head toward the staff table to cry poverty to their Head of House, Professor Flitwick.
However, before they could even reach the staff table, Professor Flitwick already knew exactly what they were up to.
With a completely helpless expression, Professor Flitwick floated out from behind the table. "Alright, alright, I know what you want."
Foreseeing a massive shrinkage of his wallet, Professor Flitwick let out a mournful sigh. "I can't afford Firebolts. The best I can do is a Nimbus 2000 for each of you."
Hearing Professor Flitwick's words, both Cho Chang and Roger cheered in excitement.
Originally, they hadn't dared to hope for Firebolts anyway; they would have been perfectly satisfied with a Nimbus 1600 or 1800 for everyone.
Now, with Professor Flitwick offering Nimbus 2000s right off the bat, it had vastly exceeded their expectations.
"I knew you were the best, Professor Flitwick!" Davies rushed forward in a frenzy of excitement, grabbing Professor Flitwick under the arms and hoisting him up in the air.
Taijutsu • Hogwarts Secret Art: The Lift-Up!
The other Ravenclaw players swarmed over with loud cheers. By the time they finally dispersed, Professor Flitwick's old face was covered in several wet slobber marks.
Wiping the spit from his face, a slightly embarrassed Professor Flitwick turned around, only to meet Dumbledore's teasing gaze.
Professor Flitwick's face flushed red.
But the moment he remembered that this broomstick arms race had been instigated entirely by that little brat from Dumbledore's family alongside Gryffindor, Flitwick's face instantly turned from red to black.
"Albus, I recall that the broomsticks Hogwarts provides for the players haven't been updated in ages. Shouldn't you reimburse the students a bit for this upgrade?"
Dumbledore's eyes widened in surprise. "What was that, Filius?"
With a dark expression, Professor Flitwick repeated his words loudly once more.
Dumbledore maintained his look of astonishment. "I still didn't quite catch what you said."
The half-goblin's face darkened even further; he knew the scheming old bee in front of him was just playing dumb.
If he weren't completely outmatched in a fight, Filius Flitwick Bronzebeard would have loved nothing more than to leap high into the air and smash this old bee's kneecaps to pieces!
Grabbing a handful of Roger's robes, Professor Flitwick—who usually maintained the image of a perfectly amiable gentleman—actually looked a bit ferocious at this moment.
"I don't expect you to beat Hufflepuff, but if you still finish dead last after this upgrade, then..."
Professor Flitwick didn't finish his sentence, but the Ravenclaw eagles knew exactly what he wanted to say—
GIVE ME MY FUCKING MONEY BACK!
ARE YOU EVEN WORTH THE FORTUNE I'M SPENDING ON THESE BROOMS?!
GIVE ME MY FUCKING MONEY BACK!!!
REFUND ME!!!
————
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