Chapter 173: Insights Gained from the Flying Competition

Then they prepared to head to the Great Hall to fill their bellies before going to the Quidditch pitch for the competition.

This time, Allen Finis learned from his previous lesson and warned Harry Potter and Ron not to make a fuss, so as to avoid attracting unnecessary onlookers again.

However, they still told Hermione, who was also very interested in the matter and requested to go along as the referee.

Upon arriving at the Great Hall, Allen remained the focus of everyone's attention, yet the crowd was much more restrained; young wizards close to Allen came up to exchange pleasantries, those with average relations watched from afar, and those on bad terms observed quietly.

Hagrid happened to arrive at the Great Hall for a meal as well; the moment he spotted Allen's dragon wings, he could not tear his eyes away.

With a look of infatuation, he walked toward Allen, so much so that he did not even feel himself bumping into two young wizards along the way.

One glance at Hagrid's expression told Allen what was going on; Hagrid had always wanted to raise a dragon, having hatched a dragon egg last year, but ultimately failed to keep it.

Thus, Hagrid had always been obsessed with dragons.

Last time, when Allen transfigured the glands used by a fire-breathing dragon for its breath, Hagrid had seen them too; although he greatly admired the power of Allen's breath, he had not lost his composure like he did today.

Allen guessed it was because the glands did not look imposing, whereas the dragon wings were huge and domineering, fitting certain preferences of Hagrid's.

"If I'm not mistaken, you've transfigured Hungarian Horntail wings," Hagrid said, gently touching Allen's dragon wings with his large hand.

"Yes," Allen replied, exchanging a helpless glance with Harry and Hermione; they all knew Hagrid's preferences.

"Truly beautiful!" Hagrid exclaimed repeatedly. "You are welcome to visit me this afternoon," he added, winking at them.

"Alright! Alright! I have an event this afternoon; if I have time after it finishes, I will come visit you," Allen answered somewhat perfunctorily.

Then they prepared to set off for the Quidditch pitch.

Hagrid reluctantly withdrew his gaze, muttering as he went off to eat lunch.

The four of them—Allen, Harry, Ron, and Hermione—walked out of the castle, heading toward the Quidditch pitch.

"Did you see the way Hagrid looked at Allen? I half suspect Hagrid wants to raise Allen like a son," Ron remarked sarcastically.

"Don't talk nonsense; we are friends with Hagrid!" Hermione glared fiercely at Ron, emphasizing her point.

Ron shrank his neck under Hermione's glare.

"Still, the way Hagrid looked at Allen today was quite terrifying!" Harry said, joining the discussion while holding his Nimbus 2000.

"That's enough from you two!" Allen hurriedly ended the topic.

Then they began the competition.

They agreed that the finish line would be on the other side of Heihu; whoever completed a round trip first and returned to the starting point would win.

At Hermione's command, Harry took off swiftly; the acceleration capability of the dragon wings was clearly inferior to that of a flying broomstick, and Allen was quickly left behind.

"Allen! Go for it!" Ron enthusiastically took on the role of a cheerleader.

Watching Harry fly far ahead, Allen never became discouraged, striving hard to flap his wings...

The weather today was very clear; few clouds dotted the blue sky, there was little wind in the air, and the calm surface of Heihu reflected the blue sky, looking quite beautiful.

But this tranquility was broken by two people.

Since the finish line was not very far, both Harry and Allen tacitly chose low-altitude flight rather than expending energy to climb higher.

They flew skimming the lake surface; Harry was fine, but Allen's dragon wings stirred up countless waves on the surface of Heihu, creating an imposing spectacle.

Seeing this, Harry, who secretly looked back to observe Allen, felt his heart tighten, as if he were being hunted by a black dragon.

After flying for a while, Allen noticed he was getting closer and closer to Harry, so he flapped his wings even harder.

However, by then they had reached the end of Heihu; when turning, both of them lost a lot of speed, and the distance between them widened once again...

On the return journey, Allen caught up to Harry, and the final result was that Allen won by a margin of two seconds.

Harry was very unconvinced by this result; he had not expected to lose to Allen in the area where he was most skilled.

He strongly demanded another race.

Allen, however, did not mind; the afternoon was still long, and he had not yet flown to his heart's content.

For the second round, they chose the Quidditch pitch; there were many pillars in the stands of the Quidditch pitch, and they needed to fly around the pillars continuously, like cars navigating slalom poles; whoever completed three laps first would win.

Allen lost the second round miserably; he discovered a drawback of the dragon wings: their acceleration was somewhat slower compared to the Nimbus 2000, and turning around pillars caused speed loss, whereas Harry could accelerate quickly for the next turn, but Allen could not; before he could build up speed, he would reach another pillar and lose speed again.

After two rounds, Allen had figured out the advantages and disadvantages of the dragon wings versus the flying broomstick.

The advantages of the dragon wings were strong controllability and a high maximum flight speed; the disadvantages were slow acceleration and significant speed loss when turning. The strong controllability stemmed from the structure of the dragon wings themselves, making acceleration and deceleration convenient with excellent braking capability, and the maximum flight speed of the dragon wings was absolutely higher than that of a flying broomstick.

The advantages of the flying broomstick were fast acceleration, high flexibility, and the ability to hover; the disadvantage was that the maximum flight speed was not fast enough. Fast acceleration suited short-distance sprints, and any speed lost during turns could be quickly regained.

In their first race, Allen was left behind by Harry due to slow acceleration, but the entire course was too short; if it had been a bit longer, he would have left Harry even farther behind.

Allen shared the experience he had summarized with Harry.

Finally, he warned him, saying, "If you are ever hunted by a fire dragon in the future, remember to make more turns and fly in straight lines less."

Harry listened with a blank expression, not understanding why Allen would make such an assumption.

After a whole afternoon of flying, Allen discovered that the dragon wings did not rely entirely on aerodynamics for flight; magical power was definitely at work on the dragon wings, allowing the fire dragon to hover briefly.

Happy times are always short; the sun soon set, and they reluctantly left the Quidditch pitch, bringing this pleasant Sunday to an end.

Yet this afternoon's flight brought Allen further reflections; although he had lost many times that afternoon, it was the first time he had enjoyed the sensation of flying so much, truly feeling the joy of flight during the process, something he had never experienced while using a flying broomstick.

When flying with a broomstick, he always felt the broom was merely a tool, an external object, completely lacking the sense of becoming one with it.

Whereas flying with dragon wings gave him a sense of merging with them; he felt the dragon wings possessed a kind of instinct, a muscle memory, sometimes making the correct decision before his brain could even react, resulting in a very good flying experience.

This inevitably led Allen to start thinking about his plan again.

When facing the basilisk, would choosing to transfigure wings be a better method of flight?

The answer was obvious; after all, this concerned life and death, and forcibly choosing the less familiar flying broomstick at such a time would bring him great danger.

Transfiguring wings could increase the safety of his combat operations.

In any case, he had already found the Xing De Fang Fa for multiple designated transfigurations; at that time, it would merely be a matter of modifying his memory one more time.

Allen quickly made his decision, yet he still felt the dragon wings were not flexible enough; especially since Slytherin's Chamber of Secrets, though seemingly large, would be relatively small when flying, so he needed to find a pair of wings more suitable for combat within the Chamber...

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