Robert looked at the long roll of parchment in Hermione's hands, feeling like an entirely new world had opened up before him.
Just from a cursory glance, Robert could confirm that Hermione had obtained signatures from almost all the first-year students. Ravenclaw went without saying, Gryffindor had Neville and Padma's sister, Hufflepuff had Neville's good friend Hannah... only Slytherin remained problematic. Though Terry had some rapport with a portion of them, gathering all their signatures was still wishful thinking.
After all, they had to "protect themselves wisely," and no one knew whether this joint petition would actually succeed.
Some little snakes were secretly hoping the petition writers would get heavily docked points so they could say they'd locked up the House Cup right from the start of the term.
"Actually, I don't think this will be of much use." Though he said this, Robert still signed his name with a flourish.
"You might not be aware, but even if you don't complain about Quirrell, he won't stay at Hogwarts long. At most this year, it couldn't possibly be longer."
Robert carefully flipped through the parchment. Besides his signature, they had also obtained the signature of Ravenclaw's other female prefect. What surprised him was that Gryffindor's male prefect had actually signed too.
"Hogwarts' Defence Against the Dark Arts position is supposedly cursed. No one can teach it for more than a year. The last professor didn't even make it to the end of term... How did you get Percy's signature? He doesn't seem like someone who'd be so enthusiastic about this sort of thing?"
It made sense for him and Clearwater to sign. Of course they'd support their own House's plan. But Percy... he cared too much about school rules and regulations. Offering suggestions to the headmaster? He should be avoiding it like the plague.
Terry and Sterling exchanged meaningful glances and shrugged.
"The Weasley twins got it for us," Sterling explained.
When Fred saw Neville collecting first-year signatures at the Gryffindor table, they immediately praised this behaviour highly. Upon learning they planned to get prefect signatures to increase credibility, they unhesitatingly offered to sacrifice their brother Percy as assistance.
Sterling didn't know what they did exactly, but the Gryffindor table erupted into chaos, and after a while they came back with the signature. To thank them, Sterling even gave each of them a Chocolate Frog.
Robert laughed and shook his head. "Percy will kill them both when he finds out his name is on here."
He suddenly seemed to remember something, picked up the class schedule Terry had just placed on the table, looked at it and said: "You have Flying lessons tomorrow!"
They had morning Flying class. Sterling wasn't particularly happy about this arrangement since he often lacked sleep in the mornings due to his obsession with Avalon. Especially since he planned to explore Avalon again tonight, which would make morning Flying class somewhat dangerous. He worried about falling off his broomstick.
But Robert seemed very satisfied with their class schedule, looking at Terry and Sterling with expectant eyes.
"I hope you can perform in flying as well as you do in Transfiguration and Charms." His gaze lingered more on Terry, since Terry looked considerably more robust than Sterling.
After speaking, he left with quick steps. Sterling figured he had unfinished homework to complete.
Generally speaking, this situation rarely occurred among Ravenclaws, but Robert was not only a prefect but also the Quidditch captain. He was simply too busy.
Sterling watched his retreating figure and shook his head. He knew what Robert meant, wanting to see if their talents could get them on the school team in second year. Ravenclaw had a serious gender imbalance problem, and Quidditch was a physically demanding sport. Female players were certainly excellent too, but when the entire team was basically all girls...
"Terry, I just remembered. In your breakdown of Ravenclaw's House point composition, you didn't mention Quidditch bonus points."
"My mother was a Ravenclaw. In her seven years at school, Ravenclaw never touched the Quidditch Cup."
Hermione rolled up the parchment again, a trace of worry on her face, but not much.
Compared to Sterling's stark contrast between Transfiguration and Potions, she was no longer afraid of having subjects she was terrible at. What she worried about now was simply safety issues.
"They'll have safety measures on the ground, right?" She looked at Terry, who was the only one from a wizarding family among them.
Terry thought about it carefully. "Don't know for certain, but Madam Hooch has been teaching at Hogwarts for many years. With her supervision, there shouldn't be any problems, right?"
Hermione nodded and relaxed considerably.
In her view, veteran professors were trustworthy, especially with the four House Heads as examples.
"Terry, have you ridden a broomstick at home?" Sterling remembered hearing a bunch of flying legends during dinner in the Great Hall.
Real legends. A Hufflepuff had vividly described his story of crossing the English Channel during a storm with a broken broomstick. In his telling, he had even encountered evil Dark wizards in the clouds but escaped them with his extraordinary flying skills.
Sterling thought he was actually being modest. Since he was making up stories anyway, why not say a hundred Dark wizards battled him in the clouds and he shot them down one by one?
Stories should be boldly invented.
Terry immediately launched into a story about flying alongside a helicopter, but Padma instantly debunked it.
"I've seen both broomsticks and helicopters. Broomsticks don't have defensive magic. If you got close to a helicopter, you'd be killed by the rotor blades!"
Oh, awkward.
"Alright, I've actually only flown in our yard at home, and Dad wouldn't let me fly higher than the rooftop. But my flying skills are really quite good. My mother says Ravenclaw depends on me for salvation."
Terry admitted this quite openly, though he still had to give himself a boost at the end.
"Very good, I believe in you."
Sterling encouraged him. Actually, within Ravenclaw, Quidditch players had quite high status. You could often see others helping Robert and the team with homework so they'd have time for proper training.
All of Ravenclaw were holding back frustration.
The House colours were sky blue, their emblem was the eagle, best at flying, and their common room was in the castle's highest tower, adjacent to the sky, with a view down to the Quidditch pitch.
Yet they were consistently the weakest team. What proud little eagle could accept such results?
"Alright, future saviour of Ravenclaw, Monday morning is Herbology class. Have you finished your essay?"
Padma said, handing him a reading list.
"Please, can't you support the Quidditch cause and help me get this sorted..."
"Sure!" Hermione said with a smile, her earlier slight worry having completely disappeared amid the joking.
"But we'll have to wait until you make the school team," Sterling added with a grin.
So they all laughed and returned to their dormitories to prepare for rest.
Sterling closed his door and windows and brewed a pot of strong black tea in advance, planning to down it in one gulp for energy when he woke up.
Lying in bed, closing his eyes...
Avalon, activate!