Closed Rumors of Runes on a Broom’s Boons PV Amalia

Prior to being hired as the Flying professor at Hogwarts but after he had retired from the world of professional Quidditch, Felix had a lot of free time on his hands. Some of it had been spent gardening, but it had put too much strain on their back and knees. He had a brief foray into painting but quickly found that he preferred looking at art instead of making it. Many other hobbies came and went, but in the end… well, a cheetah doesn’t change its spots. To no one’s surprise, Felix became an avid, amateur broom maker.

Of course, it had started with repairs, something he was already accustomed to doing as a former professional Quidditch player and coach who had incredibly specific preferences for his equipment. But they began making small repairs for other people’s brooms, usually those of the rowdy young children in Puddlemere or of busy adults who didn’t spend as much time maintaining their brooms as they should. And as he worked on a larger variety of brooms, he did more research on each type and their makers, as well as the materials and magic that went into them. It didn’t take long for Felix to start working on his own brooms, from scratch. He first attempted to replicate existing models, but soon his creativity swept him away into the world of completely original broom-making.

Their sister, Elizabeth, had stopped by about a month before Felix assumed their post at Hogwarts to spend the week with her older sibling. He had excitedly shown her his latest creation-in-progress: a thin, vine-covered broom designed specifically for Seekers. Elizabeth, who coached the Hollyhead Harpies, had taken it for a test flight, which was largely successful for about an hour until the broom appeared to give out and crash in Felix’s garden.

“Lucky, it’s almost a pretty good broom,” she had sighed as Felix gently worked some healing magic over her fresh wounds. “But I think whatever levitating charm you used on this wore off. Get that fixed,” she had said, and Felix agreed. He had never been the greatest at magic, especially charms or runes, which were arguably the two most important branches of magic when it came to broom making… which obviously posed an issue.

But now, they were at Hogwarts. If anyone could help them navigate the world of runes and charms that they had long forgotten, that person would be at Hogwarts. Although the vined broom remained leaned up in its stand in Felix’s office for the first few days that he spent settling into his new place of employment, it wasn’t long before he spent his free hours tweaking small details here and there, in between classes and grading homework. And slowly, but surely, Felix began to work up the courage to venture up to Professor Rolfö’s office.

The Professor of Ancient Runes intimidated them in more ways than one. Firstly, likely Durmstrang-educated, at least from what they could discern from the professor’s last name. Those freaky northern folk had always scared Felix to a certain degree, from both the school’s reputation and his own experiences and interactions with their alumni. Whether it was because Felix was a walking doormat or because he had simply had the misfortune of meeting some rather rude Durmstrang graduates, he simply had never had any pleasant experiences with them. The second reason was simply due to her area of expertise—Ancient Runes was a daunting subject to even the brightest of minds, which meant that Rolfö was the absolute brightest of them all. Part of Felix was worried that she would merely see him as a washed-up jock grandpa with only two brain cells to rub together, which was a perception that some had of him in the past. In reality, Felix was a lifelong learner at heart— they just also happened to be devilishly fast on a broom.

And, of course, the final and most important reason that Felix’s knees were practically knocking together as he stood outside Amalia’s office door was that she was significantly taller than him. Roughly fifteen centimeters, if he had to guess. And as tall as Felix liked to act (because, contrary to common misconception, height was a mindset and an attitude), he was still only 5’5”, or 5’6” when he wore his heeled dress shoes (which he was wearing now). But as they took a deep breath, clutching their basket of biscuits tightly in their left hand with several rolls of parchment tucked under their left arm, Felix firmly reminded themself that just because someone seemed intimidating didn’t mean that they actually were. Everyone had a story, and everyone had a spark of brilliance inside them. He just happened to be knocking on the office door of a woman who likely had an entire forest fire of genius burning inside her.

“Professor Rolfö, are you free? It’s Felix—er, Professor Lin. The new professor of flying? I’ve got this problem that’s got my brain all skew-whiff and whatnot, so I was hoping to glean some wisdom from you… and I also brought biscuits! Lavender lemon, if you’re interested.” Felix waited for a response with baited breath, attempting to calm his racing heart to no avail. Some people just had that type of effect on him.