The Admiral of Hogwarts

Not every time-traveler is a skilled flyer; Hugo, at least, wasn't. After shouting, his broom lazily rolled around on the grass like a stubborn dog. Fortunately, after repeating the command three or four times, the broom finally gave him face and jumped into his hand.

Next, Madam Hooch demonstrated how to mount a broom without sliding off headfirst. She walked up and down the line, correcting their hand grips while reassuring some of the students who looked very nervous.

For her, comforting people wasn't her forte, but the students' current state forced her to do it. Although Neville's incident that morning was just an accident and didn't cause much harm, these students, most of whom were experiencing flying for the first time, were quite frightened by the little mishap. If she couldn't calm everyone down, the probability of a repeat performance in the afternoon wasn't small.

Fortunately, with extra attention, nothing major happened during the afternoon's lessons. Hugo and the other students successfully completed the course. However, because it was the first lesson, they only learned to mount the broom, take off, land, and slowly fly around the field at a height of about one story above the ground.

In reality, that's what the first flying lesson should cover. As for flying like Harry, diving fifty feet and then pulling up, that was actually far beyond the standard, something at least two-thirds of adult wizards couldn't do.

By dinner, the details of the morning's flying lesson had spread throughout the entire school. Even at the Ravenclaw table, Hugo heard many students marveling at Harry's talent. Although some people in the school could perform such dangerous maneuvers, doing it on the first try with a broom was indeed remarkable.

"For humans, Harry's Quidditch talent is indeed quite good," Venetto whispered in Hugo's ear, listening to the surrounding discussions about Harry's flying talent. "But for us ship girls, every aircraft carrier or light aircraft carrier ship girl can easily do that on their first try with a broom."

"What about you?" Hugo asked curiously. It didn't surprise him that the ship girls who served as the main air power could do that, but he wanted to know how other ship girls fared in this regard.

"Ship girls like us who don't play with airplanes certainly can't perform all sorts of fancy tricks in the sky as soon as we touch a broom," Venetto frankly admitted her shortcomings. "But our reaction speed and physical talent allow us to easily surpass human levels with just a little training."

"By the way, tonight I'm planning to start our first shooting activity," Venetto said, turning to Hugo as if she had just thought of something after finishing the plate of tuna pasta in front of her.

"Tonight?" Hugo's eyes widened with excitement. When they were exercising on the first day, Venetto and the others said they would teach Hugo how to use firearms. Unfortunately, the previous few times had been spent training on how to hold a gun correctly, how to use firearms safely, and practicing with inert training rounds that couldn't be fired. He hadn't been able to fire any real bullets at all.

So, upon hearing that he could shoot live ammunition tonight, Hugo immediately became excited, especially since he was a military enthusiast in his previous life but had never used firearms due to legal reasons. The prospect of shooting with real firearms tonight instantly thrilled him, to the point that all his attention was focused on it.

The reason for choosing to practice shooting during curfew hours instead of during regular weekend exercise was that, unlike public physical training, shooting training needed to be conducted secretly, away from others. Therefore, they could only choose the inconspicuous evening hours.

After finishing his homework in the library as quickly as possible, Hugo and Venetto ran back to the common room together to study the theoretical knowledge of firearm use for one last round. When the clock struck 9:30 PM, the two stood up from the sofa and walked out of the common room.

At this time, there were still many people active in the common room, but they turned a blind eye to Hugo and Venetto's obvious intention to sneak out for a night stroll at this hour. For the Ravenclaw students, going out for a night stroll could be considered a routine operation. As long as they didn't get caught, everyone felt it didn't matter.

After all, the students in Ravenclaw were, from various perspectives, the kind of people who were relatively self-centered, so they knew not to interfere in other people's affairs and to leave enough space for others.

Originally, the two had planned to leave at eight o'clock, but unexpectedly, they ran into Hermione, who had just returned from studying in the library and happened to see the note Venetto had left in the dormitory. As a result, she blocked the two guys who were preparing to sneak out with a menacing aura.

As for why they left that note, it was simple. Hugo and the others were worried that if Hermione saw her roommates staying out all night while she was sleeping, she might report it to the professor out of concern. But they didn't expect that because the two of them returned early, Hermione felt bored staying alone in the library and came back early, saw the note, and then blocked them.

Fortunately, Venetto only mentioned that she was going for a night stroll to avoid Hermione's excessive worry, without saying anything about Hugo himself. So, after spending some time, she successfully persuaded Hermione.

But in this way, their departure time was greatly delayed. It wasn't until 9:30 PM, when Hermione went upstairs to return to the dormitory to sleep, that they smoothly left the common room and headed towards the Room of Requirement.

There were still half an hour left before curfew, and all the lights in the corridor were on. However, because it wasn't early, there weren't many students active on the road, let alone at the entrance of the Room of Requirement, which was already very remote, so they entered the Room of Requirement very smoothly.

"Considering your acceptance ability, tonight I will teach you how to shoot three types of firearms." After entering the Room of Requirement, which had turned into a shooting range, Venetto placed three firearms on the table that Hugo had practiced with for a long time in the past few days.

"Beretta M1934 pistol, Carcano M1891/1938 rifle," Venetto said, pointing to these firearms that Hugo had been dry-firing for quite a while. "These guns are better than or at least on par with their British counterparts."

"As for the machine gun, we'll have to borrow Firefly's Bren gun on Friday," Venetto said, spreading her hands. "Although I hate to admit it, our Italian light machine guns during World War II were really too bad, far inferior to the British Bren gun."

"Actually, practicing with three types of guns tonight is already enough." Looking at the firearms in front of him and the wooden boxes stacked to the side filled with bullets, Hugo rubbed his hands excitedly. "Which gun shall we start with?"

"The pistol," Venetto said, picking up the pistol and handing it to Hugo. "Because this gun is the most practical for you. In fact, the reason why we didn't choose a British pistol before is very simple: their Webley revolver is too big and too heavy, making it inconvenient to carry and lacking concealment."

"You're right," Hugo said, looking at the pistol. Considering the dangerous situation in the school this year, a pistol is much more powerful than the magic he can currently cast. "I should indeed practice how to fight with a pistol."