Arcturus, who had been anticipating a stern rebuke, if not worse, couldn't understand why Richard was laughing, and the serious look on his face turned very quickly to complete confusion. But then he had an explanation – after a fashion, at least. It didn't matter to him too much what Richard made of the differences between their times. In fact, the only thing that the young wizard truly focused on was that he had permission to fly the new broom. He didn't have to be told twice, and grinned eagerly as he took the Nimbus 2000 and rapidly went through the pre-flight checks. He didn't know which were necessary or even relevant to a modern broomstick, but it was an automatic habit of his. The braking spell worked, the broom was balanced, there were no malicious enchantments placed upon it.
Before long, he was in the air. He flew a few wide, lopsided circles, trying to accustom himself to the sensitivity of the broom, to gauge its differences. There were plenty; not just the faster acceleration but the entire way it flew was unfamiliar to him. He expected he looked to Richard like a small child flying his first broom, veering to one side and then the other, pitching downward unexpectedly – but Arcturus took things slowly, and persevered, and eventually he had the basic directional control mastered. He wasn't entirely sure what Richard had meant by school exercises – perhaps the drills that Blishwick took the Slytherin players through at practice? They would do well enough, he decided, and he began a methodical demonstration, starting with the basics that the first-years learnt, and working his way through more complex and difficult manoeuvres, including tightly weaving between a clump of trees. He made several mistakes, mostly through underestimating how responsive the new broom was, and coming to a sudden halt when he only meant to slow a little, or turning far more sharply than intended – but none of them were high-risk errors, and each time he corrected course as quickly as he could.
At Richard's signal, he flew directly upwards, and the sheer speed of it was exhilarating. Vertical flights were seldom advisable at home, because even the best brooms were sluggish, and those of inferior quality could even be damaged by it, but it seemed no trouble at all for the Nimbus. Arcturus flew higher and higher, and had he been alone he might have kept going, but he didn't want Richard to think him too reckless, and so he resisted the urge either to test the broom's height limits or to dive downwards in a dramatic spiralling stunt the way he might have on his Celeritas, which he had a far more intuitive control of. Instead, he descended on a gentle curve, and flew another few lazy circles well above the treetops before launching into a rolling move that left him upside-down, and taking one hand off the broom and stretching out as if to reach for a Quaffle. This he followed with a few more acrobatic tricks, all performed at a comfortable speed. The last left him sitting sideways on the broom, and he waved down to Richard enthusiastically. Flying this broom was the greatest fun he'd had since arriving in Preya, and it had cheered him up immensely.