The future was easier to cope with if Arcturus filtered out the parts that didn't make sense to him and didn't seem particularly important, which was precisely what he had done with Richard's mention of a headache. 'I've never seen reverse-control flying,' he confirmed. 'If it's possible at all on a broom from my time, it'd be so dreadfully slow and ineffective that it wouldn't be worth doing.' He shrugged. Richard's brooms were incredibly different. 'When you mentioned a headache I thought you meant some sort of test – that I'd have to fly fast and stay focused while you tried to distract or disorient me, throwing spells at me, something of that sort. Giving me a headache. But to be honest, sir, I don't think I mind that the C-Class is limited to a hundred miles an hour for now. Even that might be a little more than I'm ready for.' He might have lied about it, but he didn't want to raise Richard's expectations of him too high.
'What is the test, if it isn't that?' It couldn't do any harm to know, even if he wasn't about to try it.
The idea of writing an entire book about his broom from home both pleased and amused Arcturus. 'I suppose my Celeritas to you is rather like a functioning broom from the year 1700 to me,' he said, contemplative. 'It's strange. It was brand-new at home. You can write about it if you like, but if you wish to examine it, I'd like to stay and watch, if I may.' That way, he could intervene if Richard looked likely to damage it. 'It is the only proper reminder I have of home. I have my clothes and my school books and supplies, but they aren't important in the way my Celeritas is.'
It was faintly disappointing that he couldn't try to put right his earlier mistake straight away, but he could see the sense in starting much slower to try out the new technique, and so he nodded. 'I'll try it at twenty first. And I'll tell you, the last time Slytherin won the Quidditch Cup, after the last game the team did an entire celebratory flight sequence with all sorts of loops and rolls and airborne spellwork. It's not showing off if you deserve it!' He rather liked the idea of a smaller gesture for every single goal, too.