Good points, but I think that with some practice in teamwork of the sort employed in Neville’s “Special Attacks,” they could have come up with something. Say, Draco levitating Hermione horizontally out the window, so she can use a Shield Charm to cover herself completely while Draco moves her out of Harry’s one-handed firing arc. Throw in a baseball-style hand-signal code between them, so if Harry is concentrating on Hermione, Draco lets her go while she casts Leviosa on herself, and he zaps Harry, or if Harry tries to take aim at Draco, Hermione drops her shield charm and fires. And this assumes that neither of them (or Genius!Harry himself, for that matter) can come up with a better flying spell than Wingardiam Leviosa.
Maybe their problem is that they weren’t quite ready for that level of teamwork, though if it was me in either of their places I’d have wanted to look into developing an inventory of “Special Attack” type maneuvers after seeing them work so well for Chaos.
OTOH, the likely real reason is that the Gecko Gloves give Harry a chance to use Science! in a fun way, so the Rule of Cool applies. Still, reactionless flight is such a trivial matter in the Potterverse that I still found myself wondering why they just went out after Harry on his own terms instead of trying to wield air power against him somehow. Maybe a couple lines of dialogue along the lines of “Why don’t we use [flight-based attack X]?” “We can’t because Harry would just use an Indra’s Net Jinx!” (or some other expected counter that makes using the Gecko Gloves then sliding around on the slippery roof their best response to the situation).
Draco lets her go while she casts Leviosa on herself,
Does that work? I know Voldemort can fly but I got the impression that was something a bit more advanced than Winguardium Leviosa. Something off the order of an enhanced continuous form of apparation that requires huge amounts of concentration and skill to maintain. It would come with an advanced understanding of the mechanics of magical transport, along the same lines of Harry’s advanced understanding allowing him to partially transfigure objects.
Still, reactionless flight is such a trivial matter in the Potterverse
I know brooms can fly but have we been given reason to believe that reactionless flight is trivial in the ‘first years can do it’ sense? It sounds like the sort of thing Harry would have tested but I could have forgotten him doing so. If self casting doesn’t work then try casting winguardium leviosa on a heavy object while yourself floating on a raft in a tub, measuring the displacement of water...
Consulting the wiki, it does state that “Snape could fly without the use of a broom or any other visible materialistic support. The only other wizard that was known to be able to do this is Lord Voldemort, who most likely taught Snape the method to do so.”
Interesting. That seems to fit well enough with my theory of ‘advanced generalisation of apparition-type magic’ so I’ll run with that hypothesis until something better or MoR!authoritative comes along.
Oops, I should have been more clear. By “reactionless flight is trivial” I meant in general, not necessarily for persons playing Superman. Wingardium Leviosa is a spell that generates reactionless flight, and it’s literally the first thing kids learn. It can be used on persons and has already been employed in combat in MoR (e.g. “Chaotic Twist!”). Then there’s other things like Quick Quotes Quills that float and move reactionlessly as they write, brooms, flying carpets, etc.. Since Hermione is a stupendous genius with spells even in Canon, and MoR!Draco is no slouch himself, it just seems likely to me that they would have tried to come up with something. Leviosa on a chair, or Hermione’s shoes as a semi-permanent enchantment (“Wait, Draco, I know some 3rd Level spells...”), or something like that.
But it’s nothing the Rule of Cool and the MST3K Mantra can’t fix. :)
Good points, but I think that with some practice in teamwork of the sort employed in Neville’s “Special Attacks,” they could have come up with something. Say, Draco levitating Hermione horizontally out the window, so she can use a Shield Charm to cover herself completely while Draco moves her out of Harry’s one-handed firing arc. Throw in a baseball-style hand-signal code between them, so if Harry is concentrating on Hermione, Draco lets her go while she casts Leviosa on herself, and he zaps Harry, or if Harry tries to take aim at Draco, Hermione drops her shield charm and fires. And this assumes that neither of them (or Genius!Harry himself, for that matter) can come up with a better flying spell than Wingardiam Leviosa.
Maybe their problem is that they weren’t quite ready for that level of teamwork, though if it was me in either of their places I’d have wanted to look into developing an inventory of “Special Attack” type maneuvers after seeing them work so well for Chaos.
OTOH, the likely real reason is that the Gecko Gloves give Harry a chance to use Science! in a fun way, so the Rule of Cool applies. Still, reactionless flight is such a trivial matter in the Potterverse that I still found myself wondering why they just went out after Harry on his own terms instead of trying to wield air power against him somehow. Maybe a couple lines of dialogue along the lines of “Why don’t we use [flight-based attack X]?” “We can’t because Harry would just use an Indra’s Net Jinx!” (or some other expected counter that makes using the Gecko Gloves then sliding around on the slippery roof their best response to the situation).
Does that work? I know Voldemort can fly but I got the impression that was something a bit more advanced than Winguardium Leviosa. Something off the order of an enhanced continuous form of apparation that requires huge amounts of concentration and skill to maintain. It would come with an advanced understanding of the mechanics of magical transport, along the same lines of Harry’s advanced understanding allowing him to partially transfigure objects.
I know brooms can fly but have we been given reason to believe that reactionless flight is trivial in the ‘first years can do it’ sense? It sounds like the sort of thing Harry would have tested but I could have forgotten him doing so. If self casting doesn’t work then try casting winguardium leviosa on a heavy object while yourself floating on a raft in a tub, measuring the displacement of water...
Consulting the wiki, it does state that “Snape could fly without the use of a broom or any other visible materialistic support. The only other wizard that was known to be able to do this is Lord Voldemort, who most likely taught Snape the method to do so.”
Interesting. That seems to fit well enough with my theory of ‘advanced generalisation of apparition-type magic’ so I’ll run with that hypothesis until something better or MoR!authoritative comes along.
Oops, I should have been more clear. By “reactionless flight is trivial” I meant in general, not necessarily for persons playing Superman. Wingardium Leviosa is a spell that generates reactionless flight, and it’s literally the first thing kids learn. It can be used on persons and has already been employed in combat in MoR (e.g. “Chaotic Twist!”). Then there’s other things like Quick Quotes Quills that float and move reactionlessly as they write, brooms, flying carpets, etc.. Since Hermione is a stupendous genius with spells even in Canon, and MoR!Draco is no slouch himself, it just seems likely to me that they would have tried to come up with something. Leviosa on a chair, or Hermione’s shoes as a semi-permanent enchantment (“Wait, Draco, I know some 3rd Level spells...”), or something like that.
But it’s nothing the Rule of Cool and the MST3K Mantra can’t fix. :)