Leonard had long since gotten used to the two brothers' nonsense and could not even be bothered to watch.
George and Fred got along far too well to ever truly fall out. No matter how fierce they looked while fighting, they would be back to normal in no time.
Sure enough, before Leonard had even finished inspecting the dress robe, which theoretically no longer had any issues, George and Fred were already walking back over with their arms around each other's shoulders as if nothing had happened.
"Aren't you going to try it on?" George asked in surprise when he saw Leonard still had not put the robe on. "Don't worry, there's nothing wrong with it anymore."
Leonard looked at the spot where the feathers had originally been attached, then raised his head and looked at the two of them.
"What exactly was that thing that turned people into canaries?"
"A feather soaked in a potion. Fred and I invented it together," George explained. "But it's pretty useless. We call it a canary, but as you saw, at best it only turns people into a giant fluffball. If there's less of it, then it won't even make a fluffball. The person just ends up looking like some weird bald bird."
"That sounds interesting, but it also sounds like you two don't plan to keep researching it?" Leonard asked.
"There's no need. It's already funny enough like this. We can turn it into sweets or biscuits. Watching people eat them would definitely be hilarious," Fred said with a grin.
This could very well involve research related to Animagus transfiguration, yet these two prodigals were completely uninterested in that and only wanted to use it as a prank prop.
Leonard shook his head and draped the robe over himself.
George and Fred were both talented, but they had no interest in using that talent for anything serious. All they liked were pranks of every possible kind.
It made them seem a little shortsighted, but then again, if they did not have personalities like this, they probably would not have so many strange and wonderful ideas in the first place.
Maybe there was no need to confine them within the limits of what people called useful. Take this dress robe, for example.
If Leonard had not specifically asked them to focus on developing this flying tool, they probably would have come up with even more bizarre ideas.
As for taking those ideas and turning them into things with real practical value, that was better left to more grounded professionals.
By now, quite a few werewolf wizards had already become apprentices in all kinds of fields, including potions, herbology, alchemy, and magical creature research.
Their skills were still not especially high, but Midgard had hired many highly qualified teachers to instruct them.
Before long, those werewolf wizards would become useful talent in their own right, and having them continue researching George and Fred's wild ideas would suit them perfectly.
As for whether George and Fred would be willing to hand their ideas over to others for practical development or commercial use, Leonard did not think that would be much of a problem.
As long as there was money in it.
And right now, werewolf wizards had plenty of money.
"Enough talk. Let's test the flight capability of this robe first." Leonard glanced around. "We need to change locations."
"Where to?" George asked.
"Behind the castle. Isn't there a cliff there? Perfect place to test it," Leonard said.
...
The three of them avoided the crowds and made their way to the northeast side of Hogwarts Castle. Near the Black Lake there was a steep cliff with a huge drop, a place students generally were not allowed to approach.
After all, if someone fell from there, then even if they were a wizard, one careless mistake would turn it into a matter of the school going out to recover a body.
Assuming they could even find it.
The Black Lake was enormous. Who knew where a smashed corpse might drift off to.
But Leonard and the others were not worried about the height.
There was no need to mention Leonard. Even George and Fred, after Leonard's special training, had become extremely fast and stable when casting magic.
Even if they fell from a cliff this high, they would still have enough time to pull out their wands and cast a Cushioning Charm.
That said, accidentally falling was one thing. If you asked George or Fred to jump off voluntarily, neither of them would dare.
Fred leaned forward to look at the waves crashing against the cliff below and swallowed.
"Do we really have to test it here? This feels a bit dangerous," he said hesitantly.
"Have a little confidence in yourselves." Leonard adjusted the robe and felt its light, floating sensation. "If your test results are accurate, then there won't be any danger."
"That may be true, but what if it's unstable..." George hesitated too, mainly because the cliff just looked terrifying.
Would it not be better to test it on the grass? If the magic on the robe failed there, at worst someone would fall flat on their face. But if they fell from here and did not react in time, then they would become something much worse than mud in a dog's mouth.
"Relax. I'll definitely test the flight condition at low altitude first. Only after I've got a rough sense of its speed and agility will I go near the cliff," Leonard said.
"Well... all right then, let's start." Hearing that, George and Fred immediately became excited again.
They had spent the entire summer holiday plus another month working on this robe. During the summer they had only tested incomplete prototypes on gnomes, and even the finished product had not yet undergone complete testing.
The incomplete versions had already produced fairly promising experimental data, but there was still no formal test data for the final version.
This trial flight was especially important.
George and Fred still were not particularly optimistic about this kind of magical tool. From a wizard's perspective, riding a broom was obviously cooler, more stylish, and much better at showing off one's noble bearing.
If Leonard had not strongly insisted on it, they probably would never have touched this project in their entire lives.
But now, even they were looking forward to seeing how the robe performed.
Under Leonard's control, the robe slowly lifted him into the air.
The feeling of flying like this was...
Deeply unpleasant.
It felt strange. Leonard had the distinct sensation that he was like a piece of meat just bought from a shop, wrapped in plastic and dangling from someone's hand.
Controlling the robe's direction in flight was also difficult. There was noticeable delay, and whenever he changed direction, the sense of being constrained became even more obvious.
Still, if he ignored those issues of comfort, the robe's flying effect was actually fairly good.
It was very stable in the air, and there were no obvious problems with controlling ascent or descent.
There was room for improvement, but for actual use it was barely acceptable.
"How does it feel?" George and Fred shouted excitedly from below as they looked up at Leonard floating in the air.
"For now, it's acceptable," Leonard called back. "But this is only hovering. I can do the same thing with a Levitation Charm, so there are still other tests to run."
"Other tests?" George and Fred looked at each other, then both raised their heads again. "What other tests?"
"Flight speed, and stability at top speed." Leonard had already risen fairly high, and George and Fred's voices were growing faint, so he practically had to shout. "I'll be back in a moment."
With that, he controlled the robe and flew down toward the cliff below.