"And you really think that's a good idea?" Blaine questioned his friend, Sam Evans. His eyes were wandering between Sam and the two brooms he was holding.

"Come on, mate. That's, like, the best idea ever!" Sam sounded excited – Blaine wasn't convinced.

"I really don't know if taking off on our brooms while we should be in Hogsmeade is 'the best idea ever'. It sounds more like the most dangerous idea ever or the best idea ever to get us expelled."

Blaine let his eyes drift over the deserted Quidditch field. His only comfort was that it wouldn't look suspicious for someone to see him, Sam and Mike here on the Quidditch field on a bright Sunday morning. It wasn't out of the usual, even on a Hogsmeade weekend.

"Since when do you care about getting into a little trouble? I have never seen the sea, man! Help a brother out here!"

"Sam, you live at the Irish Sea," Blaine disputed laughing, before he added, "Besides, sneaking into the kitchens to visit the elves or casting an itsy little spell on Sebastian when he's being a dick isn't the same as this." Sam didn't respond to that though.

"Yeah, but I can see Ireland from the beach in front of our house, so it's not really an ocean, more like a really weird pond."

"Mike, say something. Tell him that this is insane," Blaine pleaded, addressing his, up to this point, silent friend.

"I don't see why some rule breaking isn't exactly what we need today. Who cares if we get caught?" Mike's jaw was set, his eyes serious and clouded. Blaine suspected that Mike's grave mood had something to do with the owl he had gotten from his father at breakfast – without doubt a response to the news of Mike getting only 98% on his last exam in Study of Ancient Runes.

Blaine sighed. Between Sam's excitement and Mike's defiant mood there was nothing he could do but give in. Besides, his spine tingled at the prospect of spending a day in the air, feeling the freedom, thoughtlessness and ease only flying could provide. Leaving worries and everything else that kept him down on the ground.

"Okay. Fine," Blaine finally said and Sam let out a loud "Yes!" pumping his fist into the air while Mike managed a smile.

"But we have to stay close together. No drifting off. Got it?" Blaine looked pointedly at Sam who reacted with a distracted, "Sure, man," while trying to figure out in which direction they had to fly in order to get to the North Sea.

"Okay, we have to fly this way," Sam stated proudly as he climbed his broom.

"Actually, it's that way," Mike corrected, pointing in the opposite direction after repeating the Four Point Spell.

"That's what I meant," Sam mumbled as he shot up into the air. Blaine shook his head, amused, before following his friend.

Soon, all three of them were high up in the air, the castle and grounds of Hogwarts only a vague silhouette in the distance.

The air rushed past him, making Blaine feel fast and light. Beneath them, the ground moved past, first the lake, then the dark forest until they could see the vast hills of Scotland.

The flight wasn't short, but they passed the time easily by racing each other and showing off loops and other tricks.

It wasn't that the fog crept up on them. They just didn't notice the wet, cold, grey mass until they were already stuck in it.

Worried, Blaine looked around. It wasn't his first time flying through fog and he knew that the watery clouds in themselves couldn't harm him. The danger lay in the utter impossibility of sight and orientation.

On his left, Sam didn't look half as worried – bummed, maybe, over the sudden, but not uncommon change of weather.

Blaine turned his head towards Mike, but where his friend had been just a minute ago was now nothing but opaque fog.

"Mike's gone," Blaine stated in a calm voice that nearly hid the hysteria he felt taking over.

"I'll fetch him," Sam yelled and with a determined nod he shot into the fog.

"Sam! Wait! We have to stick together!" Blaine called after him as he tried to follow his friend though the grey soup.

But it was to no avail. Soon, he had lost track of Sam, left alone in the grey eternity that enveloped him.

Blaine felt like screaming, like punching both Mike and Sam for their stupidity and his own. Still, it was no use and he knew it. Floating around wouldn't get him anywhere. He would just lose time. Time he should use to figure out what to do.

First, he needed to get out of this nightmare. He needed solid ground beneath his feet and space to see further than the length of his broom.

The only thing being lost in fog had over drowning for example was that you always knew where top and bottom were and so Blaine leant forward to go into a controlled dive.

A relieved sigh left his mouth as he finally left the grey drops surrounding him and spotted a small meadow just about 20 feet below him.

With a loud, and less than graceful, thud he hit the ground, drained as the felt the tension leave his body after the anxiety of the flight. He was about to fall to the ground and just rest for a moment, when he heard a startled gasp from behind him.

Blaine froze. Still sitting on the broom, wearing a long black cloak with the ornaments of his house - red and gold for Gryffindor - and so clearly out of the ordinary, he was so clearly magical, fallen from the sky, that even a Muggle couldn't argue or misunderstand his existence.

Slowly he turned and was met with wide, startling blue eyes that sized him up from his feet to the roots of his, yes, magically, tamed hair.

"Did you... I don't understand... how?" the boy stuttered, his eyes still wide. Blaine awkwardly shuffled from one foot to another. Suddenly, he realized that he was still sitting on his broom, and quickly he got off and hid it behind his back, as if that could, in any way make up for dropping from the heavens.

"I fell from a tree?" Blaine suggested. He really had no idea how to deal with this. He couldn't just take his wand out and erase the boy's memory. He wasn't trained for that and he really couldn't risk the boy's health just to cover up for himself. Then again, he couldn't tell one of his teachers about the boy either. They would not only know that he had left school grounds but also managed to be seen by a Muggle. That would get Blaine and his friends in so much trouble!

And still, he couldn't just say nothing and leave the boy be.

"We are in the middle of a meadow. If you had fallen from a tree you would have fallen down somewhere over there." The boy pointed to the outer skirts of the meadow where trees were growing. Blaine had to say, that the boy had regained his composure really quickly. Much faster than Blaine.

Now that the boy no longer looked startled, more curious and demanding, Blaine had to say that he was exceptionally pretty. His skin was fair, still slightly freckled in the early autumn light; high cheekbones accentuated his elf-like face, lips rosy, and a nose that was slightly pointed, giving his demeanour a certain cuteness. His eyes had drawn Blaine's attention from the moment that he had spotted the boy, blue and so expressive! His hair was neatly styled and defied gravity in such an expert way, that Blaine had always doubted could be done without the help of magic.

"You still with me?" The boy inquired now and Blaine realized that he had pretty much just stared at him for over a full minute.

"Yes, sorry," and then he added sheepishly, "To be quite honest I don't know what to do?" Smooth, Blaine. Tell the Muggle that you are helplessly overwhelmed by the situation. That will help you, he thought.

"Well, how about you just tell me what the hell you are and how you can fly? And to make sure you don't just leave me high and dry and questioning my very own insanity, I am going to take this." With a quick motion the boy leapt forward and around Blaine, took the broom from Blaine's loose grip and retreated with the magical wood before Blaine could even process what was happening.

"Now talk," The boy commanded as Blaine gaped at him. Had he just been played by a Muggle?

"You're a little slow, aren't you?" The boy didn't seem to try to be mean, it sounded more like he was making sure that Blaine was able to follow the situation.

"No, normally I am not. This is just... new," and then Blaine added in an afterthought, "I don't think I ever talked to a real Muggle." He bit his tongue as soon as it was out. He didn't know what he should say, but it was evident that the boy was too smart to give him his broom back with a simple excuse.

He also didn't want to jinx him. He didn't know if it was just because the boy was beautiful and Blaine was gay and he might have a weak spot for cute boys, or if he just admired the boy's daring attitude and bravery towards the unknown, but he couldn't find it in him to pressure the boy in any way, neither magically nor physically.

"A what?" the boy asked, his voice interested.

"A..." Blaine hesitated for a moment, then, "A non-magical person," he whispered, but the boy heard him anyway.

"You are a magician?" He sounded apprehensive but a little awed.

"We prefer wizard or witch... I mean it's not like we just let rabbits appear from hats or something."

The boy just nodded.

"What's your name?" He asked after a little pause.

"I'm Blaine." The boy seemed to detect confusion on Blaine's face, because he was fast to explain. "Well, I am Kurt, and as you, Blaine Wizard, will have many questions to answer before you get your flying broom back, I thought it might help to do it on a first name basis."

"Kurt," Blaine repeated quietly. He liked the name.

"Okay, sit." And Blaine did, Kurt following suit opposite him, and then Kurt asked and asked and asked. The flow of questions didn't seem to end and though Blaine was hesitant at first, not sure how and if he could just trust some random Muggle, Kurt asked smart questions and seemed all in all so very excited to talk to him. Kurt was witty and adorable, and when he heard something exciting his whole face lit up in a way that Blaine seemed to become addicted to the first time he saw it.

"I still can't believe that you are a thing! That magic is real," Kurt gushed an hour later with sparkling eyes and Blaine chuckled. Time had passed so quickly, Blaine hadn't even noticed the sky clearing.

"Yeah, we are pretty real," then, in a more serious voice, "But you have to promise me not to say a word about any of this, Kurt. We try to stay under the radar for a lot of reasons."

"Of course, Blaine. I understand. I promise I'll take it to my grave," Kurt vowed, his expression serious and yet, he couldn't stop completely from grinning.

There was a small silence between them in which Kurt just stared at him and Blaine searched for something to say. He knew he should be heading back to the castle. He didn't know where his two best friends had ended up, and still, he dreaded leaving Kurt.

It wasn't like Blaine really felt lonely back at the castle, with his amazing friends, teachers who supported and valued him, and the choir and Quidditch kids who admired his talents... and still, despite all of that, he felt like an outcast from time to time.

To be precise, he felt that way every time Mike cancelled because he and Tina were set for a date that evening or Sam told him about one or the other cute little Hufflepuff that had asked him out. Being gay wasn't something strange at Hogwarts. He wasn't even the only gay student his age, but to find someone gay, interesting and gorgeous, within such a small student body as Hogwarts had, was difficult and it hadn't happened yet. And it wasn't likely to. New students only ever came in the form of the first years and he wasn't a creep. Dating a first year as a fifth year would just have been wrong.

Yeah, sure, Sebastian had been into him, but going out with a suggestive Slytherin without any concept of personal space or faithfulness wasn't Blaine's idea of a relationship.

So, maybe those were the reasons why Blaine didn't want to stop chatting with a gorgeous boy his age, sitting in a romantic meadow in the setting autumn sun – something that felt more like a date than anything he had ever experienced.

It didn't even matter if Kurt was really gay. It was unlikely that Blaine would see him ever again – wasn't it?

"Kurt, what were you even doing here? I mean sure the fog blocked out most of my sight but there isn't a city close, is there?"

Kurt's face fell, his smile disappearing, his expression becoming guarded.

"No, I am sort of a long way from home..."

"What do you mean?" Blaine inquired and Kurt bit his lip. After all that Blaine had shared with him, there seemed to be things Kurt wasn't sure he could share with Blaine.

"Sometimes..." Kurt started slowly, his eyes trained on Blaine's face as if he tried to gauge Blaine's reaction. "When things get really bad, I take my dad's car and just drive away. Sometimes to the next beach... sometimes to the woods and this meadow. I've never been one for nature... but sometimes I feel like this no-man's-land can... give me security and freedom in a way a town never could."

Blaine didn't understand.

"But what do those places have that a town doesn't?"

Kurt hesitated then looked down, trying not to meet Blaine's eyes.

"I'm... I'm gay, Blaine." First, Blaine felt a really sudden surge of joy. He had just managed to crash on a meadow with the most gorgeous, smart and interesting Muggle boy ever, who also happened to be gay. He would have to get loads of food from the kitchens for Sam, thanking him for unknowingly making this happen, but then there was confusion. Why did Kurt have go to the woods because he was gay?

"I am still not sure I understand. I mean, I'm gay, but me landing here was sort of an accident."

"You are?" Kurt sounded breathless and Blaine nodded sheepishly.

"But then why don't you understand? I mean this school of yours is bound to have at least a hand full of homophobic assholes..."

Blaine had never heard that word, so he just raised his eyebrows in question.

"Come on, Blaine. Don't play dumb with me. It's not funny," Kurt snapped and crossed his arms defensively.

"I'm sorry, Kurt. Really. I just don't know what you are talking about..."

"Homophobic... as in hating gay people." That didn't make more sense to Blaine's ears.

"How do you just hate gay people...? I mean, sure, not everyone loves gay people but that would mean that everyone was gay, and obviously, not everyone is. So, how do you just hate some people because..." And then it dawned to him. What Kurt described sounded like how Sebastian and his little minions hated Muggles and Muggle-born people, like Sam. A minority that was harassed and judged by those who needed to feel better about themselves for something neither of them had any control over.

He knew how much Sam suffered because of it. That despite his friends and supporters, people who didn't think of him differently because of who his parents were, Sebastian's slurs stung.

Suddenly, he saw one of Sebastian's friends – Hunter, a seventh year student, broad, tall and handsome, looking down on Kurt and degrading him for what he was, Kurt, small, afraid and ashamed on the ground. It broke Blaine's heart.

"Kurt." Blaine sounded choked. "I'm so sorry. I wish there was something I could do..."

Kurt gave him a sad smile.

"It's okay. I'm used to it. I just need to get out sometimes. I mean this is Scotland... and not even Glasgow or Edinburgh... It's different elsewhere... in London for example. That's my dream by the way. BRIT in London. The Westend..."

Blaine just nodded. He didn't know too much about the Muggle world but he knew music and musicals... though some of the stories didn't make sense to him. And he loved London... though he hadn't seen much more than Diagon Alley.

"I'm sure you'll make it." Without thinking, Blaine reached out and squeezed Kurt's shoulder reassuringly. Kurt looked startled but then this beautiful smile spread over his face again, followed by a faint blush.

Around them the evening was slowly but steadily getting darker.

"I'm afraid I have to go," Blaine stated, his heart uncommonly aching as he noticed Kurt's eyes lose the excited sparkle at that.

"Yeah, me too. It's not smart to wander through these woods in the dark."

Kurt didn't look too worried but at once Blaine had the picture of Kurt being lost in the dark, nothing for miles and miles but the towering trees and dangerous animals and that was something he could not let happen.

"How... about I give you a lift?"

In the matter of a second the sparkle was back and Kurt clutched his hands over his mouth excitedly.

"You mean like on your broom?" Blaine nodded, his eyes crinkling as he reflexively mimicked Kurt's broad smile.

"You sure I can? It looks so small. What if I'm too heavy or I'm too clumsy and fall down or..."

"Kurt!" Blaine interrupted, "You'll be fine. Now come on."

Blaine got up and stood next to the broom Kurt had long ago laid on the ground.

"Up!" He commanded the piece of wood with a stretched out arm and responsively it jumped up, making Blaine smile and Kurt gape.

Blaine climbed on it and waited for Kurt to follow suit. Kurt, on the other hand, was just standing next to him, obviously unsure what to do.

"It's not difficult. Come on. Just put your leg over it and your arms around my waist." Tentatively Kurt moved to sit behind him. Blaine smiled reassuringly.

"Ready?" He looked over his shoulder at Kurt. Kurt, who was holding him tightly, his face resting on Blaine's shoulder, so that their noses and mouths were only centimetres apart when Blaine turned. Kurt hummed happily. The sound went through Kurt like a purr so that Blaine too could feel it. It made his mouth go dry with an unknown excitement.

Quickly he focused on his task again and, with a powerful push of his legs, they were up in the air. Behind him Kurt squealed loudly and clutched closer making Blaine laugh as the excitement of flying and another person so close swept through his body.

The flight was way too short. Kurt held on to him tightly directing Blaine to his car.

They didn't talk besides that, Kurt too caught up with the thrill of flying and Blaine too busy concentrating on the warmth that was radiating from Kurt's body, shielding him from the cold evening air.

Too soon, Blaine spotted Kurt's car and landed them safely.

"That was... unusual." Kurt beamed at him and Blaine nodded solemnly. This felt a lot like good bye, and despite everything telling him it should be, he didn't want it to be.

"I promise I won't tell a soul about any of that," Kurt promised, still beaming, "Cross my heart." He winked and drew an X over his heart with one of his long elegant fingers. Blaine smiled.

As Blaine didn't say anything Kurt's face fell. "I won't see you again, will I?"

Kurt sounded so defeated, sad in such an accepting way, and Blaine couldn't do it. He couldn't be the reason for this sad frown on Kurt's face and at the same time he couldn't deny how sad the prospect made him.

"I shouldn't... I can't... I want to..." Blaine rubbed his neck. Their friendship could never work. Sooner or later someone at the castle would find out and what then? Would they expel him? And worse: what would happen to Kurt? It was against any magical law to hurt Muggles... but would they just hope that he was trustworthy or erase days, weeks... maybe months of his memory in order to keep them and their secret safe...

"I want to, too." Kurt's smile had returned and he stepped closer, taking Blaine's hand. It felt like the warmth from their tangled hands spread through Blaine's body, calming him, relaxing him and letting him see clearer.

"We can try? Kurt, I really like you. You're so interesting and kind. I sure did pick the right meadow to crash-land on... but I don't know how... I mean I can't be sure when you'll be here or when I'll be able to sneak out..."

"Well, that's not too hard. Send me an owl." Blaine was startled.

"You said that was how you people communicated and that owls were just magically capable of finding people. Well, your owl will find me. I'll just leave my window open and I will get your messages and be able to send one back right away. It's not as fast as texting, but it will do."

"You are amazing," Blaine breathed, squeezing Kurt's hand.

"I know." Kurt shrugged and Blaine grinned. "But I gotta go."

For a moment, Kurt bit his lip as if he was debating something and then he leaned forward and kissed Blaine's cheek. It was short, fleeting and sweet, but it left Blaine's whole body tingling and as Kurt got into his car, he touched the spot where Kurt's lips had been in astonishment.

Never had a boy (that wasn't his drunken brother) kissed him, and giant smacks on the forehead were so not the same as this.

Kurt waved before he drove off into the distance and Blaine got on his broom and up in the air again.

The whole way back all he thought about was what a serious mess he was in and how it was just totally worth it.