Right. Well this was interesting to write. We had to choose a genre that wasn't commonly used, so I chose to do a western!
Genre: Western
1. (word) chasing
2. (quote) 'To die would be an awfully big adventure.' - J.M Barrie, Peter Pan
3.. (spell) Reducio
Disclaimer: I don't Harry Potter, or Billy the Kid, or anything from any of the other references I've made in this.
"Well, howdy there, young sir," said a man with sandy hair. He was wearing a sombrero with a rather broad decorative band and looked very young. Draco looked him over.
"Hi," he said.
The man raised his eyebrows, "Gee whiz, you sound posh. You from across the ocean?"
Draco nodded. "England," he said.
The man smiled. "Whatcha doin' all the way over here in America?"
"Sightseeing," sniffed Draco, "With my...friend." As he said that, Potter came over.
"Hey, Malfoy, who's your friend?" he said looking the man up and down.
"William H. Bonney," said the man as he shook Harry's hand, "It's nice to meet you."
Harry smiled politely, "It was nice to meet you, but Malfoy and I must be going."
As the pair walked out of the bar, Harry hissed, "I thought we weren't socializing until we figured a way out of here."
"He's the one who came up to me. I know the terms we came up with when we arrived here." If only Draco knew where 'here' was. As far as he could tell, he and Potter had been transported back in time and were now in New Mexico in the United States. How and why, he had no idea. They had been in the library at the Hogwarts looking up information for their class when Potter had picked up a stray book. While he was picking up the book, he had tripped, grabbed onto Draco, and now they were here.
Harry rubbed the back of his neck. "He looked kind of familiar," he confessed when he and Draco were outside.
"What do you mean he looked familiar?" hissed Draco.
"I'm just saying, I think I've seen that face before."
"Impossible."
Harry ignored him. "What did he say his name was again?"
"William H. Something. I don't remember his last name."
"Bonney, I think," said Harry. Draco nodded.
"That sounds right."
"William H. Bonney." Harry shook his head, "I'm sure I know that name."
"I'm sure you do not. Now, what did you find out?" asked Draco.
"Well, I learned that it's July 11th-"
"What year?"
"1881."
"When's the next half moon?"
"The 18th. You know, I still don't understand this whole half moon thing."
"If you paid attention in astronomy, you would know," reotred Draco. Harry giggled. "What?"
"The way you said it," giggled Harry, "Like ASStronomy."
Draco groaned. "Anyway," he said, "The night of the half moon is a good time for magic," explained Draco, "I do believe that it's been said, 'The night of the half face is a night for good magic. Everything good is half light and half dark, you see.'"
"Who said that?"
"A little sprite named Robin. I think he's one of the many versions of Puck."
"Puck?"
"From Midsummer's Night Dream? Don't you know Shakespeare?"
"Well, yes, I know a little. 'A rose by any other name would still smell as sweet' and all that."
Draco sighed. "Right well it doesn't matter, we need to figure out what we're doing here and what we should do to get back."
"You know," Harry mused, ignoring Draco, "When I was younger I was going to have my senior quote be, 'To die would be an awfully big adventure,' from Peter Pan, but then I was a wizard, and Hogwarts doesn't do yearbooks."
"Potter, what does that have to do with anything?"
Harry shrugged. "I don't know. I just felt like it was relevant."
"Right, well hopefully there will be no deaths while we're here."
"You know," said Harry after a moments silence, "I think we should go and follow that Bonney guy."
"What? Why?"
"He seems… suspicious."
Draco gave Harry a strange look. "What on earth do you mean, Potter? He was perfectly charming and very polite."
"Well, yeah," said Harry, "But his name… I know that name, and it just gives me a bad feeling."
Draco sighed. "You know what? Fine. We'll follow him. We have nothing better to do anyway."
They had been following Bonney for a little over a day when the realized that they weren't the only one's following him.
They were in a tavern in the next town over and were sitting at the local bar when they were approached by a man with a stern face and a bushy mustache.
"Have either of you two seen a tall man with light hair and blue eyes wearing a sugar-loaf sombrero hat?" asked the man.
"That sounds like kind of like Bonney," Harry said, turning towards Draco.
"Bonney?" said the man, "Like William H. Bonney?"
"Yes!" said Harry. He gave Draco a look that said, 'I told you he'd be important.'
"Do you know where he is now?" asked the man.
"Well, er-" began Harry. Draco butted in.
"We've been following him since yesterday," he said.
"Oh," said the man in surprise, "Are you after him too?"
"After him?" asked Harry.
"We followed him because my friend here," Draco elbowed Harry, "Thought he looked suspicious."
"So you've seen him?"
Harry nodded, "He's staying at the inn next door."
The man smiled, "I've been chasing after him for a while now." He paused for a minute, "I'm Sheriff Garrett, and thanks to you two, I'm finally going to catch Billy the Kid."
"I told you I knew that name," Harry said when Sheriff Garrett had left, "Billy the Kid. I did a report on him for school when I was nine. He supposedly killed 21 men, one for each year of his life." Harry gasped, "We were just talking to Sheriff Garrett! He's the man who killed Billy the Kid! Oh my wizard god, Malfoy," he grabbed Draco's shoulders, "We could witness Billy the Kid's death!"
"What? What! No we can't! We have to get home!" cried Draco.
"No, no! We can fit it in," exclaimed Harry, "Billy the Kid was shot on July 14th, 1881. We want to leave on the 18th, we can so fit this in! Oh please, Draco, please."
Draco sighed. "Where did he die?"
"Fort Sumner, New Mexico in Peter Maxwell's bedroom."
Draco thought for a moment. "You know what? Fine. I hope you brought popcorn, because we're going to go watch someone die."
The journey to Fort Sumner was very fun for Harry, but very painful for Draco. Harry babbled continuously, sharing random facts about irrelevant things (did you know that hippopotamus milk is pink? How interesting!)
"You know there's one thing I don't understand," said Draco when Harry had finally been silent for a minute, "Why do you like Billy the Kid so much? He isn't at all heroic and good. Aren't you Gryffindors all about being a good person?"
Harry grinned sheepishly at that. "Well, I suppose, yeah. I mean, it's more about bravery, and that's a trait that's seen in most heroes. Anyway, I learned about him when we were assigned to do a report on a historical figure back when I was about nine. I chose Billy the Kid because my favorite song as a kid was The Ballad of Billy the Kid by Billy Joel. I wanted to know everything about him, especially because Dudley hated the song."
"So you became a Billy the Kid expert simply because of your cousin?"
"Yup," Harry nodded.
"You are a very strange person."
"Am not. I'm normal."
Draco gave him a look. "Sure. Sure you are."
Harry grinned.
The two boys spent the rest of the night like that, exchanging little stories about their childhood and teasing each other until they decided to stop for the night set up camp.
They awoke early the next morning and ate part of the bread they had snitched the other day when the baker wasn't looking. When they were done, the continued walking towards Fort Sumner.
Harry was being very quiet, his mind up in the clouds. Draco, though this was what he had been wishing for all of yesterday, found the silence deafening and tried to think of a way to break it.
"So how are we going to watch this without being seen?" asked Draco.
Harry grinned as he pulled something from his pocket. "Engorgio," he said as he pointed his wand at the small handkerchief and it grew.
"You have your invisibility cloak?"
"Always and forever," said Harry as he pointed his wand at his cloak. "Reducio," he said, and the cloak shrunk. "We'll pull it out again when we get there."
It was almost night time when they finally arrived. Harry pulled out the cloak and they both hid under it.
"So is he actually here?" asked Draco.
"No. He was staying at his friends house, but went over to Peter Maxwell's house to borrow a butcher's knife."
"When does that happen?"
"Close to midnight. Look, here comes Peter," said Harry, pointing towards a man with a similar mustache to Sheriff Garrett's. Harry and Draco followed him inside his house and watched as he collapsed on the bed. He was sound asleep in no time.
The pair waited for a little over three hours before anything interesting happened. The door opened and the blonde man they had met in the bar as William H. Bonney tiptoed into the house, across the floor, and into the next room. Peter only shifted in his bed.
A few minutes later the door opened again and in walked Sheriff Garrett. He walked over to where Peter was sleeping and sat near the head of the bed.
"Where is he, Pete?" he asked as he shook Peter's shoulder, waking him up. "Where's the Kid?"
Peter didn't get a chance to respond as another voice from the next room called out, "Who's there?"
Billy the Kid walked out of the kitchen, barefooted and missing his hat. He was carrying what he had come for- a butcher's knife- in his left hand and a revolver in his right hand.
"Who is it, Pete?" asked Sheriff Garrett, "Is it Manuel Abreu?" There was no reply.
"Who's Manuel Abreu?" whispered Draco to Harry.
"Peter's brother-in-law," Harry whispered back, "Now be quiet."
The Kid crossed the room to Peter and leaned on the bed with both hands. "Who are they Pete?" he asked in a low voice.
At the same time, Peter whispered, "It's him," to Sheriff Garrett.
Billy raised his revolver as he stumbled backwards to the other side of the room crying out, "Quien es? Quien es?"*
At the speed of lightning, Sheriff Garrett pulled out his gun and fired while throwing his body to the side to avoid any bullets that might have been fired by the Kid. He fired again, though the shot was useless as Billy the Kid had fallen to the floor dead.
The house was silent for a moment. Peter just sighed and went back to sleep. Sheriff Garrett stood up and went outside to get the two men whom he had brought as back up to help him with the body. Draco and Harry tiptoed out alongside him and made sure they were a good distance away from the house before they removed the cloak, shrunk it, and Harry tucked it neatly away in his pocket.
"Well," said Draco, "That was certainly fun." He looked over at Harry who was very quiet and had a solemn look on his face. "Are you alright?" he asked.
"You know," Harry mused, "I've seen many people die and it's terribly heart breaking but I think… I think that that one wasn't as heart breaking because he was already dead when I learned about him. It's a very strange thing."
"Right. Well now we have to figure out how to get home."
Harry tilted his head. "You know," he said, "I forgot about that part."
"I haven't," said Draco, "And I have no idea what to do."
Harry sighed. "If only we could get home Dorothy's way."
"Dorothy's way?"
Harry nodded. "Yeah. You just close your eyes, tap your heels together three time, and say 'there's no place like home' for each tap."
Draco smacked his forehead. "Idiot!" he exclaimed.
"Hey!" cried Harry.
"What? No! I mean, I'm an idiot! That's the number one reset button!"
"What?"
"You're a genius Potter!" cried Draco as he grabbed Harry's face and kissed him right on the lips. Though it was brief, it set Harry's heart thumping and he flushed.
"So you think that'll work?" asked Harry when Draco had pulled away.
"Of course it will work!" said Draco, "Come on, now, let's go home."
Draco grabbed Harry's hand and the two closed their eyes and clicked their heels together three times saying, "There's no place like home," for each click.
When they opened their eyes, they were standing outside of the Great Hall.
"Home at last," sighed Draco and he and Harry walked into the hall, hand in hand.
*"Quien es? Quien es?" = "Who's there? Who's there?"
I hope you enjoyed that. Please leave a review!
~littleblueweirdo
Ps. As a high school student who has had to write multiple research papers as a final grade, I figured I should give my sources. (Take out the spaces)
www. biography people/ billy-the-kid-278971 #video-gallery
www. eyewitnesstohistory billythekid .htm