So sorry you had to wait until July (freakin' July...good god..) to get an update for this fic. They'll become closer, I promise. May not be every week but not months in between! :) I hope you enjoy this. It's focusing on an interaction between Graham and Oliver (as his swan self). Remember from before:

''...blah...'' is Oliver's regular speech (Regular font)

'...blah..' is Oliver's thoughts. (Only in italic!)

'-...blah...-' is Oliver's swan speech. (Which won't be shown in this chapter but it will be again later on!) (It's only in bold!)

Chapter Four-Midnight Flight

"Perce. Perce. Peeeerrrccee.."

He continued reading.

"Psst!"

Percy turned the page.

Oliver balled up a piece of parchment and flung it at Percy's head, hitting him right on the temple and stirring him from his book.

"Real mature, Ol."

"Well, you weren't listening."

"Ok. What do you want?"

Oliver handed him the History notes he borrowed earlier. "Just to give you these and to let you know I'm going out tonight.''

Percy nodded, putting them away. "All right. I'm also about to head off to see Marcus. Just remember to be careful."

Oliver shrugged and smiled. "Aren't I always?"

"Tell that to Professor McGonagall and my nerves."

Oliver looked away innocently. Percy's had the misfortune of having to drag or charm this squawking white bird out of a few scrapes across the years and amazingly, Oliver's still alive the next morning and no one else had caught onto Oliver's predicament. Stupidly lucky bastard, isn't he?

"Hey, you do have to admit I haven't gotten into any trouble lately and I know every hiding spot Mrs. Norris has, so I can avoid her before she even tries to pounce. Stupid fucking cat..." he grumbled to himself, cursing the very existence of that mangy, red-eyed, evil furball. Oliver's had this insane grudge against her since first year and he will get his revenge someday but not today. He's got a date with the starry sky and a 'lady' called the Black Lake.

Some time after night fell and the boys locked themselves in their beds, Oliver waddled to the windowledge, unhooked the latch and took flight. He soared along the warm September winds, breathing in all that fresh, earthy air and gazing below at the darkened grounds, not too far from the lake.

'Mmm, this feels so good.' the swan mused blissfully as he twirled, fluttered and twisted gracefully through the currents, swooping downward...replaying his movements upon a broom. At times he admitted this felt much better not sitting upon a broomstick, just as he wished he could fly without wings but he had to take what he could get. And Oliver was thankful enough Dumbledore allowed him to stretch his wings. He had them half the time, so why not make use?

Beating his wings faster, Oliver carried himself towards the black sparkling surface and hovered along, tilting one wingtip into the water and circling about, then the other, almost in a figure-eight motion until he finally settles. Webbed feet drenched, Oliver rested his wings at his sides. The bird gazed above him. The night sky was a huge blanket of shadow dotted with billions of tiny lights in every conceivable direction. To the upper right sat the waxing moon, shining brightly in all her glory, casting her reflection upon the dark water. Nights like these weren't so bad, especially if the winds are lightly blowing against your feathers and if they're warm. Oliver hated the cold. It nearly froze his feet and swans could only endure it so long as with any creature. If he had to, he stayed indoors. Oliver sighed and slowly swam.

'What a day..ugh...well, at least I'm all alone with my thoughts. Quidditch strategies!' While he sailed along the lake, Oliver didn't notice a soul stroll on by and take a seat beneath a shady tree.

Graham Montague reclined against the tough willow bark and drew his knees up towards his chest, letting out a long, slow breath. More often than not, this Snake takes on a solitary adventure. Most of which go unnoticed by his friends. Some would call them associates but Graham's not too picky. To be real, if weren't for his parents introducing him to Marcus and the others when he was little, he'd have no one now. And sometimes it still felt like that. Like he was still just an outsider. Sure, this feeling crept up on him in moments of weakness (which were considered social suicide to even publicly show in Slytherin) and it usually faded away, not without leaving a lingering effect.

It wasn't exactly all in his head. They hardly listened to him when he'd make a suggestion, or tried to explain something, or even when he'd make a simple comment over whatever they were discussing in conversation. It literally had to take him becoming Prefect last year for them to listen more. They'd also taunt him for his dungeon bat-like eccentricities like wanting to relax in the dark in the middle of the day or refuse to eat the desserts and certain foods the house elves made because they somehow didn't taste right or weren't prepared a certain way. Ok, so he was a little picky over a few things but it was nothing to pick on someone for. He did take comfort in the fact they didn't do it excessively, 'cause he would have dropped them in a second flat. Why Graham hasn't earlier, not even he knows. Maybe it's because of an internal need for a friendship of some kind, regardless that it was at times questionable. Or maybe because he was lonely and there no other way to explain it.

Graham internally mused, reflecting upon all that transpired hours ago.

'This has been a rather productive day, indeed. First, Flint and Oliver nearly get into another scrap, which I had to break up, again. Second, I did take points from Gryffindor, which I'm honestly not too broken up over. Third..'

He smiled softly. 'Third...was really the most wonderful interaction I've ever had with Oliver. Even if it was just a mere charm, our duet was...it was lovely. But how did he know that song by heart? I had no idea he occasionally enjoyed muggle entertainment like myself. He had to once upon a time. Maybe...no...I don't know how that would work. He wouldn't want to be near me unless he absolutely had to.'

Instantly depressed, Graham solemnly stared out across the lake and its edges, wallowing in slight despair and heartache until he sees a flash of white in the distance. Never having seen anything like it during this time of night, he stood and went to investigate. Graham watched the white blob smoothly meander its way to the sandy bank, floating atop the shallow water.

Creeping closer, Graham sees the mysterious figure is not a blob but a beautiful swan. It's strange, he's never seen one at Hogwarts before tonight though he's seen them all the time in France. The bird dipped its long neck under the water and craned its head backward, allowing the droplets to fall down its feathered spine.

'Wow...'

Marveled by the subtle beauty in its movements, Montague inched towards the edge, trying so hard not to spook the bird.

The abrupt fatal crunch of a lone twig caught Oliver's attention. Swiftly turning to his left, he noticed the Snake encroaching upon him.

'Shit! What the hell is Montague doing out here? I need to go.'

Just as he tried to leave, he heard ''Wait! Don't leave.''

Graham reached into his robe pocket and fumbled for the small loaf of warm herb bread he stashed to snack on while he was out. Oliver stopped and turned around, watching Graham pull out a mound of something light brown that smelled delicious.

"It's ok. I won't hurt you. Come here..'' he pinched off a piece and extended his hand out to the bird, bribing it.

Oliver stared at it. 'What the hell? Do I?..Should I?' His stomach took a bad time to grumble.

'Aw man, I don't want to but I'm so hungry and that..what is that...bread? It smells so good. He thinks I'm a regular swan so it won't do any harm. Plus, he's got free food...' Cautiously, he swam over. Tentatively, the swan takes the bread into his bill and eats it.

Oliver's taste buds exploded. 'Oh my fucking god! This is the best bread I have ever tasted! It's all warm and lightly moist and...are those fresh herbs?!...'

He pointed his beak at the loaf, wanting more and Montague fed him one piece after another. Graham smiled as the swan eagerly devoured his treat.

"Someone's quite hungry tonight. Not enough sustenance out there in the lake?"

Oliver looked at him and swallowed the delicious morsel. 'Tell me about it. The only remotely edible thing I've had out here was some watercress Hagrid gave me last week.'

The Snake sat upon the rock near the lake's edge, right across Oliver. ''How come I've never seen you before?"

'Uh, probably 'cause I only come out at night.' This was kinda odd to Oliver. Graham's not normally this civil, this kind to anything or anyone, in apparent exception to animals and Slytherins (and that's very few of them!), so it's a surprise.

Montague offered the bird another piece and Oliver took it. "Well, I can't exactly expect you to tell me. Swans can't talk but they are good listeners." Graham tilted his head and smiled softly.

Oliver almost shrugged. 'If you say so.'

"It's nice if you take the inhuman approach, I guess."

'You don't get out much, do you?'

An awkward silence passed between the two. Odd that it's considered awkward when you're dealing with an animal but Graham's kind of strange, anyway. Oliver started to feel slightly uncomfortable. He shown it just by flicking his wings and turning his head about like 'Ok...what now?' Graham seemed to have picked up on that.

"Hmm..so...I guess it's getting kind of late. I must be going." He looked down at the leftover piece of bread. "Here, I'm not all that hungry. Take care."

The swan gladly took it as the Snake wandered off, savoring every crumb.

Oliver swallowed and stared after him. 'Huh, Montague does have a kind bone in his body after all, considering I haven't keeled over from poisoned bread. The bread...' he drooled. 'The bread was fucking great. I don't remember the house elves baking this late nor making bread this flavorful. Guess they finally decided to try something new. About time, damn it! But onto him, I still didn't expect to have company. It was actually kinda nice in a way. Ah well, it's not like he's going to come back again. Even he has a life of some kind.'

With that, Oliver continued on with his night.

Saturday morning, Oliver wakes in his bed. He pulls back his curtains and stretches, noticing Percy creep in silently with a few new hickeys and absentmindedly playing with a wad of black silk ribbons in his freckled hands.

Oliver narrowed his eyes. ''I don't even wanna know.''

Percy smirked. ''Breakfast is almost ready. Better hurry up.''

God, Percy's voice still had that leftover sultry tone from being thoroughly shagged. It sort of gave Oliver a chill, though he couldn't definitely decide whether to attribute it to either this being weird coming from Percy because he's normally so prim or the fact Flint was the one plowing him. He figured it wouldn't be good to linger on that thought, breakfast was waiting!

"Have a good night, Ol?" Percy asked quietly, spooning eggs onto his plate.

Oliver bit into his bacon. "Yeah. I could say the same for you. Nice bruises, mate.''

Percy blushed, having forgot to cover one. Oliver didn't see the point in hiding them, the whole school knows Percy's with Marcus.

"Anything interesting happen?"

"Meh, the same, really...'' 'Although..' His brown eyes wandered over to an eating Montague. '...it did have an interesting twist.'

"You plan on going again tonight?"

"Depends on how I'm feeling after practice. I've come up with a few new strategies I wanna try.''

Over at Slytherin table, Graham slowly ate his frittata in between taking his morning glances at Oliver. He loved how the sun filtering through the window lit up the Keeper's brown hair, giving it a slight orange-golden hue. It also gave the same effect to the flecks in his chocolate eyes, when close enough to notice.

'Beautiful.'

"Yo, Montague."

He sipped his pumpkin juice. "What, Flint?"

"Noticed you left kinda late last night. Where'd ya go?"

Graham raised an eyebrow at him. "Out. And, why were you paying attention to me while you were occupied with Weasley?"

Marcus grinned. "No reason. Got someone on the side?"

So much for no reason. "Just went out for some air."

"Jeez, that's boring. Thought you would have this whole clandestine love affair thing going on or at least secretly setting up a decent prank in Flitwick's podium."

'A clandestine love affair would have to include myself and another party, most here which wouldn't even fit the bill, and I'm not into childish pranks.' Percy would be proud of that.

Graham replied "Nope. Sorry to disappoint. How's the bed adventures? From looking at your wrists I can tell some bondage was involved.''

"Oh, you don't even know the half of it, let me tell ya..''

And so they meet. Little did either know that this was going to be the start of something good. Stick around for the next chapter! :)