Here you go, another chapter. I hope you like it.
When the Gryffindor team walked back from training Saturday morning, they saw Percy and Nico sitting on the grand stairs in front of the main door. They were talking in that weird language of theirs. Ginny had no idea what it could was, but it may be Italian or another Mediterranean language. The two boys looked up when they heard their footsteps on the steps. Nico immediately stopped talking and gaped at them.
"Are those–, are those brooms?" He stood up. He pointed with his hand towards the brooms. "Do you fly with those?" He looked at Percy, who smiled at him lovingly. Percy nodded in encouragement and stood up too.
Nico grinned and looked back at the wizards and witches.
"Can I hold one?" he asked.
Ginny walked the last few steps towards him and handed him her broom, like she handed Percy her broom a couple weeks back. Nico took it gingerly. He examined it. In contrast to Percy, who only asked a few questions about the magical artifact, Nico asked question after question after question.
How does it work, how fast can it go, how fast can it go? Can I ride one? Where does it get its energy from? Do you measure it powers in horsepower? Can I ride one? Have you ever fallen off? Why do you use brooms? Are there flying carpets too? Are there different kind of brooms? How are they different? Don't they hurt? Can I ride one? What do you use them for?
Can I ride one?
Seriously, this boy can talk. Ginny had heard Nico ramble before, but most of the times he changed topic very quickly during it. Now he was completely focused on the broom, and asked only question related to it.
Ginny looked at Percy. He was leaning against the marble railing and had his arms crossed in front of him. He was looking at Nico with the same soft smile from before. He noticed Ginny looking at him and glanced at her. Ginny raised her eyebrows. How long would this go on, she wanted to ask him. He seemed to understand.
He pushed himself off of the railing and put one hand on Nico's shoulder. The boy looked up at him.
"Why didn't you tell me they have brooms? Do you know how awesome this is? Do you think we could have one of these? Jason needs to get himself one. Hazel would be so offended though, so maybe not. Did you ride one? You better not have without me, Percy, I will kill you." He turned back to Ginny. "But seriously, can I ride one?"
He looked at Ginny hopefully, but when she didn't answer immediately, he started looking at the other team members. They looked at him with wide eyes and mouths opened in astonishment. They couldn't understand how somebody could talk so much and so fast. Nico seemed to understand. He groaned and looked back at Percy.
"I was rambling again," he stated rather then asked. Percy grinned at him.
"You are cute when you ramble like that," Percy replied.
Nico punched Percy lightly in the shoulder. "Shut up," he mumbled. He looked back at Ginny again. "So can I?"
Ginny looked at Wood, the captain and oldest member of the team. "Is that allowed?" she asked him.
Wood frowned. "I don't know," he said. "I don't think it's a good idea."
Nico looked at him with wide eyes. "Oh, please? I won't damage it. I won't fall off. I promise."
Percy frowned. He said something to Nico in that language again. He looked worried. Nico rolled his eyes and replied in the same language.
Nico looked at Wood again with puppy-dog eyes. "Please?" he said.
Wood looked at him for a moment before he shook his head slightly. "Sure," he sighed. "But not here and not now."
"Sweet."
"After breakfast," Wood said after a moment of contemplation. "Meet me here."
"Yes!" Nico all but jumped from excitement. "Thank you."
Nico turned towards Percy and grabbed his hands. "I'm gonna fly. I'm so excited!"
Percy laughed. "You're such a child sometimes." He pulled Nico close and kissed him. He took a couple of steps backwards and pulled Nico with him, while they were still kissing, so the team could walk past them.
Before the doors closed behind George, Ginny heard the boys start talking again in that language. Seriously, what language was that. Maybe Hermione would know, or Luna.
"You are gonna let him fly on a broom?" Katie said once the door closed. "If McGonagall finds out you will be expelled."
"I know," Wood said. "So let's keep this our little secret."
"Just know that I'm not responsible if this goes to hell," Katie said and she marched away, towards the common room. Angelina follow after her.
"It's a stupid decision," Fred said.
"But we support stupid decisions," George said.
"We will be there." Fred grinned and clapped Wood on the shoulder.
"Yeah," Harry said. "Hermione wouldn't approve, so I love it."
Ginny snorted. "Let's just go," she said. "Nobody will find out anyway."
Ginny walked towards the front door after breakfast. Fred and George were there already, and they were talking to Nico and Percy. The four seemed to get along like a house on fire. Percy just said something, and the brothers erupted into laughter.
"Am I interrupting something?" Ginny asked when she joined them.
They turned to look at her.
"Nah," Percy said. "Just giving these two some new prank ideas."
Ginny groaned internally "Please don't," she said. "I have to life with them."
Nico raised his right eyebrow. "Are you related?" he asked the redheads.
"Yeah," Fred said. "Ginny is our baby sister." His voice awfully condescending.
George, meanwhile, reached over and tried to squeeze Ginny's cheeks, but she slapped his hands away.
"I will murder you in your sleep," she growled.
"My own sister," George started as he put his right hand over his heart, "wants me dead." He looked at Percy and Nico with a tragic expression. "See what we have to life with?"
"No," Nico said. "You probably deserve that."
"And here I thought you were my friend, Nico, but it seems like you want us dead too?" Fred said as he wiped away a fake tear.
They all burst out laughing again.
At that moment, the doors opened up again. Harry, Ron and Wood came out. Ginny saw Hermione standing inside with a disapproving expression on her face. Ginny waved at her. Hermione just shook her head and turned towards the stairs. Probably to go and study in the Library.
"Okay," Wood said. He was carrying his broom. "This is a bad idea, but who cares." he started down the stairs, and the rest of the group followed. "As long as you don't die, Nico, everything will be fine." He looked at Nico sternly. "I mean it. If something happens to you, I will be held responsible and I will probably be kicked out of here, and I don't want that. Capiche?"
Nico swallowed and nodded.
"Good."
The reached the quidditch field and entered through the Gryffindor dressing room. They went and stood on the sidelines, close to the entrance to the tribunes.
Wood held his broom in front of him. "Want me to show you how it is done, or do you wanna wing it and just go?"
Nico grabbed the broom and swung his right leg over it. "Winging it sounds fine," he said.
He looked at Wood.
"Don't fly to high," Wood said. "If somebody sees us, we are dead."
Nico nodded. He pushed off of the ground. A childlike scream escaped the boy. Hehovered in the air far just a moment before he started speeding through the air. The gryffindors and Percy took a seat in the stands and watched him go. Nico made patterns and zigzagged and he even did a few loopings.
Nico came to a sudden stop in front of them. "Can these things go backwards?" he asked. The students collectively shook their heads.
"That would've been so cool," Nico muttered. He sped off again.
After what must have been half an hour, the boy came down again.
"Sorry Percy," Nico said as he stepped of the broom, a wide grin on his face. "I have to break up with you." He held the broom with both hands horizontally in front of him. "I'm in love with someone else."
Percy snorted. "Shall I marry you two right now? Or do you need more time to prepare?"
"Do it at sunset," Nico grinned. "More romantic."
Percy snorted again.
Nico turned to Wood and gave him the broom. "That was amazing. Thank you so much."
Wood, who was either smiling because he liked Nico's childlike behaviour, or because he was relieved nobody died, took the broom. "No problemo," he said. "But I need to go now, I'll see you guys later."
With a small wave, Wood left.
Nico looked back at Percy with that stupid grin still on his face.
"If you want to do a victory dance," Percy looked at him pointedly. "Nobody is stopping you. They all think you are mental anyhow."
Nico looked at Percy with a done-with-your-shit expression, but after only a second or two he started jumping around on the spot, clapping his hands and he let out a loud "Yahoo!" followed by near maniacal laughter.
Percy rolled his eyes fondly.
He looked back at the the wizards and Ginny. "Go," he said. "I think we'll stay here for awhile."
"Let us know how long it takes for him to calm down," Fred grinned.
"I bet it will take half an hour, at least." George said.
"Okay," Fred said. "The loser has to slam a pie against Snape's head."
They shook on it.
Percy raised an eyebrow at Ginny.
"This is normal," she said. Fred and George bet on almost everything. At first it was funny, then it became annoying, and then you got used to it. Ginny suspected it would only be a few more months before she too, entered their bets. "But seriously, let us know."
Percy grinned and nodded. "Sure thing. We'll see you later."
For those who care, I probably passed my math exam with 80%, and failed my Dutch exam with 40%. So there's that. I hope your exams are going better, if you have exams.
