Author's note: Yep, starting to slow down now. Got hit with writer's block right in the middle of this – combined with final projects equals no updatey. Oh, well, you got one now!

I decided that we'd had lots of backstory but not enough characterization. Hence, this chapter.

And brooms! Whee!

Coming up next – Weasleys.

Disclaimer: Wish it were mine. It's not. Sue me and you will get nothing.

Chapter 14 – If I Could Fly

No fear, no pain
Nobody left to blame
I'll try alone
Make destiny my own
I learn to free my mind
Myself I now must find
Once more
Once more

If I could fly
Like the king of the sky
Could not tumble nor fall
I would picture it all
If I could fly
See the world through my eyes
Would not stumble nor fail
To the heavens I sail
If I could fly

-Helloween

Harry and Draco led Willow and Xander down the paved path through the hedge maze to the field where they flew.

For the past three days, whenever one or the other was bored, they had dragged the other one out to the field. Draco had a Snitch with which he practiced, spelled against leaving the confines of the field just as a game Snitch was spelled against leaving the stadium. They would set it free and chase it around, swearing hotly at each other and sometimes degenerating into roughhousing in the air. They shoved each other off their brooms often enough that they had gotten quite good at Accio'ing their broom back to themselves, wandlessly, in mid-air.

As they walked, Harry and Draco summoned their brooms. Draco also summoned his old Comet 360 for Xander.

"I don't think you'll have any problems, Xander," Harry said as he caught his broom. "Flying runs in the family. On both sides, for you."

Draco caught his brooms, one in each hand, and tossed the Comet to Xander.

"And we need to see if you like it, so we know whether to get you a real broom when we go to Diagon Alley for your wand."

Xander examined the broom in his hands. It was nowhere near as fancy as the Harry's red Firebolt or Draco's black Nimbus 2001, a little beat-up with a few stray twigs sticking out at odd angles.

He raised an eyebrow. "I'm gonna fly on this thing?"

Harry grinned and tucked his wand into his robes, as Draco used his to activate the magic lanterns placed around the field. It was nearly nine and the sun had set long ago.

"You bet. Here, I'll show you." He led Xander to the center of the field.

Draco let his broom sit in midair and mounted it, leaning back to angle the stick upward slightly and resting his forearms on the smooth handle in front of him.

Willow came up and ran her hands over the lacquered wood, fascinated.

"Do you mind if I...?" she asked. Draco shrugged.

She closed her eyes and reached out with her power, gently prodding at the enchantments on the broom. A slight breeze came up, lifting her hair away from her face.

"It's so complex!" she said softly, more to herself than to Draco. "Enchanted for levitation, locomotion, acceleration and deceleration, control, even comfort. This must have taken years to create."

Draco shrugged again. "The spells themselves, yeah. Once those are done, though, an experienced broom-company can produce hundreds a year. And don't forget, this is a newer model. Each model builds on the spells of its predecessors."

Willow smiled. "I still find it hard to fathom a society that treats magic so casually, the way we normal folk treat technology. I have to be so careful..."

She shivered.

Draco frowned, concerned. "Are you cold? It's a bit breezy out here."

Willow looked up at him, surprised. "Oh! Ah, I guess I am."

Draco shrugged his shoulders out of his heavy green robe, leaving him in a pair of plain black slacks and his favorite steel-grey button down. "Here." He handed it to Willow, who took it thankfully, settling it over her shoulders as she regarded him thoughtfully.

"Did you dress up to meet us today, or is that what you always wear?" she asked, a little tactlessly. Draco looked confused.

"This is what I always wear. The robe's a little nicer than my every day, but I wear these clothes," and he indicated himself with a vague motion of his hand, "all the time. Why?"

"It's just more formal than I would have thought, that's all. Don't you ever wear jeans?"

"You mean those horrid coarse Muggle things that Xander was wearing? Why ever would I?"

She regarded him thoughtfully, pulling her arms through the robe sleeves and buttoning the clasps. She was practically swimming in it, so Draco uttered a simple charm that shrunk the robe to fit her slim frame.

"Better. The color looks good with your hair."

"Thanks," she said, blushing a little. "I always thought green washed my skin out."

"Nooo." Draco said, shaking his head. "It looks stunning on you."

Willow gave him a suspicious look. "Are you flirting with me? Cause I should remind you that I like the ladies."

Draco sighed. "I'm sorry. It's habit. If it offends you, I'll try to stop."

"Eh, no big." she said with a shrug. "Compliments are always nice. Just remember that I'll mojo you into next week if you try anything. Not to mention what Xander would do to you."

He smothered a smile. "I'll keep it in mind."

"Oh, look!"

Draco looked. Harry had Xander off the ground, clinging to his broom for dear life. He was teaching the older man how to move forward.

Xander cautiously leaned forward, just as Harry had said, and began to move. Startled, he sat up, and the broom came to a stop.

Harry laughed, circling around him. "You're a natural," he said with a grin. "You just have to get a feel for it."

Xander considered this. "It's sort of like riding a skateboard or a snowboard. Everything is controlled by shifting your weight." With that in mind, he pressed forward again, this time a little quicker. He leaned to the right and was delighted when the old broom complied, turning just as he had wanted. He laughed.

"This is awesome!"

Willow regarded Draco out of the corner of her eye as he watched the two dark-haired men play around in the air.

His mouth was curved into a slight smile, his icy blue-grey eyes amused.

"He's the best brother you could have, you know."

Draco looked up at her, startled. She smiled softly.

"We all grew up as only children. Me, him, you and Harry. Whenever I needed a brother, Xander was there. I'm sure it'll be the same for you two."

Draco looked thoughtful for a moment, then nodded and turned his attention back to the others. They were silent for another few moments, then Willow spoke again.

"So what's up between you and Harry?" she asked quietly. "One minute you're laughing and joking, the next you're snarling and about to beat the crap out of each other."

He didn't take his eyes off the field.

"We hated each other. For years and years, we hated each other. Hated each other's friends, hated each other's families, hated everything the other stood for."

Willow shivered a little more, and without thinking Draco put an arm around her. She leaned a head on his shoulder, just as she would have Xander's.

"So what changed?" she asked.

He shrugged, still looking ahead. It was easier, somehow, to say things when he wasn't looking directly into her eyes.

"I guess we both just grew up. When the Dark Lord first came back, my father suddenly changed. He was never a kind or caring man, but he became outright negligent and sometimes cruel to me and my mother." He sighed. "That was right around the time I was starting to realize I had a brain and could think for myself. It took a couple years, but by the time Father was put in Azkaban, I had decided to try to avoid taking the Mark. When my mother died, well...it just strengthened my resolve. She was the only one who ever loved me."

He snorted. "I must sound like a whiny little girl, prattling on like that." Willow shook her head, making a noise of protest.

"No, you sound like a kid who's never had anyone listen to him. Go on."

Draco smiled a little bitterly at that one. "Well, Potter lost his godfather, I hear, at the end of his fifth year. He considers it his own fault, even though greater minds than his have been duped by the Dark Lord time and time again. Selfish git."

Willow hid a smile.

"I guess Black's death put things in perspective for him. He stopped putting so much stock in the house rivalry, in the fights with the rest of my House, even other's opinions about him. It would take a bloody good insult to make him angry, and when we did fight, it was less like anger and more like...catharsis, I suppose. Directing all of our hate and loneliness and grief and fear at each other in one loud, messy, usually bloody fight. And when it was done, we'd be almost civil towards each other for weeks."

He folded his forearms over his broom handle, dropping his chin on them as his broom automatically tilted to make the position more comfortable. Willow shifted so that she had her own forearms crossed over his back, leaning on him gently, as the two of them watched Harry teach Xander to dive.

"We're really more alike than either one of us likes to admit, I think."

"I'd say so." Willow said. After a moment, she carefully added, "From what I've seen, you two act almost like brothers."

Draco let out a derisive snort of laughter. "Did you feel the earth shift? Because I swear every last damn Malfoy just rolled in their graves."

"All except one." Willow said pointedly. "You're still above ground."

"If you put it that way, Father makes two."

Willow wrinkled her nose. "He doesn't count. He may as well be dead."

Draco didn't answer. Willow, afraid she might have gone too far, gave his shoulder a little squeeze.

"Drake? I'm sorry."

He turned and smiled at her a little. "My mother used to call me that." He shook his head slightly, as if to clear it. "No, don't be sorry. You're right. I was just thinking."

"Thinking what?" she asked.

"About me being a Malfoy." He shifted slightly. "I was just wondering if it would be worth the statement to get my name legally changed to Black."

Willow grinned, running his silky blond ponytail through her fingers. "It hardly fits you, Drake."

He sneered at her for a moment, then sobered. "No, in my looks I take after my father, that's for sure. But I've always been more like Mum. Y'know, good grades and such. Mother was almost a Ravenclaw."

He frowned as a thought occurred to him.

"If James Potter never claimed Xander as his son, that means he's technically a Black. I think that would make him the only living male heir to the Black estate. Mother only had sisters, and Sirius and Regalus Black are dead." He bit his lip, thinking. "I'll find out tomorrow. If Xander's got an inheritance coming to him, I'll make sure he gets it."

"Please do," Giles said from behind them. Both young people jumped. "Xander has been getting by but a lucky windfall would be very useful to him."

He came up next to them and added, "Albus has left, Draco. He thanks you once again for your hospitality."

Looking up, Giles groaned a little. "Oh, all we need is that boy in the air," he said softly as Willow and Draco chuckled.

As if they had heard, but more likely because they saw that Giles had joined the other two, the two dark-haired men came back to earth, flushed and grinning.

Giles removed his glasses and started cleaning them out of habit. Blinking, he realized that without them, the two men in front of him could have easily been James and Sirius. Looking to the side, he could almost see Lily and Remus, if the quieter boy had suddenly decided to bleach his hair.

He rubbed his glasses furiously with his shirt-tail and jammed them back on his face.

He had a feeling these four were going to be trouble.