Fragmented Soul: The Fluffy Bits

First Flight

March 1991

Harry was bouncing from foot to foot with pent up excitement; he was feeling extremely pleased with himself right now and near enough nothing his Dad was telling him was sticking in his mind. He was too anxious to go and find his best friend.

Severus had been so proud the moment his son had achieved the transformation; they hadn't even been sure that it would ever be possible considering that Harry was already two-natured but Severus was determined to give his son every advantage in life that he could.

Of course, like every ten year old, the first thing Harry had wanted to do was show his best friend, something that his Dad had strictly forbidden. There were some things that he didn't mind the two boys sharing and talking about, he actually thought it was healthy for them to have each other. However, this was where he was drawing the line. Particularly while Harry was so inexperienced with his other form and the transformation process.

"You are not to try transforming without me present," his Dad had told him firmly. This was one of those things that had gone in one ear and out of the other, too excited to pay much attention and too eager to show off to actually do as he was told.

Harry had understood to some extent that it was a rule put in place due to his Dad's constant worrying about his safety but he really wanted to show off to Clay about what he could do. His best friend would never actually believe him unless he saw it for himself. He'd do it just the once to prove that he could, his Dad need never know.

"Do you understand me, Harry?" Severus asked as he watched his ten year old pull on his coat, ready to go outside. He had potions to work on, that were more volatile than usual, and Damon had agreed to watch Harry for him for the afternoon and have him sleep over tonight as well.

"Course," Harry replied, grinning. "Love you, Dad," he said, grabbing his backpack off the ground and practically running for the front door, without even a glance over his shoulder.

Severus only just managed to shout out "Love you too, behave yourself," before he heard the front door to their home slam shut. He just had to hope that Harry had listened to him for once in his life.

Even though the winter was coming to an end it was still freezing and Harry had to zip up his jacket as he walked the short distance to his best friend's house. The snow that had fallen through February and early March was now slush and puddles that leaked into his sneakers as he walked.

His wand was strapped to the holster on his forearm, hidden out of sight from muggles but easily accessible if he needed it; of course, while he could use it relatively freely at Clay's house, he would only use it on the street in an emergency. He took comfort in it being there as it meant as soon as he reached his destination he would be able to cast warming and drying charms to rid himself of the numbing sensation taking over his feet.

Luckily it was only a few minutes' walk to get to his best friend's house and he practically ran up the path to the front door, jumping over the largest puddle that blocked his way. He almost fell over once when he skidded, but laughed as he caught himself, crashing into the front door. Well that is one alternative to knocking, Harry thought with a giggle.

"Coming," Damon's voice called out from inside, and a moment later the door was pulled open, revealing his best friend's father. "How on earth did you get so wet walking the two minutes from your house?" the man asked. "It isn't even raining."

"Puddles," Harry said, grinning unrepentantly.

"Of course," Damon said, stepping aside to let Harry into the house, casting warming and drying charms before the young boy even had a chance. "CLAYTON!" he called out.

As Damon shut the door, there was the sound of heavy footfall upstairs, followed by a door swinging open and hitting the wall, and then what could only be a small herd of hippogriffs coming down the stairs.

"Was that thud you knocking, Harry?" Clay asked, as he appeared in the hallway, having jumped the last four steps of the staircase.

Harry laughed. "I slipped, kind of crashed into the front door," he explained.

"Graceful as ever, Harry," Damon commented as he extracted the clearly hyper boy from his coat. Harry had already kicked off his shoes before his second arm was free and both boys took off up the stairs. "Behave," he called after them, knowing it was probably a futile effort, but at least he felt he had tried.

"Yeah," came the muffled response as Clayton's bedroom door was slammed closed. Damon wondered vaguely if he should either insist the door stay open or at the very least confiscate their wands. He did have a few phone calls to make in regards to some of his holdings and he really didn't want to be worrying about what the pre-teens were getting up to.

Deciding against it, he headed for his study. Only this morning he and Clayton had been discussing trust and boundaries, he needed to enforce that. He would trust the two boys to keep their wands, if they broke that trust then he wouldn't make the same mistake again.

"I can do something really cool!" Harry declared the moment the bedroom door was shut. Clayton quickly cast a silencing charm, which Harry had taught him, upon the door; his Dad wouldn't need or want to know what was going on up here.

"What?" Clay asked, Harry's enthusiasm making him excited to hear what it was. He knew that Harry's Dad liked to teach him some pretty cool magic sometimes and, while he would never been into studying quite like Harry was, he was still always excited to see the new things his best friend learned.

"Open the window," Harry instructed. "Go on, just trust me," he said insistently when Clay looked at him like he was crazy.

"It is freezing out there," he pointed out, as he did as Harry asked, undoing the latch. It was, as he said, really very cold as a gust of wind swept into the room. "You don't have a coat even. You better not get pissy with me when you get cold."

"You have heard of a warming charm, right, Clay?" Harry teased.

"Oh shut up and just show me before we freeze to death!" Clayton said, sticking his tongue out at his best friend who laughed at him.

Concentrating really hard, determined to get it right, Harry squeezed his eyes tightly closed and focused all his energies on the transformation. It was harder than usual; he'd been practicing all morning and it had exhausted him but he was determined to show Clay what he could do.

"Merlin's balls," Clay exclaimed in excitement, glad that he had cast the silencing charm on the door. "Wow!"

Perched before him where Harry had just stood was a gorgeous falcon who, as Clay watched, hoped and jumped over to the window, on to the ledge. He didn't even have a chance to stop him before Harry took flight, circling overhead briefly before landing in the tree closest to his bedroom window, transforming back into his teenage self.

"That is awesome!" Clayton said, a wide grin on his face.

"I know, right," Harry called back with glee.

"Now come back so I can shut this damn window, I'm freezing here!"

Harry pinched his eyes shut and tried to focus again, but rather than the wash of magic he expected to feel he just felt dizzy, and he quickly opened his eyes and grabbed onto the trunk of the tree.

"Harry…" Clay grumbled as he rubbed his arms trying to stop shivering.

Once again the ten year old, making sure his footing was stable and pointedly not looking at the floor, tried to focus. He was starting to think that transforming back into a person at the top of a tree might not have been the smartest thing he had ever done.

"You can't do it now, can you?" Clay said, as he leaned on the window sill, laughing at his friend.

"Can too!" Harry called back, going for his third attempted, but already knowing, that despite his protests, Clay was right. He was magically exhausted and now stuck up a tree.

"Can you at least climb down?" Clay asked as Harry surveyed the position he was stuck in.

"Don't think so," Harry decided, braving a glance down. "Get your broom!" he called out to Clayton and at this command his best friend looked a little sheepish.

"I can't," Clay admitted.

"Why not?" Harry questioned; Clay had had his broom yesterday, how could he have lost it in such a short time?

"Dad took it off me," Clay said as if it was an everyday occurrence. Though lately it had been, ever since Clay and Harry had been upping the amount of pranks they'd been playing.

"Why?" he asked, suddenly his curiosity overriding his concerns about his current location.

"Dad was getting a little tired of salty coffee in the mornings," Clayton said with a shrug.

"How am I meant to get down then?" Harry asked. They could always ask Damon for help if it came to it, but that was really going to be their final resort as he would certainly want an explanation. Not to mention that Harry was sure Damon would tell his Dad.

"Wait there, I'm coming!" Clayton said as he shut his bedroom window and considered for a moment how he was going to sneak past his Dad and get outside. However, this didn't appear that it was going to cause a problem as when he opened his bedroom door he could distinctly head Damon arguing with someone over the phone.

On his tiptoes and taking extra care to be as quiet as he could, Clayton stole down the stairs, heading for the back door with his wand in his hand. He hesitated when he heard his Dad stall, as if he had heard something or subconsciously knew that the two young boys were up to no good; Clay held his breath, not moving until he heard his Dad resume his yelling down the phone again.

He grabbed his shoes in the hallway and quickly put them on before he pushed open the back door carefully, wincing as it squeaked a little but his Dad hadn't even paused his ranting down the phone so Clay assumed he had gotten away with it. Making sure the back door was shut again, he headed around the side of the house to where the tree was in their garden.

"Not fallen down yet?" Clay teased as he stood at the base of the tree looking up at where his best friend was still perched. It really did look a lot higher up from down on the ground, than it had when he was up in his room.

"I'm not going to fall," Harry insisted stubbornly, though admittedly he didn't really know how he was going to get down without that happening, "I wouldn't give you the satisfaction. I bet you wouldn't have been able to stay up here this long."

"I so would," Clay argued back.

"Well we can't find out because there is no way you could get this far up," Harry challenged and even being too high up to see it he knew that Clay's eyes would have lit up with the challenge of it.

Clay was determined, it was just a tree after all, and so he hurried forward and pulled himself up onto the first branch. Once they were both up there then he could help Harry get down, and hopefully all before his Dad got off the phone and realised where they were. Clay was sure that they both would be in a lot of trouble if caught.

"You're actually going to climb all the way up here?" Harry asked with amusement, he had just been teasing but he should have known better than to believe his best friend could resist such taunting. " I'm going to laugh when you fall, Clay."

"I am a better climber than you," he called up as he pulled himself up on to the next branch.

"I didn't climb up here," Harry pointed out, watching as Clay continued to make his way carefully up the tree.

"I know, but you couldn't even climb down," Clay teased.

"I so could," Harry said stubbornly, if he hadn't been worried about letting go of his hold on the trunk then he would have folded his arms across his chest.

"Prove it," Clayton challenged as he made sure he had a tight grip on the next branch, pulling himself up, further from the ground.

"I'm enjoying the view," Harry huffed, averagely impressed at the expertise with which his best friend was managing to climb up to him.

"Sure you are," Clay said, obviously not believing a word of it. He managed to pull himself up the last few branches until he was on one just a little lower than where Harry was sitting. "It is a pretty great view, though," he agreed, looking down at how high he had climbed up, they were about in line with the bottom of the roof of the house and he was starting to realise why Harry had been a little hesitant about climbing back down.

"Great, now what?" Harry asked, watching the way Clay's face flashed with momentary nervousness when he looked down.

"Now…" Clay said, giving himself a moment to think. Grinning as an idea came to him. "Now we levitate ourselves down."

"That sounds awesome," Harry said excitedly. "You first," he added quickly, not wanting to be the one they experimented with.

"No way, you first. It was your magic trick that got us stuck up here in the first place," Clayton argued back.

"Ah HA! So you admit you're stuck too," Harry said victorious, before the two of them looked at each other and burst out laughing. "Same time?" Harry suggested.

"What, so you levitate me and I levitate you?" Clay asked, as he seemed to think it over carefully.

"Yeah," Harry said, as he pulled out his wand. "Wingardium Leviosa," he called out, not waiting for his friend to have time to pull out his own wand.

"WHOA!" Clay cried out as his feet suddenly and quite unexpectedly left the branch he was standing on. He scrambled to try and get a grip on the trunk but it seemed that Harry was struggling to control him. "Lower, Harry, not higher," he pointed out when he seemed to be heading up towards his best friend.

Harry had definitely underestimated how difficult it was to levitate a person; Clay was certainly a fair bit heavier than the feathers, cushions and even books, that he had practiced with and give how magically exhausted he already was there was nothing he could really do to stop his friend's increasingly rapid drift towards him.

"Uh oh," Harry said faintly just before Clay collided with him.

"Harry!" Clay cried out in protest as the two of them clung to each other as the momentum pushed Harry out of the tree too and left the both floating in midair.

"Sorry…." Harry said, "Really really sorry…" he added as he struggled to keep them in midair and accidentally crashed them into one of the large branches.

And the spell broke; he couldn't hold it any longer and all either of them knew was that they were falling, far too fast and it was only by sheer luck that they were missing most of the branches.

Clay cried out in shock as his arm hit a large branch, forcing it out at a funny angle; he could hear Harry's screams too. It felt like it took a strangely long time before he hit the ground though and when he did it sure hurt. His Dad was going to kill him, was the first thought through his head as he lay there on the damn grass. Well second thought, the first one was definitely 'Ouch'.

"Harry?" Clay called out, "you okay?"

"I think so," Harry called back, "pretty sure my leg is broken though and… yep, my arm too by the looks of it, on the plus side, it doesn't hurt. You?"

"Good for you, because this REALLY hurts," Clay told him. He too was pretty sure at least one of his legs was broken, and there was no doubt that his arm was in a bad way.

"Our Dads are going to kill us," Harry said.

"Yep," Clay agreed.

"Clayton! Harry!" Damon said as he hurried over to where the two teenagers were still lying on the ground. He had come running the moment he had heard their screams from the back garden. "Where are you hurt?" he asked desperately. He was sure he would be furious and want an explanation later, but right now he had to make sure they were okay.

"My leg and my arm," Harry told him, and Damon could see that both looked obviously broken.

"Same," Clay agreed, "though I think I might have broken both legs," he added, turning his head to grin at his best friend, despite the pain.

"You always have to outdo me, don't you?" Harry joked.

"This is NOT funny, Harry Prince," Damon told him sternly. "I am going to have to go get Severus…"

"No!" Harry called out before he could stop himself. He really didn't want his Dad to know, even if that was inevitable.

"Yes," Damon retorted, "I can't heal broken bones. Now, do I need to tell you both to not move until I get back?" he asked.

"No, Dad," Clayton said.

"I don't think we could if we wanted to," Harry added with a cheeky grin.

"You're Dad is going to be so mad," Clay pointed out.

"Yep," Harry agreed, completely resigned to his fate. He was pretty sure he would be spending the next week doing nothing but homework but there was one thing that might stop the situation getting any worse. "Clay…"

"Yeah?" he responded.

"Let's not tell them how this happened," Harry suggested.

"Good idea," Clay agreed. "We take the secret to the grave."

Harry offered his non-broken arm out for Clay to shake on their agreement, which was fairly amusing when Clay's one functioning arm was the opposite one to Harry's meaning they couldn't shake hands, something that made them both giggle hysterically but they managed a little fist bump instead. This was how Damon and Severus found their ten year old boys ten minutes later when they arrived to heal them.

"You are in so much trouble, Harry Prince," Severus stated, Harry just let out a groan; his Dad was really going to make him regret this.

Hope you enjoyed this little snippet from Harry and Clay's childhood. Don't forget to review and let us know what you think.