"Ow! Stop that!"
"Oh come on, you big baby, I wasn't holding on that hard."
"You were too!"
"Well, if you would just hurry up I wouldn't have to practically drag you to the field...Honestly Draco, you'd think that you didn't want to teach me to fly."
"The terror I'm feeling has nothing to do with you being 50 feet up in the air on a piece of wood, and everything to do with the very powerful witch you have as your best friend who may very well blame me for not returning her friend back before midnight."
"erg...50 feet...on a broom..."
"Why Alex, you look a little green. What was that you called me earlier? oh yes...'Oh come on, you big baby', it's not that high up!"
Alex's eyes glinted with revenge.
"Did I ever tell you that the only reason Willow came back from being all apocolyptic was her friendship with me?"
"erg...she's that powerful?" Alex smiled a not so nice grin. "I give"
"Good Dragon, nice dragon, cute little dragon..."
"I'm not cute!"
"Oh I don't know...those big greyish blue eyes framed in long eyelashes...Hey did you know that your eyes change colour? Or do you have contacts? Weird. Then again Spike's eyes went from blue to yellow, and Willow's sometimes go black, so I guess it's not that weird, right?"
"I am not cute. And you are a very odd man, Alex"
"You are!"
"NO. Cute is fluffy bunnies, baby kittens, little chicks. I'm rough and tumble."
"Rough and tumble." Alex was trying his best not to laugh in his indigninant boyfriends face.
"Quite"
"Draco, you're wearing a baby blue shirt..."
"It's sky blue, thank you very much. And it matches my eyes."
"It matches your eyes? Awww, that's so cute. You're so adorable.
"And you,luv, are touched in the head. I don't think I've ever let anyone get away with calling me that except for my mother. You're lucky."
"But you like me anyways, right?"
"Well, you're very...."
"...yes?"
"Cute. You're very cute."
"oh no, you can't use that compliment. I've used it already! Next choice."
"How about bloody annoying?"
Draco rolled his eyes. "Well, that' s not a compliment, is it? Try again.
"Alex, you're not going to let up are you? Fine. Alexander LaVelle, I 'like you anyways' because your eyes shine intelligently, your lips quirk mischeviously, and you move amazingly."
With each word, Draco had been pulling the brunette closer and closer to him and then he added, "and you're cute." With the final statment, he pulled Alex into a heated kiss. After a couple of seconds, they pulled apart.
"Oh."
"So, we've almost reached your friends. Could you possibly find it within yourself to protect your adorably cute boyfriend?"
"Yeah, I wouldn't want anything to happen to someone who can kiss like that..."
They grinned and took each others hand and proceeded to meet up with the others on the pitch.
The looks that graced the faces of the Golden trio were at a contrast with the looks that were on the scoobies' faces at the sight of Alex and Draco walking up the field. The trio looked, well honestly, they looked rather shocked and dismayed. The scoobies, on the other hand, looked surprised and delighted. They could see the way these two walked and laughed together and knew that their Xander had found someone new.
When the couple finally approached the group of young people, Willow gently extricated Draco's hand from her best friend's, put it in her own and turned to him. "Excuse me, I have to talk to this man about a shovel" She turned back to Draco. "If you hurt him I will come after you with a shovel. This shovel will not be metaphorical, it will not little, it will not be plastic. It will be real, big and metal. It will hurt. So don't hurt him okay?" She then leaned up to speak into Draco's ear and whispered, "Severus told me some vague details of the your life okay? So this next part's for you." Then she walked over to her best friend and said, "Alexander LaVelle Harris, You know the shovel talk. If you hurt Draco, I have a shovel with your name on it as well." Alex smiled at the approval inherent in her voice and tugged Draco over to him for a quick peck on the cheek. They were suddenly enveloped in a group hug. The trio and Ginny just stood there with a surprised expression. They had thought that if it was any one getting close to this group it would be one of them, not Draco bloody Malfoy. 'Ah well' they thought to themselves, shrugged and then called out, "Who wants to learn how to fly?"
The mushy group split up and grabbed the brooms that had been brought out of the broom shed. They five that couldn't fly faced the five that could. "First you've got to call your broom. Like this...Up! It should then rise straight to the hand you hold over it." Harry explained. Out of the five scoobies, it only worked for Willow, Xander and Andrew. Buffy's broom merely turned over and seemed to nestle further into the ground. Dawn's got about a meter off of the ground and then fell back down. The three that got it to work went over to the two sisters. "Uh, Buffy, your broom looks like it's burrowing even deeper into the ground."
"Thanks Xander, y'know, I didn't notice that at all!" The fact that her broom was trying to get as far away as possible from her didn't inspire confidence.
"Yowch. Sarcastic much, Buff?
"I just don't know if I want to go that high on a piece of wood," Though it was a very sturdy broom, it still was pretty small compared to her preferred way to travel sky high - that being a passenger jet. She just wasn't one for heights. Not since her second death. She shivered, then shook her head to focus. A squeal broke through her funk.
"Yes! I did it!" Dawn was grinning happily with a broom in her hand.
"Okay help! I give up."
"Shhhh. Your broom can feel your negativity."
"It can?"
"No."
"Do you want to die a particularly brutal death Elf-boy?"
"I think Draco wouldn't like that much."
"So help me already."
"okay. Say 'up'."
"Up!"
"Say it like you mean it.
"UP!"
"She's not going to like you yelling at her, is she?"
"She who? The broom? Why is it a she?"
"Well your broom is a Tornado II" Draco cut in.
"See? She. Now say up again."
"GRRRRRR. something's going to go up, even if it's where the sun don't shine." the slayer mumbled to herself. It wasn't fair. She would try one last time...
"UP!" The broom flew into her hand.
They were ready for the next step.
"Okay now, straddle your brooms" called Harry. Draco and Alex smirked but kept quiet...it was just too easy. Shooting an exasperated look at the two, Harry continued, "now loosely grip the handle and lightly tilt the brooms up." By now all the scoobies and Draco were snickering. Hermione and Harry looked at each other with twin looks of frusteration, but Ginny and Ron laughed out loud. "Oh come on you two. It's funny. Why do you think they teach us to fly at such young ages? If they taught us any later, the whole class would read innuendoes into everything!" Ginny giggled. "Okay okay mates, let's get back to this."
"Now I want you to push off, fly about 5 feet off the ground fly to the far end of the Quidditch field, then tilt your broom down and land by the goal post."
They all pushed off at about the same time, but did not land even remotely at the same time.
Buffy's broom had decided to do it's best impression of a stubborn mule for her rider. "Come on broom. Go faster. Giddyap." The broom went even slower. Everyone had passed her. "Do you see the other people passing us, broom? Now, catchup." The Tornado II didn't have to be told twice. It liked to go fast. "Aieeee! Stop stop stop!" Buffy was ready to jump off when the broom stopped suddenly and managed to upend her, arse over teakettle. "Stupid broom, I'm going to turn you into woodchips, you hear?" Buffy was ticked.
"Have you ever seen that before?" Xander was doubled over laughing. "oh my God. That is the funniest thing I've ever seen" his eyes were watering now.
"Merlin's beard! What the fuck did she do to it? Usually brooms are immobile without a rider. This is the first time I've seen a broom fly away from a person. She looks mad enough to burn it."
"Oh, she almost caught up to it that time."
"Ouch. That had to hurt." Draco winced.
"For the broom, or for Buffy?"
"Both."
"oh...almost....OH! She caught it."
The two men looked around at all the laughing people. The only ones not laughing were Harry and Buffy.
"Please Buffy, please just let go."
"NO! You saw what this broom tried to do to me...it tried to kill me!" This was one of the many times where slayer strength was a bonus.
"It did not try to kill you. Please just give it to me. I'll put it far away from you." Harry consoled.
"It did, it did! It was chasing me!"
"Actually it was you were chasing it, Buf" Dawn put in with a grin. This was just too funny to keep quiet.
"Well, it deserved it. It threw me off!"
"Can we please just put the broom back?"
"You called it names, Buf. And you threatened it. I would run away from you if you did that to me....and I'm your sister!"
"Can we please just put the broom back?" Harry was getting tired of the tug of war he was involved in.
"It needs to be turned into kindling. This broom is a danger to anyone riding it! Or near it, for that matter." "Or maybe it's just that you...uh of course it wasn't anything you did. Forget about it." That was Willow's little contribution. She never did like confrontation. "Can we please just put the broom back?" Poor Harry said this for the third time.
"Fine. Take it. I'm going to sit on the bleachers." With that, the slayer turned on a well formed heel, and left to watch. "Oh thank Merlin. I thought she was going to break the broom, and the school really doesn't have that many." Harry was relieved. She was insane! He ran his hand through his hair a couple of times, blinking at the memory of Buffy chasing the broom. With a swish of his wand, he sent the broom back into the open shed.
"Okay, now I want you guys to push off at an even bigger angle, go up about 20 feet, turn around and then come down. When you feel comfortable with this, go higher." Dawn was marginally successful this time, and the other three had no problem with this whatsoever. Now all that was left was experimentation.
"Now I want you to just circle the pitch or whatever you want, at whatever speed or height you feel comfortable at. Practice turning, starting stopping and diving" Harry and Ron decided to go up with them, while Draco, Hermione and Ginny kept a cautious eye on the new flyers from the ground. "Hey 'Mione, I'm just going to go sit with Buffy. I know how to fly fine, and I want to make sure that she isn't upset."
"That would be a nice idea, Gin. She looks like she's in a bit of a funk." Hermione appreciated the kindness that her friend showed everyone. And personally, she didn't want the slayer to be anywhere near a broom.
In the air, Alex was grinning. This was wicked! He caught up with Willow and Andrew.
"This is great!"
"oh Goddess, I know." Willow was talking in that breathy voice she got when she was super excited.
"I wonder how fast these can go?" Andrew seemed pretty geared up as well.
"I don't know but I think I'll stick to my speed now."
"Apparently pretty fast if you're not Buffy."
Xander grinned. Andrew could be quite funny once in a while. "Hey Andrew, you game for a little race?" Alex smirked. "Only if you can catch up Elf-man" and with a grin, Andrew was off. Within seconds, Alex whizzed past Andrew and then began picking up real speed. Though Andrew tried valiantly he knew he was beaten after a lap around the pitch.
Harry caught up to the winner fairly easily. "So mate, y'up to a real race?" The testosterone was pumping, and Alex grinned. "Yeah, sure." Draco watched them from the ground and guessed, from their posture, what was going on.
"My lovely boyfriend is going to get his arse whipped, isn't he..." he turned to his co-worker.
"Yeah, looks to be that way, Malfoy." Ron grinned, "Not that it wouldn't hurt Harry to get his arse kicked once..." They grinned to each other. Harry had become a little too bogged down by his 'boy-who-lived' status lately. They turned their attention to the skies. At the sound of Hermione's 1-2-3-go, the two men were off. The goal of the race was to go four times around the quidditch pitch and then touch down at the east side middle goal post. Whoever got there first won.
Harry took off fast with a typical quidditch move and then slowed down, knowing that Alex couldn't conceivably know how to perform a quickstart on the broom. He wouldn't want to embarrass the new broom rider. It was only fair. He was therefore surprised when he saw the guy whiz past him milliseconds after slowing down. "Fuck!" He increased his speed and by the end of the first lap they were neck and neck.
By the second lap he was edging out in front of the mage, much to Alex's chagrine. He wanted to win, dammit! The people on the grounds were screaming themselves hoarse cheering for him. He had to succeed for them. Alex grinned, blocked out everything but the wind around him, the track in front of him, and broom below him, and raced like he was being chased by the First.
As sooon as he pulled around the last turn, he headed for the goal post and eased his broom forward to land. He had no clue where Harry was. Was he below him? Pushing the worry out of his mind, Alex managed to make a running landing right to the pole and landed on all fours. He then shook his head to come out of his focus and was almost bowled over by Harry dismounting. Holy fuck. He had won. Draco was grinning from ear to ear at the new turn of events. That was quite a race. His lover was spectacular. He grabbed Alex and kissed him proudly in front of everybody and whispered, "I've always loved a man who can ride a broomstick." The brunette grinned and rolled his eyes at his sultry lover. Then it hit him. He had beaten Harry Potter.
"But why? Why could I beat Harry? The books said he was the best seeker in a century." Alex asked worriedly. "Because you're a mage, my dark elf. And it seems this is your steed. You do realize that you were on a crappy broom and Harry was on a newer model, right?" Draco said with a broad grin. His lover had beaten Harry Potter. Ha! It was bloody fabulous. However, this was all of a sudden very overwhelming to Alexander LaVelle. He had to sit down.
Draco was concerned. His prior relationships were always with men who didn't have the depth of emotions that Alex had and he didn't want to mess this one up by sheer ignorance. He sat down on the grass next to his boyfriend and rubbed him on the back, recalling that a good backrub had always relaxed him. He then started talking in a quiet voice, "Luv, I don't exactly know what to do for you right now," he began a little awkwardly, "so if there's anything you need please tell me." Alex smiled at the sweetness of his new lover and relaxed back into the gentle massage.
"It's just been quite the week for me. I found out that a fictional series of books are real and I've fallen in love with one of the villains in those books. I had someone heal a wound that the doctor's thought unhealable" He took a deep breath. "I found out I'm an Elven mage, and that not only can I ride a broom, it seems to be my steed or something, and I'm good at it." As Alex trailed off, Draco decided that the best course of action was to distract him from his problems a bit. It wasn't that he wouldn't help Alex, it was just that this didn't seem the time or the place.
"Yeah that's a lot. But let's think about me for a change...I've lost my reputation as a cold hearted bastard." His dark haired lover laughed and then whispered, "Take a look at the Golden Trio's faces." Draco surreptitiously turned to look and then hid his face in the brunette's neck. Harry, Ron and Hermione were incredulous at Draco's kind actions. Their mouths were hanging open. He got up and faced them, hauling Alex up while he did so. "You do realize that just because I wasn't nice to you, doesn't mean that I can't be nice to other people, right?"
Oddly enough, it was Harry who responded angrily. "Draco, I know you're on our side, but you've been a right git to us even since school ended."
"Oh? And what have I done?"
"Acted like we weren't worth your time, ignored us, and flat out avoided us."
Draco laughed at that. It was just so childish and he could see the disbelief etched into Alex's friends faces at Potter's words.
"Look Harry, we don't like each other. I'm not going to go out of my way to talk to you if I don't like you, right? You don't do that to me, do you? And have you ever considered that we ignore and avoid each other? It's mutual. Get over it. I have. Even Weasely has"
He flicked his glance over to the redhead who had wandered over to the Quidditch bleachers and was now talking to Ginny and Buffy.
"Ron is just being civil to you because he has to work with you."
"Oh is that so?" Draco was getting irritated.
"Of course. You didn't really think he liked you did you? He just feels sorry for you because you're alone."
"Dude! What the fuck is your problem?" Alex really didn't like the way this was going.
"All of you! Bloody hell, you think you can just march in and save the wizarding world on your own! How fucking cocky can you get? Do you Americans not realize that we've been working on this problem for a decade now?" He turned on Alex, "Do you think that because you have destiny that you'll be able to win something we can't even fight? I have destiny as well, but that's basically counted for shit! Just....go back to where you came from." Harry trailed off.
The quiet was deafening.
And the Harry did the only thing he could do. He walked away.
"Should I go after him?"
"Should we go after him?"
"Should you guys go after him?"
A chorus of questions echoed out of the slightly tarnished trio and the Sunnydalians.
"What was that"
"Who does he think he is"
"What am I, chopped liver?"
More confused questions spewed forth until finally Buffy called attention to herself with a well placed whistle.
"Hey! Let him be. He's dealing with whatever is bugging him. We should probably just let him go figure it out. Ron, you live with him right?"
"yeah, should I follow him?"
"No, he'll be okay, but tonite, when you get home, check up on him; be there for him. I have a feeling he's rather overwhelmed with all of us kind of invading his turf." She smiled ruefully. "I kinda felt the same way when the crew from AI wanted to come down to Sunnydale to help us. He'll get over it."
She turned to the blonde standing a ways off the group, muscles still tensed. "Hey Draco, you okay?" She really didn't want to get involved in the long standing tiff between these two, so it was lucky that Ron decided to speak up.
"Hey mate, you know Harry didn't mean what he said, right? You are the last person I would dare to pity, you'd probably curse me something awful." Ron said with a grin, while walking towards Draco. He grabbed the Mercury XV off the ground and handed it to his fellow Auror, "Here. Go. Fly. Come back when you're not ready to hex anything in sight."
With that, Draco took off, leaving a rather confused and disgruntled group behind.