The next morning breakfast was silent, tense. Reyes looked around the room, wondering what it was that had everyone so wound up. Doggett was being typically stoic, Draco was watching her whenever he thought she wouldn't notice, Scully seemed lost in her own world, and Harry and Hermione had scarcely looked at each other since coming into the dining room.
It seemed Reyes wasn't the only one bothered by the silence. Mulder fidgeted in his chair for a moment before turning to Scully. "Aren't you going to tell them about the dreams?" he asked.
Harry was suddenly all attention. "What dream?"
"Did you have another vision?" Hermione pressed.
Scully pressed her lips together, tightening her hold on her mug of coffee. "Yes, I think so. It was of your mother, Lily. She was getting married."
Harry leaned back in his chair, looking confused. "Well then you probably saw her on the day she married my father."
Scully hesitated, shaking her head. "I don't think so. She seemed upset in the dream, almost terrified. It didn't seem like a very happy occasion to me."
There was a moment of silence around the breakfast table. Harry shook his head. "There must be some kind of mistake. She and my father were very much in love– she wouldn't have been terrified to marry him."
"I'm sure you're right," Reyes spoke up gently, "there has to be another explanation."
Doggett cleared his throat. "Is it possible your mother was married once before she married your father?"
Harry shook his head. "I don't think so. She and my father married right out of school. She couldn't have been more than seventeen or eighteen at the time."
There was another moment as Scully processed this information. "Maybe it wasn't anything," she said with a half shrug, "I've been feeling a little stressed lately. It's probably just my sub-conscious manifesting itself in dream form. Not even a vision at all."
Mulder reached out, putting an arm around her. "Well, I for one know I'm up for a day of fun and frolick." With his free hand, he pointed playfully at Harry. "And you, my friend, promised us a game of Gibberish."
"Quidditch," Draco corrected, looking as though he was barely containing an eye-roll.
Harry let out a breath. "That's right. I need to get running so I'm not late– but I've arranged with the stadium to give you all box-office seating. Everyone's coming, right?"
Hermione finally met his gaze for the first time that morning. "I'm not."
Harry's face fell visibly. "You're not? But..."
Hermione's cheeks were now a bright pink. "I know I'm always at every game, Harry, but I just can't make it today. Alex is flying in from New York and...well, you understand, don't you?" She rose to her feet. "I'll come to the next one, I promise."
She was out of the room before Harry could respond. Doggett cleared his throat, clearly attempting to remove the awkwardness that threatened to overshadow the room once more. "What should we wear to this sort of thing? I'm guessing we'll stick out like sore thumbs if we're in baseball caps and jerseys."
But Harry's mind was preoccupied elsewhere. Draco forced a smile. "Yes, actually, but just tell everyone you're from America. You can get away with all kinds of dumb things if you say that."
Everyone rose to their feet, moving to prepare for the day. Seeing that Harry was still in a daze, Scully reached out and touched his shoulder. "We'll see you there, all right?"
Harry blinked at her in surprise then smiled. "Yeah, see you there."
Reyes had almost made it out of the room when she felt a tap on her shoulder and turned to see Draco. "May I have a moment,Agent Reyes?"
She followed him out into the hallway. Draco turned to her, smiling that polite, charming smile, and it was hard to remember he was the same man who had accosted her the night before.
"I'd like to apologize for my behavior last night," he said, "I wasn't thinking clearly and I certainly didn't mean any offense."
Reyes hesitated, not certain of how to respond. On the one hand, he had been so very frightening...but then, everyone was entitled to a bad day or two. She knew she probably came off just as intimidating when it was that time of the month.
"Of course," she said finally, "don't worry about it."
Still, Reyes mused as he walked away, she wouldn't be able to look at him the same way, not completely. And perhaps that was for the best.
Up in her room, Scully tried on various outfits but nothing seemed right. Her wardrobe consisted mainly of pantsuits and sleepwear, nothing that was really suitable to be worn to a sporting event.
The door opened and Reyes entered the room. "You almost ready?"
"I can't find anything to wear," Scully admitted. "How embarrassing is it that I've turned into one of those women who obsesses about clothing?"
"Not too embarrassing," Reyes returned, smiling, "if I had your clothes, I'd have a hard time getting dressed in the morning, too."
Scully glared at her, though she couldn't help the smile that formed on her lips. "Forgive me if I'm not prepared for magical sporting events."
Reyes moved to the mirror, checking her makeup. "Just borrow something from Hermione. You two are about the same size."
"Do you think she'd mind?"
"Nah." Reyes rubbed at a little smudge of mascara underneath her eye. "Besides, I doubt she'd even notice, what with the drama between her and Harry this morning. Do you know what happened with them?"
Scully didn't know, not for certain, but she could very well imagine. It was difficult being that near to someone you loved and unable to express your feelings. She knew from experience with Mulder. It had driven her crazy for years, not being able to tell him how she felt. She imagined that Harry and Hermione were probably going through that same thing.
But instead of saying this, she smiled at Reyes. "I was actually wondering what was going on with you and Draco. This is the second time he's wanted to speak with you alone."
Reyes laughed. "Yeah, well, don't get your hopes up. I think it's very possible that he's a derranged lunatic."
"At least he's a derranged lunatic with money."
Reyes tossed a pillow at her. "Go get something to wear. We'll meet you downstairs."
It took Scully a good long while, but she finally decided on a pair of jeans and a sweatshirt. It was not something she'd usually wear, but she assumed she'd fit right in with the American sports stereotype.
As she reached the bottom of the stairs, Doggett, Reyes, and Mulder all stared at her in shock. "You're in a sweatshirt," Doggett said, his voice clearly stunned.
"And jeans," added Reyes.
Mulder looked just like he had when he'd seen his first alien. "And your hair is in a ponytail...I think I'm in love."
Reyes smiled at this, and Doggett tentatively added, "You look nice, Agent Scully."
Scully took in a deep breath, taken aback by the compliment. "Thanks." Who knew that all a girl had to do for some attention was dress down?
Harry had already gone to the stadium in order to get ready for the game, and so Draco was the one to escort the Muggles to the Quidditch pitch. Scully had been bracing herself for something out of the ordinary, but her imagination was nothing compared to the sight before her eyes. There were dozens of wizards jetting through the air on broomsticks, batting around large brown balls that seemed to want to purposefully attack the players. She even thought she caught a glimpse of something small and golden wizzing through the air.
"This is incredible," Reyes breathed, looking around in wonder.
Even Doggett looked visibly impressed. "How do they stay on their brooms when they're moving so fast?"
"Nothing magical about it," Draco returned, "they just hold on."
To Scully's surprise, Mulder was the only one who seemed less than thrilled. "They're not just gonna ride around on their broomsticks all day, are they? When do they start hitting each other?"
Draco merely laughed at this. "Don't worry. Quidditch is known for being an incredibly violent sport."
Mulder folded his arms. "Really violent or just British violent? I'm from America, you know. I'm used to hockey and football."
"Trust me," Draco insisted, "this'll give any American sport a run for its money."
And he was certainly right. Scully found herself cringing as one of the players slammed headfirst into one of the circular field goals. The doctor in her was itching to race after the man and see if he was all right, but Draco had assured her repeatedly that the mediwitches were perfectly capable of mending all kinds of injuries in a matter of minutes.
Instead, Scully leaned over to Mulder. "Violent enough for you?"
She had never seen Mulder's eyes so wide before. "Yeah," he murmured, "this is awesome."
Smiling, Scully had just turned her focus back to the game when she heard a beeping noise. It took her a moment to recognize it as Mulder's cell phone.
Sheepishly, he answered. "Hello?" He frowned, pressing the phone closer to his ear. "Hello–what? I can't hear you..."
Draco tapped him on the arm. "Magic and electronics don't really mix well. You'll have to go out of the stadium to get a clear signal."
Nodding his thanks, Mulder disappeared out of the booth. Scully watched after him, frowning. So preoccupied was she in this that it took her a moment to realize someone was saying her name.
"Agent Scully," Doggett said again, "is everything all right?"
"Fine." She rose to her feet, still frowning. "I'll be right back."
She found Mulder just outside the stadium, having just finished his call. He looked up at her in surprise. "Scully, good. I was just about to come see you. I have to go."
"What?" She shook her head, trying to clear her thoughts. "But we just got here. What could possibly have come up this time?"
Mulder gripped her shoulder in excitement. "I got a lead on the super-soldiers, Scully. Turns out they have a base here in London. If I can infiltrate the base, we might be able to find a way to destroy them, once and for all."
Scully merely stared at him. "So you're leaving. Again."
Mulder stepped back, surprised. "What do you mean? Scully, I have to do this. This is too big an opportunity to pass up."
She laughed, but there was little humor in the sound. "It always is, Mulder. Well, go on then. You know where to find me when you're done."
She turned to storm off, but Mulder caught her arm before she could get too far. "Scully, wait a minute. Where is this coming from?"
"Don't try to twist this around to make me look like the irrational one," Scully snapped, glaring at him, "you always do this. You stick around until you're too bored to handle it and then you just take off! Like after William was born."
Mulder stared at her incredulously. "I was being chased by assassins hellbent on killing me! You told me to go."
"Yeah," Scully agreed, "and you went. How long did it take me to convince you, Mulder? A grand total of what– two seconds? Did you ever stop to think that William and I could be in danger, too?"
His eyes narrowed. "Everything I do is for you, Scully. Everything! Do you think it was easy for me to give up the X-Files? If it'd just been me, I would've stayed, whatever the consequences might be. But I cared too much to let that happen to you." He blew out a frustrated air. "That's why I'm doing this now– to stop the supersoldiers so we don't have to live in hiding anymore. So we can be reunited with our son."
"You know what's funny about that, Mulder?" Scully gave a bitter laugh. "I really think you believe that– that you believe you're doing this for me. But take a moment and reexamine yourself, and I think you'll find that everything you do is for one person and one person only– Fox Mulder."
She turned and stormed off, hoping against hope that he'd come after her.
He didn't.
Harry was quite positive that this had been the absolute worst game of his entire life. He'd caught the Snitch in the end, true, but getting to that point had been horribly embarrassing. Three times he'd almost fallen off his broom, andoncewhen he hadn't been paying attention he'd literally run into one ofthe goal posts.He was suddenly glad that his guests were all Muggles who wouldn't know the difference– except, of course, for Draco, who would no doubt tease him about it every chance he got.
This is all Hermione's fault, Harry reasoned. If she hadn't distracted me this morning...
Harry hated it when he and Hermione weren't speaking.All he could think about was Hermione pulling away from him like she couldn't stand to be around him.The idea of Hermione finding him repulsive kept playing over and over again in his mind. Not that it should be all that surprising. She had that boyfriend, Alex, and she'd always made it very clear to anyone who asked that she and Harry were just friends. There was not a single phrase on earth that he hated worse– just friends. How utterly and completely repulsive.
Then again, that seemed to be what Hermione thought of him– utterly and completely repulsive.
After showering and changing, Harry met his friends at the entrance to the fields. Several fans walking by whistled and shouted his name; embarrassed at the attention, he pretended not to have heard them.
"Great game," Reyes complimented him, "I've never seen anything so exciting in my entire life."
Doggett seemed to be puzzling over something in his mind. "So let me get this straight– if you get the waffle into the hoop, you score ten points, but whoever catches the golden thing gets one hundred and fifty points automatically."
"It's actually a quaffle, not a waffle," Harry said, smiling, "and that golden thingy is called a snitch. But otherwise–yeah, you're right."
Doggett folded his arms. "So then what's the point of having the quaffles? Whoever catches the snitch wins the game automatically, right?"
"Not necessarily," said Harry, "if you get enough points with the quaffles, you can still beat the other team. But it's very difficult to do."
"I'd say."
Harry turned to Scully, surprised to see her in Hermione's clothes. He had just opened his mouth to comment on it when he noticed that Scully looked withdrawn. He touched her on the elbow. "Still thinking about that dream last night?"
Scully blinked at him in surprise, then smiled. "Something like that."
"Tell you what," said Harry, "we'll do some research on it when we get back, all right? Maybe someone could tell us why my mother would be feeling so depressed on her wedding day."
Scully raised an eyebrow. "I thought you thought it was just a dream?"
Harry shrugged. "Maybe so, maybe not. But if it's my mother's way of trying to tell us something, we should look into it, don't you think?"
Smiling, Scully stuffed her hands into her pockets. "I suppose so."
They headed toward the exits. Scully stopped suddenly, frowning as she pulled something from the pocket. "What's this...?"
Harry leaned over her shoulder and felt his mood instantly darken. "Oh, that's a picture of Hermione's boyfriend, Alex." Seeing the look on Scully's face, he straightened. "Why? Have you met him before?"
"Unfortunately, yes. But he was going by a different name then." Scully turned the picture so the others could see, her face grim. "It's Krychek."
Be kind, rewind...ur, review.