Chapter 15 - Quidditch Practice

Josiah packed up his Potions kit quietly, still very much heavy with the weight of his upcoming detention. Flitwick, who had been very sympathetic to him overall, even without all the details, had assigned him to Professor McGonagall. The small man had probably thought that this was a relief for Josiah, but thinking of McGonagall's stern, lined face kept making him shudder inwardly.

At the very least, he attempted to console himself, he'd gotten a very good grade on his potion for the day. Clearly his heightened focus was worth something, if not his peace of mind.

He hadn't had the opportunity to talk to Dan yet; she and Ezra had been partnered, and Alisa had swept him away, probably with the intent of making him feel better.

Daniella vanished the remaining contents of her cauldron swiftly, her gaze locked on Jo. Something was definitely wrong with him; she didn't care if he was still upset with her, she was going to find out what it was.

She could go without Alisa's presence, but the Ravenclaw girl was the least of her concerns at the moment.

She turned to Ezra and murmured, "I think we should start working on the Patronus." Her eyes shifted to Sabrina, a couple seats in front of them. "Wait for me, I'll talk to Jo, see if he can do it today."

"I had detention with McGonagall once," Alisa murmured, flicking her wand casually between her fingers. Josiah noticed that no sparks emerged from it; he often wondered what kind of mental control his friend exercised that enabled her to be so sure of herself. He shifted a bit in his seat. "It wasn't so bad. She made me clean the chalk erasers."

Jo smiled half-heartedly, knowing that her words were meant to soothe his anxiety.

"I should have thought about what I did before I did it, though," he mumbled, and his friend smiled rather teasingly.

"Don't fret; I'll finish the job you started next week. And I certainly won't apologize."

They stood, swinging their bags over their shoulders, and Josiah made eye contact with Dan. Ezra was still huddled over the desk, working on something in particular; it looked like he was trying to copy something very quickly out of the restricted textbook they had been given for the day's work. Josiah frowned a little, walking toward the table.

He found that, when he arrived in front of his friend, he didn't know what he had meant to say, so he stood rather silently and awkwardly and hoped that she would start the conversation.

"Good job today," Daniella said lightly when Jo approached. She rested a hand on his shoulder, throwing Alisa a quick, hard look. "I need to ask you something, if you have a few minutes." She studied his expression. "Is everything alright?"

"Thanks," Jo murmured softly, his mouth twitching upwards slightly. Much as he was dreading the evening, he really was rather pleased with himself.

"Aye, what's on your mind?" He asked, trying to appear nonchalant. His eyes flicked back to Ezra, who was still copying hurriedly, and then focused once more on his friend.

"Erm, it's a bit of a long story. You go first."

Daniella lowered her voice to a murmur. "Well, I was hoping we could start our… lessons, today." She glanced over her shoulder at Ezra, who was still busily copying the last instructions on the potion, then picked up her bag and took Jo's hand, heading towards the hallway outside of the classroom.

"I guess I'm just looking forward to a few hours where I don't have to constantly look over my shoulder, expecting to find a wand pointed at me," she shrugged. "Do you still want to teach us?"

"Oh," Josiah murmured, feeling relatively guilty all of a sudden. "Sorry, I can't today. I've got detention." He realized that this sounded like a blatant lie, and he grimaced inwardly.

"I hexed the Gryffindor Seeker, so I've got it with McGonagall." He swallowed rather hard. "Like I said, it's a long story."

He looked up at his friend apologetically, stuffing his hands into his pockets.

"Um, how about Saturday?"

Daniella's eyebrows shot upwards at his words. "Detention, you?!" She felt a sudden urge to laugh at how unexpected the situation was, but his expression was so serious she contained herself. She was burning with curiosity, though. "Er… sure, Saturday is fine."

She searched her memories; wasn't that Noah's friend? She remembered seeing them together in the corridors a lot. She studied Jo more closely. He didn't look like he was physically hurt, at least. "I can make time, if you want to talk…" She offered, seriously.

Jo looked at her solemnly; he didn't feel like saying it again.

"I may or may not have hit him with ten Stinging Hexes at once," he mumbled, looking over at a shadow that was gathering behind them; it was Ezra, and he had just caught up. Josiah squinted a bit at the other boy. Saying that he might have been up to something was totally unnecessary; he was a Slytherin, and they were usually up to something.

"I'll meet you both in the abandoned Divination room on the 4th floor on Saturday afternoon," he told them, looking at Dan in particular. "Sorry, I've got Charms now."

Daniella's amused smirk died slowly. "Sure… Go ahead, have fun."

She liked to think of herself as mature enough to not act childishly most of the time, but right now she was feeling rather sulky and having trouble keeping it to herself. She saw Alisa walking away after Jo; she probably knew what had happened, Daniella thought bitterly.

She glanced up at Ezra, then started toward the stairs. "Did you get everything?"

Ezra, who had been pointedly silent until that point, fell into stride beside Daniella and smirked to himself.

"Yes, I did," he murmured, quite pleased with himself. "Did you know there were recipes in that book that called for bat blood?" He paused for dramatic effect. "Do you know how long bat blood has been banned in Potion supply stores? Nearly a century."

He squinted into the sunlight as they left the castle, holding a hand over his brow.

"It's so potent, in fact, that potions which utilize it are some of the most widely feared and… notoriously effective." He grinned over at Daniella, wondering if that excited her as much as it excited him. "I'll show you what I've copied later. I daresay it might end up being… useful."

The greenhouse appeared in their view as they turned the corner.

Daniella raised an impressed eyebrow. "I've seen a couple of those recipes before, in an old book I found in my father's library," she said thoughtfully. "But he caught me reading it once, and hid it, saying those were far too dangerous for a 13 year old." She rolled her eyes a bit. "Since I never found bat blood anywhere, I didn't think much of it after that incident."

She pondered his excitement for a few moments, then stopped, looking at him. "You're not thinking of making us go on a bat hunt, are you?"

"Decidedly not," Ezra murmured, stopping outside the door to the greenhouse in order to finish the conversation. "However, if I happen to sneak into Hogsmeade and… come across… a vial or two," he smirked again.

The room was already half-full with students, and he took a seat at the coveted middle table, where vicious plants couldn't reach you from either side. He grabbed a pair of thick gloves off of the nearby stack.

-/-/-

Noah made his way to Charms class through the crowds of younger students filling the corridors. His day had just started a couple hours ago and he was already eager for it to be over.

When he'd gone down to the Great Hall for breakfast, he'd approached his teammates cautiously, wondering what they knew about the incident the day before.

They knew something was wrong, if not exactly what yet. Shawn had made that blatantly obvious, when he stood abruptly at the sight of Noah, mumbling something about refusing to eat with traitors, and stormed out.

Noah, having lost his appetite, passed by without stopping and made his way to the library, where he sat by himself, pretending to be studying.

And now he was going to share a room with all of his teammates and Jo. The class that had been his favorite in the last few months, suddenly felt like the place where he would be given his death sentence.

When he reached the door where most of the students had already gathered, he exchanged a look with Shawn, who turned his back on him, murmuring something to the rest of the group. Noah stopped and leaned against the wall, apart from the rest of them, and waited, telling himself to keep it together.

Jo slipped as quietly as possible into Charms class, his eyes flicking unwillingly to the side of the room where Shawn and his friends were sitting. He had been dreading it all morning.

He looked over at Noah, unsure if he should say something or not. He was also focused on Shawn and the others, so Jo nudged past him, sliding into his usual seat at the table they had been sharing for months now. If Noah wanted to talk to him, he would take the hint.

Noah didn't move for a long time, until everyone took their seats; until the hushed conversations started dying out; until Professor Flitwick gave him a questioning look. He couldn't delay it any longer.

Shawn's eyes were locked on him this time, challenging, his wand pending loosely from his fingers. Jo had taken the usual seat, and there was an empty seat next to him. There was also an empty table all the way in the back. But Noah knew that, even if he sat alone, it wouldn't change Shawn's decision about telling everyone what he'd seen.

After a moment of hesitation, Noah clenched his teeth. Damn him if he would let Shawn decide what he could or could not do. He wasn't doing anything wrong, he told himself. Huffing out a breath, he dragged himself to the seat next to Jo, slumping into the chair, looking at the wood top of the table with great interest.

Jo was a little more excited than he'd like to admit when Noah slid into the seat beside him. He gave the other boy a small, apologetic smile. He had never meant to make his life so difficult… being a secret had been hard, but watching the boy he loved suffer was proving to be even harder.

The Ravenclaw shifted in his seat, silently swearing to himself that he would make it worth Noah's while when they found themselves blessedly alone again.

Professor Flitwick cleared his throat, signaling the beginning of class, and Josiah pulled out his book, spreading it in the middle of the table so they could share.

Shawn had promised himself he wouldn't do anything until the next game. Much as it cost him to admit it, at the moment, a player like Noah would be impossible to replace in such short notice.

But he knew Noah, knew his past; he knew exactly which buttons to push. And if he did things the right way, Noah would end up kicking himself out of the team. He didn't argue Noah was the better player, and he'd counted on him to succeed and maybe it would give Shawn his chance to shine as well.

He looked at the two of them sitting together. He'd supported Noah all along, in every way, and this was how Ledger thanked the friendship. He glanced at Professor Flitwick; when the short man looked away, he waved his wand discreetly, making Johnston's books fly off the table.

Josiah jumped at the sudden movement, blinking uncontrollably at the now-empty tabletop. He set his jaw. So that was how it was going to be; fine.

He pulled out his wand and gave it as calm of a flourish as he could muster, and his books floated gently back to their rightful places. He brushed some dust off of the edge of the page with his hand, giving Shawn a sideways glare across the room.

Noah swore under his breath, startled, then took a deep breath and mumbled something to himself as he tried to relax. He cast Shawn a quick glance, and received a conceited smirk in return.

Professor Flitwick assigned them their work for the class. More Patronus work, which made Noah groan.

He looked over at Jo, guiltily, then leaned in a bit to murmur, "I'm not good at creating a Patronus. All I get out of my wand are ripples of white smoke…" Someone giggled in the corner where Shawn was; Noah clenched his teeth, straightening on his chair, and resumed the strengthening of his self control. "Are you sure you want to do this?" He murmured, looking straight ahead.

"I don't think he expects anything major," Jo tried to comfort Noah, putting all of his books safely into his bag and charming the handles of the bag sturdily around the leg of the table. "I'll help you." He gave a small, warm smile, ignoring the giggle from Shawn and his cronies.

"Do what?" he murmured, his heart skipping a beat all of a sudden. Surely he didn't mean…. "Of course I'm sure."

He sighed softly, closing his eyes and thinking back to his happiest memory. There were several that he used interchangeably, a tip that he had read in an advanced Charms book. It supposedly kept the memory from getting too stale or overused. Josiah inhaled through his nose, then exhaled slowly, his breath whispering through his teeth.

"Expecto Patronum!" He said confidently, his cheeks flushing again at the memory he had chosen. He was glad that no one could read his mind.

He opened his eyes. A large, blubbery light-shape was floating around the room, waving its flippers as though swimming through air. Josiah couldn't help himself; he smiled at it. Everyone had stopped to stare, especially Professor Flitwick, who was clapping excitedly.

"Oh, well done, Mr. Johnston! Well done, as expected! Ten points!"

Noah smiled despite himself at the bright Patronus, showing itself off to the class.

"Aw, look guys, isn't it adorable?" Came Shawn's hushed snickering voice. "It looks like my aunt Lucy's Patronus. I'd always thought you'd have a butterfly, though, Johnston." The giggling was more generalized this time. "Can you match that, Ledger?"

Noah closed his hands into tight fists, sinking his nails into the skin until it hurt, but kept his mouth firmly shut. He looked pointedly at the window, hoping someone else made an attempt at a Patronus and Professor Flitwick would forget he was there.

Anger coursed through Josiah at such a speed that he couldn't grit his teeth to stop it. He turned around, smiling deceptively. His heart was hammering in his chest.

"I'd make a few clever quips about yours, too, if I'd ever seen it," he said with mock-sweetness. "Unless your spirit animal is, indeed, a non-corporeal blob of white smoke."

He felt the tension in the room ratchet up several notches, and he grabbed the edges of his chair so hard that his fingertips turned white.

Shawn flushed at Jo's response. He gave the Ravenclaw boy a heated glare, but said nothing else.

Noah, in turn, rested a slightly shaky hand on Jo's arm. "Don't…" He whispered tensely. "He's just trying to…" he trailed off, then shook his head. He knew exactly what Shawn was doing. "I'm sorry you have to go through this because of me."

He looked around. Apparently, everyone was waiting for him to make his attempt. Screw it! It wasn't like he was going to make it anyway, so he might as well get it over with.

He was feeling a lot of things, but happiness wasn't one of them. Therefore, finding a happy memory was proving to be very difficult. Shrugging, he murmured, "Expecto Patronum!"

There was a long moment when nothing happened, then what seemed like white vapor puffed out of his wand. "Brilliant," he groaned.

Josiah watched the white vapor curl into the air and disappear, and then looked around the room again, as though daring someone to laugh.

"It's not a big deal," he said stiffly, although his chest was still flushed with anger. He recovered a bit, his features softening. "This is hardly a welcoming environment in which to produce a Patronus; that doesn't mean you can't make one."

He held up his wand again, giving an example of the twitchy wrist motion that was required to cast the spell effectively. Then, he leaned over and whispered, so quietly that no one else could hear, "I suppose you remember our first time. That's what I was thinking about."

Noah looked at Jo with wide eyes, then glanced around nervously. Slowly, more students were starting to make their first attempts at the spell.

Shawn was still looking at them every now and then, but he seemed to have stopped for the time being, after Jo's retort. Besides, Noah decided, if his sentence had been determined already, he might as well stop worrying so much about it. What was done, was done. The story would be out, either way; whatever came after, he couldn't begin to guess, or even change, at the moment. So why should he submit to Shawn's psychological torture any longer?

He looked back at Jo - his heart skipped a beat -, with only the hint of a smirk. "I'm glad I'm a source of happy memories," he whispered back. Taking a deep breath, he looked at a vague spot ahead of him. It wasn't their first time he was thinking of, but those hours on the road as he left Jo's house; in those precious hours he'd felt happier in his own skin and more free than he had been in a long, long time.

Something flickered in his chest. He tried to repeat Jo's wrist motion, even though his movements weren't nearly as elegant. "Expecto Patronum!"

The white smoke leaving his wand was much thicker this time, and for a glorious moment Noah saw something that looked a lot like wings. He jumped out of his seat, so excited he lost focus and the shape disappeared. "Bloody hell, did you see that?!"

"Excellent, Mr. Ledger! Five points to Gryffindor."

Josiah beamed at Noah, feeling vindicated.

"That was nearly corporeal!" He whispered proudly, as the majority of the classroom turned to see what the fuss had been about. "If we find some time to practice outside of class, I'm sure you'll be able to see what it is."

He wondered exactly what Noah had thought about, but he bit his bottom lip and decided to just let the moment settle between them.

Then, for good measure, he took a moment to look back at Shawn, smirking ever-so-slightly.

Noah grinned brightly at Professor Flitwick. "Awesome!"

He settled back on his chair, twirling his wand between his fingers smugly. He waited until the spotlight was off of them once more to lean onto Jo. "Or maybe I just need some help creating more good memories," he murmured, giving Jo a teasing wink.

He forced himself to not look at Shawn until the class was over. He didn't want that bubble of enjoyment to go away.

"Hum, Jo…" He said tentatively, when the class was over. "I know you have detention later today, but…" He glanced over at the rest of his team. "Would you like to meet me on the Quidditch pitch, after practice, if you're done with detention? I mean, only if you have time, of course…"

Josiah grinned easily for the first time all day, using his wand to detach the straps of his schoolbag from the table. He slung it over his shoulder.

"I'll try," he murmured with a smile, adjusting his bag with care. "You know how strict McGonagall can be. Is 5:30 okay?"

"Yes, that's perfect," Noah rubbed his neck awkwardly. "You can wait until the others leave. I usually stay a while longer, because I think Beaters need a more physical training component the others don't."

Another skill he'd developed over the years practicing with Shawn, was becoming more observant. He couldn't deny Shawn's ability to focus on the right details, and he'd taught Noah a few things about that.

So, when he saw Shawn crossing the door and slid to the side so he was hidden from view, he quietly pulled Jo behind him and left the classroom first, positioning himself between the two boys, so that only Shawn could see the wand he held so closely aimed at the Seeker, there was no mistaking Noah's intention.

"Just try something," he challenged in a low voice. Shawn glared at him, but decided it wasn't worth the trouble, and grudgingly walked away.

-/-/-

Josiah trudged down several flights of stairs and into the front hall, slipping out of the large door and closing it behind him.

It was nearly dark already, which meant it was probably at least a few minutes past 5:30. It was also damn cold, and Jo pulled his coat closer to his body and wrapped it once over.

The Quidditch pitch had never seemed so far away, and when he arrived there, he was breathing shallowly in the cold; all he could hope was that Noah had a plan to warm him up properly.

He grinned softly to himself.

They'd been out on the pitch, with freezing wind which always got worse when they flew above the seats balconies, for the last two hours and they'd achieved nothing.

Shawn simply refused to listen to him or do anything he said, which in turn divided and distracted the rest of the team. It had become obvious for every Gryffindor that 'best mates Shawn and Noah' weren't looking at each other straight, but Shawn was making his damn best to turn them all against their Captain.

"Alright, everyone, one last time, and we'll call it a day," he said, trying and failing miserably to keep the frustration out of his voice, hoping against all hope that they'd get that exercise right at least once.

"To hell with that," Shawn shouted from the other end of the pitch. "I'm out of here." He started flying down to the ground.

The others looked at Noah, shocked and curious to see what he would do. It was the final straw. Noah sped to the ground, pissed off, hopping out of his broom to land with a muffled thud on the grass. He barely paused, just strode towards Shawn who was almost reaching the locker room, the anger that had been building up since the day before threatening to overflow.

"May I know what the hell is your problem? Are you sabotaging the team on purpose or are you just a bigger idiot than I thought?"

Shawn turned to look at him, throwing his broom violently to the ground.

"My problem is you!" He snapped back. He took a step towards Noah, and poked a finger against his chest. "You could have any girl you wanted, they were all there at your feet! No stress, no problems for the team or our future. But you just decided to throw it all to the garbage! All that's missing now is you parading around in public kissing that cheap version of the Fat Lady-"

Noah had closed his eyes, his fists clenched tightly as he tried so very hard to control himself, but in that moment, with those words, the self control switch turned off. Completely blinded by his fury, he lunged at the boy that had once been his best friend.

Shawn wasn't as tall or bulky as Noah, but he was agile and strong for his size; he also knew Noah very well, he knew how he moved. Besides, he'd been poking him into this, so he was prepared. He slipped out of Noah's reach.

But Noah was far past the point of no return now, and he was determined to turn his face into a pulp, if that was what it took to make him stop treating Jo that way. They could do to him whatever they wanted, but they wouldn't touch Jo. Not again!

The fight was confusing at first, but Noah quickly pinned Shawn to the ground, getting the upper hand in the fight. As he pulled his fist back again, a pair of hands grabbed it before he could finish what he'd started.

Shawn took advantage of his restricted movements to punch him again, trying to release himself. Noah swore, trying to release himself, but more hands – the rest of his team, he slowly realized – grabbed his robes and arms, pulling him off of Shawn's bloody face. Someone was talking to him, but he couldn't make sense of the words.

They took Shawn away to the locker room; Noah pulled away from them and walked away alone, back into the center of the field.

Jo was startled by a commotion that was way too close for comfort, and he crept as quickly as possible to the side of the locker room building and looked around its corner.

"Noah?" he murmured, after he was certain everything was safe. He squinted at the figure in the shadows for at least thirty seconds before deducing that it was, in fact, his love interest.

He rushed over to the other boy, his brow furrowed with concern.

"What happened to you?" He murmured, barely a whisper. He whipped his wand out of his pocket and murmured something unintelligible; the tip of his wand glowed a warm purple, and he dabbed the light gently over Noah's broken lip. The blood began to immediately clot and scab over, the edges already hardening as though several days had gone by.

Noah sat alone on the cold grass, hugging his knees. The others were gone, he didn't know where to; probably the Hospital Wing. He didn't know if he was shaking due to the cold or the intensity of his feelings. He closed his hands on the fabric of his pants when he heard Jo's voice, hoping he wouldn't notice the shaking, looking away as Jo worked on his lip, not daring to look him in the eyes.

He'd fought Shawn out of rage, but also out of fear. Sports in general, and Quidditch in particular had taught him discipline, had given him an outlet to his excessive energy and adrenaline on something that was safe and socially accepted. Now that was going to be taken away from him.

He wasn't sure he could control that uglier side of him without that discipline; he wasn't sure how Jo would react to that side of him, but it scared him that he might walk away because of it.

His eyes stung and he blinked hard. "I'm sorry… I lost it…"

Jo finished his work on Noah's lip; it was a bit red, but otherwise healed over. A shiny, fresh patch of skin had emerged over the cut. Satisfied, Jo shook the Charm out of his wand and turned his attention to Noah's eye and, by extension, the look of helplessness on his face. It made him want to cry.

"Don't," he whispered consolingly. He kissed the top of Noah's forehead. "Just hold still. Let me look at your eye."

There was no good way to avoid bruising, but he could at least take care of the tiny cuts around the eye socket and use a mild Freezing Charm to abate the swelling.

"What happened? Did he hex you?" The look on Josiah's face at this question was so dark that he rather scared himself. He found that he was more than willing to track down the already-beaten Seeker and give him a few more good whacks.

Noah started to shake his head, but stopped before Jo's wand poked his eye on accident. "No. We argued and then…" he looked down at his hands. "He said-" He looked up at Jo. "I hurt him, Jo. Badly. If they hadn't stopped me…"

His voice faded into a whisper as the words poured out, telling Jo what he had never intended to share with anyone. "I used to get in trouble a lot when I was younger, fighting with other kids, being mean to people…" He admitted. "Even before I knew how to control my magic, I'd use it to test the limits. And then mom got me into sports. All sorts of sports. That helped. And then I started playing Quidditch and I finally found somewhere I belonged, something I was good at without hurting anyone else…" He gave Jo a pleading look. "I don't want to be the bully everyone's afraid of. Not anymore."

"He'll be fine," Josiah said in a bitter tone of voice that might have been regret. "Madam Pomfrey was the best Healer in her class. She could practically bring someone back from the dead." His eyes flicked down at Noah's pitiful expression, and he sighed. "Not that you've killed him, obviously."

He stuffed his wand away and put both of his magically-warmed hands on the side of Noah's face.

"None of this was your fault. I – I didn't even think about how anyone else would react if they found out." He gave a guilty, apologetic half-smile. "You aren't responsible for what Shawn thinks of you. Nobody would deny that he's been asking for a fist in his face for days."

He rubbed the other boy's temple gently as he confessed, sighing out a puff of vapor into the cold falling night.

"We're wizards, Noah. Testing our limits is part of realizing our power. It's like teething." He paused, searching Noah's eyes with concern. "I don't believe you're that kind of person. If you were, you wouldn't feel guilty right now."

He stood again, brushing some finely ground pitch-dirt from the knees of his uniform slacks. He offered the other boy his hand.

"But if you're trying to test the limits of your cold tolerance, I'm afraid you'll have to do it on your own. I'm going inside."

Noah wasn't sure how to react to acceptance; he was so relieved, he didn't know what to say. He realized that most of his concern had been about what Jo would think of him. With the reassurance that he wouldn't lose him, he could breathe more easily.

He took Jo's comfortingly warm hand, stood up and slipped his arms around him, pulling him closer for a kiss that said 'thank you' better than he ever could vocally.

"Sorry, I'm used to the cold, so I guess I don't think about it much…" He said sheepishly. He searched Jo's eyes. "I just… I'd promised you a flying lesson, and I don't know if I'll be allowed in the pitch for much longer, not after McGonagall finds out about what I did." His ears warmed up; it had been a silly idea, anyway. "I wanted to make the most of my last few days here…"

Jo broke away from the kiss with butterflies, and his eyes flickered open while a smile graced his lips.

"And here everyone thinks I'm the well-insulated one," he said dryly, giggling. He looked over the look of poorly-hidden excitement on Noah's face, and he sighed a little. He'd already had such a hard night; it would be awful to disappoint him. And it was rather romantic, after all.

"No corkscrews," he warned in a serious tone. "Or barrel rolls, or… sudden elaborate dives. Alright? Promise?"

Noah cleared his throat, trying to keep a straight face. It proved to be very difficult. He nodded solemnly, but frowned a bit at Jo. "Define elaborate dives…" he said teasingly. He kissed Jo's frowning forehead and a chuckle slipped out. "I won't do anything that gets you hurt, I promise," he said still looking solemn, deflecting the boy's specificity as best he could.

He took Jo's hand again, guiding him to the locker room. "Come, we have extra equipments and they keep you warmer than regular school robes do."

The locker room was completely empty. Noah searched a trunk with Gryffindor's symbol embedded, touched it with the tip of his wand to unlock it, and opened it, searching its contents. "I only have scarlet and gold ones, though, I hope you don't mind…"

He took out a full set of winter robes and handed them to Jo, before turning to a locked cabinet that had spare training broomsticks. "I talked with McGonagall a couple of years ago, and she helped me hex a couple of brooms to link them together." He took a couple of battered looking Cleansweeps out and closed the cabinet with his elbow. "That way, whatever one does, the other does as well. It was very helpful when training rookies."

Josiah took the robe gingerly, sniffing it in a delicate manner. It didn't smell nearly as offensive as he had thought it would. He shed his school robe, then slipped it on over his uniform.

The broom, however, was going to get a closer inspection. He held it at arm's length first; it was heavier than he had anticipated, and this made him suspicious. He looked it up and down before giving Noah a politely skeptical look.

"You know, I was almost in the bottom of our class in First Year Flying," he murmured, fastening the robe buttons with one hand.

Noah looked at Jo, amused and delighted with the sight in front of him. Did he have any idea how cute and delicious he looked right now?

He grinned at Jo's observation. "Well, I was top in that class," he said smugly. He tossed his own broomstick over his shoulder and reached out a hand to Jo. "Do you trust me?"

Josiah adjusted the robe, which was a little snug around his arms and middle, and turned his wide, innocent hazel eyes to Noah's face. He bit his lip very slightly, sighing. He was very handsome; it was hard to tell him no.

"Yes, of course I trust you," he replied. "Which means you're about to scare the pants off me, doesn't it?"