Chapter 22 - Moving out
Ezra glared at nothing in particular, and he was pretty sure that nobody could see him doing it anyway, so he continued to look surly for a good fifteen seconds until Noah kicked the motorcycle into gear.
Suddenly, all hope of decorum was forgotten, and Ezra re-situated his hands around Noah's broad, solid middle.
"Bloody buggering fuck," he hissed, looking down at the pavement, which was moving beneath them so quickly that Ezra thought for a moment he might be violently ill. Now he understood perfectly why Muggles wore helmets - he felt like he had been sentenced to slow, torturous death.
And Ledger was laughing.
"You're a maniac, Ledger," he shouted above the noise of the engine. "And a liar! This isn't a broomstick, it's a bloody space rocket!"
He wasn't entirely sure what a space rocket was, but it sounded about right.
Noah laughed, but he tried to stay focused on the road. He couldn't really understand most of what Ezra was saying, except 'maniac' and 'space rocket'.
Ezra's hands so tight around him made him look at the rearview mirror. "Don't look down, it's worse," he raised his voice above the noise of the engine. "Look ahead." He gestured ahead with one hand.
No one could follow them that way. There were no broomsticks that fast, and Apparating was pointless, because they didn't know where Ezra and Noah were going.
He drove for about half hour until they arrived somewhere that looked like what Ezra was looking for. Noah wasn't sure how they could possibly find a house in a place like that, but he didn't question Ezra's motives. He wasn't in the mood to apologize a third time anytime soon.
He slowed down, and left the main road when he found a dirt path and a clearing further ahead. He stopped, one foot on the ground, and swiveled up the visor.
"What do you think?" He asked, looking around.
Ezra felt an immense wave of relief wash over him as the motorcycle began to slow. There was a large, dense wood ahead. It looked like it would do nicely.
As soon as the pair came to a stop, Ezra wasted no time lifting his leg off of the motorcycle and trying to regain his bearings on the ground.
"I think I'm going to be ill, that's what," he said accusingly. He wasn't, though, and after a few moments, he undid his helmet and pulled it off. His hair, which was normally incredibly well-kept, stuck up wildly; he didn't notice, of course. The air was fresh, and he could smell leaves and flowers and all sorts of other nature-smells that he wasn't accustomed to, but rather fancied.
"Perfect," he said, without elaborating. "We're going to have a bit of a walk, so leave that motorized death contraption somewhere that it won't be stolen."
Noah pushed the motorcycle until it was partially hidden behind the trees, reached for his wand, and redid the protective spells, taking his time to make sure they were well done.
He walked back to where Ezra stood, grinning. "Care to explain why you think a bunch of trees are perfect as a new house? Are you thinking of camping? Because I don't think the pair we left at home would enjoy that very much."
"Camping? As in tents?" Ezra repeated distractedly. "No, don't be daft. That would be awfully uncomfortable. I'll tell you what I'm looking for when I find it."
Leaves and twigs crunched noisily under their feet as they walked; Ezra found the whole thing rather peaceful, if he was honest with himself. At the very least he knew he wouldn't need to worry about Death Eaters lingering outside their front steps.
They walked in silence for a long time. Ezra seemed very comfortable with it, but Noah was getting bored. He glanced at Slytherin. "I meant what I said earlier, you know. About the Inferi. None of us had any idea what to do. Not even Jo. Where did you learn to do that?"
His eyes darkened a bit at Noah's mention of the Inferi, but he didn't let it show. Instead, he kept trudging along dutifully, pushing a fallen branch out of his way.
"No, I imagine Johnston wouldn't know," he said lowly. "It's not exactly a Cheering Charm."
A few moments of silence passed between them again, as Ezra thought about what he might say.
"One thing you have to understand, Ledger, is that the truth is sometimes inconvenient. For example, what my cousin Rosier told you about me being trained in Dark Magic from a young age by my parents - that is truth. I won't deny it, and I'm sure it doesn't surprise you." He paused, looking up into the canopy of the forest before taking a few more steps. "If I hadn't gotten involved with Daniella when I did, we might be on opposite sides of a war right now. I use what I know about them against them, instead of for them. I chose."
He stopped again, but this time he turned and met the other boy's eyes. He searched them, as though suspicious that the blond boy had cast some sort of spell on him that was making him divulge his inner thoughts.
Or, he told himself bitterly, you might be thinking of him as a friend, which is even worse.
"Were both of them magical?" he asked suddenly, out of context save for his mind, which he had temporarily forgotten that Noah could not read. "Your parents, I mean."
Noah kept up with Ezra's pace easily. It didn't surprise him, actually. He was more surprised that Daniella had had such an influence on someone like Ezra. But, then again, meeting and getting involved with Josiah had changed his life too.
"I'm glad we're not on opposite sides. I wouldn't like to face a giant snake made of fire. Can't punch it," he added, smirking.
He was silent for a while, lost in thought. "I get that. Having to make difficult choices, I mean. For Jo, I left behind a life that was perfectly planned out for me."
He frowned at Greengrass's question, suddenly cautious. "Yes, but my mother is Muggleborn," he said slowly. "We were always very close to that side of the family, maybe that's why I'm as comfortable with Muggles as with wizards."
At Noah's words about punching Fiendfyre, Ezra snorted irreverently.
"Yes, I daresay that would end poorly," he murmured, amused.
Suddenly, he found himself listening as Noah shared details about his life, and it dawned on him that perhaps he was having an actual civil conversation with someone other than his girlfriend. Then, he felt a pang, because thinking about Daniella was painful right now - and, to be honest, he wasn't even sure if she was still his girlfriend.
"I see," he managed to say. "That's... quite a sacrifice. Though, you two do seem..." he trailed off, uncertain of how much he should say, or in what tone. It wasn't that Noah and Josiah's arrangement bothered him, per se; he was not so insecure as all that. However, it was one of the many topics about which he knew very little, and he could never be sure if he was being acceptably polite.
He also noticed the hesitation in the other boy's voice, which made him look at the ground pensively. Yes, he could see how that had been a sensitive question, coming from him.
"Yes," he said, after a while. "That makes sense." He stopped walking, looked up at the tree in front of him, and pulled out his wand. It wasn't the largest tree, but there were several others of the same species lined up beside it - which was what Ezra had been looking for.
"Do stand back," he murmured. "This is going to be a bit of a mess."
He took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and with one large, grand wave of his wand, reduced all five trees into a giant pile of sawdust.
Somewhere nearby, a disgruntled bird flapped away.
Noah pondered Ezra's words. He had never given that much thought to any of it. He'd just gone with the flow. He was a practical person. He had never looked at it as sacrifice.
"I love Quidditch. I love to fly. But I love Jo more. And we have more pressing concerns at the moment. I can still fly, so it's not a big deal."
He had a short moment to try to understand why he was talking about his feelings and about Jo to Ezra, but the other boy started decimating trees before he could say something about it. "What?…" He looked up at the bird. "What are you doing?"
Ezra smirked despite himself, then quickly cut it out. The fact that they were getting along so well at the moment was suddenly very eerie to him; it was too easy, he thought, like they were actual friends. Then again, Gryffindors could be sneaky too, in their own way.
"Magic," Ezra replied dryly. "I'm doing magic, Ledger. I know this must come as an awful shock for you."
He waved his wand again, and the sawdust began to move; it piled up in four separate directions, as though someone was raking it into a large rectangle.
There was a loud crack.
The particles, which were only wood anyway, began to reform back into planks. The planks formed walls, and the walls met to form a tiny house. Ezra took a step back, squinted, and nodded very slightly.
"I suppose it will do for a start," he murmured, brushing a bit of sawdust off of his shoulder. Then, he lifted his wand again; the remaining sawdust spread over the walls at an angle to form a thick, thatched roof. He paused again, and then, as though the necessities were an afterthought, added a door.
"The windows will have to come later, there isn't enough sand in this soil for me to make glass," he murmured, more to himself than to Noah. "Johnston will be able to finish it, I expect. Then we can move in."
He looked back, trying to judge the other boy's reaction.
Noah rolled his eyes at Ezra's teasing jab. "Aaand we're back to normal," he said, snorting.
But he quickly swallowed it and just stared, jaw dropped, at what was happening in front of him. He let out what could've been a whimper. He needed a minute to close his mouth, still staring at the wooden house standing where there had been five big trees just a few minutes ago.
It wasn't the actual magic that shocked him, as much as the fact that it was done by an 18 year old boy in just a couple minutes. A couple minutes.
Slowly, it dawned on him that the house looked tiny. Which meant Ezra – and apparently Jo as well – were going to expand it… a lot. He could've – maybe – built the house with the help of magic, if he already had the planks. Maybe. But this…
He met Ezra's eyes. "You're scary, sometimes."
Ezra raised his eyebrows very slightly at this reaction, unsure of why it was such an incredibly big deal.
"If you use wood of the same species, it will have the same relative density, which means that you're just Transfiguring wood into wood, which is the simplest kind of Transfiguration there is. Having enough wood to build a house of the same relative mass enables you to work freely without having to Multiply."
He stopped, realizing that Ledger probably either had heard all of this before or didn't care, and so he was probably wasting his breath. Transfiguration was a very involved subject, similar in some ways to Muggle science, or so he had heard. It sometimes required the use of formulas, which Ezra was rather good at, but not very much imagination, which he was not.
It all seemed rather obvious to him, really. The entire world was made out of the same old stuff, even people; there was probably some Muggle name for this concept, although he did not know it. What he did know, however, is that Transfiguring a person into a house would get you into trouble with the Ministry.
Using trees was much easier.
"Says the man who rides an engine-powered Muggle broomstick on a highway with nothing for protection except an ugly bowl," Ezra replied sarcastically. "Yes, I'm terrifying."
Noah blinked. "Wow, Professor McGonagall, I didn't know I had my NEWTs today," he teased. "Maybe you should have brought Jo with you. He would've appreciated that explanation a lot more."
He gave a sideways grin at Ezra's last comment. "Hey. I can throw a Bludger at your head when you're using my helmet, that'll give you a whole new appreciation for it."
The easy teasing was fun, especially because it seemed like they could finally do it without wanting to jump on each other's throats. But Noah was still thinking about something Ezra had said earlier.
He circled the house, studying the structure with interest, giving himself time to decide if he wanted to bring up the subject. When he returned to the front, where Ezra stood, he asked quietly, "We can move in? Does that mean you're staying with us?" He hesitated, but decided to push on. He kind of cared for the girl, and Jo cared much more. He'd been upset for her. "She was very upset when you left, you know?"
Ezra gave him a feral, sarcastic smirk. He had never liked Gryffindors much on principle, but McGonagall was one of the few he actually respected. He supposed that, out of all the teachers he could be compared to, it was better her than Slughorn.
"I'm sure," he drawled, stuffing his wand back into his pocket.
He, like Noah, began walking around the house, although he was less admiring it and more checking for flaws in his design. It could always be improved later, but any major structural flaws would be much easier to fix now rather than later, after all the Charms were in place.
He didn't see any. Good.
"Not sure if you've been paying attention, Ledger, but it isn't exactly as though I have anywhere else to go," he mumbled, taking a moment to fiddle with the door. It creaked open and shut as he pulled on it.
Noah's last words, however, made his expression darken.
"I was upset too," he said grumpily. "Except I was living in a boat at the time, so you'll have to take my word for it."
He closed the door again, leaned into it with his forehead, and sighed.
"Our relationship is not the same as yours," he began, somewhat uncertainly. "She's… she's like me, but not like me at the same time. She had her brother, and Johnston, and she has… people skills. I grew up being best friends with a house elf because my parents didn't love me enough to tuck me in at night. I can't just… speak my mind like that. That isn't how it works."
The words tumbled out before he could stop them, and he instantly regretted saying anything at all.
"Just because I don't talk about my feelings doesn't mean…" he trailed off, feeling a bit of heat creep up in his cheeks. "…that I don't have any."
"You didn't have to leave. We could've… talked things through," Noah said, rather reasonably. "I'm just saying. But I understand that maybe you needed space."
He let Ezra talk, leaning against the wall and looking away into the trees. "Yeah, she had her brother. And look what he did to her." Noah wasn't sure he was the right person to give relationship advice, but he carried on. "It's not that difficult. You just did it," he pointed out. "I don't know her all that well, but it seems to me like she wouldn't punish you for speaking your mind, or think less of you. And it's obvious you love her. What's not simple about that?"
Ezra sighed audibly in reply.
What's not simple about that? The question had offended him at first, but then he pondered it seriously for a few moments. They did love each other, didn't they? Had he really been so conditioned to expect sabotage and subterfuge in a relationship that he was seeing it where there was none?
He realized then that he had never seen Ledger and Johnston actually fight, which gave him the sneaking, sinking suspicion that he might actually be onto something.
Of course, he wasn't going to admit that.
"Right," he said hollowly, after a while. "Well, let's go. I daresay we could leave the motorbike here and Apparate back and forth, but..." The Slytherin searched Noah's solid face for any hint of cooperation. "No," he said sardonically in response to his own suggestion. "No, of course not."
Noah lifted an eyebrow and said nothing. "Of course not," he repeated, then broke into a wide grin. "Come on, Greengrass, grow some bollocks. How about this? If we crash, I'll let you turn me into any object you want."
He took one last look around, to make sure he would find that place again, and took off, not before poking Ezra one last time."I know Apparating would get you back more quickly, but she'll be waiting for you, don't worry."
-/-/-
Josiah was busy packing his things into boxes when he heard the front room door open and close. He might have heard the motor of Noah's bike, if not for the Sound Reduction Charms that surrounded the entire condo.
"That didn't take long," he called out cheerfully, emerging from his side of the condo and closing the door behind him. He stuffed his wand into his pocket hurriedly, trying to be as gentle as possible just in case anything tense had happened between the two boys during their trip. He examined both of them; Ezra looked a little ruffled, and was holding one of Noah's helmets as though it had offended his sensibilities. Other than that, they looked none the worse for wear.
"How'd it… go?" he pushed on, tentatively.
At these words, Ezra snapped out of his daze-like state and pushed off the helmet into Noah's hands.
"We've found a good spot," he informed the Ravenclaw. "But I'll need your help to finish it up." He didn't necessarily have a lot of faith in his own ability to decorate anything, and he definitely couldn't manage an Undetectable Extension Charm of that magnitude.
Josiah blinked at him.
"Er," he said, somewhat uncertainly, because Ezra had not specified very much. "Alright." He gave Noah a quick, bewildered look.
Noah took back his helmet and put both away. He rubbed his neck at Jo's look, amused and a little awkward. When he'd thought about it, on their way back, he'd realized that just a day ago, he would've laughed at anyone who told him he'd be having a casual chat with Greengrass. He walked up to Jo, smiling warmly at him.
"Our new home is in the middle of nowhere, half hour away by bike and it's standing where a couple hours ago stood about five or six trees," he said lightly.
A door opened quietly and he looked up. "Jo, I need one more box to-" Daniella came out of the other side of the condo, but she stopped abruptly when she saw them all there. "Hi…" She said in a low voice, not quite looking at anyone.
Josiah listened carefully to Noah's explanation, allowing it to sink in for several long, silent moments. A couple hours…?
"You built a house?" he asked the blond, just to clarify. Ezra snorted derisively, although his smirk wasn't unkind like it normally might have been.
"I Transfigured a house," he supplied, scratching his nose absentmindedly. "All it needs is an Undetectable Extension Charm and some decorations. That's where you come in."
"Oh," said Josiah in a small voice. His eyes were wide, and he was staring at Ezra as though the other boy had grown a second head - in the good way. "That's - well then. Let me just finish getting packed up-"
The door opened, and Dan emerged. Josiah gave her a small, encouraging smile.
"I'll bring you a box, love, just a tic," he said, turning around and approaching the door again. Then, he stopped for a moment. "Noah, you should come pack, too," he said, as lightly and subtly as possible.
Ezra pursed his lips. So they were in it together after all. He wasn't even able to use packing as an excuse; his things had already been packed and tossed into the front room. He smoothed his hair idly with one hand, looking around at the ceiling and the now-bare walls, and everywhere except for Daniella.
"Hi," he replied, finally. For some reason, he couldn't get Noah's earlier words out of his head. He tapped the toe of his boot on the wooden floor for a moment, pensive.
"Listen, I'm sorry about earlier," he murmured lowly. "And for, you know, for leaving. I shouldn't have."
Daniella's heart hammered against her chest for no apparent reason. Josiah was right: it was a little like falling in love again. Except things between Ezra and her hadn't progressed in the normal way to start with.
His voice sent shivers through her skin. "No, you shouldn't have," she said softly. "But I shouldn't have doubted you." She fiddled with the hem of her shirt. "I missed you," she murmured.
Ezra turned his head toward her slightly as he talked, although he was still looking at the floor. He was trying not to make excuses; it was so easy for him to try to justify what he'd done. He'd hurt her, though. She'd hurt him, too, of course, but…
Finally, he looked up at her, searching her eyes. He reached out and pulled her, gently, closer to him.
He leaned his forehead against hers and closed his eyes.
"I love you," he whispered. "I thought you'd be afraid of me if I told you what I knew. I just wanted things to be normal for us."
What could possibly be simpler than that?
Daniella exhaled slowly, feeling good and peaceful for the first time in over a week. She belonged in his arms, and she would never let anyone try to take that away from her again.
She brushed her fingers lightly over his jaw. "I'm not afraid of you, Ezra. I love you. I'm proud of you." She huffed out a chuckle. "But normal? We're at war, haven't you heard? There are dementors and undead bodies out there, after us."
She kissed him. She wanted to do a lot more than that to him. She lowered her hand and took his, pulling him onto their side of the condo. "Come with me."
-/-/-
After he was at least semi-decent, Ezra threw his legs over the edge of the bed and sighed. He was glad that things were better now; it would make everything a lot easier if they were all getting along smoothly. But the truth, he knew, was that they couldn't avoid Logan and his partners forever.
"It's best to leave tonight, if we can," he murmured, feeling the afterglow recede. "We might have done enough to keep them at bay for a day, at best. Eventually they'll find out where we've been staying, enchantments or no, and we'll be in trouble."
Daniella sat up as well, deep in thought. They hadn't needed to say anything, that night. She and Logan knew each other far too well. She'd been blind for far too long. Now she knew that she couldn't help him. He didn't want to be helped.
The brother she'd known was gone. All that was left now was an empty, painful space in her heart where he'd been. In his eyes she'd seen a simple truth. He wouldn't stop. He'd lost it all, so he couldn't stop anymore. And he was coming for revenge.
She turned her head to look at Ezra on the other side of the bed. "We'll be ready to go," she said, picking up her potions books that had been on a pile on the bed before they tossed them away uncerimoniously.
"So, how are we doing this? Is there furniture yet, water, food?"
He pulled on his pants and his shirt and smoothed his hair meticulously. The room was silent, and he knew she was thinking about Logan in that moment. He couldn't understand; the concept of caring about a family member was foreign to him, and so he could only feel a detached sort of sympathy. He was sad because she was sad.
But he had no love lost for Logan. What he'd said to the other boy in the alleyway had only been a rather educated guess; he hadn't known for sure that he had joined the Death Eaters. It didn't surprise him, though. Many of his housemates were probably in their ranks by now.
Indeed, he and Daniella were more outcasts than they were.
"There's nothing yet," he murmured, sighing. "It might be hard for a while. We can Conjure the water, but there's no plumbing. There won't be electricity, either. I can Transfigure whatever furniture we need, and we can take our linens, but other than that…"
He trailed off uncertainly. They were already living on thin ice in the condo, and the way he was describing their new arrangement made it seem even worse. The truth was, though, there was nowhere on the grid they could go now and be safe.
"We can work on the food situation. If we have dry goods, I can multiply them. It will be enough to live on until we get situated."
Daniella tucked the books carefully into a box, then went around the bed to slip her arms around him. "I'm more curious about how you'll live without that show you've been watching lately," she said jokingly.
It wouldn't be easy. They'd have a tough time for a while, but she couldn't bring herself to be concerned. They were together; everything else didn't seem that important. "Hmm, we should probably join them, or they'll think we ran away just ourselves."
Ezra wrapped his arms over her own, cherishing her. His happiness faded a bit, though, at the mention of Crossroads. He'd forgotten all about the fact that they wouldn't have television, and this realization made him slightly more depressed than it should have. It was like losing an annoying friend who never stopped talking and then realizing that you would miss the white noise.
"It was a very good show," he sighed mournfully. "But we all must make our sacrifices if we are to carry on."
He smiled sidelong at her and got to his feet.
"You think so? I bet they've barely even noticed-" he opened the door to find Josiah beside of it, looking startled. The Ravenclaw gave him a nervous, sheepish smile and thrust a box at his chest. He was trying very hard to look as though he had not just had his ear to the door.
"I've brought the box," he said breathlessly. Ezra stared at him for a moment, trying to keep the amusement off of his face.
"He's brought the box," Ezra repeated to Daniella, turning and tossing it onto the bed.
-/-/-
A couple hours later, with the group fed and fully packed, Daniella joined Ezra in the bedroom. The sun was low in the sky, and people hurried through the streets, returning to their homes after another workday. "Movement is starting to slow down outside. Are you ready to go?"
Ezra didn't look over as her hand grazed his back. "I'm ready," he affirmed, turning finally and gathering some boxes by hand. They weren't very large boxes, but he would only be able to Apparate with what he could carry. The others probably wouldn't be able to carry as much, so it would take a few trips - and with Noah on his bike, they would be waiting around in the dark for some time.
It wasn't ideal, but it was the best they could do under the circumstances. It was certainly better than staying in the condo.
He offered Dan a small smile, and then held out his hand.
"I'll take you, then you can go back and forth on your own."
Daniella turned around, nodded and picked up a box. With her free hand, she took his hand, squeezing it gently. "Let's go."
She held on tightly to the box and, one second later, she was facing a lovely, tiny looking house made of wood. She put the box down and grinned, taking in the sight in front of her. "Ezra, it's beautiful!"
She let go of his hand and slowly circled the construction, studying it with interest, running her hand lightly over the wooden walls. She returned to the front and braced her hands on his chest, smiling. "You've done an amazing job!"
Ezra smiled warmly at her praise. He watched as she examined every inch of what he'd Transfigured, then took her in his arms and gave her a quick, gentle squeeze as she came back to him.
"We'll make it work," he said lightly, putting his boxes next to the ones Daniella had brought. A moment later, Josiah and Noah cracked in beside them. There was a small intake of breath from the shorter boy.
"Bless, what a sweet little house," he said affectionately, as though he would have reached out to pinch the cottage's cheeks if it had any. Ezra's lips quirked at one corner.
"Well, if we're all in agreement about it," he murmured, running an idle hand through his hair. "If you could go ahead and…" he trailed off; the other boy already had his wand out and was ducking into the door.
"Could do with a floor, though," Jo called back. Ezra moved forward, wand out.
"Right," he said, a little embarrassed. They did an awkward dance, because the house was small and it was a challenge to squeeze by Josiah's slightly plump form in the entranceway. When he finally found his way inside, Ezra Transfigured the pillowy leftover sawdust into a basic stone slab floor.
He ducked out again.
"Cheers," said Josiah, who went ahead with his Charms. "It might take me a few minutes, what with having to make lots of rooms, so you lot can go on and bring more boxes."
Not wanting to waste any time, Ezra Apparated back to the condo and began piling more things into his arms.
For a while, the condo and the clearing in the woods were a blur of people popping in and out, and within twenty minutes the condo was empty and the clearing had a large pile of labeled boxes waiting to be sorted.
The sun was nearly touching the horizon as Noah Apparated one last time in the clearing, carrying one last box and his broomstick. He set it carefully on top of the boxes.
"This was the last one." He walked up to the house. "Hey, Jo!" He called, smiling at his boyfriend. "Everything's here. I'm going back now, to bring my motorbike. I'll be back in half hour."
"Alright, love," Jo called from somewhere inside the house, which was now much bigger on the inside; his voice was a bit muffled. "I'll be here. Be careful, like I said! I love you."
Ezra returned a moment later with the remainder of his own things, including his large silver cauldron that bore the Greengrass family crest. He looked up at Noah, who was retreating.
"Are you going back for your motorbroom?" he asked, setting the cauldron down gently. ""Watch for fliers; it's cloudy out. I doubt they'd be able to catch you, but they can still follow your trail, and that would make everything we've done here today useless. So don't take any unnecessary risks," he finished, much more conservatively than Josiah had.
With that, he went to take a peek in the house. He opened the door, stuck his head in, and blinked.
"Merlin's beard," he murmured, stepping over the threshold and into a nicely-sized front room. Beyond the foyer, there was a common dining room, with one magical window in the back. There was also a kitchen, a pantry, two spaces for bedroom, and a small room off to the side that Ezra could only assume was meant to be a bathroom. The Ravenclaw was fiddling with the kitchen ceiling when he found him.
"Do you think you can make some cabinets? For the uppers?" Josiah asked absentmindedly, motioning. "I could try, but you're much better than I am; although I can't say that I've done much, not really, although I did enchant some of the wall to be a one-sided window, that way maybe any Muggles will think it's just a wee shed-"
"It's really nice, Johnston," Ezra said quietly, with an unusual amount of kindness. "Thanks for finishing it up. I'll get you some cabinets."
Noah grinned as he got a glimpse of Jo, doing his intricate little dance around the newly added rooms, looking happy. He retreated.
He blinked at Ezra, then let out a laugh. "Shawn once suggested I should call it Sheila, but 'motorbroom' is a million times better." He listened to the other boy's advices, trying to keep a straight face. "Yes, I will be careful and I won't bring any uninvited guests. Take it easy, Greengrass, someone might think you actually care about me," he said lightly.
He passed by the other boy, checked his pocket for his wand, then stopped and turned around, looking thoughtful. "Hey, Greengrass. Hmm, would it be too much trouble if you built a little extension for Motorbroom? Just so it doesn't stay outside, in plain sight?" He asked hesitantly. "If it doesn't take too much time, of course."
With that, he Apparated back into the condo. He took one last look around, making sure they didn't leave anything of their own behind, picked up his helmet and headed out the door.
It had gotten dark quickly outside. He left the parking area onto the main road. Suddenly, a flash of red light hit him on his right side. He struggled to control the motorbike, as a flash of grey light hit his helmet.
"Shit!" he cursed, speeding to get out of that street, zigzagging between parked cars, making tight turns. The back tire skidded as he took an abrupt turn to the left. He felt a sudden, sharp pain on his left leg as an hex hit him. It threw him against a parked car and stopped his motorbike momentarily.
Noah took one hand off of the handle, reached for his wand and looked to the left. A man was running up to him. He sent half a dozen hexes in quick succession, making the man dodge to the side. He looked up to the sky. A shadow flew in circles above him.
Ezra had been right. "Fuck," he muttered, sticking the wand between his crotch and the seat, for easy access to it. He tried not to think of how dangerous 'that' was to certain parts of his body.
The man had gotten up and was running towards him again, sending curses at him. Noah turned the handle and sped forward, ignoring the pain on his leg.