Chapter 25 - Flying

When Noah slipped out of bed, the next morning, the cottage was still silent. Everyone was still in bed, it seemed. But Noah couldn't sleep. Since the previous night, something had grown restless inside of him. He needed to train; needed to sharpen whatever skills he might have… and hopefully he would discover some soon.

He picked an apple, rubbed it on his shirt to clean it and bit into it. Holding it between his teeth, he grabbed all the empty bottles of beer and took them outside. It would be another hot day, it seemed, but there was still a nice, cool breeze and the woods were still covered in shadows.

There was a stump in the clear area where Ezra had been taking down trees. He settled them there. When the others were up and ready, they could use them to practice. Ezra could probably perform a Gemino Curse on them to make more.

Until then, using his time alone, he quickly finished his apple, threw the seeds away and went back into the cottage. He searched for a piece of parchment and wrote:

"I'm outside, flying. I'll be nearby."

He left it on the newly made table, where Jo could easily spot it – the last thing he needed was for his boyfriend to freak out again if he didn't see him – grabbed his broom and left the cottage.

He got on the broomstick and took off, slowly increasing speed as he dodged one tree after another. A wild smile blossomed in his lips as adrenaline rushed through his veins, his senses awakening slowly after months. He'd missed that.

Ezra stirred slowly, trying to postpone the opening of his eyes for as long as possible. The early morning air was quiet, still, and just a touch crisp; the woods outside were so dense that all he could hear were the very nearest birds. Unfortunately, by the time he realized all of this, he was very much awake with no hope of returning to his warm, comfortable slumber.

He rolled over and out of the bed, stretched lavishly, and opened the door.

Josiah, who was also in his pajamas, looked over from his place in the kitchen.

"Morning," he murmured, arranging teacups around the small table. "Fancy a cuppa?"

Ezra rubbed one eye and was silent for a few moments. It was still a touch early for him to pretend to be social. The Ravenclaw pushed a full, steaming cup of tea toward Ezra's side of the table. It was unsweetened, just the way he took it.

They might not be the best of friends, but they were at least getting used to each other.

"Ta," he said sleepily. He lowered himself into a chair and raised the cup cautiously to his lips. It was only then that he realized there was someone missing. "Is Ledger still asleep?" he inquired.

"Noah's out flying at the moment," Josiah replied, too politely to be normal. He poured himself some tea, added two lumps of sugar, and took the seat across from Ezra. He stirred the steaming liquid a little too vigorously before chancing another look up.

Ezra's eyebrows twitched very slightly, and he gave a small, careful nod.

"Oh," he said, for lack of anything better to contribute. "Then, perhaps we should go...?"

"Not without my tea, I'm not," Josiah said dryly. "But you can, if you fancy having him boss you about at this hour without any nourishment."

Ezra considered this, then took another long, desperate sip of tea.

Daniella woke up with the laziness of having slept for too long. She stretched, looked around the room, then heard the hushed voices of the others in the kitchen.

She only found two of her boys in the kitchen, though. Maybe she hadn't been the last one to wake up, after…

Noah pushed the front door open and entered the cottage then, interrupting her thoughts. He was holding his broomstick, looking way happier than she thought was acceptable for that time of the day.

"Finally, you're all up," Noah said grinning. He put the broom aside, picked another apple from the small basket and took a large bite. "Are you ready? It's a perfect day, it's a waste to spend inside!"

Daniella frowned at him, murmured "Good morning," and took her seat at the table, pouring tea into a cup, determined to enjoy her breakfast without having to think about taking her feet off of the ground.

Daniella had only just joined them when the door opened with gusto; Ezra followed her gaze and rested his eyes, too, on Noah. He was pink-tinged and windswept. The mere sight of him made Ezra want to crawl back into bed.

"If you keep up that nonsense, it's going to be very difficult to pretend to be happy to see you," he mumbled shortly, pouring himself another cup of tea. He'd had just enough time to warm up all of his mental faculties, and each and every sarcastic piston was running at full steam.

Josiah smiled weakly, producing a fourth cup and pushing it toward Noah hopefully.

"Good flight?" he asked, hoping that Noah's enthusiasm would hold long enough for him to put decent clothes on.

Noah's grin wavered slightly at the lack of an enthusiastic response, but not for long. He studied Ezra with a gleam of anticipation in his eyes. He hadn't forgotten the snakes yet.

He accepted the tea Jo pushed at him, but he couldn't sit down. He had too much energy to stay still. A small dry leaf fell from his sleeve onto the table as he moved.

"It was amazing! It's not like flying out in the open obviously. And all the trees might be tricky for you guys, for now. So we'll stay around the house, in this clearing. For now."

He gulped the tea, then looked around at them, wanting to shove them off to their rooms to get changed. Then he thought better of it; that would just make them argue with him and take longer.

"I also took all the bottles outside. I thought we could practice with them after the flying lesson. Maybe we could Charm them to move around," he said, trying to spark Jo's interest. He glanced at Ezra. "Do you know how to perform the Gemino Curse? We don't have that many…"

Ezra pursed his lips at Noah's persistent cheerfulness; Josiah wrinkled his nose at the dry leaf that floated onto the table he'd just washed. He used his wand to vanish it promptly before looking back up at his boyfriend.

"I assume that's why you look like you've been living in the mountains for a month," he ventured sassily. He studied Noah's tan, well-featured face; how could he not love that face? His smirk dissolved into a genuine smile.

At least something was making Noah happy. He would at least pretend to enjoy himself, if only because it was important to Noah.

"Sounds good to me," he murmured, pushing away his empty cup. "I'll go get decent. It's probably best to get started before it gets too awfully hot," he added, a subtle, verbal prod that Ezra recognized and resented.

Unfortunately, his cup, too, was empty again. He couldn't really justify having three cups of breakfast tea, even before a nerve-wracking broom ride.

"Yes, fine," he said wearily, looking from Jo to Dan to Noah, the latter of whom was looking at him particularly expectantly. "I'll duplicate your bottles," he assured the Gryffindor. "Keep your pants on."

Both boys rose from the table and went in separate directions.

Noah brushed a hand over his hair and shrugged sheepishly. "It's not easy to avoid every single brunch." Hopefully Jo wouldn't notice the scrapes on his shoulder.

"I will try," Noah replied to Ezra. "Just 'cause you asked so nicely. I'll wait outside." He looked at Daniella intently. "I'll be waiting for you as well," he said.

Daniella narrowed her eyes at him. She'd pretended to be sick in her first year, only so she could avoid the flying lessons in Hogwarts.

"You do realize I make most of your meals, don't you?" she said threateningly.

Noah just looked at her, that annoyingly cheery grin on his lips.

A few moments passed. Daniella sighed.

"Fine, I'll get dressed," she muttered, defeated.

Ezra emerged a few minutes later, hastily clad in a faded green shirt and a pair of Muggle denim trousers. It pained him, but the truth was that he no longer had an excuse to dress up. His best white shirt had been ruined with blood - not even laundry potion could take out a stain like that. There was no one around to admire his well-brushed suit jackets anymore; he was too busy turning trees into sawdust and running for his life to worry about something so trivial. His hair was getting a bit longer, too, and it was much harder to manage since he'd run out of hair potion.

He was coming to the realization that it was much harder to be poor having once been rich; however, it was especially hard to be poor, formerly rich, and pretty.

The front door of the cottage fell shut behind him with a clatter.

"What sort of training do you have in mind?" he asked warily, eyeing the incredibly well-polished broomstick. He didn't hate flying; in fact, he rather liked it. He'd had several brooms when he was younger, because Pureblood children learned to fly young and well. But he'd never been the type to follow Quidditch, per se, so the skill had been largely lost on him when he'd entered Hogwarts and discovered other, more interesting things.

He still didn't like the looks of those trees, though.

Noah stood outside, studying the small clearing. They didn't have much space, so he hoped they'd start feeling confident enough to get into the trees soon.

He looked over his shoulder at Ezra. For some reason, he really wanted this to go well. He wasn't sure why he wanted to impress the others, or why he felt like he had something to prove to Ezra.

"Well, we're not practicing for Quidditch. I figure, if any of you needs to use a broomstick, it's to escape somewhere or someone. You want to go high and away fast, and you'll most likely need to use your wand at the same time."

He paused when Daniella came out of the cottage, dressed in denims and a sleeveless white shirt, holding her wand and looking at him with barely contained resentment.

"So," Noah continued seriously, "my goal is to teach the three of you how to balance on a moving broomstick with one hand, while escaping hexes and maybe trying to hex something back. But I need to see how you fly first." He stretched out his arm, pushing the broomstick towards Ezra.

Ezra listened, staring pensively up at the dense canopy of trees. He couldn't deny that being able to ride a broom was a good skill for a witch or wizard. If he or Ledger had to make a quick getaway on a broomstick, at least they'd have a fair shot. He thought of Johnston, though, who was a little clumsy and, objectively, heavier than the rest of them...

As if on cue, the shorter boy appeared through the front door and joined them, listening in on their mostly one-sided conversation. He was wearing a worn t-shirt that must have been black once; it had a few holes near the collar that were the size of a pencil eraser. His calves were exposed by his loose denim shorts. He'd come just in time to hear Noah using words like 'height' and 'fast', and he pursed his lips a little.

"How high?" he asked, a bit put out. His question was lost, however, when Noah thrust the broomstick toward Ezra with silent implication.

Ezra reached out with one pale hand and wrapped his thin fingers around the polished handle. It was easy to tell that it was a quality broom; it had a good width, good heft, and the bristles were well-maintained.

Still, it had been a long time since he'd flown.

"Right," he said, to no one in particular. He lifted one leg over the stick of the broom and took one long, serious look at the ground.

He gave an experimental hop. The broom, ever-obedient, hovered some four feet in the air. The responsiveness caught him rather by surprise; his old broom had gained altitude much more slowly. He tightened his grip on the broomstick. The wind rustled his hair gently, as though coaxing him.

Ezra furrowed his eyebrows for a split second before leaning forward and taking off into the top of the clearing. It was a nice feeling, really. Refreshing.

Until he got a twig to the face, that was.

"Bloody hell," he mumbled, swerving a bit in midair before coming to a queasy hover, in which he brought one hand up to feel at his face. It wasn't bleeding, but he had a rather impressive whelp. "Bloody trees!" he called out, also to no one in particular.

He did another lap around the clearing before landing, smoothly but with a scowl.

He handed the broom back to Noah, still nursing the side of his face absentmindedly.

"Well, you weren't kidding," he said, sourly.

Noah crossed his arms and followed the flight closely, glad that at least one of them knew how to ride a broomstick.

He took a few mental notes on what he'd have to work on with Ezra the most as he accepted his broomstick back.

"No, I don't usually kid about flying," he said not without a teasing note. "You're not bad. But you'll need your dominant hand free to use your wand, so you'll have to focus on controlling your flight with your other hand, now." He glanced at his face, where he'd hit the twig. "Be prepared for a few more hits against the branches."

Then, he looked at Jo and smiled expectantly. "Would you mind going next?"

He wasn't looking forward to hand the broomstick over to Daniella, that was for sure. She looked like she was considering smacking him upside the head with it. He wondered why she disliked flying so much.

Josiah waffled for a moment under Noah's gaze, trying to find any excuse to stall for a few more moments while he settled his nerves.

"Oh, sure, yeah, let me just... have a look..." he trailed off, motioning toward Ezra with his wand; a small golden spark flew off and fizzled out somewhere around Ezra's left eye. Josiah offered a small, meek smile, which Ezra didn't return. Instead, he closed his eyes slowly and rubbed his hand gingerly along the side of his face.

"I'm fine," he said, without any trace of sympathy or enthusiasm. "Don't mind me."

Jo, feeling betrayed, pursed his lips and lowered his wand. He'd made the man tea! Typical Slytherin.

"Fine," he grumbled, stuffing his wand into his pocket and taking the proffered broom with both hands. He straddled it awkwardly, trying to shift his weight evenly, and kicked off. The broom rose, but somewhat less than when Ezra had tried it; Josiah wasn't sure if that meant that the other boy was more skilled with a broomstick, or if...

His cheeks flushed pink, and he leaned forward just to get out of the immediate vicinity of the others. This turned out to be a mistake, however, because he hadn't properly prepared himself for how fast the broom could actually go.

"Merlin's pants!" he half-squeaked, coming to a full stop some ten feet above the ground. From where he was, though, it looked like fifty. He was gripping the handle so hard that his knuckles were white. "Um?" he called down uncertainly, hoping for some tidbit of helpful instruction that would help him to not feel a sense of impending doom.

Noah cleared his throat to keep a straight face. Jo's face on a broomstick would always be one of his favorite things ever. "Good, Jo. Just relax your fingers." He took a couple of steps away from the others, looking up at Jo. "Remember our lesson? You'll be fine, just give it a gentle nudge. That broom is just a little faster than the other one."

He held his wand, just in case Jo really did fall off and he needed to create a Cushioning Charm. "I've got you, Jo," he cheered. "Whenever you're ready, show me what you can do. I want to see everything we practiced before."

Jo tried to ease his fingers around the handle, but all he managed to do was make a very concerned face and wiggle his fingertips a bit. It was no use. He was petrified; he could hear his heartbeat in his ears.

"It was a lot different last time," he replied, too low for any of the others to hear him from so far away. With some difficulty, he turned the broom around and started to make his way around the clearing.

Slowly.

"Are you sure this is a good idea?" Ezra mused, just loud enough for Noah to hear him. "He doesn't look very comfortable."

This was true, of course, but he was less concerned for Josiah's immediate safety - Ledger was watching him like a hawk, and he had more natural padding than any of them - and more concerned about the fact that the boy looked ready to cry. Forcing someone to do something they found terrifying might be one way to break them of their phobia, but Ezra wasn't entirely sure it was the best way.

Josiah, who had inched his way to the furthest edge of the clearing, was well out of earshot. He had risen to approximately fifteen feet, but didn't seem keen on going any higher. He closed his eyes for a split second, trying to force himself to relax.

Something buzzed around his ear, and he squealed again, jerking upward so suddenly that he immediately gained five feet and, panicking, overcompensated his descent. The broom soared downward, and Jo jerked up again just in time to save the broomstick and both of his legs a fate that was sure to be, if not devastating, at least relatively painful.

He jumped off of the broom, which quivered to a halt; he grabbed it out of the air and stalked back over to Noah. He held the broom out wordlessly, feeling pale and shaky and rather like he needed another lie down.

"I can't," he mumbled, looking off to the side.

Noah didn't look away from Josiah. "If he has to fall off of his broom, it's best to do it here with us than when he's trying to escape a Death Eater, don't you think?" he asked back to Ezra, quietly, not showing how tight his chest was. He wasn't particularly enjoying putting Jo through this. "I don't like making him feel that way, but what if-"

Jo lost control of the broom then and Noah promptly took a few steps closer to him. He regained some sort of control, though, and Noah barely had time to push his heart back down into his chest before Jo walked up to him.

The Gryffindor took the broom off of his boyfriend's hands and offered him a comforting hug. "It's alright, Jo. You did well." He sighed, wondering if Green grass was right. "You don't have to do it again if you don't want to…" he conceded. He'd find a way to keep Jo safe without needing a broom.

Jo leaned into Noah, resting his chin on the other boy's shoulder and looking pensively into the forest. Then, slowly, he pulled away.

"I'll think about it," he murmured, offering a small, uneasy smile. He was still shaking a bit from the shock of losing control of the broomstick. "There was a bee, is all; scared me proper, that did."

He lowered himself into a sitting position on the soft, slightly damp forest floor and folded his legs.

Daniella had been silent the whole time, hoping they'd forget she was there, struggling between feeling confident and very insecure.

When Noah turned to look at her, she settled for insecure, but licked her lips, composing a determined expression.

She knew how to fly. Her brother had taught her when she was five or six years old. It hadn't been a particularly fun experience though, and she'd avoided the activity ever since.

The silence stretched uncomfortably. Huffing out a breath, she grabbed the broomstick without meeting Noah's eyes. He was going to say something, then stopped himself, but didn't let go of the broom.

She looked up at him. "I know how to fly," she said in annoyed defiance.

"Did you learn before going to Hogwarts?" Noah asked, not sure what to expect from her.

She just nodded.

He studied her a few seconds longer. "Just show me what you can do," he settled for. "Don't take unnecessary risks."

Daniella slipped her wand into her back pocket and straddled the broomstick.

Logan had owned a Cleansweep. She knew the Nimbus was faster, but her problem wasn't the speed as much as the heights. She held on to the handle to keep her hands from shaking. Her heart was pounding, but she took off the ground with relative ease.

It wasn't so bad, she told herself, as long as she didn't look down. She took a few deep breaths and motioned forward, but before she had moved three feet away from the group, Noah's voice reached her.

"A little higher, Daniella. You're barely two feet off the ground."

And that's high enough, she thought, but didn't say, because her teeth were firmly clenched. She rose a little higher, a faint whimper escaping her throat. She moved forward. It'll be over soon, she told herself, but then she looked down.

Her stomach dropped and she felt a little dizzy. "Oh, sweet Merlin's underpants," she breathed and closed her eyes and her hands more tightly around the handle.

The broom sped forward.

"Turn, Daniella," came Noah's voice a moment later. "Turn now!"

She opened her eyes, and a tree was coming at her way too fast. She hadn't been watching where she was going. "Shit!" She turned the broom and avoided that tree, cursing violently, but another one showed up in front of her. She was going too fast to be able to avoid it too, but she still pushed the broom all the way to the left.

The turn was so abrupt she lost her balance. She missed the tree by a few inches, but her arm hit a branch and she slid off of the broom.

Daniella tried to hold on, but her fingers slipped before she could bring the broomstick back down.

She braced herself for a painful fall, but landed on something fluffy instead, before hopping off onto the ground and landing on a half-seating awkward position.

"Owww!" she grumbled.

Ezra was at Daniella's side before he realized that his feet had touched the ground. He reached for his wand, then thought better; if anyone was going to do any healing magic, it should probably be Johnston. He pulled his hand back around and settled for clasping both of his around hers and hoisting her into an upright position.

"Are you alright?" he asked, quietly. His jaw was a bit clenched, but it took him a few moments to figure out why - when he did figure it out, however, he let go of her hands and spun around to get a good look at Noah. He raised one long, accusatory finger.

"This is not working," he said pointedly, motioning to Josiah, who looked awkwardly off to the side at being dragged into the argument. Then, he motioned to Daniella. "How do you expect them to learn like this? They'd be better off on foot. They're not second year Quidditch applicants, Ledger. You can't just bark orders at them and expect it to bloody work."

Josiah, who was growing more and more uncomfortable, interjected.

"I didn't think I did that poorly," he murmured, a bit stung.

"You did," Ezra said flatly and without remorse. He rounded on Noah again, raising his eyebrows. "You know he did. Do you think you're doing him a favor by telling him otherwise?"

He rolled his shoulders, feeling his muscles knead along his back. He looked off to the side and clenched his jaw again, if only to prevent himself from saying more things he would likely regret.

Daniella bit back a pained groan when Ezra pulled her up to her feet. Her arm really hurt. A huge bruise was spreading from her shoulder almost all the way down to her elbow, but she didn't think it was broken.

"I'm fine," she mumbled, embarrassed, as a dozen similar memories rushed in. She always made the same mistakes – and her brother had always laughed at her, even if he tried to help. "I'm f-" she repeated, but Ezra had already turned against Noah.

Noah, who had looked worried, now looked offended and angry. "Well, it's not like I have two brooms so I can be up there with them. Don't you think I'd make this easier, if I could?"

He had trained quite a few of his teammates over the years, it's not like he didn't know what he was doing. He knew that Jo and Daniella would struggle, that's why he'd tried to find something positive to say, but even that didn't seem to please Mr. Know-It-All-Greengrass.

"At least I tried to motivate them, instead of just pulling them down or brushing them off like they're useless little brats. You just stand there, so proud of yourself, but when have you ever come down of your pedestal to teach anything to anyone?! It's not easy. It's not supposed to be easy. If they don't take any risks, how will they become better?!"

Ezra huffed out a sarcastic half-chuckle, rolling his eyes and shaking his head as Noah went for the same old rhetoric.

"Yeah, well, I managed to get a decent Stunning Spell out of you," he said dryly, shrugging theatrically. He narrowed his eyes, honing in on the other boy. "We don't need any more risks," he said lowly. "They-" he motioned to Josiah and Daniella again. "-need you to be clear with them. They need you to tell them when they botch something. That's how they'll become better, Ledger. You think you're doing them a favor by treating them like your equals, when all you're doing is hindering their progress."

Josiah, who was now looking at the ground with furrowed eyebrows, slowly got to his feet and drew his wand, meaning to tend to Daniella.

"It was only the first time out," he murmured, more to her than anyone else. He ran his wand over the bruise, which turned purple, then maroon, then brown, and then began to fade around the edges. Ezra studied the two of them in silence, then looked back up at Ledger, calculating.

He motioned for the broom.

"I want to try again," he said darkly.

"I wish it had been the last," Daniella murmured back to Jo. She examined her arm. "Thanks, Jo."

Noah gave Ezra another sour glare. "How should I treat you, then?" He asked. Greengrass certainly wasn't implying he was equal to Noah at flying.

Realizing that Noah wasn't going to oblige him just yet, Ezra pointed his wand at the broom and said, "Accio Nimbus!"

Once he had the broom in his hands again, he brushed it off - it had picked up a minor scrape from the earlier events - and smirked at Noah with a look that would make a mountain troll self-conscious.

"Like I'm your new Seeker, Captain," he said silkily. "And whipping me into shape is the one thing standing between you and the House Cup."

He mounted the broom and took off, pent-up aggression fueling his desire for altitude and speed. He did a quick lap around the top of the clearing before slowing a bit and, for the first time, attempting to pull out his wand.

It was not as easy as he thought it would be, that was for sure - Ledger hadn't been kidding when he said it would require practice on his part. Still, that thought made him even more determined. He tried his best to steer around the branches, climbing in altitude and still messing in his pockets.

He turned the corner again, trying to get used to the feeling of steering with one hand, but he was leaning to one side heavily. He got a branch to the face again, but more gently this time; he ducked, cursing. Then, without thinking, he whipped out his wand and turned the offending tree into snow-white ash.

He came to hover over Noah, looking sour. Experimentally, he raised both his arms slowly away from the broomstick, trying to balance with only his legs. This gave him a very restricted feeling in his chest, rather like he was going to die, and a slight bump made him draw his arms back in so quickly that he dropped his wand onto the other boy's head.

"Begging your pardon," Ezra called down.

Noah huffed. He wasn't used to being challenged like that. He followed the Slytherin with his eyes for a minute, his shoulders straightening with resolve. Very well, then.

He glanced at Jo and Daniella, standing to the side, Daniella frowning with a mix of disapproval and annoyance at their behavior. "You two may go inside if you want," he said abruptly.

Ezra's wand fell on him. His lips moved into a half-smirk, half-growl as he picked it up.

"The first thing my Seekers learn is to not be idiots. They're far too important to hurt the rest of the team by being reckless pricks." He locked eyes with Ezra's. "Do not take both hands off of my broomstick," he growled, giving his wand a casual wave in the broom's direction.

The broomstick gave a sudden jerk to the right.

He waited a moment, giving just enough time for Ezra to regain balance and threw the Slytherin's wand up, so the other boy could catch it.

Josiah, who was watching the whole thing with tired amusement, turned to Daniella and smiled grimly.

"I'm not certain one forest can hold so much testosterone," he murmured with a lilt. When Noah 'dismissed' them, he rolled his eyes. He was smiling though. "Yes, Captain," he said dryly, brushing off the back of his shorts and offering Dan his hand.

"I'd much rather be eating anyhow," he said, grinning. "Wouldn't you, love?"

Ezra, meanwhile, was smirking with the kind of crazed defiance that said he hadn't been completely prepared for what he'd signed up for, but now that he was here, he wasn't going to give Noah the benefit of seeing his apprehension.

Their eyes met. The broom jerked. Ezra grit his teeth, gripping the handle so tightly he could have almost been giving it a hug.

"Git," he spat, but his lips were curved into a feral grin. He saw his wand fly into the air, and he reached for it instinctively, turning sharply and snapping the thin piece of ebony out of the air with one hand. He took a moment to adjust his grip on it before looking down.

"After all this is over," he called, somewhat nostalgically. "I'm going to get one of these for my own."

Daniella hesitated, not sure if it was a good idea to leave Ezra and Noah alone.

Her head snapped up at Ezra's words. She pressed two fingers between her eyes. "Yes, please, let's go inside, before I throw him off of that broom myself," she muttered to Jo.

Noah, now fully focused on the figure above him, tried not to think about his broomstick's chances of surviving through the day and snorted at Ezra's comment. He flicked his wand, murmuring various hexes he'd learned – most of them with Potter – at Ezra, hitting him directly, or sending obstacles to get in the way. He gave a short compliment whenever Ezra succeeded in a move and made him repeat it over and over when he failed.

He stopped after a while, pointed his wand at one of the bottles and made it hover in midair barely a feet off the ground. Then he turned back to Ezra.

"What's the most important thing a seeker needs to keep in mind to succeed in catching the snitch?" He asked.

Ezra did a quick roll to avoid the most recent hex. He was suspended, for a moment, upside-down; a few beads of sweat rolled off of his forehead and onto the grass below. Then he was upright again, wand held aloft.

His chest was heaving, but he couldn't say that he was unhappy about it. Indeed, if he was honest with himself, the opportunity to get a good workout was almost therapeutic somehow.

The fact that he could feel himself improving felt ever better.

"Search me, Ledger," he said dryly, circling around the bottle at full speed to avoid any sudden hexes he might encounter. "I didn't make the team. Dawlish said I wasn't focused enough."

He doubled back, crossing behind Noah and conjuring tadpoles to pelt at the back of his head.

"Did you try out to be a Seeker?" Noah asked, shifting to the side, trying to get rid of the tadpoles, but never letting Ezra out of his sight. "I guess it makes sense. You could never be a Chaser. You're not exactly a team player," he said thoughtfully.

He made the broom jerk again, knowing he wouldn't catch the Slytherin boy off guard this time.

"You couldn't be a Beater either, you're not strong enough." He continued. His words might've sound harsh, but it was the truth. And Ezra had wanted the truth. "Seekers, on the other hand, don't have to be team players. To a Seeker, all that matters is his goal. No matter what else is going on around you, no matter how many detours you have to take, the only thing in your mind, the only thing you can see in front of you, is that Snitch."

Noah smiled, then turned his wand in the direction of the house. "Accio, Quidditch box," he murmured.

Moments later, he caught the wooden box that came flying at him. All the hexing was taking its toll on him; he wasn't used to do thix much spell work at once, but he wasn't ready to stop with the arrogant Slytherin yet.

"New exercise, Greengrass. Since we'd die of old age before you spotted a Snitch in this forest, we'll use that bottle for now."

Daniella might split his head in two if Noah used real Bludgers, so he opened the box which contained a few smaller, rubber covered black balls instead. He had used those to train the rookies without sending them to the hospital wing all the time. He unlatched his bat as well.

The familiar weight on his hand felt good and gave him a boost of confidence. He spread his legs a little, positioning himself.

"Your job is to catch that bottle," he told Green grass. "If it breaks, you fail. If it hits the ground before you catch it, you fail. If you fall off of the broom, you obviously fail. When you catch the bottle ten out of ten times, you succeed." He paused for a brief second. "If you break my broomstick, I'll break you. Understood?"

He pointed his wand at the box; the balls rose in the air and hovered at the level of his chest. Professor McGonagall had hexed them years ago, so that when he hit them, they always boomeranged back to him. That way he could just keep throwing them at Ezra. Too bad he didn't know how to hex the bottle to behave like a Snitch.

Maybe later he could ask Jo about that. He pointed his wand at the bottle; it started rising towards the sky, until it was at least 80 feet high, a good 40 feet behind Ezra, its reflection catching the eye.

"Go!" He shouted as he gave his wand another flick.

The bottle started its descent. He held the bat with both hands and started throwing the balls at Ezra, cutting off his movements.

All the spell work had taken its toll on him, so he was glad for the chance to do something purely physical for a bit.

Ezra snorted at the verbal pinch, letting his trademark smirk cover his face. The broom jerked under him, but he had seen it coming; he guided the broom easily back into place, still circling idly, waiting for the other boy's next move.

"My father was a Seeker," he offered, neither emotionally nor affectionately. "He cut 100 galleons off my allowance when he found out I didn't make the team. I suppose you've described us both rather well."

As much as he hated to admit it, neither he nor his father was a team player. For all their differences...

He swung one foot nonchalantly as a large wooden Quidditch supply box came hurtling through the air towards Ledger, who caught it ably. The other boy procured several small black balls and a Beater's bat; Ezra arched an eyebrow.

The terms were deceptively simple. Ezra wavered for a moment before furrowing his brow.

"Yeah. Got it."

The bottle rocketed into the sky, so high that Ezra could barely see it properly, and then Noah told him to go.

He went.

The problem, he realized, was not getting to the bottle; it was getting to the bottle without gouging his eyes out on a twig or getting pummeled by croquet balls.

"Shit," he murmured, hearing the dull clink of the bottle as it hit the first branches of the trees and began its slow, nerve-shattering descent. He wove in between branches, feeling as though everything in front of him was hyper-focused; he could see the pattern on the tree leaves, but not the bottle. He could only hear it and go toward the noise.

Until he saw the glint of glass catch the sunlight.

He reached up for it, stretching his arm far above his head; the bottle, however, had other ideas. It fell to the other side, taking a different path. Ezra growled, frustrated for a split second.

And then he was upside down. There was a dull ache in the back of his head where he'd been hit by one of those damn balls; he blinked a few times, holding on to the broom with nothing but his legs. It was the perfect position from which to watch the bottle fall further down the tree.

He shifted his weight and pulled down with his leg; the broom obliged, albeit slowly. He dangled there, stretching as far as he could stretch. The bottle was inches from his fingertips... if only he could get down a little further...

He took another ball to the upper back, and he lost sight of the bottle temporarily. It landed on the mossy ground with a dull thump.

Ezra landed on top of it, awkwardly and painfully and with much less grace. The broom hovered valiantly two feet above the ground.

He meant to curse, but he could only lay back, frustrated and exhausted.

"Bugger," he said after a few moments, breathlessly.

The sun had set behind the canopy when the last of the black balls hovered back to Noah for what seemed like the millionth time. They hovered in midair again, lined up, waiting obediently.

Hours had passed without them noticing. Well, Noah's shoulder had noticed for sure. If it had been a bit sore from his own encounter with a tree branch earlier, it was definitely nagging him now. He rubbed it absentmindedly as he walked up to Ezra, who'd fallen off of the broom again.

He was actually quite impressed. His broomstick was still in one piece – and so was Greengrass, sort of – and the other boy had caught the bottle a few times.

He wiped the sweat of his forehead with his arm and swung the bat over his shoulder, looking down at the Slytherin stretched on dirt.

"Should I point out how poorly you've done so far?" He asked, raising a mocking eyebrow, but smirking at the same time. "We're done for today. You need food and a shower," he instructed.

Ezra lay on the ground, panting; it seemed to get softer every time he fell, somehow. As it was, he barely had the strength to open one eye and give Ledger an amused - if tired - look.

"I need a stretcher," he corrected, pulling himself into a sitting position. Crumbled leaf pieces fell from him, but he paid them no attention. He examined his fingernails - they were dirty - and pursed his lips. "Or a generously-sized above ground swimming pool in which to collect my sweat."

He braced himself on the other boy's arm and pulled himself up. Noah hadn't offered; Ezra didn't care. Together, they walked in contented silence back into the cottage, which was filled with the smell of food. He inhaled deeply.

"Bloody hell, I'm starved," he mumbled, fiddling with the buttons on his shirt in a desperate attempt to get it off of his sticky torso. Josiah, who was hunched over the stove, looked back, examined the sweaty, dirty pair of boys in the front room, and shook his head.

"You're not allowed into the kitchen in that state," he said mercilessly. Ezra used his rumpled shirt to wipe at his brow.

"Ugh," was all he said before he trudged off to the small washroom.

Daniella had been preparing roast chicken with peas, carrots and gravy for dinner. Her eyes widened at the sight of her boyfriend. She'd never seen him so rumpled and dirty. "Have you two been tussling?" She asked as Ezra walked to the washroom.

Noah inhaled deeply, the smell of the food making his stomach growl loudly. And he still had to wait until Ezra was done to wash up. He gave Jo a pleading look.

"May I just taste a little bit?" He asked, looking from him to Daniella. Her expression was enough of an answer. "Maybe not," he murmured, turning away from the food to avoid temptation and sitting on a chair to clean his broomstick, which had taken quite a beat today.

After his hair and body had been washed, and his nails thoroughly scrubbed, Ezra emerged from the small washroom in nothing but a pair of black plaid pajama trousers that Josiah had picked up for him at a Muggle thrift shop somewhere. They were a bit too short, and so his ankles peeked out from under them, but they fit well around the waist and he supposed that was really what mattered.

He lowered himself into one of the chairs around the table and looked up at Daniella.

"If there's still money left after our wedding, may I buy a broomstick?" he inquired in a businesslike tone, conjuring a stream of cold water into the glass nearest him.

Noah didn't waste time disappearing into the washroom to get ready for dinner.

Daniella looked at her shirtless, handsome and excited fiancé, and gave a resigned sigh. "Maybe… just because it's difficult to say no when you're… like that."

She brought the food to the table and sat between Ezra and Jo. "As long as I don't have to look at you all the way up there."

Noah came back out a few minutes later, equally shirtless and rubbing a towel energically over his not-so-short-anymore blond hair. He dropped the towel on the back of his chair and sat down. "Now can I eat?"

Ezra gave a small smirk at her words, draining a few not-insignificant sips of water before speaking again.

"Is that so? Well, if only I'd known. Still, better to find out late than never," he quipped. Josiah took a seat at the opposite end of the table, leaving a place for Dan on one side and Noah on the other. He rolled his eyes good-naturedly.

"Bless," he murmured, allowing his eyes to trail over Noah's bare abdomen as he re-entered the room. As soon as the food was in front of them, everyone talked a little less. Clinking and chewing filled the small dining area.

"Oh, by the way," Jo murmured, covering his full mouth with one hand. "This was the last of the chicken. There's a bit of lamb left, but if you lot want meat the day after tomorrow, we're going to need groceries."

Ezra, who had already polished off half of a plate of food, looked up. He'd forgotten that living in a house on his own required buying food.

"Mm," he murmured, cautiously.

The mood at the table shifted when Jo mentioned groceries. Daniella chewed slowly, lost in thought. It wasn't really fair to make Jo and Noah always be the ones to risk their necks going out to buy food. But if anyone recognized Ezra…

"I can make shepherd's pie, it'll last an extra meal, but Jo is right," she started, looking at Ezra. "It should be the two of us going, this time… We don't need to get anywhere near London, so it won't be as dangerous."

Noah looked up from his plate for the first time. "Maybe we should try fishing... I mean, the sea isn't that far." He gave it a little thought. "But we definitely need meat," he said solemnly. "I can go with Greengrass, if you want," he offered.

"No, it wouldn't be fair," Daniella shook her head. "Plus, we don't need you to get on each other's nerves again while you're out," she pointed out.

Ezra met Daniella's eyes, and a silent sort of agreement passed between them. He swallowed, nodding.

"I'm sure we can figure out some way," he murmured, a bit solemnly. He scooped up the remaining bit of gravy on his plate with a spoon, thinking of any way he could to make those words a reality. He knew that Daniella hated the thought of disguising themselves, but at the moment...

"I might be able to rig something up," Josiah said brightly. "For fish, that is. I reckon it can't be all that much different than freshwater fishing. All I need is a wee bit of rope."

Ezra studied the other boy for a moment, wondering how on earth anyone managed to catch enough fish to eat with a 'wee bit of rope.' His thought was interrupted, though, by Noah offering to accompany him for groceries.

"No," said he and Daniella at the same time. He let her speak first, then nodded in agreement. "She's right," he said dryly, sipping more water. "If something happens, you're the last person I'd want to be stuck with."

He offered the Gryffindor a small, amused smirk.

Daniella gave Jo a short nod, focusing on the task as to not think about the possible consequences. "We'll add that to the list. It should save us some money, it's one less thing to buy in the future."

Noah made a 'hnnf' sound in the back of his throat. "Agreed, Greengrass. A scrawny little guy like you wouldn't even make a good shield," he replied just as dryly.

"So," Daniella interrupted before those two started another pissing contest, "I'll start making the list, Jo and Ezra can figure out a way for us to get back here alive and you," she pointed her finger at Noah. "It's your turn to do the dishes." She looked over at Ezra. "When should we go?"

Ezra opened his mouth to reply, but Daniella cut him off; he gave her a slightly meek look and considered the task ahead of them. He had to admit, it was rather daunting. He studied her as she assigned them all a job. He looked at Josiah; Josiah looked back.

"Er... whenever?" Ezra said noncommittally. He wasn't sure if risking his life so that they could have roast chicken would be any easier if he waited to do it. However, he decided that this probably wasn't the best thing to say to a room full of people who were trying to protect him in one way or the other.

With that, Jo summoned a small notebook and self-inking quill, preparing to scribble.

"I can change your hair color, if you like," he offered kindly. Ezra nodded, feeling a bit dazed. He wondered how much of a difference that would actually make.