A/N: This chapter is dedicated to Nessi who is bored out of her mind in Canada (no offense, Canada).

Chapter 18: Down to Earth

Harry slept all afternoon and evening. When it became clear that Harry wasn't going to wake up soon, Albus paced quietly around to the other side of the bed and stretched out on top of the thick purple covers. He lay with his hands behind his head and his legs crossed, staring up at the canopy. Eventually he drifted from abstract thought into sleep. Both Harry and Albus slept through the night.

Harry awoke first. The sun was shining through the windows onto his bed. He stretched, feeling well rested and content. He sighed and looked around himself.

Upon seeing Albus on the other half of the bed, he started violently and fell off the edge of his bed. As he gazed over his own body, clad in unfamiliar purple silken pajamas, his memories of the previous night returned. The effects seemed to have mostly worn off, but Harry was still too cheerful to be horrified.

Careful not to wake Albus, Harry stood up and crept into the bathroom to take a shower. The hot water helped to hold back the impending tide of uncomfortable and troubling thoughts.

"Ho, ho ho, it's magic! You know, never believe it's not so. It's magic…"sang a voice from behind the bathroom door. Albus opened one eye and yawned. "Leaning on my pillow in the morning…Lazy day in bed, music in my head. Crazy music playing in the morning light. Ho, ho ho, it's magic! You know, never believe it's not so."Albus uncrossed his long legs, shook the pins and needles out of them, and crossed them the other way, gazing curiously at the door. He lay back and listened to Harry's off-key singing from the shower. He heard the shower shut off, and a moment later the door opened and Harry walked out.

Albus studied him with wide eyes from the bed.

Harry wore only a fluffy white towel around his waist and his black hair was dripping. He was slender and pale, but well muscled from spending years keeping up his auror training and a year living in a forest. He had no hair on his chest, but beneath his defined abs was a trail of dark hair leading under the towel. Over his heart was a dark, oval-shaped scar. He strode over to the wardrobe, still humming. He reached to undo the towel.

"Good morning, Harry," said Albus quickly and loudly.

"Albus!" Harry spun around and caught the towel before it fell. "I forgot you were here. Er. Good morning," he said, grinning sheepishly. Instead of going back to rifle through his wardrobe, he waved his hand and a set of yellow robes appeared over his body. "How are you?" he asked, striding over to pick up his wand.

"Well rested, thank you," said Albus, swinging his legs off the bed. "And how are you?" He turned around to find Harry absentmindedly looking around the rooms and shooting individual flowers out of the end of his wand. "Oh, I see," Albus grimaced.

"Sorry, Albus, what was that?"

"I asked you how you are this morning," Albus smiled, pulling on his buckled black boots.

"Marvelous," said Harry. "Would you like to go flying with me? I suppose you won't let me do anything useful until this wears off completely."

Albus chuckled. "It is not a matter of what I will or will not let you do, Harry. I am not your keeper. I am your employer and more relevantly your friend. I would suggest that you don't try to do anything useful. For example, I'm afraid that writing a lesson plan containing instructions on how to shoot flowers at one's enemies would be a waste of your time. Flying sounds like a pleasant diversion, however. Do you possess a broom?"

"I possess a broom on so many levels, Albus."

"I'm afraid I don't understand what you mean."

Harry summoned his broom and allowed it to hang in the air between Harry and Albus.

"It's POSESSED!" The broom zoomed around the room erratically as Harry commanded it with his soul.

Albus sniffed, his face expressionless. "I will meet you on the lawn in fifteen minutes. I suggest that you don't talk to anyone on your way there."

"Righto, Professor," said Harry. He magically opened the trapdoor when Albus was a meter from it. Harry twirled his wand showily.

"Harry, will you be alright here by yourself?"

"Really, Albus. You've nothing to worry—" There was a bang and Harry was suddenly drenched in a thick clear liquid. "Bollux. I'll clean this up. Really, Albus. I'll be fine. I'll see you in fifteen minutes."

Albus grimaced and hesitated. Harry made a shooing motion and Albus grudgingly turned and dropped nimbly through the trapdoor with a last fleeting glance before he disappeared.

Harry sat invisibly beside the lake with his invisible broom and Fawkes by his side. He'd cleaned himself of the liquid, intentionally doing so before he could register exactly what it was. When he was clean, he cast a disillusionment charm on himself and walked (not skipped) to the grounds. It was a sunny warm day, so many of the students were lounging around the grounds doing homework or tossing a Frisbee. Harry found himself sleepily enjoying the weather himself.

He felt a hand on his shoulder and looked up. Albus stood behind him. His auburn hair shone in the early afternoon sun. He wore a fresh set of plum robes and had a silver arrow broomstick over one shoulder.

"Walk with me?" asked Albus quietly. Harry stood up, tucking his broom under his arm. Fawkes took off and circled overhead.

"What's with you and purple?" Harry muttered in Albus's ear.

"You can see me?"

"Well, you're not invisible or anything. What did you expect?"

They passed a pair of students walking down the path and Albus waved his hand in front of one of their faces. The student didn't react. "I am invisible, actually. And as a consequence, I expected that you would not be able to see me," he smiled. "Obviously, I was mistaken."

"Well, how can you see me, then?"

"I'm Albus Dumbledore," he said simply, his eyes twinkling, and strode off down the edge of the lake leaving Harry behind.

"You really are," said Harry, before skipping a bit to catch up.

The two invisible men made their way to the empty Quidditch pitch and mounted their brooms.

"I brought a snitch. I seem to recall you that you play seeker? It's my preferred position as well." He pulled the golden ball out of a pocket of his robe.

"Oh, wicked," said Harry.

"I'll give it a head start." He tossed it into the air. Its wings unfolded and the little ball zoomed off and disappeared. "I'll have you know, Harry, I was picked for the Quidditch team when I was a first year. I won't think any lower of you if you can't keep up."

Harry snorted. Harry'd been told he was the he youngest Quidditch player in a century. He'd always wondered who the player a century ago had been. In spite of knowing that he was up against a possible equal, he wasn't worried.

"Don't play easy," he said, his confidence flowing through his broom.

"I'd never," said Albus as he kicked off the ground. Harry didn't take off and instead watched Albus from the ground. He flew remarkably well. His robes and long hair whipped behind him as he circled the stadium, and his glasses glinted in the sun. Harry watched his progress as he rose and dove, admiring Albus's grace and form. Then, behind Albus's broom blossomed words written in smoke.

"It's hard to catch the snitch from the ground, especially when it's by the Eastern goal posts."

Albus sped off in the direction of the opposite goal posts. Harry saw the snitch and kicked off the ground. Albus was already half way across the field. Harry smirked and leaned forward on his broom, shooting forward. If he hadn't already been affected by a disillusionment charm, he would have become invisible to a human eye due to his speed. Harry easily caught up to Albus before he reached the goal posts and slowed down to fly next to him.

"Sorry, Albus. I couldn't quite read what you'd written," he grinned. Harry couldn't quite tell, but he thought he saw Albus roll his eyes. They both turned back to the goal posts, but the snitch had vanished. Harry sped back up and gained some altitude, scanning the stadium for the snitch. He flew clockwise around the perimeter of the field. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw that Albus was also gaining altitude, but was flying counterclockwise. They passed, and passed again. They passed a third time and Harry glanced over his shoulder at Albus.

His stomach lurched as he saw that Albus had taken a steep dive. He wheeled his broom around and was soon diving alongside Albus. It wasn't a feint. He could see the snitch hovering close to the ground. Albus flew beautifully, but whether or not he was a match for Harry, his Silver Arrow was no match for Harry's Lightning. Harry outstripped him easily and caught the snitch, pulling out of the dive to coast a foot above the ground. Albus was still diving. Harry thought he was going to crash into the ground, but at the last second, Albus pulled up impressively and came to glide beside Harry.

Harry raised his hands in the air and imitated the sounds of a crowd with a breathy "hahhhhhh."

"Let's even the playing field," said Albus. "It's time for me to get a futuristic broom like yours."

Harry blanched. He couldn't know Harry'd gotten it from the future.

"I admit, I've never thought to use my own spells," Albus continued.

Harry relaxed. So, Albus thought Harry'd fixed the broom himself. Well, it made sense. He could have done it himself and it was more likely that Harry'd fixed his own broom than that he'd been born thirty three years in the future, lived the life of a hero, had a broom designed specially for him, gotten stuck in a glowy crystal and sent back in time.

"I can fix yours for you…here." Still coasting a few feet off the ground, he grabbed the broom shaft between Albus's legs and yanked it closer to himself. Beneath his fingers he felt the magic of the broom. He closed his eyes and felt out with his magic aura. He grabbed his own broom and, feeling through the magic, he changed each spell on Albus's broom to match the ones on his own. When he was done, he opened his eyes and looked back up at Albus who was still mounted on the broom beside him coasting forward.

"There. It should work like this one now," said Harry.

"Thank you, Harry."

"You're welcome."

"Oh, and Harry?" Albus glanced behind himself, and Harry looked to see what he was looking at.

"Yes, Albus?"

"About leveling the playing field..."

"Uh-huh?"

"I don't want to give you the idea I'm not serious about about outflying you, but..."

"What do you m—"

Harry crashed headlong into one of the goal posts and fell a meter or two to land spread eagle onto the ground. He groaned. "You complete arse!"

"That sounds like a man who's recovered from a Fool's Flask potion, however foolish insulting your employer may be," said Albus, his blue eyes sparkling with amusement. He hovered a meter above Harry and the ground.

"And what do you make of this!" asked Harry. He lunged upward and swiped Albus's broom from beneath him. Albus toppled out of the air and landed in a heap of limbs on Harry with an "oof".

"You arse," said Albus.

They played Quidditch for a few more hours. It turned out that they were evenly matched. Harry flew faster and more agilely than Albus, but Albus had uncanny strategy. It seemed that he could predict where the snitch would go before it got there. Eventually, after they'd caught the snitch three times in five minutes, they decided to turn the snitch invisible and give it a slight telltale ringing noise. Eventually they eliminated the ringing.

As the afternoon wore on, Harry noticed that his drug induced high had slowly been replaced with the natural high of flying. The wind in his face and the speed of his heart racing had done what sleeping had not. He felt his mind clear, which was good as he was now flying with his eyes closed, listening for a faint whir of wings. It was difficult to distinguish sounds through the wind in his ears. Once, he'd accidentally grabbed Fawkes who had been innocently circling the stadium. Fawkes had twittered irritably and flown off to perch on one of the goal posts.

With his eyes shut to help his concentration, he sped around the stadium. Then, he heard it. The unmistakable whir of the snitch had flown right past his ear. He turned and followed it, trying to pick up its sound again. He heard it faintly from in front of him somewhere. He was as quiet as possible. He sped up and the whirring got closer, but then it dipped down beneath him. He followed it into a dive. He dove, listening to the sound of the snitch. All of a sudden, he realized that he was diving blindly at a rapidly approaching ground. He would surely crash. His eyes flew open; however it was not the ground that he saw. Albus was rushing at him from below, eyes tightly shut, hand outstretched.

Harry couldn't react fast enough.

"Argh!" he said, a second before impact. Albus's eyes opened in shock, and the two collided. They fell to the ground, their descent slowed enough to be harmless by the brooms. They landed in a tangled pile of limbs and brooms.

"So I vote we tell the Department of Magical Sports and Games that silent-and-invisible-snitch-hunting-with-closed-eyes should not be made an international sport, hmm?" groaned Harry.

"Ah, but," said Albus ironically, shifting to reach his hand between himself and Harry.

Harry cried out in alarm. "Merlin! What are you—"

"We've got the snitch." And, indeed, he pulled out the invisible ball. "We seem to have caught it simultaneously when we collided."

"Oh," said Harry, taken aback.

"I suppose it has international sport potential after all."

Harry laughed. "I promise you, it'll still be Quidditch by the new millennium." Then he stopped talking, rather irritated at himself for making a reference to the future.

"Are you feeling better?" asked Albus.

"If by better you mean no longer absurdly happy, then yes. And if you mean remembering…" He trailed off. He was, indeed, feeling more grounded, and now that he was no longer flying, the memories of the previous night came rushing back with full force and meaning. He remembered Wister tying him up. He remembered the dark lord appearing and asking him questions. He remembered answering. He remembered the dark lord ordering Wister to chain Harry to the wall, among other things. Harry remembered enjoying it due to the potion. He remembered trying to kill Albus, and shuddered to think what would have happened if he'd had his wand.

Then he remembered inviting Albus to take advantage of him. He gasped and his eyes met Albus's. He groaned and smacked himself in the face, grimacing in embarrassment as he scrambled off Albus and to his feet.

"That was quite a potion," frowned Albus, resting on his elbows. "Help me up?"

Harry reached his hand down gingerly. Albus grasped it and pulled himself up. As they let go, they heard a note from above and both looked up. Fawkes had jumped from his perch on the goal post and was swooping down gracefully to join the two men.

"Have you ever gotten the feeling that Fawkes knows you better than you know yourself?" asked Albus.

"I'm fairly certain that he does," said Harry.