A/N *REMINDER*: This is a collection of ONESHOTS, not a continuous story. I'm doing that this way because it will keep me from starting something I won't finish. A while ago I wanted to do a multi-chap rizzles story set in this universe, and maybe someday I'll manage it. I need baby steps, and these are them - I'm having a lot of fun, so I hope you are too! Thanks for reading!

Prompt: "Um, i don't know you, but you are headed right towards the grounds, and i don't have time to explain that i accidentally let all the blast-ended skrewts out of their cages, stop asking questions, you need to RUN"


Sundays were Maura's favorite day of the week. Students were usually milling all over the grounds on Saturday, celebrating the start of the weekend; by Sunday afternoon many had resignedly retreated to the library or the dormitories to finish up homework. Maura preferred to do most of hers during the week and finish up on Saturday, where she could reliably have a lot of space in the library to herself.

Sundays were for recreation, and today she had decided to take her rarely-touched Firebolt for some practice flying near the forbidden forest. The broom had been a gift from her grandmother who somehow always seemed to know what was popular but didn't keep up with her granddaughter - who would have much preferred a set of brass scales. It seemed rude not to give the broom a try, even though Maura had no interest in using it for sporting or traveling purposes.

She had just sat down to read some more of "Quidditch Through the Ages" on the usually-quiet edge of the woods, when she heard a loud scream. Taken aback, she stood up with her wand in hand to see a brunette racing towards her, long limbs flailing rather ungracefully.

"What on earth–"

The girl grabbed her by the arm and kept up the pace, yelling, "DON'T LOOK BACK KEEP RUNNING EVERYTHING'S FINE HAHAHA."

Too bewildered to even bother stopping, Maura asked, "Who are you and what in Merlin's name are we running from?" Nothing from the forest ever wandered out of the safety of the trees, and unless this girl was wildly unstable (which admittedly seemed like a possibility) she never would've gone in there to agitate something enough to chase her.

"The name's Jane Rizzoli and we're running from Skrewts!"

"What?"

"Blast-ended skrewts!"

"Have you been confounded? There's no such thing!"

"No such thing! Ho, ho, you're cute!"

"Really, now!" Maura balked, digging her feet in for a halt. Jane looked at her, aghast. "Have you been jinxed? Did you try some of the mushrooms by the north edge of the forest?"

"Do you not take Care of Magical Creatures?"

"No; magizoology holds no interest or relevance for me."

Jane grabbed her hand and started to run again. "Okay well Hagrid created these hybrid monsters last year that are some of the most ghastly things to ever exist on this earth, and I may or may not have been inadvertently responsible for unleashing a pack of adolescent ones and they're headed right this way."

"Are they dangerous? I left my Firebolt back there, should I-"

"A broomstick?! Why in the name of Willow Rosenberg didn't you mention that before?! Accio Firebolt!"

"Well, I'm not usually one for flying-"

"Rich kids buying nice crap they don't need just so people know they're rich," Jane muttered under her breath.

"What was that?"

The muttering made it hard to hear, but so did the sound of the herd gaining on them, composed of what Maura could only assume were the blast-ended skrewts. Her Firebolt was flying above the animals, just narrowly missing a blast of fire as one of the skrewts propelled itself forward.

"Never mind, just hang on!" Jane said. She jumped on the broom as it flew past, pulling Maura on after her. Maura heard an extremely unattractive shriek escape her as the skrewt in front blasted forward again - but it missed them by a wide margin as Jane vaulted towards the sky.

"Holy Moses!" she crowed. "This thing flies like a dream!"

"I'm sure my grandmother will be thrilled to hear it," Maura said, her grip tightening around Jane's waist as she flew them higher. "Could we maybe get a little closer back to the ground again, please?"

Jane dutifully brought them down a bit, then headed for the castle. "Is your grandma really into broom culture or something?"

"Not so much as she likes to keep on top of popular trends," Maura said. "She gave this to me without even asking if I'd like one, which I don't because I don't play Quidditch and I don't fancy them for travel, either."

"Yeah, I figured that second part," Jane chuckled, trying to shift so Maura's arms wouldn't feel quite so restrictive around her. "So do you just like to take it out for some air now and then? Seems like a waste to keep a broom like this closed up in a box all the time."

"I know. I'm trying to familiarize myself with it. That's why I've checked out all the library's books on Quidditch and-"

"Books!" Jane laughed, swooping towards the castle. "You can't teach yourself how to fly by reading books, you gotta give it a go on your own! Didn't Madam Hooch teach you anything?"

"Yes, she taught me that riding is intuitive and I don't have the–AAH!"

She yelled as Jane made a short dive, coming up on Professor McGonagall's office. It appeared to Maura as though the professor was trying to pretend she couldn't see them; Jane waved and each time she moved to get out of McGonagall's peripheral vision, the professor shifted in her chair just slightly enough to be able to continue ignoring her. She sighed when Jane knocked on the glass and called her name.

"You may wanna get your eyes checked, McG," Jane said when the professor finally opened her window.

"You may want to check that nickname, Rizzoli, because if I hear it again you'll find yourself in detention."

"Sheesh! Okay, professor."

"Now to what do I owe the pleasure of becoming a stop on the Gryffindor Casanova's latest date?"

"Date?! She wishes," Jane joked.

"What happened to your sense of urgency?!" Maura cried.

"Miss Isles!" said McGonagall, looking surprised. "I didn't see it was you hiding back there!" The presence of a student as serious as Maura seemed to indicate that no shenanigans were afoot. "What is so terribly urgent?"

"You know that paddock Hagrid had of blast-ended skrewts?"

McGonagall's mouth was a thin line. "Yesss…"

"Funny story, they do NOT like living that close to the black lake. The giant squid can reach pretty far with those tentacles, and he smacked one of the skrewts and they all broke out. And are running rampant near the forest. Just thought you should know!" she called as McGonagall ran from the room with impressive speed. "Wow, she moves pretty quick for an old lady."

"Should we go back?" Maura asked, looking over her shoulder. "There must be something we can do to hold those beasts at bay until Professor McGonagall gets there."

Jane redirected the broom back towards the forest. "I tried a freezing spell and stopped a couple of them, and I stupefied a few but there were too many coming at me to do anything really effective. All I could think to do was run."

"And scream," Maura chuckled.

"Right, and you were so calm when one of them used its fiery butt to launch itself right at you."

Maura rolled her eyes but conceded the point. "Ugh, there they are. I'm surprised they didn't go into the forest."

"We should send them in there, maybe the centaurs will kill 'em all, take them off our hands." Jane shifted to keep the broom straight; Maura was twisting around as if looking something. "Uh, what's on your mind there, Isles?"

"I was wondering if there was something we could levitate to fence them in until the professors arrive."

"If Hagrid weren't off on .. whatever business he's doing, I'd just go to the cabin for his advice."

"Does he keep firewood outside? I would think someone his size would have a giant fireplace with giant logs."

Maura's assumption turned out to be correct, and before you could say "wingardium leviosa" (but after Maura did), she has transported the logs to the skrewts and managed to construct a crude enclosure for them. "That's pretty good!" Jane said, sounding impressed. "But you seem to have forgotten the fiery butts thing. One fart fire and your fences are toast."

"Has anyone ever told you you have a way with words?"

"Why, no!"

"And they probably never will. What was the paddock made of, can we get it?"

"Steel, and no. The squid - which I was in no way taunting prior to this incident - started eating it when I left. Go figure." Jane saw one of the skrewts starting to smoke, and shot an aguamenti charm to douse it before any wood could get burned.

"Oh, good idea!" Maura said. "Why don't we act as an emergency water tower until the professors arrive? And why don't we do it from the safety and non-bobbing branch of that tree?"

"Do you get motion sickness?" Jane asked, steering the broom to the sturdy branch Maura had indicated. She looked quite relieved to sit on it, and Jane joined her. "I'm sure Madam Pomfrey must have something for that."

"I suppose she may; it's never been enough of an issue for me to seek any kind of treatment."

"Mm. So what's your first name, Isles? McGonagall wasn't informal enough to say."

"Maura," came the reply, as she calmly took her turn dousing a skrewt. "Merlin's beard, did you say Hagrid bred these things? I thought hybridization of such dangerous animals was illegal - and this must have fire crab in it somewhere."

"Eh, it's a hunch. We've got a good family friend back in the states who's pretty fond of magical creatures himself - I think he owns every edition of every book Newt Scamander ever published," Jane chuckled. "He'd never heard of blast-ended skrewts, and when I described them to him he said he thought they sounded like a mix of fire crab and manticore." She laughed again. "I still can't believe you didn't hear about these last year, I mean even if you weren't in class with them! Didn't any of your friends tell you about 'em?"

"No," was Maura's curt reply. She didn't have friends so much as classmates and suite mates, but there was no reason to tell a near-stranger that. To avoid further prying, she deflected: "What about McGonagall's Casanova comment, care to defend that?"

"She's exaggerating," Jane scoffed.

"What exactly is she exaggerating?"

"Heh. I wouldn't have thought it was in the nature of a Ravenclaw to like gossip," Jane said, flipping Maura's house scarf with the tip of her wand - which would have been innocent enough if she hadn't just been using the wand to spritz a skrewt and forgotten to end the charm. "Whoops!" she laughed as Maura sputtered, using the dry part of her scarf to wipe her face. "That was an accident, I swear!"

"I'll believe that if you'll explain McGonagall's comment."

"Why do you care?"

"I find you very physically attractive and your personality intrigues me, so I thought I might ask you out. But if you're a playboy or you only date boys, I won't waste my time."

Jane was stunned by the forthright nature of this answer, and Maura wouldn't have been so blunt if she hadn't worried that lying would lead to her fainting and falling into an angry mass of skrewts.

"Uh…well, first of all I'm about as interested in dating guys as I am in dating a blast-ended skrewt," Jane said. "And McGonagall is just being funny. She's uh… caught me in a couple of um, compromising positions with some girlfriends in the past."

"Where were you that a teacher would - never mind, I don't want to know," Maura said, although her imagination had gone into hyper speed painting a very enticing picture of Jane, sweaty and breathing heavily and STOP, WHAT IF SHE CAN PERFORM LEGILIMENS AND IS READING YOUR MIND?! "Girlfriends plural, you say?" Maura managed.

"I mean, not at the same time. I'm .. assuming you wouldn't be into that?"

"I've never given it much thought," Maura said, growing redder at the bait dangling in front of her mind's eye. "But I think for now I can say no."

She was relieved to see professors McGonagall, Grubbly-Plank, and Flitwick arrive just then. Grubby-Plank let loose a long, loud rant of swear words she'd have likely reined in if she'd realized two students were in a nearby tree.

They watched the teachers work for a while, then Jane said, "In case you were wondering, I'm not seeing anyone right now, and I would be interested in getting to know you better in a non-emergency situation."

There are some things you can't share without ending up wanting to ask someone on a date, and corralling blast-ended skrewts is one of them.