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PseudonymousEntity

Friend or Foe

"Your worst Enemy could be your best Friend, and your best Friend could be your worst Enemy." -Marley

Summary: Draco being bullied by his father really pisses Harry off. Goblet of Fire.

Characters: Harry Potter, Draco Malfoy.

Warnings: Suggestions?

AN: Comments, Thoughts, Questions, Theories and Limericks are always welcomed, in whatever order of importance you choose to give.

ANx2: This is pretty much a precursor to the next chapter which will be rather longer than normal. Sorry for the absence.

Ever Yours, Pseu

"Magic was not in glitter and sparks

Real magic didn't need to be.."

-We Shadows

Harry stood with the sun on his face and across the bare skin of his lower arms, a breeze playing with his hair.

Before him a great expanse of the lushest green grass above which the SlimQuid players darted to and fro like fish in water. Their skyboards cutting through the air quickly enough to emit a slight high pitched squeal when down at just the right precarious angle. He closed his eyes briefly, allowing the sounds of the player's laughter and taunts and the smell of clean earth to permeate his senses. He missed flying the most during his summers. It was fun, of course, to get to do it a bit in the Weasley's yard, but it would never be the same as flying through the sky so fast the world blurred around you, or rising into the air until you were certain you could feel frost forming on your eyelashes.

Harry grinned.

He opened his eyes to the sight of Draco several feet ahead motioning at one of the players to come down to him. A teen a little older than them with long thin hair and a diamond shaped face broke away from the game. Harry recognized him as the player he'd spired a few minutes earlier diving to catch a ball. He came to a hover three feet above the ground with only a slightly raised brow just visible over orange tinted glasses to show his curiosity.

Harry wondered if he actually needed the glasses or if he just thought they were cool.

"Cassius." Draco greeted the long haired wizard by name. "When will the next game be? I've got someone who has managed to go fourteen years of his life without ever playing." He tilted his head in Harry's direction. "Can you even imagine?"

This time both of the wizard's eyebrows -Cassius Harry reminded himself- rose up in open surprise. The teen's face turned toward
Harry, glasses glinting in the sunlight. "Is that so?"

Harry didn't bother answering when it was obvious the question was directed toward Draco. Instead he allowed his attention wander while his cousin and the other wizards worked out when they might get to play. Over to the side near a short set of bleachers, he spied square metal container holding two rows of extra skyboards. Or at least, that is what Harry was calling them. He glanced toward Draco. The blonde was still conversing and paying him no mind. With a shrug, he headed toward the boards.

Harry reached out and ran his fingers along the closes board. It wasn't the slick smooth of a broom handle, rather it was simply smooth wood. He hesitated then yanked it up out of the box, grasping the other end with his right hand. Heavier than a broom, he noted. Harry held it up and then down, feeling the wood flex just barely beneath the pressure of his hands. It wasn't very long though certainly much wider than any broom. It would sort of have to be.

Harry let go experimentally. The board stopped inches above the grass, hovering.

"Cool." He murmured.

Unable to resist Harry's feet found themselves astride the strange flying object, his left to the front and his right toward the back. He stood upon it with his arms out cautiously. When nothing at all happened Harry frowned in disappointment. Now what?

"Careful."

Harry started at the voice so close to him, head whipping to the side. How long had Cedric been standing there? He was eerily good at creeping up on people.

The Hufflepuff motioned toward the board. "It's the pressure you apply with your feet and how you distribute your weight that directs it. Like this." Cedric pulled out one for himself and hopped aboard. His knees bent a bit and his feet were slightly sideways rather than pointing straight ahead. Harry watched as the older boy rose up and down a few feet, presumably pushing down on his feet to steer somehow.

"You try," Cedric suggested after a minute.

Harry was of course game to give it a shot. He pushed down with his right foot and picked up a bit with his left, intending to go up. And he did go up. For a moment. His board shop up into the air and Harry fell backward, smacking into the grass with an 'oomph'.
He blinked up at the sky dazed. That could have gone better. A muffled laugh brought his attention back to the other wizard.

His green eyes slid that way.

"Hi."

Cedric's mouth twisted on one side repressing a smile. "Hi there."

Harry allowed him to pull him to his feet. He retrieved his board with only a small bruise to his ego. After all, he'd been a natural at brooms. He'd sorta hoped this would work the same way.

Dropping the board Harry glared at it, willing it to listen to him. He would not fall off. He would not fall off. Harry jumped on the board, arms flying out to the sides in paranoid panic. He was firmly ignoring the highly amused wizard beside him. Taking a breath Harry shifted his waited forward the barest amount...and shot toward the bleachers.

Alarmed Harry tried to leap from the board only to discover he couldn't. He looked ahead at the quickly approaching bleachers. Panicking Harry yanked up on his feet trying to get his board to flip him over as it had before. At least then he'd be on the ground again. The oh so safe ground. At the last possible minute, the board flipped verticle and kept going taking the Gryffindor along with it.

Harry's eyes watered from the force of the wind slamming into him. Cautiously he bent his knees and brought himself lower to the board, shifting his body sideways in the process to try to make himself as aerodynamic as possible. When he could breathe in without feeling like his lungs would explode Harry leaned a little back on to his right foot hoping to slow it down a bit. Instead, the board began to tilt toward his body and swooped in a disorienting arc. Flashes of green were suddenly visible overhead and Harry's hair pulled up from his head like he'd been electrocuted. He blinked, eyes widening.

He was upside down. The board kept going despite this new orientation and Harry couldn't decide if he preferred it over simply hanging upside. Okay, think. Think Potter. Cedric had told him it had to do with shifting his weight and the amounts of pressure his feet put down. It was not a skateboard and it was not a broom. Harry pressed down with his feet and felt the resistance of the air shooting around and passed it. Thinking quickly Harry pushed at the side of the board against the current and sucked in a terrified gulp of air when his board flipped over again.

He'd done it!

Smiling in spite of the coughs wracking his chest Harry began a trial and error exercise, imagining all the while that he was perhaps windsurfing. He pressed down and shifted his weight against or with the current of air and the board would turn or angle according to the amount of pressure and weight supplied. Satisfied he turned the board around. The field was a ways behind him now. Oops. Focusing Harry bent his knees and shifted his body, shooting forward back where'd come from. This time on purpose.

Harry swerved and dipped and sliced through the air, a smile so wide he thought his cheeks might tear growing across his face. With a whoop, Harry did a long loop-de-loop. He relished in the brief upside view of the world. Finally spotting Cedric, he tipped the board forward until it was vertical and he dived. The air whipped by him and he heard his board emit a high pitched whistle. He waited just long enough and then corkscrewed to the side, skidding his board in the air to come to a stop parallel to the ground and about three feet in front of Cedric.

That. Was. Awesome.

"I thought you said he's never played."

Harry looked over his shoulder where, apparently, all of the players had collected. Draco stood beside Cassius looking rather smug and satisfied.

"He hasn't." Draco looked at Cassius. "So? Can we play?"

Cassius nodded. "Yeah, next game you're in. I'll take Thompson out, his brother is better anyway."

"Oi!" An offended shout came from one of the players in the back, a boy with short brown hair, though the look on his face was good natured. Harry didn't think he actually minded all that much at being replaced.

Draco shook his head. "Don't be simple. Harry will be on my team of course."

Cassius grumbled under his breath about Malfoys always getting their grubby hands on the best stuff first. Harry wasn't certain if he ought to object to being called 'stuff'. That decided the other players migrated around them, introducing themselves and pointing out one another's flaws with zero filters, as far as Harry could tell.

Eventually, Draco pulled Harry away. He could faintly hear Cedric in the background telling the disappointed SlimQuid players that they had to leave. Most of the disappointment was purposely over dramatic on purpose he reckoned. They were an odd lot.

"So?"

Harry glanced to the side at the blonde walking beside him.

"So?" Harry echoed.

Draco shot Harry an exasperated look that Harry pretended not to understand. With a roll of his eyes, Draco asked, "How did you like it?"

He turned around for one last glance of the field before they melted back into the crowd. A grin spread across his face without his permission, wide and vibrant.

"It was...perfect."

Pseudonymous Entity

2017

Notes:

Comments, Questions, Theories, Suggestions, Guesses and Limericks always welcomed.

AN: Viktor will be showing up next chapter as well as the junior dueling and defensive magic workshop. Stay tuned.

AN2: Coming up; a dressing down, some dirt, and a discovery.

-Pseu