Riding Brooms

The Room of Requirement really was one of the marvels of Hogwarts. Where else could you find (let alone create) a room that was one-third library, one-third office, and one-third ominous laboratory?

In the library portion, where steep shelves ran all the way to the ceiling, Su lounged on a full-body cushion. She held a book above her as she lay on her back, completely naked. She hadn't seen any reason to bother getting dressed again when it was just her and Harry in the room, their first tutoring session recently finished. As she relaxed, Su was unable to help glancing at the other parts of the room, looking back and forth between them.

In one portion, Harry moved frenetically through his lab, collecting and organizing things in small vials. In the other portion, Harry sat behind a broad desk, dutifully scribbling out a potions essay with no emotion on his face.

"Motherfucker," she said, her voice lacking any heat.

The Harry working in the lab looked up, while the one behind the desk continued writing.

"What's wrong?"

"I just realized how you pulled it off," Su said. "No wonder you didn't miss any classes when we were off campus. You have a clone!"

"I call him my shadow," Harry said. "Jealous?"

"Of course I am! If I could be in two places at once, I could… I mean I could read two books. At the same time."

"Now that's living."

"I'd do other things, too," Su said defensively. "I just haven't thought of them yet."

A curious glint entered her eyes. She shifted, looking at the copy of Harry instead of the original.

"Are you identical in every way?" she asked.

"Other than the eyes," said the original, shrugging.

"Two places at once…" Su's eyes unfocused, picturing something. "That sounds wonderful."

Sound from the laboratory brought her out of her fantasies. She looked back at the real Harry in time to watch him seal away a chunk of bone inside a vial. He stashed the bone inside his bag, storing it for now.

"What are you up to, anyway?" Su asked.

"Just getting ahead on a bit of work," Harry said. "I'm about to get pretty busy. So I want to finish some things in advance, so that they're ready to go."

"Busy with what? Your tutoring?"

"I'm not taking new students yet," Harry said. "Let's just say that the school year is about to get a whole lot more action packed."

He winced as he pressed his wand to his forearm, slicing the flesh and causing a trail of blood to leak out. It collected in a vial, which he put away in the same place he'd put the bones.

Su, meanwhile, was frowning deeply.

"The Triwizard Tournament is about to begin," she said.

"That it is!"

"The other schools are arriving tomorrow."

"That they are!"

"You aren't going to ruin it, are you?" she asked fearfully.

Harry grinned.

"Ruin it? Of course not. I'm going to make it so much better."

O-O-O

Charlie Weasley was shaking, and he couldn't tell if it was from excitement or terror.

Of course, that was exactly the reason he chose this kind of life.

He stood with his wand raised atop the windy peak of a mountain in the Dolomites. Charlie refused to let himself blink. His breath appeared in front of his face as cloudy puffs. A group of wizards dressed in the same robes he wore stood around him spaced out by a good twelve paces in either direction. Ahead of them, one man tilted a barrel forward with his hands, emptying it into a giant scaly maw. It wasn't until clear liquid finished pouring out of the barrel, and this wizard retreated with slow steps, that Charlie allowed himself to relax. He couldn't help but release a thrilled giggle.

This was the best job in the world, and nobody could tell him different.

His mother had tried. It was too dangerous, she said. But that was why Charlie loved it. Where else could he feel this alive?

As his coworkers clapped him and each other on the backs, relaxing from the tense moment, a voice said, "I can't believe you nutters do this by choice."

With the Triwizard Tournament on the horizon, the British Ministry turned to the reserve Charlie belonged to as a way of supplying the first task with a suitably dangerous challenge. The deal involved an exorbitant fee and the rather awful headache of finding a way to transport multiple adult dragons across most of Europe. The dragon handlers settled on tranquilizers as the only way to pull it off. The barrel Charlie watched his colleague empty was filled with Draught of the Living Death. Each one of those barrels likely cost more than what he and his colleagues made in a year, and four of them had to be used every few hours, one for each of the dragons they were busy transporting. 

As if that weren't enough, the Ministry also sent Aurors with them. Charlie wasn't certain what five more wizards and witches would do if any of these beasts woke up and felt belligerent, but he assumed it a political gesture, and didn't waste any more time thinking about it.

He hadn't expected to finda familiar face among those Aurors, though.

"You just don't get it," Charlie said, addressing the pink haired Metamorphmagus as she watched the sleeping dragons. "We choose this job because it's crazy. The risk is why it's fun, like we're throwing ourselves into Wronski Feints all day long and actually getting paid."

"There's no chance of them waking up, is there?" Tonks asked.

Charlie shrugged. "Of course there's a chance. It's pretty miniscule, though. We're giving them twice the recommended dose, just to play it safe."

"Of course," Tonks said. "They'll keep napping until our job is over and done with."

Charlie assumed she was saying it like a mantra to calm her nerves, although he swore she sounded almost disappointed. He decided to consider it one more strange thing about the Hufflepuff he'd gone through Hogwarts with.

"Say, Tonks," Charlie said, staring past the young Auror. "What's wrong with them?"

He nodded at the four coworkers she arrived with. All of them were much older, with scowls he hadn't seen fade since the moment they arrived.

Tonks looked back briefly.

"Aurors have got egos," she said simply. "After being around them for a few months, I can say that for certain. None of them like a job that they feel is beneath them. They think we're just here as a precaution. It's like babysitting."

"You seem in a good mood though?" Charlie noticed.

"I don't mind this job," Tonks admitted. "There's always a chance…" she caught herself looking longingly at the nearest dragon, a Chinese Fireball, and shook herself. "Anyway, I'm not as grumpy about being here as them, but I didn't exactly choose this job, either."

Charlie winced commiseratingly. "Sucks to be the lowest on the totem pole."

"Plus my boss has it out for me," Tonks said.

"What'd you do?"

"It… That's…" Tonks blushed. "I don't want to talk about it."

She was saved from further questions by Charlie's boss beginning to bark orders. Dragon handlers returned to their brooms, Charlie included, while the Aurors did the same. Ropes were conjured, connected to enormous leather muzzles, which were in turn snapped onto the dragons' bodies. The riders rose into the air, the ropes connected to their brooms. Through sheer number of tethers, the dragons' hulking bodies were pulled from the ground and into the air.

Tonks flew beside Charlie, clearly somewhat bored. She looked down beneath them, where a grassy valley had a collection of lights visible from the sky.

"Imagine going about your day in a village, and you look up to see dragons being dragged across the sky," she said. "It'd be mental."

"I think that village is plenty mental already," Charlie said. "It's a veela colony. Said so on the map."

"Hoping to pay a visit?" Tonks teased.

"Maybe when I'm off the clock," he said.

The broom beneath him groaned and creaked. It had held out so far, and he was sure it would make it to Britain, but he couldn't shake a wince. Brooms were meant to speed through the skies like a bullet. They weren't supposed to feel lethargic and burdened. It made him want to play Quidditch again, just to remember the proper feeling.

"I agree," said the dragon handler next to him.

It made Charlie wonder if he spoke out loud on accident. But he was sure he'd kept the thought to himself. He looked over, only to find he didn't recognize the man that was supposed to be his coworker.

It's hard to recognize someone in a mask, after all.

"I love brooms," said the stranger. "Want to know a secret? You can fly without using one, if you use the right charm. Voldemort can do it no problem. Even Snape can pull it off, so you know it isn't anything difficult. But I always fly with a broom. The feeling just can't compare."

"Who—" Charlie said.

"Diffindo!" someone cried.

It was Tonks. She'd seen the masked man at the same time Charlie did, and much to the Weasley's shock, her first reaction was lethal force. He yelped as the severing charm flew just in front of him, aimed at the stranger. But, to Charlie's shock, the masked man managed to make his laboring broom leap up, Tonks's spell severing the rope trailing his broom instead of cutting his body.

"Thanks," said the masked man, "but that's the next step, Tonks. We're not ready for that yet. First, I have to do this. Accio Draught of the Living Death!"

He didn't even raise his wand. Yet, four streams of clear fluid erupted from the mouths of each sleeping dragon, flying directly at him. It collected in a massive orb, which promptly fell to the earth like rain.

Four sets of slit-pupiled eyes opened at once. 

"Now we can cut the ropes," the stranger told Tonks.

He finally drew his wand. With a spell Charlie had never heard before, he stripped the enchantments directly off of Charlie's broom. The redhead plummeted, wind beating his face too hard for him to summon the concentration to apparate.

His coworkers fell too, as well as the four Aurors other than Tonks. Charlie spotted this out of the corner of his eye as he fell, and to tell the truth, the majority of his thoughts were preoccupied with his imminent landing.

A spell hit his back. Cushioning charms hit each of the dragon handlers, causing them to bounce as they struck the ground, rather than splattering as they would have. But Charlie's spell was a bit different. The one that struck him altered his trajectory, sending at least a half-mile off course. 

Something must've been done to soften his landing, because he didn't die on impact. It still hurt. He landed with a great thud, groaning and looking up at the stars. He vaguely noted that there were lights here, as he pushed himself up, although it wasn't houses he was surrounded by. Instead, he saw lots of odd circular buildings made up of nothing but thousands of woven tree branches, all knitted together.

"My head…" Charlie groaned. "What was that?"

His only answer came from a musical voice, spoken in what he was pretty sure was Italian. A woman with olive skin was standing in front of him. The moment Charlie laid eyes on her, he forgot all about dragons, life-threatening plummets, and even his own name.

"Er, I'm Charlie," he said dazedly. "Who're you?"

The woman said something more in Italian. Two more equally beautiful women appeared on either side of her, all three so perfect that Charlie was convinced his vision was blurring. But they kept on appearing, faces poking up over the rims of those odd woven buildings, which seemed to open from the top like nests.

Every single face Charlie saw was gorgeous, and all of them were women. Slowly, through the shock of the impact, his fate dawned on him.

"Oh," he said quietly. "I've landed in a veela reserve."

It would be a very, very long time before he made it back to Britain as he planned.

Charlie was not complaining.

O-O-O

"What are you even doing here?" Tonks whined.

She was still aiming curses at Harry, who as of yet, hadn't defended himself. Instead, he was using border-line deadly curses as an obstacle course to test his flying, all while drowsy dragons flapped their wings and slowly woke up behind them.

"Making an entrance!" Harry said. "Or, setting up an entrance, really. This is the prep work." He frowned as he corkscrewed beneath a nasty purple curse. "I'm more curious why you're here. This kind of work is bottom-of-the-barrel for Aurors."

"That's why!" Tonks screamed. "Amelia Bones has had me on every crap job she can dredge up for weeks, and it's all your fault!"

Tonks was so overcome by emotion that she actually stopped trying to murder him. Harry piloted his broom to a stop.

"I didn't tell you to transform into your boss during sex!"

"You seduced me, as a prisoner!"

"You kissed me first!"

"Because your honeyed words turned me on!"

"Well… Just give it a few weeks!" Harry said. "By then, she'll love you! Everyone will."

"And what's that supposed to mean?"

Harry just grinned. It was at this point that the drowsy dragons regained their usual energy. Four roars shook the sky, making Tonks press her hands to her ears. The dragons attempted to fly away, but no sooner had they tried than huge translucent chains erupted from the back of Harry's broom, wrapping around their throats. The beasts were tethered to him like dogs on a walk, and no amount of straining their scaly muscular necks could cause the chains to buckle.

"Well, Ms. Tonks. It's been fun. There's just one thing left now."

Harry waved one hand. At first, Tonks was certain nothing had happened. She certainly didn't see anything as flashy as simultaneously capturing four adult dragons. But her broom did become — well — it became slightly more scratchy against her.

When Tonks spotted the cloth in Harry's hand, pink with small white polka dots on it, she felt as if her stomach had made the hundred foot drop to the ground.

"Motherfucker! Give those back!"

"Only if you can come and get them," Harry said.

"Those are my lucky panties!"

"I know," Harry said. "More reason to hurry up and take them."

He braced his hands against the shaft of his broom, tucked his legs, and accelerated away at maximum speed. The dragons were pulled after him, roaring and spewing gouts of frustrated fire as they chafed against their chains. Tonks was left alone, but only for a moment before she cursed.

"He thinks he can get away with this, does he?" she growled. "We'll see about that."

She sped after him, leaning down as she pushed her own broom to begin the chase.

O-O-O

Harry was feeling awfully proud. All things considered, this had been a very good night. He had to knock Charlie Weasley out of the air, but he thought he made up for that with where he sent the man to land. Tonks was angry with him, but then again, that had been the point.

After all, it wasn't his own entrance that he was planning, but hers.

The hero battling dragons, saving the damsel in distress. Those were the stories that first started Tonks's fascination with heroes. Well, how many legends included taking on not just one dragon, but four?

Everything was coming together. Now, all he needed to do was create the proper stage.

Well, that and the hero herself. He glanced down at the bunched panties in his hand, flapping from the wind, before looking behind him. He'd only been flying for thirty minutes. Tonks started right after he did. She should've still been in sight, even if she wasn't quite as good a flyer.

What was slowing her down?

O-O-O

Tonks gasped. Her cheeks were pink, while her skin was slightly sweaty. She needed to speed up and catch him, so just…

She bent forward, ready to push her broom, only to gasp again as the movement slid her lower half back along the broom. The turbulence made the wooden handle shake almost violently. She never realized before how important panties were to cushioning your ride on a broom.

Not that this way wasn't nice too. It was extremely nice, in a distracting way. But she was on the clock, and as a valiant hero she would push through, speed up, and—

She hit another patch of turbulence, causing the vibration to double.

"Oooh," Tonks moaned, her whole lower body tensing up. 

Maybe she could go a little slower. She'd still catch up with Harry eventually…

Some things were just too nice not to enjoy.