Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Never Say Let Go ❯ Chapter Eighteen ( Chapter 18 )

Title: Never Say Let Go

Authors: Skeren Dreamera and Hoshi-Tachi

Chapter Seventeen

With the bug-eyed professor down for the count, class was canceled, and two dozen students were joyfully released from the stuffy room an entire hour and a half ahead of schedule.

Nearly two dozen, that is, since the two Gryffindors with pink ties and ribbons in their hair stayed behind, sniffling tearfully as they waited for their beloved professor to wake up.

"Yes! Freedom!" Ron whooped, throwing his arms in the air. "Mate, you are the greatest!" he told Duo, grinning almost maniacally.

The American automatically smiled back, but he was distracted as he wondered if he should take the opportunity to pull Zechs aside and explain even more about his world. He was about to say that he needed to go back to his dorm, since he'd forgotten something (and he really had- the pen he had was nearly out of ink from all the notes he'd been taking in his tutoring sessions, and he'd meant to grab another one), when suddenly Harry turned to him, a quizzical look on his face.

He blinked as he spotted the expression, then the green-eyed boy spoke. “Would you like to go to the pitch and fly a bit with us?”

Duo shook his head a little, a slightly sheepish expression creeping over his face. “Sorry guys… I’ve never tried to man a broom.”

For a moment, Harry just stared at him. "You mean they haven't taught you how to fly yet?!" Oh, hell no! There was no way he was going to let that stand. Potters were meant to fly!

The American indignantly straightened to his full height- not that it really changed things all that much, since he was still the shortest one there. "Oi! I know how to fly! Just… not a broom," he finished sheepishly.

“Then what can you fly mate? I mean, I’ve flown a car, but that’s not at all the same as a broom.” Ron blushed a little when Harry looked at him.

“Yeah, and crashed said car.” He quickly looked back to the longhaired teen. “He does have a point though, what can you fly?”

“Anything. Planes, shuttles, mecha... anything I could get my mitts on. So, how about we get a broom on that list?” He was suddenly excited.

Sirius 'woofed' his agreement, unfazed by the rather impressive list, but Harry had to blink at him for a few moments before he'd recovered fully. "Sure," he finally answered with a growing smile. "Just let me stop by the Tower to pick up my broom."

-o-o-o-o-o-o-

Duo considered the broom that was being held out to him. Harry had told him a few of the things the broom could do. He was all for flying around on it... but still, he was a little dubious. It had no moving parts that he could determine after all.

"These things really fly?" he asked doubtfully, accepting it. It felt just like every other broom he'd ever held, just a piece of wood and a bundle of twigs that sane people would only use to sweep dirt off the front porch.

Harry nodded. "Yeah. There's two levitating spells on the broom itself, a main one and a backup in case the first one fails." He held up his hands as the American gave him a wide-eyed look. "Don't worry, the spells have been so refined that they almost never fail. I think the last time one did was… 1968?" he asked, glancing at Ron for confirmation.

The redhead nodded. "April fourth. In one of the Wimbourne Wasps' practices."

Hermione snorted, from where she stood a safe distance away next to Blaise. "You two can spend hours memorizing facts about Quidditch, and you can't even be bothered to put a decent amount of effort into your homework?"

Harry colored a little and sighed, while the redhead looked oddly proud. “Well, it’s what books I have when I go home for the summer. You know I read whatever you send me, and Ron tends to send me lots of... Quidditch things.”

“That’s still no excuse, you have the entire school year to expand your interests!” She looked like she was about to set off into rant mode, and the American knew that look well.

The braided teen hastily jumped in, causing the others to give him a slightly puzzled look. “Of course, well, we’ll just have to find a way to make that interesting for him, right? Okay then. Now, you were explaining about the broom?”

Harry shook his head, getting himself back on track. "Right. Er, there's a lot of spells on a broom, really. Some of them are safety features, or backups, but most are for stuff like not icing up if you're flying during a snowstorm."

Duo nodded, though he couldn't really imagine why anyone'd want to fly during a snowstorm unless they were suicidal. "And, well… it might be easier if we just give you a book to learn all the technical stuff from," the Gryffindor said with a sly grin. "That way we can just skip to the actual flying."

The braided teenager beamed. "A man after my own heart." He stepped away from the little group. "Okay, so how do I do this?"

Harry thought back to his early lessons with Hooch and decided to go from there. “If you’ve never done it before we should start with you summoning the broom to you.”

The older teen sighed, giving the green-eyed boy a look. “You are allowed to be more specific y’know.”

Harry grinned. "Put the broom on the ground," he ordered. Duo complied, then stood there, looking at him expectantly. "Hold your hand out over it, and say 'up'. Try to be firm about it, but not too much, or you'll hurt its feelings."

The American blinked. Was he serious…? He looked again at the Gryffindor's innocent face, and couldn't be sure. "Okay..." Duo held out his hand. "Up!" he commanded, trying to put the same note in his voice that Quatre seemed to use almost unconsciously, the one that said 'obey me, because you really don't have any other choice and I'll be nicer if you do'.

And apparently, that tone worked with inanimate objects, too, because the broom promptly smacked into his palm.

Pleased that he’d done that correctly, he looked to Harry, who grinned. “Great! Now, you have to get on it.”

“You mean like, sideways? I can’t see how it would be comfortable that way either but…” He trailed off with a grimace.

The black haired boy snickered, shaking his head. “No, straddle it. I know it sounds like it should hurt, but it won’t.”

Ron was giving them both a puzzled look.

"You know," he commented, "for someone who's so eager to fly, you're doing an awful lot of talking."

"And I hate to admit it, but the Weasel's got a point," drawled a syrupy voice from over to the side. They all looked over to see Draco Malfoy leaning against the stands.

“Well, you have to give a guy a chance to get used to a new device. It always takes me a few minutes to orient myself to a new machine, so this can’t be much different.” Duo sent a smirk towards Draco. “Just give me a second and I’ll show you real flying.”

He carefully put one leg over the broom, and looked to Harry for further instructions. "All right. Pull up on the front of the broom to go up, push down to go down," the green-eyed wizard lectured. "Lean forward to accelerate, back to slow down, sit straight up to hover in place."

"Sounds simple enough…" Duo said consideringly, studying the broom between his legs. "Well, let's do this, then!" And with that, before Harry could warn him, the boy pulled up on the front of the broom, hard.

-o-o-o-o-o-o-

Severus had gotten a sort of reprieve for most of the week. He’d seen little of the infuriating new student, but unfortunately for him, he decided to look out the window of the hall he was walking in as he returned to his dungeons from a meeting with Dumbledore. Apparently the infuriatingly new boy was trying to fly, and he was going about it in a manner that nearly made his heart stop.

"Oh, bloody hell…" For once completely disregarding how it would look should anyone be near enough to see, the former Death Eater rushed to the window, his face paling as the young wizard shot up into the sky at a speed that deceived the eyes into seeing only a blur.

When the boy made no signs of coming down, Severus further abandoned his normal air and hurried toward the pitch, a positively murderous look crossing his face as he realized that the mutt hadn’t stopped the boy from trying that without proper supervision.

-o-o-o-o-o-o-

It was incredible.

There were simply no other words to describe it. He'd thought it would be like the first time G had let him fly a shuttle- a rush, a calling, but... this...

The wind buffeted his face, an almost solid blow, and played havoc with his braid, whipping it through the air until Duo was almost worried the tie would come undone, but those were minor annoyances, eclipsed by the promise of freedom the wind whispered in his ears as it screamed past.

This... this was flying. This was the wild freedom that he'd never realized had been denied to him by closed cockpits and metal shells. This was...

He laughed madly, throwing himself into a fluid loop-de-loop that threatened to set the very air on fire. Hell, why not just call it what it was?

Heaven.

-o-o-o-o-o-o-

When Severus reached the pitch, he realized that his actions might have been hasty. He didn’t have much chance to react at all anyway as near insane laughter drew his eyes skyward as well. He failed to comprehend how the boy found his clear lack of control at all amusing.

"Damn it, Duo, slow down!" He heard Potter shout frantically, and a second later Black's booming bark seconded the motion. The animagus' wide eyes never left the distant figure above as it burned through the sky.

"How the bloody hell is he getting it to go so fast?" Weasley muttered, almost to himself. He glanced at his fellow Gryffindor. "I mean, not even you make it go that fast!"

"That's because I'm not insane, what Rita Skeeter says to the contrary," Potter answered, distracted by the mid-air antics of the new student. "Or suicidal!"

Severus collected himself and glared at the green-eyed boy, then at the other boys with him, one of whom was Draco. “Who’s idea was this? And why didn’t you stop this foolishness?” The first at Harry, the second bit was snapped at Draco with a sharp look to the Animagus beside him.

The Professor then turned to peer up into the sky again. “Stop that at once!”

For a moment the American didn't seem to hear him, but then the darting flyer slowed, and curved gracefully down to hover just above the group of wizards. "Yeah, Sev? What is it?" Duo chirped cheerfully.

Twitching slightly over the nickname, the man glared up at the boy staying just beyond his reach. “What do you think you’re doing?”

The American laughed, a bright grin crossing his face. “Flying, of course. This is so much better than anything else I’ve flown. Well, for fun anyway.” He wouldn’t forsake Deathscythe so easily. It had practically been alive after all, his buddy.

Severus spluttered indignantly. "Flying?! That wasn't flying, that was you trying to get your fool neck broken!"

Duo smirked. "Well, it ain't fun if there isn't some danger..."

The potions master stared at him in disbelief. "Are you sure you're not a Gryffindor?" he demanded incredulously.

Duo grinned widely and leaned to the side until he was hanging upside down. “I’m not brave Sevvikins, not at all brave compared to my old friends. I just really love to fly.”

To be continued.