(Untitled)

[radishesncorks]

Date: April 23, 2001
Status: Semi-Private (Luna, Adam, Pepper, Wensleydale, Brian; ask if you'd like to join in?)
Setting: The Manor Grounds
Summary: Luna teaches the Them how to play Wizarding games. Hijinks ensue.

Comments

[muddy_blues]

"Hi there, Luna," Brian said, sauntering up with a grin. "And Fido. Sorry I don't have any...er...footstool treats."

He looked at the array of equipment and grinned even wider. "Is all this gear for just one game?"

[average_adam]

Adam came around the corner with Wensley in tow and froze as he found Brian and Luna. These must be the supplies for the games, but would Brian and Wensley both stick around and play? He hoped so. It was awkward having to break the Them up into pairs. They were meant to be four! And where was Pepper?

"Hi, Luna, Brian," he said as cheerfully as he could manage. "Didja get all the stuff then?"

[dearwensleydale]

Wensley had been following directly behind Adam when he froze, and consequently ran into him, bouncing off his friend's back.

"What? Oh." He reddened a little, but waved at the group that had already gathered in front of...were those broomsticks? He had thought that Adam was kidding when he said they would be flying. "Hello, everyone."

[radishesncorks]

"Hi," said Luna. "Don't worry, he can find his own treats too."

"I've got lots more, actually, but I thought for basics we might start with Swivenhodge. Or there's Chess, too. Or Exploding Snap. Or since there's four of us now, we could play Beat the Beater." Well, that was what Fred and George had called it.

[muddy_blues]

"I see that," Brian grinned. "Must be real useful when he fetches your slippers, you've got a footstool right there."

Brian was naturally drawn to the more violent games. "Beat the Beater? That sounds dirty..." his voice trailed off just a bit when he really registered who was right behind Adam. Wasn't gonna let it get to him. Not this time.

[average_adam]

Laughing at Brian's joke and hoping he stayed in a joking mood, Adam said, "Well, I dunno about chess on such a nice day... Which game is the flyin' one?"

[radishesncorks]

Luna just smiled and said to Fido, "Sit. Good boy."

"Both Swivenhodge and Beat the Beater use broomsticks, if that's what you mean." There were other flying games, but those necessitated the use of a wand, and Luna wasn't sure if Wensleydale or Brian were up to that. "Swivenhodge involves hitting this pig's bladder," she said, pointing to said pig's bladder, "over that hedge at each other."

Swivenhodge was kind of like Muggle tennis, really, but Luna wasn't to know that. "Beat the Beater, on the other hand, is actually more like Quidditch practice than anything else, but it's rather fun to play - everyone gets to be a Beater, and we have to hit each other with the Bludger."

[playswithboys]

"Well, you know me and my proclivity toward hittin' things," Pepper said on approach, wiping mud on her trouser legs. She glanced sideways at Adam. "But I keep hearin' all this talk about flying broomsticks. When do I get to see it?"

[radishesncorks]

"Well. Now, if you want to." So saying, Luna sat astride her broom and rose up a few feet in the air.

[average_adam]

Adam stared. And then a big, wide grin spread across his face like the rising of the summer sun.

"How do I do that...?"

The surreptitious look he'd meant to shoot Pepper about Brian and Wensleydale was forgotten in the face of flying broomsticks.

[radishesncorks]

It was Luna's turn to stare. Suddenly she felt incredibly happy - even more so than usual. What wouldn't she do to keep that smile on Adam's face?

"For starters, you could concentrate on telling your broomstick to fly for you." Luna came back down to the ground, and motioned to the four broomsticks lying on the grass. "It has to rise up of its own accord first."

[dearwensleydale]

"These broomsticks are sentient?" Wensley felt a strange sense of deja vu, as a vague memory of purple bubbles flitted through his mind and just as quickly flitted out. Slightly troubled, he frowned at the broom at his feet.

[average_adam]

Adam listened carefully, then eyed one of the brooms. "Fly, broomstick," he said, and it lifted easily off the ground because Luna said it would and Adam believed her.

"Cool!"

[radishesncorks]

"Well, yes. I wouldn't quite put it that way, but yes. They can react to your command - how else would you control them?" If she'd known that Adam had invited Wensleydale, she wouldn't have bothered with casting the Memory charm on him. As it was, she was feeling a little guilty. "Go on, try it."

"Oh, that's wonderful!" Luna gushed sincerely. "That's one of the signs that you'll be able to handle your broomstick really well."

[playswithboys]

Pepper was suddenly busy glancing back and forth between Brian and Wensley, which was probably a good thing or she might have laughed at Luna for gushing at Adam like that, no matter how sincere she was. As if people didn't do that over Adam often enough-

flying broomstick. Actual flying broomstick. Brilliant.

"All right, fly, you," Pepper said, pointing to one of them. And it started a little slower but eventually worked, not so much because Pepper had believed it from the start, but because there was no way Adam was going to be able to do something that she couldn't pick up just as easy. She'd spent most of her childhood seeing to that.

[muddy_blues]

There was Wensleydale. There was innuendo. Adam had even told him he did his best not to handle his broomstick at all if he could help it.

Fuckin' hell. They really weren't kids anymore, were they? But they sure didn't feel like grownups either.

Brian looked at the broomstick. Well, if footstools could move of their own, why not... "How about it then?" he said to the broom, feeling only a little silly (it was hard to feel too silly with Luna around).

It twitched a little. Too polite, Brian supposed.

"Get up, lazy!" he said. The broomstick rose, just a little.