"Here." Sandy found his wand. Cast on himself. He was suddenly easy to see. "Say something. I need a direction." He cast twice. Second time he got Lawrence. His friend was lying on a branch like it was a horse. "Accio brooms!"

Here came one! Then the other. Like two good dogs his brooms returned. Sandy winced. "I think I am going to have bruises. In unmentionable places." He checked the brooms. The second best had some bent twigs. Sandy tried to smooth them down. "If anyone asks we flew into each other. Yes Lawrence?" One of them had to be responsible. Sandy did not like lying to his father. But he would notice something. Sandy feared he would be walking funny for days. "Here." He stretched out. Held the second best broom out to Lawrence.

“Bugger this for a game of soldiers!” Lawrence raised his voice to give Sandy a direction to find him. Suddenly he could see his friend in the branches, and the two brooms.

“If anyone asks, we flew into each other. Yes Lawrence?”
“… Fine.”

Feeling sore and a bit sulky, given their first attempt at a proper broom race had ended in a tree, Lawrence set his jaw. He reached for Sandy’s second-best broom when offered. It had not escaped his attention that Misslethorpe had noticed some damage. In truth, Lawrence felt a little sorry for it. He never liked to muck up someone else’s stuff, unless he really disliked them.

“Up,” he spoke to the broom, firm and a little grumpy. It began to hover again, and he gingerly worked his way off the branch and onto it, wincing. “Yeah you’re right, bruises in unmentionable places.” Lawrence held his breath and let it out slowly with a hiss, rubbing his backside. “What do you reckon, get rid of these numbers and head back to The Nog?.” Had they got enough money between them for some lunch? Could he even sit down comfortably that long?

"I second that." said Sandy. "I am so glad Shufflebottom did not come." Sandy lifted his leg over the branch. He was tired. Sore. "Because if we ended up in a tree. He would have been in one first. Or the river." Sandy liked Lawrence because he was clever. He was funny. Sandy's father said the Musgraves were working class purebloods. But they were not as bad as the Shufflebottoms. They were the pits! He had never liked Willy. He hoped he stayed friends with Lawrence after Hogwarts.

They climbed down from the tree using the brooms. "Let us go to the Nog."

-END-