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Sam was nervous. He'd flown many times before, he was Falcon after all, but this whole Portkey thing his girlfriend Pansy had told him about sounded downright frightening.
"Are you ready to leave?" Pansy asked as she entered their bedroom and walked to where Sam was packing the last of his clothes for their trip to England. "Our Portkey is set to go off in less than ten minutes."
"Yes, I'm almost finished packing, but am I ready to take a Portkey? Nope. Not at all," Sam told her. "We could have used the Quinjet to get there, but yo…"
"I said that we could get there even faster than the Quinjet," Pansy chuckled at Sam and his apparent dislike of travelling by Portkey even though he'd never done so. "You'll be fine," Pansy replied as she patted his shoulder. "The first time is always a little bumpy, but I'll be there with you the whole time."
Sam tried to frown at her, but the excitement in her eyes prevented him from doing so. She had run away from home years ago, but her best friend from childhood was getting married just after the first of the year, and the two of them were going early to spend the holidays with him and his fiancée.
The only stipulation in Pansy's agreement to return to be his Best Witch was that she and Sam would be able to spend Christmas Eve just the two of them, otherwise, she was at Theo's disposal. It was two years ago that Sam provided Pansy with her first opportunity at peace on Christmas. And as Christmas Eve rolled over to Christmas Day, Sam vowed that he would do everything within his power to make sure that if she wished to have a quiet Christmas then a peaceful Christmas she would have.
The beeping of an alarm brought Sam back to the present.
"Come on, Sam," Pansy said as she pocketed her shrunken bag. "Two minutes till we depart."
Sam zipped up his bag and stepped back to allow Pansy to shrink his before slipping it into his trouser pocket. He looked at Pansy before warily looking down at the broken Christmas ornament held in Pansy's free hand. "I just touch it?"
Pansy nodded. "Yes, just lay your hand on top."
Seconds after his hand touched the chipped plastic creature, their suite of rooms at the Avengers compound disappeared below as they spun through the air.
Sam lost track of time as the world continued to spin below them. Suddenly, the ground rushed up to meet them, and Sam let go of the ornament.
"Stand up straight!" Pansy yelled over the wind rushing around them.
Following her directions, Sam used nearly every muscle in his body to upright himself.
"Try and walk it out," Pansy added.
Sam's head whipped over to stare wide-eyed at Pansy. "What?!"
He watched as Pansy did as she said and walked towards the ground. He started to do the same as her, but he wasn't fast enough and tumbled to the grass below.
"Oomph!" Sam breathed as the wind was knocked out of him.
Pansy rushed over to help him up. "Are you okay?"
Taking stock of himself, it took him a few moments to respond. "Yeah, I think I'm fine."
He looked around to find the two of them in a clearing surrounded by a dense forest full of old, large trees.
"Oh good," she whispered. She took Sam's hand. "Diagon Alley and Muggle London are next on our list. Just a quick Apparition trip and," she winked at him, "we'll be done with wizarding modes of transportation."
Sam laughed. "I don't mind the Apparition, not nearly as much as this whole Portkey thing. Maybe when we head back home, we can fly?"
Pansy hummed in thought. "Maybe."
"Let's get this holiday shopping done, and then we can spend the next two days just the two of us and our hotel room," Sam said, and even though no one else was around them, he leaned forward to whisper in her ear, "I think I can convince you to fly home while we're alone."
"We'll see." She grinned. "Now, let's go."
Sam gave her a short nod and let Pansy whisk them away to Diagon Alley. Nothing but a soft pop left behind from her spell to indicate that anyone had been there.
They landed in a small alleyway between two buildings. Sam watched in wonder as Pansy tapped a series of bricks on one of the three surrounding walls and the bricks shifted to form an archway. The street beyond a cacophony of sound and awash in vivid colours.
"This is amazing," Sam murmured in fascination.
Pansy grinned as she tugged Sam behind her. The duo slowly made their way from store to store with Pansy buying the presents she needed and Sam asking question after question. While they were inside of Flourish and Blotts, they ran into Hermione Granger paying for her purchases. The brunette witch admitted that she had waited until the last minute to buy Theo's gift. Pansy laughed but promised that she wouldn't tell the man in question.
After they left the bookstore, they entered Quality Quidditch Supplies, and Sam found himself falling in love with a sport he'd never seen before.
"We need to go to a match next year sometime," Sam told Pansy as they left and started making their way back towards the Alley's entrance.
"I think we can make that happen," Pansy said. While she wasn't the biggest Quidditch fan around, she knew that she would gladly go to a match with Sam if it made him happy. Maybe she should find a match on or around his birthday for them to go to.
Exiting the Leaky Cauldron, Sam turned to Pansy. "Where to next?"
"More shopping and then dinner. There's a Thai restaurant not far from Harrods that Hermione suggested in one of her and Theo's letters to me."
"Ooo! I love good Thai food," Sam said.
Pansy grinned. "I know."
"I love you, my witch." He kissed her cheek. "What do you think about finishing our shopping and getting dinner to go to eat in our hotel room after we check-in?"
"I love you too, my Falcon. And getting our dinner to go is the best idea I've heard all day."
That's what they did, and when they were done eating, Sam worked on convincing Pansy to fly back home to America. By the time Theo married Hermione, Sam's plan had worked.