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A Girl Worth Fighting For
Larry Albo did not believe in fate.
Some people thought that silly. After all, their world was on filled with many wonderous things. Dragons and trolls, flying carpets and wands, magic infused in every aspect of their lives. Why wouldn’t they believe in pre-ordained destiny and phrophecy?
But Larry was a wizard of common sense, and common sense told him that art of divination, whether it be crystal balls, tea leaves or tarot cards were all simple parlor tricks used by charlatans to dupe their naive clientele into giving them money. Most of it anyway. Only very few were gifted with true foresight, and even that he looked upon as questionably at best. The future wasn’t set in stone.
Common sense also told him he shouldn’t be chasing after a dragon. But here he was.
To be fair, he wasn’t really chasing after the dragon. He was chasing after the girl chasing after the dragon.
He leaned further on his broom, willing it to go as fast as it could.
He couldn’t really explain why he was doing this. If Quick was so intent on getting herself killed perhaps he should just let her. He told himself it would be a shame if she died now, after all the effort he had put into preventing it.
In front of him he saw her stop at the top of the stairs they had previously descended. He stopped alongside her.
“Merlin, you’re really going to chase a dragon to save a bunch of Muggles”
“You don’t have come”, she snapped at him.
Perhaps that hadn’t been the right thing to say.
Then, she flew on.
Merlin’s balls, that girl is insane.
He followed her, yelling: “What’s your plan?”
He wasn’t even sure she had heard him, since she didn’t answer, only kept speeding upwards through tunnels until she came to the dragon-sized hole in the wall.
Once more he arrived next to her. Through the gap, Larry could see that the beast had found its way into some sort of underground muggle place.
“This is bad”, he stated. They could hear screams coming from the direction of where the dragon had disappeared.
Next to him, Alexandra took off again, flying through the gap.
“Wait- Quick!”
Seeing no other option, he followed her.
That girl was truly something else. He knew Alexandra Quick well enough to know that she never let fear stop her from doing something, but he wondered if she had completely lost her mind this time. He wondered if he had lost his mind too. He really should back with the other students, helping and fleeing the city before either the Dark Convention wizards or the fucking dragon killed him.
Beneath him he could see the destruction the dragon had wrought on the muggle architecture. He could also see the people staring at the two teens flying on broomsticks.
He caught up to the witch once more.
“Quick!”, he yelled. “Are you insane? We’re violating so many laws – “. Completely ignoring him or anything he was saying, she took off again, following the escaped beast. “Alexandra!”
Larry was sure he’d never been so stressed in his life. Certainly not since that creepy mummy baby had chomped off his fingers. Being around Alexandra Quick had significantly decreased his survival chances over the years. Which made it hard to explain why he was so eager to be around her.
The two of them finally laid eyes on the dragon when they emerged at the top of the staircase, into the muggle building. Broken glass, destroyed merchandise and a crowd of screaming muggles were scattered all over the place. There was also the dragon, clumsily stomping around and causing several near-death experiences for those unlucky enough to be in his vicinity.
In short, it was really bad.
“This is really bad!”, he voiced his thoughts out loud. Next to him, Alexandra was hovering on her broom, surveying the scene.
Then, the dragon decided to break free of the buildings confinement and flew straight through the glass entryway, almost trampling several more people and leaving even more destruction and terror in his wake. Alexandra and Larry wasted no time following, flying straight through the opening and out into the streets of muggle New York.
For a moment, Larry was overwhelmed by the sights before him. It was loud. Muggles were everywhere. There were sounds of screeching and crashing as fast-moving muggle contraptions suddenly came to a stop. Larry thought they were called automobiles. All around them tall buildings stretched into the skies with signs displaying brightly colored, moving pictures attached to their walls. He couldn’t even begin to understand their exact purpose or what they were showing him.
The dragon had landed across the street on top of one of the metal vehicles, crushing it under its weight. The sky had turned dark and ominous, and a heavy mist had filled the air. All around, people were screaming and running in all directions, trying to get away from the enormous beast which had invaded the street. Larry noticed however that some people weren’t running at all, but instead standing and holding out small, flat devices not only in the direction of the dragon but also the two teens on their brooms.
“This”, Alexandra spoke, for the first time since their chase had begun, “is bad.”
Larry had been willing to fight the dragon earlier, when it had been confined underground and locked behind bars, which some would already consider crazy. Now, out in the open with no protection and a crowd of defenseless muggles around, it seemed like an even worse idea.
“We have to get out of here”, he said. There was little chance of the two of them successfully beating a dragon. Even Quick couldn’t possibly be that foolhardy.
Of course, the daughter of Abraham Thorn wasn’t so easily convinced.
“You have to get out of here”, she replied. She looked down at her compass and then pointed. “New Amsterdam Academy is that way”
Stupid, reckless girl, he thought.
No way was he going to sit by and watch her attempt another one of her suicide missions, not when it could very well end much more fatally this time.
He grabbed her arm, willing her to look at him and stay by his side. “I’m not going to let you pull one of your insane stunts just because you think being reckless and bold always works”
“You’re not going to let me?”, she snapped back, familiar anger rising in her voice. She tried getting out of his grip, unsuccessfully. “And since when do you care?”
Larry could feel himself flush. Why did he care?
Alexandra had been nothing but a thorn in his side since he had first meet her as a scrawny, mouthy elven-year old. There certainly hadn’t been any love lost between in them in the past few years, during which they hadn’t done much besides fight and antagonize each other, be it with words or wands. More than that, her antics had near cost him his life once. He should be glad to see her gone. Yet, he couldn’t help but having missed her this past year, even if he’d never admit to it out loud. The halls of Charmbridge Academy somehow didn’t seem such an exciting place to be anymore, without Alexandra Quick walking among them.
Despite her sharp words, he didn’t let go. He wouldn’t let her go.
For a short moment, the thought of simply stunning her and dragging her with him away from the raging beast below them crossed his mind.
Then, she kissed him.
All other thoughts blew from his mind, like leaves carried away by the wind.
It was short, only the light press of her soft lips against his. Different from the time they had kissed during the Academic Decathlon Ball not so long ago. She hadn’t done it of her own free will then.
He pulled away.
“This wasn’t Amortentia this time”, he said.
“No”, she replied, then pulled out a small bag out of her pack and held it out toward him. “Hold this for me”
“What?”
Instinctively, he let her dump a little object into his hand.
In the span it took him to realize what he was holding she had already cast the spell.
He felt the familiar pull and squeeze of portkey travel. Then, he appeared back below the ruins of Gringotts bank, only barely keeping himself from dropping off his broom. The judges and other champions had abandoned the place already. Quickly, Larry made his way back up, into the open streets of New Amsterdam. Chaos reigned around him, as Dark Convention Wizards were dueling with Aurors, teachers, even some students. He could even spot some of the judges.
By now, the trace on Alexandra had worn off. He hadn’t known where exactly they had been earlier and though a huge dragon couldn’t possibly be so hard to find, he got the feeling it wouldn’t be in the city much longer.
Whatever Alexandra was up to, she was on her own now.
Crazy, reckless, stupid girl.
Part of him was seething that she had managed to get rid of him like that. Another part was worried that that had been the last time he saw her before she was eaten, burned or stomped to death.
Larry threw around spells and hexes and curses. He helped some of the younger students of the New Amsterdam Academy get out of the line of fire and escape.
All the while, his mind lingered on the kiss and the silver string which had tethered him to Alexandra and the world of the living when he had been journeying through darkness of the Lands Beyond.
Larry Albo did not believe in fate. But perhaps, when it came to Alexandra Quick, some things were meant to be.