𝐃𝐑𝐀𝐑𝐑𝐘 𝐇/𝐃/𝐒 𝐁𝐄𝐋𝐓𝐀𝐍𝐄 2008

When In Flight

Title: When In Flight
Author: lomonaaeren
Pairings: Harry/Draco, Remus/Severus, past Draco/OFC
Rating: R
Warnings: Some DH spoilers (neither Snape nor Remus died); ignores the epilogue completely. Blow-jobs, frottage, profanity, mild violence, Snape being mute.
Word count: ~17,000
Summary: After one Quidditch accident too many happens to the Slytherin players at Hogwarts, an inspector from the Department of Magical Games and Sports is sent in to investigate. This inspector just happens to be Draco Malfoy. Harry Potter, the flying instructor, is confident he can handle the investigation by himself. Well, all right, maybe Draco's glasses can help.

Harry was looking at the Hufflepuff Beaters when the accident happened—which made it all very inconvenient. Or maybe convenient, if one was not Harry. Harry had long ago accepted that the world was set up to benefit people who were not him.

But really, as he argued to Remus that night, what else should he have done? The Hufflepuff Beaters were a pair of hulking twins, Timothy and Harold Rosemont, who had already committed enough fouls in one game to keep three full-time Quidditch coaches in despair. He had to hover directly in front of them and yell right into their faces, without glancing away once, or they would have kept doing it.

"A vexing puzzle, to be sure," Remus said, and sipped the brandy that he seemed to favor lately. At least it smelled better than the Wolfsbane Potion.

But, of course, during the moment when Harry was facing away from the far end of the Quidditch Pitch, one of the Slytherin Chasers fell off his broom. Or was pushed. Or was playing a friendly game of Catch the Quaffle with the Hufflepuff Chasers and fell because he leaned too far off reaching for the ball. Or was "helped" along by jinxes cast on his broom, and then by more jinxes to nullify the spells that his teammates tried to catch him with before he hit the ground.

At least the player (Ivory Chuckleworth, whose name made Harry want to go punch his parents' teeth in) survived the fall, but he broke both arms. And then of course the game had to be canceled, much to everyone's disappointment, and Harry had to deal with the dozen variations on the story of Ivory's fall offered to him by members of both teams. It didn't help that some of them changed their minds afterwards.

It was the sixth Quidditch accident of the season, and the fifth that had happened to a member of the Slytherin team. Harry hadn't been able to determine if the others were the result of malice or not, either.

"They hired me to be a flying instructor, not a goddamn baby-sitter," he told Remus, and swallowed another gulp of Firewhiskey.

"Hmmm," Remus said, and leaned back in his chair. Harry watched him enviously. Since his near-death on the battlefield seven years ago, and the death of Tonks, Remus seemed to have decided to simply accept life as it came. He devoted himself to teaching Defense Against the Dark Arts and raising his son Teddy during the times when his grandmother Andromeda didn't have him instead, and his calm was even harder to break than it had been. Harry wished he could have that calm. He was living a peaceful enough life, but trouble appeared to be no less frequent than it was the day he defeated Voldemort.

"You haven't heard any rumors, I suppose?" Harry asked without much hope. Remus was widely known as a fair teacher, which meant the Slytherins were more likely to talk in front of him than most people—even if he was the current Head of Gryffindor House—and then there was that thing he had with Snape. If there was any concrete information among the Snakes themselves about why bad things kept happening to their Quidditch players, Remus would have heard it.

"What I've heard, I've been asked to keep silent," Remus said, and now his serene face changed a little, to look regretful. "I am sorry, Harry. But there is no proof one way or the other. Otherwise, Severus would already have taken his revenge." He chuckled. Harry couldn't imagine why he found that comment funny. And he still couldn't get used to hearing Snape called "Severus," either. Snape was one of the reasons that trouble continued to follow Harry about, after all. "All we can do is tighten our restrictions on the next match and hope it goes well. Minerva has suggested three professors in the air on brooms, rather than just you. What do you think?"