This is the Way I Fall

Author's note--Happy anti-Valentine's Day!!! (I say that because I'll wish you a Happy Valentine's Day with the next chapter...which ended up being quite unexpected, might I add...but in a good way! You guys will like it!) Happy reading!

This is the Way I Fall by Graballz

Chapter 12

Harry’s Plan

Draco heaved a sigh of frustration, watching Harry’s back as his boyfriend sprinted as best he could up the Muggle plane’s aisle. Movement caught his eye, and his gaze flicked back to Ron, who appeared to be regaining consciousness and clarity. He turned his head in the other direction to find the woman standing next to him.

“Sir, I need to ask you to—” she began, breaking off when Draco sat in the aisle seat with a thump, trying to keep the wand pressed to his thigh and concealed. He gave her his most charming smile under the mask, which again, she didn’t return, but she walked away, satisfied as he reached for the seatbelt. He dropped it as soon as she was gone, not bothering to buckle himself in since he would be getting up in a moment anyway.

“Weasley, how are you feeling?” Draco leaned over, peering at the redhead and moving his mask so he could talk.

“Better, I s’pose,” Ron replied, tilting his own mask. “Where’s Harry?”

“Took off that way,” Draco pointed. “What were you thinking? The Levitation Charm isn’t designed to hold up an entire Muggle airplane! No wonder you passed out, considering the abrupt change in altitude!”

“Geez, okay, HERMIONE,” Ron held his hand up, disgusted that he and Harry had each picked smarter-than-them mates, even if Hermione was a girl and Draco a guy. “Thought I might get out of a lecture, seeing as SHE isn’t here, but against all odds, YOU, of all people, are just like her!”

Draco bristled at first, realizing that Weasley was considering it a compliment, comparing him to the Muggleborn witch who had beaten him in every subject. He grudgingly acknowledged the redheaded Gryffindor’s words with a nod.

“So what’re you using instead of Wingardium?” Ron asked curiously.

“Hover Charm,” Draco replied. “We’re not moving, unfortunately, but it keeps us from plummeting.”

“Wish I knew the spells that make brooms fly,” Ron muttered, and Draco tilted his head, impressed that Weasley had come up with an idea that he himself hadn’t thought of.

“That makes two of us,” Draco agreed. Ron half-expected him to pull a book out of thin air and learn the spell, the way Hermione always seemed to do, or else fret about the fact that there was some bit of magic he didn’t know, the way she did when the first option wasn’t available. Draco did neither; he simply accepted that the potential solution wasn’t really viable considering they didn’t know the spells, and moved on to come up with a different way to save them.

**********

Harry came rushing back down the aisle, and as he got closer, Draco saw that Harry was holding a wand! The Gryffindor skidded to a stop, a grin splitting his face when he saw Ron’s eyes peering up at him alertly and full of questions as well.

“Harry, where did you get that?” Draco eyed the wand suspiciously.

“I know what we can do!” Harry whispered excitedly, ignoring Draco’s question. “One of the engines stopped working, and the pilot told me where it was! We can just repair it! This isn’t a real wand—one of the Muggle children dropped it—but it should do!”

“Harry, no!” Draco’s outburst didn’t stop him in time.

“Reparo!” Harry pointed his wand towards the wall of the plane, aiming slightly forward towards the wing that the captain had indicated housed the malfunctioning engine. The plane wobbled badly as the spell broke Draco’s Hover Charm, and there was ominous creaking that was nearly drowned out by the people screaming again, and just as Draco broke through his initial panic and cast the Charm again, there was a definite sound of metal snapping. Ron cracked his head against the wall as he desperately tried to see what was going on, and when he looked back at the other two, his face was pale and every freckle stood out.

“The engine snapped off,” he said, and Harry’s face fell. “Big fucking thing too. Luckily it must have missed the tail or we’d be in deep shite right now.”

“Deeper than we already are, you mean,” Draco clarified, turning back to Harry, who looked crestfallen. “It’ll be okay, love; you tried!”

“I just made it worse,” Harry whispered, stricken. “DAMN IT! Stupid, stupid, stupid!”

“Harry, stop!” Draco half-stood, grabbing the front of Harry’s shirt to break through his boyfriend’s self-recrimination. “You did your best, but that’s what happens when we wizards try to use Muggle replicas. You’re not used to using magic, love, so it backfired on you.”

“Look on the bright side, mate,” Ron cut in, trying to distract Harry. “At least Hagrid and his pink umbrella will have a laugh when we tell him!” He purposely used ‘when’, even though it was looking more like ‘if’ with every second. “Whoa, Malfoy! Give me my wand!” Ron lurched as Draco’s knees buckled without warning. Harry grabbed Draco out of instinct, reacting as soon as the blonde began to collapse, and Ron managed to catch the wand just as it left Draco’s fingers.

**********

The plane dropped and recovered once more as Ron renewed the Hover Charm, and Harry eased Draco into the seat, peering at him with concern. Ron felt a twin rush of grim satisfaction that he hadn’t been the only one to pass out, followed by guilt for being so selfish in a time of crisis.

“Draco, love? Talk to me. You okay?” Harry tipped Draco’s head back a little, making sure that his airway was clear. The Slytherin hadn’t completely lost consciousness, but the Hover Charm combined with his lack of magic use and a slightly unresponsive wand (Draco had had to put forth more effort into casting with Ron’s wand than he would have with his own) had taken its toll, just like it had with Harry.

“Fine…dizzy…” Draco mumbled, and Harry’s heart twisted. He planted a kiss to Draco’s forehead and turned to Ron, cursing inside because their Hermione-replacement was out of commission for a bit.

“Hagrid’ll get a kick out of this story,” Ron smiled thinly, trying once more to take Harry’s mind off of Draco’s current state of being.

“Hagrid…” Harry repeated. “HAGRID! Ron, you’re a GENIUS!”

“What?”

But Harry was already lost in his memories as he tried to explain his train of thought, his words rushing together in his excitement.

“The first time I met Hagrid, he used his umbrella to ‘speed things up a bit’ when we were coming back from the Hut-on-the-Rock!” Harry exclaimed. “Remember the boats at Hogwarts during our first year? We should use whatever propelling charm THEY had!”

“Blimey, you’re right!” Ron sat straight up, hope written all over his face. “But what did they use?”

“I dunno,” Harry shrugged, shoulders sagging. “Hagrid didn’t say anything, just tapped his umbrella on the boat. And he yelled ‘forward’ when we crossed the lake, but I don’t know if that counts as an incantation.”

“Hermione would know,” Ron said, and they both turned to look at Draco simultaneously.

“It’ll have to be modified, of course,” Draco replied weakly, having heard their conversation.

“You just concentrate on getting your strength back, and then we can talk about what to do,” Harry admonished gently, taking the blonde’s hand.

“Oh yeah, Malfoy, no pressure,” Ron said, but he had a friendly smile on his face and his voice indicated that he was teasing. “Just rest up whilst I hold the entire plane in thin air.”

“Why do you even need a wand, Weasley?” Draco joked back. “You’ve got enough hot air to blast us through the atmosphere.”

“Alright, enough,” Harry said firmly, glad that they were getting along but he was still worried over Draco.

“Bet he didn’t worry that much over ME,” Ron muttered out of the side of his mouth, trying not to laugh as Harry’s face turned reminiscent of his mother’s.

“You’re not my boyfriend,” Harry stated emphatically.

“No offense, mate, but I’m glad of it,” Ron twitched as the plane shuddered in response.

“Alright, let’s stop with THAT,” Draco said quickly, meaning that he didn’t want to feel the plane tremble again. “He IS a little overprotective, isn’t he?”

Ron snorted. “If that’s your definition of ‘little’, you don’t know the half of it.”

“Hey!” Harry protested once more as Draco and Ron began to discuss his faults with wicked grins. “Okay, I’m serious! STOP!”

“I thought you were Harry,” Ron couldn’t resist one last jibe, cracking up at his own lame pun on Harry’s name.

“Plane full of Muggles to save, remember?” Draco winked at his boyfriend. “I SUPPOSE a discussion of Harry’s inability to create a proper outfit COULD wait until we’re back on land.”

“Thanks ever so much,” Harry muttered darkly. “You’re both gits.” His comment only made Ron and Draco grin at each other, having found a common ground that they both agreed on, to be explored more fully at a later (not-so-urgent) time.

“Weasley, how are you holding up?” Draco asked, serious once again.

“I’m grand,” Ron replied sincerely. “No, really; I never thought I’d see the day when I was better with magic than EITHER of you…”

“We are out of practice,” Harry said defensively, falling silent when Draco held his hand up.

“I wasn’t meaning to start a debate,” the blonde cut in. “I just wanted to make sure he wasn’t feeling light-headed or anything.”

“Nope, I’m fine for now,” Ron replied. “But I’ll tell you when I need a break, that’s for sure.”

“Good. Now, about the magic,” Draco bit his lip. “I’m pretty sure I could do a variation on the rowboat spell, but Charms never WAS my strong suit…It would be best if either I used the real wand or taught Weasley the spell, since his wand responds best to HIM, after all.”

“I’m not great, but teach it to me,” Ron said instantly.

“Well, that’s just IT,” Draco huffed. “I don’t KNOW it. I’d have to experiment a little to find out what works.”

“Do we have the TIME to experiment?” Harry asked.

“The better question is whether we can find a substitute wand for the other person to hold up the aircraft WHILE I experiment,” Draco corrected, and Harry nodded.

“Obviously, THIS won’t work,” he said, holding up the toy wand and looking at it in disgust.

“Don’t throw it away just yet,” Draco replied to Harry’s surprise. “I’m not saying we should USE it, but I could probably control it if we can’t find ANYTHING else.”

“Oh man, my dad’s going to have his work cut out for him when we get back,” Ron moaned suddenly. “All of these Muggles will probably have to be Obliviated…”

A dark flicker of black hatred ignited deep in Draco’s soul at the mention of Arthur Weasley, and he successfully pushed the image of the red-haired man violating his mother to a dark corner of his mind, suppressing his emotions in favor of concentrating on the situation at hand. Draco knew that this was not the time to get angry about Weasley’s father, not when their lives—as well as over a hundred Muggles’ lives—depended on the three of them being able to figure out a plan. And Draco suspected that Weasley was just as useless as Harry when it came to that sort of thing…except that Draco figured some of his Slytherin strategy MUST have rubbed off on Harry for the Gryffindor to remember the rowboat spell that might ACTUALLY prove to be the most useful solution they had.

“What about a cane?” Draco said a little too forcefully, avoiding Harry’s eyes. He knew that his boyfriend would be able to read him too well, and Draco couldn’t bear to see sympathy right then. “Or an umbrella, like Hagrid used to use? Either of those might function as a makeshift wand.”

“Good idea, love,” Harry replied, pulling his mask all the way off to turn and search the vicinity for either of those objects.

**********

Author's note--Did you get as much of a kick about Draco being a 'substitute-Hermione' as I did? I was trying to convey that Draco was just as good as Hermione in his own right at coming up with plans, and as soon as Ron and Harry realized that, they immediately began to rely on him to be the 'brains' of this operation, just like they did with Hermione (in all of their adventures in canon).

BUT at the same time, I was trying to make sure that you guys knew Draco wasn't just 'male-Hermione'...yes, he's smart and quick-thinking and problem-solving just like her, but he has his own quirks and ways of doing things that are completely different from Hermione. (And like Ron observed, I don't think Draco is necessarily as absorbed or consumed with book-learning as Hermione to the point where he would pull out a book and try to learn from it in the middle of the crisis, like I could TOTALLY see Hermione doing!)

I took a little bit of liberty with the toy wands and the Muggle replicas. Basically, I see the Muggle versions of wizarding objects (like wands, brooms, cauldrons, etc) that could have the POTENTIAL to channel magic just like their wizarding counterparts as backfiring on a witch or wizard who tries to use them without properly directing the magic.

Like, for example, a wizard can channel magic through just about anything, but the materials and the way a wand is made makes that channeling SO much easier that it's effortless. But because the toy wand isn't a real wand (it's a Muggle replica) then it's harder to channel the magic through it, ie making the spell more likely to go wrong, just like when Ron's wizard wand backfired on him in the books.

However, the toy wand COULD be used if channeled and controlled properly, but obviously Harry didn't know that at first and so made the situation worse. (But we'll see an example of how a wizard can force it to work by concentrating hard enough on making the magic flow but in completely controlled bursts, since they have to compensate for the Muggle aspects of the instrument).

Does that make ANY sense at all? I hope I explained it well enough...if not, let me know.

Oh, and I'm SO much of a dork that I actually asked someone who works for an airline about different types of planes and engines and how many engines a plane could still use to fly with. LOL And here's what I came up with. The big jets that go international sometimes have four engines (two under each wing). For these planes, if one engine went down, the plane *could* still fly with the other three, and even if two of them malfunctioned, depending on the other circumstances (weather, turbulence, which engines) the plane sometimes would still fly.

So Harry, Ron, and Draco are on a jet that has two engines, one under each wing, and these are big-ass mother fucking engines. And technically, I think that even if one of them malfunctioned, if the other conditions were ideal, the plane could land safely without crashing, BUT in this case, the engine malfunctioned and then Harry broke it off the plane...so yeah, there's no way it can still fly all the way to England. It would totally go down in flames if our boys weren't on the flight!

But they ARE, so hopefully they can come up with a plan that will work! *sigh* Sorry about the plane wobbling more with Draco getting woozy...I know that probably scared some of you, but he's okay! And since Ron is now holding the plane up, I totally see it (the plane) shuddering (like with turbulence) when he twitches about being Harry's boyfriend! (I giggled!)

Okay...did anyone else get the lame name joke? No? That's okay; it was so bad I probably shouldn't even point it out to you, but I'm the Queen of Lame Jokes, so here you go.

Harry: I'm serious!

Ron: I thought you were Harry!

Okay, NOW do you get it? (serious-Sirius...hairy-Harry... *cue the groans and rotten veggies* hehehe)

But I was glad to see Ron and Draco gang up on Harry, even if it wasn't exactly the proper time for it! I thought that was funny, and honestly, it's one of the worries when you get two people from different groups of friends together...the one thing they have in common is YOU, but that can backfire! (as Harry found out lol)

And while I totally see Draco as the 'brains' behind it, Harry and Ron can still have good ideas, but they're definitely more of the 'doing' kind of people, whereas Draco is more of a 'thinker'...in my opinion. And so while I'm glad that you guys like Harry in charge, I think that the 'leader' role would switch between them depending on what the situation calls for.

Thank you for reading, and thank you for reviewing!!!

thrnbrooke Thanks! Harry figured out that the engine malfunctioned...but that's no longer an issue, since it's currently floating somewhere in the Atlantic...never to function again. LOL

paigeey07 Oh good! I'm glad! Thanks! Yay for "Frasier"! You know how he booms out (in his 'offended' voice) "I AM WOUNDED!" That's totally what I was thinking, but I'm really not! Here's 'more'!

gorgeousbrowneyes Well, a VERY BIG thank you to you for reviewing, even when you're short on time!!! I didn't realize that "The Wedding" was YOURS until I saw the AN for Chapter 2! The first chapter for that was SO cute!!! And then I read about how busy you are and how you're not currently writing at the moment, and I am so flattered and appreciative that you still review my fic!!! Thank you!

Roozette You pose an interesting theory, and I shall have to take it under advisement. LOL Any new ideas? And I hope you don't mind if Harry and Draco share control of the situation, but you make a good point about him being the 'in charge' one!

*shakes head* You and your demon monkeys...why do I have the feeling they'll end up in this story at some point whether I want them to or not? LOL

AND I'M SORRY!!! I think I was reading Samayel's new chapter of "Big Chicago" while you were checking on MY fic, and NOW I'm updating!!! *hugs* I'm really, really sorry that I didn't have this up before you went to bed, but here it is now! (And Samayel updated...which, honestly, one chapter of HIS is worth more than ALL of my fics combined!!!)

*Harry and Draco quickly Apparate to Roo's bedside and give her hugs*

Harry and Draco: We know you're thinking of us! We'll see you in your dreams! *wink*

*Harry and Draco Apparate back to my story and back to the plane* Feel better now? I hope so! Sorry again!

And thanks...I'll remember!