The Meeting by Ashily

Title: The Meeting

Author: Mercy Me It's Ashley

Summary: Harry's finally taken up Max's offer.

Rating: PG

Disclaimer: I own nothing. Let's face it, this is fanfiction. No one owns anything.

"Didn't think you'd show," Max said casually, outstretching her arm in an almost-friendly-but-still-'I'm-so-much-cooler-than-you' type of way.

The bespectacled boy shook her hand politely, he seemed a bit timid, but there was a fiery look in his green eyes and a bit of a twitch (an almost smirk) to his thin line of a mouth.

He'd brought with him five others, just as had been arranged. One was a skinny stick of a boy, with fiery hair and bright blue eyes. He seemed very determined to stare down Iggy, that is before he realized Iggy was blind.

He also brought along a girl who looked to be Skinny Stick's sister, with wavy, red hair and a spray of freckles. She wasn't quite as tall as her brother, but for an average girl, not a mutant, she was on the tall side.

The girl to the direct right of Skinny Stick's Sister was a blonde girl with watery, crystal clear eyes and a pale, sheet white complexion. She was reading a magazine- upside down- and had an odd hat on her head. It looked to be a vulture, a live one.

Another girl tapped Vulture Head on the shoulder, signaling to put down the magazine. This girl had bushy brown hair, and a no nonsense way about her that was slightly... erm, annoying, might have been the word.

No Nonsense Girl also tapped on the shoulder of one Awkward Boy. Awkward Boy was staring intently into his pockets, where an odd ribbiting sound was coming from. He closed his pockets, but not soon enough. For a small green toad jumped out of his pocket before he could stop it. He took a step forward to follow the toad, but effectively tripped over his own feet and ended up sprawled across the ground.

"You brought the brooms, I trust?" Max said, looking over the group with obvious distaste.

"And you brought your wings?" Skinny Stick sneered.

Max gave him a smug grin, and snapped open her sixteen foot wingspan. The other group ooohed and aaahed despite themselves, and were even more impressed as the other five did the same.

"That's a nice attachment, that is," Skinny Stick said with a gulp.

"Built in with all sorts of tricks you don't even know about," Fang said, his expression mirror Max's smugness.

The group seemed to all take a moment to gulp, realizing what they'd gotten themselves into. But the One With the Glasses managed to rally them up and give a little pep talk, passing out brooms to the group, and then lining up toe to toe with the American Mutants.

"Aren't some of them a bit too young?" Annoying Girl asked as she mounted her broom, though her glance also carried to blind Iggy, as well as the younger ones.

"No, it's only fair for Neville and Luna, now they've got a chance at tying!" Skinny Stick was getting quite annoying.

"I mean, sorry, Nev, Luna..." Skinny Stick mumbled after a sharp kick to the shin from Annoying Girl.

"Oh, it's alright," Awkward Boy said, "I understand."

"If you're done talking," Max said loudly over the group, "We'll do this in pairs."

"Harry and Me," she said, pointing to the One With the Glasses, "We'll go first."

The One With the Glasses, now called Harry, glanced at his companions in an almost nervous way before he kicked over, hovering to Max's height.

"Nudge," Max nodded at the smaller girl.

"On your marks!" she shouted on cue, "Get set! Go!"

As soon as the word was uttered, both set off at an astounding pace. Max seemed tempted to use her speed boost when she saw how well the broom was keeping up, but she stayed true and fair, rounding the red flags and shooting back. Winning by just a hair.

"That was fantastic," Fang whispered to Iggy.

"You'll do just as well," Iggy returned reassuringly, his hand gripping Fang's shoulder.

"Thank you," Fang blushed ever so slightly.

"Quit ogling," Max returned, coming up behind the two and knocking Fang on the back of his head, "You're up next."

"Doesn't a guy get any privacy these days, sheesh," Fang muttered, going to stand on the white line. The other group whispered a bit before selecting Skinny Stick to go against Fang.

"I'm Ron," Skinny Stick said, trying to stay pleasant, putting out a hand for him to shake. Fang shrugged away the hand, muttering only, "I'm Fang."

"Good to meet you then," Skinny Stick, now called Ron, rolled his eyes.

"On your marks!" Nudge shouted, "Get set! Go!"

Fang shot off before Ron even had a chance, rounding the red flag when the redhead was only half way there. This victory was not at all a close one.

When Ron, Skinny Stick, returned to his group, he was met with a disappointed sigh and a bonk on the head from Annoying Girl. It was quite humorous to watch.

Fang, on the other hand, was met with a round of high fives and cheers, not to mention a rather joyous kiss from Iggy.

The next pair to be selected was Iggy and Skinny Stick's Sister. With both sides cheering for their team with complete confidence, the two lined up. One side doubted an Iggy victory because he was blind, the other doubted a Skinny Stick's Sister victory because she was but a small girl, and Iggy had many abilities that they didn't know about.

"C'mon Ginny! You can do it!" the group cheering for Skinny Stick's Sister, now called Ginny, screamed.

"You've got this in the bag, Iggy!" The American Mutants returned.

"Good luck," Ginny said politely, no doubt not meaning a word of it.

"Break a leg," Iggy smiled before shooting off.

Apparently their cheers were so loud that no one had heard Nudge's cry, except for Iggy, who had such a strong hearing.

But Ginny was fast, just as fast if not even fast, and she might of won, had it not been for her late start. But Iggy pulled ahead, winning by a head.

So now in three matches, the American Mutants had dominated.

But the British Wizards were not to be under estimated. Even if all they had left was Awkward Boy, Annoying Girl and Vulture Head. But then, seeing that Awkward Boy was busy trying to pick himself up out of the mud, after tripping over his own feet again. Annoying Girl was worriedly looking over a broom text book, and Vulture Head was staring dreamily up at a tree. It looked as if she had even been speaking to it.

"Guys," Max said, rounding the group up together, "It looks like their resources are dried up. I think they've just about given up."

"I see- understand what you're saying," Iggy replied, "But it doesn't sound like they're planning on giving up."

Max shrugged, "Oh well, we'll win 6-0 then. Nudge, you're up."

The other group had selected Annoying Girl for their next opponent, who mounted her broom nervously whilst Nudge fluttered about her, talking and showing off.

"It's not like we wanted to be this way, you know? I mean, they just did this to us. The School and our parents. But we don't know our parents, except Iggy. Cause he met them, but he ran away cause he didn't like them. So really, none of us got parents no more. I mean, none of us have parents anymore. Max doesn't like it when I talk 'like a hillbilly', she says I'm smarter than that, but I don't think so cause when we went to school I only got a C on my first spelling test, I got an A- on the second one, but that was only cause my friend Marie wrote the hard words on my hand for me. Even then I spelled two of them wrong, but that might have been cause Marie wrote it so the 'e' looked like an 'o'. Or maybe that was just the way I was looking at it, I don't really know. But I miss Marie she was real nice-"

Annoying Girl seemed to be on the verge of screaming.

"Punch her, Hermione, shut her up!" Ron, the former Skinny Stick, yelled at Annoying Girl, now called Hermione.

Hermione seemed to want to, but before she could Max yelled out, "On your marks! Get set! Go!"

Now this was sad. Nudge shot off, going so fast she nearly seemed a blur. It was like she honestly thought she had a chance at losing. She might have had a chance at tying, if it hadn't been for the fact that Hermione fell off her broom while rounding the bend.

Max could have sworn she heard Ron mumble to Harry, "Why'd we bring her along, again?"

Nudge was greeted with happy cheers, as was Hermione. At least, from Vulture Head. Who seemed to actually be cheering for a squirrel which was racing around the trunk of a tree. But oh well. Cheering was cheering.

"Four in the bag! We win either way!" Fang said as they regrouped, "Let's just take their betting money and call it a day."

"I don't wanna!" Gazzy protested, "I wanna race!"

Max shot Fang a look before saying, "Let's let Gazzy and Angel race, they want to, and it's not like it's going to hurt anything."

"Fine then!" Fang said, putting his hands up defensively, "I'll just go rot away in boredom!" he stalked away moodily, Iggy following closely after.

Max shrugged, then said to Gazzy, "You're up, let's go."

Their next adversary was Vulture Head, who'd taken off her Vulture in exchange for what looked like a blue ferret. She mounted her broom backwards, and prepared to kick off. No one said anything for a few minutes, but then Skinny Stick, now called Ron, spoke up, "Luna, you're riding it backwards."

"Yes, I know," Vulture Head, now called Luna, replied dreamily, "But this way I'll get greater air speed velocity. It's what the Pygmies do."

"I'm sure they do Luna," Ginny said gently, offering her a hand and gently pulling her off the broom, "But, um, just do it this way for now, please?"

Luna shrugged a bit, reluctantly mounting the broom the proper way. The Flock might have laughed, but they found it oddly sad, and instead Max forced to give Gazzy a rather sympathetic, easy-eyed look that said 'go easy on her'.

But maybe Ginny should have let her go backwards, because from the moment the race began she couldn't have broken 1 MPH. Even Gazzy was forced to give up on 'going easy on her', and at the halfway point shot around the bend just to end the poor girl's misery.

Needless to say, the British Wizards were not pleased with a score of 0-5. But all they had left was Awkward Boy, and their hopes seemed low, very low indeed. In fact, their hope level actually hit zero as Awkward Boy managed to knock over the entire rack of brooms, pull Luna's hat off and crush his toad after tripping over a leaf.

As the Flock regrouped, minus Fang (who was still sulking) and Iggy (who was attempting to cheer him up), Max was careful to warn Angel not to use her mind powers.

"I don't think I'll need them," the little girl said confidently.

And she didn't, because before the race even started, Awkward Boy stepped on his broom and accidently snapped it in two.

"Neville!" The British Wizards cried mournfully in unison, Awkward Boy, now called Neville, said something that no one really understood, seeing as he'd just tripped into the mud, and now had a mouth full of dirt and dog feces.

And so, the American Mutants topped the British Wizards with a score of 6-0.

"Erm, listen," Harry said approaching the Flock nervously, "We were wondering if you'd maybe be up for a rematch?" He rubbed the back of his head anxiously.

"Sure," Max said almost cheerfully, "Same time next week?"

Maybe I'll make some more?