Love, Manticore style

Hangeld and Emma

Emma Weasley was thinking as she walked toward Hagrid's cabin. Emily had asked her to do a couple of experiments and Hangeld had agreed to help with them. They were easy experiments, but still interesting. Emily wanted to know just how much weight the Starblades that all the Manticores had could carry.

Since Hangeld was the biggest person Emma knew, she figured she'd try flying with him riding on the back of her broomstick first, and then, if that worked, they'd use a sling load net to add weight until the broomstick wouldn't fly. She was still thinking about what to use for weight when a voice made her look up.

"Father's got that woodpile out back, we could use that." Emma smiled at her lab partner and friend Hangeld. She looked at him again, noting the way his wrists were sticking out of his robes. She stopped and looked at him, really looked at him.

"You're having another growth spurt, aren't you? Your robes don't fit anymore." She said, looking at the nearly seven foot tall bog walking up to her. Hangeld smiled and shrugged. Emma shook her head. "Well, it is an experiment in weight limits."

Emma had told Hangeld what they were going to be doing and Hangeld had brought one of Manticore's sling load nets. The nets were used to carry cargo and were the easiest way to carry things that couldn't be shrunk. It had two straps to attach it to a broomstick and a large bit of netting to hold the cargo they reduced the maneuverability and top speed of your broomstick, but had the advantage of being easy to use.

James had asked Emily to find out the upper limits of what a broomstick could carry, and that was when Emily had asked Emma to help. Emma noted that Hangeld was also carrying his Starblade. "What's your broomstick for?"

Hangeld smiled. "Each Starblade is made for just one rider, and I thought maybe they were made differently. We'll test yours first, and then mine, to see if they have the same limits."

Emma thought about that. A Starblade broomstick was individually handmade for a particular rider, and since they all had the same top speed, Emma could see where Hangeld might have a point. She looked at the Brown haired Hangeld, comparing his large frame and large build to her slighter build. "Good idea."

The two of them discussed how they would do the experiment as they walked, and they were ready when they got to Hagrid's cabin. Hangeld set his broomstick and the sling load net down while Emma got out a parchment and quill.

She wrote down the date and time and then mounted her broomstick, sitting a bit further forward than she normally did as Hangeld mounted the broomstick behind her. Emma lifted off, noting the slower reaction time of her broomstick to commands, and the sluggish feel of it. She made a couple of circles around the cabin, and landed to make the first of her notes. "Hangeld, put about one hundred pounds in the net, would you?" Emma didn't wait for his answer, but started writing down her notes.

Hangeld listened to Emma's thoughts as he loaded the net. Emma had the worst shields of any of the Chimeras, and Hangeld found the quicksilver flow of her thoughts to be endlessly fascinating. Emma's thinking jumped from thought to thought in some sort of free association that usually bemused Hangeld. He listened to her thinking about the test they had just done, the test they were about to do, and what she was planning after that.

Along the way, she had the little side thoughts that so fascinated Hangeld. What was for dinner, a mental note to make sure he got new robes ordered during the next Hogsmeade weekend, could you make a broomstick out of metal, what would happen if you used a 'Friendly Animal' potion on a Werewolf and more. Hangeld finished loading the net, and sat down, just enjoying the touch of Emma's mind until she finished her notes.

When Emma finished her notes, she mounted the broomstick again and positioned it so that Hangeld could attach the net to it. After that was done, Hangeld mounted behind her again.

Emma took off slowly until the straps were tight between the load of wood and the broomstick, and tried to lift off. The broomstick didn't move and Emma tried again.

Her Starblade didn't move for a second, and then it shot up, jumping about ten feet straight up in a split second. Hangeld wasn't expecting that, and his attempt to put his hands around her waist for the flight ended up with his hands slightly higher than Emma's waist.

There was an instant of frozen immobility, as they absorbed where his hands had ended up, and then three things happened at once. Hangeld pulled his hands away from her breasts, Emma lost control of the broomstick, and they fell.

Hangeld's arms went around Emma as they fell, and he twisted, so that when they hit the ground, he was under Emma, cushioning her. Emma lay there for a second, and then sat up, looking at Hangeld curiously. She reached with the Chimera link, touching Hangeld's shields, and Hangeld opened them for her.

Emma had realized that Hangeld was taking the brunt of the fall for her, and in that instant of the fall, she had felt several things from Hangeld. Fear for her, determination that she not be hurt, and something she wasn't sure of. That was what she was looking at now, comparing Hangeld's feeling for hers to her own for him.

"How long have you felt this way?" She asked quietly, when she was done.

Hangeld looked up at her, and sat up, so that Emma was sitting in his lap. He put an arm around her as he answered her. "I'm not sure. I only realized you were different than the others a couple of weeks ago."

"Is this Love?"

"How should I know? I've never been in love, and the only people that I know that are in love, are James and Tiffany and that's an entirely different sort of thing." Hangeld thought carefully as Emma explored their feelings for each other carefully, comparing them, testing them as if it was an experiment. "A Muggle writer once said that Love was when the other person's happiness was more important to you than your own. That is how I feel about you."

"Why haven't you said anything?"

Hangeld sighed. "Emma, look at me, and tell me what you see."

Emma took him at his word, and looked at him. The first thing she saw was the brown eyes, similar to hers, but different somehow, and then the face of her friend. "I see you, my friend."

"Some people see a half giant when they look at me." Hangeld sent a few of the things people had said about him to Emma, who was instantly furious.

"Why haven't you said anything about this?"

Hangeld blinked. "Are you nutters? James would be hunting each of them down and using Tiffany's spoon on them."

"So? They deserve it."

"Then Professor Dumbledore would have to do something, and where would Manticore be?"

Emma thought about it for a minute, as she leaned against Hangeld's chest, and rested there. "You could have told me, at least. We have all those potions to play with."

"Emma, your shields aren't very good, telling you something is the same as telling all of Chimera."

Emma blushed but had to admit he was right.

While she thought about it, Hangeld was trying very hard not to think about the warm body pressed against him. He was about to suggest they stand up, when he felt Emma's shoulders shaking slightly. He looked down at her, and her eyes were laughing. Hangeld blushed as he realized that he had not raised his shields, and she could hear his thoughts.

Emma stood up, and waited for Hangeld to stand. "Why don't we take a walk?"

"Sure, but what about the experiment?"

"I think I've had enough of broomsticks today." Emma sent him a picture of their last flight, along with her feelings as she realized where his hands were.

Hangeld blushed. "That was an accident you know."

They put the broomsticks in Hagrid's cabin, and started walking, just wandering aimlessly as they talked. Sometime later, Hangeld realized they were close to a place he'd been thinking about bringing Emma for a while, and he started guiding their path in that direction. Emma was too busy talking about them to realize they had a destination until Hangeld stopped. She looked around. "Where are we? I don't think I've ever seen this part of the grounds."

"It's a little hard to find, unless you know where it is. I wanted to show you something."

Emma looked around, but the only thing she saw was a small grove of trees with some sort of vine growing from tree to tree, making an impassible looking barrier. Hangeld walked up to the grove, stepped up close to two of the trees. He stepped sideways, and disappeared.

Emma walked up to where he had been, and saw how it was done. From a distance, the trees looked like they were connected by more of the vines, but there was a passage between the trees, just wide enough for one person. She went down the passage, and stopped in surprise. Inside the vine wall, there was a small garden, with a gazebo in the center of the glade.

The garden was heavily overgrown and neglected, but Emma could see that someone had put a lot of thought and work into it at one time. "This is lovely."

"It was father's gift to mother, after they were married. It was her place, when she wanted to be alone. I come here sometimes when I need to be close to her. I can almost feel her presence here."

Emma looked at Hangeld, who had a far away look on his face, remembering his mother. Hangeld's mother had been the Headmistress at Beauxbatons, until Albus Dumbledore had asked her to join the Order of the Phoenix during the second stage of the Voldemort war. She and Hagrid had been two of the Order assigned to help the Rangers keep the Death Eater led giants inside the giant lands, and they had been married there.

She had survived the Voldemort war, and given birth to Hangeld, but contracted some sort of disease a few years later, which had caused her to slowly waste away, until she died when Hangeld was seven. Hangeld never spoke much about her, and the rest of Manticore had respected his wishes.

"She did the whole thing, using plants common to her home, so that she would always have a bit of home with her."

"We should take care of it." Emma looked around, seeing where bushes and flowering plants had grown over the path that wandered through the garden.

"Are you sure? I've always left it alone, the way it was when she died."

"Hangeld, do you really think the person that put all this work into the garden would want it to look like this?"

Hangeld looked around, and noticed the few plants that were slowly taking over the garden, and that debris had clogged the fountain in the center of the gazebo. "No, I don't suppose she would have."

They started clearing the path, and trimming some of the bushes and plants, talking quietly over the link while they worked.

It wasn't until the sun was nearly down, and it was becoming hard to see that they stopped, and walked back to Hagrid's cabin to get their broomsticks. Along the way, Hangeld was surprised to find Emma's hand in his.

Inside the school, they didn't see anyone until they reached Manticore Hall, where twenty or so students were still working on various things.

All of Chimera was there, and Melissa looked up at them, blinked and started giggling. The rest of Chimera looked at them, and James motioned them over to the table.

"What have you two been doing?"

Emma and Hangeld looked at him blankly. James grinned and reached out to take a rose petal from Emma's hair, and they looked at each other. They were dirty, and both of them had various shrub and flower bits all over them.

Emma looked at James as if he's lost his mind. "Gardening. You know, where you take care of plants?"

James blushed at Emma's teasing. James was not a very good Herbology student, and might have failed that class, if it hadn't been for the Chimera link. He recovered, and grinned at them. "If you say so. By the way, did you finish those tests Emily asked for?"

"No." That was both of them, as they blushed darkly.

Melissa was examining them, and Emma opened a private link. "One word out of you, and I'll tell Madame Potter that you want an extra class at night."

"I wasn't going to say anything James could hear, and I think it's sweet."

They pled the need to bathe, and escaped without anymore teasing.

Over the next two weeks, they spend most afternoons and weekends in the garden, restoring it to its previous beauty. By the first Saturday in May, they had everything finished except the fountain, and they got up early to work on it.

Emma and Hangeld had opened their shields to each other over the weeks, and now had a continuous private link. The only physical sign of their growing affection had been Emma's tendency to hold hands as they walked to and from the garden.

They reached the garden, and stopped to admire the changes in it since they had started work. The vine wall blocked most of the sideways light, and the sun fell through the leaves of the trees in a dappled pattern, small beams of light that fell on the plants like little highlights. The gazebo stood alone in the center of the grove, in a clearing with the sun washing it.

They started work on the fountain without talking, as something told them that this was going to be an important task and day. It took most of the day to clear and clean the fountain, and when the water started, they stood back, and Emma's hand found its way into Hangeld's as they watched.

Hangeld froze, his emotions a mix of love and sorrow, and Emma looked away from the fountain. Standing just under the trees, was a transparent woman. She was taller than Hangeld, and had a small smile on her face. The three of them stood there for an instant, and then she faded away, leaving behind a whisper that could have been heard, or merely in their minds.

"Love has always been the greatest gift."