bakerstreet | Hogwarts AU

Disappointment flashes across Marcus's face he takes a deep breath and kicks at the gravel on the ground. But Marcus is good at getting what he wants and he wants Sean to hang out a little longer.

He tosses an arm around Sean and smiles, though he's still getting used to that. "Please come." He says. God he was becoming a sap, "You know you want to."

Given everything he's just realised it's almost heartbreaking to have Marcus look so disappointed, and almost overwhelming to have him sling an arm around his shoulder and fucking smile like that and say please.

It was like he knew exactly what would break through Spot's defences. (It was him. He was the thing that broke through. He'd already done it, it had just taken Spot this long to realise).

The bastard.

"Fine."

Fuck it. Marcus thinks and doesn't take his arm off Spot's shoulder as they walk. He'd never been this fucked up about trying to date someone before. At school normally, it was just wanna go make out under the quidditch stands, go to Hogsmead. Blah Blah Blah. He didn't know why this shit was different.

They find a place to grab dinner when they get seated by a young wizard around their age, Marcus doesn't sit next to Oliver he slides in next to Sean to the point where their legs are almost touching. "I'm getting a milkshake tonight, I think." He mumbles starting to flip through the menu.

God it's like he fucking knows and he's just trying to torture Spot.

He should shrug Marcus' arm off, he shouldn't let him do this, but he's fucking weak and desperate for the touch even if it doesn't mean what he wants it to mean, so he lets it happen.

And then of course Marcus sits opposite Oliver, leaving him close enough to Spot that their legs are pressed together, again, and Spot's scowling as he stares at the menu because it's just not fucking fair.

Marcus starts to wonder if he was reading the signals wrong, but he pushes that from his mind. He leans his leg against Sean's and smiles a little, they order cheesy fries to split between the table. They eat and talk, it's nice Marcus starts to feel normal again, well, as normal as who's happy about their dad sitting Azkaban can feel.

"How's the place you're staying?" Marcus asks Spot.

"Yea it's... it's good." Spot admits. He doesn't exactly want to talk about it in front of other people but he also knows, now, that his story was splashed all over the front page of the daily prophet so half the wizarding world knew how much of an asshole his father was. Which. Thanks so much journalists.

"Medda and Bryan are really nice." he shrugs "They, uh, they bought me a broom. So maybe Hufflepuff will actually have half a fucking chance this year, since I won't be stuck on one of the school ones."

Oliver smiles at Spot, "What kind did you get?" He asks excitedly before Marcus can, But Marcus is smiling big at Spot.

"That's great." Marcus says, "We should figure out a day to fly together." Marcus says leg doing that bouncing thing again, only this time it's kind of against Sean's leg.

He's got such a nice smile.

Spot's so taken with looking at Marcus that he barely catches the question from Oliver. When it filters through he immediately drags his gaze away to stare at the table, feeling like a dick. Oliver's being so nice and all Spot can do is want his boyfriend. Great.

This is why he doesn't have friends.

Well okay, this is an entirely unexpected situation, but still.

"Uh, it's a nimbus" he answers "And yea, yea we should... do that..."

How was he supposed to ignore Marcus' leg when it was bouncing like that?

"Brilliant." Marcus grins "You're gonna have ta' get used to it before school starts." He says hopefully, poking at them going flying together again.

They finish eating split the check and head out. "Uh, I'll send you an owl about testing out that broom of yours." He smiles again, scuffing his sneaker in the gravel.

The other three look amused, and Marcus would punch them all if he could.

"Yea sure.. I'll uh.. I'll see you soon then I guess." he replies, confused why Marcus seems to be so nervous, but at least he's smiling.

"Oh.. thanks.. thanks for the shirt, by the way." he tugs slightly at the hem of it.

"Gotta make sure you don't fall in with the wrong lot." He laughs nodding at Basil and Oliver in PU blue.

Basil give Marcus a mock offended shove, making Marcus laugh.

When they part ways and Oliver and Marcus are back at Oliver's "You like him..." Oliver says in a teases voice.

"Shut up, or I'll tell your parents you're dating, Percy Weasley." He says narrowing his eyes.

"How..."

"I'm good a figuring things out." Oliver smiles, "also you left that letter on the table, you're mum almost picked it up." He laughs.

A few days later Marcus sends an owl to Sean asking if he wants to come over and fly on Saturday.

Honestly, Spot isn't sure, he doesn't know if he wants to be around Marcus' friends again, even though he can admit that actually the game was a lot of fun and they're alright people who clearly don't bear a grudge for his outburst in the library (or, thank god, treat him with kid gloves after knowing what happened to him) - though maybe that was because they also knew he could turn into a leopard and fucking maul them if he wanted to.

It probably wasn't that. It was probably the good people thing.

But he also can't not be around Marcus, so he agrees, of course he does, and when Saturday comes he's back in the bats t-shirt and heading over with his shiny new broom, and okay he's kind of excited to get flying.

Marcus smiles with Sean shows up, Oliver's parents had figured out Oliver was dating and that had been fun, but it also meant Oliver was now out on a date and wouldn't be back for a while.

Oliver's parents are sitting at the kitchen Oliver's dad reading Quidditch Weekly his mom reading The Daily Prophit. They greet Spot and chat with Spot a little while Marcus grabs his broom.

"Are you two going to be back for dinner or are you walking into town?" Oliver's dad asks the pair.

"Dunno, we'll come let you know?" Marcus says looking a little uncomfortable.

"Sounds good." He nods.

He smiles at Sean, "Come on."

Making small talk with parents is a new experience, but Spot is carefully polite and says as little as possible and tries not to be too obvious how relieved he is when Marcus gets back with his broom.

It's once they're out of the house and actually heading towards the field that he can't help but ask, his tone as casual as possible, "So, no boyfriend today?"

Marcus blinks as they walk and looks very confused, as they walk up to the field surrounded by apple trees.

"I don't... what boyfriend?" He asks changing the shoulder his broom is resting on.

"..Your boyfriend? The Scottish one with the bad taste in Quidditch teams? You got another one?"

He doesn't understand why Marcus is so confused

Marcus blinks and starts to laugh, "I'm not dating Oliver, I'm not dating anyone." He says shaking his head. "Oliver is one of my best friends, that'd be like dating Adrian or Basil." He wrinkles his nose. "Olivers on a date now, it's why I asked you to come over today." He says awkwardly rubbing the back of his neck.

"...you're not?"

He's not dating Oliver, he's not dating anyone, he's single.

Yea and he's still not going to be interested in you, asshole he tells himself.

"Shit... uh.. sorry, I just... thought.. you were.."

"Nothing to be sorry for." He shrugs, dropping the quaffle on the ground when they get inside the ring of the trees and carefully sets his broom down. "Are you dating anyone?" He asks stretching a little, the sky is a bright clear blue, it's the perfect day for dicking around on brooms.

"Me?" Spot scoffs, shaking his head in amusement. "Marcus, I have basically one friend, of course I'm not dating anybody."

Because the only person he's interested in right now is that one friend, which is really all kinds of pathetic and he's well aware of that fact.

He sets his own broom down and stretches too, mostly to keep himself from watching Marcus do it.

Marcus tries not to smile at the fact that Sean doesn't have a boyfriend or girlfriend or whatever. "You have more than one friend... that fifth year, Cedric? Basil, Adrian, Oliver..." He goes on.

He finishes stretching and picks up his broom, and kicks off and hovers a few feet above the ground. "You have friends, you just don't want to admit it."

"Quidditch teammates don't count." Spot dismisses the mention of Cedric, he wasn't friendly with the rest of the team, not really. "And those are your friends, not mine."

He grabs his own broom and kicks off, unable to stick to just hovering since this is the first time he's really been able to fly it, so he immediately shoots up into the air and flings himself into a backwards loop with an elated look on his face, before forcing it into something more neutral and flying back down to Marcus

Marcus laughs watching Sean as the new broom shoots straight up watching the loop. "Gonna have to let it get to know you." He says flying closer to Spot. "Wanna try a few laps?" Marcus asks tying his hair back, before smirking at the Hufflepuff and taking off at full speed, flicking his wand making the quaffle shoot up into his hand, he tucks his want away and picks up speed again.

It is, Spot thinks, frankly unfair of Marcus to look so good with his hair tied back.

It only distracts him for a moment before he's zooming after Marcus, getting used to the way the broom handles. God it's so much nicer than the school brooms.

They spend a few hours flying and tossing the quaffle around, Spot's broom starting to adjust to him. Marcus flops into the grass, stray hairs having fallen out of the tie, sweaty and tired, but happy looking up at the sky that's started going pink. "Gonna have to work with it more before the season starts." He says folding his arms under his head and looking at Sean a dopey smile on his face. "I mean not gonna beat Slytherin but you should still give it ago." He smirks.

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