The crowd’s at the Wizarding World Market were so dense that Minnie found herself wondering alone without even noticing that Ivy had been waylaid or otherwise distracted some distance behind her; if she had become aware she might have hesitated, waited for her friend, and thus escaped calamity. But of course she did none of these things and the moment Minnie’s eyes had alighted upon such a gloriously fantastical thing as a magic carpet she had been drawn to it like a moth to a flame.

At first it had been charming, floating like a broom but looking considerably prettier and more ladylike and, foolishly, she had allowed herself to be talked into taking a small ride. Just a hover really. A brief life off the ground and then to be set down and grinning she had agreed.

Only to find herself hurtling through the air on a rogue magic carpet that clearly had a vindictive whirligig for a mind.

“Help!” She squeaked unheard over the crowd that was rapidly parting for her, with the exception of one unfortunate gentleman who she crashed into and suddenly found herself sharing a carpet with. He was not on quite as stably as she was though and instinctively, to save him from falling, she caught hold of his shoulders to steady him.

He was here, as was often his way, for business, but earliness had always been one of Aldous’ strong suits, and so he had the better part of an hour remaining to himself before his appointment. This suited the wizard, who had not yet taken the opportunity to avail himself of all the Market had to offer—in spite of his work to help coordinate its establishment.

What ought to have been a relaxing stroll as he took note of what was on offer, though, quickly shifted into something a little more urgent than he had anticipated or desired.

The crowd around him was abuzz and moving to admit what he was startled to see was a young lady on a flying carpet. Aldous was stunned, and stood in the path of the thing for several long moments until it crashed into him, the physics of the thing managing to lift him up along with her as he clung to either side of the thing, legs dangling off the front and cane abandoned on the ground.

As if things weren’t already bad enough Minnie belatedly recognised the poor gentleman that was being dragged along by the runaway magic carpet as being Aldous Crouch, who on the plus side she did not know well, but on the downside was not likely to think well of her after this incident. Panicking about that impression, and of course the increasingly erratic course of the carpet, Minnie wrapped her hand around Mr Crouch’s forearm to steady herself as she tried to reach for her wand.

“I have no idea how to stop it. Where has the man gone?” Surely the gentleman who had been peddling the carpets would know how to stop such a thing? Otherwise he had no business being here at all and surely somebody ought to be monitoring such things-

Oh yes, that somebody was Mr Crouch. Merlin, they were in trouble.

“Do you have any idea of a spell to slow us down without plummeting to the ground?”

Her words did not reach the wizard, who was awkwardly attempting to scramble onto the carpet’s surface. Aldous breathed heavily when he was successful, only then realizing that the young lady who was failing so utterly to pilot the thing was Miss Wilhelmina Pendergast.

“No,” he answered emphatically, looking at the deb as though she were mad. This was not in the least how the wizard had expected his day to go.

His tone did not suggest that he was confident they would not end up in a broken tangled heap and Minnie gripped the corners of the carpet harder, trying her best to accommodate his frame without slipping off herself. They were not far from the ground really but she had seen enough Quidditch players come off their brooms whilst at school to know that speed was as much the enemy as height.

“I don’t know what to do,” Minnie squeaked amidst a continuous stream of panicked breathing, hoping against hope that Mr Crouch was about to pull a metaphorical rabbit out of a hat and save them both. “Look out!” She cried to a gentleman with a tall hat before they promptly skimmed it off the top of his head and it flew up, landing clumsily on Minnie’s head and utterly obscuring her eyes and any ability she might have had to navigate.

Had he been Reuben, Aldous would probably know how to fly a magic carpet; had he been Roman, he would have at least known how to make it stop. Alas, he lacked in both of these practical skills, and so his quiet afternoon was a pipe dream.

“Miss Pendergast, it may seem unkind to point it out now, but I do think you ought to have learned to control the thing before you got on it!” Aldous remarked tersely, eyes shut and hands gripping tight to the edges of the carpet so that he would not see, nor die in, their inevitable crash.

Even amidst her panic there was enough of Emma in Minnie that she felt affronted by the tone and she gripped the carpet, trying to take it lower through sheer force of will. She had never been a flier and certainly not on a carpet but to the best of her knowledge most fliers succeeded because they were the ones with minds of their own and not the object they were flying!

“It scooped me up before I could make much of a decision I’ll have you know,” she said with as much tartness as Minnie ever had, and she immediately regretted her rudeness, feeling there was never call for it under any circumstances. She softened her tone and bit her lip. “Perhaps we could jump to the ground when it gets lower?”

Lower? Aldous dared to open one eye long enough to see that they were far higher up than he would have cared for before snapping it shut once more.

“A broomstick, too, would also be of use, should that not occur.”

A broomstick! Why on earth hadn’t it occurred to her that another mode of flying would likely be their salvation?

“Can you fly one? I’m afraid I can’t.”

Unlike her companion Minnie never once closed her eyes – she was far too fearful that closing them for even a moment would make her fall to the ground below. If she could just get the carpet lower…

A spark shot from the crowd below, hitting the carpet with force and sending it ricocheting higher and higher into the sky above. Whoever had hit them, presumably in an attempt to help, had succeeded only in making things worse: Minnie gripped the carpet until she was sure the threads were embedding in her skin and reached to grasp for Mr Crouch behind her.

“We need a broom now!”

His ability to fly a broomstick was irrelevant to him at this point. The bottom line was that they could not fly a carpet, but could manage on a broom if the need arose—which it certainly had. Wand in hand, the wizard called out “Accio broomstick!” He did not particularly care whose broom they acquired; so long as they did not die, they could apologize later.

With a squeak Minnie ducked her head, her body weight momentarily making the carpet veer from side to side as she avoided receiving a broom handle to the face. It was a small price to pay but threw off what little equilibrium she still retained and Minnie very narrowly avoided emptying her stomach on the souls below.

“Do you have it? I don’t think I can hold on much longer.”