Hot Air Balloons

Little Harry Potter, at the age of six, has one thing he loves more than anything else. That just so happens to be hot air balloons. All the other boys his age are into cars or power rangers but Harry has always had a fascination with the little balloons. They just make him smile, make him happy, and it really really makes Draco Malfoy mad.

The little blond boy in his class loves it when all the boys in class are jealous of his fancy remote control cars and handheld video games. The only one who isn't impressed is Harry which makes him really mad because he wants everyone to think he has the best stuff. It's true after all and no pathetic little boy with large stained clothes will make him change his mind. Draco crossed his arms and stalked over to Harry as the little boy played with his handmade hot air balloon and pretended as though it was flying across the space in front of him, not wanting to get in anyone's way with his playing.

"A hot air balloon? How boring! Don't you want to play with a jet or a helicopter or even a sub-sub-submarye?" Draco stuttered over the last word but forced a smirk to pretend as though he meant to screw up. Besides, odds are Harry doesn't know the word either.

"Do you mean submarine? Sorry, I like hot air balloons." Harry said softly and went back to playing, the balloon having little pictures of parents holding a baby and smiling, everyone always looks happy in his pictures in class, Harry likes pretending that everyone could be happy at least in the paper drawing world. Draco grabbed the paper hot air balloon and ripped it up before grabbing a cup of water by the sink and pouring it on the balloon. Harry stared at the mess then began to sniffle before crying soft tears, rather than sobbing loudly like Draco would have.

When the teacher came over, Harry said he didn't mean to but he broke his hot air balloon, then he proceeded to help the teacher clean it up. Draco was baffled as he watched.

The next day Draco brought a plastic model of a hot air balloon and began playing by himself, trying to find out what was so interesting about this piece of trash. That's when Harry walked over and asked if he could play too. Soon they were coming up with adventures where they travelled the world and fought horrible monsters, only to escape to their hot air balloon to get away to safety and then relax and stare at the beautiful world around them in awe.

When recess came… they promised each other that when they grew up Harry would learn how to pilot hot air balloons and Draco would get richer and then they'd have one of their own and go on adventures whenever they could.

And once the boys were old enough to do all this… they really did get a hot air balloon and explored the world.