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Remus gazed around him, at the chattering seventh years all standing around the quidditch pitch. All were dressed in muggle shorts and t-shirts. Dumbledore had instructed everyone to dress like this, and the students were told to gather around the quidditch pitch. Since almost no one in the school had muggle clothes like this, they had appeared on the beds in everyone's dormitory that morning.
There had been a curious addition to the quidditch field. On the ground was now a ring of maroon rubber synthetic material in a big oval. It was 400 meters in circumference, with white lines separating the length of the ring into six lanes. There were starting lines and yellow arrows.
There were four of these ovals, spread out in the quidditch field and on the grounds.
Remus knew what these strange things were. They were running tracks. When he was a child before he was bitten, his mother had run many marathons. She had gone to the local track to practice for these events and had brought Remus with her. He had walked around the track a couple times with his mother, but that was about it
Remus's friends, Sirius, James, and Peter had all been extremely confused by these mysterious (to them and all of the other pureblood students) ovals, and now were discussing it inquisitively along with almost all of the other seventh years.
"Silence!" Professor McGonagall exclaimed all of a sudden, and appeared in the middle of the throng of students They formed a wide berth around her, and the students quickly quieted down to listen to her.
"Thank you. Now. Professor Dumbledore decided to give you all an experience that many muggles have when playing sports." At this statement, almost all of the pureblooded students (Sirius and James being the exceptions) protested. McGonagall tapped her wand on her throat and muttered sonorous and her voice magnified.
"Excuse me!" McGonagall's voice thundered. All protest ceased immediately. All the students looked expectantly at her.
"There will be no more interruptions. Straight to the point: These objects on the ground here are called athletic tracks. Many muggles take part in a sport called track and field, and in this particular sport, endurance, strength, speed, and physical competence are tested by means of a series of athletic competitions including throwing, running, and jumping. In order for you all to get the full extent of the experience, you will all be competing in heats of different events."
McGonagall paused to shoot warning looks at a few whispering students, then continued.
"These events will include sprints, long distance, shot put, high jump, long jump, and much more. You will all be receiving schedules that will tell you which track to go to, and which events you will be competing in. The four houses, Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin will be competing against each other in these events, and the points for each race will be added up at the end. Good luck!"
With that, she tapped her wand on her neck and muttered the countercharm so her voice would return to normal volume. She then waved her wand and instantly, a small piece of parchment appeared in every single student's hands, with their names and events written on them. Remus's looked like this:
Remus Lupin
Track 1
Events:
High Jump – 1st heat
50m hurdles – 1st heat
100m – 1st heat
800m – 1st heat
3000m – 1st heat
Remus vaguely remembered what these events were. He knew that once around the track was 400m, so he knew all of his events were relatively short except for the 3000m. He frowned slightly at this race, staring at the writing on his piece of parchment. That would be seven and a half times around the track. It was almost 2 miles…
Oh well. Being a werewolf, Remus had a slight advantage over his classmates. He was naturally a hunter, so that ensured that he was always in good shape, yet maintaining a lean, muscular build. A perfect build for a runner.
Remus also noticed he was in the first heat for everything. The first heat was for runners that were best, the scorers. The scorers were the best runners on the team, the ones that most of the pressure was on. They were the ones who scored the points if they came in first, second, or third.
Remus was the only person in his group of friends who knew what was going on. Sirius, James, and Peter were all staring at their sheets of parchment in confusion. Sirius sighed in frustration, apparently fed up with the races. He shoved his parchment into Remus's hands and looked at him.
"Moony, explain this to me!" Sirius huffed, crossing his arms. "Since you seem to understand it so well." Sirius had a brooding look on his face, but managed to look very handsome at the same time. Remus laughed and looked at Sirius's parchment.
Sirius Black
Track 1
Events:
Shot put – 1st heat
50m hurdles – 1st heat
100m – 1st heat
400m – 2nd heat
3000m – 1st heat
Remus compared their sheets and instantly was flooded with happiness. He and Sirius were on the same track and had almost the same events! Remus figured that he and Sirius would be pretty evenly matched, as Sirius had basically the same build as him.
"So? What does it all mean, Moony? What are the little m's for? I can't believe Dumbledore's making us all do this!" Remus laughed and handed back Sirius's parchment and smiled at him.
"The little m's stand for meter. You'll be throwing an 8-pound ball, jumping over hurdles, running a length of one side of the track, running once around the entire track, and running seven and a half times around the track. We have every event together except for our first and fourth events."
Sirius gaped. "Seven and a half times, running around that huge thing? Moony, you have to be joking."
Remus shook his head. "Nope, sorry Pads. But I'll be running it with you, so that might make it easier."
Sirius just groaned. James was still looking over his parchment, but then spoke up.
"It says here that I'm at Track 2, and in the first heat for everything. I have shot put, 55m, 100m, 200m, and 400m. Are those races easy, Moony?" James asked.
Remus nodded. "Yeah. Those are all sprinting races, and you're pretty fast so you should be fine. You might want to head over to track 2 though, it looks like people are starting to line up."
As soon as Remus stopped speaking, James rushed off in the direction of the second track. He saw Lily Evans on the way, and yelled at her over the crowd.
"Hey, Evans! What track are you?"
Lily rolled her eyes and answered. "The second one!"
James grinned. "Me too!" Lily groaned.
Meanwhile, Peter was still staring at his parchment in confusion. Remus reached for it.
"Here, Wormtail, let me see. I'll help you," Remus said kindly. Peter let out a grateful breath and handed Remus his parchment.
"Thanks, Remus. I just can't figure it out!"
Remus smiled at him, and then glanced down at the parchment.
Peter Pettigrew
Track 4
Events:
Shot put – 1st heat
Javelin – 1st heat
100m – 3rd heat
800m – 3rd heat
1500m – 3rd heat
Remus scanned the paper and then handed it back to Peter.
"Here you go, Peter. You need to go to the far track on the right, the one farthest from the castle. Good luck in your races!"
Peter's face was ashen. "Thanks, Remus. Good luck to you guys, too." With that, Peter scurried off quickly.
Remus turned to Sirius and smiled. "Well, Siri, it's just us. I know we're going to win this whole competition." Sirius just stared at him as they walked over to track one where the others in their group were standing. The people in their group were some of the other seventh years in Gryffindor with them. The Slytherin, Hufflepuff, and Ravenclaw groups were standing a few feet away.
Some muggleborn students were stretching their hamstrings and quads, calves, and rolling their necks, performing the proper stationary running stretches.
The students that were half bloods also looked like they knew how to stretch properly, for the most part. The purebloods just stood there awkwardly, trying to mimic the muggleborns' stretches.
Remus and Sirius joined the group. Remus started performing the necessary stretches that his mother had once shown him. Sirius tried to do the same things as Remus, and succeeded somewhat. He looked funny doing the stretches. Remus tried not to laugh, and reminded himself it was mean to laugh at his friends.
He laughed at Sirius anyway.
After about 5 more minutes of this, McGonagall walked over to Track 1 and signaled for attention. The students stopped their stretching and gave her their notice. She gazed over at all of them, and spoke.
"Students in high jump, go over to where Professor Flitwick is. Those of you participating in the shot put event, walk over to where Professor Kettleburn is. If you are doing javelin, report to Professor Slughorn. If you aren't participating in a field event, just stay here and wait for your event. There is a lot of down time during track meets, so entertain yourselves until it is your turn. Now, go!"
With that, McGonagall hurried off to oversee that everything was going as it should.
Remus glanced at Sirius. "Good luck, mate," Remus said. Sirius clapped him in the shoulder and shook him slightly.
"You too, Moons. Jump really high," was the advice that Sirius offered. Remus chuckled.
"I intend to. Throw really far," Remus said to his friend. Sirius grinned back at him.
"I will."
With that, they turned and walked away from each other to their different field events.
Something told Remus that this day would turn out to be very interesting…
Wow, this is fun to write! The idea randomly came to me, so I decided to try it out. It's kind of an unusual plot, but I like it. I hope you did, too!
Thanks for reading! REVIEWWWW! :D