EXPECTO PATWHATTA?
BY MUNSJE
Chapter 3 – The Christmas Miracle
Days were turning colder and the first Quidditch match was coming up. Gryffindor against Ravenclaw. Ravenclaw had a brilliant team, and had ranked second place last year, so Creevey decided he didn't want to take any chances and upped the trainings from three, to four times a week. 'I want to make sure the two new members are in tune with the other players,' was his explanation.
For Lily, this meant a lot of late nights, because she hardly had any time to finish any of her homework. She'd already lost ten points to Gryffindor when she'd been unable to turn in her essay for Muggle Studies (Why it's important for Muggles not to know about magic), which she found very unfair.
'I mean, ten points!' she had complained to Raewyn. 'That's a little over the top!'
'She probably knows that we did it,' Brogan had said, referring to the love potion-escapade. 'But she can't do anything about it because she's got no proof. So she takes it out on you during class.'
'Yeah. But TEN points!'
On the day of the match, the entire castle was buzzing with excitement and Sirius took it up to himself to be the person where you could place your bets. 'Guaranteed to win,' he shouted across the tribunes, 'A knut if you guess the right team and three times your bet if you can guess the score! Sorry, Jordan, no bets below a galleon. Business is business.'
'What?' Jordan said outraged, 'but that'd mean I'd loose sixteen sickles and twenty-eight knuts even if I did guess the right team...'
'Got to make a living don't I?' Sirius said, raising his eyebrows. 'Besides, look at it from this way: otherwise you'd be losing a full seventeen sickles if you'd gotten the wrong score. At least now you still get a knut! Goblet's half empty or half full, I say.' He managed to extract Jordan's galleon and ran off at top speed as Jordan had been sending several jinxes at him. 'Pleasure doing business with you, mate! Got your score written down.'
Only those from Ravenclaw were foolish enough to bet that their team would win, even the Slytherins had to grudgingly agree that Gryffindor had the upper hand in this match.
'Alright,' Creevey said in the changing rooms. 'Now this is Longbottom's and Spinnet's first match, let's make sure this is a good one. The weather's a bit off today, it's supposed to rain later on, but at least this means that the sun won't bother us during the game. Let's go out there and kick some Ravenclaw a...'
'Mind your language, Creevey,' Cassandra Pewter said with a grin, 'we don't want to shock Longbottom.'
'Oh, right,' Creevey said and gave Longbottom an apologetic look, 'Uhm... well you all know what I meant. Let's just make sure we win. Again,' he added with a wink.
They walked out into the Quidditch pitch and Lily strengthened her grip on her club. Madame Hooch blew on her whistle and the balls were released, she immediately sped towards the Bludger that was flying into the direction of Pewter and swung at it with all her might.
'Gryffindor in possession of the quaffle, heading towards the goal posts. Pewter to Mackneal, Mackneal dodges a bludger, but looses the Quaffle... Ow! That must've hurt! Pigfly shot the Bludger at Ravenclaw's new asset, a chaser called Kevin Boot... Looks like he's not going to remember much of his first match.'
'Good one, Merlin!' Lily shouted over the noise, Merlin grinned.
She made a U-turn as she saw that the bludger was now heading into the direction of their Keeper, Creevey.
'Watch out, Casper!' She said, swinging her bat wildly and she would have hit him on the nose if he hadn't ducked.
'Phew,' Creevey said, 'that was a close call.'
'Yeah well, they're not supposed to aim at you if they haven't got possession of the quaffle now do they,' she said, scowling at the Ravenclaw beater, who just shrugged apologetically. As if he was really sorry.
Her arms were getting sore after the game lasted for another twenty minutes, they were well-matched against Ravenclaw and she had a hard time keeping the bludger away from her teammates.
'Ravenclaw leading seventy to fifty, and no sign of the Quaffle as of yet... oh wait, Ravenclaw leading seventy to sixty, well done Spinnet! A good addition to the team, I'd say, having been responsible for two goals. I think Mackneal has found herself a rival!
'Hold on... I think Longbottom's spotted something. Yes, he is definitely spotted something. He's diving with groundbreaking speed, if he doesn't crash into the floor this will be a spectacular save indeed!' everyone in the audience and on their broomsticks held there breaths, and a few seconds later Longbottom lay sprawled on the grass.
'Ah well... it was worth a try,' the commentator said amiably. 'But wait, he's holding something in his right arm... Longbottom's got the Snitch! Gryffindor WINS! Leading two hundred and ten to seventy! Fear Longbottom is going to need a new broom though...'
The last sentence was drowned in the roaring of the crowd, and the boos of the Slytherin's and Ravenclaws. As the team landed, the captain of the Ravenclaw team walked up to Creevey, 'well-played, Creevey, well-played.'
'Thanks,' Creevey said smugly, 'better luck next time.'
Lily laughed, 'that was kind of harsh.'
'If you ask me,' Creevey said to her, 'they came far too close to winning the match. Leading for a good while too! We need to be careful, that bloke knows what he's doing.'
'Yeah, they're pretty good,' Raewyn butted in on the conversation, 'but we beat them, didn't we? So let's leave the analyzing for tomorrow, and leave tonight for the celebrating. Lil, I think a visit to the kitchens is in order.'
Lily grinned, 'Quite right you are Rae, couldn't be a good feast if we didn't have some butterbeer at the very least.'
'May be able to persuade Dobby into giving us some of his firewhiskey...'
'Now, hold your horses,' Creevey said, 'Stealing from the kitchens is one thing, but I'm not allowing any underaged wizard or witch drink firewhiskey, especially not my two most precious teammates. I don't want to risk getting anyone expelled.'
Raewyn snorted, 'did you hear that, Lil?'
'"Two most precious teammates",' Lil said, copying Creevey's tone, 'why, I think he's getting fond of us.'
'Who said I was talking about you two,' Creevey said.
The weather was turning a lot colder and pretty soon Hogwarts grounds were covered in snow, no one could safely venture outside without being hit by a jinxed snowball at least once, which drove Filch absolutely crazy. He couldn't seem to catch the culprits that were behind it. He tried to blame Lily for it once, saying that 'whenever there was trouble, she was usually behind it. Like her father and her grandfather before her' (which had filled her with pride), but he was forced to let her go after she pointed out that she didn't even have her wand with her.
On one particularly cold Sunday morning, her father's owl came swooping in, carrying a letter that by the looks of it came from her mother. To Sirius' satisfaction, she had written to them shortly after the Quidditch match, giving them a full report on how it had gone and of course their brilliant victory over Ravenclaw.
'Mum wants to know if the two of you want to come over for Christmas,' she said, after skimming the letter through (telling herself that she would read it entirely later on).
'Sure,' Brogan said immediately.
'I'll have to ask my parents,' Raewyn said, warming her hands on a cup of hot chocolate.
'I was planning on staying at Hogwarts for Christmas anyway,' Brogan said. 'Mum and dad were going to France, or something like that. But this sounds a lot better.'
'To France?' Raewyn asked.
'Yeah, my mother's from Beauxbatons,' Brogan explained. 'Still has some friends down there and all.'
'I thought she was from Durmstrang,' Lily said. 'Because she visited Romania last summer.'
'No, my grandmother is from Durmstrang,' Brogan corrected her.
'Oh,' Lily said a little confused. She was sure he'd said that it was his mother.
'Come on,' Raewyn said loudly, distracting her, 'we can still go to the owlery before Quidditch practice if we hurry. That way I'll know the official answer by tomorrow.'
'I'll see you tonight,' Brogan said, 'I've got some homework to catch up on.'
After Quidditch practice it took Lily the rest of the night to warm herself up again. Her hands had gone numb and when she'd walked into the warm common room, they had tingled painfully. But practice had gone quite well, she didn't think their team had ever flown this good, everyone was still in high spirits over winning the match.
Her painful hands made it hard for her to hold a quill, but she did so nonetheless, tomorrow she had Defence and she didn't want to loose anymore housepoints.
When she was almost finished and let out a huge sigh of relief, Brogan managed to squash her good mood, 'Remember we've also got Charms homework...'
'Oh, you're kidding me right,' she groaned.
'You can copy mine,' he offered.
'Thanks.' She gratefully accepted the role of parchment. Maybe she'd be able to go to bed before one o'clock in the morning for once.
And indeed it was one of the last nights she managed to go to bed on a reasonable hour. Instead of letting the students relax a bit more as Christmas break drew close, they let them work even harder, probably under the impression that they wouldn't need the Holidays unless they were all heavily overworked and bordering on depression.
Raewyn was the only one who wasn't bothered by this, who turned in her homework faithfully, but had hardly made any of it herself. Only Professor Granger commented on it, saying that her work always seemed to have the same mistakes as Lily's. Raewyn said that this must be because they were such good friends and this caused a telepathic connection between the two of them, so really, it was not her fault that there essay's were similar. 'In fact,' she had said, 'the other day Lily was suffering from huge stomach cramps, and because of our close connection, I was suffering from it too. It's a burden I tell you and if I could do anything about it, professor, I would.'
Professor Granger's mouth had opened and closed a few times, unsure of how to respond. She had never brought the subject up again.
A week before the Holidays, Raewyn received her parents response. 'Oh, they're going to visit my grandmother, so I don't even have to be around for Christmas!' she said. 'Brilliant! I won't have to see that old hag for another year, then.'
Raewyn absolutely loathed her grandmother, being very snobbish and as Muggle as one could be. (though Lily's father had said that she couldn't possibly be any worse than the Dursley's, where he had lived when he was still a kid) Her grandmother had filed for divorce after she had found out that her grandfather was a wizard. 'And a lazy one too, he was,' she'd always say, when the subject was brought to the table.
'This is going to be great,' Lily said, clapping her hands excitedly. 'At least I won't have to bore myself to death when they're holding one of their dinner parties again.'
'Bore yourself to death? I find that very hard to belief,' Brogan said, having heard a thing or two about these dinner parties. 'I heard they invite loads of people every year.'
'Yeah, about everyone who's once been a member of the Order of the Phoenix,' Lily said, rolling her eyes, 'and those in the Ministry that helped them out, of course. After a few bottles of mead they'll break into stories about the war, which I'm not allowed to hear and I'll be send straight up to my room to stare at my ceiling. It's absolutely fascinating.'
The last day before break Quidditch training was canceled, due to a large blizzard, which send Raewyn in hysterics ('As if two weeks without training isn't hard enough, they rob me of my last chance!') and Lily into cloud nine. She'd been dreading to fly with this weather, being pretty sure that her fingers would freeze right off and she preferred to keep all ten of them, thank-you-very-much.
They all spend the entire day packing and Lily took time to order some last-minute gifts for her brother and uncle Ron, hoping they would arrive in time by Christmas.
Calling an early night which she richly deserved, she drifted off to sleep. It'd be nice to be home again, she thought to herself. Of course Hogwarts was great, but it would mean two weeks without any homework, complaining and Mrs. Norris.
'Hurry up, will you Sirius?' Lily said annoyed, pushing her brother through the compartment door. 'Mum and dad are already waiting for us!'
'Bye!' Sirius called over his shoulder to his friend, 'merry Christmas!'
'Happy New Year,' the boy responded, waving at them.
Harry walked up to her, giving Lily a tight hug. 'You look wonderful, Lily.'
'Thanks,' she said, trying to break free from his grip. 'Dad... everyone can see us you know.'
'Oh, I'm sorry,' he grinned at her. 'And you must be Brogan,' he said, holding out his hands to the tall, black-haired boy next to her. Brogan shook it and gave him a shy smile.
'You remind me of someone,' her father said, frowning slightly. 'What's your last name?'
'Peddycord, sir.'
'Peddycord... no I don't think I've ever heard of that. Are you muggle-born?'
'No, his mother's from Beauxbatons and his father graduated from Hogwarts,' Raewyn answered for him.
They were interrupted by Ginny, who had been fussing over Sirius first and had no turned her attention on Lily. 'And what have I heard?' she said, putting her hands on her hips and giving her a glare.
'I don't know,' Lily said innocently.
'Some business about a lovepotion?' Ginny asked, raising her eyebrows.
'I have no idea what you're talking about,' Lily tried to keep herself from blushing. 'D'you, Rae?'
'Haven't the faintest.'
'Heard something about Dwight singing a sonnet to Granger though,' Brogan muttered.
'Professor Granger,' Ginny corrected. 'And I suppose you have had nothing to do with it?'
'The mere suggestion alone!' Lily said.
'As if she would ever do that.' Raewyn sounded affronted. 'We've been behaving like angels all term...'
'Always expecting us to do the worst,' Lily crossed her arms but was unable to keep a straight face as she saw her dad's smile. Ginny huffed, 'You're lucky you didn't get caught this time, Lily. But if I even hear the faintest whisper that you've been involved in something like this again...'
'You won't.' She promised (though she had her fingers crossed behind her back).
'I'll look after her,' Brogan said, giving Ginny a reassuring smile. This seemed to set her mother at ease, but Lily gave him a look. He'd look after her? He was worse then her at most times! She barely kept herself from snorting as Raewyn said, 'Me too!'
'That's nice of you to offer Raewyn,' Ginny said with a small smile, 'but I don't think that accounts to much.'
'Well I'd never!' Raewyn protested.
The ride to Godric's Hollow went a lot faster than usual, her father had turned on the radio, blasting it loudly through the car and her mother was humming along. Sirius was telling them about everything he could think off (and more), even down to the large party that had been held after their triumph over Ravenclaw. 'It was brilliant! Lily and Raewyn got butterbeer and exploding snaps and all that sort out of the kitchens...'
Her mother turned around, 'out of the kitchens?'
'With professor McGonnagal's permission, of course,' Sirius said smoothly.
'She gave permission?' Ginny said disbelievingly.
'It's no secret that she's a huge fan of the Gryffindor team,' Harry helped Sirius out, suppressing a grin. 'She was probably happy that they won and found that they deserved a treat.'
'Don't remember McGonnagal ever doing that for us,' Ginny said, though she seemed to let this one slide.
Lily did slap her brother on the back of his head as soon as her mother had turned around again and he stuck her tongue out at her. Their house was already filled with people, most of the Weasley family was there, except for Uncle Charlie who was dealing with a nasty dragon down in China who'd been attacking muggle villages. Then there was Remus Lupin with his partner (though also still unmarried) Nymphadora Tonks, Mundungus Fletcher who'd turn up every Christmas unwanted and Neville Longbottom. Who'd only be there for today and would return on New Years eve along with his wife Luna and their son.
Brogan's eyes nearly popped out of its sockets, seeing the amount of people.
'What's happened to him,' he muttered softly to Lily, as he nodded into the direction of Uncle Bill.
'Had an unpleasant meeting with Fenrir Greyback, a couple of years ago.' She said.
Uncle Bill's face was covered in scars that would never disappear, which was usually the case with werewolf attacks.
'So he's a werewolf?' Brogan said, his eyes growing even larger.
She laughed, 'no. He just eats a lot of raw meat. Greyback wasn't transformed when he attacked him. Lupin's one though.'
'Your parents hang around with werewolves...' he said, finding this incomprehensible.
'And half-giants, of course,' she grinned, referring to Hagrid. 'They're a strange lot. But they're all one of the nicest people you'll ever meet. I promise you that you won't find Lupin at your bedside at full moon.'
'Lily! Sirius!' Uncle Ron called, waving at them. Professor Granger, or Hermione as she was now allowed to call her, stood next to him, all giving them a broad smile. 'Now what have I heard?'
'Fake rumors, I suppose,' Lily said, glancing nervously at Hermione, who was staring hard at her – though there was a hint of amusement glittering in her eyes.
'You often remind me of us when we were still at Hogwarts,' Fred said proudly, clapping her on the back. 'Though I wonder how you got your hands on that lovepotion.'
'I haven't gotten my hands on any potion. Ask Raewyn or Brogan!'
Fred gave her a look that clearly said that he didn't believe a word that she was saying.
'Do you really believe that I would ever steal anything from my two favorite uncles?' she said, pouting her lip. Hermione snorted, but Fred forgave her.
The subject was soon closed as everyone was distracted by a startled cry from Brogan, 'that thing almost attacked me!' he said, pointing at the other end of the room, where a beautiful bird was sitting on the window sill.
'Fawkes?' Lily said surprised, 'that's my dad's phoenix. It used to belong to Professor Dumbledore. I'm sure it didn't attack you. He'd never do anything like that.'
Brogan eyed the bird suspiciously and muttered something under his breath that sounded a lot like 'bloody birds'.
'Is Wood coming?' Raewyn tugged Lily on her sleeve, an excited look on her face.
Lily shook her head, 'no, I don't think so. It's Quidditch season, remember. Probably out training somewhere.'
Raewyn looked heavily disappointed.
'... permission from McGonnagal? I'm the head of the house, I should've known about that...'
'I think it's time for us to leave,' Brogan whispered and pointed towards Ginny and Hermione.
'Right,' Lily said, 'I'll just show your to your rooms.'
Yawning, she walked down the stairs, it was Christmas morning and a huge pile of gifts was standing under the large Christmas tree, that went straight through the ceiling and through each room that was above it.
Raewyn was already staring greedily at them probably trying to spot which ones were hers. 'Morning,' she said, not taking her eyes of the presence. Lily only grunted in response.
'More like good afternoon,' Ginny said, pointing at the large clock above the fireplace. 'It's almost twelve o'clock!'
Another grunt in response.
Lily helped herself to a hearty breakfast and was coming a bit more alive when Brogan came down the stairs, looking much like she had a few minutes ago, rubbing his eyes.
Her grandmother tutted, 'does everyone sleep this late at Hogwarts?'
'Dad isn't up yet, either,' Lily responded.
'That's because he'd opened the Firewhiskey with Ron,' Hermione said, annoyance clear in her voice.
Sure enough, her dad came walking in a few minutes later through the back door, looking extremely disgruntled. Lily sniggered, he probably had to spend the night in the yard, like he always had to when he'd been drinking to much.
'I feel horrible,' Ron moaned, who came in after Harry. Ginny and Hermione exchanged smug looks. 'And why was I in the yard? Could've frozen to death, y'know.'
'Thirsty, dear?' Hermione asked sweetly, not answering his question. She handed him a cup, which he took gratefully before gagging violently. 'What in Merlin's name is this?'
'Just drink it, will you, it'll make you feel better,' Ginny said.
'It really will,' Harry said reasonably, he already had his own cup and had downed it in one gulp. He immediately looked a little more refreshed. 'Good morning, Lily, Brogan. Where's Raewyn.'
Lily pointed towards the living room, where Raewyn was still staring at the Christmas tree with anticipation. Her father laughed softly. 'Guess we'll have to start opening the presents soon.'
As everyone else came pouring into the living room, Raewyn gave a start for the tree, thinking that no more time should be waisted. She had just stretched out her hand when there was a loud knock on the front door.
'Who's that?' Mrs. Weasley said surprised, looking around the room, checking if no one was missing.
'I don't know,' Harry said equally surprised.
'Charlie maybe?' Fred suggested.
'Percy?'
'Who's Percy?' Lily asked.
'No one dear,' Mr. Weasley said.
'Mad-Eye Moody?'
A second knock was heard.
'Perhaps we should just open the door,' Ron said and followed his own advice.
Raewyn sunk back on the couch and sighed, 'I was so close.'
Lily gave her a comforting pad on the back.
'What're you doing here?' They heard Ron say loudly from the hall. It didn't sound very pleasant and everyone exchanged looks. Even Raewyn forgot about the presents for a moment.
'Pleasure seeing you too, Weasley.'
The door was closed again and a skinny man with lightblond hair and a pail complexion came walking in.
'Malfoy?' Harry, Ginny, Hermione, Fred and George said in unison.
'Merry Christmas,' Malfoy smirked.
A/N
Leave a review to tell me what you think. The next few chapters will still be used as an introduction of several characters, but afterwards I'll speed things up a little ;).
And, last chapter I commented on accidentally having referred to Hermione as professor Granger, but it turns out this wasn't such a huge mistake at all. I read in an interview with JK Rowling that a few teachers of the books were/are married, but that this information is classified. For a reason not yet explained, the Hogwarts teachers keep their spouses hidden, so therefore Hermione would've been referred to as Granger even though she changed her last name to Weasley. Hooray!
Almond eyed goddess: Why Lily was almost in Slytherin? Because in the end I just didn't have the nerve to make her a Slytherin, originally she was one. But it would create too much of a friction between her and her family so I made her 'almost' go. It's not that strange, the Sorting Hat was considering to put Harry in Slytherin too, if you may remember. The Hat said that it would make him 'great'. And all the other reasons why will become clear throughout the story :) And many thanks for the compliment, by the way.
TBC
