Monster Quidditch

"Remember when we thought Bell was nutters?" Rebecca managed to moan and yawn at the same time.

James, too tired to really acknowledge her, nodded and looked towards the girls' dormitory stairs as Emmaline and Marlene both tottered down groggily, clutching their brooms and scowling.

"I'm definitely not used to this anymore," Marlene McKinnon moaned.

Emmaline nodded in agreement and looked over to James. "Sorry about your mate, Potter. He would've made a good reserve Beater. I'm sure he'll make the team next year."

James rolled his eyes, dropped his broom and then slowly bent to pick it up, before following the three girls out past the Fat Lady. Stupid Sirius, James thought. The prat just had to blow up Nackle's office yesterday. And Nackle knew he was going to go out for the team and that if he did, we'd have an unstoppable reserve Beater. Bloody git gave him a Saturday detention just to make sure he couldn't come out for the team.

James didn't even notice the girls stop as he was so preoccupied in thought and walked right into Margaret Bell who was having a conversation with Alan.

"Was it really necessary to have a five a.m. practice, Alan?" Rebecca moaned as she shuffled into the Great Hall and plopped down at the end of the table.

"We need to regroup as a team after a summer apart before we can even consider letting in an outsider," Alan replied swiftly, clearly wide awake.

"Outsider?" Emmaline frowned. "That doesn't promote much team camaraderie."

The two Beaters sat down next to Rebecca and looked blankly at Alan.

"We need to warm up," Alan reasoned.

"Bloody lovely," Marlene muttered under her breath, "I need to sleep. I'm going to fall off my ruddy broom up there and won't that look just lovely."

"Well, you do that, and the person who catches you before you hit the ground we'll consider our Seeker," James replied with a yawn and a smirk before settling in across from them. Nathan MacDonald let out a small chuckle. "Does anyone know who's going out for the spot?"

"Maddy was going to give it a try," Margaret replied, sitting down next to James.

"Your sister?"

"Yeah, poor kid. Peter was all over her all summer, training her up. She really wanted to go out for Beater, but there are no vacancies. She's an alright Seeker though, not as good as Peter, but then again, she never really got much of a chance to play the position whenever we'd have a pick up game."

There was a thud as Emmaline's head dropped onto the table and into her porridge.

Alan kicked at her. "Wake up, Vance."

She jumped as his foot connected with her shin and glared at him while she attempted to wipe the porridge off her face. "It's far, far too early for this, Beamish." She gave him an evil look.

"Let's just go out to the pitch and warm up." Rebecca finally sighed. "I can't believe you scheduled try-outs for six thirty in the morning, you raving madman." She looked in Alan's direction.

"We want to discourage any spies from other Houses," he stated simply.

"From Slytherin, you mean," Marlene corrected, standing up and grabbing her broom.

Alan just shrugged and headed out of the Great Hall. The rest of the team trailed out behind him.

When they reached the pitch all seven silently climbed onto their brooms and began basic warm-ups. The Chasers lobbed a Quaffle back and forth for a bit, before beginning to do some more difficult formations. The Beaters let a Bludger out and batted it between one another. Both the Keeper and his reserve took turns attempting to score on one another. About a half an hour later, Alan flew to the ground and yelled for the rest of the team to join him.

A loud noise broke across the lawn and the team turned to see what had to be Hagrid running quickly towards the field.

"Is that Hagrid?" Emmaline asked, peering in the direction of the large man.

"There's something ahead of him, I think," Marlene added, pointing. "Oh Merlin, you don't think one of his creatures got loose?"

"On your broom, now," Alan quickly responded. "If he needs help, we'll try and help him, but until we know what it is… let's just hope it can't fly."

The entire team immediately hopped back onto their brooms and hovered about ten feet in the air as James and Nathan took off towards Hagrid.

"What is that?" Nathan yelled to James, looking down. Below them was a lizard like creature with a long, spiked tail that seemed to be dripping something, and in its wake, the creature was leaving a wake off gooey ooze. Occasionally it would dart out its tongue, and when that happened, wherever it landed, the grass would be singed off when it drew its tongue back. James immediately recalled what it was and noted its purple shade.

"Monster."

"Clearly."

"No, my friends had detention with Hagrid at the end of last term, they had to muck out its stall… they said it was a baby then, but… clearly he's grown."

"And loose. Lovely."

The boys slowed down as they reached Hagrid. James called out to him, "Do you need some help, Hagrid?"

The groundskeeper looked surprised to see the boys floating just above his head.

"Tha's jes Monster. I'm sure I'll 'ave 'im cause in a mo'." Hagrid didn't sound the least bit sure.

"Certain about that, Hagrid?" Nathan asked.

"Well, per'aps you lads could stun 'im fer me? Not 'ard, mind ye… 'e's jes a babe." Hagrid looked sadly at the creature attempting to destroy the Hogwarts grounds.

"Sure," James said and began to race after the creature as he heard Nathan assure Hagrid that they certainly wouldn't stun it hard.

James sped ahead of the creature and returned to the pitch. Shouting to the rest of the team to follow him and try to stun the thing, he turned around and went after it. He lowered his broom to get a better shot, but had to swerve out of the way to avoid Monster's tail at the last minute. He heard Alan yell out the Stunning spell, but it hit the ground right next to Monster, who then quickly changed course, realizing he was under attack. Emmaline and Marlene both called out the spell at the same time, but they ricochet off the spikes of the creature's tail.

James swooped in to get another shot, but this time the tail connected and knocked James right off his broom. He saw the purple beast start charging at him, he tried to point his wand but couldn't. James suddenly realized he couldn't move his arm at all without excruciating pain. Monster was closing in and James could see it opening it's mouth to shoot out it's tongue. Then everything went black.
~~*~~

Sirius woke up and glanced over towards James's bed, only to remember that he had Quidditch practice before the tryouts. The tryouts, Sirius scowled. The world seems to be against me playing Quidditch. Never one to hold most grudges for long (with the exceptions of Nackle and Snape), Sirius sighed softly and then rolled to the other side of his bed and kicked his legs out from the sheets and onto the floor. He looked over, surprised to see Peter already awake and sitting at his desk.

"It's six in the ruddy morning, Pete, what are you doing?" he asked as he crossed the room rubbing the sleep out of his eye.

"Would you keep it down, they're still sleeping," he gestured towards Remus and Frank's respective beds.

Sirius put his hand on Peter's shoulder and leaned over him to look down at the parchments spread out before his friend. His eyes widened in shock. The last time he'd seen Peter working on the map, all he'd had charted was that stupid closet. Lying before him now was what appeared to be an entire skeleton sketch of the castle.

"Clearly it's still missing a lot…" Peter began in a quiet voice.

"This is bleeding brilliant," Sirius exclaimed, clapping Peter on the back.

"Shhhhh, you prat!"

Sirius saw Peter shake his head slightly and was relatively sure that Peter was considering the pointlessness of shushing him of all people. This made Sirius grin.

"What're those numbers?" Sirius pointed to a sheet of calculations.

"No idea at all," Peter replied with a slight grin. "James and Remus worked them out, they think it'll help with one of the charms we'll need to put on later to get the broom closet to move along the correct track."

"So Remus and James did that?"

Peter nodded and continued his rendering.

"And you drew this?"

Peter nodded once more.

And I've done nothing but yell at you that you were doing it all wrong. Sirius winced. He glanced to the clock in the center of the room that had the five boy's names on it. Remus and Frank's hands were still firmly planted on 'sleeping', Sirius was on 'awake', Peter was on 'studying' and James was on 'Qui-'. Sirius cocked his head to one side as he watched the hand spin from 'Quidditch' to 'danger'.

"What?" Sirius took a step towards the clock.

"Hmm?" Peter asked distractedly, turning around with a pencil stuck in his mouth and a quill behind his ear.

Sirius pointed at the clock and at James's hand on it. Peter's eyes widened.

"How could he be in danger? He's only at Quidditch," Peter asked quietly. "The clock must be off. Or maybe his hand is broken or maybe-"

"Belt up," Sirius cut him off. "Let's go." Sirius grabbed his robe and shoved his feet into his shoes and Peter quickly followed suit.

"Should we wake Remus?"

Sirius hesitated for a moment and then shook his head negative. "If anything is really wrong, we'll come back and get him. Let's go, then."

The two boys quickly and quietly rushed out of the dorm, down the steps, through the common room, past the portrait of the Fat Lady and down towards the large wooden doors that empties out onto the lawn.

"Is that Hagrid?" Peter asked as he scurried along behind Sirius towards the pitch.

Sirius groaned, "Tell me that's not Monster. Bugger and blast!" He sped up, leaving Peter to fall farther and farther behind.

"Black?" Alan Beamish looked over surprised and then looked past him. "Pettigrew? What're you lot doing down here?"

"Our clock said James was in danger." Peter wheezed as he caught up to the other two boys.

Alan's eyes widened and then Sirius noticed that James wasn't on the pitch. Neither was Rebecca Longbottom, Nathan MacDonald or Margaret Bell. Emmaline Vance and Marlene McKinnon were trying to calm down Madison Bell who was on the pitch for some reason.

"Where is everyone?"

"Infirmary," Beamish replied, clearly trying to hide the fact that he was rather shaken up. "That thing," he gestured violently at Monster, "tried to kill half my team."

"Are they alright?" Sirius asked, taking a step towards the boy and raising his voice.

"Aye, they'll be jes fine, lad."

Sirius spun around to see Hagrid tending to Monster.

"Monster hurt them?" Sirius asked angrily.

"Ah, don't get mad at 'im, Mr. Black, it's me fault 'tis." Hagrid rolled Monster over, ducking as his tail flopped by him.

"What happened to them?" Sirius could feel his blood beginning to boil and was already cursing himself for not bringing out his wand with him so he could try a nice reducto curse on that bloody creature.

"Jest a few burns. Miz Bell and Miz Longbottom levitated Mr. Potter n Mr. MacDonald off te tha 'Ospital Wing."

With that, Sirius and Peter both spun around and ran back towards the castle.

"That thing has more poison in it than Nackle's classroom," Sirius spit out angrily. "I swear, if it hurt James too badly…"

Sirius's angry ravings were accompanied by Peter's labored breaths as the two ran through the castle towards the Hospital Wing. They burst through the door and stopped short.

Sitting on the bed nearest the door, Nathan MacDonald was covered in a thick orange paste talking with Margaret Bell. She was clearly trying to distract him as the paste seemed to a little unpleasant.

"I hear there's rumor of a broom called a Twigger being made," Margaret was telling him. "But they don't expect it to hit the market for some time yet. Just as well, I rather like mine. A lot of people say Swiftsticks are on their way out, but I think there's still a market for them."

Nathan let out a soft groan and Margaret's façade caved.

"Oh, Nate, I'm so sorry this happened, do you need anything? Can I get you-"

He cut her off, "Could you just keep talking? It's kind of distracting, I appreciate it."

"Of course," Margaret replied, wringing her hands trying to think of a topic. She jumped a bit when Nathan chuckled.

"What's this I hear about you and Henry Wood?"

Margaret's eyed widened and she blushed. "So, have you read The Noble Sport of Warlocks by Quintius Umfraville?"

"Never heard of it, where'd you get it from?" Nathan made a move to scratch at the paste, but Margaret slapped his hand.

"Er… Henry gave it to me for my birthday, but it's actually an alright book, if you ignore the obvious implication of 'noble sport of warlocks'… bit sexist it was, but full of some really useful information-"

Their voices trailed off as Peter and Sirius continued past them towards where they thought they heard Rebecca's voice.

"I swear Potter, if you try to scratch that paste one more time, I'll stun you."

"Get off it Longbottom, my skin itches like mad and my insides are burning and making me dizzy, the least you can let me do is scratch the bloody thing."

"No."

"Argh." James let out a howl of anguish and annoyance.

"Alright… time for a distraction. Remember how we learned about horklumps in Care of Magical Creatures earlier in the week? When we were little, Frank really liked mushrooms and we wound up with a horklump infestation in out garden because dad made us degnome it a few too many times, and we were playing out there and Frank got hungry and decided he was just going to eat one of the mushrooms."

"I thought you said they were horklumps," James replied, trying to follow the story despite the fact that his burns were itching and the room was spinning.

"Oh." She grinned wickedly. "They were. That was our first trip to St. Mungo's. He hasn't eaten a mushroom, or a horklump, since."

James chuckled weakly, but his face lit up as the curtain was pulled back and Peter and Sirius stood before him.

"What're you lot doing here? Where's Remus?"

"Sleeping, go get him Peter," Sirius told the boy. Peter rolled his eyes but turned to leave as James called out.

"Don't bother waking him up for me."

Sirius shook his head and reiterated, "Go get him Peter." The chubby boy nodded and started back out towards the entrance to the infirmary.

"What the bleeding hell happened here, mate?"

"A bit of a run in with Monster," James groaned. Suddenly he turned to Rebecca. "You have to get back down to the pitch, we've still got tryouts to run. You lot can handle without one Chaser and the reserve Keeper."

Rebecca looked at him as though she couldn't quite decide what to do when Emmaline showed up next to James' bed.

"Vance?"

"Alright then, Potter?"

"I will be."

"Good, listen you lot," she turned towards Rebecca and James, ignoring Sirius. "Madison Bell is the only one who showed up anyway, we put her through a few paces and it looks like Peter definitely trained her this summer. Would either of you have a complaint if we just took her?"

"Well, all the Bell's seem to be good at Quidditch… if she's anything like her brother and sister, then sure," Rebecca agreed.

"Yeah, alright," James added.

"Good," the tall girl conceded. "Beamish says to listen to whatever Pomfrey says because if you're not back on the pitch by Wednesday, he'll come up here and kick your arse." Then she smiled sweetly. "Feel better though, James. You got hit a lot worse than Nathan, he's almost ready to head back to the common room."

James nodded miserably. "You might want to tell Beamish that kicking my arse really won't help things if it comes to that."

"I told you guys he was going to be another nutter captain." She smirked and made her way back out through the curtain.

"Madison Bell?" Sirius asked his friend.

Despite his present state, James managed to chuckle. "Yeah, Sirius. Madison Bell."

"Cor! The year I can't even go out for the team." He glared miserably at the wall.

"Next year, I'm sure," James replied quickly.

"Just as well, Black, you'd probably terrify her. Poor kid," Rebecca said with a smirk.

There was a rustling of the curtains as Peter and a thoroughly disheveled Remus came through.

"Are you alright?" Remus asked.

"I'll be fine," James snapped, clearly beginning to get a little sick of the question.

"I think I'm going to head back down to the pitch, ask Hagrid if he needs any help," Rebecca said as she rose.

"You're voluntarily going back near that thing?" Sirius asked. "You're beyond mad."

She grinned. "It didn't seem like it would be so bad if it wasn't agitated, clearly something scared it." A thoughtful look crossed her face. "I'd assume an entire Quidditch team up on their brooms shooting spells at you would make most creatures a bit nervous." She shrugged. "And it's stunned right now, perfectly safe."

Sirius shook his head at her.

"Just don't tell Frank if you run into him, alright?" The boys nodded and she left.

"Bloody lunatic, that one," Peter commented, as Sirius nodded and even Remus looked in the direction she'd just gone skeptically.

"What happened?" Remus asked.

"Monster." Sirius replied, crossing his arms.

"What kind of monster?"

"No, Monster. Remember, the purple crintortoris."

"Sweet Merlin," Remus gasped. "You're lucky to have lived through that." He pointed to the orange paste covering parts of James's body. "From it's tongue?"

James nodded.

"It's tail didn't get you, did it?"

"Yeah, Madame Pomfrey went off to talk to Professor Kettleburn about a remedy. She thinks he might be able to recognize the poison. It's not all that bad, just makes me really dizzy… I can't walk."

"Lovely," Remus commented dryly, sinking into the chair across from the bed.

Sirius smirked. "Well, whatever they give you to clear up that poison, it can't possibly be worse than that dittany was."
Author's Note: Happy 2004 Everyone!! I tried to get this up yesterday… but that didn't work out... Sorry :0(
Once again, I'm begging for prank ideas if any of you have some, it would certainly help out. I'm stumped right now for something for the Marauders to do to the Slytherins (especially Snape... it's been a while since there's been any trouble brewing there).
So, some fun things to look forwards to in the next chapter: ancient runes homework! a miraculous save curtosy of the traveling broom closet! a chat with Dumbledore! Moony! the results of the Quidditch robe prank from the beginning!
Thanks for all the reviews guys, they're awesome and they make my day!