Twisting Love for a Laugh
Chapter 10 – Everyone ready for this?
Monday Dinner time
Sirius and Remus headed to the Hall for lunch. James had stormed off somewhere after their little chat. Neither Remus nor Sirius could understand why he was so upset about it all. It wasn't as if it really affected them in any major way. They just put it down to the fact that he was still distraught over Lily.
They sat down at the Gryffindor table and ladled some of the Irish stew that was in large steaming cauldrons on the table into their bowls.
"I-rish stew in the name of the law." Sirius giggled.
"What?" Remus replied.
"You know, I arrest you, I-rish stew? Oh never mind. It was just a joke."
"You really ought to improve your repertoire of jokes you know. It is becoming increasingly bad."
Sirius stuck his tongue out at Remus before taking a large mouthful of the stew. He gasped and sprayed the stew over the table, "Hot! Hot!" he wafted his mouth with his hand and took a gulp of water straight from the jug. "I tink Ib buned ma tung." He said whilst holding his tongue.
"You should blow on it first you know. It's common sense." Remus shook his head at his friend and delicately sipped his own stew.
"Mr Lupin." A voice called. Remus turned to see who it was. It was Professor McGonagall "Peeves has decided to trap the entire Ravenclaw population in their common room by gluing the doors with permanent sticking glue. I'd appreciate it if you could remove it, none of the Ravenclaws seem to know the spell. Yes, I thought that was unusual too, them being such a bright bunch and all. Anyway, off you go now Lupin." Remus cast a glance at Sirius.
"Hey you're the one who wanted to be a prefect mate! Don't look at me!" Sirius held his hands up.
Professor McGonagall shot a glare at him.
"Of course I will Professor, right after I've finished my dinner."
"No Lupin. Now." She said firmly and dragged him from his place. A grumpy looking Remus made his way out of the Hall whilst mumbling about the importance of a good diet.
Professor McGonagall returned to the teachers table at the end of the Hall and got into a conversation about the importance of learning arithmancy with one of the arithmancy teachers.
Sirius shrugged his shoulders and spooned Remus' stew into his own bowl. As he looked up he saw Faye sit down on the other side of the table a few places down. Grabbing his bowl he scooted along the bench so he was in front of her.
"What is it Black?" she said grumpily.
"Do I need a reason to talk to you?" he smiled back innocently.
"Yes. I have a feeling we've been through this before."
"Have we? I don't remember." Faye rolled her eyes and, taking a look at the stew that was in the caldrons, pushed her bowl away and instead took a bite out of a slice of crispy French bread that was placed in a basket on the table.
"You don't like stew?" Sirius gasped.
"No. It's disgusting. Have you seen the amount of celery they put in it? I swear they think we are all rabbits." She replied. That was probably the most decent sentence Faye had ever said to Sirius in her life.
"What? It's lovely! Besides I happen to like bunnies."
Faye raised an eyebrow at him. They sat in silence for the next five minutes. Sirius only stopped eating his soup to return the evils that James was giving him now he had come to dinner.
"So, Faye, are you coming to Quidditch practise tonight?" Sirius asked casually.
Faye cursed, "Oh, damn. I forgot it was tonight." She finished off her bread roll, stood up and left.
"Bye." Sirius called after her but gained no response.
He looked down the table and caught James glaring at him again. Sighing he stood too. His empty bowl vanished as he did, returning to the kitchens to be washed. He walked over to where James was sat.
"Look mate, I'm sorry about this afternoon. You know, it doesn't matter what has happened to other people does it? We're still the best of mates right? No matter what? "James looked up at him a reluctant expression on his face. "So what do you say to a warm up game of Quidditch, just you and me, before practise starts, eh?" he grinned hopefully
James shook his head and luckily grinned back. "Only if you promise that you'll let me use your new broom."
"What?" Sirius laughed in relief, "You'd break it knowing you!" James laughed too and both boys made their way up to their dormitory to collect their Quidditch stuff, an argument settled simply by a love of the sport that founded their friendship to start with.
Monday Evening – Quidditch Practise
The Gryffindor team had arrived on the pitch for their training session and they stood in a small group awaiting their captain's orders. The team consisted of four boys and three girls
A boy in the fourth year named Henry Fry was Keeper. He was tall and gangly with wiry blonde hair that flopped over his eyes so that he had to push it back every few seconds in a very annoying manner
Two of the chasers were Louise Kettleson and Sirius Black. Louise was best friends with the teams Seeker, Hannah Drew. They were both in their fifth year and were alike in every way except appearance. Hannah being pale skinned with short, strawberry blonde hair and Louise being tanned with long, dark brown hair.
James was the third chaser, an unlikely boy for the position because of his need for glasses when eyesight was crucial to be able to see the ball coming to catch it as well as to see the goals to score. But that had never stopped James; he was probably the most dedicated person in the whole of Hogwarts as far as Quidditch went. It was no surprise he had been named Captain last year. Hannah Drew
The first beater was a fifth year named Jordan White. He was tall, muscular and dark haired but for all he was handsome he was a shy and timid boy. However it was well known that he had had a crush on Hannah Drew for two years now.
The second beater, and last team member, was none other than Faye Pent. When James had become Captain he was all set for chucking her off the team on the basis that she was an 'Uncooperative Team Member'. But he had never found someone who was good enough to replace her. You see Faye was probably the most talented Beater that there had ever been in Hogwarts and probably would have got the position of Captain herself if she had just been that little bit more, well, nice.
"Right team." James shouted above their chattering voices. "Our next match is against Ravenclaw and we all know that whilst they have a really strong defense their Chasers aren't all that experienced or good for that matter. So I suggest that we work on how to get pass their defenders. For today I devise that we use these small balls instead of bludgers. I want Pent and White to hit them at us, we'll be in a line over here." James pointed vaguely over o the end of the pitch, "And we'll dodge them simply by going up or down, going to the side wastes more time and the quicker we are the less likely they're gonna get us with a bludger and the quicker we can get the quaffle to the posts and score.."
Everyone picked up their brooms and trudged over to where James had told them to. Jordan and Faye walked over to where the balls (rather similar to tennis balls) were stacked in a pile.
"Mount your brooms everyone. Hover about three metres above the ground. Everyone ready for this? On my whistle…GO!"
Jordan and Faye threw the balls up in the air and swung at them when they came back down, sending them hard into the line of Gryffindors. The team dodged them by flying upwards or downwards sharply, this is actually a lot harder than it sounds because they had to stay in the same place above the ground.
Only a few people got hit after the exercise so James decided that the team should start a mock game, he split the team into two with Henry, Louise and Jordan on one side and Sirius, Hannah and Faye on the other team. Henry and Hannah were the keepers, Louise and Siriusthe Chasers and Faye and Jordan were still the Beaters. It was quite hard to play when you only had three on a side but it would do for practises.
James was being the ref. as he was captain and needed to watch his team's performance. He brought out the trunk containing the Quidditch equipment and took out the quaffle. On his whistle he threw it up in the air and the game began. A moment later than that James let the bludgers loose before shutting the trunk, leaving the snitch locked up for another day.
Hannah was the first to grab the quaffle and she sped off with it neatly dodging Louise and heading towards Henry. She feigned left around him and he moved to block her but she turned sharply and headed left around her shooting the quaffle neatly through the hoop.
James blew on his whistle, "Well done Drew, you're on form. Henry, you should have seen that coming. Watch out for it next time. Play on everyone." He blew on his whistle again and as if it was a switch it began to rain, the good weather coming to an end as quickly as that.
However the game continued with Henry in possession of the quaffle having caught it when it had gone through the hoop. He threw it to Louise who caught it and spun round to speed the length of the pitch leaving Hannah trailing close behind her. Sirius was in position to block her though so she threw the quaffle back to Henry who had come forward from his post. Henry was about to catch it when a bludger was sent his way by Faye, he dived upwards to avoid it and it went sailing past him, however so did the quaffle. He turned his broom around to see Hannah racing towards it at breakneck speed. Hannah reached the quaffle long before Henry did and was racing back towards the posts to score again. Henry pressed himself flat against his broom and shot towards the posts to try to block her from scoring but she was too quick and scored yet again.
James gave another blow on the whistle. "Henry!" he yelled, "Henry, what was that? You left your post! Don't do that again! I know this is only a mock match and there's only three to a team but that's not a wise move. You practically gave that goal away." He shook his head at his team member. "Now guys, lets call that a day. Let's pack up." A flash of lighting light up the sky for a few seconds, casting everyone in a bright light. Quickly a rumble of thunder followed it. "Down quickly guys." He said knowing how dangerous it was to be flying in a storm. "White, Pent, get the bludgers in."
He turned to fly down when he felt a flash of pain hit burst in the back of his head. He felt like crying out but before he could everything went black and the last thing he felt was himself falling down, down…down.
A/N: Long time no update, heh? Sorry 'bout that I know I did promise to update more regularly over the hols but that didn't quite work out did it. But there was chapter ten anyway, hope you liked it.
Thanks to Ballad.AsuCaga, madpoet08, sin-city, CHEEKIMONKEY and The Queen of Confusion.
All reviewers will get free t-shirts with pictures of the marauders on them (So you can gaze at them all day long!). Oh, and best wishes for 2008 everyone!