Chapter Eleven – Quidditch Matches and Secret Valentines
The snow had at least stopped overnight, but it was briskly cold and windy when the Slytherin-Ravenclaw game started. Trinity and Rose had prepared their team well for playing in the weather, and were also taking advantage of the tips and tricks that Rose had learned from her Dad and the Canons on dealing with playing in winter weather.
When Madame Hooch sent the Quaffle in the air to start the game, the wind sent it flying in crazy directions. Trinity, Rose, and Al were ready for that too, and their passes were more like hand-offs to each other. Scoring required them to physically get past the Slytherin Keeper, since any attempt to throw and score was just caught by the wind and sent wildly off target.
The Slytherin team was completely unprepared for the game, and even with Scorpius giving their team many chances to score on him, they missed more than they could score. Trinity gave her Seeker the green light to catch the snitch and end the farce, and Christina was glad to finish it, even managing to make it look like the snitch had just blown toward her, and allowed her an easy catch to win the game.
James made sure to congratulate his brother and cousins on their win, and get some more jabs in to Al about how badly he'd personally played, and to assure him that his Gryffindor team would have no trouble against Ravenclaw. He'd snorted when Al had politely pointed out that there was only one team that was currently in the lead for the Quidditch Cup.
"When we're done with Hufflepuff, you'll be so far behind on points you'll have no chance at all," James had confidently told him. Al hadn't bothered to mention that if Gryffindor beat Hufflepuff, that points wouldn't matter, except for a tie, since the winner would be undefeated.
The stands had emptied quickly, with everyone heading back to the school to get warm, and the two teams weren't far behind their classmates and Professors. The Ravenclaw Common Room was buzzing with the excitement that having their team in the lead for the Quidditch Cup for the first time in years – even if the lead would likely only last for a few weeks. Trinity and their team were cheered when they arrived, and they were all kept up late celebrating.
The four Hogwarts Marauders found out that an advantage to being first year students was that they were often not seen or heard by the older students, and even sometimes the Professors. By keeping quiet and listening, they started to learn a lot of information about their fellow students. During the rest of January, and into early February, they spent a little time every day collecting information.
On the first Sunday of February, they got together in an empty classroom to talk about what they'd learned, and what they wanted to do about it. Rose was first up to talk about what they'd put together.
"Finding out information for our own House students was easiest, as I'm sure you all found too," she began. "The Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, and Slytherin kids were harder to learn about, but with a little patience, I think we have a good start."
She looked at each of the boys, smiling. "We've come up with thirty-four kids that are definitely in need of help for one reason or another, so the question is – 'What do we do to help them?"
Nick held up his hand. "I think we've all had the idea that doing something special for Valentine's Day should be our first big effort."
The other three all nodded, so he continued. "Whether these kids are poor, or picked on by the other kids, or the other half dozen problems we've heard about, I think that an anonymous Valentine present would be a great way to start our new mission."
"Do you think your sister is up to getting thirty-four gifts, and then sending them by Owl Post?" Scorpius asked Al.
He laughed. "My sister was born to shop, Scorpius. Trust me – she won't have a problem."
"We do need to go through our list and decide what to get each of them, though," Rose told them. "There isn't much point in this if we're not doing something that actually helps them.
The boys had all agreed, and they spent nearly two hours discussing each kid, their specific issues, and coming up with ideas for gifts that would help each of them. When they were done, Al had one more suggestion to put before the group.
"Nine of these kids are getting seriously picked on by some of the other students," he said, stating something they all knew. "I'm not sure if we could do much to help against some of the bullies, but we do know someone who could – James."
He laughed as the other three kids stared at him in surprise.
"I know, but can you guys think of a better way to put his pranking talents to use?"
Rose was the first one grinning and nodding. "I think that's a brilliant idea, Al. We could supply him the information, and he and his friends – and even Peeves, could give those bullies a little 'instruction'."
They were all grinning now.
"Do you think we could do that without telling him about the New Marauders?" Nick asked.
Al thought about that for a moment. "Probably – at least for now. He's a smart guy, though, and when the other things we're going to do start adding up for him, he's going to figure out what we're up to."
Nick agreed. "Probably. I guess that wouldn't be all bad, though – and we don't have to tell him everything – like about the map."
The others all nodded to that. "That's easy enough to keep from him, Nick," Al told him. "Having a bigger group of New Marauders might eventually be a good thing – kind of like our parent's DA, except we'll be helping other kids instead of teaching DADA."
"Al, I'll write to Lily with our list, and you can talk with James and if he agrees to help, give him the list of kids that are getting picked on," Rose said excitedly. She looked at her watch. "First we need to go and get our homework done before dinner, so let's get out of here and go get our books."
James stared at his brother. "You want me help you stop bullying by pulling pranks on the bullies?"
Al laughed. "Think of it as a challenge – with the added bonus that you'll be helping some kids that don't deserve what's being done to them just because they're different."
James shook his head in disbelief. Al had asked to talk with him privately after dinner, and when he'd found out what his brother wanted, he thought maybe he'd been hit in the head with a bludger in practice.
"Do you have any idea what some of those kids would do to me if I got caught? Not to mention that I'd be taking all the risk for detentions, while you sat back and didn't have to worry about any of the risks."
Al grinned at him, and James wanted to smack him.
"What if you had a way to keep from getting caught?" Al asked. "Would you do it then?"
"How? Did your little group of brainiacs make up a batch of polyjuice potion?"
"No," Al said, pulling something out of his bag, "I was thinking more along the lines of this."
James knew exactly what his brother was holding. He'd heard enough stories from Uncle Ron, even if their Dad rarely talked about it. "You brought the invisibility cloak to school?" He was stunned. "Does Dad know?"
His brother shrugged. "Do you really want to know the answer to that question? There's always something to be said for 'plausible deniability', you know."
James laughed in delight as Al handed him the cloak. "The things I could do with this!" he said with a devilish grin.
Al looked at him seriously. "James, I'm asking you to use it to help some of the kids here, and if you use it for some harmless pranks, then I don't have a problem with that. Don't even think about using it to hurt anyone, though."
James looked into his brother's eyes, having heard the change in his voice, and was startled by what he saw – unshielded power! It was gone as quickly as it had been there, and he was again looking into a pair of brilliant emerald eyes, not positive that he'd even seen what he thought he'd seen.
"I'm not going to do anything like that anymore, Al, and I'll even make sure that I don't actually hurt those bullies either. I promise."
Al nodded. "Thanks, James." He handed his brother a parchment. "Here's your first case, complete with a rundown of what's being done to him, where, and by whom. Since these bullies are picking on several kids, we thought they'd be a good first step to getting rid of bullying at Hogwarts."
James took the parchment and read it over. "You guys are certainly thorough," he conceded. "No wonder you're the top students in first year." He held out his hand. "Alright, Al – I'm in."
They shook hands, both of them grinning. "Let's get out of here before we start having some kind of brotherly bonding moment or something horrid like that," James said, and they both left the classroom they'd been talking in, laughing.
Harry was cooking breakfast when the Owl Post arrived. When he saw that it was for Lily, he called her downstairs, and she came on the run, Fluffy at her heels. He handed her the letter, and tossed Fluffy a piece of sausage.
"I see that her royal highness has decided to join her lowly servants for breakfast today," he said to Lily, who giggled.
"She doesn't sleep all the time, Daddy."
Harry laughed. "No, just eighteen or twenty hours a day. Maybe I should see if Neville can make ReVive for Kneazle Cats."
Lily gave him a hug and kiss before sitting down and tearing the envelope open. "It's from Rose!"
Dear Lily,
Ready for your first assignment?
The other parchments have a list of thirty-four students that could really use a Happy Valentine, along with suggested gifts for each of them, that we picked based on their individual needs.
Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to go shopping and get the gifts, wrap them, and send them by Owl Post so that they'll arrive on Valentine's Day.
If you think this letter will self-destruct after you've finished reading it, you've been watching too many of those old Muggle movies on the WWVN. :^)
Have fun shopping!
Love, Rose.
P.S. Let us know when you've got everything ready.
"It's my first New Marauders assignment! Yeah! Can we go shopping today, Daddy?"
He laughed. "Probably – if you don't mind missing the day at the beach we had planned with Carolyn and Brianna."
Lily looked up at him, having forgotten about the trip in her excitement over the letter, then grinned. "Well, we've got until Valentine's Day to do this, I guess we could wait to shop until tomorrow."
"That'll work too, sweetie. What does Rose want you to do?"
Lily went over the list with her Mum and Dad during breakfast, and they decided to split the shopping up over a few days instead of trying to cover all thirty-four kids in one trip. The gift ideas had all been well thought out, and Harry didn't see any problem with getting everything done in time – even with everything he and Lily had to do for the residence Valentine's Day party.
The Hogwarts student rumour network was buzzing with excitement at dinner on the Saturday before Valentine's Day. Today had been a Hogsmeade weekend for the older students, and apparently three boys had smuggled in some Weasley's Wheezes that had backfired on them when they tried to use them on another kid.
When Al and the other Marauders heard the rumour, they'd all looked over to James at the Gryffindor table, who had given them a slight nod when he'd seen them looking at him.
"Score one for the good guys," Rose said quietly to the boys. They were all grinning.
If a first blow against a few bullies was the first point for them, Valentine's Day was definitely thirty-four points – all earned in the few minutes after the Valentine Owl Post arrived.
The addition of those few dozen packages wasn't noticeable among the hundreds of Valentine Posts that arrived, except to the surprised recipients – each of whom had probably never received a Valentine gift before, and didn't expect one.
Al, Rose, Nick, and Scorpius all watched as those students opened their gifts, and quietly shared in the delight each kid showed when they saw what had been sent to them. They wanted to stay anonymous, and decided that it would be safe to just use 'TNM', so each gift had a simple note attached – 'Happy Valentine's Day! With Love, TNM.
The gifts ranged from a new school robe for a kid that hod never owned a new one before, to sweets, or jewelery. With the exception of one Virtual GameWizard they'd decided would help a second year boy with the trouble he was having with his school work, most of the gifts were pretty modest, yet were obviously appreciated. Most of the kids they'd sent gifts to were in different years and houses, and so very few of them actually talked with another kid that had received a TMN present, so almost nobody in the school realized that something very special had been started that day. The four Hagwarts students, and one red-haired accomplice who did know, quietly celebrated a pretty amazing accomplishment.
The TNM gifts had certainly been the most fun of the day, but were by no means the only Valentine fun that the New Marauders, and others had.
Arianna had a beautiful pair of earrings arrive in the Owl Post from a secret admirer. Victoire received a lengthy love poem, a box of chocolates, and a diamond pin from Teddy. Lily was surprised with her Mum taking the afternoon off, and going for a spa day with her, then having Daddy take his two favourite girls out for dinner, and giving them each another pair of matching necklaces for their jewellery collection.
Carolyn got a present from Al that Harry had delivered to her at the Valentine's Day party that he attended while the girls were off doing their spa afternoon.
Brianna had received a little Valentine gift by Owl Post that morning from Scorpius, and until she'd been given her present from Al, Carolyn had thought that maybe he'd forgotten about her for the first Valentine's Day since he'd given her that little locket that she still kept by her bed, even though it was too small to wear now.
Harry had watched Carolyn as she opened up her present from Al, and was grinning when he got to have the hug he was sure she'd rather be giving his son.
"This is beautiful," she told him happily. "Thank-you!" He laughed as she had Brianna help her to put on the new heart-shaped, gold necklace with the little emerald in the center of it.
"I'm sure Al will be glad to hear that you like it, but I'll let you give him the hug yourself next time you see him." Both girls had giggled, and then gone off to play and enjoy the party.
Rose hadn't been left out either, and not only had her Dad sent her a Valentine present, but her three Marauder co-conspirators had gotten together to buy her a box of her favourite sweets.
The Hogwarts Valentine's feast was another wonderful event. Harry and Ginny dropped Lily off with George, Marietta, and Frederica after their dinner date, and went to the Marauders Institute Valentine dance, where they met up with Ron, Hermione, Neville, and Luna to celebrate proposal and wedding anniversaries together with a little dance, a little WizardKaraoke from Luna and Harry, and a lot of fun. It was a work night, so they were all home in bed before midnight – some of them were possibly even asleep!
Gryffindor was playing Hufflepuff on the Saturday after Valentine's Day. Trinity had their team taking notes again, and they were all sitting together in the Ravenclaw section of the stands. This time, they only needed to concentrate on the Gryffindor players, since they'd already played Hufflepuff.
The Hufflepuff team might have gone into the game thinking they had a chance – especially after a close game against Ravenclaw, but James and his team quickly showed them that they were playing a far superior opponent. They did score more goals than Slytherin had been able to do, and their Seeker was playing hard too, but by the time that the Gryffindor Seeker caught the snitch, James, Arianna, and Aaron had already put their team up three hundred and forty to one hundred and thirty, and put the game out of reach for Hufflepuff anyway.
James was grinning when Al, Rose, Nick, and Scorpius walked up to him to offer their congratulations.
"How do you like second place, Al?" he teased his brother. "You've got a few months to get used to it, since that's where you'll be at the end of the season too."
Al ignored him. "Congratulations, James. You guys played a great game today." He gave Arianna a hug, and shook Aaron's hand. "I'll leave it up to you guys to keep James from getting that swelled head of his stuck in the Gryffindor portrait hole."
Even James laughed with everyone else at that, and he clapped his brother on the shoulder. "Not bad, Al – needs a little work on the delivery, but not bad."
Later, while Gryffindor celebrated, already crowning themselves Quidditch Cup Champions, Trinity again had her team in a meeting.
"What did we learn new today?" she asked the others.
"Their Keeper is still telegraphing his moves with his hands," Rose told them. "Hufflepuff probably saw it, but they didn't have an answer to Aaron, Arianna, and James, and simply got outscored."
"Their beaters had a different game plan for Hufflepuff, going after their Seeker more than the Chasers, but still practically stopped playing anytime they couldn't see each other," Rick told them.
Nick nodded. "I think our plan to just defend and get between them for the whole match is still the way to take them out of the game."
"Their Seeker was flying to impress again today. He's the best of the other Seekers, but I think I can beat him." She looked at Al, and added – "Especially after your Dad's Seeker lesson."
Al grinned. "He's not bad for an old guy."
"James still did his winking at Arianna all through this game," Scorpius reported. "The Hufflepuff Keeper did better correcting from his mistakes, but obviously hadn't seen that James was doing it, since he got beat twelve times by James, and nineteen times by Arianna. Aaron actually took nine shots this time, scoring three goals, which is an improvement for him, but he's still most dangerous when he can be the playmaker – he hides what he's doing with his passes perfectly."
"Will we need to adjust for that?" Trinity asked.
Al answered her. "Six of his nine shots came on passes from James. If you've got Arianna covered, then all Rose or I have to do is watch for those passes, and maybe we'll even intercept a few of them."
Scorpius nodded. "If he's shooting, I'd rather face his shots than the ones from James, or especially Arianna. Even with Aaron taking more shots and scoring more, she still had over half of their goals."
"Maybe we should think about putting both Rose and I on shadowing her then," Trinity suggested.
Scorpius thought about that. "That's a good idea – we could try it and see if Al and I are enough to keep up with James and Aaron. If we're having trouble early, Rose could switch back, and help us. If we practice to do both, we'd be ready for whichever works best."
That pretty much wrapped up the post-game analysis, and Trinity adjourned the meeting. "We're going to be working harder than ever," she promised them. "Just make sure we don't do anything to tip off the Gryffindor team after we've worked so hard to set them up!"