Hey, everyone! Sorry this one's a bit late, I'm up to my eyeballs in preparations for Quiz Bowl tomorrow. :/ Hope you enjoy this one!
Badger Munchies
"Alice the Gryffie firstie versus Frankie-poo the Huffluffledufflepuff round one, ding ding!" teased Riley as Alice stormed back to her seat, glaring.
"Shut. Up. Who does he think he is? Just because Gryffindor is playing Hufflepuff in a few weeks does not give him rights to be a total git!" Alice growled, stabbing her food.
"Don't worry, Alice, it's just the nature of a Quidditch maniac boy," reasoned Lily. Sighing, Alice put her head on the table.
"I know I shouldn't be worried, seeing as we're only twelve, but when we got older, I really want to go out with him!"
"Relax, Al, as soon as he realizes he was acting like a prat, he'll make it up to you, I promise. It's young love, easily mended before you get in a relationship," Bella said.
"Exactly, like with James and Lily. My little Jamsie-poo has the hots for our Flower, and one day, they'll get together and go snog somewhere. They'll have arguments, guaranteed, but I know James would never let his Lils go," Lily promptly shoved Riley off of the bench, face red as a beet.
"Potter and I will never go out," Lily snapped.
"Oh Lily-Flower, James may not admit it, but he does like you. When a boy likes a girl, he bugs the hell out of her. He'll realize it soon, and ask you out incessantly,"
"Merlin help me," Lily groaned, and slammed her head on the table as she saw James, Sirius, and Remus running towards them.
"Riley, Quidditch practice!" gasped Sirius, beckoning her madly towards them.
"Damn! I forgot!" hissed Riley, and she leapt out of her seat, running out of the Great Hall. Fortunately, she didn't need to run all the way up to Gryffindor Tower, she kept her stuff in the girl's changing rooms. The four ran into the changing rooms, Riley grabbing her robes, slipping into them, pulling her hair into a ponytail, and picking up her broom. She raced out of the changing rooms, looking very disheveled, fastening her robes.
"Forget something, Riley?" laughed Davey. On looking down, Riley saw she was barefoot.
"Ah, screw it, Davey, I'm too tired," she sighed. Davey just laughed, pointed his wand at her feet, Conjuring a pair of shoes.
"Heads up!" he called, tossing the Snitch towards her. Riley reflexively caught it in her left palm, allowing it to slide up her arm and around her shoulders as it unfurled its wings, coming to a stop on the tip of her right index finger.
"My head is up, Snitch in my grasp. Suggestions, oh captain?" asked Riley cheekily.
"Just get up in the air," ordered Davey.
"Aye aye, captain!" Riley mock saluted, then mounted her broom, the Snitch flying around her head.
"Okay, team, as you know, our match against Hufflepuff is coming up, and they're mad with the Bludgers. Chasers, you try and score as much as possible. Beaters, you try to protect everyone. Keeper, try to defend the hoops. Seeker, you catch the Snitch before a Bludger takes your head off,"
"I like to think I'm a match for two Bludgers, Dave," scoffed Riley, crossing her arms.
"Ah, but we won't be practicing with two Bludgers today. We will be practicing…" Davey levitated a wildly shaking box up to next to him, "with seven."
"Oh bloody hell," groaned Sirius. Davey just smiled wickedly and unlocked the box. The seven players scattered to avoid being killed by one of the mad Bludgers. Two Bludgers immediately went for Riley, and Sirius flew up to her, managing to knock away one of them, but the other was racing towards her, and she had to completely turn upside down to avoid it. Meanwhile, James, Davey, and Gideon were tossing the Quaffle back and forth in a sort of triangular motion, switching places as they threw to one another. Gideon chucked the Quaffle at the left hoop while Remus dodged a Bludger, and scored.
"Good job, Gideon!" called out Davey, wincing not a moment later when a Bludger hit his shoulder. He retrieved his wand, healing the break, then got back out onto the field. Riley suddenly spotted the Snitch, diving towards it, but three Bludgers went for her, and she screamed and began flying towards the opposite goal posts. Another Bludger joined the three following her, and she cried out in frustration.
"OH, WHAT THE HELL! WHY?" Fabian and Sirius dived into the mass of Bludgers, beating three of them away, but one got away, and without warning, smashed into her shin. She was wearing shin guards, so there was no break, but Riley had the feeling that there would be a nasty bruise there tomorrow.
"Keep going, Riley, you're doing great!" called Remus, giving her the thumbs up.
"Thanks, Moony!" she called back. Remus smiled a little bit at the nickname. The Marauders had agreed that since Riley had come up with it, it was only fair that Riley got to use the name first. She had been holding off on them, using it to drive them crazy, but she was sure James and Sirius had heard, and Peter would know as soon as they got back to the castle.
"RILEY!" she heard Sirius scream, and she turned around, her jaw dropping as she saw a Bludger flying directly towards her face.
"Diffindo!" bellowed Davey, and the Bludger disintegrated with a loud crack, but continued chasing her, in gravel form.
"Shit," muttered Riley, and she flew directly towards the ground, when she spotted the Snitch, grasping it in her hands.
"SHE'S GOT THE SNITCH! CAN WE CALL OFF THIS MADNESS NOW?" James hollered to Davey.
"WE'VE GOT TO PRACTICE!" A Bludger suddenly slammed into Riley's side, breaking many of her ribs.
"GUDGEON, CALL OFF THE FUCKING PRACTICE NOW!" Riley screamed, holding her side, not even bothering to steer her broom. The handle went into the ground, flipping the broom over, and Riley flew off of it, falling to the grass on her injured side. She screamed in pain, tears streaking down her face as the rest of the team crowded around her, save for Sirius, who was busy demolishing the rest of the Bludgers with his wand.
"Riley! Riley, can you hear me?" whispered Remus frantically. Still sobbing Riley managed to let out a little squeak of acknowledgement.
"James, get Madame Pomfrey!" Fabian ordered, and James immediately mounted his broom, racing off towards the castle. He came back not two minutes later, carrying the matron on the back of his broom. As soon as they reached her, Pomfrey leaped off the broom, and Conjured a stretcher. Sirius, now done with destroying the Bludgers and hexing Davey, levitated her onto the stretcher, and they all went off towards the castle at mad speed. They reached the Hospital Wing in a matter of seconds, where Pomfrey set her on the bed and immediately fed her a pain potion.
"Are you okay, Riley?" Sirius asked worriedly.
"What the hell do you think? Don't ask that question, you bloody moron!" hissed Riley through gritted teeth. The pain in her side had eased somewhat, but Pomfrey was setting her ribs back in place. Sirius' apologetic reply was all she registered before blacking out.
"OM NOM NOM NOM NOM NOM NOM NOM NOM!" screamed the voice of Riley, who had Sonorus cast on her by Gideon. Giant lion sock puppets were flying around the ceiling of the Great Hall, eating the sock puppet badgers.
"This is hilarious!" laughed Lily, wiping tears of mirth from her green eyes.
"Best show ever!" Sirius said. Riley smiled while she continued yelling OM NOM NOM, it had been insanity setting up the prank.
*FLASHBACK*[1]
"Got the socks, Moony?" asked Riley, as Remus walked into the dorm. Remus nodded, setting down the large sack.
"How many lions should we make?" Sirius questioned.
"I think about four, they'll be pretty big," replied Peter, "Engorgio." The orange sock Peter charmed suddenly started growing to an enormous size.
"Maybe we should go somewhere bigger," suggested James. The others gathered up the supplies, Peter shrinking the sock back to normal, and they headed out of the common room under James' Invisibility Cloak. Riley led the way, going to the mirror passage that led to Dervish and Banges. Once inside, they took off the cloak, Remus handing Riley a jar.
"Incendio," she said, and a large flame went inside the jar, and she levitated it up to the top of the passage, while Remus used a sticking charm. Now that the jar was up, a bright, albeit slightly eerie, light filled the passage.
"Right then, how many badgers?" questioned Remus.
"I think at least seven, they'll be eaten, and we want to keep the show going for a while," said Sirius. They silently got to work, enlarging 4 orange socks and 7 black ones. Riley dumped out the large bag of straw they had brought, duplicating it and charming it an orange-red, then charming it to the heads of the lion puppets. Peter was busy with the eyes, taking perfectly round rocks and charming them black, then sticking them in clear, plastic, round containers and sticking them to the heads of the puppets. Remus was charming large white stripes into the heads of the badger puppets, then growing out two spots of the sock for ears, and putting little pink spots on the tips of the sock for noses. James was charming the funnels to have pointy edges, making them white, then sticking them into the mouths of the lions. When they were finished, Riley, Sirius, and Remus got to work on the last part. Since they were the best at Charms, they charmed the lions to attack the badgers, then charmed them all to fly around. Meanwhile, James and Peter were charming large packets of red food coloring to the inside of the badger socks, so the badgers would appear to bleed when eaten.
*FLASHBACK*
A loud scoff next to Riley's ears brought her back from her daydream, and she looked up at Frank Longbottom, his eyes dancing with mischief.
"Very amusing show, Stevens. Although, I think you've got your senses a little mixed up," he said, smirking. Riley rolled her eyes.
"We'll have to settle that on the pitch, won't we, Longbottom?" she asked.
"Indeed we shall, Stevens, indeed we shall,"
[1] I didn't want to put the flashback in italics because in large quantities, for me, it's really annoying. Just a little FYI. :)
Review Replies:
random: Honestly, I am scared by that threat. Please don't sent a horde of gays on me, I'm a claustrophobic. :/
swimdiva87: Thanks! I do feel like when Iget chapters out late I'm being mean. Typical writer attitude, I guess.
Allie Knight: Thanks, and the Animagus will come soon. I'm having loads of trouble coming up with a nickname for Riley, but I've got a definite on her animal. I love Taylor too. The only songs I've heard from Speak Now are the ones I heard at her concert and looked up afterwards. Mine is definitely Long Live. I love that song, and there's loads of cool music videos that are Harry Potter, just go to Youtube and look up Long Live Harry Potter.
Queen of Ashes: Yeah, it's definitely one of my favorite Evanescence songs, I can never decide which one I like best. I'm glad you like the chapter. Of course, I could never do that to my Remy. Riley's Animagus is really cool, but so hard to come up with a nickname for.
Dracomalfoy69: Thanks, I have a lot of fun writing major points in the story. It gives me a lot of content to work with, so less block. :D
random: Whoah, you have officially earned the honor of being the first person to get two mentions in one author's note, simply because I'm too lazy to combine them. Yeah, I realized that too, and I feel so stupid for forgetting things like that. I'm writing a chapter soon, introducing him. Hopefully people won't be too mad. :/
I-Await-A-Protector: It's so hard for poor Remus, always thinking people hate him because of the wolf inside of him. :(
Next chapter might be a little late, I'm in a hotel room right now, out of town Quiz Bowl, and I am once again cursed with block, so getting the next one done will be pretty hard. Man, I have got to start doing my chapters in advance. At the beginning of the year, I start out with loads of pre-written chappies, but when I run out, I get block. Ugh, it's so hard. :(
R.E.V.I.E.W!
5 reviews, chapter twelve is yours.
Listening to: Are You Happy Now? by Megan and Liz