AN: I own only Swara

Chapter 13

It had been a ridiculously hectic week. Try-outs were today, we were working on a spell to prank Friedmont, and there were still two weeks for this month of silence. I woke up in a mood. Lily, bearing witness to my behavior before Try-outs for the past 2 years, wisely chose to make an early exit from the dormitories.

James insisted that the team go down to the Great Hall together because he's an annoying prat. "It fosters team unity!" he had said. Well, written.

I waited for the black-haired twat with Dorcas and Tim, the 4th year beater. Why was he the last one, I don't know.

"Ready for this, Swara?" Tim asked, wringing his fingers.

I shrugged and gave him a lopsided smile. Dorcas was the only one of us three who was completely relaxed. My foot tapped the ground incessantly, and I resisted the urge to fidget with my hands as well.

Finally, James bounded down the steps, the other three right behind him.

I glared and pointed at my watch. "He was writing a motivational speech, Swara," Remus said.

I pointed at him, zipped my mouth, and scrunched my eyebrows. "I'll read it out on the pitch," Remus answered.

I rolled my eyes at James, and he grabbed my hand and pulled me out the door, the others following closely behind.

The Great Hall was quiet, thankfully. People were still sleeping in, except for a few Gryffindors who wanted to try out or watch. Tim and I nibbled at our eggs. The rocking ship-like motion of my stomach was not conducive to eating, and I imagined Tim was feeling the same way. James and Dorcas, on the other hand, gobbled down their toast like a pair of trolls.

Ten minutes later, we were on the pitch, and my eyes widened at the amount of people who had shown up to try out. There had to be at least 30 Gryffindors milling about on the pitch.

Sirius and Peter went to sit on the stands, and the rest of us stood behind James. He clapped his hands loudly a few times to get attention. It didn't work.

I took out my wand, and a loud bang resounded in the grounds. That certainly stopped the chatter.

James grabbed Remus and gave him a sheet of paper.

"Welcome to the Gryffindor Quidditch try outs!" Remus started. "Before we get started, if you are not at least a second year, get off my pitch."

No one left. That was a first.

"Okay, then. As you know, we have three positions that need to be filled: Beater, Chaser, and Keeper. But, you can try out for any position, even the currently occupied ones. If you fly better than our current players, you'll get a spot on the team, understood?" Remus paused at this point for the crowd to voice any questions.

"Now on to the good stuff: as you know, Gryffindor's won the Quidditch Cup the last two years. This year will be no different, my friends! We've had the best team the past two years, and we'll be the best one this year too! Which House puts in as much time as we do? Which House has the amount of Quidditch talent we do? Which House has the best fans? We do! Quidditch is an art, it is life. In these try outs, do not disgrace that art. Understood? Okay, let's start! Group yourselves by position you're trying for."

I nudged James and raised an eyebrow. That was a horrible speech. He scowled at me and jabbed a finger in the air. I raised my hands and backed away, still smiling about the art comment. It sounded as if he was some sort of passionate lover out of Lily's Muggle romance novels.

Dorcas and I kicked off our brooms and waited for James (Remus) to deliver instructions down below.

"You ready?" Dorcas called, tossing the Quaffle to me.

The breeze tickled my scalp, and the sun was rising behind me, warming my head. The green hills, partly hidden from the ground, shone with their glory.

I nodded, exhilaration filling my body.

"Keepers, you'll be going first. Everyone else, stand off to the side!" Remus yelled. I quickly scanned the group that remained. There were about 4 people trying out for Keeper. My eyes strained to see their faces. I could only make out John Flinter's blonde head. He was a fourth year with a horrible attitude.

"Here's how this is going to work! My excellent Chasers will attempt to score on you 5 times! Whichever of you saves the most will proceed to the next stage. Cooper, you're first!" I glanced down again. There was a little too much James in those words to be Remus'. Sure enough, Remus was reading from a piece of parchment. I chuckled. He may skive off on homework, but James took no chances with Quidditch.

The boy, Cooper, flew to the goal posts. I curled my fingers around the shaft of the broom, tugging at the purple paisley handkerchief I had tied there two years ago. It was browning now, but the paisley pattern from my mother's sari was unmistakable.

James got in the air soon after, taking his position a few feet ahead of the goal posts. He had a clipboard with him.

The Quaffle was still tucked under my arm, and I was itching to get started. Finally, James raised his hand, and I tensed. He dropped it, and I shot off like a bolt, speeding towards the goal. Dorcas was below me, and I dropped the Quaffle to her. I watched as she zoomed towards the right goal. Cooper rushed that way but missed the catch.

We sped back towards the opposite side of the pitch. This time, Dorcas started with the Quaffle. A fan for theatrical maneuvers, she swerved and zigzagged her way across the pitch. Having dealt with this for the past two years, I simply raced to the other side and waited impatiently. When she finally made it, she tossed the Quaffle upwards, and I kicked it into the right goal, Cooper still lagging behind at the left one.

We repeated this three more times. Cooper managed to save the other three goals after findings his flying legs. Still, 3 out of 5 was not a great try -out, and James' blank face told me he was not terribly impressed either.

Cooper flew down, and Flinter came up, making a great show of speeding upwards and coming to a grinding halt by the goals. I rolled my eyes at Dorcas.

"Let's say we knock this one to size, eh?" Dorcas said.

I loved it when she got evil.

This time, we flew neck and neck, tossing the Quaffle back and forth between us. As we got closer, I could see Flinter's beady eyes zooming between us, trying to track the Quaffle. Suddenly, Dorcas took off towards the left post with the Quaffle, and Flinter raced to stop her. He was 2 feet away from her when she threw the Quaffle to me, and I launched it through the center goal.

"YES!" Dorcas cheered and gave me a high five. Flinter, probably out of fear of James, said nothing, but his mouth twitched with all the words he was suppressing.

In the end, Dorcas and I scored 5/5 times on him, and the poor bloke flew to the ground, kicked his broom, and shoved the others out of the way before retreating to the castle.

The next one, a May Weatherly, 2nd year, saved 4/5 goals. I could tell from James' frantic writing that he was impressed with her skill at such a young age as well. She seemed nice enough, if a little shy. The last bloke, Drew Grayson, had more interest in flirting with Dorcas than playing Keeper.

We flew down to the pitch where the others where quietly talking, no doubt assessing the Keeper hopefuls. I noticed with no end of delight that Flinter had not reappeared. At least that was one less whiner that needed to be dealt with.

James motioned for Dorcas, Tim, and I to come over. He jabbed a finger at May's name with a thumb's up. I think we were all in agreement with that decision.

"The new Keeper is May Weatherly!" Remus announced. "Thank you for those of you that came out."

I glanced over at May, and the beam on her face was priceless. Seemingly unable to restrain herself, she ran over to James and hugged him. James jerked backwards a few steps when the force of a wiry 12-year old slammed into him, but he wasted no time in returning the hug. After all, he was one of the most affectionate people I had met. Took after his mum in that regard.

"Thank you, thank you, thank you! I won't let you down, sir!" May shouted. Well, I guess she wasn't that shy.

He ruffled her hair and tucked her under his arms. With one simple hug, May was part of our Quidditch family. Remus was watching the proceedings with a small smile on his face, and he wrapped an arm around me as well. "She has no idea that she signed up for a big brother, does she?" he whispered to me.

I shook my head but gave it a thumbs up. "You approve? So do I, Swara. There's no better friend than James Potter," he said.

It was true. There really wasn't a better friend than James.

"Shall we get on with the try-out?" Remus called to James, who simply nodded.

"Alright! Chasers are up next! When I call your name, ascend to the skies!" Remus called. "Ouch!" I had just jabbed him in the side. Ascend to the skies, really? I raised an eyebrow. "Don't blame me, James wrote it."

I rolled my eyes. James Potter had a flair for the dramatic. "By the way, you two are up last" he said to Dorcas and I.

Great. Let's prolong the torture even more. We trudged off to the side and plopped down on the grass. Conversation was limited given that I couldn't speak, but we still managed to have a laugh by making stupid facial expressions.

I carefully watched as three hopeful Chasers flew above us, then another three, and then another three. 9 total, plus the two of us. When the last group touched down, it was our turn. Dorcas and I bumped fists and knocked the handles of our brooms together by taking off.

May was at the posts, a healthy flush covering her cheeks. She certainly looked more confident, but Dorcas and I were no saplings either.

The moment the whistle blew, I shot upwards with the Quaffle, Dorcas tailing me below. About halfway across the pitch, we switched. I rolled the broom so that I was below her, catching the three fingers she held up. Three fingers meant fly out of the Sun. Tossing the Quaffle to her, we zoomed upwards, and I briefly saw May squint her eyes before the Sun blocked us.

I zoomed straight at her, and she panicked, flying to the left, leaving Dorcas free to throw the ball through the center hoop.

We pumped our fists in the air, and James gave us an indulgent smile.

Ten minutes later, I had to say that was a stellar trial. May only managed to save two of the goals. Touching down, it was time to wait for the cut-offs. Remus called the names of those who were to remain. "Dorcas, Swara, Jane, Matthew, and Paul, please stay. The rest of you, thank you for coming out today."

I sized up this Jane, Matthew, and Paul. Neither of them were from our year. Paul was a 6th year, and Jane and Matthew were both 4th years.

"Swara, Paul, and Jane. You three will go first."

James had us do some flying exercises and maneuvers, like the rolling one I had done earlier. Paul was a bit bulkier and had trouble with moving swiftly. I wondered if he would make a good Beater though. Jane was better at the maneuvers but had only made 2 goals.

Matthew seemed to have a better time with the maneuvers, and I was impressed with how quickly he caught on to Dorcas' strategies of stealth.

At the end of that, Matthew was the new Gryffindor Chaser. There were no hugs there, just a quiet smile of thanks. The Beater was the last position, and Tim practically jumped up from where he was sitting all day. James, having read my mind, did keep Paul around for the Beater try-outs, and that was a blessing since he was by far the best at it.

Four hours later and one tantrum from a hopeful Beater who felt cheated by Paul ("He tried out for Chaser first though!"), we had a full Quidditch team.

"Practices will start from Wednesday. Be there on time, or James will kill you," Remus said, completely serious. Paul weakly laughed at that, but it died out when he saw James' perfectly solemn face.

We walked back to the Common Room together before parting ways. I ran up to my dormitory to tell Lily the good news. Instead, I found a hastily written note.

Swara,

Hope the try-out went well. You'll have to tell me (sign me?) all about it later. Gone off with Sev. See you at dinner.

Lily

That cold, tingling feeling swept through me again. I didn't like seeing Severus with Mulciber, a downright cruel and sadistic boy practically praying to become a Death Eater, but I didn't know how to tell Lily. She was frightfully defensive about Snape, and I had pictures of James' burned eyebrows from last year when he had told her the same.

Deciding there was nothing else to do but go finish some homework, I walked to the library. Madame Pince was chewing out a student that had brought a chocolate éclair with him. What a fool.

I settled down at my table and started working on the Ancient Runes translation. I had just about finished when Sirius sat in front of me.

He grabbed a spare piece of parchment and wrote, "It's ready."

My confused expression was enough to prompt him to elaborate. "While you all were at the pitch, I figured out the spell for the prank."

I grabbed the quill. "Are you serious?" I saw that shit-eating grin and quickly added. "Don't you dare. You know what I meant."

He took the quill and wrote, "Come on. We're going to test it out in the dorm."

I quickly gathered my stuff, and we rushed to the dorm together. My heart was pounding. As distracted as I was by the try-outs, I couldn't forget what Friedmont had said to me. Darkie. Natural habitat. There was no way in hell that I was going to let that slide. He would regret ever spewing that racist rhetoric.

James, Remus, and Peter were sitting cross-legged on the ground, and Sirius dragged me down next to him. He handed me a piece of parchment and jabbed a finger near the bottom where an incantation had been circled. At the top were some of the spells we had tried together, crossed out and rearranged. Below were some unfamiliar ones that Sirius and Peter must have tested out this morning.

Amortia cancia. I stared at it in disbelief. It looked a bit too simple to get Friedmont to sing Celestina to McGonagall.

"Sirius has imbibed the words with the specifics of the song, Swara. All we have to do is point the wand at Friedmont and then drag it towards McGonagall while saying the spell," Remus elaborated.

Wow. That was an impressive bit of spell-work. I knew Sirius was a borderline genius, but this must've taken him all day. But he had done it, for me.

Filled with emotion, I launched myself at him, wrapping him in a tight hug. When I pulled away, he was wearing a sheepish expression, which he quickly shrugged off and pointed his wand at Remus, who looked like a deer in headlights.

"Wait! Is there a counterspell?" James wrote. Remus sighed in relief at the interruption.

Sirius rolled his eyes and wrote "Finite" on the parchment. Oh. That was simple enough, I suppose. Remus looked slightly more reassured at that.

Sirius pointed his wand at Remus again and dragged it towards…me. Of course. I watched him intently, and there was a glazed look in his eyes. Then, he suddenly crawled over until he was in front of me and belted out the first few words of "Cauldron Full of Hot, Strong Love."

I had no way of seeing myself, but I had enough self-awareness to know that I was blushing. Hard. Probably to the extent that the flush was visible even on my brown skin.

With a tremendous amount of self-control, I avoided looking at the other three. This was made even easier when Remus decided that he needed to be closer, close enough to block out everything else. Slowly moving while still singing, he stopped about two inches away from my face. I scooted backwards in a hurry, not caring about the hurt look that crossed his face.

Remus came closer again, and I couldn't move since I was backed up against the wall. At this point, I could see the flecks of brown in his blue eyes, and I decided that we had seen the spell clearly worked so there was no need to keep going. My wand was near my original seat, and I moved to grab it around Remus, but he grasped my hands, and I went still.

I briefly caught a glimpse of James' positively gleeful face and knew instantly that none of these fools were going to end the spell before the song was over. I started to contemplate how to get my revenge, but Remus started bringing my hand upward towards his lips.

My eyes, already widened, felt like they were about to burst and dribble down my face. I tried tugging my hand away, but Remus had the strength of a werewolf and was using it for once.

Desperate, I wrenched my hand out of his grasp, grabbed my wand, and pointed it at him all before he had a chance to collect himself. Finite, I cast and listened as the notes he was singing trailed off to a lackluster death.

His eyes cleared and widened almost comically as he realized how close he was to me. There was a beat where he just looked at me, blue eyes to brown, before scooching backwards in a frenzy. Unfortunately, he didn't realize that my left hand was still in his (crushing) grip and dragged me along with him so that we nearly collided heads.

Like it was a hot brand, he dropped my hand. "Umm, what happened?"

James and Sirius decided to take it upon themselves to re-enact the whole debacle. James was me, and Sirius was Remus. Unable to watch past the point when Sirius planted himself an inch away from James and looked lovingly at him, I averted my eyes. Remus' face had acquired a red hue that deepened with every moment, and he kept looking from me to them.

Finally, they had finished and laughed silently. Remus, who was a stiff as a board, turned to me. "Well, at least we know the spell works?" he asked.

I nodded enthusiastically to hide my embarrassment at the whole situation.

Remus, ever dependable and practical, asked, "When do we want to do this?"

Honestly, at this point, I just wanted to be done with this spell. I jabbed a finger towards the ground twice. Today.

And the plan was set.