Chapter Twenty-One: Drearily Trudging Along

At first, James had not realized at first just how many Saturdays there were left in the Term, but once Zach had shown him a calendar he had paled at the realization that he still had two and a half months worth of weekly Detentions to serve! James had been expecting maybe four or five, but in fact they would have to serve over a dozen Detentions before Term ended! That was just torturous!

Of course, the worst of his punishment would come once his parents had found out what had happened. In a sick sense, he almost envied Jeremey, who had been unlucky enough to have received a Howler from his parents the very next day! Sure there had been the public embarrassment and shameful head hanging that came with an explosive scolding in the Great Hall, but at least it had been over quickly.

He especially envied Zach, whose parents had vented their anger with him in a simple letter, nice and private without any attention or fanfare. But no, James Potter's parents reserved a very special punishment for him.

That being said, it was rather hard to feel bad for James while he was joining in the thunderous laughter that rained down on Jeremey as the Canadian boy to hid his head beneath the table and insisted that he was leaving Hogwarts for good. As if it wasn't bad enough that James was laughing at his friend's misfortune, the fact that he was in the very same predicament made his actions even more curious.

However, this thought would not occur to James until a voice as cold as death itself from behind him muttered "Mr Potter," in an icy whisper. James turned around to see Professor Ambrose, a teacher he had only spoken to twice in his entire time at Hogwarts, and whom he could not remember ever having a particularly interesting conversation with. But then, having an interesting conversation with the leering Divination's Professor was not something that many students could claim to do.

Professor Ambrose was a man so cold and frightening that even James hardly dared do anything but show him some level of respect and deference. You didn't mess with Professor Ambrose unless you wanted trouble, and in all honesty James was in enough trouble as it was.

Of course, no matter how stupid it might have been to open his mouth, James had never been one to pass on an opportunity to leave his personal stamp on things. And besides, it wasn't like things could possibly get any worse could they?

"No, he's over at the Hufflepuff Table right now." James replied lazily, "But I can take a message for him if you want." Remarking sarcastically to Professor Ambrose was something that was sure to end poorly, but James knew that he needed to score points while he could, before the Howler he was certain was headed his way got here.

"Well then," Professor Ambrose muttered coolly, "I suppose that we shall have to deduct five points from Gryffindor for his not being at the correct table. But when you do see him, be sure to tell him that his parents are waiting for him in the Headmistress' Office."

Even James could not think of anything to say at this, freezing completely where he sat as his face grew pale in shock. Crap! His parents had come all the way up to Hogwarts in order to see him? This was even worse than a Howler, even worse than Detention, he was dead! Deader than dead actually, he was going to be killed, and then resurrected from the dead so that he could be killed again! His parents must be absolutely furious, why else would they have bothered to come all of the way up to Hogwarts.

Albus was choking on his toast, "Both of them?" he sputtered, clearly delighted at the prospect of his brother finally getting laid into by their parents for one of his misdeeds.

Professor Ambrose seemed humored by Albus' enthusiasm, "Both of them." He replied, in as friendly and cheerful a voice as James had ever heard from the usually frosty Divination Teacher. Seemingly satisfied, the man strode away from the Gryffindor Table towards the front of the Great Hall.

Burying his head in his hands, James muttered "I am dead! I am so dead!" Jeremey had looked up from underneath the table, joining Albus in his reveling over James' predicament. Misery did love company James supposed, and Jeremey had just been humiliated in front of the entire School. Still, a good number of the Slytherin players had received letters of similar nature from their parents, so at least the Gryffindors were not alone in their misery. They had probably set some sort of record that morning for the most Howlers received in one day.

"If I'm not in class today, it's because my parents murdered me." James said gloomily as he got up and prepared to leave, "Don't mourn me for too long guys. Jeremey you get the Map, Andrew you get my broom, Zach you get everything else … just keep my stuff away from Albus." He said, only half joking as he gloomily bequeathed his most prized possessions.

"Aw come on James, there's no need to be getting our hopes up." Jeremey joked, "Now I'm gonna be all upset when you come back alive."

Just like time seemed to slow down to a crawl at some times, it also had an irritating habit of speeding up uncontrollably when you wished that it would slow down so that you wouldn't have to deal with some unpleasant future event. Now was one of those times, as James' trip down to the Headmistress' Office seemed to take less than a microsecond.

"Remus" James said, his voice quivering, when he came to face the stone gargoyle that was the entryway to the Headmistress' Office. During James' time at Hogwarts, the password had always been the name of some fallen hero of the Second Wizarding War, at least as far as he knew. At the time, as he had found out two days before when he had been called down with the other Quidditch Players to be informed of the details of his Detentions, the password was in honor of the father of his foster brother Teddy Lupin.

As James pushed open the door at the top of the spiral staircase, he was still hoping that somehow this was some kind of sick joke. Maybe his parents had only passed on some kind of message to Professor McGonagall or something. Unfortunately, James was not that lucky, as his heart sank into the soles of his shoes at the sight of his parents standing in front of the Headmistress' Desk with their backs to him.

"Ah James, you're …" Professor McGonagall began with a forced smile, clearly ill at ease with the presence of her two furious former students standing before her.

However, Professor McGonagall's attempt to keep things calm and cordial were not going to work, as she hadn't even time to finish her sentence before she was interrupted by a furious Ginny Potter.

"James! What in Merlin's name did you think that you were doing?" his mother screeched, her face having turned a rage filled red to match her hair. James had seen that face before, it was her 'Don't mess with me right now I'm really angry' face. Whenever she had that expression, James knew that it was best to get as far away as possible, but at the moment there was nowhere that he could run to.

"I, well, I don't know mum." James said, knowing better than to be sarcastic around his mother. He could be cheeky to his teachers, but when his mum got like that you didn't mess around.

"You don't know?" she shouted, "You don't know! You never think about anything do you James? Do you know what we had to go through in order to get all the way up here?"

"Well you shouldn't have bothered to then should you?" James asked bitterly, knowing that he was going to regret it. But seriously, it wasn't like he had murdered anyone, all he had done was gotten into a little fight! Surely his parents had been in plenty of those during their time at Hogwarts.

"Don't you dare use that tone with your mother!" his father snapped, causing James to cringe away from his parents. God, why did he have to have the craziest parents in the entire world? He couldn't even pit them against each other because they never fought about anything! It was disgusting, they agreed about absolutely everything!

OK, maybe not everything¸ but still you'd think that James would be able to find something to divide them on. But right now he probably wasn't even going to be able to go the 'Quidditch is our thing' route with his dad.

"Why James?" his mother asked, "Why do you insist on doing whatever stupid thing happens to pop into your head at the time? Do you ever even think about the consequences of your actions?"

James stared back at her blankly, not bothering to even start thinking of an excuse for his actions. What would be the point? No matter what he said, his parents were not going to care. His explanations never meant anything; his parents always knew the 'real' answers to the questions that they were asking of him. Whatever he said to them in reply, as far as they were concerned, was just an excuse or a lie.

"This is why we didn't want you to start playing Quidditch in your first year or two." His mother said, shaking her head as though she believed that if she had been more adamant in her stance that none of this would have ever happened. "I knew that you were just going to get way too caught up in it! How could you not, our whole bloody family, myself included, are all a bunch of Quidditch obsessed fools! But I was hoping that you would be different from the rest of us."

James still did not speak, he knew better than to try and explain himself when his mother was in the middle of one of her rants. Interrupting her would only make the situation worse for himself: as if it weren't bad enough already.

Professor McGonagall was staring at them from behind her desk, if James had not known any better he would have been sure that she actually pitied him. In fact, she did pity him! A Professor was actually feeling bad for James Sirius Potter; wow, James never would have seen that one coming!

But at the same time, she looked as though she was afraid to get in the middle of the family. Then again, who could really blame her? His father was the Harry Potter, who defeated the most powerful dangerous Dark Wizard of all time; and his mother was known for being an exceptional caster of the Bat Bogey Hex herself. It was scary how much dangerous spell casting ability was bearing down on him right now.

"I'm sorry mum, what more can I say?" James asked timidly, wishing that he could just melt into the floor and disappear. He could face down the Magical History Movement, and he had mouthed off to every teacher in the school at one point or another, but his parents still inspired fear and terror in him when they got like that.

Of course, when you considered who he had for parents, could you really blame him?

"It wouldn't be anything that you haven't said to us before now would it James?" his mother asked angrily, "Merlin, you're just always getting yourself into these sorts of messes, and you always say that you're not going to do it ever again, but you do anyway! It's all just a game to you isn't it?"

It was amazing how long Ginny Potter could go on once she had built up a head full of steam, and boy oh boy was she in a the mood to drag on today. She went on and on, repeatedly reminding James that his actions had cast an extremely negative light on herself, and his father, as parents; not to mention that he was endangering his schooling and his future.

When finally his mother was done, it was his father's turn to say his piece. Whatever his father had to say to him, he knew that it was the real meaning behind their visit. His parents had not travelled all the way to Hogwarts, simply for his mother to yell at him; they could have done that with a Howler.

No, whatever his father was about to say to him, it was going to be short and to the point; and would explain the real reason that his parents had came to Hogwarts. His father had always been the one who had known how to deal with things like this.

"James, what your mother and I are trying to say is that we thought that we raised you better than this. I mean, fighting over something as insignificant as a Quidditch Game. James, didn't we teach you about a little thing called sportsmanship?" his father said, looking at James with that intense stare of disappointment.

"But dad, I …" James began, but his father cut him off almost immediately.

"I don't want to hear it James!" his father said calmly, maddeningly calm after the shouting of James' mother. Couldn't he just yell and scream so that James could ignore him and hate him, rather than just making him quiver under the stare of his disappointment. "I don't want to hear any of your excuses. You're going to learn your lesson one way or another!"

Uh oh, James did not like where this was going. This was definitely not going to end well.

"You're not going to play another game of Quidditch until your mother and I see that you've learned what sportsmanship is all about." His father said, turning away from James as though he could not bear to see his son's expression when he said "And we're taking your Nimbus 3,000 with us."

"What?" James shouted, showing for the first time that he was actually paying attention to what was being said. "Are you bloody mad?" he could not believe that his parents were being like this. They had never done anything like this before, why on earth were they doing something so cruel to him?

"You can have it back," his father said with perhaps a hint of regret at what he was doing, "when you've proven that you understand the meaning of sportsmanship, and how to keep a level head on your shoulders."

James had spent the rest of the day in a foul mood, and he had continued in such a state for the remainder of the week. True to their word, their parents had taken his precious broomstick away when they had left the Castle, but James had not been left with even the slightest idea of how he was supposed to prove that he had … done whatever it was his parents had told him to do … if they had not even told him what they wanted him to do?

Albus, for once, was actually on James' side in this regard. "That's just cruel." He had said when James had told everyone what had happened, skirting over a few details of course, in the Common Room that night.

"Yea, Albus is right." Jeremey said, looking both disgusted and aghast, "You don't take away a boy's broomstick! No matter what he does! It's like taking away …" Jeremey trailed off, either unable to think of a proper analogy, or unwilling to voice the one that he had just thought of.

"Geez, and I thought that my parents were bad." Zach said, "All they did was send me an angry letter telling me how ashamed of me they were."

No one really commented, it was common knowledge in Gryffindor House that Zachary Tolentino's parents really didn't give two hoots about him. What made it even worse was that Zach didn't even seem to care whether or not his parents showed him any attention. He just went along with it as though that was how all children were treated by their parents, never questioning it.

"I think you got what you deserved James." Came a voice from behind them, a voice that James recognized immediately. It was his once fun, now boring bookworm of a cousin Rose.

"Of course you would think that wouldn't you Rose?" James snapped, not in the mood to listen to his cousin lecturing him about how repulsive his actions had been. The subject had already been covered pretty well by his parents, and he didn't need Rose to try and find any possible reprimands that his parents had possibly skirted over in their verbal lashing of him.

Rose just laughed, sounding more like the old Rose than James could remember her being all year. "Have fun in Detention Jamie-pooh." She spat, returning to her book with a satisfied glint in her eyes.

Sorry about the long wait guys. Makes it worse that there's not too much going on in this chapter either, eh? Please don't kill me, I'm trying to pick up the rate of posting for you guys!

Thanks for reading guys, don't forget to REVIEW! :)