A/N: First of all, thank you so much to all you readers who have been alerting and fav'ing this story since the last chapter I posted. It's you guys that have really helped me push myself to keep writing even when every word took so much effort to type.
Sending all my love to you readers. 3
Chapter 28 Uncertainty
The pranks and fights didn't die down around Hogwarts even with Sirius and James stuck in detention. House points had sunk to nearly non-existent levels. The Hufflepuffs had such a large lead that no one else even tried to compete. But that wasn't what was causing the uneasiness that no one talked about.
Outside of school people disappeared, one by one. Many of them seemed so unlikely that people just couldn't wrap their head around it. It was just too many for it to be unconnected. That same sneaking fear crept inside the castle walls. One by one students would silently leave.
I walked away from the small rolling hills that belonged to the Care of Magical Creatures class. Lucius was watched another Slytherin girl as we pushed a cart full of left over plants that we used as animal feed to the green house. The girl looked uneasy and continued to pick at a loose string on the edge of her skirt. Before she was out of view she dashed over to the professor.
Lucius rolled his eyes. "This is getting quite pathetic. I mean about muggleborn wizards. No one wants to talk about it but it is rather over the top to actually fear them."
"Is it really bad in your house? What are they saying?"
"Well," he hesitated, "I think it's mainly the mums. Mine has gone quite insane over the ordeal. … Many have actually. I don't want to believe it; everything tells me not too but …"
"The missing wizards and witches?" I suggested.
"Well someone is doing it. And all those real deaths to purebloods out in the muggle world. Something is happening."
"You don't think that muggles were really doing that, do you?"
"I'm … I wish I could firmly say no. But it does bother me. There is a reason we don't let muggles know about us. They're stronger now, they wouldn't stand a chance but they could do real damage with all those bombs they all insist on stock piling."
"I guess I never really thought about it before."
"It would be the modern version of the witch hunts but with bombs. They'd kill themselves off. It's actually more humanitarian to keep them oblivious."
"I guess …"
He gave a small laugh as we reached the green house and parked the cart at the end along with the others. "It doesn't make sense does it? … What I said earlier, muggles killing wizards. Maybe it's my mum's paranoia getting to me. How could a muggle steal magic if he doesn't know anything about it to begin with, let along kill one?"
"It doesn't make sense."
"Well, it looks like your body guards are getting impatient. I'll see you around."
I looked over to see Sirius and James waiting at the entrance with their arms crossed. I took my time walking toward them giving a sweet smile to match Sirius' annoyed look.
"Hey, - oh what's going on?"
James' eyes kept darting to something inside. I peeked over to see Peter with a crying girl over his shoulder. The whole scene looked odd, mainly the Peter with a girl in extremely close proximity part. Her body shook as she sobbed as Peter tried his best to console her. A couple of other Hufflepuff girls stood off to the side staring down at their shoes. I looked over to Sirius when James said nothing.
"Don't look at me; I don't speak sobbing teenage girl. You're guess is as good as mine." Sirius' eyes narrowed at me.
I bit my lower lip unsure of what to do next. Sirius just huffed and walked away.
James stood next to me with his hands in his pockets. "I don't know what to do either. We just found her like this."
'"I –I was …. Just so- It's not fair!" The girl hiccupped as she raised her face before she stopped again, trying to dry her face with her scarf.
It took a moment to recognize her but it was Emma, the Ravenclaw girl I had shared a carriage with when I first arrived to Hogwarts with Lily.
"James, go get Lily, they're friends." He took off before I could completely finish my sentence.
I timidly walked up to her. "What happened, Emma? What can we do?"
"G-go back in time." Emma gave a weak smile as she stood back away from Peter.
"It's her mom, she wants her to go back home." Peter's face was flushed in embarrassment. I don't think he had much experience with crying girls.
"Why would she do that?" One of the Hufflepuff girls came close and rubbed Emma's back in support.
"When she found out I was a witch- she … she's a muggle. My dad too. They decided to get the Daily Prophet. They know about all the protests and disappearances."
A collective "Oh" sounded among us.
Just then Lily came jogging towards us with James in tow. Lily eventually led her away with the two Hufflepuff girls. I didn't question on how James knew exactly where Lily was.
Everyday seemed to be filled with new gossip about protests, fights, and students' leaving that it was easy to get wrapped up in all. Some of us non-players almost forgot about the match against Gryffindor and Slytherin today. There had already been so many arguments, pranks, and fights that no one really noticed the influx between the two houses as something out of the ordinary.
I followed a line of students holding large jackets and blankets as they headed toward the playing field, stepping into each other's tracks in the deep snow. Lily and Remus were ahead of me complaining about Aiden. Apparently he had made it his personal mission to stop the anti-mud blood campaign from spreading too much into Hogwarts to the point of trying to control other house 'operations'.
I kept behind still dwelling on my annoyance of Sirius taking my blanket just moments earlier. He claimed that it was 'of utmost importance' and that he would give it back before the game started. I didn't even have a chance to reply, because he just ran off.
By the time we reached the stands it felt like the temperature had dropped even more. I was probably the only one who didn't have an extra cover. Sitting down, the wind felt like needles against my face. The sky was dark grey with a threat of a snow storm. I hoped the game would end quickly.
"He isn't going to bring my blanket back is he?" I sat next to Remus who held out his own.
"Come on, you should know better by now. You can't leave anything around him unguarded." He brought cover over us and fell silent. "Oh, I finished the map."
"I forgot about that. I'm so used to Sirius having it all the time." I absentmindedly pulled at my hair to cover my ears.
Remus pulled out the map from his pocket, "Let's pull a little prank on Sirius. "It's not over the top, but he'll hate it."
He handed the map over to me. As soon as I touched it ink seemed to bleed from the paper slowly, forming words.
I love what you've done with your hair.
I looked over to Remus but he grimaced at the paper. I looked down and more words had formed.
How do you get it to come out of your nostrils like that?
"Well aren't you two cozy?" Sirius stood tall in front of us with his arms crossed. A smile played on his lips but a twitch formed one side. "Oh, sorry sweetie but I forgot your blanket in the lockers. I'll give it back after. No time right now. Oh for me? Thank you!"
Sirius snatched the map from my hands. His hard smile slowly faded as his eyes darted across the paper reading whatever it had to say. "Think you're so funny getting smart with me, huh?" Sirius held the map out toward me as he locked in a cold stare.
I looked over to see what it had said the words had already faded and started to bleed out something else. It read:
Am I getting smart with you? How would you know?
Sirius' eye twitched as he tossed it into my lap and left. "Thank you very little."
"I don't think I'll ever get that blanket back now, but it was worth it." I covered my face and laughed as Sirius stomped on each stair down.
The match between the two became too much of a blur for me. I could hardly see anything through the snow flurries that started to come down as soon as the whistle was blown. That and it was much too cold to concentrate on anything. All I could hear was the announcer's voice booming through the speakers and screams from people who happened to see something through the snow.
I sat closer to Remus wondering why I came here. He put) his arm over around my shoulders and I leaned in. I couldn't stop feeling nervous. Hector was the new Beater for the Slytherins.
But there was another reason I tried pushing out of my mind. What would Hector think? It shouldn't matter though; I'd seen him trolling the halls with the same girl for a while now. It shouldn't matter.
I refocused on the game; all I could make out were the silhouettes of the players. It was difficult to tell who was who. When I squinted I could see there were faded colors of red and green against the snow. The announcer shouted a call naming points for a Slytherin goal.
I had just made out Sirius's form when there came a sickening crack from below the stands. My heart sank to my gut in fear as a bludger hurled towards Sirius. He jolted away but the ball skimmed painfully against his right thigh and smashed into the bottom wooden beams of the stands.
I grabbed onto Remus uncertainly. But my eyes stayed on Sirius as the stands creaked and groaned as the bludger threw itself back into the playing field. There was a collective silence of uncertainty as the stands gave one final groan but stood its ground.
As the snow fall lightened the game picked up with the quaffle being thrown relentlessly back and forth. I watch Sirius as he slammed into opposing players knocking them off balance. As hard as he played with his team mates, they had a difficult time avoiding the slaughter of bludgers being slammed toward them.
The Slytherins had adopted the strategy of brute force. It was like Hector was playing tennis with the bludgers. As soon as he hit one, his team mate was on the opposite side ready to hit the ball into a new target. The Gryffindor beaters could hardly keep up.
The Slytherin team kept on adding on the points. Sirius did his best to keep his team from falling too far behind. But James and the Slytherin seeker dropped right down in the middle of the game, weaving between the players and knocking everyone off their rhythm.
James sped off gaining on the snitch. Both seekers had their arms out-stretched as they shoved at each other. Barely inches away a bludger hurled staright at them knocking them off their brooms.
Everyone in the stands jumped to their feet. James hurtled to the ground tumbling through the air. Lily pushed herself against the railing yelling his name while blocking my view of him hitting the ground.
I couldn't breathe; I couldn't see James but Sirius' form darted down across my field of vision to where James would be. I felt a warm hand on my arm. I looked to see that I had grabbed on to Remus.
His face was grim but he widened his eyes and exhaled a long breath. "He's alright. Looks like they did a spell to soften the blow."
We both leaned forward trying to look around a still panicked Lily. James was lying on his back with the Headmaster, nurse, and Hagrid all around him. He moved but looked like he was in pain as he grabbed onto his leg. Sirius was looking away up to the sky not too far away from James. I followed his line of vision to see the stands opposite of us in a cheer.
"They won!?" I blurted out.
Apparently the Slytherin's seeker was able to keep a hold on his broom. He held up the snitch with one hand and held onto his stomach with his other hunched over. Two of his other team mates flew parallel to him closely as they descended together.
The walk back to the dorms was depressing. Everyone kept to themselves and went to bed to thaw off. The next day wasn't better until James showed up at breakfast all in one piece. And for a captain who's team just lost, he was in a pretty good mood.
"I still think he must have cracked his skull harder than everyone thinks." I added as I walked with Lily and Remus out of the Hall.
"Hey, wait up." James trotted up to us while Sirius begrudgingly left a pretty blonde with a cheery childish face.
"And why should we." Lily snapped as she picked up her pace ahead of his.
"But you were so worried about me yesterday that I thought you might want to personally make sure I'm okay?"
"I think we should just finally let her kill him and get this whole thing over with." Sirius bumped his head with his hand.
"Yes, I see you are unfortunately fine."
"Awww, come on Lily –"
"Go play chicken with that damn willow tree." Lily huffed as she twirled around and crossed her arms.
A look of confusion crossed James, Sirius, and my face while Remus pinched his nose in annoyance.
"Morons …" Lily stomped away leaving us staring at her back.
"I don't get it … playing with chickens and a tree? What does that even mean?" James threw his hands up in the air.
"Must be a muggle kid's game." Sirius added.
"We should play it some time." Peter bounced on the balls of his feet.
"Yeah . . . you guys go do that." Remus sighed while leading me away from them while mumbling. "They really are a bunch of morons."
"I still don't get it." I stated.
Remus chose to ignore me and kept on walking forward. I could only guess that it really wasn't something he'd want to explain.
Later on that day trying to get Hector alone had proven harder than I imagined. I had wanted to congratulate him. I'd found myself not wanting him completely out of my life. I wanted the security of knowing that I could rely on him if I needed to.
But by the time I had caught him alone in an empty hall exiting the baths he just gave me an empty look. He walked away even as I called out to him. It stung deeper than I would have thought, seeing his back as he walked away. I knew I deserved it but it didn't make it hurt any less.
The days after that went on like that between Hector and me. As a drift grew between us I just seemed to float closer towards Remus. Even Severus could barely stand the sight of me. He had somehow convinced our Divinations professor to switch up the students again which landed me with Sirius.
I wanted to stay mad at Sirius for what he had done to Severus but I just didn't have the anger in me to do so. As much as Sirius could be annoying, he was my friend and that was something that I had in short supply. Especially since Remus had left, again. It made my stomach uneasy. I had to find out what he and the others were up too.
But perhaps it also came at a good time. Valentine 's Day had been fast approaching. I tried my best to remain invisible, which was, either fortunately or unfortunately, easy. I didn't want to deal with it. If I could have skipped the whole day I would have. I could feel the impending embarrassment.
I sat on my bed twisting the sea green tinted pearl ring on my finger. I hadn't given it that much thought as to who sent it. Perhaps it was actually meant for someone else. And that was pretty much how I spent Valentine's day.
Luckily, everything was low key with owls dropping small heart shaped boxes Valentine gifts. Since it was a weekday everyone still had classes. I kept to myself trying to look completely absorbed in my work so that I would be left alone. Once classes were over I retreated to my dorm to hide from the rest of the world.
I was restless that night. The moon was just too bright as it filtered through a gap in the curtains. I thought back trying to find anything I might have over looked about what Sirius and James might have been up too. The only two solid things were that Peter always looked like he didn't get enough sleep when Remus would leave and that my map was always missing during those times too. I could only think that they would somehow leave Hogwarts to join Remus. I frowned in resentment that they didn't trust me with something like that.
I wanted to catch them red handed in their trouble making. I just had to know what they were up to. I couldn't let it go.
I got up slowly out of bed, careful to minimize every creak and groan. I slipped on some shoes and put my cloak on. I stepped out onto the stair case. I stopped half way just before the walls opened up to reveal the common room. I sat on the stairs and closed my eyes and carefully listened for any sound.
I had no idea how long I sat there but eventually I heard slow footsteps on the wooden floors. Then came the metal creaking of the portrait being opened with the soft snores of the painted lady. I waited until it was closed. I took deep full breaths counting to ten before following. Half way across the common room I stopped. I looked around at the pink heart confetti and candy wrappers that still littered the floor. It was still Valentine's Day. I walked back with the uneasy feeling of what the boys; mainly Sirius might be up too.
