Chapter 51

Preparing for their First Game

Remus looked up from the book he was reading when he heard the door being pushed open.

"Sirius... James? What in the world took so long?" He asked, noticing the dead tired look on their faces.

"I really hate Smith." James walked over to his bed and collapsed into it.

"He made us all run laps because someone... don't know who... JAMES! Decided it would be funny to hex Hoffman, that's our keeper, by the way."

"He's a git, that's all I have to say." James defended.

"You tried to hex the keeper, the day before the match against Slytherin? Are you mad?" Remus asked, heavily annoyed. If James ruined their chance at winning the cup, Remus was never going help him with his homework ever again, or at least until he comes up with a better bribe then chocolate frogs.

"It wasn't anything dangerous!"

"Oh ya, because knocking them off their broom and making them fall nearly fifty feet isn't dangerous in the slightest. You're lucky Smith didn't kick you off the team."

"He wouldn't do that, I've never missed a goal. He'd have to be an idiot to kick me off." James said confidently.

"James when you become captain, then you can remove members from play. Until then you just have to deal with having him as keeper." Sirius told him calmly.

"Oh I will, and he's the first one that's going. Stupid git." James said forgetting the fact that by the time he was old enough to be captain Hoffman would have already graduated.

"What did he do?" Remus asked. It wasn't like James to get that angry at someone for something that wasn't important. Usually that was Sirius' job.

"He called Sirius a Black." James said giving the ceiling an evil look.

"Did he call him Black, or did he actually say a Black, because a lot of people think it's rude to..."

"No he said, and I'm quoting this. 'What the' he cussed here so I'm not repeating it ' is your problem' another foul word 'you're just like the rest of them.' clearly he wasn't talking about me or he would have just used my name. So I hexed him off his broom, or tried to anyway. Sirius blocked it, sometimes I wonder if he knows me a little too well."

"Well that explains why Sirius isn't bothered by it. Actually I figured that if any insult would make him mad it would be that one."

"Are you kidding? I don't think Sirius even understands the feeling of embarrassment. There isn't an insult alive that could shake him, not that was pointed at him anyway. Though he'd freak if any one of us were insulted in anyway."

"Hm.. I wonder why that is."

"He's the only person on the planet that really doesn't care what everyone thinks of him."

"I don't think that's it, maybe it does bother him, he just won't show it because he doesn't think it'll help."

"That's probably more likely then my theory." James said as Sirius walked out of the bathroom. "Why weren't you willing to use the bathroom when we were in the showers earlier? I forgot your excuse." Sirius rolled his eyes and stuck his tongue out at him.

"The're dirty." James gave him an unbelieving look and moved his mouth to speak, but Sirius interrupted him. "I live with an obsessive compulsive neat freak who would make me take an hour long shower if I even looked at a mud puddle and who would order Kreacher to bath me until completely spotless if I ever actually got the stuff on me. I think I have a pretty good excuse for hating anything dirty." He explained. They were silent, Remus was a little curious as to why he'd never mentioned it before.

"Why Kreacher?" James asked.

"Because she didn't trust me to do it myself. It worked, Kreacher has to obey orders, by the time he was done with me I couldn't touch my face for a week, it was rather painful. I never jumped in a mud puddle ever again."

James called Sirius' mother a name that he would never have said had there been a lady in the room. Sirius whistled.

"Didn't know you had it in ya, mate."

"Just because I don't make a habit of it doesn't mean I won't ever do it."

"Doesn't mean you will either."

"Sorry, Remus." James said.

"It's okay, I understand." Remus told them. Remus didn't like it when they cussed, successfully keeping Sirius' vocabulary decently clean, Sirius was way to much like his mother in that area. Remus wouldn't tell them off for it of course, and it had taken them a very long time to find out it bothered him.

"Let's go to the kitchens. I was starving before practice, you made us miss dinner, git."

OOOOOOOOOOOOO

The next morning was the first time they'd ever seen Sirius nervous. He was so nervous he couldn't even remember how to pretend he wasn't. It was also the first time they'd ever seen him not eat during a meal.

"Eat, Sirius." James said, unlike Sirius, James was completely calm. He'd slept very well, and was having no trouble eating. He wasn't even trying to find one of the older chasers hoping they'd give him tips. Sirius was even going as far as sitting beside last year's beater. He'd been pretty good but had stopped playing so he could spend the time studying for his N.E.W.T.S

"He's right. You should calm down, man." The seventh year said to Sirius. He was pretty nice, and really understanding of how Sirius was feeling right now. Though he couldn't help but laugh as Sirius glared at the food they'd piled on his plate.

"I'm afraid I'll puke." He said unashamed.

"How likely is that?" James asked trying to remain sympathetic, it didn't help that Remus was chuckling into his hands though.

"Happens every time I eat while nervous." James looked at him for a second before grabbing the plate from Sirius.

"Ya... I changed my mind, you aren't allowed to eat."

"Yay." Sirius mumbled putting his head in his hands. He moaned.

"Calm down, you'll be fine. It's the chasers that get the most injuries, not the beaters." The seventh year, that James just realized he didn't know the name of said to Sirius. Sirius gave him an annoyed look. James laughed.

"He isn't worried about getting hurt. He's worried he's going to suck really bad. Right, Si?" Sirius just nodded and Remus huffed.

"You should be worried about getting hurt. Why would anyone fly around fifty feet in the air on nothing but a broom to catch a ball?"

"Please tell me I didn't hear what I thought I heard." Said a voice from behind Sirius, he turned around and saw Andrea Heifer, the other Gryffindor beater, standing behind him.

"Hi, Andrea." Sirius moaned.

"Aww, someone looks nervous." She teased sitting down beside Remus, looking only a little uncomfortable next to the werewolf.

"I'm going to puke." He said slowly.

"Good thing I've got some protection." She smirked and hid behind Remus. Remus was blushing, no one outside of the Marauders had ever sat next to him before, let alone a girl.

"Trust me if I do puke it's going to be on James, he keeps rolling his eyes at me."

"Hey, it isn't my fault you have a horrible case of nerves, while I am the most perfect being on the planet." James said shrugging.

"We'll see how perfect you are after we get done with you." Someone else intruded on their conversation. It was two of the Slytherin teem members. They were Aro and Anneta Malfoy. Lucius' younger twin siblings. They were both chasers.

"Only one level of perfection. You can't be less perfect then perfect, or you wouldn't be perfect at all. And neither of you are even close to perfection." To their surprise it wasn't James that said this.

"Says you. Half blood." They gave Remus a threatening glare.

"You say that like it's some kind of insult." Remus smirked at them. "But I love my mother and wouldn't trade her for anything. And she feels the same about me... I wonder whether either of you could say that about your mother." They didn't answer just glared at him.

"Go Remus!" James cheered giving Remus a high five.

"Like I'd expect anything better from a Lupin. Daddy still trying to fix the damage he's done?" Aro said mockingly and Remus stood hoping to make him 'fix the damage' he was about to do to his face.

But Sirius got there first.

They just watched as Sirius beat Aro so bad that it made his twin cry in shame. Suddenly McGonagall and Professor Gilbert, the DADA teacher, pulled the two apart. McGonagall put a silencing charm on Sirius, who, naturally, was cussing up a storm.

"Why is it every time there is a fight one of the four of you are involved?" She asked struggling to keep Sirius away from Aro.

"It's because the Slytherins hate us." James said calmly, he sighed. He was never going to be able to catch up to Sirius' amount of detentions. Sirius had won their bet last year, and it was looking like he was going to this year also.

Thankfully Aro wasn't in bad enough shape to miss the game. If he had been, Gryffindor would have been disqualified. Which Smith did not forget to chew Sirius out for. He didn't stop glaring at his beater until they walked out onto the field.

"I know how to get rid of my nerves." Sirius whispered in James' ear as the captains shook, aka crushed, each others hands.

"Who doesn't love a fight?" James smirked and winked at Sirius as they pushed into the air.

"The snitch has been released and the GAME BEGINS!"