This is a fanfic, so don't sue me. Besides, how much do you
think a paperboy earns? The trial alone will cost you more than you'll win,
believe me. Anyway, if anyone reading this knows me (I.E., skip down now,
because nobody does), they'll be wondering why I, Mr.Bloodgutsandgore, am
writing a Harry Potter fic that will, as advertised, feature almost no carnage
of any kind. Well, suffice it to say I lost a bet. Moving on, I hope you enjoy
the fic, and write me a wonderful, in-depth review. Uh, right. So now, I
semi-proudly present…
The Secret
A
ShinagamiWing Joint
"Sirius, Sirius, look at
this…" James Potter motioned for his friend to look at what he was had in his
hand. Sirius Black edged over in his seat and looked behind James' chair at the
object he was holding out of sight of the teacher. Sirius was utterly shocked
when he saw what it was.
"Oh my God, James…" Sirius remarked,
goggling at the round object, then smiling mischievously. "How'd you get that
in here?"
"Snuck it in off the field after
practice Monday," James explained, careful to whisper lest Professor Binns
notice he wasn't paying an ounce of attention to his lecture, "never thought
being on the Quidditch team could lead to as much fun as this'll be." He too
smiled in a way that betrayed his no-good intentions.
Sirius took a good look at the
thing, then at his friend's smirking face, disbelievingly. "You wouldn't dare…"
He said, not quite sure whether or not James would be crazy enough to do it.
James nodded once and then unclenched his fist.
It shot off like a rocket, knocking
notes and quills off of people's desks all over the place. Ink got on students
when the small golden oval smashed a bottle at one boy's table and proceeded to
bounce off the side of a girl's head. James stood up and cried in mock
surprise, "Wow! The snitch!" Every student who wasn't simply immobilized by the
very idea of there being a golden snitch in the room leapt up and started
making wild grabs for it. Sirius laughed madly alongside James when he noticed
that despite the fact that nearly every student was up and moving, Professor
Binns was still droning on about some Warlock Convention or another. After a
few minutes of this, some intelligent girl who didn't want to lose roughly a
billion house points tugged the window open and the snitch shot out fast,
heading for the Quidditch pitch where it belonged. The students all reseated
themselves just as the professor looked up and saw all his pupils in their
seats, looking intently at him like nothing had just happened. He glanced up at
the wall clock and his eyes bulged out a bit in surprise.
"My, look at the time." He said, his
boring monotone concealing the surprise he felt when he saw the clock. "Time
flies when you're having fun." He was quite surprised when all the third years
nodded in agreement with big smiles on their faces. "Alright, on your way… Mr.
Dillon, how did you get that ink all over you?"
"That,"
Sirius laughed loudly as he and James and walked through the hall after the
lesson, "was classic! I never would have thought of that!"
James smiled in agreement, then
turned to the boy who had gotten ink splattered on his robes. "Hey, I'm sorry
Ralph…" He began.
"Don't be!" Ralph chuckled. "Black
robe anyway… besides, it was well worth the thrill of playing seeker once in a
classroom!"
The third years all bustled into the great hall after
that for lunch. Sirius found a seat near their friends Remus and Peter, and
James sat with them as well. They soon related the story of the great
snitch-loosing to their buddies. "Wish I'd been there to see it." Peter said
forlornly. Peter and Remus had been with the other second year Gryffindors in
Herbology last period. James and Peter always took History of Magic with the
third years as an advanced course. "You two have all the fun and all the luck.
It's a wonder they don't just skip you both up to seventh year." The portly boy
sighed a bit, too, before returning to his sandwich.
"Well at least being smart lets us get away with more."
Sirius observed, considering this. "Anyway, I'm fairly sure the snitch must
have flown back to the playing field. They're bewitched to do that, I think.
We'll have to go get it down ourselves so there's no evidence. Hey! We could
even do it in the dark… that'll be fun!"
James grinned eagerly. "You know I'm in… always up for
some good sport."
"Well, sure!" Peter agreed through a mouth full of B.L.T.
"That could be fun, you never know…"
"What about you, Remus?" Sirius asked, turning to the
scrawny young man.
Remus
looked rather pale at the moment, something that didn't help his already rather
pasty complexion. He seemed to be avoiding their gazes when he spoke next.
"Well, you know I'd love to… but I do have umm… I'm supposed to see the
headmaster again, this evening." He said quickly. "You know, that progress
check we do every month."
Sirius'
smile faded a bit. "Well, alright. You know it won't be the same without you,
though."
"Yeah…
sorry." Remus looked back to his lunch. He had eaten an unusually small amount
today. Noticing this, James decided to check up on him.
"Hey,
Remus, you feeling alright?" He asked, seeing his pale face as well.
"Yes,
yes… I'm uhh, just a little bit nervous about tonight… I don't know how well
I'm keeping up in Herbology." Remus took another bite of his sandwich and a
drink of water… he didn't want to make them any more suspicious than he already
had. "Anyway, I'm going to go to the library." He said, standing up and
collecting his things. "See you all next period."
As
the boy walked out of the hall, James shook his head. "I feel sorry for him,
having to go all the way to Dumbledore with his marks like that. His mum and
dad really take way too active a roll in his schooling, don't you guys think?"
Peter
nodded, then swallowed some more sandwich. "If my folks were in on my grades
like that, I wouldn't be sleeping so easy."
Sirius
shook his head. "No, but he doesn't sleep easy, does he? He seems to have so
many nightmares these days… I mean, how many times has the poor guy woken us up
with his screams? I wonder what could make him so… well, so uppity!"
James
shoved Sirius softly in the shoulder. "Hey, he is not 'uppity'. And if he
doesn't want to tell us, I don't think we should know. He's our friend… we
should trust his judgment." James crossed his arms and gave them both a stern
look. "I mean it. It might be something personal that isn't ours to be privy
to."
Sirius
rolled his eyes and stuck out his tongue in amusement. "You know who you sound
just like? Professor McGonagall."
"Do
not!" James shouted defensively, looking at Sirius as if he was crazy.
"You
do!" Peter said, quaking with laughter. "I swear, you do! You're so commanding,
like you know everything!"
"Nuh-uh!"
James maintained.
Sirius
giggled when he looked at the position James was in. "And you're crossing your
arms, just like she always does!"
James
quickly uncrossed his arms and looked at his friends with wrath in his eyes.
When James looked angry, he always looked like he was about to do something
drastic. Both Peter and Sirius immediately stopped their laughing and looked at
him, quite afraid. Suddenly, James' face softened. "Well, maybe I do." He
admitted.
And they all had a good laugh.
Meanwhile,
Remus Lupin was wandering the halls of Hogwarts, unhappy that he'd been forced
to lie to his best friends once again over his affliction. It always made him
sad that he couldn't tell them, but he knew it was a necessity… not only for
their own safety, but because he was sure they wouldn't want to be nice to him
anymore if they knew his secret. He sighed and looked up at a large tapestry of
a lake and a full moon. His eyes lingered on the image of the moon for a
moment, and then he kept walking. If only he hadn't been so foolish as to take
up that dare…
James
Potter mounted his Nimbus 1001 and sighed with the joy of familiarity when he
felt the burnished handle of the racing broom under him. He looked over to his
best friends, who were getting onto their own brooms nearby. The sun was still
out and James was glad to be on the field. It was especially lovely at the moment…
the last rays of sunlight were glinting off the golden goal hoops at either end
of the pitch and the grass quivered in the wind. If it weren't so near
nightfall he would have loved to toss a quaffle around with his friends… then
again, that wouldn't be nearly as fun without Remus.
Ah, yes, Remus. It was always great
to have him around. When he and Sirius had met him in their first year, he had
been quite a loner. He never talked to anyone beyond asking them what time it
was, or what he had to say to them in class. It hadn't been easy to get him to
open up, but they'd done it, and now he was a very close friend, just like
Peter. As it turned out, Remus was an all-around nice guy, when you got right
down to it. He was very kind and pleasant to be around… the sort of friend you
make for life.
And he was very good at Quidditch, a
skill James admired in anyone, but especially in Remus. He had a good, accurate
throw that would easily make him a chaser for the house team next year, if
James had any say in it. And James would have a lot of say in it… he was
Gryffindor seeker!
And so, James was a bit gloomy over
the fact he wasn't with them that evening, ready to fly off into the autumn sky
and try something new… to catch a snitch in the dark! "Ready?" He asked his two
cohorts. They nodded with big smiles on and kicked off to go look for the
snitch.
It was a great feeling, to be
soaring up into the breezy sky like this. James' black hair fluttered around in
front of his face. He wondered how Sirius got around this problem… after all,
the boy had longer hair than him! James reached a height level with the top of
the goal hoops and surveyed the pitch. No telltale flash of golden light told
him where the snitch was. He frowned when he realized something. "Hey, guys… I
just figured out why the snitch is painted gold."
"Why?" Sirius asked, twisting his
Cleansweep Four in midair to stop next to James. James' response killed the
smile on his face.
"So you can see it reflect the
light." James shook his head. "I'm sorry… I should have thought of it before.
It's how you see a snitch… you catch the glimmer as it flies."
"Oh, great." Peter said, sighing.
"We came all the way out here for nothing."
Sirius looked around the pitch. The
sunlight was fading fast. It would require an amazingly fast snitch capture to
get the thing down before night fell. His gaze was suddenly distracted from the
pitch by a movement closer to the castle. "Maybe we didn't come out here for
nothing…"
"What's that?" James asked, looking
over to his best friend. "What'd you say?"
"Look over there… by the castle."
Sirius indicated the spot he was talking about by pointing with his index
finger. The two boys followed the invisible arrow his finger created with their
eyes. Over by the west side of the Hogwarts castle, two people were walking
across the lawns.
"Who's that?" Peter wondered aloud.
"Don't know." James replied, now
staring at the two figures as they crossed the grounds. "But I think one of
them must be a teacher or a much older student, because they're way different
in height."
Sirius nodded to himself,
determined. "Well, can't hurt to have a look." He gripped the handle of his
broomstick and moved outside of the pitch, one level with the treetops of the
Forbidden Forest. Peter and James followed close behind. They always stayed
behind the cover of the leafy canopy to avoid detection by the two people.
"Why so much secrecy?" Peter asked
the other two boys, who were on superior broomsticks and much farther ahead
than him.
"Well," Sirius said with a little
grin. "If there's one thing me and James have learned as troublemakers, it's
that there's no need to take unnecessary risks."
James grinned as well, still
gripping his broomstick tightly to move it forwards. "Well, at least until you
finally set a dungbomb off in a classroom, or let a snitch loose in the castle.
Then you're taking an unnecessary risk. But of course, you don't want to take
any more than you have to in the name of mischief."
Peter sighed, not understanding. "I
swear, you guys have the strangest logic…"
They finally got to the edge of the
forest and landed their brooms before hiding behind a large tree. The three of
them poke their heads out to look.
"Hey!" Peter remarked in a low
whisper. "It's Remus!"
And it was Remus, walking next to
Madam Pomfrey, the school nurse. He looked rather downtrodden, as if he had
just done something that merited twenty points from Gryffindor. Madam Pomfrey
looked stoic, as if she was taking him to be executed.
"You don't suppose he's in trouble?"
James wondered aloud, worried for the boy.
Sirius grimaced. "He better not have
snitched about the snitch."
James could almost have been amused
by that, if he wasn't so concerned that his friend was in possible trouble.
"Where d'you think they're going?"
His question was soon answered as
the teacher and student before the tree that had been planted there the
previous year. By magic, the large tree was bewitched to attack anyone who came
near it, and so it began failing its branches wildly at Madam Pomfrey.
"Why are they stopping at the
Whomping Willow?" Sirius wondered, staring at the tree as it swung it's limbs
around to keep the people back.
"Shh…" James silenced him. "Look!
Madam Pomfrey's doing something…" He prodded his finger in the air at the
woman.
She was reaching into her pocket for
her wand. When she pulled it out she moved it in the air and whispered a few
magical words. The wand suddenly lengthened in her hand and she was holding a
ten-foot yew pole. The three boys continued to look on as she moved the pole
forward at the tree, which was still dancing madly around and trying to smack
them with it's long branches. She poked it in the side and it suddenly stopped
its thrashing movements, subsiding and just acting like any normal tree should,
standing up straight and tall. But what wasn't just like a normal tree was the
way that part of the trunk slid sideways to reveal an opening in the tree!
"What the…?" Sirius remarked,
gawking at the hole in surprise. "I don't get it…" He was even more stunned
when the Madam Pomfrey nodded to Remus and he climbed in the hole!
"Weird…" James marveled as the
school nurse started walking back towards the castle and the hole closed up.
Sirius stood up straight and came
out from behind the tree. "That's too strange. Don't you guys think?" He looked
back at his friends to hear their answers. James was still goggling at the tree
and Peter had his pudgy little hands clapped over his eyes in a cowardly
posture. Sirius sighed. "You can look now, Peter." Peter took one hand off one
eye, then the other. "So, what do you think that was all about?" Sirius asked,
looking again at the Whomping Willow.
"No idea." James responded, not
taking his gaze from the tree.
Peter crossed his arms and looked
indignant. "Well, I think it means one thing for sure. Remus lied to us about
where he was going tonight." He shook his head. "I definitely don't want to be
friends with somebody who lies to me, no sir I don't."
Sirius looked down at him. "What's
that? "No sir I don't?" you sound like one of the house elves in the kitchens."
Sirius looked back at the tree, something cold in his eyes. "But I think you
may be right. He did lie. We should get to the bottom of this."
James looked at them harshly. "Now
don't be so judgmental. I keep saying it: if this is something he didn't tell
us about maybe he's got a good reason not to. Make sense? He's our friend. We
should trust him."
"He's already broken our trust by lying!"
Sirius snapped. "If he was trying to protect us, wouldn't he just say so? He
knows we'd understand if he wants to keep his business to himself!"
James looked fiercely at his best
friend. "Well, if we know that so well, then why are you saying we should go
and find out about what just happened?! If we know how to give him privacy,
then why are we accusing him like this?! Why did you follow him?!"
Sirius bared his teeth. "Because he lied
to us! He gave us a story when we asked him for the truth!"
James now looked positively violent.
"So what?! You always…"
Peter stepped between them both to
ensure they wouldn't hurt each other. "Now look." He interjected,
glaring at one face, then the other. "You guys won't solve anything by
fighting. Just calm down. We should put it to a vote."
"Fine." James said in a huff,
crossing his arms but still glaring daggers at Sirius. "I vote we just leave
him be. He might not want us to know for a good reason."
Sirius was returning James' death
glare, too. "I vote we find out what's going on. He's our good friend and has
no right to be keeping such things from us."
Peter sighed. "I've got to agree
with Sirius. Sorry, James, but I don't believe in keeping unfaithful friends." Author
Interjection: HYPOCRITE! You dirty, stinking HYPOCRITE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Achem. Sorry, had to be said.
James looked from one to the other
furiously, then hung his head and sighed. "Alright, the majority rules. Well,
let's go back to the castle for now. I still cant' believe that you won't trust
him with this." And the three friends walked away from that spot, not talking
to each other at all, back over the grounds, which had, by now, become
illuminated by the shining light of the full moon.
End of Chapter 1.
Author's Notes:
Well, that
was a weird one, wasn't it? I still can't believe I'm writing an HP fic. I may
not be a huge fan myself, but I know I'm doing J.K. Rowling no
justice at all! Hey, feel free to agree with me on that point… I know you're
just dying to start writing your flames. Hey, That's okay, I can use them to
toast marshmallows. Anyway, I may continue, if I get some responses. Even if
they're bad ones, simply because I'll know that somebody was crazy enough to
read. Well then, see you next time (shyeah, right…)
-ShinagamiWing
