By Admiral Albia
In which Sirius kills Remus, Malfoy's crush develops and the words `trick Quaffle` appear...
Disclaimer; I do not own the Marauders, the Weasley twins, or any friends, family and enemies thereof. I do, however, own Bria, Tkaa, Binary, Milton, Aelops and Otto... oh, and the recipe for invisible chalk ;-). Many thanks to my new beta-reader, Caitlin Black =D
Chapter Five; Quidditch (Thursday)
"They're good, James. D'you think we'll manage to
beat them?"
"Sure we will!" James fished in the small shopping
bag he was carrying and pulled out a Quaffle. "As long as we remember it's
a Prankster War..." Realization dawned on Sirius' face.
"Oh, I see... Snitch too?"
"Snitch too. Ah, they're coming off. C'mon, peeps,
let's get in half an hour's practice before the match..."
"Yes?"
"Yes?"
"Yes?" Harry grinned. He knew by the voice that it was Malfoy, but it was still nice to have three other people responding... A/n; the third one's his aunt Alyssa, not Lily. NOT Lily, geddit?>
"Oh..." Malfoy stopped, confused. "I... uh... um..." he stopped and stared again as Lily came over.
"Catching flies?" she asked him sweetly. His mouth banged shut.
"I... um... good luck, Harry..." The entire younger team stared at him, and Harry noticed with interest that Malfoy had gone bright red.
"If that's all you wanted to say, you could at least have said it earlier," Lily said grumpily, "I was just steeling myself to mount. Stop staring at me like that!" Malfoy continued to stare. "Good heavens, what is it with you? Even Harry didn't stare this much, and he thought I was dead!"
"I... um... I mean..." Lily snorted and walked off to where Joyce - a young woman with short brown hair - was holding her broom. "She's beautiful," Malfoy murmured, once her back was turned.
"What the... hey, do you mind? That's my wife you've got a crush on!"
"And he sounds just like you, James." Sirius' voice turned flawlessly into his friend's. "Oh, that hair, that beautiful, wonderful hair... and the eyes, those gorgeous green eyes..."
"...and the way the hair contrasts so perfectly with the eyes," Remus joined in, though without the voice, "and oh! That smile, the smile that makes me want to do anything for her..."
"...even throw myself off a cliff..."
"...exactly, and the teeth, those pearly white gnashers that dazzle me to death..."
"You're embarrassing Lily, guys."
"No, James, we're embarrassing you. And her voice is so perfect, so utterly perfect, especially when she locks Sirius in a cupboard because I poured half a ton of slugs down her robes -" Sirius winced.
"Oh-ho! It was you, was it?" Lily had heard. "And I always thought it was Sirius, too, you little..." she began to chase James round the pitch.
"Not so little now," Remus said, leaning on his broomstick which was hovering at just the right height.
"No." Sirius sniffed. "Saddest day of my life, that was, coming back after summer and finding him past my waist..."
"I was NEVER that short!" James yelled from the other side of the pitch. However, the imminent argument was broken up by the arrival of Madam Hooch and the Quidditch balls.
As Sirius walked past Harry, though, he murmured, "He was."
"JORDAN!"
"Sorry, Professor... it looks as if the Quaffle is dragging Angelina out of the scoring area, Lily Potter -"
"- Evans - "
"Are you sure, Professor?"
"What? Oh, Potter, sorry, wasn't thinking..."
"Lily Potter has the Quaffle, she's darting, she's ducking, she ain't diving for some reason but never mind, she shoots, no she doesn't, now she shoots, she scores! And it seems even the most amazing Keeper ever, Oliver Wood, couldn't see that coming... but he'll be wise to that trick next time, just because they're aiming for that hoop doesn't mean they have to throw into it, Oliver - she passes to James Potter, George Weasley sends a Bludger to follow it up, and oh, my God!" From ten feet above the goal hoops, Harry looked down to see what Lee Jordan was panicked about; it became clear immediately. His father was hanging upside down on his broomstick, swaying wildly. The rest of the adult team didn't seem too bothered, though; Joyce Jimmons, the other Chaser for the adults, had taken the Quaffle and was scoring repeatedly without Wood taking the blindest bit of notice. Alyssa, the Seeker, was searching for the Snitch as though nothing was happening, and Sirius and Remus were playing a dangerous kind of `catch` with one of the Bludgers, until Sirius sent it flying into Alicia Spinnet's broomtail, causing her to spin around like a whirlwind in mid-air.
"Seems like he ducked back to avoid the Bludger and misbalanced," Lee Jordan told the crowd, "he's swaying... he's jumped off the broom... he's doing a somersault... he's back on the broom, the oldies now lead by one hundred and ten points to zero. Come on girls, get that Quaffle down your end... Katie Bell has the Quaffle and I do believe Harry's seen the Snitch!" Harry had; it was just behind Sirius, outlined against his hair like some strangely-coloured star; just seconds before Harry caught it, he pelted off after a Bludger. Then a very strange thing happened.
The Golden Snitch opened on tiny hinges. A small silver bird popped out, cuckooed twice, jammed a dunce cap on his head and called in a squeaky voice, "Sorry, wrong Snitch! Better luck next time, moron!" before the whole thing - except the dunce cap - vanished. The adults howled with laughter.
"Well, it looks like even Harry isn't spared the pranks which have been going on this week, folks, and Katie Bell just got dragged out of the scoring area by the Quaffle... is it just me, or are these adults cheating? Well, whatever it is, Alicia Spinnet's going to try her luck... and would you believe it, she's been pulled out too! There's something not quite right here... anyway, Joyce Jimmons with the Quaffle now, ducks a Bludger, ducks the other Bludger, ducks the first Bludger going the other way... she's through, she shoots and scores, comes out of the scoring area, passes to James Potter... is anyone else getting the feeling this is, in a word, UNFAIR?"
"JORDAN!"
"Yes, sorry, Professor, Potter out of scoring area, pass to the other Potter, this is confusing since there's four Potters on the pitch, the Bludgers are coming over thick and fast now, a volley between Fred and George, but Sirius Black and Remus Lupin are good at their jobs too, and this move is working... here come the young'uns' Chasers, looks like they're going to gate-crash the move just as... Lily Potter passes to Joyce Jimmons and... what the hell is that stuff?" Something silvery was shooting out of the wand of every Slytherin in the stands; as one whooshed past his nose, Harry saw that it was, in fact, silver. His heart jolted horribly; silver kills werewolves. And indeed, most of the strands seemed to be heading for Remus... Harry dipped into the huddle of bodies that was the main Quidditch game, just as Joyce Jimmons scored twice more and came tearing back. There was an argument going on in the middle of the group.
"Remus, I'm not doing it. Understand?"
"I'll be fine. It's tonight, I'll barely lose any time..."
"What if it goes wrong, or doesn't work, or something?"
"Do it."
"No. There's not enough space and I don't have a Bludger."
"Clear a space and find a Bludger!"
"No!"
"Sirius, I'm asking you nicely!"
"And I'm telling you nicely that I WON'T!" James sighed.
"Just do it, Sirius, we've done it before."
"Yeah, and we didn't have to have a blazing row last time, either!"
"Listen. Last time it was spur-of-the-moment thinking, I didn't have time to tell anyone and we had the blazing row afterwards. That time with Otto it was the same, and anyway all you have to do is to pull out the damn stake. I'm not doing it to one of my friends."
"You've already done it to me once! And Otto."
"Oh, fine." Sirius reached out and grabbed a Bludger that was heading towards him. "Everyone get out of the way, and don't expect this to be pretty..." he paused. "Are you sure you want me to do this?"
"Yes!"
"Have you had your potion?"
"Yes, and stop putting it off!"
"Right. On three, OK? One. Two-" Sirius whacked the Bludger straight at Remus; it hit him in the ribs and knocked him off his broom, and he fell... Harry stared as he hit the ground with a horribly final-sounding splat. It suddenly seemed as though he was completely alone in the universe. Sirius had just killed Remus... he felt anger rising from somewhere around his stomach, and grabbed the nearest thing, squashing it in his fist...
...and then he looked down, and realized that what he was squashing was the Golden Snitch. The game was over.
"Come on," Sirius said from behind him, placing a hand on his shoulder. Harry shook it off and turned to glare at his godfather.
"You killed him!"
"Yes and no. Come down and look." Numbly, Harry landed. Sirius drew him a safe distance away, then pointed. The sun was setting; but more importantly, the full moon was rising. And as it did so, Remus' body began to mutate, the way they'd seen it happen before...
"But he's dead," Harry whispered. He looked at Sirius. "Isn't he?"
"He was. I didn't kill him with fire, silver or old age, though, so he's back. They're the only three things that can kill - really kill - a werewolf. Undead, see? Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go and mend his poor broken wolf body... why not go and help beat up the Slytherins?"
A/n; I know, I'm sorry, that bit wasn't Humour, but it's necessary for the *series* that I write that in at some point, and when better to do it? Hope you liked the rest of it, please don't flame me about Remus dying. He'll be fine by tomorrow ;-)
I'm terribly sorry, folks, but I have to go on holiday for three weeks =( I'll continue this when I get back, promise, and the next chapter will be happy all the way =)
