Chapter 15: Quidditch, Exams and Goodbyes
Authors Note: this is the last part of year two, and the first part of the next story will be out relatively soon.
Disclaimer: none of the recognisable characters in this story belong to me, and I plan to make no money from this. They belong to J.K. Rowling, and Warner Bros.
The last Quidditch match of the year was in the first week of June, on Sirius' birthday. Gryffindor were playing Hufflepuff, and having beaten Slytherin 200-50 in early May, they had only to win this to win the cup.
James was slightly more wary of this match than he had been of previous matches. Despite having scored two of Gryffindors five goals, the Slytherin match had been a bit of a wake up call to the nastier side of Quidditch. He had been badly bruised in a game that had seen four penalties awarded to Gryffindor, and had been in pain for a week afterwards. However, as his friends and team mates constantly reminded him (and themselves), Hufflepuff were not Slytherin, were known for their fair play, and were likely, as Lydia put it, to be a 'piss-easy pushover'.
For this match, the second years managed to wake up on time, and had a hearty breakfast early that morning.
"Sirius Black, are you sure you have enough there?" Lydia joked at the Gryffindor table. Sirius had piled his plate with not only the usual sausages, eggs, bacon and beans, but also mushrooms, tomatoes, hash browns, toast and bread and butter, and he had already devoured a large bowl of porridge. "Your plate looks like a mountain!" she added.
"I'm a growing boy; what can I say?" Sirius said impishly.
"Doesn't mean you have to eat like a troll," Orion rebuked. "I don't know what Mum's going to say when I get you home. How many owls home have you had now?"
"Oh, we lost count ages ago," James said casually.
Orion shook his head. "I can remember when Mum thought I was bad! You really should behave better, you're-,"
Mercifully, Orion was interrupted by the arrival of the mail. "Hey Siri, look how many owls you've got?" Lily exclaimed. About six owls were clustered around Sirius, pecking at each other in an attempt to get to him first. What resulted was a brawl between the owls, and the noise and laughter soon had Professor McGonagall striding across the room towards them.
"Why is it that trouble always finds you, Black?" she asked ruefully, looking at the brawling birds.
"Aww, that's not fair, Professor, it's my birthday, you cant be mean!" Sirius whined, looking up at her with wide, innocent eyes.
"Happy birthday, then, Sirius. But I would suggest that you sort out your owls. Some have parcels," McGonagall replied with a smile.
As Lily and Remus helped Sirius to unload his owls, McGonagall turned to James, Lydia and Orion, and said, "Make sure you win today. Score lots of goals, you two, and keep up your record, please, Orion." As the students grinned, she leaned a bit closer. "I know I shouldn't be saying this, but Hufflepuff aren't the best of teams. You should win easily." Grins all along the table widened.
"WOW!" This loud exclamation was from Sirius, who had just unwrapped an Appleby Arrows hat. "It's from Steve!" He unwrapped the second parcel Steve, his younger brother, had sent, and pulled out a huge piece of shimmering red cloth. As Lily helped him unwind it, a note fell out, and James read it aloud. "' For your Quidditch match today. Good luck, from Steve.'"
Spread out, the material was revealed to be huge Gryffindor banner, which sported a golden lion that actually roared. All the Gryffindors, including McGonagall, exclaimed in delight at the work that had obviously been put into it, and Orion remarked with affection, "I'd say Stevie has way to much time on his hands."
McGonagall stayed to see Sirius open the rest of his parcels, and across the hall, Severus Snape paled visibly. Not all of Sirius' presents were as satisfactory as those from his brother, however; the present from his parents was a star chart, an obvious reproach to his lack of talent in this area, but then, he was more than pleased with the Galleon he received from his Gran. He opened the last envelope and gave a sudden yell; a bolt of bright light had jumped out and hit him square in the chest. What was happening to his body was unclear due to his robes, but within seconds his body had dropped a good foot and a half.
"Sirius, what's wrong?" Professor McGonagall demanded sharply. Sirius grimaced and shook his head, then opened his mouth. As the Gryffindors peer into it, they could immediately see that his tongue had shrunk.
"What happened?" James yelled, looking scared. McGonagall pulled off Sirius' robes, revealing that his legs and arms had also shrunk until they were only a few centimetres long.
"Holy crap!" Lily exclaimed. McGonagall took a long look at Sirius and tried several antidotal spells before hitting on the right one.
With a pained shout, and the sounds of bones grinding together, Sirius' extremities grew back to their correct sizes. He glared around at everyone in sight, as if suspecting them of the prank, but all the faces visible were horrified. Sirius sighed and sat down, still in pain.
McGonagall knew she would have to take quick and decisive action if she was to have any hope of Sirius' friends not taking their revenge on the culprit. This was no harmless prank that had been pulled, but rather a mean, spiteful trick, designed to hurt Sirius. Although she was a firm believer in the rule 'innocent until proven guilty', there really were only two suspects in this case: Malfoy, or Snape. "I think you should take your new banner down to the Quidditch pitch now," she said kindly to Sirius. "I'll look into who was responsible for this."
"We know who was responsible for this," James burst out, high spots of colour in his cheeks. "Snape!"
"Innocent until proven guilty, James," McGonagall said calmly, masking her own emotions. "Now off you go." She shooed them all, Lydia Orion included, out of the great hall and heaved a great sigh of relief when she finally saw them turn towards the stadium.
As she turned back to go into the hall, she bumped into Dumbledore. "What was all that about, Minerva?" he asked solemnly.
"Someone played a particularly spiteful trick on Black. I have to find a way of proving the culprit now, or I fear there will be bloodshed," McGonagall replied with a soft laugh.
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Down at the Quidditch pitch, Lily, Sirius, Remus and Peter had the best seats, in the very front row of the middle stand. They had hung their banner over the front of the stand, and were now waiting impatiently for the match to start.
Just then, the two teams flew out, to enormous applause. The crowd were equally divided, with the Ravenclaws supporting Gryffindor so that the Championship did not go to Slytherin, and the Slytherins following Hufflepuffs because a Hufflepuff victory of 300 points or more would guarantee the Cup went to Slytherin.
The match started in frenzied excitement because of a penalty awarded to Gryffindor due to a foul on James by the Hufflepuff Chaser Amos Diggory. Lydia converted it, and Gryffindor were 10-0 up within two minutes.
After that, the game settled into an easy pattern, with Gryffindor scoring every five to ten minutes, so that after an hour the score was 80-0. James seasons goal tally had risen from 5 to 7, although Lydia had already scored 5 goals in this match alone. There had been no sign of the Snitch at all, and Lyn looked rather bored.
For the first time in the match, a Hufflepuff Chaser had the Quaffle and was making for the Gryffindor goal posts. Orion came out to block the shot, but a Beater crashed into his broom, sending him sprawling to the ground far below, and the Chaser scored.
"Foul! No goal!" Madam hooch shouted angrily. The Hufflepuff crowd booed this decision, but the sight of their injured Keeper, who was now sitting, but seemed unable to stand riveted the Gryffindors. Mrs. Plastare, the school's senior nurse, was administering him with a potion, and suddenly Orion stood up on very shaky legs.
"YAY! GO OR ION! WELL DONE! YOU ROCK!" yelled the Gryffindors, as Orion remounted his broom. He waved to the Gryffindors, and blew a sarcastic kiss towards the Hufflepuff Beater, prompting gales of laughter.
Lydia flew forward to take the penalty, and scored. Hufflepuff restarted the game, but within seconds Sean had stolen the Quaffle and passed to James, who shot up the pitch like a rocket. He rolled on his broom as Bludger flew through where his head should have been, but recovered in time to score. Within minutes, both Sean and Lydia had added another, and Gryffindor were still in possession.
Lydia then signalled it was time to put into practice one of their best strategies. She and Sean infuriated the Hufflepuffs by making short, sharp passes in the middle of the pitch, never moving forward, while James snuck up field. His fellow Chasers waited until all three opposition Chasers were occupied in marking them, then sent a long, looping throw his way. He was alone and unmarked, and found it pathetically easy to beat the Keeper. The crowd went wild at this spectacular bit of Quidditch, and it was 130-0.
After another hour of exhaustive Gryffindor scoring, it was 220-0, and James had scored 8 goals, as many as Lydia. He was in the process of scoring again when every other player on the pitch stopped to watch the two Seekers dive. However, James did not notice, and scored his goal.
"Hufflepuff have the Snitch! But Gryffindor WINS! 220-150!" yelled the commentator, and James stopped so suddenly he that nearly tumbled off his broom. They had won? "YES!" he yelled, screaming with joy, as he dropped the Quaffle and headed towards his teammates.
He was fine with being enveloped in the group hug, but he flushed bright red when Lydia gave him the same kiss on the mouth she had given everyone else. This prompted the team to laugh hysterically, and as they were borne towards Dumbledore on the shoulders of a crowd of crying Gryffindors, James laughed too, suffused with happiness.
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It seemed like ages before James could get away from the crowds to find his friends. He found Lily, Remus and Peter waiting in the changing rooms. "Hey!" he said. "You're not supposed to be in here!" but it only made him laugh, because he was too happy to be angry about anything. "Where's Sirius?"
"He's pissed because he saw Lydia kiss you," Remus explained. "He's sulking. Again."
"That's so stupid!" James spluttered. "We've just won the Quidditch Cup!"
"Yeah, we explained all that to him, but you know what he's like. Stupid," Lily said dismissively. "Hurry up and shower, we want to go celebrate!"
"Would you get out of here, Lily, I don't want you to see me naked," James laughed.
"I don't particularly want to see you naked, so don't worry, I wont look. Just hurry up." They grinned at each other, happy enough not to argue for once.
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Upon reaching the Gryffindor Common Room, James was pulled through the portrait hole, and congratulated anew on the other side. Eventually he spotted Sirius sulking on the other side of the room, and made his way over. "Hey, Siri, don't be angry with me," James said, grinning. "It was just excitement, and I was more embarrassed than anything." To his astonishment and relief, Sirius grinned back, and threw his arms around James.
"How could I ever be angry at you?" Sirius laughed, ruffling James' hair. "Congratulations!"
The portrait hole burst open again, and the rest of the team poured in. "Three cheers for Gryffindor!" someone yelled. "Hip, hip HOORAY!" the room roared. The team swept over to James, and Lydia gave James another bone crushing hug, which James promptly wriggled out of. "I'll have more bruises from you then the Quidditch at this rate!" James joked.
"And what about the birthday boy?" Lydia cooed, turning to Sirius. "I haven't given you a kiss yet!" She swept down on Sirius and kissed him loudly on the cheek. James fell over laughing, while Sirius blushed and tried to look upset. However, as soon as Lydia left, he gave James a wide, joyous smile, and James had a feeling this would be a birthday Sirius would remember forever.
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AT half past two the next morning, after Professor Dunworthy had arrived to 'spoil' the party (in the opinion of several Gryffindors), everybody finally went up to bed. At about nine o'clock, someone had produced some alcohol, and now the whole house was slightly tipsy, or in the case of the team, completely pissed.
James flopped onto his bed upon entrance to the room, and was asleep upon hitting the mattress. He lay with his arms out and feet on the floor until Remus took pity and lifted him onto the bed.
Sirius and Lily, having supported each other up the stairs, fell onto Sirius' bed, giggling and still entwined. "Don't you want your present?" Lily whispered loudly, then giggled some more.
"Of course, what is it, what is it?" Sirius demanded. Lily fell off the bed and scrambled over to James', reaching under it and coming up with a large, messily wrapped parcel, which she tossed to Sirius. Being slightly inebriated, he fumbled the catch, but he eventually got the present back and ripped it open. He stared wide-eyed with shock.
The teddy. His teddy, that he had been waiting for since Peter's birthday in November, but had never quite had the guts to search through Lily's things for. He was pure white, surely a play on Sirius' name and reputation, and just hugging him made Sirius so happy. "He's called Milky," Lily said, suddenly shy. "And he has an extra present for you." It was only then that Sirius realised Milky was holding a bar of Honeydukes chocolate. "I got Luke to get it for me," Lily confided.
"Oh Lily, thank you so much!" Sirius exclaimed, holding his arms open. Lily hugged him, and they fell back onto the bed like that. "Happy birthday, Siri," Lily said, kissing him on the forehead. Within moments, both were fast asleep.
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Gryffindor House did not wake up for breakfast that morning. The majority of them did not make it to lunch, either, and stumbled down into the Common Room in the middle of the afternoon, curing their hangovers but blessing Sundays.
Lily, Remus, Sirius and Peter were the exception to that rule. Although not even Remus had managed breakfast, they were up and on their way to Hogsmeade by 10 o'clock, having left a very hung over James in bed. They were determined to continue celebrating both Sirius' birthday and the Quidditch result.
It was now 3 o'clock, and they had arrived back in their dormitory to find James. They discovered him that he was awake, but has his head buried under the pillows, and when they noisily burst in, he put two fingers up behind him.
"Jamie, Jamie, Jamie!" Sirius yelled excitedly. "Look what I've got!" He darted over to his bed and snatched up his bear, and then took a flying leap onto James' bed.
"Fuck OFF, Sirius!" James yelled furiously.
"Look, Jamie!" Sirius paid no attention to James griping, and shoved Milky right under the pillows.
"Get that bloody bear out of my face!"
Sirius snatched his beloved bear to his chest, and glared at James. "Don't you be mean to my Milky," he said, in a very low, dangerous voice. When James merely put his two fingers back up, Sirius lost his temper completely, and pushed James off the bed and onto the floor. He jumped down on top of his friend, and they began to fight.
James scrambled backwards, alarmed by the ferocity of Sirius' attack. "It's just a teddy, Siri," he said soothingly.
"He's not a it, he's a he!" Sirius cooed. "Isn't he, Lily?"
"Err…yes," Lily answered, choking back laughter. "Here, Jamie, maybe yours'll make you feel better," she added, throwing James his own bear, Mars. James hugged the bear to his chest and immediately felt better. "I know I don't usually say this, but thank you so much for the bears, Lil," James smiled happily.
"See, you're just as bad as he is," Lily teased.
"At least I don't fly off the handle when someone insults mine," James responded. "Imagine if the Slytherins could see: big, strong Sirius Black defending the honour of his teddy bear!"
"OY!" Sirius yelled.
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The exams started the next week, and only Peter had even attempted to revise. The others were simply relying on luck and natural talent to get them through. They found most of the exams rather easy, due to the 'extra-curricular' research they had often done for tricks, and even seemed to do well in exams which were usually hard, such as Potions, which was made ten times harder by having Headley constantly watching over them, waiting for them to slip up. Herbology was a breeze, and much to the delight of his class, Sirius fell so fast asleep in History of Magic that Professor Binns was unable to wake him up.
On the day that the results came out, the five slept in late. The results had been posted on a large board in the Great Hall, and naturally, a large crowd had gathered to see the results. Frank Longbottom burst into the second year dormitory to find all his roommates still asleep. He had just been to see the results, and was pleased with his own, but he was absolutely desperate for the five to see theirs.
"Wake up! Wake up!" he yelled, tugging at Remus, who was normally the easiest to wake. Remus opened an eye, and asked "What?"
"Results!" said Frank excitedly. Remus apparently wasn't interested, because he turned back over again. It was the same when he tried with the other four, and, furiously angry by now, Frank decided to simply pour water over them.
He collected some water, and poured it first over Remus and Lily, the Peter, James and lastly Sirius. Needless to say, the five were not amused, and Frank had to take sanctuary in the toilets until they had calmed down enough to listen to his message. "Please, listen to me!" he entreated. "There's something I really need to show you! Get dressed and come on, please!"
So, still angry, but intrigued, the five got dressed in whatever came to hand (Lily ended up in Sirius' jeans and James' t-shirt, while James' seemed unaware he was wearing Lily's tie-die top), and followed the blond and extremely bubbly Frank to the Great Hall.
Upon arriving, Frank indicated the results board, so they all unceremoniously shoved aside students from other houses and years who were clustered around it. They took one look at the board, and burst into hysterical, disbelieving laughter. Everyone stared in shock, thinking that the second years had finally gone completely mad, until Frank said loudly, "They're top of everything and they didn't do a bit of revision. It's a bit of a shock." The worried, slightly shocked faces around them turned to ones of disbelief, and some people made sour faces, saying to their friends that there was no need for the damn Gryffindors to gloat. (These, of course, were the Slytherins).
The results were correct, however. Sirius and James had come first and second for both Potions and Transfiguration, with Snape only managing third in Potions. Lily and Remus had also managed a one-two in Charms and DADA, and none of them were less than fifth for anything, except for History of Magic and Astronomy. Even Peter had managed third in History of Magic. And in the cumulated year group results, they occupied the top four spots with only three points between them.
Suddenly, Snape pushed through the crowd, followed by Malfoy. "We beat you, Sevvy," Sirius crowed. "You only came sixth!" Snape glared at his cousin, but did not respond. It was Malfoy who jeered at Sirius, saying, "Its nice to see that your legs and arms have grown back, Black. Did your dick shrink too, or was it that size already?"
Sirius went pale, but Remus stopped any retort he might have made by asking, "But how would you have known of that trick, Malfoy? Is that an admission of guilt?" Malfoy could think of nothing to say to that, and both he and Snape stalked off.
"Nice on, Re," James said appreciatively.
"I do try," Remus grinned.
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At the Leaving Feast that year, the Great Hall was brightly bedecked in the red and gold of Gryffindor House. This year there was no ambiguity, no uncertainty over who had won the Quidditch Cup, and Dumbledore did not have the joy of putting the entire student body through almost unbearable suspense, as he had the previous year. "We have come to the end of another year," he intoned solemnly from the teacher's table. "All of us have had our ups, our downs, out triumphs and our downfalls, and I sincerely hope that for each and every one of you, the successes have out weighed the bad times, and that you will all have a very enjoyable summer holiday. But first, I must award the House Cup.
In fourth place, with 297 points, Hufflepuff. In third, are Ravenclaw, with 350, second is Slytherin, with 407, but in first place, with an astounding 503 points, is Gryffindor!"
The Gryffindor table let out a huge roar, banging their hands and feet on the table and floor, and congratulating each other. Dumbledore let them go for a minute, and then called in a quiet voice, "Congratulations to Gryffindor, but also to everyone else, for I know you have all tried your hardest. Now, I would suggest that everybody eat!"
As the school tucked in, James happened to catch the antagonistic and bitter scowl Snape was casting at the Gryffindor table. He smiled in return, and blew a kiss.
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James, Sirius, Lily, Peter and Remus were all squashed into a carriage made for four the next morning, loudly discussing holiday plans. "The truth is," James said angrily, "I can say whatever I want to now, but I'm likely to arrive home tonight and find out I'm on the way to Antarctica tomorrow morning."
"And that would be such a shame," Lily interrupted.
"And we'd all be so gutted if your parents lost you in the Sahara," James retorted.
Luckily for the others, the argument was cut short when they arrived at Hogsmeade Station, to see the Hogwarts Express sparkling as if it was brand new. They rushed out of the carriage to see if they could get the compartment at the very front of the train, so they would see the witch with the sweet trolley first.
Much later, as they were happily eating Chocolate Frogs, ("That's mine, Jamie, give it back!" "Finders keepers, losers weepers – OW!"), they began to reminisce about the year that had just passed. "Will you ever forget Snape's face when he realised we were all in the suits of armour?" Sirius crowed, remembering the truth potion Remus had given their enemy.
"Or when he saw our exam results?" James added.
"Or when we curled his nose hair," Lily said.
"Or when we won the Cup!" Remus laughed.
"That's right," said a new voice, "Have a good laugh. I got you worse though. Did it hurt having no legs or arms, cousin?"
Snape stood with his black robes still on, looking rather bat like because the light was behind him, as were his friends Nott and Lestrange.
"Finally had the courage to admit it, Sevvy?" Lily asked mockingly.
"Now that there are no teachers to save you all," he replied in the same tone.
"We'd hardly need saving from you," James laughed.
"Oh, will Daddy get the Ministry to tell me off? No, I forgot, Daddy doesn't give a shit about Jamie." Snape had hit a nerve, and it showed on James' face.
"Deflater," James snapped. "At least I have the guts to curse you to your face." To the astonished eyes of the others, Snape's body seemed to loose all its air, and he gasped wildly, before finally crumpling up. Suddenly bright bolts of lights were heading for the Gryffindors, and they were shooting back.
When the air cleared, it was glaringly obvious who had come off best. Lestrange's face was oozing pus and he had only sparse tufts of hair, while Nott had been knocked off his feet and had hands that were twice their normal size. With death glares, the two helped up their fallen comrade, who was breathing normally but looked shaken and weak, and left the compartment.
"Wohoooooooo!" Sirius yelled, dancing James up and down the aisle. "And not one of us with a scratch!" he left James, and began to do a barn dance with Lily, as Remus hastily scrambled up onto the seat to avid them.
"We won, we won!" Peter chanted. Remus just looked incredibly pleased with himself, for his had been the pus curse.
Two hours later, they finally pulled into Kings Cross, still in high spirits. The first person they caught sight of on the platform was Steve, and he was helplessly swamped in hugs as they got off the train.
"Your banner was wonderful!"
"We won the Cup!"
"Jamie scored 9 goals!"
"Wow!" Steve exclaimed, looking at James with admiration. They were interrupted by Remus' mother, who took James and Peter as well as her own son, and after a flurry of hugs and goodbyes, Sirius was left with Lily. "You have to come visit!" he cried impulsively. "Come on, I'll ask Mum now!"
He dragged Lily across to his mother, who he had just spotted. "Hi Mum! Yeah, I'm fine! Can Lily come stay in the summer? Please, please, please?"
Cerys Black looked flustered. "Yes, ok. Where's Orion? And Esme?" she said distractedly.
"YES! We'll be really good, I promise!" Sirius exclaimed.
"When?" Cerys asked, looking confused. But they were already gone to ask Lily's mother, who agreed readily; glad she would have a respite from Lily's arguments with Petunia. Both children left for home with sudden hope that this summer would not be as bad as the last.
END OF YEAR 2!
That's it, folks, the end of year 2! I'm so very proud of myself! I'd like to say thanks! to anyone who has reviewed my stories in the past, or will be doing so right now. Hint hint. As always, reviews are greeted with shouts of joy, which is not always a good thing, as I'm usually in lessons when I decide to check! But I don't mind, review away anyway!