They walked back to the Gryffindor common room, believing that that episode
was enough excitement to keep them going for awhile.
No one had said a word since Lily's question, which no one had been able to answer.
"You know, we still haven't found the kitchens," Remus commented when the Gryffindors were safely inside the common room with the other students.
The others said nothing, and James supposed they, like he, were still a little shaken up about what happened by the dungeons.
I wonder if anyone saw their futures as well, James pondered to himself.
Little did he know that all of his friends were thinking the same thing.
"So...when are we gonna do the you-know-what?" Sirius asked quietly, forcing the thought of what just happened out of their minds.
"What's the you-know-what?" Vic questioned curiously as she looked around at her friends' faces.
Lily, James, Sirius, Peter, and Remus glanced at each other, and seemed to be questioning each other with their eyes.
"She won't tell," Lily stated, "She might even want to help us."
"Okay..." James gave in, silencing the other boys' presumed protests.
"Well, Vic, it's like this," Lily started. And the five Gryffindors took the next ten minutes to explain their plan in detail. By the end of the explanation, Vic wasn't the only one with a wide grin on her face. They all had them.
"But it's all just a matter of when," James concluded after letting what they had just informed Vic sink in.
"What about the day after tomorrow. At the Halloween Feast," Vic replied after a moments' thought.
"Great idea! I don't know why we never thought of that!" Sirius exclaimed. Vic grinned proudly.
"See? I told you she'd be a help," Lily stated, looking boastful. That look was quickly pushed away as she fell off of her chair from a shove from James.
"HEY!" Lily cried looking angry, but there was a note of amusement in her face, "You're gonna pay for that one, James Cameron Potter!"
"Oh, am I?" James asked, turning red slightly as she said his middle name.
"Cameron?" Sirius snickered, as did Remus and Peter, as they hid their mouths with their hands.
"Hey, I wouldn't talk, Sirius Fredrick Black!" James shouted, his ears turning red.
"Fredrick!?!?!?!?" Remus and Peter were in all their glory, as they laughed openly about Sirius' middle name.
"Fredrick's a nice name," Vic commented, truly meaning it.
"Yeah! It is, isn't it?" Sirius asked Vic, as if just realizing it for the first time.
"Nope!" Vic replied, giggling along with Remus and Peter.
"Hey..." Sirius said.
"Can't be worse that Lily's middle name! Right, Lily Marie Evans?" James questioned.
"Hey! I like my middle name!" Lily retorted, hands on her hips.
"Remus' middle name is the worst! Henry!" Sirius exclaimed.
"Hey, that was uncalled for! Besides, what's wrong with the name Henry?" Remus asked.
"His middle name's not the worst! Peter's is Marcel!" James cried suddenly.
"Marcel!" The others cooed.
"Hey!" Peter cried, "That wasn't very nice!"
"Boy, I'm glad you guys don't know me well enough to know my middle name!" Vic commented as everyone laughed at Peter's reaction.
"Oh, you shouldn't have said that, Vic," Lily warned.
"Why not?" Vic asked.
"What's your middle name, Vic?" Sirius asked.
"Do I look stupid enough to tell you?" Vic asked.
"No, but we all told ours!" James exclaimed.
"Actually, each of you told someone else's," Vic reasoned.
"True, but come on. Be a sport," Remus said, sitting down next to Victoria.
"Okay...it's Isabelle," Victoria admitted.
"That's a pretty name!" Lily cried, "Unlike Marcel, Henry, Cameron, and Fredrick over here..."
"HEY!!!!" The four boys cried out, realizing that she insulted them a good ten seconds after she said it. Victoria giggled.
"Can we stop with the middle names, now, please?" Peter asked timidly.
"Yeah alright..." the others agreed.
After a minutes' silence, James asked, "Anyone up for a game of chess?"
Ironically, all the others cried, "I am!"
The next day, the only thing planned was a Ravenclaw/Hufflepuff match. Of course, Remus went. He had to, as he was commentator. James went, because he wanted to see their techniques for when Gryffindor played them. Sirius and Lily went because they didn't want to break their record of never missing a Hogwarts Quidditch match while they were at school. Peter went because he always had to do what Sirius and James did, and Vic went because she had nothing else to do.
The game started soon. Unlike the Slytherin/Gryffindor game, where three quarters of the crowd were cheering for Gryffindor, the crowd was pretty much split evenly when it came to cheering. Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs, of course, cheered for their respected houses, while Slytherins and Gryffindors were divided in cheering for both.
"And they're off! Ravenclaw Chaser and captain Justin Pritchard takes the Quaffle first, and speeds down the wing, and attempts a pass at Julie Joseph! But the Quaffle is intercepted by Hufflepuff Chaser Conner McDermott as Hufflepuff beater Ashley Thomas sends a bludger straight for Pritchard!" Remus commentated.
The game droned on for quite awhile. The Seekers were't very good. James, sitting in the stands, saw the Snitch at least four times before it went away. Finally, after several hours, the game ended at 350-290 for Ravenclaw.
"Man, you'd think they'd at least have better Chasers to get the points higher. That game was so completely and utterly BORING!" Sirius exclaimed as they left the pitch, and walked through the darkness, and up the steps leading to the school.
"I know what you mean," Vic agreed. Though she didn't show it, she was a die-hard fan of any sport, Muggle or Magical. That's why she was taking Muggle Studies this year, as were the rest of them. At the moment they were talking about the Muggle Government in class, but Vic couldn't wait for the Sports part to start up.
"I didn't know you liked Quidditch," Sirius commented, furrowing his brow, and looking at Vic.
"Yeah, well..." Vic replied, blushing, "You don't know a lot about me."
When they got up to the common room, they pre-planned exactly what was going to happen the following day at the Halloween Feast.
"Why do we need to do all this planning?" Peter moaned after about an hour of it.
"How about, because if we don't then, everyone will suspect us, and we'll most likely get in loads of trouble," Remus replied.
"Oh," Peter said timidly, and didn't speak another word during the planning.
After two hours, James herad himself saying, "Okay, does everyone know their positions?"
"Yes, Sir James Cameron Potter," everyone except Peter, who merely nodded, mimicked.
"Ha ha," James replied blandly, not in the least bit amused.
"Glad you find it funny," Vic stated.
James opened his mouth to speak, but Remus cut in, "Before an all-out brawl begins, anyone up for a game of chess?"
And so the evening progressed, with less talk of the next day, and more of Quidditch.
The next morning, the six friends set off to the Great Hall. They ate breakfast without much chat, which surprised many passers-by, as usually this group was the noisiest you could find.
After their meal, the Gryffindor third-years split up, some heading to Arithmancy, or The Study of Ancient Runes. Lily, James, Sirius, Remus, Peter and Vic, however, headed towards the Muggle Studies classroom, along with a few other third years in their house.
When they sat down, the teacher, Professor Adams, called roll from her chair. Professor Adams was quite young, but was very precise and organized. Many were reminded of Professor McGonagall when Professor Adams' name was spoken, but those who knew her, or were in any of her classes, knew that she was much nicer and more lenient with her students.
"Good morning, children," she started off after she checked attendance, which was practically part of her daily routine, "I am happy to announce, and I'm sure that most of you will be happy to hear, that we have finished our unit on the Muggle Government."
At this statement, pandemonium broke loose.
"YES!"
"You're kidding! That was my favourite unit!"
"What unit are we doing next?"
"We're not having a test on it? That's great!"
"I hated that unit so much, that it made me want to go and strangle every single person on any government in the world!"
"Hear, hear!"
"When's our sports unit?"
This one last tiny remark shut up the whole class. This occurred, because the speaker of the statement was Victoria Isabelle Briche. Victoria struck everyone as the type that would be more into 'girly' things, like makeup, clothes, frilly stuff, and the colour pink. But that simply wasn't true. She wasn't exactly a tomboy. She cared enough about her looks to make her look beautiful almost every moment of every day, but she didn't care in the least bit of make-up, frilly stuff, or the colour pink. Clothes were the one thing that might make someone classify Vic as 'girly', even though she didn't take much time with her clothes. She was always on the cutting-edge of fashion, because her mother was a fashion designer, and sent Vic clothes every once in awhile.
"I didn't know you liked sports," One boy, whose name was Jordan Vanderbeek announced, breaking the silence.
"Yeah, well..." Vic replied, blushing.
More silence filled the air, until, "Alright class, I know many of you are wondering what our next unit will be," Professor Adams announced, causing every pair of eyes to move from Vic to herself, "Well, the answer to that question is..."
"Is what?" Sirius exclaimed, after a few moments' silence.
"Well, I can't very well tell you without a drumroll!" Professor Adams replied, hands on her hips.
James was the first person to start the drumroll. Banging his hands quickly on the desk, this started everyone else up, and soon enough, the whole class had started a very off-beat, very noisy, drumroll.
After about ten seconds of this, Professor Adams mouthed the words 'thank you'. Or it looked like she mouthed them. She might have been saying them, but you couldn't tell from all the noise of the drumroll.
"Thank you! That's enough!" the children heard a faint call, but ignored it and kept on going, the noise getting louder and louder.
"THANK YOU! THAT'S ENOUGH!" Professor Adams shouted, but even that was only a bit louder than the first time, because the drumroll kept getting louder and louder. Finally, Professor Adams took out her wand, and shot sparks in the air.
Only a few kids stopped the drumroll. Many were still going, James, Remus, Sirius, Peter, Lily, and Vic included.
In the end, Professor Adams stunned the children still doing the drumroll, and said, calmly, but firmly, "Thank you, that's enough."
"Enervate," she muttered, as she pointed at each student that was Stunned.
"Somehow, I liked it more before I came to Hogwarts," Remus muttered.
Hearing this, Professor Adams asked, "Why's that, Remus?"
"Well, I went to a Muggle school before I got my letter, and whenever we, as the students, got too loud, we didn't get Stunned. The only thing a teacher could do was jump up on her chair, and scream at us. Not that anyone noticed," Remus replied with a grin.
The students laughed, as did Professor Adams, who also added, "That must've been torture!"
"Yes, I know, it was! She didn't have a very nice voice, and I can tell you, that her screaming didn't make as very nice background music," Remus agreed. At this, everyone laughed again.
"I was talking about the teacher, Remus," Professor Adams said, chuckling, as she leaned against her desks, arms crossed.
"Well, both ways, then..." Remus replied, crossing his arms, and blushing a bit, as the whole class laughed at him.
"Yes, well, on with the lesson, d'you reckon?" Professor Adams questioned, but, not waiting for answer, kept going, "Our new unit shall be...well, I'm not sure myself! I've been debating between two: Sports, and Electricity. What do you guys think?"
The decision was almost unanimous.
No one had said a word since Lily's question, which no one had been able to answer.
"You know, we still haven't found the kitchens," Remus commented when the Gryffindors were safely inside the common room with the other students.
The others said nothing, and James supposed they, like he, were still a little shaken up about what happened by the dungeons.
I wonder if anyone saw their futures as well, James pondered to himself.
Little did he know that all of his friends were thinking the same thing.
"So...when are we gonna do the you-know-what?" Sirius asked quietly, forcing the thought of what just happened out of their minds.
"What's the you-know-what?" Vic questioned curiously as she looked around at her friends' faces.
Lily, James, Sirius, Peter, and Remus glanced at each other, and seemed to be questioning each other with their eyes.
"She won't tell," Lily stated, "She might even want to help us."
"Okay..." James gave in, silencing the other boys' presumed protests.
"Well, Vic, it's like this," Lily started. And the five Gryffindors took the next ten minutes to explain their plan in detail. By the end of the explanation, Vic wasn't the only one with a wide grin on her face. They all had them.
"But it's all just a matter of when," James concluded after letting what they had just informed Vic sink in.
"What about the day after tomorrow. At the Halloween Feast," Vic replied after a moments' thought.
"Great idea! I don't know why we never thought of that!" Sirius exclaimed. Vic grinned proudly.
"See? I told you she'd be a help," Lily stated, looking boastful. That look was quickly pushed away as she fell off of her chair from a shove from James.
"HEY!" Lily cried looking angry, but there was a note of amusement in her face, "You're gonna pay for that one, James Cameron Potter!"
"Oh, am I?" James asked, turning red slightly as she said his middle name.
"Cameron?" Sirius snickered, as did Remus and Peter, as they hid their mouths with their hands.
"Hey, I wouldn't talk, Sirius Fredrick Black!" James shouted, his ears turning red.
"Fredrick!?!?!?!?" Remus and Peter were in all their glory, as they laughed openly about Sirius' middle name.
"Fredrick's a nice name," Vic commented, truly meaning it.
"Yeah! It is, isn't it?" Sirius asked Vic, as if just realizing it for the first time.
"Nope!" Vic replied, giggling along with Remus and Peter.
"Hey..." Sirius said.
"Can't be worse that Lily's middle name! Right, Lily Marie Evans?" James questioned.
"Hey! I like my middle name!" Lily retorted, hands on her hips.
"Remus' middle name is the worst! Henry!" Sirius exclaimed.
"Hey, that was uncalled for! Besides, what's wrong with the name Henry?" Remus asked.
"His middle name's not the worst! Peter's is Marcel!" James cried suddenly.
"Marcel!" The others cooed.
"Hey!" Peter cried, "That wasn't very nice!"
"Boy, I'm glad you guys don't know me well enough to know my middle name!" Vic commented as everyone laughed at Peter's reaction.
"Oh, you shouldn't have said that, Vic," Lily warned.
"Why not?" Vic asked.
"What's your middle name, Vic?" Sirius asked.
"Do I look stupid enough to tell you?" Vic asked.
"No, but we all told ours!" James exclaimed.
"Actually, each of you told someone else's," Vic reasoned.
"True, but come on. Be a sport," Remus said, sitting down next to Victoria.
"Okay...it's Isabelle," Victoria admitted.
"That's a pretty name!" Lily cried, "Unlike Marcel, Henry, Cameron, and Fredrick over here..."
"HEY!!!!" The four boys cried out, realizing that she insulted them a good ten seconds after she said it. Victoria giggled.
"Can we stop with the middle names, now, please?" Peter asked timidly.
"Yeah alright..." the others agreed.
After a minutes' silence, James asked, "Anyone up for a game of chess?"
Ironically, all the others cried, "I am!"
The next day, the only thing planned was a Ravenclaw/Hufflepuff match. Of course, Remus went. He had to, as he was commentator. James went, because he wanted to see their techniques for when Gryffindor played them. Sirius and Lily went because they didn't want to break their record of never missing a Hogwarts Quidditch match while they were at school. Peter went because he always had to do what Sirius and James did, and Vic went because she had nothing else to do.
The game started soon. Unlike the Slytherin/Gryffindor game, where three quarters of the crowd were cheering for Gryffindor, the crowd was pretty much split evenly when it came to cheering. Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs, of course, cheered for their respected houses, while Slytherins and Gryffindors were divided in cheering for both.
"And they're off! Ravenclaw Chaser and captain Justin Pritchard takes the Quaffle first, and speeds down the wing, and attempts a pass at Julie Joseph! But the Quaffle is intercepted by Hufflepuff Chaser Conner McDermott as Hufflepuff beater Ashley Thomas sends a bludger straight for Pritchard!" Remus commentated.
The game droned on for quite awhile. The Seekers were't very good. James, sitting in the stands, saw the Snitch at least four times before it went away. Finally, after several hours, the game ended at 350-290 for Ravenclaw.
"Man, you'd think they'd at least have better Chasers to get the points higher. That game was so completely and utterly BORING!" Sirius exclaimed as they left the pitch, and walked through the darkness, and up the steps leading to the school.
"I know what you mean," Vic agreed. Though she didn't show it, she was a die-hard fan of any sport, Muggle or Magical. That's why she was taking Muggle Studies this year, as were the rest of them. At the moment they were talking about the Muggle Government in class, but Vic couldn't wait for the Sports part to start up.
"I didn't know you liked Quidditch," Sirius commented, furrowing his brow, and looking at Vic.
"Yeah, well..." Vic replied, blushing, "You don't know a lot about me."
When they got up to the common room, they pre-planned exactly what was going to happen the following day at the Halloween Feast.
"Why do we need to do all this planning?" Peter moaned after about an hour of it.
"How about, because if we don't then, everyone will suspect us, and we'll most likely get in loads of trouble," Remus replied.
"Oh," Peter said timidly, and didn't speak another word during the planning.
After two hours, James herad himself saying, "Okay, does everyone know their positions?"
"Yes, Sir James Cameron Potter," everyone except Peter, who merely nodded, mimicked.
"Ha ha," James replied blandly, not in the least bit amused.
"Glad you find it funny," Vic stated.
James opened his mouth to speak, but Remus cut in, "Before an all-out brawl begins, anyone up for a game of chess?"
And so the evening progressed, with less talk of the next day, and more of Quidditch.
The next morning, the six friends set off to the Great Hall. They ate breakfast without much chat, which surprised many passers-by, as usually this group was the noisiest you could find.
After their meal, the Gryffindor third-years split up, some heading to Arithmancy, or The Study of Ancient Runes. Lily, James, Sirius, Remus, Peter and Vic, however, headed towards the Muggle Studies classroom, along with a few other third years in their house.
When they sat down, the teacher, Professor Adams, called roll from her chair. Professor Adams was quite young, but was very precise and organized. Many were reminded of Professor McGonagall when Professor Adams' name was spoken, but those who knew her, or were in any of her classes, knew that she was much nicer and more lenient with her students.
"Good morning, children," she started off after she checked attendance, which was practically part of her daily routine, "I am happy to announce, and I'm sure that most of you will be happy to hear, that we have finished our unit on the Muggle Government."
At this statement, pandemonium broke loose.
"YES!"
"You're kidding! That was my favourite unit!"
"What unit are we doing next?"
"We're not having a test on it? That's great!"
"I hated that unit so much, that it made me want to go and strangle every single person on any government in the world!"
"Hear, hear!"
"When's our sports unit?"
This one last tiny remark shut up the whole class. This occurred, because the speaker of the statement was Victoria Isabelle Briche. Victoria struck everyone as the type that would be more into 'girly' things, like makeup, clothes, frilly stuff, and the colour pink. But that simply wasn't true. She wasn't exactly a tomboy. She cared enough about her looks to make her look beautiful almost every moment of every day, but she didn't care in the least bit of make-up, frilly stuff, or the colour pink. Clothes were the one thing that might make someone classify Vic as 'girly', even though she didn't take much time with her clothes. She was always on the cutting-edge of fashion, because her mother was a fashion designer, and sent Vic clothes every once in awhile.
"I didn't know you liked sports," One boy, whose name was Jordan Vanderbeek announced, breaking the silence.
"Yeah, well..." Vic replied, blushing.
More silence filled the air, until, "Alright class, I know many of you are wondering what our next unit will be," Professor Adams announced, causing every pair of eyes to move from Vic to herself, "Well, the answer to that question is..."
"Is what?" Sirius exclaimed, after a few moments' silence.
"Well, I can't very well tell you without a drumroll!" Professor Adams replied, hands on her hips.
James was the first person to start the drumroll. Banging his hands quickly on the desk, this started everyone else up, and soon enough, the whole class had started a very off-beat, very noisy, drumroll.
After about ten seconds of this, Professor Adams mouthed the words 'thank you'. Or it looked like she mouthed them. She might have been saying them, but you couldn't tell from all the noise of the drumroll.
"Thank you! That's enough!" the children heard a faint call, but ignored it and kept on going, the noise getting louder and louder.
"THANK YOU! THAT'S ENOUGH!" Professor Adams shouted, but even that was only a bit louder than the first time, because the drumroll kept getting louder and louder. Finally, Professor Adams took out her wand, and shot sparks in the air.
Only a few kids stopped the drumroll. Many were still going, James, Remus, Sirius, Peter, Lily, and Vic included.
In the end, Professor Adams stunned the children still doing the drumroll, and said, calmly, but firmly, "Thank you, that's enough."
"Enervate," she muttered, as she pointed at each student that was Stunned.
"Somehow, I liked it more before I came to Hogwarts," Remus muttered.
Hearing this, Professor Adams asked, "Why's that, Remus?"
"Well, I went to a Muggle school before I got my letter, and whenever we, as the students, got too loud, we didn't get Stunned. The only thing a teacher could do was jump up on her chair, and scream at us. Not that anyone noticed," Remus replied with a grin.
The students laughed, as did Professor Adams, who also added, "That must've been torture!"
"Yes, I know, it was! She didn't have a very nice voice, and I can tell you, that her screaming didn't make as very nice background music," Remus agreed. At this, everyone laughed again.
"I was talking about the teacher, Remus," Professor Adams said, chuckling, as she leaned against her desks, arms crossed.
"Well, both ways, then..." Remus replied, crossing his arms, and blushing a bit, as the whole class laughed at him.
"Yes, well, on with the lesson, d'you reckon?" Professor Adams questioned, but, not waiting for answer, kept going, "Our new unit shall be...well, I'm not sure myself! I've been debating between two: Sports, and Electricity. What do you guys think?"
The decision was almost unanimous.