Usual disclaimer that I have stopped writing applies.
So. In chapter 1, we learn about how the new Marauders get back into pranking. This chapter will be taking that further…and let me tell you, I love the challenge I'm putting myself up against…writing out a Quidditch match!
Oh, and so you know…Harry missed two Sortings, and subsequently, I had to make up six names. I considered making all the Hufflepuff Quidditch players 6th years like Harry or 3rd years that were sorted in GoF, so I'd have some names, but I thought that might be cheating. So, following my own example, I named the six remaining members of the Quidditch team after songs with people's names in them. You can figure them out for yourselves.
Now on with the show!
The Marauders ReturnChapter 2: Fun and Games
Harry stole silently into the well-kept dorm room. He noticed that the walls and floor were colored the same as the common room. The beds were pretty basic…no long bedposts going up to the ceiling or anything. Five young men were asleep in the room. Harry went slowly and quietly from bed to bed until he found Bobby O'Riley. He had to exert a great deal of self-control to keep from strangling the little snot where he slept.
Ok, ok, he thought to himself. How did Feathers say to do this? Almost as if he had thought a spell, Hermione's voice floated into his mind.
"Speak very slowly and evenly, about an inch from the subject's ear…this is the best way to reach the subconscious mind and implant suggestions there." (A/N: I don't really know if that's accurate or not.)
Harry took a small breath and leaned close to Bobby's ear.
"You want to play Seeker tomorrow against Gryffindor. You want to finally prove that you're better than Harry Potter at Quidditch." The bile rose in Harry's throat at that remark, but he kept it down.
"You'll make the announcement to the team tomorrow at breakfast in the Great Hall." He kept repeating, slowly and evenly, for roughly fifteen minutes, until he was sure that O'Riley had the idea. He'd probably wake up wanting to play Seeker for England, Harry thought smiling. Bigheaded little twit. And I'm not even done yet…his eyes lit up as he remembered the rest of the prank.
"Now, Bobby, I want you to remember this part carefully. Tomorrow during the Quidditch match, when you hear Harry Potter, and only Harry Potter, say the word "Firebolt", your mind will reverse your sense of direction. Left will become right, and vice versa. Forward, backward, up and down will be the same though…we don't want you crashing to the ground, now, do we?" He could have sworn he had seen Bobby shake his head in his sleep. Harry shrugged and continued.
"Ok now, remember…when Harry Potter says "Firebolt", you'll think in reverse. If you want to go to the left, you'll actually go right, and vice versa. Anything you see on your left side will seem to you to be on your right side. Anything on your right will seem to be on your left. This will continue until you hear Harry Potter say "Golden Snitch". That will return your sense of direction to normal." He kept repeating it until he was sure Bobby understood (and until he had it right…it sort of confused him too).
Quickly and quietly, he slipped out the door and went up to the 3rd year boys' dorm. There he found the Beater, Adam Blinkone. Exactly as he had done to Bobby (with a slight change in script: Adam was told to completely support Bobby's idea and wasn't given the same problem with direction), Harry implanted the posthypnotic suggestion.
Fifteen minutes later, he was headed down the stairs to the Hufflepuff common room. Hermione was waiting there with a large smile on her face. Harry grinned.
"How'd it go, Feathers?"
Hermione smiled even wider, if possible. "It was so easy! That Seeker, Judith Circle? She went under in roughly two minutes! I may have done so well, she'll volunteer to switch positions with Bobby even before he says anything!"
Harry chuckled quietly to himself. "What about the Keeper and Beater?"
"Well, Angie wasn't too hard (Angie Stone played Keeper), but that Beater, Ana Silver? The captain? I almost thought she was awake a couple of times! Don't worry though. I got her under control."
Just then, Ron came down the stairs. He greeted Harry and Hermione with a smile.
"Mission accomplished! Stan Mathers and Jeremy Pearl (O'Riley's fellow Chasers) are on the bandwagon!"
"Thank God" Harry sighed. "I wish this kind of thing didn't have to be a unanimous vote by all the players."
"Me too" Ron said. "Now, how about we get out of here?"
"Good idea" Hermione said, leading them to the picture of the badger on the wall of the Hufflepuff common room. She raised her wand, revealing the familiar Marauders crest right between the badger's eyes.
"Prongius" Hermione whispered. The picture flipped open, revealing the passage to the Meeting Place. The Marauders quickly went through to Gryffindor Tower, coming out behind the portrait of Godric Gryffindor and jumping down onto the floor of the common room. They snuck slowly upstairs to their respective dorms and quickly went to sleep.
(time jump)
The Great Hall of Hogwarts bustled in the morning with its usual activity, with one small exception. About halfway through breakfast, Professor Sprout (head of Hufflepuff House) tapped her glass, calling for attention.
"Students, the captain of the Hufflepuff Quidditch team has an announcement. Ana?" she said to the standing girl at the Hufflepuff table. Ana Silver cleared her throat.
"We've just had a team meeting, and we've done a little…reorganizing of the team's positions. In this afternoon's Quidditch match against Gryffindor, our Seeker, Judith Circle, will be switching positions with our Chaser, Bobby O'Riley!" There was almost instant uproar. Bobby jumped to his feet, smiling.
"That's right, Hogwarts! I intend to prove once and for all that I am better than Harry Potter when it comes to Quidditch!"
"Fat chance" the apparition of James Potter whispered over Harry's shoulder. The Marauders had decided before the prank was pulled to have their "teachers" (and partners in crime) present at breakfast to see what happened, so Harry had made the apparitions of the former Marauders (his father, Sirius Black, and Remus Lupin…Peter Pettigrew was absent for obvious reasons) appear. They were presently laughing uproariously, heard only by the present Marauders…and Dumbledore, Harry saw from his seat. Twisting around, he saw a great deal of hushed conversation at all the tables…no doubt about whether or not O'Riley would live up to his claim. Harry seriously doubted it for many reasons, but kept his mouth shut. No need to spill the secret and get in trouble, he thought to himself.
Afternoon came almost too quickly for Harry. He found himself in the Gryffindor locker room with the rest of the team: Ron, who had taken over as Keeper and Captain in their fifth year, with the absence of Oliver Wood (the team had voted Harry to be captain, but he found out quickly that he wasn't the captain type, so the title went to Ron); Colin Creevey (replacing one of the Weasley twins as Beater this year), his brother Dennis (a new Chaser, thanks to the graduation of all three former Chasers), Ron's little sister Ginny, who was quite a surprise to the entire team when she displayed incredible Quidditch skills (also a new Chaser), 3rd year standout Natalie McDonald (the team's other Beater), and possibly the greatest surprise of all, Seamus Finnigan, who had taken up Quidditch shortly after watching Ireland win the World Cup two years before. He had proven to be quite a good Chaser, and so the last position was filled.
Ron's speech went almost too quickly for Harry's liking.
"I just want to say two things, team. One: Harry's going to whip the SNOT out of Bobby O'Riley!" This was greeted with a great deal of cheering.
"Secondly…I'm not going to get all long-winded on you about winning and strategy. Let's just do our best to keep the House Cup where it is, ok?" The Cup was currently in the Gryffindor section of the trophy case, where it had been since Harry's third year. Everyone agreed that there was no good reason for it to be moved, and the entire team walked out of the locker room. Soon enough, they were doing the traditional lap around the Quidditch pitch. Harry noticed that he could have done rings around every member of the Hufflepuff team (they were almost all on Nimbus Two Thousands; O'Riley had a Nimbus Two Thousand and One and Ana Silver had a Cleansweep Seven) and grinned at how easy this win would be. Ron met Angie Stone at the center of the pitch and shook hands with her. Madam Hooch blew her whistle and set the Bludgers and Golden Snitch free, and the game was on.
Harry was immediately airborne. He looked down long enough to see the Chasers pouncing on the Quaffle before he shot even further up. He could hear the commentator...Lee Jordan had of course graduated, and some annoying little Slytherin had gotten the job. Harry didn't know the kid's name, but he could hear him all over the arena.
"And they're off, Quidditch fans! Weasley has the Quaffle…to Finnigan…Creevey…Finnigan...Weasley dodges Stone….SCORE!!!!!" Just like that, Gryffindor was up ten points to zero. Harry just sat and watched, resting comfortably over the action below. He noticed that Stan Mathers and Jeremy Pearl were doing the bulk of the Chasing work for Hufflepuff…Judith Circle really didn't know what to do. She wasn't as good as passing and dodging as Bobby was, and as a result, was getting grazed by many a Bludger as they shot past. The Beaters, Adam and Ana, were doing all they could, but it just wasn't enough. Ron was too good a Keeper, and the weakness at Chaser was costing Hufflepuff. Almost too easily, Gryffindor went from ten points ahead to fifty…then eighty…then a hundred and ten.
"And now its Mathers…Pearl…pass to Circle is missed! Intercepted by Dennis Creevey…to Weasley…Finnigan…Ouch, he's hit by a Bludger! Circle's got the Quaffle…Oh, BAD pass to Pearl! Somehow, he recovers…shoots…WHAT A SAVE BY RON WEASLEY! Finnigan! Creevey! Weasley! Creevey again! He fakes out Stone and SCORES!" That made it a hundred and twenty. Meanwhile, Harry saw Bobby O'Riley coming up toward him. He had to swallow hard to keep the bile from rising in his throat as he greeted him. "Hello, Bobby."
Bobby smiled. "Ah, Harry Potter! At last we meet on even footing…and at last everyone will know who's truly the better Quidditch player!" He smiled and started laughing out loud, throwing his head back…and revealing, Harry saw in shock, the Golden Snitch. It was hovering right behind Bobby's head! It could have been following him the whole time!
"I honestly never thought he was THAT thick" Harry muttered to himself. "I won't even need the hypnosis." His hand shot out over Bobby's head, nearly grazing his nose, and grabbed the Snitch tightly.
Bobby's laughing was suddenly cut short by the screams and applause from the stands. He looked in shock at Harry, who simply smiled and waved the Snitch at him. Somewhere below them, the Slytherin announcer was yelling his head off.
"Good Lord! Harry Potter catches the Snitch! Bobby O'Riley was close enough to swallow it and still couldn't find it! Gryffindor wins, three hundred and fifty to nothing!" (Ginny, Colin, and Seamus had combined for eight more goals in the time it took for Harry to make the grab.) "I don't think I've ever seen anything like it! That should shut Bobby O'Riley up for good!"
Indeed, Bobby looked like he was going to cry. Over his shoulder, Harry could see six very angry forms in yellow uniforms coming toward them. A sudden, very, very mean (but fun) idea occurred to him. He whispered to Bobby.
"Firebolt. Run!" He pointed over Bobby's left shoulder. Bobby looked over his right shoulder and saw his angry teammates approaching.
"There's an opening to the left! Go!" Harry yelled. Bobby immediately took off…to his right. The hypnosis had worked very well. Almost too well, in fact. The only thing to the immediate right of Bobby was one of the posts that rose up from the stands of the arena. Bobby O' Riley ran headfirst into one of the posts with Hufflepuff's colors and arms on it, and fell rather sharply to the ground.
There was a collective gasp from the arena. All eyes were on the limp yellow form in the sand. Everyone watched as Bobby slowly got to his feet. He pulled out his wand, pointed it at his throat, and spoke something no one heard. Harry assumed it was "Sonorus", because Bobby's voice suddenly rang out through the arena.
"Okay! I admit it! I'm not as good as Harry Potter! He's the best Quidditch player here!"
There was a loud burst of laughter at that, and Bobby started sobbing, forgetting to undo the spell. His crying echoed throughout the entire arena. Harry decided that he had better do something nice (and undo the hypnosis at the same time). He flew to the ground, landing a short distance from Bobby (and covering his ears).
"BOBBY! HEY! UNDO THE CHARM!" he yelled. Bobby didn't hear a thing. Harry groaned inwardly and pulled out his wand, pointing it at Bobby.
"Quietus!" he said. Bobby's crying went back to a normal level. He looked to his left (right at Harry in fact, but thanks to the hypnosis, he couldn't see him), then to his right, where he saw Harry.
"What are YOU doing here! Come to make fun of me some more, I suppose!" Harry considered it for a few seconds, but thought better of it.
"No, Bobby.
It's not your fault you didn't catch the Golden Snitch." He noticed Bobby's
head twitch slightly as the trigger words were spoken, effectively removing the
former hypnotic suggestions. He continued on as if nothing had happened.
"It's just that you're not trained as a Seeker. You're an excellent Chaser. You work so well with Stan and Jeremy, it's almost like you read each other's thoughts." He just stood there and looked at Bobby as he wiped his eyes and smiled.
"I suppose you're right, Harry…and there's no nothing wrong with being the second best Quidditch player at Hogwarts, is there?"
Harry smiled. "Not a thing. Let's get out of here, huh? Say, before your teammates stop arguing over whether or not they're going to come after you." He pointed up, where the rest of the Hufflepuff team was in hot debate over whether to comfort Bobby after his collision, or kill him for being so stupid. Bobby nodded and mounted his broom, shooting off toward the school. Harry watched as his teammates immediately followed him, then turned and walked off the pitch. Ron came flying down beside him.
"So, Beaky,
what happened?"
"Nothing much. We just had a
little talk. He's not so bad, I guess." Ron thought this over and nodded.
"Ok…so I take it you're friends now?" Harry looked up as if to reply, and saw Bobby leading his teammates on a chase around the castle. Even from his vantage point, Harry could see the gestures he was making to egg them on. He smiled and turned back to Ron.
"Nope. He's still a twit."
(A/N: And there's chapter 2. I have no idea where to go from here. SOMEONE HELP! Two chapters does not a story make. All suggestions are welcome! Oh, and by the way, if you don't know where the names of Hufflepuff's Quidditch team came from:
Chasers: Stan Mathers (Eminem, "Stan"), Jeremy Pearl (Pearl Jam, "Jeremy"), and Bobby O'Riley (The Who, "Teenage Wasteland…also known as Baba O'Riley)
Beaters: Adam Blinkone (Blink 182, "Adam's Song) and Ana Silver (Silverchair, "Ana's Song")
Keeper: Angie Stone (Rolling Stones, "Angie")
Seeker: Judith Circle (A Perfect Circle, "Judith")
Oh, and by the way, I don't care that Hufflepuff's 3rd year Beater would have come from the Sorting in GoF. If I had used a name from there, it wouldn't have fit my plan.
Read and Review please!)