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Chapter Sixteen: Of the Golden Snitch
The next day proved to be very wearisome. First of all, James over slept and missed his meeting with Jessie, which put him in a sour mood right off the bat Then he got into a spat with Lily over breakfast, though later, neither could remember exactly what it was about.
The whole hall got a laugh when the Slytherins entered, Lily even caught Dumbledore hiding a smile. As it turns out, Peter had not been specific enough with his spell, causing the most random parts of Slytherins to turn red. Occasionally it hit the hair, but most times the charm had misfired, giving the murderous students a rather humiliating appearance. Lucius Malfoy had gotten half of his long blonde hair dyed red, and an arm was tinted pink. Snape had a pair of red legs, and a dour expression. Lily was pleased to see that Crabbe had a red eye, and Goyle's nose looked somewhat liked a squashed tomato.
In addition to the colorful additions to their hated arch-rivals, the marauders were all pleased to notice that each Slytherin had bags under his or her eyes, owing- no doubt- to Lily's wonderful foghorn. Then, as the bleary eyed Slytherins slumped down in their seats, something else happened. They all began hiccupping or smoking at the mouth. Poor (A/N yeah right) Crabbe and Goyle got both, and spent the rest of the day hiccupping up smoke and the occasional spark.
In the midst of all the chaos, Lily saw Filch sidle up to Dumbledore and whisper in his ear, indicating in their direction. Dumbledore stood up and commanded their attention.
"Would Ms. Evans, Mr. Black, and Mr. Pettigrew please accompany me to my office?" With sighs of trepidation, and cheers from all but the Slytherins, the tired trio slunk out of the hall. Before he could leave, Artemis Wood grabbed the back of Sirius's cloak.
"You'd better get out of there in time for the match or-" but Sirius never did hear the end of his sentence, as Professor McGonagall swooped down on him at that very moment and shoved him out the door (remarkably forcefully for someone of her stature).
"I'm not taking the fall for this," growled Lily into Sirius's ear. "It wasn't all our fault and-"
"We might as well," Sirius whispered back harshly. "We're going for a record, remember?. Most detentions attained in one year?" Lily shuddered.
"I'd rather not if it's all the same to you, Siri," she said.
Waiting for them by the gargoyle were Dumbledore, McGonagall, and Centia. He glared menacingly at the three of them, eyebrows furrowed in a furious scowl. Lily got the impression of a predatory bird, moving in for the kill. It was not a pleasant thing to see that early in the morning.
"Toffee," commanded Dumbledore. The gargoyle jumped aside obligingly, revealing the moving staircase. The sight of this always managed to impress Sirius and Peter, though Lily found it a lot like escalators, which reminded her of muggles, which also did nothing to improve her mood. As soon as they entered the large office, Centia jumped all over them (A/N not like that! It's an expression).
"Just what do you think you're doing? Poisoning my students, disfiguring them, and disturbing their rest. If they don't perform in top condition today I will personally-" he stopped his angry tirade at a quelling look from Dumbledore. He retreated into the shadows, muttering to himself.
"Now," said Dumbledore, in his usual voice, "can you please explain to me exactly why you did this?" He locked his eyes on each of his students in turn, his passive blue eyes not revealing anything, but making them squirm as though he were searching the inmost parts of their soul.
"We just…felt like it?" Sirius suggested, flinching as Dumbledore turned his gaze on him full-force.
"I see," he said slowly, still unreadable. Lily could tell that Peter was nervous. He didn't like being in trouble- that Lily could relate to- but there was something else…he was kind of hiding behind them, finding shelter in their shadow. This puzzled Lily for a bit, but Centia's sudden outburst brought her back to the here and now.
"That is rubbish, Headmaster," he said greasily. "Surely such…vagrancies should be punished?" Dumbledore inclined his head slightly, and Lily felt the bottom drop out of her stomach.
"Thirty points shall be taken from Gryffindor-" Sirius let out a gasp of distress. Dumbledore let a small smile flicker across his lips, and continued. "Thirty points shall be taken from Gryffindor, and you will each be serving a weeks detention." Nodding in silent acceptance, the three backed slowly out of the office.
"By the way, Mr. Black," began Dumbledore. Sirius turned around, cringing, ready for the worst. "Congratulations on a most excellently done Dye Potion. I believe the Slytherin Common Room was thoroughly covered." Sirius couldn't help but notice that Dumbledore, though keeping a straight face, had laugh lines around his gleeful eyes as he said this. Snorting in disbelief and hysteria, he bounded down the stairs skipping the last ten, and stumbled out into the hallway. Standing still for awhile, wondering why no one was in the halls- it hit him.
"QUIDDITCH!" he screamed. Without wasting a second more he sprinted the whole way down to the Quidditch Pitch. Bursting into the locker room at lightning speed, he tripped over the benches and his teammates, fairly jumped into his robes, and grabbed his broom. He turned around to find the whole team staring at him.
"What?" he said incredulously. "I was built for long distance!" Shaking their heads, the Gryffindors got off the benches and made their way out to the field to the tumultuous applause of all their Housemates.
"So?" whispered James, mounting his broom. "What happened?"
"We took the fall for yeh," said Sirius, shooting up into the air, hefting his heavy Beaters club into a cradling position. "Got a telling off and a weeks worth of detention. And we got thirty points from Gryffindor."
"Thirty points?" asked Artemis as he soared quickly to his position at the goal posts. "We'd better win this one then!" James and Sirius grinned. As he rocketed off into the air Sirius thrust a hand upward. rocket
"This one's for Carolina!"
Shooting up above the game, James circled lazily for awhile, watching out for the snitch, while keeping an eye on the Ravenclaw seeker. It was that Cheng kid from China! Sidling up to him on his broom, James tried to size him up. Cheng was tall for his age, about five nine, James guessed. He had jet black hair- not unlike James' own, except it was combed back neatly- a feat James could never accomplish- along with sharp, rather hawk-like grey eyes. Seeing James marking him closely, the boy scowled in his direction. James grinned sheepishly and shrugged, flying off and scanning the field for any flash of brilliant gold.
Below, the game was friendly as Quidditch matches go. No major fouls had been committed, and the teams were matched evenly. Though James caught sight of the snitch a few times during the next few hours, it eluded his and Cheng's grasp, always hovering just out of reach, or dodging off into a blur of darting golden light, speeding faster than their brooms. After four hours the teams were getting desperate. Most of the crowd had drifted off to lunch, though the majority of the professors had remained. Finally, the Ravenclaw captain signaled time out, and the players all drifted gratefully to the wonderfully solid ground.
After sitting in exhaustion for several minutes, Katrina fetched her wand out of her locker and drenched the team in a spurt of chilled water. Gasping in relief, they stood up, dripping with sweat and water.
"James," said Wood, "I know you're working hard, but we need you to catch the snitch. As soon as possible. If neither you nor the Ravenclaw guy gets the snitch by night fall, we'll call in the backups or keep playing depending on how tired we are. How's that lip Sirius?"
"Ith okai," Sirius said around a swollen split lip.
"Should I call Madam Pompfrey?"
"I'b fiin," he said, wincing with pain. "Leth pai!" Assuming that he said 'let's play' they complied with his demand, mounting up on rather sorer than normal rear ends. Doing a quick lap around the field, James let the cool wind in his face revive him. Looking down he saw that all of the Slytherins had left, and that a good number of the Hufflepuffs had left also. He was rather pleased to see that Peter, Remus, and Lily were still in the stands, though it seemed as if their attention were elsewhere. Smiling slightly he realized that Lily and Remus were playing Gobstones and Peter was having fun with Exploding playing cards, slipping one down the back of Remus's robes which promptly caught fire. He also noticed that Jessie was still there as well. Beaming to himself, he competed his circuit of the field and came to rest directly above where all the action was taking place. To his surprise, Cheng flew up next to him.
"Well, this has lasted for quite a long time," he said, with just the barest trace of sarcasm lacing his voice.
"No shit, Sherlock," James grinned. Cheng let a smile play on his lips while running a hand through his slick hair. Suddenly-
"JAMETH! LOO HOUT!" James turned just in time to see a bludger speeding at his head. He instantly flattened himself along the broom, dropping down several feet in one easy motion. Cheng followed suit, the bludger passing barely centimeters above his head. For the first time, James realized that someone was commentating the match. Before, he had just been concentrating, but now he listened to the commentators commentation.
"And Katrina Reynolds had the Quaffle again. She speeds towards the goalposts and shoots. The keeper stops it. He throws it to Bobby Salvetores who is knocked in the head by a bludger. Another nice shot from Barry Hudson. Bobby flies through the pain, shooting the quaffle from point blank range. Wood dives- no, jumps off his broom- and manages to apprehend the quaffle. But he's not on his broom!" The monotonous tone of the voice made it apparent that he too believed that the match had gone on for far too long. But as Wood clung tightly to the quaffle, using the charm that was placed on it to keep it in the air longer to keep him aloft, his voice actually gained a little emotion.
"Bethany Pierson of Gryffindor swoops over and eases him onto her broom. Nice save by Wood anyway…" James let the words drift over him, sinking into the ocean of boredom, succumbing to the waves of stupefying dullness. Three torturous hours later, James spotted the snitch. It was hovering two inches off the ground at the far goal post. Cheng hadn't spotted it yet, but he was far closer. Maneuvering closer to the Ravenclaw goalposts, he drifted slowly, almost meanderingly, so as not to draw attention to the snitch. Pleased to see that the snitch had not moved by the time he drew even with Cheng, James let loose, burning all his pent up energy in one giant burst of speed, urging his broom to unheard of speeds, plummeting down with the wings of desire. He was almost there. Fifty feet, twenty five feet...he was going to crash! He was hurtling at the ground with such speed that he was going to get ploughed no matter what, closing his eyes James continued his mad descent. The last thing he felt before he hit the ground was a tiny pair of wings beating furiously against his grip. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"But Madam Pompfrey! Just let us sit here for a few more minutes!"
"No! You might disturb the patient!"
"Dithturb the patient? He'th unconthouth!" James heard the voices faintly, as though they were far away. Realizing that the indignant, lisping voice had to be Sirius, he tried to clear his mind. Everything was cloudy for awhile, but when he heard what could only be the sounds of Madam Pompfrey ushering his friend (friends?) out, he sat up slowly, blinking.
"Look! He's awake!" James could see five blurry shapes standing above him. There was a red blob, a bouncing blob, a pale blob, a blonde blob, and a starchy white blob. The red blob pressed something into his hand. Realizing that they were his glasses, James put them on slowly and watched the blobs transform into Lily, Sirius, Remus, Peter, and a suffering Madam Pompfrey.
James reached up slowly and felt a gauzy material wound about his head.
"Wha happened?" he groaned.
"WE WON THE MATCH!" Sirius shouted happily around a still swollen lip, making James's ears throb.
"Shattup Siri!" said Remus quietly, seeing James grimace of pain.
"Besides you're starting in the middle. If you're going to tell it, tell it properly." That was Lily. She was leaning lazily against the head board of the bed.
"Fine. You see, you collided after you caught the snitch- which means we won the match-"
"I knew tha Sirius," said James indignantly.
"Well we won anywayth, but when you hit you kind of banged up your head pretty good and Dumbledore magiced you up here and it'th been three days and we nevah thought you were going to wake up because Madam Pompfrey thaid that if we did wake you up there could be brain damage or thomething (I told her there would be no differenth, but doethee lithen? Nooooo…) but if we didn't wake you up you could go into a comma or something," said Sirius.
"Coma you blooming idiot. It's a coma, not a comma," Lily corrected him.
"Ah yeth," said Sirius wisely. "Our dearetht little Lily-flower was just oh so upthet about your little crath. Nearly cried her eyth out, didn' the?"
"Shattup, Siri," Lily snapped back. "You cried more'n I did and you know it."
"Tho you admit to crying then?" cried Sirius triumphantly. Lily bit her lip, trying to force the pink tinge out of her cheeks. "Ha!" Sirius was practically skipping for joy by now. "She's bluthing!"
Lily snapped. "Maybe I did cry. So what? I didn't want to loose another friend. But I wouldn't mind loosing you, Siri, and I know enough curses now that you had better be looking over your shoulder everywhere you go. Because you'll never know when I'll come after you." She turned on her heel and walked out of the room quietly, leaving a wake of total disbelief (not to mention fear) behind her.
"Wath it thomething I thaid?"
A/N Okay, hope y'all enjoyed that! Sorry it took me forever to get it out but I had a major Latin test, not to mention a three hour softball practice, and a major Drama monologue due tomorrow! Well, enough with the excuses- on with the reviews! Starborn- of course the reviews are skrewed! I'm writing them! I'm glad you like Shermy's name. If you want I can give you the whole story of how I came up with it (it's actually quite entertaining) but I'm afraid of boring reviewers to death. Well, keep readin! Braney- French and Hebrew? Hell, I can barely handle 2 languages (English and Latin). Barely. I HATE LATIN!!!!!!! ARGH! My Latin teacher is the root of all evil. NOT FUN! Yes! I agree! We should all kick Saddam. A lot. A lot a lot a lot a lot a lot a lot. Mellifluous-having a smooth rich flow and if you don't believe me go look it up. I presume you have access to a dictionary…and by saying 'gracefully trip' I was being sarcastic (my favorite form of humor). Yes, I realize that Atlanta is the coke capitol. We have a really cool thing 'the world of coke' here and it's awesome! They have this room where the coke shoots out from the walls and lands in your cups and it's the neatest thing EVER! DOWN WITH PEPSI! You got an account? Awesome dude! Are you going to write a story(s)? TELLMETELLMETELLME! Fowl-star- Actually, I have to agree with 'anonymous' on that one because it does say that the chamber was opened before Malfoy Sr. was there. That's okay, I make stupid mistakes too. Most recently I could be heard commenting that Frito was the coolest hobbit ever…I was close, okay!?!?!?! Fluffy the Teddy Bear Slayer- . Awesome Quidditch player From The 70's attending Hogwarts- okay then! I try! Anonymous- thanks. I thought so too, but it's always nice to have backup.
Okay y'all! You keep reviewing and I'll keep writing.
