Chapter 8: The Quidditch Match
Padfoot's Story
Disclaimer: Does anyone even read these things?
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Sami slept soundly with pleasant dreams that night, and was perfectly content to lie there forever curled up against Sirius's body. So she was slightly upset to find herself being shaken the next morning by a warm, familiar hand.
"Sami! Sami? Wake up, we've got to get back before too many people start to wonder where we are."
Sami sat up, grumbling, and rubbed the sleep out of her eyes. Sirius was kneeling in front of her, smiling, his hand on her shoulder and the wind toying with his hair. The sun was shining fiercely above her, but nevertheless there was a crisp sting in that breeze that didn't indicate summer was approaching. The events of the night before flashed in front of her eyes. Inwardly she gave an excited shudder that had nothing to do with the cold.
To give her something to do besides stare into his eyes she reached up and tried to smooth her thick curls. Sirius offered her his hand and pulled her up. "Ever the gentleman," Sami thought, smirking. She, like every other girl in the school, had never thought of the arrogant Sirius Black as being polite. Sami had just liked him anyway.
"Okay, let's go, I've already got everything packed up," he said, and led her down the stairs.
When they reached the winding staircase, Sami stopped and ran her hand along the stair rail.
"Thinking about sliding down? Let me go first, I'll catch you at the bottom."
She looked up and blushed. "Ah-- well-- "
"Oh, c'mon, it's safe; I've done it loads of times! See you later."
Sirius jumped onto it and picked up speed, giving a loud whoop as he slid out of sight. Truthfully, he'd never slid down a stair rail in his life, but Sirius had never been one to turn his back on risk.
Sami had never slid down a stair rail either, and was left at the top biting her tongue. Well, the stair rail LOOKED pretty solid, even though she'd always thought of the Shrieking Shack as exactly what its name described-- a shack. But what she had seen last night didn't really qualify as broken down and neglected . . .
She shook her head and climbed into a sitting position on the stair rail before she lost her nerve and sped off.
It wasn't very comfortable, but it was exhilarating all the same. Stairs hurried past her and the floor rose up to meet her, Sirius waiting and grinning like a child in a candy store. She flew off the end and he caught her, spinning her around in a circle and setting her down on her feet. Her hair was still swinging in her face and she was slightly dizzy; but she made a mental note to buy a house after she graduated only if it had long, steep staircases.
The first thing both of them saw when they emerged from the Whomping Willow a half hour later (neither of them had wanted to leave until they had tried out that stair rail a few more times) was the Quiddith pitch, where several people were zooming around fifty feet in the air. Later that day the final for the Hogwarts Inter- House Quidditch Cup would take place, and most of the players on the two teams competing-- Gryffindor and Slytherin-- were already warming up. Spirits were running high, at least for the Slytherins. Gryffindor hadn't lost the Cup since James had joined the team in his second year, and most of the school was pretty confident about the outcome of the game. Still, when James Potter was playing Quidditch you were always in for an exciting match, and who didn't enjoy seeing the Slytherins lose?
Sirius and Sami started walking back towards the castle in silence, enjoying each other's company. Finally, when he had worked up the nerve (which took him quite a long time considering how quick he had been to kiss her last night) Sirius reached out and entwined his fingers in Sami's.
He felt her smooth fingers grip his tightly for a moment, and then they relaxed. Sami felt as if she had just stuck her hand in an electrical socket. If Sirius knew what electricity was he probably would have agreed with this description; instead he would have said that the feeling was-- right. "Like it was meant to be," he thought, and then mentally slapped himself for being such a hopeless romantic.
They reached the Entrance Hall and prepared to part ways. Sami seemed slightly reluctant to let go of Sirius's hand.
"We'll both change, have lunch, and then meet back here to go to the match. Okay?" Sirius asked, and Sami smiled.
"Sounds good. Here's to a Gryffindor victory, eh? And Sirius-- thanks for everything. Yesterday was great." She gave his hand a last squeeze and walked away.
Sirius stared after her for a moment, his hand buzzing and still in awe of her. The emotions she could invoke in him just by holding his hand . . .his only regret was that he had waited this long to get to know her. Then he turned and walked up the marble staircase.
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On the way down to the Pitch Sirius and Sami walked together, with Lily on Sami's other side and Remus and Peter slightly behind them. Sami knew that if Lily hadn't said yes to James the night before her best friend wouldn't be walking with her, and she was glad of it. And she HAD been getting sick of Lily denying James when she was actually crazy about him.
The weather was the same way it had been that morning: the sun a little too bright, and the wind biting and snappish. There were absolutely no clouds in the sky, which had the odd characteristic look of dull, faded denim.
Lily and Sirius talked animatedly about Quidditch, which teams they liked and so forth. They had a lot of catching up to do-- they had never really spoken and Lily was beginning to feel as if she had missed out on something those past years.
Sami was mostly silent, having already heard both sides of the conversation before. Lily had heard everything about the date in the Shrieking Shack that day before lunch, with the exception of Remus being a werewolf, James and Peter being animagi as well, and Sirius's family. She had figured that since James was bound to become her boyfriend anyway, he could tell her about the animagus thing when he was ready. She had promised Sirius she wouldn't reveal the rest. Lily had not, however, been deprived of details about the kiss.
When they reached the Quidditch pitch some of the players were still practicing; trying to get in a few extra minutes before they had to change into their colored robes. James looked down on them from a height of at least sixty feet and, seeing Lily (and probably only recognizing her from the flaming color of her hair) he ran his hand through his own hair, grinned and waved. Lily rolled her eyes but failed to keep a straight face and waved back.
Sirius said goodbye to the others and weaved his way through hundreds of people to take his place in the stands next to Professor McGonagall. He would be commentating the match, as he had since his fourth year when the previous commentator, Joshua Bretzal, had left school.
The remaining players left the field to change and the volume of exited conversation in the stands increased. When Sirius's watch finally ticked to 2:30, Madam Hooch, the young new fly instructor who had short, wild, light brown hair, walked out into the middle of the Quidditch field and all talking ceased.
The two Quidditch teams walked onto the field to an enormous amount of applause and noise.
"And here come the Gryffindor and Slytherin House teams!" Sirius roared into the magical microphone over the cheering. "The Gryffindor team is captained by James Potter, well known as the best Seeker to come to Hogwarts in over half a century--" loud boos came from the Slytherin end-- "and who had never lost his team a single match in six years. The Slytherin team is captained by Murdock Flint, Chaser, who probably shouldn't pursue Quidditch as a career." Professor McGonagall smacked him on the back of his head.
Sirius recovered and said, "The two captains have now shaken hands and it looks like Madam Hooch is preparing to release the Bludgers and the Snitch!"
Madam Hooch bent down and set free the struggling black Bludgers and the miniscule Golden Snitch, which Sirius couldn't even see from this distance.
Finally she lifted her whistle to her lips, blew, and threw the large scarlet Quaffle into the air.
The stadium almost exploded with the noise which burst forth as fourteen brooms (plus Madam Hooch's) rocketed upwards and began the game. Sirius launched himself into the commentary with even more enthusiasm than usual. Mostly he focused on the Chasers, although he was always watching James out of the corner of his eye and waiting for him to make his move.
James was straddling his broom twenty feet above the rest of the game, watching the two teams battle it out. He was making almost no effort to look for the snitch, just avoiding the occasional Bludger and listening to the commentary; cheering and booing with the rest of the crowd. When Gryffindor scored he vented his energy with a couple of loops or a lap around the pitch. His face was flushed and he looked extremely confident.
He was perfectly entitled to feel confident. The Slytherin Seeker, some idiot named Warrick Flaxweed that Sirius could have sworn had some troll blood in him, wasn't bothering to look for the snitch either, just watching James closely. Every Seeker did this when playing against James Potter. If James Potter saw the snitch and you were on the wrong side of the field, or even just a few yards away, you didn't have much of a chance.
Ten minutes into the game, Gryffindor had pulled ahead by forty points: the score was fifty to ten, and the three-quarters of the crowd waving red flags and banners were screaming themselves hoarse. James was bound to get the snitch soon . . .
Finally, James scanned the pitch for a few seconds, looked up, and winked at Sirius. Sirius knew what was coming.
James dived. The Slytherin Seeker saw him and a split second later they were both racing towards the ground, leaning as far forward as possible on their brooms, neck and neck in a fierce battle to get there first--
Sirius grinned to himself. James had been dying to try out that Wronski Feint for AGES (it was the only thing he talked about as much as Lily Evans), but had spent all year perfecting and polishing it so he could use it against the Slytherins in the Final. Of course the crowd wasn't to know this until the last moment, so Sirius leaned forward and yelled into the microphone, "Our Seekers must have seen the snitch! Good Lord, this is close! It's not clear who's in the lead, either of them have a good chance of catching it and claiming the Cup--"
But next instant James had pulled out of the dive and was spiraling off sideways six feet from the ground. Flaxweed realized what had happened half a second too late-- he hit the ground with a crunch and a shower of splinters rained down as the front of his broom snapped, then he bounced and flew straight into the bottom of the stands. They was another dull thud and Flaxweed shot out of the top of the stands, missing Professor Flitwick by inches.
Sirius mock groaned and said happily, "Well, that was a very close shave there for Warrick Flaxweed, seems to have seriously damaged the front half of his broom. Does that make the broom go faulty? Anyway, that's due to a nicely done Wronski Feint, pulled off cleanly by Potter--" but for the next few seconds he was drowned out by jeers and catcalls from the Slytherins. Sirius raised his voice and said, "It certainly achieved the desired effect, though, Flaxweed fell for it. From now on it may be a tad harder to tell if Potter has really seen the snitch, hope you've got good eyesight!"
The first part was a lie: The desired effect was not for Flaxweed to fall for it, but for Flaxweed to fall for it and end up stuck head-first in the ground. Sirius was slightly disappointed, as he had greatly been looking forward to seeing this.
James was in the process of flying a victory lap around the pitch when it happened. He flew into a patch of particularly bright sunlight-- Sirius could see it glinting off his glasses-- and the next moment he was rolling and tightly clutching his broom as a Bludger hit him hard in the stomach. The second Bludger hit his jaw.
Sirius let out a string of swear words that earned him another smack on the back of his head and a struggle to hold onto the megaphone.
James was clutching his stomach and gasping for breath; his jaw was hanging open at a weird angle and looked like it was broken. His glasses had fallen off. When Sirius had calmed down enough to talk rationally, he said into the microphone, "That was a-- successful-- attack on the Gryffindor Seeker by the Slytherin beater Bellatrix Lestrange--" he said his cousin's name with particular venom-- "Who hit both Bludgers in quick succession. Potter seems to be having a hard time staying on top of his broom; but of course any other wouldn't be able to hold on at all." The boos from the Slytherins were expected.
James turned around to look for the snitch, it was evident he wanted this game to be over as soon as possible. What he saw instead was something entirely unexpected: Flaxweed diving directly below him, stretching out his hand for the snitch.
James turned the handle of his broom and shot downward with the force of a bullet. He was gaining, but there was no way James would able to see the snitch properly, he was as good as blind without his glasses.
The crowd was screaming, every pair of eyes were following the two Seekers and straining to see the snitch, even the other players had stopped in midair to watch . . .
Then the snitch disappeared through the hole Flaxweed had made when he crashed into the stands.
Both Seekers flew through the hole into darkness, and the entire crowd gasped. Even Sirius had forgotten he was supposed to be commentating-- there was a loud shout of triumph from within the stands, and both Flaxweed and James rocketed out of the top, knocking Professor Flitwick over in his haste to get out of the way. There was a moment of confusion-- had either of them got it? --but then they saw James raising his arm in victory, the snitch trapped inside his hand.
The stadium erupted. The noise reverberated and the echo made it seem twice as loud as it really was. Students started pouring onto the field and lifted the entire Gryffindor team onto their shoulders as they landed as one on the ground. The Slytherin team landed moments later, looking angry. Flint started yelling at Flaxweed.
Sirius was going crazy, yelling over and over again, "Potter did it! He caught the Snitch, Gryffindor wins 210 points to 20!"
Finally he turned off the magical megaphone and pushed his way through the crowd onto the field, where he spotted Sami, Remus, Peter, and Lily and hurried over to them. They were all cheering. Someone had started a chant of "POTTER! POTTER!" and the rest of the school were joining in enthusiastically. Lily's face in particular shone with admiration.
Sirius snuck up behind Sami and slipped his arm around her waist. She turned and laughed happily when she saw him. The others stopped in mid chant and turned to grin at them.
"So, are you two officially a couple yet?" Remus asked, smirking.
"I guess you could say that," Sirius said, and they followed the rest of the students up to the castle.
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Late that night, when the party in the Gryffindor common room was still going strong and the snitch was still zooming around the room (James had already showed the rest of the House exactly how he had caught it many times) Sirius snuck out of the portrait down to the statue of the one- eyed witch. He knew that Sami was going to an Order of the Phoenix meeting tonight, and there was a gift he wanted to surprise her with before she left.
A few minutes later she walked up to the statue, muttering distractedly and pulling her wand out of her pocket. She looked slightly out of breath.
She looked up and saw him, and she grinned-- but it wasn't quite the grin he remembered. There was something different about the spark in her eyes . . . but Sirius shook it off as a trick of the light.
When she drew close enough he leaned in to kiss her cheek, but she brushed him away. Sirius took a step back, completely bewildered.
"Is something wrong?" he asked her, feeling hurt.
"No. Nothing's wrong," she grunted and smiled that strange smile again.
Sirius shrugged and pulled the gift out of his pocket. She came closer to examine it.
"I wanted you to have this," he said softly. "I've been waiting for the right time to give it to you. I found it in a locked cabinet at home, after my father tried to confiscate it." Her eyes flashed.
It was a small bottle, hanging on a fine silver chain. The bottle was perhaps only two inches high, and was made of clear, shimmering glass. Inside the bottle was a strange substance: it was definitely not a liquid or a solid, but it didn't really seem like a gas either. It was swirling around and twisting upon itself, it looked almost like a cloud trapped behind glass. Every few seconds it flashed a different color.
"Do you know what this is?" Sirius asked her, and she shook her head. "Hmm. Well, do you know about the Department of Mysteries?"
"Quite a bit about it, yes," she confirmed.
"Well-- there's this room, see? And it's always kept locked. There's this great, incredible power shut up inside that room. Even the Unspeakables don't know very much about it. But-- in an attempt to study it-- they made five of these bottles and corked up that power, so that they could carry it around. They hoped the power wouldn't be as strong as it usually was if there was less of it in one place." She nodded, looking amazed.
"Only one of them is left in the Department of Mysteries. They have no idea what happened to the others. They think they got smashed. Well . . .it turns out at least one of them still exists. And now I'm giving it to you."
"Wow," she breathed huskily.
"See the way the glass shimmers? That's not ordinary glass. That's the glass made when a bolt of lightning hits the sand. It's really rare, but it's the only thing strong enough to confine this power. And-- when these bottles were made they were perfectly round-- but I transfigured the shape of this one into an owl when I found out you were an animagus."
She leaned even closer. It was true; the shape of the bottle was a tiny, beautifully detailed snowy owl. Sirius grinned, she was REALLY surprised.
"I still don't entirely understand," she said.
Sirius lowered his voice. "If you are ever in mortal danger and transforming won't help save you-- especially if you've been cornered by some of Voldemort's Death Eaters-- then just the break this bottle and release the incredible power inside it. It will protect you from everything. Just be warned: the power may protect you, as the bearer, but it will destroy everyone else around you."
"And what IS this power?" she asked, looking up and barely an inch from his face.
"Pure, untainted love," Sirius whispered.
Then Sami threw back her head and let out a cold, hollow laugh. Sirius couldn't believe it. This didn't sound at all like Sami . . .
"Pure, untainted LOVE?" she crowed, as if it were a joke. "You think I need something as weak and insignificant as LOVE to protect me? My powers, and My Lord's, are much stronger and more powerful than love!"
"My LORD'S?" Sirius hissed in disbelief. "You don't mean what I think you mean, do you?"
Sami raised her wand. "You don't know how long I've wanted to do this, Sirius Black. CRUCIO!"
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Poor Padfoot!
Did my Quidditch match bore you all? Or did you actually like it? I could have continued with the plot without the match, but I really wanted to try my hand at Quidditch.
~*Padfoot-dreamer*~