Author's note: It all goes downhill from here, folks. I wish I could say there would be some cheerful moments, but besides Hermione and Ron going out and Quidditch, it's going to be a lousy ending for the gang . . .sorry! I'll see what I can do about finding Scipio look-alike pictures since I got an email about him . . .Gosh . . .he's hot and it's only a figure of my imagination! LOL. I still don't own Harry and the gang and I don't own Scipio either (darn it!) but I'm working on it! Here's chapter 10.
**************************************Harry*********************************************
After Halloween, the only gossip going about Hogwarts was about Ron and Hermione, which suited Harry just fine. After Ron and Hermione had begun to go out, Harry noticed that Scipio was surprisingly on good terms with Ron, even forgetting to slip out snide remarks in practice and replace them with nice suggestions. Ron even stopped calling Scipio a thief, though it would occasionally slip out whenever Ron was missing a pair of socks or a hairbrush.
Because the two boys were on such good terms again, the Quidditch team was doing better than ever and with a match against Ravenclaw in a matter of days, it seemed that the team was absolutely unbeatable. But even so, Harry bumped practice up to every afternoon for a period of two hours. The weakest part of the team lied within the keeper's goals, but between Scipio and Ginny (who Harry decided should get the post after absolutely no deliberation) whose beating skills were nothing short of miraculous, the team hadn't anything to worry about. Not even that Cho Chang was Captain of the Ravenclaw team.
Within hours of the upcoming match, Cho found her way up to Harry, flushing in what was clearly seen as anger.
"Y-you're the quidditch captain for Gryffindor I heard."
"You heard correctly then."
"Well I just wanted to let you know that I'm not going to go easy on you because of what went on between us last year."
"Great, I wasn't expecting you to. If we're going to beat Ravenclaw, it's going to be because we were better."
"You're so full of yourself, do you know that?"
"Me? Full of myself? I wasn't the one who decided to come over here and bother myself, because if it was me who came over here to start bothering myself, I'd look like a total fool . . .sort of how you're looking right now when you're pink with anger."
"You make no sense, Harold James Potter, but then again, you never have made much sense of anything!"
Cho gave Harry a wicked glare, but not before stomping on his toes and floating away even angrier than she was before she approached Harry. Harry swore to himself that he'd beat Ravenclaw no matter what it took, to avenge his now throbbing foot.
"All I have to say is that the team better be on the field on time today!" Harry grumbled as he stalked off towards the quidditch field.
**************************************Scipio*********************************************
Scipio bolted down the dormitory steps at full speed, Ron right on his tail. They were late for the quidditch match! Harry wanted them to be there an hour early and here they were up in the common room with fifteen minutes to go until the game!
"What in the hell were you thinking, Weasley? You've got time to go to the Great Hall in your knickers and ask out a girl but don't have time to set some kind of alarm so we can get up?"
"Don't you dare try to pin this on me, Mr. I-was-up-all-last-night-partying-in-the-common-room-and-didn't-leave-until-three-in-the-morning-because-I-had-to-catch-up-on-my-snogging-skills!"
"Well, let's just get down to the field! Damn, Harry is going to be really pissed off at us!"
"Yeah, he practically screamed in our ears last night to get rest because we needed to get up bright and early!"
"Well maybe he won't be entirely too pissed off . . . maybe he's in a good mood," Scipio suggested as they ran out onto the quidditch field and bolted into the Gryffindor locker rooms.
"Or maybe," Harry began crossing his arms and raising his eyebrows with the rest of the team standing behind him looking very angry "He's already really pissed off today because the two most . . .stupid people on the team couldn't make it to practice on-time for the eightieth time in a row! Come on you guys! At least you're in your uniforms! When we get off the field. I am going to clock each of you into next week . . .well don't just stand there, mount your brooms, Madame Hooch has just introduced the team!"
Scipio and Ron bolted out of the locker rooms with Harry following them out whizzing by on a Firebolt 1000. The team muttered some kind of good luck chant and as soon as Madame Hooch had blown her whistle, both the Gryffindor and Ravenclaw teams were up in the air, Harry and the seeker for the Ravenclaw team (boy did she look good) went higher up than anyone else and searched for the snitch. The crowds were cheering madly and soon their faces were unrecognizable, just tiny flecks of scarlet and purple.
Scipio and Ginny were definitely doing their best today keeping the buldgers at bay while the other half of the team took possession of the quaffle. From below, Scipio could make out Lee Jordan's very recognizable voice over the intercom.
"-Johnson's got the quaffle and passes it off to Haroldson who is a new member on the Gryffindor team. . . not to mention that beauty of a broom he's riding. According to Which Broomstick-oh? What was that Professor? Stick to the commentary? Very well, I just thought it was a rather good time to explain –AND GRYFFINDOR SCORES!"
"Yes," Ginny and Scipio jeered as they turned their brooms around and headed towards the Ravenclaw posts.
"How do you think Harry's doing up there?" Scipio asked Ginny as he hit a buldger towards the Ravenclaw post.
"He'll do just fine, Scipio. He's never failed Gryffindor before, and he's an absolutely fabulous seeker."
"Sounds like he's never failed you either, Ginny."
Ginny blushed and knocked away a buldger that was inches away from Scipio's head.
"You worry about buldgers and leave the seeking to Harry."
**************************************Harry*********************************************
The adrenaline rush of soaring through the sky on his broomstick was a long missed feeling for Harry. He'd been banned last year and the feeling of detachment between Harry and his broomstick was almost more than he could bear. But now when he was soaring almost eighty feet off the ground with no cares or worries, he forgot all about not feeling the rush, and not hearing the crowd's screams. He slowly snapped out of his relaxed set and began to flex his muscles. Cho Chang flew up beside him and rolled her eyes. Harry ignored her and continued to flex and search the skies for the golden snitch. He sat there on his broom for a good fifteen minutes before he saw the snitch glisten above the top ring on the Gryffindor's post. Harry kicked off and sped off towards the golden glistening above the post with Cho right on his tail.
She's still pulling that same trick? Harry thought smiling as he looked back on her. He immediately kicked his broom into a full-speed chase of the snitch with Cho lagging far behind. Second by second Harry advanced towards the snitch, he outstretched his arm and pushed all of his weight forwards. . .five inches. . .four inches. . . three. . .two . . .one. . .
Bam!
A buldger hit Harry square in the face. He was thrown viciously from his broom and landed mercilessly upon the hard cold earth.
But he had the snitch!
**************************************Scipio*********************************************
"Yeah! Go Harry! Go-go Go Harry!" Scipio chanted while doing a very disturbing victory dance on his broom.
"Shut up, Scipio! We just won! We just won! I knew Harry –I mean, we would pull it off!" Ginny said blushing profusely after mentioning Harry's name. Scipio winked at her and grinned. They'd won the game and now they were off to celebrate.
**************************************Harry*********************************************
Who the heck is standing over me like that? He's got a big head . . .shaggy beard . . .big ferocious licking dog. . .
"Hagrid!"
" 'Arry! I thought yeh'd never come out of tha' dreaming state! I came tah watch yer match n' you try tah kill yerself? Some things never change."
"Hagrid, why aren't you teaching Care of Magical Creatures anymore? Don't you like teaching at Hogwarts?"
"Well, it wasn' really a matter o' what I liked and didn' like . . .I figured tha' maybe I wasn' really cut out fer tah job, yeh know, being tha' I've nearly been sacked twice now. Besides, the ministry reckons I'm a bit too rough with the lessons. They say I don' know the difference between a mad beast an' a gentle one."
"Hate to say it Hagrid, but they were probably right when they said that. You really don't know the difference between a mad beast and a tame one."
Hermione, Ron and Scipio came running over to Harry and Hagrid helped him get to his feet. When Hagrid looked at Scipio with a puzzled face, Harry explained.
"Son eh? Yeh look like him, sure enough . . .just those darn blue eyes . . .familiar though, they are." Hagrid said looking rather past Scipio than right at him. Harry knew he had something very important on his mind.
"Hagrid, do you want to take a walk? Around the grounds?" Ron asked, putting his arm around Hermione's neck, looking ruffled.
"Actually, tha' is exactly why I came here today . . .really wasn' for yer game, I'm afraid."
"That's just fine Hagrid, but do tell us what you need to tell us. It does seem rather urgent." Hermione said with a look similar to that of Ron's.
"Yeh hit the nail on the head, Hermione. This was really just for Harry but now I see why Dumbledore said I'd have tah go about this in a very gentle manner," Hagrid said, nodding in Scipio's direction.
"What do you mean?" Ron asked, scratching his head.
"Well, Dumbledore an' the ministry have been looking into Sirius's death for a few months now, an' it seems that the ministry was corrupting the investigation all along."
"Corrupting? What do you mean?" Hermione asked, narrowing her eyes.
"Well, yeh see, while we have our inside sources in the ministry, You-know-who's got some as well. Seems they purposely tampered with Sirius's certificate of death." Hagrid said, twiddling his oversized thumbs.
"So? I don't understand. . .they messed up the filing. . ." Harry asked looking quizzically at Hagrid.
"But you don' see, Harry. It makes all the difference in the world. According to yer statement and Professor Lupin's statement, Sirius was hit with a disarming spell an tripped behind the veil. The ministry put Sirius's reason of death under a killing curse."
"Avada Kedavra." Harry muttered, brushing his hair back with his fingers.
"Excatly. But there's a bit more, Harry. Somebody knew that Bellatrix had made a mess of things when she didn' kill Sirius. Yeh see, if Sirius had have been dead when he went through the veil, they would have had the perfect cover-up. But yeh see, Sirius wasn' dead. He tripped. So the chances are very likely that Sirius isn' dead at all. . .just somewhere –er in-between."
"Excuse me? In-between? Like in Limbo or something? So let me get this straight," Scipio said pacing back and forth in a circle. "My father could very much still be alive? Just stuck in Limbo somewhere?"
"Tha' is what it looks like." Hagrid said, looking downcast.
"So then, why doesn't somebody go back in and get him?" Scipio asked, pausing to look up at Hagrid.
"Well, not much is known about what goes on behind that veil. See, there's always that possibility that somebody could off-set the balance of earth and the otherworld or even get trapped in limbo with Sirius." Hagrid said cautiously.
"Well somebody has got to try! For god's sake, my father's stuck someplace he shouldn't be. What the hell are you people doing then?" Scipio said, getting into Hagrid's face, which was really a poor attempt because he only reached his chest.
"Scipio, I'm sure they're doing the best they can. I mean, if they knew what went on behind the veil, it wouldn't be in the Department of Mysteries, would it?" Hermione said, trying to calm Scipio down.
"Besides, I know Dumbledore. He's doing absolutely everything in his power to bring Sirius back, I just know it." Harry said brightly, though it was very obvious to see he was as distressed as Scipio.
"Well he must not be trying hard enough!" Scipio said, spitting on the ground and walking back to the castle.
Harry, Hermione, Ron and Hagrid looked on as Scipio ran back to the castle. Harry didn't know what to say that would make Scipio feel any better because he didn't know what to say to himself to feel better. Sirius was stuck in limbo because of him, after all. If anyone had to go back to get him, it would have to be him.
**************************************Scipio********************************************
"Professor Lupin I need to ask you something."
"What seems to be the problem, Scipio?"
"Are you looking into the prophecy at all?"
"Yes I am, Scipio, it's really no help that we don't know who your mother saw that day."
"I understand, but please keep trying. Whatever was in that prophecy, kept my mother away from my father."
"Scipio, I fear it wasn't that she wanted to keep herself away from your father, but rather keep your father away from you."
"What do you mean?"
"I think your mother got a death omen that day she saw the seer. Something about your death and your father were interrelated, there's no other motive."
"Then I think we really need to find out what this prophecy read. For my sake and for his."
Author's note: I'm so sorry it's taken me forever and a day to post this for you guys . . .I've been super busy lately, but I am still working hard. The deadline is looking like the end of August and maybe even September now . . .I'm working hard! Don't forget to R&R if you haven't already.