The Wolf of Change
Chapter 14 - More than a match
Remus woke up much earlier than he'd wanted to on Saturday morning, but once he was awake, he found it was too much effort to go back to sleep with the cold November light peeking round the hangings of his bed. He sat up and rubbed his eyes, staring blearily at the calendar he'd magically pinned to the wall above his head. Then he stopped rubbing his eyes abruptly and had to blink a couple of times to be sure he was seeing what he was seeing. "No way!" He whispered in denial, but the symbol of a full moon on Saturday 28th November didn't change. Remus' eyes flashed to the month. It definitely said November. How could I forget THAT? I've not forgotten the date in six years. Remus shivered then, as a thought struck him. Perhaps this is the effect of having friends. They take my mind off it.just a bit too much. He pushed back the heavy velvet drape and hopped across the cold stones to the trunk at the foot of his bed to retrieve his robe. The other boys were still asleep and Remus didn't feel like waking them up. He tiptoed over to the window instead and perched himself on the ledge. Remus sighed and looked across the snowy Hogwarts grounds. Hagrid the groundskeeper was trying to collect together a group of round puffskeins that kept bouncing away from him across snowdrifts, their pink tongues flicking after Hagrid's Newfoundland puppy, Bob. Looking further, Remus saw the Quidditch pitch. A group of red blurs showed him that the Gryffindors were already practising. He hoped the match wasn't going to last too long. He knew that Quidditch could last for weeks, and he didn't want to think about the effect that leaving early would have on his friends. They wouldn't believe a single excuse he could give them, he knew it. Peering down, Remus caught sight of a clump of twigs poking out from underneath the window ledge. He cringed, wondering how he'd get Sephine's broomstick back to her. Maybe if I just let it fall, a member of staff will find it on the ground and Seph'll just think it's fallen loose sometime. Remus had just closed the window and was watching the broom's long descent through the cold air when a creak and a groan alerted him to James' return to consciousness. Guiltily, he spun round. "Uhh, Remus? What time is it?" James asked groggily, stumbling out of his bed and cursing as his bare feet touched the cold stones. "Nearly half six I think. The team's already out practising." James snorted. "Half six is nothing. I've heard of Amos Diggory getting the Hufflepuff team up at four sometimes." He moved over to peer out of the window alongside Remus. "Four? That can't be any good for the players can it? I mean, if it's a long match and they've been up for hours before the start of it?" James shrugged. "I suppose I can see Amos' point. I would get up at that time everyday if doing that'd get me on the team." Remus raised his eyebrows. "You want to be on the team?" "Why not? Next year I'll have as good a chance as anyone - their current Seeker, Mundungus Fletcher, is in his last year." "I always wanted to be like Fielding Snipes." Remus said sadly. "You play?" James looked surprised. "Used to. I had an accident when I was young and it put me off it a bit," he said with a grimace, keeping his gaze firmly fixed on a point outside the window. James didn't seem to have an answer to this. He fidgeted awkwardly, then turned away from the window. Remus turned in surprise when his friend gave a war cry and leapt feet first onto the bottom of Sirius' bed, throwing aside the hangings. "Wake up, Si! The match starts in five minutes and Gryffindor have no Keeper! They need you, Si!" Sirius sat up, flailing his arms wildly. "What? Where? I'm a Gryffindor?" "Your team needs you, Si!" James shouted, flinging Sirius out of the bed. Sirius stumbled across the freezing stones, swearing. "What? What am I doing?" James grabbed a woolly sweater from the trunk at the end of Martin's bed. "Quick, put your Quidditch robes on!" Sirius had the sweater half over his head and had walked into several items of furniture before he suddenly stopped teetering and jabbering. "James?" "Yes," (snigger) "yes, Sirius?" "You ass!" Sirius shouted, hurling himself at James, the sweater still covering his face. Martin and Peter had been woken by now, and Martin glared around the room from between the red velvet drapes of his bed. "Okay. Which one of 'em woke me?" Remus shrugged and pointed to the feathery ball in the centre of the room, where James and Sirius were attempting to cause serious damage with pillows. Martin gave a yell and leapt to join in, pillows flailing in each hand. Remus looked across the room at Peter. "Breakfast?" Peter nodded. "Breakfast is good." And they edged round the other three boys and down the stairs.
* * *
"James, how did you get that feather there?" Lily asked in alarm over the table, reaching across to try and flick the feather out from behind James' glasses. "Ow, Evans, get off! You nearly poked my eye out!" Sirius snorted into his drink and orange juice spattered the table. "He nearly gave me a concussion this morning, the bloody idiot!" "What?" Lily turned on Sirius now. "After rudely awakening me." "Sirius, you so fell for that," Remus laughed quietly. Sirius scowled at him. "I did not." "Yeah, you did, Si," Peter grinned. "What did you fall for, Sirius?" Lily queried slyly. "He was running about the dorm, with Martin's jumper on his head, thinking that he was the reserve Keeper for the team and that the match was about to start." Now it was Lily's turn to laugh into her drink. "Hey, so we're all ready for this prank on Malfoy, right?" Sirius interjected pointedly. "Of course we're ready! Can't you see that we're in the mood for pranks today?" James shot an evil smirk Sirius' way.
* * *
"AND IT'S GRYFFINDOR 40, SLYTHERIN 70!" For once Terry Jordan didn't elaborate, as Professor McGonagall was looking sourer than ever next to him. "Lily, have you got your mirror?" Sirius turned round to face Lily, who was on the row above him. "No, Sephine's doing it." Lily said, gesturing to Sephine, who was making a big show of preening herself in the hand-held case. "You're gonna break it." Charlie said flatly. "Quite possibly." She replied, and held it up high in the air, in the same hand as a little Gryffindor flag. As she waved the flag the mirror caught the light and sent rays of light bouncing away. Across the pitch, Lucius Malfoy gave a start on his broom. He'd seen the Snitch. Mundungus Fletcher sped after Malfoy, determined not to let him get there first. "What do we do?" James hissed as the two Seekers got closer and closer. "I haven't got a clear shot at Malfoy!" Sirius shrugged. "Fletcher's an arse. It'll be funnier if we hit him too." So using the spells that allowed them to use their wands much like pipettes, Remus, Sirius, James and Peter fired on the Seekers. Most of it did actually hit Malfoy, but someone's shot also covered Fletcher's broomstick. Peter swore that it hadn't been his until he realised that they were giving him compliments, and then he grinned sheepishly and accepted that it had been his shot. In the air there was a moment of confusion, but then Mundungus looked down and even people in the lowest rows could see his eyes bulge in surprise. "What the hell's my broomstick?" He hollered whilst looking quite ridiculous as he hovered in mid-air, his hands tightly wrapped around nothingness. Malfoy stopped laughing abruptly and glanced at Snape, then at the Gryffindors. He gave a shriek of horror when he realised that he'd suffered the same fate as Snape had that morning, and he directed his stick to the ground, and out of the area. The frustrated yells of his teams' captain and the laughter of seven hundred students followed him. It wasn't until Charlie's exclamation of "Oh Jeez, Rem, how the hell did you get that," that he realised there had been some splash back of the potion. His scar was clearly visible through the invisible shoulder of his robes. Remus gave a start and tried to pull a non-invisible patch of cloak over it. "Quidditch accident." He muttered moodily. "Ouch." Sephine leaned over and peered at him. "What did you do? Fly into a tree?" "Yeah," Remus said, his moodiness slipping away at the prospect of any sort of attention from Sephine. But then he realised how. how wolfish that thought was, and he cringed away from her. "Yeah." He grunted. The last twenty minutes of the match seemed to stretch far too long as they waited for Fletcher to catch up with the Snitch on his invisible broom. He refused to come down, saying that he would catch the Snitch even if it took him three months to do it. Finally escaping the pitch at two o'clock, after a Gryffindor victory - 220 points to 130 - the entire school rushed to the dining hall for lunch. Remus ignored the odd looks he got for piling so much meat on his plate and finished as quickly as possible. He got up and looked pointedly at his watch. "Oh, look at the time! I've really got to go and see Professor Trugin about that cloak thing."
* * *
'Cloak thing'? He asked himself, sitting on the stairs in the Shrieking Shack and waiting for the sun to go down. God I need to think of better excuses. No, wait, who am I kidding? Better lies. He could hear the chatter of the upper school on their trip to Hogsmeade outside, tormenting him with their freedom. With a sigh he got up and went upstairs, going into one of the bedrooms and throwing himself onto an old four poster bed. Slowly, the darkness enveloped him.
Chapter 14 - More than a match
Remus woke up much earlier than he'd wanted to on Saturday morning, but once he was awake, he found it was too much effort to go back to sleep with the cold November light peeking round the hangings of his bed. He sat up and rubbed his eyes, staring blearily at the calendar he'd magically pinned to the wall above his head. Then he stopped rubbing his eyes abruptly and had to blink a couple of times to be sure he was seeing what he was seeing. "No way!" He whispered in denial, but the symbol of a full moon on Saturday 28th November didn't change. Remus' eyes flashed to the month. It definitely said November. How could I forget THAT? I've not forgotten the date in six years. Remus shivered then, as a thought struck him. Perhaps this is the effect of having friends. They take my mind off it.just a bit too much. He pushed back the heavy velvet drape and hopped across the cold stones to the trunk at the foot of his bed to retrieve his robe. The other boys were still asleep and Remus didn't feel like waking them up. He tiptoed over to the window instead and perched himself on the ledge. Remus sighed and looked across the snowy Hogwarts grounds. Hagrid the groundskeeper was trying to collect together a group of round puffskeins that kept bouncing away from him across snowdrifts, their pink tongues flicking after Hagrid's Newfoundland puppy, Bob. Looking further, Remus saw the Quidditch pitch. A group of red blurs showed him that the Gryffindors were already practising. He hoped the match wasn't going to last too long. He knew that Quidditch could last for weeks, and he didn't want to think about the effect that leaving early would have on his friends. They wouldn't believe a single excuse he could give them, he knew it. Peering down, Remus caught sight of a clump of twigs poking out from underneath the window ledge. He cringed, wondering how he'd get Sephine's broomstick back to her. Maybe if I just let it fall, a member of staff will find it on the ground and Seph'll just think it's fallen loose sometime. Remus had just closed the window and was watching the broom's long descent through the cold air when a creak and a groan alerted him to James' return to consciousness. Guiltily, he spun round. "Uhh, Remus? What time is it?" James asked groggily, stumbling out of his bed and cursing as his bare feet touched the cold stones. "Nearly half six I think. The team's already out practising." James snorted. "Half six is nothing. I've heard of Amos Diggory getting the Hufflepuff team up at four sometimes." He moved over to peer out of the window alongside Remus. "Four? That can't be any good for the players can it? I mean, if it's a long match and they've been up for hours before the start of it?" James shrugged. "I suppose I can see Amos' point. I would get up at that time everyday if doing that'd get me on the team." Remus raised his eyebrows. "You want to be on the team?" "Why not? Next year I'll have as good a chance as anyone - their current Seeker, Mundungus Fletcher, is in his last year." "I always wanted to be like Fielding Snipes." Remus said sadly. "You play?" James looked surprised. "Used to. I had an accident when I was young and it put me off it a bit," he said with a grimace, keeping his gaze firmly fixed on a point outside the window. James didn't seem to have an answer to this. He fidgeted awkwardly, then turned away from the window. Remus turned in surprise when his friend gave a war cry and leapt feet first onto the bottom of Sirius' bed, throwing aside the hangings. "Wake up, Si! The match starts in five minutes and Gryffindor have no Keeper! They need you, Si!" Sirius sat up, flailing his arms wildly. "What? Where? I'm a Gryffindor?" "Your team needs you, Si!" James shouted, flinging Sirius out of the bed. Sirius stumbled across the freezing stones, swearing. "What? What am I doing?" James grabbed a woolly sweater from the trunk at the end of Martin's bed. "Quick, put your Quidditch robes on!" Sirius had the sweater half over his head and had walked into several items of furniture before he suddenly stopped teetering and jabbering. "James?" "Yes," (snigger) "yes, Sirius?" "You ass!" Sirius shouted, hurling himself at James, the sweater still covering his face. Martin and Peter had been woken by now, and Martin glared around the room from between the red velvet drapes of his bed. "Okay. Which one of 'em woke me?" Remus shrugged and pointed to the feathery ball in the centre of the room, where James and Sirius were attempting to cause serious damage with pillows. Martin gave a yell and leapt to join in, pillows flailing in each hand. Remus looked across the room at Peter. "Breakfast?" Peter nodded. "Breakfast is good." And they edged round the other three boys and down the stairs.
* * *
"James, how did you get that feather there?" Lily asked in alarm over the table, reaching across to try and flick the feather out from behind James' glasses. "Ow, Evans, get off! You nearly poked my eye out!" Sirius snorted into his drink and orange juice spattered the table. "He nearly gave me a concussion this morning, the bloody idiot!" "What?" Lily turned on Sirius now. "After rudely awakening me." "Sirius, you so fell for that," Remus laughed quietly. Sirius scowled at him. "I did not." "Yeah, you did, Si," Peter grinned. "What did you fall for, Sirius?" Lily queried slyly. "He was running about the dorm, with Martin's jumper on his head, thinking that he was the reserve Keeper for the team and that the match was about to start." Now it was Lily's turn to laugh into her drink. "Hey, so we're all ready for this prank on Malfoy, right?" Sirius interjected pointedly. "Of course we're ready! Can't you see that we're in the mood for pranks today?" James shot an evil smirk Sirius' way.
* * *
"AND IT'S GRYFFINDOR 40, SLYTHERIN 70!" For once Terry Jordan didn't elaborate, as Professor McGonagall was looking sourer than ever next to him. "Lily, have you got your mirror?" Sirius turned round to face Lily, who was on the row above him. "No, Sephine's doing it." Lily said, gesturing to Sephine, who was making a big show of preening herself in the hand-held case. "You're gonna break it." Charlie said flatly. "Quite possibly." She replied, and held it up high in the air, in the same hand as a little Gryffindor flag. As she waved the flag the mirror caught the light and sent rays of light bouncing away. Across the pitch, Lucius Malfoy gave a start on his broom. He'd seen the Snitch. Mundungus Fletcher sped after Malfoy, determined not to let him get there first. "What do we do?" James hissed as the two Seekers got closer and closer. "I haven't got a clear shot at Malfoy!" Sirius shrugged. "Fletcher's an arse. It'll be funnier if we hit him too." So using the spells that allowed them to use their wands much like pipettes, Remus, Sirius, James and Peter fired on the Seekers. Most of it did actually hit Malfoy, but someone's shot also covered Fletcher's broomstick. Peter swore that it hadn't been his until he realised that they were giving him compliments, and then he grinned sheepishly and accepted that it had been his shot. In the air there was a moment of confusion, but then Mundungus looked down and even people in the lowest rows could see his eyes bulge in surprise. "What the hell's my broomstick?" He hollered whilst looking quite ridiculous as he hovered in mid-air, his hands tightly wrapped around nothingness. Malfoy stopped laughing abruptly and glanced at Snape, then at the Gryffindors. He gave a shriek of horror when he realised that he'd suffered the same fate as Snape had that morning, and he directed his stick to the ground, and out of the area. The frustrated yells of his teams' captain and the laughter of seven hundred students followed him. It wasn't until Charlie's exclamation of "Oh Jeez, Rem, how the hell did you get that," that he realised there had been some splash back of the potion. His scar was clearly visible through the invisible shoulder of his robes. Remus gave a start and tried to pull a non-invisible patch of cloak over it. "Quidditch accident." He muttered moodily. "Ouch." Sephine leaned over and peered at him. "What did you do? Fly into a tree?" "Yeah," Remus said, his moodiness slipping away at the prospect of any sort of attention from Sephine. But then he realised how. how wolfish that thought was, and he cringed away from her. "Yeah." He grunted. The last twenty minutes of the match seemed to stretch far too long as they waited for Fletcher to catch up with the Snitch on his invisible broom. He refused to come down, saying that he would catch the Snitch even if it took him three months to do it. Finally escaping the pitch at two o'clock, after a Gryffindor victory - 220 points to 130 - the entire school rushed to the dining hall for lunch. Remus ignored the odd looks he got for piling so much meat on his plate and finished as quickly as possible. He got up and looked pointedly at his watch. "Oh, look at the time! I've really got to go and see Professor Trugin about that cloak thing."
* * *
'Cloak thing'? He asked himself, sitting on the stairs in the Shrieking Shack and waiting for the sun to go down. God I need to think of better excuses. No, wait, who am I kidding? Better lies. He could hear the chatter of the upper school on their trip to Hogsmeade outside, tormenting him with their freedom. With a sigh he got up and went upstairs, going into one of the bedrooms and throwing himself onto an old four poster bed. Slowly, the darkness enveloped him.