A/N: Thank yous to… FrankieBGoode: aw thanks! I will update, I will update… Prowling Wolf, Deppyfan, Mystical Iris: my wonderful beta, dedicated to you, Cepheus, Pensive Puddles, Jewel Valentine- I love you all.

And extra especial prizes goes to Kitsune-oni for being my 50th reviewer, dun dun dunnnn!!!  And SOOOOOOORRRRY for taking SO long real life is most stressifying and I was finding writing hard….apologies in their thousands and please forgive me!  Hopefully this chapter should make it up a bit..

 

 Chapter 7- The Quidditch Match Pt. 1

The sun paled against the overcast sky that was rapidly clearing to a frostily bright day.  It was nearly eleven and the fifth year boy's dormitory was silent yet only one of the bed's curtains was drawn.  James, Peter and Remus, unable to persuade their growling stomachs they were not hungry, had left James seemingly asleep.

With a tremendous amount of noise for just one person, Sirius stumbled into the room, and flopped onto his bed pushing the rest of his things onto the floor where they seemed to collect. Remus following with more reservation, went and sat cross-legged on his own bed and chewed on a piece of toast he had brought up for James.

'Oi!' Sirius yelled, after a few moments of silence and then directed a quaffle that was lying on his pillow at James's bed.  'Prongs you sloth, wake up, I'm bored.'

After a long silence as Sirius eyed James's bed, frowning distinctly at it, there seemed to be some movement from within the curtains.  The red quaffle flew out through the velvet aimed neatly at Sirius's head and was only stopped by his hand batting it away at the last moment. 

With a grin, Sirius bounded to his feet, and after beckoning Remus to him, he crept to James's bed and drew the curtains with a flourish.

'It's alive!' he shrieked, pointing at James's head that was poking from the top of the massive pile of blankets.  The black unruly hair stuck up at the crown and fell into his eyes but James made no suggestion of movement. He merely stared straight past both of them to somewhere on the roof of his four-poster bed.

Remus quirked his eyebrows at Sirius and went to sit down at the end of the bed where Sirius sprawled down on his stomach next to him.

'I think I'm dying' James said to that same point on his four-poster bed.

'Shut up, no you are not.'

'Yes I am Padfoot, and you'll be sorry you that you told me to shut up when I am.'

'Nothing could make me sorry for saying that to you, darling,' Sirius told him, examining his fingernails absently then looking back up at James.

'Now just get up…it's Saturday and you are going to be playing Quidditch this afternoon.'

Remus put his head to one side and then the other, sandy bangs falling down onto is forehead.  Looking down at the piece of toast he still held, he held it out in offering to James.

The black locks shook in rejection of the food, and James turned his head away.

'Can't eat, can't move. Never want to get out of bed.' 

Sirius shook his head and reached under the edge of James' pillow to bring out a packet of cigarettes and a lighter.  Putting one in his mouth, he told James:

'You know, these moods aren't going do anything for your complexion.  Honestly, how many times do we have to say it, you are not deathly ill, you are not going to die and you are not going to stay in this bed forever!'

With at first an appalled expression then a steely, disappointed look, Remus removed the unlit cigarette from Sirius's mouth just as he sparked the lighter and threw it onto the floor out of reach.

'Y'know Prongs, I heard something that might interest you,' Sirius said, removing another cigarette from the packet and lighting it in his mouth flippantly.  'I heard Lily Evans was going out with that prat Diggory.'  Yet again with a growl, Remus plucked it from between his lips and after stubbing it out on the wooden bed post, threw it away with the other one.

James's eyes narrowed and his head moved up from the pillow at a slight angle so his eyes could flick between Remus and Sirius suspiciously.

'You're lying?' he croaked.

'Yeah.'

'Well you shouldn't lie,' James said, letting his head flop back down to the pillow, his eyes resuming their half-lidded state as before. 

Remus decided to intervene; James as always, was being overdramatic to perfection and Sirius, despite his efforts when James was in one of these moods, did not help matters much.

'Look James Potter, you are going to get up now or we are personally going to carry you and drop you into the lake.  Now that will be one cold wake up call,' Remus commented, snickering as he glanced out the window at the Scottish winter.

Sirius grinned at Remus and went to pick up James in a fireman's lift to which he finally got a proper reaction. Struggling against Sirius's surprisingly strong arms James's blank visage changed to a horrified one and he shouted,

'Ugh Padfoot, get off me you completely idiotic idiot!'

'Sticks and stones.'

As Sirius retreated with a short burst of laughter at James's expression, James half fell, half stumbled out of his bed and eyed them both with extreme unamusement as they laughed, his hair sticking up giving him a wild, feral look.

'Ahh, I see you are awake, Master Prongs- excellent!' Sirius remarked, getting off the bed and stretching regally.  'Care to go promenading around the lake with us?'

James shot him a confused look as he went to pull on a black shirt and button it slowly.  'Promenading?' he asked hesitantly.

'Oh yes,' answered Sirius swiftly, knotting a red tie loosely around his own neck deftly.  'They do it all the time in Spain.'

'How cultured,' muttered James as he passed Sirius to reach for his robes with his wand inside.  Sirius raised an amused eyebrow and quickly grabbed his own cloak and wand.

'Come on you lazy-arses,' he yelled back up at them as he slid down the spiraling banister and landed smoothly, slowing his pace down to a walk and half turning to wait for the other two.  Remus had always wanted to try that neat trick of Sirius's but feared that it was not as simple as Sirius made it look.  He decided to make a mental note; for the next time he happened to be alone…

'Oi, stop daydreaming!' Sirius's sharp command was tinged with a humored edge as he beheld Remus and James clomping slowly down the steps.  'Come on Moony, you're nearly as bad as old Grumpy Gertrude there' he snorted.  'And that is saying something…'

'Hey,' James exclaimed, seeming to be grudgingly surfacing from his previous mood.  'Where's Wormtail?'

Sirius and Remus exchanged looks of bafflement then Sirius laughed suddenly and told them both,

'Oh I think we lost him somewhere around that missing step half whilst coming up from breakfast.'  All three cast their eyes down but each one noticed the side's of each other's mouths curving up in a smile.  Peter was the only fifth year who still forgot about that innocent-looking stair, half way up the staircase on the way back to Gryffindor tower.

Catching each other's eyes, all three burst into simultaneous raucous laughter.

Sirius took in a deep lungful of smoke and then exhaled into the frosty air blowing the smoke where it hung there before dispersing slowly into the surrounding atmosphere.  As they sat in silence Remus thought to himself how long his hair was becoming as he played with a tawny forelock then throwing it back flippantly and chancing a look at James.  He was brooding, not seeming to notice the collected ash on his fag end until it tumbled to the grass and his unseeing gaze was broken as it flicked to the disturbance with a hint of surprise and annoyance. 

Nobody spoke for the moment. The stillness of the landscape seemed only the surface; as the three boys sat, a head leaning against a hand or legs stretched out in front of him, they could sense the hum of nature, the deep groan of the trees. 

Prongs's acute hearing suddenly seemed to pick up on something a lot less natural.  He cocked his head to the side, a stray strand of charcoal hair falling in front of his eyes but he swiped it away swiftly with irritance.  Remus and James had also heard it by now: a female giggle…voices from just inside the trees of the forbidden forest, the scuffling of shoes on the carpet of leaves.  Sirius relaxed- whoever was in there, they weren't going to disturb. 

James went back to staring out across the lake, eyes narrowed as he silently stewed. 

'Hey Remus' Sirius interjected finally, his soft lazy voice punctuated with a small cough.  'You've dropped your prefect badge,' he gestured to the ground behind them.  The miniscule shield faced downwards, the golden underside glinting back up at the sun. 

Looking confused, Remus went to pick it up and then looking more confused, handed it to Sirius.  It was green, the letter 'P' gilded onto it in silver.  Sirius tossed the badge to James who caught it with surprise at the last minute and narrowed his eyes at the forest where they had heard voices just seconds before.  'Malfoy.'

Striding towards the forest, Sirius looked around with a slight upturn of one side of his mouth and took his wand from his back pocket and motioned for Remus and James to stay where they were.  James gave him a quizzical look and Sirius mouthed back,

'Pay him back for last Friday in the Great Hall,' at which James grinned and nodded, realizing the need for revenge.  Remus sighed and sat down, knowing it was no use to protest. 

However not a few seconds after Sirius had snuck silently into the forest than there was an abrupt girlish scream and he stumbled right back out again, covering his eyes with the crook of his elbow and whimpering. Remus and James jumped back from the scene, horrified as to what could have caused such a reaction from Sirius. 

'Padfoot, what the bloody hell is it?' James exclaimed impatiently with more than a hint of alarm.  Sirius seemed to be shaken from his current shocked state, and began briskly walking back towards the castle. Remus and James stumbled and ran to keep up with his hasty, determined strides.  After the endless please of explanation from the other two, Sirius finally collapsed on the steps of one of the entrance to the castle and muttered,

'It was Snape….he was…he was…' then hid his face in his hands, seemingly too distressed to say anything further. 

'He was what?' interrogated Remus worriedly.  'Was he doing dark magic??'  Sirius looked up confused and shook his head at this assumption.

'No it was worse…he was….he was…' he trailed off again and then with a wail, let out,

'He was with a girl!  A Gryffindor if I could see correctly from her robes!'

Remus looked relieved but James looked equally disgusted and put his hand comfortingly on Sirius' shoulder.  'I'm sorry you had to see something like that,' he said solemnly.  Then suddenly he looked alarmed and asked,

'Who was it?? You said it was a Gryffindor girl….was it Lily??'

'I don't think so, but it was dark so it was unclear.  She was very tall that's all I remember.  I just can't possibly think of any Gryffindor who would do such a thing.  You'll recognize her though, the way he was sucking on her neck she'll have love bites there that a simple spell will have a tough job of removing.' 

'Thanks for the lovely imagery, plank,' Remus gimaced.

The Quidditch match, on the surface was a "friendly" game before the matches for the house cup started, but was in fact to resolve a bet between the heads of Gryffindor and Slytherin houses.  This, had it been known, wouldn't have really mattered to the players and as it was also a fieldtrip weekend for some of the sixth and seventh years, there weren't a great deal of supporters come out to watch.

This suited James fine as he thundered about in the common room and grabbed his broom from the corner of the room, a dark cloud of gloom hanging over his head as he scowled around at the players gathering there.   

'Sirius, buck up!' James shouted across to Sirius whose legs were up on one of the sofa, his head hanging lazily off the edge of the arm of the misused piece of furniture.  'You're playing, we're missing a beater on that blasted fieldtrip.' 

Sirius was an excellent beater but generally didn't give in to such team sports that required exercise regimes and organized cooperation.  But for James, he nonchalantly dropped off the sofa and summoned his broom.  Catching the Quidditch robes tossed at him, he winced at the rather garish red he didn't suppose complimented his skin tone one bit.  But then again perhaps it would…

'Sirius!  We're leaving now idiot!' James shouted from the portrait hole and Sirius hurried to catch up, breaking from his musings. 

Remus, Sirius and James led the straggling Quidditch players out towards the changing rooms and quickly spotted Lily and a friend quickly walking up ahead towards the pitch.  James' eyes almost immediately narrowed in suspiciously on the Gryffindor scarf wrapped tightly round her neck.  He caught up with the two brisk walkers quickly and demanded,

'Hey Evans, take off your scarf.' 

She looked at him, taken aback at his surprise question and worried however she replied without much delay and with normal venom, 'No!'

His eyes widened at what this could possibly indicate and was about to ask again but was called back by the team to go into the changing rooms. With exasperation he shrugged his hands in the air and ran back to join them brooding furiously.  Remus waved goodbye to them and wished them good luck with a conspiratorial wink at James whom had not forgotten his task despite the excitement of Padfoot's discovery that morning. 

When the team traipsed to the field they emerged to a great hero-cheer from the Gryffindors (and a few stray Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws who would never have supported Slytherin) and a low hissing from the Slytherin crowd.  The Slytherin team then entered the stadium, the cheering from the banks of snakes just as enthusiastic and the hissing from the opposite side just as powerful.

They were a brutish lot the Slytherins, whom had seemed to grasp all of the rules apart from the rules involving fouling and blatantly hitting other players with their fists or broomsticks.  This was much to the despair of Madame Beech, the Quidditch coach and referee and she told both teams to 'play safe' with little expectation that they would. 

Sirius turned his head up from inspecting the twigs on his broom to catch sight of James gawking at one of the Slytherin players.  Hesitantly, he also looked in that direction and nearly dropped his broom there and then to see Snape (Snivellus!) wearing the keeper robes and sneering back at them.

This would definitely explain what had seemed at the time as a sacrifice for his house.  No, no- this was for personal gain. 

'Killed off the ordinary keeper, I'd say,' Sirius whispered into James' ear.  Sirius glanced over to where Remus and Lily were standing just behind the young yet severe Professor of Transfiguration recently joined wearing her normal high-necked, tartan robes and they couldn't yet see Snape's new position on the field.

The whistle blew and both teams launched off the ground and the red blur of the Quaffle flew past them, upwards in to the blue.

A/N: Thank you again for reading; I hope this chapter was up to standard. I personally like the James, Sirius and Remus interaction at the beginning hehe, I had fun writing that for sure .

Review to:

(a.) Witness the unveiling and embarrassing situation of the SnapeForestGirl debacle,

(b.) Find out what exactly happened to the ordinary Slytherin keeper,

(c.) See the Quidditch match: James' nifty chaser action and Sirius' unpicky Beater skills (you'll find ouuuut! )

(d.) Find out if James goes against his promise,

(e.) See whether Snape is in fact a good keeper,

(f.) Earn my undying affection and love (tee hee…)

(g.) Umm, sorry I'm lame, can't think of any more,

(h.) Tum tee tum…

(i.) Chocolate?

whispers in lulling voice You neeeeeed to press it…press the review button…..