Chapter seven: Meeting Hagrid and Davey Godgeon
Remus was out into the hallway and was just about to stop clutching his stomach and moaning when Arabella caught up with him. "Hi Remus!" she said.
"Hi," Remus said and smiled weakly.
"Are you ok? Why are you leaving the feast?" Arabella looked at Remus with concern.
"I got this awful stomach ache all of a sudden," he said. "I'm going to the hospital wing."
"Oh, do you want me to keep you company?" she asked.
"No, there's no reason for both of us to miss the feast," Remus said.
"Look Remus, we're almost there. I'll just walk you there and go back, ok?" Remus could tell he wasn't going to get her to leave, and he wouldn't have minded if he wasn't so anxious to get out of the school.
"Ok," he said. "Thanks."
They continued walking, Arabella asking how Remus' mother was doing (much better), how lessons were going (very interesting, lots of homework) and what his favorite class was.
When he said Defence Against the Dark Arts, she exclaimed, "Really? Me, too."
Just as she was about to explain all about why she loved that class, they reached the door of the hospital wing. "This is where I leave you," she said with a mysterious smile. "I hope you are feeling better soon."
"Thanks," Remus said, opening the door. He turned back to say goodbye before shutting the door, but Arabella was gone. Madam Pomfrey walked briskly over to Remus.
"It's getting a bit late, Remus," she said as she shooed him out the door.
"Sorry, but it was tough to leave the feast early. Everyone had to know why," he explained as they made their way to the front doors. "I told them I had a stomach ache and I was coming to see you. If my friends come looking for me, could you tell them I'm here but you won't allow visitors?" Remus looked at her stern face hopefully.
At this question, her face softened. "Of course, Remus. This must be very hard on you."
"I guess," he muttered. They continued their walk in silence. Remus went through his transformation without running into any problems and he returned to the building two days later. He slipped quietly up to the hospital wing, not passing anybody. He wanted to make it look like he was returning from the hospital wing, not the grounds.
As he entered the room, Madam Pomfrey looked up. "Oh hello Remus. You had quite a few people in here looking for you yesterday. Mr.s Potter, Black and Harris came in as well as Miss Evans and Miss Figg. They were quite mad that I wouldn't let them in, but they left you a few get well treats."
Remus looked at the table where she pointed and saw several hand drawn cards and boxes of candy. He smiled and said, "Thanks, Madam Pomfrey." He gathered his treats and walked out the door. Outside, Lily was waiting for him.
"Hi Remus," Lily said, smiling. "How are you feeling?"
"Much better," Remus said.
"I see Madam Pomfrey gave you our gifts even if she wouldn't let us in," said Lily a bit grumpily.
"Yeah, they're great. I was sleeping most of the time anyway, so I wouldn't have noticed if you were here or not."
"Well I would have felt better if I could have been with you for awhile." Lily smiled again and watched Remus closely as she said, "Arabella Figg was here to see you as well."
Remus looked steadily back into Lily's eyes and replied, "That was nice of her, especially since we've only talked a couple of times."
Lily reached out a hand to touch Remus' arm, when James came running up to them. She took her hand away, and Remus looked at her in wonder as James began talking. "I just heard that mean nurse witch was letting you out. Are you doing ok? The way she was acting made us think you were on your death bed."
"I'm fine, James," Remus said slowly, still processing what Lily had been about to do. "I just needed a simple potion and some rest."
"Speaking of Potions, did you get a chance to finish that paper that we have to turn in tomorrow?" Lily asked.
"Nope."
"Let's go up to the library and work on it after dinner then," Lily said to Remus.
Remus smiled. "Good idea, Lily."
"Sirius and I will come, too," James added. "Neither of us have started yet."
Lily flinched a bit, but recovered quickly and said, "Ok, James. See if Austin needs to come as well, alright?"
James nodded and Lily looked at her watch. "Oh," she exclaimed. "I had better get going, class is starting soon. Bye!"
Both boys said goodbye and headed for Herbology, where Sirius and Austin were waiting for them. Remus could hardly concentrate on the lesson as he wondered if Lily had been trying to get the two of them alone in the library. 'Why would she do that?' he thought, not wanting to get his hopes up that it was because she liked him.
As Remus was trying to think of other reasons Lily could want to talk to him alone, he was struck with a horrible thought. What if she had figured out his secret and wanted to talk to him about it? His panicked mind clung to this as the only possible reason she would want to be alone with him. Instead of being disappointed that James was intruding, he was very relieved. 'But at least she is going to talk to me before she tells anyone else,' Remus thought.
Finally dinner was over and it was time to go to the library. "I have to get my books from my common room," Lily said to the four boys. "I'll meet you in the library soon."
"I wonder where the Ravenclaw common room is," mused James aloud as Lily walked away in the opposite direction.
"Why?" Sirius said. "Did you want to visit Lily in the middle of the night or something?" He nudged Remus, laughing as James turned red.
"NO! I just wonder where all 3 of the other common rooms are, they won't tell us at all," he shouted, causing the whole hallway to stare at him. Luckily they reached the fat lady's portrait soon after. They quickly retrieved their books and papers and headed for the library.
On the way to the library, they passed Peter. James perked up and looked like he was about to shout out to him, but he stopped himself. "Sometimes I forget that he's left us," James said to Sirius. "He was our friend for so long before we came to school."
"I know what you mean, but what can we do?" Sirius shrugged. The group walked in silence to the library. They saw Lily already sitting at a table, looking intently at an open book.
James muttered, "Ravenclaw must be close by the library." Sirius heard and started laughing, but he didn't say anything in front of Lily.
"What's so funny?" she asked as they all sat down.
"Nothing," Remus said, looking around for something to blame the mirth on. "We were just..uh..."
"Planning our next great prank," James cut in.
Of course Lily begged James to tell her what the prank was, but he refused. "The less people who know, the better," he insisted. "You'll enjoy it much more if you aren't expecting it, I promise."
Lily wasn't happy about this, but she realized she couldn't change James' mind. Instead, she dove into her essay, working furiously. The boys worked on their essays, too, but at a much easier pace and with more laughs. Remus was also thinking about this prank James had been planning, and he was sure Sirius and Austin were trying to figure it out as well.
Much later, the old and creepy male librarian had to kick the group out when the library closed. "Get out," he wheezed. "I'm closing for the night, you belong in your beds!"
Reluctantly, they gathered their things and left the library. As the boys exchanged good-byes with Lily, she kept trying to catch Remus' eye, as if to tell him she wanted a word with him. Remus looked around nervously, trying not to let her catch his eye. He didn't want to find out what she knew about him. "Good night, Lily," he called out, while staring at the door across the hall. The boys walked away, leaving Lily looking quite mad.
As soon as they were out of Lily's ear shot, they all began to talk at once.
"What's this prank?" yelled Sirius.
"What is your plan?" said Austin.
"Do you think Ravenclaw's common room is over there?" puzzled James.
"Boy was she mad you wouldn't tell her your plan," Remus said at the same time.
They all looked at each other and laughed. James quickly said, "What did you say, Sirius?" He obviously didn't want to deal with more teasing about Lily's common room.
"I said, what's the prank you're planning?" Sirius repeated.
"Yeah, that's what I want to know, too," Austin said loudly.
"Oh, that...I don't have anything planned yet, I just said that to cover up whatever it was we were talking about." James went on quickly, not wanting to discuss why the others had been laughing at him. "But we do need to start planning something big."
They reached the portrait of the fat lady as James asked Remus to repeat what he'd said. "Oh..I just said Lily sure was mad that you wouldn't tell her your idea, that's all."
James looked puzzled. "You think she really was upset?" His puzzlement changed to concern as all three boys nodded. "Oh, I didn't mean to hurt her feelings."
Sirius slapped James on the back as he gave the password and they entered the common room. "It's ok, James," he said, "We'll just have to come up with something that will knock her socks off."
The next week or so was spent discussing ideas for the next great prank whenever Lily wasn't around, and trying to get her to forgive them for not telling. Remus was also trying very hard to not be alone with Lily. Several times she suggested a private study section, or a walk past the Whomping Willow, but Remus always found an excuse to get out of it, or to bring someone else along. Remus could see that Lily was getting a bit annoyed with him, but he couldn't stand the idea of her finding out the truth. If she confronted him with what she knew, he couldn't lie to her.
Luckily, everyone's attention was soon distracted by the last Quidditch match before Christmas. It was between Hufflepuff and Gryffindor. The whole school buzzed with excitement the morning of the match, Remus' friends included. At breakfast, Lily declared, "Even though you won't tell me your secrets..." Here she paused and looked at each of the boys. "...I'll still sit with you and support Gryffindor. After all, you cheered on Ravenclaw at the last match." She grinned broadly, showing her perfect white teeth.
Remus couldn't help but grin back, thankful that she was no longer mad at them all. 'Of course, she's still a bit annoyed with me, but I'll think of something to take her mind off of it,' he thought. Breakfast was soon over, and the whole school made its way down to the quidditch field.
At the match, amidst the shouting and cheering, Remus' mind came up with a great solution. 'What if,' he thought, 'I pretended to visit my mother when it wasn't a full moon? That'd throw everybody off.' Pleased with his thinking, he was free to enjoy the rest of the quidditch match. As he stared in amazement at Gryffindor's spectacular team, James was staring at the seventh year seeker with a look of longing in his eyes.
"Are you ok, James?" Remus inquired.
"Oh, yeah, I'm fine. I just wish I was playing," he grinned sheepishly at his friend. "It's silly, I know, I'll be playing next year probably, but I can't help it. I miss it."
"Ah, there's nothing wrong with that," Sirius said, as the crowded applauded an amazing save by the Gryffindor keeper, who Remus suddenly noticed was Arabella. "At least you were good enough that they wanted you on the team. As soon as I got to tryouts I could see I wouldn't make it."
"You'll play next year," said James confidently. "We'll do nothing but quidditch over the summer to prepare ourselves. And the quidditch World Cup is in France in July, we should see if we could get tickets."
Everyone agreed with this, but Lily's gasp drew their attention back to the game at hand. Both seekers had spotted the snitch at the same time, the problem was it was directly between them, and they were racing from opposite ends of the field towards each other to get it.
"Even if one of them catches it, they'll drop it when they collide," Lily said.
James couldn't speak, he was too wrapped up in the action, but he nodded. Remus didn't even want to watch, he was so scared of what would happen, but at the same time, he couldn't look away. The distance between the seekers was growing shorter and shorter. The Gryffindor seeker shifted both legs to the same side of the broom as she grabbed the snitch. In a split second she would collide with the Hufflepuff seeker, when she pushed herself off of the broom. The broom collided with a bewildered Hufflepuff seeker as everyone stared in amazement at the falling form.
Just as the seeker was about to hit the ground, all of her teammates had gathered in a large circle beneath her. The crowd gasped loudly as she fell into their 12 arms. As soon as they set her down, she began yelling and pumping her fist in the air. The crowd responded with deafening cheers of support. Even some of the Slytherins were applauding loudly.
James wore a look of awe on his face. "That is quidditch, mates," he whispered.
Remus had to agree that that play had to be one of the finest quidditch moments. "They have to have so much trust in each other," he said to James, "and they have to think as a team."
As James nodded, Sirius yelled, "Who cares? It was bloody brilliant."
The five friends laughed as they yelled and clapped and jumped up and down. They would all remember that day for the rest of their lives, not only for the quidditch, but for each other.
It took some time for the crowd to calm down enough to head back to the school, and as they went, they carried the entire Gryffindor team above them. As they neared the door, Lily said quietly to Remus, "Would you like to take a walk with me?"
Remus looked around nervously, trying to decide what to do. James and Sirius were already too far ahead to stop and take with him, but Austin still walked beside Remus. "Good idea, Lily," Remus shouted above the crowd. "Austin, would you like to take a walk with Lily and me?"
Austin shrugged and said, "Sure," as Lily gave Remus a look that could have killed him.
A relieved Remus, an annoyed Lily and a still excited Austin set off to walk about the grounds. As they got farther from the still noisy quidditch crowd, the heavy silence between them became apparent. Austin didn't know what was wrong, but he could tell something was up with his two friends. He tried to start a conversation a couple times, but was thwarted by one-word replies.
As they neared the Whomping Willow, their attention was caught by a group of older boys playing near it. They were running and yelling as some wiser girls watched from a slight distance. Lily called out to one of them. To Remus and Austin she said, "I know a few of them, they're in my house."
"What are they doing?" Lily asked one of the older girls, whose name appeared to be Violet.
"They're seeing if they can get close enough to touch the tree without getting killed," Violet answered. "Stupid boys."
Remus watched, mouth hanging open, as the boys darted around the swinging branches trying to get to the tree. As he watched in disbelief, there was a loud crack as one of the branches made contact with a body, which was now laying flat on the ground.
"Oh no!" yelled Violet, as a couple of the other boys dragged the body out of the way of the tree. "That's Davey Godgeon!" she shrieked.
Remus didn't know who that was, only that he looked older. Lily ran over to the small crowd that was gathering around Davey. "Stand back!" she shouted. "Some one go and get Madam Pomfrey!"
A couple of students ran off immediately, while Lily did what she could to make Davey's unconscious body comfortable. With her handkerchief, she carefully wiped the blood from his face with such compassion that Remus was overcome with emotion. He felt like retching as he realized that Davey wouldn't have gotten hurt if Remus had not come to Hogwarts as a monster.
As the crowd around Davey and Lily started to grow larger, the very large, but young, keeper of the grounds ran over to see what was wrong. This actually caused more of a panic to occur because the ground shook with every leap Hagrid took. One hysterical girl shrieked loudly until someone slapped her. Then Hagrid joined the group and it calmed down a little bit- at least they knew they weren't having an earthquake.
"Wha' happened?" Hagrid said as he struggled to catch his breath.
"He got hit with a branch trying to touch the tree," Violet sobbed.
Hagrid groaned. "Bloody idiot." Then he turned red. "Oops, forgot abou' the language, excuse me." He then joined Lily at Davey's side. After a short time, he sighed. "He'll be fine," he said loudly to the large crowd. "Ge' back to the castle."
Most of the students did as they were asked, but Lily did not leave Davey's side, so Remus and Austin stayed. Madam Pomfrey soon came tearing out of the building, running at full speed to reach her patient. She panted heavily as she performed a quick inspection of Davey's wounds. Then she magicked a stretcher to carry him back to the school with. "He'll be fine," she said, reassuringly. "I just wish we could apparate on school grounds. I could have been here much quicker." With these annoyed words, she took Davey up to the school. Lily stayed behind to walk up with her friends.
Hagrid, the huge keeper of the grounds, walked with them. "Don' know much abou' tha' tree," he said. "I spent par' of last term helping Ogg out, but the tree was planted over the summer. Got no idea how it works." He shook his head.
"Who's Ogg?" Remus asked.
"Oh, he was the Keeper of the Keys and Grounds at Hogwarts before I got to be keeper of the grounds. He'd been workin here as long as anyone could remember, he was here when I went to school, and my dad before me." Here Hagrid seemed to have got something in his throat, because he cleared it loudly before continuing.
"And when Ogg told Dumbledore that last year would be his last year, Dumbledore was kind enough to offer me the job of keeper of the grounds. Great man, Dumbledore."
Lily spoke up. "All he did was give you a job, what's so great about that?"
Hagrid's face turned serious. "Well, miss, I got expelled from Hogwarts in me third year, and no one wants to hire a wizard who hasn't finished school and isn't allowed a wand. Dumbledore is a big believer in second chances. A few people tried to change his mind about giving me this job, and the board wouldn't let me have the job of keeper of the keys. They didn't trust me, though Dumbledore tried to convince them. But I have work, good work, and I bet if I do well at this, they'll let me keep the keys as well someday."
Austin stared at Hagrid. "You got expelled?" he asked, shocked. "What did you do?"
"That's not somethin I want to be talkin about," Hagrid said sternly. "By the way, the name's Hagrid. What are yours?"
The three first years introduced themselves, and as they reached the entrance to the castle, Hagrid invited them to visit him at his hut on the edge of the forest sometime soon.
"Sure, Hagrid, we'd love to," Lily said, flashing him one of her gorgeous smiles.
Hagrid smiled back as they walked into the school. "See yeh soon, then!" he called out.
Remus was out into the hallway and was just about to stop clutching his stomach and moaning when Arabella caught up with him. "Hi Remus!" she said.
"Hi," Remus said and smiled weakly.
"Are you ok? Why are you leaving the feast?" Arabella looked at Remus with concern.
"I got this awful stomach ache all of a sudden," he said. "I'm going to the hospital wing."
"Oh, do you want me to keep you company?" she asked.
"No, there's no reason for both of us to miss the feast," Remus said.
"Look Remus, we're almost there. I'll just walk you there and go back, ok?" Remus could tell he wasn't going to get her to leave, and he wouldn't have minded if he wasn't so anxious to get out of the school.
"Ok," he said. "Thanks."
They continued walking, Arabella asking how Remus' mother was doing (much better), how lessons were going (very interesting, lots of homework) and what his favorite class was.
When he said Defence Against the Dark Arts, she exclaimed, "Really? Me, too."
Just as she was about to explain all about why she loved that class, they reached the door of the hospital wing. "This is where I leave you," she said with a mysterious smile. "I hope you are feeling better soon."
"Thanks," Remus said, opening the door. He turned back to say goodbye before shutting the door, but Arabella was gone. Madam Pomfrey walked briskly over to Remus.
"It's getting a bit late, Remus," she said as she shooed him out the door.
"Sorry, but it was tough to leave the feast early. Everyone had to know why," he explained as they made their way to the front doors. "I told them I had a stomach ache and I was coming to see you. If my friends come looking for me, could you tell them I'm here but you won't allow visitors?" Remus looked at her stern face hopefully.
At this question, her face softened. "Of course, Remus. This must be very hard on you."
"I guess," he muttered. They continued their walk in silence. Remus went through his transformation without running into any problems and he returned to the building two days later. He slipped quietly up to the hospital wing, not passing anybody. He wanted to make it look like he was returning from the hospital wing, not the grounds.
As he entered the room, Madam Pomfrey looked up. "Oh hello Remus. You had quite a few people in here looking for you yesterday. Mr.s Potter, Black and Harris came in as well as Miss Evans and Miss Figg. They were quite mad that I wouldn't let them in, but they left you a few get well treats."
Remus looked at the table where she pointed and saw several hand drawn cards and boxes of candy. He smiled and said, "Thanks, Madam Pomfrey." He gathered his treats and walked out the door. Outside, Lily was waiting for him.
"Hi Remus," Lily said, smiling. "How are you feeling?"
"Much better," Remus said.
"I see Madam Pomfrey gave you our gifts even if she wouldn't let us in," said Lily a bit grumpily.
"Yeah, they're great. I was sleeping most of the time anyway, so I wouldn't have noticed if you were here or not."
"Well I would have felt better if I could have been with you for awhile." Lily smiled again and watched Remus closely as she said, "Arabella Figg was here to see you as well."
Remus looked steadily back into Lily's eyes and replied, "That was nice of her, especially since we've only talked a couple of times."
Lily reached out a hand to touch Remus' arm, when James came running up to them. She took her hand away, and Remus looked at her in wonder as James began talking. "I just heard that mean nurse witch was letting you out. Are you doing ok? The way she was acting made us think you were on your death bed."
"I'm fine, James," Remus said slowly, still processing what Lily had been about to do. "I just needed a simple potion and some rest."
"Speaking of Potions, did you get a chance to finish that paper that we have to turn in tomorrow?" Lily asked.
"Nope."
"Let's go up to the library and work on it after dinner then," Lily said to Remus.
Remus smiled. "Good idea, Lily."
"Sirius and I will come, too," James added. "Neither of us have started yet."
Lily flinched a bit, but recovered quickly and said, "Ok, James. See if Austin needs to come as well, alright?"
James nodded and Lily looked at her watch. "Oh," she exclaimed. "I had better get going, class is starting soon. Bye!"
Both boys said goodbye and headed for Herbology, where Sirius and Austin were waiting for them. Remus could hardly concentrate on the lesson as he wondered if Lily had been trying to get the two of them alone in the library. 'Why would she do that?' he thought, not wanting to get his hopes up that it was because she liked him.
As Remus was trying to think of other reasons Lily could want to talk to him alone, he was struck with a horrible thought. What if she had figured out his secret and wanted to talk to him about it? His panicked mind clung to this as the only possible reason she would want to be alone with him. Instead of being disappointed that James was intruding, he was very relieved. 'But at least she is going to talk to me before she tells anyone else,' Remus thought.
Finally dinner was over and it was time to go to the library. "I have to get my books from my common room," Lily said to the four boys. "I'll meet you in the library soon."
"I wonder where the Ravenclaw common room is," mused James aloud as Lily walked away in the opposite direction.
"Why?" Sirius said. "Did you want to visit Lily in the middle of the night or something?" He nudged Remus, laughing as James turned red.
"NO! I just wonder where all 3 of the other common rooms are, they won't tell us at all," he shouted, causing the whole hallway to stare at him. Luckily they reached the fat lady's portrait soon after. They quickly retrieved their books and papers and headed for the library.
On the way to the library, they passed Peter. James perked up and looked like he was about to shout out to him, but he stopped himself. "Sometimes I forget that he's left us," James said to Sirius. "He was our friend for so long before we came to school."
"I know what you mean, but what can we do?" Sirius shrugged. The group walked in silence to the library. They saw Lily already sitting at a table, looking intently at an open book.
James muttered, "Ravenclaw must be close by the library." Sirius heard and started laughing, but he didn't say anything in front of Lily.
"What's so funny?" she asked as they all sat down.
"Nothing," Remus said, looking around for something to blame the mirth on. "We were just..uh..."
"Planning our next great prank," James cut in.
Of course Lily begged James to tell her what the prank was, but he refused. "The less people who know, the better," he insisted. "You'll enjoy it much more if you aren't expecting it, I promise."
Lily wasn't happy about this, but she realized she couldn't change James' mind. Instead, she dove into her essay, working furiously. The boys worked on their essays, too, but at a much easier pace and with more laughs. Remus was also thinking about this prank James had been planning, and he was sure Sirius and Austin were trying to figure it out as well.
Much later, the old and creepy male librarian had to kick the group out when the library closed. "Get out," he wheezed. "I'm closing for the night, you belong in your beds!"
Reluctantly, they gathered their things and left the library. As the boys exchanged good-byes with Lily, she kept trying to catch Remus' eye, as if to tell him she wanted a word with him. Remus looked around nervously, trying not to let her catch his eye. He didn't want to find out what she knew about him. "Good night, Lily," he called out, while staring at the door across the hall. The boys walked away, leaving Lily looking quite mad.
As soon as they were out of Lily's ear shot, they all began to talk at once.
"What's this prank?" yelled Sirius.
"What is your plan?" said Austin.
"Do you think Ravenclaw's common room is over there?" puzzled James.
"Boy was she mad you wouldn't tell her your plan," Remus said at the same time.
They all looked at each other and laughed. James quickly said, "What did you say, Sirius?" He obviously didn't want to deal with more teasing about Lily's common room.
"I said, what's the prank you're planning?" Sirius repeated.
"Yeah, that's what I want to know, too," Austin said loudly.
"Oh, that...I don't have anything planned yet, I just said that to cover up whatever it was we were talking about." James went on quickly, not wanting to discuss why the others had been laughing at him. "But we do need to start planning something big."
They reached the portrait of the fat lady as James asked Remus to repeat what he'd said. "Oh..I just said Lily sure was mad that you wouldn't tell her your idea, that's all."
James looked puzzled. "You think she really was upset?" His puzzlement changed to concern as all three boys nodded. "Oh, I didn't mean to hurt her feelings."
Sirius slapped James on the back as he gave the password and they entered the common room. "It's ok, James," he said, "We'll just have to come up with something that will knock her socks off."
The next week or so was spent discussing ideas for the next great prank whenever Lily wasn't around, and trying to get her to forgive them for not telling. Remus was also trying very hard to not be alone with Lily. Several times she suggested a private study section, or a walk past the Whomping Willow, but Remus always found an excuse to get out of it, or to bring someone else along. Remus could see that Lily was getting a bit annoyed with him, but he couldn't stand the idea of her finding out the truth. If she confronted him with what she knew, he couldn't lie to her.
Luckily, everyone's attention was soon distracted by the last Quidditch match before Christmas. It was between Hufflepuff and Gryffindor. The whole school buzzed with excitement the morning of the match, Remus' friends included. At breakfast, Lily declared, "Even though you won't tell me your secrets..." Here she paused and looked at each of the boys. "...I'll still sit with you and support Gryffindor. After all, you cheered on Ravenclaw at the last match." She grinned broadly, showing her perfect white teeth.
Remus couldn't help but grin back, thankful that she was no longer mad at them all. 'Of course, she's still a bit annoyed with me, but I'll think of something to take her mind off of it,' he thought. Breakfast was soon over, and the whole school made its way down to the quidditch field.
At the match, amidst the shouting and cheering, Remus' mind came up with a great solution. 'What if,' he thought, 'I pretended to visit my mother when it wasn't a full moon? That'd throw everybody off.' Pleased with his thinking, he was free to enjoy the rest of the quidditch match. As he stared in amazement at Gryffindor's spectacular team, James was staring at the seventh year seeker with a look of longing in his eyes.
"Are you ok, James?" Remus inquired.
"Oh, yeah, I'm fine. I just wish I was playing," he grinned sheepishly at his friend. "It's silly, I know, I'll be playing next year probably, but I can't help it. I miss it."
"Ah, there's nothing wrong with that," Sirius said, as the crowded applauded an amazing save by the Gryffindor keeper, who Remus suddenly noticed was Arabella. "At least you were good enough that they wanted you on the team. As soon as I got to tryouts I could see I wouldn't make it."
"You'll play next year," said James confidently. "We'll do nothing but quidditch over the summer to prepare ourselves. And the quidditch World Cup is in France in July, we should see if we could get tickets."
Everyone agreed with this, but Lily's gasp drew their attention back to the game at hand. Both seekers had spotted the snitch at the same time, the problem was it was directly between them, and they were racing from opposite ends of the field towards each other to get it.
"Even if one of them catches it, they'll drop it when they collide," Lily said.
James couldn't speak, he was too wrapped up in the action, but he nodded. Remus didn't even want to watch, he was so scared of what would happen, but at the same time, he couldn't look away. The distance between the seekers was growing shorter and shorter. The Gryffindor seeker shifted both legs to the same side of the broom as she grabbed the snitch. In a split second she would collide with the Hufflepuff seeker, when she pushed herself off of the broom. The broom collided with a bewildered Hufflepuff seeker as everyone stared in amazement at the falling form.
Just as the seeker was about to hit the ground, all of her teammates had gathered in a large circle beneath her. The crowd gasped loudly as she fell into their 12 arms. As soon as they set her down, she began yelling and pumping her fist in the air. The crowd responded with deafening cheers of support. Even some of the Slytherins were applauding loudly.
James wore a look of awe on his face. "That is quidditch, mates," he whispered.
Remus had to agree that that play had to be one of the finest quidditch moments. "They have to have so much trust in each other," he said to James, "and they have to think as a team."
As James nodded, Sirius yelled, "Who cares? It was bloody brilliant."
The five friends laughed as they yelled and clapped and jumped up and down. They would all remember that day for the rest of their lives, not only for the quidditch, but for each other.
It took some time for the crowd to calm down enough to head back to the school, and as they went, they carried the entire Gryffindor team above them. As they neared the door, Lily said quietly to Remus, "Would you like to take a walk with me?"
Remus looked around nervously, trying to decide what to do. James and Sirius were already too far ahead to stop and take with him, but Austin still walked beside Remus. "Good idea, Lily," Remus shouted above the crowd. "Austin, would you like to take a walk with Lily and me?"
Austin shrugged and said, "Sure," as Lily gave Remus a look that could have killed him.
A relieved Remus, an annoyed Lily and a still excited Austin set off to walk about the grounds. As they got farther from the still noisy quidditch crowd, the heavy silence between them became apparent. Austin didn't know what was wrong, but he could tell something was up with his two friends. He tried to start a conversation a couple times, but was thwarted by one-word replies.
As they neared the Whomping Willow, their attention was caught by a group of older boys playing near it. They were running and yelling as some wiser girls watched from a slight distance. Lily called out to one of them. To Remus and Austin she said, "I know a few of them, they're in my house."
"What are they doing?" Lily asked one of the older girls, whose name appeared to be Violet.
"They're seeing if they can get close enough to touch the tree without getting killed," Violet answered. "Stupid boys."
Remus watched, mouth hanging open, as the boys darted around the swinging branches trying to get to the tree. As he watched in disbelief, there was a loud crack as one of the branches made contact with a body, which was now laying flat on the ground.
"Oh no!" yelled Violet, as a couple of the other boys dragged the body out of the way of the tree. "That's Davey Godgeon!" she shrieked.
Remus didn't know who that was, only that he looked older. Lily ran over to the small crowd that was gathering around Davey. "Stand back!" she shouted. "Some one go and get Madam Pomfrey!"
A couple of students ran off immediately, while Lily did what she could to make Davey's unconscious body comfortable. With her handkerchief, she carefully wiped the blood from his face with such compassion that Remus was overcome with emotion. He felt like retching as he realized that Davey wouldn't have gotten hurt if Remus had not come to Hogwarts as a monster.
As the crowd around Davey and Lily started to grow larger, the very large, but young, keeper of the grounds ran over to see what was wrong. This actually caused more of a panic to occur because the ground shook with every leap Hagrid took. One hysterical girl shrieked loudly until someone slapped her. Then Hagrid joined the group and it calmed down a little bit- at least they knew they weren't having an earthquake.
"Wha' happened?" Hagrid said as he struggled to catch his breath.
"He got hit with a branch trying to touch the tree," Violet sobbed.
Hagrid groaned. "Bloody idiot." Then he turned red. "Oops, forgot abou' the language, excuse me." He then joined Lily at Davey's side. After a short time, he sighed. "He'll be fine," he said loudly to the large crowd. "Ge' back to the castle."
Most of the students did as they were asked, but Lily did not leave Davey's side, so Remus and Austin stayed. Madam Pomfrey soon came tearing out of the building, running at full speed to reach her patient. She panted heavily as she performed a quick inspection of Davey's wounds. Then she magicked a stretcher to carry him back to the school with. "He'll be fine," she said, reassuringly. "I just wish we could apparate on school grounds. I could have been here much quicker." With these annoyed words, she took Davey up to the school. Lily stayed behind to walk up with her friends.
Hagrid, the huge keeper of the grounds, walked with them. "Don' know much abou' tha' tree," he said. "I spent par' of last term helping Ogg out, but the tree was planted over the summer. Got no idea how it works." He shook his head.
"Who's Ogg?" Remus asked.
"Oh, he was the Keeper of the Keys and Grounds at Hogwarts before I got to be keeper of the grounds. He'd been workin here as long as anyone could remember, he was here when I went to school, and my dad before me." Here Hagrid seemed to have got something in his throat, because he cleared it loudly before continuing.
"And when Ogg told Dumbledore that last year would be his last year, Dumbledore was kind enough to offer me the job of keeper of the grounds. Great man, Dumbledore."
Lily spoke up. "All he did was give you a job, what's so great about that?"
Hagrid's face turned serious. "Well, miss, I got expelled from Hogwarts in me third year, and no one wants to hire a wizard who hasn't finished school and isn't allowed a wand. Dumbledore is a big believer in second chances. A few people tried to change his mind about giving me this job, and the board wouldn't let me have the job of keeper of the keys. They didn't trust me, though Dumbledore tried to convince them. But I have work, good work, and I bet if I do well at this, they'll let me keep the keys as well someday."
Austin stared at Hagrid. "You got expelled?" he asked, shocked. "What did you do?"
"That's not somethin I want to be talkin about," Hagrid said sternly. "By the way, the name's Hagrid. What are yours?"
The three first years introduced themselves, and as they reached the entrance to the castle, Hagrid invited them to visit him at his hut on the edge of the forest sometime soon.
"Sure, Hagrid, we'd love to," Lily said, flashing him one of her gorgeous smiles.
Hagrid smiled back as they walked into the school. "See yeh soon, then!" he called out.