Chapter Twenty Three
Stupid Peter!
After copying their homework everyone left the greenhouse and headed to Defense Against the Dark Arts. As James told Remus, Professor Greenleaf had an exciting lesson prepared for them, which was a surprise. They entered the Dark Arts classroom to find it completely empty. All the chairs, books, and desk, even the teacher's desk, had been removed. The only thing left inside the classroom, other than the professor, was a large suitcase. The class filed in and looked at the case lying on the floor. Professor Greenleaf stepped around it and gestured for the class to gather around it.
"All right everyone," he said cheerily. "Today we're having a practical lesson. Quite different from what we've normally done, wouldn't you say." The class looked at him like he was losing his mind. He was in a happy mood, for a change. "Now I have something very interesting within this case. The creature in this case is called a boggart. Can anyone tell me what a boggart is?" Remus raised his hand in the air. "Yes Mr. Lupin?"
"A boggart is a shape shifter," he said calmly, as though reciting the lines from a book, which he most likely was. "When it is released it will see someone and take the form of whatever it thinks will scare us most."
"Correct! Ten points to Gryffindor. If you can tell me how to banish a boggart Gryffindor will receive another ten points."
"Well... the thing that repels a boggart is laughter. We have to think of something that will make our worst fear less frightening."
"Right again, another ten points! Now as we are in a large group we have a tremendous advantage over this boggart. Because there are so many of us, it will not know what shape to assume. The incantation for a boggart is simply: riddikulus. Every one repeat that please." The class mimicked the incantation. "Okay, now since Mr. Lupin here answered the questions properly, he can go first."
Great, Remus thought. The only thing that really terrified him was a nice, large full moon, how was he supposed to make that less frightening. He tried to worm his way out of it.
"Professor," he said timidly. "I'd rather not..."
"Oh but you must!" Professor Greenleaf insisted. "Now I won't make you tell us what scares you, but everyone will see it! Now hurry up and think of a way to make it less scary." Remus searched far and wide in the contents of his brain, thinking of numerous ways to make a full moon less intimidating. Then a rather funny thought crossed into his mind. He remembered his father once telling him, when Remus was about five or so, that muggles thought the moon was made of cheese and there was a man living on it. Possibly he could turn it into a large moldy piece of yellow cheese and show a man eating it. Nah, that was kind of stupid. Well, what about putting a giant cartoon face on it? Remus thought to himself. Just when he was picking between one Professor Greenleaf told him he had had enough time and he had to start.
The professor opened the case and out came a silvery orb suspended in mid air. The class watched in wonderment, only four others knew what the orb was: Sirius, James, Peter and Professor Greenleaf. Remus glared at the orb, raised his wand and said, "riddikulus." On the face of the moon two large eyes, no nose and a big mouth with straight white teeth appeared. The face was smiling broadly and winked at Remus. He started to laugh and Professor Greenleaf called forward the next student. The boggart became a small flame of fire: riddikulus. The flame of fire was now running around in circles being chased by a fire extinguisher. Crack! The boggart was now a vampire, shining its fangs at the students. Riddikulus! The vampire turned into a clove of garlic.
Once class was dismissed Professor Greenleaf finished off the boggart (which was now a mummy tangled in its bandages) awarded everyone five points for tackling the boggart and they were free to go. James, Sirius and Peter headed to lunch, while Remus headed up to the hospital wing again. He hoped Snape had left from the last time he was there.
He opened the hospital wing door quietly, looked around and saw that Snape was nowhere to be seen. He grinned with relief and went over to sit on his bed. He opened his bag and took out One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi. He figured he should start writing his Herbology homework before his next class. He opened his assignment book and looked up his homework for that class.
"Read the chapter on Mandrake growth," he said, frowning as he chewed the tip of his quill. Remus opened up to page one hundred and fifty and stared a page with miniscule font taking up the whole entire page, with no pictures. Actually there was one picture, on page one hundred and fifty one. It was a very tiny picture of a Mandrake getting fed by the sunlight and wailing silently. This picture reminded him strongly of Peter's poor Mandrake, he wondered if it ever stopped crying, or if Professor Sprout was doomed to wear those earmuffs all day until it stopped. He read the chapter very slowly; he was so tired that the words barely penetrated his mind. The chapter was ten pages long and the lack of pictures made him almost want to skip the whole thing and shove the book back in his bag. But he restrained himself.
At long last it came time for Charms. He had to sit up there for two classes so he fell asleep with his Herbology book open and lying on his chest. Madam Pomfrey shook him awake and told him he had a class to go to. Remus put his Herbology book back in his bag, slung it over his shoulder and headed for Professor Flitwick's classroom. He entered the room and sat down next to Peter, who was hurriedly scribbling on a piece of parchment.
"What are you doing?" Remus asked.
"Finishing my homework!" he whispered nervously. "If I don't get this in it'll be the fifth homework I've missed! Can't I borrow yours?"
"No - and no begging!" Peter groaned and continued scribbling. Remus looked over his shoulder to see how much Peter had written. So far... it was only two sentences. One was the name of the homework and the other just said it was about the disarming spell. They learned more about the Disarming spell that day. They partnered together with their classmates, Remus with Peter and James with Sirius. Sirius and James managed to disarm each other perfectly, so did Remus, but Peter needed help from all three of them.
The next day was the first Quidditch match since the break was over. James and Peter were out on the grounds since class had ended, leaving Remus (who had been allowed to return to the common room) and Sirius to go and pass the time away until they got back. The two really did not have much to do, they had did all their homework in class and were not in the mood to work on the Map, so they just played Wizards' Chess all day until about ten o' clock when James came bursting into the common room. He was angry. He was cursing under his breath and stomping inside. The few remaining Gryffindors in the common room (other then Remus and Sirius) gaped at him. This seemed to bother James.
"Yeah, yeah mind your own business!" he snarled at them. He went over to Remus and Sirius, who were sitting in front of the fire with the chessboard, and dropped down next to them. "We're going to get killed tomorrow!" he whined. "Peter is terrible! He couldn't even get the quaffle down the field without a bludger hitting him. He almost fell off five times! Why did Finnigan have to pick Peter!"
"Well," Remus said reminiscently. "He could have picked me... but thanks to three people... I didn't get picked."
"Oh yeah," said Sirius. "That's why." The three of them knew Peter was terrible, he was the worst player since the infamous Adam Lansing (made the record of most goals scored on in a single game... nine hundred and ninety nine); if Peter did not improve they would never win the Cup. George Finnigan walked into the common room a half hour later and James literally ran towards him and begged on bended knee to suspend Peter from the match. George tried to keep a straight face while James pleaded that he wanted to win the Cup so badly and that he did not care if he had to make George throw Peter off the team to do it.
"Use Remus!" James suggested. "He's good, you've seen him!" Remus, who had been sitting on one of the armchairs with his nose buried in Hogwarts: A History, looked up startled. George looked up at Remus, who quickly hid himself behind his book again, and considered him. With great strain (because he seemed to have wanted to do the opposite of what he was going to say) George said
"Sorry James, we can't kick Peter out of this game unless he's injured – and don't go getting ideas!" George bid James goodbye and went to the boys' dormitory to start some homework. James walked miserably over to the seat next to Remus and slouched into it.
"We're going to be massacred! You saw Peter in the first match," he looked to Remus and Sirius for support. "He was horrible! He couldn't even hold the quaffle! If we lose this match we don't go to the finals and you know that not going to the finals means Slytherin wins!" True no one wanted Slytherin to win, if they did win all of Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and mostly Gryffindor would be terribly ashamed. But nobody on the team wanted to win more than their captain, George. He was crazed about this match, although he did not show it on the outside, it was definitely going to crush him if they lost.
"Well, look at it this way," Remus said thoughtfully, putting his book down on the wooden table in front of them. "As long as you keep the quaffle away from Peter, you won't have to worry about Gryffindor being destroyed."
"Yeah great idea Moony," Sirius snorted. "The only problem is that Peter can never stay away from the quaffle."
"Good point, Padfoot." James turned in early that night and Remus and Sirius went to bed not much after that. They all were anxiously awaiting the next day's match.
Spirits were high in the Quidditch stadium the next day. All the students turned up for the match either wearing scarlet for Gryffindor or yellow for Hufflepuff. The standings were Slytherin was already in the finals having defeated Ravenclaw the week before and Gryffindor and Hufflepuff would be the deciding match. Sirius and Remus were sitting in the front row of the Gryffindor stands. It was a cold, windy morning and all the students were wrapped in their cloaks trying to keep warm. Though it was near impossible for their faces to be. There was cheering for each team heard among the stadium and loud whistling.
The cheering lessened as Madam Hooch walked onto the stadium followed by the two teams. The captains shook hands, mounted their brooms and were off into the game. The Gryffindor team soared high over the Hufflepuff players as the quaffle, bludgers and snitch was released. James immediately went soaring after the quaffle, desperate to keep it away from Peter, as was his plan. Immediately James snatched the quaffle just as it was heading for Hufflepuff's chaser. He carried it towards the Hufflepuff goal post but was cut off by another chaser. He tossed it over to Gryffindor chaser, Louis Miller, who had pulled up to the left of him. Louis veered past the Keeper and shot the quaffle right through the hoop.
"Score ten to nothing, Gryffindor!" shouted commentator Frank Longbottom. The Gryffindor stands erupted into tremendous cheers as Louis did a lap of honour around the stadium. "Hufflepuff in possession of the quaffle. Fifth year, Josie Maxin has the quaffle and is soaring towards the Gryffindor end of the stadium. Come on get her- yes! Gryffindor keeper Adam Zecevich caught the quaffle... he sends it hurtling towards James Potter of Gryffindor – no! Quaffle intercepted by Hufflepuff! Matthew Clerk of Hufflepuff has taken the quaffle!"
The Hufflepuff chaser was swerving in and out of players on each team dodging bludgers hit by the Gryffindor beaters and threw the quaffle. It zoomed right past Adam (who was busy guarding the hoop on the right side) into the middle hoop making the score...
"Ten all!" Frank roared, with evident disappointment in his voice. The Hufflepuff supporters were roaring with marvelous cheers for their team. Remus and Sirius were yelling with anger... no way were they going to let Hufflepuff win. Quaffles were thrown left and right, bludgers aimed at players. All was going very well... Peter had not yet touched the quaffle and the score was seventy forty, Gryffindor in the lead. The George Finnigan sighted the snitch. It was swirling around the middle goal on the Gryffindor side. He urged his broom forward, putting on a burst of speed. Just as he was about to close his hand on the snitch to win the game Peter came hurtling into him and knocking George off his broom.
George fell twenty feet and hit the hard ground with a painful thud. The only problem was... just as George fell the Hufflepuff seeker caught the snitch. They won the game... Gryffindor lost.
The crowd emptied out of the stadium... all the Gryffindors mournfully. They were so enraged that they lost to Hufflepuff... they were the worst team in the whole school! They were extremely agitated with Peter. The Gryffindor team accompanied Professor McGonagall to the hospital wing with George. He had a large icepack on his back and had to lie on his stomach. George told the rest of the Quidditch team except Peter and James to leave. George told Peter that he should have listened to James and kicked him off the team when he had the chance. He did not believe that Peter, who had shown such great skill at tryouts, fouled up like that and lost the game for them.
"So Peter," George concluded, without the slightest sound of regret. "You're off the team. James go get Remus... tell him... he's on the team."