Believing in What You Will
Part Six: The Flying Boy Wonder

The day of the Gryffindor Quidditch trials dawned dismally. The team captain beamed at Peter when he questioned the reasoning behind holding them in the current weather. "The announcement said rain or shine didn't it?" He patted the second year on the shoulder. "Since we'll be playing games in all types of weather this will weed some of the weaklings out for us."

"Meaning me," Peter groused to James and Sirius.

"The trials are after lunch," Sirius pointed out. "The rain might let up by then."

The rain did stop before the trials, and it was sunny as the three made their way to the Quidditch pitch.

"Look at the moon," James pointed out as he squelched through the mud.

"It'll be full tonight," Sirius observed.

"It's too bad Remus couldn't be here," Peter mumbled. "I could use the support."

"You'll do fine," Sirius sighed. "You got better at flying over the summer."

"I heard two fifth years say they were going to try out," Peter squeaked. "What chance do we have against them?"

"The same as anyone else." James rolled his eyes, "Stop being such a sourpuss." Sirius felt this statement was somewhat unfair as James was the best flyer in their year and was sure to make the Quidditch team.

There was a clump of students in the middle of the pitch, and the three second years hurried to join them. "We'll be doing this by position," the captain was explaining loudly. "Since we already have a keeper and a seeker we'll be starting with the beaters."

The fifth years that Peter had been so worried about kicked off into the sky at that announcement. A second pair of students, who looked like a brother and sister, kicked off at their heels. The captain released the bludger's and everyone craned their necks to see what the four above them would do.

The fifth years both reached out with their bats to hit them in a domineering fashion.

"The other two are going to be bashed to pieces up there." Peter muttered. "They're being out done at every turn. Makes me glad that I'm not up there."

Sirius watched as one of the siblings, who looked to be in his third year, executed a three hundred and sixty degree turn to use his broom to bat the bludger away from himself. "Nice," Sirius said under his breath.

In the end, when the group touched down, Sirius decided that the whole lot of them were pretty well matched. None of them had sustained any injuries, though the fourth year, the third year's sister, was limping slightly.

"Good," The captain called. "Now for the chasers."

Sirius mounted his broom with the rest of them. He kicked off and took a place near James. The Captain floated up between James and Peter and tossed the quaffle to a Fourth year.

"Listen up!" He yelled so his voice would carry. "Everyone to my left is one team. Everyone to the right is another. Remember who is on your team, because it is important to this little exercise."

Sirius glanced around him, glad to see that James was with him.

"You'll be playing 'Keep Away,'" the captain continued. "So try to keep the quaffle away from the opposing team. On my whistle."

Sirius leaned forward slightly, though he wasn't sure what he was supposed to be doing.

TWEET!

Immediately the two groups rushed each other. Sirius hoped that the people on the ground or above them were making more sense of the chaos, because most of the time he couldn't tell where the quaffle was.

He paused briefly to search for James, who was in his element. James had no fear of flying and it showed in his form that he was in love with the activity.

Sirius was so caught up in watching his friend that he nearly missed catching the quaffle when it was thrown at him. He clutched the quaffle to his chest and flew as fast as he could away from the rush of students.

Hurtling toward one of the goal posts he frantically searched for someone that he could positively identify as being on his team. James suddenly burst from the crowd to fly alongside Sirius. Sirius attempted to raise his arms to indicate that he would toss James the quaffle, but James shook his head. James made a small jerk on his broom as if he had caught the quaffle before veering off to the right. Sirius caught on to the ploy and moved to the left. The group, assuming that James had the quaffle, followed the bespectacled Gryffindor. This gave Sirius time to identify a third year that had been near James at the start and toss the ball to her.

After some more minutes, in which Sirius found himself with the quaffle again twice, the whistle was blown and he gratefully set back down on the pitch.

"That was great!" James enthused as he rushed over to Sirius's side. "Mum said that she'd get me my own broom if I made the team."

The captain, who overheard the remark, laughed a little at that. "We'll be posting the new roster in the common room during the week." He yelled out over the crowd. "Thank you for coming, you were all great!"

A fourth year snorted at that platitude. "I couldn't even see the quaffle most of the time." He grumbled to a friend.

"Hey," the friend reminded him. "The one time I got the quaffle I dropped it."

"True," the first boy sighed as they moved out of earshot.

"Come on!" James said slinging his arm around Sirius's shoulder. "I can't wait to find out if we made the team or not."

"They said it wasn't going to be posted for a couple of days," Peter panted as he joined them.

"So?" James asked. "Doesn't mean we can't camp out in front of the captain's door until then."

"We'll most likely have class in between now and then," Sirius reminded him as they entered the school. "So you won't be able to camp out all the time."

"Watch me." James said stubbornly.

Sirius and Peter shared a mutual eye roll but said nothing.

A noise woke Sirius up that night. He grumbled slightly and rolled over to find a more comfortable position in which to sleep. As he turned he caught sight of Remus's bed as the moonlight illuminated it.

'How many days of school has Remus missed due to either his grandmother being ill or being ill himself?' Sirius wondered. It seemed like a whole lot when their second year was added to the days missed during their first. 'What kind of disease do they have that it keeps up in this cyclic nature? Obviously not a contagious one or Remus wouldn't be at Hogwarts, but shouldn't there be some magic or potion that could help them?'

"Maybe if I write down the symptoms I observe, and the length between bouts I can find something to help him." Sirius murmured as he dragged himself out of bed and toward his desk. "A detailed chart, and then if I fail to find the answer I can always get Severus to help me with this."

Sirius pulled a quill out of his quill box and wrote the day's date down on a scroll. He drew a little moon for full and wrote about Remus's behavior from the previous day. He eventually set the quill down and moved back to his bed, now that his strange urge had been satisfied he fell asleep with no problem.

When Sirius left for Breakfast the next morning neither James nor Peter was still in their room. James had gotten up at the crack of dawn and informed his roommates, rather loudly, that he was going down to the common room to see if the new Quidditch roster was up yet. Peter had left two hours later, he always timed it so that he got to the Great Hall right when the food appeared from the kitchens. Sirius had lazed about in his bed though. A part of him just wanted to sleep as he was still tired from the night before. Another part of him was waiting just in case Remus came back.

An hour into breakfast hunger overcame the desire to stay in the dorm room and Sirius had left his warm bed. James was still at his vigil when Sirius passed through the common room.

"I figure I don't really need to eat," James said when Sirius suggested that they go down to Breakfast together. "Especially not today, today is Peter's day." Sirius had shrugged and left him alone. Even a year or so had not given him enough time to discover the key to James's peculiarities.

Peter greeted him enthusiastically when he sat down at the Gryffindor table. "You have to have the porridge today," he said as he scooped some into a bowl for Sirius. "They've added something, but I don't know what."

"Oh," Sirius picked up his spoon and watched as the grimy food slid off and pack into the bowl. "Yummy."

Peter gave Sirius an expectant look. Sirius looked back. "Well?"

"Well what?" Sirius asked, unable to divine his meaning.

"Aren't you going to try the porridge?" Peter raised an eyebrow.

"I'm not really a porridge person." Sirius pushed the bowl away. "Give me toast and jam any day."

"No jam today." Lily grinned mischievously from her spot nearby.

"What about jam tomorrow?" Sirius asked blandly.

Lily laughed at him. "No fun if you've read the book!"

"Find another wizard born to try that one on," Sirius suggested with a smile. Lily returned the smile and handed him a jar of strawberry jam.

Peter shook his head as he dug into the bowl he had filled for Sirius. Sirius didn't comment, just picked up his toast began to put the jam on.

"I don't understand how you can survive on toast for breakfast." Peter eventually grumbled.

"I don't understand how you can eat porridge," Sirius returned. "Since we can't understand each other, let's just agree not to comment on the morning eating habits of the other."

Peter gave him a slight nod of agreement.

Sirius bit into his toast as the owls came into the Great Hall. He remembered James's comment from earlier about it being Peter's day. That meant that today was the day when Peter's mother was going to send her monthly care package. When she did this there were invariably two very sugared up boys in the Gryffindor dorms.

The previous month had seen James being held down by Remus to prevent him from emptying the contents of his chest all over the dorm room. Peter had merely burst into tears when he realized that Sirius really didn't want to play confetti with their History of Magic essays.

Despite the extremes that the two boys got to when the care packages came, Sirius enjoyed sharing his amusement with Remus. It was times like those when Sirius felt truly close to the other boy.

As the expected owl landed in front of Peter Sirius's smile slipped. Even if Remus was back in their dorms tonight there was no guarantee that he'd be in a condition to enjoy the others' antics. Sirius felt a slight pang of panic, he wasn't sure that he could survive the two boys alone.

'Remus,' he thought desperately. 'I need you to come back now.'

End Notes:
- Everyone looks at their screen. Taps it a little. BIWYW, Updated? Wow! It's a miracle! Let's just hope that no one ends up in the hospital. I've had enough of that with my relatives recently. - So, still sans X key for those following my little saga. It is a real trial. I really do depend on the letter, much more so than I would have thought. It is enough to make me want to stop using laptops.
- Anyway. I hope you enjoyed.
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