a/n: Happy New Year to everyone—I'm feeling lazy right now so notes will be in the next chapter! I hope you like this one—it was so much fun to write lol!
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, but I do own this lovely noisemaker! ::shatters everyone's eardrums by blowing into the noisemaker:: Hehehe…I can't wait to take this baby to school…::proceeds to go to her teachers' houses, waking them all up with her beloved noisemaker::
Chapter 17: Ravenclaw vs. Hufflepuff
Friday morning, Claire went downstairs to breakfast a little early. She hadn't slept very well the night before; Aquinas sure knew how to make a person feel stupid and regretful.
Every time she woke up last night, she had held the Rememberall in her hands, trying with all her might to remember what it was she had forgotten. But nothing came to her. As for the keys, well she had thought for a second that perhaps they were to open the Founder's rooms that she had found during her detention…but there were only three! Was it possible that the other key was missing? Or were the keys' purpose what she had forgotten? She didn't remember coming across any other locked doors...but then again, she had been rather busy since she'd arrived. It could have easily slipped her mind.
"Budge up, will ya," said someone small and feathery as they landed on her cereal bowl.
"Aquinas!" she exclaimed, nearly knocking over the jug of milk in surprise. "I didn't think you'd be coming down—I thought you were mad at me!"
"Well 'mad' wouldn't be the best word to use in the instance," Aquinas said, munching on the crust of Claire's toast thoughtfully. "I was thinking more 'disappointed' or 'slightly aggravated.' But mad? Nah…"
She hugged him.
"Lemme go! Lemme go!" Aquinas squealed, trying to get away. "If I'm not mad yet I'm about to be—!"
She laughed, "You know you love me, Quin!"
"I beg to differ," he said, brushing off his wings.
She ended her chuckling there and turned to the more important matters at hand. "Look, Quin, if there's any way I can make up for this…"
"There's not," Aquinas said solemnly. "The task is done."
"No, I don't mean change the decision I made. I feel I made a fine one," Claire explained. Her feathery friend rolled his eyes. "I just want to know if there's anyway I can make it up to you."
Aquinas looked shocked. Tapping his talons against the end of the bowl, he seemed to be thinking carefully.
"I'll stay out of trouble for an entire week!" Claire offered.
Aquinas looked skeptical.
"You mean it?" he asked.
"Yes, I do," Claire said, smiling at him. "I'll be good just for you! But there is one thing I wanted to ask you about."
"What's that?" Aquinas asked. "Did you forget which one is the salt and which one's the pepper again? Jeez, haven't I explained this to you enough times—"
"No," Claire said, leaning down to his level and lowering her voice a bit more. This was more for a dramatic effect rather than the fear of being overheard, seeing as the Hall was almost empty. "What did you mean when you said, 'when I'm not a little owl' or whatever it was you said?"
Aquinas seemed to pale underneath his brown and white feathers. He gulped.
"Well—er—that's really none of your concern," he said, rapidly stuffing cornflakes into his mouth. "I shouldn't have said that—it's just I was upset and I wasn't really paying attention to what was coming out of my beak—"
"C'mon, Aquinas!" Claire egged on. "We're friends! You can tell me!" She poked him.
"Ow!" he whined. "I fail to understand how you think poking me will help you find out what you want to know!"
"Sorry."
"And anyway, I can't tell you. Put it from your mind and don't ask me about it again."
Good enough. She finished her breakfast quietly and hung around to wait for Bethany so they could walk to class together.
Despite many opportunities arising for Claire to do a little "maraudering", she managed to do all of her homework, not make fun of the teachers, and even avoid Harry except for the occasional cheery, "Hello!" in the corridors. Aquinas seemed much more relaxed as the last weekend of the November rolled around.
Although happy to be back on good terms with her companion, Claire was simply dying from lack of excitement. She could hardly wait for Saturday, as another chance to see something only mentioned in very small detail in the books was coming around.
"Ravenclaw vs. Hufflepuff on Saturday, Bethie!" Claire reminded her friend Thursday in between Potions and Transfiguration.
"Yes, it is," Bethany commented lightly.
"Aww, why aren't you more excited?!" Claire said, skipping ahead of her a bit and shouting over her shoulder as they headed down a flight of stairs. "It's Quidditch!'
"Yes, it is," Bethany repeated. "But our House isn't playing in the game, Claire. I don't think I'm gonna go. We do have that History of Magic paper due Monday…"
Claire gawked at her.
"But the race for the Cup is so close!" Claire pushed on. "You can't miss it!"
"Sure I can," Bethany insisted, not even looking at Claire, "and if you were smart, you would, too. Anyway, I'm sure you can find someone else to hang around with at the game. I've left my book upstairs, I'll see you in class."
And with that she headed off towards Gryffindor Tower. Claire looked at her watch. Class was going to begin in less than three minutes, Bethany would never make it back in time! And she was usually always impeccably on time to all her classes…
What was up with her?
Aquinas flew over and landed on her shoulder. He had been gone on some "business" most of the morning. He needn't have lied; Claire knew he was off checking on Sirius.
"Is everything okay?" he asked, his eyes darting between Claire and Bethany.
Staring after her, Claire furrowed her brow and said, "I'm not sure…"
Claire rose before everyone else in the dormitory on Saturday morning, happy to see that the sun was shining. She would get a chance to see some real Quidditch today!
Aquinas stirred as she eagerly ran about the dormitory getting ready.
"Whatreyoudoinup?" he yawned in a barely comprehendible voice.
"There's a Quidditch match today!" Claire whispered, flopping onto her bed and pulling on her socks. "I've been looking forward to it all week!"
"Oh." He shut his eyes again.
Ungracefully slipping into her robes, she leapt across the bed and poked Aquinas.
"Buzz off!" Aquinas said irritably, swatting at her hand and nuzzling his beak into his chest once again to sleep.
"C'mon, Quin!" Claire said, laughing quietly. "Aren't you tagging along? You can critisize how bad the players are at flying! I woulda thought you'd enjoy that!"
Aquinas mumbled something into his feathers. Claire rolled her eyes, grinning as she said, "I can't hear you, Aquinas."
He put his head upright, not opening his eyes and lazily saying, "I can do that any old time. I need sleep. Go on without me."
Claire's eyes widened. He didn't want to tag along to keep an eye on her mischievous habits? Something was up…
"But what if I—oh I don't know—" Claire cast around in the dark corners of her mind for an idea. "—decide to jump onto the field and do the hokey pokey? Wouldn't you want to be there to stop me?"
"Right now the only place I want to be is La-La Land," Aquinas yawned. "Have fun at the game."
Claire shrugged and grabbed her hair brush. "I'll let you know who wins, then."
A few minutes later she headed out of the dormitory. The second her cloak swished around the corner, Aquinas's eyes snapped open. He sighed, got a quick drink from the basin on the window sill, and flew out into the early morning mist.
A short while later, Claire joined the throng heading out to the Quidditch pitch unaccompanied. It had been a while since she had been able to roam around the grounds without Bethany or Aquinas tagging along beside her, and she was grateful for the alone time. Even if she couldn't find anyone to sit with, she would be happy occupying a seat in the top-most stands watching the game. She patted the ominoculers around her neck and smiled, giddy with anticipation for the match.
"Who're ya bettin' on winnin' today?" some random boy asked her on the way into the stadium.
Claire grinned, remembering the exact page in the book.
"Ravenclaw. Hands down."
"Good answer," said the boy with another grin. Apparently, that was his House. He walked off before Claire could comment further.
Finding a seat wasn't an easy a task. Nearly the entire school showed up for the match because the race for the Cup was neck and neck. Almost every seat was taken. About to turn back to go look for a vacancy in another section, she heard someone calling her name.
"Hey, Claire!" someone shouted from the middle of the box. "Up here!"
Looking around for the speaker, Claire felt the color drain from her face as she realized it was Harry. The match wasn't written in great detail in the books…if she sat with the trio would that mess up some later event?
She couldn't think of any reason not to, and there really was nowhere else for her to sit, so she returned his wave and made her way to the empty seat.
Perched atop a Hufflepuff flag on the other side of the stadium, Aquinas watched as Claire slid into the same row as Harry Potter.
"Does she ever think?" he thought aloud.
Looking for somewhere else to cast his eyes, he looked down at the box closest to him and saw a shaggy black dog occupied one of the seats. He chuckled.
"Well, that makes two people that don't think," he continued to talk to himself. "Honestly, anyone could see him. It's bloody packed today…"
Sighing, he turned back to the field just as Madam Hooch threw the quaffle into the air.
"I was beginning to wonder if anyone in your year was coming," Harry said to her as she slid past Dean Thomas, who had shot her a rather ominous look as she shook his hand and said, "I've always liked you, Dean!"
"Why? Am I the only one that came?" Claire asked, looking around.
"Other than that Creevey git, yeah," Ron said from Harry's other side. "Apparently second years value sleep over Quidditch."
After greeting Ron, Claire looked around for Hermione, but didn't see her.
"Is Hermione doing homework then?" she asked. The boys didn't answer; they were too busy cheering as Ravenclaw scored their first goal. Claire cursed herself for missing it, and instinctively put the ominoculars up to her eyes and pressed the replay button, watching Roger Davies score again.
"Wow…" Ron commented, staring at the ominoculars. "Where'd you get those?"
"Um…" Claire twiddled her fingers on the sides of the ominoculars, trying to decide which excuse sounded more reasonable. "My aunt works for a company that makes things like this. She gave them to me last Christmas."
Harry and Ron exchanged quizzical glances. Claire stared at them curiously. It wasn't a glance you'd give a friend after Luna Lovegood explained her theory on thestral breeding to you, more like a glance you'd give a friend when you knew someone was lying…but they couldn't know that, could they?
Claire shrugged it off and returned to watching the game. She pointed the ominoculars everywhere, looking for the Seekers. Sure enough, Cho Chang and Cedric Diggory were circling the top of the game, casting around for the Snitch. But with her handy dandy zoom in knob, Claire observed that they were actually deep in conversation.
"She is so weird!" Claire exclaimed. "Honestly, she's up there making a date with Diggory when she's supposed to be playing Quidditch! Oh, I've never liked her, the little—"
"Who?" Harry asked.
"No one," Claire said quickly, putting down the ominoculars. She forgot that Harry and Cho hadn't exactly met yet…
Add that to the list of things to be changed, Claire thought while smirking.
"Hey, can I see those?" Harry asked, pointing to the ominoculars. "If you aren't using them, I mean."
"Oh!" Claire said, holding them up for him to take. "Sure!"
Instead of taking them, though, Harry merely put his hands over hers and peered into the device. Claire felt kind of awkward, wondering if he meant to do that or if he just wasn't paying attention. She guessed the latter, as he let go quickly, reddening slightly and mumbling, "Oh, sorry."
Claire laughed, taking the ominoculars off her neck. "It's alright! Here, take a look…"
Harry played with the ominoculars for a while, fiddling with the knobs before handing them to Ron, who did the same thing somewhat enviously. Claire felt a twinge of guilt.
"You have the coolest stuff!" Ron said, handing them back to her.
"Thanks," Claire said, unsure of what else to say.
The match proved to be very exciting. Claire's favorite part so far had definitely been the part where a Hufflepuff beater sent a bludger rocketing into Cho Chang's broomstick. She had managed to swerve in time so it didn't hit her, but Claire chuckled nonetheless.
"Why are you laughing?!" Harry exclaimed. "We want Ravenclaw to win! It'll put is back in place for the Cup!"
"I'm aware," Claire said, annoyed that Harry didn't think she knew what was going on. "I just don't like Ravenclaw's Seeker."
He cocked an eyebrow. "Why's that?"
"Bad vibes," Claire grinned, lifting the ominoculars to her face once more.
"Sorry I'm late!" said a voice, making them all jump.
Hermione had just appeared out of nowhere, sneaking up behind them from the other side of the stands. Ron had actually fallen over his seat into the row behind them he was so startled!
"Would you stop doing that!!" he snapped at her.
Hermione was fiddling with a chain around her neck as she replied, perfectly casually, "Doing what?"
Claire smiled and waved. "Hi, Hermione!"
She returned the smile. "Hi, Claire."
It was really something to have the three of them know her on a first name basis. She felt important and special, staring around at everyone else in the stands as if to say, I get to sit with Harry and Ron and Hermione because I am special! And who are you sitting by??
A couple hours later, Claire left the stadium with the three of them, arguing about the end of the match with Ron.
"He let her catch the Snitch!!" she said for the hundredth time. "Are you blind?! It was so obvious!"
"He did not! Diggory isn't bright, but he's not that dumb!" Ron pressed, making a group of nearby Hufflepuffs glare in his direction.
They walked back into the castle and into the Great Hall for dinner, Claire laughing and smiling more than any of them.
"They always stick me with the complete morons, they do!" Aquinas was saying to himself as he sat in the stands, watching Claire head back towards the castle. "It would be so nice if she would think once in a while—"
His thoughts were interrupted but a bark from behind him. His heart sinking horribly, he turned to stare into the eyes of a dog that had crept up in the seat beside him.
Sirius had heard him speak.
a/n: DUN DUN DAAAAAAAAaaa!!! How deep in trouble is Aquinas?! Has Claire changed anything without realizing it?! Are the readers catching all the hints the author is leaving in the chapters?! Or are they catching the fact that she really is writing this story with the third through fifth books sitting next to her, actually thinking about what would change depending on how she wrote the fic and using them for reference?! :-D I'll be back soon with chapter 18 and in there I will tell you "THE plan" for like when this fic will end and stuff—in correlation to the 6th book coming out and everything! I think you'll like it…Mwhahaha!