Out of the Blue
Chapter 15 – Chaser extraordinary.
DISCLAIMER: Buffy the Vampire Slayer belongs to Joss Whedon, and Harry Potter to J.K. Rowling. I don't own anything…
RATING: PG-13 (T) to R (M) - violence, language, angst, horror, mild sexual interactions, etc. If you can watch BTVS/AtS and read HP, I doubt you'll have any problem with this story.
TIMELINE: Takes place after season two in BTVS, and during the marauders last year at Hogwarts.
SUMMARY: BTVS/HP crossover. Life sucked for Buffy Summers. After taking her refuge to LA, she had hoped she would finally have some of that peace the Hellmouth couldn't provide. She should have known she was hoping for the impossible. When she gets propelled into another dimension, her life changes forever - but is it for the better or for worse?
CENTRAL PAIRING: Buffy/Remus
OTHER PAIRINGS: James/Lily, Sirius/OC
Special Thanks to: My Beta - CharmedChick
"It's a bloody disaster, that's what it is!" James said, clearly upset. "I can't believe this is happening to me!"
"Calm down, Prongs, I'm sure..." Sirius tried to calm his friend down, with no luck.
"Calm down? Calm down? CALM DOWN?" James hissed, growing louder for every second. Everyone in the corridors turned to look at them.
"Sirius, we have our first game in less than three days...to be exact two days, twenty one hours, four minutes, and nineteen seconds!"
Sirius smirked.
"Good to know you can count," he said, but hastily backed of when he saw James face.
"Okay, no joking matter, I get it."
"Sirius, OUR TEAM IS ONE CHASER SHORT!" James bellowed. "We can't play with only two chasers!"
"Yes, you can!" Sirius said.
"Fine. I should have been more clear. We. Can. Not. Win. With. Only. Two. Chasers!"
"Yes, you can."
"NO, WE CAN'T!"
It had been almost ten days since Eliza had shown up, and she was slowly becoming a good friend to both Buffy and Lily. Apart from them, she also got along well with Sirius, James, and Remus (when Buffy wasn't there and glared daggers/played the overprotective not-girlfriend), although Peter made her feel slightly uncomfortable.
Today, James had assembled the Quidditch team for a last practice before the first game against Ravenclaw. To say it went badly was an understatement. The new keeper, Gregory Morgan, or something, was fairly good, and so were the beaters and the seeker. James was, in his own words, in "a form just as high as the Astronomy Tower", and the other two chasers were fine too. That is, until the end of the practice. A bludger, which the beaters hadn't been able to stop, had rammed straight into the head of one of their chasers, Mich Samuelson, and he'd lost consciousness immediately. He had been sent to St. Mungos, and they had just gotten word that he would not be able to play again for eleven months- this meant the rest of the school year.
"Someone up there HATES me!" James exclaimed, and fell down on his knees in the corridor. He was still dressed in his Quidditch-robes, and some of the students passing by gave him weird looks.
"Padfoot, please save me from this and take the place as chaser. I'M BEGGING YOU!"
Sirius looked amused. "Sorry mate. You know I suck as chaser - if it was a beater you needed..."
James looked like he was going to cry.
"Remus, please!"
Remus looked horrified.
"No way, James! You want to put me on the team? Okay, I may not suck, and I'm flying fairly well, but being a chaser - believe me when I say you're better without me!"
"Well, Wormt...no, forget it. Evans?" He asked, and gave Lily a pleading look when she passed him in the corridor.
"What?"
"Could you join the Quidditch team as chaser?"
Lily raised her eyebrows.
"You're kidding, right?"
James blinked.
"No."
"Why do you need a chaser?" Buffy asked curiously.
Sirius smirked. "There was a little accident at practice, and one of the chasers were literally beaten out of the game."
"Oh."
"Eliza?" James asked.
"Umm...no."
"Fine. That's it, then. I'm doomed forever. My last year at Hogwarts is going to be a disaster."
"Seriously, Potter," Lily said. "It's just a game."
"JUST A GAME? Evans, it's so much more than just a GAME!"
Lily rolled her eyes.
"Right... Anyway, I need to go- I wanted to talk with Professor Binns about an essay..." She hurried away.
Sirius shook his head.
"How someone ever wants to speak to Binns freely, I'll never know."
"Hey, Remus!" Buffy asked. James, Peter, Eliza and Sirius had gone to make some posters to put up on chaser-tryouts early next morning.
"Yes?"
"Are you any good at flying?" Remus blinked.
"Well, I guess...I can fly...and I'm pretty good at keeper. Why?"
"Do you think you could teach me this afternoon?" Buffy asked, and Remus stared at her. Then, he smiled.
"You want to try out tomorrow," he stated.
"Well, yeah. Just didn't wanna tell James, 'cause then he would have been throwing himself at my feet and kissing my shoes. Plus, I don't know if I'm any good."
"Well, you should be. Being the Slayer must mean great hand-eye coordination, good aim...and a mean throw." He grinned.
Buffy smiled nervously.
"I just need to keep my super-strength in check. It's not as if I want to kill my fellow players with the waff...I mean, Quaffle."
Remus laughed, and gave her a hug. Buffy felt warmth starting to spread up from her toes through her entire body.
"You're going to make the team, you know."
Buffy just smiled.
"We'll see."
"Okay, put your hand over your broom, and say 'up'." Remus instructed. He and Buffy were standing at the Quidditch-pitch, Remus was riding an old school broom, and Buffy had her new Cleansweep 9.
"Up!" Buffy said, and the broom flew up in her hand.
"Wow."
"Great!" Remus grinned from ear to ear. "You seem to be a natural already. And the broom agrees with you."
Buffy blushed slightly.
"Okay, now you mount it. A little more to the front, or you'll fall off once you're in the air...great!" Remus grinned again, and Buffy smiled nervously. Her hands were all sweaty.
"When I tell you, you kick off from the ground, and keep the broom steady. Then, you rise a few feet, and then lean the handle down slightly."
"What happens then?"
"Well, you should go back towards the ground."
"Okay." Buffy took a deep breath, and kicked off. As soon as her feet left the ground, she forgot everything else. This was great! This was freedom! This was...amazing! Somehow, Buffy knew exactly what to do. She raised the handle upwards, and the broom flew straight up, like rocket launcher.
"YIHAA!" She screamed, and then remembered what Remus had said. "Oops." She leaned down the handle a bit,but she must have done something wrong, because instead of falling back to the ground, she shot forwards like a canon bullet.
"Woah! Easy broom!" Buffy said, and leaned back slightly. The broom slowed down, and Buffy looked down towards the pitch, and grinned. She was awfully high, and Remus was only a little spot against the ground, but she didn't mind. This was awesome!
Then she leaned forwards again, at the same time as pointing the handle downwards, and she made a dive to the ground. She landed beside Remus, who was trying to scowl for not obeying him, but found himself grinning.
"I don't think we have to worry about you being good," he said, and then grabbed the Quaffle.
"Okay, I'm going to fly with you now, and we pass the Quaffle back and forth to each other, alright?"
Buffy nodded, and they both rose from the ground. Ten minutes later, Buffy thought she'd gotten it pretty well, and they moved on to some harder maneuvers, dives and tricks as they passed the Quaffle. Thirty minutes later, Remus called to a stop.
"Great! Now, let's try some scoring," Remus moved until he was placed in front of the goalposts, and Buffy tried to score on Remus during the following hour. When they were done, Remus couldn't stop grinning.
"James will love you," he said, and Buffy gave him a hug.
"Thanks for helping me out. You're a great teacher, Rem." She gave him a kiss at the cheek, and Remus blushed.
At 7:30 the next morning, Buffy got up to have an early breakfast. The chaser tryouts started at eight, and Buffy'd decided to just show up, but pretend she wouldn't fly. That way, she could surprise James, and if she saw someone better, she wouldn't even have to tryout and make James feel obligated to pick her instead.
She made her way to the pitch at 8:15. Remus was already there, and so were James and Sirius, and the tryouts had already started. James was watching all of them intensely.
"Buffy! Didn't know you'd show," Remus said, but winked at her. Buffy grinned.
"I thought I'd take a first fly after the tryouts," she lied. "My Cleansweep 9 really needs to be used soon."
Sirius yawned. "Did you have to hold the tryouts so bloody early, Prongs?"
James glared.
"We need to pick a chaser fast if we're going to get him - or her - in sync with the team before the game. There's only one day, thirteen hours, six minu..."
"...We get it, Prongs," Remus said, not really wishing for James to start rambling again.
"Where's Peter?" Buffy asked.
"He wanted to sleep...traitor." James muttered. "Is Evans here?"
Buffy smirked.
"Nope. She decided to sleep too. She doesn't start her classes until late, and let's just say I'm not the best roommate you can get. I've been babbling with both her and Eliza constantly when I can't sleep, but DD doesn't want me to patrol too often, or regularly. Could raise suspicion if I'm seen."
"Oh." James looked so disappointed Buffy had to laugh. It stopped though when she saw one of the ordinary players (Michaela Duncan) being hit in the face by a Quaffle from a boy doing tryouts.
"BLOODY HELL, DANIELS, YOU'RE TRYING OUT FOR CHASER, NOT BEATER!" James screamed. He looked close to tears.
"Let's just face it: I'm doomed."
"Not any good players yet?" Buffy asked sympathetically. Although she couldn't help but grin inside
"Well, the closest so far is Parker, and she made one goal out of ten tries. And at her last try, she crashed into our keeper, Morgan, when she couldn't come to a halt. It was so close it would have ended withMorgan as it did with Samuelson. I thought I'd have to sendMorgan to the hospital wing."
"Ouch." Buffy winced. "Well, look on the bright side - if Morgan had been out of it, then you could have replaced him with Remus."
"Yeah...what?" James blinked. Remus flushed, and gave Buffy a sour look.
"Remus. If it had been needed, he could have replaced him. He's a great keeper."
"Really? Why haven't you ever told us!" Sirius said. "Why didn't you tryout earlier this term!"
Remus flushed some more.
"I'm not that good. Besides, if I game ever occurred during a full-moon..."
James snorted.
"Please. Do you really think McGonagall would place a game during a full-moon if you were on the team? She wants to win just as badly as we do."
"I just don't like being in the center of things! And I'm not that good!"
"He's great!" Buffy said, and Remus glared. Buffy just smiled sweetly, and fluttered her eyelids.
"I'm sure he is," James said. "It's just like Remus not to tell us..." He frowned.
"Wait, how did you know?"
Buffy grinned.
"Well, he taught me to fly yesterday...and I practiced making some goals and stuff."
"That's great," James said absently, and then he stiffened. "Wait, did you say 'goals'?"
Buffy burst out giggling.
"Yes, James. Goals. You've got yourself a tryout-girl."
James looked like he wanted to hug her. Hard, so Buffy hastily backed a few steps.
"ALRIGHT!" James bellowed. "YOU'VE ALL BEEN GREAT, BUT WE WON'T NEED TO TEST ANYMORE PLAYERS!"
The people coming down to the tryouts left grumpily, and the ordinary team started to fly towards James.
"Umm...James. How can you know I'm going to be good enough?" Buffy asked. "Maybe you should test someone else before..."
"...No. Believe me, I don't. You can't be half as bad as those who were left. Quinn thinks he is an international Quidditch star - he always comes to every tryout, tries to do a wronskie feint, and ends up in the hospital wing for at least a week. Michaels...well, one little blow from the tiniest little wind, and he'd crash in the middle of the Forbidden Forest. Davies - could be good with a little practice: He's a fairly good flyer, but has yet to hit the goal within a radii of twenty feet. Believe me, Buffy, you can't be that bad. And you saw those from before - they sucked."
"James," one of the chasers, Michaela, came up to him. "Why did you stop? You can't have found a chaser among that bunch of idiots who tried?"
"Well, yes, Duncan," James said ironically. "I picked Daniels. What do you think? No. None of those who were left was any good."
"So there's only going to be you and me playing?" Michaela asked, a frown forming on her forehead.
"See, Duncan, that's were you're wrong. Let me introduce you to Buffy Summers. Buffy, this is Michaela Duncan, Duncan, this is Buffy Summers, chaser extraordinaire."
"She's better than you?" The keeper, Gregory Morgan, asked. James rolled his eyes.
"Of course she isn't better than me!"
It was the team's turn to roll their eyes, before they rose in the air, along with James.
Once they were up in the air, and started to pass the Quaffle back and forth, Sirius seemed to wake up.
"So that's why Buffy came down?" Sirius said, understanding dawning on him. "Not to 'take a first fly after the tryouts', or some crappy story about your broom needing to be used!" Sirius said, and Remus smacked him up on the head.
"You didn't get that until now?"
"Ouch! What did you do that for!" Sirius complained, and rubbed his head.
"Because you're so thick," Remus said sweetly.
Sirius glared.
"Well, sor-ry! I can't help if I'm not a morning person!"
Two hours later, they made their way up to the castle, all chatting idly with each other. Buffy had been great, and she, James and Michaela worked great together.
James was really pleased, and he was even more pleased when he saw Evans walking towards him along with Eliza.
"Hey, Ev...Lily."
Lily frowned. 'Did he just call me 'Lily', instead of 'Evans?'
Then she smiled.
"Hi, Po...James."
Eliza rolled her eyes, and grabbed Buffy.
"Buffy and Ineeds to get to Muggle studies," she said, and gave Buffy a look.
"What? I don't take Mugg...oh. Oh!" She said, as she understood. "Right. Muggle studies."
"See ya, mate," Sirius said, and followed them.
"Where the chaser extraordinaire goes, I follow," Remus said, and hurried to catch up.
James swallowed when he saw his friends disappear. Why was it so hard to talk to Lily nowadays? Earlier, it had just been 'hey, Evans, want to go to Hogsmeade with me?' But now it was so much harder.
A/N: Another chap up! Please REVIEW!
