Lesson Twenty-one: Three Cheers for Quidditch

The fire glowed brightly before them, illuminating the faces portrayed around the walls. Papers were strewn across the floor and on the coffee table all with the assorted subjects they could be taking on them, accompanied with a small overview of the class written beneath it. Along with assorted finished essays mingled within the mess, each had a different member of their small group's names on the top.

Remus sat back in the couch and glanced up at Slytherin's portrait image, which was scowling at him, apparently still holding the things he had said to the portrait earlier in the year against him. He returned the scowl and picked up his scroll of possible classes for next term and looked it over once more, slowly trying to narrow the list down.

Once he had reached the end of the page, he dramatically crossed Divination off the list. When his line had reached the "n" he heard the sound of papers falling to the ground. He looked up to find the source and saw Sirius frowning severely.

"My mother actually asked me about this during Easter break," he said simply, and at the silence continued, "Yes, she sent me an owl. I was shocked. Then I opened it and found that it was up to her usual standards in love." He scowled once again, more to himself than anything else.

"Did you write her back?" Peter asked softly, his quill hovering questioningly over Ancient Runes.

"I didn't get a Howler, did I? Yeah, I wrote her back. I put a simple 'no' on a scrap piece of parchment and sent it off."

Remus watched as James shook his head at Sirius' rant. "My only question is why didn't we get this during Easter? I mean at least then we'd had extra time to do this."

"And we'd use it if we had?" James stated pointedly. "We would have done it last minute just like we're doing now. Besides, the reason we're doing this now instead of when we were supposed to is Lamia and Kettleburn, who wanted to retire but couldn't make up his mind. Dumbledore needed to know what state the staff and classes were in before we could sign up for them."

"I don't see why that matters. Either way we'd have the same class options." James shrugged his shoulders before turning back to his own list as Sirius went on, "You know I'm right."

Then Sirius, too, turned back to his list and crossed something out. A moment later Remus heard him exclaim: "And why on earth is Muggle Studies required?"

Knowing it was rhetorical, Remus felt himself smirk as he jotted down on the form they had to turn in, "Care of Magical Creatures" before he opened his mouth, "Because of wizards like you, Sirius. You hadn't ever even worn a pair of shorts until you spent that month at my house. Besides it amazes me how many wizards don't know how to blend in properly with muggles, who, might I add, outnumber us." He finally looked up from his paper, "We need it."

Sirius glanced at Remus and just nodded, "Okay maybe we do, but you don't. You know this stuff."

"It's required. Plus it's an easy 'E' which won't be so bad after I earn a 'T' in potions."

They fell into a silence filled only with the soft scratching of quills against parchment.

Remus again read through the list he'd practically memorized and slowly scratched Ancient Runes off the list, mildly wishing there was a way to keep that without having his schedule so full. Then, he again went up and reread the page from the top.

"It has come time for you to pick new classes.

These classes will help dictate what you wish to

do upon leaving Hogwarts, so please, choose

wisely.

There will be a new class for everyone. Muggle

Studies will be added as a required course. This

means that you are left to choose at least one

other class for your leisure…"

At least one class. So it would be somewhat wise to take two, even if it did fill his schedule up a bit more than he would like. But then, odds were that his mates would only pick one. Yet, two would help, most likely.

He leaned backwards in his seat and felt his back crack all the way down his spine. He let out a low groan and stared across the coffee table at James who was sitting cross legged on the floor with his head practically on the table as he wrote on the application sheet what class(es) he had decided on. Then with an exaggerated sigh he put his quill down on the table. "I'm done," he looked down at his watch, "and I think I'm going to turn in if we want to hit the library before the Quidditch match tomorrow."

The others nodded their agreement and Remus jotted down "Arithmancy" under the class he had already picked. Then he too stood up, "What'd you pick?"

James looked over his shoulder as he had put one foot out the door, "Er, Ancient Runes and Care of Magical Creatures."

Remus' smiled, shocked that James had, in fact, picked two classes, only to gain a smirk from his friend and a hastened "goodnight."

Remus chuckled slightly to himself as he resituated himself on the couch. He listened to the portraits talk amongst themselves and Sirius grumble on that the courses weren't interesting enough, while he stared at Peter who looked as though he was only picking a lesser hell.

After a few minutes of silence Sirius merely closed his eyes and jabbed at the paper and wrote down what it landed on. Then he too rolled up his paper, shoved it in his bag, looked at Peter and said simply, "Just sign up for Divination, I'll help you with it." Then he looked at Remus with a shrug, "I'm taking Care of Magical Creatures as well."

Then he stood up without a word and walked out the door. Peter then looked up with a mildly nervous expression at Remus, "Should I sign up for two classes too?"

Remus shrugged his shoulders and then thought on it, "No, I don't think so." He sighed slightly before standing up, "Come on, let's go to bed."

The next morning the dorm room was woken early with the sound of clattering feet. When Remus opened his eyes he saw only two big round orbs hovering in front of his face. He jumped back and let out a cry that only earned a: "Don't worry it's just a house elf," from James.

Remus sat up in his bed and combed his hair slightly with his hand as he stared at the little elf. It was ugly, well if there was even such a thing as a cute house elf that was. It had big purple eyes and from the style of Hogwarts servile uniform it had on he assumed it was female. It smiled widely at him as it showed him a very scrumptious looking tray of food. He took a scone with a small "hi" to the elf before he looked around the room. Beside each of their beds was a house elf. Each equally eager to serve their charge their food.

"She's brought your breakfast."

He looked over at James. "Why?" Then followed it quickly with, "What time is it?"

"It's five o' clocks in the mornings, Lupey sir," the house elf before him squeaked.

"And if we want to get any research done, I figured the earlier the better. If we get out of here by six it'll give us a good three hours to work."

Remus merely blinked at him. Then he grabbed his bowl of cereal and began spooning food. There was no use in arguing- James had made up his mind and that was final.

As he ate, "his" house-elf continued to stare at him almost expectantly, which actually unnerved him but he said nothing about it to the little being, not wishing to offend it. When he had finished eating, he put on his clothes, which the little elf had picked out for him. Then he settled into listening to Sirius and his house elf (Askim) tell extremely bad jokes back and forth, involving a mandrake, troll and a pink tutu, until James finally proclaimed that they should head out because the rest of there house should be waking and heading down to breakfast at a normal time, which meant that the library would be open. James bid farewell to the house elves and Remus distinctly heard questionable muttering coming from their fellow classmates that were leaving their rooms and had seen them walk by with the elves.

James followed Askim out to the library gaining an amused yet inquisitive look from Christopher Weasley as he watched them follow the parade of house elves out of the fairly unpopulated common room. Once they had officially gotten rid of the house elves, who were reluctant to leave after having heard about what they were doing and had offered much of there assistance, they entered the library alone.

When they entered they saw Madam Pince, who looked as if she'd been struck down by some higher power or had perhaps just seen a Grim, Sirius smiled cheerily at her as they passed making Remus smirk slightly. This had become somewhat of a joke to Sirius; be as nice to the old bat as possible to either annoy her until she threw them out of the library for the rest of the semester or confuse her into leaving them alone. Just the other day, he had blown a series of kisses at her and the day before that he'd acted as if she were the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. Despite it being a truly hazardous decision, it was still rather funny.

Remus wandered to the back shelf and pulled out the paper he had last left off with which was dated June 13, 1945. He'd gotten nowhere, the same as the rest of the group, but that didn't appear to be good enough of a reason to stop. He casually glanced over at James' paper.

November 9, 1965.

He felt a chill set once again in his stomach but ignored it as he had been for the last week, thinking eventually his brain would overrule his conscious and let him be. He flipped the page to his own paper, pushing that thought to the side as he dived into pointless news and obituaries of the past.

And so it went for the next three hours. With no real discussions between the four friends, only the sound of rustling ancient pages until finally James looked down at his watch. "Erft, Sirius, we have to go, or we'll be late."

"We can't have that now, can we?" Sirius said rather blankly before he looked up and folded up his paper. "Cooper would loose his head." He then made a gesture that gave one the image of their beloved captain literally losing his head. He then winked at them before he stood up and followed James out of the library.

Remus heard Sirius say something overly sweet about Madam Pince's makeup (she never wore any) and chuckled slightly as he stood up to put the finished paper back in its spot. When he turned back, Peter had his things packed up neatly and was looking at him nervously. Remus smiled slightly realizing that he rarely spent any time alone with Peter and suddenly understood that he would probably end up spending more time like this as the years went on.

"Do you think we'll need our cloaks for the match?" Remus asked simply to fill the void between them.

Peter shuffled his feet slightly before answering. "No, the last match for Hufflepuff and Slytherin, when you were sick," he added, the tone in his voice was cold and Remus couldn't hide his surprise. Then Peter finished more cheerfully, "we barely needed our cloaks at all, and it's sunny so…"

Remus nodded, still disturbed by what he could only say was Peter's apparent disturbance with… with him. He felt his brow furrow as he looked ahead at his sandy haired friend. What had he done? Had he been mean to him, hurt his feelings somehow when he was with the group? That couldn't be, he was always nice. Then it had to be-

"Snickerdoodles."

Remus snapped back to reality and followed Peter through the portrait hole. Inside, the common room was full, bustling with life as his fellow house mates traipsed around the room with clothing that matched the interior of the room. He smiled as he uttered continuous "pardon me's" to the people he passed as he made his way to their dorm. When he finally got to his room he dropped his books on his bed and proudly took off his shirt and exchanged it for the one Gryffindor one he owned. "It's mad down there! Is it always like that?"

Peter looked up from his trunk with a banner clenched in his teeth and his hands full of what looked like Sirius' filibuster fireworks. He quickly spit out the banner, "Yeah, it's really cool. I think we've got the rowdiest fans. And everyone really seems to like James and Sirius."

Remus grinned back at him, glad to hear the enthusiasm in his friend's voice. "Do the girls always make their own shirts?"

Peter seemed to think for a bit. "Yeah, they always have a different style." Then he pocketed the fireworks. "We have to go now. Sirius said we have to have front row seats."

Remus didn't bother to ask why, figuring he deserved good seats having missed out on every Gryffindor match this year due to his Lycanthropy. He once again followed Peter back out the door and out of the common room. Settling into friendly chatter, quickly forgetting about his earlier thoughts, as they headed towards the pitch. Once inside they sat down in the seats that were in the front, luckily enough, for the stadium was filling rather quickly.

Remus half ignored what Peter said, not meaning to, but unknowingly letting it happen as he took in the commotion around him. Taking in all of the banners hanging flatteringly on the other side promoting the Ravenclaw seeker, Cleo Christianson. Or the Weasleys behind him, who were happily throwing red and gold confetti, making his shirt look like a costume designer's grand opus. He smiled widely as the Gryffindors around him began to chant their praises, attempting to out blast their fellow Ravenclaws.

After a few minutes of neglect Peter went quiet, only speaking to point out certain things he thought funny, like the group of girls to their right that were making up cheers off the top of their heads for their favorite player. Remus couldn't help but chuckle when he heard them start chanting about Sirius, knowing full-well that these girls ranged from third to fifth years. When they started up again with the next player of choice, he heard a groan come from behind him. He turned around only to gain a face full of confetti. He spit some of the stray pieces out of his mouth, "Thanks for that Chris."

"It's no problem, really."

Remus only laughed before he turned to the groaner, "Lily."

"Remus."

Chris decided then to chime in, "She's being a party pooper."

"Is she now" he replied knowing full well that he sounded like an amused parent, "What's bothering you?"

"Nothing. I'd rather just watch the game then hear them go on about how they rate the players in looks."

"I see. Well, they're just having fun. I see no harm in it."

"It's annoying."

"And so are you at the moment," Chris stated, only to earn a glare filled with fire from Lily.

Once again Remus could only laugh at her apparent unhappiness before he heard the crowd around him go wild, followed by Peter pulling on his shirt to gain his full attention. He turned obediently before he looked down at the stadium while the players exited the hallway that lead to their locker rooms. The girls beside them cheered even more loudly as the two teams walked out to the middle of the field.

"Mount your brooms!" Madam Hooch hollered.

The players did as they were told and, upon the blow of her whistle, were off. The cheers around him instantly became so loud that useless chatter between friends became impossible. Forcing everyone, whether they truly wanted to or not, to watch the game. No sooner had the players made one back and forth motion down the field there was a thunderous crack heard throughout the pitch, followed quickly by assorted gasps and "oohs."

"Oh my god!" Remus heard come from Lily as he stared wide-eyed at the pitch.

The sound of the Bludger coming in contact with the young Ravenclaw's skull was reminiscent of a tough watermelon falling on pavement, and the look of her afterward, in Remus' opinion, was about the same. The sound of Madam Hooch's whistle sounded as if it had been joined by a chorus of fifty of its brothers, and the crowd in the stands seemed to take a step forward in unison for a closer look.

"Penalty Gryffindor."

No cheers or boos greeted the announcement.

"Five throws for Ravenclaw."

At that Remus watched as Sirius flew towards Madam Hooch completely red in the face. He was screaming words no one in the stands could hear but Remus could just imagine what his friend was saying as the Ravenclaws ushered Cleo off of the field. I was just playing the game! So what if her head got in the way, it's part of the game! She should have been looking… were only a few of the things Remus could fill in as his friend went on at the referee.

"Another penalty for Gryffindor!"

This time James flew down along with the captain, but rather than yelling at Hooch they simply pulled the steaming Sirius away before he did anymore damage. Moments later, though, the game continued. However, the after affects of Sirius' fine job as Beater was echoed around the stadium.

"We haven't got a seeker. That's hardly fair. We can't win now!"

Taylor Way flew up in front of Cooper to take the penalty shots. Then with the air of someone mourning the loss of a loved one he simply threw, in what seemed a half-hearted nature, the Quaffle. It soared and whether due to cockiness or mere stupidity Cooper missed the save and the ball went in. The Ravenclaws were in an uproar, and as if to dampen the Gryffindors mood a little more, Cooper proceeded to miss the next four throws before he finally got his act together.

When the last ball fell into Cooper's hand, he smiled as if surprised and tossed it to James who caught it with ease. Remus watched James tear down the field, occasionally tossing the ball to a teammate only to earn it back, every time, a moment later. He cheered openly with the self-proclaimed cheerleaders, as did everyone else around him, while Gryffindor managed their first real score.

"Quite the mean streak Sirius Black has."

Remus turned at the sound of the voice and frowned at the person his eyes had fallen on, "Kara."

She ignored the coldness in his tone and went on, "He could have killed her."

Remus looked at her as the crowd around him cheered wildly, "Yeah, but he didn't. Besides he was only playing the game." He was amazed that the words had come out of his mouth. And by the look Kara was giving him, she was too.

"Oh, now you stand up for everything they do. Nice Remus. Real Nice."

He glared at her wishing he knew some sort of spell to make her disappear. Since he knew no such spell, he simply attempted to ignore the comment. "That's not what you came over to talk about so just spit it out, will you. That way we can all go on our merry way and ignore each other like usual."

She looked hurt by the comment for a moment but it quickly dissipated and her eyes took on a glacial appearance, which made it impossible for Remus to tell what she was thinking. Or, for that matter, what she was feeling. He hated that look with a passion.

"Alright then, if you insist. I saw you in the library this morning looking through those old papers-"

"Great then, care to join us sometime?"

She glared at him, "No, I don't. Actually, I'd prefer it if you'd stop!"

"I'll stop when you tell them. Which you won't, so this is really quite pointless."

"God Remus! This isn't their problem. Hell! It's not even yours! So stop acting like it is!"

"Then you should stop coming to me every time you have a problem with it!"

She fell silent and Remus was suddenly aware of the people around him. Like Lily watching him rather than the game. Or that, despite Peter's eyes looking at James flying down the field in utter amusement, he was really listening to every word he and his cousin were saying in what only could be described as a hollered whisper.

Kara stared at him for a long while before she continued. "I can't believe you'd pick your friends over family. What's happened to you?"

Then without thinking, completely furious with her, he turned to the Quidditch Pitch and watched as James caught the Quaffle and soared down the field, and yelled, "Go James!" as loudly as he could.

He stood like that for a long while before he glanced over to see Kara's back leaving the stadium. Seconds later, barely registered by Remus, while he continued to stare at the spot Kara had disappeared at, Gryffindor caught the Snitch and won the game. Peter's fireworks went off beside him, and suddenly Remus realized he didn't feel up to celebrating.