The Marauding Five : Year Seven

Chapter 8: Quidditch

Upon discovering that James' parents are to live in the castle until Easter Break, meanwhile helping Hagrid and the other professors in organizing their workload, the Marauders did more than just freak out. Their reaction was, literally speaking, priceless.

They were cowering in their Hideout as long as they can, except for lessons (which is unavoidable). They had arranged for their meals to be brought personally to their Hideout which are, of course, specially personalized dishes every day. The house elves were only too happy to oblige to their wishes.

--

'James! We have to practice!' Jeremiah Jones yelled out, knocking at the seventh year's boys' dorm. 'POTTER?' Silence. 'CAPTAIN POTTER!'

'He's not here! So stop shrieking like some lost banshee, will you?' Thomas said impatiently, slamming the door open with violent force. 'And there's no use asking us where he is; you can't get there, whichever place they choose to be in! We'd tried. And we're here longer than you.'

'But Quidditch…!'

'Trust me. He left a note saying you should practice the Wronski Feint,' Dan yawned. 'You've been slacking, eh? Bad, bad boy… no wonder James got fed up and went off.'

Jeremiah blushed furiously at that comment.

'No!' he exclaimed hotly.

'Yeah? He wrote here that "Jeremiah is a liar—ask him to do that Feint until he masters it; and that means he can do it whilst he's asleep!" Looks like he knew what you'd say already, Chase.' Thomas waved the small note James handed to him before he 'moved out' of the dorm.

'… I HATE JAMES POTTER!'

'We know,' Thomas sympathized. 'But a word of advice: go practice that Feint or you'll find some unpleasant curses tailing you.'

'Well, I WON'T!' Jeremiah declared sharply, his mind working with speed angrily. He sprouted whiskers from his cheeks.

'Ah,' the two seventh years noted worriedly. 'Good luck, then.' They watched in fascination when the fifth year grew feathers, furs and several… antennas. He was quite a new species when the transformation stopped. The Magical Creatures department would be most glad to study him and place him in the Magical Zoo, where loads of kids would be ogling at this odd new … thing.

'Apparently, our darling HeadBoy predicted this,' Dan observed, flipping the card over. 'It says here "Hope you enjoy being a new species, Jeremy. It's Sirius's latest invention. He said it would last for a week, but expect your human form in two weeks' time! MWAHAHAHAHA"' Dan coughed.

'Very… insightful of him,' Thomas said decidedly. 'We'd better send him to a place where no one would freak out at the sight of… a fly cross with a cat cross with a duck cross with… something else I don't know. Hey, is Sirius's potion contagious or something?'

'You can't be too sure,' Dan replied grimly, pulling out his wand. 'Mobiliarus corpus!'

He swung his wand.

And turned into a bottle of grape wine. Thomas gulped. It seems that Sirius's potion reflects spells in a bad way. A very bad way.

He decided to leave things along, which was the smartest decision at the time.

Of course, there were a whole lot of shrieks and screams, but the worst was opening his dorm door two hours later to greet the sight of countless crossbred creatures and all sorts of dated grape wines.

It was most unnerving, Thomas shivered. Did James and Sirius intend to make cash with these?

Dear Lily,

LILY! OUR HOUSE DISAPPEARED! WHAT HAPPENED? The villagers told me that our parents are killed by "they know who" it is! Is that true? What about James, Sirius, Remus and Adele? Adeline was simply SHOCKED!

Hey, you aren't dead, are you? Cause I'll be writing to pure ghosts… or knowing YOU, probably some stupid poltergeist.

And our homes. Did they grow legs and walk off? Where am I going to stay? Adeline? Look, we're both nineteen and eighteen, and no BLOODY SANE orphanage is going to accept us. I come back from my vacation only to find our parents killed by some vast murderer and the house walked off. What a pleasant surprise. Where' the party, huh? Huh?

We're at London now (hellish trip), disguise our names and found a witch who let us use her owl. It ain't hard pretending to be a witch; these idiots don't even know the difference!

You'd better find us a place to stay. People seem to be looking for us, maybe to KILL us. I don't want to die yet, GET IT? I've still got a BOYFRIEND!

Petunia.

(it's Tellia and Celia when you reply, OKAY? Or are you that stupid?)

The Marauders stared at the letter intently, a smirk in their faces.

'Uh oh, we forgot about them,' Adele groaned. 'Let's go get them, James.'

'We can't leave school to send them here!' James frowned. 'Or to anywhere, for that matter! I mean, face it. It's not holiday, and we broke enough laws to end ourselves in Azkaban. It's just that Dumbledore's heard our side of the story and isn't going to turn us in. Also, we've got DADA later. You know how Melissa is like if we disappear in classes…'

'Mum'll practically KILL us,' Sirius nodded wisely.

'But the Ministry would want them,' Remus reasoned. 'Voldemort will hunt them, since he can't get us.'

'Ugh! This is such a mess!' Sirius cried, pacing. 'How are we going to get them out of London? There's practically a wizard at every corner! AND they're boarding with a witch! Of all places, why there!'

'Makes life harder for us,' Lily sighed. There was a pause. 'Maybe we can send them on a vacation, see!' she said brightly. 'Until our Easter break! Give them our Gringotts's key, pack 'em off to Gobi desert or something, keep them hidden until March. Make sense?'

The Marauders reviewed the idea thoughtfully.

'Quiz time: What place is hidden, wizard-free and you can live there without going insane for two months?' Sirius burst out animatedly. 'Think, people! It's January! They've to hide till March!'

'Er…'

'Gobi desert?'

'The desert, Lily, doesn't hold much food. Or water. Or anything, for that matter, unless you count sand, head, sandstorms, more sand, more heat, more sandstorms, an occasional cactus and a lost camel,' Remus pointed out.

They nodded in muted agreement.

'Do you think that we can get Dumbledore to bring them here?' Adele voiced, feeling drained suddenly.

'Who's going to talk him into it? I mean, Headmaster of Hogwarts, visiting a house of some witch just to pick up two squibs?' Lily said shrilly. 'I don't think so! He won't do it! I tell you, he doesn't want his nice, clean reputation tainted to rescue squibs, would he now? Yes. And he probably wouldn't agree to it, either!' Lily paused dramatically. So her friends thought; Lily almost always does it. She was really taking a deep breath.

'Which is all the better reason to ask him!' the redhead declared happily. 'Let's GO!'

'Go where?' Edward Potter inquired curiously.

'ARGH! WE ARE DISCOVERED!'

It took a minute for the Marauders to snap back to their senses.

'I hate this! Why, why, why must people keep barding in like this?' Lily wailed. 'James, I thought you put a spell on it!'

'Well yes, I did!' James retorted hotly. 'It was the best I could find!'

'Mighty great, isn't it,' Adele praised dryly.

'There was a hole in the spell,' Edward said cheerfully. 'Gets easy, you know, to have a handy needle around.' The man produced a needle. It shimmered, clearly indicating that it's a really rare Auror's item. 'Used it to make the hole and tear it! Easy-peasy. You'll make a bad Auror, y'know, if you can't even place a proper barrier.'

'Gee dad, thanks a lot. Not.'

'Obviously, someone forgot to place charms, curses and hexes to stop invaders,' Sirius said, staring accusingly at James.

'Lily specialized in that.'

Lily looked up daftly. 'Really? Isn't it you?'

'It's you.'

And there wasn't much else to be said.

'You're alone,' Remus said, realizing that Sirius's mother and James's mother were absent from the scene.

'Girls can't get enough of gossip,' Edward said solemnly. 'They met a group of Ravenclaw.'

'Ah…'

'I don't gossip!' Lily snapped hotly.

'I did say girls,' Mr. Potter reminded. 'You're a Marauder, my dead daughter-in-law,' he added in a sickly sweet tone.

'DAUGHTER-IN-LAW?' Lily grimaced and flinched as though she had the itches.

'Oops, sorry, did I say that? I was too eager to have you as my family member,' the man said pleasantly, ignoring both Lily and James's glare.

'Rephrase: Too young,' James said curtly.

'Where's the phrase from?' Sirius asked.

'My head. I was rephrasing it,' James said bluntly. 'So re-rephrase: Too, too young.'

'Not a big deal,' Edward said casually, 'I mean, in some parts of the world, kids marry as soon as—'

'We don't need to know this,' Lily muttered.

'Yes you do! Then you'll appreciate your marriage age more! As I was saying, as soon as the baby's out, they're immediately wedded!'

'We on the other hand, are betrothed. Someone save us,' Lily snapped.

'Scary,' James nodded.

'Yeah… poor us…'

'Disrupted society, this is. Should've left us all alone.'

'Exactly. Evilness.'

The two continued to lament on their luck on being betrothed (of which the conversation went all the way to human rights, to insane parents, to nosy peers, to the state of the world, to universal rights…), Edward turned to the table where Petunia's letter was left.

He was amused by the number of exclamation marks and capital letter Petunia could manage. He was then bemused at the fact that the houses had left a huge hole of a million questions.

'We can get Professor Dumbledore to bring them over, don't you think?' he asked, once he finished the letter.

Dot dot dot…

'Wow,' Adele exclaimed. 'That was amazing.'

'It took us 30 minutes to reach that decision,' Lily added.

'With lots of desert,' Remus smirked. 'Actually, with all desert and little conclusion.'

'Considerable,' Edward grinned weakly. 'You just think a little too much.'

'Gee, I wish we thought of that,' James said. 'So, you'll be talking to him about it, right dad? As soon as possible? We can't face Petunia's wrath in … that state of her mind…'

'On one condition.'

'Which is…?'

'Beat those Slytherins FLAT in Quidditch!'

'That's a month later!' Adele said in shock and anger. Edward gave her a look which made her feel stupid.

'Well get practicing then! Those Slytherins can't win Gryffindors!'

'We're not just defeating them. We're going to GET THAT QUIDDITCH CUP!' Sirius yelled patrioticly.

'Yeah, yeah. Get out and start flying then! Come on!' Lily said, grabbing the three boys.

Lord Voldemort hummed a tune as he polished his wand in the same chair near the fireplace. He was considering on the décor and maybe change the stupid red armchair. It was getting tiresomely bothersome to sit in the same thin cushion everyday. Hey, he is the Great Dark Lord! He should have some gothic things around, say, skulls and dead bodies of his victims.

Hopefully, the five Marauders kneeling before him, looking pitiful and stupid. HAHA! But…

Time for another strategy.

Time for a new game.

Those irritating rules of the Knights, Rooks and Bishops! He liked the Queen and King—move wherever you please!

Oh well. Bloody chess. Why's he use it to start with? Should've started with, hm, plushies. But what's done is done. Ho-hum.

Voldemort wondered vaguely if it's possible to retreat all chess pieces to their original position without starting all over again. The obvious answer is no. The less obvious answer is yes, if you can convince the other player.

The problem was, the Dark Lord sighed, there's no other player. No style to cheating, then.

'Besides, those rascals can't be controlled!' he spat bitterly. 'Unlike chess pieces.'

So he tipped the chessboard over.

Time to follow the old devil ways. First he need to get some wax from the bees… learn how to make candles…

'I wish I didn't ask them to practice,' Jeremiah moaned feverishly, swooping around the Quidditch Pitch on his broom. That wasn't the first time he'd wished. It was close to the thirtieth time already. He was stiff from sitting so long on his broom; the cushioning charm seemed to sigh in tiredness, too.

He's been trying to do the Wronski Feint and avoid SIX deadly Bludgers James had just invented, for the sake of practice. The Chasers were scoring (or at least, trying to score) and Remus the Keeper had to work his broom off blocking every single one of them. Once of twice, Lily or James would just barely zip past him. Beathers are, of course, fending the Bludgers. Pattempt looked pale, Jeremiah noted in fear.

As for his Feint… ugh. He felt like fainting!

'The broom!' James yelled. '45 degrees, at least! And if you can't gather speed enough, go in twirl! Y'know, turn round and round? AND PULL YOUR BROOM ONLY AT THE LAST SECOND! JEREMIAH CHASE!'

'Aye aye, capt'n…'

Man… how he regretted not treasuring Quidditch-free time.

'Yikes!' Amanda Witt yelped when a Bludger nearly collided with her.

'SIRIUS! PATTEMPT!' James yelled, purple in face. 'BAD Beaters you two make!' It was like talking to kids. Lily laughed animatedly.

'Hey, watch who you're calling bad, Jimmy!' Sirius snapped. 'Besides, there are six bloody bludging Bludgers!'

'Practice,' Lily sighed dramatically before allowing another string of laughter. 'Shoo! Watch out! There's another one coming!'

Thonk! It knocked on Sirius's broom sharply.

Jeremiah trembled. So much for the intensive training. And to think of a fortnight more of torture… it's worse that having to stuff fur down your throat.

Pattempt trudged after his twin sister towards the Great Hall.

'What's wrong with you? You've been acting like a half dead cat!' Pastilla commented. Pattempt stared at her helplessly.

'I've to carry this everywhere!' he whined pitifully, waving his Beater club. 'It's so embarrassing!'

'Put it down, then. I thought you looked mad, too, you know.'

'…yeah! You're right! Why not? I ought to NOT listen to Si—' THWACK!

'Don't think of it, kiddo!' Sirius called cheerfully, fending Pattempt from a Bludger. 'These mad things are loose in Gryffindor Tower, and wild as can be—going after you and me, of course. Good thing I saved your HEAD or you'll end up looking at stars the rest of your life in a pretty padded little white room.' He grinned broadly as he waved the club again. Another Bludger was sent hurtling past Nearly Headless Nick.

The Thore twins gasped in awe. Or in pity, for the ghost.

'Yup, it's all in the reflexes!' Sirius bragged. 'You'd better start picking those Bludgers. James'll flip if you can't fend one to save yourself; AND you're expected to save the whole tem.' Sirius skipped off, whistling.

He snickered to himself, when he's far away from the twins. Pattempt didn't know that all six programmed Bludgers will be heading for him, and him only. Ha! Serves him right for being such a lazy bum during practices!

Sirius cackled evilly. Then he stopped. Now, what to do with his psycho broom…

'Welcome to Quidditch Season, folks! This one's a hell-of-a-must-watch: GRYFFINDOR AAAAAAAAND SLYTHERIN! Here's your commentator of this game – happily volunteered – Solan Trift!—ouch!'

'Wrong! It's Solan Trift and Adele Varens. I'm here to make sure he doesn't take sides.' The latter glared.

'Get lost Varens!'

'Hah! Tell Minnie that!'

'But- but I'm the commentator of this game! You're not taking that from me! Oh no, no way!'

'Well I'm the commentator for your imbalanced favouritism, Trift, and it's gonna stay that way today! Anyway, this game'll decide who the Quid—'

'Gimme that microphone!' Solan Trift hissed. 'Ahem. This fantabulous game will award the winning team the GREAT Quidditch Cup!' He turned to Adele smugly. 'It's that way, Varens!'

'Oh yeah? You mean using big bombastic words? I'm sure Sirius can beat you at that!' Adele snarled. 'Besides,' she said, calming down, 'I prefer facts.'

Their eyes bore into each other's. Professor McGonagall, the referee of the match, sighed, just as the team players assembled. Little was said about the two teams, and before any wizard could catch what Trift was saying about the Slytherin Seeker, McGonagall had already blew the whistle and tossed the Quaffle into the sky.

Fourteen players swooped swiftly to their positions as the Chasers began the deadly fight for a red ball.

'Don't try dirty tricks,' Lily hissed to Lucius Malfoy. She had her hair up in a bun, so that NOTHING would happen to it.

'Oh yeah? Let's see who wins!' Malfoy smirked.

'—GIVE ME THE MICROPHONE, VARENS!—'

'—And Malfoy bangs into Evans sharply—'

'—ADELE VARENS! I'm the commentator!—'

'—Keeper Lupin of Gryffindor hurls the Quaffle off! Good save, Re! Must've been the practice—'

'VARENS!'

'—heard that Potter gave an intensive last minute training—'

'Torture is the right word,' Jeremiah muttered nearly, scouting for the Snitch none too happily.

'VARENS, I'm going to call Professor McGonagall!' Solan Trift yelled in the microphone. For a while, silence reigned in the commentator's box.

'She's there.' Adele's voice echoed faintly around the pitch.

'Grr! #/()$&&!'

'What was that you saying? Anyway, back to the game! Chaser Klop of Slytherin zooms off with the Quaffle! Uh-oh, looks like that shrimp of Beater at Gryffindor's FINALLY lost it… he's going to wham the Snake off! He's gonna…!'

'THAT'S THE SNITCH! HE'S GONNA WHAM THE SNITCH!' Trift yelled.

'Hey, watch my ear!'

'Give it to me!' he snapped, snatching the microphone from Adele. 'Beater Thore… whams the Bludger towards Klop?'

'I told you, you were wrong!' Adele scowled.

'Well look who's talking,' Trift retorted sharply.

'I am, that's who! You be a good kid and stay away from me while I tell the school what's happening.'

'I'm the commentator…!'

'A terrible one at that.'

'VARENS!'

'Shut up, or I'll curse you!' Adele threatened.

'Oh yeah?'

'YES!' she yelled in exasperation. 'You're facing someone who killed half of Loopy Village,' Adele hissed, keeping the microphone away. 'Think again, Solan Trift, before you mess with me.' Trift dared himself to look at her in the eye.

'You can't kill me,' he said, somewhat shakily.

'Do you want to try?'

A second was all the black mage gave. 'I'm asking you, do you WANT to try?' Adele hissed again. The Ravenclaw boy felt cold.

'HEY! Where's the commentating? You're both slacking out there!' the wizards were yelling, when he came to grips with his senses. He withered intensively as Adele's violet eyes lingered on him for a moment. Her eyes were those total freak-out items that'll sell at muggle markets during Hallowe'en for really high price.

Adele scanned the pitch and gathered what she could with little effort. She felt slightly guilty about threatening Trift though… But first things first.

'Sorry! Technical problems!' Adele called out distractedly. 'In that time, Slytherin had scored! It's now 60-40 in favour to the Slytherin house!' The Slytherins whooped and jumped in joy.

'Oh look! Seeker Chase is diving! Has he seen the snitch?' Adele cried excitedly, pulling herself onto the table to get a closer look. 'If Chase gets the snitch, Gryffindor'll win the game! Ah, Seeker Pickle of Slytherin dives after Chase! The snitch is so popular, don't y'all agree? Chase picks up his speed! Atta it, Jeremiah!—HANG ON FOLKS, LOOK OVER THERE! Beater McKeat of Slytherin is swinging that club! He's swinging it- swinging it…!'

Many wondered at Varens's sight, as the Slytherin Beater was at the other end of the field.

Adele's feet was dancing on the table, violently zapping the decorative banners in the way of her sight. Solan Trift was desperately trying to get her down and do the commentating instead. Still, she was the hysterical type, when it comes to Quidditch…

'AAAAAAHHH! McKeat's Bludger is heading towards Chase! It's gonna knock him off his broom! HE IS GOING TO KNOCK JEREMIAH OFF HIS BROOM!'

'Give me that, you pathetic!' JEREMIAH CHASE, MOVE OFF!' Trift snapped into the mic. 'Oh no, he's too fast!' Adele fought for the possession of the microphone.

'Chase pulls off! Just before colliding the ground! Woohoo! James, you did a bloody good training with them! Go Prongs! THE WRONSKI FEINT (at least, that is what it seems to me… right Trift?)!' Adele shrieked ecstatically. 'But Pickle dove right on and… ouch! That must've hurt! Well, well, McKeat, what will captain Pickle say about that?' Adele cackled. There was a hesitation before she chattered on, though: 'Uh, Pickle, you okay?'

'Who cares,' Trift muttered. Adele elbowed him.

'Maybe Chase demo the Feint because Potter pushed him to it,' Adele added, 'and thought "I might as wekk make use of it!"' she said brightly.

'I'VE GOT THE SNITCH!' Jeremiah yelled hoarsely at her. Adele and Trift blinked.

'…ah, yes? You broke your wrist?'

'GOT THE SNITCH!' the Gryffindor seeker panted, beaming.

'Um, does the wronski feint involves catching the snitch?' Trift asked uncertainly, the corners of his mouth twitching.

'I don't… know,' Adele added, blinking.

'… err, the points were 60-40 in favour of Slytherin, right?'

'Yup.'

Both were still stunned and blank. Things had gone too fast for them, apparently. The audiences were yelling for the game progress.

'Well? Have you reached the end of your thoughts your royal majesties?' Jeremiah asked impatiently, left hand clutching the golden thing. 'I… Caught… The… Snitch…!'

'Oh, um. Gryffindor wins the Quidditch cup!' Adele jolted.

'C'mon, we need more than just a simple sentence!' James scowled, though it was hard to sustain it. He was all beams and grins with sunshines, rainbows and all things pretty dawning on his face. 'Give me that speaker!'

'It's a mic,' Lily said brightly. 'Hogwarts's into tech!'

'Ahem. HOGWARTS, GRYFFINDOR WIND THIS MATCH!—psst, what's the score? Oh? Good… thanks!—IT'S A 190-60! SEEKER CHASE HAD, IN THE MIDST OF HIS ATTEMPT ON THE WRONSKI FEINT, CAUGHT THE SNITCH!' James yelled. 'Hey Minnie! We won, Minnie! Come on, blow that whistle! We win this match! We win the cup!'

PWEET! End of game!

'Yeah! I was almost gonna knock the ground when- when I saw the golden snitch above my head!' Jeremiah cried excitedly, 'so I pulled up and BAM! Caught it! I tell you, I was—'

'WE GOT THE CUP! WOOHOO! THE CUP!' Sirius screamed, choking Pattempt.

'Yesh…' the boy coughed.

'Wheee!' Amanda shrieked, flying down to congratulate Jeremiah on his catch. 'We win! We win!'

'Captain…? Captain, you okay?' McKeat muttered. Pickle gained his senses after two minutes.

'Brilliant work, kid, if only it didn't hit me,' he hissed, dusting himself with all the dignity he could muster. Then he caught sight of the Gryffindors carrying the Quidditch cup. He gritted his teeth.

Lucius Malfoy narrowed his eyes and clenched his fists. He's going to make them pay for it.

AN: I shamelessly picked this job back up. I vowed many years back that I would do something long, and I'd complete it. This script was originally written in year 2003, but I was too scared to post it up, since I didn't know what I wanted to do, if this was the development I really wanted, and geez, the Marauders were beginning to quiet down. I wonder if people still read this?

Was I actually missed, or was I hated? I suppose those are questions I never will know answers to… reviews can be such amazing things, I think. They can motivate an author, and they can crush them. I was crushed, because i just wasn't prepared.

Much apologies. I will continue writing until I fulfill my vow. Aren't you all just glad that this is actually going to end! gets pelted with rotten tomatoes >. ;;

- bunny chan