Five
James followed April out of the Mahogany Room. When he caught up to her, he noticed she was smiling smugly to herself as she walked briskly outside the large doors exiting the building.
"I take it you heard Sirius last night."
"Well it was difficult not to. He also made a point to stare directly at me while doing so." April raised an eyebrow. "You know him?"
"Of course I do. Sirius is my best mate!" James said grinning.
April's eyes widened. "Oh." She turned on her heel and started in another direction.
James frowned again, confused, and followed her. "What's the matter? You don't have any mates."
"No." April said shortly. "Nor do I plan on having any for another year at least."
"So you've never had a mate before… That's kind of odd," James added thoughtfully to himself as he continued to follow his buddy. He also noticed she seemed just as confused as he did.
April stopped abruptly and faced him. James had to dig his heels into the ground so he wouldn't topple into her. April gave him a quick once over, her eyes narrowed as she put her hands on her hips. "Just how long have you and Sirius been mates?"
"Since we were young kids. Definitely before we got to school, maybe six years old?"
"Disgusting!" April hollered at him. "Your parents approved of this?"
"Most parents do."
"My parents would NEVER allow such a thing!"
"So you've never had any mates to play with?" James was thoroughly confused now and wondered why he got paired up with the loner-type. Funny, she hadn't seemed like it when she was with the others in her house at dinner the previous night. "What about your twin? July, right? You're not her mate?"
"MY SISTER!" April roared, eyes widened as far as they would go. "Are you serious right now!"
"Well if I had a brother, we'd be best mates."
"Are all you British people so perverted and disgusting?"
"What!"
"A mate being your brother!"
James heard her stress the word "mate" so much that he suddenly realized just where their conversation had turned. "Okay so why don't you show me this Quodpot pitch you Americans rave oh-so-much about?" He walked past her, oblivious to where he was going, and leaving April staring blindly after him.
"Oh God save me." April muttered, yelling at him that he was heading in the wrong direction and the Quodpot field was in the back of the school.
When, a few minutes later, they finally did reach the Quodpot field, James stared at it and frowned. "A bit different than our Quidditch pitch."
"Well we have one of those two, but that's out back more a ways. I haven't been back there in awhile actually," she added thoughtfully. She dodged the glare James sent her. "Well it's not my fault your school doesn't understand that Quidditch doesn't offer a truly challenging atmosphere!"
James fumed. "Not challenging? I'll tell you right now that it most certainly is challenging! Pugh," he made a disapproving noise and looked at the very long playing field. It was about the size of a Quidditch pitch and a half. "What's it so bloody long for?"
"Part of the point of the game," April said exasperated.
"I don't know anything about Quodpot."
"Oh lovely, well allow me to explain."
"I can hardly wait," James said dryly.
April raised an eyebrow. "I'm supposed to be giving you a tour and this is part of mine. So listen. Okay on a Quodpot team you have eleven players. Ten Trailers and one Guard. You follow?"
James blinked. "I'm do have my wits about me you know. Continue."
"Just making sure," April said, hands up in front of her defensively. "Right so as I was saying. Eleven players, trailers and a guard. The Quod, that's the ball we use, is similar to your Quidditch Quaffle. It's made of red leather and such. But that's where the similarities end."
"The suspense is killing me."
"Oh shut up and listen." April replied snootily. "This game is all about speed and maneuvering. The ten Trailers have to pass the ball between them all the way down this long field. Not an easy feat without having it stolen, seeing as there are twenty Trailers and two Guards on the field at all times."
"I guess not. So what's the point? How do you score?"
"I was getting to that! Jeez. Okay now the Quod explodes-"
"What!" James hollered, taken aback by the sheer simplicity with which she said this.
"Well yeah, that's the point. You asked, I answered. The Quod explodes after a certain amount of time so your team's goal is to get the Quod across the field and into a pot of this potion stuff that makes the explosion stop from happening. Once it's placed in the solution the scoring team gets a point and they bring a different Quod onto the field and the game resumes. The game ends when the Quod explodes with a player on one of the teams. But one team has to have reached five points before this can happen. So you can imagine the number of injuries we can have in the first ten minutes of a game."
"That would explain why you need to be quick. But I ask again, why such a long field length?"
"It's quite simple. You just need to fly. Fast."
James raised a brow. "Sounds challenging, I'll give you that much. How many teams do you go up against per year?"
April thought for a moment, not sure if the Alaskan team was given permission to have their own team and not join Montana again this upcoming year. "We play anywhere from thirty-five to forty-eight teams each year."
"Bloody hell how can one school have so many teams!"
"Well we don't play against our classmates. We play against the different states in the country."
"Doesn't the United States have fifty of them?"
"Yeah but some of the less-populated wizarding states join together for a team each year. Those teams are sometimes the hardest to play because they get the best players from each state that belongs to one team."
"What prevents two very well-off teams from joining together anywhere in the country?"
"The Agency takes care of the technicalities. The wizarding population from the present year has to be at or under a certain number for them to join together. And the state they join together with has to have the same stats."
"I see," James nodded, looking over the very long field again. He noticed the stands were not segregated into different groups for different houses as they were at Hogwarts, but after the incident he'd seen between his buddy, a Howelin, and the other girl, a Hissdore, he assumed they all separated themselves. "So what would stop people from moving into small, populated areas, to get once awesome team?"
"Well to be honest, I'm sure that does happen," April replied thoughtfully. But she waved the idea aside. "But for one, no family is going to pack up and move so their kid can get on a Quodpot team. And two, the scouts really don't look at the smaller states, and that is judged by population not actual size, often unless they've heard of some rare new talent."
"Have the scouts come by Mayflower yet?"
"Yeah. They came last spring, I played one of my best games that day. I was contacted over the summer about a possible rookie position and I replied by owl. Waiting to hear back on them still." She shrugged and continued walking; now on their way back to the front of the school.
"You don't seem overly excited."
"Well Quodpot is great but I want to do something more…" she thought of the perfect word to describe what she wanted for a moment. "I want to do something more dangerous, thrilling, exciting."
"Well lets start with what you Americans do for fun on the weekends." James offered, wanting to take in as much of these foreigners as possible while he was in the States.
April grinned, almost evilly, in James's opinion. "A wicked good idea. All right lets go into town."
"With Muggles!" James hollered, earning him humored glances from a group of Mayflower students on their way down the driveway into town as well.
"Well obviously. We don't have our own little wizarding communities. Do you?"
"Well yeah! We have Diagon Alley mainly."
"That's weird." April blinked and shrugged. "We actually spend a lot of time around Muggles."
"Do they know about our world?"
"Of course not! They would go insane. We just mingle around and have some… fun." She smirked evilly again. "There's July. Jules!" She yelled, cupping her hands around her mouth.
July heard her sister and turned, her buddy July doing the same thing.
"What is it like, having a twin?" Lily asked her. She liked July and was glad they'd been paired up together. They were similar and got along very well.
July laughed. "Completely awesome. But sometimes fairly annoying. You get along with April's buddy right? I can ditch April, she won't care."
Lily saw James and blushed slightly. "No, I get along with him occasionally. Truth is, I've liked him since the end of last year but being mean still comes naturally."
July smiled. "Well that's good then. You can spend some more quality time with him."
"Quality time with James Potter always ends up in trouble." Lily said matter-of-factly.
"Then he and April should be best friends by now." July said simply. "Hey Apes," she said to her twin when she and James Potter approached.
James held out his hand, surprised when July shook it rather than slapping it as April had done. "Interesting, I thought that had been some sort of American tradition."
July laughed. "No. In all honesty, that was April being a moron."
"July if you're going to talk about me, at least have the common decency to do so while I'M NOT STANDING HERE!"
Lily blinked. "Ah so you're the twin who got into the argument last night."
April frowned at Lily. "Well, Mary started it." She turned to her sister. "Shall we head to McDonalds, then show them what we do for fun on the weekends?"
July shrugged. "Doesn't matter to me."
"Who is McDonald?" James asked.
April beamed. "The king of Muggles!"
"The Muggles have a leader!" James looked astonished.
Lily, who had already questioned Muggle cuisine, grinned and shook her head. "Wait until you see. I can't wait to, it sounds great."
About a half hour later, the walk to McDonalds was completed.
April pointed to the large yellow M sign. "That's the Muggle crown, my dear British friends."
July nodded in agreement. "We owe a lot to this palace."
"I see many people come to visit this place," he gestured towards the many vehicles parked outside. "And why are they driving in circles?"
April beamed. "You'll see when we get in line." She motioned for the others to follow her. July walked next to her twin, James and Lily following behind them.
"Wonder what they mean by…" Lily began to ask. She paused when she discovered the answer for herself. "They can't mean…"
James laughed. "Oh yes, Lily my dear. I do think they mean to make us get in line."
April turned, walked backwards. July rolled her eyes at her sister. "I hope you walk backwards into a tree.
"July. Are you retarded? There are no trees in the McDonalds' kingdom! Anyway, like I was going to tell you both… Yes we are."
And so they got in line behind one of the Muggle vehicles. Beeping horns and American swear words filled the ears of the young British students.
April sighed blissfully. "Ah the lovely sounds of the Muggle morning."
"April, shut up." July said. "Finally!"
"How may I take your order?"
James hollered. "BLOODY HELL IT SPOKE." He jumped behind Lily, peeking out behind her shoulders at the large menu.
April gave him a very odd look. "Well duh."
July laughed lightly and spoke back. "Hello there good machine friend. It is us again. We wish to place an order to your king."
April nodded seriously. "I would like a large. Damn I never remember what they're called."
"Let me do the ordering." July offered, rolling her eyes.
James and Lily watched in awe as July proceeded to order three large "fries," four "cheeseburgers", and four small "cokes."
"It's not a bit chilly. I refuse to wear a coat!" James said.
April blinked. "Wow you're weird. COKE. C-O-K-E." She spelled it slowly and precisely. The foursome turned the corner, waiting again behind cars.
"So what happens now?" Lily asked, very curious. She loved, so far anyway, how the Americans interacted with Muggles. And muggles had magic menus! Who would have thought?
April explained. "Well now we wait."
"Thank you. April. For that lovely explanation." July said dryly. "We'll get our food then go off to the house."
"Which?" James gestured to several of them lining the streets.
"The house where we're going," April said. "You'll see when we get there."
"Ah." James merely said, taking in the views. A child in the vehicle in front of them turned to face the four. It pointed and laughed at them.
James pointed. "DEVIL MUGGLE CHILD. How dare it look at me with such fervid humor upon its face!"
July ignored how oddly he said that.
April and Lily did not and simultaneously said, "Shut up!"
July answered his question seriously. "Well we get that a lot but we don't know why yet."
They arrived at the next window. July pulled some coins out of the window. She gave the Muggle a twenty-dollar muggle bill. The four started to walk away.
"HEY!" The window lady yelled after them. The twin girls came to the window often and she had given up explaining it was for cars only. "You have about fifteen dollars in change here!"
April waved the matter aside cheerily. "Take it as a donation to your merry king!"
As they approached the next window, James asked yet another ridiculous question. "We didn't get our food, where is it?"
"Be patient and thou shall be rewarded!" April said, in what she thought was a mature manner.
July turned to Lily. "You see what I mean now when I said they would be getting along fine by now?"
Lily nodded. "Indeed I do."
April frowned at her twin. "Again! Standing right here! Anyway. We get the goods in this next window."
The group reached the next window and James took it upon himself to poke his entire head in.
He was greeted by a rather overweight, acne-faced teenager with a toothy smile. "Please wait outside the window to be served."
James started to speak. "But I wanted to know-"
"Please wait outside the window to be served."
"Ridiculous!" James said, removing his head.
July was handed their food. "Thank you and have a nice day!"
April beamed. "Yay! Okay lets go to the house and eat then we can really show them what we do on our weekends."
James was astonished at the sight of food coming from Muggle windows as he followed the Merriwether twins. "Amazing," he whispered.
