*17 days left*
"I'm BORED" Kara moaned as she lay flat on a bench at Friday breakfast.
"You're bored because you never do any schoolwork or extra-curricular activities, instead choosing to lie in bed day after day" Lily pointed out.
"Ok McGonagall, I didn't ask for a lecture, why would I do work when I'm out of here in two and a half weeks anyway" Sasha slapped her at the mention of her leaving but Kara just sighed "What I was trying to suggest was doing something for once tomorrow"
"Well obviously we'll give you the Marauder send of the night before you go" James pointed out "And the Marauders have pretty legendary send offs"
"That's right" Remus laughed "Remember when we though James was moving to Iceland? I still don't think they've cleaned all of the paint off the ceiling"
"But that's in sixteen WHOLE days" Kara moaned.
"You don't have the right to moan about anything at the moment considering we've got our quidditch match against Slytherin Sunday" James grimaced at the thought of it.
"Are you really comparing a sport to my final two and half weeks in this country for the rest of my life?" Kara glared at James.
"Maybe…" James fidgeted on his stool, Kara was going to lay into him more but the owls flew in and dropped in the mail. Sasha picked up her newspaper.
"More muggle attacks" she sighed.
"Round two" Gargorus shouted with a bit too much glee "Time to test your ability to fight against each other whilst protecting others"
"Brilliant, like this will be fair" Sirius pointed out, gesturing to all of the other groups of four, then him stood on his own. Gargorus just smiled at his punishment and continued.
"What you'll be doing today is a taster of the end of year test where you'll have to pick out enemies and allies in a split second. Follow me"
Gargorus marched into the practise room where all of the bookcases had been removed and replaced with concrete walls, some randomly placed, others marking out bases. There were large rocks and a mock train at the end of the room.
"He's really into decorating isn't he?" Sirius whispered to James before having a rock mysteriously hit him from Gargorus' direction.
"One by one each team will act as a group of Aurors getting civilians – one team - to the 'train'. Another team will be Death Eaters, the other will watch" he barked at them
"Bloody hell" James gasped, taking in the scale of the challenge.
"First up we've got Timothy, Gideon, Caradoc, and Reginald as the Aurors to redeem themselves from last place. Lily, Marlene, Emmeline, and Dorcas will be civilians – leave your wands at the side – and Sirius will be a Death Eater along with James, Remus, and Benjy for fairness"
"Finally, some help! Sirius sighed, high fiving James and putting on the black hood.
"This has got to be illegal in some way" Lily argued, sitting with the other girls in one of the bases.
"If you think this is bad you'll be killed as soon as you step out of the door" Gargorus growled at her before setting up the Aurors at the starting line by the train "Your aim is to get back to the train as quickly as possible with the muggles without being hit by a 'curse'. If hit too many times you're wand will turn red and you're dead"
Gargorus had giving them practise wands which only shot of beams of light. They would also count how many times they were hit and how many they shot.
"Three, two, one, GO!"
Gideon and Reginald went straight for it, charging down the middle and showering the Death Eaters with curses but were hit too many times so they dived behind rocks before James, Remus, Sirius, and Benjy surrounded them and killed them.
Caradoc and Timothy saw this and dived round the back of some concrete walls and stuck to them, shooting out curses to keep the Death Eaters off. After grabbing the girls the Death Eaters had already started down their entrance so they ushered the muggles around the rocks. James managed to grab Lily before they got on the train and it was over.
"Below average" Gargorus shouted from his plinth "You start with ten points. Minus 4 for two dead Aurors, plus three for three saved muggles, minus one for every Death Eater alive – all of them, and minus 1 for every minute over five minutes, so with a time of 7 minutes you get 3"
"Dammit" Caradoc slapped Gideon and Reginald for their stupidity.
"Next! Lily, Mary, Emmeline, and Dorcas as Aurors; James, Remus, Benjy, and Dedalus as muggles, Timothy and crew as Death Eaters"
"Lily! Lily! Save me!" James squealed camply from his base as they lined up.
"Shut up James" She chuckled before Gargorus shouted for them to start.
"Marlene, Emmeline, right!" Lily shouted before dragging Dorcas to the left. Marlene and Emmeline distracted the Death Eaters as they weaved in and out of the rocks throwing curses and taking down Reginald whilst Lily and Dorcas dragged the muggles from the base and back up to the train. Marlene and Emmeline killed Timothy before charging back up to the train. Just before they got on Timothy dived at Emmeline and killed her.
"Good!" Gargorus clapped them "Minus two for one dead Auror, plus four for all civilians saved, minus 2 for two live Death Eaters, plus one for just four minutes, giving you 11 points" Lily whooped and high fived everyone.
James, Remus, Benjy, and Dedalus did average with Benjy dying, Remus killing Marlene, and doing it in six minutes, getting four points.
"HA!" Lily danced around James singing eleven over and over again.
"If we didn't have to save bloody Sirius we'd have done better" James sighed. Sirius had climbed up and sat on the concrete wall claiming he was making it more realistic and Benjy had to climb up to get him to 'enhance the experience and greater the challenge', getting him killed.
"Finally…. Sirius Black" Gargorus sighed as Sirius skipped to the starting line and nodded towards James and his team as Death Eaters.
"Don't worry Lily, I know how to properly save people" Sirius winked at James who glared back, preparing to get Sirius back.
"GO!"
Sirius flung himself behind a rock and began shooting curses at the Death Eaters. Unexpectedly James charged forwards and floored Sirius.
"What the hell man?" Sirius moaned, rolling out from underneath him and leaping over the wall to the muggles one curse away from dying.
"I was just 'enhancing the experience and greatening the challenge'" James mimicked peering round the door, shocked to find Sirius wasn't in there.
"What the…?"
"You can't totally defeat me!" Sirius cheered from the other side of the room with Lily next to him.
"How on earth did you do that?" James threw down his wand in protest.
"You hadn't got your Left hand side covered, tutut" He beamed, getting them on the train.
"Still a pretty pathetic attempt Black" Gargorus sighed "You don't let Death Eaters get close enough to floor you. Minus four for the 4 Death Eaters left, plus 1 for one saved muggle, and because of your antics on the floor, minus 6 for a time of 11 minutes. Giving you a grand total of 1"
"Crap" Sirius sighed, punching James in the shoulder.
"That gives Lily's team 10 points, James' team 5 points, 2 for Timothy's team, and nothing for Sirius" After writing this on the board the scores looked like this:
Group 1 – 15
Group 2 – 2
Group 3 – 15
Group 4 - 10
"Looks like its game on Potter" Lily smirked, waltzing up to James.
"Yeah, it's just a shame you're going to have to lose to your clearly superior boyfriend" James retorted.
"Game on"
*Fifteen days left*
"Alright team!" James shouted holding his broom in the air "It's time we kicked these guys in the ass!"
"Literally!" Sirius leapt up miming a kick.
"No Sirius… not literally" James stepped back worriedly. "But seriously guys we've been training for two weeks for this moment, nothing can get in our way"
"Especially now half the Slytherin Quidditch team have pissed off" Kirk pointed out. Sirius punched him right in the shoulder for bringing up the traitors, especially considering Regulus used to be Slytherin beater.
"He's got a point though Pads" James admitted, trying to avoid the glare Sirius was giving him "we need to remember this is basically a different team we're playing, most of their subs are in and one beater hasn't been on a broom since first year"
"Surely there's no chance of them winning then" Marlene slumped back onto the bench, happy she wouldn't have to do much.
"Definitely not! We take them down, and we do it as quickly and humiliating as possible" James hit the floor with the end of his broom "Now let's go kick some Slytherin butt"
"WOOO!" Sirius slapped James on the back and marched proudly onto the pitch singing "We are the mighty, we are the great, we are here to set you straight! Watch your backs, Pads is here, to make your dignity disappear!"
"I told you never to sing that again" James sighed as they mounted their brooms.
"You can't hold back my spirit Prongs, I'm a free soul" He winked before flipping his bat and kicking off.
"And it's time for the fourth match of the season, Gryffindor vs Slytherin!" The commentator shouted with delight, everyone waited for this match because of the hatred between the houses "Last week saw Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw draw so the winner of this match will be the new leader in the Quidditch cup"
Madam Hooch flew up into the air with the quaffle into the ring of chasers "I want a clean match guys, I'm looking at you Slytherin" she warned before throwing the quaffle and the match begun.
Marlene quickly grabbed the quaffle and made a charge for the rings but got blocked by a bludger. She flung the ball to Kirk who panicked, flew in a circle, and then lost it to a chaser.
"Kirk you idiot!" Sirius moaned as he whacked the chaser with a bludger, grabbed the quaffle as it fell, and then flung it back to Marlene who threw it through the hoops.
"Ten points to Gryffindor!"
The game started off pretty easy, with Gryffindor scoring 60 more points and Slytherin only 10 when Gideon was hit in the head with a bludger, but around halfway the Slytherins quickly gathered in a circle with the quaffle, agreed to go out and smash it, no matter what, and scored another ten points straight away.
"What the hell?" Davey had to swerve out of the way of one bludger, then got hit in the arm with another.
"JAMES, ARE YOU PLANNING ON DOING ANYTHING?" Sirius yelled at James who was desperately looking for the snitch which he hadn't seen since the start of the game.
"For God's sake Pads!" James snapped, flew down, grabbed the quaffle of a Slytherin chaser and flung it through the hoops. Just as he was flying back up he was hit directly in the forehead. Before he fell James managed to see the chaser he stole the quaffle from holding a borrowed bat smiling at him.
The sand felt like concrete when he landed, and he could feel his broom under his stomach.
"JAMES!" Sirius had hit the bludger straight back at the 'cocky little shit' which he had screamed at him whilst doing it, managing to knock him off to. The crowd looked silently in shock as Sirius flew down to where James was lying "Prongsy?"
"pamrdfoogh?" James turned his head round and half opened an eye.
"Yes, it's Parmdffoogh" He grinned, sitting James up "How bad is it?"
James moved every part of his body to find very little pain "I think I believe in God now Pads" he whispered in Sirius' ear. Just as he bent forwards to say it he glimpsed a flash of gold over by a Slytherin stand moving in and out of the entrance.
Sirius noticed the change in James' expression "There's no bloody way you're getting back on that broom mate" he warned, trying to get hold of James' arms.
"To hell with brooms Pads, flying's so five minutes ago" James shoved him of and giddily got onto his feet shaking his head to make himself concentrate. "Now are we going to win this game or what?"
"You're literally my hero right now" Sirius patted him on the shoulder before whizzing back up.
"And the score's level with 110 points each, and with no sign of Gryffindor's captain after walking off, it looks like it's in the bag for Slytherin" the commentator sighed "Hang on, is that? NO WAY" The crowd and every player turned around to see James walking out of the Slytherin stand with the snitch in his hand.
"SUCK ON THAT" he shouted at the Slytherin team as everyone flooded onto the pitch to congratulate him.
"James you're an idiot, but a pretty damn brave idiot" Lily laughed as she put an ice pack on his head that evening.
"A pretty concussed brave idiot" He moaned, rolling over on the sofa and clutching his head "Why did I think I'd be fine after falling fifty meters out of the sky?" before Lily could call his stupid any more Sirius, Remus, Sasha, Kara, and Peter burst into the room, each with bags bursting with food.
"There's only the greatest Quidditch captain in the world!" Sirius leapt opposite him on the sofa and chucked a load of chocolate frogs at him "Guess who went down to Honeydukes after the game and practically sold him out?"
"Wow that's a tough one" James laughed, ripping open the box.
"We were going to have one of the biggest parties know to Hogwarts but SOMEBODY managed to fall over and break his beloved party box..." Remus nodded towards Sirius.
"That stuff's sacred, it's like seeing the bride before a wedding" Sirius argued, downing a packed of Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans as James stared in horror "What? If I eat all of them at once I'm at least going to get something nice"
"Fair enough" James considered the idea before shaking an entire packet into his mouth. "MERLIN'S BEARD" James charged up the stairs to the bathroom to throw up.
"Amateur" Sirius sighed before downing another.
"Sirius there's something seriously wrong with you" Sasha sighed.
"Don't you mean Siriusly wrong? Eh?" Sirius looked around at the totally blank faces. "My humor is not appreciated here"
James came running down the stairs "So... much... earwax" He choked, throwing a Superbly Sour Fizzwhizzer into his mouth.
"Remind me not to kiss you tonight" Lily leaned away.
"Oh really?" A grin crept onto James' mouth.
"Don't you dare Potter" Lily ran off giggling as James chased her.
"Pleeease get a room" Sirius mimed throwing up.
"Yeah!" Kara laughed, met Sirius' glance, then quickly looked away blushing "What a mess"
I realized I hadn't done a quidditch match in a while which is strange because I love writing them. What do you think? I mean you might want to spend a mere ten seconds leaving a comment down there... eh? Make a girl's day?
- Mischief managed.