It was hard concentrating in Defense Against the Dark Arts the following afternoon. Eddie and Lily were too busy staring at Quirrell's turban, knowing what was under there, combined with the fact that it was their last class, and the weekend was almost here. One detail they did notice, however, was that Quirrell seemed to be stuttering much more than had been described. Did he suspect something? Eddie shrugged it off, and didn't stare at the turban much after that. He did have half a mind to hex the turban off Quirrell's head, to show everyone who he really was, but decided against it. That would be irresponsible and do more harm than good. Then Lily gave him a nudge. Apparently, Eddie had drifted too far off mentally, and he saw Quirrell's sharp hazel eyes staring down at him.
"M-M-Mr. P-Pattinson I w-would ask you to p-pay b-better attention to what I am saying, i-if y-you p-p-please." Quirrell stuttered.
"Huh- Oh, yes Professor." Eddie said, not really listening.
"S-so could y-you answer m-my question?"
"Oh — uh — no…" Eddie stammered, all the while looking extremely guilty.
"W-well then, t-ten p-points from H-H-Hufflepuff."
It was then when, from his left, Ernie yet again got angry.
"He wasn't even -"
But Eddie nudged him, very hard. Testing Snape was one thing, but testing Voldemort was something else entirely. Even in Voldemort's weakened state, he was still very much of a threat, and Eddie didn't want this to be remembered when Voldemort was stronger - just in case.
Ernie was still grumbling about Quirrell. "He can't ask you to pay attention and then ask you a question and expect you to answer it. Quite the Snape move to me. What a nutter."
As Quirrell got to the front of his desk he glared into the eyes of Ernie.
"Ten more points from Hufflepuff."
This voice was stern and sharp, devoid of the normal stutter that characterised his speech.
Eddie shivered at the sharp, cold manner. He had heard it used only once before, when Quirrell finally revealed himself at the end of the first movie. Snapping back to reality, Eddie desperately tried to push this worry out of his mind. Voldemort would be more concerned with finding a body. Yes, there shouldn't be a need to worry. He closed his eyes for a moment, regained his composure, then went about the rest of his day with nothing eventful happening.
After dinner, in the common room, when, once again, everyone but the first years had gone to bed, Ernie asked Eddie a question. "What was that look on your face when you nudged me in Defense this morning? You looked downright scared, mate."
"That voice..." He took a deep breath. "It was nothing."
"You sure, mate?" Ernie looked genuinely concerned for his friend.
Eddie took a long look at him. This was why it was so hard to keep his knowledge concealed. He glanced at Lily.
"I'm sure," he said with a smile, though he didn't share the warm feeling inside.
Eddie was sitting and talking in the Great Hall with Justin, Lily, and Nathan, explaining to the Ravenclaw in an engrossed manner, when none other than Professor Severus Snape strolled up to them, robes billowing behind him. The greasy-haired Potions master drawled, "Pattinson, Jackson, Turner, come with me."
Then Justin made the mistake of asking, "Wait, what's happened, Professor?"
Snape turned his head to look at the Muggle-Born and Justin backed away, nervously.
"That," Snape snapped, "is none of your concern, Finch-Fletchley." And he swept the other three with a glance, and turned around. It was understood they had to follow him without questions.
Eddie looked at Nathan and Lily, confused. Why did Snape need them? He wondered.
His unasked question was answered when he walked into Snape's office in the dungeons and saw the rest of the Fateful Eight sitting there. Snape walked round to his desk and turned to face them.
"You have been summoned here," he paused dramatically, and Nathan snickered. Snape silenced him with a deadly look. The pause seemed to take a toll on everyone's heart rate, and Eddie secretly cursed Snape's love of being dramatic and mysterious, as the hooked-nosed Professor eyed each one of them with an utterly expressionless face. "Because it is the Headmaster's request that you learn Occlumency."
Eddie's eyes widened. Occlumency? Was Snape serious?
Snape went on, "As you continue to attempt to grandly stop the Dark Lord's attempts to return to power, it may become obvious to some that you are not ordinary students. The Dark Lord may eventually return, and when he does, you eight blessed students shall be his natural targets, as you contain a bevy of knowledge as to how and why he ever failed to kill Harry Potter." The way he failed to keep out the seemingly quintessential note of sarcasm in his voice couldn't be missed.
Lost and confused, Eddie searched his brain frantically for a hope that none of what Snape said was true and that they'd be able to live normal lives - well, normal as possible - at Hogwarts without reliving Harry's.
"But Harry's dead," Sean blurted out.
"Oh, use your common sense," Claire snapped at him. "He's obviously talking about Harry in our version, you dolt."
"Well, okay, then, Claire-" Sean began to retort but was interrupted by Snape.
"Silence," he ordered, and almost magically the entire group fell silent. "Now, I shall perform Legilimency on each of you in turn, and judge for myself if you may prove to be any good." There was a faint smirk on his face.
Beginning with Sean, Snape delved into each of their minds in turn, reluctantly complimenting them on what they had done right and unhesitantly criticising them for their mistakes. When he got to Eddie, he said:
"On the count of three, Pattinson. One, two, three… Legilimens!"
Almost instantly, Eddie was hit with a wave of nostalgia. Nine years old, he was scanning the school library for new reads, when suddenly, one caught his eye. Rushing over, he found a copy of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone...
Remembering what his task was at the moment, Eddie tried his utmost to block Snape from his mind, and after several moments, achieved the feat and returned to reality.
"A fine job, Pattinson. Not bad for your first attempt," Snape commended him, the reluctance noticeable.
The lesson progressed, with each member of the Fateful Eight improving as it did. By the end, only Lily was able to throw off Snape's Legilimency completely. Snape instructed them to return once a day, and to tell no one where they had been.
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The following morning, Eddie managed to lay his eyes on a copy of the Daily Prophet from Ernie to see the result of Sirius' trial. The headline read:
BLACK RELEASED UPON TRIAL, PETTIGREW PROVEN TO BE ALIVE AND IN HIDING
"Hey, Ernie, you mind if I take this?" Eddie asked.
"Nah, you can have it," he said, then started a conversation with Susan.
The Ministry of Magic has released Sirius Black from Azkaban, presently after his trial which concluded yesterday. Black was found not guilty of the murders, and of providing information to He Who Must Not Be Named, under Veritaserum, and went on to accuse Peter Pettigrew, a man assumed to be dead all these years.
Following this were more details about Sirius Black and the Ministry's work. Eddie skipped to the most interesting part.
Peter Pettigrew remained till now as a monument of loyalty, who went looking for Black after the latter betrayed James and Lily Potter, their school friends, to He Who Must Not Be Named. Pettigrew was thought to be killed, along with twelve other Muggles, by Sirius Black, who cast a curse powerful enough to drop a huge crater spanning yards, and that spared only Pettigrew's index finger. Pettigrew was posthumously given the Order of Merlin, First Class.
Sirius Black stated that Pettigrew was alive, and revealed with great rage and disgust that it was Pettigrew who secretly fed He Who Must Not Be Named and the Death Eaters with information, betrayed the Potters, and murdered the twelve Muggles with the Blasting Curse before severing an index finger and disappearing.
On being questioned about how Pettigrew could possibly disappear, Sirius Black narrated a fantastic story about how he, Peter Pettigrew and James Potter became unregistered Animagi, wizards with the power to transform into an animal at will, during their school days. Peter, he added, could turn into a rat.
Again, Eddie thought it wiser to skip greater details about their time at school and Remus Lupin's lycanthropy. At the end:
The Wizengamot dropped all charges, and Black has been reimbursed with one hundred thousand Galleons as compensation.
Eddie showed it to Lily, and then he met up with the rest of the Fateful Eight to discuss the events.
"So, when are they going to find Pettigrew?" he asked.
"Well, Dumbledore knows," said Tom. "We told him, remember?"
No sooner were the words out of his mouth when the aged wizard stood up from the High Table.
"All students in possession of a rat are requested to report to the Headmaster's office after classes today for investigation. There will be absolutely no consequences if Peter Pettigrew is discovered to be in the possession of any student as a pet rat. Also," he added with a twinkle in his eyes, "the password is 'Chocolate Cauldron'."
Later that day, there were murmurs that broke out all over the school. Pettigrew had been found. He would later be dragged out of the castle in chains by security wizards akin to those stationed at Gringotts, as Dumbledore refused to let dementors in the castle. Pettigrew's blood-curdling screaming that he was innocent sent a chill up Eddie's spine. Ron, for his part, seemed to be enjoying the attention. Eddie dwelled briefly on how Harry's absence would affect Ron - it was widely known to the Potter fandom and mentioned several times in the books - that Ron was often jealous of Harry, thus putting strain on their friendship at times.
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As the weeks passed, the Fateful Eight slowly got into the routine of being Hogwarts students. True, it was a little less exciting than they had expected, but no less magical. During the day, they would have classes, followed by a short thirty minute Occlumency lesson with Snape, then they would retire to their dormitories. Often they would make trips to the Room of Requirement, where they would play Quidditch, covered in the many other games they experienced. Not wanting his Hufflepuff friends to be left out, Eddie, along with Lily, invited them to witness them make their own adventures in the room.
And finally, the day arrived. They had reached their fourth flying lesson, where, as promised, they would try out for the House Quidditch teams. When they arrived, they saw the four Quidditch captains standing there with Madam Hooch — Oliver Wood, Marcus Flint, Hufflepuff's Terry Strickland, and Ravenclaw's Robert Hilliard.
It was easy to tell which house they belonged to, as each was dressed in their Quidditch robes — Gryffindor red, Ravenclaw blue, Slytherin green, and Hufflepuff yellow.
Eddie flew admirably for his own part, and at the end of the tryout Madame Hooch announced the selections. Hufflepuff was the last house to be called. Fingers crossed, Eddie bounced on the balls of his feet, hoping that he'd performed well enough. Terry Strickland stepped forward.
"Hufflepuff has chosen two first years!" he announced. Eddie's heart leapt. Only three of them (Eddie, Ernie, and Megan) had tried out, which put the odds greatly in Eddie's favor.
"Firstly, as Keeper, Ernie MacMillan!" A polite smattering of applause.
"Secondly, as Chaser, Eddie Pattinson!"
Eddie paused for a second. Surely it wasn't Megan? Megan had flown better than he. When she didn't step forward, he did, still in shock that he could have done so well, with nothing more than reading experience. Getting some actual flying experience in would be amazing.
"My father will hear about this!" Eddie heard Malfoy calling as he and Ernie walked over to Terry, their new Quidditch captain. Clearly, Draco had not made it to the Slytherin team.
"So," he clapped his hands as Eddie and Ernie got there, "I'm very impressed with the way you played, both of you. Especially you, Eddie, being a Muggle-born, I'm very surprised with how fast you grasped flying. Now, your first practice will be this upcoming Saturday, at ten o'clock in the morning, so that's when you'll meet the rest of the team! Good luck to you both!"
Leaving the grounds with Ernie, the worry about Voldemort disappearing for the moment, Eddie felt thoroughly excited. Quidditch! Sure, baseball and hockey were fun, but neither sport took you airborne. At dinner that night they told the rest that they'd now be on the team.
"Great!" said Justin. "When's your first practice?"
"Dunno," Ernie said. "I expect Cedric or one of them will tell us at some point."
Eddie went to bed that night feeling exceptionally relaxed, and couldn't wait for training to begin.
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He was woken the following Saturday rather roughly by Ernie, and was feeling thoroughly disgruntled until he heard:
"C'mon, Quidditch! I almost forgot!"
At which point Eddie scrambled out of bed, not wanting to miss his first practice.
When they got to the changing rooms, they saw their Quidditch robes laid out, each a bright shade of canary yellow, with a charcoal-black number embroidered on the back. Eddie smiled when he turned his robes over and found he was to wear #2, after his favorite baseball player, former Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter. The team roster was tacked up on the wall. It read, neatly:
HUFFLEPUFF HOUSE QUIDDITCH TEAM 1991-1992
Head of House - Prof. Pomona Sprout
Captain - Terry Strickland
#1 Ernie MacMillan - Keeper
#2 Eddie Pattinson - Chaser
#3 Patricia Stimpson - Chaser
#4 Robert Hawking - Chaser
#5 Terry Strickland (Captain) - Beater
#6 Jake Flinton - Beater
#7 Cedric Diggory - Seeker
When they got outside to the pitch, Terry gave a little speech to them all.
"Now, congratulations for making the team, but we've got a lot of work to do before our first match. The Gryffindor vs. Slytherin match will take place on the second of November, and we play Ravenclaw two weeks after that. All right, we'll start with a few laps, OK?"
So practice began. On the third lap, Eddie noticed Sean sitting in the stands. After they were done with that, Eddie and the other Chasers practiced shooting on Ernie, while Terry and the other beater, Jake Flinton, practiced aiming a Bludger at Cedric, who was dodging it effortlessly.
Eddie was watching them for a little, distracted, when something else caught his eye. Something… purple.
Eddie looked down and sure enough, Quirrell was in the stands, staring at them. Eddie only broke eye contact when a Bludger, which had gone astray, whooshed over his hair, and he got back to practicing on Ernie.
He couldn't shake the feeling that night, and he was oddly quiet in the common room, skipping dinner and going to bed early. Ernie and Justin noticed this, and inquired when they were in the dormitories.
"Oh...er….nothing..I'm fine," he did his best to reassure them, and managed a grin. They'd bought it.
While he was worrying about this, another frightening thought crept into his mind. Things were going perfectly for him and the rest of the Fateful Eight… almost too perfectly. Tossing and turning in his bedsheets, he laid awake for several hours, and fell asleep on that uneasy note.