Chapter 11: Quidditch
"So, who's going to read this chapter?" Flitwick asked as he held the book out to the group.
"I will" Sirius said.
Remus and Tonks gasped dramatically while the four heads of houses' jaws dropped.
"Sirius Black? WILLINGLY reading out of a book?" Remus teased.
"Shut up" Sirius said "I have my reasons."
"This I GOTTA hear." Tonks joked.
"It's Harry's first QUIDDITCH game! The title is Quidditch. That's safe enough."
"Not at Hogwarts" the teachers chorused.
"I'd say the mattress would be worse" Tonks said.
"Too observant for his own good" Snape muttered as Sirius smirked when he read.
"You just can't leave well enough alone, can you Severus?" McGonagall sighed.
"That's not a rule!" everyone but the trio, Dumbledore, and Snape chorused.
"Well, they were breaking a rule anyways" Snape defended.
"But the rule is no magic in the corridors." Harry pointed out.
"We were outside" Ron stated.
Snape just sneered at the two as the other teachers and Remus chuckled as Sirius gapped at the two boys.
It was himself and James all over again.
"RON!" Molly scolded having finally recovered from the troll incident.
"Great." Sirius sighed "All you need now is the urge to prank, Hermione to be a werewolf and you two boys to be animagi for you to be an exact replica of our group."
"DON'T ENCOURAGE THEM!" The teachers and Molly shouted frantically.
The LAST thing they wanted was the Marauders to return. It was bad enough with Fred and George.
"You're a prankster?" Fred asked intrigued.
"Sirius. Read" Remus said reaching over Harry and whacking Sirius' head.
"Isn't any scene with Snape horrible?" Ginny asked.
Snape sneered at her, but she just glared back at him.
"Is this going where I think it's going?" Bill asked.
"No it's not Weasley" Snape answered remembering this moment as he glared at Sirius who was reading with a Marauderish smirk on his face.
"EEEEEEEEEEWWWWWWWWWWW!" the younger generation exclaimed at the way Sirius was reading to make the implication.
"I didn't know you swung that way Severus" Remus teased.
"Madame Pince can't be too happy with you" Tonks added "I heard she and Filch have something going on."
Snape turned to his colleagues for backup but the fact that the other four teachers were covering their mouths and shaking as if struggling not to laugh made him realize he was alone.
"Read Black" Snape said.
"Mental images are still there" Charlie admitted.
"Not sure we'll be able to…" Fred started.
"…pay attention in Potions ever again" George added.
"You never did to begin with" Snape reminded them causing Molly to glare at her sons.
"Smart move."
"You should have told us the way Sirius did" Ron said still chuckling from Sirius' implications.
"The pranks we could have done" the twins sighed.
"Good thing I didn't" Harry said shooting Snape an apologetic look for suspecting him.
"Don't feel bad about it Harry" Ginny said before shooting Snape a death glare. "he didn't give you a reason TO trust him."
"You need to eat Harry." Molly said. "If not for your strength during the game, to make up for the times that aunt of yours didn't feed you."
She then turned a death glare at Dumbledore.
"I really appreciated it" Harry told his friends.
"And women." Fred said.
"This is it" Harry joined.
"The big one" George added.
"The one we've all been waiting for" Charlie added recognizing the speech from his own days which apparently Oliver had borrowed a bit of.
"This is the best team Gryffindor's had in years" Fred added.
"We're going to win. I know it" Harry continued.
"Or else" George said.
"Right. It's time. Good luck, all of you" Charlie finished.
Sirius was reading silently as the four players who had played with Oliver Wood did the speech.
"Sirius?" Remus asked.
Everyone was looking at the four Gryffindor Quidditch players in awe.
"It's as Fred said. We know Oliver's speech by heart" Harry said before turning to Charlie. "But how did you know it?"
"Some of it came from my speech. The next year when Oliver made Captain, he owled me and asked if he could use my speech for the team pre-game pep-talk." Charlie explained. "I told him yes and he could make any changes he wanted to. In all honesty, I was just using words from my own speeches when I joined you three."
Sirius chuckled.
"What?" Harry asked.
"Just…when I was on the team, I memorized your father's speeches and did what Fred and George did." Sirius said. "Of course, it was easy when he'd practiced them in front of the mirror before game-time."
"Read Black" Snape said wanting to get this over with.
"Not with the Slytherins around!" Ron, Fred, and George chorused.
"We need to remember to tell Dean that. It was his idea" Hermione whispered to Ron.
"Does Jordan seem familiar to either of you?" McGonagall asked the Marauders.
Remus gulped and shifted a bit uncomfortably.
"What happened?" Harry asked hungry for more stories about his parents and godfather's school days.
"When it wasn't a full moon, I was doing the commentary" Remus admitted "And…well... remember who my friends were?"
"I would LOVE to have seen what you did Professor" Ron said
"Ron. I've told you. It's Remus now" Remus sighed.
"SIRIUS/BLACK!" Everyone but Dumbledore shouted as Sirius had yelled that last bit.
"Smart" Sirius praised.
"I'd prefer not attacked at all" Molly huffed.
"NEVER wear gold in a Quidditch game!" Sirius lectured the twins seriously.
"Sorry." The twins chorused.
"We forgot" Fred explained.
"We wore them out of habit."
FOUL!" all the Quidditch fans and players exclaimed.
"Huh?" those that weren't there asked.
"Sounds like a jinx" Remus mused. He looked over at Snape, but then felt Harry's hand on his arm giving him a warning look.
"Would someone notice him already!?" Ginny exclaimed.
Molly gasped and clutched a pale Arthur's arm. Sirius, who had suddenly went pale again, turned to Harry as if to confirm that the boy was alright. Harry gripped Sirius' arm as if trying to hold him back.
It was Sirius' turn to look at Snape.
"Sirius. Read." Harry instructed.
"No. I was COUNTER-jinxing it" Snape spoke up at the fact he had every eye on him that DIDN'T know what was going on.
"Should have called a Time-out" Charlie mused.
Silence.
"That was YOU?" Snape demanded of the blushing muggleborn as the Weasley kids cheered earning death glares from their mother. Even the Marauders were smiling and Tonks was giggling. The other teachers didn't know whether to laugh, be impressed by the advanced magic, or disappointed that Hermione set a teacher on fire.
"You never gave us a reason TO trust you" Hermione said repeating what Ginny had said earlier.
"Constant vigilance Severus" Moody said with a smirk extremely impressed that Hermione caught an ex-Death Eater on fire.
"Wrong" Snape said sneering at Hermione.
"How was I to know we'd find a bunch of books about Harry's school years?" she asked.
"You poor dear" Molly said sympathetically.
"Wait. What?!" Those that weren't there asked.
"You caught the snitch…IN YOUR MOUTH?!" Charlie asked as the Marauders turned and gapped at the boy between them.
"Yeah" Harry said. "It was just after a jerk and my mouth opened to yell and it flew right in. Luckily, that was the last jerk so I climbed back on and flew to the ground."
"Amazing" Charlie mused. Maybe this kid WAS better than him.
Sirius stopped and looked at the sentence again as those that didn't know the name of the dog gapped.
"FLUFFY!?"
"We should have known" Remus sighed running a hand through his hair. "With Hagrid, the cuter the name, the deadlier the creature."
"HAGRID!" the heads of houses exclaimed.
"So's Quirrell" Harry muttered under his breath so that only Remus heard with his super-hearing.
"Of course, you have to do the same for counter-jinxes" she added sheepishly.
"HAGRID!" the heads exclaimed again as Dumbledore sighed. He trusted Hagrid with his life… but maybe life and secrets should be considered separate categories.
"I should hope so" McGonagall huffed "We're dealing with the son of Lily Evans and James Potter. BOTH who were far too curious for their own good!"
"Tell me about it" Snape and Remus chorused as Snape recalled Lily's CONSTANT questioning when they first became friends and Remus remembered how it had been James' idea to figure out why Remus was absent every month.
"What do you mean?" Harry asked.
Dumbledore answered.
"Both of your parents were highly inquisitive. Sometimes to the point where they would obsess over a mystery."
"So THAT'S where he gets it!" Ron and Hermione chorused.
Harry reached over Remus, grabbed a throw pillow, and threw it over to his friends.
"Your father worse than your mother" Remus added.
"Then you must not have seen Lily following you four in the library and checking to see what books you lot were looking at JUST to find out what you four were up to" Snape responded "For at least 6 years."
"Who's next?" Sirius asked as the conversation was starting to hurt.
"I'll read" Professor Sprout said.
