The Saturday of the match dawned bright and clear, and the feeling in the Great Hall was almost electric. Students ate as quickly as possible in order to make it out to the field early to secure good seats.
The Ravenclaws, quiet, serious, gathered around their captain, Kingsley Shacklebolt, a sixth year Beater with a voice that came as close to a roll of thunder as Remus had ever heard and a gold hoop hanging from his ear. He was tall and bald, in striking contrast to Charlie Weasley, the Gryffindor captain.
Charlie's hair was so vibrant you could see it from across the room despite the fact that he wore it buzzed close to his head. Stocky and shorter than Shacklebolt by several inches, Charlie slouched in his seat, chatting easily with Ben and the team, laughing and joking in a way that would have seemed foreign to the Ravenclaw team on a game day.
The Ravenclaws departed the Hall before anyone else, intense, staring straight forward as they left, accompanied by polite cheering and clapping from their table, but the Gryffindors remained in their seats even as the other students began to filter out toward the field, chattering eagerly. But for all their joviality, there was an obvious current of tension and eagerness in the group. Spaces had been left between the team and the rest of the house, Ben the only one willing to cross the line. Everyone knew that there would be no hostility towards anyone if they were to breach the barrier, but no one really wanted to try it either way.
The Gryffindors all waited until their team rose, and as they exited the hall, Ben led the table in a huge cheer of "Let's Go Lions!" that left the hall ringing with their voices as they followed the team out. Remus, Tonks and Adam joined in the cheer enthusiastically, and then joined the group that headed down towards the field behind Ben.
Most of the sixth and seventh years crowded against the wooden railing of the Gryffindor section, so the three first years were able to find seats only a few rows up, settling in as the teams strode out on to the pitch. Meeting at half field, the contrast between the dark, tall Kingsley and vibrant, stocky Charlie was only more apparent than it had been in the Great Hall as the two captains shook hands.
Madame Hooch spoke briefly to the two teams, then stepped back near the crate behind her as the fourteen players swung legs over their brooms, and tensed, ready for flight. Hooch gave a short blast on her whistle as the Bludgers rose into the air, the brooms and the Quaffle following moments later. Mac Gerritsen, Charlie's girlfriend, who Remus knew by sight only, shot a long arm out and corralled the toss as a magically amplified voice that Remus vaguely recognized filled the stadium.
"And we're off! Gerritsen secures the opening toss for Gryffindor and wastes no time in speeding toward the Ravenclaw posts. Dodges one Ravenclaw Chaser, drops the ball back to Willi Pop, Pop to Reimer, Reimer, avoids one, two Ravenclaws and a Bludger, takes a shot and… scores! Yell Reimer opens the Hogwarts Quidditch season with a brilliant far post shot that puts the Lions up 10-0!"
Remus leaned forward in his seat to speak to Win, sitting in the row in front of him, almost yelling over the crowd noise already filling the stadium. "Who's doing the commentary?"
It was Jeremiah who answered, leaning back, speaking over the pandemonium of the Gryffindor section as a Bludger knocked the Quaffle away from a Ravenclaw Chaser and Yell Reimer scooped it up. "It's Jay Eelyop. Hufflepuff, in Ben's year, I think. Dad owns the owlery in Diagon Alley. Up there," he said, pointing towards the booth next to their section. Remus recognized the boy sitting next to Professor Sprout as the wild-haired shop assistant who'd sold him Shaaro.
"Gryffindor's got the Quaffle, Gerritsen jetting ahead again, just head and shoulders above, head and shoulders, folks. Oooh, her brooms clipped by a Bludger sent her way via Shacklebolt, loses her grip for a moment, and Matkins picks it away. Goes behind his back to Dualus, spins by Pop and gets the Quaffle back, takes a shot… snagged at the very edge of his reach by Tony Rafting. Where does the Gryffindor Keeper find shirts with sleeves that long? Rafting to Reimer, flanked by the Pickle twins, and Gryffindor is off again, up 70-20."
Remus quickly scanned for the Snitch, but his attention was drawn away from his search by a chant coming from the Gryffindor section in front of him, the voices of the older students rising raucously into, "Early! Early! Early!" Charlie, who'd been hovering near the Gryffindor section as he scanned for the Snitch, turned, smiling, and shook his head at his housemates, before turning a lazy loop-de-loop in the air and flying off above the game, again to cheers from the section in front of the seats, and from the seats as well.
"Ravenclaw with the Quaffle again, and it's starting to become the Ray-Ray Matkins' show, as the Pickle twins have Dualus and Samberry completely shut down. If that last Bludger didn't break Samberry's fingers, the girl has bones of titanium. Ray-Ray spins around Gerritsen, around Pop, goes left, goes right, shoots middle, and scores! Matkins takes it himself and scores for the third straight time, closing the Gryffindor lead to 30, ninety to six- look at Weasley go! Sonia Path is right on his tail, but Weasley has got the advantage.
"They split around a Bludger sent their way by Jordan or Jaden Pickle, and continue downward. Charlie Weasley reaches out and… yes! He's got it, Weasley has got the Snitch! Head and shoulders above, just head and shoulders! Final score: Gryffindor, 240, Ravenclaw, 60!"
The team had come to hover in front of the stands after shaking hands with the Ravenclaws, and the Gryffindors' cheers of "Early! Early!" changed quickly into "Let's Go Lions!" They all waved, the Pickle twins and a reluctant Willi running across the front row with hands outstretched. Eventually, the team left with one last wave and a victory lap, and the crowd slowly filtered out toward the common room to continue celebrating there.
Remus chewed on a Licorice Wand from the collection of candy that someone had produced for the celebration, sitting back from the fire a little bit in the crowded common room. Adam sat across the table from him, looking over Remus's copy of Quidditch Through the Ages, while Tonks shared the couch with Remus, curled up and yawning, but not wanting to leave the celebration yet.
Ben, with much commotion, broke away from the main group around the fire, with the team at its center, and collapsed into the chair next to Adam, pushing his dark hair away from his huge eyes and sighing out a laugh before taking a long drink of his water bottle.
"Merlin, I love winning Quidditch matches! One of the best feelings in the world," he said, gazing over at the group still massed around the fire, lively and happy, seemed about ready to jump up and join them again despite his tiredness when Remus spoke.
"What do you guys mean when you chant 'Early' for Charlie?" he asked, and Adam looked up from his book, interested as well, although Tonks remained curled quietly by his side.
Ben laughed before answering, "I told you guys that he was an early the night of the Sorting, didn't I? Well, but I don't suppose any of you knew what I meant, did you? I always do something like that in talking to the younger kids. Really, you should just all be handed a book on the intricacies of the Hogwarts' language the second you step in the door.
"Every couple of years, a student, usually a Ravenclaw, 'graduates' after only five years, and goes to do a two year apprenticeship or something. Then they come back and actually graduate with their class, and then they usually have a load of job offers waiting for them. Charlie's the first Gryffindor early in nearly fifty years. Kid's a genius with magical creatures, has an apprenticeship at some big dragon reserve in Romania.
"Imagine that. Fifteen years old and headed off to Romania to work with honest to Merlin dragons. And thus ends one of the greatest Gryffindor Quidditch careers ever," Ben paused for a moment to shake his head sadly and sigh, "But I suppose we do still have Macky, and it's a nice way to get the Ravenclaws at the Quidditch matches. They haven't had an early in nearly a decade now."
"Oh. So you don't bother breaking it out at the Hufflepuff or Slytherin games?" asked Remus, picking out another Licorice Wand for himself, and offering one to the dozing Tonks, who barely bothered to shake her head no.
"Ha! Oh no, we have to bring a much better game than that to the Hufflepuffs. They've got Gary on their side, and he's almost as brilliant as I am. No, you'll really get to see some good stuff when Gary and I start chanting back and forth. There's singing and dancing involved. It's intense. People who are 'too cool to participate' are disowned. We usually make them go sit with the Slytherins.
"And, well, the things that are shouted during the Slytherin/Gryffindor game really shouldn't be repeated in the company of ladies, first years, or anyone really, ever at all, because my shouting at that game goes way beyond putting my game face on and is just generally an attack against whichever Slytherin happens to be nearest to me. At least most of them probably deserve at least a little of the abuse thrown at them. Well, maybe. I say some awfully mean things."
Remus and Adam laughed as Ben glanced toward the crowd again and took another long drag on his drink, "Shouldn't you all be sleeping already? You've got The Race tomorrow. It's the biggest event outside of Quidditch matches in the whole school."
"We were just about to head up when you sat down, Uncle Ben," said Adam, looking over at Tonks. "See, Tonksey all ready got a head start."
"Don't call me that," Tonks mumbled in response, not bothering to open her eyes to glare, but turning her face in Adam's direction nonetheless.
"Come on, Tonks," said Remus, pulling her up, "You should head up to the dorms, before you end up spending the night down here."
Tonks nodded sleepily, "Night all. See you in the morning for The Race."
When she'd disappeared up the staircase, the three boys turned back to their talk. "Who won the race in your year?" Remus asked of Ben while the older boy took a long drag on a fresh drink someone had handed him.
"Charlie, of course. Wasn't even close. Chaser from Hufflepuff, Davide, finished nearly 10 seconds behind him for second place, and nobody was really that close to Davide. He's going to end up playing professional Quidditch in a couple years, mark my words. Merlin, can you imagine if he and Mac went to the same team? I think that'd truly be one of the greatest groups of Chasers ever assembled, regardless of who the third Chaser was.
"We've got four former Race champions on the team, Mac, Charlie, Yell, and Willi, and the Pickle twins both finished in the top ten. I don't think Tony actually flew in The Race, sick or something that day, and Tony's never really been that fast of a flyer anyway. Got reactions like a snake, but he's too gangly to be graceful. Honestly, Charlie's some sort of freak, flying the way he does, built like he is."
"We won The Race four years in a row? How often does that happen?" asked Adam, having abandoned his book to listen to Ben.
"About every ten years, a house will have a good run, win it a bunch in a row, maybe get a pair of siblings in there, that always helps. Bill finished in the top fifteen the year Mac won it, and it was Marcy Davide that finally broke the streak. Girl's whippet fast, and with nobody with supernatural flying abilities like Charlie to challenge her, I think her margin of victory got as close to Charlie's as anybody's ever gotten. His is the biggest victory in The Race's history."
"All the Quidditch players will be out there tomorrow, and honestly, even some people who wouldn't turn up to a Quidditch match if you paid them come out for The Race. That's mostly 'cause they hope a couple of first years will be involved in some kind of grisly crash, but there's certainly entertainment value in the drama and the winning house gets major bragging rights for the rest of the year, at least until the Quidditch and House Cups are awarded. And we've got a title to defend. Floyde won it last year, and we took second too, with Pratchy. And to think, neither of them is really interested in Quidditch. It's almost a tragedy worthy of Shakespeare."
Ben sat for a moment, staring past the group of Gryffindors into the fire, before taking a short drink and turning back to the other two. "Well, what are you waiting for? Off to bed, first years! The Race is on tomorrow!" A small cheer came from those left in the common room, which seemed to be most of the house, and the remaining first years were ushered upstairs to bed.
Nobody was really sure how The Race had gotten started, or when and why it had become such an important part of the culture at Hogwarts, which was unusual for the school. But nobody really cared about those things anymore; because it had become such an important tradition that new myths were constantly springing up about its history, and its champions.
After the first Quidditch match of the season, every first year physically able to took part in The Race. They'd been taking flying lessons with Hooch for several weeks by this point, and this was considered their final test, a long, winding race that covered most of the open grounds of the school, each year a different course with the same ending point: the center ring of the Quidditch stadium. Like Ben had said, it meant yearlong bragging rights for the winner's house, and lifelong bragging rights for the winners themselves.
The race started at exactly noon, giving everyone plenty of time to eat a late breakfast and find seats in the bleachers set up along the course. A small version of the course was drawn on to the far wall of the Quidditch field, and each first year was given a number, which corresponded to a ball of light that marked their progress along the course. Most of the students preferred to sit in the high seats of the Quidditch stadium and watch the race unfold through the balls of light, but the Quidditch teams of each house usually spread themselves out along the course.
Remus, standing with the others at the starting line as Madame Hooch inspected their school issued brooms, could see Charlie and Ben sitting in the first set of stands, Charlie's hair and bulk standing out and Ben's voice slightly audible even from this distance. They were currently grouped by houses, but they would be mixed together randomly at the starting line before The Race started. Remus rubbed his hands over the rough wood of the handle of this broom, given to him a few minutes before by Professor McGonagall, and turned to listen to Madame Hooch as she gave instructions.
"Good morning, class, and welcome to The Race. You will start from this mark and race to the toss circle of the Quidditch Stadium. Your path will be marked for you by these," she indicated the small, glowing blue orb next to her, and the first years traced the trail they showed with their eyes until it disappeared out of sight. "There will be teachers posted along the route to make sure that you all follow the path and that no cheating occurs in other aspects," she gave a severe look to the gathered first years before asking, "All right, everyone has a broom, then? I'll line you up, come on, move quickly, we don't have all day, that's it."
They all stood, shoulder to shoulder with the person next to them, Remus between Ralston Turpin and Claire Warren. The Ravenclaw was starring out in front of him intensely, his breath ghosting in front of him in thick clouds in the chilly November air, while Claire glanced around her nervously, as though she was looking for escape routes. Remus reached out a hand to her shoulder, and smiled when she jumped slightly and turned to him.
"You'll do fine. This isn't really as big of a deal as everyone makes it out to be."
"I've just never been comfortable on brooms, and certainly not on brooms that are going fast."
"Take it easy. Unless you want to play Quidditch some day, this race barely matters."
"Thank you, Remus," she said, touching his hand for a moment before turning to talk to Chris on her other side, who was vibrating with his own nervous excitement. Remus looked down at his own hands, which shook violently, giving way his own excitement about The Race to come. He had lied to Claire a little, because it was just as big of a deal as everyone made it out to be. It was the biggest event in a student's first year, and one of the biggest events in an entire Hogwarts career. The winner could claim his title years from now, would go down in history as the winner of his year. No matter how long ago they'd graduated or how little they cared about flying or Quidditch, no one ever forgot who won The Race in their year.
"All right, everyone, get ready, mount up, about time to go," said Hooch, walking the line in front of them, "Stay calm, no need to worry about it, don't make yourselves sick. Everybody up?" she wandered back down, and climbed a short ladder up to a little platform where McGonagall already sat.
The clock struck the first toll of noon, and a hush settled over the grounds. Remus could feel Ralston and others down the line tensing, and felt his own shoulders pull tight, leaned close to the broom. The sixth toll rang out, and he dug his toe into the soft ground as Hooch lifted her whistle to her lips.
Eight…Nine…Ten, he counted in his head, drawing in a huge breath as Eleven went by and all the air in the world seemed to disappear for a moment. And then Hooch gave a short, ear-piercing blast on her whistle to accompany Twelve, and the air came back in one huge whoosh. They were off.
This is mad, Remus thought, as his borrowed broom bucked at the sudden increase in speed before settling, and Ralston and Claire disappeared from his peripheral vision to be replaced by two people he couldn't identify because of speed. And I love it. He flattened himself against his broom, took short breathes as the chilled air rushed around him, his eyes stinging as he took the first turn sharply.
Everything around him was a rushing mass of green and black, the trees around them blurring with the other riders, and the world was out of control and messy and fast, pure speed and height and adrenaline for a little while, and he loved it, he thought, as he took another corner, loved every crazy moment of it. This was far removed from the dark halls of Hogwarts, from his quiet bedroom in the house at the edge of the forest. This was staring at Greyback; this was the adventures from his favorite books, danger and the bitter taste of adrenaline.
He couldn't tell if there was anyone behind him anymore, but there was only one person in front of him and one beside him. The small piece of green fabric attached to the broom in front of him identified it as Slytherin, and even at this speed Remus could identify the slicked back black hair of McNair. He pushed closer to his broom, could feel the handle pressing into his breastbone, his feet straining back against the tail.
The air grew colder and the brooms slowed slightly as they sped out over the lake, and Remus glanced sideways at the rider next to him. Win's long hair was pushed back from his face by the speed, his knuckles white against the handle, but he looked at Remus and winked quickly. Both of the Gryffindors had drawn almost even with McNair by this point, and Win dropped down for a moment, flipping his broom and allowing the tips of his hair to brush the water before coming back up on McNair's other side. McNair couldn't turn until either of the Gryffindors had.
Remus saw the kick coming out of the corner of his eye, one leg extending from the back of McNair's broom just as they rounded a corner to head off the lake and towards the pitch and the finish line. He pulled up slightly, avoiding the kick, but was now trailing McNair and Win by a broom length down the final stretch of the race to the pitch.
He pulled in his elbows and knees, pushing his chest harder against the broom, could feel himself gaining slightly with each second that passed, but the huge wall of the Quidditch pitch loomed in front of the three racers, and Remus could now feel other racers behind him.
And then Win twitched. It wasn't much, but his body leaned closer to McNair for just a moment, and as the Slytherin swerved slightly, Remus drew even with the other two. They entered the stadium nearly shoulder to shoulder. The roar as they took the first curve shook the magical path with its intensity.
Remus could see the path out in front of them, a spiraling mess of a thing with Madame Hooch and the finish line at its center. He heard Win's curse even with the wind roaring past his ears, and looked over to watch the other boy struggle through the turns, dropping further and further back with every one. McNair was taking them effortlessly, barely using his body at all, just little twitches of his fingers. He was clearly a natural.
But Remus had spent more time on a broom growing up than he had on the ground, his father bringing his work home with him, and he'd found a grace to it that he'd always been unsure of with both feet on the ground. And now, with the wind roaring in his ears, drowning out the crowd noise almost completely, with the bitter taste of adrenaline in his mouth, he let instinct and memory fly for him. He tried to figure out the pattern, but they were going too fast for that, and he let the speed and adrenaline take over and flew.
The center circle was drawing nearer and nearer, but suddenly the gradual curves they'd been taking were becoming sharper and sharper. The final turn was looming, a ninety degree left turn to the straight shot towards the finish line, with McNair on the inside of him. He couldn't turn until McNair did, and the Slytherin was obviously going to wait until the last possible moment, meaning Remus would almost certainly hit the magical barrier marking out the course. Remus had seconds left to figure out what to do.
It shouldn't work, he thought, not in a million years. But it was all he had left, so Remus tilted the handle of the broom down just enough as they reached the turn, dropping just enough below McNair to get by him. And then he swung his leg out and back into the tail of the broom, could hear the slight splintering as the broom turned sharply under McNair. He flattened himself against the handle again and shot off towards the finish line as the other boy tried to turn his broom.
He had heard the roar from the crowd at his turn, but it was nothing compared to the sound which now shook the stadium as he crossed the finish line a few seconds before McNair. Turning his broom almost perpendicular to his former course, Remus brought his broom to a stop before righting himself and holding his arms up in victory. Win reached him first, having finished just behind McNair, pulling the red marker off Remus's broom and giving it to him to wave.
Adam was next, not even bothering to slow down much before he reached Remus, throwing his arms around the taller boy's middle and nearly taking both of them off their brooms. Win laughed as he waved his own red flag above his head as Tonks collided with Adam and Remus, and then Jeremiah hit him from the side with a whoop.
Remus looked around at the small crowd of people gathered at the finish line, realized that Gryffindor must have finished five people in the top 15. He saw McNair over to the side, nodding as he received the applause from the Slytherin section, looking disappointed but putting on a show for his house. Second place was still something to be proud of in The Race.
But Remus didn't want to think about second place right now. Untangling one arm from the group of Gryffindors that now included Lewis and Sophia, he whirled the small red flag around his head as the house cheered him from their section above. Several hands in his back pushed him forward, and he glanced back towards Hooch for approval for only a moment before taking off, still riding high on victory, speed, adrenaline.
The cheers grew clearer as he got closer, the pure noise turning into a steady chant of "Lupin! Lupin! Lupin!" Ben, standing in the front row, beckoned him closer, grabbing his hand to shake it roughly when he complied. His whole arm jerked with the motion, and he grinned at Ben's enthusiasm as others reached out to shake his hand as well. The chant didn't die down or lose volume until he returned to the platform that had been quickly and magically assembled behind the finish line, and even then only because Dumbledore himself called for quiet. Remus stared up at the Gryffindor crowd in astonishment, could still fell their enthusiasm even from his place at the front of the stage.
Charlie leaned over his shoulder from behind with a grin, "It's amazing, isn't it? They're all crazy buggers, but they're the best kind of crazy buggers 'cause they do it out of love. No feeling in the world quite like getting a cheer from the good ol' Gryffs."
Remus turned to examine the line of people behind him, the past champions of The Race who were still at the school. Jacque Floyde stood at the far left, a tiny girl with pale skin and pale hair with Marcy Davide to her right, and Willi Pop, Charlie, Yell Reimer and Mackenzie Gerritsen finishing out the line of students that Remus stood immediately in front of them. Behind them stood Professor Armistead and Linkin, who had both won The Race in their first years and were still honored with a place on stage according to tradition since they were both technically still at the school. Remus was puzzled when he saw the caretaker on the stage, but was distracted when Dumbledore began to speak.
"Ah, another year, another successful running of The Race, one of Hogwarts' greatest competitions, and another triumphant champion. This year, for the second year in a row and the 6th time in 7 years, the champion is a Gryffindor." Here Dumbledore paused to allow the raucous cheering from the Gryffindor section and a short chant of 'Gryffindor! Gryffindor!' to fill the stadium. "May I present this year's champion, Mr. Remus Lupin!" Applause filled the stadium again, most of it polite as the Gryffindors exploded once again. Their enthusiasm seemed to know no bounds.
Remus stepped over to where Dumbledore and Hooch stood waiting next to Jacque. Dumbledore looked down at him with a smile as he shook his hand, and then Remus bent his neck slightly so that Madame Hooch could slip a small gold medal on a black ribbon over his head before she shook his hand. He continued down the line, feeling slightly off strange as he shook hands with Jacque and Marie, who weren't much older than he was. Reaching Willi, Remus realized with a shock that he was considerably taller than the Gryffindor Chaser, and it was odd, towering over someone who was three years older than he was.
He noticed a pattern in the champions as he moved on to Charlie, Yell and Mac, who were all tall and broad across the shoulders, where as the first three champions were tiny. Remus felt like a weird hybrid of the two groups, tall like the last three but not nearly as broad as any of them. When he reached Armistead, the professor smiled as he clasped his hand warmly and leaned over slightly to speak to him.
"Well, I suppose Marcy and I are the only ones who are keeping it from being solid red up here. I think I'm going to have to have some words with my old house. It wouldn't do to have any solid color but yellow up here." Remus laughed with Armistead, and then moved on to Linkin.
The caretaker didn't look at all happy to be on the stage, and only briefly took Remus's hand before letting go, something which Remus was grateful for. Because as soon as the older man's hand came into contact with Remus's skin, a searing, unbelievable pain ripped through the scar tissue of Remus's right shoulder and up into his neck. Gasping softly, Remus stumbled away from Linkin, hand shooting up to his shoulder protectively. Only then did Linkin smile, a quick flash of sharpened teeth with a strange glee behind it. His eyes, pale blue at the center, had an unsettling ring of green-brown around the edge, and Remus felt himself unconsciously moving back towards Armistead. The professor looked at the caretaker suspiciously for a moment before Linkin moved quickly off of and away from the stage.
With the medal awarded and the hands shaken, The Race was officially over for another year, and the other champions began to drift away from the stage, all stopping to congratulate Remus one more time before leaving. Charlie and Mac remained near the center of the stage, holding hands, heads bent together in silent conversation, and Remus realized that it would be the last time that either of them stood on the stage. Leaving the stage to the older couple, Remus made his way over to where Tonks and Adam stood, rubbing at his shoulder.
Tonks noticed it immediately. "What's wrong?" she asked, hand reaching out to pry his fingers away from their place on his neck, covering the scar. She and Adam both gasped a little, and Remus tried to reach to cover it again, but Tonks had a firm grip around his fingers.
"What happened?" she asked again, staring intently at the side of his neck, and Remus shrugged his shoulders up, trying to hide his scar, wondering what was happening to it that warranted this level of study.
"When I shook Linkin's hand," he said, and then hesitated, suddenly ashamed of how ridiculous it sounded in his head, but continued at Tonks's glare, "When I shook his hand, my scar hurt. That's it. I probably just twisted my shoulder funny or something," he finished, with another shrug and it sounded even more ridiculous out loud.
But at that point, Tonks grabbed his hand and pulled him behind her, leading him out of the stadium and up towards the castle, Adam behind them, jogging to keep up. She pulled him through the Entrance Hall and past the Great Hall, full of people and sound, up the stairs. They finally found what she was looking for on the third floor, and Tonks stopped abruptly in front of a small mirror. Wordlessly, she pointed and Remus turned to look at his reflection.
The scar, normally a pale pink, was an angry, violent red, almost glowing, and as Remus raised his hand to it again, he could feel the heat spilling off of it. He turned to look at Tonks and Adam, who were both staring at him in disbelief.
"I don't think you just twisted your shoulder weirdly, Remus," said Tonks.
"There was something weird about his eyes," said Remus, the only thing he could think of as his fingers tingled with the heat of his scar.
"On the upside," said Adam, smiling slightly, "I think this means that you're not the crazy one."
Hey, I think there might actually, maybe be a little plot in amongst all the Quidditch and such. And I'm sure you're all like "What is this Race thing she's talking about? That's not canon." I know. But it's there to do some character stuff, and to be all awesome and adrenaliny and who knows why Harry doesn't do it. Maybe it gets outlawed at some point. Maybe Harry is disqualified because he's already on the Gryffindor team. I have six stories to figure that out in. But in this series, I'm trying to concentrate as much on the characters as I do on the plot. I understand why JK Rowling had to follow Harry, and develop the immediate cast of characters near Harry, but I want as many of the characters as possible to be full, rich characters in this one. And on that note, if you have a favorite OC that you want to know more about, or want to appear more? Let me know in a review. I've got storylines worked up for most of them, but I'd always love to hear feedback on them.