A/N: So sorry I haven't updated sooner. My schoolwork has been keeping me busy…Ugh. Evil stuff. I'll try and get the next chapter up sooner rather than later.

Don't own Harry Potter…blah, blah, blah.

Chapter 9: Quidditch and Excuses

Three weeks passed, and with it, Robyn's detentions. She was finally free of spending at least two hours each evening with the insufferable Professor Tyrone. Georgie had remarked; 'Does he act at all like a dinosaur? 'Cause his name sure makes him sound like one. Tyrone-asauras. It sounds like some short little fish type thing doesn't it?' Robyn took no time in agreeing with her. Not only did Professor Tyrone somewhat resemble a million year old water dwelling dinosaur, but he certainly acted like it.

It was on a Saturday afternoon, just after Robynsdetentions had finished,when a notice had appeared in the Gryffindor common room, announcing to everyone that the Gryffindor Quidditch team would be holding extra trials for a new chaser as one of theirs was moving to America in a couple of months.

'The trials will be held a week from today.'

This notice had certainly sparked a lot of interest from the population of Gryffindor, as those who had not been able to make the team, now had their chance. It had also sparked a keen interest in Robyn. But there was one particular hurdle that she would have to overcome if she were to try out.

She would have to learn to fly a broom.

"James," She said, turning around to face one of the best Quidditch players Hogwarts had seen in quite a while. "Can I ask you something? In private?"

Sirius, who had been standing next to James at the time, let a broad grin cover his face as he let out a whistle.

"Eh, eh. Get in their Jamesy," Sirius said nudging James with his elbow, earning him a smack upside the head by both Robyn and his best friend.

"Yeah, sure," James replied, casting a quick glare at Sirius before wandering off to a corner of the common room where their conversation would not be overheard. "What is it?"

"Well, you know there are trials coming up for the Gryffindor Quidditch team?" Robyn said, stating the obvious.

"Yes."

"Well, I want to try out for the team but, there's one teensy weensy little problem."

"What?"

"I don't know how to fly a broom."

James' mouth fell open dramatically, and his eyes seemed to pop out of his head in horror. He seemed to think it was a crime against all things wonderful not to be able to fly a broom.

"You don't know how to fly a broom," James echoed in monotone.

"No. And I wondered, since you are such a good flyer, whether you could teach me?" Robyn asked sweetly.

"Well," James said, his ego being boosted by the compliment. "I suppose I could. Want to try now?"

Robyn smiled broadly. "Yeah, sure."

"Brilliant, come on then."

"Oh, and there's one more thing. I was wondering if you could not mention this to the others?" Robyn asked.

"No problemo chickadee," James smirked. "My lips are sealed."

So, the week passed. Each evening, James and Robyn would disappear off to the Quidditch grounds, leaving their bewildered friends behind wondering what they were up to.

Robyn proceeded to get better and better. Soon enough, she could fly a broom as well as anyone else. James was extremely proud that his teachings skills were so good.

The Quidditch trials arrived sooner rather than later. Robyn could hardly eat anything at breakfast that morning, but James managed to shove some toast down her throat. Their friends stared upon them with a befuddled look on their faces.

Later on, both James and Robyn disappeared once more.

"How do you think I'll do?" Robyn asked James nervously as they made their way down to the Quidditch pitch.

"Brilliantly, so don't worry yourself. It'll be fine," James reassured her.

These words of confidence seemed to settle Robyn's nerves somewhat, and she proceeded to do very well indeed.

The first three or four people were appalling. They couldn't even throw the ball through the hoops. Robyn recovered slightly; she knew she could do better.

Her turn came quickly, and she mounted her broom gracefully and kicked off from the ground.

"Now, all I want you to do is catch the ball, dodge the bludgers and other players then put the ball through one of the hoops. Simple. On my whistle," shouted the team captain, a burly sixth year named Ryan Molias. And, with a short thumbs up from James, the whistle went and the quaffle was thrown towards Robyn.

Catching it with ease, she dived suddenly to avoid getting hit in the face with a bludger. Swerving to the right, she dodged a player and streamed towards the hoops. This is when she didn't see the bludger. It hit her left side with pure force and sent her spinning. Luckily, Robyn thought afterwards, nothing had broken. But, putting that to the back of her mind, she thanked Godric she was right handed.

Gathering her senses about her, she went back to the trials at hand. Speeding onwards, she readied the quaffle in her hand, making a spectacular dive to avoid one of the other chasers. Swooping upwards, she threw the quaffle with all the strength she could muster.

Time seemed to slow. The keeper made to stop the quaffle, but, to his dismay, it went straight past his fingers and through the top hoop.

Robyn let out a loud cry of triumph as she dived down and stumbled off her broom when she met the ground.

"How'd I do?" She asked James when he came down with the rest of the team.

"I'm so proud," James said, wiping a mock tear from his eye and smirking insanely.

"I did good then?" Robyn laughed.

"Good? Brilliant more like!" James laughed.

"Well, thank you all for coming. I shall now discuss it with the rest of the team, and we will get back to you in a couple of minutes," Ryan spoke to all the contenders for the new Gryffindor chaser.

James gave Robyn and quick wink before heading off with the rest of the team to a quiet corner, leaving all the nervous want-to-be-chasers standing in a crowd by the hoops.

The crowd stood in silence, all to nervous to speak. The occasional cough, or shuffle broke it, but only for a second. Robyn began to ring her hands, biting her lip in anticipation.

The captain came back minutes later, James refused to look Robyn in the eyes.

"We have agreed on a decision," Ryan paused for dramatic effect. "We have decided to give Patrick Johnson the place of Chaser, well done!"

The fifth year, Patrick Johnson, went up to shake the captains hand with a smile that stretched from ear to ear.

Robyn sighed, and clapped, forcing a smile onto her face.

"But we have also decided to have a sub this year, as we couldn't decided as to who would be better. Robyn Young, congratulations," Ryan smiled.

Robyn's eyes widened, and she gaped open mouthed at the Gryffindor Quidditch team. Something was better than nothing, she decided and shook Ryan's hand vigorously in a sign of thanks.

"I can't believe it," Robyn smiled, as she hugged James excitedly.

"I thought you'd be disappointed?" James asked quizzically.

"Disappointed! No way! Something's better than nothing, and that was what I was expecting."

"Oh, well that's all right then," James grinned as they walked back towards the castle in high spirits.

"Well, where have you two been then?" Sirius asked at Dinner as he piled several chicken wings onto his plate.

"None of your business Black," Robyn said, not meeting his eyes and instead, piling some potatoes onto her plate.

Sirius grinned. "A mystery, eh?"

"Yes, and it will be until I see fit to tell you!" Robyn said indignantly.

Sirius held up his hands in mock defeat. "Calm down my chickadee. It's not good to get yourself stressed, bad for the complexion," he stated, fluttering his eyelashes femininely.

"Ahhhh, Sirius' true self shows to all," Peter spoke out mysteriously.

"Next thing you know, he'll be in heels and a pink dress," Georgie stated, waving a fork piled with pie.

"What makes you think I don't where heels and a pink dress. I think they actually quite suit me," Sirius pouted.

"Ignore the nasty people, paddy-waddy-poo. You wear a pink dress and heels if you want to," James patted Sirius on the back, trying in vain to keep a smirk from emerging onto his face.

The girls, and Remus, all rolled their eyes simultaneously and went back to eating their dinner, un-aware that the Slytherins were all smirking at them behind their backs.

Remus sat there, picking gingerly at the pile of food on his plate. Now that it was there, he decided he didn't want it. In fact, it made him feel rather ill. He pushed his plate away with paler skin than he had before and decided to look at his hands rather than watch everyone else eat.

James cast him an anxious look before continuing to eat. Suddenly, a flicker of bright colour caught his eye and he looked up. The Slytherins were right in his eye line, and, he just noticed two of them pocket something. James thought the 'objects' to be, most defiantly, wands.

Suddenly, right In front of their eyes, every chicken leg on the Gryffindor table had been transfigured into a giant spider.

Sirius, who was half way to putting one in his mouth at the time, dropped it, and jumped several feet backwards, knocking into a Ravenclaw sixth year.

Robyn screamed and fell backwards off the bench and hit the floor with a rather large thud.

The others just seemed to back away slowly and run as quickly as they can away.

The chaos that followed saw the entire school running for cover. Luckily, the marauders and the girls managed to escape the panic. Quickly and quietly, they ran back to the Gryffindor common room.

Robyn was the last one in, and slammed the door, most unceremoniously shut, before shivering involuntarily and brushing herself down.

"What?" She snapped, as the other's all looked at her quizzically. "I have an uncommonly large fear of spiders." She caught the identical grins on James and Sirius' faces. "And if either of you two ever use that against me, you will live to regret it."

Although this threat proved to be extremely intimidating, it didn't succeed to wipe the smirks off James and Sirius' faces.

Robyn threw her hands up in the air with defeat. "I'm going up to bed," She said. "Doubt I'll be able to get any," she mumbled as she walked past two of the marauders, glaring at them.

Lily and Sue followed straight after, Georgie and Michaela a few minutes later after giving the boys a bit of a grilling. The rest of the Gryffindor population also came and went, a few stragglers sitting by the fire.

Remus and the rest of the marauders went up to their dorm so they could talk without being interrupted.

Remus sat on the windows sill, staring at sun that had begun to set.

Not long now, he thought. Feeling the concerned eyes of his friends on the back of him, he turned round and forced a smile.

"I'll be fine guys, no need to worry," Remus said, in the best reassuring voice he could muster.

The three other marauders looked at each other before looking back to their friend. No matter how much he told them not to worry, they still would. They were so close to getting the Animagus' done, but not close enough. Once more, their friend would have to go through the transformation alone.

"I'm gonna go wait in the common room," Remus said, and departed from their company, seeking solitude.

The boys watched Remus walk away from them, and shut the door quietly. Sirius just shrugged helplessly and got into his pyjamas. James and Peter followed suit, and soon, they were all lying in bed, throwing random conversations around the room.

Remus sat silently in the empty common room, staring into the flickering flames, glancing every now and again at the clock on the mantle, then to the sky outside. He turned sharply as he heard footsteps coming down the stairs.

"Oh," Robyn said. "I didn't expect anyone to be in here."

"No problem. Take a seat, I'll be leaving in a minute anyway," Remus stated sadly.

"Why you going?" Robyn asked, seating herself in a small armchair by the fireside.

"Oh, I ermm, my mother, ermm, she's sick, and I'm going to see her," Remus said, bringing to light the excuses he used on James, Peter and Sirius so long ago.

"Oh, well, I…I hope she gets better soon," Robyn said, forcing a comforting smile. Robyn had forgotten that it was a full moon that night.

Remus glanced for the last time at the clock and realised it was time to leave. "Well, I better get going. I'll see you when I get back."

"Yeah, yeah. Sure," Robyn said as Remus made his way to the portrait. "Take care!" She called out after him.

Remus shut the portrait hole with Robyn's words still ringing in his ears. "I'll try," he muttered solemnly to himself before making his way down to the entrance hall, and from there, onto the shrieking shack.

Robyn brought her knees up to her chest and hugged them tightly, staring into the flames of the roaring fire.

I'll start my Animagus training tomorrow, she stated stubbornly to herself.

She couldn't even start to imagine what Remus must go through every full moon. How awful it must be without anyone there to help him through it. It sent involuntary shivers down her spine.

Glancing quickly out the window, she finally noticed how long she must have sat there. The sky had darkened and the full moon shone with all its horrific beauty.

Robyn closed her eyes and flinched as she heard very faint howls. It seemed to her as though a boy was screaming inside those howls. She paled and made her way back up to bed, the howls still haunting her head.

She knew she would get no sleep tonight.

A/n: Woa, another chappie done! Yay! Another one hopefully coming soon. But don't you just want to go give Remus a really big hug!

Foodisgood: Thank you, I had a really good holiday. And yes, being thrown in the lake is really fun :D! Hope you enjoyed this chapter.

Lupinsiriusluva: Glad you liked it:D Hehehe. I really liked doing that chapter. And yup, way more gryffie vs snake encounters coming up. Hope you liked this chapter.

KrazieShadowNinja: Shivering here. Jeez. That's evil! Lol. And chocolate is lovely! Yup yup. And school is annoying, that's what is keeping me busy from writing this. Grrrrrr. Too much work. Hope you liked this chapter.

Chris-Halliwell: Lol, Sirius deserved being thrown in the lake! If he woke me up at that time then I'd kill him! (Not literally). And thank you. I enjoyed doing the pranks. Hope you like this chapter.

XMissxUnderstoodx: I am not saying anything else to do with that sneak preview. You'll have to work it out yourself, lol. And yeah….why is it defence teachers are always mean? Well, I guess not all of them are…just most of them. And yes, you can imagine all the staff covered in chocolate can't you? Hehehe. And yeah, poor Remus. Hope you enjoyed this chapter.

Hpmangaotakuchan: Oh my god! Such a long review! Wow! Hehehe. Yes, sadly we will see Tyrone again. He's evil aint he? And yes, he will get a royal kick up the butt by…I'm not saying who. But he will do. Erotic mail, lol. Very evil, I like it. And MacGonagalls face would be priceless! Hahahaha. And thanks. But you sure do like your chocolate eh? Lol. No worries, so do I. And Ow, psychology book! Evil! Lol. And yeah, it was cool. And noooo! You noticed the muck up! It was actually based in Harry's 5th year! I haven't actually decided whether to knock Sirius through the veil or not. And your friend sounds cool. I love her style. Lol. Yeah, I had a good holiday. Thanks. I went to Spain, and it rained half the time. Good eh? And I'll have Pizza, if I'm not tooooo late, lol. Hope you enjoyed this chapter.

Xmasgoose: Love the name, lol. And glad you liked it. Hope you enjoyed this chapter.