Disclaimer: I don't own Harry and co or the Marauders. But I do own Ian Dinas. Mua ha ha...
Harry woke up early Saturday morning to a frenzy of excitement from his fellow 6th year Gryffindors. "What's up?" he asked, stifling a yawn as he got out of bed.
"First quidditch match against Slytherin!" Remus exclaimed over a copy of Advanced Rune Translations. This proved Ron's theory- that Hermione was the only one who read those books out of class- was wrong.
.James was the center of attention as the Gryffindor seeker. Several 5th year girls giggled as he passed. Burly 7th years patted him on the back. Peter followed him around everywhere like a little lapdog. Even Lily wasn't as sarcastic as usual.
"Make way!" Sirius shouted, waving his hands around at a crowd of people standing in the common room, oblivious to the fact he had already knocked over 2 lamps, "Make way for the Gryffindor seeker!"
Harry felt a pang in his stomach. He'd always been the Gryffindor seeker. He thought longingly for his Firebolt. What if they were stuck here? What if he never got a chance to play quidditch again? Then he saw James ahead of him and pushed all those thoughts away. He was about to watch his father play an actual quidditch match.
"What's the whole deal with a quidditch match?" Ron asked sulkily, as the three sat together on a couch.
"I read in Hogwarts a History that quidditch was more of a big deal back then." Hermione answered, as usual, as she watched with an amused expression as Sirius attempted to make a replica of a lion's head roar. It wasn't working.
"Hey, look at it this way, mate." Ron said. "You'll see your dad fly!"
Harry nodded, the old excitement welling in his chest. "Hey Sirius!" He called. "Are any other 6th years beside James on the quidditch team?"
Sirius, who was frantically ducking as slime flew out of the lion's open jaws, called back "Taglia."
"Taglia?" Hermione repeated, looking suddenly thoughtful.
"Yeah, Samantha Taglia." Sirius said, giving her an odd look
"Black!" Sammi, from all the way across the room threw a pillow at him. "I'm Sammi, not Samantha!"
Sirius caught the pillow and chivied away with an expression of mock fright. "Chasers." He muttered, shaking his head as Sammi stormed off. "Nina's a chaser too." he added as the curly haired girl walked past. At that moment, a large hairball flew out of the lion's open jaws, hitting Sirius directly in the face. "Oh, gross!" He muttered, spitting out several cat hairs as James and Harry roared with laughter.
Fighting down a grin, Hermione walked up next to Sirius and took out her wand. "hablas leon." Immediately, the lion let out a deep, bellowing roar.
"Nice." Sirius said in admiration. He leaned into the jaws of the lion, and missed seeing her blush.
After breakfast in the great hall, everyone filed outside and took a place out on the field.
"Sirius is Commentator!" Hermione shouted over the noise.
Harry looked up, and sure enough, the familiar tall form was standing on a podium, holding a mike. "And we have the Gryffindor quidditch team!" he shouted as 7 scarlet blurs sped out to thunderous applause. "Vasquez, Taglia, Farland, Mcvay, Chen, annnd Potter!" Harry cheered along with the other Gryffindors, following his dad with his eyes.
"And the Slytherin team." Sirius continued without quite as much enthusiasm. "Dinas, Barnes, Mclath, Lestrange, Gherig, Bole and Macnair."
Hermione's eyes widened. "There are at least 2 death eaters on that team!" Harry nodded, glaring furtively at the green cloaked figures.
Down below, Madam Hooch threw open the crate.
"And the balls are in play!" Sirius called. "Nice snatch there by Sammi Taglia! She's speeding towards the Slytherin goal post with the quaffle. A neat loop around the bludger hit by Gherig, and it's just her and Macnair...and she scores! 10-0 Gryffindor!"
Harry saw Sammi punch the air as she soared through the air, then ouch! Sammi nearly fell off her broom as Lestrange, (Not Bellatrix, but her husband) a chaser, crashed into her. "Oops, didn't see her!" He smirked. A moment later, Alec Mcvay, a Gryffindor beater, swung a bludger at Lestrange before play even started.
"Penalty!" Madam Hooch shrieked. "For both teams!"
"And Nina Vasquez flies forward to take the shot." Sirius said into the mike. "Come on Nina, you can get past that-." He said something that made Professor McGonagall go "Black! One more time and-"
"Okay, okay." Sirius said, hurriedly getting back to the game. "And Vasquez shoots...Macnair slips on his broom, ha that must hurt, and it goes through! 20-0 Gryffindor!"
Harry cheered along with the rest, the excitement of quidditch getting into him.
"Slytherin Tara Mclath goes to take the penalty."
Hermione squinted at the figure clad in green. A skinny 6th year girl with long, thin, blonde hair and pale blue eyes flew forwards. Nearby, Sammi was looking at her with narrowed eyes. Hermione had a feeling there was more to this than just quidditch.
"Of course, Kevin's a great keeper. Fabulous, wonderful. Not very easy to get through-I don't believe it! He's saved it!"
Relieved, Harry turned towards his dad. James was flying slowly around the stadium, his eyes darting expertly here and there, looking for the snitch. Harry felt another pang of nostalgia, then quickly focused back onto the game.
"And Slytherin in possession, Rodulphus Lestrange with the quaffle. He loops a bludger; Another bludger by Tony Chen catches him. All right! Lestrange drops the quaffle. Sammi Taglia darts forward and snatches it right from under Mclath's nose, so there! Man, that girl's a good flier."
Harry watched in admiration as Sammi did a series of complicated turns to get past two bludgers.
"And she shoots, wait, I lied. That was a fake! Macnair dives for thin air and Sammi throws a long pass to Vasquez, who scores. 30-0 Gryffindor!"
"Wow." Harry murmured.
"Yeah, mate." Ron said excitedly. "Wish she was on our team."
The crowd suddenly booed. Harry and Ron looked up. Kevin Rojas, the Gryffindor keeper, had been knocked out by a bludger. Tara Mclath raced up the sidelines and hurled the quaffle through the empty goal post. 10-30. Sirius muttered something, and in the next second Bole, a 7th year who resembled a sick donkey, hurled his bat at him. Sirius yelped and ducked, the heavy wood cannoning past the place his head had been a moment before. The crowd of people behind Sirius screamed, scrambling away from the offending bat.
"You think he's okay?" Hermione exclaimed anxiously.
Sirius stood up, looking a bit dazed and glowered at Bole, who in turn protested that his bat had slipped. To the Gryffindors' fury, Madam Hooch bought his excuse.
This was just the beginnings of a long and dirty game. Harry counted a total of 29 penalties awarded. Disheartened by their disabled keeper, the Gryffindor quidditch team began to lose their fire, only getting 1 lousy penalty goal. The Slytherin's however, caught up by 11 more goals after Kevin Rojas was knocked out.
"40-120, Slytherin." Sirius groaned, tapping his fingers impatiently against his wand as Corri Bangs scored. The sea of green cheered madly.
"C'mon Vasquez!" Sirius shouted as Nina caught the quaffle. "She swerves and passes to Taglia! Taglia is streaking up the field-duck, Sammi! Those are bludgers!"
Sammi cart wheeled to avoid getting her head knocked off, but dropped the ball.
"Lestrange catches the quaffle and heads towards the Gryffindor goal post, and with no Rojas, there's no obstacle. 40-130 Slytherin." Sirius muttered a bad word and Pr. McGonagall tried to take the microphone away from him.
"Sorry Professor won't happen again!" Sirius said, ducking under her outstretched arm. "And Taglia in possession. She passes to Farland who's just speeding past those Slytherins. She ducks and passes back to Sammi. Sammi shoots and its 50-130." Sirius exclaimed. "...Slytherin." he added under his breath.
Harry sighed and sat back. This would be a long game.
"It's 3 hours into the game and there's still no sign of the snitch. That could be the record!"
Harry shifted his gaze back towards his dad. James' face was strained with frustration as he scanned frantically around. Ian Dinas, the rat-faced Slytherin seeker was hovering lazily above James.
"Now it's 80-210, Slytherin." Sirius was saying with obvious frustration. "Scored by Mclath."
Kevin Rojas had recovered enough to continue playing, but it was obvious to all that he wouldn't be able to stop many after getting winded like he had.
"Gryffindor in possession. Farland with the quaffle, nice pass to Taglia who ouch, narrowly missed getting hit with a bludger and she shoots, Macnair blocks, and yo! Look!"
The crown watched as if entranced as the 2 seekers suddenly dove.
"It's the snitch! It's finally been seen! James Potter is reaching out. Dinas close beside him. And a bludger hit by Chen heads towards Dinas. He...slips? I think he slipped. Anyhow whoa! He falls onto Pron-James Potter! Dang, and the 2 seekers are falling!"
Harry watched in shock as the 2 fell towards the ground. The brooms slowed them down a bit, but they both landed with a heavy thud.
"James!" Sirius shouted abandoning the mike. Harry jumped up too, ignoring all thoughts of anything else. A crowd of kids and teachers had surrounded the 2 injured seekers.
"Move back! One of the teachers shouted, pushing back the crowd of students. "Move back I say!"
"Come on Harry." Hermione said, pulling on his arm. She cast a worried look at Sirius who was struggling with 2 teachers. "We'll have to go in. To her surprise, he followed her, his face expressionless.
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Harry, Hermione and Ron sat with Sirius and Remus as the 2 sat doing their homework in the common room that evening. Well, supposedly did their homework. Remus was, at least. Sirius seemed too distracted to worry about such mundane things. Madam Pomfrey had only allowed James' fellow quidditch teammates to see him; otherwise Sirius would probably have been tearing up the hospital wing.
"I can't believe that freak Dinas actually fell on James!" Sirius was ranting. Harry whole heartedly agreed with him. "If James has any permanent injuries-"
At that moment, the subject of their conversation climbed in through the portrait.
"James!" Harry and Sirius yelled at the same time. "And Sammi." Harry added shyly as Sammi followed, trailed by Nina. Sammi grinned tiredly at him.
"They're resuming the match tomorrow?" Hermione was saying.
"Of course, they always do. Hermy"
Hermione glared at Sirius. "Don't call me Hermy, Snuffles"
"Snuffles?" Sirius yelped.
Nina and Remus burst out laughing.
"Nice one Hermione." Nina said.
Hermione cast a guilty look at Ron and Harry, who winced. Oops, she mouthed.
"She means when you're a d-"Harry stopped. He wasn't supposed to know Sirius was an animagus. "She means sometimes you, uh, snuffle." Harry finished lamely. He groaned inwardly. This just showed exactly how good he was at telling lies.
"I do not snuffle." Sirius said in mock anger.
"Uh huh." Hermione said, flicking Sirius with her finger. Sirius flung a pillow at her. The two collapsed into laughter. Ron looked at Harry and raised his eyebrow. Harry shrugged. At that moment, they all realized James hadn't said a word yet.
"You okay mate?" Sirius asked, sitting up.
James nodded, uncharacteristically subdued. "Yeah, my arm just feels funny, that's all. I think I'll go to bed."
They watched him trudge up the stairs. Sirius shook his head angrily. "It's all Dinas' fault."
Sammi nodded. "I saw him in the halls an hour ago. He was fine, while James was still in the hospital wing. I heard him tell Lucius he purposely dragged James down with him."
Sirius' fists clenched. "I'll kill him." The rest of the evening was spent discussing hexes and jinxes and gory deaths for Dinas as the Gryffindors plotted revenge they knew they wouldn't carry out anyways.
So that's the 4th chapter. Sorry for those of you who find quidditch boring. The main part of the story comes later. In case you were wondering, thisisa HG/SB story, even if it seemed like Sirius is close to Sammi. Okay, now press that button down there and Review!
amrawo: thank you. Hermione is yelling at Harry right now for making up his story without consulting her first.
Serendipity-England-1922: I did update:D
sirius black and remy: No fear. I'll have a guilty conscience if I don't finish this story.
Reanne1102:Thanx Thisisa Hermione/Sirius story. Don't worry, they'll get close later on.
Alikat: heh heh thanks. and I know my chapter titles suck...like this one. Your review didn't get cut off. Yay!
Happy Late Thanksgiving everyone!