Disclaimer: Do not own JKR's characters.
Harry opened the curtains around his bed the next morning to find a small crowd gathered around the foot of somebody's bed.James' bed. Harry jumped out of his covers and hurried over. James was holding his limp right wrist and wincing.
"Why didn't you tell Madame Pomfrey?" Remus was asking anxiously.
James shook his head. "I didn't know it was this bad. And anyway, Lucius and Dinas and…Snivelus were already laughing at how long I stayed in the ouch! Hospital Wing," James winced again.
"Why would you care what those buffoons think?" Sirius demanded, pacing around anxiously.
The door suddenly swung open and the 5 sixth year girls dashed in. "Oh James, are you okay?" Lily asked nervously.
James managed a weak smile. "Didn't know you cared about me so much, Evans."
Lily scowled anxiously. "Don't push it Potter. If it weren't for your wrist…" She paused, her threatening look only spoiled by the worry in her eyes.
"What's the matter with it?" Lira asked, peering over Remus' shoulder.
Sirius shook his head. "He landed on it when he hit the ground."
"And now we don't have a seeker," Sammi finished.
This predicament dawned on them all. "But I have to play!" James cried, trying to get up. "This is the Slytherins! We have to beat them!" He stumbled over somebody's' foot and instinctively caught on to his bed rail with his right arm. He collapsed on to the bed, clutching the wrist "It's no good. I can't even hold anything, much less my broom…or the snitch."
"Can't Madam Pomfrey fix it?" Harry asked.
Nina shook her head. "Bones are easy to fix, but muscles and that stuff take longer. Something to do with the coordination or whatever. James tore some muscle and tendon" The others winced.
"And he left the hospital wing too early for his wrist to heal completely." Remus said quietly. James glared guiltily at his sheets.
"Can't we just find a replacement?" Hermione asked. "As a seeker I mean."
Sirius shook his head in mock sadness at her and nodded at James, who turned red.
"Ahm, we could…" James' face turned even redder. "But I've, er, got a perfect record right now. Like, I've never sat out, or lost a game ever, and Umm, I'm trying to beat Sloker's, that's a Slytherin who went to Hogwarts before us, record."
"Ahhh." Ron said in confusion.
"He means we can't find a replacement." Sirius translated. "Because he wants to beat the Slytherin record."
James flushed. "I'm sorry guys! I know I shouldn't- I can try. Maybe my wrist will feel better in a few minutes or something."
Sammi, meanwhile, was staring at Harry. "Hey, you guys! I've….wait no." She shook her head. "It's too crazy."
"What?" James demanded. "Nothing's too crazy now!"
Sammi ran a hand through her black hair, frowning as she went over the plan in her head. The others waited impatiently. "Okay, so…Harry, can you fly? At all?"
The others stared at her." Hermione (of course) got it first. "Oh! Harry looks almost exactly like James!"
"Brilliant!" Sirius exclaimed, slapping Harry on the back. "All he has to do is pretend to be James! That is-." He added with a quick glance at Harry, "-if he wants to."
Harry felt the excitement welling in his chest. "Want to? Of course! I was on the Gry-uh-gri…fin, yeah! Griffin quidditch team in my school in Amer- Ire- Ca…nada." he cast a nervous look at Ron who rolled his eyes.
"Wonderful!" Sirius roared shaking Harry's hand enthusiastically. "And prongs old boy, get better soon."
James gave Harry a small smile. "Thanks. It's lucky we look so much alike."
"Yeah." Harry said, feeling suddenly sad as he thought of why. "Yeah."
"Hey!" Sammi exclaimed, hugging Harry in her excitement and grabbed Nina's arm. "What are we waiting for? Let's go!" the 3 quidditch players dashed down the stairs and towards the great hall.
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"Hey James? Since when have you gotten green eyes?" Alec asked after they'd all congratulated him on getting better. Harry shot a quick glance at Sammi.
Sammi bit her lip. "You guys, this isn't James."
Alec jumped back away from Harry in shock and several others gasped.
"I mean, this is Harry who's filling in for James."
"Oh." Tony said in relief. "So you told McGonagall, right? I mean, James hasn't sat out a game, like ever."
The 6th years glanced at each other. "Uhh no."
"Well, we're not allowed to do this than, right?" Laura, a 2nd year, asked, twirling a strand of brown hair between her fingers. Harry looked nervously around at the unfamiliar faces. Sammi was not quite so hesitant. "Do you want Slytherin to win?" she demanded fiercely. They all shook their heads.
"James is too hurt to play and all because of Dinas," Nina said.
"So they cheated by getting rid of our seeker." Sammi continued, "so we'll come right back in their face with another one. Just pretend he's James though." She added with a wink, "Otherwise this could do some serious damage to Potter's ego."
Kevin Rojas, the team captain, was watching with a smile growing on his face. "That's great!" he exclaimed enthusiastically. "Can you fly?"
Harry nodded, compressing the urge to say that he'd once been on a quidditch team.
"Cool." Tony Chen gave Harry James' broom. It was a comet two-sixty. Not too bad for this age in time.
Rojas got the team gathered around. "Okay team, we're starting from-." He paused, calculating. Next to him, Sammi was wincing as she waited for the answer. "-okay, so we're starting from a 130 point difference." The team groaned. "Hey, no problem, let's play hard, and if we lose, we lose with a fight, What else to say, but let's crush 'em!"
They all cheered. Harry grinned, thinking of the difference between Kevin's short pep talks to Wood's long speeches.
"See, that wasn't so bad." Sammi said, appearing by his elbow. "They seemed to like you."
Harry grinned. "Right. And that was a nice speech you had going for you there."
Sammi smiled, closing her eyes. "Thanks. Maybe I should be a lawyer."
A red light flashed by the doorway. "Okay, let's go." Nina said, tugging on their arms. They entered the field to tumulus applause.
"Shake hands." Madam Hooch said, eyeing the captains warily. "Okay, mount your brooms. 3-2-1 go!" The whistle blew and the Gryffindor quidditch team took off. Harry shot into the air, savoring the exhilarating feeling he always felt when he flew.
"And the balls are in play." Sirius' voice boomed out magically around the field. Sammi immediately grabbed the quaffle and took off.
A bludger flew towards Harry. (He was pretty sure that was deliberate.) He deftly cart wheeled under it and swerved to avoid hitting Tony.
"Wow, Har-James sure can fly!"
Harry saw Hermione yell something at Sirius.
"I-I mean, just kidding, of course he can fly. He's been seeker for 5 years!" he laughed. "Oh, boy. Yeah, that was funny. C'mon guys, I had you guys all fooled there, didn't I?"
Harry smiled, imagining Hermione roll her eyes. Sammi streaked by him in a scarlet blur.
"Taglia heading up the field. Come on Sammi! Nice swerve around Bole…hey! He hits her with his club! That yellow spotted cheating mole rat-."Sirius could be very creative when it came to cursing. His words were drowned out by the booing of the Gryffindors. Madame Hooch awarded a penalty.
Sammi, still rubbing her left arm, flew forwards and angrily hurled the quaffle past Macnair's head, narrowly missing it by inches. Harry grinned. He had had no doubts that she hadn't intended to miss. "90-210 Slytherin."
Sammi looped tauntingly around Tara Mclath, who glared at her. Nina scored, 100-210. Then Sammi scored again, 110-210.
"The Gryffendors are really catching up." Sirius said gleefully, the infuriating teasing note obvious in his voice. "Barnes of Slytherin with the quaffle. Nice bludger by Chen, she drops the quaffle, caught by Nina Vasquez. Ouch, bludger by Gherig. She drops the quaffle, and it's caught by Lestrange. Yes! It slips through his fingers to be caught by Laura Farland who er, drops it too. Okay, so Mclath of Slytherin with the quaffle. She loops up the field, Taglia alongside her. Elbow her in the face Sammi! Just kidding Professor, I was just kidding. Mclath speeding towards the Gryffindor goal post. C'mon Kevin-!" but Tara had scored.
The Slytherin side erupted, only to die down as Sammi, not to be outdone, scored again; 120-220.
Nina and Laura scored apiece, 140-220. Then Sammi scored again, 150-220. It was a 70 point game, but then Rojas, after several terrific saves, let in a quaffle. 150-230.
C'mon, Harry thought anxiously…and then he saw it. The tiny golden snitch was hovering just a few feet away from the Gryffindor goal post. He sucked in his breath as his heart leapt, and he urged his room into a steep dice.
Out of the corners of his eyes, he saw Ian Dinas bare his rat-like teeth and speed forward. Harry ducked down so as to fly faster, all the while focusing intently on the snitch. He was so much closer to it than Dinas…and then a bludger came roaring out of nowhere. Harry rolled over a nanosecond before it could mutilate his arm. At least there was no Lockheart around this time.
He'd lost his lead. The 2 seekers were now neck in neck and the snitch was right there! Harry leaned forwards, and then yelped with pain as the Slytherin kicked him right under the kneecap.
"What the hell are you doing?" He yelled, wincing.
Dinas smirked as he reached out for the snitch. Completely throwing all caution to the winds, and exactly how high he was off the ground, Harry swallowed, steadied himself on the handlebar of his rocking broomstick, and jumped recklessly both hands closing over the snitch a split second before Dinas.
"I got it!" he yelled.
"You're falling!" Sirius yelled through the microphone.
He was free falling. Harry closed his eyes and waved his hand wildly above his head. Miraculously, hid hand met wood, and he held on for dear life.
Fortunately, he wasn't falling.
Unfortunately, he'd grabbed onto Dinas's broom.
The Slytherin flared at him out of small narrowed eyes, smiled evilly, and proceeded to push Harry down to the ground, which happened to be about 60 feet away.
"Ahhhhh!" Harry yelled on panic as Ian's fingernails dug into his left hand that was clutching the broom. The other was still holding stubbornly fast to the snitch.
Harry ducked his head, bracing himself.
"Las orejas muy grandios."
"Aurgh!"
Harry cracked open an eyelid to see Ian Dinas clap his hands to his ears, but not before he saw that they were growing to an abnormally big size.
Sammi grinned, stowing away her wand. "Get on your broom!"
Harry smiled nervously as he climbed onto his hovering broomstick a couple of feet away and held up the snitch.
"And Potter catches the snitch!" Sirius roared. "Brilliant! An amazing catch! Gryffindor wins!" his voice faded as he stepped away from the mike and did a sort of victory dance in the podium. It was a perfect end to a very odd game.
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"Great catch James!"
"Yeah! It was real sick jumping off the broomstick like that."
James smiled at the waves of compliments and guiltily looked at Harry. Harry just shrugged. He wasn't going to feel jealous of his dad.
"Butterbeers!" Sirius shouted, dumping an armful on the floor, and winked at Harry. "Fresh from the 3 Broomsticks!" The others, apparently used to his tricks, didn't question where he got them.
The party continued into the night. Sammi soon returned from her meeting with McGonagall for the use of "improper magic" and entertained them all with reports of Dinas with his dumbo ears. Finally, at around 2 AM the Gryffindors, after one more "good job" and "nice catch" to James, headed upstairs. Soon it was just the Marauders and Harry. Ron had fallen asleep and was lying on the floor, and Lily and Hermione were gong over some lessons they were learning, upstairs.
James sighed, rubbing his wrist. "Geez, only 5 more days! From one crisis to the next!"
Sirius laughed and raised an eyebrow behind his long bangs. "Asked her yet Prongs?"
James turned red. "Do you think I'd be sitting here moaning if I had? He sighed. "They're never alone!"
"Tough." Sirius yawned, stretching out on the rug.
Remus tossed a pillow at him. "You asked anyone yet Prongs?"
Sirius paused thoughtfully. "Nah. You know I hate dancing anyway."
Peter grinned. "But all the ladies like you."
Harry looked on in confusion. "Wait, what? What's happening in 5 days?"
James and Sirius looked at each other.
Sirius put a hand on Harry's shoulder and said in a sad, mournful tome, "What's happening, is one of the worst things known to mankind." He paused dramatically. "The Halloween dance."
The others chuckled and Harry sat back. And he'd thought he'd gotten all dancing over with after the Yule Bal! "But, I hardly know anyone here! Only the Gryffindor girls."
James patted him on the back. "No problem. We've had that problem for 5 years, and Remus still hasn't asked anyone out."
"Except for Sarah Bullstrode." Sirius snickered.
"I was 12!" Remus said defensively, glaring at Black.
Sirius waved his hands in a peace gesture. "Well, Peter hasn't gone with anyone yet. And James only went last year with Anna Levania to make Lily jealous. "He snorted. "Didn't work. I think Evans actually called you a womanizer that year."
James glared at him. "Thanks mate. Real encouraging. She should be calling you a womanizer. You've got girls falling at your feet."
Sirius made a face.
"Are you asking anyone this year?" Harry asked curiously.
Sirius pondered, and they all followed his gaze to the girls' dormitory.
"Sammi?" Remus guessed, Harry tensed.
Sirius shook his head. "Nah, we're friends and all, but she's not my type."
James laughed, as he sat up to go to bed. "Yeah, she's too much like you."
Harry glanced back at the girls' dormitory door, and he had a mental image of Sirius and Hermione laughing together yesterday afternoon. What exactly was Sirius' type?
Ah, sorry it took so long to update. I'd lost my manuscript, and when I found it, I didn't like what I wrote, so I rewrote it, and then I realized I liked my first one better after all and etc. etc...but you know that's just an excuse. Come to think of it, I could've just said My cat ate my manuscript...and it'd be considerably less words to type. So anyways, the point is I got this through. I hope I haven't lost any readers!By the way, is it Madam or Madame?
Serendipity-England-1922: Well thank you.
sirius black and remy:Gracias!
amrawo: 谢谢!kewl, I got the chimese thing working
Alikat: Did you change your name yet? And I didn'tcountthe words. The computer does it for you.
