CHAPTER 9: Slytherin versus Ravenclaw

'Remus, dear, can you hear me?'

Remus opened his eyes to a very white room.

'Where am I?' he asked, weakly.

'You're in the hospital wing, love. Try not to move about too much. I've done the best I can with your wounds but I can't heal them fully,' Madam Pomfrey said apologetically.

'It's ok, I'm used to it,' Remus rasped. His throat hurt a lot and he was losing his voice. Suddenly he began coughing painfully and pain shot across his chest. Madam Pomfrey bustled by with various potions and dipped them into Remus's mouth and his breathing eased up.

'What's the damage?' he wheezed.

'You've broken quite a few of your ribs, your wrist and your leg. At some point you tore across your chest, and there is a gash on your face, but it's not very deep so I think your hair can hide it. I've done my best with your wounds but I'm not sure about your broken bones. I don't know if they will heal properly or not, because you were the wolf when it happened, I was waiting for you to wake up before I done anything with them so you could tell me quicker whether it was working or not. You've been unconscious since I found you, it's quite late on the next day now,' she told him.

'I've missed a whole day?' he groaned.

'Yes, but it's the weekend. You didn't miss any classes. Mr Lupin, should I try to heal your bones, now?'

'Oh, I forgot! Great! Right. Ok, just give it a shot,' the young werewolf told her.

Madam Pomfrey poured a goblet full of foul tasting liquid into his mouth and he swallowed it reluctantly. Immediately he felt his bones popping back into place and fusing together. It was painful, but he managed to sit up afterwards and inspect himself.

'I think it worked,' he said.

'I'm going to put your arm in a sling just in case. Your wrist seemed to have splinters of bone missing so the potion may not be complete and it will come in handy if another part of the bone fuses onto another unexpectedly,' she explained.

After administering the sling and giving Remus a potion to drink periodically over an hour, Madam Pomfrey finally let the boy leave and he limped up to the Gryffindor Common Room, dreaming of his bed and a long deep sleep. Though of course, when he gave the Fat Lady the password and saw his three friends sitting by the fire he knew that he was going to have no such luck.

'REMUS!' Sirius yelled, jumping off the couch and running over to hug his friend, but stopped dead upon seeing the sling. 'What have you done to yourself?'

James and Peter, who had stood up at the same time looked at Remus and frowned. Sirius guided the boy over to his favourite seat by the fire and sat and simply looked at him.

'What?' Remus asked, confused by having three pairs of eyes stare at him and say nothing.

'What happened to you, Remus?' James asked. 'We went back to the Hospital Wing after dropping all of our stuff off in the dorm and we couldn't see you, or Madam Pomfrey.'

'Maybe you just came at the wrong time?' Remus suggested.

'Whatever, that doesn't matter. What happened to your arm?' Sirius demanded, gesturing to the sling.

'Oh, I, um, I think Madam Pomfrey left me to go and get a potion or something and I fainted and somehow broke my wrist,' Remus improvised, actually quite proud of his story.

'Why didn't she just fix it up, properly?' Peter asked.

'Oh, she did. The sling is just for support while the bone completely fuses together,' Remus explained, taking his arm out of the sling and moving his wrist around to prove a point and was glad to find that it didn't hurt very much at all.

'What, did the bone snap in two or something?' James asked incredulously.

'I think it must have done. I can't remember though, I wasn't conscious at the time.'

'Merlin, only you could pass out and snap a bone in half,' Sirius sighed.

Remus smiled shyly and put his arm back in the sling. He took out his potion and took one gulp as Madam Pomfrey told him.

'What's that?' Peter asked.

'It's a potion. It's to stop the nausea I think,' Remus said, coming up with the believable lie.

'Do you still feel ill?' asked James.

'No. I feel fine, just really tired and hungry.'

'Well there's a surprise!' Sirius grinned. 'You don't think that could possibly have anything to do with the fact that, assuming you haven't had anything today, you've barely eaten in three days?'

'Shut up, Sirius,' Remus said, stubbornly.

'Good thing we came prepared then isn't it?' Peter smiled.

'Yeah, we thought you might be hungry when you got back so we each sneaked some food from dinner last night and tonight,' James explained and as one the three boys produced handfuls of food and placed it on the table. Remus stared at the food, grinned and began eating immediately.

'I love you guys,' Remus said as the other three boys began to tuck in as well.

'We know, Remus. We know,' Sirius grinned.

Not for the first time three of the Gryffindors were woken up by an overly excited James jumping on their bed, shouting gibberish at the top of his lungs. Sirius, Peter and Remus all sat up, dazed and glared at the boy standing in the middle of the room with an annoyingly large grin on his face.

'What this time?' Remus murmured, ruffling his hair into place.

'Yeah, what gives?' Peter groaned, picking himself up after having fallen out of bed once again.

'This had better be important, Potter,' Sirius growled.

James stood there with his smirk and raised his eyebrows at his three best friends.

'Really? None of you can remember?' he asked, earning three confused looks.

'It's the first Quidditch game of the season! Slytherin versus Ravenclaw!' he explained, practically bouncing up and down on the spot with excitement. Sirius cheered and leaped out of bed, all tiredness forgotten and Peter sat up attentively whilst Remus rolled his eyes, sighed and pulled the covers over his head.

'REMUS! What do you think you're doing?' James cried, tearing the sheets off his friend's bed and causing Remus to sit up and glare at him.

'It's Slytherin versus Ravenclaw. Not Gryffindor. Why do we have to go?' he asked, groggily.

'I don't think you heard me correctly, Remus. I just said that there is a Quidditch game today. Who cares who's playing, it's Quidditch!'

Remus rolled his eyes again.

'I'd rather stay in bed, thanks,' he said, trying to grab his covers back of the bespectacled boy who was staring at him in disbelief.

'Have you ever seen a Quidditch game, Remus?' Sirius asked.

'No and I'd rather not start now-'

'Why not? Come on,' Sirius said, heading over to the boys trunk and pulling out clothes for him.

'No, Sirius, I don't like Quidditch.'

James and Sirius gaped at their pale friend as if he had gone mad. They turned to each other and opened and closed their mouths like fish, without any sound coming out, having been rendered completely speechless.

'How can you know that if you've never seen it?' Peter, who was already dressed, asked.

'PRECISELY PETER! Now Remus, hurry up and get dressed and we'll go and watch some Quidditch,' Sirius instructed, thrusting clothes into the boys hands before heading off towards his own bed to get changed himself. Remus glared after him, then sighed and went into the bathroom to get changed.

'LOOK AT NESS GO! WHO KNEW SOMEONE WHO WAS SUCH A BRAINBOX COULD BE SUCH A GOOD CHASER?' James screamed, standing up and practically hanging over the edge of the seating at the Quidditch match.

'NOT BAD LOOKING EITHER, ESPECIALLY FOR A RAVENCLAW!' Sirius yelled back, in the same position.

Peter was standing on his seat, cheering Ravenclaw and booing Slytherin as appropriate whilst Remus sat and read a book, confident that his friends would be too excited about the game to notice.

'I BLOODY HATE THAT SLYTHERIN BEATER! CHEATING SCUM! DID YOU SEE HIM PELT WATSON IN FACE THERE?'

'WELL, IT IS SLYTHERIN, WHAT MORE COULD YOU EXPECT? NO OFFENSE, MATE!'

'NONE TAKEN! I HATE THE LOT OF THEM BUT IF THERE'S ONE THING I REALLY CAN'T STAND IT'S CHEATING BASTARDS LIKE THAT!'

Amidst all of the screaming, cheering and booing James turned to Remus.

'SEE! WHAT DID I TELL YOU? ISN'T QUIDDITCH JUST AMA-REMUS!'

The boy looked up innocently. 'Yes, James?'

'WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING? HOW CAN YOU BE READING AT A TIME LIKE THIS?'

'WHO'S READING?!'

'REMUS!'

'WHAT?! GIVE ME THAT!'

Sirius turned and grabbed the book out of Remus's hands and stood on it.

'YOU'LL GET IT BACK AT THE END OF THE GAME! NOW STAND UP AND ENJOY YOURSELF!'

Remus sighed and reluctantly stood up. He cheered and booed at the appropriate time but put as much sarcasm in it as he possibly could, but secretly he was rather enjoying himself. He liked the way the chasers weaved in and out of each other, avoiding the opposite teams beaters, as they headed towards the keepers at either end of the pitch whilst the seeker looked for the Snitch. As hard as he tried, he couldn't stop himself from having fun and, by the end of the game found himself standing on his seat, brandishing a sign that he stole off Peter who had stolen it from someone beside him and booing as the Slytherin seeker wrapped his fingers around the golden snitch.

'SHIT!' Sirius yelled, whilst James was screaming a string of insults at every single member of the Slytherin team and Peter flopped down on the seat with a glower at the green players. Remus quickly dropped the sign and asked Sirius if he could have his book back which was angrily thrust in his direction. Grinning at his friends he grabbed their arms and pulled them away from the stands with the rest of the exiting spectators before their foul language earned them a detention.

'Is Madam Hooch blind?! Dolohov blatantly hit Monteith in the face with his bat on purpose! He bloody broke the guy's nose and Ravenclaw didn't even get a penalty? Cheating bastards!' James raged.

'And McNair pushed Spinnet off her broom and nothing! Not even a bloody blow of her bloody whistle!' Sirius added.

'And it was totally uncalled for when Nott hit the Ravenclaw Keeper in the stomach with a bludger! I know that Ravenclaw got a penalty, but what use is that when your goal posts are left open for the rest of the game?' Peter hissed.

The three of them turned to look at Remus, awaiting his input. The boy looked up at them innocently and asked what they were looking at him for.

'Well that was your first ever experience of a Quidditch game, what did you think?' Sirius asked.

'It was…Oh, I'm an awful liar. It was actually pretty good,' Remus sighed whilst the other three cheered and resumed their slander of all things Slytherin related and found himself joining in.