A/N: Hello there! Good news: I get wi-fi and a laptop on vacation. You can imagine I'll be spending the plane ride writing chapter 20 and hopefully posting it in a few days' time (the latest... but I did say hopefully).
"I'm going to regret this, aren't I?" Rachel muttered to Alice as they walked onto the Quidditch pitch, cheered by Gryffindors and booed by Slytherins.
"Only a bit," Alice replied. "But then we can regret it together."
Fortunately, only two players on the Gryffindor Quidditch team weren't seventh years and needed to be replaced. Jeremiah Wallace took Fabian Prewett's place as Keeper and Corbin Moores took Edward Jenkins's spot as Beater. The rest of the Gryffindor Quidditch team was purely seventh year.
"Oi, Lily!" James exclaimed. Rachel and Alice turned to see what he was up to this time. They watched as James sauntered up to Lily, who was sitting in the front stands. She crossed her arms and gave him a sly look. "Can I get a kiss for good luck?" James asked.
"Oh, he's really pushing it," Alice whispered to Rachel. Rachel nodded in agreement.
What happened next, however, probably even surprised Lily.
Rachel watched in shock as the completely composed Lily Evans she knew reached for James's shirt collar and kissed him. James seemed utterly astonished at first, but his broom quickly dropped out of his hand and he cupped Lily's face.
The moment they broke apart, Rachel didn't hesitate to react.
"What the bloody hell just happened?" Rachel exclaimed. "What did I just see?"
"Good, question, Rachel," James said a little too dreamily for Rachel's liking. "Very good question."
Sirius came up behind James and knocked his friend in the head with his broomstick. James instinctively reached to his head and winced. "Get your head in the game, Prongs," Sirius said. "I'm happy for you and Evans and all and hope that you have dozens of children, but seriously. Focus."
"I have no idea what's happening anymore," Alice stated. She turned on her heel and headed for the center of the pitch.
Rachel laughed at her friends and followed after Alice. The Gryffindor and Slytherin Quidditch teams assembled on the pitch and the Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff referees walked up to the teams. It was a good idea to have one referee from each house because the Ravenclaws tended to side with Slytherin and the Hufflepuffs with Gryffindor.
"All right then, we all know you can't keep it clean, but not too much collateral damage please," the Ravenclaw referee, Jonathan Greggs, began. "We wouldn't want the professors finding out about this."
"Although they can't punish us all, so we're safe," the Hufflepuff, Tristan Colbert, added. Jonathan sent him a glare.
Jonathan and Tristan walked up to the trunk containing the Bludgers, Quaffle, and Snitch in the middle of the field. Tristan lifted a megaphone to his mouth and Jonathan reached down to open the trunk. "Is everyone ready? And… they're off!"
The lid of the trunk sprung open and the game balls began whizzing around. Players chased after them, basically asking for trouble.
Rachel calmly flew around, keeping an eye open for the Snitch. She heard the crowd let out a selective 'ooh' and turned to see Regulus just barely dodge an incoming Bludger. Not long after, a bell rang and cheers are heard through the stands as someone announced that James scored on Malfoy.
Rachel kept flying around somewhat absentmindedly, searching for the Snitch. Being a Seeker required patience and focus, two things Rachel could very easily run out of. Which was why she had just barely noticed the Bludger that whizzed past her head.
Rachel turned around quickly only to see another Bludger heading straight towards her. She swerved to the right and managed to avoid the flying ball. All right, focus, Rachel, she thought to herself. This is just a tad riskier than Quidditch practice.
The remainder of the game was as expected. People occasionally fell off of their brooms, got hit with Bludgers or the Quaffle, and dirty tricks were pulled. Gryffindor and Slytherin were tied at forty points when Rachel spotted the Snitch.
Rachel headed straight for the whizzing golden ball without a moment's hesitation, but she had enough time to realize that Regulus had spotted the Snitch as well. Soon enough, she found herself neck and neck with the Slytherin prat, both Seekers stretching their arms as much as they could to grab the winnings.
Somewhere from the field, Rachel heard Malfoy's unmistakable voice yelling, "Finish her this time!" Rachel knew all too well what he was referring to.
"Think about who you're more scared of, Black," Rachel muttered.
Rachel was surprised he even heard her, let alone replied.
"The Dark Lord," he spat back venomously. To emphasize his point, he swerved his broom and crashed into Rachel, causing her to almost tip off of her own broom. The collective mutters of the crowd alerted Rachel that they had seen what happened.
Rachel quickly balanced herself again and replied, "Who knows then, maybe you'll marry Malfoy."
It was this reply that distracted the Slytherin and gave Rachel the chance to stretch her arm forward just a tad and grasp the Snitch in her fist. She plummeted to the ground and stumbled off of her broom rather ungracefully. Her Quidditch team came and crashed into her happily.
As the Gryffindor team pulled back from the short Seeker, everyone heard Regulus yell, "The Mudblood's mine!"
Everyone turned to see him pull out his wand, but he quickly fell to the ground by Sirius's hand. The crack of Regulus' jaw rung out through the pitch. However, the younger Black was resilient and he quickly stood up, preparing to fight back.
Snape pulled him back before he could throw a punch at Sirius, but Regulus was clawing at Severus's arm. Rachel noticed Sirius was going to jump at Regulus and she ran up and grabbed his arm, giving him a stern look.
"He's your brother," Rachel said through her teeth.
"Some brother, then," Sirius replied venomously.
While the two were talking, Regulus broke free of Snape's grip. But instead of launching himself at Sirius, he only stormed up to his brother and pulled up the sleeve of his Quidditch robes.
Rachel gasped and her eyes widened in shock. There, staring up at her eerily, on Regulus's arm was the Dark Mark.
Before anyone could react, Sirius grabbed his brother by the sleeve of his robes and hissed at him, "Are you mad? Why the hell would you do that?"
"He trusts me!" Regulus exclaimed in Sirius's face. "Mother and Father love me! You will never feel the respect I feel."
"Don't you understand what that means?" Sirius asked. His tone implied the stupidity of his younger brother's actions.
"I know what it means," Regulus spat. "Mudbloods don't deserve magic."
"Stop saying that word, for fuck's sake, have you gone loony?" Sirius exclaimed.
"Black," Malfoy said in a commanding tone. Both Sirius and Regulus looked at him, Sirius with a look of disgust and Regulus with a look of shock. "I didn't mean the blood traitor," Malfoy clarified, sending a disgusted glare towards Sirius. He turned to Regulus with the same glare. "This whole time you were simply acting, weren't you? You're an absolute prat. I deserved to get that before you!"
"Are you fucking kidding me?" Rachel exclaimed. "You're acting as if it's some toy! How about this: no one gets a Dark Mark tattoo. Yes, I quite like that."
"Shut it, Mudblood," Malfoy snapped, stepping forward threateningly.
"Bring it, Blondie," Rachel retorted, stepping closer to the Slytherin.
"I'm afraid the fighting will have to be postponed."
If the students weren't shocked before, they were now.
Everyone, and really everyone, turned toward the source of Dumbledore's unmistakably calm voice. The Headmaster himself was standing there, his trademark expression of neutrality pasted on his face.
"However, I am quite disappointed I missed the match," Dumbledore added. And this time, Rachel noted, that hint of cheerfulness was gone from his voice.
It was no surprise that Sirius, Rachel, James, and Lily were the first ones to find themselves in Dumbledore's office. He paced slowly and silently behind his desk. The four Gryffindors stood opposite him silently, waiting for the Headmaster to speak.
Dumbledore lifted his head to look at the four students and sighed. "The four of you I expected better behavior from," he began sullenly. "However, I must diminish this disappointment. I have more important matters to handle and you were not the only ones at fault. But I did trust the four of you to be more responsible."
"Professor—"
Dumbledore lifted a hand, interrupting James. "You do not need to explain yourself, Mr. Potter," he said. With a wave of his hand, he added, "You are all dismissed."
Sirius, Rachel, James, and Lily quickly exited the Headmaster's office. Once they had rounded a corner and disappeared from the view of the gargoyles at the office entrance, they slowed their paces.
"I've never seen him so angry," Rachel said. "Actually, I've never seen him angry, and it wasn't like he was fuming. Or he didn't seem to be, anyways. He was just silently angry. It's scary."
"I hope he still trusts us… a bit, at least," Lily said. "That can't be too far-fetched, right?"
"I'm pretty sure he has more important things to worry about," Sirius replied bitterly.
Rachel sent him a side-long glance, then turned to Lily and James and gestured to them that it was fine if they left. At the hallway intersection, Lily and James turned and Rachel and Sirius kept walking straight ahead.
"Are you all right?" Rachel asked quietly.
"I'm fine," Sirius replied stonily.
"Sirius, he's your brother, it's fine—"
"I don't care about what he's done," Sirius interrupted.
"Yes, you do," Rachel said. "You don't want him to ruin his life and you'll feel like a failure if he does because you think you were the only one that could stop him. But you weren't the only one that could stop him, Sirius. And you tried your best and when it mattered most, you showed you cared. It's his problem he couldn't see that."
Sirius turned to look at Rachel, his face filled with sadness. "He's gone now. You realize that, right?"
Rachel reached for Sirius's hand and grasped it tightly. "It'll be fine. I know it doesn't seem like that, but it will be."
It surprised Rachel that Sirius stepped forward and enveloped her in a tight hug. It surprised her, but she wasn't disappointed. And as she hugged him back, she couldn't help but realize that Sirius was not 'as dumb as a post' but incredibly smart and caring.
It was comforting to Rachel and she fell for him a little more.
So that's that, drama and all! Luckily, I've got a bit of a more humorous and relaxed chapter (possibly with interesting turns) storyline planned for the next chapter :)
-Grammar/spelling?
-Too unrealistic?
-Predictions on what the humour/interesting turns might be?
Until next time... stay classy ;)
