Remus didn't come back for another two days. When he did, he looked worse than ever, with bags under his eyes and a slouch to his posture that was undeniably from lack of rest. He did look sick. And now was absolutely the worst possible time to be tired. Everyone around him was abuzz with excitement for today's opening match.

Gryffindor vs. Slytherin.

A majority of the students were covered in red and gold, doing everything from wearing scarves to waving flags. Even the Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs. James had already left for the pitch, followed by Nate and Lynn, along with the rest of the team. Rose and Sirius had gone up early to save seats, so all who were left with him at the breakfast table were Peter and Ellie.

"Are you feeling better, Remus?" Ellie asked through her marmalade toast.

"Yes, much," he confirmed.

"Did you get the your potions essay back yet, Remus?" Peter asked, careful to immediately direct the conversation away from his friend's absence.

"Yeah. Full marks. How about you?" Remus asked.

"Same, thanks to your help," Ellie replied. The essay had been due two weeks before, and soon the entire group was in discussion of it, Ellie having forgotten to think about Remus' mysterious illness.

Xxx

They made their way out to the Quidditch pitch, where Sirius and Rose were waiting for them. They had clearly been snogging, Remus decided. Sirius' hair was far too ruffled, and her scarf (which was usually impeccably neat) too crooked for anything else to be the case. Ellie took the seat next to Rose, and he sat down next to Sirius. The girls starting talking, about James, he assumed, as he heard a few snippets of their conversation through the wind that was extraordinarily strong today.

He knew that lately, Rose was very cross with James, first for not asking Ellie to dance, and then for doing it just to spite Vanessa Crowe. Furthermore, and Remus agreed with her on this point, they were now officially enemies of the witches, which was a dangerous position to be in. If they snooped a little too far, his condition would be realized, and he probably be expelled.

Rose was now on the verge of avoiding James in order to keep her temper, which was not a good sign.

But even that, Remus noticed, as he tried to stay awake through the game, was not enough to stop her from cheering loudly whenever any of the rest of the team got anywhere near a goal. Slytherin was playing dirty and only ten minutes into the game, there were already three penalty shots.

By twenty minutes, Gryffindor was up one hundred and fifty to zero. The team really was excellent this year, Remus mused as the game went on. As he watched from his front row seat, he noticed how clean the passes were, how their keeper was making miraculous saves, how the beaters managed to hit nearly every Slytherin player in the game. Rose's little brother had already spotted the Snitch about three times and had dove spectacularly in an attempt to reach it. He continued on now, scanning far above the field in slow circles. James scored another goal, shooting in so quickly that the enemy keeper hardly had time to react.

Up above, it seemed like there was some action, as the two seekers dove off to the left suddenly, swooping down to be almost perfectly level with the seats. They chased something golden around the outside of the pitch, still high above the ground. Nate was ahead, his small, thin build helping tremendously in the race after the small object. Also going on with the rest of the game, Lynn had just scored with an assist from James. The two seekers were neck and neck now, Aspen Crutch, the Slytherin seeker and captain, gaining a bit every second but not quite ahead, as the pair changed direction, flying straight up after the snitch. Suddenly, Aspen reached out, as though to grab the ball, but instead, took a firm grip on Nate's shoulder, and gave a tremendous yank, sending the small Gryffindor seeker off his broom and towards the ground at an alarming rate. He flipped a few times in the air, his arms spinning wildly, trying to slow his descent, broom simply falling after him. Next to Remus, Rose was on her feet, jumping to the rail of the box.

Time slowed down.

Remus watched as the girl in front of him screamed, panic in every line of her face, hair flying wildly in the wind, pointing her wand to follow the falling figure downward as she searched for a spell to save her little brother, how as he got nearer and nearer to the earth, she began to lean over the edge, his angle of descent too steep for her, as she draped herself over the railing. How eventually, Sirius shook off his panic long enough to pull her back over to their side of the barrier, how he had to wrap his arms around her to stop her from rushing right back over the edge.

It looked like Nate had fainted, and as he fell, his body forming a teardrop shape.

There was no way to stop the fall.

Sweeping over from the far end of the field was James, wand raised, moving incredibly quickly, screaming out a spell whose words were lost over the tumultuous crowd's uproar.

Nate's descent stopped suddenly, with a spine-jarring jerk, and James hovered exactly below him, arms raised above his head, supporting the small body and lowering him carefully to the ground and to the side, to where several professors and Madam Pomfrey rushed from the stands to meet them after a moment.

Rose watched from the rail, still panicked. He didn't wake up.

Meanwhile. Slytherin had gained possession despite the whistle from the referee, and had made several shots on the Gryffindor hoops.

As the professors walked her brother off of the field, Rose looked like she didn't quite know what to do. Sirius drew her in towards his chest, and held her tightly, as she began to quietly sob. Ellie stood, after having been too stunned to move for the last minute and waited for Rose to pull herself together before taking the hand of her friend and dragging her off to the hospital wing.

"And I think- yes! None of those goals count, but Slytherin's got the Snitch! Slytherin gets the snitch to end the game, but Gryffindor still wins, with a score of 170 to 150!" Exclaimed the commentator, Karin, the young Gryffindor that Rose had encountered before the costume party.

The crowd was going wild, thrown into a frenzy by the game's events. Remus watched as the team landed, minus James who had gone ahead to the hospital wing. He stood with Sirius and Peter to join them.

XXXXXXXXXxxxxxxxXxxxxXxXx

This is kind of based on my little brother's sports injury from a few years ago, although much more severe. I think as a sibling, I really wish I had been able to do more to help, or even that he could have been healed as quickly as he might end up being. But, on a lighter note, all that we ever do is fight, so if you have any interesting ideas for sibling interactions, let me know. Also, I feel like if James did to my best friend what he did to Ellie, I would also be mad at him. But I guess that's the way people are. Just confused with good intentions. I don't know. Thanks for reading and reviewing. Don't let the muggles get you down!

post edit: sooooooooo i just got some ideas for this piece that i have to write, so that will certainly be interesting, when i get there. Thanks for reading and reviewing!