Flying to conclusions

The first Quidditch match of the season happened on a particularly chilly Saturday morning. Remus and Jane arrived early to Hogwarts and were sitting in the visitors section watching the game between Gryffindor and Slytherin. They watched nostalgically. They couldn't help but feel as if they were back to being students at Hogwarts. It didn't help that Harry looked so much like his father making it feel even more so like they were watching James play instead.

The game started off as any game between the two houses, just as brutal and full of fowls as usual. But then Harry's broom gave a sudden lurch and it wouldn't stop. It was like it was trying to throw him off.

"I think someone's cursed it!" Remus exclaimed.

But Jane didn't respond with much more than a nod. She had immediately locked her eyes on Harry and was muttering a counter curse under her breath. Remus started looking through a pair of binoculars searching the crowds of students, parents, and faculty for someone else also muttering and staring at Harry.

Over in the Gryffindor section of the stands Hermione Granger had done the same thing.

"It's Snape!" She cried out. "He's jinxing the broom."

"What!?" Jazlyn shouted. She snatched the binoculars from Hermione and looked for herself. Sure enough, there Snape sat staring at Harry mouthing something. "Merlin's beard!"

She handed the binoculars to Ron.

"What do we do?" He asked as he looked through them.

The girls looked at each other, thinking.

"I've got it!" Hermione said.

She dashed off with Jazlyn following close behind. Leaving behind a dumbfounded Ron and a tearful Neville.

"What exactly do you think you can do?" Jazlyn called after her friend as they ducked through the crowd and underneath the bleachers. "We're just first years!"

"Do you want Harry to fall or not?" Hermione said. "We can't just do nothing. We've got to break his eye contact."

They reached the professors' stands and Hermione accidentally knocked over Quirrell but neither girl paused in their quest. Hermione whipped out her wand but before she could say anything Jazlyn pulled out her own wand and pushed her friend aside.

"Incendio caeruleum campana," she muttered.

Snape's robes immediately caught on fire but she didn't stop to admire her work. Instead, she grabbed Hermione's hand and pulled her away.

"What was that for?" Hermione asked. "I was going to do that."

"Oh please like I would let you get caught cursing a professor and ruin your perfect little student image," Jazlyn huffed. "Besides, you know I have been dying for a reason to curse him."

Hermione rolled her eyes at her friend as they peeled through the crowd.

Meanwhile Remus Lupin had watched the entire scene unfold as he scanned the crowds for whoever was cursing his honorary nephew. His eyes had caught the sight of an odd movement in the faculty section. He spotted the two girls running in behind the professors and under the bleachers. He noticed that one of them had familiar wavy blondish brown hair. He quickly scanned the faculty trusting that Jazlyn must have spotted something there. Sure enough, just before Jazlyn's bushy haired friend accidentally knocked him over, Quirinus Quirrell had his eyes locked on Harry thousands of feet in the air, mouthing something ever so slightly.

"It's Quirrell!" Remus whispered quietly. Jane's eyes widened but she didn't say anything in response or break her eye contact with Harry's cursed broom.

Remus, curious to see who the girls were after if not Quirrell, followed them with binoculars as he spoke. He watched as Jazlyn pulled out her wand and Snape's cloak lit on fire. Was she really using a time like this to prank Snape? He was absolutely furious.

But nevertheless it somehow led to the desired results and Harry soon righted himself. Once he did, Jane finally stopped muttering and gave a sigh of relief.

Minutes later Harry dove after what was surely the snitch. Jane clutched Remus's arm as he nose dived straight for the ground and rolled off his broom before standing up and looking like he was about to be sick. But to the crowd's surprise that was not the case. Instead, after he had keeled over, he straightened up with the golden snitch in his hand waving it proudly.

"Well, he wouldn't be James's son if his first quidditch match was anything less than dramatic," Remus said.

"Oh shut up," Jane replied. They rose with the crowd and cheered before rushing to the field.

After the game, they caught up with Jazlyn, Harry, and their two friends. They were walking through grounds towards the gates for Remus and Jane to take their leave and apparate home.

"It was Snape!" Jazlyn declared as soon as they were alone and out of earshot from the rest of Hogwarts. All three of her fellow Gryffindor's nodded eagerly.

"What?" Jane and Remus asked together.

"He was the one who cursed Harry's broom!" Jazlyn insisted.

Jane raised an eyebrow at Remus. Didn't you say it was Quirrell? He nodded subtly.

"It's true, Mrs. Black," Hermione said. "We saw him through the binoculars."

Ron held them up and nodded.

"Is that why you set his robes on fire young lady?" Remus said sternly. He stopped walking abruptly to stare down at Jazlyn causing the rest of the group to stop as well.

"You did what!?" Jane shouted.

"Mom! It's not like that!" Jazlyn rushed to defend herself. "Hermione saw him staring at Harry and muttering something and I saw it too! And I know that's how some dark curses are cast! We had to stop him!"

"So you set a professor's robes on fire!?" Jane said. "If you think there's a problem go to another Professor! Or you could've come to tell me or Remus! You knew we were here today!"

"I know but there wasn't time!" Jazlyn said.

"It was my idea, Mrs. Black!" Hermione stepped in before she glanced over at Jazlyn and hesitated. "Or I mean Mrs. -erm…"

"Just Jane is fine," Jane said. "-although I don't have as much of an aversion to my married name as Jazlyn does. But Mrs. Black is what my mother in law was called and she was rather unpleasant."

"And regardless of whose idea it was, that still doesn't excuse you from not coming to us," Remus said.

"Or another adult or older student or anyone you trust, you're only first years," Jane said. "It's not your job to fix something like that."

"But we couldn't just let Harry fall!" Rob exclaimed.

"We wouldn't have let him fall," Jane said. "I was already doing the counter curse and Remus was checking to see who might be cursing the broom."

"Harry, you know we would never have let you fall." Remus said, looking at Harry.

"Yes, of course! But that doesn't change the fact that Snape hates me!" Harry said. "And Jazlyn! He's been out to get us since we got here."

Jane and Remus looked at each other. They knew Snape hated the two children but to try and kill one of them in plain sight like that?

"It's just not his sort of style," Remus said with a shrug.

"But-" Jazlyn tried to protest.

"Believe me, Jazzy, I've had to fight with him plenty of times during our time at school together," Remus said. "He has a different style and he certainly wouldn't do it so publicly. And that's not the type of spell he would use."

"But we know what we saw!" She protested.

"I'm sure you did, sweetheart," Jane said. "But the countercurse works just the same way. No breaking eye contact. How do you know he wasn't trying to save him? Did you happen to see anyone else doing the same thing?"

Harry and his three friends shook all their heads.

"He wouldn't try to save me!" Harry scoffed in disbelief.

"Well he might if he wants to save his job," Remus shrugged.

"Remus!" Jane scolded. "That's not helping!"

"Look, I know Snape has treated you all unfairly, and I'm not excusing that, but he wouldn't try anything like that in front of Dumbledore." Remus said.

"Or ever," Jane said pointedly.

The four first years clearly didn't believe them. Jane moved forward and hugged Harry.

"Don't worry," she said. "We'll look into it and see what happened. We're just glad you're safe now. If anything else happens please let a professor know right away instead of jumping to conclusions and trying to handle it yourselves."

"If you need a good suggestion on who to go to, you can always go to McGonagall." Remus said. "She's helped me through a few messes while we were here."

"Promise?" Jane said.

"Promise," Harry, Ron, and Hermione all said solemnly. Jazlyn stayed quiet and looked at the ground.

"Jazlyn?" Jane prompted her daughter.

"I'll try," The young girl muttered.

Jane took what she could get and kissed Harry and Jazlyn on the tops of their heads in farewell while Remus gave them each a hug. They both congratulated Harry on his first game one last time before leaving.

After the two adults had gone Jane turned to Remus.

"Are you sure you saw Quirrell?" She asked him.

"Most certain," he nodded grimly.

On Monday morning Jane marched straight into the Aurors office and pulled Kingsley Shacklebolt, Hestia Jones, Mad-Eye Moody, and Nymphadora Tonks into her office. They were the team of Aurors she had been using to investigate the Gringotts breakin.

"I have a lead." Jane said. "I am almost certain that it was Quirinus Qurriell and that he's still after that Stone."

"That's the same lead you've had," Mad-eye growled. "Dumbledore said he'd keep an eye out. Has he said anything new?"

"No," Jane said.

"Then how can you be sure?" He asked impatiently.

"I went to Hogwarts to watch My Godson's first quidditch match," she started.

"Wait, you mean Harry?" Tonks interrupted.

"Yes," Jane nodded.

"I thought he was a first year?" Tonks asked, raising an eyebrow.

"He is, he's just that good." Jane said with a smile.

"I thought we were talking about an important case, not a first year's quidditch skills. I don't care if it's bloody Harry Potter," Mad-eye said.

"Right," Jane said. "As I was saying, we were watching the match and someone started cursing his broom trying to knock him off. While I did the counter curse, Remus Lupin looked to see who was doing the cursing and he spotted Qurriell."

"What type of curse was it?" Kingsley asked. "I find it hard to believe anyone would be cursing with their wand out so close to Dumbledore."

"It was wandless, the type that involves keeping eye contact." Jane said. "Remus saw him looking at Harry and mouthing something."

"Are we sure that we can trust this Remus's judgment?" Hestia asked. "Is that enough?"

Kingsley, Moody, and Jane all glanced between each other. The three of them had known Remus for a time. Kingsley and Jane had grown up in Hogwarts with Remus while Moody and Jane fought with him during the war against Voldemort. So they knew he was trustworthy.

"He was in my year and house at Hogwarts," Kingsley said. "If that's what he saw, I believe him. He's one of the most trustworthy and detail oriented person I've met."

Moody grunted in agreement. "Helped out a fair few times fighting against Voldemort."

"I would trust that man with my children's lives." Jane said with sincerity.

"Well I've never met the bloke either," Tonks said with a shrug. " but I've heard plenty of good things about him from you and my mother."

They all looked at the Auror in training.

"What? Everybody else said something," she said.

"What does this even have to do with the case?" Hestia said. "It sounds more like a personal offense anyways."

"Oh! I can answer that!" Tonks said eagerly, raising her hand as if she was still in school. "Because he's a suspect and this could be further evidence. Since the object that was meant to be stolen from Gringotts is now currently at Hogwarts. By attacking a student it makes him more suspicious. Even if he wasn't directly going after it in the moment."

"But that still doesn't make sense," Hestia said. "Why attack a student in the middle of a quidditch game."

"It's not just any student, it's the-boy-who-lived." Moody grunted. "He's most likely some leftover form of death eater scum. Maybe he thinks the stone would bring back his master."

The other Aurors all flinched (more out of disgust than fear). While Jane made a similar face of distaste. But she was not at all surprised. Dumbledore had told her that the item in particular, the Sorcerer's stone, was one that Voldemort might be after to regain a body.

"Besides, if I were after the stone and I worked at Hogwarts," Moody continued, "I would think that would be a pretty good way to test my limits."

"But we don't have enough evidence to put him away," Kingsley said.

(Jane resisted the urge to say that her husband had been put away with less.)

"Precisely," Jane said instead. "Which is why I propose that we have Nymphadora pose as a Hogwarts student both to keep an eye on Quirrell and as added protection to the stone."

"I like that idea except for one thing," Tonks said. "For the love of Merlin don't call me Nymphadora."

"She hasn't even finished her training" Kingsley protested reluctantly. "Hasn't even been here for a year. She just graduated barely six months ago."

"True, but I can't think of anyone else who would be perfect for this undercover job." Jane said. While Tonks nodded eagerly next to her.

"But how?" Hestia said. "Won't people notice if there are two of a student? Or if there is one brand new student no ones ever noticed before?"

"I could just ask a student if I could step in for them in class." Tonks suggested.

"Oh brilliant and then what? You have now let a student know your suspicious of a teacher and a specific teacher." Moody growled.

"I'll pick a head student," Tonks said. "I happen to know both of them this year. Or a seventh year prefect. I could just tell them that I'm just doing some undercover training with my metamorphosis. But I've already talked to a few of them about Quirrell when Jane and I went to question him. All of them were already suspicious of him, and said he seemed off. I also have no doubt they already know something important is being kept there. From what I've been told there's a giant 3 headed dog in the third floor corridor that is suddenly off limits this year. Absolutely not obvious at all."

"Course Dumbledore wouldn't be subtle," Moody muttered. "And how do you expect those students to make up for class? I highly doubt their parents would be pleased that they are missing class and during their NEWT year?"

"They aren't learning anything important from that guy anyways," Tonks shrugged. "But I could just take notes for them and give them privates on what they missed."

"Shacklebolt still has a point, you're still in training." Moody continued to argue.

"But aren't you the one that said the best place to train is out in the field?" Jane interjected. "Besides, I'm not asking for her to be there all day everyday, just for a few hours at a time. Keep an eye on things? Do some snooping?"

"Fine," Moody said. "I'll authorize it but only if you report to me daily and still come in for training. Also, Black, you'll have to get Dumbledore's approval first. I doubt he'll be happy about the ministry interfering at his school."

"That shouldn't be too much of a problem for me," Jane nodded. "I'll take care of it."

Tonks cheered and her hair started changing from pink to yellow to red to blue and even to green.

An: finals are done so hope updates will go faster. although I cant promise anything cuz I am in the middle of grad school apps. But hey new years resolution:update more frequently. HAPPY HOLIDAYS