Chapter Twelve: Crossed Wires

'It isn't the end of the world. It isn't even the end of the tournament!'

But lying on her bed, Petra refused to heed Mandy's words, and only grabbed her pillow and hugged it to her face, as if trying to suffocate herself. Mandy looked up hopelessly at the others.

Night had drawn in, the dispirited crowd had returned to school, and Petra had spent so long in the showers that her friends feared for a while that she might be trying to drown herself… But now she was up in her dorm, in her nightie, and in the throes of bleak despair. And no matter what Lily and the rest said to try and comfort her, she would not be comforted.

'Mandy's right,' Lily said, sitting down beside Petra and lifting the corner of the pillow so she could peek at her. 'We scored 240 points - you scored 240 points! That's the highest number of goals a losing team has scored in the tournament so far… so if the result is lower than that in at least one of the other matches, you'll go through to the play offs.'

'No one else is going to score as many goals as you lot did today,' Mary said with some confidence (whether she truly felt it or not was another matter, but cheering up Petra was what counted). 'Hogwarts will get into the play offs for sure - and then we'll smash our way all the way to the final, and win it.'

This was the exact same line of thought Sirius and the others were using on James, up in the boys' dorm; but, like his captain, James preferred to wallow in his despond. He too hugged a pillow to his face, was lying prone on his bed and - every so often - let out an agonised moan, like he was a graphorn giving birth.

'You will get a second chance,' Remus told him. 'I know things seem bad now…'

'It's the end of the universe!'

'It's not.'

'It was all Reg's fault!' James suddenly dropped his pillow and sat bolt upright, as if his indignation had enervated him from his melancholy. 'If he hadn't let me get smashed in the face by that bludger, I would have scored that final goal… we would have gone to penalties. And we'd have slaughtered them!'

'If Reg could just do the one thing he's there to do and catch the damn snitch, it wouldn't have mattered,' Reg's brother scowled. 'What a useless twerp.'

Peter sat on the end of James' bed, with his hands clutched to his chest in a way that made him rather resemble the rat he could turn into, and wondered what, in Merlin's name, they could do to make James feel better.

And indeed, it did prove very difficult to coax him out of bed the next morning and get him down to Herbology. He could see the Quidditch Village from the greenhouses and kept dropping his secateurs and sighing deeply. He only avoided getting a detention because Professor Sprout seemed equally down in the dumps; and Petra was still red about the eyes and talking to no one. Connie Bidwell reported that Gwenog and Emrys Jones were taking things every bit as hard as the Gryffindors down in the Hufflepuff common room, and Sandy Lewis whispered that it turned out there had been a bottle of firewhisky stashed in Angus MacDougal's dorm and that he and Sidhe Moran had downed the whole lot and ended up kissing. 'They were just sort of crying and snogging and crying some more,' she told Lily and the others in solemn tones. 'It was a bit awkward to watch, actually… very wet.'

Regulus was in disgrace with the whole school, even teachers were giving him the cold shoulder and he slunk around like a shadow of his normal, arrogant self, constantly looking over his shoulder in case he got jinxed, so that his brother almost felt sorry for him (but then he remembered how loathsome Reg was, and jinxed him anyway).

The Hogwarts team felt the worst of it, but spirits were low across the whole castle, and remained low until a couple of days later when Mahoutokoro beat Vimoksha 270 - 210, meaning the home team was at least now guaranteed a place in the play offs, if not in the second round.

As November ground on, Petra got her team out flying again, practising all hours and in all weathers, and James was beginning to feel some slight positivity again (though this did not stop him from performing an illegal hex on Betram Aubrey, when he overheard the American chaser telling Chester Chadwick that it seemed like Hogwarts was not all they were cracked up to be at Quidditch; Aubrey ended up in the Infirmary with his head swollen to twice its normal size, while James and Sirius ended up in detention). Homework was still piling on thick and fast, but James pointed out that the OWLS were not until after the tournament was over - and he would have time to study once eternal glory was his. But for now, he was focused only on Quidditch.

His single minded concentration was buffeted a little bit, however, when Professor McGonagall stopped their Transfiguration lesson a little early on Monday in order to impart some important news. 'As our guests will be staying in the castle over the festive season, Professor Dumbledore thought it only fair that we put on a little bit of entertainment for them to keep them amused and make them feel more at home, while they are so far from their families.' She told them, with the air of someone setting an extraordinarily long essay and not someone announcing Christmas plans.

'To that end, we will be throwing a Hogmanay Highland Fling on New Year's Eve Night - a formal dance to which all members of the teams and everyone in fourth year and above is invited; though you are, of course, welcome to invite guests from lower years if you wish.'

Mandy and Mary gave identical shrieks of laughter and stuffed their knuckles in their mouths to stifle their sniggering, Professor McGonagall frowned at them - as did Remus, who did not see what was so hilarious.

'Although the Hogmanay Highland Fling is an evening of fun, where we will all get an opportunity to let down our hair…' Big Macca continued, while Mary snorted with laughter again (Remus could see what was funny this time, with her hair tied up in its tight bun, McGonagall looked like she had never let her hair down in her life) 'we are still hosts, and this is still school and I expect you all to behave as befits the situation. I will not be pleased if a member of Gryffindor lets the whole school down with rowdiness or rambunctious behaviour.' (She very definitely cast an eye over James and Sirius at this point.) 'This will be a night of well mannered frivolity,' she told them. 'The list to sign up to stay at school over the holidays will be going out later this week. Those of you wishing to attend the dance must sign up to stay. Class Dismissed…' she finished up as the bell rang.

'So this must be what the dress robes were for,' James surmised, as they sat in the back of A History of Magic and didn't bother to listen to Binns drone on about the centaurs charter of 1746. 'So we can wear them to this dance thingie.'

'Great,' (Sirius did not look enthused as he said this) 'I get to look like a poncy knob in lace and velvet in front of every wizarding school in the world. Just what I always wanted.'

The others sniggered, but Remus's brow furrowed as something else worried him beyond Sirius's sartorial nightmares. 'What did she mean we could take guests?' he asked. But his friends didn't know and, after a few minutes more, they exhausted their interest in a New Year's Eve dance and went back to the time-honoured tradition of falling asleep in the back of the classroom.

The girls, on the other hand, still felt they had plenty to discuss, and whispered about it all the way through A History of Magic, during tea and then up in their dorms, where - now they knew what their dress robes were for - they got them out of their trunks and looked at them excitedly and discussed how they would style their hair on the night and what jewellery they would use to accessorise with.

Unlike Remus, they had no trouble understanding what Professor McGonagall had meant by taking a guest, and - consequently - which boy they would accessorise their robes with was an even more keen topic of conversation than which necklace they would wear.

Over the next couple of days, every girl in the castle (at least those in fourth year and above) seemed to develop dance fever, and they roved the school in packs, talking of little else and giggling very loudly every time a boy walked past them.

It took the Gryffindor boys a while, but eventually they figured out what was going on. 'They want us to go with them,' James said, in a tone of astonished wonderment. 'Like on a date - but with slow dancing and…'

Sirius pulled a face and said they could count him out. 'I'm not asking any girl to any dance so I can foxtrot around the room with her in my lace and velvet,' he said. 'I have some dignity. Not much. But some… Anyway,' he looked around his friends incredulously, 'why would we want to ruin a perfectly good night between ourselves by inviting a bunch of girls into the mix?'

James and Peter looked like they might not quite agree with him, but Remus was rather glad he had said it. He kept imagining himself in his patched dress robes, spinning slowly with some faceless girl … and then imagining having to ask her out… and then thinking he would rather curse himself in the foot and then the face for good measure than put himself through that ordeal.

Nevertheless the school seemed to be suddenly heaving with girls, huddled in groups, packed in corners, pouring out of the loos in great hordes… and giggling wherever they went, and batting their eyelashes and looking hopeful…

'Everyone's gone nuts,' Sirius said in disgust, on Thursday, when Daisy Wilcock of Hufflepuff approached him at lunchtime, asked him if he had a date yet and then - blushing bright red - suggested he could take her if he didn't have anyone else to go with. 'Why would anyone want a date? It will ruin everything.'

For, over the few days since the dance had been announced, several rumours had started to fly around thick and fast, the way they always did at Hogwarts - about how Dumbledore had ordered eight hundred barrels of mulled mead from Madam Rosmerta, how there were going to be enchanted ice sculptures in the garden, and fireworks at midnight and how Royston Idlewind and the Dissimulators had been booked to play.

'It should be a brilliant party, why would anyone want to spend it with anyone but their friends?' Sirius looked around at the others. 'We're all agreed, yeah? We're not getting dates.'

Remus gave his ready assent. James looked a bit disappointed but then nodded. Peter wriggled uncomfortably on his seat.

'Why are you shifting like that?' Sirius snapped at him. 'I swear you do have worms.'

'I don't!' Pete replied indignantly. 'It's just … oh … well… I can't hide it forever… I already have a date for the dance. I'm sorry!' he added hastily as he saw the furious look on Sirius's face. 'I didn't know you were going to boss us around and make us live like monks just because you don't like girls…' (the look on Sirius's face at that point made him cringe in fear, but he blustered on) 'and she said she needed a partner… and I thought "why not?" ...'

'Because it's a betrayal of your friends is why not!' Sirius roared.

But Peter tutted. 'Everyone's getting dates. And I mean everyone. If you three don't you'll be the only ones. And everyone else will notice.'

It was James' turn to shuffle awkwardly. 'Maybe we should,' he ventured. 'If Snivelly's going to get one…'

'I'm not getting anything that Snivelly's having,' Sirius said, and refused to brook any more argument about it.

'Who are you going with, Pete?' Remus asked, when he judged enough time had passed that Sirius would have done being outraged and would probably be quite curious.

Peter blushed (but looked very pleased with himself nevertheless). 'It's Mawu Orou from Uagadou… you know, the meerkat? She asked me…'

'Blimey,' James sounded impressed.

But Sirius was still scowling. 'Alright, Pete's a traitor. But the rest of us are not having dates. We're going to have a brilliant time just the three of us.'

But, alas for Sirius, Professor McGonagall threw a spanner in the works in their next Transfiguration lesson, when she called Petra and James up to the front of the class at the end of the lesson and informed them that the Quidditch teams would be starting the dancing, so they would both need to make sure they had a partner to dance with.

'I don't dance,' James told her, but she gave him a withering look.

'Well now you do - and with a partner. So make sure you find one, Potter, or you'll look ridiculous.'

'She can't do this to me!' Sirius cried when James told him the bad news, once they were back up in their dorm. ' You can't do this to me.'

'Well I don't have a choice, do I?' James peered at himself in the mirror, frowning at his wayward hair, before licking his hand and trying to press it down at the back - where it was always particularly wild. 'Anyway - I don't know why you're complaining… I'm the one that's now got to ask a girl out.'

'I'm surrounded by traitors… Remus, promise me you won't get a date.'

'I promise.'

'Good - then it'll be just the two of us - and we'll have the best time of anybody.'

James turned away from the mirror, not quite satisfied with his hair but resigned that he could flatten it no further, 'Not if I ask Evans out and we snog under the mistletoe.'

The other three all looked at him, appalled. 'Mate… do not ask Evans out.'

'Why not?'

'Because she hates your guts!'

'Oh don't be ridiculous - that's all an act. If she goes with me, she gets to start off the dancing. Everyone will be watching her… she'll leap at the chance.'

'James, mate, I am begging you not to do this.'

But James would not heed Sirius's warning and, that evening, he slid into a seat across the table from Lily and gave her his jauntiest grin. 'Evening, Evans,' he said - surreptitiously checking his reflection in the back of a soup spoon and then hastily flattening his hair down. When he looked up again, she had fixed her green eyes on him in a most suspicious manner.

'What do you want, Potter?'

'Want? - ha ha - nothing! Why would I want… I - I just wanted to wish you a pleasant evening.'

Her eyes narrowed. 'Thank you.'

'So…' he picked up a fork and twirled it artfully between his fingers. She watched him for a moment, looking increasingly like she thought he had gone mad. 'This Hogmanay Highland Fling, eh? Quite a to do,' he said to her.

'I suppose.'

'You looking forward to it?'

'Yes.'

'Ha ha - me too… Have you… er… have you given any thought as to who you're going to go with?'

Further down the table, Sirius was biting his spoon to try and stop himself cringing inside out, while Remus had his face buried in his napkin. Peter was shaking his head and muttering, ' No no no no no, ' under his breath in a continuous stream. But James paid them no heed and smiled as winningly as he could at Lily.

Who smiled winningly back. 'I'm going with Diego Di Marco,' she said (there was a loud clattering as the fork fell from James' hand). 'He asked me as soon as he heard about the dance.' Then she turned, blushing, to her friends and they all burst into a fit of giggles.

James looked thunderstruck, his jaw falling open - giving him the air of a man who had just been smacked with a bludger. He shook his head and came to, remembering himself. 'Ha ha,' he forced a laugh. '- Well ha - that's great isn't it?... Fan- bloody -tastic.'

'It's the end of the universe!' They were back up in the dorm, and James was back on his bed, lying prone and clutching a pillow to his face.

'It's not…'

'As if you would know, Moony - you've never looked at a girl twice,' (beneath his pillow, James did not see Remus flush). 'You had no intention of getting a date. You and Sirius seem to be planning on dying celibate. Some of us wanted to take a girl to the dance. Some of us need to take a girl to the dance.'

'There are plenty of other girls, James,' Peter told him earnestly. 'I'm sure loads of them would bite your hand off if you asked them out.'

'That's alright for you to say! You already have a date!'

And though he tried not to show it, Peter could not hide the smug and self satisfied look which crossed his face.

The next day was Saturday, and the all important play off was only a week away, and so that meant more Quidditch practice for the Hogwarts team. Despite the fact it was rainy and cold, James badgered Sirius and the others to come and watch him and - with nothing else to do but homework - they eventually wrapped their cloaks around their shoulders and agreed to go.

'You need to get a move on, Mary,' they overheard Lily saying to her friend, as the girls waded their way down the lawn to the stadium, just ahead of them. 'At this rate you'll be the only one without a date.'

'I hate to be blunt, but Harold Holt-Bishop is not coming back before New Year's Eve,' Mandy added. 'So you need to get over it and go with someone else.'

Mary shook her head. 'I'm waiting for the right person to ask me!'

'And if he doesn't?' Lily sounded exasperated. 'All the good ones will be gone! You don't want to end up with a right troll…'

'Excuse me?' James gave a sputter of indignation, and pushed forward into their group, his expression was as outraged as his tone. 'What do you mean "a right troll"?'

Lily arched an eyebrow. 'You know, a boy with bad breath, or B.O.'

'Or acne so bad he looks like he's been hit with a boil jinx,' Mandy added.

'Or a pudding basin haircut …We just want to make sure we all end up with someone attractive,' Lily finished off with a shrug.

James had looked increasingly appalled throughout the whole discussion. 'So you're just going to take the best looking boy who will have you and you don't even care if he's a nice person or not?'

The girls glanced at each other, utterly bemused. 'Er - yes. That sounds about right.'

Even in the miserable dampness of the day, James seemed to get all hot and bothered. His face flamed red, his glasses steamed up and he stomped off to the changing rooms, slamming the door behind him.

'What's eating Potter?' Lily wondered out loud, before deciding she didn't really care and walked off with her friends to find a seat with as much shelter from the rain as possible.

Remus, Sirius and Peter were also doing their best to shelter from the rain - but Quidditch was very much an open air sort of sport and this fact did leave them rather exposed to the elements. 'We should have stayed in the common room,' Sirius concluded gloomily, after a few moments, when the team had marched out onto the pitch - sodden with rain before they even mounted their brooms. They were now sad, waterlogged, little specks in the sky and the lure of the common room fire was becoming greater by the second.

'We can't just leave,' Remus said (though he quite wanted to) 'James would be disappointed if he realised we'd abandoned him.'

'Well,' Sirius wrapped his cloak tighter about his shoulders, 'I'm already sodding soaking, so I'm going to take a look at those massive screens while no one's looking.'

And, ignoring Remus and Pete's protests and their begging him not to do anything that would get him into trouble, he skipped his way down the stand and skirted the edge of the pitch until he was directly beneath one of the large screens that were used so the foreign schools could watch the matches.

High above his head, Petra blew her whistle and yelled something at Regulus. Sirius ignored her, and, holding his wand between his teeth, began to scale the back of the screen - swearing when the rain caused him to slip, and then scrambling back up again until he located the place where the back of the screen could be opened up.

With fingers made slippery by rain, he prised the back of the screen open and then stared greedily at the array of valves, dragon heartstring wires and magical fuses which made up the circuitry. This was ten times more complicated (and ten times more interesting) than the inside of a wireless and, using a quick binding charm to secure himself to the back of the screen, he rubbed his hands together with glee and started examining the wiring, pulling handfuls out and working out how they were all meshed together.

'Do you think he's going to get expelled?' Peter asked from his place, huddled in the stands.

'It looks more likely every day,' Remus said gloomily. 'Maybe we should have stopped him?'

Peter goggled at him as if he was mad. 'Have you ever tried to stop Sirius from doing exactly what he wants?'

Remus considered this for a moment and then conceded the point.

Petra's whistle blew once more… They couldn't quite hear what she was shouting, over the sound of the rain, but it seemed to be aimed at Regulus.

Meanwhile, Sirius was working at threading all the dragon heartstrings back into place and turning the valves so the magic could travel down the wires. He glanced up and watched in amusement as his brother was berated by Petra over bad sportsmanship or sheer incompetence or whatever Regulus Bowel Movements had done wrong this time, and then, once the whistle was blown once more and Regulus flew away looking aggrieved, Sirius went back to his heartstrings.

He frowned down at the two of them left in his hands. Since he had lost concentration he had forgotten which was which and where they were supposed to go. Supposing it did not really matter either way, he wrapped them around the valves, connected them to the screen and then - happy that things looked more or less the way they had before (or slightly better - if he said it himself) he tapped the wires with the his wand and watched the green sparks of magic travel along them as the whole circuit came to life.

Grinning, he closed the back of the screen up, got rid of the binding charm which held him, only just stopped himself from plummeting to the earth, scrambled back down and went to join Remus and Peter back in the stands. 'That was fun, you should have come along.'

His friends shook their heads in disbelief. 'You didn't break anything did you?' Remus asked him.

'Nah… probably not.'

' Probably ?'

'Well it was all very complicated, but I know what I'm doing, Moony - don't fuss.'

Remus made what was either a disbelieving or a disapproving noise with his nose, and then went back to watching the practice, which carried on until everyone in the stands was thoroughly numb and thoroughly bored and had begun to drift away one by one.

When Petra finally blew her whistle to end the practice, James found that even Sirius had abandoned him and slunk away back to the warmth of the common room fire, but he didn't really mind, as an idea had occurred to him as he had passed the quaffle back and forth with Petra and, if Sirius knew what he was up to, he would only moan and harrumph and talk about betrayals.

He hung back in the changing rooms until everyone else had left, apart from the captain, who was busy locking the balls away. With a quick glance in the mirror, and a doomed attempt to flatten his hair down at the back, he went over and started to help her.

She looked a little surprised. 'Thanks, Potter.'

'Not at all - you shouldn't have to do this stuff by yourself just because you're the boss… Sooo,' he changed subject, trying to sound casual. 'It's a funny old thing this making us dance in public, don't you think?'

'I certainly wasn't informed of the obligation when they sent me the Captain's badge,' Petra told him.

He gave the same rather fake and hearty laugh that always seemed to come out whenever he tried to impress Evans. 'Ha ha - yes - might not have tried out for the team if I'd've known… Soooo,' still casual, he got to the crux of his sentence. 'It just seems to me… none of us signed up for this… sudden responsibility and all… having to find a partner, when there was nothing in the small print… maybe we should, you know, hit two chasers with one bludger - as it were - and - er - ah - mebbegodancetogeva?'

'Sorry?' Petra asked.

Why did he have to go red now? He cleared his throat. 'I was - er - wondering if you and I should go to the dance together?'

'Oh,' she blushed as well. 'I'm sorry, Potter - but I'm already going with someone.'

'You too?'

'Why is that so surprising?'

'I mean… it isn't… I don't think you're a - you know a troll - or anything…'

Petra's eyebrows hit her hairline. 'Thanks ever so.'

'I didn't mean… Who is it? Who are you going with?'

'Not that it's any of your business … But Hassan Mostafa, from Zarr Sagal.'

'Him?' James yelped in outraged indignation. 'He has a 'tache!'

'You're just jealous because you don't need to shave yet.' Her flush was now an angry one, but her voice was getting cooler by the moment.

'His hairline's receding.'

'Well I like him, and he asked me, and I said "yes" so that's the end of it.' And she stormed off, with her nose in the air, leaving James, alone in the changing rooms, as dateless as ever, gaping like a goldfish.

'It's the end of the universe!' James was lying on his bed, once again, a pillow clasped to his face.

'There'll be another girl,' Peter assured him, but James only moaned some more.

'There won't be… they've all got dates. I'll have to take FLP - I'll look a right idiot dancing with him. Snivellus will snigger!'

'We all will, mate,' Sirius told him.

'I've asked out two and been shot down twice. All the good ones will be gone. If there's anything left, she'll be a complete troll!'

Remus and Sirius exchanged an amused but not especially sympathetic smirk.

'Well - at least you're taking defeat lying down,' Sirius said.

James groaned again, and then sat bolt upright as a new thought occurred to him. 'What's with all these foreign blokes coming over here and stealing our women anyway? Why can't they date the girls on their own team?'

'Well… for a start, one of those girls is going with me,' said Peter - trying and failing not to look unbearably smug.

James gave another groan and flopped back on his bed. 'That's different!'

'Is it?' Remus asked frowning, 'How?'

'It just is! Whose side are you on anyway?'

'I'm on the side of watching you take a puffskein to a ball and having to dance with it,' Sirius said. 'Serves you right.'

James hugged the pillow to his face once more. 'I didn't ask for any of this…'

But there was no answer to his troubles to be found, at least not up in the boys' dorm, and - as the new week started, James was still without a partner to take to the dance.

Tuesday marked the last quidditch match in the first round of the tournament, before that all-important playoff which James and Petra and everyone in Hogwarts were pinning their hopes on. It was to be Uagadou's turn, they were playing against the Brazilian Castelobruxo team and - as the days were so short by now and it grew dark so early - they were to play in the morning, which meant all lessons for the day had been cleared, as there was no way of knowing how long the match would last.

Giddy at the thought of missing Potions, and anxious to know who Hogwarts would be playing on Saturday, the boys tied on their scarves, wrapped up in their cloaks, pulled on their mittens and headed out to the stands.

The first sign that something was wrong came when the whole crowd was settled and the giant screens started to light up, revealing the African and South American crowds. One by one they flickered into life, revealing a portion of the foreign students back in their own schools, waving their banners and wearing their scarves… until one such screen flashed on… only to show nothing but a patch of empty grass.

A murmuring and muttering took up among the Hogwarts crowd. On the screen directly opposite the blank one, the Uagadou students pointed at it, whispering to each other in a whole load of different dialects. And there was an outcry from the Castelobruxo crowd, until - eventually - someone who seemed to be the Headmaster appeared at the very front of one of the screens, his head and shoulders taking up the whole thing, and he said - in a booming voice which echoed around the whole stadium - 'Some of my students, they cannot see the pitch. Their screen, she is blank.'

Several of the international Quidditch coaches, Dumbledore, Flitwick, Slughorn and Big Macca all rushed across to the pitch to examine the malfunctioning screen but - although their conversation could not be heard from the stands - the pantomime of their head scratching and shrugging showed the waiting crowd that they did not know what had happened and could not fix it.

'Er - Sirius? Isn't that the screen you were playing around with the other day?' Remus asked, sounding troubled.

'Well... I mean…' Sirius spluttered, and tried (and failed) to look unconcerned, 'it's really difficult to tell, isn't it? It could have been, I suppose…'

'What have you done?' Peter squeaked, but Sirius only cuffed him around the head and told him to shut up. Down on the playing field, the teachers seemed to give up trying to fix the problem; over in Brazil, the Castelobruxo students shuffled up so those who could not see could squash in with those who could, and - without further ado - the teams marched out onto the pitch.

The match was fast and furious, Scrabble was yelling like a mad thing throughout the whole game. The snitch put in countless tantalising appearances only to disappear again at the crucial moment. Bludgers stopped goals that seemed sure to go in, goalkeepers pulled off saves which were near miraculous, and the chasers passed the quaffle so quickly between them that it was merely a scarlet blur zooming through the murky skies.

The crowds were going wild… but the four boys spent most of the match with their eyes fixed on the malfunctioning screen, which was still showing nothing but an empty patch of grass, and wondered just how much trouble Sirius was going to get into this time.

The boot dropped the next morning, when they were sitting in Defence Against the Dark Arts, working quietly on their cursed snuff boxes. Uagadou had won, though Castelobruxo had fought hard, with Anansi Amoah snatching the snitch and securing the victory after about two hours of play. With the final results in, Petra now knew that her team would be going up against Vimoksha, the Indian school, in the playoffs - and was devising a last minute defensive strategy for them to practise, which took into account the Vimoksha beaters using crickets bats. Excitement was starting to race through the corridors and crackle in the air once again… but the teachers were not allowing any of that to seep into lesson time and, to that end, they were working in near silence that morning in Defence.

Which meant everybody heard, when the door opened and Professor McGonagall's boots tip tapped their way down to the front of the classroom, where she bent down and whispered something into Professor Carnarvon's ear. When she straightened back up, her nostrils were dangerously flared and her lips were dangerously white and thin.

'Mr. Black, if you will please come with me,' she said, in clipped tones. Everyone turned to stare at him (he went quite pale) clearly wondering what he had done. Remus and Peter, who had a pretty good idea, groaned - and then hastily tried to not look too guilty as Big Macca's flint-like eyes roved over them as well. Her nostrils dilated, as if she was trying to sniff out guilt.

Aiming for an air of nonchalance he did not feel, Sirius slid off his stool and followed her out of the classroom to her office, where she shut the door behind him with a very ominous sounding click.

'I am sure you know why you are here, Mr. Black?' she said to him.

He pulled a politely puzzled face and shook his head.

'Come now - there are many things you can be accused of, but I do not believe cowardice is one of them. Do you know why you are here?'

'Yes, Professor McGonagall,' he said sullenly.

'Why?'

'Because it was me who broke that screen.'

'Indeed,' her nostrils flared even wider for a moment, but there was a slight tone of approval in her voice, now he had confessed. 'Do you know what you did?'

He shook his head. 'I thought I put it back right.'

'Well you did not. It took us many hours of investigation, but eventually we worked out you had attached two of the wires to the wrong connection point - so instead of relaying what was happening in real time, the screen was recording. What we sent back to Castelobruxo was the recorded image of two days worth of an empty Quidditch pitch. I am sure you can understand you have caused us no small amount of embarrassment?'

'I'm sorry.'

'It is not me you need to apologise to, Mr. Black. It is the students and teachers of Castelobruxo. And you will do. You will be put into detention while you write an apology letter to the whole school…'

Sirius sagged in relief, that was nothing.

'In Portuguese !' McGonagall added.

Sirius gaped at her. 'But Professor - I don't speak Portuguese!'

'That may well be a problem. But nevertheless you shall continue with your detentions until a satisfactory letter is written. We shall, of course, supply you with an English - Portuguese dictionary.'

He continued to look flabbergasted. She narrowed her eyes at him. 'Be thankful, young man, that we are letting you apologise in letter form, and not making you speak aloud your apology from the Quidditch stadium with the whole of Castelobruxo watching, and laughing at your every mispronunciation. Dismissed… for now. I shall see you back here at six.'

And, a little sulkily, it must be said, Sirius left her office and headed back to his classroom to tell the others what had transpired.

His mood was not improved when, at teatime, Chester Chadwick came and sat with them and smiled his overly bright, overly white smile straight at Remus. 'Hey, Remy, who are you taking to this ol' Hogmanay Highland Fling thing, then?' he said, with little preamble, while Sirius choked on his outrage (and sausages and mash).

'Oh - er - I haven't asked anyone… Sirius and I are…' he trailed off as Chester gave Sirius a searching sort of glance, and Sirius glowered back at him. 'Well, I mean - we thought we'd have more fun if it was just the two of us,' Remus finished up.

'Good thinking… Enjoying the company of men, no need to bring girls into it… I wish I had that kind of freedom. So, Potter, who are you taking?'

It was James' turn to splutter and choke. 'I'm still reviewing my options,' he said at last.

'Get turned down?'

'Twice,' he admitted through gritted teeth. 'Who are you going with?'

'Some girl called Daisy Wilcock - I wasn't bothered for a date, like Remy here, but I had to have one and she suggested I take her.'

'You were only her second choice,' Sirius told him. 'She asked me first.'

Chadwick raised an eyebrow. 'But she wasn't getting anywhere with you, was she?' Sirius stared at him, Chadwick stared right back and there seemed to be some unspoken battle going on between them.

'I don't suppose she'll get very far with you either,' Sirius said at last.

'I've at least agreed to dance with her.'

'More fool you.'

Remus watched them both, his head turning as if he was at a tennis match, and wondered what on earth this hostility was. There was an undercurrent to the conversation that Remus knew he was missing, but he could not fathom the substance of it… and he was no more in the know when Sirius scraped his plate clean, scraped back the bench and declared he had to go to his detention.

'See you later, Black,' Chester said.

Sirius gave him his haughtiest look (which was very haughty indeed) 'I'd really rather you didn't,' and then - with that - he was gone.

When Saturday came, it dawned drizzly, dark and damp. 'But this works in our favour,' Petra told the team at breakfast, as they gazed upward at the ominous looking sky reflected in the enchanted ceiling, 'because we're used to playing in this and worse… I checked, they don't play Quidditch in Monsoon season, so Vimoksha have only ever played in the sunshine. They won't know what to do with visibility so poor.'

'They still have those big cricket bats, though,' MacDougal said. But Petra shook her head.

'And we have Gwenog and Emrys, the beater matters far more than the bat they're using and ours are the best there are…' She turned to look at Regulus. 'But none of this matters if you give the snitch away. If you pull a stunt like last time then you're off the team … I know we'll be down to six men,' she said quickly, as Regulus opened his mouth to interrupt, 'but better six of us working together than having a seventh player working against us. Catch the snitch, stay away from Potter - end of.'

They headed out to the changing rooms, once again getting a standing ovation from the rest of the school as they left, and then it was everyone else's turn to make their way to the stadium. The atmosphere was tense that morning - and so thick it could be cut with a knife… Everyone was all too aware that this was their last chance, if things did not go their way today, they would be out of the tournament for good.

Remus did not think he had ever felt so nervous in his life, and wondered how James could stand the pressure.

But when the team came out onto the pitch in their black robes, James was waving and grinning as if this was the best day of his life.

'How is he managing it?' Remus asked in disbelief.

Sirius cast a weather eye across his distant best friend. 'He's hysterical,' he diagnosed. 'The mania is just about carrying him through… he probably won't remember any of this once it's over.'

The screens flickered on (the one Sirius had tinkered with had been restored to working order), the Indian students came into view, warmly huddled up and with snow capped mountains visible in the distance.

Peter frowned. 'I thought it was meant to be hot in India?'

'Not in the mountains, not in the winter,' Sirius said and - indeed - if the layers the Vimokshans were wrapped up in was anything to go by, it was considerably colder where they were than at Hogwarts. But - freezing temperatures or not - they still had banners and flags to wave and were in fine voice, cheering for their team.

Mister Uragirimono gathered together Petra and Mata Kaur, the Indian Captain, ready for the sickle toss - which Vimoksha won, this time, much to the away crowd's roaring approval ('But it doesn't matter,' Sirius said to the others, 'we won the coin toss last time and lost the match; this is a good omen.' Peter asked him since when had he been superstitious but Sirius only told him to shush and pay attention).

And attention was necessary as, with a blast of Uragirimono's whistle, the fourteen players flew into the air; Reehal passed the quaffle to Rai who passed it to Rajan who threw back to Reehal, and they seemed to be headed for the first goal of the match until Thwack! Gwenog Jones swung her beaters' bat with all her might, sending a bludger directly at the Vimoksha chaser, who dropped the quaffle straight into James' waiting hands.

With the ball tucked beneath his arm and a determined expression on his face, he zoomed towards the Indian goal. But the whistling of the wind hailed an incoming bludger, he glanced up just in time to see it, and ducked, however Garuda Gupta was ready with his cricket bat to send the bludger flying straight back at him. James weaved in the air, dodging the bludger, Gupta swung his bat… and hit James full force in the face. James dropped the quaffle (after all, a cricket bat to the face was no laughing matter) and - far behind him - Mister Uragirimono's whistle blew, stopping play.

After a short investigation, it was agreed that the hit had been an accident, Gupta had been aiming for the ball and James was not awarded a penalty. The quaffle was returned to him, however, and play resumed from the centre line.

'THIS PROMISES TO BE A FIERCE GAME, WITCHES AND WIZARDS,' Jacob Scrabble announced from the commentators box. 'BOTH EXCELLENT TEAMS, BOTH DESPERATE FOR THIS WIN. WE'RE IN THE LAST CHANCE SALOON AND BOTH LINEHAN AND KAUR WILL WANT THIS VICTORY SO BADLY THEY CAN TASTE IT… AND LINEHAN HAS THE QUAFFLE NOW, SHE'S CLOSING IN ON THE GOAL, SHE'S READY TO SHOOT, SHE… AHHHH! THOSE CRICKET BATS, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, THEY ARE VICIOUS. A WELL PLACED BLUDGER FROM BAKSHI, AND LINEHAN IS DENIED A GOAL. NEITHER KAUR NOR MACDOUGAL HAVE HAD MUCH TO DO SO FAR… REEHAL NOW IN POSSESSION.'

Anoop Reehal flew down the pitch, the quaffle gripped in her hand; ready for it this time - she dodged Gwenog's bludger, ducked another sent her way by Emrys, and weaved around James - who was trying to intercept her… The Vimoksha crowd were on their feet, their roar of celebration growing louder as the goal grew closer, the Hogwarts crowd were watching in tense silence, collectively holding their breath…

Reehal threw the quaffle. 'SHE SHOOTS - SHE… GETS BLOCKED BY MACDOUGAL, WELL DONE HOGWARTS, BUT WHAT A DISAPPOINTMENT FOR VIMOKSHA!'

The crowds had reversed now, as the Hogwarts students cheered and waved their scarves, while those from Vimoksha groaned and seemed to visibly deflate.

'MORAN IN POSSESSION NOW,' Scrabble announced, as Mister Uragrimono's whistle blew again. 'SHE PASSES TO LINEHAN, WHO SWERVES A BLUDGER AND… OH NO SHE'S HIT… BUT PRODIGY POTTER IS THERE! HE TAKES THE QUAFFLE, HE'S HEADED FOR… WAS THAT THE SNITCH?'

There was a sharp intake of breath across the whole stadium and over in India. Hovering over near the very screen Sirius had taken apart, was - indeed - the snitch, a blur of gold and beating wings.

'THAT MUST SEEM TANTALISINGLY CLOSE TO OUR INDIAN CROWD!' Scrabble yelled, and it was true that those students on the screen were reaching out - as if hoping they could grab it themselves all the way in the Spiti Valley. 'BUT WHO WILL GET THERE FIRST? WIZARDS AND WITCHES THIS IS SOMETHING NOT YET SEEN! NOT A SINGLE GOAL SCORED AND THE WHOLE MATCH COMES DOWN TO A RACE BETWEEN THE SEEKERS … BUT WHO WILL GET THERE FIRST?'

'I can't watch!' Sirius groaned, covering his face, as his brother - with the weight of the whole tournament now resting on his narrow and not-especially-good -at -Quidditch shoulders - hurtled through the air towards the snitch, looking so desperate he appeared to be in pain.

'How's he doing?... And don't tell me.' Though Peter and Remus were far too busy holding their breath to give him an answer, even if he had wanted one.

But across the pitch, Hanuman Thakur was also flying as fast as he could, looking equally desperate, his hand already stretched out to grasp at winged victory.

'THIS IS GOING TO BE CLOSE,'

'I'm going to have a heart attack…'

'THEY'RE NECK AND NECK, SIDE BY SIDE, I'VE NOT SEEN ONE THIS CLOSE BEFORE, THEY'RE GETTING THERE, IT'S MERE FEET AWAY…'

Both crowds were on their feet, screaming so loud that Scrabble could hardly be heard even with his Sonorus charm, Sirius remained hidden behind his hands, Lily had buried her face in Mandy's shoulder, McGonagall's hat had fallen, off as she screamed at Regulus, her face all screwed up…

Thakur edged ahead. Vimoksha yelled louder. He reached out, his finger almost brushing the tips of the wings. Vimoksha yelled even louder.

And then, with a look on his face as black as his name, an expression which had passed determination and moved on to constipated (which rather belied his nickname) Regulus hurled himself forward on his broom, so he was right at the edge, he slapped Thakur's hand away, barged into him, sending him off course, and snatched the snitch out of the air… pulling up short in front of the screens, staring deep into the disappointment of the defeated crowd, while the roars of victory echoed out from behind him.

The party in Gryffndor tower that night was wild. Regulus was redeemed but - as he was not there - it was James and Petra who were treated like heroes. The butterbeer flowed, the snacks were in abundance, the pair of them were draped in Gryffindor flags, wearing them like capes, and eager admirers pressed peanuts and crisps on them, gushing with praise every chance they got to speak to two living legends directly.

Petra looked mildly embarrassed by the situation, but James was loving every moment - though he did cast a few envious glances at the paper crown someone had unearthed and placed on the captain's head.

The wireless was blasting out music, and Sirius and Remus were setting off indoor fireworks and - although the match had finished barely fifteen minutes after it had started that morning, and the party began only fifteen minutes after that, it was still in full swing well after midnight when Professor McGonagall appeared, in her tartan dressing gown and slippers, and yelled at them all to go to bed.

Still in good cheer, they did as they were told - still calling out their congratulations as they went. 'You're a hero, Potter!'

'We'll win the tournament now, for sure!'

'No one can beat Linehan's Lions!'

'Nice one, Potter!...'

Grinning, James started to head for the stairs and then came to a stop. He saw Petra and her friends making their way to their own staircase… and came to a swift decision, buoyed on by the flush of victory. 'You go on,' he said to Sirius and the others, 'I'll meet you up there,' and then he dodged through the crowds of boys making their way to the dorms, crisscrossed through the crowds of girls and called out, 'Mary - wait!'

All four girls came to a stop and turned to look back at him.

He flushed again, but with nerves now, rather than victory, 'Mary, can I talk to you… in private?'

Mary looked very surprised but, as James had done, told her friends to go on ahead without her. Mandy and Petra turned to leave. Lily waited for just a moment, her green eyes narrowed suspiciously… and then she turned and left without saying anything.

James watched her go, rather ruefully, before glancing back at Mary. 'Hi - I - er… well… You - er - you don't have a partner yet for this dance thing do you?' he said very hurriedly. 'I heard you and the girls talking the other day…'

It was Mary's turn to blush. '...No. I was,' she turned an even deeper shade of red. 'I was hoping Black might ask me. Our Black, not the Slytherin one.'

'Oh… he won't go with you.' James said in surprise.

'Why? Who's he going with?'

'Remus.'

Mary goggled at him.

James cleared his throat. 'Well… sort of. They're not getting partners for … some reason. So he's a no go. But I was thinking - I need a partner, you can't go with any of the boys you want to go with and… You know I did carry you up to the Hospital Wing that time? Five flights of bloody stairs and you screaming in my ear and trying to strangle me the whole way… that should count for something.'

'That was you?' She looked surprised - and a little touched - as if she had never considered that someone as arrogant and odious as Potter could have been the one to help her in her moment of need.

'Yeah - it was. So… er … well, I suppose, what I'm saying is… you know, as neither of us have anyone better to go with, would you like to go to the dance with me?'

She stared at him for a moment, 'You know, that's not quite the heartfelt proposal I was hoping for… but, yeah, alright.' And she began to smile.

James felt himself sag with relief. 'Great - yeah - well… I'll see you then, good night.' And, feeling all was well with the world, he headed on up to the dorm.

His hair, when he looked at himself in the mirror while he brushed his teeth, was about as wild as he had ever seen it - blown all over the place and sticking up in the back… and he cringed at the thought he had asked Mary out while looking like this. He put his toothbrush away and instinctively brought up his hand to flatten his hair… and then he paused.

Actually, it looked all wild because he hadn't combed it since the match. It looked like he had only just got off a broom… It looked like the hair of a Quidditch hero. His hand dropped to his side, and then - a moment later - he raised it again, but instead of flattening his hair down, he ruffled it up - making it messier than ever. Then he grinned at his reflection, admired the result, and headed back to his dorm.