Chapter 5

"Rise and shine people!" Sirius hollered, hitting the wall with his hand, and he wouldn't stop.

James opened his eyes slowly, "What time is it?" he looked at his watch, "It's five Sirius, let us sleep…"

"Nope! It'll be worth it once I tell you something!" Sirius said excitedly.

"Yea Sirius just shut it…" Remus said sleepily and Peter mumbled.

It had been a couple of weeks since Remus had met Sirius, James, and Peter, and they had grown to be pretty good friends.

Sirius threw something onto James' bed and James abruptly sat bolt upright.

"Is that what I think it is!?" James exclaimed, happiness shone in his eyes.

"That's just a magazine…" Remus said, boredom showed in his eyes, "I'm not sure what all the rave is about…"

"It's not just any magazine," Sirius said.

"It's the Qudich monthly subscription magazine!" James finished, and he and Sirius began flipping though it excitedly.

"I still don't really see the excitement…" Remus admitted and Peter nodded in agreement.

"Have you ever ever watched Quidich?" Sirius argued and Remus had to admit, he hadn't ever seen a quidditch game, in fact, he hardly knew a single thing about it. Once Kingsley had told him a little bit about Quidich but he hadn't really paid attention.

"Erm… Not really I guess…" Remus said and James' eyes widened.

"What do you mean you haven't seen a Quidch game!?" James roared.

"I mean, it can't be that big of a deal…" Remus grumbled.

Sirius shook his head in shock, "No, Remus, you're seeing a Quidch game, in fact, we're going to do it right now,"

Remus was confused. How were we going to watch a Quidch game? It's not like we can buy tickets and apparate to see one…

The four of them quickly changed into their day clothes and James led them outside, excitement shown in each of his lively steps.

"Oop, James forgot to brush his hair," Sirius whispered and Remus laughed. In the few weeks that the boys had known each other, Remus had learned that James really cared about his hair. He cared so much that once he had spent an entire hour combing his hair.

"We're almost there," James said enthusiastically and Remus was excited. The only one who didn't seem very thrilled was Peter, who was dragging his feet on the floor and yawning every few minutes.

"Peter, are you seriously tired?" James questioned.

"Erm…" Peter began straightening his back, "No, I'm not…"

"Ok, now that's the spirit," James said, beginning to jog happily. Remus and the others had to quicken their pace to catch up with their friend.

Finally, they made it to their destination, which ended up being the quidditch pitch. There were multiple poles sticking from the ground with hoops on them, and a few people were speeding around on broomsticks.

"The Quidich teams come to practice here, and guess what!? Gryfindor's practicing today so we're in luck!" James said enthusiastically, and went to sit on the stands. He gestured for Remus to sit next to him.

"Ok, so firstly," Sirius began, "There are four different positions." James nodded his agreement.

"Yea, there's three chasers, one keeper -"

"Two beaters, and one Seeker," Sirius finished and Peter looked impressed but at the same time confused.

"Right, so the Chaser's make points by throwing the quaffle through one of the opposing team's hoops."

Remus nodded in understanding.

"See there?" James said, pointing to a girl with her hair tied in a thick bun, "That's Angela, she's one of the Chaser's on the team, and look, she's about to score!"

The four of them watched as she zoomed quickly on her broom, throwing the quaffle into one of the hoops.

"Good Job!" James yelled and she looked in their direction, sending James a smile.

"Then the keeper's guard the goal posts, they make sure the other team can't score any points." James explained, pointing to a muscular boy.

"This is kind of like soccer." Remus noticed and his three friends looked in his direction.

"Soccer?" Sirius questioned and Peter cocked his head to one side.

"Oh, you haven't heard of it?" Remus asked, suddenly realizing that none of them had a muggle for a parent, the three of them had wizards for parents.

"Oh! It's pretty much like Quidich but without brooms, you basically just need to kick a ball into another team's goal." Remus's friends seemed amazed, but Remus had to admit, there was nothing really enticing about soccer at all.

"We should play it some time," Peter squeaked.

"Yeah we should!" Sirius said and James nodded his agreement.

"Anyways, back to the game," James started, "The beaters, there's two of them by the way, well they protect the team from bludgers which are balls that randomly fly around trying to knock opponents off their brooms." Remus shuddered at the thought of being a Beater, being constantly on guard for bludgers, and if you delayed one second you or your team mate could be severely injured.

"And time for the final position, the Seeker!" Sirius said. "The seeker had to catch the golden snitch before the rival team does, and once it's caught, the game ends and the team who caught the snitch get's one hundred and fifty points!"

Remus had to admit, the game seemed much less complicated after he learned about it. So for the next hour, Remus and his friends watched the Quidditch practice, cheering on the players every time they made points.

"Had fun watching our practice?" one of the Gryfindor players shouted from the pitch and Sirius and James both nodded eagerly.

"That's the seeker!" Sirius whispered excitedly and Peter stared at him with admiration in his eyes.

"Come down here!" he called and James looked so excited that he almost fell down the stairs because he ran down so quickly.

"You guys like Quidich a lot? Right?"

"You can't imagine," James said, his eyes gleaming with excitement and Sirius nodded as well.

"It was nice having you guys to cheer us on during practice, it gave some of us a bit more motivation," the boy said, eyeing two females. "Anyways, I'm Oliver Fletcher, Seeker of Gryfindor."

He shook hands with each of the boys as they introduced themselves to the fifth year boy.

"Can you do any cool tricks on your broom?" James asked.

"Of course, I've been practicing since I could walk," Oliver boasted, though Remus could tell that he was slightly exaggerating it.

He hopped onto his broom and began zooming around the pitch a few times, occasionally stopping to do some flips or to balance on his broom.

Remus and his friends were clapping loudly, cheering every few seconds.

Finally, Oliver landed on the ground, and everyone, even his teammates were cheering.

"I wish I could do that," James exclaimed.

"Right?! I'd love to ride a broomstick like that." Sirius agreed.

"I mean, I could teach you guys to ride a little bit," Oliver suggested and Sirius and James

Suddenly I looked extremely happy. Remus realized that he had never ridden a broomstick. His father owned one but Remus wasn't allowed to ride it since it was very old and unstable.

"Sounds fun," Remus chimed in and Peter looked a bit nervous.

"I mean, I've never rode a broom before, and it seems sort of… Hard…" Peter admitted and Oliver put his hand on Peter's shoulder.

"That's ok, I'll teach you the basics," Oliver said reassuringly and Peter looked at him thankfully.

"Oliver, should we even let these first years practice with us, I mean, what if we get in trouble…" Angela, one of the Chasers said, a hint of anger in her voice.

"Why would we get in trouble, these kids just want to have some fun."

"You know how Mcgonagall once punished us for letting a second year practice with us?"

"It's different, he got injured, we'll be more careful this time."

"Ok…" Angela grumbled, "But if you get in trouble I'm not part of this!"

Oliver left, coming back with four broomsticks, he explained how they were training broomsticks so they weren't as good as the ones that the Quidditch player used.

"Ok, so first mount your brooms, and hold onto them tightly," Oliver instructed, and Remus did as he was told, the wood of the broom was smooth to the touch but not too smooth that it was hard to get a good grip on it.

Oliver made sure that the four of them were in good positions, praising them as he walked by. If only he was our Quidditch teacher, he's so nice.

"Great! All of you, good job, now you're going to slightly kick off the ground like this," Oliver explained, showing the four of them a demonstration. Doesn't look too hard I guess.

James was the first to shoot off the ground, he was yelling with excitement and happiness and he zoomed around, and even Oliver looked impressed as he sped about.

Sirius was next, it took him a bit longer to get the hang of it, but soon enough Sirius and James were racing on the brooms.

Remus kicked off from the ground, startled as he got lifted off the ground, I'm falling! He thought, terror filled him as he started leaning towards one side.

"Stop leaning back!" Oliver ordered flying next to Remus, "Go more like this," Remus watched and copied Oliver's position, noticing that he wasn't falling off any more.

"See? You're a natural!" Oliver praised and even though Remus knew he wasn't that good, he felt gratitude towards the nice fifth year boy.

Remus moved around quite slowly, a bit jealous about James' skill. Remus looked towards Peter and saw that he hadn't begun flying yet. Oliver walked over to him.

"Scared?" he said gently and Peter nodded, though he looked a bit embarrassed. "It's ok, I'll show you one step at a time."

Oliver instructed Peter, and after a bit, Peter was finally off the ground, though he did look a bit scared, Oliver gave him an encouraging look.

"Good job Peter!" Remus called, and began flying towards where Sirius and James were flying.

"Hey Remus! Check this out!" Sirius hollered, zooming through the Quidditch hoops. Remus just stared in awe. I think they could possibly make the team some day, Remus thought.

All of them flew to where Oliver and Peter were flying, and James and Sirius began showing off to them.

"Hey Oliver! Race me!" James ordered excitedly, and so the race began. They were racing from the Quidditch pitch to the whomping willow, which was quite a long way.

"Go James!" Sirius hollered, waving his arms in the air.

James was ahead of Oliver, but only by a bit, and he quickly caught up, the two of them were now head to head, and the Whomping Willow was only a couple of seconds away. Now James was in the lead, he was so close to the Whomping Willow…

"Go James!" Remus shouted, he's so close!

Suddenly, Oliver pulled ahead and sped up quickly. The two of them flew back to where Remus and the others sat.

"Wow! You were really fast!" Peter exclaimed and James looked a bit embarrassed.

"Well… I lost, so you should be giving your compliments to Oliver…" James admitted.

"No, you were really good!" Oliver began, "Honestly! For a second I thought you were going to beat me!" James looked at him with a surprised expression. "You were really good! Especially for a first year! I think you have the makings of a future Quidich champion, if you practice hard enough, you may even make the team one day!"

James looked surprised, happy, and grateful all at the same time. "Do you think I could make the team!" Sirius piped in, clearly a bit jealous of the attention James was getting.

"Sure, you were really good too." Oliver replied and Sirius seemed satisfied. "You two were good too," Oliver added, looking at Remus and Peter. The complement made Remus feel special, he had almost never received compliments…

"Come on, let's go again!" James exclaimed, quickly mounting the broom. Sirius hopped on his, speeding around with James.

"Oliver!" A loud firm voice sounded, and everyone looked in the direction of the loud voice.

Everyone froze when they realized who it was, Professor Mgnonagal, one of the most feared teachers in Hogwarts.

"Professor," Oliver greeted, with a polite dip of his head. But Remus noticed that he was looking pretty nervous.

"Explain." She demanded, not even acknowledging Oliver's greeting.

"They just wanted to learn… But we were careful! No one got hurt!" Oliver prompted, ordering Sirius and James to come down.

"Remember what happened to Rose Brown?" Mcgonagall reminded sternly.

"Yes, I know, but we were careful, and these two are pros." Oliver said, and James and Sirius stepped forward, a look of pride on their faces.

"But I expected you to know better! They'll learn when they're ready," Mcgonagall said firmly. "Fifteen points from Gryffindor because you guys agreed to this," Mcgonagall said, glaring at Remus and his friends, which made Peter look down guiltily. "And you Oliver… It's off to detention." she began walking away, and Angela ran up to them.

"I told you so!" Angela glowered angrily, and Oliver seemed to feel guilty.

"It's ok, I'll serve my detention and everything will be fine," he reassured, which seemed to do nothing to soothe Angela. "Hey, after my detention shall we stop by Hogsmade for a Butterbeer or two, you know… Just you and me?"

Angela's gaze seemed to soften for a moment, and she began looking towards the other people on the Quidditch team.

"I mean… Maybe, it depends, but thanks for the offer…" Angela responded, clearly a little bit uncomfortable.

Remus realized that there was much more to their relationship than met the eye…