Hello everyone! Happy Spring Equinox/Nowruz/Persian New Year! I hope it was sunny and warm wherever you are!
I just wanted to preface this with a huge THANK YOU as Honey and Venom has reached a milestone - 103 reviews! It also has 126 followers, 62 favorites, is a part of 2 communities, and has had 26,290 views!
Thank you, each and every one of you, for reading my story and reviewing. It literally means the world to me to get feedback and know so many people are interested. It might not seem like big numbers to some, but when I started this I didn't think anyone would read it at all.
So, THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!
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"Hey! Harry!" Harry turned around as Sirius ran up to him. "Heading to Quidditch practice?"
"Yeah," Harry raised an eyebrow as he looked at Sirius's school uniform and winter cloak. "Are you not?"
"Oh, there's no way James won't cancel practice tonight, it's been snowing all day," Sirius waved his hand as if to brush the idea away. "Didn't see a point in changing just to meet up for a ten minute pep talk and leave."
"I don't know Sirius, James been acting a little…. Tyrannical, when it comes to Quidditch practice."
"Tyrannical? Pfff," Sirius rolled his eyes as the two continued to walk towards the Entrance Hall. "He just wants us to do well."
"Sirius. He's gone from having two or three practices a week to having them every day Monday through Friday with two on Saturday. And you saw his face when McGonogall said he couldn't book the pitch that many days a week."
"Yeah, he mentioned to me something about having just strength training practices when we couldn't have the pitch."
"Seriously?" Harry groaned.
"Hey, I'm not going to complain, anything to get a good work out." Sirius raised his arms and flexed his muscles.
Harry sighed, and pulled his arm closer to his body. It still ached from the accident yesterday, and he had yet to tell James or Sirius about it, or even Remus.
'It's probably better if I don't…' Harry thought. 'Hopefully we won't have practice, I don't want to make it worse.'
When they reached the Entrance Hall, only a few other members of the team were there and only Paige Elliot was wearing her Quidditch robes like Harry. Her eyes narrowed as Sirius approached.
"How are you cocaptain when you don't even show up in uniform?"
"Calm down Elliot, practiced is cancelled."
"Did James say that?"
"Well no, not yet — but look, here he comes now."
Everyone watched as James in full uniform carrying his broom walked across the hall. He looked downright furious.
"Where the hell is everybody?"
"I think a lot of people thought practice was cancelled, you know, because of the blizzard." the keeper, Bartleton Baxby, said.
"Did I say practice was cancelled?"
"Well, no mate, but the weather's awful, and everyone could use a break. I heard the kitchens are making really good apple pie tonight —"
"If I don't say practice is cancelled, then practice is not cancelled!" James roared, throwing his broom to the ground in anger. "How the hell am I supposed to run practice if we're not allowed the pitch tonight AND if half of my team doesn't even show up? Where is their loyalty?"
"Mate, calm down —"
"Don't 'mate' me, Black, you're not even in your uniform." James glared. Sirius immediately closed his mouth and backed away a few steps.
"How is it that only Williams and Elliot knew to actually come prepared for practice? What the hell is wrong with all of you? I take time out of my evening to show up and run practice, the least you could do is be prepared!"
No one responded. Several students who had been heading into the Great Hall for an early dinner had caught sight of James's fit and were whispering across the hall. James twisted around to see what his team was looking at and immediately stormed up to the second years.
"Oi, you lot, what the hell do you think you're looking at? Don't you have somewhere to be? Get the fuck out of here!"
The students' eyes widened and they walked faster away from James and into the Great Hall. The team watched in disbelief as James briskly walked back to the group, swiped his broom off the ground, and then shoved his way through them and towards the door.
"We're doing laps." He growled as he walked past. Sirius and Harry glanced at each other before following him outside with the rest of the team.
The snow certainly had piled up through out the day, and none of it had been cleared recently. The wind whipped around them, picking up snow and flinging it into their faces. The snow banks went up past their knees and Harry shivered without his extra layers.
"Line up!" James barked, mounting his broom and taking out his whistle.
"How are we supposed to do laps in this?" Paige said disgruntled.
"You line up, and then you run, Elliot. Are those instructions too complex for you?" James hissed viciously.
"Just because you're captain doesn't mean I have to put up with your horrible attitude, Potter." She retorted. "I'm not running in this."
"Fine then, you're off the team." James said flatly. "C'mon, Harry, Sirius, line up."
Paige glared and immediately turned on her heel and stomped back up the stone steps and into the warm castle. Harry hesitated before following James's orders. James kicked off from the ground and was almost immediately swept away from the group due to a huge gust of wind. When he had regained his balance, he raised his whistle and blew loudly.
The Gryffindors began to run, or at least tried to. The snow had heaped up so high that is was literally impossible for Harry to lift his leg out high enough. Instead he found himself just dragging his feet through the snow bank. As soon as Matthias ran into the snow bank, his foot got stuck and he fell face first into the cold ice. Bartleton tried to run over to help him, but he too tripped and fell. Harry twisted around but could barely see the rest of the group in the dark with the snow flying through the air.
"What are you all doing? This is pathetic!" James shouted, blowing his whistle again.
"James, the weather's clearly not going to let us practice," Sirius said, making his way back out of the snowbank and walking towards Matthias who had lost his boot in the snow.
"It's perfectly fine, if you tried you'd be fine!" James touched back down, glaring at his team.
"That's easy for you to say," Harry said. He could feel his blood boiling. "You weren't even running, you were just sitting on your broom watching us. I'd like to see you try, you wouldn't make it any farther than the rest of us."
"Oh yeah, Williams?" James slowly walked up to Harry, putting his face in his. "You think you'd make a better captain than me, huh? You think I'm the one who's pathetic, you think I couldn't run laps in this? I'll fucking prove you wrong, mate."
James shoved his broom into Harry, almost knocking him over, and then proceeded to throw off his winter cloak and began quickly trudging through the snow as fast as he could without falling over.
The rest of the team stared for a minute before Sirius took off after him, scrambling through the heavy banks of snow. Harry tossed James's broom into a snowbank and then headed inside.
Lily and Remus looked up in surprise as Harry sat down heavily next to them.
"You look cold," Lily said. "And, er, wet."
"Yeah well, James thought it would be a great idea to run laps through the snow." Harry said hotly, shoveling food onto his plate.
"Where is he now?" Remus asked.
"Running laps through the snow."
Lily sighed heavily.
"I'll go get him."
"I wouldn't bother," Harry said, pouring some hot spiced pumpkin juice. "He'll probably just yell at you like he did to the rest of the team. Sirius is with him anyways. Can we talk about something else?"
Harry could still felt his skin burning from the encounter. He couldn't believe James would be so ridiculous, though deep below his anger he knew why he was acting out. But right now, Harry didn't even think of James as his father, he saw him as a teenager going way out of line.
"Well, we could talk about you know… what you were going to tell me after dinner?" Lily said gently.
"Can't talk about it here," Harry said sharply. Remus and Lily shared a look.
The rest of dinner was silent as the two Gryffindors waited for Harry to finish eating. While they waited, several members of the Gryffindor Quidditch team — also drenched in icy water and shivering — wandered into the Great Hall, but James and Sirius were nowhere to be seen.
"Should we wait for them? If it's something important, maybe you should let them know too —" Lily began.
"No," Harry said hotly before swallowing the rest of his pumpkin juice and then standing up. "C'mon, we need to go somewhere private."
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With a heavy thud, the group landed on solid ground. Hermione, Ron, and Ginny all managed to lose their footing and wound up sprawled on the grass. Mrs. Weasley quickly helped all of them up and been guiding them into Hogwarts.
"We got the castle back?" Ron said, his face lighting up. Mrs. Weasley looked at his bright eyes shining from underneath the dirt and bruises on his face. She pulled him towards her once more.
"Yes, it's the only safe place left, the Order has been using it and it's also doubling as a shelter for some wizard families, though many have just gone into hiding privately."
When they reached the heavy oak doors, Moody took out his wand and did many intricate wand motions before striking the door and muttering something under his breath. The door slowly creaked open, and a welcoming light and warmth spilled onto the group.
"Come now, let's go to the hospital wing, you need to all see Madam Pomfrey and get something to eat as well, I can't believe we found you I was so worried!" Mrs. Weasley gushed as they walked through.
"Remus," she looked over her shoulder. "Could you please go tell Arthur we found them and we're in the hospital wing?"
"Of course, Molly." Remus said with a nod before heading towards Dumbledore's office.
"Come on, let's go, you look so pale, dear." Mrs. Weasley conjured blankets and wrapped them around the three Gryffindor's shoulders before leading them up the stairs to the hospital wing.
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"Arthur!" Remus called as he climbed the spiral steps that led to Dumbledore's door. However, instead of Mr. Wesley, a man with greasy black hair answered.
"Severus?" Remus said stopping his tracks. "Then… Sirius? Dumbledore?" Snape nodded curtly before opening the door wider. Remus rushed in to find Sirius, Arthur, and Albus all sitting together.
"God, Sirius," Remus said rushing to him and throwing his arms around him. "Where have you been?"
"Looking for Harry," Sirius responded, holding his friend close to him. "But Remus, we have good news, we think we know where he is!"
"Really?" Remus said springing away from him, his eyes wide. "Where?"
Remus shook his head, turning away from Sirius.
"Wait, before I forget, Arthur, we found them. We found Ron and Ginny and Hermione, they're all in the hospital wing."
Without a word, Arthur bolted out of the room. Snape took his seat, accepting a cup of tea from Dumbledore as he sat down.
"Now, tell me, Sirius, tell me," Remus said, excitement and emotion pouring through him making his knees shake as he sat down. "Where is he, where?"
"It's really not a matter of where," Dumbledore said, his eyes twinkling. "But when."
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Review replies!
LilyEvans2510: I know, I'm delaying it another chapter, but he's certainly going to tell her something…. :O
JelloGirl323: Thanks! I'm glad you loved it. :)
Special thanks to DracoProngsluvr, Blue Luver5000, Guest, and omg!
PLEASE REVIEW GUYS :)