Marauders to the End: Year Two, Chapter Six
TITLE: A Little Flighty
FANDOM: Harry Potter
CHARACTERS: Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, James Potter, Peter Pettigrew, Andromeda Black, Professor McGonagall, OCs.
RATING: PG-13
WARNINGS: Swearing
SUMMARY: It's time for Quidditch trials and everyone's excited.
AUTHOR COMMENTARY: A lot of headcannon in this one. While it was never stated that Sirius was an athlete, I always assumed that he was, because otherwise, why would he care about James being brilliant? Also, needed to get Minerva the Quidditch player in somewhere.
Sirius drummed his fingers on the table impatiently. Weekends at Hogwarts were never particularly exciting, and for some reason this one seemed duller than most. Perhaps it was the fact that Remus was gone. It was a full moon that night. Theoretically, Remus not being around was a prime opportunity to reek havoc in the castle since there was no one around to reprimand Sirius, but causing trouble really wasn’t fun unless there was someone around to object.
Maybe it was the fact that James had been pacing the common room for the last fifteen minutes, not speaking to anyone. Sirius felt that he should have been used to James skulking about when there was nothing else to do, but for some reason, today it just made Sirius even more impatient. James always had a lot of excess energy and couldn’t sit still for more than ten minutes with nothing to do, and it tended to make people nervous. Sirius, however, simply became more annoyed with every pass James made.
Of course, Sirius’s irritation could be entirely contributed to the fact that he was currently caught in a high-stakes game of Wizard’s Chess with Peter, who had been considering his options for the last five minutes. The end of the game was inevitable- Sirius could beat Peter at chess without trying- but Peter kept right on weighing his options, and occasionally asking advice from the chess pieces, which were all perfectly aware that they were being directed by one of the world’s worst Wizard’s Chess players. Finally, after what seemed an eternity to Sirius, Peter directed his knight straight into the path of Sirius’s queen. Sirius rolled his eyes. “Queen to E-7,” he sighed. The queen moved forward, bashed the knight off his horse, and perfectly check-mated Peter’s king.
Peter shook his head. “I’ll never be good at this,” he moaned.
“Don’t worry about it,” Sirius said gently. “It’s not like you’re the only one. I mean, James isn’t that great either.”
Peter shrugged. “I guess.”
“Play again?”
“What for? You’ll beat me again.”
“Can you think of anything else to do?”
“No, but I don’t really want to play any more.”
“Fair enough,” Sirius sighed. “Hey, James, do you want me to beat you at chess six or seven times?”
“What’s the point of you beating me at chess?” James asked, meandering over. “We all know you can beat everyone except Remus.”
“Come on, James, I’m bored,” Sirius whined. “And Remus only beat me once when I wasn’t paying attention.”
“Beating me wouldn’t make today any more exciting,” James pointed out. “So unless you can find someone else to play you, you’re going to have to find another method of entertainment.”
Sirius looked around, but everyone else in the common room looked preoccupied, and he had little doubt in his mind that he could beat most of them anyways. Sirius sighed and put the chess pieces away and tried to think of something else to do.
“Hey, Sirius!” Sirius turned to see his cousin Andromeda striding toward him, clutching a long package. “I’ve been looking for you. This just came in, you’ll be needing it soon. Happy birthday.”
Sirius looked confused. “Is today my birthday?” he asked. He had never really been sure, since his mother made a point of never acknowledging it.
Anny shrugged. “I don’t know, but I’m fairly certain it’s this month, and like I said, you’re gonna need this.”
Sirius opened the package to reveal a perfect Comet 260. He looked up at his cousin. “How..?”
Anny grinned. “Uncle Alphard is usually willing to lend me money. He footed most of the bill.”
“Thanks,” Sirius said. “I need it soon?”
“Right,” Anny nodded. “Trials are Wednesday. Where’s Lupin? I need to brief him on that.”
“He’s, er, ill,” Sirius muttered. “He should be back tomorrow or Monday.”
“Good. Tell Potter when trials are.”
“Aye, aye, captain.” Sirius snapped off a salute as Anny rolled her eyes and walked away.
“Quidditch trials?” Remus repeated the next night.
“That’s right,” Sirius said. “Anny wanted to brief you on them. I expect she wants you to take notes for her.”
“Wonderful,” Remus sighed. “And I suppose you and James will be out there trying to break your necks to get on the Gryffindor team?”
“You know it, Remy,” James laughed as he sauntered into the dormitory. “And we aren’t going to break our necks. Have you ever seen us fly?”
“Yes,” Remus answered. “In lessons where you two did your best to get us all killed or kicked out.”
Wednesday’s classes passed in a state of barely contained excitement bordering on downright chaos. Quidditch trials were always exciting events, not only for those trying out for the team, but for spectators as well. Most people in Gryffindor were very interested to know who would be on the team this year since last year’s team had been so deplorable.
The moment classes were finished at three-thirty, almost all of Gryffindor house was sprinting down to the Quidditch field, either to try out for the team or to watch those who were. There was a general bustle to find seats in the stands or get a good place in line on the field, even though Anny wasn’t starting trials until four o’clock, not a minute sooner or later.
James and Sirius had dashed upstairs to get their brooms and had managed to get back down to the field in less than ten minutes. They would have managed seconds, but they had determined the day before that the window in their dormitory was not large enough for them to fly out of. They had asked Professor McGonagall why not during the next day’s Transfiguration lesson, and she had informed them that the window used to be large enough, but the last student who had flown out a window ended up breaking both the glass and her arm, so the sizes of all the windows had been reduced. Her deep frown gave James a nagging suspicion about who that student might have been, but he knew better than to ask.
The last people to arrive on the field for try outs were Remus and Anny, Anny carrying the crate of balls and her broom, Remus clutching several rolls of parchment along with his ever-handy bottles of color-coded ink and fine-point quill. As soon as Anny had set down the crate and released all the balls except for the Snitch, Remus set the parchment on the crate and Anny ordered everyone trying out for the team to give their name, year, and desired position to Remus. This took a long time, since half of the house had come to try.
“All right,” Anny called as soon as Remus had everyone’s information. “I want all Chasers over here now. Everyone else can stay put. All Chasers, right now.”
James grinned at Remus and Sirius as he dashed over to Anny and the other people trying for Chaser. Anny looked them all over. “Okay,” she muttered, thinking that this was the worst-looking bunch of potential Chasers she had ever seen. “Line up in an orderly fashion... Now, your goal is to fly from one end of the field to the other without getting hit by a Bludger and get as many goals past me as you can. Whoever’s first, step up... Ready, Lupin?”
“Ready,” Remus called.
“Go!”
The first Chaser was terrible, the second decent, the third deplorable. Remus took careful notes throughout the trial, wondering how bad it could get.
James was somewhere in the middle of the line. When his turn came, he seemed to have no trouble doing what Anny had instructed. He put eight goals past her, which was more than anyone else could have done, and he never got hit once-unlike a few other people who had to be sent up to the Hospital Wing within seconds of getting into the air.
It took nearly an hour, but at last Anny had chosen her two other Chasers-James, of course, and Lucy Jenkins from last year, who wasn’t bad, but wasn’t nearly as good as she could be. Remus made a note to fix that.
“Keepers, you next,” Anny called. A number of people lined up, all eager to replace Tyler Wilkins, whose pitiful performance the year before had cost them the barest chance of winning the cup.
Each Keeper was given the chance to block five shots by the Chasers. Very few people got more than two or three. Some got four, but by the end of the trial, which didn’t take nearly as long as the Chaser try-out, only one person had managed to block all five shots, a fifth-year called Sarah Hellen. Remus and Sirius grinned at each other on the other side of the field. It looked like this year’s games were going to be much better than last year’s.
“Seekers!” Anny called.
“Why is she leaving Beaters to last?” Sirius grumbled.
“She wants everyone else to have to prove they can dodge,” Remus explained as the Seekers lined up. “Beaters can’t hit everything, so the others have to be able to take care of themselves. If she had Beaters up there, she couldn’t really be sure.”
“Figures,” Sirius muttered. “I wish she’d told me, though. I’m sure Peter’s getting bored in the common room.”
“He’s over there watching,” Remus said vaguely as Anny started the Seeker trials. Only a few people were trying for the post, and after only ten minutes, Anny had chosen fourth-year Thomas Brad, who had caught the Snitch in less time than the other half-dozen people. Brad wasn’t brilliant, but he was very small and fast, which was important.
“And Beaters!” Anny called. Sirius glanced once more at Remus and headed over to the other side. “Here’s what I want you to do,” she ordered. “Potter, Jenkins, come here. Jenkins is going to put the Quaffle through one hoop, Potter’s going to the other. Protect Jenkins, and try to keep Potter from scoring. Potter, Jenkins, go!” James and Lucy immediately took off, and Anny ordered the first boy (everyone trying for the post was male) to go.
The Beater options were even more pathetic than the Chaser options. By the time it was Sirius’s turn, James was only slightly bruised, while Lucy had gotten hit several times when the boys trying for the post weren’t paying attention. Anny gave Remus the look that plainly said, “I hope they’re still able to fly for the game in a few weeks.”
Sirius did much better than the ten boys before him. That is to say, Lucy scored three times and James only stayed on his broom through several superb bits of dodging, and was finally knocked down by Sirius’s fourth hit. Remus knew that there were going to be quite a discussion that night in the dorms.
The only person who even came close to Sirius was a seventh-year called Michael Dupree, who knocked James out of the air after the tenth hit to protect Jenkins. Once the Beaters were chosen, Anny good-naturedly decided not to schedule practice until the next week. With the trials over, the Gryffindors all trouped back to the common room, all excitedly discussing the try-outs as though they were an actual match. Peter ran down from the stands to meet his friends, looking more thrilled than ever to be one of them.
Sirius helped James up and half-supported him back to the castle. All things considered, both of them were looking very well after their try-outs. James was a little bit dizzy, sure, but Remus knew he’d be all right by tomorrow.
“At least Dupree hit the other side,” Sirius said.
“Yeah,” James responded cheerfully. “I’m okay. You hit really hard, Sirius.”
“That’s kind of the point, isn’t it?” Peter squeaked.
“Yes,” James said. “That is the point.”
FANDOM: Harry Potter
CHARACTERS: Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, James Potter, Peter Pettigrew, Andromeda Black, Professor McGonagall, OCs.
RATING: PG-13
WARNINGS: Swearing
SUMMARY: It's time for Quidditch trials and everyone's excited.
AUTHOR COMMENTARY: A lot of headcannon in this one. While it was never stated that Sirius was an athlete, I always assumed that he was, because otherwise, why would he care about James being brilliant? Also, needed to get Minerva the Quidditch player in somewhere.
Sirius drummed his fingers on the table impatiently. Weekends at Hogwarts were never particularly exciting, and for some reason this one seemed duller than most. Perhaps it was the fact that Remus was gone. It was a full moon that night. Theoretically, Remus not being around was a prime opportunity to reek havoc in the castle since there was no one around to reprimand Sirius, but causing trouble really wasn’t fun unless there was someone around to object.
Maybe it was the fact that James had been pacing the common room for the last fifteen minutes, not speaking to anyone. Sirius felt that he should have been used to James skulking about when there was nothing else to do, but for some reason, today it just made Sirius even more impatient. James always had a lot of excess energy and couldn’t sit still for more than ten minutes with nothing to do, and it tended to make people nervous. Sirius, however, simply became more annoyed with every pass James made.
Of course, Sirius’s irritation could be entirely contributed to the fact that he was currently caught in a high-stakes game of Wizard’s Chess with Peter, who had been considering his options for the last five minutes. The end of the game was inevitable- Sirius could beat Peter at chess without trying- but Peter kept right on weighing his options, and occasionally asking advice from the chess pieces, which were all perfectly aware that they were being directed by one of the world’s worst Wizard’s Chess players. Finally, after what seemed an eternity to Sirius, Peter directed his knight straight into the path of Sirius’s queen. Sirius rolled his eyes. “Queen to E-7,” he sighed. The queen moved forward, bashed the knight off his horse, and perfectly check-mated Peter’s king.
Peter shook his head. “I’ll never be good at this,” he moaned.
“Don’t worry about it,” Sirius said gently. “It’s not like you’re the only one. I mean, James isn’t that great either.”
Peter shrugged. “I guess.”
“Play again?”
“What for? You’ll beat me again.”
“Can you think of anything else to do?”
“No, but I don’t really want to play any more.”
“Fair enough,” Sirius sighed. “Hey, James, do you want me to beat you at chess six or seven times?”
“What’s the point of you beating me at chess?” James asked, meandering over. “We all know you can beat everyone except Remus.”
“Come on, James, I’m bored,” Sirius whined. “And Remus only beat me once when I wasn’t paying attention.”
“Beating me wouldn’t make today any more exciting,” James pointed out. “So unless you can find someone else to play you, you’re going to have to find another method of entertainment.”
Sirius looked around, but everyone else in the common room looked preoccupied, and he had little doubt in his mind that he could beat most of them anyways. Sirius sighed and put the chess pieces away and tried to think of something else to do.
“Hey, Sirius!” Sirius turned to see his cousin Andromeda striding toward him, clutching a long package. “I’ve been looking for you. This just came in, you’ll be needing it soon. Happy birthday.”
Sirius looked confused. “Is today my birthday?” he asked. He had never really been sure, since his mother made a point of never acknowledging it.
Anny shrugged. “I don’t know, but I’m fairly certain it’s this month, and like I said, you’re gonna need this.”
Sirius opened the package to reveal a perfect Comet 260. He looked up at his cousin. “How..?”
Anny grinned. “Uncle Alphard is usually willing to lend me money. He footed most of the bill.”
“Thanks,” Sirius said. “I need it soon?”
“Right,” Anny nodded. “Trials are Wednesday. Where’s Lupin? I need to brief him on that.”
“He’s, er, ill,” Sirius muttered. “He should be back tomorrow or Monday.”
“Good. Tell Potter when trials are.”
“Aye, aye, captain.” Sirius snapped off a salute as Anny rolled her eyes and walked away.
“Quidditch trials?” Remus repeated the next night.
“That’s right,” Sirius said. “Anny wanted to brief you on them. I expect she wants you to take notes for her.”
“Wonderful,” Remus sighed. “And I suppose you and James will be out there trying to break your necks to get on the Gryffindor team?”
“You know it, Remy,” James laughed as he sauntered into the dormitory. “And we aren’t going to break our necks. Have you ever seen us fly?”
“Yes,” Remus answered. “In lessons where you two did your best to get us all killed or kicked out.”
Wednesday’s classes passed in a state of barely contained excitement bordering on downright chaos. Quidditch trials were always exciting events, not only for those trying out for the team, but for spectators as well. Most people in Gryffindor were very interested to know who would be on the team this year since last year’s team had been so deplorable.
The moment classes were finished at three-thirty, almost all of Gryffindor house was sprinting down to the Quidditch field, either to try out for the team or to watch those who were. There was a general bustle to find seats in the stands or get a good place in line on the field, even though Anny wasn’t starting trials until four o’clock, not a minute sooner or later.
James and Sirius had dashed upstairs to get their brooms and had managed to get back down to the field in less than ten minutes. They would have managed seconds, but they had determined the day before that the window in their dormitory was not large enough for them to fly out of. They had asked Professor McGonagall why not during the next day’s Transfiguration lesson, and she had informed them that the window used to be large enough, but the last student who had flown out a window ended up breaking both the glass and her arm, so the sizes of all the windows had been reduced. Her deep frown gave James a nagging suspicion about who that student might have been, but he knew better than to ask.
The last people to arrive on the field for try outs were Remus and Anny, Anny carrying the crate of balls and her broom, Remus clutching several rolls of parchment along with his ever-handy bottles of color-coded ink and fine-point quill. As soon as Anny had set down the crate and released all the balls except for the Snitch, Remus set the parchment on the crate and Anny ordered everyone trying out for the team to give their name, year, and desired position to Remus. This took a long time, since half of the house had come to try.
“All right,” Anny called as soon as Remus had everyone’s information. “I want all Chasers over here now. Everyone else can stay put. All Chasers, right now.”
James grinned at Remus and Sirius as he dashed over to Anny and the other people trying for Chaser. Anny looked them all over. “Okay,” she muttered, thinking that this was the worst-looking bunch of potential Chasers she had ever seen. “Line up in an orderly fashion... Now, your goal is to fly from one end of the field to the other without getting hit by a Bludger and get as many goals past me as you can. Whoever’s first, step up... Ready, Lupin?”
“Ready,” Remus called.
“Go!”
The first Chaser was terrible, the second decent, the third deplorable. Remus took careful notes throughout the trial, wondering how bad it could get.
James was somewhere in the middle of the line. When his turn came, he seemed to have no trouble doing what Anny had instructed. He put eight goals past her, which was more than anyone else could have done, and he never got hit once-unlike a few other people who had to be sent up to the Hospital Wing within seconds of getting into the air.
It took nearly an hour, but at last Anny had chosen her two other Chasers-James, of course, and Lucy Jenkins from last year, who wasn’t bad, but wasn’t nearly as good as she could be. Remus made a note to fix that.
“Keepers, you next,” Anny called. A number of people lined up, all eager to replace Tyler Wilkins, whose pitiful performance the year before had cost them the barest chance of winning the cup.
Each Keeper was given the chance to block five shots by the Chasers. Very few people got more than two or three. Some got four, but by the end of the trial, which didn’t take nearly as long as the Chaser try-out, only one person had managed to block all five shots, a fifth-year called Sarah Hellen. Remus and Sirius grinned at each other on the other side of the field. It looked like this year’s games were going to be much better than last year’s.
“Seekers!” Anny called.
“Why is she leaving Beaters to last?” Sirius grumbled.
“She wants everyone else to have to prove they can dodge,” Remus explained as the Seekers lined up. “Beaters can’t hit everything, so the others have to be able to take care of themselves. If she had Beaters up there, she couldn’t really be sure.”
“Figures,” Sirius muttered. “I wish she’d told me, though. I’m sure Peter’s getting bored in the common room.”
“He’s over there watching,” Remus said vaguely as Anny started the Seeker trials. Only a few people were trying for the post, and after only ten minutes, Anny had chosen fourth-year Thomas Brad, who had caught the Snitch in less time than the other half-dozen people. Brad wasn’t brilliant, but he was very small and fast, which was important.
“And Beaters!” Anny called. Sirius glanced once more at Remus and headed over to the other side. “Here’s what I want you to do,” she ordered. “Potter, Jenkins, come here. Jenkins is going to put the Quaffle through one hoop, Potter’s going to the other. Protect Jenkins, and try to keep Potter from scoring. Potter, Jenkins, go!” James and Lucy immediately took off, and Anny ordered the first boy (everyone trying for the post was male) to go.
The Beater options were even more pathetic than the Chaser options. By the time it was Sirius’s turn, James was only slightly bruised, while Lucy had gotten hit several times when the boys trying for the post weren’t paying attention. Anny gave Remus the look that plainly said, “I hope they’re still able to fly for the game in a few weeks.”
Sirius did much better than the ten boys before him. That is to say, Lucy scored three times and James only stayed on his broom through several superb bits of dodging, and was finally knocked down by Sirius’s fourth hit. Remus knew that there were going to be quite a discussion that night in the dorms.
The only person who even came close to Sirius was a seventh-year called Michael Dupree, who knocked James out of the air after the tenth hit to protect Jenkins. Once the Beaters were chosen, Anny good-naturedly decided not to schedule practice until the next week. With the trials over, the Gryffindors all trouped back to the common room, all excitedly discussing the try-outs as though they were an actual match. Peter ran down from the stands to meet his friends, looking more thrilled than ever to be one of them.
Sirius helped James up and half-supported him back to the castle. All things considered, both of them were looking very well after their try-outs. James was a little bit dizzy, sure, but Remus knew he’d be all right by tomorrow.
“At least Dupree hit the other side,” Sirius said.
“Yeah,” James responded cheerfully. “I’m okay. You hit really hard, Sirius.”
“That’s kind of the point, isn’t it?” Peter squeaked.
“Yes,” James said. “That is the point.”