Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and events from J.K. Rowling's wonderful Harry Potter books. I am writing this for my own enjoyment and hopefully for the enjoyment of readers. Anything you recognize belongs to JKR. The rest belongs to me.
Chapter 15: Quidditch Fever
The next day the clown charm started to fade. Remus returned to school and joined the rest of the Marauders at the breakfast table with a questioning look. His friends' noses were no longer round but they were still red and the curl in their hair was leaving. "What happened to you?" Remus asked.
Sirius answered his question by throwing a scowl toward Marlene who was down the table chatting with her friends. Peter just laughed nervously.
"Oh, I see. She finally got you back," chuckled Remus.
"Yeah, well you would have gotten to join us if your mum hadn't been sick," James pointed out.
"How is she doing, Remus?" asked Peter.
"Oh, much better. Thanks," he replied, no longer laughing.
"What's wrong with her, anyway? You never said," James asked.
Remus glanced at James and the others very quickly, then back at his plate. "Oh-um, well, you see-Hey!" he exclaimed looking toward the Slytherin table. "I see our prank worked."
Sirius barked out a laugh as he saw that there was still some of the scarlet and gold color remaining from the previous day. "Yeah, all thanks to you, mate! Where did you find that spell, again?"
Remus rolled his eyes. "In the library. It's the big room with all the books. You really should check it out one of these days."
It was Sirius' turn to roll his eyes. "Well, Mr. Know-it-All, I have in fact been in the library. I was just there a few weeks ago."
James grinned as he added, "Yeah, that was when we were dusting the bookshelves for one of our detentions."
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The next few weeks were full of excitement. The Quidditch season was to begin with the first match between Gryffindor and Slytherin. They were well known for being rivals. There was extra animosity between the two houses as the match drew closer. Arthur Weasley was sent to the hospital wing after a Slytherin boy sent a conjunctivitis curse his way. The Gryffindors were worried their Seeker would not be able to see well for the game however Madame Pomfrey worked her magic and Arthur was released from the wing the night before the game.
Arthur's recovery had not stopped the Marauders from getting revenge. As dinner was finishing the boys stood outside the Great Hall. When Avery, the Slytherin captain, exited Sirius and James shouted, "Wingardium Leviosa!" The charm hit the Slytherin captain's feet causing them to lift up and over his head as he fell onto the floor.
"Potter! Sirius! I can't believe you just did that!" exclaimed Lily who had appeared at the doorway to the Great Hall.
Sirius turned to Lily and smiled innocently. "Why not, Evans? You're always getting on our case about studying more. Here we are, practicing our Charms homework and now you're yelling at us again!"
Avery's friends had appeared at their captain's side to help him. Some had their wands directed at the Marauders. Before any hexes could be uttered, Professor McGonagall arrived yelling at the Slytherins to get Avery to the hospital wing. She gave the Marauders a lecture on team spirit and docked 20 points from Gryffindor.
As she walked away, Sirius muttered, "Yeah, team spirit my arse! I know how she feels about the Slytherin team. If she could have gotten away with it, she would have done the same thing."
James was looking at Lily. "Alright there, Evans?" he asked. She had a strange look on her face. James wasn't sure if she was mad at them or trying not to laugh at what happened.
She finally looked at James. "Why did you do that to him?"
James shrugged. "Just some good old-fashioned revenge for what they pulled on Arthur."
"Oh…" she muttered, seeming unconvinced by his excuse. "Okay. Well, Remus, we should get going. We're supposed to meet Emm to write our essay for Potions."
She turned to walk toward the library when James call after her, "Hey, Evans! I'll see you at the game tomorrow, right?"
Lily finally managed a smile, "Yeah, sure. I'll see you there."
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Remus, Emm, and Lily were only able to complete half of their research on the properties of moonstone when they decided to give up for the night. Remus was anxious for another trip to the kitchens. He had been craving butterbeer all day. He had told Lily and Emm that he was tired and wanted to sleep since he would be getting up early to get a good seat at the game. Remus and Lily had just said goodnight to Emm, who was walking toward the Ravenclaw common room, when they heard a voice behind them.
"Lils! Darling! I have not seen you in weeks!" The voice belonged to Gilderoy. He had on one of his large bright smiles as he sauntered up to them.
'Lils??' Lily thought as she watched him approach wearing a periwinkle blue robe. 'Lils? Well, two can play at that game,' she thought. "Hey, GIL!" She glanced at Remus. "Remus, this is Gilderoy Lockhart. Gil, this is Remus."
Remus was thoroughly confused as Gilderoy gave him a big (almost fake in appearance) smile and shook his hand. 'What does Lily see in this guy?' he thought.
"I'm so glad I caught you, Lils," he said. "Seeing as how you're one of my favorite people in the world, I wanted to give you a very special gift." He reached inside his pocket and pulled out a stack of photographs. He picked one and handed it to Lily.
Lily took it and saw that it was a photograph of Gilderoy. As she looked at it the image of Lockhart it gave her one of his characteristic smiles and winked at her. "Gee, Gil, I don't know what to say…"
"It's one of my favorite photos. I think it brings out my eyes, don't you?" he asked.
"Yes-well, really- you shouldn't have, Gil," Lily uttered. Gilderoy took that to mean she liked it. "Well, thanks, I guess," she said. "We had better get going before we miss curfew."
Remus shook his head in wonderment and turned to walk back to the tower with Lily. After a few minutes of silence he finally spoke up. "Lily?"
"Hmmm?"
"That guy, Lockhart? Is he your boyfriend?" he asked.
Lily stopped and looked up at Remus with a strange expression on her face before she broke down into a fit of giggles. "Gil? My boyfriend?!"
Remus gave a half smile as he watched her trying to catch her breath between giggles. "Well, he seemed awfully friendly toward you and he did give you that picture. And there was that night a few weeks back when he kissed your hand outside the library."
"Well, that's how he is, I guess. He is rather impressed with himself, isn't he? No, he's not my boyfriend. That night he helped me out of a tough situation." Lily told Remus about how Snape and Malfoy had her cornered and how Gilderoy had shown up at an opportune moment. "Frankly, I think Severus and Malfoy were too amused by Gil's show to try to hex me so they just left."
Remus, while feeling stupid about his assumption about Lily and Lockhart, was quite upset to hear about what Snape and Malfoy had almost done to her. He would definitely have to tell James about this. They arrived in the common room and Lily told Remus goodnight.
"Goodnight, LILS!" he called after her as she turned around and gave him an annoyed yet amused look. He headed up to his dorm room where he found Sirius and James getting out the invisibility cloak for another trip to the kitchen.
"It's about time you got here, Remus! We were about to leave without you," Sirius said. "Peter decided to finish the goodies from the other night and made himself sick. He's visiting Madame Pomfrey and won't be joining us tonight." Sirius glanced at Remus who was staring out the window. "Hello? Earth to Remus? You listening?"
"Ya, the kitchens, Peter sick…" replied Remus.
"What's going on, Remus?" James asked.
Remus filled them in on Lily's recounting of her meeting with Snape and Malfoy outside the library. James' face turned to stone while Sirius bellowed, "Malfoy! That stupid arse! And Snape! That sniveling little git! I hated him from the moment I saw his greasy head!"
Remus was watching James, who was clenching and unclenching his fists. All of a sudden a glass on his night table shattered. Remus looked to the shards and then back at his friend. "James?"
"Tried to hex Evans, did they?" James' voice was eerily calm. "They will be sorry for ever going near her."
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The next morning was a Saturday however most of the students were up early to get to breakfast and find a good spot in the stands. Lily, Alice, and Marlene were dressing in their Gryffindor attire, eager to cheer for their team. They met the Marauders in the common room and headed down to breakfast. When they reached the doorway to the Great Hall they ran into Professor Riddle, who was leaving. He was wearing a silver and green tie. Tacked to the tie was a silver serpent with an emerald eye.
"Hi, Professor!" exclaimed Alice.
"Hello! I see you are all dressed for the game. It should be quite a match," the professor replied.
Sirius smiled and punched the air. "Yeah, Gryffindor is gonna kick Slytherin's-"
"Uh - hey, Sirius? Maybe we should go get some breakfast and get to the game," Remus interrupted.
The group started to file into the Great Hall as Professor Riddle called Lily back. "Miss Evans, I have read the first draft of your assignment however there are a few changes we need to go over," Riddle said. Lily noticed the emerald in his tie tack sparkled as it caught the light.
Lily told the others to go ahead and she'd catch up with them. She followed Riddle to his office where he sat down at his desk. Lily looked up and saw bookshelves behind him filled with texts pertaining to the dark arts. There were sections devoted to death, fear, dark creatures, and curses.
"Wow! I never noticed how many Dark Arts texts you have!" Lily exclaimed.
Professor Riddle smiled. "It IS what I teach," he replied. "You need to know the Dark Arts in order to know how to defend yourself."
"Yeah, I just figured you would have more texts on other subjects like charms or transfiguration," she said.
"I have them, there is just not enough room in this office," he replied. "Now, about that little assignment…," he said as he gazed into her eyes.
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The Marauders, Alice, and Marlene strolled into the Great Hall after Lily left with Professor Riddle. As they sat down James noticed the headmaster at the staff table, staring thoughtfully at the doorway where they had just entered.
A half hour later, Alice and Marlene were wondering aloud if they'd have to go find Lily when she walked into the hall and sat down at the table. She started to pile food onto her plate. Her friends stared at her for a moment before Marlene said, "Well, come on, Lily! Hurry it up, already! We already finished and we want to find a good seat for the game."
Lily did not speed up her pace as she said, "I'm not going."
James turned his head sharply toward her. "What do you mean you're not going?"
"I'm not going to the game," she replied as she started to eat her breakfast bite by bite.
The Marauders gazed at her, dumbfounded. "Evans, this is one of the biggest matches of the year! What in Merlin's name is keeping you from going?" Sirius asked.
"Yeah, and you have never seen a real Quidditch match yet, other than us just goofing around. You need to come!" cried Alice.
Lily's eyes did not leave her plate. "I'm not going. I have to study," she said.
"STUDY?!" yelled Sirius. "Evans, you can't be serious!"
"I have to study," she repeated.
Lily finished her breakfast and walked out of the Great Hall in the direction of the library. For a moment no one was able to speak.
"What on Earth is going on with her? I thought she was excited about the match," asked James.
"I'm not sure. Maybe she couldn't handle not having finished the Potions assignment. She usually hates to quit in the middle of an assignment, and I convinced her to stop last night," answered Remus.
After another minute or so Peter stood up. "Come on, guys! I want to get a good seat. If Evans wants to join us later we can save her a seat."
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The Gryffindor - Slytherin match was very close and very brutal. The Slytherin beaters were ruthless and managed to knock out a few Gryffindor chasers. That left Slytherin with more opportunities to have possession of the Quaffle. Slytherin, who had been behind until then, quickly caught up and were soon gaining a large lead on the Gryffindor team. After three hours, Arthur Weasley caught the Snitch, but not before Slytherin made one last goal. That left the game at 290-280, Slytherin winning the match. Remus wasn't sure, but he thought he saw a tear making its way down McGonagall's cheek as she hurried back to the castle.
The Gryffindors glumly made their way back to the common room. The Marauders walked up the stairs to their dorm room, depressed because they had worked extra hard all week pillaging the kitchens for goodies to bring to a Gryffindor victory party. The boys opened the door to their room only to be shocked at what they saw.
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Next chapter: Well, I could tell ya, but that would spoil the cliffhanger…