Forever and a Day ~ James Potter

The Hospital Wing... Again

 Chapter Thirty-Two

Wednesday 24th March 1976 ~ 17:03 ~ waning moon

It was Five o'clock in the afternoon on Wednesday, the twenty-fourth of March, marking the hour that Rosie and Remus had finally finished their two weeks' worth of detentions.

Presently, they were sprinting through the castle, still in their school robes since they'd gone to Filch's office as soon as their final lessons had ended. They were running towards the Quidditch pitch to catch the end of the semi-finals for the House Cup, desperate to support their own best friends.

Eventually, they arrived in the courtyard, taking a small break while they heard Sirius's magically enhanced voice from the pitch, "And that's seventy, thirty to Hufflepuff! Come on, Gryffindors, you can do it!"

The two looked at each other and nodded before beginning to run again and reaching the wooden stairs to the Gryffindor section of the Quidditch stands. Rosie reached the top of the rickety steps first and looked frantically around for any of her friends. She spotted Lily, Alice, Mary and Peter all standing right at the front of the circle, leaning over it and waving their red and gold scarves.

She pushed through the crowd and eventually arrived next to Lily, taking deep breaths as she felt her cheeks grow hot. A few moments later, Remus arrived and put his arm around Rosie's shoulder, using it to lean on while he caught his breath again. The two had gotten much closer than they were before during the last couple of weeks, seeing as they were forced to be in a room together for at least an hour a day with nothing better to do than talk while getting their work done.

"All right, you two!?" Lily shouted, grinning as she looked over, clearly enjoying the thrill of the match.

"Brilliant!" Rosie replied, clutching her side as it burned from the lack of oxygen.

"Good!" Lily nodded, turning back to face the pitch. "Mar's nerves have gotten to her, I think; she keeps fumbling about with the Quaffle!"

"Yeah!" Peter chimed in from the other side of Alice. "James's lost his concentration too! Probably too focused on his birthday on Saturday!" he rolled his eyes at this but continued to wave the scarf as high as he could to show his support.

"Shit!" Remus shouted, finally getting some stamina back. "Do you think they'll be able to pull through?"

"I honestly don't think so!" Mary replied this time, looking around the pitch as she shook her head. 

"Frank's been nervous all week about playing against Gwenog Jones!" Alice chimed in, nodding in agreement with Mary.

"You can't deny she's a bloody good player, though!" Rosie argued, watching as the Hufflepuff girl swooped and soared around the pitch, knowing it like the back of her hand. "But then again, Johnson's the best Seeker we've had since first year! And probably long before that!"

"Definitely!" Mary agreed, and everyone went to look back at the game intently, cheering and screaming as the Gryffindor players flew past.

Another half an hour passed, and Hufflepuff was absolutely thrashing Gryffindor, with a score of one hundred and ninety to forty. It was clear that Sirius was very disappointed in the scoring due to his rather decorative language every time Jones even got near the Quaffle.

James had spotted his other two friends arrive by now and was determined to get the points up more while Johnson desperately searched around for the Golden Snitch. Jones had just snatched the Quaffle from Frank's arms and was speeding towards the hoops yet again. James leaned forward with his stomach almost flat on his broom as he tried to speed up to Jones and was almost certain he'd manage to catch up with her.