Blood Status || Marauders Era

Chapter 82|| Rivalry

Along with a Quidditch match at the end of November, it wasn't the only thing that Slytherins were annoyed about, considering we had a strong line-up and we had pranked them on November first, Slytherin hated our guts. They hated us even worse than usual. So much so that McGonagall had pulled a group from each side and talked to us together, trying to fix our problems.

The day in November started out a normal one, a few days before the first match of the season, a day of lessons and chatter, arguments and glares. Then, when it came to the bell at the end of the last lesson, myself and a few other Gryffindors were informed by Flitwick that we were to go to McGonagall's office straight away. I assumed it was for the prank we pulled and I wondered how she had found out it was us, even anonymously.

As soon as we walked into the office, there was a group of Slytherins all glaring at us, one of them including my little sister, looking to her left I saw Sirius' little brother looking relatively uninterested in the whole situation. Once we were seated, McGonagall broke the icy atmosphere with her introductory sentence, "You're all here to help me understand why there has been a sudden surge of fights in the corridors, horrible words and general bad behaviour."

As expected there was an eruption of noise, each person wanting to tell their own story whether it was the truth, stretched or an entire lie. McGonagall counted on the ones she trusted the most and turned to them to answer, first to tell his turn of events was Remus Lupin, "Well, Professor, our houses haven't liked each other for a while, that much is commonly known. The hatred between us was started from when we even started. For obvious reasons."

As soon as he had said this, the Slytherins hissed and started to talk loudly, blaming their actions on us and the rest of our house. Remus glared each one down until they were quiet, "I wasn't finished, thank you. However if you are talking about the recent dislike, it simply started with a small prank, they concluded that we had done it and then as there is a recent match arising, feelings of competitiveness towards one another is bound to be stronger."

McGonagall liked the explanation, I could tell because once he was finished, her face showed no expression but she nodded her head ever so slightly it was almost impossible to notice. She then leant on one more person, preferably from the opposite side to tell their side of the story and again, she picked probably the most mature and the calmest of the bunch, Regulus Black.

With a glance at his older brother and then at myself, he concluded, "I agree with the Quidditch statement and the house prejudice from Lupin. But in addition, I find that it may be because of who is in the houses, and that our personalities differ very much. For example, myself and my brother, or Belle and her older sister. There is bound to be tension if there is family tension. Or even old friendship tension."

With each statement I knew that he was referring to the whole Pureblood society stuff and how Sirius and I were bound to not like their side and that most of the Slytherin Purebloods were prone to disliking traitors. Traitors being me and the grey eyed boy. "Very well, but may I ask once the match is over tomorrow, you all be at least civil, the Professors and I cannot stand another day of separating fights and handing out punishments."

Once out of the office and into separate hallways, I almost certainly knew what conversations were bound to arise, ones of mistrust and amazement at how McGonagall had seen past the pretences, how she had seen the ever present discrimination. That being said, there was a definite increase in the amount of choice words that Sirius Black and James Potter said in a space of five minutes.

"I can't actually believe that Minnie knew we were all dicks to each other, how did she know to pick the specific group of people that absolutely hated each other?" James questioned aloud. Peter and I's answers were very different to each others, "Minnie knows all." "Well it's bloody obvious." Sirius preferred to agree with the first, Remus the latter, and from then on, the conversation drifted to the idea of Minerva being an occlumens.

The next day, it was the Slytherin vs Gryffindor match, the very first of the season and James had given us an exceptional pep talk in the changing rooms. "Right everyone, if you have any prejudice for the Slytherins, do not put it aside. I repeat, do not, in fact, gather it all up and aim it in their faces and try and win. I don't know if I could deal with losing against them, not now." The most of us knew what he was talking about but Mason stuck his nose in and asked, "Why now?"

James, greatly ignoring him and Sirius, mildly shoving past him, the two stood at the front as we walked out onto the pitch. As usual, the teams were either booed or cheered into the middle and, as usual, Madam Hooch told us to play fair and then she blew the whistle, watching us all shoot off from the ground and into the air. On the other hand, something I did not expect was the commentator's voice.

"Right then, we're starting and on the Slytherin team are wankers, Sirius' brother, another wanker and bloody hell it's Malfoy's replacement." Remus Lupin was then either shot with laughs or insults and jeers from the crowd below, he was also being reprimanded by the Head of Gryffindor, loudly on the megaphone. I tried to ignore it as I flew with the Quaffle, passing to James.

"On the Gryffindor team we have the lovely Sirius Black, quite popular nowadays, don't know why. Same thing with Captain James but maybe that's because he's Captain, it sounds quite odd when you say it in a different context, don't you think? Anyway, we have the bold and fierce Marlene, scared of her. Athena Pattinson, gorgeous and funny, but don't go for her lads, she's being hoarded by a secret admirer. Then there's Carter's little brother, Seeker Gabi, and a dick."

Once again, Remus was reprimanded and as he hurriedly apologised, he then commentated properly on the match, telling you who was passing, who scored or which team had the most points. The boy occasionally added in a fun element, a joke or a jibe at someone, he had toned it down greatly since the telling off from McGonagall. Now the commentary was normal, I could concentrate again, and in fact, I scored.

The match lasted thirty minutes before coming to a close with Gabi catching the snitch right from behind Slytherin Seeker Regulus' back. Sirius was greatly impressed with the younger girl and he congratulated her, but, he surprised me greatly when he did not flirt with her. "That's new," I told him. As he looked at me confused, I told him, "Usually you would've kissed her by now."

"Not really my type, or my style any more," Sirius said nonchalantly then, he hurried to catch up with James and chat excitedly about his first match. I stood, silently stunned at his words, I wondered if that meant he was finally ready to quit being an idiot and stick to one person at a time. There was no time to think however because I knew that there would be a party in the common room that very evening.

"Well done on your commentary Moony," I said to him, we were stood together by the back of the common room, near the window, a drink of Butterbeer each in our hands. He grinned proudly, telling me the ways of how his mind works, an apparently, it doesn't, he just says whatever comes to his mind at the time. I was impressed, but also knew that his job was fun and he was having fun whilst doing it.

"Hey Thea, you coming to dance with me?" I heard someone ask. It was usually what one of the Prewett twins would ask, so I was surprised when I saw Sirius stood in front of me, holding out a hand and looking expectant. I looked to Remus and with a small nod of his head, which didn't seem too confident, I took hold of Sirius' outstretched hand and he pulled me to the middle of the common room, made into a dance floor.

The song playing was from Elvis Presley, a commonly known Muggle singer that Mary had introduced me to. The time was eleven forty five, fifteen minutes till midnight. The drinks in our hands were no longer there. It was a miracle that for once, Sirius wasn't drunk, in fact, the most he had was a Butterbeer. That was the time when I, Athena Pattinson, had my first, proper kiss, with Sirius Black. But this time, he would remember.