The Tournament Announced
"Bloody hell, what did you do?" Sirius laughed as he, Peter, and Remus handed over their napkins to James, who was dripping with pumpkin juice.
"Dunno," James complained, "I didn't do a thing. I was just sitting here and it... exploded!"
"You must've squeezed it," said Remus logically, "Goblets don't just shatter for no reason."
James shook his head, "I didn't have my hand anywhere near it."
Sirius grinned, "You probably did it without thinking - given where your eyes were at when it happened." He winked.
James scowled as he took his glasses off and wiped them with the napkins and Remus performed a siphoning charm that helped clear the juice off James's robes. "Given where my eyes were, what's that supposed to mean?" James snapped at Sirius as he replaced the spectacles to his nose.
Sirius nodded toward Lily as Peter said, "You were staring at Evans again."
"I wasn't," James protested. "I was looking up at that new witch at the faculty table. Who you you think she is?"
"Dunno," said Sirius. "She sure is pretty, though," he added dreamily.
"Probably the new Defense teacher," Remus filled in, tucking his wand away, the juice entirely cleared away now, "Moody's gone, remember?"
Sirius turned 'round quick, "What? Where's he gone off to then?"
"He's an auror," Remus replied, "He's got... he's got cases to investigate."
"Yeah," Peter said, "All the murders over the summer would be his cases. He's been in the paper all summer talking about the --" James was glaring at Peter meaningfully. "What? What is the matter with you?" Peter interrupted himself.
Silence fell over the little group as James tried to think of what to say to tell Peter without having to embarrass Remus. But before he could form the words, Remus said, "One of the cases is my mum's."
Peter's eyes widened as understanding dawned on him and his fat little lips mouthed the name Hope Lupin before he turned quite red and focused solely on his food.
Sirius said, "Look, mate, we're really sorry about that, by the way."
Remus was suddenly no longer hungry and pushed his plate away.
James, determined to raise the morale among them, and said, "That new witch is quite pretty, you're right, Sirius."
Remus looked down at the braided bracelet Lily Evans had given him again and started worrying it through his fingertips as the others tried to awkwardly resume a conversation. He felt quite empty in his stomach. He couldn't even agree that the new witch on staff was pretty - she had blonde hair like his mother had done, making it quite hard to look at her without being reminded of Hope. Remus had a feeling that this was going to be a very long term if he couldn't even look at his teachers without a sickness filling up his stomach. The way he felt right now made him almost long for the full moon, when he could go off and be alone and transform to a wolf. As a wolf, he could not feel the ache and weight of the loss at least. For the first time in his entire life, Remus felt that being a wolf hurt less than it did to be a boy.
Finally the feast ended, the food disappeared and Dumbledore stood up. "Now that we've all had our fill, I should like to say once again - welcome to Hogwarts. Welcome back to our returning students and welcome here for the first time to our First Years. I know you're all quite tuckered out after all of that delicious fare, so promise that I won't keep you long but I do have a couple of announcements to make before we go our separate ways..."
Remus hoped he would keep the promise - all he wanted to do now was curl up under the Gryffindor duvet and fall asleep.
"First of all, I'd like to welcome our newest member of staff, Miss. Chriselda Blythe, who will be joining us as our Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher this term." The pretty blonde haired witch at the faculty table stood up and waved daintily about as the room clapped heartily - especially the boys.
Bilius went so far as to whistle.
"Really," snapped Lily, rolling her eyes at him, "You're Head Boy!"
"I've got blood as red as my hair, Evans," Bilius said, clapping still.
The statement might've been even more impressive had Bilius said that he had blood as red as Derek's face - for Derek had turned a deep shade, rather resembling a beet, and brought his hands up to hide his face, looking away from the table.
"What's the matter with you?" Asked Sirius, seeing the funny way Derek was acting.
Derek shook his head.
When everyone had settled down and Chriselda Blythe had settled back into her seat, Dumbledore continued, "I reiterate and emphasize that the Forbidden Forest is, as it is titled,forbidden..." His eyes travelled over to the Gryffindor table and swept over the Second Year Gryffindor lot, whose eyes adverted from his gaze, "Some of you could do with the reminder." He cleared his throat, "Additionally, Master Filch has continued his ban on Filibuster's Fireworks and a wide range of other items, the list of which you can find pinned to the door of his office. Finally, I wish to announce that this year Hogwarts has been selected to play host to a couple of esteemed students from across the pond - students who have attended the American wizarding school, Ilvermorny."
Sirius looked at James with wide eyes, "Americans? Here at Hogwarts?"
"That ought to be right interesting," James laughed.
"What's so funny about the Americans then?" Asked Remus, raising his eyebrow, "My mum was an American."
"It's their accents, mate," said James with a grin. "They sound rather funny the way they speak."
Dumbledore held up his hands to silence the room again, as many of the students had begun talking excitedly. "The students from Ilvermorny will be visiting later this year and will include the stars of the school's Quidditch teams, selected specifically to form one school team. During the Quidditch season here at Hogwarts, we, too, shall be selecting an all star team to compete against the Ilvermorny team in a sort of tournament."
"There you are, James," said Peter.
James was staring up at Dumbledore eagerly. He could feel the competitiveness oozing through him and he knew he had to make not only the Gryffindor team but the Hogwarts team, whatever it took. He gripped the edge of the table, grinning at the thought of it as Sirius slapped him on the back.
Dumbledore wrapped up the announcements and with a wave of his hand set them off to bed. Bilius jumped up and hurried to direct the prefects on their way to guiding the students along. He waved and pointed over the heads of the crowd to direct everyone, along with the Head Girl, Hufflepuff whose name the boys didn't know. James talked excitedly about the match against Ilvermorny as they walked up the rotating stairs toward the dorms high up in the towers, following along behind the other Gryffindors.
Remus, however, didn't pay him attention, he was far too focused on the idea of finally getting to go to sleep. He was long overdue for a good sleep - it had been far too long since he'd slept well and deeply. Every night since his mum had died had felt longer than all of the nights before combined. His father had cried himself to sleep each evening, the sound of his sobs reaching Remus's ears from through the walls of the house, and nightmares had punctuated his slumber once he'd finally managed to get to fall into dreams... He was hoping that those terrible dreams would not follow him to Hogwarts and he might make an entire night of it.
They reached Gryffindor tower and Bilius showed the first years up to their dorms, followed by the Gryffindor second years and the boys ducked into their old room, which was exactly as they'd left it, save a bit tidier. James flung himself onto his bed with a grin and announced, "Blimey, I missed this pillow."
"Me, too!" Said Sirius, getting onto his bed as well.
Peter quickly opened his trunk and started rooting around until he'd found some Chocolate Frogs which he offered 'round to the others. "No thanks, mate, I'm stuffed," replied James, waving off the offer of the frogs.
Remus shook his head, too, when offered, busy putting on his pyjamas.
"So what do you think was the deal with Derek and the new Defense professor?" James asked, "Did you lot see how red he got when Dumbledore introduced her?"
Sirius sat up, "Yeah, I saw!" He said, looking at the card that had been in his Chocolate Frog from Peter. "Looked rather sick, didn't he? Think he knows that Blythe woman?"
"Maybe," James said.
Remus was already crawling into bed before they'd finished talking about the funny look on Derek's face and he was asleep by the time Sirius had suggested they go and ask Derek about it. "Well, some other time then," Sirius decided.
Some other time turned out to be next morning at breakfast in the Great Hall. Derek was shoveling oatmeal quickly into his mouth when the four Second Year boys arrived and settled in around him. Derek glanced up, "Hullo," he said, pausing only a moment in his devouring of breakfast to pay them any attention.
"What's your hurry?" Sirius asked.
"Got things to do for, uh, Quidditch," said Derek with a shrug. "I've been selected as Captain of the School team for the Ilvermorny tourney."
James beamed, suddenly quite confident he was a shoe-in for the school team. "Great!"
"S'lot of work to do," Derek replied. He pushed the bowl away and it disappeared from the table with a pop. "Gotta go," he added, getting up. He turned 'round and ran smack into Chriselda Blythe, on her way up to the faculty table. "S- sorry," he grunted and, putting his head down, rushed away.
Professor Blythe turned and stared after him, a surprised look on her face.
"Sorry m'am," said Sirius, "That was Derek Bell. He's the Gryffindor Quidditch captain. Been chosen as the Hogwarts team Captain as well, he says." He grinned. "He didn't hurt you did he, running off like that?"
Professor Blythe looked down at Sirius. She was taller than most witches, but her features were quite young. No way had she been long out of Hogwarts before accepting this post. Surely no more than a year or two. She shook her head, "No, he didn't. It's quite alright. He's been made school team captain, you say? Well good for him!" She quickly turned and hurried off without any further comment or question.
Sirius looked 'round at the others. "Oh yeah, something has gone on there."
James nodded.
Remus looked after Professor Blythe as she settled behind the faculty table. "Maybe we'd be best to stay out of it. Whatever it is, neither of them seem right jolly to see each other."
Peter agreed, "She looks rather upset, actually."
Professor Blythe did, indeed, look rather upset, eating a strawberry at the faculty table and glowering down at her plate as she did.
The boys settled 'round the table and started in on breakfast, too. "As long as whatever it is that's going on there doesn't effect the fate of the Quidditch team, I'm perfectly happy to ignore it," James announced. "So how good do you lot think the Ilvermorny team will be?"
"The Americans don't even have a pro Quidditch team, do they?" Sirius asked, "Can't be too serious about Quidditch if they haven't got a way to go pro."
"Isn't the Keeper on the Harpies an American?" James asked, "I thought I read that somewhere..."
And with that, the pair of them descended into Quidditch talk as Peter gobbled his food and Remus was simply glad he didn't have to act interested in the conversation.