Chapter Twelve: Ravenclaw Quidditch
Sirius waited with his cousins in terrified silence until his mother had marched right up to them and stopped, hands on her hips, and a furious expression on her face. For a moment no one said anything, which caused Sirius and the Weasleys even more discomfort.
“Mum, I can explain…” Sirius said finally, realizing that since it was his mum, he would have to be the spokesman. Truthfully, he had no idea how he was going to explain; the truth seemed like a good idea on one hand, but on the other, he knew how furious his mother would be at their recklessness.
“I think I have an idea of what’s going on here,” Ginny said quietly, though with discernable anger. Jack and Chris both took unintentional steps back, and Lee was rubbing his arms as though he was cold. Brian just stood looking down at his feet. “I went to the Gryffindor common room and summoned the Map, thinking to see what was happening in Hogwarts while you were all sleeping. And then, on closer inspection of the map, the only thing I could find that was out of place was the four of you not being on the school grounds. And then, just as I was about to Floo your father and let him know that his son and nephews were missing, the four of you appear on the edge of the Map, obviously coming from the Forbidden Forest. So tell me if I’m wrong. The four of you, probably acting on information from the last attack that you didn’t tell anyone else about, decided that something was going on out in the Forest, and instead of calling adults who are trained to deal with this kind of thing, you four decided you could all handle it by yourselves.”
Sirius sat for a moment, trying to figure out a way to make what she was describing sound better. He was glad she hadn’t called his dad, since he was in enough trouble as it was. Still, he knew his dad would hear about it; Ginny and Harry didn’t keep anything from each other.
“What did you find out there?” Ginny asked, her voice softening slightly as she examined her son and nephews. They had obviously been badly frightened by something besides her.
Sirius began telling exactly what had happened, since he knew it was useless to do anything else, and tried to ignore his mum’s mouth tightening as he told how close they had come to getting killed.
“Well, I think I can tell a few people about what you saw without getting you into more trouble,” Ginny said calmly once he was done. “Harry and Ron, and Ron will tell Hermione, maybe some others. Don’t think you’re getting away with this without getting in trouble, though. I see that some restrictions need to be put in place.”
Ginny flicked her wand and the Invisibility Cloak flew out of Lee’s hand and into Ginny’s. “You obviously aren’t responsible enough to have this. And if I hear of any of you leaving the grounds again, you can bet I’ll turn you into the Headmaster myself.”
Sirius knew she was serious, but still felt a little disgruntled over the loss of the cloak. Wisely, though, he said nothing.
“Now, I want you to get back to your common room. If you get caught out of bed, you’re on your own, and the detention will serve you right. You can keep the Map,” she added as Sirius was walking by, handing him the old, folded piece of parchment, “and I expect you to continue to keep your eyes on things, but come to me or Ron or Hermione if you suspect something in the future.”
Sirius gratefully took the Map back and was about to follow the quadruplets, who were already on their way back to the castle, when his mum grabbed him into a tight hug.
“I love you, Sirius,” she said firmly. “Try and remember how your father and I would feel if you got yourself killed. And you and I need to talk about this young lady I keep hearing about, but that can wait until tomorrow.”
Sirius, already feeling bad about the grief he was constantly putting his parents through, felt a jolt of fear as his mum mentioned Samantha. What does she know, and what does she want to talk about?
Sirius hugged Ginny back and then proceeded toward the castle with yet another worry occupying his mind.
***
Of course, getting back to their room wasn’t difficult; as soon as they were out of sight from Ginny, Sirius transported all of them directly there.
“I think we got off a lot easier than we could have,” Lee said first, breaking the silence as each climbed into their bed.
“Yeah,” Brian agreed, “Aunt Ginny isn’t so bad, even if she is really scary when she’s angry.”
“Still, she was going too far, taking the cloak,” Jack put in grumpily.
“I’m going to sleep,” Sirius announced before turning over. “I want to make it to the Quidditch match tomorrow.”
***
Harry watched with pride as James flew circles around the Hufflepuff Seeker, constantly managing to put himself in the other’s field of vision while giving himself ample opportunity to spot the Snitch himself. The distraction tactics were James’ specialty; he would quickly infuriate his opponent and remain completely calm himself. The other Seeker would be making mistake after mistake while James would be methodically hunting for the Snitch. Harry was proud to admit that his son was a better Seeker than he had been, and though James didn’t know it, several professional teams had their eye on him, waiting patiently for him to graduate.
“Hufflepuff has put together a really strong front this year,” Ginny said beside him, pulling his attention back to the rest of the game.
She was right; Hufflepuff was actually ten points ahead, though the lead had been passed back and forth throughout the game. Frank Longbottom had been a good choice for Captain; he led his team confidently, and they obviously trusted him. Harry couldn’t remember Hufflepuff doing so well since Cedric Diggory had captained the team.
“Yeah, Ravenclaw will have to step it up a notch or two, or James will have to catch the Snitch, soon,” Harry answered with a smile. After all he had done in his life, there was almost nothing that pleased him more than a good game of Quidditch, though he’d still rather play than watch.
“I think Ravenclaw may finally be unseated as the champions this year,” Neville Longbottom said good-naturedly from behind Harry.
Harry turned back and smiled at his old friend. “There’s a slight chance at least,” he said back, “though I think it’s even odds as to whether Gryffindor or Hufflepuff takes it away. And James and the Ravenclaws will fight them to the bitter end. All in all, I think I’m going to come to the rest of the games.”
Neville laughed and nodded, and then went back to watching his son launch a Bludger that startled the Ravenclaw Chaser into dropping the Quaffle, which was quickly scooped up by a Hufflepuff Chaser.
Harry went back to watching the Seekers, keeping an eye on his own son, completely unprepared for what would happen next.
It started with a Bludger aimed at James; James saw it coming and turned to dodge it, and ran headlong into the Hufflepuff Seeker who had just started speeding off in the same direction. They collided with a gut wrenching crash, just before the Bludger hit James in the shoulder with an audible crack. Harry was on his feet now, clutching his wife in horror while she had both hands cupped over her mouth. The two Seekers fell into the stands, knocking several other students down and injuring many of them, though Harry had no idea how bad anything was.
Something made him turn his head, and his lungs stopped working. A phoenix was flying toward the stands where James had landed, and it looked like Fawkes, just as Hermione had described. Tentatively, Harry reached out with his mind, as he had done so many years ago, and connected immediately. The rush of emotions and feelings from the phoenix almost overwhelmed him, though he knew immediately it wasn’t Fawkes. The mind he felt was familiar, but he couldn’t imagine how, since Fawkes was the only phoenix he’d ever met. Brushing his surprise aside, Harry expressed to the phoenix his urgent need to be down with his son. Obviously surprised, the phoenix almost fell from the air before vanishing and reappearing at Harry’s side. Harry didn’t waste a second, grabbing the phoenix’s tail feathers with one hand and tightening his grip on his wife with the other. In a flash of flame, he was at his injured son’s side. Ginny let out a slight squeak at finding herself transported across the Pitch, but immediately regained her composure and rushed to her son’s side.
Harry joined her, and was shocked by what he found. His son was unconscious, lying in a growing pool of blood, his broken broomstick and the other Seeker, also unconscious, lying on top of him. Harry levitated the other Seeker off of his son while Ginny began searching frantically for the source of all of the blood.
Ginny looked up at Harry in horror as she rolled James over and found the gaping wound, deep, and running down a good portion of James’ back. There was no way it could have been caused by the collision in the air; Harry could feel the residues of magic around the wound, and knew his son had been cursed.
Cursing himself, Harry bent down to try and close the wound, fearing he was already too late. Then the phoenix, which had been watching from behind his shoulder, landed next to James and began shedding tears into the wound. Harry felt a thrill of hope, and then reassurance as the wound closed quickly. James was breathing normally, and despite what looked like a broken collar bone Harry knew he would be okay. Ginny was also crying in relief, holding her injured son close. The phoenix sang out in reassurance, and the hauntingly familiar sound made Harry’s heart leap. The last time he had heard the song of the phoenix, he had been given a second chance at life, a chance to live a life of hope and love instead of the life of misery he’d experienced while locked in the Mind’s Eye with Voldemort. Now a phoenix had saved his son, and he couldn’t help but feel that it was a wonderful thing to have phoenix song ringing in his ears once more. The phoenix lingered a moment more and vanished.
***
Sirius raced around the corner in the stands, let past the guards only because his parents and brother and sisters were there, and joined the rest of his family. Lillian looked up in surprise.
“Sirius! I thought you would have gotten here first, since you left so fast after the accident. Are you alright?” she asked.
Sirius had been there first, of course, but wasn’t about to talk about that. He was just out of breath since he’d had to transport to somewhere where no one would see him appear out of nowhere, and then he’d had to run.
“I… I got caught in the crowd,” he said shakily. “How’s James?”
James was actually awake, and Sirius heaved a sigh of relief on seeing him so; it hadn’t looked good when he had seen him earlier. James was pale, and only Ginny’s arm around him kept him sitting up.
“What happened?” he asked in a mumble, looking around himself in a daze.
“Relax, son,” Harry said calmly, though his eyes betrayed the anger he felt. Someone had attacked his son in the middle of a Quidditch match, with hundreds of people watching, and no one had seen what had happened. “You’re all right. We’ll have you in the hospital wing in a few moments.”
Sirius was exhausted and frustrated, a combination that gave him a very short temper, and he was seething inside. He had been watching avidly as the second Hufflepuff Beater had hit the Bludger right at James; he would have done the same thing himself. He had watched closely, and had seen nothing of the curse that hit James in the back. It could have come from any of a hundred different people in the stands, and there had been such an uproar after the collision, whoever had done it could easily have gotten away.
Muriel suddenly threw her arms around him, crying, and Sirius was reminded how difficult her first year at Hogwarts had been. He hugged her back, though neither said anything. Harry looked at him in gratitude for helping comfort his daughter.
Ron came up just then and handed Ginny a piece of James’ broken broomstick.
“I just got the Portkey authorized, it’ll take you right to the hospital wing,” he said. Ginny nodded gratefully before taking the Portkey and vanishing with James.
“Found anything?” Harry asked shortly.
Ron looked uncomfortable. “Yeah, but we need your help. We’ve found the motive, if not the suspect. James was just a distraction; we found another pair of students at the entrance back into the castle from the Quidditch pitch. They look pretty bad, but their alive. They’re in some kind of trap, though, and we can’t get them down. We think it was meant to kill them when the first people went back to the castle, but since Aurors got their first, we were able to keep anyone from triggering it. Will you see if you can get them down?”
Harry nodded, and turned to his children. “Go to your common room and wait there. Hermione will go and get you as soon as you can go see James.”
Sirius and Lillian would have protested, but they both knew it would do no good. Lillian put an arm around Muriel and all three headed back to the common room, where Sirius immediately went to his room. The Weasleys were already there, looking troubled.
“Sirius!” Lee shouted on his arrival, “Finally! Will you tell us what’s going on?”
“We got sent here after James went down, and no one has said anything since,” Jack added.
“Hurry, there’s not much time,” Sirius said quickly, explaining the situation. “Grab on.”
Sirius transformed and all four of the Weasleys grabbed his tail feathers before he transported them to the Hogwarts entrance where the Aurors and his dad were trying to save the two students. The Weasleys transformed and hid quickly, their weasel forms allowing them to avoid detection easily, and freeing Sirius from keeping them invisible in case he needed to help his dad in some way.
The situation was grim. Both students were first years, a boy and a girl, and both looked battered and bruised. The girl was crying, and the boy looked like he had been. They were floating in the air to either side of the doorway, arms pinned to their sides, and neither made a sound. If the Aurors hadn’t been more observant, someone could have triggered the lethal spell without even realizing they were there.
Sirius watched with fascination as his father moved close to the students, examining the spell that was wrapped around them and muttering to himself. After a few moments, he began deftly waving his wand and muttering spells that Sirius couldn’t hear, but Sirius could feel the power emanating from his father while the dark magic weakened. Suddenly there was a flash of light and the spell was gone. The children began to fall to the ground, but Harry threw out his hands, catching both of them in levitation spells. Aurors were waiting for each of them, and they were given Calming Draughts before being rushed to the Hospital Wing to make sure they were alright. Sirius watched in pride as Ron went up to his father and clapped him on the back.
“Good work, Harry!” he said with a relieved grin. “I knew if anyone could unravel that thing, you could. Can you tell who cast it?”
“No,” Harry answered in frustration. “It’s fairly complicated, but not so much that I can’t think of over a dozen of the Death Eaters still out there who could do it.”
“Don’t worry, Harry, we’ll get to the bottom of this,” Ron said reassuringly.
“I hope so,” Harry answered, “and before anyone else in my family is hurt.”
***
As Sirius walked into the Hospital Wing, he noticed several things that were different; first, there were several more occupied beds, but given the events earlier in the day, that wasn’t unexpected. What was unexpected, and somewhat disconcerting, was the sight of Samantha’s mother Mrs. Harris and his mum talking as if they were old friends. He also noticed that not only was James awake and talking to Muriel, apparently about the match judging by gestures and Muriel’s giggles, but Samantha was awake as well, and talking with Lillian. She looked a little pale, but she was smiling and laughing, and Sirius felt as though butterflies were clamoring for escape from within his stomach.
He would later deny that he had run over to her, but that’s what everyone else saw. He did remember throwing his arms around her and being excited that she hugged him back.
“Are you okay?” he asked, “Do you remember what happened?”
“I feel fine, though it’s weird to wake up more than a week after what I remember last. I was coming to the Hospital Wing to see you, and then I remember a shadow, and that’s it,” she answered, letting a twinkle grow in her eye. “They tell me you threw whoever was attacking me thirty feet down the hall.”
“It was more like ten,” Sirius said, embarrassed. “You were coming to see me?”
“I wanted to talk to you about…” Samantha began before looking up and going silent. Sirius was surprised to see that she was blushing before he noticed that their mothers had joined them.
“Sirius,” Mrs. Harris greeted him, smiling. “I’m sorry she woke up while you were away; I didn’t think that would happen, given the amount of time you’ve spent in here.”
Samantha looked up at him with a smile, while he tried to avoid her gaze.
“Mrs. Harris and I were just talking about the Christmas Holidays coming up, and she’s invited us all to have dinner with them a few days before Christmas. Isn’t that wonderful?”
Sirius was both mortified and excited all at once, but as he looked back at Samantha and saw her smiling at him, he couldn’t help but grin back.
“Yeah, that’s great!” he said, meaning it whole-heartedly.
A/N: I’m really, really, really, and so on, sorry that this has taken so long. Everything seemed to pile up on me all at once, between work and school and spending time with my wife and everything else. Work got really busy after my trip to Spain, which was fantastic, if busy. It was my first time in Europe, and I liked it a lot. Hopefully someday I’ll be able to make it to Great Britain too. Anyway, I promise I’ll do my best to keep things going fast from now until the end of the story. Thanks for continuing to read!
Legacy of Sacrifice by GhostCoon
Chapter Notes: I'm sorry this has taken a while to get submitted, I won't let it happen again!