The Falling Never Stops
AFTER THE GREAT Hall sleepover after Sirius Black's attack on the Fat Lady, the school could talk of almost nothing else. The theories of how he got in became wilder and wilder as Hannah Abbot from Herbology was telling anyone who'd listen that he could turn himself into a flowering shrub and even scarier versions where some say that Black died in Azkaban and with dark magic, he had the ability to turn himself into a ghost and back.
The Fat Lady had been replaced by Sir Cadogan's painting to the immense distraught of the Gryffindors for he spent half the time challenging people to duels and the other half thinking of ridiculously complicated passwords being changed twice a day.
"Can't we have anyone else?" said Seamus Finnigan to Percy angrily, "He's a complete lunatic!"
"He's the only one who would take the job," replied Percy hastily. "Frightened of what happened to the Fat Lady, the others are."
"Hmm, have you asked Mirabella what she thinks you should do?" Freya questioned with a raise of her brows.
"Yes, and she thinks-" Percy realized he had fallen into his sister's trap as Fred and George, seemingly to appear out of nowhere, joined Freya in her loud and obnoxious 'oooo-ing'. "
"She thinks what, Perce? Come on, tell us!" Fred said cheerfully as they had circled him in the annoying way only family could.
Percy ran, a smart move in Harry's opinion, as his three younger and admittedly annoying siblings chuckled.
"Mean," said Harry to all of them.
"Worth it," they chorused back.
Another change was that there was even tighter security around him, his hopes for being able to go to Hogsmeade even farther than they were before. Professor McGonagall was rather surprised when she came up to him, about to confess the news about Sirius Black wanting Harry, and finding out he already knew. After some debate on whether or not he could continue practicing for Quidditch, she finally allowed him the freedom as long as Madame Hooch watched over his sessions.
Which was good, for the first game of his quidditch season would arrive soon.
***
The weather worsened steadily as the first Quidditch match drew nearer. Undaunted, the Gryffindor team was training harder than ever before under the watchful eye of Madam Hooch and Freya, who came to watch, shouting out helpful tips and spirit-lifting cheers. Then, at their final training session before Saturday's match, Wood gave his team some unwelcoming news.
"We're not playing Slytherin!" he told them, looking rather angry. "Flint's just been to see me, we're playing Hufflepuff instead!"
"Why?" chorused the rest of the team, aghast.
"Flint's excuse is that his seeker is injured," said Wood, grinding his teeth furiously. "But it's obvious they just don't want to play in this god-awful weather!"
There had been strong winds and heavy rain all day, and as Wood spoke, they heard distant thunder.
"There's nothing wrong with Malfoy's arm!" said Harry furiously.
"Yeah, the slimy gits faking it!" Freya agreed beside him.
"There's no point in arguing since we can't prove it and-" Wood paused his pacing, looking confuzzled, before turning to Freya with a frown. "And why are you even a part of this meeting? You're not on the team?"
"Uuuuhhhmmm...." Freya paused. "Well, are you going to kick me out?"
"Errr," Wood thought that through for a moment. "Have I ever?"
"No, you haven't, so why start now?" Freya beamed as she motioned for him to continue. "Carry on, Wood. I'm just a fellow admirer of your rather long speeches."
"You Weasley's," Wood grumbled, getting chuckles from the team before continuing. "Anyway, we've been practicing our hardest regardless and we shall beat Hufflepuff this time around and then Slytherin another day! Hufflepuff's style will be quite different this year, though. They have a new captain, Cedric Diggory-"
Angelina, Alicia, and Katie suddenly giggled. Even Freya next to Harry suddenly had a bit of a smile on her face.
"He's the tall, good-looking one, isn't he?" said Angelina.
"Strong and silent," added Katie, causing them to giggle again.
"Hey! No hitting on the Hufflepuff captain!" ordered Wood wildly at the muttered agreements of the male teammates.
"Ah, how come?" Freya grinned, "It's not like we can hit on you, Wood!"
"Not like you can hit on anyone, you mean," Fred said pointedly to his little sister.
"Anyone at all, Fickle." George agreed.
"The only thing we should all be hitting for is the Quidditch cup!" shouted Wood, his eyes bulging slightly. "We will beat Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and we will DEFINITELY beat Slytherin! Take this seriously everyone, we HAVE to WIN!"
"Whoa, okay Captain, we got this," said Fred hastily, looking slightly alarmed. "We're taking Hufflepuff very seriously. Very."
***
The day before the match, the winds reached a howling point, and the rain fell harder than ever. It was so dark inside the corridors and classrooms that extra torches and lanterns were lit. The Slytherin team was looking very smug about this indeed, and none more so than Malfoy.
"Ah, if only my arm was feeling better!" he sighed loudly as the gale outside pounded the windows, "Then I would be able to play!"
"Ah, if only your Quidditch skills were better," Freya added with a sigh of her own as they walked, "Then you would be able to be worth playing!"
Harry snorted as Malfoy cast them both an unamused glare, but he had no time to retort as the bell was being rung and his gang of Slytherins was guiding him away to class.
With the match being tomorrow, Harry could barely keep anything else in mind as Wood shouted at him constantly, telling him all of what Cedric would do and wouldn't do and all that Harry had to do and couldn't do. Wood talked to Harry so long that Harry didn't realize until he was ten minutes past the bell that it was time for Defense Against the Dark Arts. Harry ran off as Wood still called directions behind him, skidding to a halt in front of the classroom before pulling the door open and dashing inside.
"Sorry I'm late, Professor Lupin, I-"
But it wasn't Lupin who looked up at him from the teacher's desk, but Professor Snape. After an evil smile and a deduction of ten points from Gryffindor, Harry was asked to sit down but continued standing, outraged as he looked at Snape. "Where's Professor Lupin?"
"He is ill."
"What's wrong with him?"
Snape's black eyes glittered. "Nothing life-threatening. Five more points from Gryffindor and if you don't sit down, I'll make it fifty."
Harry sat down, unsatisfied, as the lesson on Werewolves began, though they hadn't even been discussing Werewolves with Professor Lupin. Snape asked questions after questions, which nobody could answer except for Will, yet still, Snape ignored Will's raised hand. The Slytherins snickered much as they did with Harry when he stood up alone and finally after the fifth time Will went ignored and chose to begin to answer regardless-
"That is the second time you have spoken out of turn, Mr. Granger," said Snape cooly. "Five more points from Gryffindor for being an insufferable little know-it-all."
Will instantly went very red, putting his hand down quickly as he winced at the floor, scratching at his forehead though anyone could see that was just an excuse to hide his face. It was a mark of how much the Gryffindors hated Snape and the Slytherins alike because as the Slytherins snickered ("Finally, someone told him!" they heard Pansy comment loudly) and Snape smiled cooly, the Gryffindors glared at him despite each saying at least twice throughout the years how much of a know it all Will was.
Freya, who called Will a know-it-all at least three times a week, banged her hands on the table as she stood up and said loudly. "William's only a know-it-all because he actually does know it all most of the time! Because, as he keeps proving by answering your ridiculously hard questions on a subject that none of us have studied yet, he's the smartest in the class! In all the classes! He's obviously smarter than you because you expect your questions to be answered but you're ignoring the only student in this room that can answer them! How utterly biased must you be to do that as someone who's supposed to be a bloody teacher?"
Freya's ears were tinged red, and she was looking at Snape with a ferocity she usually saved for Malfoy. The class instantly knew that she'd gone too far, even the Slytherins were stunned into silence, as Snape advanced on Freya slowly.
The room held its breath...
"Yet another detention, Weasley," Snape said silkily, glaring at Freya as Freya glowered right back, unflinchingly. "And if I ever, ever, hear you criticize the way I teach a class again, you will be very sorry indeed." He tsked, shaking his head. "Here I thought Potter was an attention-seeker but you just continue to prove over and over again that you might be the worst in the bunch. It's amazing how you two are friends and not enemies the way you both force yourselves into the spotlight..."
Freya's eyes widened and her hand twitched as though she might actually hit Snape, but Will hastily grabbed one arm and Harry the other, each pulling her back down into her seat before she could do something drastic. Not one Gryffindor made a sound after that, though you could hear the Slytherins whispering among themselves as Snape spent the rest of the class, examining the work they had been doing with Professor Lupin, making quite a few insulting comments about the Gryffindors essays.
When the bell rang, he held them back to discuss their homework ("He's a substitute!" Seamus whispered, outraged) before he let them go, keeping Freya to discuss her detention. As Will and Harry discussed what about Lupin Snape might hate so much-Freya came storming out of the room five minutes later.
"That"- (she called Snape something that made Harry laugh and Will say 'Freya! Shh!')- "is making me scrub the bedpans in the hospital wing without magic! Without bloody magic, the evil bastard of a git!"
"To be fair, you stood up, made a ruckus, and yelled at him in front of his whole class," noted Will.
"But-"
"But to also be fair," Will said with a shrug, "you only said what everyone else wanted to say. What I wish I had the guts to say. So," Will smiled at her a bit embarrassedly. "Thanks, Freya."
"Yeah," Harry added with a grin, "It was brilliant, Frey."
Freya glanced at them both and scoffed. "You think your thanks and your compliments make up for the fact that I have to scrub bedpans in the hospital wing without magic because I defended William's know-it-all-ness? Ha, no way...Definitely doesn't..."
But the happy grin that wouldn't leave her face as they walked told them that maybe (most likely, even) that it did.
***
Snape hated the stupid girl with the fiery red hair and the quick tongue when it came to defending her friends.
He hated seeing her laugh right next to the boy who looked like the arrogant prat that took everything away from him...
He hated seeing her pass in the halls at the corner of his eye as he turned, hopeful before he saw her face and all hope went away leaving a hatred that came with the disappointment...
He hated the fact that she stood up against him and looked at him with loathing.
With indifference.
With disgust...
He hated how it was almost like having Lily Evans back, but not the girl who rested beside him in a flowery field as they talked in hushed excited whispers about how their years at Hogwarts were going to be...
No, all he saw when he saw her, was the girl years after that. The one who left him. Who left him for Potter. Who left him and seemed to come back to blame him all over again with a hate that he deserved.
She is Lily, he told himself back then when he saw that fiery red-haired Gryffindor as she walked the halls with Potter. But she is also the Lily that became something that wasn't his anymore.
And he hated her. He hated the stupid girl with the fire hair and the fire personality who stayed next to the arrogant quidditch star boy...
Because she was the reincarnation of Lily who hated him.
She was the reincarnation of the Lily Evans he had betrayed in his own words and had left him because of it, swearing she wouldn't -couldn't- come back.
And she never did.
***
The Hufflepuff vs. Gryffindor quidditch match was beginning soon.
As Harry was being yelled at by Wood with the rest of the team and Will and Freya were trying to find seats in the rain-Percy Weasley was having his own difficult time.
"Come on, Percy! We need to get good spots!"
Percy Weasley gave a sigh that said it all as he said a hasty 'excuse me' at least a thousand times to a hundred different people as he fought through the crowds of students coming to watch the game, one hand on his hood to keep his hair and face dry as one hand was thrust out, so his umbrella was over Mirabella who walked in front of him. "Mirabella! It's obviously raining so you should draw up your hood!"
"It keeps falling as we walk," she shrugged, looking around. "It's bothersome so I'm fine without it."
Percy sighed again. Mirabella yesterday had asked him if she wanted to join her in watching the game, saying she needed another's smart opinion on how the game went and the tactics involved. He couldn't deny her himself, for he had plenty of smart opinions. The only reason he was joining her at all, of course. "Your hair will get wet."
She raised her brows, putting a hand to her head. "It's been mostly dry so far."
"That's because I've been covering you!"
She blinked and looked up at his umbrella over her, as if noticing it for the first time. Then she beamed back at him and for a second, he thought she had casted a spell, for when she smiled it seemed to be a sunnier day.
"Then it's a good thing that I have you with me, now, isn't it?'
***
"William, want to share an umbrella?"
Will startled as he looked to Freya who had her brows raised as she looked slightly up at him (it still was sort of weird, finally being taller than her) and he felt himself heat up slightly as he looked away, continuing their walk through the crowd. "Why?"
"Because I don't want to hold my own umbrella. My arm would get tired, see."
Any embarrassment that Will felt vanished in an instant as he closed his eyes, pinching the bridge of his nose. "Are you an idiot?'
"Hey, I also need both hands to cheer for Gryffindor." Freya complained as she gave him a sneak peek of cheer routines, waving her hands wildly in the process." We both know I'm louder."
"The whole Gryffindor common room knows your louder."
She gave him a sour look, before sighing. "Fine, whatever. I can hold my own-"
"Stop." He held out his hand and lowered the umbrella she was about to open with a roll of his eyes. "We can share an umbrella."
"Yess," she grinned happily, pocketing her tiny umbrella in the hoodie that was slightly too big for her as it was a hand-me-down of one of the twins. "It's because of my brilliant reasoning, right?"
"It's because there's pointy edges around your umbrella and I don't trust you with sharp things," Will replied as they found their way to a nice spot. If he craned his neck he had the perfect view of Harry on the ground.
"Ah, truly the smartest Wizard of your age, William." Freya grinned as the whistle suddenly blew and she turned to the quidditch field, hitting Will's arm repeatedly in excitement. "It's starting! It's starting!"
"Freya, what did I say abo-" he paused. He had reached his hand out to lower her hitting hand down as he had done so many times before but looking down at the hand, he was about to reach for it suddenly looked...different.
Holding his annoying girl-best-friend's hand suddenly seemed like a daunting challenge.
One he wasn't ready to face.
So instead, he lowered his own hand and averted his eyes and let her drop her hand by herself as he cheered along with her as they saw Harry flying against Cedric, pushing away that uncomfortably awkward and sort of sad feeling in his heart that slowed down the way it had been racing a moment before.
In truth, it was almost a blessing when the Dementors came, and Harry fell off his broom.
It gave him something else to worry about.
***
After Lupin went and made sure to check that Harry James Potter was going to be alright, that he was going to live, that he was mending and that he was safe-Remus Lupin sat heavily down in his work chair leaning to grip his hands in his hair.
Watching Harry flying in the sky like that...Watching him Lupin could almost feel the time rotating back to sunnier days where he was much younger. He could almost hear Peter screaming James' name in that way he would always do and see-no, don't think about that last one, he reminded himself...
Where was he?
Ah, yes, for a moment he was almost prepared to run over to James after he had won yet another game so he could ruffle that hair that was forever a mess and say good job...good job, James...
But then reality had come again when the dementors came sucking all his happiness away and the worst day of his life came yet again as he saw James-no, Harry-fall.
That perfect boy with the wind-tossed hair and the ability to do anything had fallen...was falling... And when he looked around everything was gray. When he looked around Peter Pettigrew wasn't there yelling beside him anymore...no, the last thing his friend ever yelled was that one of his other best friends in the world had murdered James and Lily...and that the boy he...the boy he...
The boy who he held so close to his heart was a murderer.
Yes, this quidditch match was very much like that awful day for when the Dementors came that feeling had been back again.
The feeling of knowing everything that made his life full of light was gone and that now he was alone in a dark world with a full moon always hanging threateningly above.