It was a day made for Quidditch, the final match of the season had Gryffindor and Slytherin head-to-head. Everyone knew that they would be the two houses battling for the cup come the end of the year but that didn’t dull the excitement emulating from every corner of Hogwarts. Midday June and the sun was at its peak in the sky, the perfect weather for flying, the stands were full of chattering students with not a single seat left empty. They filled the stands; they sat on the steps leading up to the seats and they crowded around the arena sat on the wall of the pitch. The whole of Hogwarts must have been there. It was something about a good game of Quidditch that really bought the houses together, bets were placed, and party favours quietly exchanged. Remus could not see one person from the commentator’s booth, that didn’t have a red cup in their hand. No one was paying any particular attention to the teams ready down on the pitch. Both Slytherin and Gryffindor's players were all neatly lined up in their gear, awaiting the speech about fair sportsmanlike behaviour and the usual formal swapping of handshakes and greetings that took place before each match.
“Ladies and Gentlemen a warm welcome to the final Quidditch match of the season. Heading Gryffindor as their legendary team captain we have Frank Longbottom, with his prodigy and chaser James Potter, yes yes ladies scream your hearts out. Don’t look so downhearted Evans we all know he only has eyes for you.”, he pauses waiting for the crowd to calm. “And how could we forget their opponents, this year the Slytherin team is headed by the ruthless Emma Vanity. We’re not quite sure who she is training up to be captain, you know how Slytherins are with their secrets, but a little owl told me that their current lead runner is none other than Reggie the little Black heir.” Regulus stands up a little straighter in his robes not impressed at all with bloody Lupin referring to him with the stupid nickname his brother used on him as a child. He would show them. He wasn’t just the spare heir to the Black family dynasty; he was going to be a Quidditch God.
“Now, now, let’s leave some of the cheers for the other players now”, Remus booms into the mic. The crowd quietens down, except for the Gryffindor team down on the pitch who had started to hum a familiar tune. Their voices, magically amplified, echoed through the stands, the energy suddenly shifting. Bring the lion out, bring the bring the lion out, bring the lion out, bring the bring the lion out. It didn’t take long for all the other Gryffindors to catch on, joining in on the chanting and coaxing their friends from all houses to join in. Finally, when Remus thought the whole stadium was practically standing on the balls of their feet in anticipation, a figure emerges from below the pitch. Slowly walking towards the team missing a beater.
His robes bellow behind him like flames of fire, black hair braided back into the signature pony he always wore on important match days. High pitched giggles began to emit from the crowd, and all eyes seemed trained on Gryffindors missing beater who was now making his way up to his teammates.
“Ah yes, you may have noticed, Gryffindor has been missing a beater. Dear students how he has been sorely missed.”
His cigarette was almost finished, hanging from the edge of his lip as smoke billowed up towards his face and into the sky. The smug smirk on his face unmistakeable, a perfect row of glistening pearly whites. Pulling his hood down and stubbing out his cigarette onto the pitch with his heel as he reached his team, greeting him with proud smiles and handshakes. Victory was certain. Even Regulus couldn’t help but let a flicker of excitement slip through his usually perfectly set mask. Now he had some proper competition.
High pitched giggles could be heard from ladies and gents alike in the crowd, infamous for his skill with both genders at Hogwarts. He turned to the crowd with a flamboyant turn, robes spinning around him and took an arrogant bow. Remus let out a final dry laugh, “Everybody may I take the pleasure of welcoming everybody’s favourite beater, Gryffindors heart-throb, the one and only SIRIUS BLACK.’ The crowd rises, cheering louder than Remus had ever known, several people chucking the pre-handed out roses down onto the pitch, serenading Sirius in applause.
“That’s quite enough I think Lupin let’s get this game started please”, Minnie disapprovingly mutters over his shoulder, he can hear the grin in her voice. “Now that the both of our teams are complete and looking better than ever may I add, I think it’s... oh well looks like they’ve already started.”
James is the first to take to the sky, closely followed by Regulus whose face is set in a very determined scowl, McKinnon of course never close behind.
“Back to the teams”, Remus attempts to catch everyone up, “On Gryffindor we have chasers James Potter, Alexandra Rutherford and Matthew McLaggen, seeker Alice Prewett, our beaters Sirius Black and Marlene McKinnon and keeper Frank Longbottom. Then on the pitch for Slytherin we have… well to be honest I don’t think we really care who’s there for Slytherin-“
“Control yourself please Lupin!”
“Apologies Minnie, what I meant to tell the crowd was that on Slytherin we have star seeker, Reggie Black, always keeping the crowd on their toes that one is, and chaser Dorcas Meadows provides some hefty competition, and chemistry for Miss.McKinnon.”
By now they were a good half an hour or so into the game, no goals had been scored as of yet and people were beginning to get a little bit restless.
Remus thought he best be the one to provide them with some more entertainment as it certainly wasn’t going to be coming from the pitch anytime soon. “Come on Slytherin let’s put up a better fight for that cup, do you really want to lose to Mighty Gryffindor for the third year running. How could you have any chance of winning though, not with Gryffindors jaw droppingly handsome Sirius Black, my my would I like to wake up to that in the morning”, he shouts through the mic, earning him a quick fly by the commentators box from Sirius to give him one of those famous Sirius Black winks. “Is it getting hot in here or is it just me”.
The game continues pretty mundane for another hour and the crowd quickly begins to bore. Gryffindor scores a goal quickly after Remus’s encouraging flirts but it’s less than 5 minutes later that Slytherin scores back, and it seems to continue in the same pattern for the remainder of the first half. Every time Gryffindor score a goal and we think that there may finally be a lead, Slytherin score straight back, bringing the game back to a tie almost instantly. By 80-80 McGonagall is even beginning to tire and calls a halfway break for the game.
The teams both head back to their changing rooms to talk tactic. Walking into the rooms and staring around at his team James realises they are all looking about as bad as he feels right now. Defeat plastered all over everyone’s face, backs slouched and hair a mess they all look like they’re about ready for a nap. “Right team”, Frank begins his usual speech, “I know how it seems at the moment, every time we score Slytherin seem to be a moment behind us, but we have to change that, their only way of winning this match is that golden snitch and there is no way that Regulus Black is going to be the reason that Gryffindor win their four year streak” - James and Sirius trade a knowing glance before turning their attention back to Frank – “So scrub up, tie your hair back up McKinnon and let’s get back out there.” Frank smiles to the defeated looking team crowded around him. “What I think Frank meant to say’, quips Alice, trying to catch any sparks of hope still left that her boyfriend didn’t just snub out, “is that you’re all doing amazing out there and were proud of every single one of you no matter the outcome of the game… which I know we are going to win! Let’s go team, let’s go!”, and somehow Alice’s enthusiasm for the game is contagious and before they know it everyone is smiling again and ready to play.
“And our teams are back onto the field”, the crowd cheers, everyone topped up with more drinks, snacks and party favours than they could possibly ask for. “Now let’s bring that cup home boys”, Remus booms into the microphone and the crowd roars back. The teams are back into the sky before Remus even has the chance to blink and they both seem very determinedly out to win. Slytherin have begun to play dirty, trying to get the match to fall in their favour as quickly as possible but Barty Crouch is proving to be too obvious with his elaborate cheating tactics and almost ends up getting the game suspended. Eventually Gryffindor manage to score another two goals atop of Slytherin and the odds look like they might finally be falling in their favour. After he scores the third goal ahead for Gryffindor James fly’s down to the crowd in a dramatic show off, high fiving every single first year Gryffindor in the front row, who in Remus’s opinion all look rather dumbfounded at the sight of Potter so up close to them. Remus knows how that feels of course, to be so completely amazed by the way that the universe seems to spin around James as if he is the sun and everyone else is simply one of the planets. He makes the solar system brighter and you can’t help but smile whenever he is in the room.
“Surely that’s against the rules”, Crouch shouts across the field to nobody in particular, “He can’t just go giving out high fives in the middle of a game, it’s unsportsmanlike behaviour”, obviously taking any chance he can to attempt to cheat the game. McGonagall seems unphased, continuing to closely watch the game for any more foul play the Slytherins might pull on her. “Don’t you all just love him”, Remus encourages James on, “for worship the ground that he walks on, your soon to be saviour James Fleamont Potter.” This seems to annoy Crouch even more as he flies in circles around Marlene in an attempt to make her fall from her broom. Everyone knows that Mar is too good a flyer for that though. “On that wonderful topic of saviours, let us take a second to appreciate the way that Sirius Black’s backside looks from this angle, I might be used to it but it’s a first sight for you all ladies and gentlemen,” and Remus can almost see Sirius turning beetroot red from his box all the way on the other end of the pitch.
Just then however, from the corner of his eye he sees a glimmer of gold shining against the late afternoon sky and right behind it, Regulus Black. The boy is intently staring at something, or someone to the lower left side of him. And then Remus sees him, James, eyes locked with Regulus in a kind of trance. He knows, can clearly see with his own two eyes, that if Regulus was to just reach out, he could be holding the snitch, completely flipping the game and Slytherin would finally get that trophy, yet he doesn’t. He sits there, floating, eyes locked with James. Then just as Remus is about to grab for the microphone, ready to announce the victory to the crowd, Regulus turns his back on the golden snitch as if he never saw it and simply flies away. Remus is completely shocked, he knew that there had been something going on between James and Regulus for a while now, he had seen James wondering off at strange times of the night often enough and commonly checked the map to see the initials R.A.B and J.P floating ever so slightly too close together in the astronomy tower. This, this was a whole other level though, even by his standards. Was Regulus forfeiting the whole game just for James? He has to of been, there is no other fathomable reason that Remus could possibly think of that would allow for Regulus to fly away from 150 house points like that otherwise.
This puts Gryffindor in the lead 110-80 and Slytherin do not look impressed. Barty specifically has begun to show his discontent in his hits of the bludger, slightly too hard, slightly too off course to be any good to anyone. Marlene won’t let that phase her at all, she has already had a close call between that goddamned ball and her head twice now and she doesn’t intend on letting it happen again. She nods at Sirius across the field and the two set off at an alarming speed, crossing with one another and circling back around Barty causing the boy to swivel on his broom almost falling off, their plan doesn’t seem to deter him through and as Marlene and Sirius go to make their second loop around the rather red-looking boy, Barty hits the bludger in no particular direction. Remus watches it leave Crouch’s hand, sees an innocent James Potter, back to the current wind up occurring behind him, completely unbeknownst to him, and sees the way the bludger is heading. He grabs for the microphone, “Prongs move!”, but it is too late. The bludger makes contact with the back of James’s head at an immense speed and James falls head over the hilt of his broom down towards the floor. He is falling way too fast in Remus’s opinion, he has no idea what to do, he turns to Minnie to see that she is gone, toilet he thinks damn that woman’s overly sensitive bladder. Everything seems to be happening in slow motion from then on, apart from James falling, that just seems to be getting faster and faster. He can see the panic in Sirius’s eyes, sees him pull out his wand in an attempt to cushion his best friends fall, but before he even gets the chance to cast the spell Regulus Black is there, on the field, below James, waiting to catch him.
Regulus looks up, James is falling faster than he thought, his unconscious body hurtling towards him and suddenly he has no idea what he is doing here. There is no way he is going to be able to catch James, Regulus might be a Quidditch player, but he isn’t strong or muscular like the chasers or beaters, there is no way he can catch him. What will everyone think seeing him catch James, the rumours that will start, what was he thinking. But before he can answer himself, he feels the thud of James’s body hit him and the world goes black.