The Marauders Part 5: Wish Upon A Star Hmm. I actually don't have much to say about this part. I had fun writing the Quidditch, though, ;) Perhaps you'd like to review and tell me what you think. ~Draca Oh, PS! Somebody told me James was a Chaser, but I think he makes a better Seeker, and c'mon, it's a fanfic! I write slash too, and you don't hear JK telling us Harry & Co swing on the other side of the rainbow, do you? No, wait! To read this story the way it's intended, grab these fonts: http://www.geocities.com/dracamalfoy/fonts.zip *** Sirius strolled into the Great Hall for breakfast the next day completely blotch-free and back to his normal raven-haired state. He did, however, look as though his new motto was "Live for Revenge." James caught a glimpse of Adara looking up and smiling broadly from among the Slytherins before turning back to her pot pie. There was a broad white strip of bandage around her wrist, but she grinned as Sirius sat down. "Some friends you lot are." he grumbled grudgingly. "Aw, c'mon, Sirius." said Remus. "It's not like she took pictures, is it?" Sirius snorted. "Dunno if she's sunk that low yet. So," he lowered his voice, "did you get the stuff?" "No." said James glumly. "No, and we nearly died besides that." Remus said calmly. "Remind us never to try an astronomy experiment without an astronomy expert ever again." "What did you do?" Sirius groaned. Peter explained. "You did what? Why?" he asked in disbelief. "Why didn't you just ask Hagrid to get it for you?" Guilty silence followed his statement. "Because . . . we . . . ah . . . uhm . . . " James smacked himself in the forehead, knocking his glasses askew. Sirius smiled dryly. "I see. Didn't think? Well, now, how are we supposed to get the-" Half of the Gryffindor table swivelled to look at him, and he lowered his voice. "You know, the stuff?" He pushed his leftover plateful of strawberry ice cream to the center of the table, and it disappeared. "I wouldn't worry about that." said a voice from above his head. Sirius tilted his chin back and looked up at Adara. She was smiling diabolically and pulled a tiny corked bottle out of one of the folds of her robes. One thing the Marauders had learned about Adara was that she had many, many pockets, and carried a wide variety of pocket luggage. But that wasn't much of a surprise. Most magicians carry all sorts of things around with them. Remus stared, and rubbed his eyes as if he couldn't believe what he was seeing. "I probably shouldn't ask, but....What's that?" "It's the sap. Here, I got your knife back, too. It was really easy. I leaned out the window of the Astronomy tower and aimed a couple of Summoners at that stupid plant." She smiled at James and pointed a knowing finger at him. "Which, by the way, I forgot to thank you for teaching me." Students began trickling slowly out of the Hall, yawning, heading back to their various common rooms or to other less permissible activities, and Adara slipped into a chair vacated by another Gryffindor and almost immediately stood up again. "Hold on a second. I gotta go talk to Lilias, I'll be right back." She walked quickly toward a Titian-haired girl who was about to leave the Hall. James, Sirius and company, true to their inquisitive nature, strained their ears to hear what they were talking about. "What's Adara talking to Drummond for?" Sirius whispered. "She's a Gryffindor, isn't she?" "She's in our year, you doofus. Shut up and maybe we'll find out!" "...so, do you think we can work on it tomorrow?" Adara was saying, fiddling with a piece of her long black hair. Lily sighed. "I suppose we'll probably have to. What was it on again? Finding and Banishing charms?" "Sadly, true. Brilliantly fascinating stuff, isn't it?" Adara answered sarcastically. The two of them had a short laugh. "Right then, tomorrow after the Quidditch game's over. Night!" The other girl pushed open the hall door and left, and Adara returned to the table. "I could murder some allsorts right now. Bit of a sore throat." "Take some of Pomfrey's Pepperup Potion." suggested Remus. Adara looked astonished at the suggestion. "And go 'round smoking at the ears for a day? I don't think so." Peter pulled a roll of them out of his pocket and offered her one, which she took gratefully and popped into her mouth. "So, Sirius, how are we feeling this evening?" Sirius ignored her and acted as if the Hogwarts banner draped opposite him was the most captivating thing he'd ever seen. James laughed, leaned across the spotless mahogany table, and said in a loud stage whisper "I don't think Sirius is talking to you." "How could you tell?" Remus answered, sotto voice. Peter nodded. "He seems to be mildly annoyed, eh?" The enchanted ceiling steadily grew darker as night fell. Adara smiled. "Aw, c'mon, Sirius, don't get all stroppy. It was just a joke, you know." He looked away and started whistling a Pink Floyd song. "You don't look that bad with blue hair!" Silence. Adara sighed. "Right, he's going to make me do this the hard way, isn't he? James, have you got any parchment?" "Probably." he answered, pulling a roll out of his bag. Adara fished a long black quill out of somewhere inside her robes and started to write. Remus read over her shoulder.

My Formal Apology to Sirius Black, it said, in glistening purple-green ink. I, Adara Rhiannon Dragomiroff, hereby promise never to turn Sirius She paused, the quill hovering over the last word. "Hold on, Sirius, what is your middle name?" No answer. "It's - ah. I don't have one." "Oh, come on, it can't be worse then mine." she said impatiently. "Rhiannon was an evil witch in the fourteenth century!" Remus grinned. "Or mine. Mine's the worst ever." "Oh, yeah?" Sirius said, unimpressed. "What is it?" "Julian. If anyone here can come up with a worse middle name then that, I'd love to hear it." "I'll take that challenge." James interrupted, laughing. "Mine's Mercutio!" Peter looked surprised. "Really?" "Well, yeah, my mum liked the play, but we're getting off the subject." "I feel inferior. My middle name's actually normal." Peter giggled. "It's Phillip." Adara tapped Sirius on the head with her quill. "Now that we've all shared, how about you?" "Do I have to?" he asked plaintively. "YES!" four voices answered him. "Promise never to tell anyone, ever." Sirius said grimly. "It's Elton." James rolled his eyes. "You thought that was worse then Mercutio?" "Or Julian?" Remus chimed in. Adara didn't say anything, but she suppressed a smile, bent her head and kept writing. -hereby promise never to turn Sirius E. Black's hair any unnatural colour ever again, on pain of having my own hair turned hot pink for twenty-four hours. And while I'm at it, I also promise never to make fun of his ridiculously swotty middle name, either. Also, I'm really, truly, very sorry. Sincerely, A. M. D. 26/11/72 Adara folded the parchment three times and handed it to Sirius with a satisfied look on her face. "There, happy?" She stood up and picked her bag off the floor "I should be getting back to the dungeons. I'm dead tired, and I've got to get up early for the game tomorrow. Night, fellows." "Night, Adara." "Night, Adara." "G'night, Adara." "Apology accepted." She turned around and smiled at Sirius. "I know- wow, look!" She pointed upwards at the bewitched ceiling, where a shooting star streaked across the sky, leaving a glittering trail behind it. "Everyone, make a wish." Remus reminded them. James found himself thinking about Lilias Drummond, which was just a little odd. He'd never even looked at her before. She was sort of pretty, with that coppery hair... Remus wished that solar eclipses of the moon would become very common, at least until they had the potion done. Being a - what he was - he didn't even like to think the word - made him more miserable then any of his friends could ever guess. Peter wished that he would pass Transfiguration for the semester. That was in danger of not happening, unfortunately. Professor McGonagall had finally declared that he was hopeless. Adara made the same wish she always did - for peace on earth and good will toward everyone, but especially Slytherins, because somehow, they always managed to get the worse end of the deal, whatever it might be. And Sirius . . . well, I'm sure you know what Sirius wished for. *** The next morning, which was S unday, dawned grey, cold, and flurrying. The Quidditch teams gathered shivering on the field, the brown grass crunching under their feet. There were only two girls on the Slytherin house team and they were both Chasers: Adara and Cirrus Caranni, a pretty third - year girl with brown hair and blue eyes. Thrawn Kelley was the Slytherin captain. He was a big sixth- year with steely grey eyes and dark blonde hair. Oddly, everyone liked Thrawn, even if they were in Gryffindor. He wasn't exactly the brightest crayon in the box, but he was unusually amiable, especially for a Slytherin. He arrived with a thick green scarf wrapped around most of his face. "All right!" he barked through the wool. "For today's game, remember what we practiced. We're gonna try Wronski - Feints, Sarcaein Chaser maneuvers, and the Gurney defensive ploy. Now remember what I been tellin' ya, don't do any of that fancy flyin' in circles stuff you Chasers were doin' at last practice. I don't want any of ya to get another good crack like the one Malcolm here caught." He motioned to Adara's friend Malcolm Flagg. "Yes, we wouldn't want me to have to wear an eyepatch again, would we?" Malcolm said dryly. "But anyway," Thrawn continued. "Let's at least for once try to have a game where nobody gets seriously injured, okay?" Adara sighed. "This is supposed to be a pep talk?" "And I want a nice clean fight -" Heavy grumbles from the entire team followed this statement. "That means, no hexin' the Gryffindors, and no turnin' the Beater clubs into marmalade, and especially no makin' ghost Snitches. That's just plain evil." "So are we!" said about four people. Ghost Snitches were a popular Slytherin way of distracting the other team's Seeker. You created a phantom Snitch that he would chase, but when he thought he had it, it would evaporate into a tiny puff of golden smoke with a little "Heh heh!". This had happened on several occasions. "Yeah, well, not on my watch. It's not nice to torment Seekers! So keep it clean, and keep it safe!" Andre Epyna, a sixth-year Beater, rubbed his arms to keep himself warm. "Where's Halfelven? It appears our Seeker is missing." "Oh, that's right, he's got a most awful case of Dragonpox. We're using our replacement Seeker today." Thrawn reassured the team. "Thank goodness we have one. Where is he?" "Here." said a voice from behind Adara. She looked over her shoulder. Pushing through the half-frozen spectators who stood a few yards away was Lucius Malfoy. Her hands tightened around her broomstick and the cold knuckles turned ashen. "You play Quidditch?" she said loudly. Lucius brushed several flakes of frost of his otherwise perfectly tailored green robes and smiled, showing a lot of straight, pointed white teeth. "Of course. This is the first time I've gotten to play with you, though, now that Marius is ill." Adara, who was feeling more then a little ill herself, escaped and jogged over to the Gryffindor team, who were doing warmups. Then she dropped to the cold ground and started doing pushups in between Sirius and James. "Something wrong, Adara?" James grunted. "Oh, you'll never guess." Adara panted peevishly, staring down at the silver rings that decorated her fingers, mottled from the cold. "Malfoy, that ridiculous prat! He's our backup Seeker! How did that happen? Why do I get all the bad luck?" Sirius looked past her and caught James's eye. "Well, Jamesie- boy, looks like you'll have no trouble getting the Snitch today, eh?" Adara made a face. "This doesn't mean Gryffindor'll win, you know." The two boys leapt to their feet and James extended as hand to help Adara off the frozen ground, and Sirius spun her around and sized her up. "What on earth are you doing? Or don't I want to know?" "I'm trying to decide the best place to aim a Bludger at." he joked. Seeing the wrath on her face, he quicky added "Kidding! Kidding!" She slapped his arm. "You better be." "DRAGOMIROFF!" bellowed Thrawn good-naturedly. "Fraternizin' with the enemy, I see?" "We'll return her intact, I promise." James yelled back. Sirius turned to Adara. "Want me to hit a couple at his face and see if I can rearrange it a little?" He winked and brushed a lock of black hair out of his eyes. "Could you? That's sweet." she laughed, polishing the end of her broom with a sleeve of her green woolen robes. "I'd better go. Good luck!" "You too." James said. "And promise not to cry later, when we beat the pants off you!" he added, with a fiendish grin. "Ah, we'll see about that, Potter!" she called, jogging back to her own team. Sirius snorted. "They haven't a chance with that swine Malfoy. You'll have the Snitch in five seconds." He pulled a tail-twig clipper out of his robes and handed it to James, who had lost his. "Here." "Thanks." James replied, shearing several rogue twigs off the end of his Thunderstorm III. "Those've been bothering me." "Care to go kick some Slytherin arse?" Sirius asked cheerfully, mounting his broom. James stuck his tongue out and tasted a few of the light flakes that spiraled down. "Right!" They strode off to their own team. James was the captain, because their old captain, who was a fifth year, had quit Quidditch after a particularly nasty match with Slytherin. In that specific incident, fifty ghost Snitches had been whizzing around his head and distracting him from tending the hoops. He had claimed it drove him half - insane, and retired from the sport forever. Or so he said. To make a long story short, James had been elected captain unanimously. He had a very short pep speech. "Okay, guys, we're gonna cream them, right? Right! Everybody off!" *** Fifteen minutes after the whistle had been blown and the two teams had kicked off, there was a fierce battle ensuing between the Slytherin Chasers and the Gryffindor Beaters. Remus, who had been drafted into being commentator, was outdoing himself. Up in the small floating booth used for Quidditch observation, he swivelled around in his chair and leaned into the magical megaphone. "The rivalry between the two houses is more then apparent in today's match, ladies and gentleman!" he offered to the amazingly large number of students who had shown up in the flurries to watch the game. "The Slytherin team has the Quaffle - Flagg carrying it towards the goal, now if I remember correctly, his aim isn't that good - whoa! The Quaffle is stolen by Alden Gant and passed to Blossom - Gryffindor scores - uh oh, the Slytherins are calling a time, they look disgruntled -" "- DON'T LET IT HAPPEN AGAIN!" Adara and Cirrus were shouting at Malcolm down on the field. "Alright, and we're back in the air! Slytherin reclaims possession of the Quaffle and - ouch, Dragomiroff hit in the face with a Bludger! She's bloodied her nose, folks, but she looks okay!" Remus called, studying Adara with his telescope. "She's - oh dear, she's about to get her revenge on the Gryffindor Beater, Sirius Black - NO MAGIC! NO MAGIC!" The young yellow-eyed referee, Madam Hooch, screeched up to where Adara was yanking her wand out of her sleeve and seized it. "No! No! How many times do I have to tell you Slytherins, no magic!" Remus resumed. "Gryffindor has the Quaffle and it's being repeatedly tossed back and forth through the north hoop by Gant and Blossom! Where's the Slytherin keeper?" "Yeah, that's right, where is Thrawn?" Adara yelled to Andre Epyna. "Got hit in the arm, he's over there!" he shouted back, pointing at the south hoop. Malcolm and Cirrus sped over to help guard the hoops. Adara caught another Bludger sharply with the end of her broomstick and send it whizzing towards the third Gryffindor Chaser, Charlot Wilkes. It struck her in the thigh and she grimaced in pain. Lucius motioned to Andre. "Get 'em away from the hoops!" "Fifty-zero to Gryffindor!" Remus roared. WHACK! Andre hit one of the Bludgers toward Julia Blossom and missed by a good yard. Luckily, it distracted her, and she dropped the Quaffle before she could pass it. Adara snatched the opportunity to swoop in and grab the red sphere. Before the other Gryffindor Beater could attack her, she passed it to Cirrus, who was behind the middle Slytherin hoop. Cirrus had the best broom on the whole team. She streaked like lighting toward the Gryffindor goals, narrowly missing colliding with James. Adara and Malcolm flocked her, making sure no Beaters managed to get the Quaffle away. When the reached the north hoop, Cirrus pummeled the ball and it flew through the hoop. "Fifty - ten to Gryffindor! The Slytherins are using the lesser- known Sarcaein Chaser maneuver, in which the Chasers form a triangle shape around the hoops and play a sort of game of Keep- Away -it's working very well! Fifty - thirty!" Remus paused to get a drink of water. "Black, the Gryffindor Beater, attempts to break up the formation, but he's not going to get away with that if I know the Slytherins!" Before Sirius could knock Adara out of the way, she pitched the Quaffle through the hoop again and yanked his long hair. Malcolm and Cirrus were roughing up Julia Blossom and Darren Whitefly, the other Gryffindor Beater, was trying to stop them. "DIRTY QUIDDITCH!" James yelled from above all of them. "The Gryffindor Keeper, Sneed, breaks up the fight and steals the Quaffle from Caranni. Still no sign of the Snitch, judging by the looks of frustration on Malfoy and Potter ... Oh! Dragomiroff and Flagg distract Sneed and take the Quaffle, but Aldan Gant swoops in from above and gets it back! Dragomiroff streaks toward the Slytherin goals and - collides with the Slytherin seeker! Ohhh, that looked painful!" Adara was now the proud owner of a black eye along with her bloodied nose. "Watch where the hell you're going!" she shrieked as she passed Lucius, who had a large gash above his right eyebrow. "Ladies and gentleman, I have never seen this many Quidditch injuries in such a short period of time! Whitefly and Gant carry the Quaffle toward the Slytherin hoops. Blossom has been temporarily incapacitated by the Slytherin Beater, but she'll be okay in a second - Wilkes detracting Thrawn over at the Slytherin end, Gryffindor about to score if he doesn't get it together quick!" Alden Gant whizzed past Adara's left ear carrying the Quaffle and being escorted by Darren Whitefly, who coincidentally was a very good-looking third year. Adara made a grab for the ball and missed by inches. Her fingers closed around air. "Aaaaarrrrrrgh! Malcolm, Cirrus, CATCH THEM!" Malcolm Flagg made a disgusting display of bravery for his usual craven self and screeched to a halt right in front of Gant. They collided and Alden dropped the Quaffle, where it was picked up by Cirrus and carried - once again - in the other direction. Remus was now bouncing up and down on the balls of his feet. "Slytherin has the Quaffle again, it's being carried toward the south hoop by Cirrus Caranni, who is followed closely by Darren & Black. Nobody's gonna overtake her, however, on that shiny new..." Remus adjusted his telescope to read the name on Cirrus's broom, "...Hawkflight Seven! Sure enough, Caranni puts it through the hoop! Fifty-forty Gryffindor!" Meanwhile, Adara was comforting Malcolm, who had got the wind knocked out of him in the collision. The two Seekers, Lucius and James, were still circling overhead like two colourful overgrown turkey vultures. Thrawn glided back and forth in front of the three Slytherin hoops. Andre and the other Slytherin chaser, Neptune Retierus, smashed the Bludgers to each other trying to block the Gryffindors' way to the Slytherin hoops. Charlot Wilkes, Aldan Gant, and Julia Blossom were having immense difficulty evading the ricocheting black missiles. Andre suddenly noticed Sirius trying to keep Cirrus from scoring again as Remus racked up the Slytherin points. "Hey, Black! Catch this!" He hit one of the Bludgers at Sirius, and it bashed into his upper arm with a loud "crack!" "OUCH!" Sirius howled. Madam Hooch blew her whistle. "SLYTHERIN PENALTY!" "You didn't give them a penalty when Black hit Adara!" Malcolm screamed. "NONETHELESS!" The Slytherin team plotted quietly on the sidelines as Blossom took a shot at their goal and made it, of course. Thrawn gritted his teeth. "Remember what I said about not playing dirty?" Everyone nodded. "Forget all that! Forget it now! We gotta win! Everyone bets on the Gryffindors!" "I can't curse their brooms!" Adara pulled gloves out of somewhere inside her robes and put them on her freezing hands. "Madam Hooch took my wand." "Okay, then just try and confound Potter! Come on, everyone off." Before Lucius could mount his broom, Adara grabbed the front of his robes. "If you have to hurt James to get that Snitch, I'll kill you." "I thought you wanted to win." he said, detaching himself. "Don't think I won't make your life miserable." she growled, hopping on her old second-hand Dragonfang and raising up. Remus watched the Slytherins take off. "Gryffindor possession of the Quaffle, and the Slytherin chasers aren't happy about it! Flagg and Gant have a wrestling match over it and Wilkes grabs it while they're distracted. Unfortunately for her, she's being tailed by Cirrus, who's got a faster broom. Caranni takes the Quaffle and speeds in the opposite direction!" Adara zoomed above all the action and talked to James. "I'm supposed to be distracting you." James was freezing; his teeth chattered loudly. "What t-time is it?" "We've been playing for forty-five minutes. It'd be nice if one of you could catch the Snitch soon so that none of us catch pneumoniae." "I'm t-trying, Adara. I haven't seen it at all, well, I did see it once, but that was r-right before the p-penalty." he said with difficultly. Adara pulled off her knitted green gloves. "Here, James, wear these, will ya? You're making me feel bad, plus you need 'em more then I do. Repeatedly crashing into Gryffindors is keeping me nice and toasty." James attempted a smile, but his cheeks were numb. "Th-thanks. Usually I wouldn't be this c-cold, but I l-lost my scarf somewhere." "Sorry they're green." "N-nobody'll n-notice and I don't c-care. Now go away b-before Thrawn murders y-you." he said, yanking the thick fuzzy gloves on. Adara sped away toward the scene below her, which wasn't pretty. Andre had gotten angry at Darren for socking Malcolm in the jaw, and the three of them had apparently forgotten about Quidditch and were trying to kill each other. Cirrus and Julia Blossom were having a tug-of-war with the Quaffle, but neither could pull it away from the other. Adara zoomed through, grabbed it, and sped toward the Gryffindor goal before anyone even saw her properly. "Sixty-fifty Slytherin! No, make that seventy-fifty!" Remus called. "Gant goes in to take the Quaffle from Dragomiroff but she's decided to run for it instead, and makes a big loop around the field! The way it looks now - IT'S THE SNITCH!" Lucius and James, who had been circling at opposite ends of the field, both saw the little golden object at the same time. It was in the middle of all the action, twittering its little sparkly wings. Malfoy pushed his broom flat out, but James was just a better flyer. Gant had just managed to yank the Quaffle away from Adara when Remus vaulted out of his chair. "It's over! Gryffindor Seeker James Potter catches the Snitch and it's a final score of two hundred to seventy Gryffindor!" The crowd of people dressed in red mufflers and cloaks cheered madly. Adara descended onto the frozen ground and gave James and Sirius hugs, Remus hurried down from his post and dragged Peter out of his warm corner of the bleachers. "Congratulations, James!" "Yes, congratulations, James!" Adara said. Her lips were an interesting shade of blue. "But I hope you'll forgive me if I suggest we move in the direction of the school to warm up a little?" Sirius nodded. "I'm h-half frozen too. C'mon, let's go." The Quidditch players slung their brooms over their shoulders and headed off. They didn't look much like what they would become in their later years then. In Remus, it was possible to see the disheveled future Hogwarts professor, in Sirius quite reasonable to imagine a stubbled ex-con with a flying motorcycle, but not the others. The others looked less like a martyr, a traitor, and an exile then Severus Snape looked like a teddy bear. ***