How It All Happened

"Come on!" Sirius yelled at his father.

"Yes... wait up!" his father yelled back.

Sirius was so eager to get to the Quidditch match that he ran up the hill where the portkey was and left his father way behind. (His father was a little large around the middle... so he had trouble keeping up with his very skinny son)

"Where did you learn to run that fast?" his father asked, panting.

Sirius just grinned.

"Did you find the portkey?" his father asked again.

"Yes, look!"”Sirius said and held up a broken vase.

"Good"”his father smiled proudly at his son.

They both put their hands on the vase and his father started to count down:

"Five, four, three, two, one!"”

Sirius closed his eyes and when he opened them up again he was in the middle of a crowd of people.

"Dad! Lets go find James... he said he would come!"”Sirius yelled over the noise.

"Lets go buy some souvenirs."”His father yelled back, completely oblivious to what his son had just said.

Sirius let his father drag him over to the salesmen. Sirius had always wanted to go to big Quidditch matches, ever since he had watched his father fly when he was just a little toddler. Of course he'd never been to any World Cups... only championships, the World Cup hadn't been held in England for years.

"Sirius!"”a voice called from behind him.

Sirius whipped around only to see... "Lily" Sirius said and smiled.

"Isn't this exciting?"”a man - who was following Lily - asked and smiled broadly.

"Very exciting"”Sirius answered politely.

"Lily, have you seen James anywhere?"”Sirius asked Lily.

"No, I haven't... how do the seats work?" Lily asked and screwed her face up as she concentrated on her ticket.

"Well if you have cheaper tickets like you and me, you can choose from seats near the bottom."”Sirius said.

Lily relaxed and started looking at the omniculars.

"You don't have to buy any, I have two of these..."”Sirius said and started looking through his backpack.

He found what he was looking for and handed them to Lily, who was backing away from a rather angry looking salesman.

"Sirius! Lily!" someone called and both Sirius and Lily

turned around to see who the owner of the voice was.

"James!" They both said at the same time.

Lily started giggling, causing James and Sirius to roll their eyes.

"Come on, kids... lets go find ourselves some seats"” James's father said after conversing slightly with the other men.

They soon found six empty seats together, where they sat down.

James was teaching Lily how to use the omniculars, and Lily kept giggling because she was making some old man blow his nose again, and again, and again.

Sirius listened to what their fathers were talking about.

"So they really do play up in the air" Lily's father said in an awed tone.

"But of course they do!" Sirius's father said matter-of-factly.

"So it's like football, on broomsticks!" Lily's father said again. He seemed to be understanding.

"Which teams are playing?" James's father asked.

"The Wimborne Wasps and the Chudley Cannons" Sirius's father stated.

"I heard the Wasps have a new player" James's father whispered.

"Yes that's true, Ludo Bagman. He just got out of Hogwarts; I think he plays Beater... Reckon the Wasps will have a fighting chance?" Sirius's father said and chuckled a bit.

"We'll see, won't we?" James's father grinned.

"Ladies and gentlemen, I am pleased to welcome you to the Quidditch Championships! Here are the Chudley Cannons!"

The announcer's loud voice announced, then he introduced each player as they flew into the field. They were dressed in bright orange robes. (Decorated with a speeding cannon ball and a double "C" on the back)

Then the same happened with the Wimborne Wasps. (Who wore horizontally striped yellow and black robes with a wasp on front) Sirius paid special attention to the player introduced as Ludo Bagman.

"Wasn't he a Gryffindor Prefect last year?" Sirius asked James.

James who was watching the game through his omniculars nodded and said: "He was on our Quidditch team... It was thanks to him we won the Quidditch and house cup last year!”

"Yeah! I thought his name sounded really familiar" Sirius said and went back to the game.

"And what a spectacular goal that was! Oh NO! Watch out for that Bludger, Taylor! Wow! Really amazing Beater work, Bagman! And Taylor scores!!! 20 to nil for the Wimborne Wasps! The Cannons are in possession, and it's Green, Lattre, Green, Katter and the Cannons sco- amazing! Bagman strikes again! A Bludger ruins that goal for the Cannons... And Wasps in possession, MERLIN! THE DARK MARK!!!"”

Sirius searched the sky, and sure enough there it was.

Everyone started screaming and panicking.

Another magically magnified voice could be heard giving instructions.

"Please stay calm, parents stay with your children, the match has been

canceled, go to the nearest exit, PLEASE! Stay calm..."”

James, Lily, Sirius and their fathers hurried to the nearest exit, where Sirius's and James's fathers disapparated them away.

Sirius knew they had gone to the Potters home, after all, Voldemort - the evil wizard that was in power, killing more and more people every day - was known for hating everyone with muggle blood. Which would make the Potter's place the safest because they were the purebloods.

Lily and her father looked scared out of their wits and James was extremely pale.

Sirius didn't want to know how he looked.

"tap tap tap" There was an owl at the window.

James's mother opened the window and the owl dropped a special edition of The Daily Prophet on the table. James's mother paid it five knuts and the owl flew off.

James's mother took one look at the paper, gasped and dropped it to the floor.

Sirius who was standing nearest picked it up and read:

"Famous Quidditch player and husband killed!

Famous Quidditch star Laura Lynch and her husband Arnold Lynch (Muggle) were

killed today at the Quidditch championships by You Know Who's Death Eaters.

The couple leave behind their son; a nine-year-old Logan Lynch, which

they left at home in the care of..."”

Sirius stopped reading. Lily started sobbing and James's mother who had regained some of her composure started offering everyone tea.

*

"That must have been horrible!" Celestina said. After Lily told her about the Championships.

"It was!" Lily assured her.

"But at least you got to sit beside James..." Celestina said.

"Why would that matter?" Lily said a little surprised.

"Don't you like him?" Celestina asked.

Lily blushed, "maybe..." She stopped and went completely red.

"Hello James" Lily then said.

Celestina exploded into a fit of giggles, but stopped rather quickly after the second voice (a cheery "hello"” from Sirius) sounded, earning her a suspicious glance from Lily.

Remus and Peter quickly followed with "hey's and "hello's".

"So what were you girls talking about before?" James said and grinned evilly.

"Nothing, Quidditch" Lily said 'nothing' and Celestina said 'Quidditch' and they said it at the same time.

When they realized this they quickly said: "Quidditch,” "Nothing" now they had switched words but done the same mistake.

The boys started laughing their heads off; the girls shrugged and joined in the laughing.

*

Remus left the Great Hall before everyone else did. He met Madam Pomfrey in the Entrance Hall and they walked together out of the Castle, over the grounds and (in Remus's case) into the Womping Willow.

He hurried as fast as he could towards the Shrieking Shack.

When he finally made it to the trap door he could feel his blood boiling. It was like the moon was pulling at it like the tide.

Just a bit further, he thought as he climbed through the trap door. He closed it and...…

*

The Great Hall was quiet as Dumbledore finished the feast with his closing speech.

A terrible howl echoed through the night air.

Everyone was dead still, until the Headmaster clapped his hands and told them to go off to bed and that there was nothing to worry about.

Sirius, James and Peter all looked up at the ceiling that looked just like the sky outside.

A full moon shone down on their faces as if it were mocking them.

"Whoa, there's a lot of cheese..." Peter said, earning himself some chuckles from Sirius. James however remained silent.

"I think we should start working on what we discussed at the end of last year" James said and gave Sirius and Peter a meaningful look.

Peter looked blank for a moment but then caught on. Sirius nodded.

"We can use these book we found in the secret room..."” Sirius started but was cut off by a girl with blond hair.

"What secret room?" It was Rita Skeeter, she was a second year as well, but a Ravenclaw.

Peter started to open his moth but James dragged him aside and started whispering while Sirius told her to sod off.

"If you tell her the whole school will know within seconds! She's as bad as what's her name, Bertha Jorkins!" James muttered to Peter.

"You mean that fifth year Ravenclaw?"”Peter asked.

"Yea, her... all the blabbermouths seem to be in Ravenclaw"” Sirius muttered coming over.

"We'll have to be careful not to let anyone find out about this room!" James sounded urgent

"I won’t tell anyone”" Peter declared and put his hand out.

"Me either" James decided and put his palm on the back of Peters hand.

"Not me"”Sirius grinned and placed his own palm on James's hand.

"One for all, and all for one" Peter said in his tiny voice.

"Where did you get that from?" Both James and Sirius said (although not at the same time)

Peter turned pink and said: "A Muggle movie... The three Musketeers or something."

"I like it..." Peter said, seeing the look on their faces.

James decided after noticing the sad look on Peters face to agree, after all it was kind of cool.

"Me too!" James smiled

"Me three!" Sirius said. He always liked to agree with James, just like James always liked to agree with Sirius. They all let go of each other's hands at the same time.

*

"I got on the team!!!" James yelled over the Gryffindor common room. It was the second week of term and James was just returning from the Quidditch tryouts.

"Really?" Remus asked, not even looking up (he was reading something about Cornish Pixies for the DADA class)

"WOW! James!" Sirius said immediately using this new exciting bit of information as an excuse to quit studying and start bouncing all over the room.

Lily looked up and smiled at James but Celestina was watching with semi interest as Sirius nicked some Prefect's badge and started bouncing around with the Prefect in hot pursuit.

James shook his head and went up to the boys dorm to return his Nimbus 1000 to his trunk. (He didn't trust the broom shelter)

"Oh, hey Peter" James sighed upon noticing the boy in the dorm.

"Hi James" Peter squealed.

"Did you get on the team?" he asked

"Yeah, I'm seeker!" James yawned as he closed his trunk, which now contained his Nimbus.

"James?" Peter questioned

"mmm?" James muffled answer came (he was pulling off the Quidditch robes)

"Could you help me with the Transfiguration?" Peter asked.

"Sure" James answered, now in his normal robes.

"Whose turn is it to go get the books?" Peter asked nervously

Ever since the Welcoming feast, Sirius, James and Peter had been taking turns, going to the secret room in the evening three times a week, getting books on Animagi and then they would sit and study it until that same person would return the books. Up until now Peter had gotten lost every time it was his turn.

"It's your turn, why?" James said to Peter as they made their way down to the common room.

"Well, you know how I keep getting lost?" Peter asked, as he tripped on his robes on the way down the stairs.

James caught him just in time.

"Yeah?" James inquired when they were safely in the common room.

"I was wondering, could you... you know cause you've always been so good at drawing..." Peter took a deep breath "could you draw me a map so I won't get lost?" After Peter asked that he turned pink.

"Peter! That's brilliant! We should draw a map! Then we'll never get lost!" Sirius gasped (he had finally given up the Prefect badge and had been listening to every word James and Peter had been saying)

James nodded, "I'll do it... but I'll have to go to the library."