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Control Your Mates, Lupin!


It was Oliver Kent who tumbled from his broom first, his maroon and gold tie catching on the handle as the broomstick tried to escape, dragging him a few feet away from where he’d fallen by his little neck. Any other of the first years and the broom wouldn’t have been strong enough to drag him off like that, but Oliver was about as tiny as firsties come. He finally hit the grass with a great burst of air from his lungs, and lay there, curled up, covering his head as though expecting the broom to inflict more damage upon him.

A hoot of laughter echoed across the stands.

“C’MON LAD, YOU’VE FALLEN ALL OF TWO FEET! YOU’RE FINE!” Sirius Black’s voice echoed over the pitch as Lily landed her broomstick and ran over to help Oliver Kent up. James and Frank were helping the other first years to the ground again, hovering a couple feet up on their brooms.

Lily glowered up at Sirius.

“Sirius!” Remus moaned as Peter snort-laughed behind them.

Sirius was leaning over the rail of the stands to be heard and turned to look back at Remus, “Whaaat? Moony, look at him. He’s laying there like a little slug, and he’s only fallen a few inches!”

“That was more than a few inches,” Remus argued.

“Mooy, my love, you’ve fallen further trying to get out of bed before,” Sirius said. “GET UP YOU LITTLE MUPPET!”

James covered his mouth to keep from laughing.

“You lot are positively awful!” Lily yelled, “You’re an absolute bully, Sirius Black! Bugger off if you’re not going to be nice!” Her eyes moved to Remus. “And you -” Remus slid lower on the bench, withering at her glare, “CONTROL YOUR MATES, LUPIN! ...fine job of prefect you’re making, sitting there letting him bully a child like that,” she muttered.

“Yes, control us, Moony!” Sirius giggled uproariously humored.

Remus turned red, “You do need to be nicer, Pads… I mean… he’s only a first year…”

“I’m not being mean! Not really --” Sirius argued.

Remus gave him The Look.

“I’m not!” Sirius insisted, “I’m doing the boy a favor, really.”

Peter looked nervously between the two of them, trying to decide whose side was smarter to take, glad for once that they weren’t asking him his opinion.

“And mocking him is a favor how?” Remus demanded.

“Gotta toughen up if he wants to play quidditch, doesn’t he?” Sirius asked, “And if he isn’t tough enough to handle my heckling then he’ll fold up like a salt covered slug against the Slytherins!”

Remus shook his head as Peter laughed at the vivid description.

“You know it’s true. You know first hand what a load of bastards the Slytherins are!”

“Still. Stop being mean to the firsties. Please. Before you get me in trouble or worse I have to actually give you a detention or something,” Remus begged.

Sirius’s eyes were defiant. “Like to see you try.”

Remus’s face burned red.

“That’s what I thought,” Sirius said, and he turned back to the pitch. “IS THE LITTLE BEAN ON HIS FEET AGAIN OR WHAT!?”

Lily gave Sirius a very rude gesture and turned back to Oliver, who was still shaky on the ground. “C’mon Ollie,” she said, using the little nickname Wally had given his mate. He was wiping the goop from his nose with the back of his too-big robes. “Are you alright?”

He nodded miserably, “I’m sorry… Only.. only it hurt, falling… I didn’t mean to be a coward…”

“You’re not a coward.”

Oliver’s eyes travelled to the stands, where Sirius was standing, watching as Frank and James continued on with the other first years as Lily tended to the fallen. “Ignore him,” she said firmly, “He’s a git. He’s being a bully and he doesn’t know what he’s talking about. If he ever bothers you again, you tell me and I’ll tell him off for you. Alright?”

Oliver nodded shakily. “Thanks, Lily.”

“Of course,” she smiled and helped him up to his feet, “It’s going to be alright, little man. You’ll get the hang of it, I promise! Now… c’mon, let’s you and me try it again.” She patted him on the back and waved her wand, “Accio broom!” and Oliver’s broomstick came flying back to her. She caught it easily and handed it to him. “On you go.”

It took a few tries, but soon Oliver got the hang of balancing on the broomstick and he clutched it tight in his fists and flew back over to where James and Frank were teaching the others. Wally looked over as he flew up - albeit a bit shaky, but not in danger of falling off, either. “Hey good on you, mate,” Wally said, grinning at him, “You’ve got it!”

Liam was a natural at it, doing all sorts of aerial acrobatics. James smirked and wondered if he’d looked as much of a git as Liam did when he had done the same thing back in first year. Probably worse, he decided. Blimey, somebody should’ve told me.

They got the first years a bit of practice in before it started to get dark, and finally they had to call it quits as the sky was turning lavender. They got the first years down safely to the grass and watched as they all excitedly broke into their cliques and houses and started talking nervously to each other. Madam Hooch, who had been watching from the sidelines and helping to give out pointers now and then, too, came over and congratulated the three of them on an excellent first session with the first years.

“That Liam bloke -- he’s excellent,” James said, “Make a good chaser, he would.”

“I was thinking the same thing,” agreed Frank, who was helping James and Lily to clean up the broomsticks to return them to the locker rooms before calling it a night. “He’s quick and some of those maneuvers he was doing - great broom handling for avoiding quaffle stealers and bludgers.”

James nodded. “Ollie’s a good shape for a seeker, if he gets better with the broom.”

“Which will only happen if your idiot of a friend stops teasing him,” Lily said sharply.

“Aw c’mon Evans, it was all in fun. He didn’t mean it,” James said.

Lily looked sour. “Mean it or not, he still said it! And it’s disheartening! People did that to poor Peter in first year and I don’t think he’s been on a broom since, has he?”

“Doubt the broom could lift his weight, honestly,” murmured James.

“Potter!”

James snickered. “Damn your hearing is sharp.”

She glared at him.

“Alriiight, I’ll talk to him about being nicer, you happy?”

“Only if he listens to you - he doesn’t seem to listen to Remus much.”

“Don’t worry, Rey won’t give him The Sex if he doesn’t listen - we already had this discussion,” James said, laughing. “Sirius will be good. You mark my words.”

“That is way too much information!” Lily said sternly.

Frank laughed, but refused to comment - thinking, however, that the two of them were bickering the way he and Ali did at times...

They started for the broomshed with their arms full and hung all the brooms up where they belonged. James ran his hand over the Quidditch kit on the shelf and when nobody was looking, he knicked himself a new snitch to play with in the dormitory - since the old one had become so lazy.

Lily and Frank left together and James went back out to the pitch to see Maryrose and bring her up to the astronomy tower, where they were to have their date… but before Maryrose got onto the pitch, Remus had got to him first, telling Sirius and Pete to wait for him on the stands, and he grabbed James about the shoulders. “We gotta talk a second.”

“Um… alright.” Maryrose was coming over, looking eager, and James said, “Give me just a sec, Rey.” He jogged over to Maryrose. “Hey I gotta talk to Remus a minute. Do you mind if I meet you up there in a mo’? I’ll stop by the kitchens and get us something to eat and come right up?” he smiled.

Maryrose eyed him. “You’ll actually come this time?”

“I promise,” James answered.

“Alright.” Maryrose kissed him gently, running her palms over his chest. “I’ll see you soon, James.”

He nodded and kissed her back, his palms slipping from her arms as she walked away. He took a deep breath, recuperating, then turned back to Remus. “This better be good, Rey,” he said.

“It is. C’mon.” Remus led him away to a corner of the pitch, where nobody could overhear him. His voice was very low. “James, don’t ask me how I know or for anymore details than what I’m about to give you but… But I think it’s a very good idea if you go stag and hang out in the woods tonight.”

James blinked at Remus. “What?”

Remus’s voice shook with importance. “You. Prongs. The woods. Tonight. Find the feed.”

“Find the -- what’re you talking about? Talking jibberish -- I have a date with Maryrose and --”

“Prongs.” Remus stared into his eyes, “Trust me. You want to go to the woods.”

James stared at Remus for a very long moment. Then… “Evans?”

Remus nodded.

“Evans wants to see the stag.”

Remus nodded again. Technically, I’m not telling him, he thought, Technically.

James looked over his shoulder at the place he’d been standing just a moment before when he promised Maryrose he’d be there on the astronomy tower, then he looked over his other shoulder, at the line of trees that marked the beginning of the Forbidden Forest. He looked at Remus, his voice shaky, “She really wants to see the stag again?”

“The phrase she used was that she’d give anything.”

James swallowed nervously.

“I’ll see to it someone tells Maryrose you’re not coming.”

James nodded.