The 6 Marauders (Snape, Lily and the other 4)

14. The Finals

Regulus had made it into the Slytherin Quidditch team in the position of seeker. Both, Slytherin and Gryffindor were winning matches. It was certain that the finals would be between Gryffindor and Slytherin.

The match was a week before the Christmas holidays. It was freezing cold. As soon as Madam Hooch threw the Quaffle in the air, James, Sirius and Romeo started passing it around. When the Slytherins managed to get their hands on the quaffle and tried to score, Severus blocked it.

The Gryffindors were leading with 120 points to 20 points. The Slytherin captain had signalled Regulus to catch the snitch only after the difference between their points was less than 150. The match carried on with Gryffindors at 180 and Slytherins at 30.

Regulus started searching for the snitch after seeing the score. He caught it but unfortunately Sirius and James had managed to score 10 points more. Slytherin lost by 10 points despite having caught the snitch.

Sirius decided that he would stay at Hogwarts instead of going home. However, his plan was ruined when he received 2 howlers at once. One was from Mrs. Potter. And the other was from Walburga.

He burned the one from his mother. It gave a loud hiss in Sirius's direction. He then nervously opened the one from Mrs. Potter. It rang-
"SIRIUS, JAMES, SEVERUS and the rest of the quidditch team, CONGRATULATIONS. My sons have settled so well. Yes Sirius, you are my son as well. I know you wouldn't get a congratulations letter from your mother. If I know her well enough, she might have just sent you another howler. Anyways, I sent you this letter- Shit! this is a howler- anyways, All 6 of you are coming to our place to spend the Christmas vacations. We have a surprise for you. It is-"
Mr. Potter's voice rang next- "Don't tell them the surprise Euphemia. And you were supposed to send a letter not a howler. Anyways, Congratulations Boys."

And the howler ended. Sirius could not stop smiling the entire day. Luckily for Remus, the full moon was 2 days after the match. So it gave him enough time to heal before going and celebrating Christmas. He had written to his parents that he would be spending Christmas with the potters.

However, his luck did not last long as he broke his leg during the transformation. The marauders had watched this incident unknown to McGonagall as usual. As soon as Remus transformed back into his human form, they took off the invisibility cloak and went over to him. McGonagall was so surprised that her mouth was open the whole minute they heeded to Remus' needs.

They took out the healing potions they had nicked from the hospital wing ages ago for Remus' transformations and made him drink it.

His painful breathing turned into normal. The marauders breathed a sigh of relief and started discussing ways to carry Remus to the hospital wing. Their argument was stopped by a still shocked McGonagall who was kind enough to remind them that they were wizards and witch.

Seeing the dumbfound expression on the boys' face, Lily took out her wand and levitated Remus under the invisibility cloak into the hospital wing. While Remus was being treated, the Marauders told Professor McGonagall how they had found out in the second year and had been ready with the healing potions and spells in their bags.

McGonagall awarded all 5 of them 10 points each and told them to go back to their common rooms.