selenophile || remus lupin

chapter eighty three

15 June 1977

2:32 pm

"Goddamnit! Regulus Black catches the snitch! With a score of 230-70, Slytherin wins! FUCK, this win means that Slytherin has won the Quidditch house cup!" shouted Emmeline Vance. Several people in the crowd expected Professor McGonagall to yell at the commentator for her choice of used language, but the professor stayed silent, wallowing that her house had lost.

Ophelia swore under her breath as she dismounted her broom and walked over to the Gryffindor team. She would congratulate her brother soon for his win, but he was wrapped up in celebrating with his team and she didn't want to interrupt that happiness that would soon be leaving very shortly.

Sirius wrapped an arm around her, "Go talk to James, he needs it."

Ophelia looked around and couldn't find the boy her brother was talking about until Sirius pointed up at the sky and Ophelia saw James looking off into the distance, still up in the air. She mounted her broom again and flew up to where he was. James didn't notice her fly up to him and continued to look out at the Black lake.

"Hey James, you alright?" she asked, gently.

"Hey, Phee. Yeah, I'm okay," he looked over at her and smiled an unconvincing smile.

"Come on, let's go get changed, yeah?"

James nodded and the two of them flew down to the changing rooms. Instead of leading them into them, though, Ophelia took his hand and brought him behind them so they could have a bit of privacy. She wrapped her arms around him and brought him into a hug. He put his head on her shoulder and after a moment she felt him start to shake. She snaked a hand into his hair and gave him a moment to cry in peace, knowing he needed to let it out.

After a minute or so, she pulled back, cupped his jaw, and wiped a few of the tears away.

"I'm- I'm sorry, Phee. It's just- It's just that I feel like I've let the house down. I'm the captain, I'm the one responsible for our wins and losses. We not only lost this game, but we lost the house cup. And to Slytherin of all houses. I'm the one to blame, it's my fault," he said, his voice breaking.

"No, James, it's not. You may be the captain, but that does not mean you're responsible for who wins and who loses."

"That's what the captain is there for, though-"

"No, the captain is there to help guide us. To train us and help us better ourselves at quidditch."

"And I haven't trained you well, I haven't guided you to victory like I was supposed to."

"James, you trained us as well as you can, that's obvious. We were wonderful out there, we just lost. It's okay that we're not always the best, that we're not always number one. What matters is that we tried our best and that we had fun doing it. And besides, we were better than all the other teams. Slytherin has always been really good, but we were better than Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw by far. That has to tell you something."

"Yeah, I guess you're right. I'm still just disappointed," James said.

"And you have a right to be. But hey, you're going home in just a few days' time, you have that to look forward to."

"Yeah, thanks, Phee. I love you, you know that?"

"I love you too, Jamsie."

✩☾✩☽✩

16 June 1977

12:53 pm

While the fifth and seventh years were busy taking their OWLs and NEWTs, the rest of Hogwarts got out of classes early and had a few days to enjoy the campus until they went home.