Karina Potter, Aunt Marauder

Chapter 20

Harry was completely excited when he heard that his mother had signed him up for the Quidditch team. He wanted to tell everyone, and Karina was able to clean nearly the entire house in the time that it took Harry to scrawl out some letters to send to everyone he wanted to tell. Karina had tried to cut him off when he wanted to send a letter to every person at the Ministry, but she did give him a few names of some of his closest friends in the office. Kingsley and Moody got one each, and even Emily Eneadle who used to watch Harry when Karina would bring him along to the office. 

She made him dinner, and he ate it at his little desk as he printed the same message on different colored paper with his crayons. Karina couldn't help but smile at the happy faces and the rough writing, mostly using red. 

Later that evening, Moody came over, carrying a small box from the bakery. 

"Alastor! What brings you here this late at night?" Karina asked, smiling at him. It was getting pretty late, but Karina had promised Harry that he could finish up all of his letters before bed. 

"Well, the little tyke deserved some celebration!" He told her, making his way into the room roughly, and she shut the door behind him, a little confused.

"Celebration?" She asked, and Moody nodded as though it were obvious.

"Of course! This boy's gonna be a Quidditch star!" He lifted Harry up onto his shoulder, bouncing him up and down and making Harry laugh.

"Oh, Alastor!" She exclaimed, but she was laughing as well. "Don't get him wound up, he's got to go to bed soon!" 

"Oh, it'll be alright!" He told her. "I'll just be a bit! I even got him a little gift!" He set Harry down and handed him the box from the bakery. Harry squealed and dove into it, shrieking wildly when he saw a large chocolate cupcake with the team symbol.

"Alastor, is that really necessary?" Karina was getting a little annoyed now with Moody's behavior. She was trying to get Harry settled down, and he came along feeding him sugar and getting him all riled up! This was why she never really let him babysit. The last time that Moody had watched Harry, she went to the grocery store for half an hour and Harry was a mess, the stove was flaming, and Moody was asleep on the couch.

Moody was still ignoring her and had Harry sitting on his lap. "Now, tell me little bugger! What position do you think you'll go out for?" Harry giggled.

"Let me show you!" He ran away and came back with Karina's Quidditch robes, showing Moody. "I wanna do like this!" 

"Ah, a Chaser." Moody took the robes, nodding with approval. "Just like your au-" Karina nudged him. She had stopped trying to convince him that she was his aunt and not his mother, and was trying to encourage everyone else to comply with him so that he wouldn't get confused.  "Er, mother." He gave Karina a look but didn't comment on it. 

"Yeah! Just like Momma!" Harry told him excitedly. "She let me watch her and Dames play in her ring! And she got to chase the ball all over the field! It looked like fun, and I wanna do it too!" 

"Well, being a Chaser is a large responsibility," Moody told him, as though he were some great wise man concerning Quidditch. "Probably the most important player in the game! After all, who's to say that without the Chasers, we'd even have a game!" 

"Well, I wouldn't say that," Karina told him, sitting in her armchair, a little annoyed. It bugged her a bit, the way he was throwing other members of a Quidditch team. Other members such as James and Sirius's positions on the team. "After all, the entire team is important, isn't it? The Beaters protect the Chasers from getting hit by the Bludgers and the Seeker is the one that ends the game entirely."

"Yeah, but the Chasers are the ones everyone watches!" Moody told her, nudging her roughly, though teasingly. "You should know! You loved the attention!" He pulled Harry back onto his lap, the little boy listening excitedly. "I remember listening to Dumbledore talk about you as though you were his own kid on that team! You and those boys really hammed it up when you were up there, believe me! When I came to Hogwarts and got to watch the games! You would fly around, smacking into other players to get them out your way, you'd leave a trail of red dust behind ya as you flew, do mad moves where you'd fly behind the hoops to catch the Quaffle just to score again!"

"Yay, Momma!" Harry cheered, and Karina turned red, thinking about those past games. She was a little embarrassed the way that Moody praised her. 

"Oh, it wasn't much." She told them, twisting a piece of hair between her fingers. 

"Wasn't much?!" Moody cried out, and she felt her face grow even warmer.  "You were at the top of your team! One of the best! There's a plaque at Hogwarts with your name on it!" 

"Really, Momma!?" Harry jumped up and ran over to her, and she got a little nervous. "How fast did you used to go?! Did you used to fly through the hoops?! Were you ever get hit by a Bludger?! Who was the Seeker?! Was he fast?!" 

"Okay, I think its time that Uncle Moody leaves!" Karina stood up as her heart began to race and she was starting to get anxious. 

"What'd I do?" He asked as she got him to his feet.

"It's getting late, and it's almost time for Harry to go to bed!" She told him, pushing him towards the door, handing him his cane. "We'll talk to you later, bye Alastor!" She pushed him out the door and shut it, taking a deep breath. Then she clapped her hands together, flashing a massive smile at Harry, who looked confused, and little sad that Moody had to go. "Come along, love." She said, going over and picking Harry up, carrying him towards the stairs. "Let's go get ready for bed."

"Momma, why did you make Uncle Moody leave?" He asked her. "I like hearing about you playing Quidditch!" She smiled again at him.

"Stop asking questions, and I'll let you eat that cupcake for breakfast!"

"Yay!" He cheered, immediately having forgotten Moody and what he was saying.