Four To The End (prev Shifting Lines) - Book One (Marauder Era)

Chapter Thirty-Seven - His Blood is Black

On Saturday morning the Gryffindors were all geared up for their first Quidditch game. At the breakfast table Remus could see a lot of the students had gone all out. A good two-thirds of them were wearing Gryffindor colors. Many had face paint on and there were quite a few pennants sitting around as their owners ate breakfast. Several students wore hats and there were three older students who had lion masks on their heads, resting on the top until they were ready to go to the pitch. Over at the Hufflepuff table, the students were drenched in yellow and black, badger decorations everywhere.

James, Sirius, and Peter were all dressed up too. Peter had a scarlet jumper on and his Gryffindor scarf sat on the bench next to him. But the other two were both wearing red trousers. James had a gold jumper on, while Sirius wore a red-and-gold striped one that looked like it fit James and not Sirius. James also had pots of red and gold face paint so after they finished eating they smeared their faces with the colors.

"Come on then," James said, lifting red fingers to Remus.

Remus pushed himself away. "I'm n--not going."

"Why not?" James's eyes went huge at the betrayal. "It's Quidditch!"

Exactly why I'm not going. "I have a lot of--of assignments to catch up with," Remus said, scooting a little more back in case James decided to just slather the paint on him regardless.

"Liar," Sirius said. "Have you ever even been to a game?"

"If you include the one where my brains were bashed out of my ears, then yes," Remus replied rather icily.

"That doesn't count," James said, then turned back to Peter, drawing a red line down the bridge of his nose. "You'll like Quidditch. It's really, er, educational. Peter, come on, sit still, my lion looks more like a kitten."

"That's supposed to be a lion?" Sirius laughed at the shapes on Peter's cheek. "I never knew lions were so triangular. Looks like a slice of pizza."

"Shaddup," James grumbled then made the picture worse.

"No! Wait. It's a badger, you're making him root for the other team, he's a spy!"

"Shut. Up!"

Sirius propped his elbow on the table and put his chin against his hand, smiling at Remus. "You really not coming? Even Evans is going, see?"

Remus looked down the table to see Lily, Colgate, and Inkwood were all wearing headbands with lion ears. Inkwood was the most decked out including brilliant gold lion paws that stood out against her dark skin, but Lily was wearing a Gryffindor jumper and when she waved her hand through the air Remus could see her nails were bright scarlet.

"You're the only Gryffindor not going!" Peter said as James gave up trying to draw anything and just smeared the red. It made Peter look like someone had clawed the heck out of his cheek; Remus couldn't look at him.

"Then I'll have the common room all to myself," Remus said, poking at the last of his breakfast.

They kept trying their best to convince Remus up until it was time for them to head out to the pitch if they wanted decent seats. Sirius gave one last plea that Remus pretended not to hear, and then the Great Hall emptied out. Remus went up to the tower very pleased to see he was completely alone which was really nice. He brought all his books down, took the best table and began working on the assignments which only took up about half an hour to finish them. Then he went over to the window to watch the heavy grey clouds drift across the sky. It was drizzling, threatening to really pour down. Remus gave a bit of a shudder, picturing all the red face paint streaking like blood.