My first drabble. Please tell me how you like it!
My class is to use the new spell on the pixies. I am sitting behind my desk about to get up and supervise the students in their attempts. The thought suddenly reaches me that this was the same classroom where I learned my own lessons. My mind suddenly travels back sixteen years as my eyes suddenly land on Harry…
"James? Do you really think you should be doing this?" I asked.
"Yeah, of course." James looked me oddly, "Don't you remember first year when Evans fell off her broom at the first practice? It'll be a piece of cake!" was the laughing reply.
I merely sighed. I'd known Lily longer than James. In fact Lily and I had been quite good friends first year when I was shy and had yet to become a Marauder. Actually Lily had been the first student to figure out my "furry little problem" (Marauders don't know that) and Lily had sworn to take my secret to the grave unless I give her permission to reveal it.
If I know Lily she has something up her sleeve, she isn't stupid enough to race the Gryffindor team captain without some kind of plan…
I watched with trepidation as James hopped on his broom and flew over to where Lily was as she walked steadily over to us with a broom in her hand and a blank face.
I knew better though; Lily only ever had that blank look when she was carefully constructing it, no doubt to keep her real feelings hidden. Something was up. I saw her face gradually grow into an annoyed frown as James flew next to her and no doubt teased her mercilessly about first year.
As they drew nearer I could hear them more clearly…
"Evans, you can drop out anytime you want to. Your pride may hurt slightly but I'm sure that no one would think the worse of you and it would surely spare us the hassle of having to levitate you over to Madam Pomfrey…"
I groaned internally as Lily's face flashed anger for a moment then blanked itself.
"Potter, I'm sure it'll be all right. And in any case, I would rather hurt myself by falling than kiss your bloody arrogant ass. Besides, if I win I don't have to date you or kiss you. And those were the terms were they not?" She smiled saccharinely as her last comment wiped the smug smirk off his handsome face.
"Now are we going to do this or not?" she questioned as she mounted the borrowed broom; the blanked face had come back but I saw a slight grin of excitement make a brief visit. "The sooner I win the sooner I can go back to finishing the Potions essay."
James just smirked, "Of course my lady, your wish is my command."
"In that case, would you please stop being such an arrogant prick?"
"Only if you go out with me."
She sighed, resigned she turned back to face me, "Remmy we'd better go ahead and get this over with."
I nodded, "Alright, this is how this is going to go. You two are to mount your brooms and fly up about 3 meters. When I say 'go' you will fly to the outer lines. From there you will race along the outer line until you reach the goals. You will then weave in and out of all the hoops then continue following the outer lines until you reach the goals on the other side where you will do exactly the same thing. Then follow the outer lines all the way back to the where they meet the center one and race back to me. Get it? The rules are there are no rules. Everything goes except no wands allowed." With that I disarm them both.
They nod and James mounts his broom.
"Ready?" they fly up the three meters.
"Set?" They both nod as I make eye contact.
"Alright, GO!" I shout. And they're off.
Needless to say I was right about Lily. James really should learn not to underestimate her. She was unbelievably graceful on her broom. It's utterly amazing, it's like they are one being! She was trailing slightly behind James all the way to the first goal… that is where she first obliterated him.
Not to sound mean but James had never been particularly graceful. He is an amazing player, obviously, but he's never been much for being graceful. As they race to the second set of goals James begins to catch up once again until they're neck and neck.
I can't see his face right now but I'm willing to bet that James is fairly dumbstruck right now. None of us ever knew Lily was an incredible flyer, but you can't really blame us seeing as our only observation of her attempt at flying involved her falling flat on her face from where we were hovering 2 inches off the ground…
They reach the second set of goals and once again Lily massacres James in the weaving and once again they are neck and neck as they come along the home stretch. Lily's face is radiating joy (I can tell now that's she's close enough to see) and James' sheer concentration.
I'm getting quite nervous. They look like they are going to tie and if that's the case then it won't matter how good Lily is, she's still going to lose the bet. I think she realizes this too because she suddenly leans over her broom so that she is almost lying on her stomach and her speed increases. Instead of stopping the broom and hopping off the broom to finish (like a normal person) she chooses to ensure her victory by leaping off while she is several feet away and rolling to a halt at my feet while James is a millisecond behind her.
She looked at me expectantly, an enormous grin on her face. James couldn't, he's too busy staring at her with an interesting mix of horror and amazement on his face.
"Well Remmy, will you please tell this arrogant prat that I won so I can get back to Potions?" as she waves her hands at the boy next to her.
"James?" He doesn't answer and I grinned harder. "James? James!"
He finally looked at me, still to shocked to say anything.
"She won, you lost. And close your jaw, you look like an idiot." His jaw snapped closed.
"Thanks Remmy for judging, I know you also probably had better things to do" She gave me a hug. "Bye. And Potter?" he turned back to her, still mute. "Don't make me do that again, ok? You'll only get your arse handed to you again." And with that she lopped away.
James watched her until she disappeared from view. I grinned, "I told you so."