Quidditch Conversations & Quiet Corridors

By SXS

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter and affiliated entities, nor did I intend any copyright infringement.

James Potter was feeling exceptionally spirited, even as he strolled back and forth through the Astronomy Tower at eleven o'clock at night. Sure, being Head Boy was tiring work, but Gryffindor had successfully clobbered Slytherin today in at Quidditch, knocking them out of the running in their second match! Not only that, but one of his skilled beaters, Benjamin Wood, had knocked out that little Slytherin Seeker twit, Regulus Black, right off his broom with a Bludger. Sirius owed him at least a couple butterbeers for that.

To lighten up his mood even more, tonight, he was patrolling the corridor right next to the one Lily Evans was inspecting, her being Head Girl and all. He was quite sure that they'd have to walk down to the common room together; the first time he'd get to be alone with her this year.

Then again, she likely had the same thing running through her mind, except the realization probably wouldn't be as appealing to her. Even though since the middle of sixth year, James had really cleaned up his act (for example, no hexing first years because they looked funny) and Lily seemed to have noticed. Okay, so they weren't exactly friends…but on the bright side, she didn't completely loathe him anymore. Actually, by the end of sixth year, they had a few normal conversations with each other. They were usually about schoolwork or tests, but nonetheless, it was a great improvement. The best part about it was that she'd started calling him "James" instead of just "Potter" all the time.

"James," she called out to him, using that new word, and James came bounding to where she was in an instant, expecting something great—perhaps she'd like to strike up a conversation, confess her undying love for him, push him against the wall and start snogging, or all of them at once…. James smiled at his thoughts; nice fantasies, but definitely weren't coming true...yet. Instead, she said, "It is eleven fifteen…the prefects are coming to take it from here. I'm going to head down to the common room."

"I'll come with!" James offered, definitely a little too enthusiastically. Lily eyed him skeptically, and finally, shrugged and nodded. James could hardly contain himself…it wasn't often that he got to walk through three hallways and a flight of stairs alone with Lily Evans.

Before long, the two were walking down a hallway in utter silence. It was rather awkward; Lily was constantly avoiding his gaze, and he couldn't think of a thing to say. James closed his eyes for a second, and thought of what Sirius had told him about conversing with girls.

"Start simple; ask them how they're doing, or what they thought of Transfiguration today, or something like that. It works for me, anyway, usually. I think girls just like how you want to know how they feel. It's feminine and all that, you know, Prongs?"

Although James highly doubted Lily would take to him after asking how her day had gone, especially when James new for a fact that she'd had an argument with that Mulciber goon in Charms, and gotten a lecture from Professor Flitwick, who usually treated her as a goddess.

"So, uh, how was patrolling the corridors?" James struck up, completely winging it.

"It was quiet," Lily replied shortly, her tone almost reprimanding at the dismalness of James's question. James ducked his head, embarrassed, and ran a hand through his hair in anxiety. Lily stared at his motion, and he could've sworn he saw her half-smile.

"Why do you always do that?" she asked. "You run your hand through your hair every other minute, as far as I've noticed."

James was silent for a few moments to fully digest what had just happened. First of all, Lily had actually started conversation with him, which meant she wanted to talk to him, which meant she wanted to get to know him better, which meant she wanted to go out with—

Wait…no. The last time he had assumed that she wanted to go out with him and voiced it aloud was on the last day of fifth year, and he'd received a pretty bad Bat-Bogey Hex. So maybe her train of thought didn't go that far. But she had started up a conversation, so she did want to talk.

Secondly, she'd mentioned that she noticed his habits. I guess it was hard to miss what someone did if they did it every other minute—but that wasn't true. It was more like every five minutes, honestly. But still, she'd noticed…that was something in itself. James had never caught her even looking in his direction during classes, despite all the time and attention span he used up while gazing at her pretty face.

By the time James had finished analyzing the two sentences Lily had just said, her face was bright red and she was looking down at the ground in embarrassment.

"Sorry," she said softly, thinking James was either insulted or ignoring her.

"Oh no, I'm sorry," James replied valiantly, hoping to save their conversation. "I sort of zoned out there, but I heard what you said. And um…I don't really know why I do that, I guess it's just a habit." He paused, thinking of a topic change that was really conversable. "So, did you see the Quidditch match today?"

Lily looked up questioningly; obviously James had picked the wrong conversation-starter.

"Is that all you think about?"

"Well, Quidditch is really important to me."

"I don't really know anything about it, except there are balls and broomsticks. You know that, so why ask a question like that?"

"Aw, c'mon Lily, you watch the matches. I saw you at today's match…which, may I add, I would like your opinion on."

"It was nice."

"Lily! C'mon, is that it? You must've seen my amazing shot, or maybe how greatly Ignatius Clearwater saved the second goal—I taught him that flipping trick, you know…" James trailed off, noticing that Lily was beginning to get disinterested with his rambling, and that he sounded like a conceited bragger. He quickly stopped himself, and looked straight into Lily's vivid green eyes, his heartbeat quickening when they met. She seemed to have felt something too, because when she spoke again, her voice was softer.

"You did a good job, I thought. But I'm not really much of a Quidditch fan."

Now this was news to James.

"You haven't missed a game since the middle of sixth year."

"What are you talking about?" questioned Lily, evidently flustered now. "I don't go to every match, James, I hardly have the time for it!"

Now it was James's turn to make a skeptical face. He knew for a fact that she'd gone to every single one since the middle of sixth year; since he started getting his act together; since they actually started talking to each other civilly.

"Lily," he addressed, his voice amused and deep. Lily's eyes flickered up to his face when he said her name, and he could've sworn she was holding back a satisfied smile. "I know you go to every one."

"How do you know that? Do you have some sort of tracking charm on me?" she questioned playfully.

"No…" James swallowed, about to admit something rather embarrassing. "I look for you at every match—ever since fourth year, actually. You didn't used to come to them that often, but now you go to every one of them. I don't know why, but I suppose that's why we beat Slytherin today…I played extra-hard because I sort of imagined …" James could feel his face heating up now, and stopped himself mid-sentence. He looked up at the ceiling, hoping Lily didn't notice the pink tinges on his cheeks.

"Imagined what?" Lily repeated, taking in every word he said. Her eyes widened, curious. She really did want to know, James realized.

"Well…I sort of imagine that I'm playing for you. Whenever you're at the matches, I feel so great that you're watching, because well, I'm not all that great at a lot of things, like Charms or being well-behaved, but I guess I…I really want you to see me do well at something. So you'd be, you know, impressed, and maybe somewhat inclined to talk to me…." James smacked himself mentally, reflecting at the complete idiocy of his words.

And, unbelievably, Lily smiled. It was a genuine smile, soft, slow, and meaningful. James could feel his insides throwing a party, his legs turn to jelly. He couldn't help but smile back at her, which made her cheeks a bit pinker. They stared at each other for a good while, still walking, and James was just going to put an arm around her, until—

"Password?"

"Dragon heartstring."

James lowered his arm in mid-raise, slightly disappointed. But overall, the night had been terrific. Lily Evans had actually smiled at him….

The two were now in the common room, with Lily organizing her bag on an armchair. James simply gazed at her with a mixture of admiration and hope. She noticed.

"What are you staring for?"

"I just…sort of wanted to ask you something."

"Yes?"

"Why do you come to all the matches, anyway?"

Lily turned an ever brighter shade of pink, and replied cleverly, "To be impressed."