Lily could not remember much of the first Quidditch game she had been to very distinctly. She had found the sport very violent and it did not impress her much.

Though there was one thing that did stand out in her mind, unfortunately. She had seen how James Potter was quite the accomplished chaser, and it had stuck in her memory. He'd dodged past the Ravenclaw keeper more times than she could actually count, and he glided effortlessly through the air, a grin on his face the entire time. The other chasers on the Gryffindor team were also very good, so it puzzled Lily why James was the one that stood out to her so much. She dismissed it of course, like she did everything that included him.

But she could not deny one thing: James Potter was a natural born chaser.

He would spend all day chasing quaffles through the air like it was the most entertaining activity to be invented. Then he would come off of the Quidditch Pitch and into the halls of Hogwarts where he chased everyone's attention. Really, the boy craved it. He would do anything for it. This would be why he was dancing on the bench of the long table in the Great Hall, his foolish friends joining him. The biggest disappointment to Lily was that the students were actually rewarded him with the attention he asked for. And he knew it too.

Arrogant toerag, Lily shook her head. The black haired boy hopped onto the table, all of the Marauders singing loudly and still dancing like idiots. Ignoring every plate of food his foot was sinking into, James jitterbugged his way down the long table…and stopped directly in front of Lily, holding out a hand to her.

Because the thing that James Potter chased after the most was not a silly quaffle or the attention spans of the teenagers that filled the Great Hall. No, the thing he chased after the most, was Lily Evans herself. He'd chased her since the day they'd met. Lily felt more like she was back in primary school, and the insufferable boy was chasing her around the playground.

As she glanced over, she saw Marlene letting herself be pulled up onto the table, falling prey to Sirius Black's famous puppy dog eyes. Alice and Frank climbed up, as well as just about every person in the Great Hall. For Merlin's sake, Lily cursed, seeing the Headmaster, Albus Dumbledore, begin a hand jive as he stood on the head table.

Her bright green eyes flickered back up to James' hazel ones. They were alight, a fire ignited behind them. It was a thrill; the thrill of the chase. Because that's all he was. A chaser. Lily turned her head away, dismissing him none too gently as she stalked from the scene, leaving a quizzical look from behind those glasses in her wake.

-x-

"What a coincidence! I never thought I'd run into you here Miss Evans!" James held a hand to his chest, which was clad in his Quidditch uniform. The bright red fabric caught many eyes in the library, calling attention to the two.

"Sure you didn't." Lily muttered, not looking away from the bent spines of the volumes in front of her. He had probably staked her out. She could have sworn that he had a sixth sense devoted to her whereabouts at all times. If she could only find her book, she could be out of here, and rid of him.

"Are you coming to the game?" His voice had not bothered to lower despite the silent atmosphere in the library.

"Probably not. I have homework." Lily stated as simply as she could. If she didn't give him a reaction, she hoped he would get bored and leave. She hoped, but she knew better.

James just laughed. "Yeah, everybody has homework. Yet everyone is going to the game?"

"Not everyone." Lily pointed a finger at herself as she rounded the corner, still scouring the spines for the desired title.

"Come on, Lily! Why won't you come?"

"Because I don't want to Potter." Aha! There you are! She snatched the book and whirled away from the shelf.

"Just one today Miss Evans?" Madame Pince smiled warmly at the redhead as she recorded the book that was being taken out.

"Yes please."

"Madame Pince, please tell Lily here that she should come to the Quidditch match this afternoon." James leaned onto the desk, shooting his best charming look at the older woman.

The librarian did no such thing, only giving the boy a tight lipped, grim face.

One of James' eyebrows shot up. "Still holding a grudge about that flood, huh?"

The woman looked like she could have strangled him on the spot as she handed the book back to Lily.

The insolent boy's footsteps followed her out the door, echoing after hers through the empty hallway.

"I know you want to go Evans. You just don't want to admit it."

The ignoring tactic wasn't going to work anymore. "Why don't you just leave me alone?" Her voice shot down the hallway, stopping the boy in his tracks. They stood facing each other, almost in a dueling stance.

"Why don't you go after some other girl? I bet every girl in this school would love to go cheer you on!" Go chase someone else! Her thoughts urged him silently.

His brow furrowed, and he ran a shaky hand through his chaotic hair. Those hazel orbs that drove Lily over the edge flitted about the hall, at portraits, out the window, anywhere but at her.

"Why would I do that when you're the girl I want?" Actually saying the words must have given him some of his Gryffindor courage back, for his eyes finally met hers, piercing through her, making a shiver travel down her spine.

Lily was silenced. She did not want to believe it. She did not want to hear those words come from the chaser's lips. Because that's all he was. A chaser. He only wanted her until he had her, and then he would throw her for a hoop, just like a quaffle.

James took a hesitant step in her direction, but Lily did not give the chaser the chance to close in. she turned on her heel and left him, his hand left hanging in the air, reaching for her.

-x-

"These are the Quidditch finals though! And it's our last year!"

Lily slammed her book closed. Alice wasn't exactly letting her get past one page, and she could not take one more complaint from her friend.

"Fine, I'll go!" Alice did a little victory dance as Lily collected her jacket.

"Let's get a move one before she changes her mind!" Marlene linked an arm through the redhead's, dragging her out of Gryffindor Tower.

The bracing, biting cold of the wind was not what Lily would have picked first, much more preferring the crackling fire in the common room, but her friends would not let her turn back now. As the trio grew closer to the Pitch, the cheers actually made the ground tremble beneath them. Lily was really starting to regret her decision as they got shuffled through the suffocating crowd, but when the whistle blew; her attention was immediately on the quaffle being catapulted into the hair.

Of course the first hands on it were James'. His broom was actually an older model than the Slytherin chaser's, but he somehow darted about much quicker that the boy in green. A point to Gryffindor was collected as James launched the quaffle past the keeper.

As the game went on, Lily was vividly reminded why the game did not interest her. The seekers were watching the rest of the game pan out. The beaters were trying to take each other's heads off. James caught the quaffle again. The Slytherin boy stole it, shoving James aside, but he soared back up immediately taking possession of the ball once more. Of their own accord, Lily's emerald eyes followed the mop of black hair as he traveled all about the pitch, adding to Gryffindor's score all the time. He caught the quaffle again. And again. And again.

"That's odd." Lily muttered to herself, her voice not making a dent in the raucous around her.

Alice and Marlene whooped and screeched next to her as James flung the red ball through Slytherin's hoops once more. He easily obtained the ball back from the opposing chasers, clutching it close to his person.

For a chaser, he seemed to do more catching than actual chasing. Maybe he should be called a catcher instead. Lily smiled at her clever thought as she watched James dodge a bludger and add another point. Yes, catcher seemed to suit him much better.

Lily's heart jumped up to her throat suddenly, blocking her air supply. Everything seemed to slow. Even the spectators surrounding her were moving sluggishly. Even though she could obviously see that James' eyes were fixated on the quaffle, her whole being felt that odd shiver it did whenever those eyes were on her.

Lily found, to her surprise, that when one realizes something, it is not like a light bulb going off in one's head. Not at all. It was more like a heavy blow to one's gut; the vibrations running through the body, making sure the realization rattles every nerve.

It was like being in a dream. Alice sent her an odd look, touching her arm, but Lily surged ahead, leaving the pitch behind her, the constant cheers pounding in her head. She had never had an out of body experience, but Lily guessed that it felt something like she did now. The slow motion continued around her while her legs fought against it as if they were in a pool of molasses.

The familiar castle spires were so close, but her legs were not allowing her to go any further. Collapsing on her knees, Lily stared wide-eyed at the blades of grass she strangled between her fingers.

Ever since the first Quidditch game she went to, ever since the first time she had met James Potter, she had labeled him. She had labeled him a toerag, arrogant, insufferable, foolish, immature. But most of all, she had labeled him a chaser. Because that's what she'd thought he was. A chaser.

But she'd been wrong. Because James Potter wasn't a chaser. That wasn't the adequate term for him. He was a catcher.

He caught the quaffles he chased around all day. He caught the attentions he called for. But most of all, he'd caught her: Lily Evans.

The cheers sounded so far away as the whistle blew once more, indicating the end of the game. Lily could barely even remember where she was at all.

James had always chased her. Every year, every Hogsmeade trip. And every time, Lily had turned away from him. She had turned away from the boy she had labeled a chaser. Because all he was after was the thrill of the chase. But seeing him, just now, catching pass after pass, with the same determined look he held for her, she knew.

He was not chasing her. He was simply building up to catching her.

That blow to her gut seemed to emanate real pain and would not stop vibrating through her. Her nerves were still in shock, but Lily forced herself to stand. Walking felt like a very robotic motion and her eyes would not focus on any single thing.

In the strangest way, she felt alive. Her heart was pounding, her skin sizzling. Yet at the same time, it felt like her stomach had dropped somewhere near her ankles. Lily was barely aware of the people about her who were still reeling from the outcome of the match. Her mind had taken to one track that it wouldn't stray from.

"Lily! There you are! We were wondering where you'd gone." Alice skipped up to her as she entered the portrait hole.

"We won! We won!" Sirius shouted, earning another round of "whoops" and screams of delight.

Lily allowed herself to be pulled along by Alice into the mob of red and gold. She was jostled about, and she almost let herself get carried away in the excitement.

Until she saw him.

He was surrounded by his teammates, Sirius holding their arms in the air as he made some sort of victory speech that he'd probably practiced for ages.

Lily stood in the middle of the crowd, not able to look away from James.

He must have sensed her gaze, for he turned on the spot, his eyes connecting with hers. With him actually looking at her, his gaze not wavering at all, just made another blow find her gut. She almost doubled over. Right when he caught a glimpse of her, the grin that always showed itself around her covered his lips.

Why did he have to smile at her like that? That wasn't fair at all.

Her nerves began to shake violently again. This couldn't happen. So Lily did the only sane thing her mind was telling her to do at the moment. She whirled away from James as she had done so many times before, and she fled.

She felt like she had no control of her legs. Her mind wanted to stop and make sense of things, but her legs wanted none of that. They wanted to get as far away from all of it as fast as possible.

"Lily!" James' voice resounded through the empty hallways. She could hear his footsteps beginning to move quicker, trying to catch up with her.

James was chasing her. He was literally chasing her. Lily could have laughed at how ironic the situation was. Or cry. She wasn't exactly sure.

"Lily, wait!" Lily tried her best to dodge him, rounding corners and doubling back different halls, but it was useless. His footsteps even seemed to grow closer. She was doing exactly what she had done for the past six years. She was running from him. But before all of this, she always thought it had been the right thing to run from a chaser. But how does one run from a catcher?

Rounding one last corner, she forced her cowardly legs to freeze, and she turned, heaving a deep breath.

Lily would not be a runner anymore. She wasn't going to do that to James, and she wasn't going to do that to herself. She'd done it for too long now. The shivers she got whenever he just looked at her. How easily she'd gotten along with him for the past year. How she'd grown accustomed to his presence; how she'd grown to like his presence. The thoughts about him had tried to flicker up in the back of her head, but she'd smothered them down, not allowing them to surface. She'd run from them. But she wasn't going to do that anymore. She wasn't going to run.

Because Lily did not want to be chased anymore. She wanted to be caught.

James must have heard her footsteps stop, because he rounded the corner rather slowly, watching her cautiously.

He's waiting for me to run again, she thought sadly.

"Lily," his voice sounded serious, and he was keeping his distance. Lily wasn't having any of that.

She walked right up to him, her hands winding themselves around his neck. His eyes went from cautious to confused in a moment, and Lily felt him tense when she brought her lips to his. He only tensed for a moment however as he let his hands wander to her waist and pull her closer. James deepened the kiss, causing her to gasp. How could she have been running from this? How could she have run from him for so long?

James pulled away slightly, keeping their foreheads against each other. Lily's back had ended up pressed against the stone wall, and they were impossibly, wonderfully close.

"Did I miss something?" James laughed nervously, but his eyes gave away his delight.

Lily could not look away from those bright eyes. They were alight, but not from the thrill of the chase. It was from the thrill of having her.

"I'm not running anymore." She saw the confusion flash through his eyes, but she had to say it out loud. She had to tell him, even if it made no sense to him. She needed to promise this to herself as well as him.

He didn't say anything. But his reaction said it all. Lily guessed that he didn't realize it, but his arms pulled her tighter as a wide smile graced his lips. He looked like she'd just given him the world.

Lily could not shake the feeling that she needed to explain. She tried to communicate the weight that was suppressing her, but found James' lips molded back on hers. Every time his mouth moved against hers, she felt every pound lift off of her chest, and she clung to him ever tighter.

Now that he'd caught her, she wasn't about to lose him. Because she'd finally caught him too, once she'd realized she'd wanted to.

Lily could not remember much of the first Quidditch game she went to very distinctly. But she remembered every moment of what happened in that hallway. She remembered their walk back, and she remembered the rest of that year, being with him, very distinctly. She remembered everything about him building up to catching her.

Because that's what he was. A catcher. And he'd finally caught the thing that he'd chased after the most.