A/N: I hope you enjoy (:

Disclaimer: I own my characters and that's all.

Prolouge

Typical to any morning in the Potter household, James Potter was out the door as the sun rose while the rest of the house was still asleep. He put on his trainers and took off outside his house. The air was crisp that morning and he was dressed in a pair of running shorts and a sweatshirt. Godric's Hollow was quiet that morning except for the slight chirp from the birds. The wind blew sharply and James Potter began to pick up speed, his mind wandered to random thoughts, OWL scores were expected to arrive soon as well as a supposed letter regarding quidditch that Professor McGonagall had hinted to him before he had left for the summer.

Quidditch was a most wonderful sport in James opinion. It allowed him to escape clear his head. He loved flying, it gave him freedom and it made him feel relieved. The quidditch cup would be Gryffindor's this year, he was certain. Term started in almost two weeks and there was so much to do. James allowed his mind to wander off onto tangents as he ran.

By the time that he finished his run, the sun beamed on the streets of England and he slowed into a light jog as he entered the household.

"Morning dear," Ginny Potter called from the stove.

"Morning mum, dad left?" James said as his mother nodded.

"He sent his love," she smiled.

James kissed her on the cheek and swiped a strip of bacon from the skillet. "Morning Lil," James ruffled his sister's hair.

"James you ars-," she started, her voice faltered as Ginny turned to face her daughter with a stern look on her face.

James Potter stifled a laugh and Lily Potter shot him a death glare. Her flaming red hair made her sparkling green eyes pop in contrast to James' messy dark hair and hazel eyes.

There was a thudding from the stairs and the last of the Potters protruded into the kitchen. "Good morning," Albus mumbled, no one actually heard him of course because his nose was currently stuck in a book. He sat down and methodically started eating his breakfast.

"Al," James nodded.

"Mail's supposed to come today," he muttered.

Just as he said so, a large tawny owl swooped through the open window and landed precisely in the plate of toast that Ginny had earlier placed on the table.

"Hm. Good Call Al," James said to him as he proceeded to untie the letters attached at the foot of the owl. "Lil, would you like to check the damage?" he asked as he handed the bulky envelopes to his sister.

"As always," she smiled devilishly. Lily cleared her throat and began to read out the envelopes in an extremely aristocratic and snobbish manner. "James Sirius Potter," she announced, "has a achieved," Lily paused, scrunched up her nose, rubbed her eyes, flipped the parchment over and over, shook her head and continued to read, "Charms, exceeds expectations; Transfiguration, outstanding; Herbology, exceeds expectations; Potions, outstanding; History of Magic, acceptable; Defense Against the Dark Arts, outstanding; Astronomy, exceeds expectations; Ancient Runes, exceeds expectations," she finished dryly. "Who the hell are you and what have you done with James Potter."

There was dead silence all around as no one really knew what to say. Albus was simply staring at James, his book forgotten and Ginny looked as if someone had stunned her for a moment before breaking out into a huge smile, "Well that's fantastic James, I'm so proud of you."

"Uh, thanks mum," he said.

"How'd you do it?" Lily asked seriously, "did you pay someone to take it for you? Did Aiden take them for you? What about Emma?"

"Oh sod off Lily," James countered, "I did not let Aiden take them for me. And how is Emma even relevant to this conversation at all."

"Well Aiden's almost a genius, and Emma can beat you in quidditch, she's also very clever, and plus you fanc-,"

"Lil, you finish that sentence and I swear I'll stick your feet to the floor."

James happened to be best mates with a bloke from Ravenclaw named Aiden Chambers, they barely had any classes together and most of the time they were opponents on the quidditch pitch but whenever they had free time they were stuck together with glue, or so it seemed. As for Emma, Lily had this notion ever since she got to Hogwarts, that James fancied a girl on the Ravenclaw quidditch team. James would nearly strangle Lily every time, but needless to say, he claims he does not feel that way in the slightest.

"Well anyways, here's the rest of your letter it's not interesting enough for me to care," she said as she tossed an envelope to Albus and opened up her own.

Lily would now be entering her third year, Albus his fourth and James his sixth. James gathered up the remainder of his envelope and leafed through the pages, books for next year, there was a lot of weight on the envelope still, so James did the only logical thing, he dumped it upside down and shook it.

Out fell a small silver object and with a subtle "ping" it landed on the table. "What the hell?" James stared at the object, a badge, with wide eyes.

"What in Merlin's pants…" Albus and Lily said in unison.

"No way James! Captain! That's bloody amazing," Albus congratulated his brother.

"Thanks Al," James stuttered slightly in shock.

Ginny and Lily also proceeded to congratulate the boy, as this was more so believable than his owls. Then Ginny proceeded to look giddy with excitement and started mumbling all kinds of nonsense on how she must write to Harry and send him the message and she exited the room.

"At least this is believable," Lily noted.

"Thanks," James retorted sarcastically. "Can I have a hug?" he asked.

"You haven't even showered! That's putrid!"

"Please? For your loving big brother?" James teased as he began chasing the fiery red head around the house.

A little later in the day another package came for James. This time it was attached to two owls who swooped into the household and gracefully landed on James' bed. It was wrapped in paper with a little note attached.

Potter,

Congratulations on captain! I knew Professor Longbottom would pick you, he would be barking mad if he didn't.

This is my gift to you, good luck this year you're going to need it. My sister is really going to have it in for you. Remember to kick her arse this year.

Best of luck.

-Wood

"Damn it," James swore under his breath. Daniel Wood was James' quidditch captain the previous year; they beat Ravenclaw, but at the last match Ravenclaw fell short by two quaffle tosses. Emma Wood was Daniel's younger sister and a chaser on the Ravenclaw team who usually played opposite James was responsible for this.

James opened the parcel, only to find Daniel's playbook that the team had built up last year. On the inside there were about a hundred plays, each page dedicated to a separate one, with figures zooming across the page as to see how the plans worked out.

James shook his head. The Woods were legitimately crazy about quidditch, sure Ginny played professionally and still worked in the business, but the Woods lived, breathed, and slept quidditch, they were debatably insane, the lot of them. Yes, this was the same Wood who had played quidditch with Harry Potter.

James often heard stories that his dad had told him about the famous Oliver Wood. They were often insane; Uncle George often made jokes about the various pep talks or speeches as he said. Harry had once told James that Wood was mad, but he was a bloody genius when it came down to it.

Emma woke up bright and early that summer morning and grabbed a pair of trainers to sneak in a run before breakfast that morning. Her mum and dad would be up soon and they would again, leave for work even sooner. Her brother was currently training for Puddlemere United so he had been in a program this summer, and consequently not at home. Emma took off for the trail by the lake a little ways past her house and she just kept running until she couldn't breathe anymore.

Quidditch had always been a family thing; in fact Emma would say her family was on the border of clinically insane. Even she knew it. She was eyeing a spot at captain this year seeing as the former had left Hogwarts and she was desperately hoping to get it. Sometimes when she was left alone with her thoughts for too long, she would start to go insane and so running helped clear it all out.

She came home that morning to find an owl flying across her kitchen. The large brown bird irritably nipped her finger as she attempted to untie the envelope attached to its foot. She saw familiar handwriting scrawled across in emerald ink with a Hogwarts seal on the back. "Damn it," Emma cursed.

Her hands trembled as she opened the envelope and slid out the multiple pieces of parchment.

Ordinary Wizarding Level Results

Pass Grades:

Outstanding (O)

Exceeds Expectations (E)

Acceptable (A)

Fail Grades:

Poor (P)

Dreadful (D)

Troll (T)

Emma Kathryn Wood has achieved:

Astronomy O

Arithmancy O

Charms O

Defense Against the Dark Arts O

Study of Ancient Runes O

Herbology O

History of Magic E

Potions O

Transfiguration E

She read the parchment thoroughly and several times as she took time to absorb her scores. They weren't awful, but she was nearly certain that she had screwed up Transfiguration; she wasn't even sure how she had gotten Exceeds Expectations.

Emma breathed out a sigh of relief as she set down that letter. She leafed through her books for the coming year and her welcome back letter only to find herself still holding two pieces of parchment.

She read the first one which gave her instructions as to where to go regarding prefect duty on the train but the second one came as a bit of a surprise.

Dear Miss Emma K. Wood,

We are pleased to inform you that after due consideration, Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry had found it appropriate to appoint you Quidditch for the coming year. I hope you will rightfully accept this responsibility and do your house proud.

Please regard the badge that is contained with this letter.

Sincerely,

Minerva McGonagall

Hogwarts Headmistress

Emma squealed in excitement as she gripped the paper with all her strength and nearly ripped it in half. She took a dive back towards the envelope to find a silver badge with a C on it to match her prefect badge. She couldn't wait to tell her parents when they came home, so she messily scribbled three notes on spare pieces of parchment and attached them back to the owl and sent it on its merry way.

A little while later she received a small note dropped on her head.

Em—

Prepare to lose.

Love,

-Daniel

"Bloody hell Daniel," Emma shouted out to no one in particular.

It must be Potter, it had to be, she reasoned. It's not that the two disliked each other, not at all, in fact the two of them got along charmingly. The only thing was that the two of them were equally competitive with one another, they were always pushing each other and at times it could get a bit, well, intense. Emma wondered if Daniel still had his old quidditch plays lying around. She justified searching the house for them with the fact that she just received quidditch captain.

After an hour, with no avail Emma forfeited and settled on writing a thoroughly detailed letter to her friend Audrey. When that didn't really help rid her head of emotions, Emma grabbed her broom and went out into the quidditch pitch her dad had set up in the backyard where she unknowingly flew around for the rest of the day until her mum caller her in for dinner.