Choking and Screaming

XOXOXOX

"Go choke and die, Potter!" Alexandria Brayden shrieked, slamming the compartment door shut behind her. She started down the hallway, ignore the stares of curiosity as she passed. This wasn't fair! He couldn't just take her off the team like that.

Found someone better? She doubted it.

Black just sat there and laughed, too. They all did.

'Laughing like the bunch of fucking morons that they are.' She thought bitterly, opening the door near the end of the hall. Inside, a group of three students sat spaced evenly around the small room. Ryland Cooper, the 'hott guy'; Mariska Ferrera, the 'studious' one and Dorian Lively, the 'sarcastic and strange' one. All three sets of eyes looked up to the door when it slammed open and the chatting was silenced.

"Hey 'lex…" Mariska waved timidly. "How'd it go?" Alex stared at them blankly.

"…he kicked me off the team. Just like that. For four long, evil years I've been on that bloody team and he thinks he can just kick me off? I don't think so." She huffed, flopping down into her seat.

"Well…did he give a reason why he kicked you off?" Ryland asked, looking a little distressed. Alex and Ryland were the opposing keepers for the Gryffindor and Ravenclaw Quidditch teams respecitively. It wouldn't be the same without her to play against this year. "Temper, or something?"

"He said that got someone 'new' to play. Someone better. Someone 'bloody amazing'." She rolled her eyes and glared at the window.

"What's the guy's name?" Dorian asked, unfazed by her tempermental-ness.

The door slid open and in looked Lavender Ebans…Rose Heavens; whatever her name was.

"Five minutes until we reach Hogwarts; thought you lot'd like to know." She stated quickly. Dorian and Ryland nodded politely and she closed the door.

"What's her name again?" Alex asked as soon as the other girl had left.

"Lily Evans? Something like that." Ryland shrugged. "So what's this new keeper's name? Did he tell you? What's the guy look like?"

"…bloody hell, she's the one! She's the new keeper!"

XOXOXOX

Meanwhile, a couple cabins closer towards the Marauders, Lily Evans sat on one of the benches. Other then her cat, Muffin, there was nobody else in there. It wasn't that she didn't have any friends…well, it was, almost. Lily's best friend, Dorcas Meadows, was sort of…busy with her boyfriend Adam Roderick. Current boyfriend, boy toy, whatever he was called.

Lily wasn't sure anymore.

It wasn't like it bothered her anyways. Being alone. It wasn't as bad as most people thought. It was better then being with…say, Potter.

The same Potter who had somehow managed to rope her into playing Quidditch.

'I blame Dorcas for that one…' She reminded herself. Earlier that summer, Lily and Dorcas' brother Kevin, were playing Quidditch on the Meadows' back field. Lily had been roped into the game by Dorcas who swore she would play with them…eventually.

About an hour or two into the impromptu game, Dorcas floated into the house. ((yes, floated. Dorcas never seemed to actually walk anywhere. It annoyed Lily beyond belief.)) Some fifteen-twenty minutes later, she came floating back with the four Marauders clomping behind her. Right in time to see Lily thwack Kevin with a bludger, accidentally of course, but it was hard enough to send him flying off his broom.

That was when James Potter decided he wanted her; no needed her to be on the Qudditch team.

Lily hated Kevin for falling off his broom; she hated Dorcas for letting them in; and most of all she hated James bloody Potter for--for…for being himself.

XOXOXOX

"Think she's pissed, Prongs?" Sirius guffawed, recalling the look on Alex's face. James rubbed his cheek sorely. He forgot how hard she could slap.

"Just a little." He snorted.

"You lot could've been a bit…I dunno, maybe nicer about it? Specially concerning Lily. I don't think Alex is going to take too well to that news when she finds out who Lily actually is." Remus replied, twirling his wand around idly.

"What do you mean, 'when she finds out who she is'?"

"I mean, Prongs, Lily isn't exactly a social butterfly. She's hardly ever in the Common Room and when she is, she's usually studying. My guess'd be that she's hardly in the dorms except to sleep. Alex Brayden has no clue who Lily is. Can tell you that much."

"Whatever. It's not like Brayden would actually do anything to her---" Sirius paused and looked at the other three faces in the room, all of them looking as uncertain as he felt.

"----right?"

XOXOXOX

"Severus, come, we must find a carriage quickly." Narcissa Black commanded with a snap of her fingers. The greasy-haired seventh year followed swiftly. They came towards a small group of Slytherins.

"Well, let's go. Help me up. Or would you rather I tell Malfoy you haven't been doing your job, hmm?" She purred. Snape glared at her but extended an arm anyways. Narcissa climbed into the carriage and Snape tried to climb in after, only to have the door slammed in his face.

"Do you think servants are allowed in the carriages?" Avery Nott sneered through the window. As the carriage hitched and started to leave, Snape scrambled for the door. They had to be kidding. It was a two hour walk at least to the castle. He managed to get a grip on the door handle, a slow job to keep up with the carriage now.

"Nuh-uh." Naricssa shook her white blonde hair and pried his hand off the door handle. "Like Avey said, you're not allowed in."

"Go on. Walk there, like the bloody dog you are." Vincent Crabbe guffawed.

"Bye-bye Poochie." Naricissa smirked. She let go of his hand and he stopped jogging, knocking him off-balance slightly and straight into the fresh mud from the earlier rain storms.

XOXOXOX

Sometime later, the four groups of teens found themselves in the Great Hall. Gryffindor welcomed ten new firsties; Hufflepuff got fifteen, Ravenclaw got eight and Slytherin got twelve. The student body stood for the headmaster's speech, not expected to be all that long. He was rather odd, afterall.

"I would like to welcome you all to yet another exciting year at Hogwarts. First things first, I have been asked to remind all students that the Forbidden Forest is exactly that---forbidden. There is a list of about fifty items which our new caretaker, Argus Filch, has taken upon himself to ban from the castle. You might want to check that sometime soon. Final bit of an announcement; I would like to introduce our new Head Boy and Head Girl, James Potter and Lily Evans. Please stand up, both of you."

James stood up confidently, waving to the crowd. Lily glared at him from down the table.

"What an ego…" She mumbled to herself, taking her own turn to stand. Upon sitting down, she realized one thing: How the bloody hell did James Potter get Head Boy. She stood again, after the speech resumed, and stormed over to where the Marauders were sitting. She grabbed James by the arm, not bothering to slow down, and dragged him out the door. The last words that echoed through the Great Hall before she slammed the door were:

"Tuck in!" …the feast had started.

XOXOXOX

"Who did you bribe?" She demanded, nudging him slightly towards the stairs. He raised an eyebrow and smirked.

"Me? Bribe someone? I think you've got me confused with Snively, Evans. That'd explain a hell of a lot of things if you did."

"I do not have you confused with Severus." She retorted icily. "You're James Potter, arse-head extrodinaire. You're an arrogant, bullying toerag who got this position by either blackmail or an odd payment of some sort!" Since he didn't seem to want to answer her question, she gave him a final half-shove, she turned and stalked back into the Great Hall.

"..Glad to know you think so highly of me, Evans." He didn't know why any of that felt so horrible to know. Hell, she'd told him all that at least a hundred and four times last year.

So why'd it make him feel sick now?

XOXOXOX

"Hey, Lively. Who's that guy over there?" Dorian lifted his head off the table and looked up. The girl beside him's hand was extended towards the Ravenclaw table, pointing at Ryland and some of his Quidditch buddies.

"The mop-top, there, blondie?" The girl prompted, as if Dorian hadn't seen who she was talking about.

"Nunna your business, Keagan." He replied, slamming his head back down onto the table. "I thought you only went for Slytherin's, anyways. Unless you've gone colour blind over the summer, he's sitting under blue. Ravenclaw."

"Well, Lively, a girl can change her mind can't she?" Sara Keagan replied, still focused on Ryland. Dorian tilted his head so he was almost facing her.

"Oy, you, stop gawking at my best mate like he's a piece of meat." He snapped. Ryland needed to deal with his own little fangirls.

"…You take the fun out of everything. You suck."

XOXOXOX

"Marii…" Ryland whined, picking himself up from the table. Mariska glared up at him, rather annoyed at him for being so bloody tall.

"What, Ryland?"

"You know Medows Jr., don't you? She's in your dorm?" Mariska nodded, not quite understanding where the conversation was getting. "Then get Alex back on the bloody team! I'm--we're…we have to play against each other this year!"

"Ry, I don't think Dorcas knows any of the Marauders." She replied gently, trying not to laugh. She couldn't really get what the fascination with the game was. He shrugged.

"She probably shagged one of them…at some point…" Mariska's eyes widened.

"Ryland Cooper! That's horrible; you shouldn't talk about people like that behind their backs!"

Ryland rolled his eyes and stuffed his hands into his pockets. Mariska turned and started to lead the first years back to the dorms.

"It was Sirius." He heard a voice whisper in his ear. With a wink, Dorcas floated by him.

Didn't that girl ever walk?

XOXOXOX

Later that night once the students had started to filter into the dorms, one student climbed down from the seventh years dorm. She took a seat in front of the slowly dying fire, mulling over the events on the train.

Was she really that bad of a player? They'd replaced her with some bookworm who probably didn't know how to even hold a beaters bat. They hadn't even put her on reserves; James wanted her Quidditch robes back by the next morning so they could fit them for his precious Lily.

It wasn't fair.

The squish of the couch behind her alerted her of someone else's presence. She turned her head to see what it was. She wished he hadn't.

"Hey…" He nodded to her. She stared at him in response. There were so many things she wanted to ask him.

"Remus…was I really that bad at Quidditch? Bad enough that he had to just---just…" She sighed. Towards the end, he noticed her voice to shake.

"No, not at all Alex…it's just---he…" Remus trailed off, running his hand through his hair. 'Merlin, James…you couldn't have changed Bailey, could you.' Bailey O'Shea was probably the worst Quidditch player ever. Remus never understood why she wasn't kicked off the team by now. Alex, on the other hand was one of the best. James would never admit it, but having one of the Brayden siblings on his team was the best thing that could have happened for him.

"He what, Remus…I've---Four years; for four long years I've given him nothing but fucking dedication! I've showed up for every single practice on time, I've given a hundred percent at the matches, I've stood up to the twat's who've complained what a wanker he is, I've…I've--Merlin, Remus!" She screamed, the tears welling up.

"Alex…come here." He patted the space next to him. She slid up onto the sofa, wiping furiously at her eyes. He wrapped an arm around her, drawing her into a hug.

"It's not fair, Rem." She whispered, her voice still sounding oddly hoarse. Remus sighed.

"I know, Alex. I know…"

XOXOXOX

A/N: This story probably won't be updated until end of June, mid-July. I've got exams until the 25th and after that, I'm starting at a new job that has sorta crazy hours. I'm going to try and get another chapter to everyone soon if you guys like this new story.

New AN: the first time this was updated, the dividers weren't working properly. Really sorry. 3