Disclaimer – God bless JKR for inventing the Marauders Era.

Author's Notes – None, really. Just tell me what you think in your reviews, whatever you think... and enjoy reading this Lily/James fic as much as I'm enjoying writing it. Suggestions? Questions? Thoughts? I'll take them all.

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Midnight Frost

Part One – At the Gryffindor Common Room

"James? I need a word with you." a tall, light headed girl approached a dark boy with glasses, who was sitting on a couch in front of the fire place, chatting cheerfully with some other Gryffindors. He looked very pleased for some reason. The satisfaction literally glowed around him. The girl, on the contrary, seemed very glum. "In this century, if it's possible."

"If you want to congratulate me on today's game," James Potter grinned widely, obviously not being aware of the grim look on her face. "you'll have to stand in line and wait for your turn, Styles. You'll be happy to hear I've been quite popular today."

A black haired boy named Sirius Black, who sat near James, loudly laughed at this, reminding everyone of a dog barking. The girl slowly closed her eyes, frowning.

"That's... that's exactly what I was going to talk to you about, James. Just... Listen to me. For once."

James turned to his friends who were looking at them curiously. "Excuse moi," he said in a bad French and followed the girl to the quieter part of the common room. "Fire away, captain."

"Erm, yeah."

Cynthia Styles, the Gryffindor Quidditch captain, took a deep breath while searching for the right... and the least painful words. "I've spoken to the rest of the team today right after the match... The Quidditch team, our tea... you know what I mean. And we all agreed that... well, it's not just today's decision, I have to add, it's more of a long term result..."

James Potter scowled slightly. He wasn't really sure if he liked the sound of this. Cynthia Styles would never speak indirectly... unless she had some bad news. Like that time when she was trying to tell the team that Slytherin had been awarded extra points because of the extremely bad weather circumstances they were playing at. But that wasn't even the worst part : the Gryffindor team played under the same circumstances and somehow didn't get any extra points at all! The tone of her voice told him this was equally bad... If not even worse.

"What exactly are you trying to say?" he asked as the grin on his face began to fade.

"It's your... attitude, Potter," she finally managed to say it. "You mess around. A lot. You're simply too self assured that you're the best Quidditch player and... Don't say anything yet," she added, seeing as James was about to object. "don't. Maybe you are the best, but it still doesn't give you the rights to fool about like that. Take today for example – you kept flying and goofing around behind the Golden snitch for more than half an hour till you finally caught it! And you had, like, a million opportunities to do it earlier!"

James seemed flabbergasted at this. "Oh, but... don't tell me you don't know why I did it!" he raised his voice. "It was so you, Frank and the other Chasers could get as many points as possible before the end of the game! That's the only reason I didn't catch the snitch earlier and you know it!"

The Gryffindor common room suddenly went very quiet. Everybody seemed to notice James's change of tone. They stopped whatever they were previously doing and started listening to James and Cynthia instead. All eyes of Gryffindor were turned to them now.

"This is not the first time you've done things like this." Cynthia said in a more resolute voice, gaining her usual self confidence back. "Don't deny it. You tend to do all sorts of tricks during the games... only to impress girls."

James's jaw threatened to touch the floor. "Well, excuse me, but I most certainly am not going to impress the boys, now, am I?"

Cynthia rolled her light blue eyes.

"Whatever, James. You need to sort out your priorities. The sooner the better. Till then, the entire team's decision is..."

"Yeah, let's hear it then!" shouted James, as his lips formed a false and sarcastic smile, and turned to the crowd, "Gather 'round everyone, we have an important announcement to hear!"

Three or four people whispered something under their breaths at this. Some kept staring curiously. Others pretended they didn't listen, but were closely following everything that had been going on. James's friends, who were still sitting on the couch, looked entirely worried.

"So, do tell us, Cynthia Annabelle Styles... What did you and your modest team-mates decide about the one-who-fools-about-too-much? What did you decide about me!"

Cynthia looked somewhere behind James's back. "To suspend you."

The entire common room stopped breathing in shock for a moment.

"Are you fucking out of your mind?" yelled Sirius from the other part of the room. Remus had to grab his robes to prevent him from doing something hasty and stupid.

James just stared at Cynthia Styles in disbelief.

"Don't worry, mate," he said to Sirius. "Cynthia's... joking. You are joking, right? Is this one of your jokes? Should I be laughing now? Should I go "haha" now?"

"I'm definitely not laughing, so you shouldn't either," Cynthia grimly replied. "This is very serious, Potter."

"No shit it's serious!" James yelled. "You aren't actually suspending the only player who can get you through the Quidditch championship, are you? This... this... this is unbelievable!"

"Unbelievable or not, James, you are suspended until you... fix your attitude. That's all, really. You're either going to start playing Quidditch without thinking you're the king of the field, or..."

"Or what!" James continued to shout. "You'll forbid me to play Quidditch for the rest of my life, is that it!"

"You won't be playing only on the next game against Hufflepuff. And, if your ego simmers down till the match against Ravenclaw, everything should be alright. That's the whole thing."

"That's the whole thing, isn't it?" James retorted despisingly. "I'll tell you what the whole thing is! You've just lost your cursed egoistic Seeker! And not only till the Ravenclaw match - till the end of the school year! That's what you wanted after all, isn't it? Go and celebrate now. I'd like to see you catching a snitch without a bloody Seeker!"

James furiously turned back to Cynthia, before she was even able to respond, yelling "Accio broomstick!"

One of his friends approached James, calmly grabbing his elbow in order to settle him down. "Leave it..."

James backed off. "No, you leave it, Remus."

His shiny Fallingstar flew out of the boy dormitories, flying straight into his hands. James quickly made his way to the hole in the portrait of the Fat Lady and nearly knocked a red haired girl off, who was just about to enter the common room.

"Potter, thank goodness you're here! Just the right person I was looking for... We are needed for some Head Boy and Girl issues at the Headmaster's Office..."

"Bugger off, Evans." said James rudely, pushing thunderstruck Lily aside and disappearing through the portrait gap.

She confusedly opened and closed her mouth a few times trying to realize what had just happened. Sure, James Potter did know how to be arrogant, but never – ever - towards her.

"What's gotten into him?" Lily finally asked, eyeing Remus, Sirius and Peter, three of Potter's best friends, all looking shaken and cheerless.

"Oh, believe me, Lily" muttered Remus quietly. "it's not good."

"Damn straight it's not good. Oh, when I get those bastards..." added Sirius loudly, still clenching his fists. "But, whatever, I'm sure you'll be happy to hear James will have much more time for his Head Boy duties now."

"Why?" said Lily, blinking and asking for explanation. "What happened? Will somebody, please, fill me in?"

"James got kicked out of the Quidditch team." said Peter dryly.

"He didn't get kicked out!" snapped Sirius. "He's just on a break! Got suspended because of some stupid drabble how he takes Quidditch as a game. Well, excuse me," he was now talking to everyone in the room, "I guess I've read it wrongly somewhere. I thought Quidditch was a game, after all. Oh stupid, stupid me!"

Sirius shot one filthy glare at Cynthia, before demonstratively climbing the stairs that led to the boy dorms.

"Is... is that true?" asked Lily timidly.

Remus sighed seriously. "Unfortunately, yes. Seems like I'll have a tough job tonight. First dealing with Sirius... then James. If he comes back tonight, that is."

"Where did he go?"

"He summoned his broom, so I figure... Quidditch Pitch, maybe? Or he'll simply fly about? I don't know, just guessing." shrugged Remus tiredly.

"But..."

"Don't think about the rule breaking now. I'm not either. "

Lily looked through the window absentmindedly. "That's not what I was going to say... He didn't have his coat, did he? And it's starting to snow. He'll freeze. Is that his coat over there?" she pointed her finger at a thick dark brown jacket that rested on an armchair near the couch.

Remus nodded. Lily grabbed it and without saying anything, marched out of the room.

"Dynamic evening, eh?" a fourth year excitedly muttered to one of his friends. Remus shot him a warning look, but didn't say anything. After all – that boy wasn't far away from truth at all. This was a pretty eventful evening for all of them. And something told him it hadn't finished yet.