Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter, nor any of its characters
CHAPTER 2
THE WAGER
It was a new day, the first day of the rest of their year at the castle. Classes would resume soon and the Heads of the four Houses were busy drawing up timetables. The sky was clear – a wide expanse of intense azure. Most of the students were already down in the Great Hall, swallowing pieces of toast and pumpkin juice. However, a few remained in their dormitories trying to magically dress themselves as a compensation for oversleeping.
Music blared out of one of the fifth year's girl's dormitories. The voices of Hallowed Snitch echoed all the way down to the Gryffindor common room where the new first year students looked alarmed.
'Turn that down!' yelled a passing sixth year
Lily pointed her wand at the radio and magically reduced the volume. Marlene paused in her shower and poked her head out.
'What did you do that for?' she asked, her hair filled with shampoo suds
'Have you ever heard of something called morning calm, Marlene?' Lily asked her, and Marlene shook her head obstinately
'Noise pollution, preservation of the sanity of your roommates, listening to older sixth years?' Marlene shook her head at each of them and instead pointed her wand at the radio. The volume of the WWN increased and Marlene jumped back into the shower, singing.
Lily shook her head dejectedly and continued to knot her yellow and red tie.
'Have you seen my Arithmancy book?' yelled Safiya over Marlene's soprano
Lily shook her head and considered her unruly mane in front of a mirror. It had grown during the summer and it now fell a little over her shoulders. It seemed ever more red than usual, with natural bright orange highlights. She sighed and picked up the brush. She ran it through her hair, unknotting the tangles.
'Found it!' exclaimed Safiya from underneath Marlene's bed, as the latter emerged from the shower. She decreased the volume of the WWN and Lily swore she could hear the sighs of relief all the way from the Great Hall. Lily continued to brush her hair, tying it into one. She considered her reflection and frowned slightly. The smattering of freckles across the bridge of her nose seemed more incongruous and she resisted the urge to cover them up magically.
"We're going to be late for Charms" Safiya announced as she buttoned her crisp white shirt. Lily looked over at her sitting on Marlene's bed. Safiya was the tallest amongst them, with incredibly long legs. Her athletic physique would have either made her the greatest Quidditch player or a supermodel not unlike Twiggy back in the muggle world - except she was prettier than Twiggy, Lily decided. She would also never have to deal with freckles and pale eyes because of her gorgeous darker skin, Lily sighed.
"Come on Mar, we're late" Lily grabbed her bag
"Coming" came Marlene's muffled voice as she struggled with her robes.
The three of them walked down together towards their first class and watched as MG ran past them, in pursuit of someone or something.
"What's wrong with him?" Lily muttered as she adjusted the straps of her bag.
"Hey Sirius!" A boy with a black mop of hair ran beside the legendary prankster
"Hi MG" Sirius said as he considered the Chaser trying to catch his breath.
"Do you know who the new Quidditch Captain is?" Sirius looked at him quizzically.
"I wanted know when the first practice session would be, don't want it to clash with the meetings of the Gobstone's Club" he answered
"Oh" Sirius felt stupid and relieved that MG hadn't assumed that Kingsley had been chosen as Captain. Like James and Marlene, he thought bitterly. Before he could answer, he saw James walking towards him holding something in this hand.
"What's this Sirius?" he asked as he reached them, holding out his hand. Sirius looked down and saw his badge sitting on James's palm. Panic surged through him as he considered James, MG and the badge.
"I can explain, James" he said desperately.
James looked at Sirius, his expression impassive. Sirius looked at him with wild eyes, feeling sick with himself. What did it matter that Gideon and Fabian had supported him? What mattered was how James would have taken this captaincy, something he probably should have realised earlier when arguing with McGonagall last night. His mouth was dry and he stuttered
"I tried mate, I really did. I asked McGonagall to take back the badge but she –"
James interrupted him
'What did you do that for, you git?'
Sirius stared at him. The corners of James's mouth turned up and he laughed
"Holy shit, Sirius. I can't believe you're Captain." He tossed the badge to him and Sirius caught it.
"That's great, wow" said MG as he looked at Sirius, "you could tell me when the first practice is then!" he said excitedly. Sirius looked at him and James, dazed.
"Give him a little time, MG" laughed James, "he needs to get this responsibility thing running in his system"
Sirius grinned at him, relieved that James had accepted him as Captain. He knew that he valued James's opinion and this friendship meant more than he would care to admit, and yet he was surprised by how reassured he was by the approval from James.
"Wednesday, at 5 in the evening. After all the classes are done" he replied and MG grinned back at him. He whacked Sirius on the back of his head and walked away.
"Sirius Black, Gryffindor Quidditch Captain." said James and took the badge from Sirius's hand, examining it, "you do realise that two of us have just been given positions of responsibility?"
Sirius snorted, "I won't bail you out on detention mate. You know me."
'That, I do" James answered
"I thought we could start in Flinch's office" Sirius said casually. James started to laugh and handed Sirius back the badge as they walked into Charms, choosing their favourite backseats.
"You will be taking your O. this year and you will need all the preparation you can receive. Today we will start by reviewing summoning spells"
Lily crammed her fourth cupcake into her mouth as Professor Flitwick turned to answer Amelia Bone's question.
"Stop eating!" hissed Safiya at her. Lily rolled her eyes at her and chewed away, savouring the soft dough and chocolate filling. She closed her eyes. This was what Heaven feels like, she decided.
"I'm hungry, we didn't have breakfast" she whispered back
James sat diagonally behind her. He watched Lily as she removed the cupcakes from her bag with her wand, and hurriedly stuffed them into her mouth every time Flitwick shifted his gaze. He chuckled softly as he saw her close her eyes in delight. There was a little chocolate smeared at the corner of her lips. Her hair was tied into one today and it went with her Gryffindor tie. She had pinned her prefect badge on her clean blouse that fit her perfectly. He could feel Remus's eyes on him and looked away, trying to appear nonchalant. He should really stop staring at Evans and letting himself get caught. He sneaked a look at her again and saw her laughing at something Safiya had said. He looked away again, with a slow sinking feeling. She was beautiful when she laughed. Her green eyes crinkled upwards and shone with amusement. It was ironic that the thing he loved most about Evans was her laughter and she never laughed when in his presence. All she did when they were together was hex him, yell at him or criticise him. Maybe she did really hate him. James sighed and turned his attention to what Flitwick was saying. He gave up trying to concentrate and looked down at his parchment where he had drawn meaningless loops. James sat up abruptly and slapped himself mentally. He scowled at the back of Lily's head. If he was being honest, Lily was the one who had given him no reason to really like her, so why did he spend a considerable part of his time concerned about how she would feel? Merlin's pants, she didn't even want to believe he could change, in her eyes Snape would always be better than him. As if sensing his thoughts, Lily looked back and met his eye. She scowled at him and turned back front.
"Accio" he whispered as he pointed at the cupcake he could barely make out from her bag. He heard Remus snort as the cupcake zoomed towards him.
Lily felt something hit her head and turned back, willing to wager her life that it was from Potter. She looked down to see a ball of paper near her feet and picked it up.
'Missing something?' her fingers were lightly dusted with grease and breadcrumbs as she realised the message was scrawled on her cupcake wrapper.
The bell sounded, singling the end of the class.
"Next time you're hungry Potter you could just ask. I could request the house-elves to send up more butter, you could use the left overs to flatten that hair"
There were a few chortles in class as James felt his hand instinctively reach for his hair.
"What was that?" asked Remus as James gathered his books, watching Lily walk out of the classroom
"What was what?" he asked back, innocently
"You have chocolate here" he indicated to the corner of his mouth, trying to stifle a laughter
"You could have shared" Peter joined in mournfully
"You still haven't answered. I thought you had decided to 'grow-up' and 'show Evans the man you could be'? Your words not mine" Remus added catching the look on his face
"That was summer. This is now"
Remus stared at him. James sighed.
"Look, she's convinced herself that I will never be able to change or even put up an act of being mature. If I'm eventually never going to have a chance with her, what's the harm of acting exactly how she accuses me of being?"
"Someone's finally realised that the sun sets in the west" remarked Sirius dryly from behind them, walking with Peter
Remus scrunched his nose
"The harm being that maybe you are none of those things and you would be forced to act like someone else"
"James could probably come up with fifty different ways of getting Lily to reject him, by simply being himself" Sirius laughed
"I'd feel safer saying seventy" added Peter
"Fifty-three"
"Remus don't do that. Pick a proper number"
"Fifty-three is a proper number"
"No, a multiple of ten. Fifty-three offends my sense of organisation"
"Sirius have you seen your side of the dorm? You do not have a sense of organisation"
Sirius yanked the back of Remus's robes
"Hey! Fine, fifty-five"
"More like a hundred" muttered James
"I have a brilliant idea", said Sirius, "no, hear me out" he added hastily seeing the eye rolls, "we could wager on how many times James could get rejected by Lily. Of course, we would have to set up boundaries and rules on what constitutes him actually asking her out but currently the numbers stand at myself fifty, Remus fifty-five, Peter seventy and James at a hundred. Winner gets fifty gallons and if none of us win we each donate fifty to Mungo's"
"I hate to say this, but this is the first time I'm agreeing with any plan Sirius has had" Remus remarked after a pause
"My plans are brilliant"
"Yes, like the time you exploded cake in Mary McDonald's dormitory" James pointed out
"I'm in" Peter announced
"Come on, James. You said it yourself - there's no harm"
"Fine" he relented as they reached the classroom for Transfiguration, ignoring Sirius's whoop of glee. He saw the back of a bright redhead and almost reached across to talk to her when he realised who she was with.
"Hey Sev" Lily greeted her best fried as she slid next to him for Transfiguration. Severus looked at her and smiled.
"You've got chocolate on your mouth" he tried to say it nonchalantly and raised his hand hesitantly, to wipe it. However Lily didn't notice and quickly wiped it away, grinning like a seven year old caught doing something mischievous.
"I haven't seen you since dinner at my place" she continued, pouting slightly.
"I'm sorry, I was busy" he replies, smiling at her. Merlin, she was beautiful. Her eyelashes were long and thick. They framed her almond shaped sparkling green eyes. Her lips curved into a smile, then a laugh, as she talked to him. Sitting next to her in class made him feel like he was eleven. He brightened at the memory of them sitting on the grass in the park together, talking about absolutely everything.
"I'm sorry, am I talking too much?" Severus looked at Lily and shook his head. He could feel a big goofy grin plastered at his face. She sighed in relief.
"I can't believe they're making us do so much from the first day" she muttered darkly and he chuckled in response
"Is that a plea of help, Miss Evans?" he asked jokingly
Before she could answer though, someone interrupted her. Someone who symbolised everything Severus loathed and hated with a burning passion.
"Invested in a good shampoo this term, Snivellus?" James sneered at him as the Marauders enter the classroom
"Shut up Potter" he growled in return, his hand twitching towards his robes
"Leave us alone Potter" Lily placed her soft, warm hand on Sev's and gazed at James. James looked started for a moment as he stared at Lily's hand place on Snape's with growing disbelief. For an insane moment Lily thought he might grab her hand away, but he simply shrugged and made his way to the back of the classroom.
"I'd watch out if I were you, Snivellus" he sing-songed over his shoulder
"Ignore him" she said, watching him so annoyance written across her face.
Snape looked down at her hand that still remained on his and smiled slightly. He would gladly ignore Potter.
"I want to change my number to eighty" Remus whispered as they watched the exchange between Lily, James and Snape.
"No changes now" Peter retorted, grinning cheekily, "you get to claim your fifty-five"
"Team meeting at five today" said James as he sat next to Marlene in the Great Hall. He picked a handful of chips and munched on them. He had skipped breakfast this morning and without a kitchen run, he was ravenous.
"Who told you that?" asked Marlene, finishing her pumpkin juice. She looked into the goblet expectantly, waiting for it to re-fill. However, the goblet's empty insides stared back at her, reflecting her image distorted so that she had a cantaloupe for a nose.
'The captain of course' he said and picked up his own goblet out of her reach. He took a sip and piled casserole onto his plate
"Did you speak to Kingsley then?"
James shrugged at her and continued eating.
"What was that shrug?"
James just shook his head enigmatically. Marlene kicked his leg in response
"Tell me" she asked and grabbed his pumpkin juice. James whined in protest, his mouth full with chicken and vegetables.
"What are you bickering about?" Sirius asked, looking at them suspiciously as he joined them. Remus sat across them and took a sip from James's goblet
''Ey!' he protested, spraying Marlene with chewed food
'Em 'orry, 'arlene' he said and continued to shovel in food, snatching his goblet from Remus's hand
"Potter is refusing to tell me who the new Gryffindor Captain is" Marlene told Remus sulkily. Remus grinned at her and looked up at Sirius who was still standing behind James and Marlene.
"Don't you have a team meeting today though?" he asked her cheerily, picking up some chips from James's plate. James tried to fend his fingers away with his fork, but was defeated.
"How do you know?" Marlene asked suspiciously
"How can I not know?" he asked exasperatedly, "living with two Quidditch mad Gryffindors?"
Marlene laughed and looked at Sirius, now sitting beside James. He grinned at her in response.
"He won't tell me if it's Kingsley. But," she added, glaring at James, "I'm pretty sure I'm right. There's ideally no one else who could be captain on the team"
Remus raised his eyebrows at Marlene.
"What?" she said defensively
"Are you sure?" it was Sirius this time who asked her. His grey eyes scanned her face as she paused and opened her mouth.
"Yes, I swear by Merlin's purple pants"
Remus cleared his throat
"Merlin wore pink dress robes" he pointed out with flourish
"No he didn't" said Marlene, her eyes narrowing in suspicion
"Yes he did, at least that's what it says in The Impressive Journey Of Magic And It's Greatest Pioneers"
"This is why you're failing Ancient Runes" snorted Sirius, "I can't believe you read up on Merlin's pants. I'm going to talk to Kingsely about tonight's meeting" he said, getting up from the table.
Marlene frowned at him, watching him walk away. If she didn't know them any better, she would have said Sirius was hiding something.
.
Safiya looked up as Marlene stomped in. The latter dumped her books on the floor and pulled her robes above her head. She sighed in frustration and jumped onto her bed. The antique four poster creaked as it struggled to support her weight, and for a second Safiya thought it would collapse on the floor.
"I hate him!" she exclaimed and Safiya rolled her eyes
"Who?" she asked, fiddling with her quill
"I –I don't know" she confessed, "Black, Potter and Lupin aren't telling me something." she clarified
"Should they?" asked Safina absentmindedly, "Accio dictionary" she murmured and the Runes dictionary zoomed across the room to her outstretched palm
"It's about the Quidditch team. They know who the Captain is, but they won't tell me. I thought it might be Kingsley, but now I'm not sure"
Marlene sat upright on her bed and started to unzip her skirt as she continued talking to Safiya.
"But if it's not Kingsley then who?" she grappled with her hair and kicked the bed post in annoyance
Safiya looked over to where Marlene was tying her hair up. She sighed and closed her Ancient Runes book. She would never be able to get any work done with Marlene riled up about her Quidditch. Honestly, she sometimes wondered how Marlene had gotten through four years without being on the Quidditch team.
"Want to blow off some steam?" she asked her and Marlene shrugged. Safiya got up from the table and deftly braided her long hair.
"Come on' she called over her shoulder, picking up her and Marlene's brooms. Two Nimbus 1500s.
"Where are you going?" asked Lily as she entered the common room, her arms laden with parchment rolls and heavy books.
"It's the first day back, Lils. How do you have so much workload?"
"Oh, I'm working on a separate project for Slughorn"
"Slug Club still going strong"
"I hate that name"
"Sluuug Club"
Safiya yanked at Marlene's hand.
"Safiya's therapy time" grumbled Marlene. Lily raised her eyebrows
'Tell you later" said Safiya as they passed out the portrait hole.
Lily glanced around the common room and took up a seat near the fire, where the table was relatively less cluttered. She dumped her materials on the table and removed her shoes. She stretched and closed her eyes.
"She's going to kill me if she finds out"
Lily opened one eye and peered curiously around her chair. She could vaguely make out Sirius's silhouette in one of the chairs behind her. He was talking to James, and Lily could barely hear what he was saying. She strained to listen to the snippets that drifted towards her.
"She won't Sirius. No one will. It'll just come as a surprise"
"I wonder how she doesn't know yet. She's the only one on the team who doesn't know it yet"
'Sirius sighed and tugged at his robes
"She won't take it seriously" remarked James, almost as an afterthought
"Maybe I should take the badge to make my point" said Sirius dishearteningly
"Maybe you should" said James as he got up
"I don't know if I can do this" Sirius's voice was almost a whisper and Lily had to lean as much as she could without getting noticed, to hear it
"You can", said James firmly, "you'll be an amazing Captain. And you'll have me by your side"
"I know" Sirius smiled
James got up and walked out of the portrait hole, his broom in his hand. She turned back to where Sirius was sitting and met his eyes. He was smiling wryly
"How much did you hear?" he asked dryly
Lily swallowed and felt herself flush
"Some bits, not a lot though" she answered truthfully. She got up from her seat and walked over to him.
"Are you really Quidditch Captain?" she asked, curiosity over ridding over her disbelief that she was trying to be friendly to Sirius Black.
"Yeah" he replied hollowly
"Oh" she said, momentarily speechless
Sirius's lips curled into a small smile. He looked at Lily and wondered what she was trying to do, sitting across him.
"I did try to resign. But McGonagall wouldn't let me, she said Fabian and Gideon convinced her"
"What?" Lily asked, confusion and curiosity swirling inside her. Sirius sighed and his shoulders slumped. He rubbed his chin.
"Fabian and Gideon recommended me to Minny", he said, "Kingsley refused the offer of Captaincy and supported their idea of making me Captain"
Lily looked at him with thoughtful eyes
"Can I see your badge?" she asked suddenly
"Doubting my story?" asked Sirius
"Just wanted to see if it resembles mine" she grinned awkwardly and pointed at her prefect's badge
Sirius handed her the badge and saw her slender hands examining it. He glanced at his watch and saw that it was nearly five. He picked up the broom and pocketed the badge that Lily returned.
"You're an amazing flyer. I think you'd just do fine as captain" Lily said slowly as she locked her green eyes with his dark ones.
Sirius looked at her and momentarily Lily thought he would sneer at her
"Thanks Lily" he said softly and walked out of the room.
Lily watched him go, stunned at her own actions and that he had called her by her first name. She smiled slightly.
"You're welcome Sirius"
.
Sirius walked out of the massive doors, towards the pitch. He could hear the yells and laughter of the team and grimaced. He pinned the badge onto his white shirt, rolled up at the sleeves, he hadn't bothered to change. Clutching his Nimbus, he came in view of the pitch. He saw Marlene trying to score with James keeping. Kingsley was playing with the golden snitch while MG experimentally swung at the buldger. Kingsley spotted him first and grinned. He whistled loudly and the rest of the team halted in what they were doing.
Sirius mentally composed himself. None of them except James should ever know how he felt about the Captaincy, about his insecurities – his weaknesses.
James expertly caught the snitch lurking near MG's ear and landed in front of him. Although he was laughing, Sirius could see the worry in his eyes. Sirius nodded slightly with his head and this time, James's laughter reached his hazel eyes.
"All hail Captain" MG grinned wolfishly at Sirius and threw the quaffle at him. Sirius caught it and grinned at the team.
"You know how much McGonagall loves me" he responded. He faced the team standing in front of him, looking expectantly.
"I'm going to be Captain of the team this year and no way in hell are we going to lose that Cup" he growled
"Hear hear!" said James
"We're going to have to practice at least twice every week, and I want everyone in shape for the season. No slacking, am I clear?" Sirius looked at them fixing his eyes on Marlene. Marlene was scowling at him. He stared back at her, daring her to challenge his authority. However, she bit her lip and said nothing.
"We'll be having tryouts for a beater and Keeper this weekend. I want the entire team at tryouts, just to gauge how the Keepers and beater work together. Once we have our new players, I have a new strategy I want to try out"
"What is it?" asked MG as they huddled toward the strategy board Sirius had set up in their changing rooms.
"It's an improvement of the play that Fabian and Gideon created" answered Sirius, "I worked a different strategy using the basics with Kingsley and James"
"Chasers take the arc, seeker at the third hoop across and beaters take the parallel stance"
"The arc is difficult for interaction" Marlene pointed out
"Try it"
Sirius placed everyone in position and motioned MG to pass the quaffle to James, who caught it deftly.
"We've got a month and half until the first match of the season against Slytherin. Vanity is still captain, and to her credit she has always put together a strong team"
Thirty minutes later he motioned them to head back to the castle.
"We've been thinking of the terms of the wager" Sirius started as he and James fell into a familiar pace back to the common room.
"Which is?"
"The wager starts from October to October in seventh year. You can only ask her out once each week, if you miss a week you cannot claim an additional day for another week. You must ask her out in front of no less than three other people and it cannot be a casual question - you need to ask her out having prepared where to take her out on a date. If you break any of the rules, we each get five additional days to add to our initial number of days. Th point is mate, you need to ask her out like you really mean it. She's bound to cave - you can't say no to someone over fifty times"
James stayed silent, mulling over the details of the wager.
"Who came up with the specifics?"
"Peter, can you believe it?" Sirius laughed
"That's a lot of terms" he said uncertainly, "but she seems to genuinely hate me so it does sound reasonable"
They had reached the Fat Lady.
"By the way mate," said James as he swung the portrait open, "congrats on your captaincy!"
The common room exploded as he entered, it was decorated as it usually was during victory parties with golden, yellow and red banners draped across the walls. Firewhisky and butterbeer crowded the table along with the massive amount of food. The entire house was there, singing the house anthem Fabian had made up last year. A massive banner reading 'Sirius Black, Quidditch captain. Lions for the Cup' hung from the ceilings.
Sirius grinned at everyone, as Remus and Peter pushed past the crowd towards him.
'Hope you like it' James whispered, his eyes twinkling
'And ladies and gentlemen,' Remus had enchanted his voice so that it echoed around the common room, 'may I present to you, the Gryffindor Quiddicth Captain for the year 1975 – the legendary Sirius Black'
There were whistles and cheering as Sirius grinned at them. James stood next to him, scanning the crowd for a familiar mane of red.
'A party on the third day of school?' asked a voice and he turned around to face that familiar red head. Lily looked up at him, half scowling and half smiling
'Don't act like you didn't help me, Evans' James said shortly
'Doing my duty as a prefect'
James snorted and Lily glowered at him
'Okay, then doing my duty as a friend' she said, shrugging her shoulders
'A friend? To whom? Remus?'
'No, to Black you dolt'
James paused, not sure if he heard her right
'Sirius? Sirius Black?' he asked incredulously
'Yes, Potter' Lily sighed impatiently, 'if you'll excuse me, I need to get those second years off the firewhiskey'
James started at her, not believing what she had said, but before he could catch her by the arm, Peter dragged him away by the elbow to the centre of the room.
"I heard you accepted the wager" Remus remarked, handing him a bottle. James nodded at him and raised his bottle
"May the best number of rejections win" he said, swinging a large gulp from the bottle and feeling the liquid burn down his throat.
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