Grounds of Game

'Are you sure you don't want to get to court? We would support you, you know that Sirius dear, don't you?'
Mrs. Potter rested her soft hands on his head, and even though Sirius bloody Black was almost seventeen years old, and so practically a grown up, he did not shake off her hands and not only out of courtesy. The gesture was completely unfamiliar to him, and yet it felt so good, so warm, he suddenly – and quite unexpectedly – felt his eyes sting.
'Thank you, Mrs. Potter! For everything...' he glanced up from his mug of hot chocolate. 'But they...' he could not bring himself to say their names.'They are highly influential, as I am sure, you know. I don't think a court meeting would end in my favour, and at any rate, I don't want to cause even more trouble to you.'
The truth was, Sirius could not stand being pitied by anyone. Just the thought of standing in front of the entire bloody Wizengamot, while recounting the tale of his mother's usual methods of "educating" him, as she liked to call it, made him shudder with disgust. He even hated James' worried look as his mate took in his swollen eye, or the half-healed cuts on his body, and James was his best friend... he could not stand to be pitied and then judged by nameless, faceless strangers who had absolutely no idea what they were talking about.
'Don't be ridiculous, dear! You are no trouble to us!' Mrs. Potter smiled, and hugged him briefly, before she left. And it was a good thing she left, because Sirius really needed time to fight that odd, tingling feeling in his eyes.

As usual, Mr. and Mrs. Potter already left to work when James finally woke up and stumbled into the kitchen, and so he was thoroughly surprised to find warm eggs and freshly buttered toast on the kitchen-table, as well as a pot of steaming, hot tea. It was not as if Mum would not make him breakfast; Mrs. Potter found great pleasure in giving his son every single comfort she could think of, but it would have been highly uncharacteristic of her to charm the food into staying warm. True, she went at great lengths to please him, and did spoil him a bit in the process, but she was a sensible woman who tried to raise James to be a great man. Encouraging his ridiculous sleeping-habits was not included in that program.
'Good morning sleepyhead! Do dig in!'
'What the...' James almost spilled his tea in fright. He was supposed to be alone...then he remembered he was no longer alone during holidays, because Padfoot now lived with them... Pads, who happened to wear a flower-patterned apron and a very frightening grin at the moment.
'Sirius, what exactly are you doing?'
'I made you breakfast.' James was beginning to find Sirius' wide grin more and more alarming by the minute.
'Did you poison my food or something?' he grunted, poking the eggs cautiously with his index-finger while regretting (not for the first, neither for the last time) not bringing his wand with him. Nothing happened.
'No, you idiot. I just thought I'd make myself useful. You know, in exchange for being such a burden and all...' Sirius answered as nonchalantly as he could manage, but his careless shrug wasn't enough to conceal his discomfort. James knew Sirius hated to rely on other people, and he felt quite horrible to live on his good graces, especially after his colossal mishap last year. But James had already forgiven, and now it was up to him, as his best mate, to ease Sirius' discomfort.
'Don't be stupid, Padfoot, dear!' he replied in a sing-song voice. 'Mum always longed to have a girl in the family!' he grinned at him viciously before ducking under the table to avoid collision with a boiled egg that Sirius sent flying his way with a surprisingly quick flick of his wrist.
'One another note... ' he continued from under the table, surveying the wall, where the egg splashed 'I knew you would make a great chaser, Pads. Why don't you just give in finally, and join the team?'
'Its stupid.'
'Say that again!' warned James in a dangerously low voice. He was a tolerant guy – or so he liked to think – but insulting his sacred sport was stepping way over the line.
'Look, I am not saying it isn't fun.' Sirius raised his hands in placating way. 'But I am so not about to train my ass off and sacrifice my Sunday mornings just so you could get your hands on that bloody cup. Get it out of your head already!'
It was a long-running fight between the two. James, who was a fantastic chaser and loved Quidditch even more than fighting Snivellus, had tried in vain every single year to convince his best mate to at least try out for the Gryffindor team. Whenever the two of them met during summer, playing on the Potter's private pitch of sorts was always one of their favourite activities. James had more than enough time to see that Sirius was incredibly talented and enjoyed flying immensely. Why on earth he refused to play in the school team, was absolutely beyond James.
'Bollocks.' he summed it up. 'Besides, all the girls love athletes...' he grinned pointedly at his mate, not quite ready to give in just yet. '...and we both know how much you love girls.'
'Right. As if Quidditch had gotten you anywhere near Evans... ' barked Sirius while he worked on removing the remnants of the egg from the wall. Not being able to do magic during summers was beginning to be really tiresome. 'Don't you think six years should have been enough for your irresistible athlete-self, to... sweep her off her feet, so to speak?'
'Shut it Pads!' grunted James. He was persistent enough, but he knew a lost match when he saw one.
'Alright, alright. Eat the damned food!'
'And what do we do after?' asked James as he stuffed his head with toast.
'Play, I assume...' Sirius answered dryly, trying hard to look bored, and conceal the gleam of anticipation in his gaze. James narrowed his eyes in response.
'How about a bet, my Dearest Marauder?'
'What bet?' inquired Padfoot cautiously.
'If I beat you today, you promise to try out for the team.'
'As if...' snorted Sirius. 'What if I win? What's in it for me, Prongsie?'
'The glory of beating me in my most-beloved sport?' tried James with a grin. This had to work, Sirius was almost as competitive as he was.
'Tempting, but no.'
'Its okay, I guess. I thought you would feel intimidated.'shrugged James, careful not to look up from his eggs. Manipulating Sirius used to be a lot easier.
'In your dreams, poster-boy! Its on.' That was more like it, but James needed to make sure...
'No, no. Don't feel obliged!'
He rose to put the dishes away, and somehow – accidentally of course – managed to spill the rest of his tea on Padfoot's head.
'Its so bloody on!' glared Sirius.

Half of Godric's Hollow's magical population (naturally the younger half) happened to join in as audience, and watch the "Duel of the Decade" as they later referred to James Potter's and Sirius Black's mind-blowing display of sharp reflexes, dazzling grins, skills with Quaffle, not to mention their equally inventive use of tricks and swearwords.
Despite James' more practised and superior technique, the match was rather even, since Black made up for his lack of training with nasty, unpredictable manoeuvres that bordered on the line of cheating (and even crossed it once or twice).
In the end James won of course, but his smug smirk was quickly chased away, when Sirius lengthily explained how promising to go on a try-out did not mean he would actually try to get on the team, and even if by some misfortune he would get on, he could still quit it any day...
But he was too high on adrenalin to stay mad at his friend, and too tired to argue with him anyway, so instead he invited a couple of kids from the audience (whom he mostly knew from Hogwarts) to join them in a friendly game. This time he had Pads on his team – which was rather unfair of course – but at the end of the day, they came back smiling, laughing and thoroughly exhausted.

I really appreciate any kind of reviews or (preferably constructive) criticism! ;)