Chapter Four: And Thus it Began

They'd been at school for a month when James finally hit on Lily for the first time. Although she was shocked it had taken so long for him to start, that didn't even measure up to her surprise when he was almost smooth about it.

"He could have been hitting on anyone!" Lily said astounded when Riley caught up to her after Lily had rolled her eyes and walked away.

Riley laughed, "And you're reaction was almost normal," She teased.

Lily shot her a glare, but had to ask, "What do you mean?"

"There was no explosion, no violence, no nothing," Riley teased. "You just walked away."

"Well I was hardly gonna bite his head off cause he said something any guy would have said in that situation. I really need to choose my words better," Lily admitted. "It did sound bad, I just didn't realize how bad it sounded until it was already out of my mouth."

"Lily, are you aware of how mature you're being about James Potter hitting on you. Wait, let me check, you are aware that JAMES POTTER just hit on you, right?" Riley asked staring at her friend mock-incredulously.

"Yes. I'm aware," Lily said shaking her head at her friend and smiling, "But he's behaved himself for like a month and half, I guess I was waiting for him to slip up anyway."

Riley shook her head at her best friend. She knew they were all supposed to be growing up this year, but this was too much all at once. Was Lily Evans accepting that James Potter maybe really had a thing for her? Instead of always expounding on the fact that he just wanted to get in her pants. This was too much.

Then she head James calling her name behind them. She turned around and stopped walking, Lily stopped too and waited for her looking at James expectantly.

"Riley! Sorry I totally forgot to tell you, I'm holding the Quidditch try outs next Saturday evening. I want the whole team to be there. I know it doesn't really affect you cause it'll still be you and Sirius, but please be there on time. Make sure he is too?" James said breathlessly, he had run up the stairs after them.

"You need to get in shape, Captain," Lily teased.

Riley and James both whipped around to look at her. James looked like his eyes were going to pop right out of his head. "Wh-wh-what?" He stuttered.

Lily blushed and said, "Nevermind," Looking down at the floor to avoid eye contact with Riley.

Riley finally looked back at James and said, "Erm, yeah, we'll be there. What positions are we filling again?"

James was still looking at Lily and said vaguely, "I have no idea."

Riley snapped her fingers in front of James's face, "Hey! Keep it together man, FOCUS."

James shook his head, "Sorry! We're, uh, looking for a Chaser and a Seeker."

"There we go," Riley said, "Yeah Sirius and I will be there, on time."

"Thanks, see ya' later," James said wandering away, looking lost.

"Lily!" Riley hissed as she turned to her best friend. Lily's face was as red as her hair and she refused to say anything she stared straight ahead as they continued walking towards the common room. "Lily!" Riley repeated, "That was flirting! You were just flirting with James Potter, however briefly cause he's a dolt, but still! What was that?"

"Shuttup! It just slipped out!" Lily said dismayed, "I don't know what made me say it."

"You're crazy," Riley said as Lily gave the password to Gryffindor tower and Riley followed her in.

"Can we just do our homework?" Lily asked sitting at Molly's table in the common room.

"Why? What's she avoiding?" Molly asked looking up from her Herbology homework.

"She flirted with James!" Riley said plopping down on the couch next to Molly.

"Can you stop putting the emphasis on flirting?" Lily asked blushing harder.

"She flirtedwith James Potter?" Molly asked, disbelief written all over her face.

"Okay, I don't really like the emphasis on his name either. NO EMPHASIS!" Lily demanded, "Seriously, I just want to do my homework!"

Riley just nodded at Molly who turned wide brown eyes on Lily, silently.

Lily shot her a glare and dragged her own Herbology book out of her bag.

After a couple minutes Jeff came over and sat on the arm of the couch closest to Riley, "Hey, Riles?" He asked nervously.

"What's up Jeffie?" She asked leaning back and looking up at him.

"I need some help with my Potions homework," He glanced at the table he'd been sitting at, "Well, we both do."

"Who's your friend?" Riley asked, glancing in the same direction.

"His names Gerry McLaggen, I met him on the train," Jeffie volunteered, "Will you help us?"

"Yeah, sure," Riley said standing up and following Jeff over to his table. She sat down next to him and pulled his parchment over to her. Gerry had his head in his hands and was looking utterly distraught.

"I know I should have been paying attention, I just… had trouble sleeping last night," Gerry amended.

"Homesick?" Riley asked kindly.

Gerry blushed and looked down at the table, embarrassed.

"It's okay, it happens to the best of us. I was so nervous about classes and being away for home that I hardly slept the whole first two months of the term, my first year," She told him, ruffling Jeff's hair.

Jeff looked relieved and Gerry asked hopefully, "Really?"

Riley nodded, "Yeah. So what are you guys working on?" With that she sat with the two first years for another hour and half, giving them advice and helping them with their homework. When they had finished it all, she stood up and stretched, "Is that everything?"

"Yeah," Jeff said, "Thanks! I don't know what we would have done without you!"

"Hey, you know I'm here whenever you need me," Riley said ruffling his messy black hair again. "Be good, kids."

When she rejoined Lily and Molly at the table, Lily looked up at her, "Well that was cute."

"Shuttup," Riley said, "I was thinking that I'm pretty hungry, it's about dinner time, isn't it?"

"You haven't done any work yet!" Lily exclaimed appalled.

"I don't know, I'm pretty hungry too," Molly said grinning at Lily, "Break time, girl. Let's go eat. We can come back."

Lily grumbled and agreed as she shoved all her books back in her bag, and slung it over her shoulder. Riley tossed her bag over by the Marauder's table. No one ever sat there but them, so she knew it'd be safe.

They met Alice about to climb through the portrait hole, "Hey!" She said surprised.

"Dinner, you in?" Riley asked.

"Yeah, sure," Alice said turning around and walking towards the Great Hall.

They sat at the end of the Gryffindor table and chatted mindlessly as they ate. After, awhile Sirius plopped down next to Riley, "What's cookin' good lookin'?" He asked grinning at her.

"Ask the house elves," Riley said rolling her eyes, but smiling all the same. Soon James sat down with them, immediately causing Lily to blush and Molly to giggle.

James looked at the girls, terror written all over his face.

"Don't worry, James, I'm confused too," Alice said laughing and passing the plate of chicken too him.

"Thanks," He muttered and began to determinedly focus on eating.

Riley sighed and muttered, only to Sirius, "This is gonna be one weird year, isn't it," And she didn't mean it as a question.

Sirius nodded and poured himself a glass of pumpkin juice, "For real," He muttered back.

O

On the night of the Quidditch try out, Alice and Riley didn't even get to see Molly or Lily. James was insistent about them traveling as a pack, and discussing what they were going to do at tryouts.

When the time finally came to head down to the field, James was a wreck. He had questioned himself being made captain at least eight times that day. As he opened his mouth on the way down to the pitch, Riley finally snapped, "We did just fine with you as captain last year, you're going to be just fine this year too, so just shuttup."

James closed his mouth, and Sirius chuckled vindictively.

When they got to the locker room, their old teammate was sitting in the locker room with Alice, lounging in front of their lockers. Sirius and Riley were the beaters, James was a chaser with Alice, Simon Wood was their keeper, Simon would be the only team member left behind at the end of the year, besides the new people chosen at the try out. Putting a serious amount of pressure on James to make the right decision.

"Alright, well are you guys ready for this?" James asked.

Alice rolled her eyes, and Simon grinned, "It'll be fine James, we'll find new teammates worthy of the scarlet and gold."

Sirius clapped Simon on the shoulder and said, "Game plan, one more time."

James took a deep breath and said, "So first we'll have them do a couple laps around the pitch, to weed out the kids who can't fly and see who's got some talent. Then we'll have the chasers and seekers split up. I want to have the chasers do some shooting on you wood. Alice you're going to help with some formation. Riley, Sirius I want you two to play some defense. No Bludgers. Then I'll work a little with the Seekers and then come see the Chasers do their thing. Keep your eyes open you three. I'm gonna be asking you for opinion on this."

The four teammates nodded, and James took another deep breath before he said, "Alright let's go."

Riley and Sirius jostled each other, as they got their gloves and brooms out of their lockers. James glared at them and said, "Behave, please."

Riley and Sirius grinned at each other and followed James, Alice and Simon onto the pitch.

They lost two girls who weren't even Gryffindors right off the bat, a boy who was a first year, about six giggling girls were eliminated from the pack when they were asked to fly around the pitch but kept almost falling out of the air so Sirius would fly over to catch them if necessary.

Riley and James rolled their eyes at each other and sent Alice up. After that change, the girls lost interest and left the pitch disappointed.

"Shameless," Riley commented disgustedly, "This is a serious sport."

"Awe don't be jealous, Riles, you know my heart beats only for you," Sirius said as he landed beside her.

"Oh, what a dream come true," Riley cooed before rolling her eyes and looking at James expectantly.

"Split up into Chasers and Seekers. Chasers go to Simon's side of the field. Seekers follow me," James said kicking off into the air.

Sirius and Riley went off after Simon and Alice to get in the way of the potential Chasers.

As the sun began to set, James cam over to watch the Chasers fly. The only person left was a fourth year, Riley was pretty sure her name was Samantha.

"That's our girl," James had whispered to Riley, who had then caught Sirius's eye and jerked her head in Sam's direction. Sirius nodded to show he understood.

After another hour, Riley clapped Anthony Sullivan on the back and welcomed him to the team. The newly completed Gryffindor Quidditch team landed in the center of the pitch. James introduced Samantha Charles who smiled shyly at everyone, and then Anthony who was beaming elatedly. "We practice every Monday, Wednesday and Friday," James explained, "Practice starts at six, if you're on time you're late and if you're early you're on time. I mean it," He added as Alice and Riley exchanged a quick glance and snorted. "The week before a game we have the pitch every day. So you'll be here everyday at 5:45. Understood?" The team nodded. James grinned at them, "We're gonna have a great season. I can feel it already."

A/N: So that's a simple quick one. But drop me a line anyway, I like to hear from you guys whenever I can.