Chapter 8- Gryffindor vs. Slytherin
Lily, Marsha and Amy entered the Great Hall, amidst great chatter and excitement.
"I take it they've noticed the sign about the Ball in two weeks," Lily said sarcastically.
"Never understood what the hype was about. All you do is get your hair done and trot around the dance floor like an idiot," Marsha said.
"But they do have great juice!" Amy added, while the other two rolled their eyes.
"You know, if you keep rolling your eyes at me, those pretty little things will be stuck like that… perpetually turning in circles… around and around and around…" Amy said sardonically.
"Too late," Lily muttered as the three girls took a seat at the breakfast table.
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The rest of the week passed uneventfully, with all the 7th years finding that their desks were soon piled up with work and other activities. James seemed crushed with all the work he had to do, along with Head Boy duties, Quidditch practice and squeezing in a few pranks to pull ahead of Sirius in the detention race. Lily, of course, was thrilled every time she got to spend time with him, although she would be damned to admit it.
As Saturday approached, the whole school was excited about the upcoming events. The first Hogsmeade trip was to take place on Saturday, and the first Quidditch game was to take place the next morning.
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"Hate dress robes." Amy said as she eyed a rack of long, flowing gowns.
"Get scantier every year, don't they?" Lily said, raising her eyebrows at the low-cut pink dress in the corner.
"Well. Those designers need to save money on cloth," Marsha said mock-patronizingly.
"Right then. Let's get this over with, shall we?" Lily said, as she approached a group of dresses in her size and ripped off the ones that caught her eye.
After spending a mere half an hour trying on different dress robes, the three girls settled for dresses that they would be wearing to the ball next week.
"Well thank God we got that over with," said Marsha, who completely dreaded shopping in malls, and fitting rooms even more.
Lily peeked at her dress in the paper bag she was holding and looked up wistfully, trying hard not to think about James. This did not go unnoticed by either Marsha or Amy, but neither chose to comment.
"Three Broomsticks?" Amy suggested, her teeth chattering. The other two nodded mutely.
They squeezed into the packed pub and found an empty table at the back, which coincidentally, was next to the Marauders'.
"Hey you three," Remus smiled. "Dress robes?" He said, nodding at the parcels they held.
Marsha wrinkled her nose and replied, "Unfortunately."
Remus laughed appreciatively, while Sirius wiggled his eyebrows and said, "So you charming ladies know whom you're going with?"
"Nope," Lily said, shrugging.
"Ahh well stagging it is very in this season," Sirius said, knowledgeably, while the rest of the Gryffindors just stared at him. "My mother," Sirius muttered.
"The very same who made him get ballet lessons. Very in that season too," James said matter-of-factly, while the others burst out laughing.
"Mock me now, but one of these days James Potter, your life will depend on a dance-off and you will regret having not taken ballet lessons!"
"In what stage of hell do they require a dance off?" James asked.
"Idiotic bastard."
"What was that?"
"Uh, Nice plastered. Walls," Sirius finished lamely and pointed at the wooden walls of the Three Broomsticks. Realizing his sentence didn't make sense, he quickly added, "In the dorms."
The other 6, having not understood what he said the first time, but having a relatively good idea, just shook their heads and ignored him.
"SO HOW ABOUT THAT QUIDDITCH GAME TOMORROW?" Sirius continued in an overly loud voice, before realizing that he had made yet another mistake.
"We better win!" James said, with Amy backing him up enthusiastically. And with that simple sentence, they were off. For the next ten minutes, James and Amy talked quickly and excitedly about their game tomorrow against Slytherin, with the others just looking into their mugs glumly.
After a few more minutes, Lily cut in with a voice dripping with sarcasm, "I note that only two people are talking."
"Good observation, Lils," James said, before turning to Amy and continuing his statement about the trick play they had invented a few days before.
Lily shut up, her heart leaping with the nickname.
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The Quidditch stands the next day, were packed. Lily, Marsha, and Peter barely managed to find seats that weren't obscured by overly large poles or people.
"Well let's hope Gryffindor wins," Peter said.
"Why would we hope otherwise?" Marsha asked, confused.
"We wouldn't. But I, personally, can't stand an angered James," Peter said gazing at the doors from which the players entered the field.
"Ditto to that," Lily said, although for slightly different reasons.
"And heeereee they come!" The announcer was Edmond Thurton, whose insanity rivaled that of Sirius', but only at select moments. It was hard to maintain that constant level of craziness.
"AND OH MY GOD! I'VE JUST RECEIVED NEWS THAT SLYTHERIN IS FORFEITING BECAUSE THEY KNOW THEY CANNOT POSSIBLY WIN THIS GAME!" Thurton screamed into his microphone. All the students froze, completely surprised, when the Slytherin team took the field, looking disgruntled. "Oh haha. My little joke." Thurton said meekly as the Slytherin fans glared at him murderously.
"Of course, here's the Fabulous Four! Captain and Chaser James Potter, Amy Huntsford, Sirius Black and Remus Lupin!! Not to mention their three other great teammates, Milo Hamilton and newcomers Frank Longbottom and Stephanie Vitre!!" Edmond's arm swerved in a huge arc with every name he mentioned. "Oh… and those green blobs down there are the Slytherin team." He added offhandedly. As a Ravenclaw 6th year, Edmond cared little about the Slytherin house.
The game took of quickly, and Gryffindor, due to their superior training and practice, easily took the lead, with James leading the team, both numerically and spiritually.
"That's it guys! Nice and easy! BUT DON'T BE NICE TO THEM! We want to clobber them! We don't want to be nice and easy to them!" James shouted irrationally during a team timeout.
"Chill James. We know what you mean," Sirius rolled his eyes.
"We've done this tons of times, we've got this James," Stephanie said assuredly.
Sure enough, the game had lasted less than 15 minutes, when Remus caught the Snitch, and Gryffindor won the game by nearly 250 points.
"That was the fastest game in history!" Amy said happily, looking over at the frowning Slytherins. But then again, the Slytherins were always frowning.
James ran into the locker room and then sprinted up to the common room, ready to celebrate with the rest of his house.
"LILY! WE WON!" James shouted, overcome with glee and he picked her up and easily swung her in a circle before bouncing around.
"Whadya think? Awesome, eh?"
"Yes James, although next time, you should warn me before you decide to treat me like a Quaffle," Lily said, unable to keep a huge smile off her face.
"I throw Quaffles, not spin them around. Unless of course you'd like to…"
"No… really. That's more than I can handle," Lily said, holding up her hands to discourage him. "I'm probably pretty heavy too," Lily said, just for persuasion's sake.
"No you're not!" James said quickly, but then changed his mind, "I mean, yes you are, but I'm just BUFF!" He then turned around and ran to the center of the room, screaming "WE WON" while waving his arms over his head like a maniac.
If craziness were contagious... Sirius would cause a worldwide epidemic.
That thought just occurred to me, and I felt the undeniable desire to share it with you.
