"Alright people, get a move on. I want you to run a couple three man weaves, and remember to use the width of the field."
Across the field, Vanessa Peters and Mattie Bell lined up for the drill, and fell into the favorite activity of the Gryffindor Quiddich team: talking about their captain`s love life.
"Poor guy…like Josh was saying, sure, he`s liked a lot of girls, but the only one he`s ever really loved is the one he could never have, and now that she finally likes him and he knows it, they`re both too embarrassed to do anything about it."
"Oh, come on. Potter jut needs to grow a pair, let the Ravenclaw down gently, and ask Lil out already!"
"I don`t think it`s that simple," Bradley cut in. "After all, he`s had his hear broken by this girl so many times, and that really takes a toll on a person. Potter`s probably still deciding whether he could really put himself out there like that again, and if he could handle the rejection, or if he even wants to."
"Nessa, you`re up…" Mattie quickly added before James could wonder what had caused the delay in the far line. The players had basically grown up together with quiddich; so much so that they were basically family (Josh and Bradley actually were brothers). When someone picked on Bradley, or tried to harass Linda, or even commented harshly on Sirius and James` serial dating and irresponsibility and questioned James` ability to be a proper captain, they would have to face all the rest of the team, who were all too willing to beat them into next year. If James even took the slightest notice of the distracted line, they were sure he`d see right through their whispers.
"Do you think somebody should try to reassure him that she`s not gonna hurt him this time?" Keri, the new backup seeker asked.
"As much as I would love for him to be happy, and also for him to stop giving us six am practices, I don`t think the direct approach will help in this. I think he just needs time." Mattie said before flying off.
James blew his whistle. "Outsides stay back after you`re done to play defense on the next group!"
"The thing is though; I think someone ought to say something… Gryffindor as he is, I`m not sure he can make the right decision on his own."
Keri brightened. "That`s where we come in, right?"
"Yeah, but how are we going to break it to him… should I write 'Lily loves you' on the locker room mirror, or is that not subtle enough?"
"Switch keeper! Tegan, you okay to get in there?"
"Give me a sec…accio gloves!" The reserve called back.
"No offense, Robins," Sirius commented, "But I think that would earn all of us an extra twenty laps."
"Alright Black, then what can we do?"
"I wish I knew."
James, who had been practicing blocking with Josh twenty feet away, froze at the words of his best friend. This team liked to gossip and share stories more than his mother`s old book club, and their favorite topic was the exactly same.
"Alright, everyone line up along the end line." James saw Josh wince, probably cursing his teammates for their lack of observation. "When you get there, dismount your brooms. Time for endurance training."
On the way over, Mattie slapped Sirius on the back of the head. "Now look what you`ve done. If I can`t feel my legs after this, you`re really gonna get it."
Blowing the whistle again, James roared, "Come on, hurry it up! Are you an elderly sewing circle or the Gryffindor Quiddich team?"
On the end line, James got off his broom and surveyed his team, deciding how much hell he was going to give them this morning.
"We`re going to start with a loop around the lake."
The groans brought him some slight satisfaction, until Bradley asked, "Potter, you do know Lily really truly likes you, right?"
Mike stared at his teammate with utter horror in his eyes, and the others braced themselves for the pain to come.
"Noted, Robins. After the loop, we`ll be doing ten laps, on foot, all the way around the grounds."
"I have something to add," Mattie said as everyone grumbled. "James, you need to grow a pair and just sweep her off her feet already. She won`t say no, especially not to a romantic gesture. Actually, she`d probably approach you if you weren't still dating that godforsaken Ravenclaw."
"Now we have Bell to thank for the hill sprints we`ll be doing on Whomping Willow Hill."
"Why are we running, anyway? Quiddich is played in the air, and besides, there`s snow on the ground." Denis pointed out.
"Twenty laps."
Vanessa bravely piped up, "If this is Give Potter Romantic Advice Time, I have something I`d like to add…"
"I`ll just keep exponentially adding on laps, then. I hope you`re ready to do sprints until lunch time."
"No way will McGonagall let him keep us out of class. It`s a winter practice anyway, he can`t hold us here that long." Mattie muttered.
"Shh." Linda hissed. "Unless you want them to find your body at the bottom of the lake cut it out, `cause Potter`s about to lose it."
"Is that them? I would have lost it long ago."
Lily squinted at the distant figures inching their way around the lake. "I`m honestly surprised nobody's ditched yet."
Mel scoffed. "With Potter as captain? Not likely. They wouldn`t dare, no matter how Gryffindor they are. He`s mad. Brilliant, but mad. I`m sure at this point, though, they are all just using it as an excuse to play in the snow rather than be in class."
"Lily?" The huddled group turned, and saw Ariana, a Ravenclaw also on her way to Herbology. "Hi, I heard you talking, I just don`t understand…did you say…is that…" She pointed a frozen finger, "your quiddich team?"
"The one and only."
"But…Why?" Logic, among Ariana`s strong points, did not involve getting out of class to run around school in the snow.
Alice rolled her eyes. "It`s just Potter`s idea of team bonding or something. You should have seen him this morning; he slid into Transfiguration red faced, and somehow managed to convince McGonagall that his team would need to be excused from morning classes due to their dire need to get in shape before the next match. Apparently this is 'the year' for us to win the cup."
The Ravenclaw managed to nod and smile, pretending to understand the insane competitive sports drive that fueled so many.
"Who`s that in front?"
"Robins…no, can`t be. It`ll be easier to tell when they get down by the edge of the forest." Mary tried to scrape the condensation from her glasses, but her scarf just made it worse. "I`m positive that Mattie has got to be one of those two in the back throwing snowballs, though."
As the team started to come down the hill and circle the perimeter of the (frozen over) pumpkin patch, the girl`s eyebrows shot up as they realized that several guys were missing a somewhat crucial part of the quiddich uniform.
"Wow..."
"Really?"
"That has to have been Black`s idea."
"Is that necessary? I mean, I know they must be sweating, since they have been running for ages, but it is January for Merlin`s sake." Lily commented.
Another snowball hit Josh`s back, and the girls could finally hear what the snowball girls were yelling, using the snowballs to punctuate their words.
"Prat!"
"Put your shirt on, it`s the middle of winter!" Vanessa shouted at Potter as a snowball shattered on his shoulder.
"This isn`t a strip club, show-offs."
"Tool!" Mattie called, sending one slamming into the back of Sirius` head.
Sirius slowed, sneakily scooping up a handful of ice chips from along the path. "Are you sure you want me to cover up this gun show?"
"Muggle technology doesn`t work at Hogwarts anyway, which would explain the deficiency…" Mattie made a 'oh well' face, and sped up as the team descended into cackles. Sirius, never one to give up without getting the last laugh, dropped the ice down the back of her shirt.
"Oi!"
Lily smiled as her friend chased after Sirius, screeching, "Get back here, coward. You`d better watch your back from now on, Black… remember this as I stand over you, laughing as I extract my revenge!"
The frosted greenhouse door was waiting for them, so the girls unfortunately could not stay to watch the inevitable snowball fight that erupted moments after Mattie`s declaration. Scurrying into place, the five barely made it in before the Snargaluff pods were passed out.
"Earth to Lily." Alice tapped her on the arm with a pair of gloves. "Ready?"
Blinking the bare chest of a certain quiddich captain out of her mind, Lily realized everyone else was already paired up. "Mmhmm."
"She must have been thinking of that all that fun Transfiguration homework we`ve got to do later." Mary noted sarcastically.
"Must have."
James must have looked pretty miserable, because when Mattie came over, she was giving him the look that one would normally give stray puppies.
"Hey."
"Hey."
"Nice job at practice, captain."
"Do they all know?"
"If you mean the team, yeah. But don`t worry, that discussion would have probably happened anyway, even if yesterday hadn`t happened and Lily hadn`t neglected to tell us not to mention the events. If you mean the school, I think it`s just stayed within the Gryffindors, the ones loyal to you anyway."
"Good to know at least some people are loyal."
Mattie held up her hands in mock surrender. "I thought the team had a right to know what you were taking out on them."
"It was that bad?"
"Think back to the past few hours…do you really need to ask?"
She did have a point. Even he was tired when they finally arrived back at the locker room, sore and stupidly shirtless (it had seemed like a good idea at the time).
"So, what are you doing about the Ravenclaw?"
He sighed. "I didn`t mean to revert back…"
"She`ll understand. Everyone knows you`re a player, Potter, and since she`s known you for so long, I doubt she has any grand unrealistic expectations for where that relationship was going. Ravenclaws do have a tendency to be smart, you know."
"Strangely, so do you, beneath all that snark and sarcasm." James bumped her with his shoulder. "Who knew Matilda Bell was philosophical?"
"What can I say? I`m a genius." Her trademark pseudo-flaunting words may disagree, but there was a smile in her voice.
"Speaking of genius, I need you to help me get back at Black. Big time."
Mattie`s eyes lit up at the mention of a prank to-be, but she had to mentally restrain herself from the excitement of the obvious diversion. "Big time? No, no, I see what you`re trying to do there. Don`t worry, we`ll have plenty of time to cook up a scheme for Black, because I owe him a good retaliation too, but right now we`re discussing what is to be done about the Jily situation."
"Jily?"
"Give people an inch, they`ll take it a mile. It`s what people have been preemptively calling the two of you."
"Fantastic. What am I going to do, Mats?"
Giving him a pitying look and a shrug, she replied, "Only you can figure that one out, mate. But I`d get to it fast, before any Ravenclaws figure out what`s going on."
James groaned. "Alright, I`ll think about it, just give me some time. Can we go back to this delicious revenge plotting now?"
"Sure. Okay, so I`ve been running through some ideas, and the best one I`ve come up with so far is complicated, but just might work."
"I like the sound of that."
"If we`re gonna do this, I`ll need to owl my brothers to get some supplies… it could take a couple weeks, but hopefully they can get us these muggle explosion sticks called 'fireworks'…"
Lily felt like a firework, but not in a good way. It wasn't an erratic explosion, no; it was the bit that came after, the burn up discarded pieces it was left as after the boom. The chunks everyone always forgets about, or throws away to get off their lawn.
She tried to explain this to Alice, but her pureblood friend did not get the reference.
"So you feel like burnt trash?"
"Sort of. Mary would explain better…actually, never mind."
"Lily, it`s not that bad."
"Not that bad?" Lily brandished her charms homework in agitation. "I threw him up against a wall and begged him to kiss me! Ugh, it`s positively humiliating, that`s what it is."
The smoky purple vial she`d stored in her sock drawer nagged at the back of her mind. If only it would erase the memory of everyone involved…but Lily was certain there was not enough for that. She contemplated giving it to James so he`d forget the Potion Catastrophe, but Lily couldn`t bear the thought of sealing away any remaining chance she had with him. Unfortunately, she could tell none of this to Alice, because her friends would certainly confiscate the vial.
"Oh Lil, I`m sure everyone will get over it soon enough. As for James, at least now it`s out in the open that you like him. That`s what you wanted, right? Your resolution? Telling James that way might not have been the most ideal situation, but it`s better than never telling him at all and not ever knowing what could have happened. Now instead of worrying about the unchangeable past, you only have the mysterious and unforeseeable future to freak out about."
"You`ve spent too long on that Divination homework."
"I`m serious!" Alice chucked a pillow across the room, hitting her friend dead-on.
"Really?" Lily smirked impishly, returning fire. "I thought you were Alice."
"Look who`s making a Marauder joke! Oh, you`re going to fit right in."
"As if. The only person even close to being a Marauder is Mattie, and I`m pretty sure she`s too cool for them."
"As a girlfriend, I mean. All of the good ones, like Stacy, Millie, and Ariana, all had the same good natured thing going for them."
"Whatever you say, Al." Lily spotted some letters she`d been meaning to post, and jumped at the chance to get out of the room, and therefore the conversation. "I`ll be right back, got to bring some stuff up to the owlery."
"Have fun!"
Unsurprisingly, no fun was to be had. The halls were empty, everyone else busy with the dismal homework that had been piled on that day. It was only Lily, the girl who never left things to the last minute piling up stage, that had free time. Or so she thought, before she heard a familiar voice behind her.
"Lily! Hey, Lily! Wait up!"
A breathless Remus Lupin came to a halt, smiling wide and gesturing to the envelopes in her hand. "Would you mind having some company on the way to the owlery?"
"Not at all." She replied, noticing a letter in his hand as well. "Done with the work already?"
"It was too easy. Unfortunately, not easy enough that I can stay in my own dorm without being pestered to complete the work of others. I suppose the girls did the same to you."
"Nah, thankfully I`ve got Mary on my side too, and she took Mattie and Mel to the library, so the room was pretty calm."
"Do you guys take turns with that, then?"
"Not usually, she mainly did it because….well, I guess you`ve heard about what happened after the match on Saturday."
Remus smiled sadly. "Yeah, James mentioned. Would you mind if I asked you something?"
"Go ahead."
"Why get drugs from a shady, vengeful Hufflepuff? It just doesn`t seem like you at all."
Lily sighed. "People do crazy things in crazy times."
"But you, Lily Evans, smartest witch our year and possibly even the school, doing drugs? It just doesn`t add up." Remus pointed out.
"It`s a long story."
"Isn`t it always?"
If anyone could be trusted not to tell or pass judgment, it was Remus. Also, he had inside knowledge on the world of James Potter, and could possibly tell her what that bigheaded prat was thinking. "Would you promise not to tell?"
"Yes, I promise."
"Well, over winter break I finally came to terms with the fact that I do in fact… please don`t laugh or pass out… quite probably like James. But then he came back with Anna, just as I was going to tell him, so then I couldn`t because then that would hurt her and possibly also me, since he is therefore most likely over me, what with how he acts towards her. So I went to Madeline to tried and get a potion that would help me get over him, because I thought she would want to help me spare an innocent Ravenclaw, and also she`s the most successful potion dealer in the school. She gave me two vials, one that would help me get over him and one that would take away my common sense, but didn`t tell me which was which. I obviously drank the wrong one, and you know the rest."
"Wow, Lily…"
"Yeah." She sat down on the steps leading up to the owlery, head in hands, the gravity of her situation finally hitting her with the full force. Saying the tale out loud made her finally come to terms with what had conspired. "So now you know my secret. I am stuck unable to stop liking the only boy I swore I`d never, never love."
"Technically, that is a double negative. Sorry," Remus knew that commentary was not helping, so he made a big decision and tried to console her in a way that he thought was only fair, but he hoped he wouldn`t regret. "Do you want to know my secret?"
"No, no Remus, that`s okay. You don`t have to do that."
"You told me yours, it`s only fair. Everyone has one, you know. That one thing they`d rather not let anyone else know, the thing that eats them up inside and that they think about when nobody`s around. You`re not alone, just braver than most, because you can give yours words. But we`re Gryffindors, so I suppose I can say mine too."
"If you really want to do this-"
"I do."
"-then I swear I won`t say a word about it to anyone."
"Thank you." He smiled weakly. Remus hesitated a moment, terror inching on to his face as he blurted out, "I`m a werewolf."
Lily could feel him studying her as she looked up and didn`t try to hold back a small smile. As she did (or rather, didn`t) confusion edged onto his face, eyebrows crinkling downwards.
"You`re not scared? Or…surprised?"
"I`ve had a hunch for a while… sick routinely once a month, mysterious injuries and scars, preference for rare meat… it made sense. I didn`t want to ask though, because that`s kind of a personal thing. And of course I`m not scared, it doesn`t matter if you`re a werewolf or not, you`re still Remus. I know you`d never hurt anything."
He brightened slightly, but added, "You don`t know that for sure."
"Um, yeah I do. You literally would never kill a fly. I was there the time you saved the fly from the horrors of the double-paned windows of the library, remember? Remus, I know you, and I trust you with my life, werewolf or not. Just because I can perform Unforgivable curses with a wand doesn`t mean I go around killing people. My cousin owns a gun, but he`s never shot anybody. Just because you can do bad things doesn`t mean you have to. So no, I`m not scared. There`s no reason to be. You`re my friend."
There were tears at the edges of Remus` eyes now. "Thank you, Lily. You have no idea what this means to me."
"No problem, Rem. Does this mean…?"
"What?"
Lily began to break out in a knowing smile. "So if Moony is because you`re a werewolf….Padfoot, Prongs, and Wormtail are also descriptive? So they must be animagus, right?"
The words hung in the air for a moment as Remus wondered if his friends would mind, but in the end, he figured they probably wouldn`t mind him telling just Lily. If all went well, she would find out eventually anyway. "Yep."
"Let me guess…Padfoot is a dog, because no cat behaves like Sirius, Wormtail is a timid mouse, and Prongs… a deer?"
"Stag, and Peter`s actually a rat. Don`t tell anyone please, not even the girls. It`s illegal, and I don`t want them to get in trouble for me."
"Don`t worry. Your secret is safe with me." She winked, nudging him slightly.
"Likewise." Remus grinned. "Do you want to actually send those letters now?"
With everything else, Lily had completely forgotten why they were there. Flustered, she replied, "Oh, sure!"
"And Lily?"
As she turned, her eye caught the spot where she and James had sat, the first time she`d really ever thought of him as more than Potter, world class prick. "Hmm?"
"Don`t worry about what happens with James. He can be daft sometimes, but he does have a brain when it counts, promise."
"Well, hopefully that so-called brain of his comes up with something soon, because it`s not going to be long now before word breaks through to Ravenclaw…. And he`d better have a plan by then."
Oh, he`d better.
