Hello and welcome to Chapter 9 of Changes in Heart! (Cue unenthusiastic applause)
So what do y'all think 'bout Lionel?
And I messed up on his last name. It's Preston. I wrote Prescott once because my little sister was blasting Jessie. Sorry for the mix up! :-)
Disclaimer: If I owned Harry Potter, why would I be writing a fanfiction?
James' POV
" That Lionel guy was weird," I said to Remus after Lily left with her friends. I can't believe I'm actually on a first-name basis with the hottest girl in the world!
" Yeah...Mary looked a little uneasy about him," Remus replied, looking off into the distance where his girlfriendhad gone.
" He threatened us the first time he spoke to us! Lily hated me early in the morning?", Sirius asked as he and Peter sat down at the table.
" Lily's got a boyfriend," I told him.
" Your calling her by her first name now? So it must be you and you two are going to go live together in a pink cotton candy sugar castle in Pygmy Puff land," Sirius joked sarcastically.
" Shut up. His name's Lionel Preston," I grumbled.
Isn't he a beater on the Ravenclaw Quidditch team?", he asked.
" Oh yeah..."
" Hey, if Evans breaks up with him and starts dating you, he'll try to hit you with a bludger when we play Ravenclaw," Sirius joked. I could feel my face flame.
" Well, maybe when I hold Quidditch
tryouts maybe I'll be looking for two new beaters instead of one!", I fired back. Sirius went silent.
" Well, before you guys came down here, we were talking about Lionel. He practically threatened us without even saying hello first," Remus explained to the other two Mauraders.
" What'd he say?", Peter asked, looking up at me. I swear he idolizes me.
" He asked us if we would steal his girl! And they haven't even been on a date yet!", I exclaimed.
" You should get your own girlfriend. Why not that girl who's your partner in Divination?", Peter suggested. For someone who was so thick, he could be brilliant sometimes. My face lit up.
" Wormtail, you're brilliant!," I smiled. I hated Divination, and I met this girl, Beatrice (Bea)Carlson, on our first day of Divination in our third year. She hates Divination, too! I walked over to the Hufflepuff table to where she was sitting.
" Hey Bea," I greeted her. I stuffed my hands in my pockets and looked at the floor.
" Hey James. Why are you looking at the ground? A new way of Seeing?" she asked, looking at the ground with me. I laughed.
" Hey, I was wondering, you want to grab a butterbeer together next Hogsmeade weekend?", I asked.
" This is a date! I did my crystal gazing this morning and knew this would happen today at this time," she said in a mystical voice, sounding just like Professor Soufflé( It's actually Sufley, but we all call her Soufflé). I laughed.
" Wow, your crystal ball skills are getting better and better!", I joked.
" So, is that a yes?"
" Let me consult my bacon," she still used the mystical voice. Bea put a piece of bacon in her hand and pretended to examine it all over, while I'm standing there in stitches of laughter.
" Yeah sure, I don't see why not," she shrugged, smiling.
" Great!", I replied. " Well, see you around!"
I walked away and sat back down with the Marauders.
" How'd it go? How'd it go?", Peter asked eagerly the second I sat
down.
" No offense, Prongsie, but she seemed more interested in her bacon than you," Sirius laughed.
" She was making fun of Soufflé," I retorted. Sirius was so annoying.
" Oh,"
" C'mon, James! What'd she say?", Peter asked again.
" She said yes!" I excaimed.
" PRONGS!", Sirius shouted down the corridor as he walked out of Muggle Studies ( which he mostly did to annoy his parents) and I came downstairs from Divination. I rolled my eyes.
" Hey, Pads," I said back as he ran up next to me.
" Have you seen the list of kids trying out yet?", he asked.
" No. I'm going to see McGonnagall about that now," I replied and continued to head towards her office.
" I have it right here. She stopped me in the corridor and told me to give it to you," he said, handing me a piece of parchment.
" Merlins Pants!", I exclaimed as I unraveled the parchment. It al most touched the floor.
" Well, the try-outs Saturday should be fun!", I said sarcastically.
" Ok, listen up! If you're trying out for Beater, stand behind Sirius!", I shouted to the crowd of student standing behind her. About fifteen of the fifty students walked over and stood behind Sirius.
" If you're trying out for chaser, stand behind me!", I called. Twenty kids came over and stood behind me.
It was the day of Quidditch try-outs, and we had four positions open- one beater, two chasers, and a seeker. This was going to be a long day.
" Seekers- Behind Greg Johnson," I shouted as the last fifteen kids walked over and stood behind our keeper.
" Ok! We'll start with chasers! First three up! Greg, get in goal!", I shouted. My voice would be shot by the end of this. Three kids rose to the sky as Greg went up to goal.
" Ok, fly around and make shots at goal! You've got five shots!" I told the kids. This group consisted of all second years. Only one of them was good enough to possibly be on the team. I pulled him aside and told him to wait with Remus who had come to help with the tryouts.
After I found two good chasers- the little boy from the first group (Phillip Renmoun) and a 5th year girl named Daisy Turner- we started the beater tryouts. I decided to save seeker for last. I broke everyone into two groups. I gave one group white armbands and the other group black armbands.
" Ok. All if you will be in the air at once. Two people at a time from each group will have bats. When you gave a bat, your job is to keep the bludgers away from the people in your group while also trying to hit the other group. When I blow my whistle, you will hand the bat to another team member and take off your armband to make sure one person doesn't get a bat twice. If I flag you down, come and sit with the chasers. On my whistle-" I announced and blew the whistle. " Go!"
Fifteen kids flew in the air. As the bat was passed off, I watched as some kids swing and miss, and some were okay. Only about six kids still wore armbands and I still hadn't flagged anyone down. Finally, I saw a boy that showed strong potential and had good aim. I flagged him down and I saw Sirius flag down both of the kids with the bats in the other group. These last six were the best. We flagged down one more.
After having these kids put there skills in action with the rest of the team ( minus Sirius and a seeker), we decided on a third year named Patrick. Then we started with the seekers. There was no one brilliant, but we found someone who was great- a fourth year named Clara Litchen. I hoped my team was good enough to win the Quidditch cup.
" So how'd the tryouts go?", Lily asked me that night once we were alone in our common room.
" Pretty good," I replied. " We found an incredible new Beater,"
" That's great! What about the other positions?"
" You suddenly care about Quidditch!", I gasped.
" I have to talk to you about something you're interested," she teased.
" We also got a couple awesome chasers and a great seeker," I told her.
" You think Gryffindor will win the Quidditch Cup?", she asked.
" Hopefully," I replied. Lily stood up and walked over to the case with all the games and pulled out a deck of Exploding Snap.
" I thought you didn't play Exploding Snap," I said.
" Well, people change!", she laughed.
We started playing. I won in the end (obviously), and Lily got a haircut- almost four inches were singed off.
" Your hair doesn't look that bad," I reassured her.
" Yeah. I just half burnt ends," she grumbled.
" Look, I don't think Ravenclaws have any standards. Lionel will still like you," I comforted.
" James!" she scolded.
" Hey! They're all bookworms and know-it-alls. Who would want to go out with one?" I argued.
" Oh, so are you saying I have no standards?", she fought back. I shrugged.
" Well, if I had no standards, I would have said yes to you the first time you asked me out," she teased back.
" Ooo, burn!", Sirius called as he entered the room.
" Thanks, Sirius!", I said sarcastically.
" Always here for you, Prongs," he said, putting his arm around my shoulder. I flung it off and Sirius pretended to look hurt.
" Fine! I guess you don't like me!"
" Sirius, don't listen to mean James. He's just sour," Lily said in the voice that my mom uses on my baby cousin.
" HEY! That kid Asher was also a good beater. I can go tell him that he's on the team now," I threatened.
" What? But you'll crush Patrick's dreams," Sirius whined.
" Oh no, Patrick won't be the one getting replaced," I said as Sirius crossed his arms and gave me the stink eye.
" C'mom, Pads, you know I'm just joking, let's hug it out," I said in the same type of voice Lily used earlier.
" Oh, Prongsie!" He said and leaned in for a hug. We hugged it out and Lily looked at us like we were crazy.
" Boys," I heard her mutter.
" Gotta love us, right Lils?", Sirius said pulling Lily into our hug.
" Ewww! You guys smell like Quidditch!", she complained, her voice muffled from being pushed up against us.
" That is our manly musk," Sirius said dramatically.
" Well, would like to introduce your 'Manly Musk' to soap?", she complained again.
" No...it would be rude to take it away after we've just introduced it to you!", I joked, and we pulled her closer.
" Aguamenti!", she shouted, and a hard stream if water hit us in the stomachs. We both buckled over, freeing Lily from our grasp.
" YES! FREEDOM!", she shouted.
I am very upset that no one reviewed my last chapter. I don't want to have to have you guys vote for something at the end of every chapter just to get reviews! Sooo PLEASE REVIEW!
please?
