A/N- Hey! I hope you enjoyed the chapters so far, I am writing this in my Nans, deprived of fast internet, watching the start of Ice age. I'm up to the part where the squirrel just got stood on! Lol!
Disclaimer- I own nothing, boo hoo.
Lily watched curiously as the huddle of boys looked up at her and then turned back. After a while she thought nothing of it and took out the snitch that had been hidden in her pocket. She watched as the golden wings unfolded and started to flutter. She opened her fist and was just about to let it fly out when she saw James head towards her. Pocketing the snitch, she waited for him to reach her.
"What was all that about?" she asked, motioning towards the group of boys.
"We've got a plan, but you'll have to agree to something" James answered, rubbing his hands together nervously.
"Go on then" Lily said impatiently after a few seconds of silence
"Right, well, would you play as the seeker, just for this match?" he asked quickly "we're desperate, If we have to forfeit this match we've lost the summer league, we need seven players at the start of the match" he explained
"I thought Sirius was a beater" Lily stated
"Yeah, but we don't have spare beaters, and Walton is a fair enough beater, so if you can play seeker, that'd be great" He said. Lily thought about it, James seemed to get more nervous with every second that passed.
"Alright, I'll do it" Lily said, James gave a cry of victory and hugged her, pulling her feet off the ground.
"Come on, I'll introduce you to the team"
After many hugs, pats on the back and cheers, the other team arrived. They were all very different. There were two big bulky men with beater bats in their hand, but they weren't fat, that was for sure. They looked like they were made from pure muscle; almost identical in looks too, they must be twins. There was a small, slender boyish guy who had what looked like the fastest broom on the team, a shooting star, he seemed like the seeker sort, Lily cringed at this, there was no way she could beat him with speed whilst he was riding that.
There was a bulky, muscular (but nowhere near the two she had first noticed) guy, he was well padded and had an extremely crooked jaw, like it had been broken a long time ago and not set right.
There were three tallish men, they were thin, but not overly so, their hair had been cut so short they were almost bald and they were talking very seriously amongst themselves, whilst nervously looking around every so often, as if making sure no-one was eavesdropping, must be talking tactics Lily thought, these were obviously the chasers.
The guy with the pads stepped forward and held out his hand for Walton to shake. Walton did and then, when he pulled back he reached into his pocket and pulled out a small wooden disc with two carvings on each side
"Centaur or goblin?" He asked as he flipped the coin into the air and caught it
"Goblin" The other team captain said. Walton opened his hand and Lily could just see a horse like figure on the front.
"We'll play away from the sun first" Walton said. The teams mounted their brooms and flew into their positions. Just before she could take off, James put his hand on her shoulder.
"Wait, I want you to take my broom, you've got no chance against their seeker on a star bolt" James said, Lily was about to argue, but James' face told her that he wouldn't back down
"Alright, I'll use it, but then you'll be really slow" Lily said
"I'll still be faster than their chasers, they've all got cleansweeps, they went out of style two decades ago!" He laughed and they swapped brooms. Taking off, Lily felt a rush of air. She then flew into position and put on a concentrated face, so the other team wouldn't know how nervous she was. A short, chubby man walked out onto the field
"Now, I want a nice clean game" He shouted up into the air, mostly directed at the opposite team. He set down a box that Lily hadn't realised he had been carrying. As soon as he opened it, two bludgers flew into the air, flying off to distant ends of the pitch. The little man opened a small door and took out the golden object that was the snitch. He released it and Lily looked up to the other Seeker for the first time. He was smiling slyly at her, like he knew something she didn't, like he knew her. She shook her head to clear the thought and looked back down. The referee had the quaffle in his hands now, as soon as the leather ball left his hands the game would begin. Most chasers waited for it to start coming back down before they went for it, but if there was one thing James was good at, it was being different.
The ref got ready to throw the quaffle, brought his hands down and then, as if in slow motion, Lily saw his arms move upwards and his fingers flick the ball. Before it was even an inch away from the man's fingers, James swooped down and grabbed it. The ref stumbled back in surprise and the three chasers were still with shock. Lily though, had moved at the same time as James, almost as if they were in sync with each other, she had soared upwards, Leaving the other seeker behind.
"Ten points to the red team!" James had scored before the keeper had even had time to get to the posts. Lily smiled, some things never change, and James was just too quick for anyone. The game slowed down as the Keeper of the other team got the quaffle, he threw it to a chaser with black hair and he seemed to make his way incredibly slowly towards burke at the posts he was guarding. Ernie charged the chaser but he threw the quaffle to someone underneath him just as Ernie was about to snatch it from his hands. Seamus charged this guy, he slowed down in hesitation for a second, that was just enough for James to creep up behind him and snatch the quaffle his arms. He spun around and charged to the other end of the pitch. A bludger came zooming towards him but he dropped the quaffle and Seamus caught it, James did a barrel roll on his broom in the air and the bludger hit empty space, it zoomed off to find another target. James put on a burst of speed and was now flying over Seamus. Two chasers went over and marked him, knowing Seamus would have to pass to him so the quaffle could reach the goal. Seamus looked as if he would pass the quaffle up for a minute, then he passed the ball behind the goalposts, the keeper thought he had made a rubbish attempt to score and the chasers left James to find space when the keeper retrieved the quaffle. What they did not expect was to see Ernie fly up from behind the posts with the quaffle in his hand, the keeper went behind the posts to tackle him; he did, but not before Ernie had passed the quaffle to James. He realised his mistake and was about to fly to the goals when a bludger, hit by Walton smashed into his face. He fell backwards off his broom and hit the floor with a thud. James threw the quaffle into the hoop and made the score 20 – 0.
Lily was about to clap when she heard a whistling noise behind her, on instinct, she rolled her legs off the side of her broom so they were dangling in mid air and she was holding onto the broom with both hands. The bludger sailed over the top of the broom. Lily was about to swing her legs back over when she saw the other Seeker fly towards her. He didn't slow down to help; he charged right into the side of the broom and sent it spinning. Lily lost her grip with her right hand and was dangling by one hand at a dangerously high level. She screamed, and the Seeker made his way back to her, she looked to her left and saw Walton staring in horror at the scene. James was suddenly at his side. He ragged the bat out of the captains hand and hit an oncoming Bludger at the Seeker, it didn't hit the mark, but he still had to duck, this gave Lily time react. She grabbed hold of the broom with both hands and swung her legs over the top. She looked down at the drop she could have fallen and suddenly saw a glint of gold, she froze, looked at the other seeker, who was arguing with James, who had the quaffle in his arms safely. She could see that the Referee had mounted his broom and was flying towards them. The seeker hadn't seen the glint of gold. Lily dove. She could feel the wind rushing through her hair. She was doing a vertical drop, there was no angle, and she was going straight down. She stretched out her arm; her hand was nearly enclosed on the snitch. A shooting pain ran up her arm. She pulled back and let out a yell. A bludger had smashed into it. She could tell it had been broken in at least three different places. Something rushed past her and she realised it was the other seeker. Lily decided to ignore the pain and flew after him. She was gaining on him; James' shooting star was a newer version than the Seekers! He had his hand outstretched reaching for the golden prize. Distantly she heard the voiceover shout...
"Another ten points to the red team! That makes the score 60 – 30 to the reds!" no-one had noticed the desperate chase between both seekers, suddenly...
"BOTH SEEKERS ARE AFTER THE SNITCH! Evans is slowly gaining, but Fitch is still in the lead. Fitch nearly has his hand around it, WHAT IS THIS?"
Lily had panicked when she heard the other seeker, Fitch, nearly had it, she was nearly next to him and she did the one thing, the most stupidest thing she could think of, she threw herself forward, off the front of the broom. Her hand knocked his out of the way and grasped the tiny gold ball, for a moment she was flying on her own, with nothing supporting her, then, she hit the ground.
Luckily both seekers had only been about a foot away from the ground. Lily rolled and tumbled along the grass, eventually landing on her back, knocking all the wind out of her lungs, all the while still grasping the tiny object in her hands. She slowly lifted her arm up, so everyone could see the tiny gold object.
"LILY EVANS HAS CAUGHT THE SNITCH! THE RED TEAM WINS 210 – 30! THEY MAKE THEIR WAY INTO THE MINOR LEAGUE SEMI-FINALS! Bad luck to the yellow team, even with their professional Seeker Ricky Fitch, they couldn't make it."
There was loud cheering from an extremely large crowd that had gathered to watch the match. A mediwitch had run across the grass and was now knelt beside Lily, checking her for any concussion,
"Does it hurt anywhere dear?" she asked kindly
"I got the wind knocked out of me when I landed and when the Bludger smashed into my arm, I think I broke something" Lily explained through clenched teeth. The mediwitch prodded the sore arm and Lily hissed in pain, suddenly there was a yell from above,
"You cheated!" The captain of the yellow team was flying towards Walton.
"We didn't cheat, there are no set places in a team, people can move around, just because I'm usually a seeker, it doesn't mean I can't be a beater" Walton explained cautiously.
The other Captain gave an enraged yell; he grabbed the beaters bat off his teammate and hit an oncoming bludger at Walton. It hit its target and Walton fell backwards off his broom, he fell for about forty feet until he hit the ground. The yellow captain flew down after him, before he could inflict any more damage, the two twin beaters grabbed his arms and held him back. The mediwitch left Lily's side and ran to the fallen captain. Two more people rushed out onto the grass with a crate of potions. They started talking with big complicated words that Lily couldn't understand, so she tuned out. She saw someone approach and looked up to see dark messy hair and hazel eyes behind wire framed glasses
"That was amazing!" James said, "but you took quite a fall, are you alright?" his face suddenly turned concerned .
"I'm fine, just got the wind knocked out of me, that's all" Lily replied, giving a smile that must have looked more like a grimace, because the next thing James said was
"Are you sure you're alright?" Just then, the mediwitch returned.
"Right miss Evans, your diagnosis is two fractures and one clean break to your left arm. I think it started out as a fracture, but due to the fall it got worse and the bone broke completely. Now, fractures take about an hour to heal, but a clean break, that's going to take the rest of the day and some of the night to heal completely." She pulled what looked like a muggle splint out of her bag. "After you drink the potion you're going to need to wear this, it's called a sp-"
"I know what it's called, I'm muggleborn" Lily interrupted her
"Right, well you're going to need to wear it for the bones to set properly" She explained. Lily just nodded her head. "Drink this" The mediwitch handed her a potion of disgusting green liquid. Lily downed it in one gulp and nearly threw up "That's revolting!" she said, whilst nearly gagging.
"Well you don't expect something that's going to fix your bones to taste like strawberries, do you?" The woman tutted as she fixed the splint onto Lily's arm "I've got to go and tend to your friend over there, but between you and me, I don't think he's going to be playing for the rest of the season" and then she hurried over to Walton.
Lily looked up at James, he was scowling at her
"What?" she asked him innocently
"You lied to me, you said you were fine"
"Look, I'm sorry, but I didn't want you to worry about me, I'll be fine by the morning" Lily sighed
"Ugh, you know what?" he asked
"What?"
"I can never stay angry at you" and with that he swept her off her feet and started carrying her towards the other end of the pitch. She gave a yell and then laughed,
"Where are we going?" she asked
"To the after party!" James cried
"but what about Walton?" He'll be fine, he's told me he's had plenty of accidents like this before" James explained. He then put her down and ran back to the pitch, picked up their brooms and ran back.
"Don't want to forget these" he said
"So where's this after party then?" Lily asked
"Well, everyone takes turns hosting them, so I volunteered to host it, I hope you don't mind?" he asked.
"No its fine, we'll need to stop off at the shop first" Lily said
"Why?" It was James' turn to ask questions
"Well, one, we have no alcohol or drinks at all, and two, for a party, there's only one thing to have" Lily explained "filibuster fireworks!"
A/N- I loved writing this chapter! It's one of my favourites! I didn't realise I'd written so much until I looked at the word count and it said 1,400, I was like, "What?" So yeah, I hope you enjoyed the chapter as much as I did!
P.S Review!
