Quidditch dawned bright and early, as it always did. James's team was in top form but questionably up to the task of defeating the ferocious Slytherin team. They had had a strong team the year before, and not a thing had changed, if anything they were stronger.
James had made the team in their second year, Sirius had joined in their third. Their fourth year was Timothy Wood's last year. Wood (eventual father of Quidditch great Oliver) had been their Seeker, and they had never lost a match, leading to three Quidditch cups under his reign as Captain. Last year, though, seventh year Keeper Anthony Hughes had become Captain. He was a great Keeper, but not such a great leader. He deferred James to Seeker and replaced his Chaser position to another seventh year. She was pretty, but not such a great chaser. James had tried to rally the other two chasers, good friends of his, but they lost the Quidditch Cup to the ferocious Slytherins.
This year James was determined to make up for their horrendous loss. Reinstated as Head Chaser, his team was flawless. He brought in new talent – a fourth year Keeper and a second year Seeker. Sirius stayed as one of his beaters, with his usual partner, their good friend fifth year Benjy Fenwick. Beater pairs was something hardly ever tinkered with. Although, usually neither were Chasers. James was still bitter about his year as a Seeker.
"Oh, stop your bellyaching," Marlene scolded James, her arm around Sirius's waist as the team walked down to the pitch together. "With you back as Chaser, we've got nothing to worry about."
"Not that you weren't a good Seeker," Emmeline assured him, "but, let's all face it. Rob's better than you were." Emmeline was the only seventh year on the team this year. James shot a glare at her. "And you're much better as a Chaser."
"Does anyone have anything helpful to say?" James asked, sighing in frustration.
"We're gonna kick some Slytherin ass today!" Sirius shouted. The rest of the team gave yells and shouts of agreement.
"I usually don't attend Quidditch games," Lily said to Remus as they walked down to the pitch. "There's nothing I like less than watching a bunch of hotheads flying around throwing balls around."
"Then I'm flattered," Remus said. "I'm surprised, though, I thought you and Marlene were good friends."
"I don't know if I'd say that," Lily replied. "She spends too much time around your friends for me to consider her mine." Remus chuckled.
"I spend a lot of time around my friends," he said. "Am I your friend?"
"Of course you are," Lily said. "You're…. different." Remus laughed again, knowing exactly what she meant by 'different'.
James and his team were in the locker room, changing into their Quidditch robes.
"Today is the first day. The first game of the season. And if we lose today, it might as well be the last game."
"Great pep talk," Sirius said, rolling his eyes.
"Shut it," James shot at him. "This is our one chance to redeem ourselves for that awful season last year. This isn't to point fingers or assign blame. We are a team, and we are going to get our butts out there and win this for Tim."
"I think we were better off with mine," Sirius said. As usual, he had no respect for authority, least of all his best friend. "Who's gonna kick some Slytherin ass today?"
"We are!" the rest of the team shouted.
"Who's gonna be the Champions?"
"We are!"
"And who is gonna get the Cup this year?"
"We are!"
"And then James will present it to Professor McGonagall and she won't fail us!" Sirius ended his motivational speech.
"Yeah!"
"All right, let's get out there and get some," James said to his thoroughly pumped up team.
And so they did.
For the afterparty, a spectacular party in the Gryffindor Common Room was tradition. Sirius and James snuck over to Hogsmeade to bring Honeydukes sweets and butterbeer. Rob, the new Seeker, was the hero of the party, of course, having caught the Snitch out from under the nose of Sirius's brother, Regulus, the Slytherin Seeker. It wasn't until James returned from Hogsmeade the second time with a few bottles of Firewhiskey that he saw Remus and Lily sharing a chair by the fire. The lion of jealousy flared within him. Lily was chatting animatedly to Marlene and Mary about the match. Remus simpled looked content. Sirius inserted himself at that point between the two girls on the couch and began snogging Marlene without pretense or foreward. Mary rolled her eyes and got up, wrinkling her nose as she crossed the common room to her other riends. Lily blushed slightly and hid behind her butterbeer. Remus laughed and lightly tossed a bit of his cookie at the back of Sirius's head before taking Lily's hand and pulling her out of the chair and toward the door to the spiral staircase leading to the boy's dormitory. The lion of jealousy inside James swelled. He downed a good portion of one of the bottles he was holding and stormed out of the portrait hole. And he remembered nothing after.
Breakfast the next morning had Sirius with his head flat on the table in the Great Hall. Remus sat next to him, patting his back softly. Lily sat across from Remus, nose deep in 'Advanced Potion Making', occasionally making small annotations in it, as though correcting it.
"Had to have been Marlene. It was Marlene, right?" Sirius was obsessing. His talk about Patronuses and true love had greatly taken a toll on the way he treated his relationship with Marlene. Normally, he wouldn't care what happened at a party, but today he was. Remus was right, if he wanted to keep her, he'd have to prove it to her. Not that Marlene had her eye on anyone but Sirius. James stumbled into the Great Hall at that point, down the aisle, and sat down next to Lily, who he didn't appear to notice.
"The hell happened last night?" he whined. Lily scoffed. James took a look at the person next to him, and then he did a double take, his hand flying to mess up his hair, as though it wasn't already the messiest it had ever looked. Lily scoffed again, rolled her eyes, and got up to move down the table.
"And James has douchebag hair," Sirius said again. "Never going to get her with that untamable monstrosity." The post came just then, and James's owl dropped him a letter before rendezvousing back to the Owlery. James opened it, turned slightly grayer than he had been, put the letter in his pocket, and left the Great Hall without eating. Before his best friends could puzzle over this, Marlene came sauntering up to them, blowing a kiss at Sirius and winking, before continuing down the table to sit with Lily.
"I'd say that it's safe to say it was Marlene," Remus said, patting his friend on the back. "Are you really serious about her?"
"Of course I am," Sirius said. "I'm Sirius!"
"That joke is older than you are," Remus said. "Please, let's just…"
"Be Sirius?"
"Oh, shut up."