A/N: I'm going to be honest, I took some liberties with the timeline here (Quidditch cup in winter) because this chapter was initially supposed to be the 11th, not 10th installment, but it's finished and the 11th isn't, and it's been some time since I updated, so…Also took some liberties with the magical technology in this one, and I don't care one wit because it's cute.

February 27, 1979

Lily was reminded of why she hated Quidditch as sweat collected on her back. When she shifted in her seat, her thighs clung stubbornly to the leather. She'd purchased a paper fan from a vendor, but the flimsy paper was no match for the beating sun.

Her friends were some of the few British nationals that had gained permission to attend the Quidditch Cup in Brazil that winter. Since the war started, the border had been closed-down tight in a Ministry-led effort to block the expansion of the death eater scourge to their neighbors. Britain was receiving paltry monetary support from the German, French and Danish ministries, support that would be rescinded if Voldemort's ideology spread to their lands. (More pessimistically, some thought it was a death eater policy to keep muggleborns trapped within.)

With so much chaos at all levels of government, however, the Ministry was desperate to maintain the financial support of the few old families that hadn't joined the other side. Namely, the Potters. So, James had been given special dispensation to pick a few of his closest friends to portkey to the match, assuming he would return immediately after play ended. James and Sirius had just come off an exhausting four-week reconnaissance mission, so Dumbledore had ordered they take a two-week rest, aligning perfectly with the match. Lily had worked sixteen-hour shifts for the last week to make sure the Order's potion stores were adequately stocked, so that she could afford the day away – all for a Quidditch match she was sure to despise; the agonies of loving someone. Since all their other friends at the Order had been buried by work, James had invited Shelia – their only friend from Gryffindor who hadn't joined either the Order or the aurors – to accompany them.

James was breathlessly enraptured by the game, of course, but there was one feature of the stadium that had managed to capture his fancy as well: a great magical camera scoured the stands during timeouts, projecting fans onto the hundred screens riddled throughout the imposing stadium. Given the fact that all four members of their group were beautiful and young, and two of them were prone to theatric displays, the camera was obsessed with the reunited Gryffindors.

When the camera swung in their direction again, Lily edged away from James (probably a good idea regardless as he was trying to lift Sirius onto his shoulders) and sat straight-backed. She'd grown to accept the attention James brought with him on a daily basis. When they first left Hogwarts, she'd begged him to stop making a spectacle of himself every time they went out in public – one incident where he juggled all the fruit at the market came to mind – but she'd grown to bear it with a roll of her eyes. Being inspected by half a million people was a new level of exposure. One she hadn't learned to handle.

The barest breeze threatened to knock a wobbling Sirius off James' shoulders. They teetered ominously. Looking up at the screens, the boys realized, however, that they no longer had the attention of the cameras. Another group of boys had gained the stadium's attention by forming a human pyramid in the stands. James growled lowly at the competition.

The other group consisted of nine students on holiday from Mahoutokoro school, and they'd been in an explicit battle with James and Sirius for the better part of three hours, competing for the focus of the cameras. Sirius had begun to keep score of how many times each group was featured. Every time her boys managed to bring the cameras their way with a well-timed prank or a practical gag (they'd playacted a fist fight earlier to applause that shook the stadium), the Mahoutokoro kids burst into a synchronized dance or charmed their skin to their national colors to send the stadium into an uproar of patriotic fervor (the match was Brazil vs. Japan), and the camera would swivel away again.

James and Sirius were cross.

Even as he kept one eye on the unfolding match, James head leaned in the direction of Sirius, who ignored play in favor of brainstorming their next attention-grabbing stunt.

"Your boyfriend's an idiot," Shelia murmured to Lily.

"Hey, worry about your own man," Lily said.

"I'm not seeing anyone," Shelia pointed out.

"That's why you should be worried," Lily said before snickering profusely at her own joke. Shelia rubbed at her eyes like she found Lily infinitely tiring. To be fair, Lily had demanded Shelia walk her through almost every play in the game thus far because to her untrained eye, it just looked like streaks of color in the sky. Lily was a little on the tiring side.

A bludger to the head of one of the Japanese chasers brought the game to a time out as healers flooded the field to check on the player's status, and his teammates huddled to discuss strategy. The camera was sure to move to the group of Japanese students, who clutched at their chests in nationalistic agony. Busy in their own huddle, Sirius failed to mark it on his scoresheet.

The injury on the field looked nasty, so Lily peered through her binoculars to see how the Japanese chaser was managing. Earlier when she'd tried to use the binoculars, the activity on the field had given her a headache. With everyone relatively static, she was able to focus on the players for the first time. Blood was pouring from the chaser's nose.

Busy with the field, Lily made the tactical error of not watching Sirius and James. It was a rookie mistake, and one she was ashamed of. She lived by a single maxim: keep one eye on the Marauders at all times, or you don't get to cry when things go sideways.

Lily surely would have snapped to attention had she seen Sirius unearth his wand. He transfigured his ticket and passed the new object off to James.

After that, the match picked up dramatically. The two teams traded off on the lead, and even Lily could admit it was incredible. James had been the most talented player at Hogwarts, but he didn't belong in the same class as these athletes. They moved as sleekly and sharply through the sky as an L-39 Albatros. In comparison, James was an albatross as in the goofy looking bird.

It wasn't until half the Brazilian team had suspended play to screech at the referee that the camera turned its attention back to their little group. Lily joined the rest of the stadium in turning to see what drama James and Sirius would enact now. She wasn't prepared to see James bent on one knee with the object Sirius had transfigured, a bloody ring, glimmering up at her. Then, he asked her to marry him.

Few wizards bent a knee during a proposal, but everyone recognized the gesture. A hush befell the stadium.

Lily glanced around nervously. She couldn't decide if it was worse to look at the hundreds of thousands of spectators or James' beseeching smile. There were actual tears hovering at the corner of his eyes as he waited for her answer.

And Lily smelled a rat.

"Is this for real?" she whispered.

James winked before nodding his head exaggeratedly for their audience. Under his breath, he answered, "I mean, it could be if you want."

The crowd was starting to get restless at Lily's lack of answer. Even the players had paused to wait for her acceptance.

"Please know that if you ever actually propose to me in front of so much as one other person, I'll kill you," Lily told him, trying to move her lips as little as possible.

"Noted. Now just say yes, so we can kiss and the crowd can cheer," James said. "My knee's starting to hurt."

"Fine, I'll play along," Lily conceded. Projecting to be heard, Lily announced, "No! No, I can't marry you!"

Her words appeared on the screen in a speech bubble. The rejection came as a shock to the audience who let out a collective wail of disappointment. Thousands of people started to boo her.

"What? Why?" James demanded, and his legitimate shock gave his words credence. In just the same way, his words were projected up onto the screen.

"I can't because…because I'm having Sirius's baby!"

Everyone lost it. People from up in the stands pelted pretzels down at her. Their Japanese competition were forgotten entirely as James and Sirius won their decided victory.

Sirius knocked James aside to take Lily up in his arms. "Is it true? You should have told me sooner!" He yanked the ring from James grip and dropped to his knees. "Lily, marry me instead!"

This time, Lily said yes, and Sirius swept her up into a stage kiss. Their faces were tucked so tightly together that the crowd could only make out their proximity. In reality, his lips met her cheek, and she lowered her head to look like she was returning his kiss. Throughout it all, James pantomimed like he was considering hurling himself from the stands and thousands of meters to his death, and a reluctant Shelia was forced to play the part of holding him back from his certain demise.

Attention remained on their group for another five minutes, despite play resuming, because their melodrama was simply too intense. Only when the snitch was spotted and the seekers went sailing past did the cameras reluctantly move away from the scene.

To keep up the charade, Lily sat on Sirius's lap for the rest of the match, James seated as far from the two of them as possible. He was near the aisle, so several wizards walking past stopped to offer him their condolences. Several bought him a drink. Everyone had nothing but sneers of disgust for Lily and Sirius. Every time someone approached, James had to tear his gaze away from the match and feign abjection, and his eyes had started to itch from all of the fake tears.

Confident that no one would hear them, Lily shouted through the din of cheering, "You know what, James, you've been right all these years. Quidditch really is fun."

James' answering hand gesture was caught by the camera.

A/N: I would like to take this space to let everyone know that the first chapter of my new multichapter, for real fic has just been posted & you should definitely go read it if you liked the bet, because I'm in this one for the long haul.

Thanks for reading. Reviews are love.