A/N Just want to say a thank you to everyone who has read and reviewed this story and a HUGE thanks to all my friends who have come up with some great ideas and said such nice things about it. You know who you all are and I am grateful to all the help you've given me you. Love you all loads you smellies xxx :))
Molteaser x
Chapter 11
The end of November came and went and October came around much quicker than people expected.
Lily and James had quickly forgiven Marlene and Sirius for what they had done as they had resolved old differences and had taken the opportunity to give their new and fragile friendship a chance to grow.
Even though he had been let off the hook, Sirius still insisted that Remus had come up with the broom cupboard as well and Peter had been the one to actually have taken James's wand in the end. However, despite all his previous confidence which he had shown in his plan, Sirius was still surprised that it had worked – to a certain extent.
James, Sirius and Marlene had enough to worry about in the meantime; the Quidditch season was drawing close and James was training his team almost every day.
"Merlin, I'm knackered!" James said collapsing into an armchair by the Gryffindor fire. He looked around at Lily and Alice. Both girls were writing; Lily doing her homework, Alice scribbling an extremely long letter.
Sirius and Marlene staggered in after him; Sirius barley making it to the rug by the fire before he fell to the floor.
Marlene glanced at him, raising one eyebrow. "You tired then Sirius?" She asked good-naturedly.
Sirius just groaned and flung an arm over his head, rolling so he was face down on the burgundy carpet.
Remus laughed from where he was nestled deep in an armchair, his eyes focused on the book in front of him.
"Something funny Moony?" James mumbled.
Remus looked up and shook his head, still grinning. "Good book," he said gesturing to it with a fond look.
"Right..." James said, clearly losing interest.
Lily however glanced up at the cover page and said almost as enthusiastically as if she were in class, "I've read that one, it's excellent don't you think?"
"Oh Merlin, here they go!" Sirius muttered as Remus delved wholeheartedly into an animated conversation with Lily about what books she had and hadn't read.
James suddenly sprung to his feet. "Right, Sirius, Marlene, bed, now!"
Sirius looked at him and Marlene raised an eyebrow. "Are you talking to us?"
"Yes, we have a very important game tomorrow morning and my team needs to rest!" James said in an exasperated voice.
"Really? We have an important game tomorrow? I never would have guessed!" Sirius said sarcastically. "You've only told us once –"
"Twice." Marlene corrected.
"Three times?"
"At least half a dozen –"
"Maybe more."
"Oh very funny." James said scowling at the pair of them who just laughed even harder at the expression on James' face.
"Fine," Marlene said, still chuckling. "We're going, we're going."
Once James had made his whole team retire to their dorms to prepare for the next day, he too slowly made his way up to bed and was asleep before his head had hit the pillow.
The next morning dawned bright and early. Marlene got changed into her robes and sat on the edge of her bed, watching the other girls get dressed into red and gold jumpers, put on scarlet scarves and hats then they made their way in a procession down to the common room.
James, Sirius, Remus and Peter were down there. James was looking very agitated and Sirius was dealing with his nerves by flirting outrageously with Marlene on the way to the Great Hall and being even louder than he usually was.
The rest of the Gryffindor team were all seated at the house table and when James entered, the whole house started cheering.
James grinned and sat down at the table, pulling the toast towards him.
"You nervous?" Zoey Thompson asked Marlene quietly.
"Me? Nervous? I don't think so!" Marlene replied, grinning at her. In truth she wasn't nervous, she knew that they would go out there and kick Ravenclaw's butts. She looked around at her team in complete confidence. It just wasn't in her nature to be nervous and if she was, she hid it extremely well.
"Right, let's get down to the pitch." James said, picking up his broom and patting Sirius on the back.
"Good luck everyone!" Alice said. Remus nodded, his mouth full of cereal and Peter gave them the thumbs up.
"Good luck James, you'll be great!" Lily called after them.
Marlene smirked and Sirius and James both grinned; James triumphantly and Sirius in a 'told-you-so' way.
Conditions were perfect. Blue sky and hardly any wind.
The Gryffindor changing rooms were buzzing with nerves. When the time came, James called out and silence fell as everyone looked at their captain expectantly.
"Right," James said, "when we get out on that pitch, I want you all to play exactly as you have been doing these past few weeks in training. You can do this and I'll try and catch the Snitch as soon as I can."
"Well, I'm glad you've got our backs, Prongs." Sirius said jokingly.
James shot him a look and Sirius shut up.
The noise of the crowds outside was rising.
James straightened up. "Let's do this!"
The Gryffindor team followed him out onto the pitch where Madam Hooch and the Ravenclaw team were waiting. They were greeted by a torrent of cheering coming from the scarlet and gold end of the stadium.
James shook hands with the Ravenclaw Captain, Kenneth Jones, a broad shouldered Beater.
"Mount your brooms!" Madam Hooch ordered.
The whistle blasted through the air and fourteen players shot upwards into the sky. The crowd roared its appreciation.
Marlene heard Max McGregor – one of her ex-boyfriends commentary.
"AND IT'S GRYFFINDOR THAT TAKES THE QUAFFLE – AND IT'S GRYFFINDOR'S NEW SEEKER DAN SEABOLT STREAKING UP THE PITCH TOWARDS RAVENCLAW'S END – EAGER TO PROVE HIMSELF – BUT THAT'S FLETCHLY WHO SENDS A BLUDGER HIS WAY –"
Marlene flew just below Dan and as the Quaffle dropped, she caught it.
"MCKINNON WITH THE QUAFFLE – CONTINUING UP THE PITCH – IS RAVENCLAW'S NEW KEEPER UP TO THIS? MCKINNON HAS A LONG STANDING RECORD OF NOT MISSING – AND SHE SCORES! TEN POINTS TO GRYFFINDOR!"
Marlene grinned and sped back towards Gryffindor's end who were all screaming their approval.
"Nice one McKinnon!" Sirius yelled over to her as he swung his bat through the air, aiming a passing Bludger towards the oncoming Ravenclaw Chaser.
Marlene inclined her head towards him, grinning. Then she turned her broom around and dove downwards with both Zoey and Dan on her tail.
"Half an hour through the game." Lily muttered, checking her watch. "What is he doing?!"
She stared up at where James was circling the game, eyes constantly on the watch for any hint of the Golden Snitch.
"You can't hurry these sorts of things." Remus explained to her, him having heard a lot of the Quidditch talks from James and Sirius. "He has to wait until Gryffindor are a good way in the lead. That's what matters most in this game; points scored."
Lily and Alice stared at him. Peter was the only one who didn't seem surprised at Remus' wealth of knowledge on this subject.
"We are fifty points ahead..." Lily pointed out, "Marlene having scored three of those goals. He should catch the Snitch soon."
"Again, not as simple as that..." Remus muttered as he watched Sirius hit another Bludger towards the Ravenclaw Seeker.
Suddenly the crowd drew in a collective gasp. James and the other seeker had both gone into a breakneck dive. Lily stood up on her seat to see better as the two players shot towards the ground.
"They're going to crash!" Peter squealed hysterically.
"No they're not!" Remus scoffed dismissively.
At the last second, James pulled out of the dive and rolled harmlessly onto the grass. The crowd was dead silent as they waited. Then James shoved his fist high into the air, a look of pure triumph on his face.
"Yes!" Alice squealed, jumping up and down on her seat. "We won! We won!"
The rest of the team went crashing into their captain who promptly fell over as he was smothered by his fellow players.
Alice grabbed Lily's arm and they fought their way over to Marlene who gave them both a hug.
"Party! Common room! Now!" Sirius yelled and the Gryffindor players and supporters alike yelled in agreement.
Lily, Alice and Marlene were rushed to the common room in a river of red clad people all laughing and congratulating themselves on such a good performance.
"Who wants to play a game of Truth or Dare?" James shouted over the music playing. The common room had been transformed into something that resembled a nightclub.
Lily looked at him. "That's a kid's game James!"
"Come on Lils, live a little!" Marlene called. She holding a bottle of firewhisky in her hand and she was swaying slightly. Lily could tell that she was drunk.
"I'm in!" Sirius called and he threw a load of chocolate frogs into the crowd. Lily was willing to bet that Sirius was even more drunk than Marlene was and she promised herself to keep an eye on the pair of them.
Alice, Frank and the rest of the Marauder's all agreed to play. They went over to the corner of the common room and sat in a circle.
"Who's first?" James asked. He faced them all then pointed at Remus. "Moony, Truth or Dare?"
Remus considered for a second. "Truth." He said finally.
Lily had a suspicious feeling that he had played this game with his friends before and had learnt never to choose dare.
"Who is your favourite Marauder?" Marlene asked, raising an eyebrow at him.
"None of them; they are all really good friends to me. Better friends than most people realise." Remus said. "But if I had to chose, I'd probably say... James. Sirius is too obnoxious and Pete, no hard feelings 'k?"
"Sure, none taken." Peter said. He looked as if he had expected that answer.
Remus turned to Lily. "Lily, Truth or Dare?"
"Truth." Lily said instantly.
"Would you ever go out with Prongs?" Sirius asked immediately.
Lily glared at him but he just smirked at her.
"I don't know..." Lily said quietly. "He has to deflate his head a bit more before I consider it."
James blew a kiss in her direction and winked.
"Oh, this is so boring!" Marlene said, taking another gulp of her firewhisky. "Can someone please choose dare!"
"Fine, Marlene, Truth or Dare?" Lily said.
Marlene grinned and leaned back, looking completely relaxed. "Dare." She said calmly.
Alice smiled evilly. "You have to kiss Sirius."
The Marauders all blanched. All of them except Sirius who didn't look remotely fazed. Lily supposed that he kissed girls all the time and this was no different.
Marlene looked at Alice for a second then she twisted around, grabbed Sirius by the shoulders and kissed him without any trace of hesitation.
Lily's eyes widened. She hadn't thought that Marlene would actually do it and it was a bit more than just a kiss.
The Marauder's burst out laughing and James wolf-whistled.
Marlene broke away from Sirius and took another swig from her bottle.
Sirius, Lily noticed looked exactly as he had before except from the small smile on his face and the fact that his eyes kept darting towards Marlene.
By the end of the night, as the last few partygoers had stumbled up to bed after Professor McGonagall had walked in on them and told them all to stop the celebrations as they hadn't even won the cup yet, Lily lay awake in bed, positive that above everything he believed in, Sirius Black had fallen for Marlene and Lily was determined to use any means she could to get them together.
A/N I hope you all enjoyed that chapter, I'm still writing the next one - unfortunately, my writing has now caught up on itself so chapters won't be as frequent any more. I will still update whenever I can. Thanks for reading, please review. :))
Molteaser x
