October, 1971

Go Lions

James, Sirius, Peter and Remus slipped back into life at Hogwarts easily. As usual, James and Sirius slacked off, only doing their homework when Remus tells them to. The workload was getting harder, but to Sirius and James, it was just a series of new challenges.

"How do you do it?" Peter moaned for the fifth time in a row. He himself got almost none of the spells and charms they were required learn in class.

"I already told you," James laughed. "Natural talent."

"How about you?" Peter asked Sirius.

"Same," Sirius grinned.

"Jealous?" James laughed.

"Very," Peter said, grinning.

They walked towards Potions class with Professor Slughorn. Having come out of an especially vigorous Transfiguration class, Peter was fraught with worry about not being able to pass second year. Sirius spotted Snivellus with Regulus along the way. Lily was talking to the both of them, though she was glancing at Regulus with eyes slightly narrowed.

"Honestly, what is she doing talking to him?" James said, bewildered, glaring at Snape. "What does she see in him? He's a greasy git."

Remus's lip twitched.

"I don't know," Sirius said, grinning. "But that gives us one more reason to curse him."

"Amen to that," James smiled devilishly. He saw Lily walk away from the two and into the potions classroom.

"Hey Snivelly, get out of our way," said Sirius scathingly as they approached Snape and the dungeons.

Snape whipped around, face full of fury. "Shut up."

"Move it, will you?" Sirius scowled. He pushed Snape out of the way.

"Don't push me, Black," Snape snapped.

"Ooh, I'm scared now," James said mockingly. "Is Snivelly going to curse us? I'd be more scared of slipping in the grease from your hair."

Some fellow classmates around James laughed heartily.

"Shut it, Potter. Stop calling me that," Snape hissed.

Sirius merely smiled. "What's wrong, Snivellus, scared?"

Snape's face contorted into a twisted smile. "You, Black, and your little friends? Never."

Regulus smiled sinisterly as well. "Give us a reason, any reason, and I swear we will."

James and Sirius and Remus faced Snape and Regulus. Their face showed no fear, only hate.

By now a rather large crowd had gathered around to watch the fight. Snape raised his wand, eyes glittering maliciously.

"Tarantallegra!" he yelled, aiming his wand at James.

James dodged the spell. Snape yelled something else, slashed his wand in the air, and James felt something sharp graze his arm. He looked down at it. It was bleeding freely.

Thankfully, it was not his wand arm that had been injured. "Locomotor Mortis!" he yelled, pointing his wand at Regulus. Regulus's legs sprang together, and he fell over. Snape looked angrier than ever.

"Petrificus Totalus!" he cried. James's arms and legs sprang together and he fell on the ground with a resounding thud. He couldn't move at all. Peter squeaked, ran up, and dragged James away from the line of fire.

Remus aimed a spell at Regulus, who was now regaining the use of his legs. "Rictusempra!" Remus yelled. Regulus started laughing uncontrollably, collapsing against the wall.

Then, Remus felt something hard hit him on the face. He fell on the floor, dazed. Snape was glowering triumphantly, wand pointed still at Remus.

"Oh, you'll pay for that one," Sirius growled menacingly. "Incendio!"

The flame charm managed to graze the side of Snape's robes, setting it on fire. Snape, looking livid, flapped his arm and put out the flame. Regulus stopped laughing long enough to shoot a curse straight at Sirius, knocking him straight on his back. Sirius fell against the wall with a little groan. Remus jumped in front of him while Peter whimpered quietly, scared.

"Ha," Snape said, face full of loathing. Regulus just kept on laughing.

Sirius sat up groggily, snarling, and aimed his wand at Snape. Before he could say a spell, however, Snape had parried the curse, sending Sirius sprawling back on the floor.

Suddenly, a booming sound interrupted the fight. "WHAT IS GOING ON HERE?" Professor McGonagall strode up to the five boys, angrier than they had ever seen her. She looked at the panting Snape, the laughing Regulus to the defiant Remus, to the groggy Sirius on the floor.

Professor McGonagall strode up to Remus and Sirius, livid. "Mr. Lupin and Mr. Black. I'm very disappointed in you two. Fifty points from Gryffindor." Remus gasped, looking slightly horrified. Sirius, however, looked at Snape as if hexing him was worth losing all the points in Gryffindor.

"And you, Mr. Snape, and you, Mr. Black. I expected better from you two, too. Fifty points from Slytherin, and a week's worth of detention." Snape sneered at Sirius one last time before turning on his heels, leaving McGonagall and the circle of onlookers, that by now had disappeared.

"That sonofa -" Sirius snarled.

"Enough," Professor McGonagall said coldly. "What happened here?"

"We cursed Sniv - Snape," Sirius said resentfully.

"Why?"

"Well, he cursed us, so we fought back," Remus said, sounding close to tears.

"Git," Sirius spat.

Professor McGonagall looked at the four boys. "Enough, Mr. Black. Mr. Lupin and Mr. Black, a week's worth of detention for both of you."

"Wait, Professor," James said quietly, holding his injured arm. Remus had revived him of the full body bind.

James looked down at the floor. "I was involved. I tried to hurt Sniv – Severus. The others had nothing to do with it."

Professor McGonagall looked surprised for a minute, then recovered herself. "I'm refusing to believe the others had nothing to do with it. Good try, Mr. Potter. But for your honesty, no points will be taken from Gryffindor." James's heart lifted. "But you will join your classmates in detention."

She walked away, shaking her head. James could have sworn he saw the faintest trace of a smile on her lips.

The other three boys stared at James. "Are you mental?" Sirius asked loudly. "You could have stayed out of trouble!"

"I know that," James snapped. "But it's only fair, isn't it? Oh wow, now we're late. I missed my chance to say hi to Lily." With that, he ran off in the direction of Slughorn's class.

Remus shook his head. "Yep, James is definitely mental.

News of the duel traveled fast. All the Gryffindors were praising James, Sirius and Remus for standing up to the Slytherins. The Slytherins, in return, got more and more nasty towards James, Sirius, Remus and even Peter, who really didn't have too much to do with the fight.

"Where did Snivellus learn all those hexes and jinxes?" James asked, rubbing his arm. Though Madam Pomfrey had mended it, it was still a bit sore.

"He's an expert at curses," Remus said grimly. "It seems that he knows even more curses than most of the seventh years."

"I always knew there was something sinister about old Snivelly," Sirius said. Peter nodded in agreement.

Their week in detention went slowly. Peter often complained that he didn't have anyone to help him with his homework. Sirius always told him to go blame Snivelly. McGonagall put all of them in separate detentions. James and Sirius were shocked and angry to hear this. It was the first time they had to face detentions alone.

"Thank goodness that's over," Remus sighed on Friday night. He had just come back from his detention with Slughorn, who made him clean out all the nasty cauldrons stacked up in his storage room. Now he was sitting in the common room with James, Sirius and Peter.

Sirius laughed. "You had it easy, Lupin. I had detention with McGonagall herself. All the live animals in her storage room smelled horrible. They kept doing their business on my robes. She made me clean and bathe each and every one of them, including the rats and snakes. It was utterly horrible."

"Come to think of it, you do smell," James commented, laughing. Sirius socked him lightly on the arm. "Well not that detentions were completely enjoyable, but mine weren't bad. I had to follow Hagrid around while he tended to the plants. I sprayed various creatures. He even took me into the forest once where he seemed to be conversing with a giant spider of some sort. It was freaky, but so cool."

Remus shook his head. Only James could have thought a dangerous giant spider was cool.

"Hey, did you look at the notice board?" Peter piped up. "The Quidditch tryouts are in two days!"

James immediately sprang up from the couch and ran to the notice board. He came back, grinning widely. "Excellent! There's two new positions open, Keeper and Chaser!"

Peter grinned. "That's great! You've always wanted to be Chaser!"

"I know!" James said giddily. "I'm so excited. That would be so great if I made it!" He bounced his feet, looking like a six-year-old begging for candy.

"It would be," Remus smiled.

"I don't know about Keeper, though," James said thoughtfully. "I think the only position open to me is Chaser."

"What if you don't make it?" Peter asked.

Sirius smacked him lightly on the back of the head. "Of course James will make it."

James grinned. "Thanks."

"Can we go see the tryouts?" Remus asked.

"Yeah," James said. "You guys should go."

"Your personal cheering squad," Remus laughed.

Sirius laughed as well. "We'll be there for you, mate. Right now I have to go talk to Sturgis Podmore. He owes me a sickle for smuggling him snake venom from McGonagall's animal room." Sirius stood up and ran after Sturgis, who just walked out of the common room.

James shook his head, and looked at Lily. She was conversing with Marcella, face animated and bright. He sighed yet again. It was Remus and Peter's turn to shake their heads.

Two days later on a Saturday came the day of the Quidditch tryouts. James awoke nice and early. He snatched up his Cleansweep and ran out onto the Quidditch pitch for a warm-up run before the tryouts. He was too excited to eat, though Remus had tried to drag him down to breakfast.

"You need to eat!" he had said firmly.

"Ah, let him be," Sirius had said easily. "If he was any more excited he would drool all over himself.

The Gryffindor Quidditch team showed up after about half an hour, along with certain spectators. James saw Sirius, Remus and Peter beaming at him from the stands and waved back. About four other people clutching broomsticks showed up, all looking nervous. James was nervous too, but he tried his best to hide it. After all, this was his only chance this year to make the team.

"Hello and welcome to Quidditch tryouts," a sandy-haired boy greeted. "My name is Connor Eitan. I'm a Seeker and I'm the Quidditch captain for the Gryffindor team this year." He smiled at the nervous faces. "I'm a seventh year myself. We lost a great Keeper and a great Chaser, and I hope one of you will be able to fill in their shoes. Now, we will introduce ourselves. Trey, you can start."

"Hello, I'm Trey Rider," a blonde-haired boy next to Connor said, smiling mischievously. "I'm a sixth year Beater. You'll love the team. Connor's pep talks are so long and boring they jolt you to action right away."

"Hey," Connor said defensively. Everyone laughed.

A girl next to Trey laughed lightly. "Oh shut up, Trey." She turned to the five hopefuls. "Hello, I'm Lea Kaori. I'm a sixth year and I play a beater also." She received shocked looks from some of the hopefuls, and laughed again. "Amazing isn't it? A girl playing Beater? Well I've gotten quite used to the weird looks people give me."

Connor smiled at her. "Lea has amazing accuracy and she's one of the bravest people I've ever met." Lea blushed to the roots of her brown hair.

"Stop flirting, you two," a new voice said. The team laughed. "I'm Erimentha Tiernan, Eri for short," a girl with dark eyes and short dark hair said. "I play Chaser. I'm a fifth year also."

"Eri rocks," Trey grinned. "She is completely focused ninety-nine percent of the time."

"Interesting," Eri said sarcastically. "Tell me, what happens the other one percent of the time?"

"You're looking at me, the unbeatable beater."

"Oh, shut up, Trey," Eri said, rolling her eyes. "If this is a ploy to get me to go out with you, it's not working."

Everyone laughed.

Finally, they revolved to that last person on the team. He was tall, thin and a bit awkward looking, but James could tell right away that he was brilliant on a broomstick. He reminded James of himself, in a way. "Hello, I'm Liam Harrelson, and I play Chaser also." Liam's brown eyed sparkled. "I'm a fourth year, the youngest on the team. Hopefully that won't be true anymore."

The team laughed. "Okay," Connor said, clapping his hands. "We have the position of Keeper and Chaser open, but we would like to see you play some other positions as well. Let's see. There are five of you. Good. Okay. Potter, Fleta and Tyson, take the position of Chasers," Connor read from the list. "Kramer, take the position of Beater. Lach, take the position of Keeper."

They five hopefuls dispersed into their positions. During the practice stint, they let out a Bludger and the Quaffle. James never dropped the Quaffle, and scored numerous times, earning himself smiles from the team and cheers from the stands.

"Rotate!" yelled Connor, observing the game on his broomstick.

James took the position of Keeper. He only let the Quaffle in once. More cheers from the stands.

"Rotate!" yelled Connor again. James played Chaser two more times before finally becoming a Beater. The Bludger sped towards him and he smacked it with the bat, sending it in the direction of Trey.

"Sorry," he yelled as Trey barely dodged it.

Trey laughed. "No Beater for you, Potter!"

After everyone got a chance to play the positions, the team joined the scrimmage. James looked around at the competition. A girl by the name of Flora Fleta was horrible at flying; she kept colliding into her teammates. A boy named Michael Lach couldn't aim to save his life. However, James thought the other two people were pretty good. He scored and scored, while never forgetting to pass. By the end of the tryouts, the team was beaming at him.

"Thank you, everyone, you did great. The results will be posted in the common room next week," Connor announced.

James breathed and picked up his broomstick from the ground. Sirius, Remus and Peter ran down the stands to join James.

"You were great!" squeaked Peter excitedly as the three halted to a stop in front of him.

"I'm just glad that's over," James laughed. "I was nervous and excited."

"You didn't look it," Peter said.

"I do hope I make the team," James said. "I have nothing to do most of the day."

"Speak for yourself," Remus laughed. "You and Sirius here don't need to study."

"True," James shrugged. "But I hope I'm on the team."

"You were great!" Peter squeaked again.

"Peter's right," Remus agreed, smiling. "You're definitely a shoo-in."

James smiled. "I am pretty good, aren't I?"

Sirius rolled his eyes. "Your head's big enough, Potter."

Snape slid next to Lily at breakfast the next day, rudely shoving Marcella out of the way as he sat. Marcella frowned, but didn't say anything.

"Severus," Lily said in surprise. "Hi!"

"Hi," he said shortly. "I want to talk to you, we haven't talked in a while."

"Me too," Lily said, putting down her fork. "Are you okay? I mean, I heard what happened between you and Regulus and the idiots sitting over there..." she jerked her head in the direction of James and Sirius, who were having a contest to see who could fit the most sausages in their mouth at one time.

"Oh that," Snape said, waving his hand away impatiently. "That was nothing."

"It's not good, fighting in the hallways like that," Lily said, voice low. "It's four of them against you, you could really have gotten yourself hurt."

Snape looked slightly angry. "I can take care of myself," he snapped.

"Of course you can," Lily said quickly. "I know you can. I just don't want to see you get into trouble, that's all."

Snape surveyed her carefully. She blushed slightly under his gaze.

"Hey, why don't we take a walk after breakfast?" Snape said. "I know a couple of good places within the castle that are worth exploring."

"Oh, I'm not sure," Lily said apologetically. "I promised Marcella I would go over some notes with her. We were going to work on our homework together."

"Can't you do that another time?" Snape said impatiently.

"Hello, I'm sitting right here," Marcella cut in, her eyebrow raised. Lily shot her an apologetic look.

"Sev, I'm sorry -"

"Lily, it's okay," Marcella interrupted. "Go ahead, okay? We'll go over our homework some other time."

"Are you sure?"

Marcella nodded.

"Great," Snape said, looking pleased. "I'll see you soon then." He stood up, swung his legs over the bench and headed back to the Slytherin table.

"I'm really sorry about that," Lily said pleadingly to Marcella. "I know he can be a bit rude at times, but we are - well, we go way back."

"Lily," Marcella said gently. "I've held my tongue about him. I know that you guys are childhood friends, and I know what he means to you. But to be perfectly honest, he's kind of a jerk."

"No, he's alright most of the time," Lily said in Snape's defense.

Marcella shrugged, and let the subject drop. "If he makes you happy, then I can't object."

Lily smiled. "Thank you."

James couldn't sleep for a week. He was entwined in a mood of both nervousness and excitement. Finally, the fateful day came. He waited on the sofa beside the notice boar until he saw Connor walking up. He ran over to him excitedly. It was around six in the morning and pretty much no one was up.

Connor saw James's face and laughed. He put up the piece of parchment slowly and agonizingly, as if to torture James.

"Hurry up," James said impatiently.

"Nah," Connor laughed. "This is too much fun." When Connor finally stepped back, James bounded forward. The piece of parchment read:

Keeper: Perry Tyson

Chaser: James Potter

"Yeah!" James yelled loudly. He put his hands over his mouth, aware that he might have just woken up half of Gryffindor.

Connor laughed again. James turned to look at him. "You know, James, you fly very well. You were our first choice for a position. Mind you, we had to debate on whether to put you in Keeper or Chaser. We decided Chaser because Perry Tyson was pretty good as Keeper." Connor smiled. "I think you'd be great."

"Thanks," James said, happy he had gotten a compliment from the captain himself.

"We have practice next Monday night. Be there," Connor said before walking off.

"I will," James called after him.

The excitement of making the team finally hit James like exploding fireworks in July. He leaped up into the air and danced before the fireplace, fully aware that if someone came down the stairs right that second, he would look very stupid indeed. But he didn't care. He bounded up the stairs to the dormitory and threw the door open.

"Guess what?" he cried into the room, where his three dorm mates were sleeping.

"What?" asked Remus groggily.

"I've made Chaser!"

"Good job," Peter said tiredly.

"I'm excited. Aren't you excited?"

"We're super excited," Remus groaned. "Super... excited..."

"Now you guys can watch me play at all the games," James said happily.

"That's great, Potter," said Sirius grumpily. "Now let us go back to sleep."

James laughed. Suddenly, he realized just how tired he himself was. After all, he had been deprived of food and sleep for the whole week. Realizing that his friends were fast asleep again, he himself dove into his bunk bed and slept soundly.