CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE - The Game
Lily sat in the common room the morning of the Gryffindor/Slytherin Quidditch match, finishing up her Defense essay. She had just decided to go down to breakfast and write the conclusion at the match (as if it would hold her interest for more than a minute) when something was wrapped around her neck.
"Ah!" She immediately reached behind her and grabbed onto something—a fistful of hair—and yanked.
"Ow! Merlin, Evans, that was unnecessary." A scowling James Potter dropped onto the couch beside her. Lily looked down and saw that it was a scarf, wrapped loosely around her neck.
"I thought someone was strangling me," she confessed. "And I have my own scarf—James Potter, do not tell me you have a lucky scarf."
James smirked. "Funny you should mention it, Evans."
"I cannot believe you are cliché enough to have a lucky scarf."
"Promise me you'll wear it."
Lily sighed. "I promise."
"Promise me you'll pay attention."
Lily shook her head. "My mother instilled some strict morals in me, Potter. One of those morals was 'do not make promises you can't keep'." She broke into a grin, shoving down the butterflies that had burst in her stomach. "I will, however, promise to be the first one of your fans out on the field, should you win."
James nodded. "I wouldn't expect any different, of course."
"You should get going, shouldn't you? Marlene went down to the pitch fifteen minutes."
"Trying to get rid of me?"
"Trying to make sure the Gryffindor Captain isn't late."
James picked himself off the couch. "Don't suppose I could have a good luck kiss..."
"You're pushing your luck, Potter," Lily said warningly, but there was laughter in her words. "Win the game. Then we'll see."
He looked surprised, but no more surprised than Lily felt. Had she really just said that? To maintain some image of detachment, she went back to revising her essay as he picked up his broom and left for the pitch.
The moment he'd disappeared she set her quill back down. Somewhere in the back of her mind she was actually hoping he'd win.
"Mental," she muttered, stuffing her essay into her book bag.
Behind her, someone tugged on her hair. "Coming, Lils?"
Mary and Aaron stood behind her, decked out in Gryffindor red and gold. "Sadly, yes," Lily said, getting to her feet. "Where are the others?"
"Already at the pitch. Sirius and Hestia are saving us seats."
Lily pointed over to where Remus sat, his head bent over a book. "Remus doesn't have to go! Why do I?"
Remus looked up. "You have James' scarf," he said simply. "If you don't go, Gryffindor will lose, Lily. Do you really want that on your head?"
Mary and Aaron each seized one of Lily's arms, dragging her towards the portrait hole.
"Okay, okay, get off! I can walk!" She brushed them off, scowling. "I'm going, I'm going. This match is probably going to go on for two months, like the Wasps match of 1876..." At the other's bemused stares, she responded defensively: "What? I've read Quidditch Through the Ages..."
"Oh, really?" Aaron exchanged a glance with Mary. "When was the match in which all 700 fouls were committed?"
"1473," Lily replied promptly, taking a secret passageway down to the second floor, Mary and Aaron trailing behind her. "That includes the lesser-known fouls, like turning a Chaser into a polecat and attacking on another with an axe. Also the decapitation of the Keeper. Now that is a match I would not object to watching."
"You just want to see Potter Transfigured into a pole cat," Mary accused.
Lily shrugged. "I admit, he would look more attractive as one."
The three descended the steps to the ground floor and out into the crisp January air. The sky was a clear blue but the wind nipped at Lily's skin, causing her to pull the scarf tighter around her throat. Her feet crunched in the snow, freezing her toes through her boots.
"I can't wait for spring," she moaned.
"Neither can they." Mary pointed up to the Quidditch players warming up. A few were noticeably shivering. "There's Sirius," she said, nudging Lily into the stands. She and Aaron stood on either side of Lily, keeping her from running.
"Bloody ridiculous," Lily muttered. "I'm not that averse to Quidditch, you know. I actually like the game."
Aaron gasped. "Coming from you, that's practically blasphemous!"
"I never said I hated Quidditch!" Lily protested, being propelled through the stands. "I just never wanted to boost Potter's ego enough to go to a game!"
Lily wedged herself in between Sirius, who seemed to have smuggled half the kitchen down to the pitch, and Mary, who maintained a vice-like grip on her arm.
Sirius offered her a plate of toast and bacon, which she gratefully accepted. "This lot seemed to think if they removed their eyes from me for a split second I'd make a dash for it," Lily joked, rolling her eyes and digging in.
"I wouldn't be surprised if you did," Sirius said calmly, "Seeing as you promised James you'd snog him senseless if he won."
Lily choked on her toast while Mary squealed next to her. Hestia leaned across Sirius and thumped Lily hard on the back.
"I never said that," Lily said hoarsely. "He asked for a kiss and I told him we'd see. If he won."
"Well, I think it's safe to say Gryffindor will be winning," Sirius said solemnly as the pitch cleared in preparation for the game to begin. "When James is determined, things happen."
Lily gulped.
Mary released Lily long enough to clap her gloved hands together. "Ooh, this will be so exciting!" She gushed. "First New Years, now this."
Peter, Frank, and Alice, squeezing in next to Aaron at the end of the bench, joined them just as the Slytherin players were being named.
"Looks like we're all here," Sirius said cheerfully, pulling out a box of Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans. "Except Moony. Where's he off to?"
"Studying," Lily said, taking another bite of toast. "As I should be."
"Shut up, shut up," Sirius said eagerly. "Here they come."
The commentator, a Hufflepuff in her year Lily vaguely recognized, was rattling off the names of the Gryffindor players. There was a good deal of cheers when Potter's name was called, though Lily whistled loudly when Marlene's name was shouted through the megaphone.
James and the Slytherin captain, Avery, shook hands. It looked more to Lily like they were trying to pop a blood vessel in the other's hand.
Finally they released each other, mounted their respective brooms, and kicked off as the referee blew the whistle.
"Aaand they're off! It's Abbott with the Quaffle, passed nicely to Potter—ooh, that was a fumble! Now it's Avery with the Quaffle, he's heading towards the goal—oh, what a nice save from Gryffindor Keeper Cresswell!"
The game dragged on, but Lily never felt compelled to pull out her essay and finish her conclusion. She was absolutely spellbound, gasping as a Slytherin fumbled with the ball and Marlene swept past, grabbing it from her outstretched arms and soaring towards the goalposts.
Lily's nose burned with the cold and she dragged the scarf up to cover the lower half of her face, thinking absently of how much it smelled like him.
"Oh, bloody hell," Mary swore next to her. Lily looked up sharply. Avery had elbowed James sharply in the face, causing the Head Boy to careen out of the way.
"Blatant cobbing, right there," Peter said dismissively.
Sirius shook his head, stuffing some popcorn into his mouth. "James once got a bludger to the head and kept playing. Won the game, too."
Mary snorted. "I was there, Black. He did not. He says he did, but he didn't."
"Where are you getting this food?" Lily demanded.
Sirius shrugged. "Magic." He offered her the bag. "Want some?"
She accepted begrudgingly. "Can I borrow those binoculars?" She tugged them out of Aaron's hands, not waiting for an answer and ignoring his protests. Lily found James on her first attempt, adjusting his goggles with on hand, the other ruffling his hair. Her heart leapt a bit. When had that stopped being annoying and begun to be slightly endearing?
"Yep, that was a foul, folks! Gryffindor gets a penalty."
The penalty shot had been taken by Marlene, and she scored perfectly. Lily followed James with the binoculars as he caught the Quaffle the third Gryffindor chaser, some bloke named Davies, had thrown to him.
Something in the Slytherin stands caught her eye. Severus was staring right at her, his eyes wide. He looked betrayed by her presence. Seeing him there, so clearly looking at her, made her uncomfortable. She quickly moved the binoculars to follow Marlene, where she was avoiding a bludger.
The other one seemed to be targeting James and James only. Every time he swerved around it to grab for the Quaffle it would follow him.
Lily lowered the binoculars and handed them to Sirius. "Are you seeing what I am?"
Sirius set down his pizza and reached for the binoculars. Aaron made a sound of outrage.
"Prongs can't seem to shake that one," Sirius said in amazement. "You don't think..."
"Snape is looking at me," Lily said nervously. "He seemed scared. You don't think it's him?"
Sirius lowered the binoculars, handing them back to Aaron. "If not him, one of his friends. I'm going to find out."
"No!" Lily put a hand on his arm. "I'll go." She lowered her voice. "Sirius, what if Regulus is over there? You know how you'll react if you see him. Besides, I'm better at Charms than you."
Sirius sighed. "Alright, go on. Mary, let her up."
Mary looked shocked. "She's going to run!"
"I am not," Lily snapped. "I'm going to find whoever is throwing the game. No one else has seemed to have noticed."
Frank grabbed the binoculars from Aaron, but when he pulled away his mouth was set in a grim line. "He's getting panicked," he said.
Lily nodded sharply, scooting past him and Alice to get out. She hurried down the steps until she was under the stands, and ran around the pitch until the gold and scarlet changed to green and silver, and the cheering for Davies' latest goal turned to jeering.
Once she had situated herself directly under where Severus had been, Lily began to climb the wooden beams. She stuck her wand firmly in between her teeth, wrapping her arms around a support post and inching herself towards where she saw feet protruding from under the benches. Which were Severus'? And what if it wasn't him?
She quickly ran through a list of the Death-Eater-Wannabes that weren't on the Slytherin Quidditch team. Just Snape, Jugson, Dolohov, and Regulus. Regulus had actually been on the team last year, Lily recalled, but he hadn't made it this year. She wondered if he was mad enough to try and jinx a bludger for it.
"Potter just can't seem to get rid of that bludger, now can he? Mulciber takes advantage of this, scoring a nice goal there. It's now fifty-forty, Slytherin."
Her head was now level with a row of shoes and boots. She perched herself on a horizontal beam, removing her wand from her mouth.
"Petrificus Totalus," she whispered to the shoes she recognized as Snape's. Realizing she had no way of telling if that had solved the problem, she resolved to Petrify the entire row of Slytherins. She slid her way down to row, whispering the spell. She hear loud clamoring as the other Slytherins noticed and began accusing each other of being the caster. Having done all she could, Lily descended quickly, her feet hitting the ground harder than she'd have liked.
It wasn't until she'd reached the Gryffindor side that she realized she was no longer wearing the scarf.
"Oh no," she said aloud. "Oh, bullocks." It must have snagged.
Could she dare go back now? If no one had thought to look under the stands by now, they would soon. Deciding to risk it, Lily ran back to the silver-and-green half, casting a quick silencing charm on her feet to muffle her footfalls.
"Accio James' scarf," she hissed. The article flew towards her, but not before she heard a great rip. "Wonderful," she sighed, running her fingers over the huge rip in the scarf.
"And Potter scores again! It's seventy-fifty, Gryffindor!"
Lily suddenly remembered her original goal, and realized that she must have been successful. Hurrying back to the steps, she retook her place by Sirius.
"What did you do?" he demanded. "They're all freaking out—look at them!"
The Slytherin stands did indeed seem to be in a frenzy.
Lily shrugged. "I petrified a row of Slytherins. Couldn't figure out which one it was."
Sirius high fived her. "Nicely done, Evans. Prongs is back in top form. Think we have this match in the bag."
Right on cue, the Hufflepuff commentator called gleefully, "Is that the snitch? Witches and wizards and others, Slytherin Seeker Emma Vanity has spotted the snitch! She's really going after it—oh, nice bludger from Gryffindor Beater, Gregory Bell!"
Lily clutched the scarf in her hands tightly, leaning forward. "Come on, come on," she muttered.
The Gryffindor seeker, fifth year Melissa Spinnet, was frowning in concentration, hurtling towards the ground.
"Look!" Lily shrieked. "Either that's the Wronski Feint or she's seen it!"
She was on her feet now; so were the other Gryffindors around her.
"Definitely real," Peter said enthusiastically. "Spinnet can't do the Wronski Feint."
It was definitely real, as Spinnet pulled out of the dive with her fist raised triumphantly, small glittering wings protruding from his hand, fluttering tiredly.
Lily shrieked along with the rest of her house as the team descended upon Spinnet, hugging each other and yelling.
"Go on," Sirius yelled over the din, shoving her towards the aisle. "Go run onto the field."
For once Lily didn't argue, jumping over the row in front of her and running down the stairs. A few others had had the same idea, but Lily was faster. She jumped the last few steps onto the field, leading the crowd of fans.
She reached the knot of Gryffindor players first, yanking James out by his collar. He turned around, yelping in protestation, but was quickly silenced as Lily pressed her lips to his, standing on her toes to be his height.
The screams around them turned to cheers and whistles, and several long blissful seconds passed before they broke apart, grinning stupidly.
"See?" he said. "Lucky scarf."
She smiled appreciatively, tugging on it. "It certainly is."
"Go out with me, Evans?" James asked.
"Ninety-nine," Lily said cheekily. "I'm not saying yes this close to one hundred, am I?" She kissed his forehead, then moved over to hug Marlene and let the rest of the crown press in on their captain.
"This means another party, doesn't it?" Marlene asked weakly, holding her arm close to her chest.
"What happened?" Lily asked, not able to keep a smile off her face.
Marlene winced. "Oh, nothing much—just—ow—sprained my wrist. It's nothing, I promise."
"Don't be ridiculous. I'll take you to Madam Pomfrey. James!" She called, trying to get his attention. "James! I'm going to be la—oh, he can't hear me." She wrapped an arm around Marlene and led her back up to the castle. "Did you see that crazy bludger that went after him?"
Marlene nodded. "What was up with that?"
Lily smiled wider, regaling her friend with how she single-handedly saved the Gryffindor Captain's life by petrifying a row of Slytherins.
A/N
Hey guys! Thanks again for your lovely reviews-you're too sweet, really!
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All my love!
Alys