Chapter 24- Quidditch Practice and The Rehearsal Room
Lily woke up on Tuesday morning and looked over at the others sleeping in their beds, Kas was sitting by the window looking out over towards the Quidditch pitch, she turned to look at her friend when she heard her stir.
'Ready for practise later?' she asked; Lily grinned.
'You bet, I can't wait. It's my chance to try and show Potter up by saving all his shots.' Lily said, Kas laughed and the two girls got dressed and went down for breakfast. After about ten minutes Remus joined them.
'Hey girls' he said, yawning hugely.
'Didn't you get a lot of sleep?' Lily asked, Remus shook his head.
'Peter got to sleep before the rest of us and he snores like crazy, we can't get to sleep if we're not asleep before him.' he explained, the two smiled sympathetically and the three of them continued eating breakfast. Rose joined them after a while and the three girls made their way to their first class, hoping the twins hadn't overslept too much.
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Lily yawned and stretched as the girls sat in the common room doing their homework; she looked at the clock on the common room wall and nudged Kas.
'Fifteen minutes till we need to go.' she said, Kas rolled her eyes.
'Lily you've been giving me updates every ten minutes for the past hour, will you please relax. You'll be fine.' Kas said, Emma grinned at her two friends.
'Nervous about flying in front of Potter are we Tiger? You should have seen her ten minutes before the tryouts she was shaking like a leaf. We only managed to calm her down by saying she could always whack a Bludger at Potter if she didn't make it!' Emma said, Lily stuck her tongue out at her and Emma laughed.
'Someone say my name?' a voice said behind the couch that Kas and Lily were sitting on, they looked up and saw James and Sirius standing above them; Remus went and sat next to Diana on the twin's sofa and Peter went to the armchair opposite Rose. Sirius and James sat between Lily and Kas and Lily had to hide a snort behind a cough.
'Ready for the practice?' James asked; Kas snorted.
'Yeah right, she's-'
But Lily had leapt over James and Sirius and had planted a hand firmly over Kas' mouth.
'We're ready.' she said giving Kas a glare. Kas smiled sweetly.
'Ah Lily you know I live to embarrass you.' Kas said, Lily grinned.
'Yeah but you see if you embarrass me that way I embarrass you with a little secret I found out about at the beginning of term…' Lily trailed off with a grin. Kas seemed to think for a moment then grinned herself; Sirius and James were looking from one to the other as if it was a tennis match.
'Well Lily, I think I might win this because you see I have some photographic evidence of a very amusing dare you once did a few summers ago and it just so happens that the pictures are in easy reach…'
Kas reached into her bag and brought out a set of photos that she showed to Lily, no one else could see what they showed but they had a good idea when Lily went bright red.
'You show those pictures to anyone and I will make sure you pay for it!' Lily said; Kas laughed and threw an arm over her friend's shoulders.
'Lily; you know the only way these would be shown is if both you and James severely tick me off' she said. By the way James went bright red it appeared he had worked out what the pictures showed; everyone else burst out laughing. James coughed slightly and stood up.
'Well we better get to Quidditch practise, come on guys.' he said. Diana and Emma exchanged grins and they, Rose and Peter bid the others goodbye and watched them leave through the portrait hole after collecting their brooms from their dorms. James and Remus led the party with Lily a few steps behind; they were talking about some kind of tactics while Kas and Sirius followed a little way behind; Sirius stretched and yawned.
'Tired by any chance?' Kas asked; Sirius grinned.
'Nah just can't be bothered to go to lessons tomorrow. They're so boring. Do you realise that old hag who's supposed to teach us Divination has decided to give us a dream diary. I can never remember what I dream about for god's sake!' he ranted, Kas laughed.
'Take Emma and Rose's approach and make up anything that could be interpreted as good and see if she can make it bad. According to them she usually can even when Emma was dreaming about making out with a guy she said Professor Tarron told her she'd end up a widow by three husbands. Apparently Rose had to pretend to have dropped something under the table so the teacher wouldn't see her laughing!' Kas said, Sirius laughed and Lily dropped back to talk to them.
'So what you two lovebirds up to?' she said with a grin. Kas rolled her eyes and shook her head.
'You're not going to listen are you?' she asked, Lily grinned and shook her head. Kas laughed at her friend and the group finally reached the pitch. They separated into their different changing rooms and changed into their Quidditch robes. Erin walked in about three minutes after Kas and Lily had finished getting changed and the three girls spent about five minutes talking to each other until they heard James calling them out onto the pitch. Kas, Lily and Erin walked out laughing and mounted their brooms to join in the warm up lap around the Quidditch pitch. Once they arrived back (ahead of the rest of the team) James got everyone into groups; he, Remus and Sirius would practise passing and would fire shots at Lily; Matt and Mike would practise passing a Bludger between them and Kas and Erin would both try and catch the Snitch. Erin would also be swapped round to different positions to get her trained in all of them. James let out a Bludger that Matt and Mike set to work on passing between them, he let out the Snitch and Kas and Erin gave it a head start before they went after it, calling suggestions to each other as they went. He threw the Quaffle into the air and saw Lily get into position in front of the rings.
Sirius, Remus and James tried some easy passes to each other to warm up and then tried some different formations, all the time heading towards Lily at the goal posts; the fact that the three of them were like brothers made it easier for them to predict each other's positions. Lily looked at them passing the Quaffle with precision and ease and couldn't help but smile; James had done the right thing choosing the three Marauders of the team to work together, they'd be unstoppable in a game; she saw Sirius coming towards her left hoop with the Quaffle under his arm, eyes fixed on the hoops. She tensed up, ready to fly to the left hoop and then stopped.
Hang on, this is Sirius we're talking about. He wouldn't do the obvious thing, would he? The moment of indecision stopped her and instead she swayed side to side in front of the hoops slightly waiting for the shot to come. Miraculously he aimed for the centre hoop and she was able to turn and catch the Quaffle easily.
'Good save, Lily' James called, she smiled despite herself and threw the Quaffle to Remus who threw it behind him to James, who flew forwards and threw it towards the right hoop. Lily didn't manage to catch it but she managed to hit it away from the hoops at least. James grinned at her.
'A few saves like that in a game and the other team don't stand a chance.' he said. Kas came up behind her on her broom.
'I saw that blush even if he didn't.' Kas said with an evil grin. Lily shoved her friend in the back, laughing, and Kas flew off again in search of the Snitch.
Erin and Kas were doing well with the Snitch; they took it in turns to chase after it while the other gave them suggestions on how to improve their technique. After about fifteen minutes James blew his whistle and told Erin to try joining in handling the Bludger with the two boys.
Everything seemed to be going fine until near the end of the practise, the Bludger that Mike, Matt and Erin were hitting back and forth went flying towards Mike who hit it off onto the pitch. It flew straight into Sirius' stomach and lifted him off his broom.
'Sirius!' a scarlet blur started to follow him down to the ground and managed to get a grip on his robes and pull him onto the other broom before he hit the ground. James landed and helped his friend onto the ground, the rest of the team came around as Mike started to wrestle the Bludger back into the box; only Lily, who was passing him as he was putting it back into the box, saw the triumphant smile on his face.
'Sirius, you ok mate?' James asked, Sirius nodded but started a coughing fit a moment later.
'Just winded.' he managed to gasp out.
'Here;' Lily conjured a goblet, 'Aguamenti!' The goblet filled with water and she handed it to him.
'Thanks.' he said and drained the goblet it a few mouthfuls.
'Alright, everyone practice is over!' James said; he and Remus helped their friend into the changing rooms; Lily and Kas followed behind the rest of the team, Lily keeping a close eye on Mike.
Lily was getting changed slowly on purpose; she wanted Erin to leave so she could talk to Kas. Finally the blonde left and Lily turned to Kas.
'Kas, I don't think Mike hit that Bludger towards Sirius by accident. He was smiling as he was putting that Bludger back in the crate; who smiles when one of their team mates has just fallen about 50ft and is coughing like crazy on the ground?' Lily asked; Kas looked at her and then sighed.
'I know; he's too good to have let that Bludger fly off course and not have hit it back towards the others. But what can we do? We can't exactly tell James can we? He'd kick him off the team and then we'd be a Beater short. True, Erin would stand in for him but Beater isn't her best position.' Kas answered; Lily frowned.
'What if he tries it again?' Lily asked, Kas sighed.
'We'll just have to keep our eyes open.' she answered. Lily nodded. Kas was right; they couldn't do a lot about it, their first game against Slytherin was in a week on Saturday and they couldn't afford to train a new Beater who wasn't good already. Lily smiled to herself when she realised just how much more she was enjoying Quidditch now she was on the team.
'I'll see you later, I need to get up to the castle.' Kas said, Lily grinned at her.
'Night time meeting with someone?' she asked, Kas grinned and shook her head.
'No, homework.' she answered. Lily raised her eyebrows and Kas winked at her. The two girls laughed and Kas walked out of the door.
Once outside Kas was heading towards the castle when someone grabbed her arm.
'Kas, can I talk to you?' Mike asked her, she looked at him and then nodded, he led her into the room they met in for James' talks before practices and games.
'Kas, this may seem a little odd timing, but… will you go out with me?' he asked, Kas sighed and looked at him.
'I'm sorry Mike but I can't.' she answered. Mike frowned and narrowed his eyes.
'Already got a boyfriend? Is that it?' he asked, he sounded angry. Kas shook her head.
'It's complicated. I'm sorry.' with that she turned and walked out, meeting Lily on the other side.
'I'm just gonna put my broom away then I'll be up in the common room. You ok?' he heard Lily ask her.
'Yeah I'm fine.' he heard Kas answer. Frowning he waited until he was sure Kas was gone and then walked outside.
Lily watched Kas until she had disappeared from sight into the Entrance Hall and then walked over to the broom shed where she placed her broom ready for the next practice and then turned to walk back up to the castle. Someone grabbed her arm and pulled her behind the shed and into the forest. She was pinned against a tree and a hand clamped over her mouth.
'What have you said to Kas?'
Lily shook her head, she was scared. Why had Mike pulled just pulled her into the forest and pinned her against a tree?
'Don't lie to me, Evans.' he growled, 'I know you're her best friend; now what have you told her about me? Do you think I'd try and purposefully hit Black with that Bludger during practice? Well then you're smarter than I thought, aren't you?'
A twig snapped behind Mike and he turned around, letting go of her. She stepped to the side and saw a wand light pointing at them.
'What's going on?' a voice asked.
'Nothing, me and Evans were just having a little talk.' he turned to face Lily and gave her a look to keep quiet.
'See you around.' and with that he was gone.
'Lily, you ok?' the wand holder asked her.
'James?' she asked, he lowered his wand and Lily saw a head of messy black hair and a pair of hazel eyes in the dark.
'Yeah, it's me. You ok? What was all that about?' he asked walking up to her. She shook her head and looked at Mike's retreating back as they walked out of the forest.
'Nothing.' she said quietly. He stopped walking and took hold of her arm.
'I'm not stupid, Lily. What happened?'
'Nothing, it's not my place to say. Don't worry, ok?' she turned and started walking back to the castle. James sighed and jogged to catch up.
'Come on, we better hurry or else we'll be walking around outside curfew and you wouldn't want that would you?' he asked grinning. Lily looked at him and then grinned.
'Or you could show me Hogwarts by night.' Lily said with a grin. James looked at her with raised eyebrows.
'Are you feeling ok?' he asked, placing a hand on her forehead, 'I thought you hated breaking the rules.'
Lily laughed. 'Believe it or not I've broken quite a few rules in my time!' she retorted. James grinned and reached into his pocket.
'In that case Miss Evans you'll have to tell me about them as we go. Come on, get under here.' he said, throwing a cloak over both of them.
'What's this?' she asked. James grinned at her.
'This, my fair lady, is the secret of our success. It's an invisibility cloak. And don't even think about telling anyone about it or I'll ask Kas for some information for revenge.' Lily laughed quietly as they reached the Entrance Hall.
'Come on, I'll take you to the Room Of Requirement, you'll find it interesting.' he told her and steered her towards the seventh floor.
James jumped out from under the cloak and ran back and forth in front of a stretch of wall and a door appeared. Lily threw the cloak off her and James took her hand and led her into a room that was similar to the Gryffindor common room, including two people sat on one of the couches. Lily cursed silently and tried to drag James back out through the door but he had already seen them.
'Sirius? What the-'
Sirius turned round as if he'd been burnt on the butt with a red hot poker.
'Kas?' James asked, Lily cursed quietly behind him.
'Sorry, I didn't know you were in here.' he said sheepishly. Kas smiled and stood up.
'It's ok Lily.' she said, Sirius and James were looking at each other.
'I won't tell, mate.' James said, Sirius smiled and wrapped his best friend in a brotherly hug.
'Cheers. You understand don't you?'
'Yeah, course I do.' James said, he started grinning. 'Just as long as I get to be the godfather for your kids.'
Sirius laughed. 'As long as I'm the godfather to yours.'
'Deal!' the two boys shook hands laughing.
'I feel so sorry for the girls who have your kids.' Lily said, Kas laughed and the four friends went to sit on the couches again. Lily suddenly grinned at Kas.
'I think we found our new rehearsal room.'
Kas grinned at her friend. 'All we need to do know is work out some songs.' she said. The two boys exchanged curious looks before they set off for the common room.
A/N: Hey thanks for the reviews. The next chapter should be up soon, though no promises as to the time. Please review
Ciao for now
xStarswordx