A/N: I am so sorry for the delay. It's been an incredibly hectic summer. This chapter is dedicated to two loving members of my family who I lost over the course of the last month. Thank you everyone for your patience with me during this time.

34

To the entire school except for the Marauders, it was the dominating subject in every conversation. At last, after nearly two full years, Gryffindor and Slytherin would finally meet on the Quidditch Pitch once again. The build up to the match was fraught with the usual antics—Mulciber and Avery tried to corner Mary McDonald in a hallway one afternoon and hex her, only to be happened upon by Gideon and Fabian Prewett. The resulting set-to was stopped by Professor Flitwick, who was heard to have spent several long hours extracting Avery's head from a sensitive bit of Mulciber's anatomy.

Regulus Black tried to bewitch Frank Longbottom's broom one day after practice, only to be caught by Alice Dearborn. He was unable to speak English for three full days, and no one seemed quite certain what language he actually was speaking in.

The one Slytherin prank that was pulled successfully was by none other than Severus Snape, who managed to confund Mark McKinnon during Gryffindor's practice, so that whatever direction he tried to fly, he flew the opposite. It took the better part of the afternoon for Frank to set him right. James desperately wanted to get back at Snape, but with Lily in mind, held his ground.

All of this and more ran through James' mind as he sat in the Gryffindor dressing room before the big match. Everyone was quiet and focussed save for the Twins, who were joking and laughing, being their usual selves. Mary McDonald looked a little green in her stall, and for a moment, James was worried that she had been poisoned much like Dorcas had a few years earlier. But the next moment, she was looking up and smiling confidently.

'Right,' Frank said as he stood up from his own stall, fully dressed and holding his broomstick in his hand. 'I don't think I need to give any of you any extra motivation given all that's happened in the past few weeks,' he said. 'These guys don't just want to beat us on the pitch, they want to do it in our classrooms and our dormitories. But we're made of better stuff. Let's show them that we've been saving our best for the pitch, to give them a good clean arse-kicking.'

'Hear hear,' Alice said, clapping her hands excitedly.

'Their chasers are a brutish lot. So James, Mark and I should be able to rack up some points on them so long as we don't get clobbered,' he said. 'Gideon, Fabian—keep an eye out for Alice, make sure Regulus doesn't try anything smart with her.'

Alice rolled her eyes. 'I can look after myself, Frank, it's only Regulus,' she muttered.

James grinned. 'If you're going to take any free falls, now's the time to give us a heads up, Dearborn,' he said.

'Count on it, Potter,' she replied.

'Well, what are we waiting for then?' Gideon said, standing up from his stall.

'Yeah, let's go wipe the pitch with Slytherin tears,' Fabian chimed in.

'Let's do it!' Mark echoed.

With a cheer, the team turned to the door—only to freeze at the imposing sight of Professor Zharkov standing there. 'Er,' Frank said, momentarily lost for words.

'Don't let me interrupt,' Zharkov said in his accented voice. 'Continue on to the pitch—I only required a very quick word with Mr. Potter.'

Everyone glanced at James as they filed out past their Defense Against the Dark Arts professor, and James was mentally kicking himself. After weeks of trying to catch Zharkov for a conversation, they were now face to face and he had to rush off to the pitch. 'Professor, I—'

But Zharkov held up his hand. 'Not now, Mr. Potter,' he said. 'I come here today only to say be careful and keep your wits about you.'

James frowned. 'Why?' he asked.

Zharkov sighed. 'We have reason to believe that an attempt may be made on the school grounds at some point soon. What better opportunity than at a highly populated Quidditch match?' he asked.

'But the match is still proceeding, so…' James trailed off.

'Professor Dumbledore believes it is safe, yes,' Zharkov said.

'But you don't,' James pressed.

'Clearly,' Zharkov replied. 'So I say only this—keep your eyes open, Mr. Potter.'

James decided to throw caution to the wind. 'Professor, I need to get a message to Rochefort. How would I do it?'

For a moment, Zharkov said nothing. But it was not lost on James that all colour had drained from the face of his teacher. 'I…' Zharkov began, and he seemed about to say something, but then thought better of it. 'I wouldn't know where to begin, Mr. Potter. Why would you suspect I would know?'

James opened his mouth to reply when a shout came from down the hallway. 'James, where are you!?'

Zharkov, whose face was normally such an impassive mask, now looked openly relieved. 'You'd best get going. Good luck, Mr. Potter.'

'But…' James tried.

'Good luck,' Zharkov said once more, and he spun on his heel to disappear down the hallway. James was left there for a moment, feeling both let down but triumphant—he had not gotten the answer he had hoped for, but he was sure he had answered one thing. And that was that Zharkov knew how to get a message to Rochefort. The question was how?

James took off at a run down the hallway and emerged onto the pitch, where the noise was deafening. The crowd, as usual for these types of games, seemed to be split into a three-to-one fan support section. Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff and Gryffindor were all pulling hard for the Gryffindor team, whereas the Slytherin team was only supported by its own house.

Madam Hooch stood at the center of the pitch, where she had clearly already attempted to make the Captains shake hands. Frank stood on the Gryffindor side looking amused, while Severus Snape stood a few feet away with an ugly expression on his pale face.

'Are we quite ready to begin?' Hooch asked, glaring at James for being late.

'Yes,' Snape said stiffly.

'When you are,' Frank added obligingly.

'Let's have a good clean match,' Hooch said and with that, she opened the box to let the golden Snitch and the quaffles fly, and the game began. James barely had time to mount his broom before everyone was rocketing into the sky around him.

Instantly, he nearly collided with Avery, who had taken a hard charge straight at him. James rolled to avoid the contact and quickly got his bearings. Frank had already caught the quaffle and sent it flying to Mark, who was speeding down the side of the pitch. James bared down on his broom and flew down the opposing side.

Crabbe was the beater on James' side, Snape the one on Mark's. Mark dipped down low as Snape sent a bludger flying at him, missing narrowly, which made James frown. Snape almost seemed to not be giving his full attention to playing his role. Mark moved to drop the quaffle back to Frank, but was surprised when Regulus suddenly darted down to intercept the pass, knocking it back to Snape who quickly relayed it to Mulciber.

James glanced up at Regulus who immediately flew back to circling the pitch looking for the Snitch, alternating his gaze from the stadium and the skies to Alice, to see what she was doing. James frowned. It didn't seem very in keeping with Slytherin's usual game plan to have their seeker double as a defender.

But now, he had to race back to keep up. Mulciber passed back to Avery, who drove quickly between bludgers sent forward by Gideon and Fabian to hurl the quaffle at the leftmost hoop, but Mary was equal to the task, kicking the quaffle back out to Gideon. The Gryffindor supporters in the crowd cheered appreciatively. Gideon launched the quaffle to James, who turned and roared down the pitch.

He glanced upwards as he came towards Crabbe, and he was unsurprised to see Regulus zooming in above him. James looked back at Crabbe as he launched a bludger towards him. James pivoted his broom and roared straight up.

He could see the whites of Regulus' eyes as the youngest Black brother veered crazily aside to avoid a collision, careening off course towards the bleachers as James launched the quaffle down to Frank, who zoomed down the middle of the pitch unharrassed. He easily dodged Snape's bludger and faked a shot at the left hoop, a fake which the Slytherin keeper bit on, before hurling it through the right to land Gryffindor first blood in the match to a massive cheer from the crowd.

'Nice one, James!' Frank shouted as they zoomed back defensively.

'What are they playing at, having Regulus play defense?' Mark asked.

'That's a new one to me,' Frank said.

'Watch it, you lot, here they come!' Gideon shouted.

James turned to see Mulciber barrelling towards them and he moved to intercept. He was cutting in above him, when he heard Frank shout. 'WATCH IT, JAMES!'

James looked up just in time to see a flash of green and then he was knocked flying, nearly losing his broom as he did. Regulus had just bodychecked him hard, sending him skittering through the skies towards the bleachers. Moments from impact, James stopped his tailspin and shook his head to gather himself.

Mulciber had passed the quaffle to Avery, who zoomed in alone on Mary. He faked for the right hoop and shot for the left, but just before it could go in, Alice zoomed in and knocked the quaffle back to the Prewetts.

'Two can play this game, Black!' Alice shouted to Regulus, who was circling back into the sky.

James was sure he saw Regulus grin as he began circling the stadium again.

Frank took the quaffle and began heading up the pitch. James had to put his suspicions aside and roar up alongside him as bludgers flew at them. Frank ducked one and passed to James, who dodged the other bludger and passed to Mark. Mark prepared to shoot but Regulus came down hard on top of him, knocking Mark heavily off course. Regulus momentarily grabbed the bludger, only to have Alice suddenly appear in front of him, knocking it aside.

'Alice, no, get back—' James began to shout, when he saw it.

The Golden snitch had appeared in the middle of the pitch. Alice and Regulus were entangled with each other, but one Slytherin player had noticed it as well: Snape. And with speed that James had never before seen him use, he blasted forward.

'Damn it!' James cursed and he whistled off after him. He couldn't spare a glance back to see what Alice was doing. He was a few feet behind Snape as they flew to within millimeters of the ground, grass grazing their boots as they chased the Snitch along at top speed. It suddenly made a hairpin turn and launched straight up into the air, and both James and Snape angled up to follow.

They were going straight up now, at speeds so fast that the air seemed to be turning to ice around them. Up and up they went, breaking through cloud cover as they went, losing the sounds of the pitch to the earth below. James urged his broom faster, until he and Snape were neck and neck, side by side, the snitch only a few feet away.

James reached out his hand for the snitch, only to have Snape veer into him, body checking him away. For a frightening moment, James nearly lost control of his broom, but he regained himself and bodychecked Snape back. Snape slid a foot to the side, and looked back at him, his eyes narrowed and his yellow teeth grit. James glanced forward—the Snitch was just out of arm's reach. He looked back in time to see Snape lean onto his broom and veer towards him once more.

James held his breath and made his decision in an instant. At the moment right before impact, he pushed himself off his broom, allowing Snape to slide between himself and his broomstick. He momentarily gripped Snape's back to keep his speed, and then Snape was gone, blasting off to the side with the full momentum of his missed body check. James quickly grasped his broom once more and looked up—the Snitch was right there. He reached out his hand and closed his fingers around it.

The elation he felt burst within him was somehow made even more magnificent by the howl of fury that emitted from Snape's lips as James turned course and blasted back down towards the earth. He got a hundred feet before two figures burst up through the cloud cover below, those of Alice Dearborn and Regulus Black. When they caught sight of James holding his fist above his head in triumph, their reactions were complete contrasts of one another. Regulus began shouting profane remarks at Snape, Alice let loose with a more jubilant string of profanity.

They rocketed back down through the clouds together to a burst of noise from the pitch, which seemed to have gone quiet in their absence. The match had ended quicker than James had thought it would, and he was now in the mood to hasten their departure from the pitch.

'What's your hurry, James?' Frank shouted over the cheers as James touched ground on the pitch once more, moving to escape the hugs of his teammates and head for the dressing rooms.

'I'll tell you once we're inside,' James said.

'PRONGS!' came Sirius' shout as he, Remus, Peter and Lily came running up with bright smiles. 'I didn't know you could play seeker!'

James was quick to usher them into the change room which quickly became party central. Gradually, James allowed his guard to come down—he was still nervous from Zharkov's warning, but they were no longer exposed on the open pitch.

'I should have seen it coming,' Alice muttered dejectedly. 'They wanted to distract me from looking for the snitch because they thought no one else on our team could do it like I could.'

'They must have had Snivellus practicing at it for a while,' Gideon suggested, earning a reproachful look from Lily.

'They didn't count on James having an answer for him, though,' Fabian said, reaching over and clapping James on the shoulder.

'Yeah, we didn't get to see your big catch, you were above the clouds!' Sirius said.

'How'd it go?' Peter asked excitedly.

'How did you beat Severus?' Remus asked cautiously, casting a look at Lily.

James smiled reassuringly. 'All I did was dodge him,' he said. 'We both laid on the body, and he tried to body check me and he missed.'

Alice whooped. 'Well good for us!' she said. 'We're that much closer to the Quidditch Cup!'

'Imagine that,' Frank said. 'With that win, we might not even face Slytherin in the finals!'

Lily smiled at James. 'Nothing bad happened?' she asked nervously.

James shook his head. 'Nothing, Evans,' he said. 'It was surprisingly sportsmanlike.'

She looked relieved. 'I'd better go and see how he is,' she said after a moment. 'I'll see you back at the dormitory?' she asked.

James was about to let her go when a thought occurred to him. 'Uh, Lily, why don't you take Dearborn with you?' he said.

Everyone looked at him. 'The party's just getting started here, James,' Frank protested.

'Yeah, well, I don't want Evans going to the Slytherin locker room alone,' James said somewhat lamely.

Frank looked about to protest more, but Alice stood. 'He's right,' she said. 'I'll go with you, Lily. See you all back at the dormitory.'

James exchanged a knowing glance with Sirius, Remus and Peter. 'We've got things to talk about,' he murmured.

'I agree,' Remus said. 'If there's one thing his match did do, its make Severus angrier,' he said.

'So?' James asked.

'So, it's the full moon tomorrow night,' Remus sighed. 'That makes me worried.'