Here comes a new chapter. Time for a bit of Quidditch.

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Next update on Wednesday.

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The Gryffindor Captain

"Lily, stop, I need to go!

"No!"

"We're playing our first match of the season today and I have a thousand things to do..."

"No! It's too early!"

James gave up, heaving a deep sigh, looking down at the ginger girl who was lying upon his chest to prevent him from standing up and walking out of the room.

"It's six in the morning!" Lily protested. "You can stay here a bit longer."

James couldn't help but smirk, chuckling softly, and making her shake on his chest as he was doing so.

"You're mad!" he breathed.

She looked up at him, her chin resting on his muscular chest, whilst her hands were stroking softly his shoulders and upper arms. Quidditch had made him grow very muscular over the years, and it was undoubtedly one of the reasons Lily liked this sport so much these days.

"Pardon me? I'm not the mad one here," she replied, rubbing her nose against his chin.

"You know I could free myself whenever I want, right?" he asked, still smirking.

"No, you can't!"

She wrapped her arms and legs tightly around him, making him burst into laughter.

"See, you can't," Lily told him, giggling. "If you move, I'm moving too."

James shook his head slowly. A thought crossed suddenly his mind, and he looked down at his girlfriend.

"Ginger Sweet?"

"Yes love?"

"When was the last time we slept alone?"

She seemed to think for a moment.

"You mean... Sleep on our own, or have no sex?"

"No, just sleeping."

"I don't know... a month or so I guess. Not since Hogsmeade that's for sure. Why?"

James's smirk turned into a brilliant grin.

"Nothing just... appreciating the fact that my gorgeous girlfriend can't sleep without me already."

"I can sleep without you, James," Lily replied, snorting.

"Then why do you keep sleeping with me?"

"Well I guess you're..." Lily started, looking for a clever remark or a way to tease him. "You're..."

"I am..." he encouraged her.

"... Comfortable."

They both exploded in laughter.

"Comfortable? Are you serious?" he asked, still laughing.

"Yes. Your chest and shoulders are extremely comfortable as pillows. So, I'm sleeping with you," she answered matter-of-factly.

"I'll take it as a compliment."

"You can, it was meant as one."

"Is that the best compliment you can do, really?"

"You don't give me much to work with, you know?"

James chuckled once more, making Lily shake again.

"So if you're making such efforts to stop me from getting out of this bed, it is merely to keep your favourite pillow with you, right?"

"Of course, why else would I do that?"

James took another look at the time.

"Lils, it's late already, I have tons of things to do before the match."

She held him even more tightly against her.

"No, please, don't go... Just five more minutes."

"Isn't it me usually who's begging for five more minutes before getting out of bed and heading towards class."

"I don't wake you up at six in the morning!"

"True."

He heaved a sigh again.

"I need to go Lils."

She shook her head against his chest.

"Right then, you leave me no choice."

He sat up, and Lily almost fell, surprised, before holding him close to her again.

"What are you doing?" she asked him, giggling.

"Heading for a shower."

"A shower?"

"Well, it's the morning. I usually take a shower in the morning. Like 99% of the students here."

"Only 99%?"

"Snivellus is an exception, clearly."

Lily rolled her eyes. He stood up, wrapping an arm around her waist to make sure that she would not fall, and headed towards the bathroom. Lily let out a laugh.

"Wait? Are you really planning on taking a shower like this?"

"Why not? We're both naked, it's perfect!"

"No, let me get down," she protested, laughing, as James was now carrying her.

"You wanted to stay with me, right? Well, I'm afraid you're stuck with me now!"

"You're an awful pillow!"

"Good, 'cause I don't intend to let you fall asleep right now."

They both doubled in laughter, as they were entering the bathroom, James closing the door behind them.


"Sirius, I said no."

The dog's ears fell even lower on his head, his eyes begging. He rested his head on her knees, crying.

"No, Sirius."

He rubbed his snout against her thigh tenderly, still crying. She heaved a deep sigh.

"Right, right okay... I'll let you copy my Transfiguration essay. You win, here! Happy?"

The black dog barked happily, before jumping upon her, making her fall backwards onto the bed, and he licked her face madly. She laughed, trying to push him away.

"You know what?" she told him, still struggling under him. "You being an Animagus is probably the most annoying part of you."

The dog laughed.

"Don't mock me!" she cried, hitting him with a pillow. "I'm serious!"

Sirius turned back into a boy, and looked into her green eyes, pinning her down on the bed.

"I thought the most annoying thing about me was my perfection..."

She snorted.

"Let me laugh!"

"What? I have flaws?" he asked, faking dramatically shock.

"And plenty of them."

"Really?"

"You're too cute, that's annoying."

"Can't help it, something else?"

"You're too handsome, annoying fact again."

"Once more, I can't do anything about it."

"You snore."

"What? Of course I don't snore!"

"Yes, you do."

"No."

"Yes."

"I don't snore, Clara."

"I sleep next to you almost every night, I know you snore. I hear you snoring."

"Shit, I'm turning into an old man!" Sirius exclaimed, holding his heart dramatically.

She laughed, wrapping her arms around his shoulder, and pulling him gently down to her.

"It's okay. It's just a cute snore, nothing harmful."

He kissed her neck.

"So, you'll still spend the night with me anyway?"

"Of course I will," she answered, smiling as his lips were tickling her skin.

He slipped his hands under her shirt, making her gasp.

"Sirius! No, I'm all dressed up, stop!"

"Oh come on..."

"No, no, no, no... you'll mess my hair and clothes up. Stop!"

She pushed him away, and he let himself fall by her side on the bed. She kissed his cheek.

"Come on, love! I'm starving!" she said.

Sirius looked at her, smiling.

"So... despite my snoring moments, you'll sleep with me tonight?" he asked, a mischievous grin on his face.

"Hmm... that will depend."

She kissed his lips, before whispering in a seductive voice.

"Win us the match Black, and we'll see."

Sirius's grin doubled in size.

"As if I wasn't already motivated enough to win this thing!"

They laughed, before Sirius would suddenly jumped out of bed, dragging her towards the room.

"Hurry up!" he urged her merrily. "We need a good breakfast to win this match!"

And they ran through the corridors, hand in hand, laughing like mad.


Remus went on his tiptoes, struggling to catch sight of Sally throughout the crowd that was hurrying towards the Pitch. She had told him she would watch the match with him, but he couldn't find her anywhere.

"Don't worry, I'm sure she'll arrive soon," Lily reassured him.

"How the hell will she found us in this mess?" he asked, panicking.

"I'm sure she'll find us, stop worrying so much," Frank told him.

"I hope she'll find us."

"She will."

Remus sighed angrily, before turning back towards his friends, giving up at looking for her through the crowd.

"Relax Moony," James told him, his voice slightly shaking. "We're the ones who should worrying, not you."

Shannon approached Clara and Sirius slowly, and they all froze when they saw her approaching them.

"Hi," she mumbled.

"What do you want?" Clara asked her coldly.

"I just wanted to know if you... intended to tell anyone about... what happened," the American girl asked slowly. "It's been a week and, I've not heard from Dumbledore or any other teacher yet, so..."

"No, we won't tell anyone," Sirius answered, his tone matching his girlfriend's.

"Why?"

"Because we don't want the other Americans to have problems because of you. And because no one needs to know what happened. Everything came back to normal, so let's just... not make any more noise about it."

Shannon nodded slowly.

"Thank you."

"Don't you ever talk to us again," Clara warned her.

The two girls exchanged a glare for a while, but the Ravenclaw finally nodded, giving up.

"Good luck then, lovebirds..."

And she walked away. Sirius kissed tenderly Clara's temple, and she smiled up at him. They would be alright, from now on...

As they were arriving before the changing rooms, Lily took James's face in her hands, smiling tenderly at him.

"I'm sure you'll be brilliant," she reassured her boyfriend.

"Of course I will," he winked, though his smirk was less brilliant than usual.

"Win us this match, Potter," she said, running her hands through his hair, getting on her tiptoes to bring her lips only inches away from James's.

"Well... Would you give the Captain a kiss, for luck?" James asked in a whisper.

She smiled, kissing his lips, for quite a long time...

She waved at James as she was joining their friends in the stands. Sirius snorted behind James.

"Annoying lovebirds," he teased him.

"Padfoot," James replied in a grin, "shut your mouth!"


Lily let out a cry, as did everyone around her as the Bludger was passing inches away from James's head. She was sure he was doing it on purpose, just to tease her, or punish her, or perhaps because he wanted her to have a heart-attack... She didn't know why, but whatever was the Head Boy's reason to play like this with her heart, she thought it was quite cruel of him. But then, maybe he wasn't doing it on purpose and was absolutely not in control of what was happening on the Pitch right now... And Lily didn't know which possibility was scaring her the most.

James flew at an impressive speed towards the Hufflepuff goalpost, aimed, and scored.

The Gryffindors were now ten points behind. They had to keep up if they wanted to give Josh a chance to catch the Snitch and make them win.

The American boy was flying through the Pitch, closely followed by the Hufflepuff Seeker, pursuing the Snitch. It had been five minutes ago that the two Seekers had caught sight of the little golden ball, but none of them could manage to catch it.

Sally clapped and cheered with the Gryffindors. She should have been grounding for Hufflepuff, but next to these fervent supporters that Remus and his friends were, it was hard not to encourage Gryffindor with them.

"Ten points to go, come on!" Remus cried as James was passing near them, pursuing one of the Hufflepuff chasers who was holding tightly the Quaffle.

Sally smiled at the werewolf, and the boy turned towards her as he was feeling her stare upon him.

"Are you alright? You're not too cold?" he asked her, noticing her red cheeks.

She smiled even more, shaking her head.

"I'm fine."

"You're not bored, are you?"

"No, I'm having fun! Your friends are good at this."

Remus grinned.

"Yeah, they are."

He slowly wrapped his fingers around hers, and her cheeks reddened a little more at the feeling of his skin against hers.

"I'm glad you're spending the match with me," he said softly, his voice barely audible over the chaos of noises and cries that filled the Pitch.

"I'm glad to spend the match with you too, Remus," she answered.

They exchanged a shy smile, before focusing on the match again, their fingers still intertwined.

Josh was only inches away from the Snitch, but it headed right into the stands, and he had to pull up to avoid colliding with Professor Slughorn. He soon was back chasing after the ball throughout the Pitch, shoulder against shoulder with the Hufflepuff Seeker.

Clara threw a bludger at the Hufflepuff chaser, and James caught the Quaffle easily as he was slipping out of the Hufflepuff's hands. James spun around and hurried towards the goalposts. Sirius protected him from a Bludger, and James skilfully avoided a Chaser. He was meters away from the loops...

But he didn't see the Hufflepuff coming on his right...

He collided into James at full speed, and the Gryffindor boy didn't have the time to react. A second later, he was slipping off his broom, and falling into the void...

Lily's heart stopped, she couldn't think anymore, paralyzed. All that her body could do was shout his name...

Before anyone could react, James had hit the ground in a thud noise...

He had made a fall that was a bit more than five meters high...

Whilst all his team was hurrying towards him, and Madam Hooch was flying towards the motionless boy in the grass, and the crowd was in shock, Josh closed his fingers around the Snitch.

Gryffindor had won, one hundred and forty points ahead.

And their Captain was motionless on the ground.

Lily ran across the Pitch, her heart racing, tears wetting her eyes. She pushed out of her way the students who had arrived before her, and kneeled down next to the wounded boy.

"James! James!" she cried, crying by now.

He let out a loud moan, and Lily couldn't help but sigh in relief. He was holding his knee, his eyes tightly closed, his glasses lopsided on his nose, but at least he was conscious.

"James where are you hurt?" she asked him, struggling to keep her voice steady. "Is it your knee?"

James nodded slowly, his jaws clenched, fighting against the pain with all his might.

"Let me take a look at it," she told him softly, her fingertips stroking tenderly his brow and temple.

But he shook his head no, his eyes still tightly shut.

Mrs. Pomfrey kneeled down next to Lily.

"It is your knee, isn't it?" she asked James.

He nodded, shifting under the pain. The Healer touched softly his knee, and James let out a cry of pain.

"Yes, it's broken," she told McGonagall and Dumbledore who had appeared behind her. "I'll take him to the Hospital Wing."

She levitated him off the ground, and his friends made a movement to follow.

"No need you all," Mrs. Pomfrey told them. "He'll be just fine, with a bit of Skelegrow and a few hours of rest."

But Lily took his hand in hers anyway, and continued to follow the nurse.

"I'm not leaving his side," Lily replied before Mrs. Pomfrey could even protest.

The Healer merely rolled her eyes, and they hurried towards the Hospital Wing. Soon, James was lying on a bed, his eyes still tightly closed. The Healer left the room, looking for what she needed to heal his broken knee.

"Lils," James called softly.

"Yes, I'm here love."

"Did we win?"

She smiled, nodding her head.

"Yes, we won. Congratulations Potter."

James smiled despite the pain.

"I reckon that I'll deserve some kind of reward, don't you think?"

"You'd rather deserve a new pair of glasses," she replied. "Didn't you see this Hufflepuff heading towards you? He was so big!"

"I didn't see him," he admitted.

"You scared me so much..."

He forced himself to open his eyes, though he didn't manage to open them wide.

"I'm fine Lils, it's nothing."

Mrs. Pomfrey came back with a bottle of Skelegrow. She cut magically James's Quidditch trousers from knee to ankle, revealing his wounded limb. His knee was contortioned in a strange way, and Lily looked away instantly at the sight of his broken articulation.

"Doesn't look good?" he asked her.

"Not really, no."

"Alright," Mrs. Pomfrey told James. "This is going to hurt."

James closed his eyes again, his jaws clenching, preparing himself for the coming pain. The nurse rested her wand against his knee, replacing his articulation. James squeezed violently Lily's fingers all of a sudden, as he was letting escape a cry of pain through his gritted teeth, twitching in the bed. It was all over in the blink of an eye, and soon James was lying breathless on the pillow, motionless again, releasing slowly his hold on Lily's fingers. But for the Gryffindor girl, it lasted an eternity.

"Come on now, swallow this," the Healer told him, handing him a glass of Skelegrow.

James winced at the taste but swallowed it all in one gulp anyway.

"Now, you stay in this bed, at least until tomorrow morning, and you should be alright," the nurse told him, as she was magically wrapping bandages around his knee.

James nodded, opening his tired hazel eyes again. Lily sat down on his bed.

"How are you feeling?" she asked him, as the nurse was walking out of the room.

"Sore, but I'll be just fine."

He stared at her emerald eyes for a while.

"You're okay, Lils?" he asked her, frowning slightly.

"I'm not the one lying in a bed with a broken knee. But... you really did scare me."

"I love it when you get all worried about my well being..." James said, smirking.

"Oh, shut up! Don't start being cocky."

"Me? Cocky?"

"Yes, you, James Potter, are just a cocky moron sometimes."

"Can I have my reward for fighting bravely against the Hufflepuffs now? Please, Ginger Sweet?"

Lily rolled her eyes, before leaning down, and kissing him passionately on the lips.

"If I am to earn one of these each time I'm hurt, I think I'll pay Padfoot to hit me," James grinned.

She couldn't help but laugh at his silly jokes, as always...

Soon, the rest of their friends had arrived in the Hospital Wing as well. And Sirius had brought the party to the Head Boy, as the Head Boy would not be able to go to the party...

"Now, Prongs, a toast!" Sirius exclaimed, pouring down some firewhiskey for the whole group of friends in the glasses Peter and Clara had brought in the Hospital Wing. "To our brilliant Captain, who managed the impressive performance of failing to notice a massive Hufflepuff player as he was heading straight towards him. Cheers!"

James rolled his eyes, cheering.

"I don't know why, I'm guessing that I'll be hearing about this one for a long time..."

"Definitely," Remus laughed at his friend.

James glimpsed over Remus's and Sally's intertwined fingers.

"Have we missed something about you two?" he asked the two teenagers, propping up an eyebrow.

They both blushed fiercely, finally noticing that they were still holding hands.

"Well, I guess, yes..." Sally answered shyly.

Sirius whistled loudly, making Remus roll his eyes and blush even more.

"Merlin, Remus..." Sirius smiled wickedly.

"You'd better shut your mouth," Remus warned him.

But his remark merely made his friend snicker even more.

"So... can we say that you are officially together?" Marlene asked them slowly.

"I guess, yes..." Sally answered shyly, her cheeks redder than tomatoes.

"And here, Operation H.G.M. is a success!" Sirius howled, pouring himself a second glass of firewhiskey.

"Operation what?" Sally asked him, frowning.

"Nothing, just... one of Sirius's stupid jokes," Remus hurried to reply.

"The boys wanted to give Remus a hand to conquer your heart," Clara whispered to the Hufflepuff.

Sally blushed again.

"Oh... okay..."

She giggled, finishing her drink, but refusing a second when Sirius handed her the bottle. Clara presented her empty glass to her boyfriend though.

"Hmm... Clearwater, are you planning to get drunk?" Sirius asked her, propping up an eyebrow, but pouring her some alcohol nonetheless.

"Tipsy, only. But I can hold my liquor you know, Black?"

"Oh, really?"

She giggled as Sirius was doing a funny face. And the evening passed happily for the group of friends, as they all enjoyed their evening, managing to hide the bottle of alcohol whenever Mrs. Pomfrey was checking up on them.

Eventually, James started to doze, and they all left the Hospital Wing, at the exception of Lily, who cuddled with James into the bed.

"Sorry, it's not very comfortable," James apologised, as he couldn't move his leg to make room for his girlfriend.

"It's okay, you're my pillow, remember?" Lily answered, kissing his cheek.

James chuckled, closing his tired eyes again.

"It would be more comfortable in the dorms," he said.

"I wouldn't want to break our habit of sleeping together."

She closed her eyes, letting James's breathing soothe her.

"Good night, Ginger Sweet," he whispered, already half-asleep.

"Good night love," she whispered as well.

And when a few minutes later, the nurse came to check on the Head Boy, they were both fast asleep.


"I can't believe it worked!"

Bellatrix Black clapped her hands together excitedly.

"Snape, you really have a brilliant mind!"

"It was a nice one, Snape," Lestrange nodded at the boy.

"Thanks."

Snape drank up a gulp of firewhiskey.

"A shame Potter was only hurt, though," he muttered angrily under his breath.

"Still, it was well played. And everyone in the school thinks he merely didn't see the Hufflepuff coming upon him, none of them guessed that you had cast a spell to make the Chaser disappear for the Gryffindor scum' eyes."

"Next time, we'll have to strike harder, though," Severus said slowly.

"Maybe, but still, I'm sure the Dark Lord will be pleased. I'm sure he will consider that you have proven yourself to him with this plan of yours. Maybe the boy was simply wounded, but you didn't get caught, and your new curse is working perfectly, and could surely be used by our Lord. I'm sure it will be enough for you to receive his Mark."

Severus nodded slowly, remaining silent. Despite the fact that his curse had sent Potter to the Hospital Wing, he wasn't satisfied at all. He had hoped the Gryffindor would have more than a broken knee. And... And he couldn't forget the expression of fear on Lily's face when she had run across the Pitch to reach the wounded boy. He couldn't believe she was really feeling this way for this prat. She was the cleverest person he had ever met, how could she be so naive with Potter? He had to find something else against him. After all, he hadn't really done it to prove himself to their Lord anyway.

And indeed, he already had an idea...

Lestrange turned towards Regulus Black.

"It will soon be your turn, Black."

Regulus nodded.

"But he doesn't want to make a move against his big brother," Bella mocked him.

"He's my brother," he pleaded, his eyes begging as he was staring at Lestrange.

Lestrange shrugged.

"The Dark Lord didn't say you had to prove yourself by hurting your brother. It can be someone else I guess. But it will soon come. You have to be prepared to receive his orders. And if he indeed wants you to target your brother, you will have to do it."

Regulus nodded, though in his heart, he was promising himself he would find a way to warn Sirius in time if he had to hurt him. Because after all, if it was the will of the Dark Lord indeed, he couldn't merely refuse, could he?