30/07/2020

Chapter 28 (James Potter)

Tainted Victory

Saturday 11th November 1972

James woke early that morning for the Quidditch match. He looked over at Sirius who was still sleeping. His dark hair had grown somewhat and was now falling into his eyes. James chucked a pillow at him and finally he stirred.

"You could have just nudged me." Sirius said annoyed and rubbing sleep from his eye.

They left Peter and Remus to sleep. Especially Remus, because he was always tired and never missed an opportunity to sleep longer. Ever since they had confronted Remus, he had been a but happier, and he even recovered a bit quicker the next full moon, although that could have been a coincidence. They strolled down to the common room where Aimee Turpin and Tammy Richards, two 4th years who were also Chasers, were waiting for the team. Tammy was a pretty, dark-haired girl with deep blue eyes and a tall, slim figure. Aimee was freckly with her blonde hair tied tightly up in a ponytail.

"Nervous for your first match?" asked Aimee.

"Me nervous? Never." said James casually. Although he actually was extremely nervous.

"That's the spirit. I remember my first match," she said reminiscently "Tammy here got knocked off her broom and broke her shoulder, she was crying about it for weeks."

"I did not. Besides, so would you if you broke your shoulder." Tammy said indignantly. James' suddenly felt a little daunted by this match, what if he fell off his broom, what if a bludger broke his nose, what if he woke up one week later with only one arm attached to his body. Soon after David Johnson, George Budgens and Grace Budgens came down the stairs.

"Right team, off we go." George said confidently. They walked down to the Great Hall and ate breakfast quickly. On the other tables was the Slytherin team. Their captain was a muscly 6th year by the name of Titus Flint who played as beater who looked like he definitely had some troll blood in him. After breakfast, they trudged outside, and to everyone's disappointment, it was raining. They went to the changing rooms to get into their robes. At around 9:30, it started to pour furiously down with rain, in which moments later, Remus entered the room.

"James, come here." he said, ushering him over. "You won't be able to see a thing with the rain on those glasses, and I know you can't see without them, so I found this spell."

"Great." he said, taking his glasses off and handing them to Remus.

"Impervius." he said, pointing his wand at the spectacles. James put them back on.

"I'll let you know if it works after the match. Cheers \Moony." he laughed. Ever since they had confronted him about being a Werewolf, Remus seemed to be a little less stressed and confident.

"Good luck you two!" he called to James and Sirius and he left.

'''''''''''''''

They marched onto the Quidditch pitch to glorious cheers and distasteful boo's. He made a mental note to tell Remus the spell actually did work. James felt a little anxious as he hopped onto his broom and to the goal posts with Aimee Turpin and Tammy Richards. They wished him good luck before positioning themselves. Sirius was on the right-side middle holding a beaters bat in his hand. A few of the first year Gryffindor girls were staring and cheering at him, but he pretended not to notice. George Budgens and Titus Flint shook hands as captains, in which Budgens winced slightly as he assumed Flint had probably tried to squash his hand. James spotted his mum and dad in one of the visitors stands waving at him enthusiastically. He didn't wave back but gave a discrete smile in their direction. Sirius gave James a quick grin just before Madam Hooch was about to start the game.

"On my whistle. 3...2...1..." the whistle blew and they were off. It was Tammy who caught the Quaffle first, then passed to Aimee then back to Tammy and then to James. He caught it steady and flew up to the goals that were obstructed by Slytherin chasers, so he threw it back to Aimee. They kept rallying between them until James was in a good enough position to core. He caught it in one arm and flung it through the left hand hoop.

"Potter scores! 10 points to Gryffindor!" shouted the commentator, who he knew to be Lucas Barrow, a gutsy fourth year Gryffindor he sometimes talked to. James beamed around him as Tammy quickly high-fived him and sped off down the pitch. Sirius gave him a thumbs up, just before beating a bludger away from him and almost falling off his broom with the lack of concentration.

James thought it was quite stressful being a chaser. You always had to be on your guard, and couldn't sit back and relax like the Seeker usually does. On many occasions he successfully scored, followed by cheers from the Gryffindor stands. After an hour of play, James had scored 100 of the 130 points for Gryffindor. The score was currently 130-90 to Gryffindor. George Budgens looked pretty pleased and even patted him on the back as congratulations.

The Quaffle was in one of the Slytherin's possession to he zoomed up the pitch to tackle. It was Bertram Aubrey. James flew close to him and stopped him from turning properly.

"Get out the way Potter!" he called menacingly.

"Or what?" he called back. Aubrey rammed into the side of him unexpectedly, which nearly sent him crashing to the ground. James kept going by Aubrey's side until eventually he tried to throw it to a new team member, which James blocked and grabbed for himself. He flew back down to the Gryffindor end with Aubrey tailing behind. He scored once more and the crowd roared.

"140-90 to Gryffindor. Potter is on fire!" called Lucas Barrow from the commentary box. James grinned.

Within the next half hour, Grace Budgens, the seeker, and the Slytherin Seeker had both spotted the snitch. They dived suddenly. Both overtaking each other at different points. It was thrilling to watch and he did admire Grace's skill, even though it was he that wanted to be seeker. Finally, FINALLY, Grace caught the snitch and held it high up in the air as the Slytherin Seeker crashed into the muddy ground in an unsuccessful and unnecessary dive.

"Grace Budgens catches the snitch! Gryffindor wins!" the Gryffindors roared and cheered. George Budgens looked delighted. In all the excitement, James hadn't realised that Bertram Aubrey had taken Flint's beater's bat.

SMASH*

The Bludger had collided with James' face, which knocked him straight off his broom and onto the soggy wet grass below him. He heard shouts of 'cheat' and 'underhand' before he fell unconscious.

I found it quite hard writing a Quidditch scene. Especially because James is a Chaser and JK Rowling writes Quidditch from Harry's POV so is always Seeker. But Seeker's can spectate a lot more so I've had to write a lot of action rather than dictating the match. Not sure it's that good. Semd me some feedback :)