A/N) A quick note, there is some mild swearing in this chapter

Leftover restrictions from America's old muggle-wizard separation laws meant that the Quidditch World Cup was underground. Like all of it. The field itself, the campground for the audience. Everything was in a giant cave. It was so large Lily was sure that the roof of the cavern was held up by magic as there were no supports anywhere to be seen.

It would have been depressing if it wasn't so incredible.

Nearly six years she'd been living in the wizarding world, and she'd been aware of magic for even longer, but still, the idea that hidden underneath a normal, everyday city was a secret underground sports ring, it was like she was living a novel.

She and Alice walked around the campground, just looking around, since they were all underground the wizards and witches didn't have to hide anything. Tents flashed in the colors they were supporting, glowing like spotlights. Fireworks were going off at all times of the day somewhere.

The celebrations even reached the roof of the giant cavern, like the bat signal in the sky, wizards reflected symbols of their supporting team way up in the air. Eagles were everywhere, both real and ones that looked like they were made of fireworks. Rainbows hovered overhead looking almost solid.

She'd yet to see a pot of gold though. Still waiting on that one.

"Leprechaun gold disappears after a while," Alice warned her when Lily told her she was looking for one.

"What? Really? Lame." Lily laughed. She was having the time of her life. It was her first time out of the country and there was just so much to see. The campers to the left of Mary's parents' tent were African and the ones to the right of the girls' tent were American. Lily had talked to them all. She knew all their names, though some of them were difficult to pronounce. The Americans supported their home team, while the others were for Ireland. It had caused excitement all day long, especially when the Americans started lighting off fireworks in the middle of the night. It was all in good fun though, the African family had responded by enchanting Irish bagpipes to play so loud that the fireworks were practically silent.

As for her crew, they were mixed. Alice, Zoe, and Marline were supporting Ireland, while Mary and Lily were wearing red, white, and blue.

Alice claimed Lily picked the American team to spite Potter who was obviously going to support Ireland but her reasons were a bit more complicated than that, though no less shallow.

Her hair matched the color scheme and she thought one of their beaters was hot.

That's it. Maybe if she was feeling nice she could say she didn't want Mary to be alone in her support, but after the bagpipes, she felt she didn't need the extra motive.

"We need souvenirs," Alice said suddenly pointed at a stand. There was one for each team. She half dragged Lily to the stall decked out in green, acting as though the other one didn't exist.

"This would look brilliant on you."

"Uh-huh, except it's hideous and what's even with that shade of green. Gross."

"Green's your favorite color," she accused.

"Not this week it's not."

Alice laughed and put the shirt back allowing Lily to wander over to the other stall. American wizard money was weird. It was still coin-based but like the coins weren't bronze silver and gold. There wasn't a gold one at all, the small one was copper and the bigger one might have been silver? It was weird and she had to have the cashier help her with it. The woman was super nice about it though, so it wasn't too bad.

She bought a firework hairpin that popped and sparkled and a sticker for her trunk, like in the old movies where travelers put stickers all over their luggage. She'd always thought that was cool, maybe she could start a collection.

"Cute." Alice pointed at the hairpin just as it was exploding.

"You want one?" Lily raised an eyebrow and showed it off.

Alice hesitated. "Kinda."

Lily laughed and bought her one too.

"You can always wait till after the game to wear it."

Alice didn't wait. Marlene would be pissed. It'd be great.

"Oh someone's got a band over there. Let's go see." Lily grabbed Alice and led her over.

It was one of the Irish tents that had the band but it was fun to listen to anyway, especially when their American-supporting neighbors started making up lyrics.

"James!" Alice cried all of a sudden, startling Lily. She'd been focusing on memorizing both sets of lyrics to recant to Mary later.

Lily turned and Alice was waving to Potter in a different crowd.

"Alice, don't," Lily muttered, knowing it was no good.

Potter looked over and waved back nudging the bloke next to him and running over. His friend followed at a slower pace.

"Hey, I wasn't expecting to see anyone from school here," Potter said as he approached.

"Mary's mum is a huge quidditch nerd. She finally managed to convince them to splurge for a trip. And well, I couldn't very well let her come alone, now could I." Alice teased. "What kind of friend would I be then?"

"A terrible one, obviously." Potter laughed. "Everyone's here then?"

"Yeah. Zoe and Marlene too."

Potter turned back to his friend. "Sounds like we've got a crowd, eh Padfoot?"

Lily's blood went cold because, sure enough, it was Black there behind Potter. She hadn't recognized him until Potter pointed it out.

It looked like Black-if you tried hard enough-but you had to really try. His hair was longer and messy. Like unintentionally messy. A lazy ponytail kept it from looking too ratty, but clearly, there had been zero effort involved. There was none of his usual punk rock jewelry, and his clothes were wrinkled. Black looked pale, and his eyes dull. Worse still he'd lost weight.

Something was wrong, and Lily was trying very hard not to stare.

"Where are you guys parked?" Alice said quickly like she was trying to distract herself from the sad state of her friend. "We should totally get seats together. Us Hogwarts brats should stick together in this band of American heathens."

Potter laughed and Lily wondered if he'd just gotten used to Black being the way he was or had decided acting normal was the best way to handle it. He pointed off to their right, "We're just a few rows that way. Moony and Wormtail are here, but Mum and Dad aren't coming till tomorrow."

"Nice," Alice said before going into where they'd be sitting during the game, clearly planning on coordinating everyone together without asking anyone's opinions.

The last thing Lily wanted was to spend the whole game with Potter. But then…

He still hadn't so much as said hi. Barely even looked at her beyond a glance to see who Alice was hanging out with.

Was he listening to what she'd told him on the train? Listening and obeying? Was he planning on not talking to her at all, what about when they went back to Hogwarts? Had she finally gotten rid of James Potter?

Or was he that offended by what she'd said.

She'd called his friends worthless. She hadn't meant it. Lupin wasn't awful, he was just unwilling to stick up to his friends. That's not that surprising considering who they were. She didn't even know Pettigrew, so it was entirely uncalled for her to insult him. And Black…

Something had happened to Black. She didn't know what but it was something dramatic and probably terrible.

In hindsight what she's said was uncalled for. He was probably just offended on their behalf. And she felt bad, despite it leading to the outcome she'd wanted for actual years by this point.

Such below-the-belt comments were beneath her. She'd have to apologize, no doubt leading to him returning to pestering her constantly.

But not here. Not in front of Alice or Black. Neither of them would let her live it down. Instead, she enjoyed the lack of Potter's attention for just a little bit longer.

"Hey," she said to Black trying to be casual. He wasn't fooled. "You okay?"

"What do you care?" he snapped back surprising her with his hostility. Sure they'd never been particularly close especially lately, but he'd never looked at her like that before.

"I care because I want to," she said stubbornly. "You look sick and I'm not a jerk."

"Good to know it's so damn obvious. Thanks." He growled not looking at her. He was tense like preparing for an assault. Surely he didn't think she'd attack him? She wanted to call him out on it but didn't think he'd take it well and she was worried about him. Half-hoping Potter would save her from a conversation she was starting to regret starting, she tried again.

"So you are sick? Is there anything-"

"Look, I get it. You're trying to be nice or whatever helps you sleep at night. But the last thing on the planet I want right now is to talk to you. So there. You can stop pretending to give a fuck because I'm an ass."

She was so stunned she didn't even stop him from turning and storming off without so much as a glance at Potter.

What was that?

"Sirius?" Potter said, their conversation interrupted by Black's tantrum. "What happened?"

"I don't-I didn't mean-" Lily stumbled, finally Potter was looking at her, he rubbed his eye under his glasses and shook his head.

"It's not your fault," he said quickly before taking off after Black. "I'll see you later"

"All I did is ask if he was okay."

Alice bit her lip, her brows furrowed but she didn't say anything, still looking in the direction they ran off.

Marlene stole Alice's hairpin, hiding it somewhere she'd no doubt find sometime before school started but not anytime soon. Alice pretended to be irritated, searching all over for it and pouting when it didn't pop up. She wouldn't turn seventeen for another two weeks, so she couldn't even use magic to find it.

They hadn't said anything about seeing Black. Alice mentioned running into Potter just to tell the others he'd be sitting with them when the game started the next day. Marline and Mary of course had asked if Black was with him, because they both had terrible tastes in boys, but Alice just shrugged it off.

But Lily couldn't help but linger on it. Between the guilt for what she'd said to Potter and worry for her old divination partner, she was much less cheery upon their return to the campsite.

She'd have refused to admit it if asked, but she missed having Black as a partner in divination. He was so good at the subject it had made the work easier for her too. Anything she didn't understand, or couldn't manage he was able to show her how to do. It had taken weeks for her to be able to read the planet's alignment after he left and she knew if he'd have been there she could have figured it out in a day. And even outside of the actual work. Divination was dull after the initial excitement of predicting the future, his levity had always made the class go by faster.

That's not to say she blamed Black for leaving. He hadn't gotten much out of the lessons, since he was so proficient in it anyway. But she missed him.

She watched her friends giggle over a game of chess-Mary had managed to find a couple of sets of jinxed chess pieces that had a habit of breaking the rules randomly which was far more entertaining than the actual game itself-while she quietly fretted off to the side.

"Just go talk to him." Marline sighed sitting down next to her.

"What?"

"Potter, if your this upset over what you said then just go apologize."

"I'm not-I never said-"

"You don't have to, hun." Marline shrugged with a smirk.

"Yeah, okay." Lily sighed, cursing her transparency, and followed her friend's advice trying to remember where Potter said they'd parked their tent. And realizing that she had no idea what their tent even looked like.

Probably big and expensive.

It took a couple of hours but eventually, she came across Lupin helpfully sitting outside poking a campfire with his wand and turning it green.

"I'm pretty sure you're not seventeen," she said as she approached, trying for a friendly smile.

"They can't tell the difference when we're in a place like this." Lupin shrugged, smiling back. "Prongs mentioned you lot were hanging around."

Why did they have such stupid nicknames for each other, like literal children?

"Potter was right, making you a prefect was a terrible idea." She laughed, worried she'd offended him but he just shrugged.

"I keep telling everyone that, but no one believes me but them," he pointed at the tent behind him. "Apparently I have one of those faces."

"Speaking of, is Potter in there. I need to talk to him for a second."

Lupin raised an eyebrow and she rolled her eyes.

"Nothing like that, obviously."

He giggled and nodded. "Sure, I'll grab him. No promises he won't call it a date afterward though."

"I'll handle that part."

Lupin disappeared in the tent and Lily waited for longer than she expected for Potter to come out. She was expecting excitement of the she's-totally-into-me variety, but he just looked confused.

"What's up?" he let the tent flap fall behind him. The tent itself was surprisingly modest on the outside. Too small for four boys, but she was used to wizards TARDIS'ing the crap out of everything by now.

"Can we talk somewhere a little less noisy?"

He coughed and looked around at the celebrating crowd. "Yeah, good luck."

But she'd already found a quiet place during her search, and he said nothing as he followed her his brows furrowing the longer they walked.

"I wanted to apologize for what I said on the train," she rounded on him the moment they found the spot near the public restrooms. It wasn't quiet per se, or even private, but there was less yelling and the fireworks were clear on the other side of the camp.

He blinked at the suddenness of her apology. "Oh."

"Oh?"

"I was expecting this to be about Padfoot."

"No. I just-It was incredibly rude for me to drag your mates into our argument."

"Yeah it was," he said fiddling with his hair and not looking for her.

She bristled but held her tongue and he continued without her.

"But honestly it wasn't like you, so I kinda figured it was my fault anyway."

That was a better response.

"That doesn't give me the right. And I didn't mean what I said, I was just trying to upset you."

"It worked." He huffed a humorless laugh. "But I probably did something to piss you off too, so-"

"Just accept the apology, Potter."

"Sure."

"Thank you." She nodded before glaring, able to be angry properly. "Probably did something to piss me off?"

"Well yeah, you don't go around and insult my mates often so-"

"Something?" She repeated interrupting him. He winced.

"I should probably know what that something is… shouldn't I?"

"Yeah."

"And I should probably apologize for that something…"

"Correct."

"But that would require I know what that something is."

"I think so, yes."

He coughed avoiding eye contact. "Yeah, I might have to get back to you on that. I'll ask Moony, he usually knows what I should be apologizing for."

"Really, Potter?"

"Yeah… a lot's happened since the holiday started."

She let her irritation drop and moved into his line of sight so he couldn't avoid her. "Is it Black?"

He flinched and she knew she was right.

"Can I ask?"

"No."

"Okay." She nodded. Lily wanted to know so bad, but she wasn't their friend, she had no right to demand information. "He's wrong by the way."

"What'd he say?"

"He said I could stop pretending to care because he's a jerk."

Potter gritted his teeth and clenched his fist. She understood the feeling.

"He's wrong. I wasn't pretending to care and he's not a jerk. He just pretends to be one sometimes. I don't know why he does it, but I can tell it's fake."

Potter said nothing, gave no sign that he agreed not until she turned to leave.

"Evans," he said quietly and she turned. "Thanks."

She smiled at him for the first time. "Sure, just work on that apology for me, yeah?"

"No promises."

Of course, he had to be a brat at the very end. He wouldn't be James Potter if he just did what he was told. The prick.