If you recognise it, it belongs to JKR. Also if someone could tell me how to do the line break thing I'd be very grateful :p
Lily stared almost uncomprehendingly at the snitch in her hand. She looked up at Malfoy again. He was staring at her, his face almost completely blank. Almost. Lily could see from his eyes that he was stunned.
Then Rose and James and the rest of her team crashed into her and she became aware of the crowd screaming and Damien going berserk on the microphone.
I caught the snitch, she realised. I actually did it!
Triumph and euphoria washed over her as she was lifted onto her team's shoulders. The crowd was chanting her name. Then Albus was there. He had been allowed to watch the match from the stands. He pulled her into a bear hug and his fur spiked against Lily's skin. He was sobbing. Then she was pulled away by someone else and embraced again and again and again as the crowd swarmed onto the pitch.
She was eventually pulled towards the middle of the pitch where the podium was set up. Madam Hooch presented Albus with the cup and he pulled Lily up to accept it with him. She laughed as he slid his entire hand under the handle of the cup as his fur prevented him from grabbing it normally. She held up the other handle and cheered her delight, voice falling in with the roar of the crowd.
The crowd moved up to the Gryffindor common room. Food and drink were already there, courtesy of the house-elves, but James and Fred still disappeared with the Marauder's Map and invisibility cloak. They reappeared an hour later with bags full of Honeydukes sweets, butterbeer and firewhiskey.
Lily was pulled away from her conversation with her closest friends, Scarlette, her cousin Hugo, Lorcan and Lysander. James dragged her to the centre of the common room where Fred presented her with the cup and told her to drink. High on her jubilation, she didn't hesitate. She gulped the contents down in two swallows before she noticed the burning down her throat. She gagged and coughed while James and Fred roared with laughter at her reaction to firewhiskey.
The whole night passed in a blur of happiness. Gryffindors everywhere were reenacting Lily's catch. Each reenactment showed Malfoy as being more and more ridiculous. Lily kept trying to tell people that it was a complete fluke, but people always turned mysteriously deaf when previously they'd been hanging on her every word. Lily tried to push her annoyance away. After all, fluke or not, she had caught the snitch.
Eventually Professor Longbottom came in and ordered them all to go upstairs to bed. It took him about an hour, but he eventually managed to get them all to bed. That night, Lily fell asleep thinking that she could never be happier.
The next morning Lily and Scarlette made their way down to the great hall for breakfast. The Gryffindor table erupted into applause when they walked through the doors. Scarlette, who was much more outgoing than Lily, cheered back. Lily just blushed and looked around awkwardly until Scarlette dragged her to the table.
During breakfast Lily was forced to retell how she had made such a spectacular catch. People compared it to her fathers legendary catch where he swallowed to snitch during his first match. Being the centre of attention in such a good way was nice, she had to admit. She normally had a lot of attention just for being the daughter of Harry Potter, but this was different. There was no one jealous of her for something she couldn't control, no one trying to use her for their own gain. She had brought them all glory, and for once it was her own achievements being celebrated.
Still, as good as it felt, Lily was a little relieved when the bell rang and she had to run off to arithmancy. Scarlette was off to care of magical creatures, along with every other Gryffindor in their year level aside from Lorcan and Lysander.
"How are you feeling, Miss Superstar?" Lorcan asked her, grinning, as they escaped the masses. Lily laughed.
"Oh you know me. Just disappointed the press wasn't there to write about it," she replied, tossing her hair dramatically behind her. The Daily Prophet had written a few stories about her just because of who her parents were, and it infuriated her each time.
Lorcan suddenly looked uncomfortable. "Um, well, Lils," he began. "You know how Scarlette's mother is on the school board and is also an executive editor for the Prophet?"
Lily stopped dead, staring at him in horror.
"Lorcan…" She let his name hang.
"It's not just about you, don't worry," he said hastily. "Here. I have a copy in my bag."
He presented her with the latest daily prophet. It wasn't on the front page, which was a good sign. She flipped through until she found an article titled Hogwarts Sporting Superstars, and read through it apprehensively. To her great surprise and relief, it was actually a decent article. It named every player on both sides, gave great credit to Scarlette and the Slytherin beaters, and gave her only slightly more credit than Malfoy.
She looked up to see Lorcan and Lysander looking at her nervously. She gave them a small smile.
"As far as Prophet articles go, I think that's the best one I've been in."
She laughed at the look of relief that appeared on both of their faces.
"Come on," she said, "we're going to be late"
They set off again.
"You know you're too modest, Lils," Lysander said, ruffling her hair. "That was the most spectacular catch I've ever seen! If it weren't for you this would be our 8th year without the cup, and those stinking snakes would've had it for 5 years in a row."
Lily ducked away from his hand. "Oh come on, Lysander. It really was luck. How could I have known where the snitch would head? I didn't let Malfoy get in front of me on purpose."
"But the whole game you were fooling him with those feints you were doing. And he fell for it every time! You outsmarted him fair and square."
Before Lily could retort, they arrived at their classroom. Professor Gebra demanded complete silence in his classroom, so their conversation was effectively cut short.
The next two weeks passed like that. She didn't get applauded just for walking into the great hall again, but people still insisted that she was the greatest player ever and refused to take her denial as an answer.
Her parents, grandparents and all of her aunts and uncles sent her letters telling her how proud they were of her. Teddy and Victorie sent her one too. Lily had to admit, seeing such words of pride from her family filled her with a very nice feeling. She wrote back to every single one with a very heartfelt reply.
Albus was released from the infirmary two days after the match, successfully de-furred and in very high spirits. Whenever Lily, Albus and Rose were together and happened to pass Malfoy, Albus and Rose would not stop taunting him. They would tell him that Lily was here, so was he scared now? Or they would tell him not to worry, they were suuuure it didn't mean that he'd lost his touch. Sometimes they would loudly exclaim they'd seen the best quidditch player in Hogwarts. They would stare at him and announce that it was Lily that they meant.
Malfoy would sometimes ignore them, sometimes turn to sneer at them, or sometimes shoot a hex at them if there were no teachers around and he could dart into a secret passage easily. Lily always tried to shoot him apologetic glances. He had never once behaved the way her brother and cousin were behaving. From what Lily heard and saw, he would only bring up his superior quidditch abilities in the middle of a fight.
Lily hated being used like this and always told them to cut it out. They never listened to her though. Lily knew they ironically cared more about Malfoy than they did about her. If she spotted Malfoy coming before they did, she began to try to change the direction they were going in. Yes, she knew Al and Rose loved her and were proud of her, but being a tool to inflict misery onto someone was tiring and unfair.
It got to the point where Lily began to feel guilty about her victory. She had been incredibly proud of her catch. She knew she had caught it due to no small amount of luck on her side, but she had still caught it. Having something she was so proud of be turned into a weapon against someone she personally had nothing against was quite distressing for her.
Lily awoke with a gasp exactly two weeks after the match. Peeves was dripping icy water onto her forehead. She swiped him away angrily and he zoomed off, cackling. She checked her watch. 5:49. Great. She liked to sleep in on Sundays, and this was even earlier than when she got up on school days. She dried her forehead and tried to get back to sleep.
At around 6:30, she gave up. She was tossing and turning and was too agitated to go back to sleep. She dressed and headed out of the common room. She made her way up to the owlery to see her beloved greater sooty owl Loki. As was tradition in her family, she had been given him as a present when she went to Diagon Alley just before her first year.
She called him when she arrived at the owlery. She heard a hoot and flurry of wings and he came soaring down, landing on her outstretched arm. He nibbled affectionately on her ear. Lily laughed.
"Hello," she said, stroking his head. "How are you? I've sent you out with a lot of letters recently. You aren't too tired are you?"
Loki hooted, slightly indignant, and stuck his leg out, ready for another delivery. Lily laughed again.
"I'm glad. I knew you could, but I was just making sure. I don't have a letter for you today though. I do, however, have some owl treats for you."
Loki gave a happy little hoot and nibbled her ear again.
"I have a new treat today though. So you have to try both and tell me which one you like better."
She gave Loki his regular treat, which he ate with his usual gusto, then she gave him the new treat she'd had delivered for him. He nibbled hesitantly on it, before taking the whole thing out of her hand and eating it with obvious delight.
"What do you think, is the new one good?"
Loki hooted again and hopped up her arm to perch on her shoulder. He rubbed his head against her, which Lily found so cute that she gave him two more treats.
Loki was just finishing his second when Lily heard a footstep behind her. She turned, and to her surprise she saw Malfoy, leaning with crossed arms against a patch of wall he'd clearly just cleaned, watching her.