CHAPTER THREE: AND AGAIN, THE BEAST…

By the time dinner was over that night, James and Sirius already had a list of thirteen people willing to try out for chasers, and by the next morning, the list had grown to over thirty., the next day, being Saturday, James announced in the common room that he and Sirius would be trying out potential chasers all day.

At ten o'clock that day, the Gryffindor Quidditch team (and Remus, for some reason), followed by a crowd of wannabes, made its way down on to the pitch. James sat in the stands with a clipboard with the list of names and a megaphone, with the rest of the team behind him. Sirius' fellow beater, a stocky red haired fourth year named Jonas Swank, was circling the pitch on his Shooting Star broom, holding the red Quaffle in his hands.

"All right," James said through the megaphone, as the gaggle of hopefuls assembled on the pitch, "I'm going to call out your names one by one. You have to mount the broom, and try and catch the Quaffle that Jonas throws to you. I just want you to show me some passes back and forth, all right? Okay, first is…" he referred to the list in his hand and stared laughing, "First is Evelyn O'Kelly."

Indeed, Evelyn had been the first person to sign up. James had the idea it was for a joke, as she swaggered onto the pitch with a huge grin on her face.

"Okay Eve, show us watch you got."

Evelyn grinned and winked at him. Of course, she had only ridden about five feet into the air when she fell off the broom and landed with a resounding clunk on the pitch. Remus leapt to his feet.
"EVELYN!" he yelled in horror, leaping down the steps. He vaulted himself over the barrier and onto the pitch. Sirius was flailing about in laughter as Remus sprinted across the pitch while the rest of the wannabes stared in disbelief. Evelyn, meanwhile, had got to her feet and merely looked bewildered as Remus threw his arms a round her and babbled at her.

"Er, Remus...get off the pitch please." James said into the megaphone, attempting not to laugh. Remus realised that he was acting a little stupid and Evelyn led him off the pitch amid the snickers of the try outers.

"Right. Good try, Eve," said James. "Next, please…"

And so it went on. It was hard to believe that anyone could be worse than Evelyn, but, actually, there were quite a few people worse. In fact, there were quite a few head injuries on the pitch that day. James got more and more exasperated while Sirius got more and more bored and started chatting up Celestia Goodman.

"Can't anyone in this school fly a broom?" Sarem said impatiently, as yet another try outer fell off their broom in a desperate attempt to reach the Quaffle that Jonas threw to them. "I mean, honestly! This is pathetic!"

James had to agree. By the end of the day, though, after they had sent all the wannabes away telling them the announcement would be made in the common room that night, they had found their new chasers. One was a girl James knew by sight but had never spoken to, a fifth year named Liela Astonbury. She had olive skin and long curly black hair, and had shown some talent on her broom, and had caught all the passes Jonas threw at her. The other chaser was jack O'Kelly. James had been absolutely stunned when jack had hopped on the broom and started zooming around the pitch as though he were made for Quidditch. He was light and speedy, but there was enough strength in his arms to throw the Quaffle at least halfway across the pitch.

Exhausted, James and Sirius led the way back to the castle by the light of the setting sun. It was the end of spring, now, and the weather had gotten a lot colder. The wind whipped their robes around their ankles and sent dead leaves flying everywhere. Jonas, Sarem and Celestia wished James and Sirius goodbye and hurried ahead, wrapping their cloaks around themselves to keep warm.

"Well," yawned Sirius, "At least we've got a full team now. We'd better start training them straight away."

"Yeah, no kidding," James answered, thinking of what Stephanie had said to them yesterday. He wondered if there was any truth in what she'd said, about Ravenclaw already training for three weeks. Then, thinking about Stephanie, he remembered his promise to her yesterday. "Oh, damn…"

"What?"

"I promised Stephanie I'd tutor her in transfiguration…"

Sirius rolled his eyes. "Bet you regret it now, don't you?"

"Well, yeah. I'm too tired…" he groaned.

"Hey, Hagrid!" said Sirius suddenly. James looked up to where Hagrid, the Hogwarts gamekeeper, was strolling towards them. Hagrid was a giant of a man, at least eight feet tall, with a tangled wiry mess of hair and beard, and beetle black eyes that twinkled when he smiled. Though frightening in appearance, James knew Hagrid to be one of the kindest people he had ever met. James had known Hagrid ever since first year, when he and Sirius had ventured into the Forbidden forest and had accidentally provoked an elderly unicorn (Sirius had mistook its horn for a tree branch and attempted to snap it off). It had been Hagrid who'd rescued them and subdued the unicorn and hadn't been too severe with them. It would probably have been better if Hagrid had given them a reprimanding, for t gamekeeper had since had to pull the duo out of the forest no less the eight seven times.

"All right you two?" said Hagrid as he joined them. "Goin' up to the castle?"

"Yeah," said Sirius as they continued walking. "What's that for?" he asked pointing to the medium sized pumpkin that Hagrid was holding in one of his shovel sized hands.

"Ar, Perfessor Dumbeldore's bin teachin' me how to do an Engorgement Charm," said Hagrid, "I jus' need his help fer a bit."

James noticed, in Hagrid's other hand, was the pink umbrella in which (James suspected) he had concealed the two pieces of his wand, which the Ministry had snapped in half after Hagrid was expelled from Hogwarts in his third year for an unknown reason.

Sirius grinned. "And Dumbledore really lets you?"

"Well, he got me permission from the Ministry, dinn't he?" said Hagrid proudly, "Took 'im ages to explain I was only ter use it fer me gamekeepin' duties an' all that'…eventually they let 'im. But he's got to keep a strict watch, mind."

"So why do you want to enlarge a pumpkin anyway?" James said.

"Fer the Hallowe'en feast, o' course!' Hagrid said. "Should be good. Got four more o' these back at me cabin. Bigger, though." He added. He smiled at James then. "Bu' I haven't had the chance to congratulate yeh, James! Head Boy an' all!"

"Thanks, Hagrid…"

"I was mighty pleased when I heard. You an' Lily! Perfect match," he said, grinning.

"Uh, yeah…" said James.

"I mean to congratulate her as soon as I see 'er. Well done to the both of yeh!" He gave James an enthusiastic clap on the back, which caused him to stumble to his knees. Sirius quickly hoisted him back up.

"I got to tell yeh, I was a bit worried they'd give it to tha' Slytherin bloke for a moment," Hagrid said, his expression darkening. "What's his name? The dark haired boy?"

"Snape," supplied Sirius, as James attempted to catch his breath.
"Ar, that's the one," Hagrid said, frowning. His face brightened up though, as he looked down at James "Bu', no, you an' Lily got it, just as yeh please. Makes me glad to know that the pure bloods don't exhibit the same sort o' control they used to."

"What do you mean?" said James.

"Well, ten years ago they never would'a let a muggle born witch become head Girl," Hagrid said, as they reached the entrance hall and mounted the steps. "No mat'er how much talent they had. Bu' now look at yeh!" he said, smiling. "The two o' you- such a perfect pair! Brings a tear to my eye…"

"Uh-huh," James said, blushing a little. But we're not so perfect… James thought, we're not perfect together at all. We can't be, because…well she never would've asked to cool off, otherwise.

They left Hagrid at the Great hall, and went up the marble staircase to the Gryffindor common room. But their encounter with Hagrid left James feeling very confused indeed. He wondered if everyone saw them that way- perfect. That was impossible. He had lots of faults- and one of them, according to Lily, was being distracting, which is why she wanted to "cool off". No one was perfect. The common room was crowded, as it often was before dinner, and Sirius nudged James in the ribs. Time to make the announcement.

"SHUT UP EVERYONE!" Sirius yelled into the chatter. Of course Sirius had such a loud voice that it didn't take long for everyone to settle down. James stood on a table and waited for all eyes to turn his way. "Your Head Boy has an announcement to make," said Sirius pompously. "Please bow before him and praise his na- OW!" a few people giggled as James kicked Sirius in the side of the head.

"Shut up, Padfoot," he said, "um, yeah, sorry for the interruption everyone but we've got the new chasers to announce." The murmurs immediately died down.

"Okay, first of all thanks to everyone who tried out. You all did really well- except you, Evelyn-" more giggles as Evelyn got up and bowed. (Lily who was sitting next to Evelyn, caught his eye and gave him a tentative smile. James didn't return it) "And, it took us a little while but we've come to a decision. Right," he paused. There was anticipation from every corner of the room. "The new chasers are, fifth year, Leila Astonbury-" he waited for the applause to start and die down. Leila clapped to hands to her mouth and gave an excited squeal. "And, the newest, youngest member of our team- Jack O'Kelly." Jack, who had been holding his breath, exhaled and grinned gratefully at James. James winked at him and hopped down from the table. In the flurry of activity that succeeded the announcement James and Sirius made their way over to where Remus, Evelyn, Ingrid and Lily were sitting.

"Phew, glad that's over," James said. He grinned as he spotted the bandaids on both of Evelyn's elbows. "Hurt yourself much?"

"A little," said Evelyn, making a face. "Got another two on my knees."

"I'm not surprised. You did hit the ground pretty hard."

Remus, looking pained, stroked her hair gently. "You know you can't fly a broom. You shouldn't have tried."

"Ah, you're making a bug fuss over nothing," Evelyn said, batting his hand away.

"I'm not! You could've been seriously hurt!"

"As if," scoffed Evelyn.

"You could've!"

"No way!"

They continued bickering for a while as the rest listened in contented silence. As it was nearing Halloween, the teachers felt that their students had had enough for a while, and they had little homework tonight.

James seated himself next to Lily, who was sitting on Evelyn's other side, reading a book. It was unusual to see her not working for once- to see her perfectly calm and serene, her beautiful eyes half closed, a smile playing over her lips as she read her book. James was struck, not for the first time, by just how beautiful she really was.

He gave her a gentle nudge. "Hi…"

She looked up and smiled, again, it was a tentative smile, unsure if her would return it.

"Hi," she said.

"How're you going?"

"Fine," she said, still smiling, "and you?"

"Okay," he said, shrugging.

"Good," said she, and turned back to her book. James leaned back in his chair, feeling helpless. Were things going to become this awkward between them? He wanted to regain a sense of normality but now wondered if that was going to be possible.

Impulsively, he reached over and took her hand, brought it to his lips and kissed it.

To his utmost relief Lily didn't get angry. Quite the contrary, she looked relieved.

"I've missed you," she said immediately.

"What d'you mean?"

"I haven't seen you much these past couple of days…" she said, "And I…"

James laughed. "Believe it or not, I've missed you too."

They grinned at each other, staring adoringly into each other's eyes. The dinner bell rang across the grounds, but James and Lily made no movement. There was a kafuffle of movement as everyone started getting up and going downstairs. James just wanted to stare into her eyes forever…

"Oy, you two!" Sirius said, slapping the side of James' head as he got to his feet and started towards the portrait hole, "Dinner!"

"Right…" said James, rubbing the side of his head, "Ow."

Still holding onto each other's hands, James and Lily both stood up. Sirius smirked at them.

"Knew you two wouldn't be able to keep your hands off each other for long."

James tore his gaze away from Lily and rolled his eyes at Sirius. This, coming from the boy who only yesterday night had been saying that Lily was planning to break up with him! As if.

"What do you mean?" Remus asked Sirius. Sirius waved his hand dismissively as he led the six of them out of the portrait hole and downstairs.

"Oh," said he, "Lily had this idea that James should bugger off. But I knew it wouldn't last."

Remus snorted, "yeah, because you're so intelligent." He looked behind his shoulder at James and Lily, now walking at the back of the group hand in hand. "Is he being serious?"

"What do you mean, I'm always Sirius!" Sirius quipped, and then laughed hysterically at his own joke.

"Shut up, you." James said. To Remus he then said, "Don't worry about it."

"Yes,' agreed Lily, raising her eyebrows disapprovingly at James. "I wish you hadn't told Sirius what I said," she said, dropping her voice.

'Why not?" James said. "He's my friend."

"Well, it was nothing wasn't it?"

"Yes, but I thought it was something very serious."

"Yes, but now I feel stupid…" Lily sighed. "It was stupid of me in the first place, wasn't it?"

"Well, you know I hate to agree with you, Lil, but…" James grinned. "Listen, never mind about it. If I can put it behind me, so should Sirius be able to."

Lily nodded as they reached the marble staircase and began to descend. They reached the bottom and started into the hall but a voice behind them announced the appearance of Severus Snape.

"Oh…hello."

The six of them turned and their faces registered mutual disgust. James instinctively tightened his grip on Lily's hand. Back in fifth year, Snape had attacked Lily and it was thanks to the quick intervention of James that she had come out of it unscathed. Snape hadn't though.

Snape however, was paying no attention to James His black eyes were fixed on Remus.

"So…you're back then."

"Yes…" said Remus warily. 'Why?"

Snape's smirk widened. 'I suppose you were…ill."

"As a matter of fact, it's none of your business." Remus said coolly, while the rest of the group glared murderously at Snape.

'Suit yourself," said Snape. He wasn't smiling any more, just looking at Remus in the same way a malevolent shark might look at a fish. (No, Snape doesn't want to eat Remus, it's a metaphor, okay?). "I know the teachers might turn a blind eye to your monthly disappearances, but I haven't. You're up to something."

"What?" said Remus, at the same time as Sirius told Snape to go away. Not in as many words, though.

"Language, Black," said Snape, his eyes still fixed on Remus.

"Look, we don't know what you're talking about," said James quickly, "Just sod off, okay?"

"My pleasure. But I'll be watching you." Snape said, as he pushed past them. Remus was looking distinctly pale. Evelyn looked up at him. "What does he mean?" she said sharply. "Monthly disappearances…what's all that about?"

"Oh, he's just being a prat," said James quickly, pulling Lily into the Great hall. "Come on."

Evelyn gave Remus a piercing look, but he suddenly became too immersed in tying up his shoelace to respond. (Had James looked at Lily's face, he would have noticed she was wearing a very odd expression. But he didn't.)

They went into the great Hall among the press of students and started making their way over to the Gryffindor table. Stephanie Brocklehurst happened to pass them with a group of Ravenclaws. "See you tonight James!" she trilled, waving flirtatiously at him. James nodded and waved back, wondering If there was any way he could get out of it. Tonight he wanted to spend as much time with Lily as possible, as it was possibly the only night he could if Quidditch training was to start straight away. Ingrid said "See you later" to them and jogged over to the Ravenclaw table, where she often took a seat next to Ivan. Meanwhile, Lily had let go of James' hand and walked ahead to the Gryffindor table. James followed her and sat down next to her, planting a kiss of top of her head as he did. She turned and looked at him. The expression on her face was not happy.

"What?" said James.

"Why did Stephanie just say that?" she asked, as Ingrid sat down on her other side and Evelyn, Remus and Sirius took chairs opposite them.
"Say what?" said James.

"What she said…about tonight?"

"Oh," laughed Sirius, tuning into their conversation, "James has a date with Stephanie tonight! Don't you, lover boy?"

James turned and looked at him in horror. "Sirius!" he exclaimed angrily. Evelyn and Remus looked bewildered. He looked back at Lily. She had her eyebrows raised so high they almost disappeared into her fringe.

"I asked you to cool off for two days and you start dating another girl?" she asked incredulously.

"No!" James cried. "No, no way! Sirius-" and here he delivered a kick to Sirius' leg under the table, "Is just being stupid." He turned and glared angrily at Sirius.

"Ow!" Sirius cried. "Okay, okay- James doesn't have a date Lily, he just has a study date."

"A study date?" Lily said suspiciously.

"Yes- no!" James said, "Look, Stephanie asked me to tutor her in transfiguration and I said yes, all right? It's nothing! I'm just helping her out, okay?"

"Stephanie…asked you?"

"Yes!"

"Are you sure? I mean, you didn't offer to or anything?"

"No!" James cried. "Lily- what's your problem?! Do you want me to cancel it?"

"No,' Lily said, assuming a blank expression. She pushed back her chair and stood up.

"Where're you going?"

"I…don't feel hungry." Lily said shortly, before hurrying out of the hall, ignoring the Slytherins' cries of "Mudblood!" as she passed. Evelyn raised her eyebrows at James and Sirius in a very pissed off sort of way.
"Now look what you've done," she snapped, also getting to her feet. "Bastard men! Not you Remus," she added, as followed Lily out of the hall. There was a very confused silence in which James out his head in his hands and sighed angrily. What on earth was Lily's problem now? He'd explained the situation to her, there was nothing funny going on. Why couldn't she just…just…

"Jeez," said Sirius, "I'm glad I don't have a girlfriend."

"Yeah, well," said James, "No wonder." He then pushed back his chair and strode to the entrance hall, and escaped outside to the Quidditch pitch.