Disclaimer: all recognisable characters belong to J.K. Rowling, and all you don't recognise and the plot belongs to me, but you know that by now anyway
Chapter 7: First Quidditch Match
James' first Quidditch match was exactly two weeks after he tried out for the team. Between the two he only had six practices, and though Lydia assured him he was a natural he couldn't help the nerves rising in his stomach. So of course he dealt with it by being even more extroverted than usual. The night before the Quidditch match saw them sitting around the fire in the best seats in the common room; seats which they had claimed for themselves, despite the fact that they were usually reserved for seventh years.
Sirius got up and began to pace. He, like the others, was almost as nervous as James and he couldn't sit still. "I want to do something!" he said petulantly.
"Exploding snap?" suggested Lily.
"Boring," replied Sirius.
"Chess?" asked Remus.
"No, no, no!" Sirius exclaimed. It was the same with everything they suggested; he was just edgy.
"I know," Sirius said at last, with the grin that made Slytherins fear for their lives, "lets play assault courses!"
"Cool!" Lily cried, while the others stared blankly back at them.
"What you have to do is this," Sirius began to explain, jumping up onto Lily's chair. "Jump from a piece of furniture," he landed on Remus' chair, "to another piece of furniture," he landed on James, not quite accidentally, "and see how many you can get around without touching the floor." He took a hump leap towards the next group of fluffy armchairs, but didn't quite make it. He caught his foot on the arm and tumbled to the floor, landing with his bottom in the air. "That was just a practice," he said hurriedly, "so it doesn't count."
"I don't think this is such a good-" Peter began, but James cut him off.
"Excellent, my go!" He took a quick look around the room and started at what was strategically the best point. Lily gave him time only to get a few chairs ahead before following, and Remus was so eager to play that he didn't even give her that.
A very sore Sirius and a very worried Peter followed their progress around the room, laughing as one or the other of them landed next to a startled girl who hadn't been watching. The three of them were causing much noise and laughter. At one point James managed a super-long jump and missed one chair completely, landing on the next almost on top of Lydia, who was curled up next to Orion. Lydia shrieked and Orion shot James an extremely annoyed look.
"Sorry, didn't mean to disturb anything," James said, winking impishly.
"You little brat," Orion yelled, reaching for him, but James was gone and Orion was faced by a grinning Lily.
They made it half way around the room before running into any real obstacles. A huge cupboard reared up in front of James, the only route to the safety of the next chair on the other side. They either had to climb it, or forfeit.
James prepared himself, readying to jump. He pushed off so hard from the arm of the chair that it toppled over, causing Lily to hurl a string of abuse after him, but he was already clinging to the edge of the cupboard and scrabbling to pull himself up. Lily and Remus arrived next to him, having found it easier with the chair at that angle, and they were now huddled on the dusty top of the cupboard, peering over the edge at the next chair.
Except the chair was no longer there.
The three looked at each other with wild eyes, then at the rest of the common room. the chair was now on the other side of the room, and standing next to it were Orion and Luke.
"Hello kiddies! Having fun?" Orion called cheerfully.
"You put that chair back!" Lily yelled.
"Why?" asked Luke. "With you three up there we can have a peaceful evening. Even Sirius can't get into trouble on his own."
"But we'll just jump down," Remus said logically.
"Oh really? Well, this is just to get you back for disturbing me just now," Orion called, with the evil look so often seen in his younger brother.
"And for saying I was like David," Luke added.
They both reached for their wands. "Wingardium Leviosa!" they cried, and the cupboard, with Lily, Remus and James clinging to the top, rose into the air and floated lazily towards the ceiling.
"You bastards!" Lily shrieked. They were now floating about 30 foot above a very hard looking floor, and none of them fancied jumping. They didn't even have their wands, which had been with Sirius but were now visible poking from Luke's trouser pocket. Orion and Luke patted each other on the back. "Now for Sirius," they said, going to sit next to him.
"So, Sirius, how's history of magic going?"
"I found that Goblin revolt really interesting. I did some extra research, and I found out some little known facts. Firstly, the drummer boy-"
"ARGHHH!" screamed Sirius, and he took off towards the dorms, terrified of a night spent talking about history of magic. The common room burst into laughter as Peter followed him up the stairs.
"We're not going to go quietly, you know," Lily called from the cupboard.
"We're not?" asked James.
There was the sound of a punch, before Lily said, "Of course not!" There were some more scuffles, broken up only by Remus' "Will you please take a look at where we are?" there was silence only for a second, then a solo voice started:
"Oh come, all ye faithful,
Joyful and triumphant,"
When two more, all doing their best impression of Sirius, who couldn't sing a note, followed the voice.
The common room resounded with groans. "If you wanted to get rid of them, couldn't you have locked the brats in their room?" someone yelled over the caterwauling.
So that was why James, Remus and Lily found themselves being floated up the stairs not long after that, cruelly tipped off the cupboard into the boys dorm, and why they were faced with a magically locked door when they turned around. They all burst into hysterical laughter.
*********************
They all woke late the next morning. The door had remained locked all night, opening only briefly to let Frank in, so Lily had had to stay there. She had slept in Sirius' bed, he was her best friend, after all, and the two had spent the whole night fighting over who should have the most space in the bed. They had refused to shut up, and so nobody had got to sleep until well into the next morning. When Remus woke up at 10.30 and realised it was only half an hour until the Quidditch match started, he yelled loudly, startling Peter and Frank awake.
"Oh shit! Quick, wake James up, he's meant to be there in quarter of an hour!"
Peter obligingly shook James, but James, being James, didn't even stir. "On bloody hell," Remus cried, "Wait a moment. Wake the other two, then."
Peter advanced nervously towards Sirius' bed, Remus ran out of the room and Frank hid behind his bed. Sirius and Lily did not like being woken up. But they looked so sweet and innocent spread-eagled across the bed that Peter forgot what they were really like, and shook them both awake roughly.
"Ugh…what…too bright," Lily muttered almost unintelligibly, but Sirius shot to full alertness at once.
"You git!" he yelled, throwing himself at Peter. They tumbled to the floor, in between Sirius' shouts of "was having the best dream ever!" and "all those dancing merpeople!"
Luckily, before Peter could be seriously damaged, Remus strode into the room with a large jug of water. "Ahem," he cleared his throat loudly, "Quidditch!"
"Damn!" Sirius jumped off Peter. "Quick, wake Jamie up!"
"What does it look like I'm doing?" Remus asked irritably. "I seem to remember this being the best way." He poured the water over James, and James yelled as loudly as he had on their far distant second day of school when Lily had done exactly the same thing. He sat straight up in bed, his normally messy hair flattened to his head. "Why, Remus?"
"You have exactly fifteen minutes to get to the changing rooms."
At that, James yelled even more loudly, if that was possible, rummaged for his brand new Quidditch robes amongst the mess in his cupboard and headed for the showers at a flat run, muttering "Shit, shit, shit," the whole way.
Meanwhile, Sirius was attempting to pull Lily out of bed. "No, sleep," she was saying firmly, before turning over onto her front. Unfortunately, this revealed her ankle, and Sirius grabbed it, pulling. Lily tumbled to the floor and glared up at Sirius, just as Luke arrived to see what all the noise was about.
"What is going on?" he asked the room in general, although he was looking rather hard at Lily, who was sitting on the floor in one of Sirius' t-shirts.
"The walls wont answer you," Sirius replied irritably, before Remus clapped his hands.
"Fifteen minutes, people! Peter, go and get Jamie some breakfast." Peter slouched off, knowing better than to argue at a time like this, and Luke got the fright of his life when the other three rushed out of the room after him, all clutching bundles of clothes, and all ignoring him completely.
"What is going on?" Luke asked again, a trace of puzzlement in his voice.
"They woke up late," Frank answered.
"What! You mean my git of a little brother, who's first Quidditch match starts in 25 minutes, has only just woken up?" Luke demanded, looking livid.
"Well, it was your fault," Frank said cheekily, "locking them all in here. They didn't stop arguing all night!"
***********************
Just over fifteen minutes later, James and his Nimbus appeared in the Great Hall with Lily, Sirius and Remus, none of whom looked like they had dressed properly. Lily and Sirius' hair was still wet from the shower, while Remus hadn't even bothered to wash his and it stood up almost as badly as James'. Their 'only just woken up' state was accentuated by the fact that Sirius still hadn't noticed he had Peter's robes on, despite the fact that he couldn't move his arms.
Lydia frowned at James when she saw him; he still had sleep around his eyes and Luke had told her what had happened. "I never thought you'd pull something like this, James," she said disapprovingly.
"It was your fault Lily didn't shut up all night!" James retorted. Orion grinned at them from behind Lydia.
"How was your night on the floor, Lily? Or did one of the boys give you their bed?"
"No, I slept with Sirius. It was really nice," Lily said coyly.
Orion choked on his tea. "You what? Sirius…"
"Yes?" Sirius answered innocently.
"Oh, God," Orion muttered. "My baby brother! Mum'll kill me, I'm supposed to be looking after you…"
"You've got a really dirty mind, you know. I only meant that we slept in the same bed," Lily interrupted.
Orion flushed bright red. "You little…" They all laughed.
"Shush, all of you, it's time to go!" Lydia rounded up the Quidditch players.
"Good luck, Jamie!" they chorused.
"Don't fall off!" Lily added sweetly.
***********************