Title: Gotta be Quidditch…
An: More fluff. I think I'm getting addicted. Dear me. Anyway, this fic was inspired by something I got in a review. It so happened that James Potter was a Chaser, not a Seeker, contrary to the movie. So how exactly does Harry get all his Seeker-y abilities? (I know that it would have been mentioned if Lily were what she is in this fic, but hell!)
Rating: PG just to be safe.
Disclaimer: not mine. Piss off.
Chapter One: Seeker Girl
Lily screamed.
It was the second Saturday of September, just as their school year had begun. It was her Fifth Year, and she was now a Prefect. Unfortunately, Prefects did not have their own living quarters, only an exclusive bathroom.
She was answered by yells ringing through her dormitory. Lily Evans never screamed. Something must be very wrong.
"What is it?" her dorm-mate and best friend, Athene Black, asked, extremely worried. "What's wrong?"
She was immediately at Lily's side, on her bed. She stopped and frowned a little when she realized that her best friend was not, in fact, harmed or anything to that effect. In fact, she looked very, very happy.
Athene slapped her friend lightly on the shoulder. "Oi!" she said. Then she realized what her friend was screaming at, and her eyes widened.
Athene looked at her friend's shining eyes and screamed. Lily screamed back.
Phoebe Patil, a Fourth year on the bed next to her murmured, sleepily, "What the bloody hell are you two screaming about?"
"And happy birthday, Lils," she added, before getting up grumpily.
Lily, still half in bed, was holding her birthday present from her parents; a limited edition Silver Arrow Flash: Hermes Edition racing broomstick.
"Oh my Lady!" Athene shrieked. "I love it, I love it, I love it!"
"I know!" Lily said, breathless from the screaming. "I can't believe it either!"
Athene snatched up the note that had come from her parents. She was frustrated to find that it was a simple wishing card.
"Alright, Evans," she said firmly. "How?"
Lily, giggled. "Remember we went for the Cup last year?" she asked.
"How could I not? Sirius wouldn't shut up for weeks because we couldn't go for the finals!"
"Yeah, well it looks as if mum and dad were so impressed that they got me a Hermes Arrow!"
Another round of squeals was heard. "Well, you have no excuse now, you have to play!"
"I dunno, 'Thene, Quidditch is really dangerous nowadays you know, and we ARE doing the O.W.L.'s this year," said Lily, looking at the ground.
Athene's eyes widened. "I have one thing to say to you," she said imperiously. "Hermes. Bloody. Arrow!"
She had picked up a pillow and was hitting Lily with it after every word.
Lily shrieked. Eventually, as a white flag, Lily suggested they try out the thing as soon as possible.
Athene brought Lily to the pitch. Her own broom was a Silver Arrow as well, but it was a rather old Flash Apollo and nowhere near as good at what it did as Lily's Hermes.
Lily was a natural flyer. She loved it, loved the exhilaration, the freedom. She was currently doing loop de loops at fifty feet above ground, and in a moment Athene had somehow captured her wand. The pitch was empty save for a gardening gnome tending to the grass below them.
Her shouts filled the air as she desperately tried to catch Athene, who had been flying for a longer time. This was because Athene had had a longer time to fly, as Lily was Muggle born.
She concentrated, and leaned forward. The Hermes Arrow zoomed forward, and she caught-no, missed!- Athene as she swerved out of harm's way.
Athene was laughing giddily by this time and was leaving a trail of glitter dust in the air as she flew in form. Rather soon, the words 'Kiss my pixie dust, Evans!' had appeared over the pitch in shining, cursive letters. Lily responded to the challenge and came speeding towards Athene.
In mock surprise, Athene 'accidentally' dropped her best friend's wand.
Lily gasped. Her wand!
Her wand was her most precious possession in the world. Lily did not even stop to think. She simply urged her broom downwards. She had blocked out everything except her falling wand.
She went into a 220 degree dive…
And swooped up two feet from the ground, her wand victoriously clutched in one palm. Her breath was short, her body jumping with adrenaline.
She brought herself to the spot where Athene was standing, already on the ground. She stopped her broom very abruptly, the jerk causing her to fall onto the ground, and stood up. She was weaving slightly from the headrush and jabbed a finger at her best friend.
"What," she said dangerously, "the BLOODY HELL did you think you were DOING with my WAND?"
It was then that she noticed that her friend was not looking at the ground apologetically, but grinning widely. She was also sort of dancing excitedly, in a dangerous looking way. She flung her arms around Lily.
"You're a bloody natural!" she cried. "The Cannons' bloody Seeker couldn't have done it!"
Lily looked at her quizzically. Then it dawned on her that her friend had been watching her curiously as she tried to catch her broom. Merlin!
"You did that on purpose, you harpy!" she said.
"Of course I did, you twit," her friend said, as if endangering her best friend's life as she knew it were the most natural thing in the world to do. "I couldn't see it for real otherwise!"
Lily just sort of stared as she tried to digest this.
"Anyway," babbled Athene, "You absolutely have to play for Gryffindor. Aidan's already left, and our team is useless without him. I mean, dear Sirius and his Potty friend are rather good at Chasing, but what does that matter at the end of the game if the three of us can't score more than fifteen times which you have to admit is pretty impossible.."
Lily poked her playfully. Athene was good, and she knew it. She was a Quidditch star in her own right, easily better than her twin and his best friend at Chasing, although Potter was getting pretty good. Lily frowned. James Potter was her fellow Gryffindor Prefect, although Lily could never really see why he had been selected for the job.
He was a mischievous little troublemaker, constantly breaking rules and playing practical jokes on their fellow students and members of faculty.
Lily shook it off. She was not going to judge him. She hardly knew the boy, although they had had to perform a few duties together, and she would not pass any opinions of him when she barely knew him. Nevertheless, Lily was in no hurry to get to know the black haired boy.
"Lils?" asked her friend, breaking her train of thought.
"Yeah?" she hazarded. She knew she had made a mistake when she saw that her friends eyes had lit up and another grin was breaking across her face. "I knew it!" she squealed, hugging Lily again. "Thank you Lily, I promise you'll have fun on Gryffindor Quidditch. Finally, I have a girlfriend!"
She looked so happy, Lily decided. Would not do to break her heart just right now. Lily sighed. Oh well.
'Besides,' thought Lily as she stuck her broom onto her shoulder. 'Quidditch could be fun.'
"And our final candidate for Seeker, lions and lionesses, is surprisingly the Prefect, Lily Evans!"
There was a round of polite applause.
Lily narrowed her eyes at the commentator, Nicholas Jordan, who grinned at her. Nicholas was a Sixth Year student who commentated majority of the Quidditch matches at Hwss.
Taking a deep breath, she mounted her broom and kicked off. She rose to where the team was sitting on their brooms. The captain, Athene, was grinning at her excitedly. The Beaters, Cynthia McKinnon and Joshua Brown, were leaning against each other, back to back, and the Keeper was lying down on his broom. The Chasers(excluding Athene), Athene's twin brother Sirius and his best friend James Potter were arm wrestling on the Quaffle. They all looked very, very tired.
"Alright, Evans," said Athene. "There's a lot of stiff competition here today. Think you're up to it?"
There had been five Gryffindors before her, vying for the Seeker spot on the team.
Lily gulped. "I think so."
Sirius and James stopped their match and flew to Athene's sides, effectively flanking her and striking silly poses to show it.
"Hey, stop that!" she cried, slapping them. Her voice found it's imperial quality again.
"Right then. Potter!" she said. "Your turn."
Lily could have sworn she saw a suspicious gleam in her friend's eye as she called the other Prefect.
"What?" he whined. "I did McKinnon!"
Lily glared at him.
"Potter, I have to assess her. If I do the bloody tryout, people will think I'm biased or something. Please?"
Sirius nudged him. "Come on, Prongs," he said, causing Lily to snort slightly at the ridiculous name. That certain circle of friends all called each other something strange and nobody knew why.
"Oi!" said James, slapping him lightly.
"You know you want to!" said Sirius.
Lily sat patiently at the sides, waiting for something to happen.
She was half surprised when James motioned for her to follow him. He brought her to the other end of the pitch.
"Nice broom, Evans," he noted on the way.
"Thanks, Potter, it was a birthday present," she replied.
He retrieved something from the ground. Lily knew what it was, she had watched the others trying.
It was a bag full of little hard balls that resembled Muggle golf balls.
"You ready?" he shouted.
Lily nodded.
"Let's do it!"
The first exercise was, in a way, racing. He took her time as she sped up and down the pitch, jogged her and raced her until satisfied. Then she was put through a flexibility test. Hoops in the air, magically appearing, that she had to fly through. She barely made it through both.
Now it was time to start the actual Seeking.
James stopped, then took out a ball from the bag.
"Now, Lily," he said condescendingly. "I'm going to throw these as hard as I can and you've got to catch them, alright?"
"Alright."
The first ball he threw hit her in the stomach. The crowd sighed.
James flew over. "Are you alright?" he asked.
"I'm fine!" she insisted.
James smirked. "Okay, well, I'm going to give you an easier one this time, try to catch it in your palm."
Lily gripped her broom and nodded, a little embarrassed.
James took out another golf ball and tossed it at her in a slow, easy arc.
Lily grit her teeth. Bastard! She'd show that bespectacled upstart.
She let the ball reach its zenith and fall. The bleachers gasped.
"Lily!" Athene shrieked, "What the hell do you think you're doing?"
Lily held up three fingers and put them down one by one. Three, two, one..
She dove. Gods, she thought. Let it go too far. Damn!
Suddenly, she caught sight of the plummeting ball. She reached out her hand and….
The crowd erupted. It was already a little late in the evening, and the students had really begun turning up, and now they cheered wildly.
As she flew back up to her starting point, fist in the air, grinning madly. The entire team was staring at her incredulously, and she would live to treasure the look on James Potter's face at that moment.
Athene flew to her. "Do not scare me like that, Evans!"
Lily's eyes twinkled and she handed the ball to James. He grinned at her mischievously and accepted the ball.
Then he threw it.
Lily raced after the speeding white sphere and caught it without diving. Athene cheered.
By the end of the trial, Lily was sweating out her clothes. She had opted for a tee shirt, sweats and an ordinary cloak because she had no Quidditch robes.
She flew down to the ground, dismounted a little more gracefully and shook hands with Potter.
"Thank you, Potter," she said, grinning a little smugly.
"My pleasure, Lily," he said, smiling genuinely.
She was taken aback by that smile. She thought he would be all huffy because she had practically shown him up, but he was not.
Athene came down and hugged her.
"Lily, you were excellent!" she said. Lily laughed giddily. "I loved it!" she said.
Nicholas announced that the judges, the Head of House and the Team Captain would be handing in their marks soon. Athene had already given in hers.
Then the whole pitch held their breath as it was announced…..that Lily A Evans was the new Gryffindor Quidditch Seeker.