Disclaimer: the Harry Potter world belongs to JKR, I just sneak in :)

A/N: Hey *waves*.  Thank you for all the reviews, I have over 200 now!!! Eeep! *grin*.  Just a warning about updates, I'm going home for the summer (YAY) and all my files are on my laptop which can't be transferred to my computer at home (really, don't ask *grumble*) so if my email account eats the transferred files then updates may take longer as I'll have to retype them, sorry *grins sheepishly*, but hopefully will update Monday.

Summary: Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned, never listen in to other people's conversations, and …. don't run with scissors? *giggle*, sorry waaay too much Stargate SG1 watchage, I'll stop now.

CHAPTER 14

James almost fell off his broom when he saw Fee, Bella and Lily coming down on to the Quidditch field. Bella waved spiritedly at James, grinning widely. Lily's just coming to watch Fee practice, he forcefully reminded himself, unable to stop the hope rising within him.  She is not here to see me.  She probably wants to watch the mayhem that is Fee and Sirius, he reminded himself, the thought of his two manic beaters returned his attention to the task at hand: Quidditch practice.

~*~*~*~*~

James let out a frustrated sigh. Quidditch practice was not going well. "Padfoot, what the hell do you think you're doing?"

Sirius landed on the pitch beside James. "What did I do now?" Sirius tried to keep the anger out of his voice. Logically he knew it wasn't James' fault that Fee and himself were having a crap practice but his own irritation at the fact that they were ignoring each other was seeping through into his voice.

"We have a match in four days Sirius, and if you and Fee play like you are doing, then Ravenclaw are going to walk all over us… not to mention the fact that half our team will be at risk from Bludger attacks!"

Sirius rubbed his hand over the back of his neck. "Sorry, I forgot how important my job was," he said with a small smile.

James formed a half grin in reassurance. "Alright…" he said, trailing off as he looked around for Fee, he wanted a word with both Beaters together, "Fee," he hollered across the pitch, where the missing beater was standing talking with Bella and Lily.

Fee heard James' yell, *dammit* she thought. "Lily come with me?" she pleaded suddenly.

Her face marred with confusion, Lily replied in bewilderment, "Why?"

A grin tugging at the corner of her mouth, Fee retorted, "James won't yell at me so much if…. Other people are there," she finished, winking at Bella, over Lily's shoulder.

"Fine," Lily grumbled, getting up off the seat and joining Fee in her trek across the pitch towards James.

James heard Fee approach, as he was berating Sirius about tactics that he should have been employing. He turned to continue his diatribe and stopped one hand in the air, his mouth open when he realised he was staring straight at Lily. Lily blinked slowly at the look of complete shock on James' face then she started to grin at the picture he was making.

Sirius and Fee exchanged amused looks. Padfoot coughed discreetly in order to regain James' attention. James quickly closed his mouth, as a mortified flush spread over his face. Trying desperately to ignore the flip-flop of his stomach, he fought for something coherent to say. Before complete and utter mortification could take over he settled on yelling at Fee.

Sirius watched James' standard lecture spiral into a full-on confrontation between him and Fee.

"Look, I'm having a bad day okay? I know all your sodding tactics, I'm just not getting them right. I don't need you drilling them into my head!" Fee practically screamed at him, practice had been a nightmare and she so did not need this.

Sirius and Lily jumped immediately between the arguing pair.  Lily put her hand on James' chest trying to push him away from Fee, not an easy task considering James had been playing Quidditch for years and Lily did no sport whatsoever. 

"James," she started, trying to sound threatening. "Give Fee a break" she pleaded. It's a good job we decided on a truce, Lily thought, otherwise Fee and I would have been flattened with hexes by now. James felt his anger drain away at Lily's words. 

"Sorry," he muttered, rubbing his hands over his face, he suddenly felt very tired. He smiled half-heartedly at Lily. "It's just…" he trailed off.

"The game's soon and you can't afford any screw-ups," Lily interjected, smiling understandingly.

"Match," James corrected, a grin tugging at the corner of his mouth. Mock-glaring at him Lily slapped him on the arm, unable to stop her smile spreading across her face.

Sirius stared straight at Fee, his gaze unwavering. "You done?" he asked, raising an eyebrow. The horror of what she'd just done registered.

"Oh God," she groaned. "Tell me I didn't just bawl out the captain of the Quidditch team," she pleaded.

"Erm…" Sirius replied, as Fee's head fell forward to rest on his chest.

"I loathe myself," she muttered.

Bella heard the raised voices and, deciding she was missing out on all the fun, ambled over. Seeing James and Lily grinning goofily at each other, and Fee leaning on Sirius, she announced her presence with, "So we are all with the coupleyness, then?" She beamed maniacally as four pairs of eyes swung towards her, two glaring, two shocked.

~*~*~*~*~

"I cannot believe you said 'coupleyness'," Lily demanded, outraged, once they were back in the girl's dormitory.

"Yeah, I know," Bella agreed. "I don't think it's even a word," she grinned.

"So not what I meant," Lily replied, exasperated.

"Come on, are you telling us you don't even find James Potter the slightest bit attractive?" Fee enquired.

"No!" Lily said loudly. "I mean look at his unruly black hair… and his penetrating hazel eyes…" she trailed off. "I mean no!" she repeated, practically yelling, causing Fee and Bella to giggle.

"Just zoned out there for a minute, didn't ya?" Bella said laughingly.

"Oh, shut up!" Lily replied, throwing a cushion at her.

Escalating into a full-grown pillow fight, it continued for several minutes until Fee suddenly froze, a cushion held above her head,

"Oh my God!" she exclaimed, horrified.

"What?" Bella and Lily replied, confused.

Hopping down off the bed, Fee stared at them wildly, "I never apologised to James. He's going to kick me off the team! You don't insult and yell at the Quidditch captain, especially when he's actually being the Quidditch captain. I'm never going to play Beater again, I'm…" her rant was interrupted by Lily, grabbing her, trying to gain her attention,

"Breathe," Lily commanded. Two deep reassuring breathes later, Fee finally stopped babbling.

"Fee, it'll be fine. James can't kick you off the team, they need you," Lily said trying to comfort, the shaken girl.

"But, but," Fee stuttered. "After the way I played today and then with the yelling," she was cut off again, this time by Bella.

"Hey!" Bella shouted, waving her arms in front of Fee's face. "Why don't we just go and apologise now then?" she asked reasonably.

Fee's face split into a wide grin. "Brilliant!" she exclaimed, throwing her arms around Bella and Lily. "Come on let's go!" she said, pulling them all out of the room.

~*~*~*~*~

"What happened to you two?" Peter asked as James and Sirius dragged themselves through the doorway to their dormitory.

"I take it Quidditch practice didn't go well," Remus said, peering at them over the towers of books perched on his bed.

"Well, how can I put this?" James pondered, causing Sirius to glare at him. "My two Beaters have never played worse in their lives. They weren't paying attention to each other let alone working as a team,"

"Hey!" Sirius said. "We weren't that bad," he complained.

Ignoring Padfoot's interruption, James continued. "And then I got into a verbal slanging match with Fee and I can't even bloody well remember why." James sighed heavily sinking down onto his bed.

"You're not going to throw her off the team are you?" Sirius blurted out, looking horrified.

"No, James you can't!" exclaimed Remus, looking mock-dismayed, "That would seriously cut down on Padfoot's staring time," he grinned.

Sirius glared at him, trying to ignore the blush rising up his neck.

"At least if he'd been looking at her he'd have known what the hell she was doing," James complained. "They were just completely ignoring each other."

"Hey, she's been ignoring me, I was just returning the favour," Sirius defended himself.

"Can't you two stop fighting for once? We need to beat Ravenclaw on Saturday, to even have a chance at winning the cup, otherwise neither of you will play."

"Er, James?" Remus interjected. "Do you remember?  They're not fighting," he added. "That's the problem."

"Yeah," Peter added with a grin. "They're in luuurrrve."

"Shut up!" Sirius commanded, looking mortified.

"Is this still about that kiss thing?" James asked.

"'Is this still…?'" Sirius repeated, looking shocked. "Oh I'm sorry," he yelled. "But maybe you've forgotten that I need an escort everywhere I go in case I see her and lose the ability to speak!" he shouted. "No wait," he added. "That's you!"

The two of them glared at each other in silence, while Peter and Remus exchanged worried looks. Suddenly Sirius sat down heavily on his bed.

"Sorry," he mumbled, "I didn't mean that… well okay maybe I did, but I didn't mean to yell it at you."

Sighing heavily, James grinned wryly, rubbing his ear. "'m sorry too," he added.

"Awwwww, isn't this sweet?" Peter said smirking. "Group hug," he commanded, spreading his arms apart. He was heckled with snorts of laughter and cries of,

"Shut up, Pete."

~*~*~*~*~

Bella, Lily and Fee walked quietly up the stairs to the boys' dormitory. Fee was wrapped in thought about how to apologise to James. Lily ran a hand through her hair, after what Bella had said out on the pitch, her and Fee had practically run off. She was just hoping neither James nor Sirius had heard Bella's comment. Bella linked her arm with Fee supportingly; she figured she might as well be the supportive friend now because she had matchmaking plans for as soon as they entered the dormitory. James and Lily in the same room; who could resist dropping hints?

~*~*~*~*~

"So when are you going to tell her?" Remus asked seriously.

"Tell who what?" James asked innocently. Sirius, Remus and Peter just stared at him.

"Alright so I do know what you're on about," he mumbled, getting up and starting to pace around the room. Thinking about Lily always filled him with energy. Every time he was with her he felt like he was being pulled in a million directions at once and damn it was exhilarating. She was just so unpredictable, and… His thoughts were rudely interrupted by 'discreet' coughing from everyone else in the room.

"What am I meant to do?" he asked exasperated. "Just walk up to her and go 'Lily I like you, a lot, I can't stop thinking about you, is there any chance you like me too?'  She'd laugh at me, or hit me. Plus could I sound more ridiculous?" he exclaimed, running his hands through his hair. 

It was then that they heard the gasped "Oh my God!" from outside their door.  Everyone in the room froze, James stood stock-still his eyes wide in horror; he'd recognise that voice anywhere.

~*~*~*~*~

Bella, Lily and Fee were staring at the door in shock.  They hadn't been listening long but they'd heard the boys talking and couldn't pass up the opportunity to eavesdrop. 

"Oh my God!" Lily gasped, her hand flying up to cover her mouth, when she realised she had spoken aloud. Suddenly the door swung open and James was standing right in front of them. 

Staring straight at her, "Lily?" he asked hoarsely. She turned and fled.

~*~*~*~*~

"Now's probably not the best time to apologise for yelling at you is it?" Fee asked, anything to break the silence that surrounded them. A bang from inside the dormitory as Sirius fell off the bed awoke James from his stupor.

"Run after her then!" Bella commanded gesturing towards the stairs. James' legs seem to obey the command before his brain even had a chance to process it. 

Sirius stood at the doorway. "How long have you lot been listening?" he asked nervously, shifting his weight from one foot to the other restlessly.

"We just heard James that was it," Bella replied puzzled. "Why?" she asked suspiciously, as Sirius seemed to sag against the doorpost in relief.

"No reason," he replied.