Yay! I finally updated! Sorry about the long wait. Took me 12 days... guess that's not too bad. Long chappie tho!
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James sat on the same window sill, masticating on a cold toast and looking out into the Quidditch Pitch. It would soon be crowded, as the game against Soojin was in an hour. Then he looked at Lily. She was busily working on her Potions homework. She glanced up at him and met his eyes. She immediately looked down and could feel her cheeks blush. James slightly smiled.

Quidditch or Lily? This was only one game, they weren't going to lose the Championship just because of one game. Malfoy knew what to do. He wasn't terribly bad… If James lost this chance, he might lose Lily forever.

He thought for another half an hour and finally decided to skip the Quidditch game. Sirius, Remus, and Peter came to James.

"Prongs?! The game is in half an hour!" Sirius said, showing him his watch.

"I know." He said simply, slouching more.

Sirius and Peter stared at him with disbelief. But Remus smiled knowingly.

"Good luck James. I'm sure she'll come around." He said.

"Thanks. I need all the luck." He muttered.

"Woah! You're skipping the game because of Lily Evans?" Sirius shouted. Unfortunately Lily wasn't in the Common room.

"Sure." He said.

"James… You're going too far." Peter said. "You've never done this for a girl. I mean, flowers and chocolate, that's great and all that, but Quidditch?!"

"I'm not giving up Quidditch for Lily!" James said, quite taken back at the idea. [They're only 16… How do they know what love is?]. "This is just one game."

"All right. Your loss, Prongs." Peter said.

"Well, we'd better go now." Sirius said, looking at James as if he was delirious.

"Bye. Have fun." James said.

The Common Room was almost empty and the stands in the Quidditch Field were quickly filling up. Twenty minutes passed by.

The portrait swung open and Conner ran in, breathless in his Quidditch robes.

"James! What the hell are you doing here! We're waiting for you!!!" He yelled, shaking him.

"It's okay. I don't think I'll play today." James said calmly.

"What?!" Conner yelled. "W-Why?"

"Just tell Lily that I'm still here, waiting for her. Tell the commentator that I'm sick with… um, really bad headache." James said.

Conner's mouth dropped and he stood like for a couple of minutes.

"Um, the game's going to start soon." James said.

"Fine!" He yelled frustrated, running back to the field.

James could see the tall, muscular boy talk to the rest of the Quidditch team, grab his broom and fly up to the stands. He told Haylee, the commentator what James told him. He looked around the stands, looking for the redhead. He spotted her, sitting by Rocco. He flew over.

"Uh, Lily?" He said, uncertainly.

"Yeah?" She replied, surprised that Conner, a boy she had never talked to before, was talking to her now. She had a nagging feeling that this had something to do with James.

"He's still waiting for you." Conner said, eyeing Rocco's arm around Lily. He figured that Rocco probably shouldn't hear about this.

"Oh wonderful." Lily said unenthusiastically.

"Who?" Rocco asked.

"Oh, um, Professor Ka, uh, Kaboom." Lily said, frowning at her own creation. "He can wait." She said through pursued lips. Conner looked at her incredulously, at how she rejected James, even when he was skipping Quidditch for her! He frowned at her but left to the middle of the pitch where the game was about to start.

Lily glanced up at the Gryffindor tower and saw a dark form huddled by the window. She felt a guiltiness almost take over her determination, but focused on the conversation with Rocco. After all, James did say that Lily meant nothing to him.

The game wasn't too long. It ended in about an hour and a half, Hogwarts victory, barely, 280-270.

~*~

^^James' POV^^

I watched Conner tell Lily. I thought she would jump up and rush down to see me. I hoped. But no. She sat there, by Rocco. I was watching through my omnicular. For some reason, as excruciating as it may seem, I played the scene where Rocco kissed Lily's head. I was absolutely crazy with jealousy and maybe that was why I imagined that maybe she was going to just wait and leave in the middle of the game so Rocco doesn't suspect or anything. But then, I watched her the whole time, to see if she would come down to meet me. My heart broke to pieces, one by one, as the long minutes passed by. She sat by Rocco, didn't even look at the window. When the game was over, four or five girls came to me.

"I heard about your awful headache James. Are you feeling any better?" A timid third year asked.

"How's your headache James? Should I kiss it?" Domino, a girl in Lily's dorm, said. Kiss my head? Kiss my arse.

"We missed you James! Malfoy wasn't nearly as good as you!" Some other girl said. He'd better not have been…

"Thanks but I feel a whole lot better." I said. Fortunately, my friends came to the rescue.

"Out! Mr. Potter needs his space!" I heard Sirius shout, shooing the girls aside. They left and crowded around Conner next. "Well?"

"She didn't come." I said sadly.

"Oh. Well, maybe she, uh… Maybe that Rocco was keeping her busy." Sirius said hopefully.

"Maybe." I replied, clearly not believing him.

"Maybe she wanted to talk to you after the game." He tried again.

"Maybe."

"Maybe they didn't let her walk across the pitch."

"Maybe."

"Or—"

"Maybe she is over me now. Maybe I shouldn't apologize. Why am I the one to apologize?! She was equally bad to me! She doesn't care about me, I don't care about her. Fine with me." I finished for him.

Sirius shrugged. "Not likely."

Just then, Lily walked in, giggling with Minnie. Seriously, did she have a heart? Didn't she feel at least a Knut worth of guiltiness? She is inhumane. I tried to look away from her, from her radiant smile and her vivid green eye. They looked genuine to me. I did all this for her and all she does is laugh?! I skipped one of the most important Quidditch games of the IQC for her, and this is one I get? I've been sitting on the same spot for the last twenty hours and she's just laughing away, not caring for anything. I couldn't hold it anymore. I felt my eyes sting with tear. I ripped myself from the window sill and rushed into my dorm in a storm. The door slammed shut with a loud bang with a force I did not know I had.

~*~

When James shut the door, the fake smile Lily had plastered on her face all day disappeared. Some people stared at her and she rushed up. 'Oh my god! What did I do!' She screamed in her head. She felt so bad. Her heart was wringing with guiltiness. 'I must've hurt him very bad. I mean, he did so much for me. And I threw it away, just like that.' She thought. She knocked quietly on the door. She could hear kicking and banging behind the door. She knew she wasn't allowed in the boy's dorm, but she didn't care about the bloody rule right now.

As soon as Lily opened the door, a red streak flew across the room and hit with a loud thud on the wall, only a foot in font of her face. That scared her to death. She stood there, with her eyes glued onto the dent it had made in the wall.

"Lily?" A shaking voice spoke.

Lily opened the door wider and stepped in. It was a mess. There were clothes, strewn all over the circular room. The girl's dorm wasn't circular. The boy's dorm was certainly larger, probably because there was only one per year. The red thing that was thrown was a Quaffle, now rolling around slowly on its side. James was standing on the other side, his eyes bloodshot and his fingers rolled into a fist. But Lily was relieved to see that he was visibly relaxing now.

"I'm sorry about that. That was, um, out of hand. I c-couldn't control…" He trailed off. He ran his fingers through his distressed hair and numbly picked up things around him and put them in their rightful places.

No yelling and screaming? No chucking things out the window? This was strange to Lily. But she realized he was crying when she heard a sniffle. His face was shiny with tears.

"You're crying James." She said, not knowing what to say. It was strange to see James cry.

"Potters don't cry." He said fiercely, wiping the tears away with the hem of his robes. "If you want your blanket, it's still out there."

Lily's eyes started to well up with her own tears too. She sat down on one of the beds. "James, I didn't come, not because I don't care about you, but because I wanted to prove to you that I can control myself, that I don't need you to protect me all the time."

James stood still for a moment before walking over and sitting across from her.

"I'm sorry Lily." James said.

Lily didn't say anything. Her eyes glistened brightly.

"I didn't mean anything I said. You don't mean nothing to me. You mean a whole lot to me." He said.

"Then why'd you say that?"

"Because, because I was jealous. I was jealous of Rocco. I was mad at you for going to the Ball with him, not me." He managed to get out.

"Oh. I wouldn't have gone with him if you weren't going with Sarah." Lily snapped.

"Well, I'm going with Sarah because you're going with Rocco." James said.

"But you didn't even know I was going with Rocco!" Lily said. "I wasn't expecting for him to ask me!"

"Remus told me he asked you the day before two days before the game against Tinhorn."

"Exactly! I said yes to him because Sarah asked you the night before that and you said yes to her!" Lily exclaimed, frustrated.

"What! I never said yes!"

"Okay. Then, I assumed you said yes. But you were talking about her the next morning with Sirius. How you just like her so much. How you think of her every moment." Lily said.

"I- I wasn't talking about her." James stuttered, looking away.

"Okay then. Maybe it wasn't her. But it was some Hufflepuff girl from your fan club, right? Which one?" Lily demanded.

"It wasn't one of them."

"THEN WHO!" Lily bellowed.

"It was you." James whispered, knowing she would find the lie in his eyes if he did.

"What?"

"It was you! I was talking about you!" He exclaimed.

"Oh." Lily stayed quiet.

A thick silence filled the air.

"I guess I'm sorry then." Lily broke the silence.

"I shouldn't have even listened to Sarah." James said. "Well, you shouldn't be eavesdropping on me and Sirius." He joked, trying to lighten up the mood.

"Well, you guys were talking pretty loud about how you're hopelessly…" Lily trailed off when she realized what she was going to say. Instead, she changed the subject. "Do you wish you could've played today?"

"Hell yeah." He said, chuckling. "Well, I mean, it's not like I don't want to be here with you. I'd rather be with you than play." He said, thinking quickly.

Lily leaned closer to him. She put her arm seductively around him and whispered. "Then miss all the games and we can spend them together." She was laughing inside.

"Well, Lily… You see…" James said, trying to get a way out of this.

"I'm just kidding you bloke! I'm not that inconsiderate!" Lily said, cracking up. "I'd rather have you play. Malfoy's not going to win the IQC Cup! You are! We need you out there. Before you let Malfoy play for you again, try to knock some sense into me"

James let out a relieved breath and laughed with her.

~*~

Everything was back to normal. To James' and the school's delight, Hogwarts won the next four games and Tinhorn beat Soojin, knocking them off of the Finals. The first snow had fallen and it was freezing. The great trees in the Forbidden Forest looked like snowmen, all huddled together for warmth. It was December 18th, the day before the final game for the IQC Cup. Everyone was restless, even the teachers seemed to be excited for the game. The classes went by unusually slow but the school spirits were high during lunch. Even Mr. Filch seemed to know the game plan: Hogwarts vs. Tinhorn, 3 p.m., Friday, December 18th, wear gold, to match the cup when Hogwarts receives it.

The afternoon classes were canceled and everyone had free time between lunch and the game at 3. Shay and Riley rushed into the Common room, breathless and ecstatic.

"Lily! I did it! I did it!" Shay shouted, running to Lily, who was doing an essay.

"You did what?" She said, putting down her quill.

"I asked Kyle Clearman! Remember him? The really good-looking Berkeley? Remember? James' cousin! At the—"

"Yes. Yes. I remember. But you asked him what?" Lily said, getting impatient.

"To the Mistletoe Ball! And he said he'd go with both of us!" Shay said excitedly.

"Us?"

"Me and Riley! We're both going with him!"

"Really? That's awesome!" Lily said. They rushed off after that.

The Ball was in two days and everyone was rushing to get a partner. Minnie got rejected by Josh, who turned out that he had a girlfriend back at home and she ended up having Remus as her partner. Lily knew that Remus wanted to go with her for awhile. Elena, Sirius's partner, was improving on her English very quickly and Sirius kept giving her lessons. Lily had a feeling that that wasn't all they did behind the closed door of the empty classroom. Peter had found a Gryffindor girl, a year younger than him, willing to go with him. It seemed like everyone had a date to the Ball.

The time between lunch and the game was brimming with celerity and everyone was sitting out in the stands promptly at 2:30. Fifteen minutes later, the players were announced onto the field.

Punctually at 3 o'clock, the game began with the referee's shrill whistle. There seemed to be a new kind of resolution set in the both team's faces, the shiny IQC Cup displayed where the teachers were sitting. Lily cringed every time someone got hurt, she could never get used to it, even after watching Quidditch for five years.

"How do they keep playing like that?" She asked to no one in particular.

"Exhilaration. Efficacy. Vitae." Remus said.

After 20 minutes into the game, Hogwarts was leading 50-40. The day was very clear, a few specks of high winter clouds in the sky. There were still some slushy snow, melted by the unusually warm sun. The lake was halfway frozen. During the day, the beams of sunlight would melt the sheet of ice, blanketing the ice, and during the night, a new sheet would freeze over.

Thirty minutes into the game, Tinhorn took lead 80-70. A group of love-struck Hufflepuff girls were holding a big banner, waving into the cold breeze. It read "Go Hogwarts!" and medium sized below "You can do it, James and Conner!", a big shocking pink heart with "We haven't forgotten you, Sirius!" in small letters on the bottom. A dangerous gust of wind suddenly rolled across the school grounds and lifted the banner out of the girls' hands. It flew over and sneakily engulfed Conner Banks, the keeper, in a blank gold world. The Quaffle passed through the hoop in that moment. The referee's whistle sounded, signaling that the goal had counted.

"WHAT!!" James shouted at the referee. "That wasn't fair! Interference!"

"The rule clearly states that a cheering or fan banners and such will be allowed in the game, at the consequence of the supported team. That banner obviously was supporting the Hogwarts Quidditch Team, was it not?" He said.

James shut up but glared at the group of Hufflepuff girls. They giggled at how cute he looked when he was mad. Lily rolled her eyes.

"Brainless dolts." She muttered.

The Quaffle was in James' hands as he weaved in and out, toward the goal. He narrowly ducked under a Bludger and threw Quaffle to Trombley, who hit it with the tail of the broom, closer to the goal, which James threw it in. Hogwarts was following shortly behind by 10. The game was getting intense. When the game was tied, James called for a time out. The players looked at him confusedly but flew down to the dugout.

"Okay. You guys. I have one word to say." He said.

They all craved in to listen closely.

"Actually. I don't have anything to say." Instead, he pointed to the gleaming Cup, glistening in the winter sun.

The seven players just stared, as if in a trance, their mouths slightly open and a dreamy look on their face. Suddenly the shrill whistle of the referee made them snap back to reality. They now moved with a new vigor, almost hallucinating the cup in front of them. Hogwarts was now in the lead and the score was 140-100.

Before anybody really noticed, the two seekers were racing for the Snitch by the grass. The Tinhorn Seeker was beating Anson King, the Gryffindor Seeker by about a foot. Just when his fingers were inches away from the Snitch, a Bludger, hit by Shay, hit the Tinhorn Seeker's broom's tail. Anson crashed into the Seeker and they both rolled into fumble of scarlet and blue. The whole school erupted in cheer and Shay grinned cheekily. James flew over and kissed her on the cheek.

"Thank you so much! You're the greatest!" He shouted quickly before continuing with the game.

The Tinhorn seemed to be blinded with fury and anger at Shay and hit the Bludgers toward her, instead of the Chasers, who were scoring by the minute. Luckily Shay didn't get hit too badly even though she was pelted with Bludgers and the other team's Beaters. An hour later, the score rose to 350-210. Hogwarts were beating them by 140. Trombley, one of the Gryffindor Chasers, threw in a perfect goal through the left hoop. Hogwarts was now up by 150. If the Tinhorn seeker got the Snitch, then the game would be tied. When there is a time game in the IQC Finals, they took all the points won from all of the school's games and add them up. If that happened, Tinhorn would beat Hogwarts by 240 points.

For the second time, the Seeker seemed to zoom out of nowhere and back into the center of the pitch, chasing the fluttering gold ball. All the players were transfixed by the chase. The Bludgers were far out of reach for a quick save. The Tinhorn Seeker was getting very close; his shaking, outreached fingers were almost touching the fluttering wings. Just then, James snapped back to reality. If they got the Snitch, the Cup was theirs; however, if Tinhorn got the Snitch, the Cup would be awarded to them. He looked around and saw the Quaffle in one of the Tinhorn's Chaser's hands. He spurred on his broom and knocked it out of his hands, caught it and scored a goal, quickly past the unsuspecting Keeper, Rocco. A moment after that, the Tinhorn Seeker's fingers grabbed around the Snitch. Half of the school was giving confused looks at the other half who were wildly cheering.

"James Potter sneaks in the last shot! The score is not 370-360! HOGWARTS WIN THE IQC!!!" Haylee, the commentator screamed excitedly.

The whole school erupted in a fresh wave of cheers. A great swarm of scarlet and gold rushed from the stands and congratulated the winners. Sarah rushed out to congratulate him, but James ran to Lily.

"You did it!" Lily yelled, jumping into his open arms. He kissed her cheek and she blushed deeply, unconsciously touching her burning cheek.

Sarah cleared her throat loudly behind them.

"Sarah!" James said, surprised. He gave her a weak, but still happy hug and was about to peck her on the cheek, but she pulled him into a deep kiss.

Lily raised her eyebrows and turned around to find Rocco. She smiled sympathetically at him.

"I'm sorry Rocco. You were great though." She said, hugging him.

"It's all right. We did win it two times in a row the last two years." He shrugged. "We had to share our glory." He joked.

Lily laughed and took his arm and went into the Great Hall. People were seated in the crowded Hall and the Quidditch Teams stood in two straight lines. Anna Townsend, the Head of the Magical Sports Department, rose from the seat beside Professor Dumbledore.

"I would like to congratulate the winner of the Interschool Quidditch Championships. Hogwars School of Witchcraft and Wizardry!" She said. The Hall erupted in a loud cheer, with some polite clapping. She presented the luminous, golden cup to James, captain. Each of the players received a smaller version.

"Now moving on to the individual awards. Best Chaser is, Gil-Hwan Choi from Soojin Academy!" She announced. The Hogwarts students clapped politely as the tall, tan boy went up to receive a mini golden replica of a Quaffle, with a writing on the side.

"Best Beater, Shay Fintley from Hogwarts School!" Shay went up there and Lily cheered happily for her friend.

"Best Seeker, Josh Kim from Soojin Academy!" The boy that Minnie had asked, but got refused to the Ball, walked up.

"Best Keeper, Rocco Castagno from Tinhorn School!" Rocco sheepishly walked up there and received the award.

"And Best Captain, showing excellent leadership skills is James Potter, Hogwarts!" She said.

When James went up to receive the award, he caught Lily's eyes, which were shining brightly at him. That moment seemed almost chimerical.
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I thought that this fic was getting darker and darker by every chapter. I was even going to make James get really badly hurt and Hogwarts lose the IQC, but that would be too mean with all the things that James is going through. I'll be nice. Next chapter is going to be on the Ball! I have part of it written out! Hopefully it won't take as such long time to finish as this chapter did. -_-;;