Rrrrrrrrrrriiiiiiiiinnnnnnnnng! Lily moaned as she heard her Muggle alarm go off. Slamming her hand to stop the alarm clock, the Head Girl opened her eyes. She saw blue eyes peering over her, and Lily jumped. "Melanie! Don't do that!"

Melanie laughed. "Yeah, I wouldn't have done that, Lily, if we weren't late for our first class…"

"Oh my goodness!" Lily cried out, sprinting into the bathroom and coming out ready. She ran and pulled Melanie with her, not caring whether or not Sarah was awake. The blonde turned over as well, trying to find out what time it was. She found out that she was late for class, too. Instead of sprinting towards the bathroom, she turned over and went back to sleep.

Lily and Melanie made it to their second class, which was Transfiguration, and they were late. Ms. McGonagall tapped her foot impatiently to hear an excuse from her two top students. "Well? Are you going to say something? And it better not be because of the Entrance Ball last night. Your friends already wasted that excuse."

The Head Girl turned to see that James, Sirius, Remus, and Peter were yawning and muttering to each other at the back, trying to get some more shut eye. Melanie also saw them and stifled a small laugh. Instead, she turned to the teacher and smiled nervously. "Would you believe that we tried to wake Sarah up and drag her down here?"

"Hm…" McGonagall pondered out loud. "Well…that seems understandable. Sit down, ladies. That will be five points from Gryffindor, though."

Relief rushed over Lily, since she thought that her teacher might just give her detention. She plopped herself to a seat next to Sirius, who was now drooping his head on his girlfriend's shoulder. Remus elbowed his friend and everyone sat at attention as to what their professor was saying.

When they got to lunchtime, everyone regained their sense of what was going on. Sarah finally joined the rest of her friends, and the Marauders filled her in on what was happening. "Nothing new. James still doesn't know whether we'll be facing Beauxbaton or Durmstrang," Sirius grumbled, after stuffing some bread in his mouth.

"And I'm not getting any closer," James groaned. "Why didn't they just have the match now to get it over with? It will give me more time to sleep at least, having the comfort of knowing which school we're going against."

Frowning, Lily looked at them "What's wrong with not knowing? Get over it, Potter, it's time to face uncertainty."

Sirius muttered, "Yeah, well, it's not as if Beauxbaton stands a chance anyway. I hear Durmstrang's got a splendid Seeker and Keeper. Felicity and her team will have a hard time competing against Durmstrang."

Peter shook his head. "Isn't the match with Durmstrang and Beauxbaton in three weeks? Have they trained enough?"

"Of course they have, Wormtail," Remus replied, "The two rival teams have been using the Quidditch field as if it's their common room. I haven't seen a day when they are not there."

"Gee, Moony," Sarah commented, "Aren't you the observing type? What brought you into watching those people practice anyway?"

Remus shrugged. "It's better than studying for any of our subjects at the least."

Melanie gasped. "Which reminds me! Lily! We have Ancient Runes homework to do!"

Lily agreed and the two headed to the library, with Sirius and Sarah left in awe. Sirius was incredulous. "Don't they know that it's Saturday tomorrow? We have a whole weekend to relax!"

"You know those two," Sarah muttered, "The next thing you'll hear is Remus saying that he should go ahead and join them."

"Hey, I think I will," was Moony's suggestion.

James chuckled. Christopher Hoover rushed towards the Maurader's table. He was breathing a bit heavily, but he managed to speak up. "News is that Rebecca Ruppert will be taking one of the Quidditch positions! She's moved back to Beauxbaton!"

"WHAT?!" Sirius and James cried out, surprised. Sirius frowned. "That veela girl is virtually a Quidditch player too?! Preposterous!"

Peter nodded his head, familiar with the news. "I got that this morning. I can't believe I forgot about mentioning it to you. The Beauxbatons are erratic. They practically rejoiced when she joined their team. I'm guessing she's really good."

"That's not legal!" Sarah protested, "This is a Quidditch season here! She can't just join in and replace a fellow team member! Who is she replacing anyway?"

Chris pointed to one of the girls in Beauxbaton. "That girl Beater."

Sirius choked on his marmalade and sputtered out, "She's a Beater?! Oh no…now I'm completely doomed…"

The Head Boy stood up. "Well, then that just means that we should practice some more, shouldn't we? We'll start practice tomorrow, if you guys don't mind. Chris, tell Alisha, Cameron, and Lief if you can. We'll meet at the Quidditch field."

"You know, Prongs," Remus said, "You'll be overworking your whole team by the time your match comes up. Better be careful."

Lily was watching the practice from the bleachers, doing her homework and trying to observe the Gryffindor team at the same time. She sighed and watched James looking intently for the Golden Snitch. The wind blew around her and some of her papers flew about. With a wave of her wand, the papers came back to her hands and she continued with her homework. The Head Girl heard her name being called and she looked up. Melanie, Peter and Remus were at the bottom of the field, waving at her. She stood up and waved back. Lily gasped, as she felt some kind of force pushing her. She stumbled and fell, headlong towards the ground…50 feet from the air…

Melanie gave a horrified shriek and saw James zoom quickly towards the Head Girl. Lily had her eyes closed, and when she opened them, she was staring face to face with the Seeker, concern lined in his face. The Marauders rushed to James' side as he placed Lily gently on the ground. The Head Girl looked around her. Melanie hugged her friend. "Lily! You scared us half to death! We thought you were going to smack the ground with your head first!"

Lily frowned, then stared at James. "Strange, I felt something push me over…but I don't think I saw anyone at the stands…"

Remus turned to give his friend a hand, only to see that James was standing up, pale and looking angrily around. His eyes were filled with anger and another kind of emotion Sirius has never encountered in James before. The Head Boy looked down at Lily and turned his eyes to Sirius, who was also looking curiously at James. "Sirius, cancel the practice for me. I think we've had enough for the day anyway. I'll be in the dorms, you guys can meet me in an hour or so."

The Head Boy left without saying another word, to everyone's surprise. Peter shook his head. "He's probably upset. You know, the shock of seeing Lily fall…it was pretty odd, do you suppose someone tried to use magic to push her?"

"Yeah, you might be right, Peter," Sarah, said, a bit doubtfully.

Sirius and Remus nodded at each other and followed the path where their friend went to. They met James in the locker room, sitting in silence at the corner. Remus reached him first and clapped his hand on his friend's shoulder. "Hey, James, what's the matter?"

"It's nothing, Moony," James answered, revealing a blank expression, "Really, I'm fine."

Sirius rolled his eyes. "Yeah, sure, we believe you. What's been eating at you? I've seen you face danger, and you didn't flinch a bit. But when you had to zoom through to rescue Lily? Come on, I know something's not right."

James muttered, "Look…I don't want to talk about it."

The Head Boy was dragged to the Gryffindor common room and into his dormitory, where he shared with Remus, Sirius, Peter, and two other guys. No one was there, and James was plopped on his bed. "What are you doing? Let me go, I need to hand out the flyers for the next Hogsmeade weekend!!"

"Melanie will take care of that," Sirius said, unemotionally, "As for you, old buddy, you aren't moving until you tell us what's going on."

"Yes," Remus agreed, "Please enlighten us, and we will let you down there as soon as possible."

The Head Boy sighed. "Will you promise not to tell anyone?"

Remus tilted his head, "This is really serious, isn't it?"

"I don't know, Remus," James said, almost stuttering, "Back there, when I saw Lily falling from a place that high, I…I don't know…something's wrong with me…"

Sirius whistled. "Wow, this is serious. James, don't you see? You love her! My goodness, how many people should tell you that you love her?"

James put his head on his hands. "Not to her…she's my friend. How can I love a friend?"

"Potter," Remus started, "You should tell her."

"I can't do just that!" James cried out, at the same time when Sirius cried out, "He can't do just that!"

The door burst open, revealing Lily, infuriated. "Come on! James, where have you been? We're supposed to be posting the next Hogsmeade weekend up!! What are you waiting for?"

The guys reluctantly followed the woman that had been the center of their conversation. Sirius and Remus watched James, who was careful not to keep in eye contact with Lily or his best friends. Somehow, he had to sort his own problems himself, and he didn't want anyone to interfere.

Peter stood watching close by, a small glint of fear and pain in his eyes. He turned to a figure beside him. "You said they wouldn't get hurt, Severus. You shouldn't have pushed her over."

"I didn't push her," was his nonchalant reply, "Rebecca was the one pointing her wand at the other side. Next time, Pettigrew, when I tell you to do something, you should go on ahead and do it. You still have an initiation to do for me…"

"When should that be?"

"I'll tell you when the time comes…"