Chapter 3
The week leading up to Lily's date with Topher, went by quietly. James was being unusually distant when it came to Lily, maybe it was because he had taken Sirius's advice and was now throwing himself whole heartedly into Quidditch. His team was practicing five times a week for two hours. They were a great team, but still it was a lot of work. And to top it all off the first match of the season was against Ravenclaw – not good. James was determined to kick Topher's butt, either by winning or literally kick his butt.
The team was James, Abbey, Cammy O'Riley, William Brown, Wiley Durgan, Katie McGuire, and Toby Clary. James was the seeker and captain, and he took great pride in the team he had put together. Abbey, Cammy and William were the chasers, Wiley and Toby were the beaters, and Katie was the keeper. William Brown was a fourth year. He was lean and athletic with chocolate brown skin and his hair was braided into short dread locks. Cammy O'Riley was a fifth year with Abbey, Sam, and Lily. Cammy literally looked like a lepracon, she was rather short, 5'1", had flaming red hair, an Irish accent, and pale skin. But she was exceptionally talented at Quidditch, and a real positive piece of the team. Katie McGuire was a third year on the team, but she was playing Quidditch before she could walk. Katie came from an incredibly dark family, she was the only one in the last six generations to be sorted out of Slytherin. She hated the dark arts completely, therefore she fled her family and went to live with her best friend, fellow Gryffindor Christi Tulli. Sirius and she had a lot in common. Katie was an excellent keeper, probably the best in the school, and her athletic build helped her to excel as a quick moving keeper.
Wiley Durgan and Toby Clark were both beaters they were third years, and best friends. Wiley and Toby were the comedians, along with James, on the team. Besides the fact that both of them were amazingly strong and rather agile on a broom, James half picked them for their personalities. They could always pick up the team when they needed it most. Plus, they were inseparable and they understood each other completely, making the way they communicated on the pitch amazing. But no one could have picked a odder looking pair. Wiley was rather short, 5'8", muscular, and stocky; whereas, Toby was tall, 6'4", and thin. Toby had blonde hair, blue eyes, and likely tan skin, contrasting greatly with Wiley's dark brown skin and creamy brown eyes. Yet both were surprisingly nimble and gifted beaters.
"He's working our asses off," complained Abbey. As she came in from a rainy practice that had lasted almost four hours. Abbey was wet and muddy and exhausted.
"Maybe your ass," said Lily laughing. James had asked Abbey out a couple of days before, basically as a rebound off of Lily. But Abbey knew it, and she really didn't care because she wasn't interested in James. She thought he was funny and hot, but there was no way they were going to have a 'relationship.'
"So your first real date with Topher is this weekend, right?" asked Abbey.
"Yeah. I'm excited, he is so much fun to be around. A little clingy, but fun," responded Lily. Lily had been looking forward to this weekend all week, and she wanted it to be perfect. They were going to just hangout around Hogsmeade and then go into the 3 Broomsticks. They weren't going to go to any of those romantic coffee shops or anything, Lily wasn't really into that kind of cheesy thing. "Are you going to do anything with James?"
"Well, kind of. We are basically doing the same thing you are, hanging out and then getting a butterbeer. This isn't anything serious," replied Abbey.
"You just want to make out with him, so you can tell your grandchildren one day that you kissed James Potter. True?" asked Lily playfully.
"Oh yeah, you know it," laughed Abbey sarcastically.
"See? I know what's really going on."
"You know me too well."
Finally, the weekend rolled around, and Lily met Topher at the front doors. He looked good in nice jeans and a yellow and blue plaid button up shirt with the sleeves rolled up. Lily thought she looked pretty good herself with jeans on and a western looking shirt. When she came up to him he lightly kissed her cheek, led her out of the castle, and on to the grounds. Right behind them was James and Abbey. James was trying hard to pay attention to Abbey who was asking him about a Quidditch move, but he couldn't tear his eyes away from Lily and Topher. He had been making an effort to think of other people besides Lily, but when he saw them together his stomach went into his throat. James was feeling something he had never felt before, but what was it….?
"It's called jealousy, kid," said Abbey, reading his thoughts. She could tell through the longing and confused expression on his face that he wanted Lily, but he couldn't figure out what he was feeling. James had never been jealous of anything or anyone before because he had always had it all – girls, friends, grades, money, popularity, talent, etc. Realizing that a day with Abbey may be pretty fun, considering she was one of the coolest girls he knew, James decided to make the best of the 'date' and push Lily out of his head.
Spending the day with Topher was going well. Lily and Topher always had something to talk about and they were having a great time, just messing around Hogsmeade. By the end of the day, they were tired of walking around, so they decided to go into the 3 Broomsticks. They walked in with Topher's arm around Lily's waist. "What do you want?" he asked as they found a table for two in the corner of the pub.
"Um, butterbeer. Thanks."
"1 butterbeer coming right up madam." While Lily waited for Topher to come back, she surveyed the scene around her. There were students filling every corner of the pub; they were all talking excitedly about the upcoming year or their plans for the week or the upcoming Quidditch match tomorrow. Lily was worried about the match because she didn't want James to do anything to Topher or vis versa. She obviously wanted Gryffindor to win, but if Ravenclaw won she was worried that James may attack Topher. Although James was 15 and Topher was 17, James a strong and athletic and he was a very powerful wizard. Probably more powerful than most of the 7th years.
"If he does anything stupid…" muttered Lily to herself as Topher came back to the table smiling as he set down the 2 butterbeers. Just then Lily saw James enter the pub with his arm around Abbey, and even though Lily wasn't the most fond of James, she felt a little jealous that Abbey was going out with him. It was a weird feeling because she definitely didn't think she liked James, but he had for some reason always been hers. It was like Abbey was stepping onto her property because for once maybe James had feelings for another girl. Without thinking Lily leaned across the table and started kissing Topher. He was a little surprised at first, but came around soon enough and began to kiss her back. Abbey saw this first.
"Um…James it's a little crowded in here let's go back out side. Come on," said Abbey with a slight panic in her voice. If James saw them kissing it could go from bad to ugly real quick.
"Ok let's g-" said James, but he stopped short when he saw Lily and Topher. 'You don't care. Remember? Come on dumb ass pull yourself together. They're going out and there is nothing you can do about it. Just let it go, and move on. Follow Abbey. This is stupid what am I saying I do care and this sucks. I'm going to beat the living daylights out of him. If Abbey would just let go of me I could attack him,' thought James for Abbey had a death grip on his arm and was now digging in her nails to get his attention.
"James come with me and I'll take your mind completely off of those two," whispered Abbey seductively. She figured if force couldn't drag him out of the pub, seduction would. (a/n they don't do anything except kiss a bit…so no worries) With that James follow Abbey out of the pub and up to the Shrieking Shack.
The next day Lily woke up early to head down to breakfast, and get ready for the Quidditch match. She sat between Samantha and Abbey, Sam had already started to eat her breakfast. Across from them was Sirius, Remus, Peter, and James. Although, James looked like he was ready to blow chunks all over the table, and he refused to eat anything. He was shaking slightly, but he kept trying to look like he was brave and fighting through it. This was his first match as the captain and he hoped that his team was ready to tackle the older and experienced Ravenclaw team. Consisting mostly of sixth and seventh years, the Ravenclaw team was well bonded, and they knew all of each others moves.
The Gryffindor team was so nervous that most of them were just sitting there staring at their food. "Guys I think I'm going to be sick," announced Cammy to the whole table causing everyone in the vicinity to move over slightly.
"I'm so nervous look at me, my eye's twitchin'," said Wiley contorting his round features into a paranoid, eye twitching expression. Everyone gave him a small smile, but they returned to staring blankly at their plates shortly after.
"Everyone needs to eat something. You guys need your energy for the match," James kept telling his team. They all really looked up to him, you could tell because even though they all looked slightly green they all reached for some toast and began to nibble on it.
"I think it's time for the Quidditch teams to make their way down to the Quidditch pitch to get ready for the game," announced Dumbledore from the staff table. His eyes twinkled from behind his glasses, and he looked quite amused as James slowly, shakily lifted himself from the table.
"Team. Up," called James in a would be brave voice to his Gryffindor team.
"Good luck James, Ab, Cammy," hollered Samantha, "Oh yeah and Wiley, Toby try not to injure my brother too badly. I don't fancy taking him to the hospital wing due to a bludger to the head."
"Sure thing madam," replied Wiley and Toby with dramatic bows.
"Kill those Ravenclaws," yelled Remus as the team headed out to the pitch.
"Show them who's boss," squeaked Peter (getting a few odd looks, but oh well.)
"Good luck Cammy, Abbey, Potter," called Lily.
"James don't kill him, well at least not in front of Lily," whispered Sirius in James's ear, "Good luck you guys!" he yelled as they left the Great Hall.
Before they knew it the whole school was in the stands and the commentator Andy Brandlin (Gryffindor) was calling out the names. "For Gryffindor there is Knightly, McGuire, O'Riley, Clary, Brown, Durgan, and Potter! And for Ravenclaw, it's Perry, Jessup, Funnel, Shakeport, Jax, Tillings, and McKinley!"
Madam Hooch called for the captains to shake hands. James and Topher slowly walked up to each other as soft roll of thunder sounded in the background. They looked like they wanted to beat each other's head in, but resisted and settled to squishing each other's hands. Then the whistle blew and the game started.
"Oh great it's raining," complained Lily looking up into the sky, as a light rain began to fall.
"Are they allowed to play in weather conditions like this. I mean it is thundering," said Samantha worriedly.
"Yeah sure they can play in anything. And it's not really a problem as long as James remembered to put the water proof spell on his glasses," said Remus.
It was an exciting game, the chasers and keepers were amazing, but the seekers were what everyone was watching. Both were fantastic, constantly diving and pulling out at the last minute. After about three hours, the score was 30 to 20 Gryffindor. The battle was raging on the pitch as the rain increased to a downpour. The cloud cover was so thick barely any light could get through, lighting was the only way to shed light on the pitch.
It all came down to the seekers and who could catch the snitch because neither team was dominating the other. Then there was a flash of lightning illuminating the pitch, and Topher saw it. The little glint of gold hovered about three feet above the ground at the other end of the pitch. James was circling above the pitch, but he was closer to it than Topher. James would notice if Topher suddenly gunned it for the snitch, and James could get there faster. So Topher decided to slowly make his way up that way hoping the rain would make him slightly less noticeable. Then when he was closer than James he would floor it before James had time to catch him. Good plan, except when they got about even there was another crack of lighting and James saw the snitch too.
The two seekers raced towards the snitch, the wind and rain blinding them as they leaned over their brooms. The entire school held its breath because this was serious, someone was going to get it, and it was going to be ugly – they were too close. The boys raced towards the snitch so close that their knees were bumping into each other.
"Come on, Lets go," James was yelling at his broom.
"Move it," yelled Topher. The entire match had come to a halt as the seekers raced for the gold snitch. "Give it up, Potter," bellowed Topher.
"Fuck off," yelled James. Just then, the snitch dove left in front of James. In a wild attempt to get to the snitch Topher swerved left and collided with James, sending both boys spiraling to the ground. They both hit the ground head first with a dull thud, leaving both seekers sprawled motionless on the ground. A stick of lightning shed light on the pitch, and a loud crash of thunder covered the screams from the students in the stands.
"Oh my God," whispered Samantha and Lily at the same time. They thought they were dead. Slowly after several minutes, James lifted a fist into the air, holding the tiny gold snitch. The whole school erupted! Everyone was screaming, some over emotional girls were crying because they thought that they had died, and the Slytherins were booing, of course. Slowly the boys lifted themselves from the ground. Madam Pomphrey was trying to get the boys to follow her to the hospital wing so she could look at them. But neither wanted any part of it. When the reality had sunk in James was beaming and Topher was pissed. James had beat him, the perfect-Lily's-boyfriend Topher. While the rest of Gryffindor team and the whole school poured out onto the pitch, James was forced to shake Topher's hand.
"Potter, McKinley. Shake," hollered Madam Hooch from place in the middle of the pitch. When James reached Topher they shook, a little too long.
"Hey Potter, you know she's a really good kisser. Too bad she hates you," whispered Topher in a malicious voice just loud enough for James to hear. (a/n: ok you're probably thinking that Topher is just playing Lily, but he's not he actually really likes her. He's just trying to piss off James, back to the story.) With that lovely comment, James threw all magic aside and instead threw himself on to Topher and punched him as hard as he possibly could in the side of the head. Shocked Topher fell backwards and hit the ground. But before he could get up James had pulled out his wand and was pointing it at Topher. Topher jumped up, pulled out his wand and the boys stood about ten feet apart with their wands pointed at each other, rain soaking both of them.
"Potter! McKinley! What do you think you're doing?" scream McGonagall as she sprinted for the boys with her wand out. "Detention both of you. Lower your wands now! I SAID LOWER YOUR WANDS! DO I HAVE TO SPELL IT OUT FOR YOU?"
"No, Professor," murmured the boys lowering their wands but not taking their eyes off of each other. Finally both boys turned around.
"Oh my God, Topher are you ok?" asked Lily worriedly. "Here go to the hospital wing."
"I'll take him Lil," said Samantha as she hurried over to her brother.
"Are you sure? Ok, well I'll come check on you tonight, alright?" Lily asked.
"Yeah, I'll be fine don't worry about me," said Topher trying to put on a brave face for Lily. Lily watched through the pouring rain and lighting as Samantha an Tophe headed up to the castle. After Topher and Samantha were half way to the castle, Lily went to find her friends. Lily, Sirius, Abbey, Remus, and Peter were the only people left down at the Quidditch pitch and they were all waiting for James. Finally he came out of the locker room, beaming, well sort of because he was really happy he beat Topher, but he was still stung by what he had said. Mostly because it was true.
"Hey Evans. Did you see how you no talent boy toy, lost today? See if you had gone out with me, then at least you would be on the winning side. 'Cause it's no fun to mess around with losers. And the way he talks you would think you were some kind of trophy, but losers don't get trophies do they?" said James. For some reason he really wanted to hurt Lily. He had never felt that he needed to hurt her before, but now he was angry because she wasn't his.
"James," whispered Sirius warningly, "No, James."
But it was too late as another stick of lighting cracked through the clouds, James could see the refection in Lily's eyes – revealing her feelings at the moment. After staring at James for a long time, she walked up and slapped James across the face, spun on her heels and marched up to the castle.
"James are you stupid or something?" yelled Sirius.
Remus, Sirius, Abbey, and even Peter ran to catch up with Lily, leaving James alone with his thoughts and the pouring rain on the pitch. "Lily, Lily, wait up," called Remus. She turned around and when she noticed James was not with them she stopped and let them catch up with her. "He didn't mean that. He's just a little angry about, well you know."
"Yeah well he doesn't need to say things like that does he?" questioned Lily with tears in her eyes.
"No he doesn't, and I'm not defending him," said Remus softly. "Come here." Lily walked over to Remus and let him wrap his arms around her in a tight hug. It was comforting to know that her friends, were on her side on this one, and not defending the perfect Potter.
Lily was so mad at James that all she could think about was that she had to piss off James, hurt him. She watched as Sirius went up to the boy's dorm to get ready for bed, and she just saw James open up the portrait hole. Lily had an idea, so before James saw her Lily ran up to the boy's dorm and slowly opened the door. Sirius looked up when she came in, he already had his shirt off and was getting ready to climb into bed. "Hey Lil, what's up?" he asked, "Are you ok? I know James made you really mad, but he's really a good guy. He likes you a lot, and he was just being stupid."
"Yeah I know, but I don't think I'll ever like him back. It's just…I don't know, we're not a good match," said Lily as she took a step closer to Sirius. Lily wasn't sure exactly what she was going to do, but whatever it was she would have to do it quickly before James came in. Lily took another step towards Sirius, just as she heard someone start up the stairs to the dorm (they're long stairs); she hoped it was James. She came closer so they were no more than a foot apart, when Sirius finally noticed she was so close.
"Lily, what are you…" but before he could finish Lily had intertwined her fingers into his hair and was kissing him deeply. To Lily's surprise, Sirius started to kiss her back. Lily deepened the kiss, as she began to unbutton and take off her shirt, exposing a lacy black bra – she had to make this look good for James. Sirius didn't object, but before he knew what was going on Lily pulled him on to James's bed, and he was leaning over her as she continued to kiss him. She was running her hands over his rippling abs, and he was allowing his hands to roam up and down her back.
Just then, James opened the door to the boy's dorm. From James's point of view, it looked horrible because Sirius was practically in his boxers laying on Lily, and Lily under him without a shirt on. To him it looked like Sirius had forced himself on Lily, but she was kissing him, so she was obviously not too unwilling. But Sirius can be threatening…no the worst part was that they were passionately kissing each other. James was horrified. How the hell could Sirius do this to him? He knew how he felt about Lily; James felt betrayed by his best friend. His mind flew through a blur of emotion from confusion, to shock, to sadness, to anger, finally the anger took over James.
"WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU THINK YOU ARE DOING?" roared James. He was so loud Lily even jumped. She suddenly realized how horrible a decision this was, James was going to kill one of them or both of them, and he probably could if he wanted to.
"Oh shit, man!" yelled Sirius, quickly jumping up from the bed, leaving Lily sprawled on the bed.
"What the hell is going on here? No you know what I don't want to hear it right now, later, yeah, but right now…" before James could even register what he was going to do he had lunged at Sirius. His fist collided hard with Sirius's jaw, sending a deafening crack through the dorm. And before Sirius could react James had punched him again right below his left eye. Sirius punched out hard and hit James in the stomach, sending him backwards. Both boys jumped up, grabbed their wands, and were pointing them at each other's hearts.
"I'm going to ask you again, what were you doing Sirius?" asked James in an attempt at calmness.
"I was…Lily… she kissed me mate…and I…I'm sorry….er…it just kind of…happened…"
Lily panicked, she was the one who started this, and Sirius had nothing to do with it. He didn't deserved to be beaten or hexed into oblivion. Lily leaped in front of James's wand. She knew that even if he was mad at her he would never curse her.
"James don't!" Lily yelled.
"What did he do to you Lily? Did he hurt you?" asked James his eyes filled with concern as he lowered his wand slightly.
"No he didn't hurt me. I…"
"Did he take off your shirt?" said James as he suddenly realized Lily was standing in front of him shirtless. Under any other circumstance he would have liked the view, but not right now.
"James no! Sirius didn't have anything to do with it! I kissed him, OK!" yelled Lily. For some reason she was actually angry that he cared for her so much.
"But, why… are you two going out?"
"No, we just…I…I was mad at you. So I did the only thing that I knew for sure would hurt you and piss you off, I'm sorry," said Lily looking at the ground. What had gotten in to her, she wasn't hurting him by apologizing, this was definitely not in the original plan. It was actually blowing her whole plan completely out of the water. Why did he make her feel and do things she never planned on doing? He had some kind of mental control over her emotions, it was sort of unnerving. Then without warning Lily ran from the room, without even bothering to pick up her shirt. She was scared to death that James would do something to her, or someone else, or himself. Because even though she didn't want to admit it, she was starting to actually care for James.
Back in the boy's dorm, "Sirius how could you do this to me?" asked James. He was calm now and was sitting dumbstruck on his bed, trying to figure out why Sirius had kissed her back, if what Lily said had been true.
"I'm really sorry James, but she came in and before I knew what was happening she started kissing me. It never even registered that this was your chick, that it was Lily. I just kind of went with the flow. I'm so sorry James. I wish I hadn't let it happen," said Sirius. He felt horrible because he was fully aware of how much this was hurting James, and it was his fault because he could have stopped it but didn't.
"It's ok Sirius, I'm not really blaming you. I was just kind of shocked to see Lily under you, on my bed. I thought you had raped her or something. Sorry, Padfoot."
"No it's ok. It would have looked pretty bad from you view point. I can see where you were coming from. But you should know me better than that. You know I wouldn't hurt you – you could kill me."
"Yeah I could, don't forget it. But it's a little weird to see your best mate making out with your future wife – maybe. Anyway, Is your jaw ok? Because I think you broke my hand," said James. Sirius was already developing a large purple lump under his left eye, and his jaw wasn't moving up and down quite as well as it should.
"It hurts pretty bad, but I don't want to go to the hospital wing. That would be way too embarrassing. Especially explaining why we were throwing blows at each other. But at least I got you in the stomach, so we're even now."
"Yeah you did and I wasn't flexed so I think I have quite the bruise," James lifted up his shirt to reveal and large purple bruise already forming. "Wow, man you are way too strong. Never do that again, please. And I think that you got my nose too because it hurts like no other."
"I can't exactly say that you didn't deserve it after today," joked Sirius.
"Oh go climb a tree," said James.
I kind of like this chapter, but I don't really know why, it just floats my boat. Maybe cause I haven't really seen James and Sirius fight over anything before, and it shows how close they are by showing how much they care for each other. For anyone else, save Remus, they would have hexed them into the hospital wing and never talked to that person again, but James and Sirius have an awesome understanding with each other. Anyway please, please, r/r because if I don't get anymore reviews, I can't write much more. I want to know what ya'll think good, bad, or indifferent, please review. (Spill, Rae, and Slam, ya'll are the best ever, by the way). Thanx.
