16 – An 'O' in Charms
On waking up and opening his eyes, James blinked rapidly in the harsh sunlight that was filtering through the high window of the Heads Dorms.
Lily, he thought first, looking down at the girl whose limbs were tangled up with several of his own. Saturday, he thought second, recalling that yesterday had been Friday. Mess, he thought third, squinting at his surroundings in the early morning light.
His friends looked much the same as they had the night before, except for Sirius, who had somehow ended up upside down with his feet draped over the back of the armchair and his head on the foot rest.
For the oddest reason, James's mind jumped back to the night before when he and Lily had been the only ones left awake. He had the sneakiest feeling that he might have fallen asleep while she had been talking, which he cringed about.
Nevermind, it had afforded him a lovely dream in which he seemed to half remember Lily telling him that she'd fallen in love with him, which had been a nice consolation for not hearing all that she had said last night.
Obviously, it was very nice sitting here with Lily. It was very nice being so close to her (James reflected that their persons were as close as they could be without actually being the same person). It was very nice when Lily was being nice to him, when she smiled at him and laughed at his jokes.
All in all, if this was what being Lily's friend encompassed, he reckoned her could just about hack it.
If only he could kiss her.
Across the room, Verity woke up with a start. Blinking, she reluctantly pushed herself off Remus's lap and sighed.
"Oh, good grief," she said in a low voice. "It's today, isn't it?"
"What is?" James asked quietly. Then he took a sharp breath and swore under it. Verity gave him the most incredulous look in the history of incredulous looks.
"You forgot!" she hissed at him, half outraged, half amused.
"I didn't forget!" James argued, "I just . . . didn't remember."
"You are the captain of Gryffindor Quidditch! What else would you be thinking about on the morning of our last match against those dirty, cheating Slytherins?"
The Head Girl shifted in James's arms, moving her head further across his chest slightly. The edges of Verity's lips twitched.
"Nevermind, forget I asked," she said.
"What time is it?" asked Remus from beside her, who had woken up as a result of the noise.
"Er . . . ten o'clock," Verity said, glancing at her watch and looking at James worriedly.
"What?" demanded the Head Boy. "Oh, sod it! Only an hour till the match! Get Padfoot up, would you? We've got to go soon!"
While Verity and Remus took on the momentous task of waking up Sirius, James leaned forward and patted Lily gently on the arm.
"Lilo . . . Lilo . . ." he called softly. Lily murmured something and shifted her arms to somewhere around his neck. James grimly ignored the strengthening wish to forfeit the match and stay exactly where he was. "Lilo, wake up, we need to be off to the pitch soon."
The redhead opened her eyes and then screwed them closed again in protest, groaning in her sleepiness.
"Saturday already?" she complained. On the other side of the room, Remus and Verity had resorted to lifting the armchair between them and throwing a sound asleep Sirius onto the carpet.
"Not only Saturday, but ten o'clock," James told Lily, "we need to go very, very soon."
Lily sat up straight on the sofa and stretched her shoulders back. What she did not want to think about at that moment, was the fact that she had told James she loved him the night before.
. . . But was that thought really so awful? Or was the thought that James had not heard her telling him that she loved him what her mind was avoiding?
A moment later, Lily decided the whole business was too much to think about five seconds after having woken up. What she would prefer to think about, she decided, was how lovely it had been to sleep so close to James. Mind you, that was dangerous water as well.
James had stood up and ambled over to where Remus and Verity were pondering the problem of Sirius not waking up. He was lying forwards on the floor with his cheek against the carpet, his arms by his sides and his knees curled up under his chest.
"Padfoot," James called, nudging his friend with his foot, "come on! Time to get up!" Nothing happened.
"Oi, Sirius!" yelled Verity. "Breakfast!" The boy on the floor shifted onto his side and murmured something that sounded something like 'Yes, coming, Francesca!'
James and Remus raised an eyebrow each, when Lily called from the sofa, "Sirius! Quidditch!"
Like magic, Sirius turned onto his back with his eyes open, blinking.
"What?" he asked quickly. "Right! Quidditch, last match for the cup, dirty, cheating Slytherins! Gimme a hand up, will you?"
Ideally, James would have liked his team to enter the Great Hall looking professional, intimidating and meaning business. It was regrettable then that he, Sirius, Lily and Verity looked half asleep and rather slow. Verity's hair was un-brushed, Sirius's still damp from the shower, Lily released three consecutive yawns and he imagined that he himself was not exactly putting forward an image of steely terror when his glasses were slightly askew and there were still flecks of toothpaste on his hands.
Once they had sat down, Remus, who was marginally more alert than the rest, set about distributing food from various sources around them. James looked the Gryffindor table up and down and spotted the other members of his team, who thankfully looked decent enough to play a game of Quidditch. Getting back to more important matters, he picked up a slice of toast and absentmindedly pushed a bowl of fruit salad towards Lily.
"I'm really nervous," Peter said, through a mouthful of porridge.
"Nervous? What have you got to be nervous about?" asked Sirius.
"I'm not awake enough to be nervous," said Verity pouring coffee into her goblet. Not really listening or paying attention, James spooned some steaming scrambled eggs onto Lily's plate.
"Look at them," Sirius said disgruntled, staring that the Slytherin table. "I bet they've come up with thousands of illegal schemes to wrong foot us."
"Oh, stop being so bloody paranoid," Lily replied, as James unconsciously put a muffin onto a plate and placed it next to her. "I'm sure Mr Richards will foul them or send them off or whatever."
"You can't send people off in Quidditch," Verity corrected her.
"Crying shame, I'd say," Remus commented.
"Oi! You!" said Lily, turning to James. "Instead of drowning me in food, can you eat some yourself, please?" Verity sniggered and muttered something that sounded like 'Very fast metabolism.'
James glanced at the many bowls and plates of breakfast that surrounded Lily as though he was seeing them for the first time.
"Sorry," he said in surprise, "force of habit." Lily let out a breath of laughter and offered him a muffin. "Half and half?" asked James.
"Deal."
"Shouldn't you be going?" asked Remus idly, and after looking at his watch, James jumped off his chair so quickly it seemed as though he had been trying to sit on a sea urchin. Ever resourceful, the Head Boy stood on his chair and shouted down the Gryffindor table.
"Quidditch team! Changing room! Now! Remember broomsticks! And Quidditch uniform! No excuses! Matter of life and death!"
Once he had climbed down, his friends were already getting up and sneakily trying to smuggle any breakfast that wouldn't leak into their pockets.
"Good way to strike terror into those Slytherins' hearts, Prongs," Sirius remarked, clapping his best friend on the back.
While she was changing, the anxiousness that had been absent from breakfast was beginning to sneak up on Lily bit by bit. It made her feel like all the muscles in her body were thin and stretching and her stomach began to feel decidedly dodgy. Taking a deep breath and clasping her fingers together, she thought that this was probably going to be the most important day in her life so far. The onslaught from the Slytherins before the match was going to be nothing compared to the wrath of Gryffindors everywhere if she didn't catch the Snitch.
More importantly, what would James say if she didn't catch the Snitch?
It wasn't as if he had forced her to join the team, (he had asked, plenty times, but she had joined of her own accord.) It wasn't even as if she was doing him a sort of favour any more. She liked flying, she adored being on the team and James was trusting her to win them the game (stupid bugger.)
Lining up just inside the entrance to the changing rooms was even worse. Each member of the team was wrapped up in their own last minute preparations. Keith was hurriedly clipping the twigs on the end of his broomstick, Sirius was busy tapping his Beater's bat thirty times on the outside of his legs, (a peculiar habit Lily had never found out the reason for) and Ainsley was quietly promising anyone who'd listen that if they won the match, he'd gladly shave off all his dreadlocks for sponsor money and give it all to charity.
Behind the Head Girl, Verity lightly knocked the handle of her Eagle against Lily's Nimbus.
"Oi," she said quietly as Lily turned around. "Give us a hug then."
Lily pounced on her best friend and squeezed her round the neck for all she was worth.
"Ooh, those Slytherins are going to regret you ever joining the team," Verity said in Lily's ear.
"Yeah, listen, Veri," Lily replied, "this moment would be perfect if your broomstick wasn't digging me in the back of the head." Verity hurriedly let go.
"Sorry!" she said, panicked. "Sorry! Oh, Merlin! Are you all right? Are you hurt? If I've done any damage, James will bloody kill me!"
"It's all right!" Lily insisted, "I'm fine!"
"Good, it wouldn't do for us both to be out of action, would it?"
"Yeah right," Lily flapped at her dismissively, "James wouldn't kill you."
"You're probably right," nodded Verity casting a look back to where James was doing last minute spot checks on all his players. "As the best friend of his future wife, I s'pose he'll have keep a clean slate with me."
"What?" demanded Lily, but James was already shouting for the team to get ready and line up. Verity only winked at her best friend and took her place next to Simon. Lily rolled her eyes as James almost crashed into her in his hurry to get to the front, muttering.
"Sunny, light wind, south-easterly, minimal cloud cover, no mud . . ."
He stopped quite abruptly and glanced down at his left hand. Lily had switched the hand that was holding her Nimbus and taken hold of James's. Raising his eyes to look at her face, James smiled as Lily stared forwards defiantly as though there was nothing at all out of the ordinary with what she was doing, although James knew that she knew it was the best thing she could have done at that moment. James squeezed her hand tightly and Lily looked at him for a moment, tossing him a shy sort of half smile.
Then the whole team jumped when Remus's voice sounded throughout the pitch.
"Students, staff, witch, wizards, etc! Today is Saturday and welcome to today's match!"
James thought there might have been a few people of the outskirts of Brazil that wouldn't have heard the tremendous roar of crowd appreciation released from the stands.
"A notice for your own personal safety," Remus continued, "please keep all arms, legs, tails and other extremities inside the confines of the stands at all times. No one wants a repeat of the Hufflepuff vs. Ravenclaw 'Bludger-ahoy' incident, least of all Mr Filch, who (it says here) had to clean the blood off the Hufflepuff banners. Thank you." There was a sound of flapping paper. "Moving on, please welcome to the pitch: the Gryffindors!"
James led the way across the grass as the team's names were read out.
"Playing today are the same people as always: Black, Hooch, Tall, Barker, Kipping, Evans and Potter! Over half of this team will actually be leaving this year, so let's give them a fond farewell, eh?"
Possibly because it was louder than usual, for the first time, Lily fully heard the noise coming at the Gryffindors from all sides. Perhaps she had been too nervous to listen in their matches against Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw, but as Remus fell quiet, she really appreciated how many people were screaming as loud as they could to spur James and his team mates on.
Crickey, this meant an awful lot to a lot of people.
James nudged her in the side and grinned. "Wave then," he told her cheekily, and Lily pulled a nervous face as she raised a hand timidly. If possible, the noise in the pitch heightened.
"Whoever gets the captain's job next year will be hard pressed to find talent that can follow this up, that's all I'll say," Remus told the crowd. "And now please welcome their opponents, the Slytherins!"
Cheering to rival that of before greeted the entrance of the team in green. As the seven Slytherin boys lined up across from the Gryffindors Lily watched her opponent, Darius Zabini, Slytherin Seeker and captain. He stared back at her with a faintly amused expression that said all too clearly 'You? You? Against me? You've got to be joking!' Lily narrowed her eyes. Some of the nerves that had been growing inside her were cut back by her indignation like creepers being hacked off an old brick building.
"Playing today are McCarthy, Holloway, Snape, Moore, Aitkin, Cowell and Zabini! This match has been long awaited since its postponement last October," Remus informed the crowd. "Now the Slytherin team seem to be all fit an healthy, so let's get cracking!"
Mr Richard's prosthetic leg made hollow thumping noises on the dry ground as he limped down between the lines of players.
"I'm watching you," he warned glancing left and right at each of the team members, "I'm watching you like a doxy watches a juicy butterfly. Any funny business from any of you and there'll be trouble."
"Psh, what's he gonna do?" Lily heard one Slytherin beater mutter to his companion, "send us off?" This sent the both of them into a round of sniggering that lasted until Mr Richard turned around to face them. Lily's weeds of anxiousness were sliced back a few more inches by the blade of her anger.
"Shake hands, please," the referee directed James and Darius. Keeping eye contact, James reached his hand forward but found nothing. Zabini stood there staring at him with that annoying smirk on his face that said 'This is all a huge waste of my valuable time.'
James raised his eyebrows and turned his palm upwards, shaking his head slightly. This is ridiculous, he thought. Laughs and jeers came from the Slytherin end of the stands along with exclamations of indignation from almost everyone else.
"Oh, bloody hell," Remus's voice said, "just shake the man's hand, Zabini, then we could get down to some actual Quidditch?" There was cough from behind him and Remus turned around to glance at Professor McGonagall, who had resolved to supervise the commentating as soon as she had caught wind of Remus being offered money from one of the sides.
Zabini emitted a light breath of laughter before grasping James's hand and meeting the fiery gaze from the Head Boy's hazel eyes.
"Mount your brooms!"
Lily looked up the thin wisps of cloud that flecked across the thin blue sky.
"That was the whistle!" shouted Remus and suddenly Lily's feet left the ground and flew all the way up to forty feet above the grass. Verity was busy making a swipe for the Quaffle but it was snatched away by Moore who had reached it first by at least a foot. James quickly calculated that it wouldn't have been possible without Moore leaving the ground before Verity, i.e. before the whistle.
"Hey!" the captain shouted, and he and Verity turned furiously towards the referee. Five seconds later, however, the whistle blew again because Slytherin had scored and gained ten points.
"What was that about?" shouted Keith, "He had a false start, didn't he?"
"Nevermind!" James shouted back forcefully. "Even if they cheat, don't stop for anything unless the whistle goes! Just carry on, all right? We can't afford to loose any more points like that!"
Verity huffed up into her fringe but saluted none the less, dashing off to catch the rebound Quaffle from Ainsley.
"Gryffindor in possession after a shaky start," Remus told the crowd, "It's Hooch gaining yards down the pitch, pass to Kipping! Now to Potter!"
James smiled as he caught the Quaffle. Marvellous move, that one. With Slytherin Chasers coming at Simon and James too far away to pass to, Verity had thrown the Quaffle in just the right place for Keith to smack with the palm of his hand in James's direction.
The Slytherin Chasers tried to regroup as James sped away behind them towards the goal.
"Potter shoots! Goal! The scores are even at ten all! Slytherin in possession!"
James looked around and took half a second's glance at Lily and his smile widened into a grin. She seemed to be doing very well indeed. He thought back to what she had looked like in her very first match, obviously terrified, hovering above the game, shivering with her legs curled up under her broomstick. She had been reluctant to take her hand of the handle and made little jerky movements in various directions before deciding to fly and although James had been impressed because it was her first match, it was nothing to how proud he was now.
Lily had no trace of nerves about her whatsoever. Now and then she was hanging above the game, scouring the pitch, other times she was zipping in and out between players and balls, always streamlined and alert. If James hadn't been throwing gobstoppers at her and hankering to get her to join the team that very same year, he was sure he'd think she'd been on the team for at least three years.
"There's a pass to Aitkin! Slytherin possession stretches down the pitch, Bludger approaches, Aitkin passes to McCarthy, saved by Tall who throws it back to Kipping!"
Simon was making very good progress down the pitch, very good progress indeed when one of the Slytherin Chasers, who was relatively near him, dodged a Bludger. The black ball went whizzing off behind Moore, straight into Simon's side.
There was a resounding 'Ooouugh' from the crowd as Simon was knocked sideways. Thankfully, he was only about twenty five feet off the ground, any more than that and he wouldn't have been able to get up shakily after his fall.
"Time out's called as Madam Pomfrey and a couple of volunteers make their way onto the pitch," Remus said. "Will Gryffindor be one player down?"
"Cor, blimey," Simon exclaimed as James landed near him, "those things hurt like the buggery."
"Are you all . . ." James began to say.
"Get out of the way," the school nurse commanded, pushing the Head Boy to the side, and for such a young witch, shoving a six foot six bloke three yards to the left was something very commendable.
Crowding around to have a look Verity put an arm around Lily's shoulders and Lily bit her lip in a worried expression. Those things did look like they hurt like the buggery.
After a quick visual once over in which Madam Pomfrey lifted up Simon's shirt (there were a few whistles from the crowd) to show a large bruise, she gave her diagnosis.
"Well, apart from the bruise, you've got three broken ribs," she told him. "If you go back on that pitch, I'll take it that you're stark raving and have you committed to St Mungo's immediately."
There was a disappointed sigh from the Gryffindor players. James turned towards the commentator's box and shook his head.
"It's one man down for Gryffindor!" Remus announced, and the disappointment or triumph was evident through the crowd.
"Sorry, mate," Sirius said to Simon clapping him on the shoulder.
"Ouch! Ouch!" exclaimed Simon, "Watch that side, Sirius, you moppet!"
"Have a good one," James said to his player as Simon limped off with help from a couple of Hufflepuffs who had come under Madam Pomfrey's direction for the match. He looked around and saw Lily watching something. Following her gaze, he spotted the Slytherins having a fervent discussion in a huddle down their end of the pitch.
"Why do they keep glancing at us?" Lily asked uneasily, crossing her arms and hunching her shoulders.
"Because they're all about intimidation," James said.
"Wankers," Keith added.
"Come on," James said to Lily, and soon, thirteen players and the ref were back in the air.
A funny thing happened to Lily as soon as she was about thirty feet up and rising. Instead of feeling increasingly nervous about those looks the Slytherins were giving her team, she found that she just felt angry. How dare they? she thought. How dare they try and intimidate us? We are so much better than them any day of the week!
"The Quaffle is back in Gryffindor possession, and with only two Chasers, Hooch and Potter will have to work extra hard to come up to scratch. Hooch dodges a bludger thrown her way by Holloway, makes a pass, intercepted by McCarthy! Who drops the Quaffle at the threat of Bludger from Black!"
Sirius punched the air as James caught the Quaffle and sped away with it. He tossed it upwards to Verity above him, who curled it round Snape in the goals.
"Twenty, ten to the Gryffindors!" announced Remus as James and Verity crossed flying paths and clapped one of their hands together in celebration. "Possession taken by McCarthy, fourth year on the team this week when this time four years ago he was upgraded from a reserve when old Jake Farnborough got suspended for putting Zonko's Fizzing Gas Pellets in the school water system."
Maybe it was just Lily, but she was sure that ever since Simon had been carted off by the bandage brigade, the Slytherins were playing a much more aggressive game than before. Their Beaters hit the Bludgers with less aim and more power, their Chasers were resorting to anything to get a hold of the Quaffle and more than once Gryffindor found themselves not only dodging Bludgers, but Slytherins.
Apparently the musical theme from the last match had been carried on and adopted by those wearing green and silver in the crowd.
Oh, Merlin, James thought, anything to distract the players. Sure enough, the ditty that the Slytherins came out with was both substandard and quite pointless.
Oh, you Gryffindors,
You're rubbish, you're crap,
We're gonna beat your arses
Straight off the map!
"After that short musical interlude . . ." began Remus but the Gryffindors weren't going to let that go without defending themselves.
We're just all that better
Why can't you face the facts?
So stop your bloody cheating,
You stupid, effin' twats!
It happened before anyone knew what was happening. Keith was flying towards the nearest Bludger, trying to get there before Cowell, the Slytherin Beater. Victorious, he cuffed the ball away from James towards Aitkin, but Cowell wasn't stopping. In fact, he zipped straight past Keith and brought up his Beater's bat in a great swing, missing the Gryffindor's head by inches.
There was a splintering sound in the pitch, and a good six inches off the front of Keith's broomstick spun away across the stands where it was claimed by a Gryffindor second year in the seventh row.
Lily watched in horror as Keith now had no control over his broomstick whatsoever. The broomstick itself seemed panicked, like a headless chicken and after a perilous moment or two of unsuccessfully trying to get to the ground, Keith was turned sideways and jerked off his Cleansweep Three, knocking into the nearby Slytherin goalpost and sliding down to the grass. Despite his attempts at escape, Keith was quickly taken under the care of Madam Pomfrey who pronounced his nose broken and his emotional welfare in shock.
On the pitch, all hell was breaking loose. Cowell was retaining that he was only aiming for the Bludger with his bat and that Keith had just gotten in the way.
"Don't even try it!" James hollered furiously, "if he hadn't have gotten out of the way, you would have killed him!"
The captain had to be satisfied with a shot at the Slytherin goals and the force with which James hurled the Quaffle through the hoop actually made Snape move out of the way of the shot.
"After that the score is now thirty ten," Remus told the crowd, "but Gryffindor is now two players short and if that doesn't affect their game, I'll eat this microphone."
Predictably, Remus did not have to eat his microphone because in the next ten minutes, Slytherin scored three times and Gryffindor only once, equalising the points at forty all. James began to despair and Lily searched all the harder for the Snitch.
Having a hard time beating alone, Sirius took it as a personal triumph when he intercepted a Bludger that was heading for Verity, who was nearing the Slytherin goals with the Quaffle.
"Hooch shoots! And finds a place for the Quaffle in the middle hoop!" The Gryffindor banners in the crowd waved enthusiastically, but their owners' cheers quickly turned to gasps as they watched what was happening to their Chaser. Victorious, Verity had taken both hands off her broom while she flew back towards the centre of the pitch. Suddenly, one of the opposing team's Chasers had made a grab for the tail of her broom and because Verity had no hands on her own handle, the broom stopped dead.
Sadly, the same could not be said for Verity. She continued to move at fifty miles an hour, straight off the end of her broom and tumbling head first into the stands.
There then came a stream of uncharacteristic swearing from the commentator's box along with the furious sound of Professor McGonagall's voice in the background.
"Mr Lupin! Such language will not be tolerated at public school matches! Watch your mouth or you'll find yourself in detention for a week!"
"Sorry, Professor," came a mutter from the background, then Remus turned back to the microphone. "Move out of the way there! Let those people through!"
Lily watched anxiously as Madam Pomfrey and her volunteers fought their way through the crowd to where a Ravenclaw fifth year was helping Verity to stand up. It quickly became apparent that the Chaser was not about to be let back on the field by the way she limped on her left knee that was bent at a rather peculiar angle. Once she had gotten down from the stands she had a brief argument with the school nurse.
"I expressly forbid it! We need to get that knee looked at!"
"It's Quidditch Played on broomsticks! What do I need my leg for?"
It was a refusal from James to let her back onto his team that finally got her taken off the Hospital Wing though, and Lily's anger soared as she turned away and resumed her search. She now saw what they were trying to do. They were trying to pick the Gryffindors off one by one before she caught the Snitch or Gryffindor could get ahead by one hundred and fifty points.
"It's an hour into the game and already Gryffindor are two Chasers and one Beater down, trailing behind in the score with sixty points to Slytherin's one hundred and fifty, who would have thought their luck would turn so ugly after two spectacular wins earlier this year?"
At around this time, James had started wishing for anyone, anything to save the match or alternatively the lives of his remaining players. The Slytherins were playing such an aggressive game that he was beginning to think he, Ainsley, Sirius and Lily were playing to stay alive, not just to win the game. He was only thankful that Lily had managed to avoid being fouled. If his team lost their Seeker . . .
If he lost Lily . . .
Next to go was Ainsley. Sirius suddenly realised that he couldn't see any Bludgers. Lily spotted them, bizarrely being restrained in the arms of both the Slytherin Beaters, who were struggling to keep a hold of them.
"Watch out, Ainsley!" Lily screamed, but Ainsley only turned around to see the Beaters letting go of the Bludgers and batting them hard towards him.
He had to be commended really, James thought. He did manage to dodge the first bludger very skilfully. Unfortunately, the second one snapped his broomstick in half, and sent him straight down onto the grass below.
By now, James was beginning to think that he must have done something terrible in his past life, like cheated thousands of witches and wizards out of their savings as chief executive of Gringotts or dumped thousands of tonnes of sewage into Mermish waters. This was the only explanation for why all the players on his team were being violently thrown out of action and Gryffindor was down by one hundred and thirty points. Perhaps he had died as Grindlewald and come back as James Potter?
Now, as well as having to do the jobs of three Chasers, he had to stretch himself to do that of the Keeper as well. He rushed to save the Quaffle from going through the Gryffindor goals and surveyed the pitch. Three Chasers and the Keeper against him, advancing aggressively, looking as if they would gladly have Gryffindor with no Chasers at all. Resorting to unorthodox methods, James tossed the Quaffle lightly into the air and swung the handle of his Hurricane 5 up to met it. Cupping his hand above his eyes, James squinted at the arc that the Quaffle made as it sailed over all the Slytherin Chasers to the other end of the pitch. Snape only noticed the Quaffle whizzing towards him half a second before it fell through the middle hoop.
James hoped there was nothing in the rules that said he couldn't do that.
"After a quick flick through the five, ten inch-thick volumes of the rules of Quidditch" Remus told the crowd, "Professor McGonagall has decided that the tactic you just witnessed has never been attempted and consequently, there is no rule preventing it. Score stands at eighty points to one hundred and fifty."
Sirius was laughing his head off.
"I bet you never saw that one coming, did you, Snivellus?" he hollered, spinning his Beater's bat between his fingers. He turned away and prepared to shoot off, in pursuit of a Bludger, but Snape had drifted up behind him. Raising the Quaffle above his head, the Slytherin brought it down onto the tail of Sirius's broomstick with such furious force that the broomstick tipped backwards and catapulted its owner clean off.
Now not only was the commentator swearing, but his supervisor was right there with him, snatching the pointed hat off her tight bun and flinging it down onto the floor in fury.
As Mr Richards awarded James five more fouls, the captain took deep breath after deep breath in a bid to stop himself maiming Snape. To distract himself from actions decent wizards would never approve of, he called a time out.
As he and Lily landed on the grass and ran towards each other, he could sense the Slytherins down the other end of the pitch laughing at him.
Lily felt her heartstrings stretch painfully at the sight of the Head Boy. He was pale as new parchment and shaking slightly. After shifting from foot to foot, wondering what to do, Lily's arms darted round James's shoulders and she squeezed him for a moment. James squeezed her back.
"You all right?" Lily asked quietly, pulling back and swapping her broomstick from one hand to the other nervously.
James glanced to the side and took a deep breath.
"Look, Lilo," he said. "Honestly . . . I think we're pretty buggered. Right now I think we should just give it to them and hope for a rematch."
"What?" asked Lily, taking a small step forward. "But . . . but this is our last game! We've been practicing for this all year! We can't give up now! We can still win it!"
"Seriously Lily, as a captain who's been playing for the best part of six years, I'm telling you the truth; our chances are a million to one," James told her sincerely, shrugging in a hopeless way. "You know normally I'd be playing 'till we get beaten fair and square, but frankly, this game is as fair as a pixie against a troll and about as square as this Quaffle. Maybe I'd be able to put up with it if we didn't have five players in the Hospital Wing, but if kicking off again means you getting hurt, then . . . really, I'd rather forfeit. . . . Lilo?"
But Lily was not looking at him. Her face was turned towards him, but she was watching something very carefully out of the corner of her eye. Opening her mouth slightly, she reached forward and clasped James's arm.
"Don't look now," she said in a low voice, "but I see the Snitch."
"What?" asked James. "You're kidding! Are you sure?"
"More positive than an 'O' in Charms," Lily replied. For the slimmest moment, her emerald eyes flicked to his face. "Look, you said that you put me on the team because you believed I could do it. Well, right now, I believe I can do it. Trust me. Call a time in, and you and I will show those Slytherins that even with two players against seven cheating ones, we can boot their arses from here to there."
James hesitated. He looked at the amount of suppressed excitement on Lily's face, saw her little finger twitching around the body of her Nimbus. The way she was holding his arm told him that he and she were in it together. He had the feeling that it was they against everyone else. He was amazed how much that feeling meant to him.
He closed his eyes and released a breath.
"All right, I hereby certify myself officially insane . . . and call a time in."
"Yes!" Lily hissed. Then she jumped up and pecked him on the cheek.
James blinked.
"Hey!" Lily shouted to Mr Richards, "time in!"
The ref reflected for a moment that it was only the captain who could call a time in, but dismissed this regulation since everyone who wasn't captain currently made up fifty per cent of the Gryffindor team.
"Ready to resume play!" he called, raising the whistle to his lips. Everyone remounted their broomsticks. Lily tried to watch the Snitch without looking directly at it.
"And the whistle signals play to continue!" announced Remus. "Gryffindor in possession, Potter to take five more fouls. There's Evans with a quick start off the field. Good Merlin, she's really going for it! Wow, look at her go! Zabini's tailing her, and . . . my word, was that the Snitch?"
Lily could feel the air current behind her as she cut through the sky, flying faster than she'd ever flown before. The little golden ball was humming high in the air near the Ravenclaw part of the stands. Upon her advance, Lily could have sworn she heard it emit a tiny squeal of terror before it darted off in the opposite direction to her.
There was a whoosh behind her, and she knew Zabini was close, trying to overtake her. She wasn't worried though, she was getting closer and closer and however much the tiny Snitch jerked this way and that in front of her, she was sure she was going to catch it. It seemed close enough to touch.
Every drop of adrenaline inside her spirit forced its way up her arm as she stretched out her fingers . . .
Lily felt herself jerk as her broomstick slowed down abruptly. The Snitch spun far out of reach as Lily's spine lashed forwards, as if she was on the Knight Bus and it had braked in a split second to let a hedgehog cross the road.
"Hey!" she screamed, twisting around to see none other than Darius Zabini holding onto the tail of her broomstick for dear life.
"Without a quick flick through the five, ten inch-thick volumes of the rules of Quidditch, I can tell you all now: that is against the rules!" Remus ranted heatedly.
Lily paid no attention. She paid no attention to the way thousands in the crowd were standing up in protest. She paid no attention to Mr Richards blowing his whistle like a steam engine going full throttle. She paid no attention to the Slytherin Seeker doing his best to stop her winning this watch.
No one was going to stop her catching the Snitch, no one was going to stop winning the match and above all else, no one was going to stop her winning this match for James.
The only thing she noticed was that the Snitch was less than a metre away. With all the rushing in her head, there was absolutely no room at all for fear.
She only slammed her palms down on the handle, hoisted her feet up onto the broom, stood up on her Nimbus One Thousand and leapt clean off into thin air as she curled both hands round for the Snitch.
a/n Ouch. So, yes, in honour of this momentous cliffie, I have composed a short poem. Here it is:
I am evil
Evil I am
Am I evil?
Yes, I am.
Thank you. Now to business.
everblue3: It does make sense! Often I feel as though I need a central theme for many of my stories or else they end up completely rubbish and not worth more than three prawns to a vegetarian. I have NO TIME but when I do, I WILL read your stories, I will, I will!
snazzysnez: Well, I suppose now you can't wait for the end of the match, hm?
FrighteningyObsessed: What? snorts The entire fic is about Quidditch! There have been like two matches and some practices and the whole business about James teaching Lily to fly . . . Where have you been for this entire fic?
switchfootlover: I was wondering where Gred and Forge had gone.
charbar: I DID notice how prompt you were with the review! I got the email and I thought, 'Hm, Char is on the ball.' . . .
naidel: . . . unlike KT, who I had to TELL that the new chappy was up. Nevermind, she got ice cream out of it, which is what really counts. Now I've started to talk about you in the third person. Well, you will rule the world some day. It's like the royal 'we'.
Thunder's Shadow: I dunno, I think the next chapter will be the last chapter. At least, I don't have any more to write after that. Thanks for reviewing, and I hope you get a holiday soon.
Miss Lady Marauder: Haha, I'm glad you're happy. Thanks for the review!
The Big Dance: What? Of COURSE we can obsess over fictional characters! Do you KNOW how many hours I have wished to just walk up to that adorable Mr Bingley and just give him a hug?
GlassBroomstick: I think he was definitely asleep. If he wasn't, he'd be in a somewhat more joyous state than, you know . . . asleep. :D
Flame Of Desire: Thanks for the note, see you next chapter!
WeatherbysWitterings: Thank you for trying to type out everything again, after your cruel computer caused you such suffering. That happens to me all the time. I type up three quarters of a chapter and the computer eats it and I want put bullet holes in the monitor. Grr. I'm really glad you liked so many things in the chapter, especially Gareth and Trev, they have a special place in my heart, those two.
shortywithbrains: You're so right, Remus is just too cool for school. Sadly, I can't afford not to pay attention in class anymore. Bloody exams, they'll never take me alive!
mika-mitch: Ugh, never ending stories . . . just the thought makes me feel ill. Don't even worry about it, I suppose there might be more stories after this one. Maybe I'll even write a serious one?
MissMrprk:D. I love this whole conversation by facial expressions thing we've got going on here, by the way.
supergirl: Cheers, my dears.
Elspeth Renee: Thank you so much, I'll try, although I'm making no promises.
limbo-gal: It's one of my greatest fears, getting lynch-mobbed.
Red-Emerald: Thank you for understanding. I DO need to buckled down and do some work, or I will not pass these exams and then I will have to write ff for a living and . . . let's face it, no one would be all that willing to pay for this.
raj: Your compliments never cease to amaze me.
kiwislushie: Haha, I'm glad you like the chapter. I hope plot bunnies don't become an endangered species or anything.
geckaclark: I love the teasing, mainly because I engage in a lot of it myself.
Tsusetsu: My Head of Year is this woman who considers herself in charge of our educational well being. We're supposed to tell her if we're having 'trouble at home' or if we're slitting our wrists or anything. Typically, she is the last person I would ever go to if I were slitting my wrists.
Sushinase: No problem, thanks for reviewing!
HarryluvsMoaningMyrtle: Gasp I can't believe you called Gareth and Trev dumb! Why would you think that? I never suggested anything along those lines. Not everyone who talks with a South London accent is stupid. Plus, the last thing I suggested was that the Hufflepuffs were dumb. Look at Ernie Macmillen, he's about as ponsey as they come. I honestly have no idea where you got that from.
fish30: OK
soccerchic1989: Why are you and this guy Adam not together? I think it would be fun; at least you can still be friends after. End of annoying advice.
slippersRfuzzy: Thank you so much, I'm glad you came round to the story.
hazeled eye marauder: Good, I'm glad!
Lady of Masbolle: Hmm, sorry about the cliffie. I hope you enjoyed the chapter nonetheless.
The ORIGINAL Meathead: Yeah, put it up as a one shot. Could you just say that the situation was based on my story? That would be great, cheers.
Cracker Jack: Oh, gosh. I'm very glad you liked the story, and that you stuck at it until your mother though of calling medical aid. Well done.
milky way bar: Haha, you're so easily amused.
The all mighty and powerfulM: I adore your name, thanks very much for the review.
ArekuKatari: I think they're quite near the end of the school year, probably about May-ish?
newsieduckling: It's harsh, but true. :D
Tracey: Right now I am writing somewhere around the midnight hours, since I actually have to concentrate in class. Send my regards to Frodo.
Laney-Wood: Thank you very much, chicken.
Deni: Thank you for reviewing so many chapters! Respect.
im LOVING it: I shall, although sadly not for long. See you next chapter.
Next Chappy:
. . . is the last chapter, so of course I can't tell you anthing about what happens, especially after such an ending to this one. Winks.
