"She's good," Rebecca remarked as she and Sirius watched Lily on their brooms. Lily was practicing moves with the other two Chasers against Adam while Matt searched for the Snitch. "It looks like she's been playing with them for years."
"Not half-bad looking either…" Sirius commented, half under his breath.
"Who, James?" Rebecca asked in a deceptively innocent tone.
Sirius shot her a look. "No, Evans."
"Better not let Figg hear you say that," Rebecca warned. "If she hears you talking like that, she'll hex you into next Tuesday."
He snorted dismissively. "As if I'm worried about-look out!" he yelled as a Bludger came whooshing towards them.
Rebecca slammed it with her club and the Bludger zoomed away.
"Oy, you two!" Adam yelled at them. "Get your heads out of the clouds and come down here to protect us from these blasted balls of death!"
Laughing, the two rejoined the rest of the team, minus Matt, who was still looking for the Snitch.
" 'Bout bloody time," James grumbled. "Was wondering when you'd get around to doing your jobs."
"James!" Lily called out, waving her arm.
"Right," James said and threw the Quaffle to her. She feinted to the right, then scored.
"Bloody brilliant!" Sirius called out.
Adam lightly tossed the ball to Melissa. "You'd better watch it, Evans," he said good-naturedly, "or else you'll make me look bad."
"She doesn't need to do that, Walsh," Melissa told him. "You do just fine proving it on your own."
An 'oooh' rose from the other team members.
"She got you good," James told them.
"Don't I know it," Adam muttered. "Wait a minute-was that the Snitch?"
"Where?" Rebecca demanded, looking around.
"Watch it, Matt!" Melissa scolded as Matt zoomed by, forcing the team to scatter.
"Sorry," Matt called back. "Just doing my job-now where did that thing go?"
"Since when is your job knocking us off our brooms?" Sirius grumbled.
Lily grinned at that, and James noted with a bit of surprise that seeing her smile made his stomach do some rather interesting flip-flops.
"And speaking of knocking people off their brooms," Rebecca yelled, "here come the Bludgers!"
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
When practice was over, James called everyone down to the ground. He grinned as they landed. "All I can say is, Slytherin had better be worried."
"Worried?" Sirius snorted. "Why, they ought to be quaking in their robes."
"Especially considering how we trounced them last year," Melissa remarked.
Adam had a far-away smile on his face. "Ah, the highest moment of my life…next to watching the entire Slytherin team being chewed out by their Head of House, of course."
The team chuckled at that, and then James noticed the stunned and furious look on Matt's face.
"What is it, Matt?"
Matt pointed towards the stands. "The Slytherins…they're here."
The team whirled around to see two second-year Slytherins trying to sneak away undetected.
"Hey, you! Stop!" Sirius bellowed, and he, James, Adam and Matt ran off after the two spies.
The girls were furious. "Just wait 'till I get my hands on those stinkin'-" Rebecca muttered, grinding her teeth angrily.
"You'll have to take a number!" Lily said, feelign pretty murderous herself, and looking it.
Melissa shook her head, disgusted. "What they won't do to get ahead…"
A few minutes later, the boys returned, out of breath and extremely irritated.
"Almost caught them," James told the girls, breathing heavily. "But they had too much of a head start."
"And to make matters worse," Adam told them, "they had a camera. Evidently they were trying to-"
"-get pictures of me," Lily finished quietly, although her eyes were glittering with anger.
Adam nodded.
There was a pause.
Finally Sirius spoke up. "We could go to McGonagall, but without names-"
"I've got their names," Matt said. "I know those guys. They're in my Herbology class."
James nodded. "All right then. Matt and I'll go to McGonagall. The rest of you can hit the showers."
Her good mood destroyed, Lily walked to the locker room with Melissa and Rebecca. None of them said a word.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
"So, how'd it go?" Frank asked in the common room after Lily got back.
Lily sighed. "Okay. Until we spotted some Slytherin spies hidden in the bleachers. And they got away. Matt knows who they are, though, so he and James went to McGonagall."
"Slimy gits," Arabella muttered. Then she looked alarmed. "They didn't have a camera, did they, Lily?"
Lily, who had sunk into a chair, nodded wearily. "Yeah, they did." She smiled slightly. "But practicing with the team was fun. The three of us-James, Melissa and I- were really in synch. And I scored five goals." She smiled happily, and her friends smiled back.
"Glad you had fun, Lily," Arabella replied sincerely.
Frank stood up. "If you two ladies will excuse me, I have a study date."
Lily and Arabella both sat up in their seats upon hearing this. "A study date?" Bella echoed with interest. "With who?"
Frank flushed slightly. "Diane Winters."
"Diane Winters? That short, blonde, blue-eyed prefect from Hufflepuff?" Lily asked and Frank nodded.
"She asked me for some help in Herbology," Frank explained.
"Hmm," Lily murmered. "Interesting."
Frank looked at her warily. "What's interesting?" he asked suspiciously.
"Oh, nothing," Lily said with an air of practiced nonchalance.
"Lily-" Frank started, but Lily stood up and started ushering him to the portrait hole.
"Now, you don't want to be late for your-" she paused, "study date."
"Now don't say it like that," Frank objected, turning scarlet.
"Like what?" Lily asked, looking at him with big innocent green eyes. Butter wouldn't melt in her mouth.
"Like-like-like we're having a rendevous to conduct some steamy affair!" Frank said, trying to ignore the sniggers coming from the corner where the Marauders were either studying or planning some act of mayhem.
Lily pretended to be shocked. "Why, Frank, you naughty boy! Won't your mother be horrified to hear about this!" She shook her head, mockingly rebuking him. "Tsk, tsk. Whatever are we going to do with you?"
Frank glared at her, uncomfortably aware of of the fact that the other boys from his dormitory-namely the Marauders-were listening avidly, snickering to themselves.
"Lily," he hissed, but she wouldn't let him finish. With one final shove, she got him to the entrance.
"Bye," she said sweetly, waving at him. "Don't have too much fun now," she added with a wink, smirking broadly.
Frank gave her one last withering glare before climbing out of the portrait hole.
Lily walked back to Arabella, who was shaking with laughter. "That-that-was cruel," Bella gasped.
"Yeah," Lily admitted, then flashed her friend a wicked smile. "And so much fun."
Arabella, still giggling, asked, "By the way, what was so interesting?" Bella asked.
Lily's smile grew wider. "Oh, just that Diane Winters happens to be getting top marks in Herbology."
"But then why would she-ohh!" Arabella realized.
"Exactly," Lily said.
James walked over to them. "Talked to McGonagall." He sat on the arm rest of Lily's chair.
"What'd she say?" Lily asked.
James shrugged. "She'll talk to the students involved and their Head of House. She was almost madder than we were. Oh, and by the way, the first match of the season will be Hufflepuff vs. Ravenclaw."
Lily nodded. "That's probably a good thing. Gives us more time to practice and to see the opposition at work."
James grinned, changing the subject. "Couldn't help overhearing your conversation with Longbottom."
"And…"
"Just thought I should let you know that Sirius is probably going to torture him over that for a week," James replied, a gleam in his eye. "Maybe two."
Lily grinned at him. "Oooh. Remember to keep track of all the different shades of red that Frank's face turns into."
James gave her a mock-salute. "Will do."
Arabella was watching them with a mixture of horror and amusement. "You two are sick," she declared, shaking her head slightly.
"Thank you," Lily and James said, then burst out laughing.
Sirius wandered over to their corner. "Hey, Evans," he said cheerfully. She smiled back, inwardly congratulating herself on not blushing. Sirius's gaze then flickered over to Arabella, who was glaring at him balefully.
"Figg," Sirius said, his voice dripping with disdain.
"Black," Arabella replied, and if the disgust in her eyes was any indication, she didn't think that much of him either.
James and Lily stared at him in surprise. "What is with you two?" James demanded.
"Nothing," Arabella said loftily, going back to her book.
"What she said," Sirius replied.
James looked at Lily in exasperation. "D'you have any idea what's wrong with those two?"
Lily shook her head, equally annoyed with them. "Bella won't tell me what's going on." Sighing, she turned to her best friend and the guy she secretly fancied. "Don't you two think you should just let go of this silly feud and bury the hatchet?" Lily asked bessechingly.
Bella and Sirius looked at each other.
"No."
"Not at all."
Lily and James looked at each other, frustrated. "Stubborn, aren't they?" James commented.
Lily sat back in her chair and regarded the two, who were studiously pretending to ignore each other.
"Very," she replied.
A/N: Woo, that was fun. Especially the part with Lily and Frank…now, you know what'll make this story even better… REVIEWS!
