Chapter 5: Opposites Attract
"QUIDDITCH TIME! WOOOO"--
"James, Shut up!" Sirius groaned from underneath his covers.
"Get up! Come on, we've got tryouts! PADFOOT!"
"Ok, I'm up, I'm up! Geez, don't get your boxers in a knot Jamie.."
"Oh shit, I've got to wake up Alice…man, how am I going to get to their dorms?" A light bulb seemed to go off in his head, as he ran to grab some of his school books and took off. Soon Sirius could hear loud thumping noises coming from the bottom of the stairs. As he stretched out and pulled a t-shirt over his head, Sirius stepped outside the boys' dormitory and came down the stairs, only to see James at the foot of the stairs that led to the girls' dormitory, chucking books at the door.
"You're brilliant, Prongs, you know that?" Sirius said, leaning against the wall and letting out a yawn.
Just as James chucked his last book, the door swung open, and a very angry Dominique stood at the entrance.
"What the hell do you think you're doing, Potter!"
"Hey, can you get Alice, we've got tryouts!"
"She's just gotten up! Tryouts for what?"
"Quidditch of course!"
"You have quidditch here!"
"yea, didn't they have it at your school?"
"No! Oh my gosh! Can I try out? I've got a broom!"
"Yea sure, be my guest…you and Alice meet me up at the quidditch pitch in 10 minutes, but no later, got that?"
"yea, sure" and with that, Dominique slammed the door shut. James turned to Sirius, who was still leaning against the wall, but his eyes were open now and he looked fully awake. "Boy, she looks good when she's mad"
"C'mon Padfoot," James said, rolling his eyes, "let's wait for them on the pitch."
Dominique ran to the bathroom door and began banging on it. "Alice, are you done yet? Hurry up!" Just then the door swung open, and Alice appeared at the entrance dressed in gray sweats.
"What's the rush?" Alice asked, pulling her broom from underneath her bed.
"I'm trying out too!"
"No way! Are you for real? Oh cool, what position?"
"Seeker I guess, I'm used to that position"—
"James is seeker you know, you'll have to go up against him"—
"Ugh, what are you guys rambling about?" Lily said groggily. She had just lifted herself out of bed and began rubbing her eyes.
"Quidditch tryouts! Dominique's trying out too!" Alice said excitedly.
"Really? Oh cool! Well, good luck to you guys"—
"hey, why don't you come and watch?" Alice asked.
"Eh, I dunno"—
"Come on, breakfast isn't for another 2 hours….what else are you going to do, go back to sleep?"
"Mmm…good idea…" Lily said, making a move to get back into bed.
"No…come on, we can use the support, come and watch us!" Alice said, dragging Lily by the arm and pushing her into the bathroom.
A few minutes later, Lily emerged from the bathroom, wearing bellbottom jeans and was in the process of buttoning up her white collared shirt.
"K, let's get a move on, I still needa use the bathroom!" said Dominique, rushing past Lily and slamming the door.
"Hey should we wake up Kierra, see if she wants to come? Otherwise when she wakes up and sees none of us here"—
"Good point, let's see if we can get her up…" Alice walked over to Kierra's bedside and nudged her gently.
"mphmmm…" Kierra gave a muffled moan from underneath her covers.
Lily giggled and came over to Kierra as well and began to nudge her a little harder. "Kierra…wake up!"—
"Oh Remus, don't stop…" Kierra said in a soft, muffled voice, causing Lily and Alice to jump back.
"Oh God…" Alice said with exasperation, "let's just leave alone…let her finish up her dream…"
"Good idea" Lily replied, "we'll just leave her a note." Just then, the bathroom door opened again and Dominique came out, wearing blue shorts and a white t-shirt.
"Ok, I'm ready! Oh hey, should we wake up Kierra and"—
"NO!" shouted Lily and Alice together, taking a few steps forward to keep Dominique from nearing Kierra.
"She's uh…having a really nice dream right now, it would be cruel of us to disturb her…" said Alice.
"Er"—
"She was getting lucky with Remus, do I have to say any more?"
"No, no…that's fine, ok let's just go then!" Dominique said quickly, grabbing her own broom, and heading out the door, followed by Lily and Alice.
5 minutes later, everyone had assembled onto the quidditch pitch and were sitting on the soft grass, chatting. Finally, James whistled to get everyone's attention. "Good morning fellow Gryffindors, I am very pleased to see so many eager faces this morning for tryouts! This year, we have two open spots, one for beater, and the other one for keeper. Of course, those of you who wish to, may challenge the current team members for their spots, which include the seeker, which would be myself, our other beater, Sirius Black, and our two chasers, Alice and Frank. The other current team members will evaluate those who wish to challenge the team mates. So, for example, if someone wanted to challenge me, Frank, Alice and Sirius would judge you. Got it? Well, without further adui, go ahead and line up behind the respective person whose position you are seeking."
"Bravo Jamie! Excellent speech! A-1!
"Oh shut up Sirius"
All the contenders began to line up behind Frank and Alice, and a few behind Sirius, while two more lines formed for the other beater position and keeper position. No one, however, dared to stand behind James. The only one who hadn't lined up yet was Dominique.
"Dominique, were you planning on trying out or what?" James called over at her.
"I don't know which position to try for"—
"What?" James strode over to Dominique and stood only a few inches away from her, "What do you mean, did you just come prancing down here, thinking you could just try out for whatever! Don't you have a specific position you play!"
"um, James, calm down" Sirius said.
"Well, I'm used to being seeker, but seeing as you play the position"—
"Well you're welcome to challenge me" James said cockily, running a hand through his hair.
"I would, but then I'd kick your ass and embarrass you in front of Lily" Dominique answered just as cockily, pointing a finger at Lily who sat in the bleachers nearby. "You know, I've never played keeper before, I think I'll try out for that"—
"What? You've never played keeper? Then there's no sense in trying out for it! This is a serious game Dominique"
"Or my name isn't Sirius!" chimed Sirius, "Ok, I'm gonna be quiet now…"
"No shit James. I can play serious."
"Why would you wanna play me, Dominique?" Sirius laughed, "Oh right, I'm done" he said quickly, as James shot him a glare.
"Well I'm trying out for keeper. Now if you'd be so kind as to get out of my way, you're blocking the line". Dominique said, walking around James, and lining up behind the other contending keepers.
"Ooh James, she told you!"
"I thought you said you were gonna be quiet" James said, turning to Sirius.
"ehh…"
As the tryouts progressed, James paid close attention to Dominique. He hated to admit it, but she was good. He just couldn't believe that she had never played keeper before. She played as if she had been playing the position for years. Though he hadn't yet seen the other prospective players, he had a feeling that she was a keeper (heehee…pun..yea, corny I know…lol).
Sirius watched Dominique block almost every quaffle that came her way. She was pretty good. Best he'd ever seen actually. He mounted his broom and flew up to Dominique, who had just rebounded yet another quaffle.
"Hey D! Er, can I call you that?"
"yea, sure"
"You're really good! I must say, I'm quite impressed! But let me show you some other techniques in blocking, that might help out a little." With that, Sirius took over the posts and showed Dominique how to use the end of her broom to block off incoming quaffles.
"Here now you try" he said, giving her way to the posts.
As the next quaffle came hurtling towards Dominique, she whacked it back into the direction it came from with the butt of her broom, just as Sirius had shown her.
"Excellent!" Sirius shouted, "you're a fast learner! Well, good luck with the rest of tryouts!" Sirius said, smacking her butt as he flew past her. "Oh! Sorry about that! Habit with the guys, you know…" Sirius said quickly.
"Oh…no its ok" Dominique answered, laughing.
Sirius grinned as he flew towards the ground. 'habit with the guys, my ass…I wouldn't smack James' ass if he paid me!' Just then, Sirius' thoughts were interrupted by an annoyingly loud chuckle.
"I can't believe Dominique let you do that to her…habit with the guys? Please! You wouldn't smack my ass if I paid you, would you Sirius?" And with that, James bent over, smacking his butt, inviting Sirius to hit it.
"Aren't you supposed to be running tryouts, James?"
"Oh, right!" and with that, James took off on his broom.
An hour later, tryouts finally came to an end, and James had picked out his new players. "Well, I want to thank you all for coming. First of all, all of our current players will remain. But our open spots have been filled as follows: Out other beater will be Kyle Watson, and out keeper will be Dominique Fiore."
"Wait to go D!" Sirius pulled her into a big hug, lifting her a few inches off the ground in the process. Of course, James couldn't resist an opportunity to vex his best friend, so he jumped on both of them and screamed at the top of his lungs, "YAY FOR QUIDDITCH! I'M SO HAPPY GUYS!"
"Dude, James, get off of me! I'm not Lily!"
"Hey!" Lily shouted. She had just walked over to join them to hear who got picked.
Sirius turned to Dominique and took her hand. "Why don't we celebrate"—
"hey yea cool sounds like fun!"
"Uh, James, I was sorta thinking just the two of us"
"Sirius! Look, I know we like to joke about these things, but not in front of the ladies!"
"No! I meant just me and D"
"Just me and you?" Dominique piped up.
"Er yea…call it our first real date, if you will" Sirius smiled. "How about the next Hogsmead trip?"
"Love to!"
"Awww…" came the voices of James and Lily in unison, though there was a note of sarcasm in James' voice. They looked at each other at once; James smiled at Lily, while she in return only grimaced and then stalked off, followed by James at her heels. "Lily wait for me! LILY!" When he finally caught up with her, he grabbed her by the arm to keep her from going further, "Lily, please…why don't you give me a chance? Let me take you out on a date this weekend, at Hogsmead. I promise I'll be a perfect gentleman!" James pleaded with her, making sure to pout to bring out his puppy eyes. 'Damn those eyes' Lily thought, 'they make him look even cuter…' "Oh fine"—
"WOOOHOO! SIRIUS! SIRIUS! GUESS WHAT? LILY SAID YES! WOOHOO!" and James did cartwheels all the way down to the castle.
Back in the castle, while tryouts had still been going on, Kierra had just rolled out of bed. "Er, guys?" she asked uncertainly, looking around at the empty beds. She suddenly spotted a piece of parchment laying on her nightstand. It read: 'Alice and D are gone to quidditch tryouts, I went to watch them. Be back in time for breakfast. Love, Lily'. Kierra looked at the clock that hung on the wall, which read 8:00 A.M. 'Well, breakfast has started, they should be coming soon' Kierra thought as she went to the bathroom to freshen up.
Twenty minutes later, Kierra headed down the stairs, through the common room, and out the portrait hole, to the Great Hall. When she entered, she saw that it was pretty empty. It was Saturday morning, after all, most students slept in and didn't come down to breakfast until 9 or 10. As Kierra made her way to the Gryffindor table, she looked around for her classmates in her year to sit with. However, the only ones she found were Remus and Peter. 'Should I…?' Kierra thought. However, matters were taken out of her hands when Peter looked up and spotted her. He waved happily at her and motioned for her to join them. Kierra gulped and waved back.
"Hey, morning guys!" Kierra said, taking a seat next to Peter.
"Hey" Remus said, helping himself to a blueberry muffin. "Where are your friends?"
"Oh, Alice and Dominique are in tryouts, Lily went to watch"
"Oh, Dominique's trying out? For what position?"
"No idea."
"You didn't want to watch?"
"Er..I was asleep when they left, so either they didn't bother to get me up, or they just couldn't wake me up…probably the latter" Kierra said.
"Ah, I see" Remus replied, not sounding too interested.
"Hey Kierra, do you have your history essay on you?" Peter asked.
"yea, hold on, let me pull it out of my ass" Kierra said sarcastically, but smiling at Peter. "No I don't have it. It's Saturday, shoot I haven't even started it Peter!" Kierra stole a quick glance at Remus to see his reaction to her, and to her surprise, he was smiling slightly, and looking down, seemingly not wanting to further embarrass Peter by laughing at him.
Just then, a loud clap of thunder came from outside, causing both Kierra and Peter to jump a little. Remus however, hadn't seemed startled at all by the sudden boom, but only smiled when he saw the two getting scared, causing Kierra in return, to turn a but pink from embarrassment at being scared so easily.
"Hope they're finishing up soon. They'll be soaked otherwise" Kierra said, looking out the window.
"Nah, we got in before the rain even started!" James announced as he came up behind them. "And now, let me introduce to you, our new keeper…." James stopped when he saw Frank whip out his wand, and taking Alice's, started a drumroll with them against the table.
"Dominique Fiore!" Sirius shouted, picking her up and hoisting her on his shoulders, causing her to give a small scream.
"Hey way to go D!" Kierra cheered, getting up. "Sirius put her down!" Kierra shouted, helping Dominique to get back on the ground, and pulling her into a hug. "Good job!"
"Thanks!"
"Congratulations Dominique!" Remus said, getting up as well. "Thanks Remus!" she said, taking him by surprise by brushing a kiss across his cheek.
"G-gg-good job Dominique!" Peter squealed. "Thanks!"
"Hey, who's the other beater?" Remus asked.
"Oh, Tyler Watson. I think he'll do a good job. Big, tall guy—what?" James turned to Lily, Dominique, Kierra, and Alice, who were all giggling.
"Nothing…" Lily said quickly, smirking at the girls.
"Oh geez, they think he's cute" Remus said, rolling his eyes.
"OHH OOH GUYS!" James shouted, startling everyone around him.
"James, this isn't a group orgy"—Sirius said irritably.
"Shut up Padfoot! AAAH GUYS GUESS WHAT?" He said, turning to Remus and Peter, "Lily and I are an item!"
"Oh my"—Kierra started, looking at Lily, most amused.
"We are NOT an item! And we never will be one if you act like that Potter!" Lily snapped. "We're just going on a date. That's it." She said with finality, as she sat down for breakfast.
"I just can't believe you finally said yes to him" Kierra laughed, as the girls sat leisurely in the common room. "After all these years…"
"I know…this is a wretched beginning" Lily smiled slightly at her friends.
"What made you finally say yes?" Dominique asked.
"I don't know…I mean, I've always thought he was cute…but an asshole…I dunno…I guess the way he looked today when he asked…he looked almost desperate" Lily laughed a little, remembering how James had asked her out. "But he seemed to…nice…and sincere when he asked, I thought, ok, maybe I'll just give him this one chance, you know? Maybe I've been wrong about him…and he's really a nice guy…so, I'm just going on this one date to test him out, I guess." Lily said, getting up. "Well, I've got to lead a prefects meeting with Potter. I'll see you guys in a bit" and with that, Lily went through the portrait hole, leaving Alice, Kierra and Dominique sitting on the couch together. But soon, Kierra got up as well and turned to go. "I've got to meet Peter in the library.." she said, rolling her eyes with disgust. "Wants me to help him with our history of magic paper…urgh…I hope he doesn't try anything on me" she muttered as she left, making Alice and Dominique laugh.
"Well, what do you say about Lily and James? Think it'll last?" Alice asked.
"With some difficulty, I'm sure. But yes, I think it will" Dominique smiled.
"Funny, how she's been so anti-James all these years, and suddenly she's willing to go out with him…and who'd ever thought those two…such opposites…" Alice commented.
"Well, opposites often do attract each other." Dominique said, smiling.
"What are you grinning about?"
"Oh, I couldn't help but notice what opposites Kierra and Remus are…"
"Are you suggesting that they'll get together? I mean, I'd love for them to…I want Kierra to be happy…but you think it's likely? She liked him all last year...Remus has either not picked up on it yet, or he's just not interested..."
"Well, guys are slow...and Kierra's pretty good about keeping her crush a secret... but I'll be very much surprised if it doesn't happen soon."
"But…they don't get along that great…I mean, well since the first day of school, you know, with Kierra hexing him…I mean, he's polite to her…but just polite…no more than that…"
"yea…I know…but that can be fixed…he just needs to notice her a bit more…."
"Do you have a plan?" Alice asked, cocking an eyebrow at Dominique.
"Sort of…I think it'll take a bit of effort from us to get her and Remus together…But it'll be worth it. They'd do great together. Remus needs a girl like her. He's so calm and quiet…a bit predictable sometimes…and Kierra…well, she's just the opposite…loud, emotional, she has much more energy and stuff…he could use someone like her to lighten himself up a bit…"
"Well, what's your plan?" Alice asked again.
"Oh well, I think Kierra needs to learn that love is just a little game, and we needa show her how to play to her strengths. As soon as she comes back from the library, and Lily comes back from her meeting, we'll draw out the game plan" Dominique said, as she and Alice headed back to their dormitory to wait for the girls.