Chapter 11: Flowers and Flying

The beginning of term was basically as Derek had expected it. The few twists that were abnormal for this year had more to do with the N.E.W.T.s than they did with anything going wrong. The fact that nothing was really going wrong was by itself another thing slightly strange about the beginning of the year, but it was definitely something that Derek could take in stride.

As normal, Professor McGonagall walked up and down the Gryffindor table on the following Monday, handing out the schedules that everyone would have. The fact that Lily, James, Remus and Derek all had nearly identical schedules came as little surprise, to Lily's chagrin and James's poorly concealed delight. Derek was simply glad that he did not begrudge having to have many classes with James, though having several classes with Remus had never been a problem. Sarah ended up in quite a few of their classes (she had dropped Arithmancy and Potions), while Sirius had a similar amount (he had dropped Transfiguration and Potions, and never took Arithmancy in the first place). Peter was the odd one out of the group, only really sharing N.E.W.T. level Charms with the rest of his year.

After breakfast, Derek pulled Lily aside after the rest of the gang had started to go off to the first class (everyone was heading to Charms first). "Yes, Derek?" she asked.

"Remember our talk?" Derek asked back.

Lily nodded. "I do… obviously now's not a good time if then wasn't. Er…" Her face scrunched up in concentration.

"Say… we meet after dinner in the Common Room or the Library, depending on how much homework we get on the first day."

Lily smiled and nodded. "Deal. That sounds good." She then turned and walked out of the Great Hall, pushing past James, who had stopped at the door and was looking at Derek in a funny way.

"What?" Derek asked as he opened the door for him.

James stood there for a moment, before shaking his head as if to clear it and then walking through with a nod of thanks. "Nothing" is what he said, though Derek barely heard it.

Derek found his classes that day to be about as normal. Each teacher would, predictably, give a long speech on how training for N.E.W.T.s was about ten times harder than training for the O.W.L.s, and then proceeded to dump a large amount of homework on them. Thankfully, most of the homework was reading, but the strain was still piling up at an alarming rate. Alarming enough that Derek and Lily both assumed that the library was the best place to hold their meeting.

Unfortunately, it wasn't to be. After sitting down, Derek noticed that Snape was too close to their table in order for them to have a conversation such as that without being noticed, and since it would waste too much time (and look too suspicious) to immediately get up and return to Gryffindor Tower, Lily and Derek came to an unspoken agreement to postpone their meeting until the following night, under the same conditions.

After reading for about an hour or so, Derek stretched and looked around, and found James was walking towards them. Derek smiled and waved him over to the seat next to him, and James seemed more than happy to take him up on the offer, though Lily seemed a little perturbed about it. Enough perturbed to take that as an excuse to get up. James sagged when he realized that Lily was leaving.

"I'm hurt," he said quietly, trying to dodge the ire of Madam Pince, "you are leaving just because I arrived?"

"No," she replied tersely, "I'm done with the reading I have for tonight, and despite your constant protestations, not everything happens just because you did something!" She slammed the last book into her bag and stalked out of the library in a huff.

James looked over at Derek. "What's gotten into her?"

Derek merely shrugged.

It seemed that was how the meetings went. Lily and Derek would settle down with their homework and be ready to begin the conversation that Derek hoped would bring them out of the uneasy truce that they had kept ever since third year and into a friendship he was now eager to have. But then someone would walk too close for them to have the conversation at all. If it was anywhere outside of the Common Room, it was Snape, the greasy git, as Derek had begun to call him as well as the Marauders, but inside Gryffindor Tower there were just as many people that Derek didn't want to know anything about his predicament.

Particularly the younger years. And they were always around, asking Lily if she could help them with this or that, and Lily being Lily, there was no way that she could say no or send them away. So Derek ended up actually simply doing his homework, and Lily also ended up doing the same, and they compared notes at the end to make sure that Lily hadn't hurried through too fast and made a few mistakes she wouldn't have if she hadn't taken time to help the little ones.

Interestingly, James would also show up nine times out of ten, though he was never the reason that the conversation didn't happen. It might be awkward with him there, but he had heard the whole story before, and Derek didn't think it would be too traumatic for him to hear it again. But the interesting thing about James showing up was the fact that it was consistent. Whenever they met, James would eventually show up, and the only times that he didn't were when Lily and Derek met by chance and decided that the time was not right to start the conversation where they met.

However, things with James weren't exactly pristine. Derek had caught James glaring at him on more than one occasion, and denied that anything was wrong when approached. When Derek tried the other Marauders, Sirius was just as closed-mouthed, but it was obvious he knew something. For Peter, it was just as obvious that he didn't know anything, and his stuttering only made things more awkward for the poor boy. Remus however, was the one that Derek had the most hope in convincing.

"Remus!" Derek called.

Remus turned around and smiled as he waited for Derek to catch up to him on the stairway. When he had, he turned and started walking again, aware that Derek would keep up while they talked. "You bellowed, Derek?"

After smacking Remus upside the head for his remark, Derek said, "Hey, I have something serious to talk about." Remus simply nodded, his grin fading from his thin face. "I want to know what's gotten into James lately."

Remus turned to him, surprise written all over his face. "I have no idea what you're talking about."

"You're lying," Derek said confidently. Peter may not be able to pick up on things that happened with the other Marauders, and Derek knew that James and Sirius shared everything, but it was hard to put something past Remus. Remus Lupin had the best insight into other people of the kids in their year, except perhaps Lily. How accurate the two Gryffindor prefects were was basically frightening, and with an ability like that, Derek wasn't about to let him get away with the lie.

"No… I can't think of anything that is bother-"

"Codswallop, and you know it."

"Seriously! There isn't anything to say-"

"And you haven't talked your way out of plenty of detentions with such acting," Derek countered smugly, "The difference is I'm your friend and I know that you know what's going on with your other friend. So spill it!"

Remus sighed, finally defeated. "Why does it matter?"

Derek stopped on the stair he was standing on, and Remus took a few more steps before he realized it, and he turned around to face his friend. "What? 'Why does it matter?' It matters because for some reason that I can't fathom, a new friend of mine is becoming colder and colder to me as the year wears on! I want to know what he has under his skin, and neither he nor Sirius is talking."

Remus took a deep breath and let it out noisily. "I can't tell you." When Derek opened his mouth to protest, Remus held up a hand to stop him. "Marauder's Oath and all on it. I can't tell you; only James can, because it's his secret, and that's all I can tell you about it."

So, despite the hope that he had had that Remus would be able to shed some light on the situation, it turned out that his hands were tied, and Derek would have to return to bothering James about it. But he couldn't bother James about it anytime soon, because the Quidditch tryouts were approaching. Approaching very quickly, and Derek thanked Merlin that he and James had long figured out how to put aside their feelings for each other and be teammates on the pitch. At least that meant that the Quidditch tryouts would go as smoothly if they were friends or had a rift at the time.

Though, for the first time, Derek felt that it made a difference to him somewhere inside.

Two days before the scheduled tryouts, Sirius pulled Derek aside after a particularly nasty Charms lesson. Though they were all tired after expending a lot of energy in performing the Bubble-Head Charm, which had the added effect of making them dizzy. Sirius dismissed the rest of the Marauders, and Derek told Sarah, Helga and Lily that he'd be fine. Sirius waited until the rest of their year was out of sight before beginning.

"James is upset," he stated.

"I'd noticed," was Derek's dry reply.

"Look, he's upset because…" Sirius sighed, he obviously found this hard to say. "because of all the time you're spending with Lily."

Derek scrunched up his nose. "What does that have to do with anything? I thought all that bravado about asking her out continually was just because she's practically the only girl that has ever said no."

Sirius winced. "It started like that, Derek. Look, I'm not really supposed to tell you this, but I both trust you and that you and Lily are not an item. I'm telling you because I want your help in convincing James of that."

Derek sighed. "Alright, alright… you are right, we're not an item, I just need to talk to her about something and we never really get the chance, so it ends up being that we're study buddies. And since it's working out pretty well-"

Sirius waved his hands in front of him to get Derek to stop so he could get in a few words. "You don't have to convince me, Derek. Just James, and he's hard enough by himself… And I'm taking a huge risk in telling you this."

Derek nodded. "Thanks. I won't tell him how I found out. I don't want you guys to have a rift too…"

Sirius nodded eagerly. "Anyway, now that were done with the serious stuff, how about you help me with my latest idea on pranking our favorite greasy git?" And Derek couldn't help but smile at Sirius returning to his normal anti-serious self. How truly ironic his name was…

But despite being armed with the knowledge that James was jealous of Derek's proximity to Lily, he couldn't catch James long enough to get into a serious conversation about it, and before Derek knew it, the day of tryouts had arrived, and they were still on the outs.

James Potter paced between two groups of players. Behind him were four players in scarlet and gold robes, looking intimidating. Sirius with his beater's bat and favorite broom at his side smiled sidelong at Derek, who was standing next to him with the Quaffle in hand. Derek grinned back, with an evil glint in his eye. He loved tryouts. Making the trainees sweat was invigorating. Oh, they never did anything that didn't have an actual application to figuring out which players deserved to make the team, but that didn't mean that they couldn't have any fun.

The other Beater, Helga, of course, stood on Derek's other side with a beater's bat and broom in the opposite position of Sirius. Between Sirius, Derek, Helga and James, there was no better Quidditch team. That particular combination of Beaters and Chasers was simply unbeatable, and they had proved it time and again since second year. A recent acquisition to the team was the Keeper, that stood on the other side of Helga. Katie Holland was a fourth year, but she was the only Gryffindor that had ever stopped any of Derek and James's famous double-teaming shots, and for that reason alone, she earned a respected position on the team.

Arrayed on the other side of the pacing captain were Gryffindors in their school robes and various stages of apprehension. They were concentrated into two groups. The group that was on the left side of Derek's vantage point were there to be seekers, while the other group was there to be Chasers. The chaser group was slightly larger, mainly because they were trying to get onto the best Chasing unit that had graced Hogwarts in many years, and they wanted to be a part of it and learn from the heroes of their House.

"You are here," James said, "to attempt to become part of your House team." He did not stop pacing, though each time he turned around he snapped his head around so that he was still staring at the trainees. "Do not imagine that this will be a cakewalk. When the day is over, you will be tired, you will be beat, and you will feel that instead of making you tryout, you would have preferred being run down by stampeding Hippogriffs.

"Here, you are expected to work! I will not tolerate half-attempts. You either work all the way, or you are off the team." James finally stopped pacing and stopped in front of the trainees. "Anyone who is not willing to work that hard for their team, leave now."

Not a soul moved for a good ten seconds.

James nodded. "Good. Now, those who are trying out to be Chasers, please follow me. Seekers, you will follow Helga over there, who will begin your tryout."

"Captain Potter!" A voice called from within the scrum of activity.

"Yes?" James said, finding the source of the voice, a young boy of second or third year, probably second, since Derek didn't remember him trying out last year.

"I am here to try out for both positions."

"Follow me first then," was James's only reply, which made the kid seem a little angry that he hadn't gotten a little more attention.

While Helga started the Seekers off with simple flying exercises and dodging the Bludger that she was sending at them, the Chasers were placed in a gauntlet immediately. Facing off against Derek and Katie, they would work in pairs against the two of them and score as many goals as they could in a 10 minute time limit. Occasionally, James and Derek switched out to keep the defending Chaser fresh. Katie seemed to be doing alright without calling her alternate, who was waiting on the grass below lazily.

The first pair of Chasers faced off against Derek and Katie, and Derek quickly learned that the girl's name was Cassie and the boy's Thomas. Thomas was the same second-year that seemed to want to try out for both positions. Five minutes into their turn, they had not yet scored, and had only two shots that had gotten through to Katie at all. Derek was really disappointed with their performance, though Cassie once beat him with an easy loop, but her mistake seemed to be her partner more than herself in that when she passed to him, he didn't shoot immediately, but tried to fly in closer for a closer shot, giving Derek enough time to fly up to him and steal the Quaffle right out of his hands.

Finally, Cassie seemed to be learning what her problem was, and she got a total of four shots past Derek's defenses, and scored one of them through Katie's defenses as well. Thomas was quickly sent to the Seeker tryouts, though James seemed dubious that the kid would be able to do anything worthwhile.

The second pair was Jen, a fourth year who had shown some talent in years past, and Fred Linten, a fifth year that was trying out for the first time. They surprised Derek by using one of the tricks that James and he had invented for their game against him, and scored it on their first try. Derek was highly impressed, but he was now watching for his own tactics, and foiled them for the next ten shots running, which brought them close to the five minute mark with only as many goals as the other pair had, and they both seemed intent on beating out the other pair after the poor performance that Thomas had given.

They spread out and began using the field to their advantage since Derek couldn't be everywhere at once, and was able to beat Katie twice more before their time was up.

There was one Chaser hopeful left, so James came in for Derek and Derek told Cassie to join him in the air to see how she did with a competent pair. It turned out that Cassie was still the better of the two of them, and she scored twice this time, since the boy by the name of Michael was much better at feeding her than Thomas was.

Finally done with the gauntlet, they all landed on the ground, and James dismissed Michael from the tryout and went over to check on the Seeker tryouts, to see which ones would move on to the next part. Derek told the three remaining Chaser hopefuls to rest while James did some weeding from the Seeker hopeful ranks.

It was another five minutes before James came back over with Helga and three of the Seeker hopefuls behind him. James told him that he had sent home one of them, but it seemed that Thomas must have been good enough of a flier to warrant another look as a Seeker.

"Alright," James said, addressing the six remaining hopefuls, "Now the tryouts will come together. The three of you," he pointed to the Chasers, "will do your best to get past me, Derek and Katie with Sirius trying to bludger you to death." Sirius simply grinned at the turn of phrase, though one of the hopefuls swallowed audibly. "The three Seekers will be trying to find the Snitch while being distracted by the game and Helga trying to bludger them to death." Helga had a grim smile, which Derek found much more intimidating than Sirius's silly grin.

"Go!"

And Derek threw the Quaffle as hard as he could toward the opposite goalposts, fully intending to have it score despite the three chaser hopefuls racing after it as fast as their brooms could take them. At the same time, Helga released the Snitch and the two bludgers and Sirius took off to make sure the bludgers had someone to target with a bat to defend themselves. Then the Seekers got on their brooms, and waited while Derek and Katie streaked to the closer goal to begin the defense. When James was sure the Snitch was out of sight for the moment, he streaked off and the Seekers followed suit. And so the "game" began.

The Chaser hopefuls found the goal to be much harder to penetrate now that both Derek and James were working together. It obviously made them more intent on succeeding so that they could become a part of the dream team, but it also was obvious that they were afraid that this would be too hard. A full ten minutes went by without a single goal, though James had come close with a particularly hard shot from all the way cross-pitch. That was when one of the Seekers went into a dive, and the other two fell into pursuit, though the female stopped. The one who had begun the dive also stopped when he realized that the girl was now looking for the Snitch instead of following his feint. Thomas, however, didn't notice at all, and continued to streak, trying wildly to search for the Snitch that wasn't there.

James blew his whistle, stopping all play, and Thomas reluctantly ground to a halt. "Thomas Gell! You're cut!" The second year exploded into obscenities and Sirius flew over to him and whacked him upside the head not unlike the way that Derek had whacked Remus's just a week beforehand. Finally off the pitch, he continued to stream muttered obscenities and looked overall unhappy with his situation, but tryouts continued without him quite smoothly.

Interestingly, whenever the three chaser hopefuls went into a huddle, it was either Jen or Fred that laid the plan, while Cassie seemed to simply be good at doing whatever plan they came up with. When the plans continued to not work, James called out "just wing it for a few tries, and see how it goes." The three nodded and set to work, working in random passes and trying to set themselves up for a good unexpected shot. Cassie was doing horribly, and apparently didn't think well on her feet (or broom). Fred did better, though mostly because he was able to read Jen pretty well. Jen seemed to be the brains of the outfit, and came up with an interesting improve that scored.

While James was barreling down on Fred, Jen positioned herself above that exchange, and nodded her head to Cassie to have her charge. Predictably, Derek followed the charge, though he watched Jen to see what would happen. Fred passed straight up when James was about to come upon him and as James shot up after Jen, she was forced to dodge a bludger as well as staying a step ahead of him. After a good bit of dodging, she fired what looked like a shot that got through James's defense, but it sailed high over the hoops.

Into Fred's waiting arms.

While James charged Fred and Derek covered Cassie for a possible pass through to her, Jen snuck up and was in position for a pass-back shot before James was even close to Fred. It was an easy pass, and Jen made a good shot to get it by Katie.

At the exact moment the Quaffle scored, the two seekers went into a dive, and raced after the Snitch. It was real this time, and Derek knew it because he had spotted the glint of gold that was their destination. This time they both had to dodge well placed bludgers by Sirius and Helga, and the girl got grazed, which slowed her down enough for the guy to capture the Snitch.

James blew his whistle. "That's tryouts! Team, hit the showers!"

After everyone had hit the ground, and the hopefuls had all gone back up to the castle, Katie, Sirius, Helga and Derek crowded around James as he produced a bit of parchment, which had the names of all of the hopefuls on it, and watched as James struck several names and then put checks by the two choices for each position. After a little consultation with Derek about the Chasers and with Helga about the Seekers, he underlined one of each, and then tapped the parchment with his wand. When he did, the words moved about the parchment, and came to rest like this:

Gryffindor Quidditch Team Tryout Results

Seeker Primary
Bill Dillans

Seeker Reserve
Emily Mahl

Chaser Primary
Jen Griten

Chaser Reserve
Fred Linten