Disclaimer- I love Harry Potter, but he's not mine! He's J.K. Rowling's! And if I ever met her, I'd die of happiness!
Authoress' Note- Am I the only one who doesn't understand this whole C2 thing? Someone please help me! I don't have the time to manage one, but will someone explain it better? IN ENGLISH PLEASE? Anyway I quite enjoy this little chapter! It's very cute and fun! Reviews make me very very very very very very happy! E.D.J.
Thanks for the lovely reviews!
Miss Anonymous hp- Erm... I don't wish to be rude, but I feel that the balance of Marauders/Lily is quite good. Lily is a crucial part of the Marauders' story and trying to exclude her doesn't make the story realistic. Also, I NEED to write Lily to get break from writing about boys! I'm a girl! I need it! Also, I consider Remus to be highly intelligent and excellent at all his classes, so I suppose he'd be Lily's competition in Charms. Sirius is completely smart and brilliant, but I feel his slacker ways would make it too easy for Lily to jump far ahead of his classes. I DO hope you still enjoy the story, but Lily will still keep making regular appearances and I'm sure even more so when they get up to 5th through 7th year! I appreciate all the suggestions!
Romulan Empress- Yes that was an excellent line of Lily's and I'm glad you loved the chapter! Ah the name comes from Star Trek. I've actually never seen that. (Romulan Empress gasps in horror in the same way Elladora would gasp if someone told her they'd never seen Friends or LOTR or have never READ Harry Potter). Yes, yes never seen it, but I assume that the show gets the planets Romulus and Remus names from the ancient Roman myth yes? Making your name somewhat connected to it?
Ch. 18- Attack of the Killer Broomsticks
Cold January soon faded into a grim February, and then into a chilly March. Finally, around mid-March, when the snows had finally melted, the first-year Gryffindors found themselves out on the grounds, each with a spindly broomstick clasped tightly in their hands. They trudged nervously after the hawk-eyed new flying instructor, MadamHooch, a sturdy woman with short brown hair. A former Quidditch player herself, Madam Hooch had recently retired from her Seeker position on the Kenmare Kestrels team and had only just started her job at Hogwarts days earlier.
"Ah, this looks like a decent spot," said Madam Hooch, nodding approvingly as the students fanned out around her. She turned her sharp eyes on the students and they instantly quieted. "Now, I regret that you haven't begun these lessons sooner, but the Kestrels were unable to let me go until they could secure a suitable replacement Seeker, which took quite some time."
The students nodded, awestruck by their famous, new instructor.
"Now I would like you all to set your brooms down," said Madam Hooch and there was a hurried rustling as the students rushed to comply. "Then, you will put your hand above your broomstick and say 'Up.'"
Loud cries of "Up!" and whooshes of brooms floating upward into open hands could be heard, and Madam Hooch hurried around helping students to get their brooms to rise up. She was having particular trouble with a short, watery-eyed boy whose broom kept floating upward and diving at his face.
"UP!" shouted Peter Pettigrew, trying again, but failed and ducked as the broom lunged at him for the sixth time. (A/N-Authoress grins evilly.-)
"Mr. Pettigrew!" said Madam Hooch wearily as she grabbed the broomstick out of the air and tackled it to the ground, where it continued feebly to have a go at Peter. "Is it possible that one of your classmates may have put a jinx on your broom when you weren't looking?"
"I don't know..." Peter managed to stutter out as he watched, wide-eyed, while Madam Hooch did some fast wandwork and tied the broom to a nearby tree where it couldn't distract any of the students.
A loud mutter of "Damn!" came from his right, and Peter glanced down the line to see Sirius smiling and whistling innocently as he twirled his wand between his fingers on one hand and held onto his floating broomstick with the other.
"Sirius!" growled Peter, going quite purple in the face.
Sirius just grinned evilly at him. "I told you I'd get you back for eating that last scone. It was mine!"
Peter just rolled his eyes and began trying to get his next broom to float, but this broomstick may as well had been tied up too because all it did was wiggle feebly on the ground instead of floating upward to the appropriate height for mounting.
"Sirius!" Peter said indignantly.
James glanced over and watched with interest as Peter's broom refused to cooperate. "Sorry, mate. That's not Sirius, it's just you."
Peter's ears reddened, and James quickly began giving him some tips on how to get the broomstick to obey. "Confidence!" he barked, correcting the position of Peter's hand above the broomstick. "Now try it again," James ordered.
Peter screwed up his face in concentration and shouted, "Up!" His broomstick floated up into his hand with such force that Peter stumbled backward in surprise. "I did it!" he said excitedly. "Thanks, James!"
Madam Hooch was watching, and she nodded with approval. "Ten points to Gryffindor Mr..."
"Potter," James supplied.
"Ah yes! I was just starting Hogwarts when your parents were seventh-years. Jonathan and Arleen! Such lovely people!" said Madam Hooch, reminiscing slightly.
James beamed. "Yep. That's them!"
Down the line, Lily rolled her eyes as she listened to James talk loudly about what his 'wonderful' parents were up to now. "Can you believe this?" she hissed to Emmeline and Bella. "She's chatting with him as if he's someone important!"
Bella and Emmeline shifted uncomfortably. "Well, his family's relatively well-known in the wizarding world," said Emmeline cautiously. (A/N-Don't know if I've mentioned this yet, but Emmeline's half and half (half-Muggle, half-magical), but she's still lived in and experienced the wizarding the world her whole life. So she would still know that the Potters are a well-known family.)
"And he is someone important," added Bella. "His parents are very influential Aurors. They're best friends with the Minister of Magic and his wife."
"Damn," muttered Lily. "Trust Potter to be well-known. Something else would have had to inflated his ego before Hogwarts, right? He's been big-headed since day one."
Emmeline and Bella snickered loudly, which earned this a disapproving look from Madam Hooch who was now ready to continue her lesson.
"I trust you were all able to get your brooms to rise?" she asked, gazing at the students. "Now, I would like you all to mount your broomsticks, kick off, hover for a moment, then return to the ground. Think you can do that?" Madam Hooch blew a short blast on her silver whistle, and most of the students were able to follow her instructions with ease.
Just then, there was a loud snap, and a broomstick came rocketing over their heads. Everyone whirled around and saw that the broomstick that Madam Hooch had tied to the tree had broken free and was now bombarding Peter Pettigrew over the head.Remus Lupin and James Potter were trying to keep the broom away by swatting at it with their own broomsticks and Sirius Black could be heard muttering, "Oh damn! Oh damn! I forgot to take the bloody jinx off!" He raised his wand, but just then the broom's handle whacked him in the arm, causing him to drop his wand and howl loudly while, cradling his arm.
"Students remain calm!" said Madam Hooch, shooing the Gryffindors away from the brutal scene.
The students watched fascinated as Madam Hooch, James, and Remus all tried to subdue the broom and received, along with Peter, painful thumps on the head. Finally, Sirius recovered from his own 'brutal' wound, lunged for his wand, and shouted the countercurse. The broomstick fell to the ground, finally defeated. Madam Hooch, James, and Remus all slumped to the ground too, exhausted. Peter, however, fell to the ground in a dead faint, probably from being over the head with a long piece of wood too many times. (A/N -Authoress grins evilly again-)
"Mr Black!" panted Madam Hooch, levitating Peter above her head. "Twenty points from Gryffindor for jinxing a fellow student's broom!"
Sirius nodded solemnly, accepting his punishment.
"Now if any broomsticks go up in the air while I'm gone, the person riding it will be expelled before they can say 'Quidditch'! The redhead girl's in charge!" snapped Madam Hooch and, with that, she trudged across the grounds toward the castle. (A/N- Yes, yes took that from the Sorcerer's Stone movie (or perhaps it's in the book too), but it's SUCH a good line! That and "Honestly woman, you call yourselves our mother?" Most lov-ely. Don't you agree?)
As soon as he heard the castle doors slam and saw Lily wasn't looking, James grabbed a broom and kicked off into the air, feeling the cool air rush against his face. He glanced down and noticed Lily was doing a headcount of all the students. Any second now she'd-
"POTTER!"
James lowered the broom, so he was hovering right above Lily's angry, upturned face. "Alright, Evans?" he said with a smirk.
Lily scowled at him. "Get down here. NOW."
James merely floated a bit higher. "No one will say a word. Right?"
The other Gryffindors nodded and said, "Right." Even Emmeline and Bella found themselves nodding until Lily shot them a venomous glare.
"Maybe they-" Lily motioned to the rest of the students. "-won't say anything, but I will."
A loud murmur of "Oooh..." could be heard from the crowd. Lily shot Sirius Black, the originator, a withering look.
James sighed loudly and even managed to rumple his hair while he held onto the broom with one hand. "Evans, I'm perfectly fine up here. I've been flying since before I was born."
"How would that work?" muttered Remus and Sirius snickered quietly.
Lily tried to keep her voice even, but she could feel some of her anger creeping into it. "Potter, if you don't get down this instant I'll tell Professor McGonagall and the Headmaster!"
"Oooh..."
"Stop that, Black!"
"Sorry, just trying to add a bit of dramatic effect, Evans."
James maneuvered the broom lazily back and forth above his fellow students. "Sorry, Evans. That's not enough initiative to bring myself out of the glory that is flying."
"Well then I'll..." began Lily, but then Sirius whispered something in her ear. "Ewww! I'm not going to kiss him!"
James plummeted to the ground.
"Good job, Sirius. Knew that'd get him down," Remus said with a grin.
Lily eyed James skeptically. "You hate me, yet you want me to kiss you? How does that work out?"
James reddened and lied. "I just heard 'kiss him' and assumed that meant some other girl would kiss me.Not you." He made a disgusted face and rose back up in the air, but not without getting a hard slap across the face from Lily.
Lily continued to try to get James to 'get off the bloody broomstick', but he simply ignored her and continued darting over the heads of his fellow students.
Finally, Lily muttered, "Emmeline, keep a look out for Hooch. Holler, scream, cry, or do whatever you have to do to warn us that she's coming. Bella, you keep everyone else on the ground."
"What are you..." began Emmeline, but her question was answered when she saw Lily grab a broom and shoot up into the air.
James jerked to a stop when he saw a blurred red and black shape rocketing up towards him. "She's not..." He stopped when he saw the fiery redhead hovering in front of him.
"Get down," Lily gasped, wobbling only a little unsteadily.
James raised an eyebrow at her flying skills. "Not your first time flying, is it?"
Lily smiled mischievously. "Marlene McKinnon took me out in November. Now get down, Potter."
She knocked her broom's handle against James's, causing him to spin dizzily to the left before he righted himself. He flew at Lily, knocking into her broom, causing her to whirl out of control.
Sirius Black was doing a running commentary from the ground using various Quidditch terms. "Oh Evans, that's skinning! Flying to deliberately collided with another player! And Potter! Cobbing! Excessive use of the elbows! But, does it matter? No, because it's all good in this game of skill! James how 'bout some blagging next? Grab her broom tail, you arse!"
Suddenly, a loud shriek filled the air. "HOOCH!"
Emmeline had spotted Madam Hooch exiting the castle!
James and Lily dove for the ground and landed, panting heavily. Lily threw her broom away from her and concentrated on slowing her heart rate. James did the same. Unintentionally, they had become allies in keeping Hooch from finding out they'd been flying and/or fighting.
When Madam Hooch came into view with Emmeline following close behind, James breathed a sigh of relief. "Don't let her tell, don't let her tell," he thought furiously, not wanting Lily to get him expelled. Unbeknownst to him, Lily was thinking the same thing.
When Madam Hooch reached them, she nodded approvingly. "Excellent work, Miss Evans. Everything looks just as I left. Five points to Gryffindor."
Everyone exhaled, relieved. No one had blabbed.
"Now, the hour is almost over, so we'll have to continue this lesson the next time we meet. Alright? Off with you then!" said Madam Hooch, waving them off.
The class murmured their thanks for being let out early and trudged across the grounds toward the castle.
"Thank Merlin, Evanshadenough sense not to go through with those threats," muttered Remus with a grin.
"Yeah. Thank Merlin indeed," agreed James.
Yay! Had to get some Peter-beating in there -grins evilly- Also I had to make Lily not afraid of heights! It's so cliche because if she's afraid of heights then James can take her on his broomstick and teach her it's really not that bad and they grow closer and all that utter CRAP! I do admit that some of those scenes are quite well done and some of my favorite fics have that type of thing, but I want to go for a more fearless Lily! Besides, I'm slightly afraid of heights, but would JUMP at the chance of flying! Who'd be so scared that they wouldn't want to fly on a bloody broomstick? Anyway please review! Like it? Love it? Funny? Or not? Bloody brilliant? (Aww thanks Ronniekins -Elladora pats Ron's head-) E.D.J.