Author's Note: Hello all! Quick post of chapter 10; James is about to play as a seeker! Muwhahahaha... please look at the last author's note for extra details on whether James was a seeker or a chaser, otay? Good! I hope this chapter is all right. JKR owns the Harry Potter world, etc!

Chapter 10: Versus Slytherin

It had finally been decided, Slytherin versus Gryffindor in the first match. James' stomach churned uncomfortably that morning of his first game and he couldn't even look at the food on the breakfast table without feeling like he was going to throw up. Remus and Sirius backed him up as best as he could, but all Peter could do was say, "Don't worry about a thing, I'll tell Madam Pomfrey to save you a bed just in case!"

Sirius had smacked Peter in the back of the head after he said that and Remus shrugged. James seemed to pale a lot after Peter's comment. As much as Peter looked up to James, it appeared as thought he wasn't very sure that James would come out in one piece.

It was just his luck; the first match was against the team he loathed the most. He wasn't even sure how good the Slytherins were and this was what scared him most about playing. That team looked like the kind that would actually cheat to win! On the other hand, James was quite excited to try out his new broomstick that Professor McGonagall herself bought out of her own pocket; it was one of the Shooting Stars.

It wasn't the best broom on the shelves, but it would have to do for the time being. Professor McGonagall had clearly stated to him that after this first match the broomstick would be taken from him, but it would be given back sometime toward the end of the year. I wanted a Nimbus… James thought to himself …like I want this back!

James' knowledge on broomsticks and Quidditch was far beyond what anyone would call an "obsession." He knew that Shooting Stars were quite popular at this age since it was the cheapest to get, but cheap didn't mean quality. The older the Shooting Star got the more speed and height it lost, but as long as the the broom was new, James could depend on it.

"You're so lucky!" squealed Susan, a Gryffindor fourth year, "My mom won't even allow me to have a Tinderblast!"

"Well… It's probably just my great flying skills." James remarked smirking. He then combed through his hair with his hand and smiled handsomely back at Susan.

"You're so cute!" she squealed again, smiling at James innocently. She then turned to walk away. "I'll talk to you later, Potter! Good luck with the match today!"

James waved back at her cheerfully. Sirius, Remus, and Peter had been watching from the sidelines, each with their own different reaction to the way James had actually ended the conversation. Remus was chuckling, while writing something on parchment; Peter was gazing at James in astonishment that he was already so popular; and Sirius was looking at him hopelessly. James joined his group and they continue walk, talking amongst themselves.

"You're so cuuute!'" Sirius imitated with a mocking voice, and Remus couldn't help but laugh. "I seriously felt like throwing up with the show you just put on."

"Stuff it." James smirked, crossing his arms. "You may have to looks, Sirius, but I've got the skills!"

"Yeh git." Sirius laughed. "Tell me, is that the only way you're calming your nerves?"

James frowned and eyed Sirius. Peter and Remus were having a small conversation of their own so they didn't really bother to back anyone up. Sirius put an arm on James' shoulder and shrugged.

"Don't take it personally, mate." He informed him. He then glanced around then said in a very low voice, " Speaking of which, I found a new passage way."

"What!?" James screeched causing several passing students to glance at them curiously.

"Keep your voice down!" Remus implored. "Actually, didn't little Peter find it, Sirius?"

Sirius let out a sigh, and James scratched his head, rather amused. Peter seemed to stand up straight and tall, feeling awfully proud of himself. Remus smiled kindly at Peter then back at James who was beaming quite brightly at him as well. It was on rare incidents that Peter would actually do something that benefited everyone in their group, but when it happened it was usually something really extraordinary.

"So what did yeh find, Peter?" James asked him, still beaming.

"Oh—" Peter seemed to slouch again, and he looked to the ground embarrassedly and said, "I insisted that we wait for you first…"

James found his face grow crimson as he pushed his circular glasses up the bridge of his nose. Sirius, who had been chuckling, suddenly stopped in his tracks and glance slowly behind him. It took Remus, James, and Peter a while to realize that Sirius had stopped, but when they did they looked back at Sirius with contempt.

"What's the matter?" Remus asked, glancing to where Sirius had his eyes glued.

"It—It's nothing." He replied turning his head back at his three friends with a mixed look of weariness and hesitance. Before Remus and Peter could say anything else, Sirius walked quickly ahead leaving his three friends behind. James looked on feeling a sudden pang from within his heart; it wasn't like Sirius to just walk off like that. Wanting to know why Sirius was acting strangely, James rushed toward him.

"All right there, Sirius?" said James pressing a smile on his lips. "What's on your mind?"

"Huh? Oh—shouldn't we be heading to class? We're going to be late you know," responded Sirius, turning and walking away from him.

James was quite taken aback by what Sirius has said and done; there was deffinitly something bothering him. It became very apparent during their classes, Defense Against the Dark Arts especially; he had lost fifteen whole points for Gryffindor for spacing out in class. Several other students who had noticed his sudden change in attitude tried asking him what the matter was, but Sirius didn't even bother to look at any of them.

The sudden behavior of Sirius, caused James, Remus, and Peter to grow concerned. The handsome young Sirius Black hadn't spoken to them at all for the rest of the day, and James began to worry if he had said anything wrong to him during their conversation. Not only did they not speak for the rest of the day, but also began to see Sirius less and less that day as the Quidditch game versus the Slytherins began to creep closer. Was Sirius really avoiding them?

No, James thought as he walked down a corridor of the second floor to reach the ground floor, I can't stop and think about him right now… I have a match that I have to worry about. He continued to trek down the empty stone walled corridor when he began to realize someone was following him. He could feel three pairs of stone cold eyes glaring at the back of his head. This undoubtedly sent chills down his neck and along his spine and he rubbed his arms to keep from shivering.

Who could possibly be following him? James really had no intention of finding out, but his curiosity seemed to be nagging at him that he decided to face whoever this stalker was. He slowly turned around and obviously saw that there was no one standing directly behind him, but he swore he had seen some sort of figure out of the corner of his eye.

"Sir Nicholas?" James croaked, thinking that maybe it was the Gryffindor ghost, Nearly Headless Nick. James wasn't exactly frightened yet he seemed extremely uncomfortable.

He then saw another movement from behind him and he quickly spun around, pulled out his wand, and pointed it straight at the figure that stood in front of him.

Oddly enough, the person who stood before him was in fact a girl ghost, but she deffinitly wasn't a house ghost since he had never seen her before until now. She had lanky dark hair, very distinguishable pimples, and she wore a pair of extremely thick glasses. The ghost stood there, her mouth open in surprise at James' wand.

"S—Sorry, I didn't know." James mumbled, pocketing his wand quickly.

"Of course you didn't know!" the girl shrieked, pounding James' eardrums. "You're here to make fun of me too? I knew it!"

The girl then glided through a door that was no doubt the entrance to girl's bathroom. There was a sign on the door that strictly said "out of order". James blinked; he was completely mesmerized yet he felt somewhat sorry for her. Maybe I should apologize… James thought to himself as he stared at the entrance, Then again, it is the girl's bathroom. He took a deep breath, placed his hand on the handle, and slowly pushed it open.

"Oh!" squeaked the ghost girl flying down toward James, "You're not s'posed to be in here!"

"I—I thought I'd say sorry." James sputtered, "I didn't realize you were the one following me."

The girl's face seemed to gasp with horror and fear as she swooped away from him. James took a few more steps into the bathroom and closed the door behind him; the girl seemed to be whimpering softly to herself.

"What's wrong?" he asked looking up at her carefully, brushing some of his hair from his eyes.

"Everyone accuses me…" she began, pressing her hands to her face, and began wailing. "Ohh! The names they call me, you think I don't know? I—"

"No!" James shouted, covering his ears, "I didn't mean to hurt your feelings! Honest!"

The girl gave a loud sniff then pulled her hands from her face to get a good look at James. Her eyes were full of tears and her glasses were fogged from her breath; she looked like a mess.

James toppled over when she swooped down to get a closer look, the chills she sent just by standing beside him made James yearn for the warmth of his blanket. It wasn't the best feeling, and he only hoped that she didn't walk through him.

"So who are you…?" James asked stepping backwards a few centimeters.

"Myrtle." She said plainly, staring at James with interest.

"That's a pretty name, Myrtle. Pleasure, erm, I'm James Potter…" he told her faking a smile.

Myrtle sighed and gave another great sniff. James would have given the poor girl a hug if it weren't for the fact that he would just go right through her. Myrtle wiped away her last tears and crossed her arms in an annoyed fashion. James jumped backwards and stared at her nervously. She was apparently angered by something…

"Those horrible people!" Myrtle moaned swaying from side to side, gliding across the floor.

"W—What people?" he asked unsure of what she was speaking of.

Myrtle pointed her index finger towards the exit: the door that had hung the words "under construction" on it. James looked back at the door speechless, what did she mean? He stood there staring at door as silent as an elk watching its poacher. Then in an instant, he realized what she meant and rushed toward the door.

"They couldn't have!" James shrieked grabbing the handle and tugging at it ferociously; it didn't budge at all. "They locked me in! Myrtle did you see who did it?"

"Two boys and girl… looked like a lot from Slytherin…" Myrtle sniffed curling up against the wall. "I'm a good for nothing…"

She then began moaning much louder than before, and James felt like banging he head on the wall in frustration.

"Please stop moaning…" James pleaded to her. "I bet you, it was Bellatrix and her two gits."

Myrtle looked up at James and swooped away.

"What about you?" she asked disappearing from sight. "How do you plan to get out?"

"Easy." James said briskly, pulling out his wand.

He swiftly pointed it at the door and said, "Alohamora!" and it instantly opened. Myrtle looked at James curiously and gave a high-pitched laugh of excitement. James smiled widely and rumpled his hair. He then walked out into the corridor and turned to look back at the girl's bathroom.

"Visit me again." Myrtle demanded, poking her head out of the door.

"I will." He promised, winking at her. "But first I have a date with Bellatrix."

"A…date…?" Myrtle blinked, her face seeming to flush with jealousy.

James laughed and chuckled at the thought of it. Myrtle looked as though she was going to wail and scream and so James had to immediately explain that it was only a figure of speech. She wasn't very happy to know that he was only joking though for she was very annoyed and angry for that matter. She actually slammed the door of the girl's bathroom in her rage, and James wondered if it was still a safe idea to visit her at all.

"James!"

James quickly looked around the to find the source of the voice and when he realized who it was his expression turned into a great burst of excitement. "Sirius!" he exclaimed walking over to him.

"Are you all right? Did they hurt you?" Sirius seemed to be panicking glancing all around James to see if he was injured, "Tell me what Bellatrix, Rodolphus, and Rabastan did to you!"

"They didn't touch me." James said wistfully. "Tell me, is that why you weren't talking to us? Because you didn't want us to get hurt?"

Sirius looked down and sighed hopelessly. He had been caught and defeated. The only thing to do was tell the truth, and that's exactly what James wanted to hear. It seemed as though Sirius had been threatened by nearly his entire family for hanging around with "unworthy" people.

"Bellatrix said she'd paralyzed you." Sirius said in a low voice, shrugging his shoulders.

"Paralyze? Me? Ha!" he laughed patting Sirius on the shoulder. "So are yeh gonna cheer me on?"

"Fine." Sirius smirked, "You'll do fine, you don't need me to cheer yeh."

"Ah, shut your mouth." James retorted, cleaning his glasses. "I'll need all the support I can get!"

---------------------------------------------------

The Quidditch match was only several minutes away; James held his Shooting Star in his right hand as he continued to contemplate before the match. It was as though he had to choose between life and death by the way he tried to calm himself. His teammates didn't seem to be as worried as he was for they were cheerfully talking amongst themselves. The locker room wasn't that big nor was it too small, but it had enough space for everyone to fit. Their captain, Richard Thompson, was off somewhere probably spying on their Slytherin opponents before the game. By the time he came back, James felt like passing out from anticipation.

"Okay team!" proclaimed Richard in a loud voice. "One minute till we head out there; don't worry I've already checked the Slytherin team. They don't seem to have any cheating devices so we should be able to have a fair match." He then swiftly turn to James, "You're to grab the snitch when we're ahead by at the least thirty points. Got that?"

"I think so." James replied swallowing.

"You'll do fine!" said Richard, "Just don't let them get the snitch first!"

With those words said, they all walked out of the locker room and out onto the field. Opposite of them, the Slytherin team walked out onto the field as well.

Madam Hooch stood in the middle of the two groups smiling at the lot of them; it was apparent to James that Madam Hooch was the referee. She held a whistle in one hand and her broomstick in the other as she waited for the two teams to settle down.

"I want this to be a fair game, you can understand that much, yes?" Madam Hooch stated. The whole Slytherin team seemed to chuckle sinisterly at this and James had an eerie feeling that they were staring at him. The crowds up in the high stands seemed to be roaring rather loudly, and James swore he could hear Remus and Sirius screaming their lungs out, rooting him on. He rumpled his hair and smiled bashfully, clutching the Shooting Star closer to him.

"Okay you lot, mount your brooms."

James swiftly got onto his broomstick and readied himself.

Madam Hooch then sounded her loud silver whistle and all of them rose into the air. The game had finally begun.

"The Quaffle has been swiftly taken by Sam—forget what I said—it's with Ariel from Slytherin!" yelled the voice of a boy, Vincent Dario, through a loud megaphone. "No wait—it's with Randy—no Johnny—wait Kiara—back to Sam—bloody hell what a match!"

The crowd seemed to be extremely rowdy and so did the game. The both the Slytherin team and Gryffindor team seemed to be giving it their all, and it was only the first match of the season!

James sat on his broom, high above everyone else and he had a nice view from up there. He circled around slowly because he knew from all those magazines he had read that if he stayed still he'd be a sitting duck for Beaters. At times James caught himself just staring at the game down below; he couldn't help it the game was getting interesting.

"Woo! He barely missed that time; that was a close catch by Thompson! Gryffindor—seventy! Slytherin—fifty! Gryffindor leads by twenty points!"

James heaved a sigh, just one more point and then he'd have to search around for the Snitch. He also noted to keep the Slytherin Seeker, Daniel Smith, in his sights just in case he saw the snitch first.

Then he saw it: a shimmer of gold moving carelessly from side to side just below the Slytherin goalposts.

He hesitated at first, and made careful that the other seeker hadn't seen what he saw. He had been specifically told to wait till they were in the lead by thirty points, but he couldn't wait! It was right there! He decided to turn his head in a different direction to confuse his opponent and from the corner of his eye keep track of the snitch.

"Hey! It's the amateur seeker!" laughed one of the chasers from the opposing team. "You'll never find the snitch, there's no possible way your team will win. Our seeker's the best at Hogwarts, you're just a last rate nothing out here."

James tried his best to ignore the sudden burst of insults and tried to concentrate. Soon enough the beaters joined in and they crowded around him to block his view. James kept to himself and tried to stay calm, any wrong moves and he might plummet to the ground.

"YOU LAY ONE HAND ON HIM AND YOU'VE GOT ANOTHER THING COMING!" Screeched Sirius who was standing up from his seat, yelling at the top of his lungs. Remus, from what James could see, was plugging his ears and Peter looked very shaken. The Slytherin chasers, beaters, as well as everyone else stared at Sirius.

Sirius' face was apparently flushed red and he was pointing his wand straight up at the group that was surrounding James. James, on the other hand, didn't look surprised or startled by Sirius' sudden uproar. Instead, he felt extremely grateful to have a friend like him. It gave him courage—

"GRYFFINDOR SCORES!" screamed Vincent, causing everyone's attention to shift back to the game.

With everyone's attention elsewhere, James quickly sped out of their reach and toward the snitch that he had had in his sights since he had first laid eyes on it. Everyone was quite surprised to see James fly downward at top speed and nearly fell of their brooms as he flew by.

"He's spotted it! He's seen the snitch!"

It took Daniel Smith a while to process what was happening, and when he finally understood he sped off at top speed as well. The two of them zoomed down ward and the snitch sped away from them. The crowds had gone wild and the crowd's attention was right on Daniel and James.

Right when James was about to reach out his right hand, Daniel intentionally smashed into his side nearly causing him to fall off. James scowled harshly then sped up even faster, Daniel right at his tail. I have to loose him, James though frantically, but how?

Then he thought of the perfect plan. The famous move he had read about in Quidditch Through the Ages; the Wronski Feint. He gulped, he had to make sure that Daniel was following him and not the snitch and so he deliberately swerved the opposite direction of the snitch. And to James' delight, Daniel followed.

He then slowly increased in height, and then suddenly looked down at the ground. This was an extremely dangerous move if not done correctly, and James was highly aware of this. When he thought he was high enough, he suddenly sped into a great dive, speeding faster than one would have ever imagined. Those who watched James, stared in awe at how he was able to control his broom and move so swiftly like some professional who had been practicing for decades.

Daniel followed, having a haughty grin on his face as he sped closer to James. James, in turn, looked at the ground bellow him and knew that impact would strike at any minute and he had to move up quick at the exact moment…

He was nearly a foot away from the ground when he finally pulled up his broom and sped off parallel to the floor, gliding inches from the earth's surface. Daniel didn't see this coming and wasn't prepared to pull upwards, and he ended up crashing in a heap on the floor.

Many Slytherins gasped and pointed concerned fingers at the poor boy that lay crumpled on the floor. Everyone else cheered loudly at James' wonderful trick and continued to root him. Sirius, Remus, and Peter were especially loud.

James caught sight of the snitch and sped off once again, this time he reached out with one hand, groping the air aimlessly; trying to snatch that snitch! Every time he swung he arm forward the snitch would always pull forward, so he carefully scooted up to the very tip of the broom and reached forward again. No good. The snitch was just too fast for his broom to maneuver against.

The only thing that he could possibly do now was jump forward, leaving his broom completely. This, he knew, was an extremely foolish idea, but he had no other choice. He had only one chance to jump off, only one chance to snatch it, and only one chance to win the first game of the season. He had to do it.

All right, James… his mind panicked, slowly… 1…2…3!

He leaped off his broom, pushed his hand forward, snatched the snitch firmly in his left hand, and crashed onto the ground below. Luckily for him, the floor was only about a foot away so his didn't have any severe injures from the impact.

At first he laid there for a brief moment, and the stadium was silent… watching James with wonder and amazement. He struggled to get on his feet, but when he did, he sighed deeply and looked at the shining snitch that was clasped tightly in his hand.

"He did it! First-timer James Potter has caught the golden snitch! GRYFFINDOR WINS!" shouted Vincent excitedly nearly falling out of the stands. With that, the whole place erupted in a grand round of applause.

James blushed feverishly and he rumpled his hair as he walked over to pick up his Shooting Star.

"Great work, Potter!" exclaimed Richard Thompson flying toward him, "That was quite a show you put on out there. They'll remember this match for years to come!"

James tried to hide his embarrassment by covering his face, but soon enough the whole Gryffindor Quidditch team surrounded him; commenting him on all of the special things he did.

James never imagined something like this happening during his first year at Hogwarts. There were so many things he didn't expect… and he had to remind himself to tell his mother how right she was about coming. Hogwarts really is place worthwhile.

::insert quote here::

Next Chapter: Joys of Christmas

How was it? My first attempt at trying to do Quidditch XD! Reviews would be very helpful thank you much! Nyahahahahahhahahahahaha!!!!!!!! Er.. yeah... right... I think you get the message.