Real Competition
''50-30 for Gryffindor! An excellent goal by Roger Jones!' the commentator yelled over the cheering of Gryffindor fans. James surveyed the pitch filled with Gryffindor and Hufflepuff players. Katie Shoreman was circling the pitch searching for the golden snitch. He tried to keep an eye on the pitch as well as the opposing seeker. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Katie dive and cut to the edge of the field and then into the middle, she was going at a super fast speed and James dived quickly to follow her. She weaved in between players and reached out her hand and then to his surprise stopped abruptly. She turned to look at him rain dripping from her hair and mud smeared across her face. He stopped quickly and nearly flew off his broom and then realized that Katie had tricked him into thinking that she saw the snitch. She glowered down at him from just a few feet above and then flew higher and began to circle once more. James flew up to meet her.
'That was a good trick,' James told her, 'good flying too.' Katie looked over at him,
'Thanks,' she said with a hint of sarcasm in her voice. James watched the field and saw Chloe throw the quaffle into the left ring. He smiled as he watched her fly back into position as if nothing big just happened.
'60-30 for Gryffindor!' Katie rolled her eyes slightly as the surveyed the field. Katie began to circle James distracting him from the field,
'Quite frankly I don't care what you think about my flying. Your just the same as him.' She stopped and then began to fly slowly around the field and James followed her,
'Your wrong Katie!' he shouted out to her, 'I disagree with what Sirius did and that's the first time I have ever disagreed with him!' Katie turned to look at him and stared straight into his eyes,
'Ya well I-' she bolted off and then started flying at a quick pace down to the opposite end of the field. James followed suit and flew quickly until he was neck to neck. She pulled back again and James actually flew off his broom. He landed with a thud,
'and James Potter has been thrown off his broom! The second time he has fell for Shoreman's fake!' James quickly got onto his broom and kicked off,
'They fall for it everytime,' Katie told him as he flew back up to her level. James gave her a confused look, 'You talk to them and then in the middle of a sentence you fly off as if you've seen the snitch.' James flew away from her to make sure that her strategy would not work on him again.
'70-30!' The crowd broke out once more. 'Jameson has the quaffle' the commentator yelled out, 'but OH! He's gotten beaten by a bludger! Hufflepuff has regained possession. Lindow has the quaffle and Bromley has saved yet another quaffle from going through the hoop! Campbell has possession, could the Gryffindors score again! Yes! Campbell has made the score 80-30!' James smiled as he watched his players move around with ease and then out of the corner of his eye he saw Katie dive once more and this time he saw her chasing a flash of gold. I have a strategy too Katie he thought as Katie chased the snitch clock wise around the pitch, James cut through and chased it counter clock-wise. The snitch was exactly right in the middle of them, luckily for James he had longer arms as he reached out and grabbed the snitch and cut in to the middle before he and Katie crashed. Katie tried to break and flew off her broom into a mud puddle.
'Gryffindor wins!' All the players came down to cheer and the captains shook hands. James walked over to Katie who sat in the mud puddle extremely mad. He held out his hand and she took it for him to help her up.
'You were some good competition,' James told her. He hadn't felt real competition in a while. It was the first time that he saw her smile since the ball.
'Thanks,' she told him this time without a hint of sarcasm. 'You're a great seeker, I wasn't really planning on catching the snitch.'
'I thought you were going to, too bad your arms aren't a little longer.' Chloe came walking up to him,
'you coming to get changed?' she asked in muddy robes and drenched hair. He looked down and realized that he was in the exact same situation.
'Ya, Let's go.' He said and him and Chloe started to head to the change rooms hand in hand. 'Bye Katie, talk to you later.'
Lily watched James and Chloe walk to the change room from the bleachers and felt a small churn in her stomach. She heard footsteps coming from behind her down the steps and heard a girl whisper in her ear,
'She's a pure-blood,' and then she heard the footsteps descending the stairs.