Disclaimer: Now what am I supposed to say here again? Oh yeah, I don't own HP.
Thanks to the following reviewers: Nimrodel Telcontar, White Camellia, blvd, ritergrl, sugur-huny-bun, maneatingbananas, MicroChips, Kates Master, radical-rebel, XoX.d.a.r.k.a.n.g.e.l XoX, Fairy-GYKUTENNO-MEGAMI, MoonylovesFlo, life2me, Lostindreams1001, amalia1313, ilovedrew and Tai Greywing.
A/N: Sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry! I meant to update yesterday but I went on a day trip to Jersey and the ferry back was delayed. I didn't get home till half past eleven. Please don't kill me guys! I have updated! And I hope its been worth the extra days wait!
Chapter 22
"Open…swallow. Open…and swallow…"
"Tasha we all know how to eat with out choking on our food," Lily said.
"What? Jenny said her throat wasn't functioning!" Tash said. "Besides, you don't have to fly around the Quidditch Pitch this morning in the rain!" She pointing to the enchanted ceiling, which was currently suffering a thunderstorm.
"Hope it clears up like the last one," James muttered wishfully.
"Think positive guys!" Sirius said.
"You be positive Sirius, we'll be realistic," Jenny said rolling her eyes to the cloudy sky.
"Now no fighting children," Remus said. "You're all supposed to be working together this morning."
"Thank you Remus," Tash said going back to her food. "Can you swallow by yourself yet Jen?"
"I can swallow for Merlins sake!" Jenny said. "I don't need instructions!"
"How much longer?" Sirius asked James.
"Fifteen minutes then we're off," James said.
"Mail's here," Lily pointed where the soaked owls were swooping into the hall. Natasha's Daily Prophet was deposited on her toast. The writing was barely legible.
"Well there was no point in getting this," she muttered picking up the sodden rag that until recently had been a newspaper. Lily tapped it and the pages dried themselves.
"Thank you," Tash smiled. She glanced at the headline and squeaked.
"What?" Jenny asked. Everyone listened apparently worried that something bad had happened.
"They caught three Death Eaters last night!" she said.
"Great!" Lily said. "Read it!"
"Last night three supporters of he-who-must-not-be-named were apprehended in Manchester… all three were branded with the Dark Mark on their left forearms… the Ministry has not released names yet…all three believed to have been involved in the recent attack on Cardiff!"
"Good," Jenny said going back to her food. Tash continued to read the paper silently. Lily became preoccupied with her toast. So preoccupied in fact that she didn't notice that she had been given a letter too. The owl marched in front of her and she dropped her toast and picked it up to read it.
Dear LilyI hope you're enjoying the term so far. You're father and I miss you. Petunia is spending most of her time out with Vernon so the house is quiet. It is lonely without you.
Petunia and Vernon have set a date for their wedding on April fifteenth, the weekend before you go back to school after Easter. We have a seat reserved for you to bring one guest.
Say hi to James and all of your friends for me
All my love- Mum
P.S. Petunia says, don't bring the one who turned her hair green.
Despite the bad news, Lily cracked up at the memory of Petunia's hair.
"From your mum?" James asked.
"Yeah," Lily said. "Petunia's getting married this Easter. And I can bring a guest, but not and I quote 'the one who turned her hair green.'" Tash stopped going through the paper and burst out laughing.
"You turned Petunia's hair green?" Jenny asked.
"Didn't I tell you!" Tash asked and when everyone shook their heads both Lily and Tash launched into an explanation of how Petunia's hair had been accidentally charmed.
"Brilliant Tash," Sirius said. Tash waved the comments off and went back to her letters.
"Your mum must have hit the roof," Jenny said giggling into her juice.
"She did at first but then Tash said it had been self defence so she felt sorry for her," Lily explained.
"I still think it's brilliant!" Sirius said. James too was chuckling.
"Well are you going to take James?" Jenny asked.
"Only if he thinks he can survive," Lily said looking at her boyfriend.
"Lily I would love to come and I would happily endure a thousand clones of your sister just to be with you," James said giving a short bow that nearly knocked the orange juice onto Sirius.
"Thank you," Lily smiled and stuffed the letter in her bag.
"Guys!" Tash said from behind her letter. "Chris is getting out of hospital!"
"Great!" Lily hugged her friend before they were both hugged by Jenny.
"'Bout time too," Tash said. "They've only kept him in there for what, two months! He woke up two weeks after the attack."
"I suppose they have to be sure," Jenny said. "I mean when he woke up he wasn't entirely focused."
"Merlin! We're supposed to be at the pitch by now!" Sirius said, jumping up from the table and knocking his breakfast onto the floor. James, Tash and Jenny did exactly the same.
"Last one there is a Slytherin!" Tash shouted. Sirius ran after her, followed at a calmer pace by Jenny and James.
"We'd better go get seats in the stand," Remus said, taking his toast and getting up.
"Hope you brought an umbrella," Lily said. "It is not going to be cheerful out there."
OOO
"Another goal to Hufflepuff!" Mark cheered from the stands. Lily, Remus and Peter all groaned. "They lead thirty to zero!"
Even from her place in the stands, Lily could see the expression of worry on James's face. Sally and Clarissa had already been taken down by a combination of rain and bludgers leaving Tash managing the Quaffle on her own. In the current weather it was proving to be something of a nightmare.
As she shot off towards the goal all three Hufflepuff chasers surrounded her. With little way out Tash pulled her broom upwards and was almost unseated by a bludger. Performing a sudden twist in order to dodge, the Quaffle slipped from her grasp. The chasers below her shot off in the opposite direction. Cursing Tash sped after them.
As they approached Jerika at the goals the second bludger came speeding at the oncoming chasers, who scattered. The well aimed bludger bounced off the goal post and into the stomach of the chaser carrying the Quaffle. Tash seized it and shot off, screaming thanks to Jenny as she passed.
Tash scored bringing cheers to the Gryffindor spectators. Lily sighed in relief. Many of her fellow Gryffindors screamed in delight as one of the Hufflepuff beaters was taken down by lightning. The other beater, who incidentally was Ludo Bagman, was scowling and hit the oncoming bludger as hard as he could towards Tash. Sirius was by her side hitting it away. Jenny raced within earshot of Ludo and began screaming at him.
"Do that again and I'm going to take your sodding bat and shove it where the sun don…"
BANG!
The Gryffindors gasped as Jenny was knocked off her broom by the bludger, which had swerved around and come pelting at her. She fell twenty feet to the ground bringing cheers from the Hufflepuff crowd. Next to Lily, Remus went pale.
Swearing bloody murder that she was going to kill Bagman later, Tash shot off after the other chasers. Lily could hear her halfway across the pitch when they scored yet again.
There was an excited squeak from Peter as James went into a dive followed by the Hufflepuff seeker. Both of them tore down the pitch so fast that Lily began to wonder how on earth they could see the snitch in the torrential rain. Anyone not watching them saw Hufflepuff score again and Sirius 'subtly' knock him off his broom.
As both seekers plummeted towards the ground the Hufflepuff chaser whom Sirius had just disposed of, plummeted in front of them. Swerving to the side, James kept his eyes focused on the tiny golden ball in front of him, not stopping to see that the Hufflepuff seeker had gone skidding into the ground when he had tried to dodge his falling team-mate.
There was a roar from the Gryffindors as James pulled up with the Snitch clasped in his hand. Lily cheered with everyone else as the team came back to the ground and began assessing their fallen team members.
As soon as he was back to earth, James hurried over to Tash and Sirius who were both helping a dazed Jenny off the floor.
"Did we win?" Jen asked, rubbing her head.
"Course we did," Tash smiled. "And look here comes Lily!"
Lily sprinted up to them trying not to slip on the wet ground. She hugged James before turning to her friends.
"Is she alright?"
"Course I'm alright Lils," Jenny said, as she was sat down at the edge of the pitch. "We won!"
"I think that bludger killed a few too many brain cells," Tash muttered. "Come on Jen, we're going to go and have a party."
"Party?" Jenny asked dozily. "Why, did we win?"
"Yes Jen, we won," Lily said picking her up again and heading back to the castle with the rest of the cheering Gryffindors.
OOO
"Feeling better?" Lily asked. Jenny, Clarissa and Sally had just returned from the hospital wing. Fortunately they had not missed too much of the extremely noisy party.
"Much," Jenny said, grabbing a butterbeer and sitting down. "Did we miss anything?"
"Just Tash dragging everyone into a conga line," Lily said. Jenny snorted in her butterbeer as Remus came to join them.
"Better?" he asked, putting one arm around Jenny's waist.
"Yep," Jen nodded. "Just wish I'd been around for the conga line."
"Mmm it was funny," Lily smiled.
"We are the champions! We are the champions!"
"What the hell is that?" Remus asked.
"That is Tasha singing, I think you'll find," Lily said. "I dunno what she's been drinking but it's defiantly stronger than butterbeer."
"No type of losers! Cause we are, the champions! Of the world!"
By now most of the common room was cheering at Tash, who was standing on the table bowing to her applause. Lily was strongly reminded of the New Years Eve party and burst out laughing. At this point, James and Sirius reappeared with armfuls of butterbeer and sweets. Lily guessed that they had been into the village.
"Aww! You guy's missed me singing!" Tash complained coming over to join them. Jenny snorted into her drink again.
"Was that singing?" she asked. Tash swatted her on the arm.
"Can we have an end to the violence ladies thank you!" Sirius said, with the most authority he possibly could. Everyone laughed at him.
"I'm going to get my radio," Tash said jumping up and disappearing to the dormitory. Remus and Jenny decided to retreat to a corner of the common room by themselves.
"Well if Tash is going to instigate in a round of torture by means of her music than I think I'm going for a walk," James said, getting up with his drink. "Coming Lily?"
"I think I will," Lily smiled and followed him. Behind her Lily heard Sirius give a melodramatic sigh and then say to no one in particular,
"Am I so bad to be around?"
Walking hand in hand with James down the corridor, Lily reflected on the match and decided that however dangerous Quidditch was, if she could have moments like this with James then sitting through them was definitely worth it.
A/N: Told you the chapter would make up for it. Leave me a lovely review, or my muses will be upset! (Note from Fred- as head muse for this story I will be EXTREMELY upset!' Note from Doc- please review, a moody Fred is not pleasant! Note from Helen- Review! Review! Revi…OOH! CHOCOLATE! Note from Jack- As an original fiction muse I'm too tired to argue. Please review!)
Next Chapter: Careers consultations, and the mysterious 'Order of the Phoenix'
May Stardust fall in your dreams!