A/N: right…wtf? What was with that scary underline thing? Sorry, heres the chapter again, without the odd lines and stuff. Geez…I am so bad with technology!

Chapter Three

Who Said Head Girls Can't like Quidditch?

James was officially, severely put out. No one spoke to him the way Lily had the previous afternoon. And he didn't take kindly to being put in his place. In fact, he really hated it, especially when it involved Lily Evans.

Lily had been a source of both amusement and rage since first year. They simply clashed. Maybe, James' best friends often mused, it was because they were both so similar; they were both a tad arrogant, extremely stubborn, and very bright. A sure recipe for disaster. And when it came to Lily and James, disasters were definitely on the menu- all the time.

But this time, James was determined things were going to go his way. There was no way he was going to let Lily intimidate him. Besides, as if she could intimidate him. She was hardly even half his height, and lacking somewhat in the buff department. She was like a caterpillar compared to his centipede. Yeah, James thought, smiling smugly. He would squash her like a bug. Only, you know, not literally. Because he didn't want to physically harm Lily. James was no girl basher, he hadn't lifted a hand on a girl all of his life. But metaphorically, Lily was dead bug meat.

SSSSSSSSSSS

If there was one class in the entire educational kingdom that Lily sincerely hated, it would have to be transfiguration. Yep, that was it. Not Arithmancy, or Potions, or anything like that. Nope, just Transfiguration. A class that she did exceptionally well in, in fact. Lily got brilliant grades in all of her classes; she was the top charms and Potions student, and only lost that position in DADA to James, because he was more 'into it' according to her friends.

No, the reason Lily hated Transfiguration had nothing to do with her performance or understanding. It had more to do with her wands partner. She had real issues with her wand partner; in fact, he was so frustrating, she often wanted to transform him into a frog and then dissect him.

Any idea who it could be? James Potter, right? Actually, no, that would be incorrect. But he was the next best thing. Because Lily was partnered with Sirius Black, the most irresponsible, immature, irritating and kind of charming (Lily had to admit), boy there was.

That morning in particular, Black was being extremely annoying. And Lily was already irritated. It was the morning after her confrontation with James, and she had been plagued the whole night with dreams depicting Gryffindor losing the Quidditch cup and everyone blaming her for it.

Then she had washed her hair that morning only to find that the air was getting quite chilly and it wouldn't dry. So there she was, first period Transfiguration, sitting next to Sirius Black, her wet hair dripping down her back and a bowl of black beetles in front of her.

They were meant to be transforming the beetles into a bowl of cherries, but so far, they weren't having much luck. Every time Lily went to say the incantation, Sirius would jump in with a spell of his own, which would usually either kill a few bugs, or else cause other mishaps, such as setting Lily's sleeve on fire.

Each time this occurred he would wink, grin, and say:

"Sorry, Lils. Must have been the wrong spell."

Lily felt like screaming at him, that maybe if he looked at the blackboard he would see what the right spell was and they could work from there. But every time she opened her mouth, he'd turn around and talk to someone else for a while. He was almost as infuriating as James. Almost.

Finally, Lily waited until his back was turned, muttered the incantation, easily turning the beetles into cherries, and then sat back to relax for the rest of the lesson.

Black turned back to her.

"Wow! Way to go, Lily, you did it! I knew you'd pull through!" he exclaimed, clapping her on the back and almost causing her to dislocate a shoulder.

She glared at him silently, and then rolled her eyes.

"Next time, I'm going to tell the Professor that you didn't help," she muttered. "I've had enough of doing your work all the time, and if you don't want to pay attention in class-"

"Evans," a sever sounding voice snapped from behind her. Lily spun around to face… James Potter.

"What?" she barked back, still angry from her tirade against Black.

James regarded her silently for a few moments. Then-

"Quidditch practice. Five o'clock tonight… Out on the pitch," he added as an afterthought.

"Well, duh," Lily muttered as he walked away, leaving her feeling slightly stupid. She always expected James to be attacking her whenever he said anything to her. She turned back to the front to see Sirius smiling sympathetically at her.

"Never mind my friend there," he said, patting her shoulder. "He's articulately challenged."

Lily was about to roll her eyes again and then changed her mind. He wasn't a bad guy, Black. Just really annoying. So she managed a weak smile.

He grinned back. So it was kind of worth it. Hell, even Lily could admit that Sirius was hot!

SSSSSS

James trudged onto the Quidditch pitch after dinner that night with a decisive air of resignation. He found it quite depressing that one person could transform his love of Quidditch into a kind of reluctant motivation.

As he dragged the crate of balls out of the change rooms, he thought about Lily. She was so frustrating! And, though he hated to admit it, kind of scary. Her threat yesterday had really frightened him. He really wanted to win the Cup this year. In fact, he was counting on it- he had a good team, and he was a brilliant Captain. But if Lily stuffed up, that was it. No Cup for James. No victory, no glory, no girls, nothing. And it would all be because of Lily Evans, who seemingly enjoyed making his life hell.

And ok, so James could admit that he was a bit of a slacker when it came to his Head Boy duties. As in, he never wrote his reports, led all the first years astray, played pranks on Lily on the job, and hardly ever showed up for meetings with teachers. But, hey, he was a busy guy! And he didn't exactly enjoy spending time with Lily Evans. Sure, she was cute. Very cute, in fact. But she was a cold, hard, b-…you get the point.

James shook his head to clear his thoughts. There was no point in getting all worked up about Evans. There was nothing he could do about the situation at present. But as soon as an opportunity arose, he was going to boot her out of the team. As soon as possible.

SSSSSSSSS

By the time Lily made it out onto the pitch for training, all the other players were there. Her robes were finally the right size for her vertically challenged body, and her broomstick (a comet three sixty) was top of the line. She was feeling good.

Unfortunately, James wasn't feeling so god.

"You're late," he shouted at her, as soon as she was within hearing vicinity. "You're already letting the whole team down!"

It was true, the other players were already in the air, and the Chasers were having a hard time practicing without the Keeper in place, but it wasn't that big a deal, and she was only a few minutes late.

Still, she could hardly fight with the captain at the first practice.

"Sorry," She muttered, mounting her broom and immediately whizzing into the air.

James gave an exasperated sigh and followed suit.

Once at the goal hoops, Lily began to circle lazily, warming up. The sun was just setting, but James had lit the magical lights all around the pitch, so she could see everything around her. The stands looked worn down, when empty like this. Old banners and placards lay here and there on the benches, and the Hufflepuff house sign was half torn down. Lily sighed. She would have to talk to Dumbledore about getting something done about that.

"Hey Evans!" she turned at the sound of Gretel calling her name. "Catch this!"

She pegged a Quaffle towards the third hoop. It was obvious that Lily should have flown immediately towards the hoop to stop the ball from scoring, but instinct made her stay where she was, in front of the middle hoop. Sure enough, the ball sped towards the third hoop, and then at the last moment began to arc towards the middle. Lily sped forwards a few meters and easily saved it. She threw it back at Gretel, who had both her eyebrows raised, but was grinning.

"Good save," she called, giving her the thumbs up. "You got instinct, girl!"

Lily grinned. It was strange, but that had felt so natural. Flying felt natural, but saving goals, speeding between the hoops? That felt more than natural. It felt like second nature- a sixth sense. She shook her head slightly. Who was she kidding? She wasn't even that good at Quidditch, now she thought she was some sort of star player? Whatever.

But as the practice progressed, and she saved more and more goals (not all of them, but definitely most) Lily realized that she really did have talent. Not a spectacular amount, but more than average. It made her feel good. Lily was a very high achiever academically, but she had never tried any sporting forms of recreation. She couldn't be good at everything, was her philosophy.

About halfway through the warm up, Lily noticed James' eyes on her. She looked up questioningly, but he immediately looked away. She shrugged. She didn't care if he wanted to be immature. She was here to practice, and that was it.

"Right, guys, lets try a drill!" he called out to them. The beaters, who had been practicing hitting a bludger between them, sped over to join the rest of the team near the goals.

"I want the Chasers on this end of the pitch," James indicated towards himself. "Can the Beaters please move about five metres that way, and hover opposite each other, about three metres apart? And I want you guys to hit the bludgers to each other, hard and fast. Lily, get up near the goals."

The team members obliged, Grant and Adrian (the Beaters) beginning to bash the Bludgers between them, starting slow, and then building up the pace.

"Right," James said, flying in between the Chasers and the goals, but keeping away from the flying bludgers. "The object is for the Chasers to get the quaffle, dodge the bludgers and score a goal. But you're only allowed two passes, and there is a time limit of 30 seconds each time. Ready? Lets go."

Immediately, Gretel and Alice whizzed forwards. They easily dodged the two bludgers, and were on their way to the goals. Lily started circling a bit faster, her pulse racing. She loved the thrill she got form the competition. Maria flew into the fray, and Gretel passed the quaffle to her easily. Lining up, and hovering a short distance form the goals, she paused. Then she grinned and shot.

Lily swerved quickly to the right, aiming to intercept the ball before it reached the middle hoop. She dove, she missed, and the ball sailed through.

"Faster, Lily!" James barked. "I want to see more effort!"

Lily gritted her teeth. That was unfair. She had been trying hard all practice- just because he hadn't been watching wasn't her fault.

The next time Gretel made it through to the goals, Lily was ready. Just as the quaffle left her fingertips, Lily sped forward and thwacked it out of the way with her broomtail.

Take that, Potter, she thought rather vindictively.

The particle went on until seven o'clock, by which time it was well and truly dark, and there was no point continuing. Lily left the pitch feeling both tired and satisfied. In the change rooms, Gretel and Alice were talking excitedly about their prospects for the Cup, and Lily remembered about her threat the day before. She was slightly regretting that now. Somehow, she knew that stuffing up a Quidditch game wasn't going to be as easy as she had though. For one thing, she happened to enjoy playing Keeper. For a second thing, Lily was incredibly competitive, and hated losing anything. And lastly, she was very loyal- she hated the thought of 'letting the team down'.

As she trudged back up to the castle, Lily sighed. This blackmail thing was no piece of cake.

SSSSS

A/N: I can see glares all the way form here D ok, ok, I'll have more lily and James action soon, I promise. In the meantime, REVIEW! And tell me if this chapter was any good. Also, what do you guys think of her best friends (although you didn't see them in this chapter)?

Thanks to:

check6: thanks for the review, I love getting long ones. I wasn't sure if I was doing ok with the Quidditch talk, so that was reassuring. And I'm glad you like Kin and Matthew! D

Steelo, PInk SuCKs, Tracey (hee hee, your review was amusing), Tawnyfawn (I happen to know that you do not think James sucks at all wink wink), CrazzyD', just another harry potter fan, SweetSouthernGal (I try to make each fic completely different form the others, that's why I hate sequels so much P glad you like it!), Jen-bob-ohio, Sweet Sarcasm ('ello, 'ello! Glad you like it, and sorry you got mixed up with Kin's gender D he, he, maybe I should have made it a mystery like Blaise Zabini…)

And of course, the other people who I know I've forgotten! Sorry!

smiles

JB