Disclaimer: everything belongs to JK Rowling, except for characters and events unrecognizable as being part of the Harry Potter series.

A/N: hey guys! sorry it took me so long to update, I'm up to my ears in school work! I promise I'll update more quickly from now on. And I have to admit, I had a bit of writers lock, because I had no idea what to write about the game in this chapter…you'll see what I mean P

Anyway, thanx for all the LOVELY reviews, and enjoy this chapter!

Chapter Five

The Game

"I am going to kill him!" Lily shrieked, storming into the common room on Saturday. "Where is he!"

The common room was mostly empty, as most of the students were outside enjoying the sun. There was a group of first years playing chess in one corner, and opposite them, lounging in a chair was Sirius Black.

"I'm assuming you mean James," he remarked, lifting a hand to lazily sweep his long hair out of his eyes.

"Duh, I mean James. Where is he?" Lily snapped.

Lily didn't actually dislike Sirius, Remus or Peter. In fact, she was mostly indifferent to them; occasionally, however, her hatred for James spilled over onto then. Now was one of those occasions.

"Not here," Sirius said. He yawned and then grinned at her. "You seem kind of hot for him."

Lily glared at him but didn't deem the remark to be worthy of a reply.

"I'll just have to find him myself then," she muttered, turning to go.

Sirius, sensing and explosion to come, sat up hastily.

"Is that really necessary?" he asked, edging out of his seat to stand in front of Lily, blocking her off from the portrait hole. "Maybe you should talk to me. You know, release all your emotions and that."

Lily stared at him.

Sirius, anxious to save his friend form becoming a few splatters on the ceiling, began to babble.

"Um, you, uh, look like you have a lot of pent up anger," he said, brushing his hair off his forehead again. "You need to let it all go."

Lily rolled her eyes.

"Let me put this simply for you, Black," she stated evenly. "If you don't move out of my way, you will suffer from the same fate that awaits Potter."

Sirius visibly gulped. He regarded her warily for a moment, and then stepped smartly to the side. Lily stormed past him, hair swinging wildly behind her.

"Don't let me keep you," Sirius called nervously after her. "Do you need any help? I'll help you!"

SSSS

James was sitting calmly in the library, slowly and patiently drawing up Quidditch strategies, completely unaware of the horror that was about to befall him.

The horror that marched up in the guise of Lily Evans.

She slammed her hands down hard on the table in front of James, causing him to jump in shock. He looked up, his gaze instantly captured by extremely fiery green eyes. Now, although he would never admit this to anyone, James found Lily's eyes to be quite hot. Extremely hot, actually. Often when he was 'glaring' at Lily, he was actually just getting a load of her eyes. He found it hard to understand how they could be so deep and yet so bright. Still, even James had the sense to be scared when she glared at him like that. When Lily's eyes went that shade a little past midnight, she was definitely pissed off. Like right now.

"Hi," he said weakly. Await the explosion, he reminded himself. There was no point even launching the defense until she had let off a few canons.

"Where the hell is the report, Potter!" Lily demanded, keeping her voice just barely beneath a yell. Hey, even Lily had respect for Library policies.

"What report?" James asked stupidly.

"What report indeed," Lily muttered. "The report, moron, that you said you would write. Our monthly report that was due last Friday, and, oh, check the calendar- what day is it now? Tuesday! You're a full four days late! Dumbledore is asking me for the report, which makes me wonder just who the Head Boy is. Because I swear I fell like I'm doing work for two, and it isn't fair!"

James opened his mouth to speak, but Lily instantly cut him off.

"We had a deal, Potter! There's a game next week, and trust me, I wouldn't mind stuffing it up if it meant you could feel even slightly like I fell right now- like a failure! I don't hand things in late, Potter, you know that. This is the biggest lapse I've ever had!"

"Lily!" James finally exploded, cutting her off just before she launched another tirade.

She stopped and glared at him, arms crossed angrily.

"I wrote the report," James stated, and then, just as Lily opened her mouth, "I did! I forgot to hand it in is all. And I know, there's no excuse for that, and you deserve to be angry, but I've been really busy. I've been trying to get our strategy sorted for the game next week. I'll go hand the report in right now, ok?"

Lily opened her mouth, and then shut it, sighing, she pulled out the chair opposite James and slid into it. James's eyes widened, a little startled at this move.

"Fine," she said. "Make sure it's in before tonight."

"I will," James said cautiously. Lily looked weary now, and James could tell that she had evidently not been getting much sleep. He blamed himself for that. With the upcoming game against Hufflepuff, there had been Quidditch practice every second night. That, coupled with the extreme amounts of work the seventh years had been receiving meant that Lily had hardly slept at all for that last two weeks.

"So. What's our strategy?" Lily asked tentatively. Contrary to popular belief, Lily didn't like fighting with James. It was just one more stress to add to the ever growing pile for her. It was simply that circumstance sometimes (always), required a bit of a skirmish.

James pushed his diagram across the table to her. It had on it a rather good sketch of the pitch, with red brooms for the Gryffindor players, and black (because he didn't have yellow) brooms for the Hufflepuff players. His strategy basically was to focus on attack, because the Hufflepuff attack was fairly weak, and to have the three chasers aiming for the hoops while the Beaters harried the keeper continuously. Lily really wouldn't have much to do.

"What do you think?" James asked, watching the redhead purse her lips as she scanned the diagram.

"It's a good pan, but you've missed something," she said, pushing the plan back to him.

James looked at her. Lily looked at James. Silence.

"Well? Are you going to tell me what I missed?" James finally said, irritated.

Lily grinned.

"Seeing as how you asked so nicely," she said dryly. "You've forgotten that Ashen, their Seeker, is amazing, and he has a new Meteor 300 broomstick. You'll want at least one Beater focusing on him. Also, their attack might be crap, but their defense is strong. You're going to have to account for their Chasers. Try to disable them first with some wild swings, and some feints. You need to keep their entire team completely confused as to what we're doing, so that they'll keep doing the wrong thing."

She stopped and looked up from where she had been scribbling arrows and adding bits onto the diagram to see James staring at her with open mouth.

"What?" she asked, in confusion. She tucked a bit of hair behind her ear nervously.

"Why didn't you try for the team before?" James asked, regaining his voice.

"Didn't think I'd be any good. Besides, I'm more of a book-and-apple kind of girl, not a broomstick-and-quaffle- type, if you get what I mean." Lily said, shrugging.

"But your strategies are awesome," James said. "That-that was great! You picked up on more than I did, and I'm the Captain!"

"So?" Lily said, raising an eyebrow.

"So? So!" James said. Now he was beginning to get mildly irritated. Who knew how many games they could have won if only Lily had been on the team? "So you're talents are wasted on books! You should try dedicating yourself to the team more!"

"Hey, not everyone likes sports. I might be good at Quidditch, but its not as if it's my life or anything."

"Well, it should be. You should offer your talents where they're needed," James said, with an air of finality.

Lily stared at him incredulously.

"Excuse me, Potter, but I think I can decide where I should put my talents," she said, her voice teetering on the edge of anger.

"Well, you obviously got it wrong thus far," James said, not realizing that he was falling straight into another trap. "I mean, you're obviously not going to get anywhere with potions."

"You know what, Potter?" Lily said, standing up suddenly. "You can take your strategies and stupid opinions and shove it! I can live my own life, thank you."

With that she stormed out of the library. If there was one thing Lily hated, it was being told what to do.

James stared after her in consternation. What had he done now?

SSSSS

Kin was rather bored. Actually, it was difficult to tell when Kin was bored, because he always looked bored. He was a man of few emotions.

Matthew, on the other hand, was a man of many emotions. He was like a ball of boundless energy, bouncing off the walls all the time. Kin, who was muggle-born, hoped that Matthew never took drugs. If he was like this when he was sober, imagine what he could be like if he was stoned.

Both unlikely friends were in the Great Hall, Matthew sketching in a large notepad, and Kin leaning forward with his head resting on the table, appearing to be asleep. A jug of pumpkin juice sat nearby, with two half full glasses near the lazy seventh years.

After a while, Kin sat up with a sigh and a yawn.

"I'm bored," he announced.

"Surprise, surprise," Matthew retorted. He was sketching furiously now, his hand almost a blur as it flew across the pages in front of him.

"I'm going outside," Kin said, rolling his eyes at his friends comment. "Quidditch practice is on. Might see how Lily's doing."

"Hmm," Matthew said. Kin frowned. Matthew was hardly ever responsive when he was drawing- Kin should have been used to it. But still, it was annoying. Rather like role reversal.

Sighing again, Kin stood up and trudged outside. His blond hair was hanging over his eyes, obscuring his vision, and in a blue t-shirt and faded, scruffy jeans, he looked like the epitome of a ragged teenager.

The stands were virtually empty. Out of habit, Kin made his way to the Gryffindor stands. It was only when he got closer that he noticed another figure sitting there, reading a book and showing no interest in what happening on the Pitch. Remus Lupin.

If Kin Matthew and Lily were ever lined up against the Marauders, definite similarities would be observed. Matthew was just like Sirius; Kin and Remus were one of a kind; and Lily was like…well, James. Unfortunately, Lily had no friends like Peter, so perfect symmetry was unachievable.

Still, Kin could deal with Remus. He wasn't very sociable, but Remus was one person who he was ok with.

Climbing up to the same row as his pale companion, Kin slid into the seat next to him. Remus glanced up, offered him a brief smile, which Kin returned, and then turned back to his book.

Kin leaned back, his hands crossed behind his neck, and observed the game.

Neither of the boys said a word. After a while, Remus set his book down and leaned back, his posture mimicking Kin's. Still they remained silent.

Kin grinned to himself, enjoying the peace. Now this was the sort of companionship he could deal with. Someone who was there but not there.

Looking up, though, he noticed that things were not quite so peaceful on the pitch. Form what he could see, James as yelling at lily, who was pretending not to hear, and was simply circling lazily around the hoops.

As Kin watched, James sped up to Lily, and stopped right in front of her. He grabbed hold of her broom handle, keeping her securely in front of him, and the proceeded to continue yelling at her. Lily, it seemed, was not going to take this, and she jerked away from him, and ended up flying straight back down to the ground, getting off her broom and storming away to the change rooms. James, shaking his head, turned back to the rest of the team.

Kin stood up. It was time to do what a good friend would do, and find Lily. She would probably want to rant abut Potter for a while.

"Seeya," he said to Remus.

"Until we meet again," Remus said, smiling mildly.

Lily was still fuming. It was as if when ever she and Potter took a step forward by being nice to each other, one of them suddenly decided to take several vast leaps back. There she was, helping him out with his strategy, making sure that they wont he game, when he went all suspicious on her.

'I can't believe he thought I'd try to sabotage the game!" Lily half-yelled, causing Kin to sigh. He hated loud noises.

"Well, you did threaten to ruin his life," he pointed out. "Can you blame the guy for not taking chances?"

"Yes," Lily said hotly. She brushed sweaty hair out of her eyes, and swept it away form her neck. She was still in her Quidditch gear, and Kin was carrying her broom. They were walking around the pitch so Lily could clam down, the rest of the team having already gone inside.

Kin half-smiled.

"You know, considering how much you two seem to hate each other, you both sure care a lot when the other is mad at you," he said.

Lily spun to face him, eyes wide in incredulity.

"What the hell is that meant to mean?" she demanded, frowning. "I don't care what James thinks!"

Kin smiled mysteriously, but said no more. They were teenagers- they got their feelings muddled all the time. He could tell Lily that eh suspected she and James had a thing for each other, but somehow he knew it would be pointless. She would deny it, and then get mad and storm off.

Better for them to realize it themselves.

A/N: omg, that took forever! Sorry, but its here now. I had intended to include the Quidditch game in this chapter, but I guess I'll put it into the next one after all.

Also, if there are any of you guys interested in reading my new original story, I'd really appreciate if you would. If you want to, let me know your email address, and I'll email you the first chapter- I really want some feedback D

Apart from that, review, ok?

Thanks!

JB