Chapter 9 – Gryffindor vs. Slytherin
It was now half way through the second term and Lily was wishing it would go as slowly as possible. She was dreading having to go home to collect her stuff and leave the only place that had ever been home to her. Lily had only told Carly about her parents. As far as she knew Carly was the only one who knew about her parents' death. However, Carly had told the Marauders and asked them to keep it quiet. James had known Lily was upset and had pestered Carly until she told him. She told the Marauders to act the way they normally did and not pity Lily because Lily would know if they were. She had like a sixth sense that immediately told her if people were pitying her even if it didn't show.
The big Quidditch match of the season was coming up fast. Gryffindor vs. Slytherin. Gryffindor had won the Quidditch cup two years running and were looking good to do it again. When James had become captain the previous year he had changed the team's tactics and Gryffindor had beaten Slytherin by a landslide. Everyone in the school including teachers were excited about the upcoming game. Well, everyone except Lily that is.
As much as Lily loved Quidditch itself she hated the fact that girls were never chosen for teams. Never in the whole history of the school had a girl been picked for one of the house teams and Lily thought it was very sexist. A woman had never played Quidditch professionally. It was the 70s for crying out loud, not the 1700s. Hadn't these people ever heard of women's rights? Lily was a feminist and had decided back at the beginning of the year that somehow, even if it took her her whole life she would change this.
After her parents' deaths Lily had withdrawn into herself, speaking only to Carly and occasionally one of the Marauders. She spent most of her time reading, drawing or dancing, always by herself. However one night, about a week before the match, Lily was about to start to become more like her old self.
Lily walked into the Common Room and found James and Sirius (both Chasers on the Gryffindor team) discussing the match against Slytherin. Lily walked up to them and listened and thought. She wasn't really paying attention when a thought popped into her head.
"James why do you think girls are never picked for house teams or asked to play professionally?" Lily asked. The boys stared at her in shock. It had been so long since they had heard her say more than five words at a time. James recovered quicker than Sirius and answered,
"Well guys are stronger, faster and are generally better than girls at sport." It was as if James didn't even have to think about it, to him it was a given fact that guys were better at sport, girls were better at cooking.
Lily raised an eyebrow. "Sirius?"
Sirius shook his head and said, "Well I'd have to go with James on this one. For once he's right about something."
"Hey!" James exclaimed while Lily narrowed her eyes at them.
"Do you two know how sexist you are?" she asked, "Ever heard of the Women's Rights Movement? You're so thick headed you probably haven't. One day I'm going to prove you wrong about this." Having said that Lily walked off in a huff.
James and Sirius frowned and looked at each other. "What do you think that was about?" Sirius asked.
James shook his head. "I've got no bloody idea. And what's the Women's Rights Movement?"
Sirius shrugged, "How the hell should I know? But it's good to see Lily talking again."
James nodded, "It definitely is."
-----*****~~~*****-----
~*Day of the match*~
"Come on Lily let's go please? You'll enjoy yourself," said Carly.
Lily rolled her eyes and growled. "Fine I'll come. You know I could've stayed here and read in the peace and quiet. But no you have to drag me to the Quidditch game played by all the sexist men in our school who think that they're just so much greater than us weakling girls."
Together they walked to the Quidditch pitch, Lily grumbling the whole way about how sexist some people were. They found seats in the first row and sat down to wait. Finally the teams came out and a seventh year Ravenclaw by the name of Fleance Banquo (a/n: we're doing Macbeth in English, first name I thought of. I don't own him) who was acting as commentator announced the players.
"THE GRYFFINDOR TEAM WITH CAPTAIN JAMES POTTER, CHASER. SIRIUS BLACK AND HUCK GIFF, CHASERS. BEATERS TOM NATION AND BEN MURRAY. KEEPER STEPHEN JACKSON AND SEEKER MITCHELL TODD. FOR THE SLYTHERIN TEAM, CAPTAIN AND KEEPER LUCIUS MALFOY. CHASERS TRISTAN SULLIVAN, CHRISTOPHER BRADY AND ADAM PETERS. BEATERS PHIL EDWARDS AND DAVID TAYLOR, AND SEEKER SIMON GREEN. WE'RE ALL LOOKING FORWARD TO WHAT POTTER HAS IN STORE FOR US TODAY. EVERYONE HAS COME TODAY TO SEE ANOTHER EXCELLENT PERFORMANCE FROM THE GRYFFINDOR TEAM LIKE LAST YEAR. CAPTAINS ARE SHAKING HANDS AND THEY'RE IN THE AIR, GRYFFINDOR TAKING POSSESSION OF THE QUAFFLE IMMEDIATLEY AND BLACK SCORES! GRYFFINDOR TAKES AN EARLY LEAD, 10-0."
This continued on for about an hour. Slytherin occasionally got a few goals but Gryffindor was too good. James was practically in heaven. The score was 120-30 Gryffindor's way and James was confident that the snitch would be caught soon. That was until an unfortunate accident occurred. Phil Edwards, the more vicious of the two Slytherin beaters (although they're both pretty vicious) hit a bludger extremely hard at Huck Giff who had the Quaffle. The bludger hit Giff so hard in the back that he fell off his broom. He fell about 30 feet but luckily Dumbledore was in the stands so by the time he hit the ground he only had a broken leg and arm. Madam Hooch called a time out and all players landed with the Gryffindor team going to surround Giff.
All of the Gryffindors and most of the Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs had run onto the field when Giff had landed. Lily however had been the first out of her seat and so had arrived on the pitch first and was now standing in the inner circle around Giff with the Gryffindor team, Madam Pomfrey and Professor Dumbledore.
"Is he going to be okay Madam Pomfrey?" James asked.
"He will but not for a day or two," she replied.
"B-but the game," said James.
Madam Pomfrey looked at him sternly. "Mister Giff has a broken arm and a broken leg. He certainly won't be going back to the game."
James and Sirius looked at each other despairingly. "What are we gonna do? We don't have a reserve Chaser. We need someone who can play right now."
"James I can play," Lily spoke up. James and Sirius looked at each other again.
"Lily I'm really sorry but girls aren't really that good at Quidditch," said James quietly.
Lily was beginning to boil. "You need a Chaser now and I'm a good one. Do you want me to play or not?" James looked as though he was seriously considering it. That is until another voice broke in on the conversation.
"You're not gonna let a girl on your team are you Potter," drawled Malfoy. That did it for James. He turned back around to Lily and said,
"I'm really sorry Lily." Lily glowered at him then spun around on her heel and stalked off. As she pushed people out of her way, they could hear her muttering things like, "freakin' stupid asshole" and "thinks he's so great". She went all the way up to her dorm then flopped on her bed still boiling with anger. Lily pulled out Wuthering Heights in hopes that she could calm down a bit while in her own little fantasy world.
Needless to say Gryffindor lost the match. They had finally found a Chaser but he hadn't been very good and Gryffindor had suffered the worst loss they'd had in 75 years. James wasn't happy (who would be after losing a game). The team would have to fight extra hard to win the Quidditch Cup now. He was deep in thought. Maybe he should've let Lily play whether she was a girl or not. After all Lily didn't usually say she was good at something unless she really was. Overall James was in a bad mood that night.
A/N: that's the chapter. Please review. Flames are accepted even though I completely disregard what they say. But if possible please don't send them. After all as Buffy said to Giles on that momentous day that is known as Graduation, "Fire bad, tree pretty."
-----*** Samantha ***-----