Chapter 16 – Sports

After putting away all their stuff, Lily finally spoke. "So Potter you gonna show us around or what?"

Carly looked at her and smiled. 'Thank you James,' Carly said silently. 'I knew all Lily needed was something to distract her. And in Lily's mind there's nothing better than hating James.'

"Of course. Right this way mi lady." James gave a sweeping bow, nearly touching the ground with his hand. Lily scowled at him but walked out of the room anyway.

Eventually they arrived at the library which was next to the door that led to the backyard. James was about to walk on except that Lily had walked into the library and was gazing around with widened eyes. "Wow," she said in awe. Lily began to walk around. "What kind of books are in here?" she asked.

"Mostly magic books I think. There's the possibility that there are a few novels by wizard authors," James replied.

"James if we don't grab Lily now," said Carly, "before she looses herself in here, we won't see her again for at least five hours."

"You're kidding right?" asked Peter.

"No I'm really not." Carly looked back at Lily who had already walked half way down one of the aisles. Carly ran after Lily, grabbed her arm and said, "Li you can come back later okay? We're gonna be here for another month. You have all the time in the world to go through this library. Right now James is gonna finish showing us around."

Lily just nodded as she was still gazing around in awe and amazement. The Marauders began laughing at the look on Lily's face. That snapped Lily back to reality and she glared at them. Of course knowing what Lily was like this small move immediately shut them up.

James led the group out into the "backyard". The grounds were huge. It backed onto a river and there was enough room for a Quidditch pitch and a…

"Tennis court?!" Lily looked astounded. "Potter you have a tennis court?"

"Lily dear we may be wizards but we do know about muggles."

"Sometimes I wonder if you do or not," Lily muttered. "Can you play?"

"Play what?"

Lily rolled her eyes. "Tennis!"

"Oh. I'm okay."

Lily looked around the grounds again. "Excellent a Quidditch pitch," she said.

"You're going to play Quidditch on the pitch?" asked a stunned Peter.

"No I'm going to play it on the tennis court," Lily replied sarcastically. "Of course I'm going to play on the pitch."

"But… you're a girl."

Lily narrowed her eyes dangerously. "Don't you dare start with that sexist 'I'm a girl so I shouldn't play sport' bullshit cause if you do I will kill you."

Peter backed away a little and gulped. "So Potter," said Lily, bright and happy again, "Where's the cricket pitch?"

"Cric-ket? What the hell is that?"

Lily looked at James in shock. She looked around and saw that everyone except Remus was looking at her in confusion. "No way. Don't tell me you guys have never heard of England's most popular sport."

"I have," Remus spoke up.

"You have?" asked Sirius.

"How do you know about this cricky thing?" asked Carly.

"Cricket," Remus corrected. "My parents are fans of cricket. They go to see the Ashes tournament whenever they're held in England."

"Really? My dad used to be a huge fan. There was cricket paraphernalia all over his study," Lily said softly. Everyone felt uncomfortable.

"Well umm… anyone up for a game of Quidditch?" asked Carly.

- - - - -

Lily walked into the kitchen at midday carrying her tennis racquet and wearing a white singlet and shorts. "Morning everyone!" she said. "What's for breakfast?"

"It's lunchtime Lady Lily," replied Sirius.

"I just woke up so for me it's breakfast."

"Does she always sleep till twelve?" asked Remus.

"Yep," replied Carly. "You wouldn't believe how much trouble I have getting Li up for school."

"Hey!" exclaimed Lily indignantly but she was smiling. Lily gobbled down a couple of pieces of toast then stood back up. "So who's up for some tennis?"

"I am if you teach me," replied Peter.

"Actually it would probably be better if Potter or Remus taught you 'because I suck at tennis." Lily swung her racquet around. "I'll see you guys out there."

"I'll come with you Lady Lily," said Remus. Lily bounced out of the kitchen and down the hall. Remus raised his eyebrows and Carly laughed at the expression on his face.

When Remus caught up to Lily, she was singing and dancing down the hallway using her tennis racquet as a microphone. "You are the dancing queen, young and sweet only seventeen, dancing queen, feel the beat from the tambourine oh yeah, you can dance, you can jive, having the time of your life, see that girl, watch that scene, digging the dancing queen."

Remus chuckled. "No offense Lily but you really can't sing."

"None taken. I know quite well that I am tone deaf. But I like singing anyway. And it's always fun to annoy people with my singing."

"You know I think us Marauders might be rubbing off on you."

"Nah. I think I might be rubbing off on you Marauders."

Remus and Lily both laughed and went to play some excellent tennis. Well okay tennis on Remus' part and bad tennis on Lily's. Of course the whole time the two of them were cracking jokes so by the time the rest of the group arrived at the tennis court, Lily was on the ground laughing her head off and Remus was using his tennis racquet to support his weight while trying hard not to fall down from laughing so hard.

"What's so funny?" asked Peter.

"I have no idea," Lily managed to get out between laughs.

"Right," said James. "So how we gonna play? Round Robin?"

- - - - -

"She shoots, she scores!" Lily yelled as she shot the Quaffle through one of the hoops that Sirius was supposed to be guarding. The Marauders, Lily and Carly were playing a modified version of Quidditch. There were three players on each team: a Chaser, a Seeker and a Keeper. Lily, Carly and Peter were against James, Sirius and Remus and so far the girls and Peter were winning by 20 points. Carly spotted the Snitch and dived for it. Remus was a second too late and then less than thirty seconds later Carly was holding the Snitch above her head. James, Remus and Sirius let out a groan simultaneously then rolled their eyes and groaned again when they saw Lily.

Lily was doing a victory dance which was a tad difficult as she was 30 feet in the air and on a broomstick. Really all she was doing was waving her arms about energetically but Lily interpreted it as a victory dance. "Woo! We won!" Lily screamed. "We're too good. Admit it. Girls are better Quidditch players. Ha ha. We won, we won, we won, we won."

"You're very humble aren't you Lily," James commented.

"Incredibly." Lily smirked then her eyes widened and she grinned as she was hit with a brilliant idea. "Carly!" Lily zoomed down to where everyone was talking on the ground. She hopped off her broom and grabbed Carly's arm.

"Carly you know what we have to do when we get back to Hogwarts?"

Carly frowned. "No what?"

"We have to set up a girl's Quidditch team."

"Oh my God you are so right."

"Hang on," said James. "How do you know you'd be able to get enough people who want to play?"

"Oh I know," replied Lily. "I'd bet anything that there is at least five girls that would want to play Quidditch."

"Are you willing to bet 100 Galleons on it?"

"I think it should be a bit more interesting than only money don't you?"

"Fine by me. If I win then you owe me 100 Galleons and you have to act like a girly girl. That includes make-up and hair." (A/N: let me make this clear. Lily isn't a tomboy she just doesn't care about make-up and she usually just has her hair in a ponytail.)

"Fine but if I win then we are going to play a little game of Quidditch. My team of girls against the Gryffindor team. Should my team win, we get to be the Gryffindor Quidditch team."

James' and Sirius' eyes widened. "You're not going to risk it are you James?" asked Sirius with a touch of fear in his voice.

"Padfoot we have one of the best Quidditch teams there is. Besides I can't back out now." James held out his hand and Lily shook it.

- - - - -

Lily, Carly and the Marauders were sitting in the lounge room after playing an extremely long game of Quidditch. The only ones who were still completely awake were James and Lily who were reading. (A/N: yeah I know James reading. The book is Quidditch through the ages okay?) James nudged Sirius who was now snoring and said, "Why don't you guys go to bed? You're all practically asleep anyway."

Peter stood up. "Yeah I think I will."

"Me too."

"Me three," said Sirius smartly.

"Me four," Carly said to keep the game going.

Lily giggled softly to herself at the stupidity of her friends. Carly looked at James and Lily. "What about you guys?" she asked. Rather than answering her, James and Lily held up their books and went back to reading.

About an hour later James was almost asleep when he felt something softly brushing against his hair. James grabbed it and turned around to find that Lily had been swinging her hand in her sleep. James smiled softly as he watched Lily and unconsciously began to rub the back of Lily's hand with his thumb. Lily smiled in her sleep as James continued and murmured very softly, "Mmm… Sirius." James dropped Lily's hand out of shock and moved back with his mouth slightly agape.

- - - - -

A/N: Wow I have over 100 reviews!! Thank you thank you thank you. *breaks into a very Andrew-like speech from Chosen* I'd just like to thank my partner in crime broadway betty, everyone who has reviewed and of course my- *gets cut off*