Chapter 18 – A league of their own
"Excuse me!" Lily jumped onto a table in the Gryffindor common room. "EVERYONE QUIET!" she screamed. The room fell completely silent. "Now I have an announcement for all girls from second to seventh years. Carly Ross and myself are putting together a girl's Quidditch team. We need 2 Chasers, 2 Beaters and a Keeper. Just a quick look, everyone who is interested please raise your hands."
Approximately 30 girls raised their hands. Lily and Carly grinned at each other. "James Potter you owe me 100 Galleons. I'll tell you when we're ready to play. Okay tryouts will be held this Saturday afternoon. All girls who want to play be there. Thanks." Lily jumped off the table as everyone began talking again.
"James she did it," said Sirius, "What if her team beats us?"
"I don't know Sirius. I really don't know."
- - - - -
"I'd just like to thank everyone for coming," Lily said after the tryouts. "You're all very good Quidditch players and it was very hard to pick the team. After I have announced the names I want the team and reserves to stay back to talk about training. Okay the Chasers are Miridia Smythe and Beth Maskell, 5th years. Beaters are Matilda Morgan, 5th year and Gloria O'Shea (pronounced O'Shay), 4th year. The Keeper is Sméagol Goluff, 5th year. The reserves are Jane and Mary Perkins, 4th years, Chasers. Sue Mendez, 3rd year, Beater. Sophie Roberts, 3rd year, Keeper and Anna Sommers, 3rd year Seeker. Again thanks everyone for trying out."
All the girls began leaving except the 10 that Lily had named. Carly took a step forward so that she was standing next to Lily and began speaking, "Okay you guys I'm not sure how long this will take so let's sit down so we can work everything out." They all sat down and Carly continued, "Before we move onto the mundane things like training times, Lily and I have something important to ask you."
"How would you like to be the Gryffindor Quidditch team?" asked Lily.
"You mean as in us playing the other house teams?" asked Gloria.
"That's exactly what we mean," answered Carly.
"But," said Sméagol, "what about James Potter and Sirius Black and all them? Why would they let us be the Gryffindor team instead of them?"
"This is what happened in a nutshell," answered Lily. "During summer James and I made a little bet. James didn't believe that I could get together an all girl's Quidditch team so we bet on it. If I won, which obviously I have since you guys are here, then James would have to pay me 100 Galleons and the team I got together would be able to play a game against the Gryffindor team. If the girl's team won the match then we would be the Gryffindor team and not them."
"Do you really think we could beat them?" Miridia asked a tad nervously.
"I do. With some hard training to get us working together as a team I think we would be ready to face them in a month."
"But Lily what happens when we beat them?" asked Beth concerned, "What if they refuse to let us be the Gryffindor team?"
"They can't." Lily smiled. "I've already talked to McGonagall and told her the whole thing. When we beat them if they don't willingly let us be the Gryffindor team then McGonagall will intervene. I believe McGonagall is telling the Gryffindor team this right about now."
"Okay we'll move on now that that's explained," said Carly. "We need to pick a captain."
"I think it should be Lily," said Miridia.
"So do I," added Mary. A chorus of "yeah" was then heard.
"Me? You want me to be captain?" asked Lily astounded.
"Well Li this was all your idea," replied Carly, "and you're a great Quidditch player."
"Umm okay. Wow me a captain. That's something I never thought would happen."
"Okay next thing training times. Lily and I thought it should be Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays before dinner. We'll meet at the Quidditch pitch and if it's taken then we'll move to an area on the grounds."
"This means the only thing left," said Lily, "is when we're going to play the Gryffindor team. The Quidditch season starts in October but Gryffindor's first game isn't until November. Today is the 12th of September so I thought we should verse Gryffindor on Halloween. That gives us over a month to train and if we're training three times a week, we'll be more than ready to take on Gryffindor and win. Okay that's it for today. I want to see all of you here on Monday at 4:30 on the dot. See you guys then."
- - - - -
Thursday October 29th
Lily paced in front of her team. "This is our last training session before the match. Every one of you has worked extremely hard over the past month and we have probably the best team in the school. Today I want you all to train the best you can so we can be ready on Saturday. We will beat those males on Saturday and show them that girls aren't weak little things that can't defend themselves. Okay everyone start your drills."
The four Chasers and two Keepers flew into the air to begin their passes. The Beaters stayed on the ground and began hitting Bludgers to each other. Lily threw a few golf balls to the Seekers before leaving Carly and Anna to do it themselves. Lily was about to join the Chasers and Keepers when she saw the Gryffindor team walking onto the Quidditch pitch. All the girls stopped what they were doing and were about to join Lily but Lily yelled to them, "Keep going!"
Lily turned and walked over to the Gryffindor team which was being led by James. "What are you doing here James?" Lily snarled.
"We just came to check out the competition for Saturday's match."
"Not getting scared are you Jamesie?"
"Never felt better Lady Lily." But on the inside James wasn't feeling quite so confident. He had seen Lily's team train a couple of times and they were good. Extremely good.
"You've seen us train you can go now."
"We haven't seen you in action yet Lady Lily," Sirius butted in.
"You have. You saw me play over the summer."
"We won't leave until we see you training with your team Lily."
"You get 5 minutes. When those 5 minutes are up you had all better be gone or someone will get hurt." Lily hopped on her broom and went to join her fellow Chasers.
"James this isn't good," said Tom Nation, one of the Beaters, "You've seen how good those girls are. We might not be able to beat them."
"I know," replied James.
"Why did you have to make that stupid bet anyway James?" asked Mitchell Todd, the Seeker.
"Because I never thought Lily would be able to get a team together let alone an excellent one. I should've known better than to underestimate Lily. Sirius why didn't you remind me that when Lily is determined about something she makes sure it's done?"
"Because… because… I don't know. Let's just get out of here. I'm not really in the mood for being beat up by Lily again."
- - - - -
Saturday October 31st
Lily stole the Quaffle from James and passed it to Beth. She flew forward and called out, "Beth!" Beth passed the Quaffle and Lily caught it. They continued passing it to each other as they flew down the field. As they neared the goals Beth dropped the Quaffle to Miridia who was flying beneath Lily and Beth and Miridia scored. Sirius grabbed the Quaffle and passed it to Huck Giff the final Gryffindor Chaser. Huck was about to pass to James but was hit by a Bludger sent by Gloria. Miridia caught the Quaffle and passed to Beth but James intercepted it and began streaking towards the goals at the other end of the pitch.
James threw the Quaffle to Sirius. Sirius threw it towards the left goal post and just as it was about to go through Sméagol caught it. She threw it to Beth and Beth passed it to Lily. As Lily passed to Miridia, she was hit by a Bludger that was hit by Ben Murray. Lily yelled in pain and fell half way off her broom. James heard her and turned around to see Lily hanging off her broom, only managing to stay on by her legs which were wrapped around the handle. James watched as she pulled herself back up and continued down the pitch after Huck who had the Quaffle.
Sirius flew up next to James and said, "Lily's fine. Now concentrate if you want to stay Gryffindor Quidditch Captain."
"Right." James flew after Lily and called to Huck. Huck tried to pass to James but Beth intercepted and passed to Miridia who then passed to Lily. Lily swooped under James and headed towards the goal posts. She threw the Quaffle over the head of Mitchell Todd to Beth. Beth sped forward and easily put the Quaffle through the middle ring.
Carly saw Mitchell streaking towards the ground. Carly followed and as she neared the ground she realised there was no Snitch. 'Shit!' she thought. 'Wronski Feint.' Carly pulled herself up just in time and spotted the Snitch about 50 feet straight above her. She began flying as fast as she could straight up never once taking her eyes off the Snitch. Carly flew straight threw the Gryffindor Chasers and narrowly missed the Bludger that Matilda had hit at James. Carly kept flying. 10 feet left. She could hear Mitchell getting closer. Carly leant forward on her broom and stretched her arm. She felt the Snitch touching the tips of her fingers and lunged forward and grabbed it.
Both teams heard Madam Hooch's whistle blow to end the match. All fifteen people landed on the ground awaiting the results. "The final score is," said Madam Hooch, "Gryffindor: 160, Evans' team: 280. Evans' team is officially the new Gryffindor Quidditch team and Lily Evans is the new Quidditch Captain."
The team screamed with joy and Carly did a victory dance. Lily walked forward to talk to James.
"You played a good game Potter."
"You played a better one Evans." They grinned at each other as they began to walk towards the locker rooms.
"You know what Malfoy is gonna say about this don't you?" James commented.
"Oh I dunno some sexist remark about how Slytherin will win the Quidditch Cup because Gryffindor no longer has a chance seeing as we're an all girl team?"
"Something along those lines. But Gryffindor has the best team in the school. It did last year, and this year it's even better. Congratulations Captain Evans."
- - - - -
A/N: It has taken me forever to write this chapter. But I'm glad it has. This chapter wouldn't have been as good if I rushed it. I hope you all like it.
Samantha