The Lions Triumph
October arrived with a tremendous rainfall of leaves, gusty winds and the first Quidditch match of season. The Gryffindor lions versus the Slytherin serpents; excitement was in the air! Lily felt it as she filed into the Quidditch Pitch, that windy Saturday afternoon along with a sulky Amelia and the always amiable, Gen.
Lily, the observant friend she was (partly dying from curiosity) noticed Amelia sneaking peeks toward the masses of royal blue, which indicated the Ravenclaw stands.
Lily also observed, with slight amusement, that this was the first time Amelia Moon had taken it upon herself to dress practically normal. Very strange.
Lily eyed Amelia's 'practically normal' attire, a ratty orange sweater that made her pale skin a few shades paler, topped off with a leprechaun green hat that created a very 'carrotty effect'. Amelia's long golden hair was left loose to all its glory, only to be surpassed by Amelia's notorious pair of carrot earrings that dangled from her earlobes. Amelia had also donned on her Hogwarts skirt, a pleated grey thing with no character and a pair of knee length white socks, offset, however, by her chunky, brown gardening shoes.
Just then, Amelia whipped around to face Lily, her expression anxious.
"It's my outfit, right?" she questioned, her eyes wide.
Lily cleared her throat. Gen turned to face Amelia.
"Well, if you want to make a good impression on lover boy, you'd better take off the sweater, roll down the socks, rip off those earrings, loose the hat and then you might accepted into the realm of the relatively normal. Except those shoes you borrowed from Professor Kettleburn, hide them," said Gen, speaking very fast (sounding very much like Andie) and pointing to each of Amelia's fatal fashion flaws as she spoke. Amelia scowled.
"Thank you, very much." She said in a forced manner, as she removed her precious earrings, glaring the daggers at Lily.
"I didn't tell her anything," Lily protested, "you're pretty obvious, Amelia!"Amelia's scowl deepened further, as Gen's eyes flicked toward the sky,
"Shush," she hissed, "Andie's up."
The trio, of course, had come to watch Andie perform her fabulous moves as Gryffindor's seeker, though Lily had secretly come to watch James, as well. She hadn't told the others about their nearly civil exchange, simply because she knew they wouldn't react well. Andie would be flabbergasted at Lily's sudden change in mind and go on for weeks about sticking to the game plan (revenge in this case). Gen would simply be betrayed, for now she despised everything to do with James Potter. Amelia couldn't care less because of her recently acquired obsession with her Ravenclaw 'lover boy', whose identity, Amelia still obstinately refused to reveal.
Lily tucked a strand of her auburn hair behind her ear, her eyes following Gen's gaze. A flock of red-robed figures were gathered at one side, their expressions intent. Lily spotted, Andie right away, her mass of frizzy, mad-scientist hair standing up at odd directions, her long, tanned fingers clutching her Comet Two-Sixty and the her scarlet cloak billowing behind her.
"Why is Potter waving at us?" Gen exclaimed with obvious disdain.
Lily immediately realised Gen was right as she watched James in his scarlet uniform, one hand on his broom and the free one waving at them. Specifically at Lily. Gen's lip curled.
"If this is some ridiculous prank-"
Lily felt her face burn hot. "Oh, he's probably waving at someone behind us…" she responded weakly. She felt torn apart and the funny thing was, James wasn't even her friend. They had just finally become civil to one and another. Lily looked down at her feet, until she heard Madam Hooch blow shrilly on the whistle.
Sirius Black's magnified voice echoed throughout the vast pitch.
"The first, exciting match of the season is just about to begin. Gryffindor and Slytherin, head to head for this year's Quidditch cup… And this year, the Gryffindors have a ruddy brilliant team, Towers, Brown, Clemens, Potter, Doon, Davies and Doyle!" Sirius exclaimed as the Gryffindors swept into the centre.
Andie blew her signature kiss and grinned from ear to ear. Lily inwardly thought, she wouldn't be surprised if Andie played for England one day. As Sirius introduced the Slytherin team, well equipped in size rather than skill, Lily glanced up at James. She shot him a small smile, which he probably couldn't even see, but helped her feel better, anyway.
"And they're up! The nasty little Bludgers are ready to do some damage. The golden snitch is out! And finally-yes-Madam Hooch has released the Quaffle! Let the game begin!" commentated Sirius excitedly.
The players broke out in different directions as the Quaffle spiralled upwards.
"Gryffindor in possession, Violet Brown, chaser extraordinaire has got it-oof-Digby, Slytherin-you nasty maggot!" Sirius gasped indignantly.
Lily flinched as the Bludger sent flying, smashed right into her wrist. The Quaffle slipped through her fingers, for she could not bear its weight any longer. The Quaffle was captured in seconds by Slytherin's very own…
"Regullus Black in possession," Sirius announced, his words dripping with disdain.
Lily focused on the little green blur shooting toward the goal posts. The two Gryffindor beaters tailed him, bats ready to strike. Indeed, when Doon finally managed to strike a bludger at the Slytherin chaser, it only missed Black by a mere inch.
Black flung the Quaffle at the left, unguarded post. Clemens the Gryffindor keeper, tried desperately to save it, but failed.
"10 points for Slytherin," declared Sirius without much enthusiasm. That earned him a reproachful glance, from Professor Slughorn, the Slytherin head as the green and silver masses erupted into hysterical cheers.
Lily groaned along with Gen and Amelia.
"Stupid Slytherin," she hissed, bad-naturedly, crossing her arms over her chest.
Andie dodged a bludger herself, her eyes darting around nervously
Lily lifted the binoculars strung around her neck to her eyes.
"Potter has the quaffle-he's heading over to the goal posts-" Sirius's excited banter filled her ears, as Lily glimpsed James athletic flit before the lens, confidently zooming over to the posts.
For a second, James surveyed the stands, rather stupidly. A couple of sneering Slytherins swept by him, nearly knocking the red ball out of his arms. James snapped back to attention, passing the quaffle to nearby Felix Towers, the seventh year chaser.
Felix hurled it, almost blindly into one of the posts. Much to crowd's surprise, as well as his own, it travelled right through.
"Gryffindor scores!" Sirius crowed, unafraid voice the victory.
Furious, the Slytherin lashed back, scoring multiple times, until the score was 70-20 (Brown had sneaked in a goal.) Lily felt bad to say this, but partly of the blame lay on James. He seemed curiously out of it that day, wandering aimlessly, fumbling on throws, completely missing passes and acting very unlike the star Quidditch player he usually was. Gryffindor was losing miserably.
"What's with that Potter?" cried Amelia as once again James swerved dangerously to avoid a bludger.
Even Sirius had got accustomed to shouting warnings at him in his magnified manner much to the Slytherin's annoyance. Andie, on the other hand, face impassive, flitted about, her eyes in search of the nearly invisible snitch. She was a speedy flier with a good sense of direction, unlike Lily, who could barely read a map. So far, though Andie hadn't managed to seize the snitch and declare k Gryffindor victory.
Finally, James, himself, came to his senses and called a time-out. Lily knew what she had to do.
And that was why Lily found herself standing at the Gryffindor change room area, her fingers intertwined in her nervousness.
"James," she said hesitantly, as another gust of wind swept by the crowd.
James whirled around in surprise and looked down at his feet. "Lily," he said, shock etched on his face. His shock turned into a mask of annoyance.
"Yes, Lily Evans, the girl who can't bear to acknowledge her presence-so it might damage her reputation, some how," he continued, his voice chilly with cynicism.
Lily didn't know how to respond, so there was a moment in which, she toyed with her hair and James kept glaring at her.
"Well, I just came to say…keep up the good playing, Potter," said Lily, adopting her old technique of sarcasm on James.
James frowned. "Have you come here to mock me, Evans? Cause I really am not in the mood-" James turned around abruptly, his back facing Lily, about to walk away.
Instinctively, Lily grabbed hold of his arm. "Wait," she called, slightly desperate. It was for the good of Gryffindor, she reminded herself.
"You really are a brilliant player…usually. Why not today?" Lily finally managed.
To her surprise, James actually blushed, a pale rose colour, which she found extremely endearing.
"Is it me!" Lily tried desperately. "Is the thought of me intimidating you?" she continued, urging James to get angry with her.
James's mouth hardened into a thin line as his eyebrow creased together. "What makes you think that?" he questioned gruffly.
Lily shrugged, trying to hide her smile. "I I-dunno…"
"Don't flatter yourself, Evans-you're not that pretty…." James spat nastily.
Lily's smiled widened as James stalked out of the change rooms and into the windy pitch.
"Well, I think things are looking up for Gryffindor now that James Potter is cured…" Lily said to herself.
James shot into the air, with a determined look, her hazel eyes flashing. He grabbed the quaffle as soon as Madam Hooch re-released it and zoomed toward the scoring area. He passed to Violet Brown, who in turn cleanly tossed it to Felix Towers. Felix faced James and instinctively aimed the red ball toward him. James effortlessly caught it and hurled it right at middle post and right under Slytherin, Cezik's nose.
"SCORE! The lions!" Sirius hooted as the Gryffindor spectators cheered in relief.
Lily smiled.
Gen gazed at her open-mouthed. "Lil, what did you say to him?"
Lily shrugged a few more times as James scored or assisted a couple more goals for Gryffindor.
"And Potter seems to be on fire as the Lions and the Serpents, now seem to be tied!" proclaimed Sirius elatedly. A mixture of boos and cheers met this statement as James took a mock bow.
Then, suddenly, a flash of scarlet, which Lily recognised as her friend, Andie zoomed downwards, tailed by Slytherin's seeker, Fobbs.
The crowd gasped in unison.
"Andromeda Black spots the snitch!" Sirius reported the obvious, as Andie continued to descend at a dizzying pace.
Gen was on her feet. "Go! Andie!" she hollered. Lily jumped to her feet as well, along with Amelia. They began screaming words of encouragement, which mostly translated to nonsense as a strong gust of gale howled forcefully in their ears.
In the last shocking second, Andie pulled out of the dive, leaving the Slytherin seeker to plummet to his sorry fate. And he did, with a gut-wrench thump, the crack of a bone (a broken nose, no doubt) and a sympathetic groan from the crowd.
"A wronski feint! Andie Black just performed a fantastic wronski feint!" Sirius jabbered in excitement, waving his Gryffindor scarf- a sign of their so-close-you-could-smell-it victory.
In that moment as everyone watched, awe-struck, Slytherins, horror-struck, Andie encompassed the golden snitch (fluttering wings and all) in the warmth of her hand.
The rest of the team encircled her, their faces flushed and happy and delightfully glad. For at last, this dramatic match was over and now they could all trek back to castle, winners.
"And the lions triumph!" announced Sirius triumphantly.
The sea of spectators exploded.
The next minute, Andie tumbled off her broom.