One morning in November, as I was sitting with Emmeline at breakfast, reading the Daily Prophet, I overheard Celestina Warbeck speaking animatedly to Frank Longbottom about Quidditch tryouts. My ears perked up, and I asked Frank, the captain of Gryffindor's team, about it.

He eyed me warily for a moment, but when he saw my genuine interest, he told me. "There are four openings this year, but you might have trouble making the team. There were so many full slots from last year's seventh years, only one fourth year, one fifth year, and one sixth year have been playing all this time. Tons of kids are trying out, and if you're going for Chaser, you may as well give up. I know of three excellent players who have their eyes on that position. James Potter and Sirius Black are almost definitely going to be Beaters together, and Celestina's a fair player and she may get Seeker."

"You haven't even seen me play yet," I pointed out. "I'm not half bad myself, and if there are so many slots open, what's to say one won't be good for me?"

"You could be a beater with Sirius," Molly giggled. I ignored her. She, like too many others had decided that Sirius had a crush on me, and would not stop reminding me of the matter. At least she was better than the girls who thought I liked Sirius. Nevertheless, Molly was definitely beginning to annoy me. Emmeline told me that she thought that the rumors were codswallop, but even she smiled a bit whenever Sirius spoke to me. Not that he ever did, anyway. The boy was so involved in some sort of major scheme against the Slytherins, he and the other Marauders hadn't done anything all week. It was a blessed reprieve from their usual annoying antics.

On Sunday afternoon, I went to the Quidditch field with Harry Whitby. We both had Buteo 100s, and wanted to see if our new brooms were going to be assets. Of course, what neither of us realized was that all the Gryffindors trying out were very involved in Quidditch, and had state-of-the-art new brooms. James and Sirius had matching Silver Arrows that gleamed with a newly polished look. I snorted under my breath. Brian McDonald had told me that James was so spoiled; he had gotten not only his own new broomstick over the summer, but also one for Sirius. Sirius's own family had practically disowned him because he was in Gryffindor, and refused to replace his old broom. Served him right for being such a prat.

James and Sirius easily outshone the other Beater wannabes. Frank was about to give them the position, when I interjected, "I'm going to try out for Beater, too." I didn't know why I had said that, but I had said I wanted to be Beater, and that was set.

Don't get me wrong; Sirius is a very good Beater. But for some reason, he wasn't performing well at tryouts, and I did a better job than him. I couldn't help but feel smug about the possibility that I would beat Sirius at his own game, when James, acting so typically noble, decided to help out his friend.

"I changed my mind, too. I'm trying out for Seeker instead." We all stared at him, stunned. Then Frank nodded.

"I saw you play Seeker during holidays. You're on the team." I groaned to myself and shot a glance at Harry. He had wanted the Seeker position badly, and now I had indirectly lost it for him. He tried out for Chaser, and so did Celestina, but surprisingly enough, Shannon Helta got on instead. Actually, maybe it wasn't so unexpected. Frank was going out with Shannon, after all.

Practice began for our first match, against Hufflepuff, almost immediately. Frank pushed us all to our limits, scheduling practices twice a week, sometimes three times. James and Sirius had to put their pranking on hold, as all their spare time was spent on Quidditch. Gryffindor had defeated Hufflepuff every single year since forever, but we weren't taking any chances. As Frank constantly reminded us, Molly Kubrick and Arthur Weasley had been the best Beater team ever, and they had both graduated three years ago. They had put the Quidditch cup in Gryffindor's hands every year they were here, and if Sirius and I weren't willing to work like they did, it was hopeless. Last years' Beaters were way too competitive, and had lost the Cup.

"You should be working like Kubrick and Weasley always did," Molly said slyly. "Weren't they going out from fourth year and on?" I slapped her lightly, and went back to my dinner. Someone tapped me, and I saw that it was James.

"Longbottom wants us to come out to the pitch the second we finish eating," he said, looking uncomfortable. I knew that he had heard Molly's comment. Jumping up, red-faced, I followed James out of the Great Hall. As soon as we were alone, he turned to me. "Do you really want to go out with Sirius?"

I was horrified. Even James believed this fodder! "Of course not! We're too young to be going out anyway, and even so, if I had to choose someone, it wouldn't be Sirius. No offense to your best mate or anything," I added hastily, "but he's really not my type."

"Oh," James seemed deep in thought. "I was just thinking… if it had to be someone, I'd want it to be you."

"What about Lily?" I asked, eyebrows raised. She was the only girl James ever obeyed. I was a bit startled when he turned a shocking pink colour.

"I wouldn't mind going out with Evans myself," he said thoughtfully. "Or you, for that matter. But you're better for Sirius."

"Forget about Lily or me," I told him. "We're not exactly enamoured with your behaviour."

James just laughed as we stepped out onto the Quidditch field.

Frank was very enthusiastic about the new team. "We are the best team Hogwarts has ever seen!" he declared, as James caught the Snitch for the tenth time in the past thirty minutes. "The Cup will be ours, for sure… if Mardec and Black can behave," he said pointedly to Sirius and me. We were both attempting to hit the same Bludger, and the other was rocketing toward Frank as he spoke. Alice Gervere, the team's Keeper, dove down and seized it before it could hit Frank. "Thank you, Gervere." Frank was giving us the look again. He landed softly on the ground and motioned for everyone else to do the same. As I dove, Frank held up a hand. "Mardec and Black, you're both staying. I want you to work out your conflicts now." As he left with the rest of the team, he called out, "And don't even think of leaving this pitch until you do so!"

I was left standing there with Sirius. He raised an eyebrow. "Why do you persist in trying to prove that you're better than me?"

I frowned. "You're the one who chases after my Bludgers. I didn't ask you to cut in that time when it was aiming to smash into James."

"That was once," Sirius pointed out. "And James is my best mate. I didn't want him getting hurt because you were distracted." I opened my mouth, but he held up a warning hand. "I have a theory about your constant competition. I've the rumors about you and me. I understand that you want a guy who respects you, and you feel that I'll only look up to you if you play better than me. Right?" He looked at me with a smirk.

I was so angry, I could hardly even speak. I spun around, grabbed one Bludger, and pulled out my wand. Sirius's eyes widened in disbelief, as though I was going to throw the Bludger at him. I used my wand to mark a red slash on the ball. "That one's my territory," I snapped. "And don't even think that ever again, or I will murder you." I put the Leg Locker Curse on him and stalked off the field.

James easily won the Quidditch match for us, about ten minutes into the game. Frank, Shannon, and Ernie Prang worked very well together, and scored forty points before the Snitch was caught. Alice blocked the Quaffle the one time the Hufflepuffs had it, and to my relief, Sirius stuck to his ball, and I stuck to mine. The after-game party lasted for ages, but I went straight up to the dormitory, where Lily commiserated with me about Sirius. Emmeline came up for a minute to try to bring me downstairs, but I flatly refused. I wasn't going to spend a minute anywhere near that slimy git, Sirius Black.