Author's Note: I am so incredibly sorry for the delay. My computer crashed, and it was a while before it was all fixed. Plus, once it was fixed, I had to finish three papers before I head to Baltimore this weekend. So, again, I am so sorry for the delay.

Chapter 5: Fights and Quidditch At Last

Terrified, James followed Remus out of the Ravenclaw common room, desperately trying to get Remus to speak to him as they ran. "Remus, what the hell happened? Emmeline needed me."

"She'll be fine with Dorcas," Remus reasoned. "Anyway, your own best friend needs you more."

"What happened?" James demanded angrily.

"Sirius and Regulus got into a fight."

"Shit," James exclaimed loudly. "That's not good."

"I know that. Peter and I tried to stop him from doing anything rash, but it didn't really work. When I left, wands were being drawn."

"Shit," James swore again. "We have to hurry." He took off as fast as he could with Remus trying to keep up.

As they ran, James kept talking over his shoulder. "God, I hope Lily doesn't try to break it up. She'll get killed by one of them. The Blacks aren't famous for their tempers for nothing."

Remus nodded. "I warned her to not try to step in, but I don't know if she listened. I hope she did too. I told all the girls not to step in."

"Even Veronica?" James asked.

Remus rolled his eyes. "Yes, even her. As much as I dislike her right now, I'm not going to leave her to be killed by Sirius or Regulus."

James laughed slightly. The sight they saw when they reached the Great Hall was not pretty. Sirius and Regulus were facing one another, wands pointed directly at each others' hearts. The tables were lying broken on the floor, a product of one of the boys' rage, James suspected. Grimacing, James took in the circle of students with Sirius and Regulus in the middle. He saw thankfully that Lily was being held back by Peter and Andrew and Maggie, Morgan, Olivia and Veronica were frozen in fear. For a moment James was stopped by the shock of it all, but as the first curse was thrown, his brain returned to him, and he sprung into action.

He hadn't gotten very far when another thought popped into his brain. Where were the teachers? Scanning the Great Hall, James didn't see a single one. Shocked, he turned to Remus.

"Where are the teachers?" he asked.

"They went to meet about the Emmeline situation. It's all very new to them. You know, the surprise deaths and telling the students and such."

"Did every teacher have to go?" James asked in an exasperated tone.

"They left you and Lily in charge. Obviously they didn't know that you had left with Emmeline."

"Obviously not," James muttered, already mentally revising his plan after this new factor.

He quickly realized that he didn't have time after Regulus fired a Reductor curse at Sirius which Sirius barely blocked.

James surveyed the damage already done by the duel and was relieved to find almost none. He should have known it was too good to last.

Watching the scene, James knew Sirius didn't want to use a curse on Regulus that would cause any lasting damage. It was painfully obvious when Sirius countered Regulus' curse with a strong disarming spell.

Regulus laughed hollowly at this. "Expelliarmus?" he scoffed. "Is that the best my great, talented brother can manage?"

James cringed and prayed to any god that was listening that Sirius wouldn't give in. Sirius smiled tightly. "No, Regulus. I just don't want to hurt you."

"You don't want to hurt me? You should be more frightened of me hurting you."

James groaned inwardly. This was getting worse and worse by the second. Thankfully, seconds later, Sirius fired a body-binding curse at his brother which Regulus dodged. The duel was on.

Regulus countered with the same spell. Sirius threw his body to the floor to avoid being hit and sprung back up, while shooting a well-aimed fire curse at Regulus.

Regulus' Slytherin tie briefly caught fire, but he quickly extinguished it with a wave of his wand. James eyes were frantically searching the crowd to find Lily's, but he couldn't make eye contact. When he finally did, he motioned nearly hysterically for her to stay where she was. She seemed to get the message because she stopped resisting Peter and Andrew's hold on her.

James knew it was time for him to step in. Regulus was momentarily distracted by the slight fire on his tie. "Alright, break it up."

Sirius looked up at James with a slightly relieved look in his eyes. James smiled slightly before turning to Regulus. He was shocked to find himself at wandpoint. "Don't move, Potter," Regulus snarled. "I know some nasty curses."

James swallowed discreetly. He hadn't bargained on Regulus trying to attack him. Why had he ever entered this mess without his wand drawn. Now he was in a very sticky situation indeed. He sighed silently.

Lily aimed a full body bind curse at Regulus. The boy dodged it and whirled around and tried to use an unforgivable on Lily but was silenced by someone in the crowd before he could get the curse off. The silencing charm was lifted, but the wasted time had given James the chance to get out of the situation. He would have to remember to thank Lily. He and Sirius both had their wands pointed at Regulus. Regulus rolled his eyes and muttered something under his breath. James felt Sirius stiffen at his side and stuck his arm in front of Sirius to keep him from doing anything rash. "Don't bite."

James turned to Lily. "Lily, could you take Regulus to the headmaster's please? Everyone else clear out. Go back to your dormitories. There's nothing here for you to see. Sirius, can you help me fix these tables?"

Sirius nodded, and Lily moved toward Regulus. James and Sirius turned to fix the tables when a spell hit Sirius in the back. Sirius fell forward, and to his horror, James saw blood seeping through his best friend's robes. James whirled around. Lily already had Regulus in ropes. Most everyone had left. James shooed the remaining people out of the Great Hall before returning to Sirius. He looked even worse than he had when James had left him only moments before. The back of his black robes were stained completely blood red. Sirius' face was paling fast, and he was totally unconscious.

James levitated him and practically ran out of the Great Hall and toward the hospital wing. Olivia, Maggie, Morgan, Remus, Peter and Andrew hurried behind James. As they were leaving, James yelled to Lily to take Regulus to the headmaster.

When they reached the hospital wing two floors above them, James literally kicked the door down and stormed through the entrance. "What is wrong with you?" Madam Pomfrey's shrill voice echoed through the room. "This is a medical institution and you just come…" her voice trailed off as she bustled around the corner and saw Sirius' limp body hovering in mid-air behind James.

"Hurry, hurry, get him on a bed," she commanded James. James carefully lowered his friend onto the bed and then stepped back to let Madam Pomfrey do her work. As she bustled around Sirius' bed, James slapped Remus on the shoulder. "I have to go help Lily out with Regulus. Keep a watch on Padfoot here. I'll be back as soon as I can."

Remus nodded. "I'll do my best," he answered, looking at James with bright eyes.

James noticed this. "Don't worry," he reassured Remus. "He'll be okay. He's going to be just fine."

Remus nodded again. "I hope so."

"You have to think more positively than that. He will be alright."

"I'll try," Remus promised.

James smiled grimly and glanced around before leaving. "And, Remus," he said, grinning fully this time, "Keep an eye on Maggie."

The two boys glanced over at her, and Maggie was horror-struck. Her eyes had taken on a distant, shocked expression, and she was staring straight ahead without actually seeing anything. Remus nodded for the third time, and James patted him one more time on the shoulder before leaving.

James couldn't believe the events of the night. He was exhausted, and he still had a million things to do before he could even justify thinking about sleeping. Yawning, he mentally ran over everything that had happened in the past six hours. He and Lily had returned happily from Hogsmeade together, he had almost kissed her, and from that point on, everything had gone downhill. Emmeline's family had been murdered, and James had just finished dealing with that when Sirius and Regulus got into their own family spat. He glanced at his watch. It was already 10:30 at night.

He sighed as he mounted another staircase toward Professor Dumbledore's office. If—no when—Sirius woke up, he was going to be so upset about Regulus. If there hadn't been confirmation of Regulus' support of Voldemort before, there certainly was now. Despite his general enmity for his family, Sirius had always hoped that Regulus would turn out okay, and now it was evident that he wasn't going to.

James sighed again. He contemplated how many times he had sighed that evening as he gave the password to the gargoyle and rode up the spiral staircase. Knocking on Professor Dumbledore's door, he decided that he had sighed way too many times that night. He had a feeling that the sighing, just like the worrying, wasn't over yet. "Enter," Professor Dumbledore's voice sounded through the door of the office. James pushed the huge door open with considerable effort and crossed the room to sit next to Lily. Regulus was seated on his other side, no longer tied up, but sulking noticeably. James figured there was something that Professor Dumbledore had employed to keep Regulus from escaping.

"Ah, Mr. Potter, thank you for joining us."

James smiled sheepishly. "Sorry I was late, Professor. I had to take Sirius to the hospital wing."

"Yes, well, I'm sure that was necessary. Miss Evans got young Mr. Black here without an issue."

"I'm glad," James said, smiling over at Lily.

Professor Dumbledore's face took on a new expression as he turned to Regulus. "Mr. Black, I'd like to hear your side of the story first."

Regulus sunk down lower in his chair and didn't answer. Professor Dumbledore sighed but kept his piercing blue gaze on Regulus' face.

"Mr. Black, I'm giving you the opportunity to talk. Whether or not you take it is your decision."

Regulus wiggled in his chair as though he was trying to convince it to swallow him up. His mouth stayed firmly shut in a thin line.

"Mr. Black, this is your last chance," Professor Dumbledore said, his patience evidently wearing thin. "If you don't speak now, I'll have to get the story from Mr. Potter and Miss Evans. It is your decision."

"My brother and I got into a disagreement," Regulus muttered so quietly that they almost couldn't hear him. James had to contain a snort of sarcastic laughter.

"What did you disagree about?" Professor Dumbledore asked.

"The Vances," Regulus said.

"What about the Vances?" Professor Dumbledore pressed, trying to prod deeper.

Regulus was done talking, despite all his efforts, Professor Dumbledore could not convince Regulus to say one more word. Finally after several minutes' worth of attempts, Professor Dumbledore turned to James and Lily.

"Alright, could one of you tell me what happened please?"

Lily spoke up. "After Emmeline and James left the Great Hall, Sirius got really upset about all the attacks that have been happening." She glanced over at James.

"He feels like he should be doing more," James supplied. "Since his family is involved, Sirius wishes he could counter that by being more involved on our side."

Lily nodded. "Well, anyway, he was saying how awful it was and all this other stuff, and just as he was finishing complaining and starting to cool off, Bellatrix Black came up behind us. She started teasing Sirius about his involvement with you, Professor, and his avoidance of Lord Voldemort."

Next to Lily, James cringed. He knew how much Sirius hated his family. He was sure that it wasn't good.

Lily continued. "Well, after Bellatrix left, Sirius got up and walked over to the Slytherin table. He started talking to his brother. I'm not really sure what he said, but soon they were both standing with their wands drawn. Then Sirius challenged Regulus to a duel. Regulus said yes and they started to fight. It quickly became obvious that the tables and people were in the way. Regulus bullied the other students into leaving or backing against the wall to watch, while Sirius smashed the tables against the wall. I was trying to break up the fight, but Andrew and Peter were holding me back. I'm glad they did. Sirius and Regulus both have terrible tempers."

"At that point I came in," James picked up the story from Lily. "When I got back from taking Emmeline to her dormitory, Sirius and Regulus were facing off in the middle of the student circle. Curses were thrown at that point. Regulus started the duel with a Reductor curse. Sirius tried to use harmless spells that would stop Regulus from attacking him without hurting Regulus."

"James and I managed to break up the fight," Lily said. "But when I thought I had Regulus under control to bring him up here, he turned around and used a cutting curse on Sirius."

"I figured it wasn't over at that point," Professor Dumbledore said with a sarcastic smile. James was slightly shocked. He had never even imagined that the poised professor had this side to him. Professor Dumbledore was letting his guard down in front of James more than he ever had before. This was off-putting to James, but he was glad. It was much easier to work with the man when he was straight forward. Certainly, Dumbledore's avoidance of his normal cryptic behavior was welcome. "What happened next?" Professor Dumbledore asked, breaking into James' reverie.

"Sirius said something so quietly under his breath that even, I, who was standing right next to him, couldn't hear it, but Regulus thought he did. That's what happened to cause Regulus to curse Sirius. So we made everyone go back to their common rooms and then I brought Sirius to the hospital wing and Lily brought Regulus up here."

Lily nodded. Professor Dumbledore leaned back in his chair and interlaced his fingers on his desk. "Okay." For the first time in over a quarter of an hour, Professor Dumbledore turned back to Regulus. The Slytherin was red and sunk low in his chair. "Is there anything you want to say, Mr. Black?"

Regulus nodded and straightened. "Yes. Professor, all the things Potter and Evans said are true. I'm so sorry. I just lost control. Sirius picked the fight. He said that I'd been involved with the deaths. I wasn't. It just made me so mad that he accused me of that when I wasn't involved."

James was not happy. Twenty minutes later, he and Lily left the headmaster's office with their meeting over. Regulus had been banned from Hogsmeade for the rest of the year, had 100 points taken away from Slytherin and been given a month's worth of detention with Professor McGonagall. He didn't think that this was punishment enough for Regulus' actions, and Lily was hearing about it. "Lily, don't you understand?" he asked exasperatedly. "That curse that Regulus used should be unforgivable."

"James, what did you want? For him to be expelled?" Lily asked exasperatedly. "Honestly, I think you're overreacting. He got quite the punishment."

"Everyone knows he's a death eater. Anyway, that was a totally cheap attack on Sirius."

"James, you can't expel someone on pure speculation. There is no proof that he's a death eater."

James released a long breath. "I know, but it's just so stupid."

"Look," Lily said. "Why don't we go and see how Sirius is doing?"

"I have to do some stuff, like homework."

"Okay," Lily said. "I'll come with you."

"You don't have to," James said. "You can go see your friends or Sirius or whatever."

"No, I have some work to do too."

"Suit yourself," James muttered nearly silently under his breath.

While James and Lily were in the heads' common room, Remus was pacing the hall outside the hospital wing. Maggie, Morgan, Olivia and Andrew were sitting on the floor, and Peter had disappeared somewhere. Remus didn't really care where. About an hour or so previously, Madam Pomfrey had kicked him out of the hospital wing, along with the others. So now, he and the others were left to speculate on Sirius' condition. He and Maggie were both worried sick about him, and Morgan, Olivia and Andrew were right behind them.

Sirius had been in bad shape when Remus, Andrew and the girls had been kicked out. His robes had been removed, and his back was so bloody that Remus was sure that it was forever stained red. Remus inhaled deeply. It was unquestionable that Remus was stressed out about Sirius. He wondered where James was. Remus was exhausted. Most of the time he was fine, content to be solitary, but at times like these, he sometimes felt lost with James or Sirius at his side. James always had insightful words of comfort to offer, and Sirius could lighten the mood. Remus sighed. He couldn't believe how lucky he was to have James and Sirius.

Remus looked at his friends' faces, all of which were etched with worry. They all loved Sirius for his humor and his ability for seriousness when necessary. He sat down next to Maggie who looked as scared as he felt. Remus put a platonic arm around Maggie, trying to fill the comforting role James usually held. "Mags, it'll be okay."

"Will it be?" Maggie asked, turning tear-filled eyes to Remus' face. "It's so unfair. It's not like his life is easy, and add in Regulus and Sirius has a mess. How is that fair to him?"

Remus sighed. He was not nearly as good as James at the comforting role. He wished that James would show up. Anyway, who would want to be comforted by him? He was a monster. A hairy, nasty, disgusting, cruel monster. That's why he wasn't as good at this as James. James was normal. In fact, James was well-liked around the school, good-looking, intelligent and most of all, still human on the night of the full moon.

What would Remus ever have done without James and Sirius? They dealt with his stories, guessed his condition, stuck with him once they found out and became illegal animagi, risking going to prison and much worse in that decision, all for him. Would he, Remus, have done the same thing in their position? Was he loyal, brave, strong, kind enough to do something like that? Sitting there with his arm around Maggie, Remus wondered these things for many minutes until he heard footsteps coming around the corner. After the day's events, Remus was incredibly cautious, paranoid even; he jumped up and drew his wand, training it on the place where a person would round the corner. He had never been so relieved to see James and Lily in his life.

He placed his wand back in his pocket and strode forward toward James. Seeing James almost made Remus laugh. He thought of the inferior thoughts he had been having not 10 minutes before. James would call it an inferiority complex and laugh that he, Remus and Sirius would never abandon one another. The Marauders didn't leave one another behind. They stuck up for one another through everything.

Remus liked to be independent. He didn't like how much he depended on the Marauders, particularly James and Sirius. He knew the dependence was not good. The closer he got to James and Sirius, the more heartbroken he would be if something happened. He sighed and smiled at James.

"Hey Moony," James greeted him. "What's up? How's Sirius?"

Remus looked at James levelly. "I don't really know. Madam Pomfrey kicked us out of the hospital wing about two hours ago."

James sighed and looked at Lily who looked eager to go talk to her friends. "Go see how Maggie's doing, Lily. Remus and I will be over in a second."

She nodded and hurried over to her friends and was immediately engaged in conversation with the other girls and Andrew. James turned back to Remus. "So you have no idea what's happening?"

"None," Remus answered. "She won't let us in. What happened with Regulus?"

As James relayed the story of the long meeting in Dumbledore's office with Regulus and Lily, he decided that he and Remus were going to have to tell Sirius pretty soon after he woke up.

"If Sirius wakes up—" James finished.

"No, when Sirius wakes up," Remus corrected. Sirius was too much his brother for him to be permanently injured. That would break Remus' heart, not to mention James', who was Sirius' best friend, and Maggie's, who had just started dating him today. What awful things to happen on the day of a first date.

Remus was about to respond when he was cut off by a shriek from one of the girls. Remus and James whirled around to look at them. Standing in the doorway was Madam Pomfrey. For once she looked like she actually cared about their worry for their friend. "I'm sorry," she said and Maggie cried out again. James sunk to his knees with his head in his hands.

"No," James said. "No, you must be wrong. He'll be okay."

"I'm sorry," Madam Pomfrey said again. "We'll have to move him to St. Mungo's. It doesn't look good right now."

James pulled himself up with great effort and walked over to Maggie, whose distraught was written all over her face. He offered her a hand to stand up, and she accepted it. He pulled her into a comforting hug.

She buried her face in his shoulder and cried big tears. James stroked her hair and whispered ambiguous words of comfort in her ear. Maggie didn't calm down for a long time. When she did, James discovered that the others had left him. He pulled away slightly, and she wiped embarrassedly at her eyes. "I'm sorry for going to pieces like that," she said.

"It's alright," James responded immediately. "Don't worry about it. Look, why don't you come up to our dormitory and borrow a shirt or something of Sirius' to remind you of him."

Maggie nodded, and he grasped her hand to lead her to the common room. They walked in almost complete silence, only their footsteps and Maggie's hiccupping breaking the absolute peace. James wondered how the night could be so perfect when their lives were falling apart around them. Shouldn't there have been a few raindrops or at the very least a storm cloud?

James sighed. That wasn't the way the world worked. When they reached the common room, James led Maggie to the girls' stairs. "Hey, are you going to be okay?"

Maggie hesitated and then nodded tearfully.

"Good," James said. "Go on up to your room and send Lily down."

Maggie nodded and walked slowly up the stairs. Once she had rounded the corner and disappeared out of sight, James sunk down onto the couch and put his head in his hands. How could this have happened? He was just starting to get over his dad and then Sirius got hurt. James couldn't see the logic. Last year Liz had died, and as he had been getting over that, his father was hurt. Then his father had died, and he was coming to terms with it just to find out the Sirius needed to be sent to St. Mungo's.

James swiped angrily at his eyes, trying to blink back unwelcome tears. He didn't want to cry about this, especially with Lily coming down. He'd already broken down on her once in the year, and he didn't plan to do it again. He heard Lily's footsteps coming down the staircase and sat up straight. She came into view looking tired.

"Hey James," she said, weariness evident in her voice. "Maggie told me you wanted to talk."

"Yeah," James told her. "I was just too wired to sleep, and I could think of anyone else to talk to."

"It's fine," Lily smiled. "I was just with the girls. Morgan was comforting Maggie, and Olivia was freaking out about the match tomorrow."

"What match?" James asked.

"The Quidditch match, captain," Lily said, grinning. "Liv was wondering how she could play with this on her mind."

"Quidditch!" James exclaimed. "Shit. I forgot about the match. She's right. It's going to be impossible to play with this on my mind. There's so much to worry about."

"Liv was worried for you," Lily said. "She said that she would be step in as captain, and you could use a reserve chaser if you wanted to spend the day at St. Mungo's."

"No, that's okay. I'll just tell Ethan to catch the snitch really fast and then spend the rest of the day at St. Mungo's. How's Maggie?"

"She's okay. Or she will be. She understands that while she really liked Sirius she had only been going out with him for a day."

"Yeah, but still," James said sympathetically. "And what an awful thing to happen on your first date."

"Yeah, it's pretty bad, but hopefully Maggie will be okay soon. Do you know if we can visit Sirius tomorrow?"

"I think so."

"Okay," Lily yawned hugely. "Well, I'm exhausted. I'm off to bed." She began toward the stairs.

James watched her go. As she was about to round the corner on the stairs, he had a sudden inexplicable urge to talk to her. "Lily, wait," he nearly shouted.

Lily turned around and looked back down at him. "Yeah?"

"Uh, well, I was just wondering, will you, uh," James stuttered along, quickly losing nerve. "Will you, uh, be at the Quidditch match tomorrow?"

Lily looked at him strangely, and James swore he saw disappointment in her face. He shook it off, sure that his imagination was playing tricks on him. "Yes, I'll be there. Good night, James."

"'Night, Lily," he muttered, so ashamed of himself he could barely look her in the eye. He was such a coward. Sometimes, he couldn't even stand being in the same room as himself. And as far as he could tell, that was a problem.

The next morning dawned sunny and clear. It was perfect Quidditch weather. The sun seeped into the boys' dormitory through the curtains and woke James up almost immediately after daybreak. He squinted against the sunlight and rolled over. He buried his face in his pillow and tried to go to sleep since it was only 5:21 in the morning. Not ten minutes later he decided that his effort was fruitless. He got out of bed and pulled on a pair of muggle sweatpants and a t-shirt before wandering down to the Great Hall, wondering if breakfast was even served this early. He entered the Great Hall and was not surprised to see the Hall empty except for one person sitting at the Hufflepuff table. It was one of their prefects: Courtney Hallett. He decided he'd sit with her. He hadn't had a talk with a girl who didn't know Lily well in a long time. He could use some perspective.

He sauntered up to the Hufflepuff table in a way reminiscent of his old self. As he reached Courtney, he decided that he didn't want to ever saunter again. He knew why he no longer did those types of things. "Hey Court," he sighed, sitting down across the table from her.

She looked up and smiled. "James, hi. What brings you over to the land of the badger?"

"Why am I here at the Hufflepuff table? Well, I needed your advice and you fit the bill."

"Alright, what's up?"

"I, well, I like," he hesitated. He had never imagined this would be so hard to say. I like someone."

Courtney smiled slightly. "Red hair? Green eyes? Gryffindor? Head Girl? Any of these attributes ring a bell?"

James turned bright red and looked down at his fidgeting hands. "Yeah, they do."

"All of them?" Courtney was smiling widely now.

"Yeah, all of them," James muttered.

"So, you like Lily Evans and you don't know what to do about it."

"Pretty much," James agreed, finally looking Courtney in the eye.

"Have you told her?" Courtney asked as though she were speaking to a three year old child.

"No," James scoffed. "She'd probably slap me again."

"I don't think she would," Courtney said, looking uncomfortable for the first time in the entire conversation.

James shifted in his chair and looked around the Great Hall uncomfortably. He scratched the back of his head. The Great Hall was filling up quickly. What time was it?

"I really don't think she would," Courtney said again, looking up at James.

"Really?" James asked. "I don't want to be shot down again, Court. I don't think I can handle it. Lily's killed all my confidence."

"Ask her. See what happens. Okay?"

James nodded. "Okay. Do you know what time it is?"

"6:09."

"Thanks," James nodded again and stood. He walked a couple of steps and then seemed to remember something. He turned around and retraced his steps back toward Courtney.

"Hey, Court, I forgot to ask: Why are you up so early anyway?"

"I couldn't sleep. I'm sorry about Sirius."

"You already heard?" James asked in disbelief.

"It's been all around the school. I hope he's okay."

"Thanks," James said. "For everything. You've been great, Court. I mean it; you're the most supportive ex-girlfriend I've ever had. I'm so glad we're still friends, and I'm not trying to be all cliché. I really am glad."

"I glad too," Court said, smiling and touching his hand. "You're a great guy. You're great to talk to. Go after Lily and tell me how it goes, okay?"

James nodded. "Definitely, Court. Thanks." He leaned over and kissed her cheek and then walked away.

He promised himself that he would ask Lily out as soon as he could. He needed to see if she would date him before some other, probably more worthy guy, got to her. He went out the Quidditch pitch to fly around. Flying cleared his head.

At 10:55, James and his team could be found in the locker room, broken off into cliques, something they'd never done before. The tension was mounting and James could cut it with a knife. As he looked around, Olivia and Morgan were clumped together, as were Dylan, Ethan and Johnny. He was pacing in silence, and Bridget was sitting in the corner of the locker room by herself. This was ridiculous. His team was incredibly close, so why were they so fragmented today? Of all the days they could have chosen to not get along, the day of the first match of the season was not a good choice.

He sighed and turned to his team. "Alright, Liv, you and Morgan need to split up. Johnny, sit between Olivia and Bridget. Ethan, sit between Bridget and Morgan. Dylan, sit on the opposite side of Morgan from Johnny. I don't know what's with you guys today, but it needs to end. We've always been a united team, and now, all of sudden, we've retracted into natural cliques. Liv and Morgan, you two paired off, as did the three of you, Johnny, Dylan and Ethan, and we all left Bridget sitting by herself, probably worried sick since it's her first Quidditch match.

"I never want to see those cliques again. Now, onto the things I was originally going to talk about. I'm sure that you've all heard about my best friend, Sirius', duel with his brother, Regulus. Sirius has been moved to St. Mungo's in London. They think he'll be okay." At that point, James was lying flat out to his team, but that was what they needed to hear. "Morgan, Liv and I would like to go visit him with our other friends after the match today, so Ethan catch as fast as you can. Let's win it for Sirius!"

The team cheered enthusiastically and Madam Hooch stuck her head in to usher them out. "Come on, Potter. Let's go."

"We're coming, Madam," he said. His team followed him out. As they exited the locker rooms, a blanket of deafening boos descended over them. James looked across and saw the Slytherins lined up at the middle of the pitch. Davey Gudgeon's voice filled the pitch, drowning out even the loud booing of the Gryffindors, Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws. "First we have the Slytherins! Chasers Nott, Smith and Zabini, keeper Miller, beaters Goyle and Flint and seeker and Captain Malfoy," Davey paused dramatically and then raised his voice even more.

"And now for the Gryffindors!" He paused again and allowed the cheering to hit maximum level. Finally shouting over the screaming, he continued, "We have seeker Ethan Burns, beaters Dylan Finch and Johnny Parker, keeper Olivia Chase and chasers Morgan Browne, Bridget McEnberg and Captain James Potter." The cheering eclipsed its previous maximum as the crowd screamed for the Gryffindor team. James grinned and waved to the crowd before turning to Madam Hooch. "I want a nice fair game," she said, turning her eyes to each player in turn, "from all of you. Captains, shake hands."

It was obvious to anyone watching that Malfoy tried to break James' fingers, while James grimly returned the favor. "Mount your brooms," Madam Hooch instructed, quaffle in hand. "3…2…1," she blew her whistle and threw the quaffle in the air. As James swooped forward and grabbed it, Madam Hooch released the bludgers, which the Slytherin beaters got to and whacked at James, and the snitch, which disappeared immediately after its release.

James, meanwhile, was streaking toward the hoop. As he approached, he threw it, passing to Morgan. The throw, however, flew high over Morgan's head and into the hands of Nott. James swore and spun around to defend. The Slytherins flew down the pitch. "Nott passes to Zabini who shoots from 15 out. Great save by Chase of Gryffindor. Chase throws it to Potter, and it drops through his hands! What is wrong with Potter today? He's normally the most reliable. Smith of Slytherin recovers the quaffle and shoots again. Chase knocks it away with one hand. Browne gets the quaffle and starts up the pitch. She passes to the new chaser, third-year Bridget McEnberg, who cleanly catches the quaffle. And, nice duck McEnberg!"

James breathed out a sigh of relief as Bridget managed to duck the bludger whistling past her head. She passed the quaffle back to Morgan. He was wide open, while Morgan was double teamed. He called for the ball. Morgan looked over at him but shot instead. Miraculously, the quaffle went through the far right hoop. "Great shot by Browne!" Davey contributed, "and the score is 10-0, Gryffindor."

James swore. Why weren't his teammates passing to him? He was the best chaser on the team. Probably because he kept dropping it. Another five minutes passed during which Gryffindor scored twice more and the Slytherin seeker almost caught the snitch but was knocked off course by a bludger hit by Dylan. The score was 30-0 in Gryffindor's favor. Forty minutes later the score was 50-0. Normally in an hour the Gryffindors scored around 100 points, but without James, they weren't nearly as good. The longer the match stretched on, the less concentrated James became. Finally an hour and a half after the first whistle, Olivia made a save and beckoned James over to her. They were a disaster. They hadn't scored in over 90 minutes. "You need to call a timeout. We're falling apart."

James nodded. Madam Hooch was already looking over at them, wondering what the delay was. "Time-out!" he shouted.

The Gryffindors convened on the ground near the base of Olivia's goalposts. "Did you want to say something, Liv?" James asked wearily.

"Yeah, I did. We're falling apart, and no offense, but it's mostly because of you, James. I understand that you're distracted because of Sirius. I'm sure he's fine, and you'll see him after the game anyway. For now, you need to relax and focus on Quidditch. Morgan and Bridget are both really good chasers, but you're future pro, James. If you concentrate, we're invincible. So, just try and focus on what we're doing. That's what Sirius would want." James nodded. Olivia turned to face the rest of the group. "You're all doing great. Beaters, you're doing a fantastic job distracting the chasers, and you kept them from catching the snitch early on. Chasers, you're doing great. You scored 50 points playing basically one man down. I expect us to explode on them now that James is with you."

They nodded, and the whole team except James and Olivia kicked off. James hugged Olivia quickly before kicking off. "Thanks, Liv, I needed that."

Olivia smiled and agreed.

The match began again, and in the next 20 minutes, James scored 50 points and Morgan and Bridget each had 30, raising the score to 160-10. They were up by exactly 150 points. Morgan had the quaffle as the seekers went into a simultaneous dive. They were neck and neck. The tension was building, as was Davey Gudgeon's voice. The Slytherins had both bludgers. One was hit at Ethan as he dove, while the other was hit at Morgan. The Gryffindor beaters were frozen in fear, watching the bludgers fly toward the two players that were most important at that moment of the game. Suddenly Morgan seemed to have a revelation. She sprung into action. Seeing that she couldn't avoid being hit by the bludger, she threw the quaffle to Bridget, who passed it to James. While the quaffle was being thrown to James, two sickening crunches were heard as Morgan and Ethan were struck by bludgers. James heard Davey Gudgeon's voice. "Potter with the quaffle, in shooting range, but Malfoy is within 4 feet of the snitch. Potter releases the ball, and now Malfoy is within 2 feet of the snitch. POTTER SCORES! MALFOY CATCHES THE SNITCH! Merlin, James Potter scores just before the Lucius Malfoy catches the snitch, and Gryffindor wins, 170-160!"

James felt Bridget collapse on him, soon followed by Olivia, Dylan and Johnny. They celebrated and screamed in pure ecstasy for a moment before they all, seemingly simultaneously, remembered their fallen teammates. They pulled apart and dove for the ground. The sight was jaw-dropping.