Rating: K+

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters or names in this story created by J.K Rowling (who is a very talented lady.) I only own the plot, and new characters you won't recognise.

Chapter Eleven: The Quidditch Match

The next morning, the whole school was buzzing with the anticipation of a Quidditch match.

Lily wasn't even aware of it. "This is why you don't notice anything," said Wyona disapprovingly. "You're so busy – you seem to be in a dream – not even knowing about the first match of the term!"

Wyona hadn't looked up from her Daily Prophet yet. Lily felt the ends of her layered hair tickle her cheek. She heard a squeal.

"Lily!" cried Alice , running towards the Gryffindor table. "Your – your hair!"

Wyona slowly looked up. Her mouth dropped open.

Lily played with a few strands. "What's wrong with it?" she asked.

"Well – it's – it's blonde at the end," spluttered Wyona. "And – it's all different lengths –"

All of the Muggle-born witched oohed and aahed, but the pure-bloods were unused to this type of haircut.

Lily's eyes wandered over the dining table. James Potter's head gave a sudden jerk, as if a fly was bothering him. Lily frowned, and wished that she had turned a split-second earlier. Had he been watching her?

She looked back, and choked on her pumpkin juice when she saw James Potter with his arm around a sixth-year. Poor girl, she thought contemptuously. But why did she feel a sudden burning in her head?

Her fists clenched, and she wasn't hungry anymore.

The weather was light and breezy, perfect conditions for the match. Lily sat in the stands with the rest of the Gryffindors, clad in red and gold. She was happy that even her hair matched the colours.

The commentator proclaimed all the names of the Gryffindor and Slytherin teams respectively. – Lily didn't pay much attention until a certain name caught up in her mind and caused her heart to leap –

"Potter!"

A figure on a broom whooshed out and up into the air, laughing with his head thrown back and performing some extremely difficult-looking moves with an almost casual air.

He's so cocky, Lily thought with annoyance, but she couldn't stop the grin from spreading over her face.

The balls were released, and the game began.

The Slytherins, as usual, played with a very underhand manner – the Beaters didn't seem to be repelling the Bludgers as much as assaulting the Gryffindors. The Gryffindor Chasers were excellent, weaving in and out of the opponents like flowing water.

James Potter was particularly gifted, and the Quaffle seemed almost magnetically attracted to him. He passed to another player, who threw it towards the goal-posts with tremendous force -

"TEN – NIL TO GRYFFINDOR!" bellowed the commentator. The Gryffindors cheered, while the Slytherins glared at them from the other side of the pitch.

The match became excessively bloody – Theo Nott went down with a bleeding nose after a fellow Beater accidentally hit his own team-mate. After a tense half-hour, during which both sides scored a fair amount of goals, the commentator roared: "EIGHTY – SEVENTY TO GRYFFINDOR!"

It all happened so fast – Lily caught a glimpse of a golden smear, and a second later a red figure shot up into the air, the Snitch struggling in his enclosed palm.

The Gryffindors stood up and screamed themselves hoarse. Lily cheered even louder when she caught Narcisssa's eye, glaring blackly at her.

Lily, Wyona and Alice laughed aloud all the way to Potions. Unfortunately, Slughorn was in a very bad mood, most probably on account of the match.

"Books out," he snarled, and Lily noticed with some disbelief that he had grown slightly thinner. He stomped around the classroom, criticizing everybody's work.

He went around to Lily.

"Miss Evans –" he started, staring into her cauldron, but finding nothing to reproach her for, he merely grunted, "After class, my office." He turned to Wyona. "Miss Levick, what do you call this?"

"A Befuddlement Draught," she said hesitantly. The smoke rising from her potion was bright yellow.

Slughorn leaned over and sniffed loudly. "Hm…I suppose you added the beetles' eyes too early? Wrong colour, too."

He set the class the potion to finish for homework, and then barged out of the classroom.

Lily slowly packed her bag, not to eager to meet with him. "It's okay," said Alice consolingly. "You haven't done anything wrong – it's probably about another Heads' Meeting."

Lily bid her farewell, and walked down the corridor to his office.