A/n: Sorry this took so long to get up. But here's chapter 2, and this chapter may not be as interesting, but I promise some excitng stuff to come....anyways. Enjoy!

Chapter 2

Saturday dawned slightly chilly, but bright and crisp.

James had already been up for an hour, tensely waiting and preparing for the upcoming Quidditch match against Slytherin. James was the Seeker for Gryffindor, and he was playing against the hard-to-beat Slytherin Seeker, Lucius Malfoy.

Lucius only became Seeker last year, but he had obviously had an unexpected talent for it. He had good eyes, and was very fast. James hoped he was faster.

Sirius came down the stairs from the boys dormitories, yawning slightly, but looking good and awake.

"Ready mate?" he slapped James' shoulder.

James sighed. "No." The familiar nervousness was plaguing him once again.

Sirius laughed. "You'll beat the git. No worries."

After Remus and Peter had joined them, they headed down to breakfast, where Remus and Sirius had to give James the usual pre-Quidditch pep-talk, and force him to eat a piece of peanut-buttered toast.

Students and Professors headed down to the Quidditch pitch, occasionally slipping and sliding on the dewy grass.

When they'd reached the doors to the change rooms, Sirius put a hand on James' shoulder and started, "Kick his sorry - "

"Sirius...." Remus cut him off warningly, being someone who didn't really tolerate swearing between his friends.

"Sorry Remus." Sirius mumbled, recalling that very fact. And instead said, "Alright. Kick his rear end. Hard." he winked and gave James a pat.

Remus smiled. "What he said." he also patted James' back.

Peter pulled a little piece of slightly smooshed greenery from his pocket and thrust it at James. "It's a clover. For good luck."

James took it gingerly, and glanced at Sirius who glanced at Remus, who glanced back at James. "Uh, thanks...."

"I'll go save us some seats." Peter said and jogged away.

James chucked the bent clover over his shoulder, and smirked. Remus and Sirius chuckled.

"Anyways....." Sirius grinned and cocked his head slightly. "Front row, best seats in the house. Guaranteed." he gave James the thumbs up.

"Oy! Potter! Hurry up!" One of the other Gryffindor players called from the change room.

"We'll go and see you when we congratulate you on your win." Remus said. The 3 laughed, and then Sirius and Remus joined the mass of students filing into the stands.

James turned and headed for the Gryffindor change room. He took a series of deep calming breaths, trying to wash away the usual tense pre-match jitters.

Lily would be watching......

James shook his head and raked his fingers through his hair. 'Don't think about her.' he thought. 'It'll only make you more nervous.'

"S'about time, Potter!" one of his teammates said teasingly. "Grab your stuff! Hurry up!"

James hurriedly got changed into his Quidditch robes before settling down on the benches in front of the Gryffindor Captain, Adam Steegle. H e tried to give his tense team some last minute pointers, strategies and tips, but James got the feeling that no one was listening too closely, including himself.

This was the first match of the season. This was the type of match that showed the teams what they were made of. Gryffindor desperately wanted to beat Slytherin, not only because it was the first match of the season, but also because it was Slytherin. They just had to beat them. Of course not just beat them: CRUSH them. Adam had been teaching them some new tactics, and this was to prove just how well they worked.

The doors to enter the pitch opened wide, and the Gryffindors marched out. They were met by a wave of cheers and applause. The Slytherins were already on the field, and sneered at the Gryffindors in disgust. Both teams mounted their brooms. James held tightly onto the handle of his Nimbus 1500 - the newest broom out there (the school had recently gotten a burst of funding form the Ministry, and a good portion of it went to buying the Seekers new brooms).

Madame Hooch, a newly appointed Professor with short brown hair and startling yellow-green eyes, stood on the field, ready to referee.

"Shake hands." she said firmly.

Adam and the Slytherin Captain gripped each other's hands tightly and squeezed, like they were attempting to break to other's hand. They grit their teeth as their hands turned odd shades of white and red from the pressure.

"Enough!" Madame Hooch braked and sternly motioned for them to let go and get on their brooms. "Now, play fair!" James thought was to be highly unlikely since it was Slytherin that was playing.

Madame Hooch threw the Quaffle up and loudly blew her whistle...... and play began.

James briefly caught sight of the Golden Snitch, but it fluttered and abruptly disappeared. He held tight to his broom and concentrated on spotting the Snitch before Lucius.

Lucius idly circled the pitch, keeping his open, but looking extremely bored as though this sort of thing was beneath him.

James couldn't even barely hear what the commentator was saying about the game, giving his or her verbal play-by-play of the game. The first reason being because he was deeply focussed on being the first to spot and catch the Snitch. The other reason, however, was because the crowd was making a heck of a lot of noise, that was a constant loud din, ringing in his ears.

Once, James was worried that Malfoy had managed of catch sight of the Snitch and went speeding after it. But he must've lost sight of it after a Bludger nearly unseated him. James made a mental note to thank the Beaters.

James had no concept of time as his eyes relentlessly searched every inch of the pitch and the stands for a tiny glint or glimpse of the elusive gold ball.

He glanced at the scoreboard, curious as to his team's progress. His eyes widened. 170 - 20, Gryffindor! How was his team doing it?!

The crowd roared amazingly loud, once again and it was positively deafening. 180 - 20!!!

James took a moment to watch, and was thoroughly shocked by the way his team was playing. The way they were.... they were playing with incomprehensible fire and spirit, the type no one had seen in years. They hardly let Slytherin touch the Quaffle, let alone get near enough to score. The way the team was going about things, James found it hard to believe that Slytherin had managed to score at all.

Right then, if James caught the Snitch, then Gryffindor would beat Slytherin with an embarrassingly high score! And if Malfoy managed to catch the Snitch, then Gryffindor would only squeak a win. One more goal for Slytherin, and a Snitch catch by Malfoy would tie up the score.

Slytherin scored.

James rolled his eyes. "Like that." he mumbled aloud, then returned his attention and energy to searching for the Snitch.

And then he saw it.

It glinted brightly, practically in the very center of the pitch. Malfoy circled the pitch and yawned, apparently not seeing it.

James took a breath and dove for it.

Immediately Malfoy perked up, seeing James' sudden movement. He dashed after James, and was right on his tail. They were both speeding head-long towards the Snitch. It dipped down so that it was barely a foot off the ground. James wanted to pull back, thinking there wasn't enough room for him to catch it and pull up before crashing into the ground.

Sweat beaded on his forehead. He clenched his teeth and willed his broom to go faster. He heard Sirius' words in his head, 'You'll beat the git. No worries....'

A bludger flew past, way too close, nicking James' shoulder. He heard a swish of air and a quiet, 'ha' telling him Malfoy had missed it too.

James reached out...the ground was so close.....the Snitch was right there.....Malfoy gasped in anger and tried to reach father......James strained and leaned forward as far as he could....it was right there........

HE'D CAUGHT IT!

There was a split second of excitement and happiness from James, and anger and frustration from Malfoy, but it was extremely brief before both panicked and pulled up on their brooms as fast and as hard as they could. They both scraped the ground, but were extremely close to the stands. At they speed they were going at, they were going to crash!

The crowd in the stands the 2 Seekers were heading for screamed and dove under their seats. James heaved on his broom, forcing it to make a 90 degree angle to the stands. His broom shot up, banging his knees hard on the wooden over-hang of the stands. Malfoy continued straight, braced himself, and him and his broom ripped through the canvas at the back of the stands and took off a few hats along the way.

The crowd cheered as the 2 Seekers slowed down and came in for a landing on the pitch. And between James' horribly throbbing, bruised and bleeding knees, his hands aching from clenching the broom so tight, and the Snitch still vibrating in his hands, the latter was all that mattered.

Of course it was also very pleasing to see the way Malfoy was pulling on his slick, chin-length blonde hair the way his normally pointed pale face was an odd red colour, and the way he was growling and moaning like he was about to explode. James laughed his cocky after-match laugh, hoping Malfoy would explode.

He flashed the Snitch at Malfoy again, very happy to see the git feeling like a loser. The rest of the players landed, amidst the deafening roar of the Hogwarts crowd. James couldn't remember the last time the crowd had been that loud. The Gryffindors patted James on the back and paid him all kinds of compliments, but for all it was worth, James could not hear them. He was grinning ear to ear, his ears ringing with the noise of the crowd. The Slytherins were dark and sulky, quickly trying to get off the pitch.

His team lifted him up on their shoulders, and James ignored the pain in his knees, and the blood trickling down his legs from them. The entire school - minus the Slytherin students who were attempting to exit the stands - were on their feet, cheering, yelling, applauding, whistling, stomping, jumping and really just making noise. James saw a group of girls in one of the stands holding up a banner that read, "WE LOVE YOU JAMES". He spotted Sirius among the crowd, standing on his seat whistling, waving and yelling something. James just grinned even more and waved.

He felt so good. This is what he lived for. This. The crowd, the cheering, the compliments....all that. It was the most awesome feeling in the world for James.

The team finally headed to the change room as the teachers prodded the students to go back to the school. James kept the Snitch. He'd done it a time or two before, but before, it was to show off. This time, however, he just wanted to keep it. Keep it, so whenever he looked at it, he could remember this. Remember the crowd, and the way they were clapping and cheering. Remember his team, and the way they had played on the field and the final score against Slytherin (330 - 30). Remember this awesome happiness and high he felt, that would impossible to duplicate. Remember the way Malfoy had gone ballistic when he'd reached the ground, and the way his team's place faces had turned red as they stormed off the field.

But most of all, he could remember the way the most beautiful Lily Evans was for the first time, beaming at him as she disappeared into the crowd of students.

A/n: What do you think!? Let me know!!! (just no swearing please). And try and check out some of my other stories!