Disclaimer: I own nothing.
A/N: Hey, again.
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Chapter Fourteen
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"Morris, stop pushing Elizabeth- Harold! Stop poking Charlie with your wand, someone could get hurt!- Hey! Cut that out!" Lily sighed and grabbed the back of a second year's robes,"I told you to stop teasing the portraits, Alan!"
The frustrated Head Girl was on her way to the quidditch pitch the next morning, bright and early. It was a rather slow move considering she had been assigned to a bunch of second years alone since the prefects were a bit shorthanded with so many on the Ravenclaw and Gryffindor quidditch team. Also considering the second years wouldn't cooperate. At all.
Crash!
Lily, along with every other pair of eyes down the corridor turned towards the noise. The Head Girl sighed. "Jim, please don't tell me you are the reason this suit of armor fell over."
"Jim" looked behind him sheepishly at the now scattered everywhere suit of armor, then back to Lily,"Er, well, if that's what you want to hear, Lily. I am not the reason this suit of armor fell-"
"Just continue walking, Jim." Lily said warily as the group continued onwards, just as rambunctious ever.
Lily walked over to the suit of armor and pulled out her wand. "Sorry about, er, all this." She apologized to the suit of armor that seemed to be having a rather bad day, falling apart and all. The suit of armor only gave Lily a cheerful thumbs up, as if to say, It's Okay. I'm good.
Just as began to put the suit of armor back together, Professor Flitwick's voice was heard,"Ms. Evans!" His voice sounded surprised at the sight of the suit of armor that lay all over the floor.
The Head Girl immediately began apologizing,"Professor Flitwick, I'm so sorry. It's just, the prefects are short-handed and everyone's having to escort the students by themselves. I'll get the suit of armor fixed in no time-"
"Oh, don't worry, Ms. Evans, I understand. I'll take care of the suit of armor, you just continue with your group."
"Are you sure? It's no problem-" Lily began.
"No, no, it's alright. Hurry along now, or you'll miss the game!" Flitwick said cheerfully.
Lily smile,"Okay, bye Professor."
"Good bye, Ms. Evans."
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"-BLACK HITS THE BLUDGER IN THE OPPOSITE DIRECTION JUST IN TIME. MCDRUM HAD BETTER BE HAPPY, ONE SECOND LONGER AND THAT BLUDGER WOULD HAVE SMASHed HIS HEAD TO SMITHERINS-"
"Continue with the game, Ramsley!" Mcgongall barked to the commentator, Ramsley.
"RIGHT, PROFESSOR. EDWIN PASSES TO POTTER, POTTER PASSES TO MCGREGOR- HE SHOOTS, HE SCORES! YES! THAT'S ANOTHER TEN POINTS TO GRYFFINDOR!-"
"Lily, there you are. We were beganning to think you weren't coming!" Alice said as her and Emma moved over on the bench so Lily could sit down.
"Oh, I had to escort a bunch of hippogriffs to the pitch and believe me, that's no easy task. It takes awhile as well." Lily stated exhausted. Emma and Alice laughed over the roar of the crowd around them.
"-JONES STEALS THE QUAFFLE FROM EDWIN. . .AND SHE SCORES! THE FIRST 10 POINTS TO RAVENCLAW!"
"Wow, way to go, Hestia!" Alice cheered.
"Who's side are you on?" Emma asked in bewilderment,"Hestia's on the Ravenclaw team. Rav-en-claw. Ravenclaw. We, on the other hand, are in Gryffindor. Gryff-in-dor. Gryffindor, Alice. Therefore, we should cheer for our team. Gryff-in-dor." Lily laughed as Alice rolled her eyes.
"Hestia's our friend; we're suppose to cheer for our friends too, Emma. . ."Alice trailed off for a moment,"Besides, she keeps looking over to make sure we're cheering for her. I don't want to risk her sending a hex my way just for not cheering." Emma and Lily snorted.
"Speaking of quidditch players looking over at us," Emma started,"Potter's look over here a gazillion times since he stepped on the field."
"So?" Lily asked.
"So, she asks, Alice. Pfft." Emma scoffed,"You really are clueless sometimes, Lily. He was looking for you!"
Lily turned back to the game, ignoring Emma for a moment. "Go Gryffindor!" She yelled as yet another goal was made. It was 50-10, Gryffindor. Without looking away from the game, Lily continued their conversation,"I'm sure he was just looking around the stands. There's nothing wrong with looking around. And besides, this is the Gryffindor section, it would make sense that Potter would look around here more often, him being in Gryffindor and all." She reasoned with Emma and herself as well.
"That might be fine and dandy, but he was looking specifically right here. By Alice and me. Because he knows just as well as anyone, you'd sit with us at the game."
"What if he was looking at you, Emma? Have you thought about that?" Lily asked tiredly. She couldn't help but curiously wonder why James would be looking over in their direction."Or what about Alice?"
"Well, that would have been an alternative-" Emma was cut off as Gryffindor scored once again. "Yes! Go, go Gryffindor!" Emma screamed, standing up. She sat back down seconds later and began again,"-alternative. Except for that fact that Potter just happened to see and came over to ask where you were, if you were still escorting the kids to the pitch."
"-RAVENCLAW SCORES!-"
"Oy! That's was a foul, obviously!" Emma yelled. She booed,"You could see more than one chaser in the scoring area when the quaffle when through! That's a foul!"
Alice patted Emma on the back,"Okay, Emma, calm down. We know how you get around quidditch. Let's calm down before you start trying to throw licorice wands at the opposing players like last time."
Emma breathed out deeply before turning back to Lily, who was vaguely staring James as he stole a quaffle from Hestia. "James also said to tell you something."
Lily glanced at Emma before turning back to the game,"Oh?"
"Yeah, he said he needed to talk to you."
"What for?" Lily asked in curiosity.
Emma shrugged, trying to aim a Bertie Bott's Every Flavored Bean at a nearby Ravenclaw beater until Alice caught sight of her actions and grabbed the bean from her hand. "Didn't say." She finished, grabbing another bean from her secret stash of beans, in her pocket. Emma began aiming again.
Lily wondered what James had to ask her. More importantly, why in the world had he went out of his way, just to ask Emma and Alice where she was? Was whatever he needed to talk with her about, that urgent?
"-WHAT'S THIS? IT SEEMS ONE OF RAVENCLAW BEATERS HAS TEMPERARILY BEEN BLINDED BY A BERTIE BOTT'S EVERY FLAVORED BEAN THROWN AT HIS EYE FROM THE CROWD!-"
"Emma!" Alice and Lily hissed, trying to cover their laughter as they hid their faces. Emma smirked.
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Lily bit her lip. The score was 170-180, Ravenclaw. It was close. Neither of the seekers had caught sight of the snitch yet.
"What is with this referee, Alice? He's letting Ravenclaw get away with every foul in the book!" Emma asked in frustration.
Alice gave Emma a Look before turning back to the game.
The three Gryffindor chasers flew to surrounda Ravenclaw chaser who currently held one of the quaffles.
"-MCGREGOR FLYS ABOVE VALOR (Ravenclaw chaser), POTTER MOVES TO ON VALOR'S LEFTSIDE. IT LOOKS LIKE THE CLEVER CHASERS ARE TRYING TO CONFUSE VALOR, FOLKS. EDWIN MOVES TO VALOR'S RIGHTSIDE. EDWIN REACHES OUT FOR THE QUAFFLE IN VALOR'S HANDS- WOW! POTTER NOW HAS THE QUAFFLE! CLEVER, CLEVER GRYFFINDOR CHASERS! THEY HAVE SUCCESSFULLY DISTRACTED VALOR AND NOW HAVE THE QUAFFLE. POTTER'S MOVING PAST THE GRYFFINDOR SECTION NOW, ON TO-"
The Gryffindor section was roaring with cheers now. If James made this goal, the game would be tied.
"Go, James! Yeah!"
"Get to the goalpost, Potter!"
"Go, James!"
"Go, Potter!"
"Get that quaffle through that goalpost or I will stuff that broom of yours straight up your-"
"Emma!" Lily exclaimed, clasping a hand to Emma's mouth. "We're trying to bring Potter's spirit up so he'll score, not threaten him!"
Emma just waved Lily off before once again threating James.
"Go, Potter!" Lily yelled along with the crowd. James seemed to not really hear anyone as he flew by. He did seem, to Lily surprise, to glance around near Alice and Emma till he spotted Lily herself. He faced forward once again and sped off.
Emma threw a bean at Lily's head in triumph,"See? I told you. He's been looking for you."
"Whatever." Lily muttered.
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"THE SCORE IS NOW 190-180!-"
James had made the goal, tieing the game, and now, another quaffle had gone through the goalpost in Gryffindor's favor.
Lily watcched Sirius hit a bludger away from the Gryffindor seeker, Homb. Her eyes wandered to James again. He wasn't moving around for once, instead, he was hovering near the Hufflepuff stands. She saw him glance over in her direction, which was rather hard to tell considering the distance between the Hufflepuff and Gryffindor stands. But she knew she saw him look over at her. She knew he had. He did. He had to have.
She wished Emma hadn't have brought any of this up. Lily had woke this morning, excited to see another quidditch match. She had always enjoyed watching them, ever since she first arrived at Hogwarts. Now though, since her mind was on what Emma said, she couldn't concentrate on anything but the utterly strange feeling of knowing James might being watching her at any moment.
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"-BLACK SEEMS TO BE SMIRKING AT REDMOND, ONE OF THE RAVENCLAW BEATERS WHO WAS JUST ABOUT KNOCKED OFF HIS BROOM BY A BLUDGER. IRONIC, EH? BEATERS JOB IS TO PROTECT TEAM MEMBERS FROM BEING BLOODIED UP BY A BLUDGER WHEN HE CAN'T EVEN PROTECT HIMSELF- WHAT'S THIS?" Ramsley asked,"BLACK'S SPEEDING OFF TOWARDS POTTER. HAS HE-? YES, HE HAS! HE'S SPOTTED A BLUDGER! IT'S HEADING STRAIGHT FOR POTTER. COME ON, BLACK, YOU IDIOT! OH, MERLIN!" Ramsley breathed,"IT'S GOING TO HIT-"
The crowd watched in horror as it seemed a wave of deja vu pasted through the pitch.
James had been hit in the head by the bludger, knocked off his broom and was now falling to the ground. Thankfully, the ground was only about twenty feet down instead of two hundred.
There was a split second of silence. . ."ER. . .WELL, THAT WAS. . .IRONIC. POTTER'S HAVE ONE ROUGH QUIDDITCH SEASON-"
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"Excuse me, pardon me, Head Girl coming through. Excuse me! Out of the way!" Lily called as she hurridly pushed through the large crowd that was now surrounding James. She heard many people grumble and curse at her for shoving them. But really. She was Head Girl. She needed to be there. With James. He was her fellow head. This was her job. To be at chaoic situations. She needed to be with him.
At last she made it to the center of the crowd, next to Dumbledore, Mcgongall, and Madame Hooch.
James lay, not moving, head bleeding nicely from the bludgers blow. Lily looked across to see Sirius, still holding his broomstick, kneeling next to James."Come on, James. Talk to me, James. I'm so sorry. I thought I could get the bludger. I really must be a bad beater. This is the second time you've been knocked off your broom by a bludger. . .Come on, mate. Talk to me-"
Sirius continued to babble nonsense to James, who still lay, not moving, not speaking, not doing anything actually; though, his eyes seemed to be slight open, just staring up at the small patch of sky that was he was able to see through all the heads surrounding him. She noticed his glasses were broken and lieing, forgotten, a few feet away, being trampled on by the many feet of people.
Lily moved closer as Mcgongall, Dumbledore, and Madame Hooch spoke quietly to James and to each other. She elbow around the crowd farther till she was able to kneel down next to James. "Potter. Talk to me or, if you don't want to talk to me, talk to Black." She said, almost putting her finger out to poke him, but decided against, not knowing which bones were broken and which weren't.
"Come on, Potter, don't be such a ninny. Just. . .just talk. Say anything. . .Please." She whispered. James seemed not to hear her. Or anything for that matter.
Sirius ran a shaky hand through his hair,"I should have gotten that bludger. I should have."
Lily looked up to him, feeling a bit sorry for Black. She didn't feel sorry for Black- or Potter, for that matter- very often. "It wasn't your fault, Black. Don't blame yourself. He'll be fine." Would he, though? James was pretty lucky to have survived the first hit to his head. Would he be lucky this time too?
She sighed and glanced around her. The crowd, instead of lessening as the minutes past, seemed to have grown. She heard Madame Hooch shouting to the crowd to get going, to give the boy some air. She heard Mcgongall tell a girl nearby to get Madame Pomfrey. She could see Remus and Peter still trying to make their way through the crowd, with little sucess.
Lily's head snapped back to James as she heard a moan. It seemed he was coming back from Jamesland and back to reality. He didn't seem to be able to move much without hurting; the only part of James moving was the tips of his fingers and his eyes as they slowly, almost groggily, took in everyone around him.
"James! Your not dead!" Sirius said quickly. He patted James' shoulder. James moaned. "Er, sorry. . ."
Lily hesitantly took hold of the tips of James' fingers,"Potter? Can you hear me?"
James turned to Lily. He looked confused as he swallowed. He spoke slowly, painfully. "Who. . .Who are you?"
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A/N: Ooooh. Has James lost his memory, again? The poor prat. ; ) Next chapter's the last.
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