Chapter Six – Playing on the Pitch

Lily was vaguely aware of what had happened last night but she was determined to keep the memories to herself. True, she did hate Potter on a number of levels, like the stupid arrogance level of his ego for example. But through what had – happened – last night, Lily was sure that if word of it had gotten around the school would automatically come to the conclusion that the two were dating – or doing something that was pretty darn close to dating. Lily was sure that James would be thrilled at the idea of such a rumor, but she was positive that she would not be. It was torture enough to have to be attached to James Potter without rumors flying every which way. What made their attachment worse, Lily thought as she ate her fruit at lunch, was that she had just begun to feel sorry for Potter – for him being quiet and all. But now, she assured herself, now that was so out the window and in the past, never to be seen again.

"–So I don't know what the plan is. I have to make it to practice or we won't be able to play in Wednesday's game against Ravenclaw. Got any suggestions?" James was saying as he chewed hungrily on his sandwich.

Remus, who had been discussing Quidditch practice that evening with James – and the little problem of who he was attached to – shot a glance over at Lily, who was poking sadly at her pie.

"All right, Evans?" he asked, sounding much like James.

"Huh?" Lily asked sadly, sounding just like she looked. "Sorry, Remus, I didn't hear you."

"Are you all right?" he repeated, looking quizzically at James for support. "You seem out of it today."

"Oh, I'm – I'm fine," Lily lied as she started gnawing on a piece of parsley distractedly.

"What's up with her?" Remus whispered to James as he watched her glassy eyes stare off into her food.

"I don't know. She's been like this since we got here," James replied quietly. He honestly wasn't sure of what was wrong with Lily. He was a bit nervous – wondering if something was wrong.

"So what do I do?" James asked after a moment of staring at Lily. "How do I go and lead practice – as Captain and Seeker – if I'm attached to Evans?"

"I don't know, mate," Remus said as he watched the Great Hall dwindle down to the last twenty or so people. "You can ask if she'll go with you – you never know. It is a bit important though. You have to play in Wednesday's game no matter what – and if she's on the back of your broom as you Seek – well, it might be nice to get the practice in."

James thought about it for a moment. It seemed like the only logical resource for his dilemma.

"Thanks, Moony," James said, beginning to stand up. "Evans?" he whispered when Lily wasn't budging. "Lily," he said, poking her softly in the arm. "Lily, c'mon."

Lily noticed James was talking to her and stood up with a small nod, ready to follow him. If only she could get her own problem out of her head, she would realize what new problem she was about to face.

"Evans? Evans, are you listening to me?"

"Huh?"

"Evans, are you paying attention?" James asked, looking deep into Lily's bleary eyes (that were so out of this world in thought at the moment).

"Er – no, sorry James," she replied lamely, tucking her hair behind her ear and regaining awareness. "I'm sorry, I'm listening now."

"I said I have Quidditch practice in ten minutes. Will you play along with me?"

"Will I WHAT?" Lily asked, blinking to make sure she had heard him right.

"I need you to fly with me. I have to coach this team – and play as well. I need you to get on the broom with me," James said.

They were the only two people in the Gryffindor locker rooms. James was standing in his boxers, changing into his uniform as he ran the plan by Lily first.

"Why would I do that?" she asked as she watched James pull up his pants.

"Because of this," he said, indicating their hands.

"Oh - yeah."

"So will you cooperate with me?"

"Yeah, I suppose so."

"Okay, thanks, Lily," James said as he pulled on his maroon robes, the name 'POTTER' flashing on his back when the sunlight hit it.

"Uh-huh."

"Alright, we're meeting the team out on the pitch," James said as he was finally dressed and ready for practice. "So when everyone mounts their brooms, you're gonna hafta get on behind me, okay?"

"Yeah, sure," Lily said, hearing him and understanding him, but in a far off distant place.

"Alright, then lets head out to the pitch," he said, shouldering his broomstick and carrying the box of Quidditch balls as they headed out to the pitch.

"Okay, we're practicing same moves as last Tuesday guys, so this is pretty simple. Just play your best and get as much practicing and new-move-playing in as possible," James said to his team as they all stood waiting beside their brooms, tactfully ignoring the person attached to his hand.

"Alright," James continued, "mount your brooms and let's start playing. Kapson – could you please get the quaffle out and a bludger? I'll take care of the snitch."

Kapson – one of the Beaters – nodded his head and released a bludger and removed the quaffle as his teammates rose quickly into the air to play.

"C'mon, Evans," James whispered in Lily's ear. "Let's get up in the air."

Lily climbed up on James's broom behind him and wrapped her free hand around his waist, sending tingles up his spine. She was too focused in her own thoughts to actually care about flying behind James as he played a sport – dangerous, at that – with her in plain view of attack.

As James kicked off and soared around the sky looking for the snitch and calling suggestions to his teammates, Lily focused on one thought in her mind: James Potter.

Sure, is she was going to focus on James Potter her better bet would be to gaze dreamily at him and ruffle his hair and think of him – exposed – like many of the jealous girls in the stands were doing at that moment, but she wasn't actually thinking of James Potter, she was thinking of him in general.

Lily had decided that she'd take pity on him and spent an entire night tossing and turning, always ending up with her eyes fixed on the top of her canopy, thinking of James Potter and how he was acting so different lately. Then she finds herself the next day, glued to his hand for the whole school to see and debating if she liked him.

Lily had awoken in the night and found herself face-to-face with a sleeping James and – much to her disgust – she smiled at him and went back to sleep, not thinking of the rest of the dorm or anyone or anything that could interrupt them. She had been very aware of finding her free hand atop his in the middle of the night and though it looked suspicious, she didn't remove her hand. Lily was at a complete loss for ideas and for once in her life she was lost and didn't know what to do at all.

She had been hoping that Professor Dumbledore could help them, but, like he said, they were to face the problems and get to know each other – possibly even grow on each other – on their own with no help at all for the two weeks.

What bugged Lily even more was knowing that this was what was going to happen to her for two whole weeks. Spending her days with her eyes glazed over, thinking of how the Merlin she'd let this happen was not her favorite time-passer.

If she wanted to branch out to the thing seriously biting at her mind, was knowing in all truths that she had failed herself. She knew deep down she was starting to like James Potter and felt that he had no right to make her do such things. But, remembering with a pang of anger, he wasn't making her fall in love with him – she was doing it on her own. And what drove her to the thought of jumping off the Astronomy tower, was knowing that she was only attached to James for less than 24 hours and already she felt like kissing him. If this was supposed to happen (and she had a feeling that Dumbledore wanted it to happen), it shouldn't get to happen till at least the last week. She should be allowed the courtesy of hating Potter and making him suffer like she was for a week before coming to the conclusion that he was sweet enough to date.

But no, life wasn't giving her that idea of bliss and happiness. No, it was making sure that she was falling in love right now, right this minute and the boy who was chasing after a snitch up and down the Quidditch pitch was the one for her and only her.

Lily had been lost in these thoughts the entire day and she was begging something to happen to make her hate James again. She even became aware that she was calling him 'James' instead of 'Potter' which bugged her immensely.

She let out a sigh as James whooped in triumph over catching the snitch in less than fifteen minutes. He grinned back at her so she returned his grin with a feeble smile.

She couldn't get James out of her head, no matter how much she tried and being stuck to him for two weeks with no escape for girl talk or advice was going to make it much harder.

From your humble author:

Hey guys, I seriously hope you're enjoying this. I'm so excited to be writing this. I'm expecting a good number of chapters, so stay tuned. Please remember that it's just going to get better and better – even if there is a dry spot.

I've written many Fan-Fics but this one is by far my favorite. And I'm sure some of you just jumped back to my profile page to see what else I had posted, but found that there aren't many other things posted – if any. That's because I've found some of them extremely drab and just the practice run before the best of the best (cough this cough). Please read and review and I'll – of course – keep dishing out the story for you, chapter by chapter.

Your Humble Author