Chapter 5: Quidditch

The wind whipped mercilessly spraying the crowd with ice cold rain. It was the last game of the season, the deciding game for the House Cup. Gryffindor verses Slytherin. The weather couldn't be worse for the game; strong wind, dark clouds, freezing rain, but you wouldn't know it looking at the crowd. The stands were waves of green and silver, red and gold. There was screaming, cheering, and heckling, proving how close the game was.

The score was 40-50, Slytherin. Gryffindor needed to beat Slytherin by 160 points in order to win the cup. The score had gone back and forth all game. First Gryffindor was 10 points ahead, then Slytherin. Back and forth. James had never been more frustrated. He sped across the field following Carl Travis, one of Slytherin's chasers, and cutting him off as he tried to knock Hannah Hart, one of the Gryffindor chasers, off her broom. Travis grunted in frustration and retaliated by flying his broom into James, knocking into his left shoulder. The scarlet and gold crowd was instantly in uproar at this obvious foul, but when Madam Hooch spun around, Travis was already across the field.

James rolled his shoulder to get some feeling back into it, then sped off, following Hannah, who had taken the Slytherin's momentary lapse in concentration to score.

"And that's 10 points to Gryffindor!" The magically magnified voice of Bertha Jorkins echoed around the pitch. "This is a tense game folks! Gryffindor needs just one more score to win! - providing they catch the snitch of course. But if Slytherin catches the snitch before that happens, it's game over and Slytherin wins the cup!"

Bruce Bardwell, the Slytherin seeker, was circling the pitch, closely following the Gryffindor seeker, Taylor Rowley. It was clear that Bardwell was letting Taylor do all the work, while he just waited to swoop in and claim a Slytherin victory.

James huffed indignantly. He flew quickly to the center of the field, catching the quaffle as a Slytherin player fumbled it. He laughed and started flying towards to Slytherin goal, and then he heard it. The gasps, cheering and hollering that could only mean one thing. James spared a moment to look behind him and watched in horror as Bardwell and Taylor flew side by side, both of their arms outstretched towards something small, gold, and shimmering.

James clutched the quaffle closer to his chest and flew as fast as he could towards the goal posts, the Slytherin beaters close behind him.

"Potter with the quaffle! He flies towards the Slytherin side of the pitch, but will he be able to score before someone catches the snitch?"

James dodged a bludger aimed at his head only by doing a ridiculous spin mid-air, then flew as fast as his broom would take him, willing it to be enough. He heard the voice of Travis say "Give me that!" and then there was a sharp pain in James' left shoulder. His whole arm went numb and he tried desperately to hold onto the quaffle with his one arm that wasn't useless.

"Ouch! Looks like Slytherin chaser Carl Travis could be a beater too! Not technically against the rules here for a chaser to use the beaters bat, but still a crude maneuver."

James flew the last couple of meters to the goal post, his eyes watering in pain, and threw the quaffle with all his might.

Lily was in the stands, a striped scarlet and gold scarf wrapped around her neck, all the way up to her nose. She sniffed, wishing she had brought tissues when Remus Lupin tapped her on the shoulder.

"Here, use this." He said, passing her a handkerchief.

"Thanks." She said, taking it gratefully. "I didn't even know people carried these anymore."

"They don't!" Said Sirius, who was sitting beside Remus. "That's what makes it so funny!"

The crowd around them booed and hissed and Lily focused again on the game. She watched as James flew expertly around the field, trying to score the last 10 points needed for a Gryffindor victory. Then before they knew it, the seekers were rushing towards the ground following the snitch.

"Oh!" Lily exclaimed as her gloved hands flew to her face. She watched as James rushed towards the Slytherin goal posts, then heard the resounding CRACK as the bludger hit home on his left shoulder. The crowd around them gasped and cried out, but the jeers from the Slytherin side were still easily discernable.

"Come on come on!" Remus muttered under his breath, his posture rigid.

"I don't know if I can watch." Sirius said, both hands pulling at his hair.

Lily followed the quaffle with wide eyes as it soared towards the goal post. She tensed, watching it all as if in slow motion. The green and silver clad keeper dove in front of the goal to block the quaffle, but it was too little too late. The ball brushed his fingers as it passed directly through the hoop.

"He did it!" Cried Lily, jumping up and down as Sirius and Remus cheered. It seemed then that time had sped up. Taylor managed to knock Bardwell's hand out of the way and grab the snitch moments after James made the goal, securing the Gryffindor victory.

The crowd erupted with a sound like an explosion. Cheers and laughter reverberated around the stadium as Gryffindor celebrated their victory. Lily laughed as Sirius tried to get Remus to join in his victory dance, but it died out quickly as she glanced back out at the pitch. It seemed that the pain in James' arm was too much. He hovered for a moment, then fainted, his broom plummeting to earth.

"He's falling!" Lily cried, but the crowd was too engrossed in celebrations for her voice to be heard. Without thinking, Lily jumped over the guard rail and sprinted across the field, pushing players out of the way. The Slytherin team had just landed, anger and defeat written on their features. By the time Lily elbowed her way past them, James was on the ground. Lily ran over, panting.

"James! Are you-" Her question caught in her throat as the chaser sat up, dazed but apparently unharmed.

"Hey." James said, apparently still a bit confused. "Evans, I'm fine. Takes a lot more than that to hurt this hard skull."

Lily laughed, panic leaving her chest, and then she was kissing him with a fervor she had never felt before. James kissed her back, hardly daring to believe what was happening. He deepened the kiss, reveling in the feel of her lips against his, cold from the wind and rain. He went to lift his arm to tangle his hand in her soft red locks, but pulled back quickly as pain shot through him.

"Oh, your arm! Are you okay? What can I do?" Lily fretted around James, not sure what to do.

"Well for starters you could stop snogging him long enough for Madam Pomfrey to have a look at him." Sirius and Remus had arrived, Remus looking embarrassed but pleased, and Sirius ready to start the teasing.

"Well done, mate." He said to James. "I'd give you a congratulatory clap on the shoulder but something tells me that's a bad idea." James smiled.

"Hey go ahead and try it. I'll show you how bad an idea it is."

Just then Madam Pomfrey arrived, her wand at the ready.

"Potter, you better come with me. We'll get you sorted out. It doesn't look like anything more than a fractured bone and some bruising-" She was cut off by Lily sneezing. The healer looked at her. "Ah, still sick are you? Better come with me as well, we'll get you some pepper up potion."

Lily rubbed at her nose but didn't protest. In retrospect it was probably a bad idea for her to have sat in the rain and wind for so long.

"We'll meet you guys back at the common room!" Remus called as James and Lily dutifully followed Madame Pomfrey back to the castle.

"Yeah, then it'll be party time!" Sirius called, pumping his fist in the air. Remus rolled his eyes and James laughed.

James sat on one of the hospital wing beds, his shoulder wrapped up firmly to keep the bones from healing incorrectly. Lily sat on the bed beside his, holding the pepper up potion in her hands.

"Why aren't you drinking it?" James asked, nodding to the potion.

"I, um, I don't like pepper up potion." Lily said, keeping her eyes fixed on the cup in her hands.

"Well yeah it doesn't taste amazing, but if you gulp it down you don't have to taste it for long." James watched Lily as she shrugged, saying nothing. He waited patiently for her to speak.

"It's not really that." She said finally. "I don't like how it makes you steam at the ears for so long afterword." James looked at her quizzically. "With my red hair… I feel like a firetruck." She said, finally meeting James' gaze.

James laughed, not unkindly. "Is that all? Well here, I'll help." James reached out with his good arm and took the potion from Lily's hands. He took a swift gulp from the cup and instantly his face took on a reddish hue and steam came out of his ears. He gave the potion back to Lily, smiling.

"There. Now at least you won't be the only firetruck at the party." Lily stared at him for a moment and then laughed loudly.

"Alright. Here's to being a firetruck." Lily raised the glass towards James, then gulped down the potion. James laughed as steam came out of Lily's ears.

"See there you go! It's not that bad. If it helps, you're the only firetruck I've ever been attracted to." Lily laughed again as Madam Pomfrey returned and removed James' wrappings with a wave of her wand.

"Alright, that's the two of you better. Off you go now." With a wave of her hand, Madam Pomfrey ushered the two out of the hospital wing and began attending to the beds filled with students with various stages of the cold and flu.

James and Lily began the walk towards Gryffindor tower.

"So was that the last one?" James asked casually as they waited for one of the staircases to come back. "The last kiss, I mean. If I have to fall off a broom in order to get you to kiss me… I don't know how often I'll be willing to risk bodily harm. When your face is this perfect, you don't want to mess it up."

Lily stared at him.

"You're not serious."

"No, I'm James. Did you think I was Sirius this whole time? Because that would really put a damper on our relationship-"

"Oh shut up." Lily said, grabbing him by his Quidditch robes and pressing her mouth firmly against his. When they finally broke apart, James' smile could have lit up the corridor.

"Talking too much to get you to kiss me. Now that's something I can do." Lily laughed and shook her head as James leaned in for another kiss.