I hope you liked the last chapter! I know it might've been a bit confusing, but it should make sense later on in the story. (I'm not exactly sure about what chapter; I'm not very good at planning stuff out. I just go with the flow.) Please keep reviewing 'cause I love to read them!

Chapter 7: A Broken Snitch

Lily was released from the Hospital Wing two days later, with firm commands from Madame Pomphrey to eat properly, get plenty of rest, and visit her in a week or so. She seemed fine, of but a little rattled by the mirror she had seen, and Mortellea. In more than a week, most of the effects had left from that day.

She didn't have any more nightmares or hallucinations, as she had deigned her second vision of Mortellea to be, but she didn't eat as much as usual (which was practically as much as Hugo who could scarf food down like there was no tomorrow) and she just picked at her food most of the time, finding that she just wasn't hungry.

Lily spent her classes studiously taking notes like a good little nerd instead of goofing off in class with her friends. She didn't try to help when James and Albus planted dungbombs in Filch's office once the effects of the Howlers wore off on them, even hers. She honestly didn't care; it just wasn't funny like before.

She spent her spare time in the week practicing Quidditch, feeling that she would be alright if she just dove a little faster, or caught the snitch a little sooner. The wind that roughly pulled her hair out of her ponytail made her feel somewhat like herself.

Her dad and mum, and especially Teddy wrote to her and she replied back, not telling them too much about Mortellea. Only that she had had nightmares that there was a woman trying to kill her and that she had cracked her head when she had a hallucination from not having much sleep the night before.

Five days after the incident, Rose walked past Lily with Dominique, one of their Veela cousins, and said loudly, "Well, I think we know who the Emo kid is in our family." And then she left Lily to gaze after her with nothing, absolutely nothing but emptiness in her emerald eyes as she and Dominique laughed to themselves, quite loudly.

Lily had a separate detention from the boys, whose jobs it was to clean every inch of the castle that they could (Peeves really wasn't helping) while she organized the books in the Defense Against the dark Arts section of the library. She didn't mind that so much, seeing as it was her favorite subject usually, but it was just so tedious that it made her head pound.

The boys were discussing Quidditch tryouts at breakfast one morning when she came down after having managed to wrestle her hair into a neat braid and tromp down the stairs. "When are tryouts again?" she asked only paying half attention to what she was asking.

"Tomorrow," Albus answered, examining the Daily Prophet.

"Tomorrow?" she asked, surprised that it was all of a sudden so soon. "Are you sure?"

"Lilsies," James addressed between a mouthful of food, using her nickname from when she was a toddler and she called herself that, "The captain is one of my best friends. I think I'd know when tryouts are."

"But it's going to rain tomorrow," she stated. "How are we supposed to have tryouts in a storm?"

Albus peeked out from behind his newspaper, his green eyes watching hers. "Lily are you reading the Quibbler or something? The Prophet says that there is only a ten percent chance of rain tomorrow."

"There's still a chance," she huffed, slightly put off, and she picked up her bag and left the Great Hall, leaving her plate completely untouched, without even any food put on it. When she reached the corridor, she bumped into someone coming around the corner. "Whoa!" an unfamiliar voice exclaimed and caught her carefully.

Lily looked up and found Brown eyes staring down at her beneath light brown hair that flopped into his face. "Are you alright there?"

"Yeah," she mumbled, dropping her gaze to the floor and stepping away from him. "I'm sorry about that. I didn't see you."

The boy laughed. He had to be in at least James's year and a Gryffindor. He was tall and muscled and had a scar at the corner of his forehead, mostly hidden by his blonde hair. "I didn't see you either. I'm Jordan McLaggen by the way."

He stuck out his hand diplomatically and she shook it politely, still not meeting his gaze."I-I-I'm L-Lily P-Potter," she stuttered quietly. "I-it's nice t-to meet y-you."

"Lily Potter?" he asked, stunned. She internally groaned, knowing that what would be coming next would be some tirade about how marvelous her father was for defeating Voldemort and such. "Your dad used to play Quidditch here. He was the youngest Seeker in a century!"

Lily blushed and smiled. "Y-yeah. My mum was good, t-too. D-do you p-play Quidditch, too?"

"Yep," he announced proudly. "I'm one of the chasers with your brother James. I'm also the Quidditch captain! Are you trying out for the team this year? It sounds like you have some excellent Seeker blood in you."

He smiled, and action that showed perfect white teeth. He's actually a bit handsome, Lily thought shyly. "I-I might. I-I've never r-really played on a t-team with anyone o-other than m-my family…"

Jordan laughed. "From what James tells me, you have at least enough for about three teams, right? And Victoire was the Seeker last year." He winked slyly with a charming smile on his face. "I think that you'll almost certainly have a spot on the team with all that Qudditch blood running haywire in your veins."

She couldn't help it; she smiled and gave a girly giggle while blushing, probably managing to look like the most head over heels female in the whole school. Jordan laughed before he winked at her again. "Catch ya later, Little Lily!"

"Oh my goodness, Lily," Lizzy said, coming up behind her and scaring her half to death. "Who was that sixth year? He was so hot!"

Kayla was right behind her. "I know who that is. He's a guy on the Gryffindor Quidditch team! I saw him last year! Isn't he a Chaser?"

Lily gave her a knowing look. "Okay, either you're extremely observant or someone was a spy on our team last year." She glared suspiciously from one girl to the other.

"Hey, when you only get to see the Potter boys at mealtimes, you know something has to change," Lizzy defended stubbornly. "We only did it to see your brothers!"

"Oh, so you both did this? I thought you were the innocent, smart one, Kayla! What happened? When did you even turn to the dark side?" She half joked.

Kayla held her hands up like she was being checked for explosives. "Hey, the dark side has cookies and James Potter. What more could a girl want?"

"I'm trying to get her to run for treasurer for the Potter fan club," Lizzy stage whispered. As a result, Kayla whacked her arm, making a satisfying crack through the air.

When she complained, Lily cut her off with, "You deserved that one."

XxXoOoXxX

Lily woke up the next morning to a flash of lightning and the largest boom of thunder she had ever heard. She dressed quickly and raced downstairs to find that most of the Gryffindors trying out for Quidditch had come to the common room, ready to listen to McLaggen.

After he had quieted the complaining people, he loudly announced, "Alright, tryouts are obviously postponed until tomorrow because of the storm. I already checked with McGonagall and she scheduled us for tryouts tomorrow. So I want everyone down at the field at 8:00A.M. sharp!"

When everyone resumed their chatting, Albus came over and said, "So will it rain tomorrow, too, O Great Goddess of the Weather?"

"No, it won't. I suggest you practice."

"How is someone supposed to practice in that weather without getting blown away?" he demanded incredulously, already angry at her for being right.

"The question is, what do you require?" she said before walking away knowing that his eyes were widening with understanding at her reference to an important room that few knew of in the castle.

The next day was sunny and bright, just as Lily had predicted. She loved the feel of her familiar Quidditch clothes rubbing against her skin, reminding her of the many summers that she spent playing the sport with her cousins and brothers, even, occasionally, her dad. Her Lightningbolt was almost soft feeling, the white wood curved gracefully just for a Seeker.

She noticed her Ravenclaw friends sitting in the stands, ready to cheer her on. Along with them was just about every other Gryffindor that wasn't trying out, even, Lily noted with surprise, Rose, although when she looked again, she found her snogging Zack. A few Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaw were scattered across the stands, and even some green robes stood out, probably spies.

Jordan looked over all of those trying out with a clipboard in hand. "Alright, we'll be trying each person out one by one and then we'll have a sort of mini game to see how everyone cooperates with each other. We'll start out with chasers."

A majority of the students stood up from their gathering in the stands and lined up, waiting for their turn to prove their worth. They were trying out for three positions as chasers. Jordan and James were starters and there was one position with them and the other two were reserve. Jordan played as Keeper briefly while James and the person trying out tossed the quaffle to each other and he let the kid trying out throw it in.

Most of them were pretty good, but not excellent. A few dropped the quaffle where Albus and the other Beater, his best friend, Amos Blocc waited and caught the dropped quaffles. Two were extraordinarily good. One was a seventh year named Thomas Norton and the other was a fifth year named Sean Everdeen.

Lily was fairly certain that they would get two of the positions, and they were almost done with the tryouts for Chasers when she noticed someone that sat down beside her on the bench.

"What have I missed?" Scorpius Malfoy asked as he plopped himself down beside her.

She raised an auburn eyebrow. "You're not supposed to be down here. You're going to get McLaggen to yell at me for having people down here who aren't trying out, and then my brothers will start questioning why I was talking to you in the first place. They're very overprotective, see."

"Ah," he sighed, as if he knew exactly what would happen. "But I'm only here to ask what's going on and then I'll leave."

Lily couldn't help but smile at his flimsy excuse that, as true as it may be, would never hold up against James. "Fine, then," she said complacently. "So, Slytherin spy, McLaggen is testing out our potential Chasers. So far the best are Thomas Norton and Sean Everdeen, but this second year is looking pretty good out there."

He smiled and leaned back, obviously relaxing though Lily had told him what he needed to know. "I'm not a spy!" he mocked lightly, with feigned and mild displeasure. "I'm just a curious Hogwarts student who enjoys watching Quidditch."

Lily snorted. "Sure, and you're also the Seeker of the rival team. That's no reason for anyone to be suspicious."

"You're right; it's not," he said jokingly.

After a few more people trying out, Jordan called anyone who was trying out for the Keeper positions, two, one for regular and the other for reserve. Not as many got up this time, but it left only three people on the stands before the chasers joined them. Three people were trying out for Seeker, including Lily.

The Keeper tryouts didn't take as long, seeing as there were fewer students. Lily could almost see the sweat dripping off of some of them. James and Jordan threw the quaffle towards them, aiming for one of the three huge rings.

As time ticked closer to when Lily would have to find the miniature snitch, she began to get more and more nervous and butterflies trembled in her stomach. She fidgeted, wringing her hands in her lap.

Malfoy noticed and gave a crooked sort of smirk. "Getting a little nervous, are we?"

"Sh-shove off, Malfoy."

He laughed at her feeble attempt at annoyance. "I believe that I am quite right. It's a good thing I don't have to try out."

She couldn't help it; she smacked his arm in annoyance. "You're just trying to make me more nervous, aren't you? You do realize that I'm doing this because of you, right?"

Lily blushed a furious red, having said something that she didn't mean to. Malfoy's eyes widened with shock and surprise. "I-I-I, erm, actually, no, I didn't…. Why are you doing this because of me exactly?"

Lily blushed a deeper red, almost darker than her hair. "Erm, because, on the f-first d-day of t-term, remember, you, erm, t-told m-me that you th-thought I would b-be very g-good at it…"

"Oh," he said awkwardly, "right."

Lily focused so hard on the Gryffindors trying out to block him from her mind that her head pulsed slightly with the beginnings of a headache. After what seemed like ages, they finished with the Keepers. She sighed when Jordan announced that it was time for the Seekers.

Jordan looked at his clipboard carefully, checking through a few of his papers. "Okay, since there are three of you trying out, I'll have Wood and Longbottom try first and then Potter…" he looked through some more papers before he smirked, "Ms. Potter will go against Mr. Potter." James smirked, too.

Of course, the knowledge that she'd have to wait longer than before made the butterflies come back. At least she knew everyone of James's tricks. He was a fairly good Seeker, but a better Chaser. She observed carefully as Andrea Wood and Lorcan Longbottom whizzed through the air. The rest of the team was playing fairly regular and Albus and Amos hit the bludgers to the Seekers a little more than usual, but it was a test of their strength. She could almost see poor Lorcan sweating.

After twenty minutes, Lorcan caught the snitch. Lily had actually been a bit doubtful, seeing as none of his family had played Quidditch before, but he got it, and the Gryffindors cheered for him like it was an actual game.

"Ms. Potter, I do believe that it's your turn." She felt the blood drain from her face and her stomach dropped like lead. Obviously reassuring her, Jordan winked slyly and smirked. She attempted a weak smile and stood up with her broom in her hand. Something gripped her other wrist suddenly.

Lily whirled to see Scorpius looking at her with his melted grey eyes although they were burning with something that she couldn't decipher. "Good luck, Lily. You'll do great."

When he let go, she turned away with a dull blush. She faced her brother as Jordan told her and he glared at her suspiciously. "What did Malfoy say to you?"

The siblings shook hands. "He wished me luck. There's nothing wrong with that."

"Malfoy shouldn't be saying anything to you, so yes, there is." They mounted their brooms shooting venomous glares at each other.

Then the whistle blew from McLaggen and they shot into the air like bullets. Before James could do anything, Lily shot away like a bullet, knowing that he would chase her. The familiarity caused her to relax, and her mind fell into this place where only finding the snitch mattered. She circled the field like a hawk, watching carefully for the bludgers that were hit her way. Most of the time, they were even too slow to keep up with her.

Lily looked back and saw her brother watching her and the field carefully. She smirked before she dove as fast as she could. James saw her and dived after her, thinking that she had seen the snitch. He fell for it every time. It was a perfectly executed Wronski Feint, and she pulled up half a second before she would have crashed with the grassy and muddy turf beneath her. She was so low, that mud sprayed her before she pulled higher into the air. As for James, he barely made it, seeing that it was a trap a moment before she pulled up. He glared at her and yelled, "What was that for?"

"For being my brother!" she mocked, feeling almost lighter than air now that she was flying, the exhilaration making her almost high. But she remembered to keep her eyes and ears open. Before she knew it, she had seen the snitch.

She dove for it as quickly as she could, and James pulled after her, knowing that she wouldn't be stupid enough to pull the same trick twice in such a short span of time. Soon, he was gaining on her, and she forced her broom to put on another burst of speed, flattening herself against the long shaft of the broom. She reached her arm out, merely inches away from the golden snitch.

Someone cried out, calling her name loudly. Lily looked out of the corner of her eyes and wanted to scream. Both of the bludgers were aimed towards her and James at the same time. James pulled back, shouting at Lily to do the same.

She was too stubborn to do the same and she spun around to avoid the first bludger, and sighed with the relief that the snitch was still in sight. The second bludger caught her off guard and came before she could deflect it, connecting with her wrist. She cried out when she felt the snap of her wrist and the excruciating pain.

She barely noticed the screams and the collective gasps running through the stands. She reached her good hand out to catch the snitch, ignoring the tears that threatened to blur her vision. She barely had time to notice the first bludger that had reversed itself, flying towads whatever object that was closest, which, of course, simply had to be her.

She tried to pull away from it, intensely aware of how close she was to the Ravenclaw stands where only one or two people watched with excitement. Somehow, she couldn't quite recall if it was the bludger, or if she ran into the stands, or if she somehow managed to hit herself with the end of her broomstick (it had happened before), all she knew was pain in her face and blood flowed from her nose, that she knew was probably crooked. She muttered a curse that only sounded like, "Bluby 'ell!"

Lily could only focus of two things: the red color staining her good Quidditch clothes and the glittering gold object floating close to her in her fuzzy vision. She reached out again, barely hanging on to her Lightningbolt with only her legs.

She raced after the snitch and found James beside her. He looked more like he was interested in her rather than the snitch. "Sis, you don't have to keep this up. Let me take you to the Hospital Wing. You've done enough already."

She glared at him. "Nobe."

"Merlin's bloody underpants, Lils!" he exclaimed. "Your nose is practically on the other side of your face!"

"I dob't cawre." She sped ahead and concentrated solely on the snitch. She reached out her hand and formed a cage around the golden ball that let the wings flutter helplessly. She raised her hand in triumph, proud of her accomplishment. She finally tuned back into the world around her and smiled brightly until she tasted the blood. James followed her closely to the ground where Jordan and Malfoy stood, waiting for her.

"I dib it!" she declared happily, not even caring that the pain was pulsing stronger as she waited.

"C'mon," Malfoy said, handing her a green and silver handkerchief to mop up the blood. "We'd better get you to the Hospital Wing before your nose sets on one side of your face like that."

Jordan nodded and put his arm around her waist, trying to support her across the grounds as though her leg were broken. "Id's nod dab bab!" Lily protested in disbelief, gingerly wiping at the crimson blood, trying to avoid her nose that was pulsing it seemed.

By the time they reached the Entrance Hall, she was crying because the pain broke through the walls at the back of her mind. "Pleabe geb ib to stob hurbing! Pleabe!"

Madame Pomphrey fluttered around, trying to avoid all of the Gryffindor House collected for her. "Are you planning to take up a permanent residence in my wing?" she asked huffily, setting down an assortment of potions on the bedside table, next to where Lily lay, trying to stop the blood and her tears.

"Nobe!" she wailed, "I dob't wike ib here! I'b alwayb hurb when I'b here!"

Madame Pomphrey leaned her head close to Lily, looking carefully over her nose. She looked towards James and Albus who were huddled together and Scorpius who was nearby. "You three hold her down. I'm going to have to manually reset her nose. It's so awful that my wand will only make it worse."

Albus walked around her bed and held down her left arm while James went to the end of the bed and held down her legs, seeing as he was strongest. Scorpius firmly held her arm against her body refusing to even let it twitch. Her brothers watched Madame Pomphrey prepare to reset her nose, so Lily looked to him for support.

Scorpius brushed away a loose wave of hair that curled more than usual. "It's going to be okay, Lily. You can definitely make it through this if you can catch a snitch with a broken wrist and nose."

She smiled but didn't say anything. He noticed her trembling and tried to return a reassuring smile as Madame Pomphrey approached and leaned over her with white gloved hands.

Pomphrey didn't give any warning as to when she would do it, she just did. As she moved Lily's nose roughly back into place, Lily screamed. It wasn't one of those weak and wimpy screams where the voice cracked. It was one that chilled Scorpius's blood and clawed at his ears. She thrashed against them wildly with a strength no one knew she possessed. Tears leaked from her eyes as though she were a faucet. She somehow managed to keep air in her lungs to not break the scream for breath. It seemed to take longer than it should, and she screamed the whole time.

Eventually, Madame Pomphrey leaned back and took off her now crimson gloves. Lily was panting hard and still crying as fresh, bright red blood flowed from her nose. Pomphrey took out her wand and muttered a spell that fixed her nose, where it wasn't as obvious. She also healed her wrist and gave her three potions to drink.

"Merlin," Lily grumbled, "Couldn't you have given me a sedative or something?" She spoke as though she had allergies and a stuffed up nose.

Pomphrey looked at her dryly. "Would that have really helped?"

Lily pondered it for a moment. "No."

"There you have it then." She turned and seemed to notice the entire Gryffindor house standing in her wing and even some from other houses. "What are you all doing here? Unless you're family or friend I want all of you out!" The old woman's crinkled face began to turn pinkish red.

Only about half of the children left. "I told you! Unless you're—"

"We are family and friends," Rose interrupted. "It's not our fault that we make up half of Gryffindor."

Pomphrey sighed. "I forgot she was related to the Weasleys, although how I forgot to assume that practically anyone clad in red and gold is family, I have no idea." And then she retreated to her office, slamming the door shut behind her.

Hugo ran over beside Scorpius and began chatting excitedly. "That was the best flying I've seen in ages! I can't believe that you still got the snitch! That was great!"

She blushed at the rarely received praise and looked at her hands. With a gasp she realized that she was still clutching the snitch, almost crushing it when she was in pain. One wing was crumpled and fluttered weakly. Everyone talked excitedly about what she had done, her dozens of cousins squeezing around her bed. Only three people were quiet, Scorpius who was shrunk in the corner with his hands in his pockets, obviously not used to so many people, and James and Jordan who exchanged solemn looks.

Lily noticed and interrupted almost everyone. "What's wrong?"

She looked at them clearly and calmly as though she knew there was going to be bad news and she was fine about it. James and Jordan shared another uneasy look and Jordan stepped forward.

He cleared his throat. "Um, well, I really don't know how to tell you this, Lily. Erm, I'm not certain yet, but, erm, I don't think you're gonna get the Seeker position."

Everyone gasped, including Rosie, who honestly didn't care. Protests were suddenly shouted through the still air.

"Oi!" James shouted when it got out of hand, "Shut it!"

When silence was thick in the air again, Jordan spoke again. "I'm not certain, there's still a chance, but I doubt it. It's just that—Lorcan got the snitch more quickly, and he didn't end up with a bloody nose."

"She only got injured because Amos and I hit the bludgers towards her at the same time! And if she hadn't got hurt, she would have caught the snitch sooner. That's not gonna happen in a real game!"

Agreements murmured through the room until James spoke up again. "Alright! Just shut up! Jordan said that he wasn't certain! She still has a chance and that's that! Just leave it be! Merlin!"

Tears flowed down her cheeks and one somehow managed to speed down her new crooked nose and drip off the end. "Fine. It's Fine," she said in a strong voice that still shook. "D-do wh-whatever y-you think w-will make Gr-Gryffindor w-win. That- that's wh-what it's a-all a-about, r-r-right? I-I'm just n-not that g-good. It's all my bloody fault." She dropped her head into her hands and quietly sobbed.

All her cousins rushed to comfort her. She barely noticed that Rose had stood up from crouching beside her bed until she heard Rosie yelling. "What the hell? You two are such idiots! It doesn't matter who got the snitch quicker! She persisted! Merlin, boys are such prats! Especially you two! I can't believe you! Lily was the best player out there, not to mention she had the best attitude! Merlin! If you two are so thick that you can't see that, you're going to bloody well lose!"

Lily sniffed and smiled. Rosie had the trademark Weasley temper, not to mention that it was mixed with aunt Hermione's, making the situation ten times worse. And even though she did spend most of her time acting like a tramp and making fun of Lily, she could stick up for her littlest cousin when she wanted to.

Jordan and James had their hands up as Rosie pointed her wand at them. "We were going to leave anyways," Jordan angrily muttered. "We're going to get dinner before we get hexed and sent here to deal with you lot even more." And they stalked out in anger.

"Thanks, Rosie," Lily said as she sat down in a chair next to her. "But please don't hex them. I would like Gryffindor to win, even if I can't be on the team. And I'd prefer to have my brother in one piece so that I can tear him apart."

It wasn't long before most of the Weasley clan dissipated, muttering excuses about being hungry. Albus was one of the last to leave and before he left he said, "Lily, it's all my fault. If I had just watched more closely, I wouldn't have hit the bludger towards you and you wouldn't have gotten hurt. Then we'd be all happy about you being the new seeker, and not stuck in here. I'm so sorry, Lily!"

His head was in his hands as he sat on the chair that Rosie had recently vacated. Lily patted his head softly. "Bubby, it's alright. And Jordan said that he wasn't certain. There's still a chance, Bubby. Besides, I know how to deal with that now. I love you, Bubby, and I don't mind if I don't get to be Seeker. I can always try out next year."

She gave him a tight hug and he buried his face in her shoulder, squeezing her as though she was going to die tomorrow. She didn't mind and realized that he had probably been scared when he saw his little sister get beat up by bludgers. It would have scared her, too. She and Albus had always been closer than her and James, probably because there was less of an age difference. She was always teased for calling him Bubby, but she still did at times like these.

He sighed and let go of her. "I'm about to starve, Lilsies. I'm not going to go to the Great Hall; I bet Hugo ate all of the food at the Gryffindor table. I'll be in the kitchens if anyone comes looking for me."

She smiled knowing that he was close to the truth. "You're spoiled,' she joked, "tell Winky I said hello."

He left with a wave, leaving her alone to ponder her predicament. She toyed with the broken snitch in her hand that feebly twittered. When it flew, it was a bit lopsided, the side with the intact wing rising higher than the other.

Lily sighed. She didn't understand why Jordan had told her that she couldn't be on the team. She wasn't one to boast and brag, but it was true that she was better than Lorcan when it came to Quidditch. She had played with him millions of times when they played with the whole family, but she always beat him.

She lightly traced the length of her nose, the skin being sensitive still. She memorized the curve that would forever make her nose look crooked, like she had gotten in a fight. What was she supposed to say when people asked her what happened? She could see it now.

A little boy with her flaming red hair tugged on her dress. "Mummy, why does your nose look funny?"

"Oh, no reason, sweetheart. I was trying out for Quidditch, and a bludger hit me in the face. I didn't make the team, so basically I got this for nothing. This is more of my injury to be ashamed of, not one of those proud battle scars the rest of my family has. Just take a look at your granddad. He has a scar shaped like a lightning bolt, making him one of the most famous wizards that ever lived."

"What are you thinking about?"

Lily let out a bit of a strangled squeal. She spun her head to see Scorpius Malfoy in the corner, where she had last noticed him earlier in the afternoon. Her heart raced because he had startled her. "Have you been here the whole time?"

"Yes," he answered, sitting in the chair that seemed to have everyone in it at one point. "You'd be amazed how little a person is noticed when he doesn't want to be."

"Why- why d-didn't y-you wasn't t-to be n-noticed?"

He shrugged. "I guess I figured that you wanted to be with your family. You never did tell me what you were thinking."

She blushed. "I-I w-was imagining telling my ch-children h-how I-I, erm, got a, erm, f-funny-looking n-nose."

Scorpius laughed loudly, a sound like bells. "So your nose is crooked, it's not the end of the world. It'll at least attract some attention."

She laughed shakily. "Th-that's exactly wh-what I n-need. E-everyone st-staring at my nose!"

Madame Pomphrey finally walked out of her office, carrying a tray of steaming soup and a sandwich. She gave it to Lily before turning to glare at Scorpius. "Shouldn't you be at supper? You're going to miss all of the food, and I'm not giving you any!"

She sniffed and left, not waiting for his excuse. Lily giggled. "You're going to get yourself in trouble, mister, if you don't leave!"

"Do I have to?" he sighed as though the whole ordeal was a chore. Scorpius stood up, stretched and then looked down at her again. "You going to be alright, Lil?"

She blushed. "Wh-what d-do you mean?"

Lily avoided the warm grey eyes that she could feel trying to burn her. "About the whole… seeker thing…. Lily, you were great. If you were in Slytherin, you would have been Seeker before I could look up."

"But y-you're s-seeker," she mumbled faintly, watching the broken snitch.

"Exactly," he said finalizing it. When she didn't look up at him, he hooked his finger under her chin and pulled it up so that she had to look at her grey eyes that almost reminded her of a storm. "You're the greatest Seeker I've ever met. And McLaggen is stupid for not seeing that."

Scorpius turned and walked out of the Hospital wing, leaving her blushing and staring at the broken snitch.

OoOxXxOoO

Lily laid in her bed that night, thinking over everything that had gone so wrong at the Quidditch field. How could she have been so thick as to not see when she had lost the position?

"Lily?" a voice whispered in the darkness.

She started and pulled her wand off of the bedside table. "What the bloody hell are you doing here, James?" she asked into the empty space.

James pulled off the Invisibility Cloak, revealing not only him, but also Albus and McLaggen. "What the hell, James?" she hissed, gesturing at McLaggen. "Why did you show that to him?"

"Lily," James whispered calmly, "There's something we want to tell you."

=D So what do you think the boys have to say? This chapter was supposed to be way longer than this; I only got about halfway through what I had planned. It ended up being way longer than any other chapters (5,971!) so I hope you like these kind! Please remember to review and tell me what you think about the story so far!