Yay! I was soo happy when I found out that I had two pages for reviews! Okay, so like I said before, this was supposed to be one chapter with the last one, but I ended up having to split it in two because the last chapter was practically twice as long as usual! So here is the new chapter, and the name for the next chapter was originally the name for the whole humongous chapter I had planned. Please remember to review!

Chapter 8: Practice Makes Perfect

"I don't care what you three have to say to me, James; I've already told you that. Just go away and let me sleep."

"But, Lily, this is important!" Albus said, his expression a complete turnaround from the afternoon. "Just wait till you hear what Jordan says!"

"I need to sleep." She said stubbornly, refusing to hear anything else from the prat that shattered her heart. Well, maybe it wasn't that dramatic. She could recover from this awful blow, but it still sting like someone had poured salt on her wound.

"Just hear me out, Lily, and I promise you won't regret it."

The sincerity in his eyes made her grumble to herself a bit, but she grudgingly conceded. "Just get on with it already. And be quiet. Madame Pomphrey will strangle me if she finds you three here."

"Lily, you'll be so happy when he tells you," Albus said, bouncing in his seat.

While James socked him in the arm, Jordan said, "Lily, I've decided who the new Seeker is. Actually I've known all along."

I glared at him. "Couldn't you have waited until breakfast tomorrow to tell me that it's Lorcan? You just couldn't wait to rub it in, could you?"

"No, no!" Jordan denied quickly. "It's not Lorcan. I only said that this afternoon to throw everyone off."

"What are you talking about, McLaggen?" her temper began to rise with impatience. "Stop talking rubbish and just tell me who the seeker is already!"

"It's you, Lily." She blinked.

Then she went livid. "Stop playing pranks on me you idiots! Get out of my face and stop feeding me loads of rubbish! Leave me alone!"

Jordan backed away as her face grew red and James protested, "Lily, we're not kidding! We're going to use you to trick the other houses!"

She looked at Albus grimly, knowing that he was the one that would speak sense to her. "Explain."

"Well, you see," he started, "We said that because your Ravenclaw friends were here along with that Malfoy. That way, they think that they can see that the less experienced one is the Seeker, and they'll let their guard down. I'm going to take a camera to the first match. I just have to document the look on their faces when they see you. Anyways, Lorcan said tonight that he'd practice with us to make it look like he's on the team."

"What am I supposed to do? Mope until I walk onto the Quidditch field?" She still looked rather dubious.

"No, that's the thing," James cut in, his brown eyes completely serious. "You'll keep doing what you were before, practicing by yourself whenever you have the time. Then, if anyone asks why you're still practicing you can explain that it's for next year."

"Is Lorcan very upset?" she asked quietly.

James laughed and Jordan punched him on the arm to make him shut up. As he rubbed his arm, wincing in pain, he said, "Not at all. You should've seen the devil grin on his face. He's excited that he gets to practice with us and learn techniques and get to pull something on the rest of the school."

"I'll do it," she said with determination evident. She began thinking of how she would pull it off to her friends. "Do the rest of the Weasleys know?" she asked hesitantly.

"No," Albus answered, "Definitely not. We have too many gossips in our family. Besides, Rose'll try to tell her boyfriend, and then it'll get all over the school."

Lily nodded thoughtfully. Rose really would do something like that, not understanding the importance of such an act. She was still talking to the boys when a light clicked on from Madame Pomphrey's room. The boys darted under the cloak, disappearing right as the cranky old woman stepped out of the room.

"What's going on here? I distinctly heard make voices!" Her beady eyes glared suspicious at the lone girl.

Lily got out of her bed and tried to lead Madame Pomphrey to her room with reassurance. "I think you were just dreaming. There's been no one in this room all night. Maybe you heard me tossing around in bed; I wasn't sleeping very well. I'm sure that once you go back to bed you'll realize that there was never anyone here."

Her eyes still darted around suspiciously. "Do you need a sleeping potion? I can whip one up in a jiffy!" She pulled away, towards her potions set.

"Oh no, Madame Pomphrey," she assured her quickly, "I'll be to sleep quicker than you can make that potion; I'm awfully tired." To accentuate her words, she yawned widely.

When she had finally ushered the old woman to bed, she relaxed onto hers, and pulled out her broken snitch again. She tried to ignore the thought that a particular two someone might be evident in her dreams if she fell asleep.

OoOxXxOoO

"Merlin, Lily," Kayla exclaimed as Lily fluttered down beside them. "You look like you didn't sleep at all last night. What were you doing?"

Lizzy, who usually had a comical comment, was on the other side of Lily, her face mirroring the concern of Kayla's. She nodded in agreement.

Lily sighed, the tiredness clear in her tone as well. She pulled some sausage onto her plate, along with a microscopic amount of scrambled eggs. "I didn't sleep last night. I couldn't."

"Why not?" Kayla asked, smearing strawberry jam on her toast.

"I just… had a lot to… think about…"

Lizzy snorted. "Let me guess, you felt awful about not getting on the team." When Lily slowly nodded, she continued, "You can't let that ruin your life. It's just a game. You haven't played Quidditch before, what makes now so different from before?"

"My dad and mum," Lily said almost inaudibly. "I told them I was going to try out. In my family, you either play Quidditch or you don't. And you most certainly do not get rejected on the team. My whole family's going to be so disappointed…"

"That's an awful reason to be disappointed in someone!" Kayla chastised. "I mean, it's not your fault the captain was a sexist prat. Did you notice that? All of the people on the team are guys, and you, the one girl who outshone everyone, were rejected."

"I didn't notice that," Lily said, her eyebrows furrowing as she thought, making little indentations on the skin between her eyes as she thought. She shoved a bite of sausage into her mouth. Her friends watched her with great concern. It got very annoying, and classes hadn't even started yet.

"I've got to ask my brothers about something." She said as an excuse. She left her mostly uneaten meal and moved in between her brothers who protested loudly when she interrupted their conversation of which Holyhead Harpies player was hotter.

"Oh, shut up," she said, more than slightly annoyed. "You'll live because they'd never fall for you two prats anyways. I want to know if I can tell Mum and Dad about… about you-know-what." She had dropped her voice lower, being sure that Lysander Longbottom and Kathleen Dereville were completely engrossed in a conversation with Lorcan.

"Oh," Albus said, looking to James, not knowing the answer himself. Two sets of green eyes fell upon him as they usually did when looking for a rare mature moment from James.

He filled in his role as big brother and thought for a moment. "I guess not, Lilsies. I mean, they might want to mention it to the Weasleys and that would spell disaster when Uncle Ron writes, why didn't my amazing children tell me about this?"

He had raised his voice to something that sounded more like an impression of a girl rather than their uncle writing to his children. Despite her disappointment, Lily couldn't help but giggle a bit at his antics. "But I'll have to lie to them…" she said, obviously upset.

Albus snorted and James snickered. "Are you serious?" Al asked with a bright smile. "Do you realize how many times James and I have lied to get ourselves safely away from Mum's whacking spoon? If we didn't lie, we'd never have made it to Hogwarts. Besides it's not lying about something that will get you in trouble. You just want to pull a surprise on the Slytherins."

"Oh all right," she consented uneasily. She absolutely never lied to Harry Potter, just because he always told her the truth about anything, even if he didn't want to, and he expected that respect in return. "I had told them that I was going to try out, and you know they'll write a whole letter about how proud they are of me making the team, blah, blah, blah."

"That's why you don't tell them, Silly Lily," James said with a full mouth of toast. He swallowed. "I learned that a looong time ago when I sent them telling them about the prank I was going to play on the teachers the next week."

"James, you're just a really dumb idiot." Albus explained slowly, like James was a child that had a mental impairment.

That gained him a whack on the head with half eaten toast. He tried to shield himself from James's attack, and Lily hopped out from in between them trying to avoid the crumbs that would land in her hair. "Aww," she cooed with a bright smile, "Little Jamie is playing with his food."

Of course she said James's old nickname loud enough for the people at the table to hear and only Katleen who blushed and smiled smugly avoided laughing loudly. James went bright red and tried to tackle Lily. She just barely held her ground, still smirking.

They were about to tussle right there in the middle of the Great Hall like they did in private sometimes when someone hoisted Lily away from James by the collar. She looked up into Professor Longbottom's grim brown eyes.

"This is what, the hundredth time I've told at least two of you Potters not to fight in front of the whole school?" His eyes held faint amusement and his lips were quirked upward. The good family friend was never too angry with them but he could put his foot down when he was angry.

Lily grinned up at him sheepishly. "That would be the hundredth and seventy second time, sir."

He rolled his eyes. "Seeing as you've already stuck yourselves in detention for at least another month and you won't learn anything from it anyways, I won't give you detention."

"Thank you, Professor. We won't do it again."

He snorted. "Don't make promises that you can't keep." He leaned closer to Lily and said, "Congratulations on being our new secret Seeker." He smiled at her flabbergasted expression and walked back towards the teachers table.

XxXoOoXxX

Even though she was deadbeat tired and really needed to sleep, Lily grabbed her Lightning bolt and went to the Quidditch field to practice when she knew no one was there. She was just warming up, going through a few loops and trying out some tight turns, when a voice yelled, "Oi! What're you doing up there?"

Behind her by around two hundred feet away, Scorpius had brought his broom and had caught up to her quickly. "Wh-what do you m-mean?" Lily asked with feigned innocence that she used on teachers whenever she was asked about a prank. It worked every time.

"I mean, that why are you on the pitch if you aren't seeker and need to practice?" He asked.

"Oh that," she said and looked down towards the ground that was a thousand feet below her. She blushed to a dull pink and said, "O-oh, I-I want t-to stay in sh-shape i-if I want to b-be on th-the team n-next year." Why was she always stuttering around him? It was embarrassing to be uncomfortable around him. Her cheeks became red.

"You're going to try out next year?"

She merely nodded, afraid of her stuttering voice. When she had to use it she said, "W-well I-I figured that, erm, Mc-McLaggen i-is going to b-be gone next y-year, a-and maybe th-the new c-captain w-will see th-that I'm b-better th-than l-last year."

He smiled a grin that stretched crookedly across only half of his face. "But why not wait until the end of next term? You're already better than anyone—well," he corrected himself with a grin, "anyone except for me."

Lily delicately snorted. "As if you could beat me. I'm probably better than any Slytherin. My brothers always say that anyone can be better than a Slytherin, even me." She smiled, showing that she was only joking.

He made a mock glare, his lips turned up at the corners. "Oh really? And would you like to test that theory?" When she smiled and nodded, he lifted his hand and showed her the snitch he had brought up with him captured in his fingers.

When he released the snitch, it buzzed around almost imperceptibly and disappeared instantly. They both flew a circle once around the whole field, battling each other for speed. At some time of the race, she noticed that Scorpius also had a Lightningbolt and was matching her for speed. They raced in various directions, warily watching each other as they scoured the area for the tiny snitch.

Scorpius suddenly dived, probably having seen a flash of gold. Lily was right there next to him, pushing her broom to go faster than she had ever dared before. She flattened herself to her broom, struggling to remain seated.

He was about to crash headfirst into the ground when she realized that he had tricked her into thinking the snitch was down there when he was trying to get her to fall off her broom. He pulled up at the last second, but she kept diving, falling further than him.

Scorpius called out her name frantically just as she should have shattered onto the earth. Instead, she leveled out with her feet held up so that they wouldn't catch on the grass and spend her spiraling out of control.

She smiled up at the disbelieving boy hovering a foot or so above her. "Were you worried, Malfoy?"

He slowly nodded. Their eyes both widened when a flash of bright gold flew between them, flying back towards the Hufflepuff stands. They only hesitated long enough to share a stunned look before they whirled through the air at top speed.

Lily cursed rather loudly when her hair band broke, sending her auburn hair whipping around wildly. She glared venomously when she heard her opponent yell, "Language, Potter!"

They were neck and neck, both struggling for the upper hand. The glinting snitch darted up further into the air in a zigzag motion that made Lily feel vaguely sick. Scorpius had his gloved hand outstretched, his fingertips almost brushing against the snitch before it changed course again and fluttered towards the ground.

When they had managed to begin to dive, Lily found herself closest to the snitch, but Scorpius close enough to grab the end of her broomstick. She stretched out her hand as far as she could reach. It still wasn't enough. The snitch was less than an inch too far from her hand.

She edged herself forward on her broom, extremely carefully, knowing that she could tip her broom out of control if she unbalanced it much more. Already, the front of her broom was steeply stretched towards the ground. Lily's arm began to shake with the strain of trying to reach the tiny ball.

Scorpius finally gained on her, reaching her hand out too. She mentally cursed; of course he would have longer arms than her. Just before his hand closed around the snitch, she shoved him, throwing the weight of her and her broom in his direction. It knocked him off course and sent him flying to the side.

He glared at her and crashed back into her. They struggled precariously in the air like that for a few seconds. The snitch leveled out less than a centimeter above the grass, and it even brushed the green wisps. They both pulled up sharply to avoid crashing into the ground.

Lily inadvertently hissed as she tried to come up with a way to get down that close to the ground to reach it. She was barely hanging onto her broom as she leaned over extending her arm down past her broom. Scorpius suddenly knocked her and she went spiraling. She barely had enough time to take control before she crashed into the dirt.

When she looked to the snitch, he was astonishingly close. It was gradually moving up from the ground, flying up high again. She darted for it, rushing as quickly as she dared. She was almost completely vertical as she chased like a madwoman for such an inconsequential thing as that tiny golden toy. Scorpius ended up behind her again.

Lily put on another spurt of speed, deciding that this had to end now. She completely threw caution to the wind and went at a breakneck speed that made her eyes water. This time, when her arm stretched beyond its limits, her fingers closed around the fluttering wings of the snitch.

She held it up triumphantly and showed it to Malfoy with a smirk and laugh. He cursed, "How do you do that? I thought for sure I would win."

She laughed euphorically. "I'm a natural. And like I said, anyone is better than a Slytherin."

He laughed with her as they landed, and he took the snitch from her and put it away. When he returned from the dressings rooms, she was sitting in the stands closest to him. She had pulled her broken snitch out of her pocket and was gently toying with it.

"Why do you have that?"

When Scorpius spoke, her head jerked upwards, having been startled out of her thoughts. Her security blanket that she'd had in her familiar comfort of the air disappeared, and her stuttering returned when she noticed his soft grey eyes. "Er… well, I-I s-sort of th-think of i-it as my g-good l-luck ch-charm…" She swallowed nervously. "W-weired, a-aren't I?" She attempted a smile.

He smiled good-naturedly. "No, not weird…" He looked sideways at her. "Actually… I have a good luck charm of my own."

"Wh-what is it?" she asked curiously.

He shrugged and sat down next to her, his eyes on her broken snitch. He had half a smile splayed across his features. "Well… I'm not sure I want to tell you." He cut off her indignant and feeble protests by raising his hand and said, "But… I-erm- w-was thinking that, uh, if y-you wanted—well, er—I th-thought that m-maybe—"

"Get on with it already," she said shortly. Her insides were fluttering because Scorpius was so rarely ever nervous. It made her own patience very thin and she spit the words out, eager for words that weren't rubbish.

"?" He blurted out the words so fast that they were just a collage of sounds and letters.

"Excuse me?" she asked hesitantly.

Scorpius took a deep breath, and Lily noticed that it was shaky. "I was… wondering if you… wanted to come to my Quidditch tryouts… and cheer me on….?"

She smiled at his red face with pink coloring her alabaster cheeks. "That would be fun, lots of fun. I'd love to." She was amazed that her words were s steady when her head was screaming, why the hell is he asking me this? Does he like me or something? DO I FANCY HIM?

He returned her smile, obviously relieved. "I'll be in the Great Hall at 6:45. We—we could walk d-down to tryouts together. If you want, I mean."

Her grin couldn't have been any brighter. "That'd be marvelous. I look for you this Saturday, right?"

He smiled and nodded. She returned the snitch to her pocket and stood up, with Scorpius following her. "I'm so tired. I've got to get some sleep. Not to mention all the transfiguration homework I have to work on. I'll expect you here tomorrow, too. For a rematch? Maybe you'll end up winning."

With a sly wink, she waltzed away leaving him to shower. She practically ran through the halls, ready to sing that she could beat Scorpius Malfoy easily. And she was going to watch him at Slytherin Quidditch tryouts next Saturday.

I HAVE OVER 700 HITS! I'M SOO HAPPY! Anyways, I thought I'd give you this chapter (It still wasn't as long as the original chapter) because I really needed an update. Don't forget to review and subscribe and just so you know, high school started on Thursday so I might not be able to update as often as usual… which still wasn't that great. Anyways, enjoy the chapter. If you click the button and review, you get a cookie! Just kidding. You don't get a cookie but I'll lurve yoo 4eva!