AN: sorry sorry sorry sorry sorry! I've been so behind and negligent and I really need to get going again. Hope you're not disappointed, and leave me some nice reviews, yeah?

CHAPTER FOUR

The next two days for Lily went by quickly, and yet slowly at the same time. Hogwarts meant Quidditch; she knew that paying attention during class was futile, so she barely tried. Most lessons, Lily stared off into space, while Matt squinted at the board as if that would better help him understand what the professor was saying. Lily just wanted the team to come together again and start practicing.

At a quarter past six, Saturday morning, Lily, Matt, and Justin approached the Great Hall, broomsticks in hand. At the middle of the long Gryffindor table, a variety of breakfast foods were laid out. Either Teague had made sure that the participants would have some food in their stomachs before tryouts, or the house elves were simply mind-readers.

There were a few Gryffindor students shuffling their feet near the table as, with a yawn, Matt stuck out a hand to grab a muffin, which he promptly shoved in his mouth. Justin chuckled, sitting down with his back to the table, stretching out his long legs into the aisle.

Lily sat down, propping up her broom against the bench, and stretched her legs out next to his, picking up a piece of toast on the way.

"I can't believe he made us wake up this early," complained Matt thickly, through his full mouth.

Justin laughed and shook his head. "It's Teague, and it's Quidditch."

Lily chuckled. "Still…" she grumbled.

"I'm just surprised it isn't earlier. Can you imagine how frantic he must be about having to find a Seeker, Chaser, and Beater that can fill in the empty spots?"

With a groan, Matt agreed.

Lily rolled her eyes. "Whatever, whoever they are, they aren't going to be good enough anyways…" she said lightly, picking at the toast in her hand.

"Potter," Justin admonished, and he made a barely noticeable glance around to see if anyone heard.

He needn't have worried, she thought, as the other Gryffindors had given them a wide, noticeable berth. She snorted a bit at their cowardice. Didn't they realize if they made it, they'd have to play with them every day for the next two semesters?

"What?" she said, a bit challengingly. "Look at how scared they are."

Justin looked away, shaking his head.

"Well, you don't seem to be very approachable…" she heard him mutter nonchalantly.

"Excuse me? What was that, I'm afraid I didn't hear you." she said, raising her voice a bit.

She hadn't realized she'd stood up until Justin turned back to look at her, saying, with a reassuring smile, "Easy, Potter, sit down." She flushed. "I was only joking."

With a snort, she retook her seat.

Justin sighed with a small smile. She vaguely wondered how he was so happy, all of the time, especially in the morning…

Lily resumed brooding in silence. Matt was, no surprise, eating, and Justin had taken up his thoughtful look of silence.

There were slowly more students filling into the Great Hall, the stragglers making it out of bed in order to collect themselves before the tryout. Lily took a sweeping glance at them from her position at the middle of the long Gryffindor table; there seemed to be a lot of scared looking second and third years, not eating, standing against the wall. A few older students shuffled a bit closer to them, food in hand, talking quietly, and she felt like she could see the bags under their eyes from their fitful night of sleep.

Her observations were interrupted, however, as she watched a brown haired boy, maybe a second or third year, come a bit hesitantly up to their spot at the table.

She curiously looked at him as he grabbed a few rolls, not meeting any of their eyes.

He appeared rather unremarkable, she thought, as she took note of his small stature and skinny arms. Granted, she was small for her position herself, and she then wondered if perhaps he was trying out for Seeker. His build would help him there, she supposed.

Lily could feel the amused glance from Justin as the boy took a bite and remained standing next to her.

"Could you toss me one?" asked Justin, motioning at the bread.

The boy looked up with wide eyes. He pointed at himself, as if to ask, "Me?"

Justin nodded with a warm smile. Lily lightly rolled her eyes with a small quirk of her lips. Justin, he would be the one to welcome and attempt to calm down the young ones.

After swallowing, the boy gave a quick grin and tossed one of the rolls in his hand at Justin, who, naturally, caught it with the ease of a Keeper.

"Thanks, mate," he said before taking a bite.

"No problem," the boy shrugged with a slight shuffle of his feet.

He began to turn away, but Lily, still holding onto that small smile, called him back.

"Say, what's your name?" she asked.

It seemed she caught him off guard, due to his slightly widened eyes, but he recovered quickly.

"Hayman," he said, "Daniel Hayman."

She smiled. "What year are you?"

"Third."

"What position do you play?" Justin piped up.

Hayman turned his attention towards Justin.

"Beater," he said with a sheepish smile.

Justin sent her a quick eyebrow-raise, which she returned.

This didn't seem to pass by their young acquaintance.

His expression was still sheepish, but he continued, "I know, I know, I'm small," he said dismissively with a wave of his hand, "That's what all those fifth years keep telling me. I'm 'too small,'" he repeated with a bit of heat, and though it made her smile, Lily couldn't help but agree. For a Beater, it wasn't just his stature that was undersized- there seemed to be nothing but skin and bone on the boy's arms.

"Yeah?" prompted Justin.

"Yeah," he said, but then he smiled. "But I'll just show them, yeah? I'm pretty sure a few were trying out for Chaser, hopefully we get to aim at them today then, eh? Show them…" he trailed off.

She liked him, but she couldn't help but think he wouldn't quite make the cut, she noted with chagrin.

"Well, you'd better do that- just as long as you don't hit me," she threatened teasingly.

She expected him to fluster a bit- after all, he was only a third year- but instead he shot a grin back at her, saying, "Or, just don't get in the way," over his shoulder as he walked back towards a small cluster of boys seemingly his age.

With a surprised grin, she watched as his wide-eyed friends wildly gestured back towards them, to which Hayman responded with just a shrug and resumed eating his roll.

"Daniel Hayman," said Justin next to her.

"Daniel Hayman," she repeated.

"I like him."

"Too bad about his size, though."

"Eh," Justin shrugged passively, "You never know. Nobody thought you'd amount to your brothers since they dwarf you, but look where you are now, better than them both."

"Meh," she said noncommittally, her mind still weighing the chances of the third year, but smacked him on the back of the head when she processed the comment about her height. "They do not dwarf me."

Justin just chuckled. "We should be heading out soon…"

"Yeah, well, you're the one to detach Matt from his food."

"Matt, mate," Justin called, "We're going to the pitch now."

There was no response.

They turned to look at him; his face was practically hidden from view due to a grand pile.

"You are… seriously going to eat that all?" Justin questioned skeptically, gesturing the large amount of muffins and cakes stacked on his plate.

Blinking, freezing mid-chew, he nodded. "Ymph," he tried to say, and resumed chewing.

Justin turned to look at her exasperatedly, mouthing, "How is he not obese?" at Lily before trying again.

"Alright, I'm just letting you know, he always makes us run laps, and those spinning maneuvers in the sky…"

Matt only shrugged and kept eating. Lily wondered why he never learned that eating all of that before Quidditch was never a good idea; this happened every year…

"He's not going to listen to you," she told Justin, with an exasperated eye-roll.

"Whatever, mate, I'm not cleaning up his vomit."

"Hey, me neither! I always have to do it!"

There was a pause.

"We'll make Teague do it," they concluded simultaneously.

"Yeah…" they agreed.

There was a momentary pause.

"Let's go!" Lily finally yelled, grabbing Matt's collar and pulling him away, easily fighting his resistance.

"I wasn't finished!" he moaned, but she merely gave him a push in the back and fell in step with Justin behind him.

They approached the exit, and the other Gryffindors seemed to take their departure as a cue to leave.

Matt, still grumbling to himself, gruffly opened the door to meet the pale morning.

Though the temperatures were still holding onto summer, the foggy air was beginning to show signs of that telltale fall crispness, Lily noted as she, Matt, and Justin walked down school steps.

The three had fallen silent; each was focusing at the task at hand. Lily knew they were all aware they already made the team—this was common knowledge throughout the entire house, perhaps the entire school—but every year tryouts came around, all the veterans felt that they had something to prove.

Well, Lily corrected herself as their feet, starting to get wet from dew, carried them across the grounds to get to the pitch; at least she was sure that it was that way for her.

Although she would prefer not to brag, especially to those who didn't know her well, Lily wasn't quite modest enough not to recognize and acknowledge her talent for Quidditch. She was good, damn good at Chaser, and she had the awards and cups and letters from scouts to prove it. The school knew it. Her house knew it. All the Gryffindors trying out today, well, they knew it too.

To put it simply, Lily had a reputation—a reputation of being the best—to uphold, and there was no way she was going to sully that by slacking off on a tryout, no matter how inconsequential it was.

So, she forced her body to wake up. As the stadium rose in height upon their approach, Lily cleared her bleary eyes, straightened her posture, and with a determined expression, entered the pitch shoulder to shoulder with her two teammates.

Teague was, predictably, already there, pacing a small stretch of the perfectly groomed field. Bright sunlight shone through the bright blue morning onto the vivid, lush green grass—they certainly had the perfect day for tryouts.

Although Lily actually would prefer an overcast day (direct sunlight sometimes interferes with accuracy of passing and dexterity for a Chaser.)

Teague had sent Matt and Justin off to fill a water jug in the nearby locker rooms, so Lily stood off to the side of the hopefuls filing in through the gate, leaning against a wall.

She supposed Quidditch hadn't always been quite as popular at Hogwarts as it was now, testament to the fact being that a quick estimate of the Gryffindors trying out would number around thirty. When you were a Quidditch player at Hogwarts, people knew your name. That was enough for some students to face what Lily assumed would be a daunting tryout.

So far Teague had made no approach to begin. He hadn't even set out the standard sign-in sheet that informed him the names, age, and position of those trying out.

Instead, he stood alone on the field, his normally warm, inviting features smoothed into a cold, calculating aura.

"He's acting really serious."

She didn't turn her head, but acknowledged Matt's statement with a hum.

"Very, very serious," he repeated.

She rolled her eyes.

"Hey," he said, tapping on her shoulder. She looked at him, and his eyes widened in a bit of panic as he asked, "D'you think we'll run a lot today?"

Her laugh mixed up with a snort as she took in Matt's poorly concealed frantic expression.

"You were at last year's tryout, right?" she reminded him.

He groaned. "Shit…"

Shaking her head, she laughed.

"Everybody, circle around!" came Teague's authoritative call. Using her foot to propel her off the wall, she and Matt joined the group and walked to reach Teague.

They stopped in a semicircle around him. Most had stopped talking, waiting as Teague assessed the group with a sweeping glance.

"Sit down," he said, and there was a faint rustling as they collectively took a seat on the plush grass.

Lily traced the grains of wood on the handle of her broomstick as Teague began his speech.

"Thank you, all, for coming to tryouts this year. My name is Teague Canning, captain of this year's team, and I expect all of you to follow my directions throughout this tryout."

He took another quick survey of the group before continuing.

"Out of this group, there will be six others that will join me on the Gryffindor House Quidditch team. As you all know," –here his voice took on a proud quality- "we Gryffindors have a tradition of excellence on the pitch. This year shall be no different. We've won the Quidditch Cup two years running, and I'll be damned if this is not our third. Know that by being here, I'm assuming that you realized that if you make the team, you will be making a huge time commitment to the team. We practice regularly, often more than four times a week, sometimes at odd hours."

A few Gryffindors in the crowd stirred, looking at each other out of the corners of their eyes.

Teague, curly hair shifting from the slight wind, resumed his speech.

"As a captain, I know what type of players I am looking for. I know what condition I want them to be in, and I will not hesitate to eliminate you if you are not up to standards." He paused. "Before we break into positions, I expect a quarter of you to be gone."

On that note, murmurings broke out through the sitting prospects. Lily just smirked. She was in shape; she could pass any type of test that Teague threw at her. She didn't think some of these kids knew what they were getting into; they didn't know how hard teams in the past had worked.

However, at the frantic, quiet, outbreak, Teague's professional side broke a bit. His face became apologetic, and his smile a bit warmer.

"I understand that not everyone will be entirely prepared for the intensity of this tryout. Don't worry—I will take that into consideration. If I believe that you have the ability to eventually be at the level I need you to be at, you will most definitely be considered. Also, if you have any questions as to why you did not make the team, see me after the tryouts."

He clapped his hands. "Well," he said, rubbing his palms together, "That's pretty much it. Get up," he commanded and turned to face the field. They rose—some eagerly, some reluctantly, and some in between.

"Oh," Teague said, turning back to face them with a smirk. "You can put your brooms off to the side. You won't be needing them."

Next to her, Matt groaned.

He first grouped them by position: Chasers with Chasers, Seekers with Seekers, and so on. Lily was glad to observe that the majority of the students were in the Beater, Seeker, Chaser categories—that only a few were either stupid or cocky enough to challenge Justin as Keeper.

Then, he broke them up in their specific groups.

"These will be your training groups for the day. You will complete all drills with your assigned group unless I specifically say otherwise," Teague said, eyes narrowing at Lily and Matt, who had just realized they were in different groups.

They rolled their eyes back at him.

After sharing a frown with Matt, Lily turned to assess her group. They had been lumped into threes, but she only saw one girl, skinny, shy-looking, blonde hair tied back neatly, maybe a fourth year, standing in front of her.

She let up a disinterested eyebrow, and was about to lazily ask her name when the girl-in-question's pale face lit up pink and wide eyes focused behind her.

Lily distantly wondered who it was behind her as she turned—Teague, Justin, Matt...—

At first the smell of cologne and a black t-shirt swallowed her vision, but when she found his face, she had to restrain her jaw from dropping in incredulity.

Since when did Caleb Schellden play Quidditch? And why Chaser?

His grey eyes danced with mirth.

"Well, hello there, Lily," he casually drawled, hands lazily linked behind his neck.

It wasn't that she didn't admire his good looks—if Caleb Schellden was anything, he was attractive—it was more of the fact that he knew it. And as his lips curved into a smirk as he looked down at her, she was insulted that he was arrogant enough to think that she would treat him the same way the other girls in her year would.

Inwardly she fumed, but only responded blandly, "Hi," before returning to face the other girl.

Said girl was still frozen and doe-eyed.

"Hey," Lily called loudly, snapping her out of her unconcealed stare (heaven knows that Schellden didn't need to lap up extra attention,) "What's your name?"

The girl stuttered as she looked from Lily to Schellden. "Ki-Kirsten Fielding."

Lily forced a smile on her face. "Hi," she said flatly, "Lily Potter."

She gestured over her shoulder. "That idiot is Caleb Schellden, don't mind him, I'm sure he's horrendous and we'll have to pick up his dead weight." Fielding just stared at her wide-eyed, giving some slight nods.

Lily heard an amused chuckle behind her. "Hey, hey now," Schellden said, hand grazing her shoulder bones as he walked into her vision. "I'll have you know that the only reason I'm not already on this team is out of respect for your brother," he said with a smirk.

"Respect for my brother?" she repeated wanly, "The hell does that mean?"

Schellden leaned down closer to her until his hot breath was on her ear.

She stood her ground, trying not to think about the concerning fact that her body's reaction wasn't immediately to lean away from him.

"I mean, the Potters have such a legacy. I couldn't ruin that for him by taking his spot…"

Lily scoffed incredulously. She gave him a hard shove in the chest, and he stumbled backwards, hands mockingly clutching at the place where she'd pushed him.

"Lily, I'm shocked!" he chuckled.

"You couldn't beat my brother at Quidditch," she spat, glaring at him. "I'm sure you wish that was true, jealous as you are."

His eyebrow shot up. "Jealous?" he said incredulously, "Of that speckled, scrawny prick? I could knock him off his broom."

Lily fumed, challenging his hard eyes with a furious look. "Don't you dare insult my brother. Albus could outfly you in his sleep."

Schellden only stared back at her. "Sure he could," he said mockingly.

She glared at him.

Then, as if a thought had struck him, his eyebrows shot up.

"Oh, and speaking of sleeping, how is his girlfriend? She was over visiting my brother this summer, and after I got enough alcohol in her, Christ was she good…"

Lily's mouth shot open, horrified. "Why you—" she made to spring at Schellden, only to have strong arms wrap around her, stopping her ascent into the air.

"Gothca, didn't I, Lily?" Schellden said, crossing his arms and smirking. "Too bad it isn't true."

Justin drew her back into his chest as she struggled.

"What's going on here," he said flatly, and Lily knew he was giving Schellden an intimidating look.

He shrank just barely.

"Just getting to know our precious Lily Potter better," he said smoothly.

Justin shifted her to just one arm as he took another half step towards Schellden.

"You better hope that's all," he threatened before turning himself and Lily away from him.

"Can you let me go now," Lily said darkly.

Justin cocked an eyebrow. "Can I? Will you behave yourself?"

She only shrugged off his arm.

Justin gazed at her cautiously. "Are you alright? I came over here because I was bored, but I didn't expect you to already be starting a fight…"

She shot him a look. "What do you mean, 'already', and I'm fine, he's just a fucking arsehole."

"Okay…" he said, shaking his head, "I'll take your word for it. Just take care of yourself, alright?"

Lily rolled her eyes. "Yes, Daddy dearest."

Justin laughed, giving her a small push. "Shut up, your brothers would kill me if I let anything happen to you."

Lily groaned. "Yeah, blah blah blah, my brother this, my brothers that. I can take care of myself."

"Mhmm," he hummed just as Teague yelled "Justin! Back with the Keepers!"

"Better go," he said with one of his signature smiles, poking her in the forehead before leaving with a grin.

Lily shook her head, rolling her eyes, still beyond pissed at the boy she knew was still standing behind her.

Speak of the devil.

"Don't worry," came his low voice from behind her, "I'll be on my best behavior now."

Her body tensed as she felt the heat of his body behind her. She mustered all the concentration she could so she would not turn and break his face.

"Aw, don't be so mad," he said, before his breath was on her ear once more. "I just like to rile you up," he whispered huskily, and she could have sworn his teeth grazed her ear. The hairs on her neck stood straight up before her head unconsciously tilted to the side, exposing more of her neck.

Blinking, she shuddered.

Whirling around, she shoved against his muscular chest hard, and he retreated, laughing again.

"Don't touch me," she spat, trying to fight down the flush around her neck. Blushing over Caleb Schellden? He was absolutely revolting in every way.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the girl, Fielding, staring with large eyes back and forth between them. Poor girl.

"This year is going to be so much fun," Schellden said almost giddily, with a grin.

Lily huffed, crossing her arms impatiently as she hoped for the drills to start.

All the anger she was resisting acting on was piling inside her. She couldn't wait to let it out on the pitch.

AN: So, Caleb's a smarmy, cocky bastard, but don't worry, he'll get better. So, there was Quidditch tryout part i. Hopefully you enjoyed, they haven't really started yet, so next chapter should be some funnish-action-type work in there. And, I know that in the Harry Potter books tryouts aren't so intense like, but I feel like, as with all sports as time progresses, it would become more competitive and serious, so hopefully that wasn't too much of a jump to read.

please review.