Chapter 10
Gryffindor versus Slytherin
Because the previous year, Gryffindor had come in second, and Slytherin had come in third in the Quidditch cup, these were the two teams that would play in the first game of the season, Saturday, October 30th.
That meant that for the two weeks between James and Lily's first kiss, and the first Quidditch match, Sirius kept James so busy that he barely even had time to think about kissing the girl who he was sure would be his girlfriend by the time Christmas rolled around.
James knew he was lying to himself when he claimed not to have time to think about kissing Lily. He thought about it often, even while flying. It even had him distracted that a couple times it had gotten him struck by a bludger. Thinking about the way that her face had looked so tender and sweet as she leaned into kiss him, about how her lips grazed his and then pressed harder, about how he couldn't wait until the next time they kissed.
But the problem was, James contemplated, on the Tuesday night practice that was less than a week before the game, he couldn't seem to find an appropriate time to do it. She kept refusing his offers to go out roaming the halls with him late at night, and they weren't scheduled for a night-patrol shift together until mid-November. She also hadn't given him any points since the kiss, although she was still quite friendly, and they had a pleasant breakfast every morning.
James was almost tempted to wonder whether he was a lousy kisser and she had decided only to be friends with him. Granted, all the girls he had kissed before (only about 4, and he'd never been in love with any of them), had said he was a great kisser, but they all liked him because he was funny, and a quidditch star, and a marauder, and he wondered if they only complimented his kissing abilities because of all that.
Anne Adauctus passed the Quaffle to James. They were playing a scrimmage in which Sirius and the other beater, Alicia Laurence were playing against each other and the three chasers, James, Anne, and Sandra Ridenstone, were playing against Gary Devonshire, the Keeper. They only had one Bludger out and Sirius, given that he was the better keeper, was trying to protect the three chasers and hit the keeper, whereas Aicia had the opposite role. Marietta, of course, was simply chasing the snitch around and through the rest of the action. She would release it, wait five minutes, and then chase after it. She would do a little victory lap around the stadium with her arm held high whenever she caught it, so the rest of the team knew that she had caught it 3 times in an hour, which was quite impressive.
James passed the Quaffle to Sandra, who was near to the goals which were being defended by Gary. She put the Quaffle through the hoop just as James got slammed by a late bludger in the bicep.
"Sorry Jamesy!" said Alicia, who had, of course, been the one to hit the Bludger at him. But in a way, she probably was truly sorry that she had hit her target. Like James looked at the three 6th year girls on the team like little sisters, they looked to him almost as a brother. The youngest player on the team was Gary, in his 5th year. If the Gryffindors were going to win the Quidditch cup and break the streak of Ravenclaw domination with a couple of Slytherin years thrown in, this was going to be the year to do it.
"Yeah, sorry mate," said Sirius, "couldn't get to it fast enough."
"Does it hurt terribly?" asked Sandra. "Should I grab my wand from the stands?"
"No, I'll play through. Can't use magic remedies in a real game, unless it's a really serious injury. And this isn't even my throwing arm," said James.
So he played through, and they generally had a good practice. James was able to take his mind off of Lily for a short amount of time, and the Chasers came up with a few plays that they figured would confuse the hell out of the Slytherin keeper who was a sixth year who was, by most accounts, bigger than he was bright.
At the end of the practice, after the team was done changing, James asked Sirius to wait up for him.
"What's up, James?" asked Sirius, as they made their way back up to the castle a couple minutes after the rest of the team.
"Have you asked anyone to Hogsmeade yet, for the Halloween Hogsmeade weekend this Sunday?" asked James.
"Er... No. Why, did you want to ask me?" asked Sirius with a grin. "I don't tend to swing that way, but... I'd certainly let you buy me a firewhiskey or two and see what happened."
James rolled his eyes at Sirius' stupid joke. "No, look, seriously, who're you going to ask."
"I, er... haven't decided yet," said Sirius.
"Wait a minute," said James, revelation dawning along with surprise, "you're embarrassed about something having to do with a girl!"
"No!" denied Sirius, completely unconvincingly. "I just-"
"Okay, fine, let's make this easier for you. I'll ask you some true or false questions, and you just answer them. Think you can do that for me Padfoot, old boy?" asked James, who then attempted to rub Sirius' belly.
"Hey, you're only allowed to do that when I'm in my dog form!" said Sirius, barking with laughter as he forced James' hand away from his body. "But yeah, true or false sounds fine. Just no getting pissed at me."
James' eyes narrowed, "Pissed about what?" he asked.
"You'll find out," said Sirius.
"You're not going to ask Lily, are you?" asked James.
"Of course not! Let's just get this over with," said Sirius.
"Fine. Have you considered asking out Marietta?" asked James.
"Er... True," said Sirius, hesitantly.
"Why the hesitation?" asked James.
"First of all because it was a yes or no question, not a true or false. Second of all because I thought you'd be mad at me for wanting to ask out one of Lily's friends. If I screwed things up, Lily might hold a grudge against you by association. Plus, I don't even know if she likes me," said Sirius.
"Wow, ok, we've got a lot of information to work with here now," said James. "But I'll try to stick to the true/false format as promised. You like Marietta like as someone you could someday love, not as somebody who you could kiss in a broom cupboard and then dump in a week."
"True, I think I could love her. And you know me well enough to say that's not something I say lightly. I may snog at the drop of a hat, but I wouldn't say I might love someone who I know I don't. I don't know her as well as I want to, yet, but she's certainly someone who could hold my interest in plenty of places other than a broom closet. We had the most fascinating conversation this morning..." Sirius trailed off. James was freaked out because he was pretty sure he had never seen Sirius' eyes look quite like they did as he stared off into the distance just then.
"Right, well, forget about Lily being mad at me, I'll take that if it comes, plus Lily figures Marietta can take care of herself. And for your information, I have it on good authority that Marietta is rather into you herself," said James.
"Good authority being Lily?" asked Sirius.
"Unofficially, it could have been," said James.
"Right-o. I'll ask her tomorrow, then. Thanks, mate," said Sirius.
Friday night, the night before the game, Peter, Sirius, James, Remus, Lily, Marietta, and Chloe were busy planning how their Hogsmeade trip was that Sunday would go. The reason that they weren't talking about Quidditch was that after so many hours of practice in the past week, the Gryffindor Quidditch team was practiced out and knew the only thing left to do was to play the game tomorrow.
Besides, the seven teens had a lot to discuss. Each of them had dates.
Sirius had, true to his word, asked Marietta out on Wednesday. James, not to be shown up, had asked Lily at almost exactly the same time. Chloe asked Remus out on Thursday, admitting that she had liked him for a rather long time and wondering if there was any chance he felt the same way. Remus had smiled at her and said yes, he was rather fond of her, too, and would much enjoy her company in Hogsmeade. Peter, also on Thursday, had been asked by a Hufflepuff girl who was the best Chaser on their Quidditch team. She was in Sixth year, but even last year had scored most of Hufflepuff's points on goal. Peter himself was not particularly popular, but being a member of the famous Marauders had its perks.
"So where are you guys spending your time?" asked James to Remus and Chloe.
"Well we both really want to go to the bookstore..." said Chloe.
"Nerds," commented Sirius.
"Ravenclaws," joked James.
"We may be nerds, but we're Gryffindor through and through. Wasn't it brave of her to tell you that she wanted to spend some of her time in Hogsmeade in a bookstore?" asked Remus.
"Good point my dear friend, good point," conceded James.
"We'll probably go to Honeydukes as well, find someplace that's selling a light lunch that we can both agree on-"
"-We've discovered we don't have the same taste in foods. Except that we both like sweets, of course," said Chloe.
"Of course," said Lily.
Remus persistently picked up from the point where he had left off before the two girls had cut him off, " and then maybe head over for a drink at the Three Broomsticks. What about you and Lily?
"Lily has suggested that we walk around the town and do whatever strikes are fancy at the time," said James with an eye-roll.
"I don't want some pre-planned date where all you try to do is impress me," said Lily. "I already gave you five points for finally getting up the courage to ask me out. Took you long enough. Not as if there haven't been posters up for this thing for weeks."
"I thought-" James cut himself off, realizing that it would be rather embarrassing to admit that he had been, and still a little bit was, worried about whether he was a good enough kisser for Lily, who was quite impressive in the field.
"So maybe once we're there we can just have a fun, spontaneous time," said Lily.
"Fine, but can we all meet up at Fortescue's sundae-shop an hour before we have to come back up to the castle? It'd be a nice way to hear how everybody elses' day went," said James.
"Sounds good," said Lily, as everyone else nodded.
"You two?" asked James to Sirius and Marietta.
"Quality Quidditch Supplies first. Marietta just had a birthday and just got a load of galleons from her parents and other relatives. She wants to see if she has enough, with her own savings included, to buy a new broom. I only wish we could make the trip tonight before the game. Of course, I'm sure she'll wallop the Slytherin Seeker even on her Comet Model 10," said Sirius.
"It's a good broom!" said Marietta defensively. "My little sister, who will be trying out for the team, has already asked for it if I can afford a new one. But yeah, after that we're going to the Three Broomsticks. We're both of age now, so we can drink something harder than Butterbeer. No offense to you sixteen year olds."
"I've heard their thinking of changing the entrance age to 11 instead of 10," said Lupin.
"Doesn't make any sense to me, though," piped in Chloe. "As long as we're of age by the time we graduate, what's it matter? Almost everyone is able to produce magic at 10 with proper instruction, and those that aren't are asked to come back the next year. The weeding out process only takes a week and is hardly ever needed so somebody should tell the Board of Governors-"
"Merlin's Beard!" interrupted Lily. "You two are great nerds. I don't think there's any other witch and wizard on the planet who could change the subject from Hogsmeade to the Hogwarts Governors board in so few sentences. Peter, where are you and your date, -Dana Erickson, was it?- where are you going?"
"I'm going to let her decide. I figure maybe if I do what she wants she'll let me snog her," said Peter.
"Good thinking, Petey," said Marietta. "I think that's the same idea Sirius is working under."
James saw Sirius blush, and could hardly believe it. Very little made Sirius blush.
On the next morning, as James was finishing up his hardy breakfast to get him through the game, Lily said, "So, a win against Slytherin would be worth 10 points. 5 points, whether you win or lose, if you knock Flint off his broom."
Flint was a Beater for Slytherin. Fittingly, as he so enjoyed causing people pain. James nodded, deciding not to speak given that he had a large amount of scrambled eggs in his mouth.
"I was, er... joking about the last part," said Lily.
James swallowed. "I know, Lily. I'm just glad that I'm going to be at 115 by this afternoon."
"Pretty confident you're going to win, then, eh?" asked Lily.
"It's got nothing to do with me," admitted James. "Our chasers wouldn't half to show up and we'd still win. I'd put a dozen galleons on Marietta catching the Snitch within 15 minutes. It's going to be a short game, and Marietta's going to win it for us."
"No wonder the Quidditch captain's dating her," said Lily. "By the way, did you encourage Sirius to ask Marietta out?"
"Slightly. But he was already leaning in that direction. Wasn't sure if I would approve. Or if she would," said James.
"Well. 5 points for that as well. Hey, if Marietta's as good of a Seeker as you say she is, you could have 120 points by this afternoon."
"Well. With so much riding on this game, I'd better not be late to the locker-room," said James as he saw Marietta and Sirius rising a few seats down. "I'll look for you in the stands."
"Great," said Lily. "I'll be the one holding the big banner that says, 'I might love James Potter."
James laughed at Lily's joke as he left his seat.
Twenty minutes later, in the locker room, Sirius gave a short speech including the basic ideas that they were clearly the better team, meaning they should win, and they were playing Slytherin, which should give them extra incentive not to lose. He also warned the team, although all of them knew, that Slytherin was always known as the dirtiest-playing team among the four houses. All of his teammates nodded. They knew that if you played against Slytherin you were likely to get hurt in such a way that would earn you either a penalty shot or a trip to the Hospital Wing.
Before the game started, Sirius shook hands with Serena Wilcox, a Chaser, and frankly the only decent human being on the entire Slytherin team. She was known around the school as one of the very few Slytherins who hung around with muggle-borns. She even gave Sirius a smile during the handshake, which Sirius, somewhat grudgingly, returned.
At Madame Hooch's whistle, both teams were off with a shot.
Slytherin had possession of the Quaffle first, but James quickly stole possession when Serena passed to Andrew West, another Slytherin Chaser. James rocketed down toward the other side of the court, knowing it would take the Slytherin Chasers time to get down there.
Lily was listening to the announcer as she watched the game from the top row of seats (of course the best in the house for a Quidditch game), although the sign that she was holding actually said "Crush Those Snakes!"
"James Potter passes to Gryffindor Chaser Anne Adauctus, who... heads straight for the left goal... and... Wow! a tough throw into the right-hand goal. That takes some muscle. And Gryffindor is up by 10."
Quaffle Taken back by Serena Wilcox, passed to Slytherin Chaser Arthur Dent. Gryffindor Chasers are in hot pursuit, attempting to take the ball away, Potter is closest to Getting there, and... Flint hits him in the leg with a Bludger, knocking him substantially off course. That one looked like it hurt."
Lily cringed, wishing she could perform a healing charm on James right away and stop his pain. It was hard watching someone whom you were beginning to strongly suspect you were in love with get hurt, reflected Lily.
"Potter is, of course, back in pursuit. Potter is a Chaser who will never stop chasing, that is for sure. Oooh, but the Slytherins throw the ball toward the hoop and it is... Nice save by Devonshire on that one, really quite impressive. And Gryffindor has the ball back. Sandra Ridenstone starts out with it, passes it far up the field to Anne Adauctus, who dives about 20 feet to retrieve it. I would almost call that sloppy play if it didn't work out so well, as all the Slytherin Chasers are left far up the field covering Potter and Ridenstone. Adauctus races toward the goals. A Bludger is hit out of her path by Black, who then manages to hit it at the Keeper. The shot is completely uncontested as Ridenstone tosses the Quaffle lightly through the hoop."
The Gryffindor stands erupted with applause once again, as did much of the rest of the stands as Hufflepuff and about half of Ravenclaw wanted Gryffindor to win. The half of Ravenclaw who didn't want Gryffindor to win were the ones who realized that Gryffindor were their true competition for the cup this year, and a Gryffindor loss to Slytherin should help Ravenclaw.
There was a lot of Gryffindor applause through the early goings of the game. James, although he did not score either of the first two goals, scored 4 of the next 6 Gryffindor goals. It was 80 to 30 by the time he made his fourth goal.
It was only about 15 minutes into the game, but Lily reflected that if the game went too much longer they may be able to widen the lead to over 150 points. The Gryffindor Chasers were certainly better than those for Slytherin.
When the score was 100 to 40, Marietta went into a dive. Lily squinted as hard as she could but just couldn't make out the glint of Gold that Marietta must have seen. The Slytherin seeker, Joseph White, dived as well. It was hard to tell who was closer, or even, for Lily, where they were gone.
Suddenly, Flint, who did not have a Bludger nearby, knocked straight into Marietta, making her clutch her broom to stop from falling off. At the same moment, Sirius skillfully hit White off course using the more by-the-book method of a Bludger.
Madam Hooch was blowing so hard through her whistle that the redness in her face could be faintly seen from the stands. Her magically enhanced voice could be heard from the stands.
"Flagrant violation of rules, two penalty shots to Gryffindor, and if Flint breaks the rules again he will be ejected from the game."
James easily made the two penalty shots, putting Gryffindor up 120 to 40. But of course the game could have been over had Flint not hit Marietta in the first place.
Sirius' next Bludger shot was, unusually though not illegally, aimed at a fellow Beater, Flint.
However James could understand why he would put possible love in front of strategy, even though the fooling around did allow Slytherin to score, and change the score to 120 to 50.
James passed the quaffle to Anne, who passed to Sandra as James climbed high into the air. Anne and Sandra passed the Quaffle back and forth to each other a couple times around midfield, essentially playing keep away from the Slytherin Chasers, with the Gryffindor Beaters making sure the Bludgers did not interfere with the little game of monkey in the middle.
Suddenly, James dove, racing down the field, the ball being tossed 20 feet up to him when he passed midfield. The Slytherin beaters, one of which had managed to get control of a Bludger chased James down the field. James was still diving rather fast, and from all the built up momentum was going so quick that he could see a look of fear on the Keeper's face. Perhaps he was wondering if he would return the favor that Marietta had received from Flint.
But he simply took advantage of the Chaser's confusion at this unusual maneuver to rocket the quaffle through the right ring.
While the crowd, and most of both teams had been focusing on this activity which had put Gryffindor up 130 to 50, Marietta and Joseph White were in twin dives again.
Marietta was closer to the ground, which James certainly hoped was a good sign although he could not- oh wait, there it was, there was the Snitch, yes, Marietta had a definite advantage. James looked at the Slytherin team. One or two had started to chase her, but none were close enough to catch her. Unless she somehow lost sight of it or White figured out a way to get closer to the ground faster, then the game would be Gryffindor's.
Lily saw her friend raise her closed hand in triumph at the same time she hear thd announcer shout, "And Gryffindor wins 280 to 50. Of course, Ravenclaw was hoping for a closer game, as was Slytherin. We will have to wait to see what Ravenclaw does against Hufflepuff next month to see just how Gryffindor and Hufflepuff stack up to each other, but..."
Lily became rather distracted from the commentary by what was going on on the field. Most of the players were descending calmly to the ground, although the Slytherins were going more quickly and diving slightly, probably out of anger. However, Sirius and Marietta were racing toward each other. Once they got close, they hovered over to within inches of each other, and gave each other a mid-air kiss in front of all of Hogwarts. Somehow, Lily thought, it was a good fit for them, as far as a first kiss. Neither Marietta nor Sirius were ones to do things small.
A/N: Please review... I mean, we're 10 chapters in, so if you haven't reviewed yet, now is the time to do it. Also, if you want to make my day, please visit freerice dot com and donate some rice in honor of this story and let me know how much you donate in your review. Thanks for reading!