AN: Well, a key piece of this story may be confusing to some. In the first movie, they show that James was a seeker. JK Rowling said that she'd intended for him to be a Chaser, so in my story, that's what he is. I have taken the liberty to make up every other player in the game, not Rowling. Also, this would be a different game from the game spoken of in the first chapter, as that was their 6th year and this is 7th year. Enjoy, R&R!
Disclaimer: I don't own it, that's still J.K. Rowling. Though I do now own a wonderful reversible Gryffindor jacket. =)
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Lily sat on the edge of the seat, watching as James and Dana, Gryffindor's two slighter Chasers, tossed the quaffle in a complicated triple-figure-eight across the pitch. The slim black-haired wonders weaved between people who showed as only green-and-silver blurs, eventually leading up to Maurissa Kleet, Slytherin's viscious Keeper. They flew around in front of her, the quaffle constantly shifting hands, trying to confuse the girl as to who would be attempting to toss it past her and through one of the three hoops. The reddish ball was lost to the crowd soon and Lily could only follow the chasers, swirling about each other. It helped in the disillusion that Dana wore her hair rather short, and always kept it up when they played. The girl barely had a chest, she was so slight, and she worked that to Gryffindor's advantage, ordering her uniform shirt a size too big, making her seem about the same size as James. Of course, this was amongst Gryffindor's most treasured secrets, none of the other teams' players knew that. So rapidly the crowd nearly missed it, Dana heaved all her weight behind the quaffle, holding onto her broom by wrapping her legs around it and linking her feet together, sending the ball rocketing through the hoop directly to the right of Maurissa's head. As she flew to her feet, standing to cheer with the other Gryffindor's, Lily could imagine Maurissa's hair floating about as she seethed, disturbed by the air whipping past her.
She flopped back onto the fluffy blanket they'd placed on the bench as the Slytherin's attempted to bring the quaffle back to Gryffindor's Keeper, only to be intercepted halfway to Thomas by Gryffindor's third Chaser, Boggard, who flew in the opposite direction underneath Dimitri, ripping the quaffle from his Slytherin hands and tossing it to Dana. They flew about the pitch, Dana carrying the quaffle by wrapping as much of her body as possible while on a broomstick around the ball. She sped about, head tilted down, as Lee beat off a rocketing Bludger headed for her. Dana and Boggard amused themselves by playing a quick game of 'Where's the Quaffle' with Maurissa before Dana once again slammed it through a hoop, throwing Gryffindor's score up to a soaring 180, paralyzing against Slytherin's mere 90. The game against Ravenclaw was yet to be played, but most Gryffindor's were sure by their score already that they would be winning this year's Quidditch Cup.
Edgar Slotworth, a fourth-year Hufflepuff student, excitedly reported every move made by any participant of the game, all four houses watching the ongoing rivalry with hightened anticipation, barely able to stand waiting to see the outcome of the game. Before the game had picked up the pace, Lily had been able to see Severus and Avery, his best friend, sitting side by side on the front row of the Slytherin bleachers directly across from her. She was brought back to the rapid game by a shout from Sirius, sitting next to her, and many boo's from her fellow Gryffindor's as Slytherin scored against Thomas, bringing them into the hundreds. The loud ding that came with the hundred-mark sounded throughout the stadium as Madame Lambre added the points to the scoreboard. The ruthless, fast-paced game continued on for roughly fourteen minutes, in which time Gryffindor and Slytherin raised their respective scores considerably to a high 240 and 170. Just as the Slytherin's played their second interception of the game, something caught Lily's attention out of the corner of her eye. She looked down to the bench directly in front of her, where she raised her eyebrows as she recognized the fluffy ginger curls of Molly Prewett's head resting against the neck and shoulder of Arthur Weasley. She smiled brightly at the romance, thinking of James. As she raised her sights once again to the players, she was forced to do a double-take, before rapidly elbowing Sirius slightly in his side, reaching up to lightly smack Remus on his knee in his place behind her, pulling the attention of the two rabid fans towards her. She pointed, her hand slightly shaking, to the teams' Seekers, Charlotte and Kirk, who were diving and circling rapidly halfway between the other players and the ground. While most of the school remained focused on yet another airbourne war currently being waged over the quaffle, Lily and their group began to tap other Gryffindor's in a rapidly-spreading arc around themselves, drawing the entire House's attention to the rapidly-moving Seekers.
They watched as a House, in rapt attention as the Seekers sped and swept past each other, trying to derail each other from their course, their eyes never leaving their second-year Charlotte, her long brunette hair, in a ponytail, whipping chaotically against her back. She dove and circled, swirling past the more-aggressive Kirk, at one point even flipping upside-down on her broomstick to avoid a crash with the opposing Seeker, all the while keeping her own eyes on the elusive Snitch, too small for the crowd to see. Every now and again, as the sun hit just right between the thick-yet-sparse clouds, they could see a glint of gold just before the Seekers, always two steps ahead of them. Every now and again there would be a ring, the sound of another point scored by the teams, however none of them was keeping track of the score any longer, all eyes were glued to the Seekers, waiting rather impatiently for one of them to catch the Snitch, to end the game that had raged since two o'clock, when it was now going on three-thirty. The Gryffindor's grew more and more excited with every glimpse of the spark of light before the two younger players, as it grew closer to them at every sighting. The rest of the cheering crowd soon became aware that the chase was on as the Snitch apparently rocketted upwards, the Seekers pulling straight up through the other players in pursuit. They swung about on their broomsticks as the other players continued below, a ring soon sounding out, followed by Edgar bellowing out 'Gryffindor is now in the 300 point range!!!' before reporting humorously on how long it would take them to catch the Snitch.
Charlotte managed to pull off an amazing maneuver, avoiding an incoming Kirk and Bludger at the same time, causing the two to crash into each other, momentarily stunning the boy. He was soon in hot pursuit of her though, and they circled up the spectator tower sporting Hufflepuff's House colors, swirling in a fashion similar to the red-and-white swirling tubes muggle's commonly placed outside Barber Shops. Gryffindor's raised inches from their seats as Charlotte and Kirk reached the top of the tower at the same moment, both reaching out and closing their fists at the same time, their hands appearing to bump against each other. All noise stopped in the stadium as even the players stopped their movements, James holding the quaffle on his way towards the Slytherin hoops. Everyone looked to the two Seekers, waiting to see who held the Golden Snitch, which House had won this round. Breath held, all eyes watched intently as the Seekers gazed at their hands, before Charlotte suddenly rocked back on her broom, shooting her still-closed fist into the air and cheering, her smile wide in ecstatic laughter. The Gryffindor's all jumped up in their stands, screaming and cheering their defeat over Slytherin as Kirk rocketed angrily, along with his team, to the ground, dismounting immediately and storming off to their changing rooms. In the air above, James dropped the quaffle and the Bludgers dropped of their own accord, as he and the other members looped around, doing victorious circles and figures in the air. Thomas and Courtney, the other Beater, whipped out their wands to set off scarlet and gold fireworks over the team as Charlotte returned, still grasping her first Snitch, elated over having won the game for her team. They laughed and flew about, giving each other high-fives and congratulatory pats on the back, the smiles on their faces brighter than the sun above.
Back in the stands, groups of Gryffindor's of all ages jumped and cheered, hugging each other in victory. Lily watched Molly's shocked reaction as Arthur kissed her on the cheek before blushing brightly. She smiled brightly as Sirius turned to everyone around him, passing out high-fives like Mrs. Keesh in Hogsmeade with her cheese. Her eyes widened and she laughed hysterically as he and Remus wrapped their arms around her, hugging her tightly in their joy. A sudden movement of the people in front of her caught her attention as they finally freed her from their joined grasp and she watched in surprise as James flew straight towards her. The entire stadium fell silent as he stopped inches from her face. He leaned forward, grasping her cheek with one hand and promptly placing a pleasant kiss on her lips before expanding the chaste kiss to a full-out snog for just a few moments, then pulling away to go back to celebrating with his teammates. There were a few moments of absolute silence from the crowd, Gryffindor's, Hufflepuff's, Ravenclaw's and even Slytherin's, before Sirius suddenly burst into uncontrollable laughter as he often did at her expense, setting off the entire Gryffindor house to hoot, holler, cheer and clap. She blushed, ducking her head to hide her face behind her hair. They continued to cheer and clap until the team finally dismounted, charging with victorious strides to the changing rooms, Charlotte(who'd relinquished the Snitch to Ogg, the Gamekeeper) still jumping up and down in her excitement, flanked by Dana and Courtney.
As the people all around her, and all around the stadium, began to gather their things to take on their trek back to the castle, she stood looking around the stadium, waiting for Remus to wrap up his blanket. Her eyes wandered to the place where she had seen Severus at the beginning of the game, only to see him staring across the pitch, directly at her. It was a probing, unnerving stare, one that made her throw her gaze elsewhere the moment she caught his eyes. She was relieved, as she could feel them, his eyes, burning into her skin, when the boys were finally ready to go and they lost themselves in the crowd of students trying to rapidly escape the stands. One thing was for sure. They were CERTAIN to win the Quidditch Cup this year, with a brilliant starting score of 330. And they still had to play Ravenclaw, who'd only scored 120 in their winning match against Hufflepuff. She smiled brightly at the winning thought, shouting a loud 'GO GRYFFINDOR' as they escaped to the ground through stairs below the stands, cheers ringing out all around in response to her House support.
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AN: Thanks for reading another installment of 'The Awakening' people! Don't forget to review now!!!