It's been a long time. Read and review if you're still interested, it would be nice to know if some of you were still out there. However this story has now become a personal battle for me, so reviews or not it'll be finished by the end of next month.

Love Jill

P.S Just in case anyone cares I'm now turning 20 at the end of this month and in university. My how time flies when you're not writing fanfics.

Chapter 32 : More Quidditch Please!

Lily was sitting on the rug that James had thoughtfully brought. She was glad of it because it was turning into a cold night and she didn't much like the thought of sitting on the cold flagstones of the astronomy tower. In truth James must have put a lot of thought into tonight. How else would he have known to take Lily to the astronomy tower if he didn't know how much she loved looking at the stars? And the jarred flames were just a beautiful touch.

'He must have been planning this for weeks,' she thought, looking at him stretching out on the rug beside her. The last Hogsmeade weekend had been exactly two weeks ago, and when else would he have been able to pick up all this food?

"So Honeyduke's fudge is your favourite?" he yawned, staring straight up at the heavens. "I'll have to remember that."

"Yea," Lily laughed, starting to clear up the sweet wrappers that lay beside her. "Although I don't think I'll be eating it for a while after tonight. I'm absolutely stuffed."

"Don't do that," James said, referring to her tidying. "I'll do it later."

"No, you've done enough," Lily argued.

"Look, come here," James said, sitting up and putting his arms around her. "Uff – arms - can't – reach !" he said mockingly, trying to grasp his hands together round her.

"Prat," Lily said, giving him a playful shove, but he caught her and brought her into a very long kiss instead.

"Well if I'm fat," Lily said, eventually breaking away. "It's your fault!"

"You're not fat," James said lovingly. "And even if you were I'd still fancy you."

"Awh," Lily said, giving him another lingering kiss.

"As long as you didn't get too fat," James added. This time as he went in for another kiss his lips were met by Lily's palm.

"I think that's quite enough of that, thank you," she said, standing up and walking to the side of the tower.

"Yea I suppose it is about time we were heading back," James laughed, pretending that's why she had got up. "What time is it?"

"Nearly ten," Lily replied looking down at her wrist watch. "We need to get back before curfew."

James got up and walked over to where Lily was standing. He leant on the wall and peered off over the Forbidden Forest.

"Should I tidy up?" Lily asked politely.

"Nah I'll do it," James replied as he casually cast his wand behind him. "Scourgify." Instantly the place was back to normal, sweet wrappers cleared, flames out, and the blanket folded up into a nice little bundle lying at James' feet.

"So…" Lily sighed.

"So," James replied.

"What now?" Lily asked, although she already had an inkling what she wanted to do. She surprised herself that she was even thinking about it.

"Uh well now we head back," James laughed nervously.

"Oh ok." This wasn't what she hoped he would say. "How are we going to get back?" she asked, hoping this would stall him for a bit.

"I was hoping you'd ask that," James said jauntily. He took her by the hand and walked her to the door leading back down into the castle. "I came up here earlier, and unlocked the door from the inside, so we could…" He pushed the door open. "…Ta da!"

Lily smiled slightly, and then looked out over the night sky. She really shouldn't feel disappointed, James wasn't a mind reader and it was the most sensible way of getting down from the tower. She had no idea why she was even thinking about doing something else instead.

"Alright then," she sighed, and started to walk the door.

"Have I done something?" James asked, stopping her. "Do you want to stay up here for a bit longer or something?"

"No, no," Lily reassured him. "You've been great, it's just…" She paused for a moment, willing him to guess what she was thinking, but as James' eyes blinked cluelessly back at her she knew she would have to bite the bullet. "I was thinking we could maybe have another go on your broom?" she said quickly.

"Oh," James replied, looking a little taken aback. "Sure," he said walking over to where he had propped up the broomstick. "Why though? I thought you were petrified before?"

"I don't know," Lily said truthfully. "I suppose I'm just feeling a bit more adventurous," she added as she hopped onto the broom.

"Maybe it was all that fudge?" James suggested as he got on behind her.

"Or maybe that's just the effect you have on people," Lily replied as they pushed off the tower.

James laughter was quickly masked by a loud shriek as they sped off over the Forbidden Forest.

----

"You better not do another one of your disappearing acts with James again today. We need him for the match you know."

It was a week later and the morning of the Gryffindor versus Ravenclaw quidditch match. Lily was sitting in the Great Hall with Caitlin at breakfast.

"For the last time Cait, just because you couldn't find us didn't mean it was a 'disappearing act'."

"Then why won't you tell me what you were doing then?" Caitlin whined.

"We were on a date. We had a good time. That's all you need to know." Lily was only prepared to tell her when she told her what she had done with Sirius on their first date, and that wasn't likely to happen anytime soon.

"I searched for you until nearly midnight you know," Caitlin replied, trying to make her feel guilty.

"Well we got back by half ten, so you needn't have bothered!"

The pair of them were still huffing with each other when James arrived.

"Have you eaten something?" he said to Caitlin, after giving Lily a quick kiss on a cheek. He looked very pale.

"Yes James I've just eaten my own weight in green peas," Caitlin replied. Lily looked at her, but she didn't even seem like this was an unusual statement.

"Uh huh," James said, not noticing anything strange about her reply. "So what were you two talking about?"

"We were having an argument," Caitlin said calmly, not looking up from her toast. "There was sword fighting and everything."

"Uh huh," James said again.

Lily blinked.

"Am I in a parallel universe?" she asked, directing the question at James.

"Uh huh," James said for the third time. Lily was beginning to notice that his eyes were a bit glazed. "Anyway I think I'll head on." And after giving Lily another kiss he left.

"What's going on?" Lily all but screamed once he'd left.

Caitlin gave an annoying all-knowing smile.

"Lily, you've just met 'Quidditch Match Morning James'."

"What?!"

"What's all the shouting about?" Remus asked, as he, Peter and Frank sat down.

"Lily just saw James," Caitlin explained.

"Ah," Remus said.

"What? Does everyone know about this strange mood he's in except me?!" Lily asked heatedly.

"Uh huh," Frank replied annoyingly. The others fell about laughing.

"Fine then," Lily said slamming her knife and fork down on the table. She stood up quickly and accidentally kicked Peter in the leg as she did so. Storming out of the hall she could hear Caitlin running up behind her as the boys tried to quieten Peter's yelps.

"Lils! Lils! Wait up! We're sorry ok?" She grabbed Lily's arm as she reached her in the Entrance Hall. "It was only a bit of a laugh," Caitlin said, trying to smile.

"For you lot maybe," Lily spat, shaking off her hand. She turned and continued to walk up to Gryffindor Tower.

"Lils, come on…" Caitlin tried, as she walked briskly beside her.

"I don't like being made a fool of," Lily stated, marching on.

"We weren't making a fool of you Lils, we were laughing at James," Caitlin said soothingly.

"Why though?" Lily snapped, spinning round on the spot to face Caitlin. "What is wrong with him this morning?"

Caitlin tried to fight back another all-knowing-smile.

"It's just James get a little… nervous… before matches, and he kind of comes across as being a little… crazy…" she trailed off.

"Yea well, even I noticed that," Lily spat.

"I'm sorry, ok? I didn't mean to…"

"It's not you I'm annoyed with it's me, ok?" Lily said it at the same time she realised it. Caitlin looked at her blankly. "I just… I… James is meant to be my boyfriend right?"

"Right," Caitlin agreed, desperately concentrating on where this conversation was going.

"So how come I'm the one who knows the least about him?" Lily sighed, deflated.

"Honey, you don't know him the least…" Caitlin tried to comfort her.

"Yes, I do," Lily interrupted. "I didn't know he went all funny before matches, I didn't know he had a New Year's party every year, and I didn't know he had a Shetland pony named Jaffa!"

"But you do now," Caitlin said simply. "Face it Lils, the reason you don't know much about James is that he went straight from being your most loathed object to your most treasured. The reason you didn't know he went funny like this is because you've never seen him before a match before. In fact you've only seen him in one match."

Lily gave a huffy snort in agreement.

"You're not one of his annoying fan girls," Caitlin continued. "Who know everything from is favourite colour to his shoe size, and you're never going to be. But in time your knowledge of him is going to eclipse them all." Lily smiled. "You've only being going out with him for two weeks for Merlin's sake!" Caitlin added more playfully.

Lily laughed at her own stupidity.

"You really think I'll know him better than the fan girls?" she gasped in mock hope.

"I guarantee it, what with me telling them the wrong favourite colour! Anyway enough of us sounding like one of that agony aunt wizarding wireless phone ins. Back down to breakfast with you, and I have to go meet up with the rest of the team."

"Alright," Lily sighed as she began to walk back down to the Great Hall. "Good luck!" she called back to Caitlin who was still standing in the corridor.

"Won't need it," Caitlin called back. "We've got James remember?"

Lily laughed.

"And if it's anything to do with me, you're going to know everything about him," Caitlin added under her breath.

--

Gryffindor won the match by the skin of their teeth. It wasn't that Ravenclaw were a good team, quite the contrary in fact, and if they hadn't been awarded so many penalties Gryffindor would have slaughtered them. But there lay the problem. The penalties. And there was only one member of the Gryffindor team that was responsible for them – Caitlin.

"Could they not just sub her off?" Lily had asked, as she and the rest of the Gryffindors watched on horror struck at the illegal moves Caitlin was making – including knocking a Ravenclaw second year clean off his broom so that the match had to be stopped for fifteen minutes while some of the professors tried to clean him up.

"There are no subs in quidditch Lily, this isn't like football you know," Remus said calmly, but even he looked scared at the mood Caitlin was in.

Lily knew that every single one of the 7th year Gryffindors were thinking the same thing. Was this Caitlin's blow out they had all been waiting for? Lily wasn't sure if she was fearful of this, or relieved that Caitlin might actually be about to acknowledge her parents death. One look at Sirius' face told her he was feeling exactly the same way.

The only thing that had been able to distract Lily from this horrible display throughout the whole match had been James' performance, which had been nothing short of perfection. Apparently spurred on by Caitlin's absolute lack of sportsmanship and morals, James had been able to match most of the penalties they had given away point for point, and had even been able to keep his New Year resolution and let Leanne and Caitlin score at least one goal each. In fact during the times when he was letting – mostly Leanne – score, he was keeping an eye out for the snitch, as to help end the match as quickly as possible.

As the snitch was caught, and the final whistle blown Sirius immediately jumped out of his seat and ran out of the stand.

"Probably wants to get to Caitlin before James does," Frank noted.

Lily's eyes swept the pitch to where the Gryffindor team had just landed, and could see James glaring at Caitlin with a face like thunder. She could also see an army of fan girls beginning to surround him already.

"He'll meet you later in the common room," Remus whispered to her, obviously realising what Lily was looking at.

"Did he tell you that?" Lily asked, as she began to make her way out of the stands. Her first thought had been to go and try and wade through the girls to tell James how well he had done, but now Remus seemed to be steering her away from the stadium and back to the castle. The rest of her friends were following.

"No but…" Remus whispered again. He obviously didn't want to embarrass Lily by having the others over hear their conversation. "Well you remember what it was like after the last match. Just don't be expecting too much from James for a few days? Until he gets rid of the mob?"

"Fine," Lily huffed. How could Remus tell her all this so calmly? Did he really think it was ok just for James to ignore her for a few days because of a stupid quidditch match? I mean did he really think she would just hang around for a few days and let some other girls stroke his ego? Lily never thought she would be jealous of some hormonal 15 and 16 year old girls, but she had a funny feeling that pang in her stomach wasn't hunger.

"Look Lily," Remus spoke again, almost sensing why she was so annoyed. "It's not that James enjoys being with them, but you remember what they did to Leanne Brown?" he added pointedly.

At that moment Lily decided that it was probably in her best interests not to be seen with James for a few weeks. Of course it would be that same moment that James would choose to snake his arm round her waist preventing her from walking any further.

Lily turned and looked at him like a startled rabbit. Remus stopped walking as well.

"Where are you two going?" James laughed nervously, looking between Lily and Remus. "I thought you would have stayed to see me afterwards," he added to Lily. He looked slightly hurt, and his cheeks were flushed red, so Lily could tell he had obviously run after them.

"I would have," Lily tried to reassure him. "But Remus kindly pointed out if I did I would probably be ripped apart by your legions of adoring fans."

"I said you'd probably meet her in the common room," Remus added. "Good match by the way."

"Yes it was fantastic," James said sarcastically, as Remus left them to join the other Gryffindors.

"It was," Lily insisted. "You played really well anyway," she added, seeing the look on James' face.

"Thank you," James replied. "And listen don't worry about those girls."

"What you mean the girls that are standing precisely ten steps behind us right now? James the last time they drew swear words across Leanne's face in boils. I think I have a right to worry."

"Nah you'd only really have to worry if I did something really stupid in front of them," James replied casually.

"Like what?" Lily asked nervously.

"Like this." And in one smooth motion James dropped the broom he'd been carrying over his shoulder, bent down and kissed her.

There was an audible gasp from the girls standing behind them, and as their hatred burned into the back of Lily's head, she found that her initial shock did not turn into fear as she had predicted, but rather an overwhelming feeling of smugness. After all Lily had never been one to bother much with the whole 'who's boyfriend is best' thing, nor did she care if James was the star quidditch player, or the gameskeeper, but she had to admit it felt pretty good getting one over on the people who had teased her for being a frigid know-it-all swot for her entire life.

"Sorry," James laughed as they broke apart from each other.

'Sorry?' Lily's thoughts were screaming. 'I have the most desirable boyfriend in the world right now, who had just publicly declared our relationship in front of the whole school. Do not be sorry.'

Thankfully the next words that actually came out of her mouth were:

"They're going to kill me now aren't they?"

"Don't worry," James said, throwing his broom over one shoulder, and putting his other arm around Lily. "You can take them."

Lily's moment of absolute bliss was abruptly cut short however when Caitlin stormed past them in the midst of an awful tantrum, with Sirius walking briskly, but silently behind her.

"Stupid broom," she squealed a few steps in front of them, and threw it to the ground with such force that it broke clean in two. Caitlin continued to the castle, whilst Sirius stopped and picked up the broken handle.

"'To Caitlin, love Mum and Dad.'" He read the inscription out loud.

The three of them looked at each other, knowing that this was the beginning of the end of Caitlin's denial.

--