Disclaimer. I d o n o t o w n a n y t h i n g . . . y o u h a v e b e e n w a r n e d . . .
CHAPTER SIX! Quaffle Passing
The next couple of weeks passed in a blur of quills and Quidditch robes. Lily and James hardly spoke to one another (much to Lily's relief and James' disappointment.) Their first Quidditch match against Ravenclaw was in the middle of October, and James wanted to make sure they were ready. Ravenclaw wasn't much of a threat since their amazing captain had graduated the previous year, but James wasn't taking any chances.
The day before the match, however, Lily and James did end up talking…
The Gryffindor Quidditch team had just finished a long grueling and nearly impossible practice.
"James, do you realize that if you end up injuring any of us you're going to have to use backup players?" Lily said in between breaths after she'd dismounted form her broom. The rest of the team grumbled in agreement.
James was tired too, but he tried to pretend that he wasn't. "Stop complaining, you lot, it's not that bad. And do you want to win or don't you?" He asked, fighting to keep his breaths even.
"Come on, Prongs, I know you're tired," Sirius smirked, coming up behind James.
James shook his head. "No, I'm n—AGH!" Sirius had just shoved James—very lightly—in the back, and James had nearly fallen over.
"Not tired my arse," Sirius sniggered. The rest of the team laughed—or at least tried to laugh, but it was hard when they were so out of breath.
As the team was trudging into the locker rooms, James stopped Lily. "Why aren't you passing me the quaffle?" he demanded.
"I'm pretending like you're guarded. Remember last year how it seemed like all three Slytherin chasers were guarding you?"
James sighed exasperatedly. "But it's practice, nobody's guarding me here because there isn't anyone to guard me!"
"Yeah, well you never pass the quaffle once you get it anyway," Lily retorted.
James' eyes narrowed. "Who's captain here?" he asked, leaning forward. "Me, or you?" He went off to the boys' locker room before Lily could say anything else.
Lily just stood there, fuming. What a stupid self-centered dumbass prat, she thought. He didn't have to keep rubbing in the damn captain thing. Every time she thought she'd gotten over it, he'd be there to remind her just how angry that made her.
You wanna see me not passing? I'll show you what it's like not to be passed to the whole damned game, Lily thought angrily. She knew that they probably should've been working as a team, but knowing James he'd be having exactly the same thoughts as she was—and frankly, both played better when they were playing each other than anyone else.
In the boy's locker room, James was fuming, too. What right does she have to tell me how to play? Apparently I do a bloody good job because somehow that got me named captain and not her. In the back of his mind he knew that getting angry at Lily was not a good way to get her to go out with him. But his temper was not exactly tame, and the angry part of him overrode the rational part.
We'll see just how bloody much you do pass to me, James thought, meaning that she'd never have the ball long enough to have the opportunity to pass it to him. The rational part of his mind was telling him that it was not a good idea to plan on not playing like a team—that was an easy way to slip up and lose the game. However, the irrational part rationalized that when they were angry at each other and trying to compete, the other team couldn't even get near the quaffle.
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The next morning brought butterflies in James' stomach. He tried to ignore them, but it was impossible. He was still angry about the fight with Lily, and was still determined to score the most goals that day. He really wanted to prove he was a good captain by winning the Quidditch cup, or Lily would make fun of him and would say that she'd have been a better captain. Fortunately though, he wasn't worried about the new players on the team. They both proved to be excellent choices, and had trained very well.
Nobody else in his dorm was up, seeing as it was 6:30 in the morning. He showered quickly and pulled on his regular school robes, thinking what a waste that was because he'd have on Quidditch robes soon anyway. He went over some strategies for the game in his mind before glancing at the clock and realizing that it was 7:15. He went over and jumped on Sirius' bed to get him up. He needed someone to talk Quidditch with.
"Padfoot!" James said, standing on the foot of Sirius' mattress.
Sirius rolled over and yanked the covers over his head. "Go 'way," he mumbled.
James jumped up and down a couple of times, but when Sirius didn't respond James got off the bed and went around to lean down close to Sirius' ear as though he were going to whisper.
"WAKE UP YOU'RE GOING TO BE LATE FOR THE QUIDDITCH MATCH!" he yelled.
"AAAAH!" Sirius yelped, sitting up abruptly and looking around wildly. His eyes fell on his alarm clock.
James laughed, slowly backing away.
"Prongs, I am going to murder you!" Sirius exclaimed, jumping out of bed and chasing James around the dormitory.
"What are you two lunatics doing?" Remus asked. James' screaming had awakened Remus and Peter as well.
"He's going to kill me!" James explained as Sirius said: "He woke me up and now I'm going to kill him!"
"See?" James said. He was on one side of his bed and Sirius was on the other.
"I'm sure you've awakened the rest of Gryffindor tower as well, with all your yelling," Remus laughed.
Sirius transformed into his huge black dog animagus form and leaped over James' bed, knocking James down. Sirius then proceeded to lick James' face, getting his glasses all wet.
"DISGUSTING, PADFOOT! Get the hell OFF me!" James said disgustedly, trying to shove the huge dog off him.
Sirius bounded to the other side of the room and transformed back into a human.
James grabbed a towel that was lying in the dormitory from his shower earlier and proceeded to dry his face and wipe off his glasses.
"I didn't know you liked men!" James jested.
Sirius looked horrified. "NO! I don't! I just wanted to get you back for waking me up!"
"Come on, let's go get breakfast. You guys have a Quidditch match in two and a half hours," Remus informed them.
That brought back the butterflies that James had momentarily forgotten. Sirius, Remus and Peter all changed into their robes and the Marauders went down to the great hall for breakfast.
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Lily was sitting with Kaye, Mel and the Gryffindor Quidditch team at breakfast when the Marauders entered the hall. They joined the team and company for food. Unfortunately, the only people who were actually eating were people not on the Quidditch team.
"Lily, guys, you have to eat something," Kaye said to them.
Lily groaned. "Can't eat. Too nervous," she muttered, and the rest of the team nodded in agreement.
The team talked about strategies, boring Kaye, Mel, Remus and Peter into another conversation. James went over some last minute stuff with them, and though the whole team talked, James and Lily did not actually talk to each other.
Finally, it was time for them to go down to the pitch to get ready for the game. They all changed, and James gave them a pre-game pep talk. Then they headed out onto the pitch. The stands were full, as usual.
Madame Hooch threw the quaffle into the air, and the game began. Lily caught the quaffle and sped towards the goal posts. The Ravenclaw keeper was watching Lily, waiting for her to throw. She passed the quaffle to Alyssa, who was on the other side of the keeper and was not being paid any attention at the present time. Alyssa threw the quaffle through one of the hoops. Easy.
"Gryffindor scores!" the announcer kid exclaimed.
The keeper retrieved the quaffle and threw it to one of the Ravenclaw chasers. James was soon on the chaser's tail, and when the girl tried to throw it to one of her teammates, James intercepted it and turned back around, speeding for the Ravenclaw goal once again.
Just then a bludger came pelting his way. He ducked and nearly dropped the quaffle, but the distraction had given the Ravenclaw chasers to surround him.
"Pass it, James!" Alyssa yelled at him. "Lily's open!"
James didn't even glance up. There was no way he was passing. Besides, this was a perfect opportunity to show off. He dived, and when two of the chasers followed him, he pulled out of the dive to soar over them as they nearly hit the ground. The third chaser he dealt with by looping him. He was close enough to the goal now. He threw the quaffle hard. The keeper dove for it, but he missed by a millimeter and the quaffle soared through a hoop.
"Twenty to zero, in favor of Gryffindor!" James heard the announcer say.
The quaffle was in possession of Ravenclaw. But not for long. Lily happened to be right under the Ravenclaw girl that had the quaffle when (lucky for Lily) the quaffle was dropped! Lily caught it, and went higher on her broom to avoid some of the players. Just then a bludger came zooming straight towards her out of nowhere. It hit her in the left shoulder—not hard enough to break anything, but hard enough for her to drop the quaffle out of surprise. James saw this and he dove, catching the quaffle before it hit the ground and scoring yet another goal.
"Are you okay, Lily?" Alyssa yelled at her.
"Yeah!" Lily yelled back.
"Sorry I couldn't get to that one!" Sirius said to Lily, flying up right next to her.
"No problem!" Lily said, before she zoomed off after the quaffle.
Alyssa intercepted it, and she started flying the other way when she was blocked by two Ravenclaw chasers. She had to pass. Unfortunately, James and Lily were flying right next to each other, both beckoning for her to pass it. She couldn't really see past the Ravenclaw chasers, so she threw it in Lily and James' general direction. The chasers left her at once, in pursuit of the quaffle.
Lily saw Alyssa throw the quaffle at her and James. She tried to get in front of James to get it, but he shoved into her side and almost knocked her off her broom in his attempt to catch it. Lily didn't fall, and tried to reach up and catch the quaffle and at the same time tried to shove James back. Both lost their balance and the quaffle soared between them and was caught by a Ravenclaw chaser.
"What the hell was that?" James demanded, losing sight of the game for a moment.
Lily turned her broom to face him. "I was trying to catch the quaffle and you shoved me!"
"You got in my way!" James retorted.
"Ravenclaw scores! Thirty to ten in favor of Gryffindor," the announcer yelled.
"WHAT!?" James and Lily both exclaimed.
Sirius flew up to them both. "You guys have to stop competing and start playing like a team! You're going to cost us the game!" he exclaimed angrily.
"Shit!" James yelled. He really hadn't been acting like a good captain.
He and Lily both flew out onto the field, ready to play "like a team" when they saw that both seekers had pulled into dives and were racing at a tiny gold spot on the ground.
The game paused momentarily as everyone watched the seekers. Finally, Jeremy pulled out of the dive just a little bit ahead of the Ravenclaw seeker with something gold clutched in his fist. (A/N—remember Jeremy is the Gryffindor seeker.)
"Gryffindor wins!" The announcer exclaimed.
The whole Gryffindor team flew down to Jeremy, who was on the ground already.
After they had all changed, the girls went into the boys' locker room so that they could all congratulate each other again.
"Hey guys! I heard about some masquerade party that's going to be going on on Halloween up in Hogsmeade! Since Halloween's a Saturday, and we're already in Hogsmeade that day anyway, we should totally go!" Alyssa told them.
Apparently, at this masquerade party, everyone dressed up for Halloween and wore a mask that hid their face. Nobody was allowed to take theirs off until the end of the night, so nobody knew who anybody else was. People were discouraged from attending with other people or from telling what their costume was going to be like.
"Where in Hogsmeade?" Sirius asked.
"I heard they do it out on the main street, actually," Alyssa said. "Don't tell too many people, though, because if half the school didn't come back from Hogsmeade it would look kinda suspicious," Alyssa warned them.
As they were leaving the locker room, Lily turned to Alyssa. "How'd you find out about that anyway?"
"Oh, my mom is friends with the lady that owns Honeydukes and she actually mentioned it to me in a letter. My mom's kinda crazy," Alyssa laughed.
Lily laughed. She resolved to tell Kaye and Mel about the masquerade party, but nobody else.
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end chapter six
A/N—next chapter will be the masquerade party. I'm sure I'm not the first to use an idea like this (where they're not allowed to show their faces) but… don't flame me about it.
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