Chapter 4: Try-outs

Lily woke up, stretched and yawned. Today's the big day, she thought.

None of the other Gryffindor 7th year girls were awake so she got up really quietly.

"LILY!" some jumped on her back hugging her. It was Natalie, "It's today! It's here! Are you excited? Are you nervous?"

"Shh!" Lily scolded silencing her, "I have butterflies, but I'm not really sure if I'm nervous, I think I'm more excited."

"Yes, and now we're all awake," Alice complained getting up.

"You guys don't have get up, you can just stay here and sleep,"

"No, Lils, we're going to go watch you kick some major wizard but!!"

Lily ate a good breakfast. She didn't want to eat too much, in case her stomach didn't like flying today, but she also wanted her energy.

"Hey Evans!"

She rolled her eyes getting up from the table.

"What are you doing today?" Potter asked, catching up with her.

She turned around and stopped, making him almost trip and run into her, "I'm trying something new today, Potter," she then turned and walked out of the great hall.

"Well, once you're done with that, you should come and watch me at the Quidditch try-outs!"

She laughed and headed up to the girls dorms.

The weather was fair. The sun was out every so often sparking the ground with bright rays. There was a little wind here and there that caused a cloud to hide it away.

"How far?" asked Ernie Jones, a first year. He and his friend Sam McMullen were climbing up to one of the highest towers over the Quidditch pitch to get a good view of all the activities going on.

"This is good," Sam said as they neared the edge. It was a long way down; probably over 20 stories. The boys looked all around; they could see everything, the top of the castle, the lake, and most of the Forbidden Forest.

"Good choice Sam," Ernie smiled and looked down at the Gryffindor Quidditch team, coming onto the field.

"Alright everyone, listen up!" James shouted over the talking, "Returners over here by me, and new people trying out over here." They separated.

James scanned the medium sized crowd for Lily. He found Natalie and Alice, but Lily was no where to be found.

Maybe she's busy, James thought getting upset, oh well.

"Looking for someone?" a voice asked behind him.

James turned and his jaw dropped. Lily Evans was walking toward him in Quidditch gear holding a broom. Her red hair was down and she was wearing a flying cloak. James also noticed her so called "cactus gloves" on her hands. He was right, they were chaser gloves. I thought she hated flying? He thought what is she doing here?

"Evans?" he stumbled

"This is an open try-out right?" she asked, innocently, her eyes laughing.

"Ye-e-s…but," James stuttered, utterly shocked.

"Just get on with it, James," May Livingston, a chaser, pointed out.

How could this be happening? Lily Evans play Quidditch? Never! She hated when James bragged about Quidditch in front of her. He thought that she even hated come to watch him play, if she even came to do that. He could not believe it.

Ernie had pulled out his long distance picture snapper and was taking pictures like crazy.

"Maybe you shouldn't lean too far," Sam said nervous.

"I'll be fine," he remarked, and leaned out over the edge.

This camera was heavy and once he leaned a little too far, his feet went up and he fell head first out of the top box.

Lily stood there listening to James talk. His eyes never left her face. It made her a little uncomfortable, but she could handle it, after all, she was here.

"So you all know that we are looking for two beaters and one chaser…"

Something falling caught her eye; "NO!" she screamed and began running. Her broom accelerated behind her and she jumped on.

The boy was falling so fast, and head first, Lily didn't think she could catch him. But, her broom, having the same determination, was going probably as fast as it could.

When she was getting closer, she stood up on the front. The broom balanced her weight and kept up its break neck speed.

I can't reach! Lily thought. Oh, yes I can.

She suddenly lunged into the air, catching little Ernie as he fell fast. Her broom realized his rider was in trouble and came quickly, only to land under Lily, now supporting both of their weights.

"Are you ok?" she asked.

"Yes..," he stammered, "You just jumped off your broom to save me! How'd you do that?"

He obviously was alright after almost falling to his death.

"A trick of mine," she smiled back, letting him down in the lower stands where the other students were.

"Might want to stay down here for now," she advised him among all the awe struck stares of the crowd, and then flew off.

"Yes!" Natalie shouted, the only noise, "She's totally got that spot now."

Alice smile at her and agreed.

Jumping off her broom, she met a crowd of shocked faces.

"Where were you?" she panted, almost laughing, at a silent James.

"That was amazing!" May shouted.

"I have never seen anything in my entire life like that!"

They stood in silence for a while, everyone staring at a breathless Lily.

"Oh my, gosh," Steven Vanders, the other chaser, breathed, "Is that a Malcentus Fire?!"

Everyone's attention went from shocked to even more shock.

"Yeah," Lily smiled, looking at her broom.

"How and where'd you get that?"

"Well my friends knew I liked Quidditch, so they thought if they got me some good equipment, I would have a good chance of making the team."

"Can we try it out?"

"Well I don't know if that's the best idea right now..,"

"That was you!" James suddenly interjected causing Lily to jump, "You were sneaking out after curfew…to go…practice!"

"Yeah, but I was only doing that because I hadn't rode in at least a week,"

The group fell into silence again.

"As I was saying before," James spoke up his face smiling at Lily, "We are looking for two beaters."

Lily flew with the chasers the rest of the try-out. James was busy with the rest of the team, still trying to find the two best beaters that had shown up. She had already made her spot, which to her, was incredibly easy. But now they wanted to specifically work out plays and strategies with her on the field.

"So have you ever handled a quaffle?" May asked as their sat on their stationary brooms in the air.

"Yeah, I've been practicing with them a lot this summer,"

"Good," May, obviously the leader, answered, "Less for us to teach you. "

They started flying around the field, tossing and catching to one another.

This was easy to Lily. She used her legs to guide her broom, going through the try-out group once, while catching with her hands. This was the first skill she had ever learned and it was what could make or break a team.

"Well, I'm glad you know how to pass," Steven commented, smiling, "Otherwise we would have been in serious trouble." They laughed.

For the next hour or so, they worked on a couple plays the team already had established. One was called Phoenix. Two chasers flew side by side down the field, tossing the quaffle back and forth the keep it away from the opponent, the third flew behind them. When they got to the goal posts, the two in front flew straight up dropping the quaffle to the third who goal was to surprise the keeper and score.

The three of them worked well together using all their strengths to their advantage. With Evans on her Malcentus, this was going to help Gryffindor hugely. This broom could do things that no other broom could do, causing Lily to be able to pass and score in basically any position on and off her broom. They were very excited for their first practice.

"You'll have to show us some of your moves at our first practice," Steven commented.

"I will for sure!" Lily exclaimed excited, "We should try to incorporate them into some new plays." The two smiled at her, glad she had showed up to try out.

James' attention was wandering. He watched closely when a good beater came up, but when a bad one did, his eyes wandered to his chasers, and Lily.

He was so shocked that she had shown up, saved a kids life, actually owned a Malecenus Fire, and thank god, was now playing for Gryffindor and no one else. This definitely was the girl of his dreams.

He smiled to himself; hopefully we get along, and then turned his attention back to the ever droning process of choosing two beaters.

"Thanks to the rest of you, who tried out, it was a really tough decision and you all did very well!" James called as the others left. He had chosen Stacy McMullen, a fourth year, who had hit all the moving targets, a live bird, and almost a couple slytherins walking along the grounds. This girl had muscle. The other was, Jake Saunders a fifth year, who had equally as well.

"Come on in guys!" he yelled. The three chasers flew to meet them along with their keeper, Austin Smith.

"Good job today to you three who made it, how are we doing chasers?"

"Good," May answered, "Evans is going to fit in just perfectly." She smiled and patted her back.

"Good," James said catching her eye.

"Plan on being here tomorrow for practice at 10 again, we're going to work on a lot of things. Passing and plays chasers, beaters hitting targets consistently, keepers getting every quaffle possible, and seeker," he smiled, "catching the golden ball at all costs!"

They cheered and were dismissed.

"Lily!" James yelled catching up to her.

"Why didn't you tell me you could fly?"

"Thought it would be better as a surprise," she commented, smiling.

"But you're amazing! And your broom? What you did today! I couldn't believe it!"

"Wow, James Potter is actually complimenting me and not being an arrogant git, I am completely stunned," she said looking him in the eye.

"Well…it's true…just thought," she silenced him with a finger.

"Thanks," she whispered and smiled, "See you tomorrow." She walked off toward the castle leaving a stunned James there touching his lips.

A/N: Figured I'd give everyone a nice long try-out chapter to kind of show what's going to happen for this team. Hope you liked it!