Chapter 5: A Chaser's Way

Lily woke up nice and early the next day. She wanted to arrive at the pitch early enough to get a good warm up in before the long practice. She was really excited. Playing Quidditch was something that Lily had wanted to do for so long and had always thought she wasn't good enough. It was a relief to be good enough, finally.

"Miss Evans!" It was Professor McGonagall, running to meet her in the hall, "I would ask you to inform your fellow team mates that this year Dumbledore has arranged an International Quidditch Tournament!"

"What?" Lily asked confused.

"Our four Hogwarts teams are going to be competing against each other, and the teams from Drumstrang and Beauxbatons. The best team will be champion of them all! I trust you and your fellow Gryffindors are working very hard?"

"Yes…well," she stammered.

"Good, be gone with you," she left in a hurry leaving Lily standing there confused.

"What?" May exclaimed after Lily told the team in the Gryffindor changing room.

"Ya, she seemed really flustered, like she had just found out and wanted us to know right away."

"Well, this is good, real good," Austin put in, "We've never had a chance like this!"

"And we're going to use it to our advantage," James said turning to face them, "We have an incredible team this year," he looked at every face, "and I think that we can come out on top. We need to work hard when we practice and I think it would be best to schedule practices for every other day of the week, at 5 p.m."

They all agreed. Not only did they want to beat slytherin, as they did every year, they wanted that title of Champion Team.

"Well, well if it isn't the Gryffindor Quidditch, what do you call it? A so called, 'team," Lucius Malfoy, a slimy git, who thought slytherins were the best and anyone who wasn't pure blood, shouldn't exist.

"Shove it, Malfoy," Lily breathed angry.

"Oh, the Mud blood speaks to me? I thought you weren't allowed to play Quidditch, not enough good blood." He looked at her broom and frowned, "Especially for a high quality broom like that. You're probably ruining it."

Lily lunged for him, but May pulled her back, "Don't waste your energy," she warned. They laughed and sauntered off, Lily breathed heavily, trying to calm her anger.

"Are you ok?" James asked as the walked into the field.

"Fine," she answered.

"Just forget about them, we'll beat 'em down when we play them and that's all that matters," she looked up to meet his comforting face and soft eyes, "And I think you're a great flyer, nothing they can say will change that."

Lily smiled, a little happier, "Thanks."

"Ok, today's plan," James brought everyone in, "I want the Chasers to really work on plays and passing. If we have a good offence, scoring goals, that will help put us up in the top teams,"

May nodded, agreeing.

"Beaters," they turned to him, "Hit everything and anything you can. I want to use you to my advantage. If our chasers are having problems scoring, I would like you two to take care of some business and finish the fools off." They laughed.

"Seeker and keeper," he sighed looking at Austin, "Keeper, save anything and everything you can. I want you to use your broom to your advantage. We might need to ask Evans some tricks you can try."

"Seeker," he commented looking down, "catch the golden ball at all costs."

Lily smiled at him, catching his eye.

"You've got about an hour or a little more to work with your sections. Go!"

The chaser practice went really well. They worked on different passing positions and how to pass the quaffle around defenders. This they wanted to perfect before going into plays, so they worked on it for half the practice time.

Once May was satisfied, she brought them in.

"Ok, so we know the Phoenix, we want to teach you some of last year's plays. But I also think we should use your broom to an advantage and make up new and complicated plays to confuse the opponent,

"I don't know how Drumstrang or Beauxbatons looks for offence, but I'm guessing it's good. Drumstrang sends its share of players to the professional level every year. We have practice every other day, but I think it would greatly help if we worked a little harder. I want supreme offence and defense this year from us three."

"I agree," Steven added.

"Me too," Lily put it.

"Alright, let's go!"

The chaser practice went well. They learned 4 more plays, and had plans for more.

When James called them all together, they wanted to show him.

"So we made up this play that is pretty much amazing," May exclaimed, "You guys have to see it!" The three of them set up what they called "Black Bullet".

As they made their way down the pitch toward the goal posts, they weaved into complicated patterns back and forth that some what resembled a braid; passing the quaffle along. Then, when they got really close, Lily sneaked out and headed to the right goal hoop, leaving the other two with the quaffle to distract the keeper. At the perfect time, May tossed the quaffle in Lily's direction, but in front of her. She leaped off her broom, into the air, grabbed the quaffle and threw it in the hoop before Austin could reach it.

"Yes!" she said falling in the air, only to be stopped by her broom.

"Nice shot there, Evans," he called smiling, "You guys really fooled me!"

"That was amazing! I didn't think it would work!" Steven came up.

Lily smiled at all the praise from her team mates. She turned and caught James' eye. He had been watching her, smiled, and nodded.

"Alright let's run some team stuff before calling it a day!" James shouted. The team sped away laughing and cheering.

"That's cold!"

"That's what ice is, Lily," Natalie scolded, "Cold."

After a couple hard practices, Lily had become very sore. Every muscle was either bruised or protested her movement. No wonder James is in such good shape, she thought. Wait? Did I just think that? Yuck!

"You wanted to be on this team, darling, now you have to suffer the consequences of being horribly sore," Alice added.

"But I think it's worth it," Natalie said, "Because I've been hearing a lot of gossip about a really good chaser on the Gryffindor team that's making the other house teams a little scared." She smiled.

"Really? They're actually saying that?"

"Oh yes they are!" Alice exclaimed, "They all should be afraid of our Tiger Lily!" The girls laughed enjoying each others company.

The fresh air on her face was just what she needed. Lily stood on the bridge overlooking the castle grounds. It was a calm day. The sun was hidden by the clouds, but that didn't affect Lily's mood. She liked the breeze and the cool weather, especially right now. She was so into her game that she really had no time to actually relax. Getting homework done was harder than ever. She had spent many late nights up just trying to finish it. So it felt really good to not be rushed or stressed; to just stand here and feel the breeze, her eyes closed, and breathe.

Something brushed her arm, pulling her out of her trance; she turned to see James next to her.

"What a relaxing day," he breathed looking out over the grounds like she had been.

"Yeah," she sighed.

"What are you thinking about?" he asked his eyes suddenly studying her face.

"Everything," she looked down, "School, quidditch, homework, sleep, friends, family."

"Is everything ok?" he asked, concerned.

Lily didn't even know the answer to that question. A man, Tom Riddle, known as Lord Voldemort has started a war. He wants to rid the wizard world of non-pure blood, muggle borns, witches and wizards along with power. His power had been growing over the summer and many things had been happening. People were disappearing and being found dead; tortured by Unforgivable Curses.

Dumbledore had brought Lily into his office telling her that they had relocated her family, for their own protection, and she was not allowed to owl or visit them anytime soon. Lily was devastated. She was muggle born, her parents muggles, and was scared for their lives along with her own and her friends. Lucius Malfoy's comment had not gone unheard, he was a suspected death eater, voldemort's followers, and he threatening Lily had caused Dumbledore to go into emergency actions. The one thing Lily didn't know was that Dumbledore had also spoken to James and told him to watch her very carefully.

"I don't know…," she trailed off.

"Don't be scared," he put a comforting hand on her arm, "You have so many people around you who love and care for you. This will all work out, we just don't want you to be sad or scared. We just want our Lily." She smiled looking into his eyes.

James cares, she thought, he really does.

"What has happened to you?" she questioned, "Last year all you wanted to do is ask me out and brag about whatever you accomplished. Now…you're different."

"I changed for you," he whispered.

She looked at him, shocked into silence. Are those butterflies? Do I actually like James Potter? I mean, he is attractive, but will he hurt me? Would I just be one of those week girls he dates and dumps later?

"Everything's going to be fine," he pulled her into his chest, comforting her and stroking her hair. A silent tear slid down her face as they stood there while the cool wind wisped around them.

A/N: Had to put a little in about the war going on and how it's affecting Lily. Hope you liked it!