Chapter 6: Opening Game

The next few days went by very fast. Lily was always busy. She was practicing almost every moment of the day and trying to fit in homework along with Head Girl duties were taking over her life.

"Attention, Please!" Dumbledore boomed over the taking students.

"I have a very special announcement to make," his eyes smiling, "This year our Quidditch Season is going to be different and interesting. The Headmasters of Drumstrang, Beauxbatons, and yes, Hogwarts, have agreed to have a Quidditch Tournament of the Schools." The Great Hall erupted into chatter. Lily caught James' eye and then turned back to Dumbledore.

"Our four teams from Hogwarts will be competing against one from Beauxbatons and one from Drumstrang. Each team will play each other and then we will go into a playoff round only to find our Champion Team of the three schools." Eyes turned to Lily. She blushed, so much weight was on her shoulders right now. Gryffindor had to win their first game against Ravenclaw for their chance in this tournament.

"Lily, just go!" Natalie scolded trying to push her out the door. Tonight was the night before their first match and James had organized some team bonding before the big game.

"But they're expecting so much out of me, what if I do horribly tomorrow? They're going to hate me!" she moaned.

"First of all, you are amazing. You play like no one has ever played before and that says something. Second of all, they won't hate you, especially not James," Lily blushed and the girls giggled.

"Settle down Prongs," Remus scolded his nervous friend.

"But, I like her so much and it's just so hard not telling her that!" James paced around in their dorm.

"This is how Lily wants to be treated, like a person," Remus added, "She doesn't want to be treated like a prize you're trying to win."

"I'm being her friend and her team mate but I feel that she doesn't even knows I exist," he stared out the window in a trance.

"Just don't give up, James, she'll come around,"

"Or you can just snog another one of the hundreds of gorgeous girls in Hogwarts," Sirius poked his head in.

"Not helping, Padfoot," Remus shot back.

"Well, that always makes me happy so I figured I would add some input to help out my best mate," Sirius plopped down on his bed.

"How's that thing with Natalie, by the way?" Peter asked.

"Don't really know," Sirius furrowed his brow in thought, "I think she likes me, I just can't get a kiss on her worth nothing."

"Maybe because she's the type of girl who actually wants a relationship," Remus added, annoyed, "Something you know nothing about."

This made James laugh. Sirius was known as one of the male "hotties" at Hogwarts, James being the other, and attracted many girls a week. They usually ended with him snogging them a lot and breaking up with them because he got bored, but sadly, they still kept coming. James used to be like that. He had liked, wait no, loved Lily Evans since the first time her saw her in their second year. Every moment after that was him trying to get her attention by showing off, being arrogant, or asking her out as much as possible, which to no surprise, caused Lily to hate him.

Now, as he looked back, he saw it in a new light. Lily would like him the way he was, if she did, not for the fact that he could do things. He didn't have to show off for her or ask her out all the time, he should just be himself. Is this what she meant by change the other day? He questioned.

"Prongs you better get going," Remus reminded looking at his watch.

"Oh...right," he stammered out of his trance, the boys smirking after him.

Laughter erupted causing popcorn to go flying.

"Yes, I remember!" May exclaimed, "Susan, she tripped causing the whole bowl of it to get all over her! I felt so bad, but I couldn't help but laugh!"

They were all laughing now. Everyone was in comfy clothes, had blankets, popcorn, other candy, and was laying around on couches and the floor of the Room of Requirement, (James' idea).

"Tomorrow is a very big day," James started, silencing us, "Ravenclaw has a decent team, their best players being their beaters. I've seen them hit almost every target they've aimed for.

"Jake, Stacy, you have to be ready for anything. They're going to try to out their biggest threat, Lily, or Lily's broom rather, and I want you two to put them in their place. If we shut them down we should have a good chance.

"Chasers," Lily perked up, "Our offence needs to start off right away. With a good strong lead, their chasers won't be able to catch up. They aren't very strong in that field anyways, but it would help to be ahead." He smiled at Lily, he eyes unmoving from her face.

"Austin, you know what you have to do. Keep as many quaffles out and in our hands as possible." They nodded to each other.

"Keeper," we all smiled, "get the snitch as quickly as possible."

"Victory?" he questioned putting his hand in the middle.

"Victory," she repeated, covering his hand with hers. He turned to her completely stunned and smiled.

"Victory!" they all shouted then went on to play a giant game of exploding snap.

The night ended very late after plenty more games of exploding snap.

"All right, we should probably get some good sleep," James commented after Steven yawned, "Be down at the pitch at 9:30 for a good warm-up." They all left, heading back to the Gryffindor Common Room.

"Lily," James whispered grabbing her hand and pulling her away from the crowd, "how are you feeling?"

"Nervous," she answered sighing.

"Don't be," he looked deep into her eyes, "You'll be fine, I know you will."

She smiled at him, what looked like to be a true smile.

"I hope so,"

"Just watch out for bludgers, their going to hit them at you a lot and your broom. It would kill me to think that they actually hit you…"

"I'll be fine," she interrupted, "after all, I did learn from the best." He looked away at her compliment, blushing, but couldn't keep his eyes away from those sparkling emerald ones.

Silence engulfed them as they stared at each other.

"I should probably get to bed," Lily whispered.

"Lily," he grabbed her arm, pulling her close. She could feel his warm skin near hers.

Oh my gosh, he's leaning close. Lily thought what am I going to do? She stopped thinking. James' spell had washed over her. She stood there unable to move as he put his hand on her cheek, softly.

"Prongs?" Sirius was suddenly in the door way, causing James to look up, his hand still on her face.

Lily opened her eyes, feeling his touch slide away.

"Just coming up, Sirius, it's late," he answered back, "Sweet Dreams, Lily."

She watched him go, utterly shocked that she almost kissed James Potter, and then went up to bed.

Lily paced around the Gryffindor changing room. The pitch was filling fast with noisy chatting students and it wasn't helping her nerves. Yet, she knew that Natalie and Alice were out there to cheer her on.

"Sit, Lily," James put a hand on her shoulder, helping her sit.

"Welcome to the opening game of our Wizard Schools World Championship Tournament!" the announcer boomed, "Today, brave and loyal Gryffindor will be taking on the witty and intelligent Ravenclaw!"

"Here we go!" James said grabbing his broom causing the others to do the same. May stood next to her, smiling reassuringly, Steven on the other side.

The curtain opened and they jogged out to the middle of the field. Cheers erupted as the blood red and gold fans jumped up and down. Ravenclaw had already run in and was waiting for Gryffindor.

"Captains," Madame Hooch, the referee, called.

James and Amos Diggory, of Ravenclaw, met in the center and shook hands.

"I would like a nice clean game," she ordered, "Mount your brooms!" A shrill whistle filled the air and they all took off to cheers.

Lily's eyes never left that quaffle as it was thrown up into the air. Frantically, May wrapped her hands around it and sped off.

"Go!" Lily shouted to Steven as they both darted off on either side of her. Ravenclaw had a pretty good keeper, but seeing three chasers coming at him without defense didn't make him look so good.

"Weave!" May shouted. The three of them alternated tossing the quaffle in a braid like formation tossing it back and forth.

The keeper tried to keep eyes on all of them until May and Lily darted off leaving Steve a wide open hoop which the quaffle soared through untouched.

"Vanders scores!" the announcer shouted, "10 points for Gryffindor!" The crowd cheered.

"Yes!" Lily exclaimed.

But just as she did, a Ravenclaw player flew by her quaffle in hand. She chased after, determined to catch him. He tossed it to another, whom May was guarding, then back to the one Lily was guarding. Before her guard could catch it, Lily darted between them and caught it, racing off.

"And Evans steals the quaffle!"

"Phoenix! Run it!" she screeched flying fast toward the goal posts. She tossed the quaffle to May who began passing with Steven up ahead. Suddenly a couple bludgers flew close to her nicking her broom.

"But she's nearly unseated by Ravenclaw bludgers!"

Lily scowled and flew on weaving in and around the defense. At the precise time May and Steven shot straight up dropping the quaffle to Lily's waiting hands. She threw it into the unguarded hoop only to a disappointed keeper.

"Evans has 20 points for Gryffindor!" the announcer was jumping, "Boy, is that girl fast! That Malcentus Fire is a good strength for this powerful Gryffindor team!"

At the sound of Lily's name, James turned to see her smiling face and hear the cheers of the crowd.

I'm so glad she's here, he thought looking around at the crowd. He still hadn't seen the golden snitch and to his knowledge, either had the other seeker.

He zoomed away searching the pitch hopeful as the chasers celebrated.

This is how Quidditch really felt. Lily was so happy she could have kissed a pig. She loved this sport and to actually hear people chanting her name was an amazing feeling.

She flew on with a new energy. She felt as though nothing could stop her and she wanted to touch the quaffle at all costs.

The rest of the game went ok. Ravenclaw scored a couple goals, making the scores close. 156-147. Gryffindor was waiting for James to catch the snitch and it was only a matter of time. The Ravenclaw seeker was only watching James and not looking for the snitch to save his life.

May had stolen the quaffle away from a Ravenclaw chaser and had called out Black Bullet. We had noticed James dart off and we wanted to add in this play if the game was about to end.

Lily had just moved off to the right to get ready. Standing up and moving to the front end of her broom. When she felt the time was right she jumped high and out into the air.

"Lily!" someone screamed. She turned, completely missing the quaffle. Then everything went black.

A/N: Hope that was a good first game for everyone! I had to leave a little surprise for the next chapter! Thanks for reviewing everyone!