I promised an update and here it is!

Chapter 12:

The Second Set Of Broomsticks

If the Gryffindor quidditch team had imagined that James would be hard on them, they had no idea how right they were. As soon as the team were out on the pitch, James had them flying laps of the pitch. They spent two and a half hours going through drills and running through different routines. By the time they returned to the castle that night the late summer sun had completely fallen. James had given them a pep talk like no other. Harry had laughed as he listened. His father somewhat reminded him of Wood, his own quidditch captain for much of his Hogswarts career.

"We don't really have an option; we've never lost… we've never failed… and we're not going to start now. Give it your best shot next weekend and Hufflepuff don't stand a chance. I mean… they've got a good team… but they're nowhere near as good as us. Louise Mitchells their captain this year and you know what she's like, she'll focus on brute strength and ignore 'real' tactics. The chasers haven't changed, Mitchell, Humphries and Redford work well together so you'll have to keep your eyes on them – but Holly will do just fine… As for their keeper, Britney Simon, a bit stupid if you ask me… she should be easy to confuse. They've got a new seeker, Martin Kleene… he's in his fifth year and I've only heard rumours. The beaters are brother, Matifius and Alisaster Allan… big burly types…"

"Point is guys, we can do this."

James sat at the breakfast table surrounded by the rest of the Quidditch team. He drank his pumpkin juice calmly, "are you coming to watch Evans?"

"I thought I'd bring a book," Lily joked.

"Make sure it's a good one," James replied with a wink, "or you're bound to get distracted by my awesome flying."

Lily laughed happily, "don't worry, it's a great book."

Ava and Will were sat not too far away. Ava had started hyperventilating, "I can't do this! I can't… bloody hell… this is mental…"

"Come on Ava, you're going to do great," Will told his girlfriend.

Ava wasn't the only one suffering from nerves. Alice was looking incredibly pale and Marlene was struggling to sit still, "can we go already?"

Sirius laughed, "Marley, I've not finished my breakfast yet."

Ten minutes later, the team made their way down to the pitch. James looked up at the sky, there wasn't a cloud in the sky. "Conditions look ideal," Sirius grinned as he walked by James' side.

James grinned, "couldn't ask for better."

They walked out onto the pitch to tumultuous roars and boos. James stepped up to Madam Hooch, the referee, who was standing ready to release the balls from the crate.

"Captains shake hands," she said. James shook hands with Louise Mitchell, the Hufflepuff captain. "Mount your brooms. On the whistle… three… two… one…"

The whistle sounded and the two teams kicked off hard, and they were away. Alice soared around the perimeter of the grounds, looking around for the Snitch, whilst the rest of the team worked on scoring the goals. "Of course, not a single one of the Gryffindor girls are single – trust me I know… been asking Holly Moresby out for years now."

"Mitchell is in possession, passes to Humphries," the commentator continued, "Humphries drops the quaffle, picked up by Potter… Potter shoots… and scores… come on Simon, if you plan on keeping Potter's quaffles out of your goal posts you are going to have to do better than that."

"Redford takes the quaffle, passes to Mitchell, who passes back to Redford… Redford shoots… Nice save, Moresby!"

The game continued like that for half an hour. With half an hour of the game gone, Gryffindor were leading sixty points to zero. Holly had made some truly spectacular saves. James scored several more goals. He was greatly enjoying himself; he glanced up at the stand and saw Lily watched the match, no book in sight. James chuckled slightly.

Again and again Gryffindor scored, and again and again, at the other end of the pitch, Holly saved goals with complete ease. They had been playing for about an hour when James heard the commentator mention the snitch, "I think Prewett might have seen the snitch…"

James looked up to see Alice darting across the pitch above him. He looked in the direction she was travelling and saw the snitch. It was there all right. "Gryffindor win! 210 points to 30."

The crowd responded loudly with a great shout. James hugged and high fived the rest of the team as soon as he hit the ground. The Gryffindor team left the pitch arm in arm, punching the air and waving to their supporters. The atmosphere in the changing room was euphoric . "Party up in the common room," Sirius told the team. "Come on Mars lets go," Sirius led her out of the changing room after asking James if they could borrow the cloak and map to go into Hogsmeade for supplies for the party.

James lingered in the changing room slightly longer than the rest of the team. He walked up to the castle through the crowd, many of whom shouted congratulations at him. The celebration party was in full swing when he arrived. Tons of people cheered and clapped when he entered the common room. He was soon surrounded by a mob of people congratulating him. A large circle of girls gathered around him, laughing at his jokes and batting their eyelids at him. He tried to get away from them but they wouldn't have it; they kept pulling him back.

Eventually he managed to get away from them by rushing back out of the common room through the portrait of the Fat Lady. He made his way up to the astronomy tower. He wasn't sure why he'd left. He should have just flirted with them; they were pretty enough… they just weren't Lily. He stood there for several moments looking up at the stars before returning to the common room. The party was still going strong. James went and sat by the fire. One of James' ex-girlfriends came and sat next to him, "what's up captain?" Adrianna asked. "You just won…"

"Yeah… I'm happy," James grinned.

"You don't look it," Adrianna replied.

"Nah… don't be silly Ad… who wouldn't be happy?"

"I saw you and Evans are getting on better these days."

"Yeah… we're just friends but it's nice… I heard you broke up with Rowlands."

"Yeah, we broke up over the summer…" Adrianna answered him, "fancy a drink?"

"Yeah, could do," James nodded.

"Back in a second," Adrianna rushed over to a table that was covered in different treats. She returned with a large bottle of firewhisky, "hope you don't mind sharing, I could only find one."

"That's fine," James grinned before taking a swig from the bottle. They sat chatting and drinking for ages. Gradually they became more and more drunk, "what I don't get is why we broke up," James was saying.

"I don't really remember… I think we broke up because of… L… Lily," Adrianna told him.

"How do you mean?" James asked.

"I wasn't her."

"I don't want you to be her," James told her.

"Maybe not but you didn't want to be with me, you wanted to be with her."

"Adrianna, is that what you thought?"

"I think that's what all your ex-girlfriends thought," Adrianna laughed.

"Lily and I are never going to happen. She might not hate me but I'm hardly her favourite person. We could try again, you know Ad."

"We could…"

"Would you want to though?" James asked.

"Only if you mean it; you know, that there is nothing between you and Evans."

"I mean it," James told her.

Adrianna nodded, "ok."

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