CHAPTER 6: Tryouts

The stands had a few other girls who came to just watch. James stood in the center of the field with a group of Gryffindor boys. There was a lot of pointing and head shaking coming from the captain, who just happened to be James.

Jamie and Ivy seemed determined to get James to visit them in the stands. This just made Mary laugh and Lily want to disappear. And although disappearing was possible with a disillusionment charm, it wouldn't go unnoticed.

Lily watched as James mounted his broom and blow his whistle. She tried to watch as boy after boy flew around the pitch trying out for chaser, beater, seeker and keeper, but her gaze always seemed to be glued to Potter. Every so often he would look over at them and smile.

When that little smile would flash across James's face Lily had to try to ignore the butterflies erupting in her stomach. But she found herself liking the feeling and smiling back. Jamie and Ivy had given up cheering so had settled with just gossiping and playing wizard chess. Ivy was horrible at it, mostly because she tried to save the little characters by shouting at them to run.

Ivy had been muggle born and couldn't help but feel bad when the little pieces were blown to bits. But Jamie was relentless and very good at chess. Mary just thought chess was a waist of time, but everyone knew she hated to loose so didn't take her chances.

"No! Go! Go!" Ivy shouted at her knight as Jamie's queen slid over to it. Ivy let out a little whimper as the queen bashed the knight into smithereens. Ivy looked over the board trying to decide which piece she needed the most. But they were all in danger. Ivy was gnawing on her lip as she pointed her finger around the board. It didn't help that the pieces were shouting out moves to her.

"Uh," she said putting her hands on her cheeks. She finally moved her king over one space. She cringed as Jamie's queen destroyed a pawn. Ivy had one bishop, three pawns and the king left. Just the fact that she hadn't lost yet was amazing. Jamie on the other hand had all her pieces except a rook and two pawns.

"It's your turn." Jamie said.

"Can't you just king me already?" Ivy asked.

"King me is in Checkers. This is chess." Jamie told her.

"Let's play checkers instead." Ivy suggested.

"No way!" Jamie said waiting for Ivy to go. Lily was beginning to think that Jamie just liked to see how many pieces she could destroy. By the looks of it Jamie was determined to get all of them.

"Fine." She whined. Lily didn't catch what piece Ivy moved next because the boys were all landing.

"It looks like tryouts are over." Jamie said. There was a small crash from the board as Ivy's bishop took out Jamie's queen. Ivy clapped.

"Take that!" Ivy said finding a little bit of competitiveness in her. But Jamie ruined her fun by instructing a pawn to take down the bishop. "Come on!" Ivy complained. Her remaining pieces were instructing her to just surrender. But Ivy wasn't about to.

"Who do you think is going to be on the team?" Mary asked.

"Black for sure." Ivy said looking up from the board. One of Jamie's knights killed one of Ivy's pawns.

"But I don't know about Rogerson though." Ivy continued. Then she looked back at the board and her remaining two pawns and king. "How did that happen?"

"How did what happen?" Mary asked.

"Where did all my pieces go?" she asked baffled. "It's like the black plague hit or something." Jamie laughed at this, pointing at the pile of broken pieces.

"Can I surrender yet?" Ivy asked looking at the massacred pile.

"You could have surrendered a long time ago." Mary told her.

"You should have surrendered a long time ago." Jamie corrected. "I mean this is just sad."

"Well than I surrender." Ivy said grandly. Ivy's little king threw his sword down angrily.

"Bloody witch can't even play a game of chess." The king grumbled storming off the board.

"That's just great. I'm being insulted by an inch tall figurine." Ivy said causing her friends to laugh.

"You'll get better." Jamie assured her stuffing the pieces into a small wooden box. She reduced their size so they would all fit.

"Well she can't get much worse." Mary teased laughing.

In detention that night Lily and James were told that they needed to sort out their differences, so as a punishment Professor Dunken told them that they would be partners in class and that alone would be punishment enough. But to be on the safe side they had to go through and mend old library books.

Lily waved her wand thinking, 'reparo' and about how useless this detention was. The books that couldn't be fixed using reparo went into a box. The book's binding was fixed so Lily set it on the cart.

"You know maybe you could get out of that second week." James suggested. Lily glared at him waving her wand at another book. This one didn't mend so was thrown into the box.

"Somehow I doubt it." She said.

"Just an idea."

Silence.

Three nights and about a thousand books later…

Lily was laughing about a story James had told her about quidditch practice that day. The books they were supposed to be fixing abandoned completely.

"Then his broom veered off," James continued his hands in front of him like he was on the broom himself. "Causing him to shoot through the goal post!" Lily covered her mouth with her hand still laughing. "He's alright of course, but it was just the funniest thing."

"How far have you gotten?" Professor Dunken asked entering the back room.

"Um," Lily said standing up. "We, er, got a little…"

"What she means is we got a bit distracted." James said standing by her elbow. The professor raised an eyebrow.

"Have you settled your differences?"

"Yes sir." They said.

"Then I think the lesson was learned." Dunken smiled in the bad lighting, "You're excused from further detention."

"Really?" Lily asked.

"Yes. Your not going to be jinxing Potter anytime soon are you?"

"No Sir."

"Then you're done." And although Lily would never admit it, she was disappointed that she wouldn't be able to spend time with James. She had discovered, once she allowed it, that James was truly funny and not that bad. "Go on then." He ordered.

Author's note:

So I hope you guys liked it. The end got a little clippie I know. Sorry, but I wanted to quickly show that Lily is starting to like James and that she actually likes spending time with him.

Please Review! And give some suggestions on what you'd like to see happen next!