Lily was participating in a tense but exciting Hufflepuff Quidditch practice. A Bludger from Owen Smith whizzed by her. She saw Lysander Scamander, the only other first year who had joined the team in the previous year make a nice save. Lily zipped across the field, then dropped down to get a better perspective. She saw a glint of gold from above. She flew up to grab the Snitch. Smith knocked another Bludger at her. She ducked it but behind her she heard it connect with something. When Applebee looked over he immediately started yelling.
"Stop play, time!" he said.
As Lily looked over she saw why. Reggie Harp, a new fourth year player that Lily didn't know well had been hit in the face. Blood was dripping down from his nose and he looked faint. He awkwardly flew down to the ground and the team followed him.
"Are you all right?" Applebee asked him.
The boy only responded with a moan.
"We have to take him to the hospital wing," Applebee said. "Practice is done while we get him to Madam Pomfrey," he said.
As the team followed Harp, who was leaning on Applebee and Iris Finch- Fletchley Lily looked up into the stands. A few Hufflepuffs were watching now coming down to see what had happened. This included Lysander's twin brother Lorcan, as well as Jane and Seth. But still sitting at the top of the stands, remaining completely still was Eve Sage.
"What's her game?" Lily whispered to herself.
Lily had seen Sage watching her a number of times since Halloween, although not in her classes. She had at first thought she was just intrigued at her being a Potter. But she had asked James and Albus if she had been noticing them and they had both responded no. It was another mystery to add to the others she was trying to solve.
When the team arrived at the Hospital Wing with Harp, Madam Pomfrey emerged wearing her typical medical outfit.
"What happened?" she asked.
Applebee pointed to Harp.
"He's been hit with a Bludger," Applebee said.
"Put him down on the bed," she instructed.
They did so and Harp moaned softly.
"Give me some space," Pomfrey said.
The team stood talking nervously for the next few minutes. Everyone was talking at once.
"I hope he's okay-
"He's fine my brother played through a-
"Hopefully it knocked some Wrackspurts out of his head," Lysander suggested.
"Quiet!" Applebee whispered loudly.
Lily turned to see Madam Pomfrey walking towards them.
"So is he going to be all right?" Applebee asked her.
"Well it will take some time to heal, he has a moderate concussion and a broken nose," she said.
"How long?" asked Iris Finch- Fletchley.
"At least two weeks," Pomfrey answered.
"Two weeks! Our first match is in a week and a half," said Applebee.
"Then I highly recommend you find a replacement," Poppy said.
Later the Common Room was in chaos. There was a bulletin posted about tryouts for the Beater position. A crowd of students were clamoring to sign up. Lily saw that the students were mostly the same ones who had been at tryouts. She did notice one new face though. Robin Wood put her name down. Lily was surprised by this considering that she was short and didn't look all that strong. She supposed they'd have to see at tryouts the next day.
However, an hour later in the library Lily was talking to her friends about a very different subject.
"Have you found anything about a Dark Lady?" Lily asked Seth.
"Yes, but its no use," said Seth.
"Why?" Lily asked.
"Almost every major dark witch in history used that title," he said. "But none since the nineteenth century, so it has to be someone new," he said.
"Then let's look up powerful witches of recent years," Lily said. "It has to be someone with talent or Carrow wouldn't have followed her, and maybe someone who has a grudge against the Ministry," Lily said.
"Maybe," Seth said doubtfully.
"You want to play some Wizard's Chess Lily?" Jane asked.
"I have to get started on that Charms essay," Lily said.
Jane groaned. "What's the big deal? It's not due until next week," she said.
"Do you want to spend the weekend writing a foot and a half of parchment?" Lily quipped.
"Maybe I will do a bit of that," Jane agreed.
The next day was the tryouts for Beater. Applebee started to tell them how they would have to learn fast, then the tryout started.
It went badly. No one looked good. Some of the bigger kids were either fast or sloppy, and everyone else was pathetically weak. One Bludger came at Lily so slow that she caught it and threw it back.
"Nice try," Applebee said in an obviously dishonest tone to the third year who had just tried.
"Robin Wood is last," he said.
Robin flew into the air. She looked bored at the entire tryout. Applebee released the Bludger. She sped toward it like lightning. She brought her bat back and hit it straight at Lily who barely dodged the well hit Bludger. The rest of the time went like this and it was soon apparent that Wood was a very good beater. When the tryout ended Lily was sweating profusely after the many dodges she had had to make.
"That was very impressive," Applebee said. "How do you get so much power in your swing?" he asked in awe.
"It's not about strength, it's about good form and I have that," she said.
"I'll say," said Applebee. "Thank you all for coming out but I have to go with Robin," he said lamely.
The pitch cleared out quickly after Applebee announced his pick. No one could argue that they had done better than Wood but Lily although Lily did here one of them mumbling that "she must've used Felix Felicis."
When Lily returned to the Hufflepuff Common Room Jane was waiting for her.
"So, who made it?" she asked.
"Robin Wood," Lily answered.
"Not surprised, her dad was really talented," Jane said.
"Did Seth find anything?" Lily asked.
"I don't know, I haven't talked to him today," Jane said.
"I'll ask him tomorrow," Lily said.
But she never got the chance. And in fact she barely talked to Seth for the next week. It seemed that there was always an exam or individual work in the classes they had together. During mealtimes Lily barely had a chance to finish eating before Applebee had a practice. He was trying to get his new Beater the maximum amount of practice time before the match against Ravenclaw. Lily privately wondered if she needed it. Her skills hadn't fluctuated since she made the team.
The morning of the Quidditch match was a windy one. Lily had eaten with confidence. She was no longer nervous before Quidditch matches. After all she had won and caught the Snitch all three times she had played. After Applebee made his speech (which sounded very similar to the one last year) they flew onto the pitch. The Hufflepuff fans cheered loudly. Gryffindors and Slytherins cheered politely, but the Ravenclaws booed loudly. It seemed to be with more venom than last year. Lily wondered why. Then it hit her. She hadn't just caught the Snitch last year. She had made a fool of Ravenclaw. They would want revenge this year and the level of tension between the houses was high. Lily had created a Quidditch rivalry.
Lily looked down to see the two captains shaking hands. She thought the Ravenclaw Captain grabbed Applebee's hand a little harder than necessary. Madam Bell released the Snitch. The game was on. Lily flew up over the field to get a better view. She saw the Ravenclaw Seeker do the same. She began to fly around the field. She looked back and saw the Ravenclaw Seeker following her. It appeared Ravenclaw's strategy was to get the Snitch by waiting for when she found it. Meanwhile Hufflepuff's Chasers had wasted no time getting started.
"Oh, nice move by Finch- Fletchley and she makes it into the lowest goalpost," Ethan Jordan announced.
Lily cheered with the Hufflepuff crowd. She had known that since their star Keeper Albert Davies had graduated the previous year offense wouldn't be as big a problem. For the next few minutes Lily tried to lose her tail. Unfortunately, the Ravenclaw Seeker proved to be competent and was keeping up with her. Then a large came out of nowhere and hit the Seeker.
"Ouch, Wood hit Edgecombe straight on with that Bludger. Nice play by the young Beater," Jordan said.
After a couple more Bludgers Lily had lost her tail. She saw it was a physical game. The Beaters on both teams were hitting hard and Robin Wood was having a great game. More malicious however was the fact that Ravenclaw had fouled Hufflepuff quite a few times. Even Jordan, normally a fair announcer seemed a bit angry.
"Obvious Blatching there, should be a penalty and there it is," the announcer said.
Applebee scored the penalty to make it 60-10. But a minute later Ravenclaw scored at the other end. Then Lily saw a glint of gold near the ground. Her first sight of the Snitch in the game! She flew down rapidly to get it. She saw the opposing Seeker going for it too. She had started way ahead of him, but the wind was blowing at her. She was arriving at the exact same time as her opponent… and she grabbed it half a second before him.
"Hufflepuff wins! And what a close catch that was," Jordan went on.
Lily had stopped listening. Her teammates met her to celebrate.
"Party in the Common Room!" Paul Otterburn yelled.
The Common Room was chaos, with cups of pumpkin juice strewn all over and people cheering.
"We have a four match win streak over the past two seasons," said Irene Alou looking happy.
"We may never lose again!" Iris exclaimed loudly.
Lily was feeling exhausted and went over to the dormitories. She stopped when she felt Jane's hand on her shoulder.
"You're turning in early, Lily" said Jane.
"Long night," Lily explained.
She passed out on her mattress. The night gave her a strange dream. She was back in the passage under the Whomping Willow. This time she fell asleep and was dragged out by a mysterious figure. After she got out she went over to thank the person, only to see it was Alecto Carrow. Lily woke up with a start. She was in a daze but she thought she heard buzzing again. What was it? I have more important things to worry about she thought to herself.
The next day Lily, Jane and Seth were in the library again. Seth was looking up famous witches in the last century.
"I haven't found anyone who'd have a beef with the ministry," said Seth.
Lily groaned.
"Are you sure you looked hard enough?" she asked him.
"Yes Lily I looked hard enough," Seth said in an annoyed tone of voice.
Lily didn't know why but the touch of annoyance in Seth's voice got to her.
"What's your problem?" Lily asked.
"What do you mean?" Seth asked.
"That little sarcasm I just heard," Lily said.
"Well Lily, I might be a bit angry that you didn't tell me until months later what you heard in Diagon Alley," he said.
"You're still on about that?" Lily asked.
"Well it annoys me that you do this then want me to assist you with your little research project!" he said.
"What! It was your idea to research all this!" Lily yelled.
By now people in the library had started looking at them. Lily noticed her cousin Rose in particular looking up from a book. Jane tried to stop the escalation of the argument.
"Mates we don't have to ar-," she started.
"That's why I don't care for you bossing me around!" said Seth.
Anger boiled up inside Lily. She had barely done anything! She stood up.
"FINE, I'LL DO SOME DAMN RESEARCH ON MY OWN THEN," Lily said.
Now Seth stood up.
"SOUNDS GOOD, YOU DON'T HAVE TO WORRY ABOUT EVER TALKING TO ME AGAIN," Seth finished.
He took his books and walked to the door.
Jane spoke now "Seth, Lily stop it you're friends for Merlin's sake," she said looking at both of them.
But Seth had already gone out the door and Lily was in no mood to make up. She sat back down at the table. She thought that she had never felt worse after winning a Quidditch match.