Chapter 24 - Quidditch Cup
It was early June, a month when the sun lazily made its way across the sky and James wanted nothing more than to be out on his broom, speeding along with the breeze racing past him and the sunshine heating his back. Since he was stuck in the castle for most of the day, this led to the unfortunate habit of spending his classes looking longingly out the window and only focusing when someone managed a particularly impressive - or disastrous - bit of magic.
He was therefore unsurprised when McGonagall told him to stay behind after class - and Sirius, too. James wasn't quite sure what Sirius had done to deserve a telling off, but he had been paying so little attention that Sirius could probably have transfigured his desk into a hippogriff and he might not have noticed.
James was expecting McGonagall to say something along the lines of "if you are going to waste my classes staring out the window, Mr Potter, then I might as well make use of you and allow the other students to practice turning you into a dressing table", but for once he wasn't being told off.
"James," McGonagall said seriously, putting her books down on her desk and glancing at him over the brim of her glasses. "How are the Quidditch team coming along for the last match?"
When he didn't immediately reply, she shook her head and added, "I hope you know that I have five galleons riding on the outcome of this match, not to mention my pride, since Professor Flitwick has taken to gloating about the Ravenclaw's victories these past two years."
"Well," James replied, "I wasn't captain for the last two years, was I?" She responded to his grin with the exasperated look that she gave him so often it was now the only way he could picture her. "Honestly, Professor, we've got this. This is our year."
"Of course," McGonagall said doubtfully. If anything, she looked even more concerned than before, but James didn't miss the small smile she gave him before turning to Sirius. "I suppose I should relieve Mr. Black from his fine run of detentions - just to make sure he's prepared for the match."
"Really?" Sirius said, surprised. Cleaning out the trophy room and grading the work of first years had almost become second nature since the incident with Snape.
"Don't make me regret it," she replied sternly, shaking her head in reply to Sirius' smirk. "You boys had better win that match."
It was going to be a close one. Gryffindor needed to be thirty points ahead of Ravenclaw when Chloe caught the snitch in order for them to win the cup. James could see Chloe's frustration every time she caught a glimpse of the snitch and had to pelt off in the opposite direction to throw off the Ravenclaw seeker. Sirius and Kingsley had been focusing so much on not letting the other seeker catch it that they'd barely had time to keep the bludgers away from the chasers, and James had the bruises to prove it. The scores had been all over the place ever since the match started, and after two hours the crowd were beginning to grow bored and the players were aching, their quidditch robes soaked in sweat.
The Ravenclaw keeper was good - really, really good - and the one time they'd just about managed to get a thirty-point lead, Chloe had zipped after the snitch only to have a Ravenclaw beater slam into her. It was a foul, of course, but by the time James had taken and missed their penalty goal, the snitch was long gone. The longer the match went on, the dirtier it became, and a player from each team had been injured badly enough to be sent to the hospital wing. Benjy, cradling a broken wrist, had protested fiercely at not even being allowed to watch the rest of the match, but Madam Hooch hadn't taken no for an answer.
But now - finally - they had another chance. Mary had scored two goals in a row and they were thirty points ahead again. Sirius and Kingsley were guarding Chloe so fiercely that James suspected they'd simply hit anyone who came too close with their bats instead of bothering with the bludgers. Marlene had just saved a goal but the Ravenclaws had three remaining chasers against Gryffindor's two, and there was only so long they could keep their lead for.
It was, surprisingly, Kingsley who spotted the snitch first. He gave Chloe a meaningful look and nodded in the direction of the fluttering golden ball that glimmered as it caught the sun, but the Ravenclaw seeker had seen it too and she was closer.
"Go on, Chloe!" James roared, but no amount of shouting could make her broom go faster. The Ravenclaw pulled upwards after the snitch, Chloe right on her heels, but there was no way she could catch up. Unless -
Wham. A bludger knocked into the Ravenclaw seeker, slamming into her shoulder so hard it was a miracle she even stayed on her broom. Chloe dived below her to avoid a collision, and then she was closing on the snitch, leaning forward, reaching out...
The roar when Chloe caught the snitch was deafening.
Sirius watched as she raised her hand above her head, circling the pitch and displaying the small golden ball to the crowds. Kingsley slapped him on the shoulder, grinning widely and shouting over the cheer of the crowd - he and Marlene had been particularly nervous about the outcome of the match, he knew, since it was the last one they'd play before leaving school for good.
"GRYFFINDOR! GRYFFINDOR!" James yelled along with the chant of the crowd, heading towards Sirius as they flew lower towards the ground. He did two loops on his broom, his crimson robes slapping against the top Sirius' head as he spun upside down before righting himself, much to the wonder of the crowd, who only cheered more loudly.
When they finally landed, the first thing James did was fling himself onto Sirius' back so suddenly that Sirius only just had time to catch the back of knees. He was screaming and cheering, ruffling Sirius' hair as a good number of the Gryffindor spectators rushed down from the stands and out onto the pitch. He joined in the chants of, 'GRYFFINDOR! GRYFFINDOR!' as he and the rest of the team were engulfed by the other students. People were patting him on the back and whooping and Sirius didn't even know that his friends were in front of him until Peter had flung an arm around his shoulders and Remus was stood in front of him with wind-blown hair and one of James' ill-fitting Quidditch jerseys riding up too far on his arms.
"Not a bad match I suppose," he said, but he was absolutely beaming.
Lily was the next one to fight her way through the crowd towards them, a Gryffindor scarf draped around her shoulders despite the heat and strands of her hair sticking to her forehead. James slipped off Sirius' back just in time for Lily to collide with him, sending him stumbling backwards. She hugged him, screaming "you did it!" in his ear over the noise of the crowd around them. When she pulled back, she looked like she was going to say something more, but she just shook her head and kissed him instead.
It was the first time they'd kissed since their date, what with Lily taking care of Mary and James focusing on quidditch, and he had to admit that he hadn't expected their second kiss to be in front of quite so many people. When they broke apart, James stared at her for so long that her smile wavered, but then he grinned wider than before - if that was even possible.
He was looking around for Chloe to congratulate her on a fantastic catch when he found McGonagall in front of him. Her eyes looked a little teary behind her glasses as she put her hands on James' shoulders and - much to his complete and utter surprise - pulled him into a hug. If he'd still been on his broom, he'd probably have fallen off from the shock.
"Ahem," McGonagall said, stepping back and awkwardly patting James on the shoulder. "Well, yes, very well done Mr Potter - and you too, Mr Black, Miss MacDonald. A fantastic victory." A look of triumph took over her features. "And now, if you'll excuse me, I have to find Filius - he owes me five galleons."
Even though the match had gone on for longer than expected, it seemed just the right time for the Gryffindors to head down to the lake and take in the late afternoon sun. House elves appeared seemingly from nowhere with baskets of food and pumpkin juice, and Sirius could have sworn that he saw McGonagall herding them back into the castle before any of the other teachers noticed. He was sat beside Remus under the shadow of a tree, with Peter a little way in front of them talking to Frank, and James standing nearby, whispering to Lily in a way that would be nauseating if Sirius wasn't quite so happy for them.
Sirius glanced at Remus, who had paused with a drink halfway to his lips in order to pull a stubborn bit of lint off the quidditch shirt. He must be too warm with the long sleeves that James usually only wore for training in winter, he thought briefly, and frowned before Remus caught him looking and asked "what's wrong?"
"Nothing Moony, just wondering if we could have stopped Prongs getting quite so bruised up – don't want him losing any more brain cells, you know." He tried to laugh, but knew from Remus' puzzled smile that he suspected Sirius wasn't telling the truth.
Since Snape had found out about Remus' condition, things had been different. He didn't know how to explain it, because it wasn't that Remus was still mad - he seemed relatively relaxed about the whole thing if Sirius were honest. It was just - different. Sirius was careful even when he didn't mean to be, and he could imagine how frustrating it must be, really could, but still didn't seem able to stop. Jokes suddenly felt like he was making a fool of himself and he ended up ruining the punch line, he found himself thinking about distinctly grown up things like feelings and responsibility, and had a few times caught himself stealing Remus' books, reading something called Moby Dick, which had been a let down on content given the title. However, with the sun high in the sky, the elation of his classmates rippling the air around him, and Remus wafting the sweat from under his shirt in a way that Sirius couldn't quite bring himself to think of a gross, given the temperature, it was easy to forget about such trivial worries. "You sure you're alright?" Remus asked when he caught him staring for the second time. "I'm good," he said, raising a cream bun he grabbed from a nearby plate in a mock salute and biting into it messily just as he noticed the sound of Benjy running down the hill from the castle, cheering all the while with his arm still in a sling and a hospital gown tucked into his shorts.
"I think this is turning into one of those parties where everyone pairs off," Lily observed, claiming a basket of food and pulling James down to sit next to her. They ended up with their legs and shoulders pressed against each other despite the abundant room around them, but Lily didn't seem to mind and James certainly didn't. He wondered whether they were officially a couple - they had, as Lily said, paired off, and she had kissed him in front of the whole school, so...
He must have waited too long to reply because Lily lightly elbowed him in the ribs, managing to avoid his many bruises, and gestured with a fork towards Benjy and Chloe, before spearing a tomato with it. The two of them were clinking bottles of butterbeer together and laughing at something one of them had said, which seemed quite normal for them until James noticed they were holding hands.
"That's new," he commented.
"She's totally going to kiss him," Lily predicted. "Look, she's leaning towards him like - there, see!"
Chloe had stood on her toes to kiss Benjy, grinning as he turned bright red.
"Knew it," Lily said. "They've been looking at each other like lovestruck puppies for weeks."
James tried very hard to make sure his face didn't at all resemble a lovestruck puppy.
"Are you okay?" Lily asked. "Your face is weird."
"Er, yeah, I just" - James decided this was the moment to ask whether they were actually dating or not, but then he considered that they'd be going away for summer soon and he didn't want to ruin everything, otherwise they'd grow distant while they were apart and would be too awkward to write letters and he didn't want to wait until autumn to fix things, so the words got stuck on the way to his mouth and instead he said, "Do you want to come on holiday with me?"
Lily raised her eyebrows. "Bold move, Potter. A holiday is above and beyond my expectations for our second date."
Supressing the elation that she wanted a second date, James clarified, "Not just us - the others are coming too. We're going on a caravan holiday."
"I see. And do the others know you're inviting me?"
"Honestly, Evans, I didn't know I was inviting you until thirty seconds ago."
She laughed. "Well if it's okay with everyone, then sure, I'd love to come – though I must be mad to want to share a caravan with four boys."