Chapter 9

Lily was walking down the marble staircase when a figure collided with her from behind.

"Hey, watch- Marlene?"

"Oh, sorry Lily! I'm late for Quidditch practice!" Marlene called as she dashed passed Lily and through the oaken front doors. Lily couldn't help but laugh as she ran after her friend.

"Marlene! Wait for me!"

"What," Marlene began, turning around with an incredulous expression on her face. "You don't mean to tell me you're coming to Quidditch practice?"

"So what if I am?"

"Really Lily, I don't know what's come over you this year! First the try-outs and now actual practice? It must be James's influence on you. I always knew you secretly loved him," Marlene said, clasping her hands together and sighing dramatically.

"Why you-"

"RUN!" Marlene cried and sped off towards the pitch, followed in quick succession by an extremely red-faced Lily.

"Hey, Mooney." Sirius said, as he and Peter sat down on the edge of Remus's hospital bed. The springs creaked as they did so and Remus woke with a start.

"What! Where am I?"

"The Hospital Wing. Come on, Madam Pomfrey says you're free to go."

"Thank God!" Remus swung his legs over the side of the bed. "I don't think I'll ever get used to this new Wolfsbane potion. It knocks the stuffing out of me."

"Yeah, great. Hurry up, I'm meeting Isabella in ten minutes," Sirius said, clapping his hands together like a child on Christmas morning.

"And Isabella is..." Peter began, as they made their way out of the hospital wing and down the stairs.

"A Huffle- no, Ravenclaw, I think. Wait, no... She's cute though! And an excellent snogger. Just yesterday, I was casually walking around and this hand grabbed me out of nowhere and dragged me into a broom cupboard. When I managed to come up for air I realised how incredibly hot she was and-"

"Yes, yes. We've heard enough thanks, Padfoot." Remus said, hurriedly as Peter made retching sounds behind Sirius' back. "So you're going out with her?"

"Well, I suppose but we haven't actually said the words out loud." Sirius replied. "In fact, we haven't said many words out loud now i think about it. It's mostly snogging and-"

Remus rolled his eyes. "2 Galleons it'll be over by this afternoon." he whispered to Peter.

"You're on." Peter said. "I reckon he might keep this one a week on kissing power alone."

Remus snorted. Pete had actually managed to make a joke, besides anything else.

James flew around the pitch in a warm-up lap before the practice. One or two people were trickling into the stands. Lily was already there, shivering slightly. James grinned happily as he thought back to their last conversation in the common room. He loved how she blushed when she was embarrassed and how she furrowed her brow and impatiently swept her hair over her left shoulder when she was concentrating. Even now, he loved how vulnerable and adorable she looked with her wind-bitten cheeks, huddled in her robes. Her fiery hair that so matched her personality flew this way and that. He longed to fly over and brush it away from her face. But he knew he had to go slowly. If he dived straight in, they'd be back to square one, he knew that. First-name terms was a start alright but it was only that, a start. He sighed.

"Captain! CAPTAIN! CAPTAIN JAMES POTTER!"

James turned around, almost losing his balance on his broom. His team stood below him, waving impatiently.

"When you've finished mooning over you're not-girlfriend, maybe you could come and teach us Quidditch?" Marlene was screeching up at him.

"Two things, Miss McKinnon." James called as he swooped to the ground. "One, I'm you're captain and more of that egotistic cheek and I'll boot you off the team, Lily's friend or not. And two, she's not my not-girlfriend. I'm working on it!" He grinned childishly and the team sniggered. "Shut up all of you. Five laps, now! "

Lily watched, intently. She understood nothing about Quidditch. Soon, she found her mind wandering. Marlene had fallen in a muddy puddle and all the mud had dried into the hem of her Quidditch robes. Lily wondered how many Soapy spells she'd need to clean it off. One of the Beater's had a cut behind his knee that he hadn't noticed. The sun glinted of James' glasses and his hair was all messed up from the breeze. He hadn't run a hand through it all practice, Lily noticed. Quidditch really does something to the ego, in more ways than one. Most of the other spectators had long gone but Lily was enjoying watching James take responsibility for other people. He had a knack for it. It matured him. Lily found herself thinking about his scrunched up, concentrating face and how it made him look like a small child having a tantrum. She giggled out loud and instantly covered her mouth with her hand.

Lily, what are you doing? She thought. He is James Potter. You hate him.

Well you did hate him, another, smaller voice said.

No, I still hate him. He's an arrogant prat.

Not anymore.

Lily felt a twinge in her stomach, like that morning in the common room. Something about her feelings for James Potter was slowly changing, only she hadn't fully accepted it yet.