On the night of Saturday, April 10th, 2021, Gryffindor and Hufflepuff played the final Quidditch match of the 2020-2021 season. The two teams entered the match tied at 430 points for the season. This meant that the winner of this match, regardless of the score, will win the Quidditch Cup.
In the Gryffindor changing room, Wesley knew he didn't have to say much to his team. Devon, Fred, Samantha, Stephanie, Roxanne, Ainsley, and Lily all knew exactly what they had to do and how to do it.
"Just win baby!" was all Weasley said as the Gryffindor Team left the changing room for the Quidditch Pitch.
The entirely of Hogwarts was super excited about the Quidditch Final being played at night for the first time in Hogwarts history.
The stadium had been bewitched with just enough lighting for the players and spectators to see what was going on in the match. James was standing at the announcer's podium with the megaphone in his hands. There was also a large white bag sitting on the podium.
"Hello!" said James enthusiastically, "Welcome to the first ever nighttime Quidditch match at Hogwarts: The 2020-2021 Quidditch Final between Gryffindor and Hufflepuff. But there are two matters to attend to before the match begins. First, let's have a round of applause for Miss Roxanne Weasley, who was the one who had the brilliant idea to play this match at night."
There was a huge burst of applause as the crowd roared its approval of Roxanne's idea.
Roxanne herself was too focused on playing in the Quidditch Final to say anything. She just gave the crowd a few polite waves to acknowledge them.
"Now " continued James, "You all must be wondering why the white bag is on my podium and what is in it. Well, my beloved big sister, Lily Luna Potter, has made some special shirts for everyone to wear for this match. "
The crowd roared again. Everyone knew that Lily Luna Potter was the best Charms student in Hogwarts. The sense of anticipation in the air was palpable.
"It was the idea of our friend Gordon Give to have Lily make special glow in the dark tee shirts for everyone to wear during this match, " revealed James.
More clapping still. James himself retrieved his wand from his right pocket with his right hand and waved it at the white bag full of the glow in the dark tee shirts Lily had made.
The bag burst open almost immediately and suddenly the air was filled with the sound and sight of glowing shirts.
Lily, ever the classy girl that she was, had made four different versions of these shirts with a different version from each house with that house's color and symbol.
Glowing green tee shirts with glowing silver serpents embroidered on them slathered their way to the Slytherin section of the stands with every shirt attaching itself to a specific individual as though he or she had put it on himself or herself.
Glowing blue tee shirts with glowing bronze eagles embroidered on them flew into the Ravenclaw section with the same process of the shirts auto attaching themselves to their intended recipients occurring.
Glowing yellow tee shirts with glowing black badgers on them sped their way to both the Hufflepuff section of the stands and to the Hufflepuff players standing ready on the pitch. Sure enough, all the shirts found the right owners.
Glowing scarlet tee shirts with glowing golden lions embroidered on them roared towards both the Gryffindor section of the stands and the Gryffindor players standing ready on the pitch. The process concluded with these Gryffindor shirts finding and uniting with those who they would belong to.
All of these shirts had bright and vivid colors and impeccable sharpness and clarity.
"AW!" said Gordon in wonder as tears of happiness streaked down his face, "They are better than perfect! I had a vision of everyone wearing glow in the dark tee shirts at the Quidditch Final. To see how wonderfully they turned out. Just. Wow. Lily. Wow."
"Really classy of Lily to make the shirts for all the houses and not just Gryffindor," noted Slytherin Quidditch captain Erne Macmillan Jr.
"Even for us, " added Hufflepuff Seeker and captain Mellissa Jones.
That's why Lily will always be my favorite non Weasley of all time, "piped up Fred, "There should be a picture of Lily in the dictionary next to the definition of the word "classy."
There were mutterings of agreement all throughout the stadium.
Still, there was a high stakes match to play and referee Heidi Macavoy tossed the Quaffle into the air and James got to work calling the action.
"Thompson beats Cochlain to the quaffle. Thompson speeding down pitch towards the north hoops. Saver has drifted way too far left. Thompson shoots for the rightmost hoop. WHAT A RECOVERY. SAVED BY SAVER!"
"That was historically great save, " boasted Samantha, "I'm the GOAT Keeper and you know it! YOU LIKE THAT! YOU LIKE THAT!"
"Quaffle taken by Dursley. Dursley going south is surrounded by Thompson, Marshall, and Derozan. Dursley desperately throws a behind the back pass up field. WHAT A CACTH BY ROXANNE WEASLEY! Weasley and Cochlain side by side. Weasley still with the quaffle. Stop is the in the exact center of the three hoops. Weasley shoots for the center hoop. No, it was a fake! Weasley dumped it off to Cochlain. Cochlain aims for the rightmost hoop/ AINSLEY COCHLAIN SCORES! GRIFFINDOR STRIKES FIRST!"
The nanosecond Ainsley had scored, there was a deafening roar over the stadium that sounded as though many lions were roaring in unison. The lions on the Gryffindors glow in the dark tee shirts had all emitted realistic sounding lion roars the nanosecond Ainsley had scored.
It was a cool effect, no doubt, but many people had their hands in their ears. Once that moment passed, the Gryffindors excited was subdued. It was quite clear that this match had a 99% chance of coming down to the snitch.
The match continued for a while at 10-0 with Samantha Saver and Sierra Stop trading saves, Samantha with brashness and Sierra with quiet humility.
Lily suddenly thought she heard something toward the ground. The snitch was clearly low. But, with the stands elevated, neither the minimal lighting on the stadium nor the glow in the dark tee shirts gave her much hope of finding the snitch low and she couldn't ask a teammate to follow her without giving away what she'd heard.
Lily quietly urged her Firebolt downward. She could hear the snitch fluttering somewhere on the ground. It was moving. Lily removed retired her wand from her right hand pocket with her right hand and cried "Lumos Maxima." quietly.
There was a brief flicker of light from the tip of Lily's wand than faded almost as it came.
"Lumos Maxima!" called out Lily a little more firmly,
This time, a spot of light emitted from Lily's wand and lasted a few seconds and a few nanoseconds before dying.
LUMOS MAXIMA!" shouted Lily. On this third try, a huge shield of blinding white light was produced from the tip of Lily's wand. allowing her to see the ground.
Lily's eyes took in the fact that the snitch was circling the center circle on the ground.
Quietly rushing her Firebolt to the center circle as fast as it would go, Lily spotted the tiny speck of gold and scooped it up off the ground into her left hand.
"I"VE GOT IT!" yelled Lily, now urging her Firebolt skyward again and holding out the snitch for all to see.
"LILY POTTER HAS CAUGHT THR SNITCH!" exclaimed James in a voice that was a third surprised, a third proud, and a third enthusiastic, "GRYFFINDOR BEATS HUFFLEPUFF 160-0! THAT CUP IS STILL OURS! TOTALLY AWESOME BABY!
Throughout the stadium, there was a mix of surprised gasps, confused looks, and shouts of "WHAT!" as no one could quite take in what had happened.
However, every member of the Circle of Eighteen currently at Hogwarts, be it from the stands or as a teammate, was now chanting "LILY! LILY! LILY!" at the top of his or her lungs with gusto.
There were no words other than that. They were too proud, too stunned, and too amazed to say anymore. They just took it in.
But this year was different. The need to not have many people's hands touching the same thing meant that the Quidditch Cup could not be passed around. Instead. Professor McGonagall now performed a Summoning Charm that caused the Quidditch Cup to appear. floating in midair, above the center circle.
"Congratulations to the Gryffindor Quidditch Team on retaining the Quidditch Cup, " said McGonagall in a happy voice, "It's nice to see my house win the Quidditch Cup in my last year as headmistress. Would Devon, Fred, Wesley, Roxanne, Stephanie, Samantha, Ainsley, and Lily all put out their right hands as though to touch the cup?'
Devon, Fred, Wesley, Roxanne, Stephanie, Samantha, Ainsley, and Lily all reached out their right hands, Lily still with her wand in her right hand and the golden snitch in her left hand.
There could be no post-match handshakes in these times of course, but the Gryffindor and Hufflepuff Quidditch teams did do a meet and greet at the center circle.
"I'm elated to have won my last ever Quidditch match at Hogwarts, " said Ainsley joyfully, "And to have scored a goal in it. Sierra did get the better of me for the most part though. Congratulations on a great game, Sierra. "
"I appreciate the acknowledgement, Ainsley. " said Sierra quietly, "I'd rather have won the match though."
"You thought you could beat us?" smirked Samantha to the Hufflepuff team, "We just stepped on your faces with a hobnail boot and broke your nose! We just crushed your face!"
The Gryffindors and even the Hufflepuffs had to get a kick out of that line and everyone burst out laughing.
Samantha's quip had actually loosened the Hufflepuffs moods after their loss and Mellissa asked Lily curiously, "How did your find the snitch?"
"I heard it, " explained Lily, " I thought heard something towards the ground, so I went low and searched the ground. I used Lumos to provide the needed light to see down there and found the snitch in the center circle."
"So, you beat me because you have better hearing?" said Melissia wryly, "Or maybe you were just more attentive. "
"Or both," suggested Lily, "Do you feel like this was a fair game?"
"I do, ' acknowledged Mellissa, "I don't feel very congratulatory towards you, but I accept that the match was fair. Even if it was because you have better hearing, that's no different from any other natural advantage. But. I'm not feeling very warm towards you right now."
"That's quite reasonable, " said Lily in calm understanding.
While the rest of the Hufflepuff team was at peace with their loss, Mellissa was not. She knew she had lost fair and square, but it had been such a painful way to lose.
As the two teams started to separate, Lily caught a glimpse of Melissia and could see that she was crying.
"Mellissa?" called Lily, "Please come here a minute?"
Melissia, while down and feeling cool towards Lily at the moment, knew Lily's reputation for kind heartedness and didn't mind giving Lily a bit of her time.
Mellissa walked towards Lily until they were six feet apart and Lily raised her wand, "Accio Jellybeans!"
Next nanosecond, a collection of bags of jellybeans rushed towards Lily. Lily pointed her wand at them and redirected them into Mellissa's hands.
"Take those, " Lily told Melissia, "I still had some jellybeans left over from Easter and had a few more packs in my general candy collection. I've heard it through the grapevine that you like jellybeans so I thought giving you some jellybeans could help cheer you up."
"Thanks, Lily, " said Mellissa weakly.
Mellissa carefully opened one of the bags of jellybeans and helped herself to her favorite lemon jellybean. Eating it, Mellissa did start to feel better.
After going through an orange, lime, strawberry, blue raspberry, cherry, and second lemon in the bag of jellybeans, Mellissa was feeling more herself and smiled at Lily.
"Feeling better, Mellissa?" asked Lily kindly.
"Yes, " Melissia warmly, "I'm still a bit subdued from the loss. But I definitely feel better. Thank you for reaching out to me."
"Thank you for giving me a bit of your time when I know you feeling a bit cold towards me, " Lily told Melissia, "I respect you for that."
"I know your reputation even if I don't you, " said Mellissa matter of factly, "But I think should we all head back to respective common rooms though.
Everyone agreed with this.
The Circle of Eighteen, the fourteen at Hogwarts anyway, walked back to the Gryffindor Common Room happily chatting away about the bizarre win.
However, everyone was now tired. The fourteen of the Circle of Eighteen all agreed that they would go to bed right away and get some shut eye and have a big celebration the next day instead.
As she lay in her bed before falling asleep, Lily quietly took in the satisfaction of the unique win.
Winning this Quidditch was an immensely satisfying triumph for Gryffindor, for the Circle of Eighteen, and for Lily herself.