"I broke up with Rufus." whispered Hestia.
Remus was too caught up with the fact that he was sitting so close to Hestia to notice that she had said something.
"What?"
"I broke up with Rufus."
"When?"
"Last week."
Remus' heartbeat was thumping inside his ears, his vision getting blurry with giddiness. He blinked a couple of times before turning to Hestia.
"I'm sorry, Hestia." said Remus, with much difficulty. He was anything but sorry.
"Thanks."
"You know you can talk to me about anything, right?" smiled Remus.
"I know." Hestia smiled back.
For a moment Remus sat still. His ears buzzing with the thought of Hestia no longer being in a relationship. He allowed himself a moment of joy. But it was soon marred by the reality that he could never be with her. He could never expect his lycanthropy to leave him alone, even if to enjoy a thought. If he were to transform into a werewolf on a battlefield, even then he'd be worried about the enemies. Nevertheless, amidst the excited chatter of the students around him, he allowed himself a selfish moment of happiness, as a normal teenage boy would, when he hears that the girl he fancies has broken up with her boyfriend.
"Just don't tell anyone. I haven't told the girls anything." whispered Hestia, cautiously eyeing Remus.
"Of course not." said Remus, looking Hestia in the eyes, his heart ready to jump out. He had missed having Hestia's intense gaze upon him. She had piercing dark brown eyes that Remus felt could look straight into the darkest corners of his mind. The wind blew hair in her face, yet she continued looking at him, her gaze steady, eyes never squinting. Remus found himself removing her hair from her face and tucking them behind her ear, his fingers lightly brushing across her cheek. The wind blew the smell of her caramel perfume towards Remus. He inhaled her scent softly. He loved her perfume. It reminded him of chocolates.
"Hey, look the teams are about to come out, maybe." squeaked Peter, forcing Remus to look away from Hestia.
"Yeah, maybe." said Remus, letting out a shaky breath.
"Why's McGonagall down at the pitch?" asked Peter.
"She's still the house mistress. I want to know what's Lily doing there." remarked Hestia.
"What's happening?" asked a sweet voice. Remus turned around to see Alice, Frank following in her stead.
"The match hasn't started yet, McGonagall's down at the pitch, and so is Lily." Remus quickly recapped.
"Lily? At the pitch? Is she there to tie the knots for Potter's quidditch robes?" Alice snickered.
"Oh, let it go please. It's nothing she wouldn't do for someone else." defended Remus.
"Yes, but James Potter isn't just anyone y'know." retaliated Alice as she treated herself to Peter's snacks.
"I'd still argue that it was very characteristic of her to show kindness, even if it is to someone she cannot stand." smiled Remus.
"You say that because you're a good judge of character, Remus. But me? I'm in love, so I'll say she acted out of the blue. And I'll do you one better and say it's because she might be warming up to James." said Alice as she smiled sweetly at Frank who was busy looking at something in the Slytherin stands.
"Wow, haven't seen Snape in a match since that incident with the bludger. Say Remus, was it an accident? I mean, the marauders and Snape aren't exactly pals. Especially when the two marauders with a morally grey compass are on the quidditch team." asked Frank, smiling mischievously.
"I don't suppose one can bewitch school supplies." said Remus, quietly, looking out in the sky, not meeting anyone's eyes.
"No, I don't suppose one can. Then again neither can one make all the portraits serenade one's crush on Valentine's Day." laughed Frank.
"Dear Merlin, that was embarrassing." remarked Hestia.
"In our defence, we did tell James to not do it." laughed Remus.
"Lily spent the entire night pacing up and down the dormitory. Kept repeating, "The nerve of him."" sighed Alice.
"That was one long night." huffed Hestia.
"Yeah, none of us had a wink of sleep that night." chuckled Alice.
"I didn't know we caused you guys so much trouble." remarked Remus, his face apologetic.
"Oh, you don't know the half of it." laughed Hestia.
"Can I do something to make up for it?" asked Remus.
"It'll take a lifetime to make up for it, Remus." scoffed Hestia.
"Lifetime, huh? I'll figure something out." smiled Remus, but kicked himself mentally as Hestia raised an eyebrow.
"I think they're starting." shouted a first year from the stands.
"They better be, I'm running out of snacks." mumbled Peter grumpily.
The players flew up as madam Hooch's whistle sounded and the quaffle was thrown up in the air for the grabs. The Slytherin captain swerved it towards his team and off went the match.
"Mulciber has the ball— AND THEY SCORE! ALREADY! Slytherins leading 10-0." screamed Jordon, disbelief in his voice.
The Gryffindor stand groaned collectively as the Slytherins rose to their feet to celebrate the first goal. It didn't get any better. The Slytherin beaters were out for blood. They kept targeting Dorcas, the keeper of the goals. Sirius seemed to be extremely distracted and got hit by the bludger on the head thrice. The Gryffindor chasers seemed to be chasing the Slytherin players in an attempt to get the quaffle, but the latter were extremely fast and agile while the former seemed to lack coordination and plan.
"Oh hey, Lily." Alice greeted as Lily took her seat next to Hestia.
"Hey Alice, everyone. How's the match coming along?" inquired Lily, her voice weak.
Everyone turned to Lily at once.
"What were you doing down at the pitch?" asked Hestia, without missing a beat. The 6th year Gryffindors turned to look at Lily.
"Long stor—" started Lily but was cut off by Remus.
"Is it just me or is James missing from the team?" asked Remus, the only one with his eyes on the match, his voice deadly quiet but certain.
Everyone turned their head to look at the crowd. Silence descended upon them as they tried to find James.
"He won't be playing today." Lily broke the silence.
Everyone burst into questions and exclamations.
"What?!"
"Why—"
"Can't be, I saw him at breakfast!"
Lily took a breath, about to answer but what Alice said next caught her attention.
"Anyone else get a bad feeling about Snape being here?" asked Alice, an uneasy expression on her face, "the match was already so delayed. And now James is not here."
"Yeah, would've loved to see his face when Slytherin lost to us." said Peter.
"Sev- Snape's here?" asked Lily, unsure of what she'd just heard.
"Yeah, he's sitting on the extreme right, away from the rest of the Slytherins." Hestia pointed out.
The moment Lily's eyes landed on Severus, realisation dawned upon her face, followed soon by panic. Without another word to anyone, she ran out of the stands.
James sat in the Hog's Head, the air stifling him. Lily had made him change into his quidditch robes just in case this whole thing turns out to be a sham and he might need to return to the match. He was severely regretting listening to her. It was too hot inside the invisibility cloak while wearing his quidditch robes. James checked the time again. The letter had said 10am. It was well over 20 minutes since 10. James' mind was a whirlpool of emotions. Lily. The match. Sirius. His dad. He wasn't sure how long he could rely on Lily to not tell anyone where he was. The team didn't look all too well this morning, he could only wish they were doing their best. The guilt of not telling Sirius about the letter was killing him, but he couldn't have asked another member of the team to leave the match on the demand of a letter sent anonymously.
His trail of thought shifted to his dad. Dread sat in the pit of his stomach like bad milk. He had avoided thinking anything about it so far but he could no longer ignore the fact that the longer it was taking for the person to show up, the deeper James' heart sank. he hadn't heard from his dad in over a week. Even his mother had written to him only once this week and had conspicuously avoided answering any questions James had asked about his dad.
He checked his watch again. 10.33am. He looked outside the window and saw a flash of red. Lily. She entered the pub, looking lost, searching for someone. James realised he was under the invisibility cloak and that she couldn't see him. He quickly walked up to her and dragged her out and inside an alley.
"What are you doing here, Evans?" he asked, running his hand through his hair frustratingly.
"We need to go back to school. Right now." replied Lily, a little out of breath.
"No. No we don't. I told you. My dad's in danger. Why do you have to control everything?!" hissed James, irritation building inside of him.
"I'm not controlling anything, Potter. So far as I cab guess, your dad is fine—"
"GUESS?! You want to GUESS?! Evans, he could DIE. I'm guessing everything is hunky dory in your little muggle world so you have no qualms leaving your parents behind, knowing that there's no possibility of them dying. That's not the case with me. For all I know he could already be dead!" bellowed James, attracting the attention of a couple of witches taking a stroll down the street. When James turned his attention to Lily, her face made him want to go back a minute. She looked stunned.
"Sev—Snape wrote that letter, the one you showed me." mumbled Lily.
"What?"
"Snape. He wrote the letter. I recognised the handwriting but couldn't quite place it until I saw him in the Slytherin stands." explained Lily, looking over James' shoulder, not quite meeting his eyes.
"But he never comes to watch any match." said James, a puzzled look on his face.
"Yeah, he said to me once, that he'll only ever watch a quidditch match when you won't play. That's how I realised it was his handwriting. Anyway, let's go, we're only wasting time standing here." said Lily, still not meeting his eyes, her voice lacking any warmth.
James nodded, a pang of guilt tugging at his heart as he saw Lily walking ahead of him.
"We might need to run. I think." suggested James.
"Yeah." replied Lily, eyes set straight ahead.
They broke into a run. Lily did not say a word throughout the journey and was always a pace ahead of James. While the guilt of lashing out on Lily was eating him up alive, he was pleasantly surprised by Lily's capacity to run, and maintain that pace. Soon they were inside the castle and making their way to the pitch.
"I'm going to head up to the stands." declared Lily. But before James could reply, she had turned and left. James sighed and headed for the pitch.
Upon reaching the pitch, the deadly silence from the Gryffindors stand made his heart sink. He looked up at the scoreboard. 220-30, in favour of Slytherin. Panic descended on his body. Without thinking he got on his broomstick and yelled for Dorcas. Everyone looked down at the pitch and zoomed towards him. Before James could say anything, Sirius, got off his broom and punched him in the face.
"What the fuck did you think you were doing?!" barked Sirius.
"I'll tell you later Pad—"
Another punch.
"Knock it off the two of you!" screamed Marlene.
"I've called for a timeout. We need to come up with a plan for now, we'll discuss Potter's conduct after the match." said Dorcas, who was looking like she'd just come out of the eye of a storm. She quickly explained the situation to James.
"Okay, listen," James started, clutching his face where Sirius had sucker-punched him, "Sirius, you need to beat up the keeper, and the seeker. Especially the seeker. Conan you need to guard Dorcas from anymore bludgers. Scout, do not catch the snitch until we're well over a 120 score, if you do see the snitch, fly in the opposite direction, mislead the Slytherin seeker. We cannot let the Slytherins find the snitch at this point. Marlene, Colte and I will use the play we came up with to win from Ravenclaw last year. Locke, thanks for taking my place today, I'll take it from here." finished James, as everyone was eyeing him curiously. Sirius was still glowering. Dorcas looked like she wanted to hide under a rock. Marlene, although angry, was trying to keep her calm. James knew of all the members of the team only Marlene could manage to not let her emotions crowd her senses.
"Alright everyone, let's fly out" ordered Dorcas, shame etched on her face.
"Hey, listen," started James, softly, "it's just a game. If we lose, we lose. But we'll cross that bridge when it comes down to it. Let's not forget that we practiced for this very day, so while the scoreboard is still live, we're still in the game." James addressed everyone, but especially Dorcas, who looked like a battered soldier.
"Now come on, we need to remind them that we're still the team they've lost every match to in the past 5 years." barked James, and got on his broom, everyone following his lead.
It took James a few minutes to get hold of the rhythm of the match but once he wrestled the quaffle from the Slytherin's chaser, he let his instincts and hours of practice guide him to the goal post. The November wind rushed past his years, the tip of his nose getting colder as he flew further. James dodged the attempt of the Slytherin's keeper, Rowle, to knock him off his broom, and sensed him following close behind. James didn't let go off the ball, but at the very last second passed it to Marlene. Rowle prowled towards Marlene who instead of putting the quaffle through the goalpost, sent it back to James who then put it right through the goalpost.
"GRYFFINDOR SCORES! 220-40. 'Bout time Potter appears in the match!" Jordon screamed into the microphone.
The Gryffindor stand roared with cheers which soon turned into chants of "POTTER! POTTER! POTTER!" James looked around for Marlene and without a word, they both dove down, Colte followed them closely behind. As the Slytherin chasers started following them, the three of them split up, passing the ball amongst them within split seconds, making the Slytherins bump into each other in their wake.
"The fine specimen of a woman that is McKinnon has—"
"Mr. Jordon!" McGonagall cuts off Jordon mid commentary, worry evident in her voice.
"Sorry professor. McKinnon passes the quaffle to Colte to Potter back to McKinnon- I think the Slytherin seeker has spotted the snitch!" screamed Jordon. Dolohov, the Slytherin seeker was zooming towards the Ravenclaw stand.
"He's rushing down towards the Ravenclaw stands, Scout is closely following him— OH! That's got to hurt! Dolohov takes the bludger to his head, courtesy of Black, who seems to have gained control of his senses now that his boyfriend, Potter is back in the game—"
"MR. JORDON! I'LL START TAKING POINTS FROM GRYFFINDOR!" roared McGonagall, angry lines etched on her face.
"AND LOOK AT THAT GRYFFINDOR SCORES YET AGAIN! 220-50 in favour of Slytherin! Seems like the Slytherin captain has called for a timeout. With taking as many bludgers as that, they sure do need it." declared Jordon as he set the microphone down.
As soon as the Slytherin team descended down at the pitch, James flew straight to Sirius.
"Sirius. Please. You need to listen to me." begged James.
"Lily knew didn't she? That's why she was at the pitch, telling McGonagall to delay the match for a while. Whatever it was, why couldn't you tell me?!" asked Sirius, accusingly.
"She saw me when I was running away, I had to tell her to keep her quiet." James replied, guilt evident in his voice. He did not have to tell her. He chose to. And good thing he did, else he'd still be sitting at Hog's Head like an idiot, waiting for the person who wrote the letter to him to show up. He had made a lot of people upset today. And all because of that git. James saw him sitting in the stands. For the slightest second Snape had looked surprised to see James back but he still had the smug expression because he knew Slytherin was ahead by a mile.
Before losing any time, James quickly recapped everything, that happened this morning, to Sirius. Upon hearing it Sirius quickly looked up at the stands and sure enough saw Snape.
"That. Fucking. GIT!"
"Pads listen, I need you to focus only on being a beater for now." James quickly tried to contain Sirius' anger, knowing how explosive it can be.
"Oh, I can be a beater. I'll beat the living shite out of that skunk!" barked Sirius, nostrils flaring.
"I mean beater for the match! SIRIUS!" James caught hold of Sirius' elbow. "We'll get back at him. Later. But if you let this match slip away from our hands, you'd have given Snape exactly what he wants! Just do your job for the team. I'm not losing this match. Not the one time that Snivellus comes to see a match. Now come on, I think they're resuming the match." said James, steering Sirius towards his broomstick.
"Hey, I'm sorry for y'know, hitting you." smirked Sirius, as he got on his broom.
"Nah, I deserved it." chuckled James, as they kicked their brooms and flew in the air.
What followed in the next twenty minutes was beyond the levels of comprehension for both of the teams. Dolohov, the Slytherin seeker, and Rowle, the Slytherin keeper, were almost unrecognisable, so were their brooms. Sirius and Conan, the Gryffindor beaters had kept the bludger all to themselves for the majority of the time, although Sirius alone had done most of the damage. Once he was certain that the two of these players weren't all too mobile, he had moved on to targeting the arms of the Slytherin chasers.
"I think I heard a bone crack! Black never disappoints! He should try and aim for Rowle's jawline next—" chuckled Jordon before getting cut off by McGonagall.
"That's it! 20 points from Gryffindor!" huffed McGonagall, although there wasn't a speck of disappointment in either her voice or her face.
"ANOTHER POINT FOR GRYFFINDOR! The score now stands at 120-220 in favour of Slytherin! If my calculations are right, it might now be safe for the Gryffindor seeker to stop moping around and get to work!" roared Jordon, cheers resounding the arena. After watching the Slytherins play dirty in the first half of the match, even the Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs had taken to cheering for the Gryffindor team.
Although James had taken a few blows of the bludger himself, it had hardly managed to budge him off his track even in the slightest. The adrenaline rush had kept him from feeling any pain whatsoever. He could not believe he got played so easily, and out of all the people in the world, by Snape. He'd managed to keep Sirius from jumping to beat up Snape, but he himself was getting impatient. He couldn't wait to win. He couldn't wait to see Snape's face when he wins. He couldn't wait to confront him, take revenge on him—
"SCOUT HAS GOT THE SNITCH! GRYFFINDOR WINS BY 40 POINTS! TAKE THAT YOU SUCKERS—" roared Jordon into the microphone, pulling James out of his thoughts. He quickly looked over to see where Scout was. Sure enough he was holding up the snitch in his right hand, thundering cheers surrounded the pitch. McGonagall was on her feet, wrestling the microphone out of Jordon's hands, while the Gryffindors were pouring in on the pitch, running to hug the team. It took a moment but it finally settled in James' mind that they'd won. He quickly looked over to see where Snape was sitting in the stands. It was empty. He turned around to see his classmates running towards him. There was no sign of Lily. She wasn't in the stands either. James grabbed Sirius and ran towards the castle.
Author's Note: Thank you for reading. Thanks for the review Potterhead :) Not sure when the next update would be though, so thanks for being patient.