The Marauder Chronicles

***The Marauder Chronicles is a fan fiction. Events in this story are not to be taken as true to the events leading up to Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. Characters and Locations belong to J.K. Rowling; no copyright infringement is intended. This story isn't to be duplicated or sold.***

Players of Quidditch!

Gryffindor Team: Captain, James Potter Slytherin: Cap. Andrew Clintick

Keeper: Casey Riley, 2nd year Keeper: Dustin Shaw, 4th

Seeker: Penny Thompson, 7th year Seeker: Jake Ballard, 5th

Chasers: James Potter, 6th year Chasers: Cody Baines, 6th

Brian Johnson, 4^th Viktor Vancas, 3rd

Chris Mueller, 5^th Robert Castle, 3rd

Beaters: Sirius Black, 6th Beaters: David Greene, 5th

Sam Moore, 3rd Andrew Clintick, 7th

Part Five:Gryffindor vs. Slytherin

"Teamwork, always teamwork."

October came with a gentle and cool breeze; a reminder that the warm summer days were ending and the cold winter ones were just around the corner. With the changing month came Quidditch practice. Thankfully no one had to be replaced. Everyone was still at school and had great skills. Casey Riley played the keeper. She was very good; she caught nine out of ten attempts at scoring. Penny Thompson, a seventh year and very small, played seeker. She was awesome, very maneuverable, and always caught the snitch. Bryan Johnson, Chris Mueller, and James Potter were the Chasers who could work like a dream with the Quaffle. Sam Moore and Sirius Black were the Gryffindor beaters; they were unbeatable.

Together these seven players, under the talented leadership of James Potter were five time winners of the Quidditch cup. Of course James had only been captain for the last year, but on the team since his second. The coming match with Slytherin was indeed going to be a challenge. Sure, they were the best team at Hogwarts, but Slytherin was skilled enough. They had a new captain this year, 7th year Andrew Clintick, he played beater. He was very tall an burly, the usual build for a beater, and extremely ugly, which Sirius and James noticed was a common occurrence among Slytherins. But nevertheless, he was still a good captain.

James had hired Peter in charge of spying on the Slytherin team, as a rat of course, so that he wouldn't be seen. Then he would report back to James with what they were doing; usually about their new plays and tidbits about the team players that would come in handy. Then James would format the game plan accordingly. He knew that spying was wrong, but he wasn't really cheating. It's not like he was breaking any rules. Certainly anyone can watch a team practice, they would just be seen, and then Slytherin would probably change things. But this way, Clintick would never even know.

Mid-October came around mighty fast and the Slytherins were working very hard at practice for they wanted to break the Gryffindor winning streak once and for all. With practices five times a week it was very hard to keep up with the large work load that the teachers piled on. And that was where Snape and Douglas came in.

Snape was not the most popular of students, but he was liked well enough by his fellow Slytherins. What he needed an edge in with the Quidditch team to achieve his goal. Though he was not a prefect like his enemy, James Potter, he was quite bright, especially concerning the dark arts. So when Clintick, and David Greene, the other beater, needed help with their homework, Snape and Douglas were only too pleased to lend a hand. Of course they had their ulterior motives.

The Marauders, however, couldn't be troubled with doing extra homework for other people; they were busy with what they had. The Gryffindor team was also on five a week practices, if for no other reason than to match and intimidate the Slytherins. Practices had to be rotated, as there was only one field. Practices lasted about two hours, and for four teams, that was eight hours, sometimes in the sun, other times in the dark. Either way James and Sirius had too much to do and not enough hours in the day to do it in. The teachers, as always, piled on the work as if their class was the only one that the students were taking.

Peter, even though he was not playing Quidditch, was struggling the most. He was not as smart as the other three so he always needed their help and Remus was the only one available to do it.

"No, Peter. How many times do we need to go over potions for you to get this right?" he asked Peter on Thursday night.

"I'm sorry, just once more. I think I will get it the next time," he said. The excitement for the coming match was rising, and Gryffindors and Slytherins were beginning to feel the tension. Focus was at an all time low, it was very hard to concentrate on homework, especially when the team came in after practice. The entire common room would burst with excitement and cheers when they came in through the portrait hole. James and Sirius were the ringleaders of the whole thing; they were the ones who always hyped everything up so that people were on their edge by game time.

Nothing was different on Thursday night. In through the portrait hole came James, Sirius, Casey, Brian, Chris, Sam, and Penny, and the room erupted.

"You see, Remus? How am I supposed to learn this potion if I can't even hear myself think?" he asked.

"I know what you mean," Remus said, smiling however.

Just then Sirius called for silence. Everyone listened to hear what he had to say.

"My fellow Gryffindors," he began, "Slytherin is dead!" people began clapping and whooping, then Sirius raised his hand again calling for silence. "Gryffindor is going to bring the worst defeat to Slytherin in the history of Hogwarts, and I would like for you all to give a hand for our great Seeker, Penny, who is only with us this last year," he moved aside, let Penny wave, and allow the Gryffindors to cheer her on. "Ladies and Gentleman, nothing, I repeat nothing, is going to stop us. This Saturday, I promise you, that the Slytherin team will be wishing that they never came into this world!" The loudest noise yet came forth, "GO GRYFFINDOR!" Sirius shouted over the mass chaos.

The mood in the Slytherin common room was not that different. Clintick had led his team into the same fervor, and all the Slytherins were under the belief that they would win, and break the Gryffindor's five year winning streak.

"The Gryffindor's are arrogant," Clintick said slowly and quietly to the common room, "and that is their greatest weakness. They have nothing against us. They might have better brooms, but we have stronger players," as he said this, his big burly team mates all flexed their muscles; they did not have much in the way of brains. "We are going to destroy, dominate, and WIN!" he yelled to a roaring room.

When he finished his speech, Douglas and Snape decided to make their move.

"Andrew, may we have a word with you and David?" Snape asked greasily.

"Of course Severus," he said, and then he motioned to David. "What do you need?"

"It concerns James Potter. I want you to kill him," he said. Andrew and David looked shocked and the bluntness of this statement.

"Excuse me, did I hear you right? You want us to kill him? I admit I was never crazy about him, but killing him would send us to prison. He is not worth that to me."

"You are the Beaters. Hit him hard on the head, it will look like an accident," Snape persuaded.

"Severus, you have to understand that while you detest him, he is very good in the air, and hitting him will be difficult. To kill him he would need to be struck directly to the head," David put in.

"I will pay you 50 galleons each if you kill him, 25 if he is permanently damaged. Do we have a deal?"

David and Andrew looked each other convinced.

"If you don't mind me asking, why do you want him dead?" Andrew asked.

"He has something that I want, let's just leave it at that, shall we? You do your job, so that I can do mine."

"It isn't her, is it?" David asked with a sly grin. Snape stared at him and turned away.

Friday morning was nothing short of highly spirited. The anticipation of the coming game was growing greater each minute, as was evident by the close encounters between the two houses.

Penny Thompson was receiving death threats from some Slytherins if she were to play on Saturday, and Sam Moore, the Beater, almost got a detention for fighting Cody Baines, a Chaser, in the hall.

Remus, Sirius and Peter were walking to Divination Friday morning, hoping for good fortunes.

"She will just predict my death, again, she always does," Sirius said.

"She doesn't know anything, you know?" Remus said, "You're not going to be killed by a mad axeman, or drowned in the lake, you are going to live forever, or so you say."

"That's right, I am going to live forever," he said reassuring himself. Peter chucked.

"So there seems to be someone missing from our group. Where is he Sirius?" Remus asked.

"Don't know," he said.

"You, don't? So he could be falling off a tower and you don't know?" Peter asked.

"Peter, just can it," Sirius said. They were pretty silent on their long journey up to the tower, many people passed them, and winked at Sirius, no doubt it had to do with the game on Saturday. Even Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs were giving words of encouragement to him.

"So where's James?" a Hufflepuff fourth year asked Sirius. He just shrugged his shoulders in response.

"Nervous?" Peter asked.

"Naw, Slytherin is toast," he said firmly. "Goners," he insisted. They continued to walk silently up the third flight of stairs toward the Divination tower, until three more people asked Sirius where James was. "Hey, Sirius, where's the Captain of the team?" "Don't know," he would answer with a growing irritation. So when a small 2nd year asked where he was, Sirius lost it.

"NO, I don't know where he is. I don't have his walking schedule. He's not here, so leave me alone, will you?" he yelled at him. The poor kid looked horrified and ran down the hall. "Freaks," Sirius mumbled to himself. Students down the halls all looked at Sirius a little oddly. He just looked back at them with a "come on and challenge me why don't you" look. But no one did, they just kept on their way to class. "I wish they would just leave me--"

"There you are," James came up behind and pushed him. "People have been asking me where you are, it's the weirdest thing," he said.

"Asking you, they've been asking me where you are," Sirius told him shaking his head.

"Yeah," Peter said, "he just took the head off some poor second year cause he asked about you."

"Really? How thoughtful of you, Sirius," James replied.

"Not to sound redundant, but where were you any way?" Remus asked.

"They have a test in Arithmancy today. Lily was a bit nervous, so I walked her to class."

"Ah, how sweet of you," Sirius said sarcastically, "you don't walk me to class when I have a test. I'm jealous James."

"Shut up," he said jovially. Just then a rowdy group of seventh year Gryffindors were coming down the stairs. James and Sirius raised their hands in the air, and the seventh years did the same. Then as if rehearsed they shouted, "GRYFF-IN-DOR!" and slapped hands as they passed.

"That's a little creepy," Remus said to them.

"House Spirit, Remus. Show a little," James said to him. "Hey do you think they're pretty," he said to Sirius just before he gave him a friendly nudge into a large group of very gigglely third year girls. They screamed a startling scream, then laughed when they saw who had crashed into them.

Sirius went back to his group to find all of them in hysterics. "Yeah, laugh it up why don't you," he said before he shoved James into Remus, who in turn hit Peter, who ran into a passing Slytherin girl. She glared at the four of them, stuck her nose in the air and kept walking.

"She was gonna kill me!" Peter said.

When they reached the Divination tower, James and Sirius were still in deep conversation about the coming game, and wondered what Trelawny would have to say about it. Sure, she was a bit unreliable but a good fortune couldn't hurt. They each climbed the rope ladder, went inside the sweltering room to find the professor hovered over her crystal ball. The four of them went to their usual table and sat down ready to hear the new nonsense that she had to offer.

"Welcome my dears," she said in her airy voice. "Today we will continue our crystal gazing. You will find that the orbs are already on your tables. Gaze into them, and tell your classmates what you see. I will come around and check on your progress."

"Five galleons says she sees death in mine," Sirius whispered.

"Ten," Remus replied.

The four of them took turns looking into the crystal balls, but saw nothing but their reflections. Sirius was actually adjusting his hair in his orb, when Trelawny came right behind him.

"And what do you see?" she asked him.

"Actually professor, I don't really see anything in my future. I think I'm going to be a bum," he said, and the other three sniggered.

Knowing that she always had something to say about Sirius's future, the entire class looked over in his direction.

"Let me see, my dear," and she got so close to the orb that her nose was almost touching it. "Well, it's not clear dear,"

"That's what I have been saying all of these years," Sirius said with some concealed agitation.

"Wait a moment," she said as if she didn't hear him. "I see something, something strait and narrow."

"A Broomstick?" James asked excitedly. "Can you see us winning the game tomorrow professor?" Sirius smiled at him. The class began laughing.

"No, I think it's a sword."

"A sword?" Sirius asked, "Who the hell uses swords?"

"Executioners, my dear boy!" she looked terrified as she said this. Girls all around the room let our sounds of panic. James tried as hard as he could not to laugh, but the pain was too much, and a small snort came out.

Trelawny turned to look at him.

"Let us look in your orb, Mr. Potter," and she glided over to his side of the table. She bent down low to get very close to his crystal ball. She gazed in it for a while, then came up.

"Well, I'm very sorry dear boy," she said solemnly.

"What," he asked, "what do you see?"

"Sadness. Great sadness in your family."

"Well, why are they sad?" he asked more firmly.

"Oh, I cannot tell you. My Inner Eye is such a burden to me. To know what is coming in a students life can be a horrible thing, as in your case." She moved around their table and went to one of the girls table. She had never predicted anything for James; he was beginning to worry. Sadness, why, why were they all sad?

"If I croaked every time and every way she said I was going to, they would write books about me. Don't worry about it James, she's a certifiable nut!" Sirius told James as they were leaving Divination. James was a little uneasy about this.

"I hope you're right," he said, "I hope you're right."

"I am right, so stop thinking about this and focus on the game."

Saturday morning came rather quickly and the entire team was a bit nervous. James kept pestering Penny Thompson on the considerableness of her catching the snitch as quickly as possible. Sirius and Sam, the two beaters, kept lifting and exercising their muscles, which the girls liked to watch. Then, at long last--

"Team, let's go!" James said and they headed down to the Quidditch locker rooms.

"I cannot emphasize enough on the importance of this game," James said to his team in the locker room. "We are undefeated. We cannot let Slytherin beat us, we cannot let them score," he said looking at Casey, "we cannot let them strike us," looking at Sam and Sirius, "and we cannot let them win," he said to Penny. "We, are the best. Slytherin knows this, and they have been working their asses off to try and beat us." He looked at the six of them for a while, silently. "We are a team. When we go out onto the field, we cease to be individuals. We become excellent, impenetrable, skillful flying aces who command victory!" Smiles were beginning to spread across their faces. "We are Gryffindor. Nothing will get in our way, especially seven ugly and stupid guys who can't tell their left hand from their right. We will win," he said, with his fingers pointing in the air. It was quiet, no one said anything. They all looked up at James, adrenaline surging through their veins. "Now lets go out their and slaughter them!"

The entire team began yelling, shouting and whooping as they ran to the field gates waiting to be announced to the entire school.

"You sure have a way of firing everyone up," Sirius told James.

"It's the greatest part of the job, my friend."

Out on the field, everyone was ready to see the highly anticipated game. Commentating was Gryffindor third year Al Davis, who was very flamboyant.

"Welcome ladies and gentleman to the first Quidditch match of the season: Gryffindor vs. Slytherin! Onto the field now is the Slytherin team," and the Slytherins flew out of their gate and did loops around the field. The Slytherin students went crazy with cheers, the rest of the school remained silent.

"And now, ladies and gentleman, what you have all been waiting for, the five time Quidditch cup winners, Gryffindor!" The entire pitch went crazy with cheers as the team flew onto the field. Penny was the first and James was the last, looping around the field like wild eagles. James then went in front of the Gryffindor pitch and flew past them very fast, punching the air with his fist, as the students roared: "GRYFF-IN-DOR!" James had done that at every game since his third year and it was not a game until he led them in a silly cheer.

"You love doing that, don't you?" Sirius asked as he flew beside him.

"Don't you know it," James replied with a devilish grin. Then he flew down to the center of the field to shake Clinticks hand. It was good sportsmanship and a tradition for the team captains to shake before the game. Both of them hated doing it, I mean, it wasn't like they even tolerated each other; they were out for blood. James metaphorically, and Andrew literally.

The two captains approached, stern looks on their faces. When they grabbed hands they squeezed just a little too hard. James faked a smile and said through gritted teeth: "Your toast!"

"You're dead, Potter," Clintick said through his phony smile. The released hands and went back to their brooms, rising into the air waiting for the game to commence. Madam Hooch stepped into the center of the field to release the bludgers which went flying strait into the air. Then she took out the Quaffle and tossed it high.

"And the game begins!" Al Davies shouted over the loud speaker. "Captain James Potter takes the Quaffle and drives down the center of the field, knocking those ugly Slytherin beaters out of the way. He passes to Brian Johnson and he goes for the--Oh that must have hurt! Viktor Vancas of Slytherin rams Johnson and takes the Quaffle. He's flying fast ladies and gentlemen, he passes to Baines. Sirius Black sends the bludger his way, but misses, Baines goes to score and-- Nice save, by Casey Riley! This is her first year on the team, and she is doing great, not bad looking either, and she throws the Quaffle to James Potter! Potter takes it up the center, but is blocked by Robert Castle, who seems to be kicking him! This is uncalled for, ladies and gentlemen! Foul on Slytherin.

"And James Potter will take the foul shot. He is lining up for the shot, Dustin Shaw the Slytherin keeper is preparing for a tough save. James is looking left, and looking right, he is definitely thinking of a great strategy. And he takes the Quaffle, he throws left, No, he throws right! What a fake out! And Gryffindor Scores 10 to nothing!"

Sirius flew passed James and slapped his hand. Slytherin was given the Quaffle, and they tried their hardest to get it past the middle field, but Sam Moore, the other beater for Gryffindor smashed a bludger right in the shoulder of Robert Castle who in, dire pain, do doubt, dropped the Quaffle. James came up from behind him, snatched it, and headed the other way. The crowd went wild with screams and cheers for the excellent save.

James took the Quaffle down the center of the field; no one was in his way. He charged on Dustin Shaw faster than he expected, and put the Quaffle through the center hoop.

"Twenty-zero Gryffindor! Shaw passes to Baines who takes it up the left!" Al screamed. Sirius and Sam exchanged nasty grins, then nodded to each other. The bludger came pelting towards Sirius direction and he smacked it as hard as he could at Baines, but David Greene saved it and hit the bludger in James direction.

"James! Heads up!" Sirius yelled to James.

James saw the bludger pelting for his head, getting larger and larger as it came nearer. He ducked just as the bludger came upon him. He turned to look behind him and saw the bludger traveling the opposite direction.

"Ha!" he yelled, looking forward again. But he didn't see the second bludger as it bolted him in the stomach and not only knocked the wind out of him, but knocked him off the back end of his broom. He was really lucky that he was flying low, so he only had fall fifteen feet. Nevertheless, it hurt like hell.

The crowd panicked and let out sighs of grief and fear. The Slytherins were cheering louder than when their team entered the field. Snape couldn't help but hold his breath that James broke his neck and waited for him to move.

Sirius found the next bludger and shot it toward Clintick, with all the strength he could muster.

James got up slowly and shook his head. The crowd began cheering again, but the Slytherins started to boo. Remus and Peter were having a real tough time keeping Lily in the stands. As soon as James was struck, she almost lost control and tried jumping into the field. Now that he was up, she wanted to run to him. He fingernails were in her mouth, chewing them nervously.

While all of the Gryffindors were watching the state of their team captain, Slytherin had scored a goal.

"Slytherin makes a score after Clintick nearly killed James Potter, twenty to ten, Gryffindor," Al said with a little apprehension.

James stood up, a little disoriented and picked up his broom ready for more action. But he didn't get very far into the air. David Greene hit a bludger at him, this time striking him hard on the lower back.

"The Bloody bastards!" Lily yelled, much louder than she thought, because now all the Gryffindor students were looking at her. "What? That's horrible, it's cheating!" she yelled at them.

James fell again, but not so far. He managed to signal to Madam Hooch for a time-out. The entire team came down to meet him. They all looked extremely upset about all of this.

"James, they're out to get you," Casey Riley said. The rest of the team nodded in agreement.

"Look," James began, "I don't know what is going on, but we cannot loose. You hear me, we cannot loose."

"James, Casey's right, they have you marked," Sirius said. "They haven't sent the bludgers to anyone but you."

"Well, don't I feel special," he said sarcastically. "Here's the plan. Penny, no pressure, but you find and catch the snitch if it kills you. Sirius, Sam, try to keep Greene and Clintick off my back, Chris and Brian, we need to work some magic," he said to his team. "Casey, you're beautiful, keep it up."

Casey smiled, and with that the team broke and headed for the skies. James, Brian and Chris all headed out together towards the Slytherin side. At the moment Robert Castle had the Quaffle and he was heading towards them. He passed the ball to Viktor, who tried to fly under them, but James signaled for Brian to cut him off. It worked until Viktor passed it back to Robert, who throw it behind him to Cody Baines.

James had just about enough of this. He broke formation and nearly rammed Cody into the wall as he flew at him at top speed. Cody broke off and flew right. Then he passed the Quaffle to Viktor.

Sirius flew towards the coming bludger, and smacked it at Viktor. Viktor saw this coming and threw the Quaffle to Robert, only--

"Excellent interception by James Potter! Well I can tell you all that Vancas and Castle were not expecting that! And James has the Quaffle, he's flying fast-oooh, he dodges another bludger, and scores! Thirty-ten Gryffindor!" Al Davies yelled with excitement.

"Those fools!" Snape yelled to Douglas. "They're supposed to kill him! It can't be that hard!"

Back in the game, Brian Johnson scored another goal, bringing it back to forty to ten. Penny Thompson and Jake Ballard were both looking for the snitch high above the stands. But there was no sight of it.

James had the Quaffle again. He plowed through the Chaser defense that Slytherin put up. He faked Shaw again and put it through the left most loop, scoring 50 to ten. The Gryffindor students were going crazy; the Slytherins were swearing badly.

Desperate times called for desperate measures. Cody Baines rammed James from the left, nearly knocking him off of his broom. But this time, James was not going to stand for it. James lashed out and kicked Cody, who rammed him back. Then Cody grabbed James's shoulder and started tugging to try to un-broom him. James started punching him with his other fist, leaving only one hand on the broom.

Madam Hooch was blowing her whistle furiously. "Foul on Gryffindor!" she shouted.

"What are you talking about?" James demanded, "He was messing with me first!"

"You are not to punch out another Chaser, Potter, you know the rules. Baines take the foul," she said.

Cody looked at James with an evil smirk. Then he took the Quaffle and shot it through one of the Gryffindor goal posts. Casey tried her hardest to stop it, but failed.

"50-20, Gryffindor still in the lead!" Al said over the loud speaker.

"Come on, Penny," James said to himself, as he passed the Quaffle to Chris Muller, who was knocked out by a bludger just as he caught the Quaffle. Chris fell fast to the field; someone in the stands slowed him down with magic, and it was a darn good thing because he fell at least one hundred feet.

From the looks of it he was out cold. It was down to Brian and James to keep scoring. Viktor had taken the Quaffle and headed toward Casey, but James and Brian be-lined it over to her to try to stop him. Brian came at him from the left, James from the right, but Viktor managed to score.

"50- 30 Gryffindor!" James heard Al say. They're catching us, James thought. Penny had to find the snitch soon or they would loose their close lead. Another bludger came pelting for James's head, but he ducked in the nick of time. He caught the Quaffle and headed toward the Slytherin posts.

"Brian, cover me!" James said, as he tucked the Quaffle under his left arm. Brian circled around James trying to keep the three other chasers away from him. Then James's luck just got worse. Another bludger, hit by Greene, struck Brian on the arm. James could hear a snap as Brain let out a groan of pain.

"Sorry James!" he said with tears leaking from the corner of his eyes, slowly descending to the ground. He was all alone now. He flew as fast as he could for the goal, and scored.

"All alone, Captain James Potter scores for Gryffindor, 60-30 they still have the lead," Al yelled excitedly. "Hold on, Penny Thompson seems to have spotted the snitch! She's diving fast!"

Every ones attention turned to Penny's direction. Jake Ballard was not going to wait around, and he dove for the snitch right after Penny.

"Come on, Penny, you can get this," James said to himself. He couldn't take his eyes off of her.

"Heads up!" Sirius yelled as he came soaring above James and dove to his left to hit a bludger headed for James's head. Sirius smacked it the other direction and then looked at James, then Penny.

Penny was trying everything that she could to get her hands on the snitch, but Ballard was interfering. He kept ramming and shoving her, trying to get her out of the way.

"I have to help her," James said.

"How?"

"I have no idea," and James flew after Jake and Penny, having no clue as what to do. He came up to Jake, and tried to pull him away from Penny, but nothing did it. Then he tried moving in front of him, trying to veer him off course, but that too failed. Then Jake slugged him hard on the face, knocking James's glasses to the ground.

This is great. Now I can't see anything.

"James, help!" Penny hollered. But he could only see a red blur and a green blur flying very fast. James flew closer to the green blur, and started ramming him again. Just then Penny dived fast, her hand outstretched reaching for the elusive golden snitch.

"James, look out!" Sam yelled, as yet another bludger came at him. James pulled up fast and steep, as the bludger hit Jake Ballard in the ribs and knocked him out.

Penny grabbed the snitch and the crowd went wild.

"Gryffindor wins!" Madam Hooch said. Al Davis echoed her. Gryffindors couldn't contain the excitement. Even though James couldn't see very well, he headed towards what he thought was the middle of the field. Sirius, Casey, Sam and Penny all collided into a huge hug, and descended slowly to the ground.

Gryffindor students ran onto the field to congratulate their champions. James ran to Penny and hugged her.

"You did it, you were great!" he said to her. She smiled back at him.

"Thanks, but I couldn't have done it without you," she yelled over the cheering Gryffindors.

"I need my glasses! I can't see anything, I am missing our winning!" James said to who he thought was Sirius.

"I have them," he heard from the voice he loved more than any other voice. Lily ran into his arms and placed his glasses on his face just as she began to kiss him. He lifted her into the air and spun around in circles, still kissing her.

"Oh, get a room!" Remus said to them as he came onto the field. Lily slid down, but she was still level with his face, hanging onto his shoulders.

"You won," she said to him, gazing into his smiling eyes. "I was worried about you," she said.

"She was swearing James," Remus said grinning. James looked at Lily again shocked.

"You, you were swearing?" he asked her, still holding her up in his arms.

"They were trying to kill you. I think that I am aloud to swear for that, don't you think?" she said before she started kissing him again.

Sirius came over to his group of friends. Liz and Jade rushed over too. Jade ran to Sirius to hugged him and congratulate him.

"James, we won! We beat them with four players!" Sirius said to James. He reluctantly pulled away from Lily, and let her down to hug Sirius. Then Sirius hugged Lily, everyone was happy for everyone else...so it seemed.

"Hey, James, Sirius and Lily! Pose for a picture!" Liz Banks cried. James put his arm around Lily, who laid her head on his chest with both arms encircling his waist; Sirius on the other side of James put his arm around his shoulder. They all smiled into the camera to make a great picture. The crowd still going wild, James turned to look at Lily, put his hands gently around her face, and kissed her yet again.

Severus Snape looked at the two of them, burning with rage and jealousy. Then he turned and walked towards David and Andrew.

"What happened? He's supposed to be dead!" he shouted at them.

"Look, Snape, we tried our best! We even managed to knock him to the ground. It looks like you will have to steal her another way!" Clintick said to Snape, and stormed off towards the lockers.

Severus watched David and Andrew walk back to the locker rooms, and then he saw the rest of the school celebrating Gryffindor's win. No one could possibly understand, he thought. He was always beating him, at everything. Well, not this time.

"What are you going to do now, Severus?" Douglas asked Snape, as he was watching James spin Lily high in the air.

"I don't know," he replied thoughtfully. "I just don't know."

* * * * *

Many Gryffindors didn't wake 'til mid Sunday morning, due to the fact that they were up most of the night celebrating Gryffindor's win. Sirius, however, broke the record by finally rolling out of bed at 1:20 in the afternoon.

He went down the stairs, still wearing his black sleeveless t-shirt, and his gray sweat pants, expecting to find people rubbing the sleep out of their eyes, but found no one.

"Huh," he said looking around, "I wonder where everyone is." He walked over to the wall clock and saw that the time read 1:24 p.m. "My God," he said just as the portrait door opened.

"Look who finally go out of bed to see the sun shine," James said as he came through the door. Sirius looked at him, and smiled. James had a black and blue bruise just around his left eye, from the Quidditch match.

"Speaking of shining," Sirius said to him, "your shiner looks really bad. Have you seen Madam Pomfrey about that."

"Are you kidding?" he said to Sirius. "She over reacts to everything. She'd have me in there for a week before she'd let me out."

"So where is everyone?" Sirius asked.

"Hogsmeade. I was just there, and decided I had enough; thought I'd see if you were up yet. So what do you want to do?"

"How much time do we have before people start coming back?"

"Well, Lily and Jade are coming back around two, Peter's doing something with someone, I don't remember so don't ask, and Remus is spending some time with Liz, and won't be coming back til about five."

"Remus is spending time with Liz?" Sirius asked almost choking.

"Yep, she asked him to stay with her," James said as he grinned broadly.

"Okay, that's fine. I know what we're going to do with our, how many minutes do we have again?" Sirius asked.

"About thirty minutes," James said nodding his head. "So what are we going to do?"

"How is it that Remus...but what about...this is just..." Sirius went on for a while saying parts of sentences while looking confused.

"Are you okay?" James asked. "We're running out of time. We need to do something other than just stare at each other while we think of something to do. We're the dream team, remember?"

"I'm alone, James. You go off with her most of the time. We never do stuff anymore. I appreciate the generous half an hour that you dedicate to time with me, out of the past...two months, but that's not enough time to do anything," he said a little more irritated than he wanted to sound.

James looked at him for a while, not really knowing how to respond. "So what are you saying? You don't want me to see her anymore? I have to make a choice between my best friend and the girl I want to spend eternity with? Does that seem fair to you? Look, I'm real sorry that I found commitment and happiness with someone, and you haven't. But I'm not going to give her up because you want to go and blow something up. I won't. I love her, and I want to be with her as much as I can," he said as he looked on to guilty faced Sirius. "I love her, Sirius. I'll die without her. I know that things haven't been the same, and I'm real sorry. I don't want to lose you. You're my best friend, forever. No one else can be. But you have to understand why things are the way they are. She's just so amazing, so amazing, and I enjoy being with her. But I want to be friends with you at the same time, and it gets hard sometimes."

"I didn't mean it like that," Sirius said. "I know you think she's the greatest thing since the Nimbus series. I would never ask you to choose, friends don't do that. It's just not the same with Remus and Peter all the time. I miss you, man," Sirius started to fake cry, which made James smirk. "It's just, you know, when was the last time we set up Snape? Or the last time we roamed the school without supervision?" Sirius started to smile. "Just as long as we tell our grandchildren all the secrets of Hogwarts, and all our Quidditch plays, I'll be happy."

"We will, Sirius," James said seriously.

"You promise?"

"I promise. We'll be sitting on a porch, so old we cannot even remember the days of the week, and watch our great-great-great grandchildren play Quidditch, and our wives will holler at us to come in for dinner," James said smiling.

"We'll be old, but will still look good," Sirius said grinning.

"Of course we will. And so will our wives, not as good as us, but pretty nevertheless."

"Speaking of wives," Sirius began.

"Yeah, you need to find one? I've already got mine, where do you want to look?" James said.

"So you told her?" Sirius asked curiously. "You told her you loved her?" James looked at him sheepishly.

"Well... no, not yet. But I will. Someday," he said as he raised his hand into the air and shook it at Sirius.

"You should do it sooner than later, you know?" Sirius said as if he had done it one thousand times.

"Have you ever told any one other than your mother, that you loved her?" he asked.

"No, you're right. I know what you're going to say, and I won't argue with you, it's just...I think she really wants to hear you say it to her, that's all. And I don't think she wants it to be a perfect moment. She just wants to know," he said with great wisdom that he thought he had. "Hey, I'd appreciate it if you didn't mention this to Remus and Peter. Keep it between us," he said and James winked at him.

"Now, I think you need a girl with a brain."

"Definitely."

"But first you need to change out of your Pjs," James said pointing at Sirius's sweat pants.

"Right, first things first. Let me go do that. But you need to make a chart, of potentials. Your taste seems to be longer lasting than mine."

"Got it, now go change you idiot."

And Sirius went upstairs, glad to have his friend with him.