Hard Nut to Crack

Sirius quickly touched up his hair in a mirror in the corridor and casually sauntered over to a large group of giggling girls. As he passed, an excited whispering arose, which he knew could only be about him. He turned, with mock curiosity and looked at the girls, a quizzical expression--one eyebrow raised. The girls held their breaths...suddenly his face broke into a smile and he winked. As his back turned, they let out a fit of giggles and high pitched screams.

Sirius chuckled to himself. Not only was he irresistibly good-looking but he also possessed a sweet charm that no girl could resist. His great mood also resulted in the A he got in a Herbology essay, which he studied hard for. However this little fact was kept hidden because he'd rather have everybody believe that he passed without effort. Grinning widely, he departed for lunch.

He slipped into the seat next to James, who greeted him with a grunt. Remus was to busy wolfing down his mashed potatoes to respond, while Peter was just staring into space, muttering quietly.

"Fine! Don't say hi!" Sirius said, helping himself to beef stew.

Neither of them replied.

"So...thought of any fun pranks, guys? You see, I was thinking we should pull off a REAL good one, since the last one flew because of Remus' Lupidity...hahahahahaha!!!" Sirius cringed with laughter.

"You know, mate," James said, in a bored tone. "Laughing at your own jokes defeats the purpose. I thought you, of all people would know that!"

"Whatever, Potty!" Sirius replied, again yelping with laughter.

Remus looked up from his plate. "What the hell is WRONG with you today? You're WAY too happy for your own good. Are you sure you didn't chug a flask of Felix Felicis, Padfoot?"

Sirius shook his head and blew some kisses towards some fourth years, who were eyeing him curiously. His monstrous outbreak of laughter had caused quite an uproar. A moment of silence occurred as they all devoted their attention back to their plates. Suddenly, James felt someone tap him on the shoulder.

"What?" he asked, his mouth full of food. A tall boy was standing next to him.

"I was just wanted to remind you that Quidditch try-outs were rescheduled for tonight."

"Okey dokey," James said, giving him a thumbs up. He was especially excited about Quidditch because he was the team's new Captain.

Finally, lunch came to an end and they all made their way to the Gryffindor common room. The hallways were very crowded with people rushing to their afternoon classes. They were about to give the password as James noticed a shuffle of feet behind him. He looked over his shoulder, only to see a beautiful red-haired girl hugging her books, her green eyes shining like emeralds. Lily Evans. James' heart gave a lurch and he turned so that she couldn't see his deep blush.

"Nerfyarfs," said Sirius to the Fat Lady and turned to see what James was goggling at. As he too noticed the girl he went through the same ritual he did with every attractive girl: he gave her a dazzling smile and raised his eyebrows seductively. He was about to open the door of the portrait hole for her but James beat him to it.

"Ladies first!" he said triumphantly, beaming at her.

Lily gave him a thanking smile and disappeared in the girls' dormitory. The boys waited until she was gone before Sirius asked, "Who the bloody hell was that?"

James smiled dreamily. "Lily Evans."

"Prongs, mate, you're DROOLING..."

"What?" came the faint reply.

"Oookaaaay...time to goooo...James...JAMES????"

James didn't have any space in his head for Transfiguration (they were turning rocks into bagels). His mind kept on wandering to Lily's angelic face and how the light reflected so beautifully in her eyes and...

"POTTER!"

McGonagall's shrilly voice ripped him out his daydreams.

"You should direct your interests and your attention to your ROCK and NOT the back of Mr. Black's head!"

The class laughed. James looked at the rock that was lying on his desk, with confusion.

"Hey, Wormtail, mate," James asked. "What's the rock for?"

Sirius turned around before Peter could answer.

"Wer, supofffed fo furn ifff intof a bafgel!" he said, his mouth full of bagel.

James ignored him and searched desperately in his textbook for a spell.

"Terralabes!" a voice from behind whispered and the rock in from of James turned bagel.

James looked over his shoulder and saw Peter quickly stuffing his wand back under his cloak.

"Thanks a bunch, Pete!" James smiled, quite relieved.

The rest of the day was a drag and James couldn't wait until the try-outs. After dinner, he and Sirius walked up to the common room meeting up with Peter and Remus on the way.

"So," Peter started. "What are you guys doing this evening?"

"I have to study," Remus said, looking disappointed. James glanced at Sirius.

"Can you come and watch the try-outs, Padfoot?"

"Well, it's not like I have anything else to do...." Sirius said with a shrug. This made James significantly more cheerful and they both made their way to the grounds.

It was chilly as they stepped out onto the Quidditch place. The area was already crowded with people. James planted himself in front of the group and looked sternly about before he proclaimed loudly,

"Welcome to this year's Gryffindor Team Quidditch try-outs! Today you will have an opportunity to prove your skills and abilities as well as your discipline and determination. The ones who succeed will become part of the team, the ones who fail will slink away with disappointment!" He cleared his throat before going on. "I will not tolerate ANY SOCIAL BEHAVOIR WHATSOEVER! Discipline! DISCIPLINE is the KEY to success!" James bellowed. He paused for a moment to let this sink in, glimpsing at the now quite intimidated students.

"Lack of RESPONSIBILTY and DETERMINATION will also be SEVERLY punished. I expect you to work HARD and VIGOROUSLY and not to dawdle and CHAT!!" he spat, scaring a group of giggling girls causing them to whimper.

"THIS IS NO JOKE!!!!!!!!" James growled. "I also expect--"

His little speech was suddenly interrupted by a high-pitched shout of stifled laughter that arose from somewhere in the audience. Everybody's eyes, including James', directed themselves to the back of the group. There, rolling on the ground and spasms of laughter creeping up his throat, was Sirius, cracking up like mad.

"Sirius, can't you be SERIOUS for once?" James asked, weakly. He looked pretty pissed off. Sirius pulled himself up, still chuckling, and gave James a pat on the shoulder.

"No offense, mate, but I find it especially amusing when you try to be intimidating and stern. For a start you should just chill and give these kids some air."

James, still peeved, muttered, "Last time I checked, I was the Captain here..."

Then he turned to the confused students and smiled, " Okay, everybody! Let's get started."

The try-outs ran quite smoothly--James was pleased to tell that his speech, though harsh, had impacted everybody and had added to the general effort. The success of the day cheered him up greatly--it was the first audition day and he had already gotten a whole team, except for one chaser. He was just checking off the players he had chosen as someone tapped his shoulder. He glanced back and froze. Behind him, a broom in her hand and her red locks gently framing her pretty face, stood Lily Evans.

"Hey, sorry for being late...I was just wondering if the try-outs were still running," she said.

"Sure," James said, as if in a trance. "We still need a chaser..."

Lily beamed, which immediately caused James' ears to redden. Embarrassed, he reached for his broom and beckoned her to follow him. James released a Quaffle and flew over to the goal post. Lily grabbed the Quaffle and threw it forcefully towards the round goal ring. 'Nice try,' James thought to himself as he swiftly caught it out of the air. With an encouraging smile he passed it back to her. The next throw, Lily was more cautious. She scored by aiming the round ball under James' broomstick and through the golden hoop. He tried to block it but it slipped through his fingers and threw him off balance for a few seconds. Resuming his place he returned the Quaffle to Lily. Lily scored five out of six of the next tries, which replaced the smirk on James' face to a look of surprise.

"Okay, one more!" James yelled and returned to his goalpost. Expecting an aggressive attack from the front, James fixed his attention to the right side, where Lily was hovering in midair. However, he was surprised to see her throw the Quaffle in the other direction towards the other goalpost. Before he could react, the large ball had bounced off of the consecutive goalpost and soared right into the hoop he was guarding. Flustered with astonishment, he ruffled through his untidy hair and then descended towards the stands, where Lily was already waiting for him.

"Whoa," he said with mock relief, wiping his brow. "You have some temperament! We'll be needing it on the team." He gave her a wide smile and winked.

"So, I'm in?" Lily asked. James nodded and Lily gave him a stunning smile that made his heart flutter. They packed up the Quidditch equipment and both made their way up to Gryffindor tower. They talked about classes, teachers and most of all, Quidditch. James was glad to have someone to talk to, who was just as devoted to the sport as he was. He did talk a lot with Sirius about Quidditch but Sirius got distracted really fast--by food or some hot girl he had recently snogged.

As they approached the staircase, Lily noticed that James was gently touching the back of her upper arm. She chose to ignore this and went on to talk about the Quidditch Cup and how she was glad Malfoy had a grudge against Ashley, a really good beater, and refused to pick her at the try-outs.

"Well, everyone knows he's not the smartest when picking out a team," James replied. "I mean, he picked GOYLE for Keeper, just because his body mass would fill up the whole goal hoop. Sadly, his reactions are so sluggish that anyone could outwit him!"

Lily giggled at the thought of Goyle's massive butt blocking the goal.

"Hufflepuff is said to have really good players this year," Lily said. "Do you think we have a chance?"

James gave the password (Caperf) to the Fat Lady before he answered, "Sure--with you on the team!" He slipped his arm around her waist, pulling her closer. Grabbing her face, he kissed her fiercely--his lips moving hot against hers. Lily's friendly expression vanished and she wound herself out of his grip. Backing away from him, a look of pure disgust on her face, she narrowed her eyes at him,

"So, IS THIS why I got on the Quidditch team so fast??? You just wanted an excuse to get COZY with me?? I thought you were DECENT but apparently I was WRONG!"

She wanted to punch him but a second look on his muscular snitch-catching arms convinced her otherwise. Instead, she glared at him enraged, and furiously stomped into the common room and into the girls' dormitory. Shocked by this sudden outbreak, James stared dumbly after her until he was awakened by a tsking. He glanced up to see the Fat Lady shaking her head disapprovingly.

"No girl will warm up to you if you're too sudden. Besides, how unprofessional of a Quidditch Captain, to make himself enemies on the first day of tryouts. Tsk tsk tsk!"

James lowered his head, ashamed. DATING advice from a PAINTING??? How sad. He trudged into the common room with a disappointed look. Remus, who was sitting on one of the poofy couches, looked up from his books.

"Gosh, what happened to YOU? You look like you've just eaten a hippogriff!"

"It's the first time a girl has refused me," James stated in a pitiful voice. Remus chuckled and gave him a friendly pat on the shoulder.

"Don't worry, you'll get over her as fast as you did when you dumped all those other girls..." Then he muttered under his breath, "Oooo...I wanna meet this girl...she has some gut!"

Meanwhile, in the girl's dormitory, Lily had plopped herself on her bed, after hurriedly changing into PJs. Then she crawled under her covers as quickly as she could and pulled the blanket over her head. She stayed like this a long while until she felt someone pat her on the back and whisper, "Lily? Everything alright?" It was her friend Fiona.

"Mmmpf," was the muffled answer. Fiona gently pulled the covers from Lily's head and sat on the bed next to her. After a moment of silence she said, "So when ARE you going to tell me what's wrong?"

Lily sniffed and sat up. Then she told her everything that happened, from the tryouts to the passionate kiss in front of the portrait hole. Fiona listened patiently until she finished and then replied, "I can understand how you're feeling and I know it's hard to deal with disappointments like these--but you have to be strong. I mean, you're a pretty girl and if you don't stay strong, you'll get hurt. So next time you see Mr. Buff and Sexy Quidditch King, you will SHOW him how you feel!"

Lily smiled. Nothing could ever dampen Fiona's optimism or break her strong will--she was just too stubborn! Unfortunately, the situation wasn't as easy as she put it. Lily's thoughts constantly strayed to James' soft lips as he pressed them towards hers and, though she hated herself for it, she had to admit that she had returned his passion for a second or two.