Not Your Ordinary Quidditch Match

Not Your Ordinary Quidditch Match

Gryffindor had not lost a Quidditch Match since Lily's third year. The night before a game, the energy and electricity in the Gryffindor common room was unmatched to anywhere else in the castle. Students ran around with red and gold banners and hats that belted roars of mighty lions. The Gryffindor Quidditch team became the stars of the evening. They were given the prize seats by the fire and offers for "help" with their homework. Everyone was downright jolly the night before a match, except one person.

Lily Evans hated Quidditch matches. One more reason for James Potter to have his fellow students obey his beck and call. James Potter became the glory of all glories the night before a match. Especially the night before a match with Slytherin. Not only did Potter become unbearable, but the noise level in the common room increased three-fold to the point where studying and homework were no longer possible.

Tomorrow just so happened to be that match of all matches: Gryffindor vs. Slytherin. So Lily sat in the farthest corner of the common room with her fingers stuck deep inside her ears and a book propped up in her lap. She wore a scowl to condemn all scowls upon her face.

On the other side of the common room, James stood on a small table reenacting last year's battle with Slytherin in front of a blazing fire with Sirius doing the commentating. A wide audience had gathered chairs and many of the first years sat on the floor transfixed.

"The closest game in years! After almost three hours of play and no sign of the Snitch, Gryffindor leads by a mere 10 points," Sirius bellowed to the crowd. "That was when Potter spots a speck of gold on the other side of the pitch! You think those are ordinary glasses of Potter's? No! They are top class Snitch finders!"

James gave the crowd a dashing smile and raised his eyebrows deviously. A few girls in the crowd sighed, and James ran his hands through his hair.

"Potter flattens himself against his broom and sets off at lightning speed to the opposite side of the pitch, but not before a Bludger hits the back of his broom...," Sirius continued as James became momentarily distracted by a flustered Lily crossing the common room. Her bright green eyes gave James a glare that should have turned him to stone. James suddenly felt sheepish atop the table, but being trapped by the crowd, there was nothing he could do. Lily clutched her book to her chest and climbed through the portrait hole.

James and Sirius left the common room not long after their little show. Sirius claimed that, "his star needed his rest before the big day." Climbing the spiral staircase, Sirius noticed James had lost the perk he'd had earlier that evening.

Remus sat in the middle of his four-poster with parchment strewn everywhere.
It had just been a full moon, and he was busy catching up on missed assignments. He looked up as the two came in and gave a weak smile.

"Had enough already?" Remus was surprised James had left the festivities downstairs so soon.

"Oh sod off," James scowled and went over to his trunk to pull out his night clothes.

"Prongs. What went on down there? You're living the life, basking in your finest Quidditch moments with the help of yours truly. Suddenly you look as if a dementor just floated in and is sucking the life out of you. What the bloody hell happened?"

"Maybe I just realized I was acting like a self-absorbed git."

"You just realized that? Remus and I have been discussing that one since third year," Sirius joked, but came to sit beside James.

"You should have seen the look she gave me, Sirius! I wanted to summon my invisibility cloak and disappear," James said as he smothered his face inside one of his pillows.

"Who Lily?"

James rose from the bed and threw the pillow at Sirius.

"Yes, you wanker! Who did you think I was talking about?"

"James, please calm down," piped Remus from across the room. "Sirius and I are trying to help. Is Lily still down there? Do you want to talk to her?"

"No! She's not down there! She left the room because of me. She gave me that look and left. I don't know where she is, and I highly doubt she'd listen to me even if I tried to talk to her."

"So what if you were showing off a bit tonight? You have a match tomorrow! We were just trying to get you confidence up," Sirius shouted. He got up from the bed and began to pace. "Can't a guy get pumped for the one big match of the year? What is wrong with Evans? What exactly is her problem?"

James was silent and staring at his feet as Sirius spoke. Remus left his mounds of parchment and came over to join James on the bed.

"What you need to do James, is show Lily how much you care about her," said Remus.

"How do I do that?"

"I have an idea," Remus said with a grin.

"James! You lazy prat, wake up!"

Sirius shook James violently while Remus tore open the blinds to reveal a sunny cloudless morning.

James groaned. He'd been up all night with Remus and Sirius planning his surprise for Lily.

"James, you better hurry up. You have exactly twenty minutes before breakfast is over," said Remus.

"What!"

James leapt out of bed, grabbed his robes, and skidded on his socks all the way to the bathroom.

Sirius shouted, "And he's off!"

Remus and Sirius hardly had to wait before James shot back out of the bathroom.

"I'm bloody starving!"

And with that, James was out the door with Sirius right on his heels.

Somehow, Sirius had managed to convince McGonagall to let him be the commentator for today's big match. Sirius was absolutely beside himself at the opportunity, but some of the students doubted his ability to stay neutral.

"Witches and Wizards! Ghosts and Professors! On this fine April afternoon, I invite you to take part in the match of all matches. Gryffindor vs. Slytherin! I am the one and only Sirius Black and will be taking you through the game today. And to all my lovely adoring ladies, I will be available after the game, just outside the Great Hall...."

As Sirius' voice boomed over the Quidditch pitch, the stands were filling with the last of the Hogwarts students. Lily Evans was among them, and being pulled by one of her peers, Pamela Patil.

"Come on, Lily!"

"I'm going! I'm going! You know I hate these matches! I don't know why you insist on dragging me to them," Lily pouted as she climbed higher into the stands.

"Who else would I rather go with?" Pamela batted her big blue eyes at Lily. "Well, on second thought, I would go with Sirius. Who wouldn't go with him? It's a shame he's commentating today."

"You're kidding!" Lily stopped climbing and clenched her fists.

"No, I'm not. He begged McGonagall and she gave in," Pamela picked a row with a few empty seats and gestured for Lily to join her.

"That's it! I'm leaving! It's bad enough having to watch Potter gloat before and after the match, but I'm not going to sit here and listen to Black glorify his every move!"

"No! Lily! Wait," Pamela shouted as she grabbed Lily's wrist. "Please don't go! You owe me after I helped you in Transfigurations! You never would have changed that bowl into a fish if I hadn't stayed up all night with you!"

Lily closed her eyes and her shoulders slumped. Pamela had a point. She yanked her wrist free from Pamela's grasp and sat down next to her in the stands.

"There is no way you will get me to enjoy this game, but I will sit here with you."

"Oh! Lily, I love you! Thank you so much!" Pamela gave Lily a huge hug. "I promise not to go on about how wonderful Sirius is. Is that a deal?"

Lily turned to Pamela and managed a smile.

"And the players are entering the pitch! Look at them! The finest athletes of two houses gather to compete. This should be quite a match!" Sirius' voice penetrated the stands and the crowd turned their attention down to the vast green lawn.

James walked out onto the pitch. He looked distracted and nervous. He clutched his wand under his scarlet robe, and mumbled faintly under his breath.

The teams shook hands, or rather exchanged firm menacing grips and took their position around the chest of balls. At the whistle, the teams rose, balls flew and the match began.

"Look at them take off! Some magnificent brooms out there! The acceleration is amazing! Cynthia Hanson of Gryffindor has possession of the Quaffle! She dodges Confucius Marcs of Slytherin and heads down the pitch towards the goal! Meanwhile a nasty Bludger is hit Hanson's way and she passes to Becca Johnson. Hanson dives to dodge the Bludger, and Johnson makes her way closer to the goal where the hulking figure of Crabbe sits waiting..."

Sirius wasn't doing such a bad job so far. Lily didn't mind listening to him. He was quite entertaining actually!

"As we take our eyes away from the excitement momentarily and move higher in the skies, we can see the one and only, my best mate, James Potter circling above! In a desperate search for the Snitch, pressure looms upon him as he is ultimately responsible for whether Gryffindor wins or loses this match!"

Lily had spoken too soon. Pamela gave her a nervous side-ways glance before returning her attention to the game.

The game went on for another two hours. Lily eventually began to examine the tips of her hair for split ends. She decided she liked the look of it in sunlight. It was normally a rather dull scarlet, but the sun's rays gave it shiny copper highlights.

Lily was suddenly forced back to the game when Sirius' voice grew from a boom to a resonating thunder.

"Potter is forced to do an almost vertical dive! How he manages not to slide off that broom, I can't imagine! He reaches... and the Snitch is caught! I repeat! The Snitch is caught! Gryffindor wins!"

Lily sighed and turned to Pamela who was on her feet cheering.

"Can we go now? The game is bloody over. I don't care to see James do his victory lap around the pitch."

Pamela gave a scowl, but nodded.

Before Lily could stand to leave, Gryffindors behind them began to shout.

"Hey! What's Potter doing?"

"I dunno! Is he hurt?"

"No, he can't be!"

"Then why is he landing in the middle of the pitch?"

Lily stood, but not to leave. Her eyes focused on the center of the field where James had landed and was unusually still. He remained on his broom, but reached behind him to pull out his wand. Muttering under his breath, colorful sparks and gold glitter began to spit from his wand. As he rose, the sparks and glitter spread forming a bright amazing show in the middle of the field. James had disappeared from view.

Then, instead of Sirius' booming voice, a light whimsical tune filled the stands. The music grew louder to cover the dull curious murmur of the students.

James had moved to the far left end of the pitch, and his broom began to emit thick red smoke. James and the magnificent rainbow sparks began to move, leaving a trail of red smoke behind them.

Gold and silver glitter now covered the entire field. The rest of the Quidditch players were standing off to the side, also covered in glittering dust and speechless.

Every member of Hogwarts had their eyes glued to the sky. James' trail of red smoke stopped briefly, but then began again, several feet away in the sky.

The minutes dragged on, and the crowd grew more excited when they began to understand what James was doing.

He was sky-writing. James was spelling a message out across the Quidditch pitch in bright red smoke.

Lily's heart began to pound. The first few letters were "I lov."

Pamela looked at Lily out of the corner of her eye and began to wring her hands.

Gryffindors around them chattered excitedly and stole glances down at Lily. It wasn't exactly classified information that James had a crush on her. But he wouldn't dare take it this far. Would he?

As the letters formed, Lily's face began to change color. The blood creeped upwards. Her ears went first, but they were safe underneath her hair. Then the color moved to her cheeks. First, a pleasant rosy hue, but as her first name appeared above the field her face caught fire. Within moments, the words "I love Lily Evans" had spelled themselves out across the field in brilliant red smoke.

The crowd erupted. Lily finally became so red that her freckles disappeared and her hair looked a dull scarlet in comparison.

James emerged from the cloud of smoke and sparks, and took a sweeping flight around the pitch, but slowed when he came to the Gryffindor section. He scanned the crowd, and finally his eyes found her. He was smiling but Lily found it different somehow. The crowd didn't notice, but Lily saw that it was not cocky and boastful. His eyes were uncertain and scared. When he spotted Lily, he did not swoop in closer like she would have thought. He did not taunt her but searched for some sign that what he had done was alright by her. The problem was, Lily didn't know how she felt.

James' pause in front of her in the stands was brief, and without a sign from Lily he turned away and dived down to the center of the grassy pitch. The crowd continued to cheer and Sirius' voice boomed once again through the stands announcing that the game was over.