James and Lily: A History

Chapter 5: Scheduled Meetings

When James walked into the Great Hall earlier that morning to grab some toast before visiting Remus, he looked towards the enchanted ceiling and saw no sign of sunlight.Swirls of grey and midnight blue clouds clashed against one another, creating cracks of thunder. He left the hospital wing feeling considerably better about Remus a few hours later, but as soon as he got onto the courtyard, all contentment vanished. Sheets of rain poured down from the skies, and he'd have to play Quidditch. Pulling in a breath resolutely, James started his struggle against the attacking rain as he made his way past the Quidditch pitch to the locker rooms. It was going to be impossible to see anything in this weather.

"Team," yelled Mike Mitchell, Keeper and Gryffindor Quidditch Team captain. "We don't like playing against the Slytherins, and this kind of weather makes the whole fiasco even worse. So play hard, and finish the game as quickly as possible. Potter, Flores, Foutine--focus on getting those Quaffles through the hoops. Noveed Abil--find that snitch before Regulus Black does. Frome, South--protect our Seeker and Chasers from getting unseated by those damn Bludgers, and I'll try my best to prevent those gits from scoring. Are we all ready?"

"Yeah!" cheered the team, fresh with determination to beat the Slytherins.

"Alright, let's go," said Mike, leading the team outside into the stormy Quidditch Pitch.

Gripping his broom tightly while rain pounded on his back, James kicked off hard and flew high into the air, hoping he didn't splash any mud on his teammates. Immediately, he saw the blurred image of Kristen pass the quaffle to him. James reached forward, craning. His fingers were completely frozen already. The tips barely grasped onto the ball; he tucked it harshly by his side, wondering wearily how his body would stand even five more minutes. Alright, James thought through chattering teeth, let's show those Slytherins.

Ducking bludgers and dodging the Slytherin Chaser Carly Sincil, James threw the quaffle with all his might to Vivian who was hovering high above the Slytherin goal posts, just like they practiced during scrimmages. Before DeGrasse could cut him off, James kicked his broom, sending DeGrasse spiraling into the rain. He sped to get in position by Vivian in seconds. Vivian dropped the Quaffle into James' hands. He zoomed towards the left goal, quaffle in hand. Predictably, the Lestrange blur jumped to block, and James quickly shot the quaffle through the right post.

"... AND POTTER HAS SCORED THE FIRST GOAL! GRYFFINDOR LEADS BY TEN POINTS!" shouted Frank Longbottom's muffled voice through the microphone. "And now it's DeGrasse with the quaffle. He passes the quaffle to Sincil, and Carly drops it from a bludger pelted by Frome. Nice bludger work there Frome! It's Flores with the Quaffle now... come on Vivian... ah! Cut off by Rodolphus. Now it's DeGrasse back with the Quaffle, and he's flying towards the Gryffindor goal posts. Can Mitchell save it--?"

The stifled moan from the Gryffindors huddled under the large umbrellas signified the first goal scored by the Slytherins. The score was now 10-10. Furious that DeGrasse had caught up already, James aggressively weaved in and out of the Slytherin chasers and beaters to use his diversionary tactics against Lestrange. This never gets old, James thought excitedly, struggling to see in the rain. "POTTER SCORES! Gryffindor is up by 10 points again. The rain sure seems to be making this a tough game!" yelled Frank into the microphone, so the huddling crowd could hear him.

Although James and Logan couldn't see each other through the rain, an unspoken competition had emerged: after each goal James scored, Logan scored another one in return, making James even more furious and determined to outdo Logan. The Gryffindors were finally leading by forty points--190 to 150, as Mitchell had succeeded in blocking the last four goals attempted by Logan.

"POTTER SCORES AGAIN! Oh, he's ahead now with four goals in his mini-competition with Logan. Potter has twelve goals, while Logan has eight. Actually, not anymore--three goals. Gryffindor leads by thirty points--190 to 160," finished Frank hoarsely, losing his voice.

Despite his adrenaline, James' vision started getting blurrier, as he was completely exhausted battling through the rain. It was getting difficult to hang onto his broom and catch the quaffle at the same time. He licked his frozen, blue lips, as he soured higher into the sky to look for Kristen.

Watching the blurred figure of Kristen score the next goal for Gryffindor, James turned his broom downward and saw two figures racing each other in a dramatic dive below him. Drenched in water from head to toe and his glasses getting blurrier every minute, James prayed Abil would catch the snitch. The world seemed as frozen as his fingers while the two seekers flew. After two agonizing minutes, the whistle blew.

"ABIL CATCHES THE SNITCH! GRYFFINDOR WINS 340 to 150 points!"

Prying off his wet Quidditch robes, James grinned from ear to ear. Not only had he won the first Quidditch match of the season in a ferocious storm, but he'd beat Logan by three goals, compared to only one goal in their last match for the Quidditch Cup in their fifth year, thanks to Mitchell's excellent keeper tactics. Before leaving, Mitchell congratulated his teammates on an excellent job during the stormy match, advised them all to take a hot shower as quickly as possible to avoid catching a cold, and reminded them there was still practice on the following Monday. Groaning, the rest of the team muttered their consent and gathered up their bags and equipment to return to the Gryffindor common room As he was about to leave, James just barely remembered his promise to Sirius--he had to get a date for Hogsmeade immediately after the Quidditch match ended. Very reluctantly, James asked Kristen to wait for him, and after everyone left, he turned to look at her rosy cheeks and pretty light brown eyes.

"Kristen, uhm... I was wondering... would you... want... to go to Hogsmeade with me... on Halloween?" asked James awkwardly. I can't believe I'm asking someone else besides Evans. This feels so--so--wrong. It's always been Evans in my dreams.

"Sure James!" answered Kristen delightedly, her rosy cheeks turning bright red as she blushed. "I would love that."

"Yeah," responded James. Maybe the date would actually be fun.

"Want to walk back up to Gryffindor Tower with me?" asked Kristen, smiling warmly. "I can't wait to sit in front of that fireplace."

"Sure," said James, putting an arm around her shoulder and walking out of the Quidditch locker room. Wow, thought James, She's not even flinching. Grinning at the novelty of it all, he made a mental to thank Sirius when he would see him tonight for the useful piece of advice. This is definitely a change for the better.

"Ms. Lily Evans!" exclaimed Roxy angrily, tapping her foot impatiently as Lily entered the girls' dormitory, drenched in rain. "Where have you been? It's been an hour since Kyle asked you to borrow you from us for a 'few minutes.'"

"Oh Roxy, I just had the best thing happen to me!" said Lily, flopping down onto her bed with a grin on her face. "Kyle Murray just asked me to go to Hogsmeade with him on Halloween--."

"WHAT?" shouted Roxy excitedly. "As a date right?"

"YES! He said he wanted it to be a date, unless I had any objections," said Lily sitting up, unaware that her sopping, long red hair was dripping water onto her bed sheets. "And then we just huddled beneath an umbrella in the stands and talked until we realized we had to get back."

"Awww... Lily that's so cute!" said Alice, enthralled and listening to Lily as though she was telling a dramatic love story.

"Yeah, so what about you Alice? After doing the announcements for that Quidditch game, I doubt Frank could even talk!" joked Lily, taking a towel from the foot of her bed and attempting to dry her hair.

"Oh, he asked me last week. Did I forget to tell you guys?" blushed Alice, looking away and suddenly becoming very interested in her fingernails.

"NO! Alice, you have to keep us up-to-date on these things. For example, when Nick Fye asked me out to Hogsmeade last week, I told you guys minutes after I agreed," clucked Roxy, suddenly jumping on Alice's bed to purposely scare her.

"Actually, it was more like seconds," said Lily, combing through her hair in an attempt to disentangle the knots. "You sprinted towards us in the Great Hall and shouted 'guess what!' I'm sure he heard everything Roxy."

"Okay, so now we're going to quadruple date right?" asked Alice.

"Quadruple date?" said Lily confused, as she jumped off her bed to join Roxy and Alice. "There are only three of us, so how is it quadruple?"

"Because Potter asked Kristen, and she wants to join us," said Alice, hopping up and down on her bed, her round face brimming with glee.

"Really?" said Lily in temporary disbelief, her mouth falling open. "Wow, that's really cool. For once, he's not bugging me about Hogsmeade."

Lily blinked, and promptly began laughing with glee at the miracle that had just happened.

"Yeah..." said Alice, looking away from the laughing Lily rolling on her bed. I wonder if James is doing this to get over Lily, Alice thought. And if he did, it's definitely one of Sirius' stupid suggestions. "Okay so quadruple dates right?"

Passing out the tests, Professor Icthius grinned malevolently, doubting any of his students could ace this test, even the rambunctious and arrogant Potter and Black. It was two days before Halloween, and he was testing them on everything they'd learned since their summer reading to the very last bit of material he taught them yesterday. The exam contained sixty questions asking for exact ingredients and their measurements or the number of stirrings for special potions, complex principles, and a practical question that was different for each student. Try to cheat now, Professor Icthius chortled mentally.

Lily was working furiously through the test, as she had studied. The problem for her was not knowing what to write, but working inside the two hours to finish the test. Although there were only sixty questions on the test, most of the questions branched out into four more subpoints, such as: 3.) a. Give the exact ingredients for the Polyjuice Potion. b. Why might someone attempt to stir such a potion? c. What are the effects of taking the Polyjuice Potion. d. If I wanted to increase the number of hours the Polyjuice Potion would last, what would I have to change in the ingredients?

Evil he is, Lily thought as she scribbled her answer for the fortieth question, another one that was a pain in the arse because it branched out into five parts. 'The Draught of the Living Death causes someone to fall into a deep Evans, Enjoying the test?'

"Ahh!" Lily shouted, suddenly dropping her quill and causing many heads to turn in her direction.

"Ms. Evans is there a problem?" said Professor Icthius, glaring at her through his cold, pale blue eyes.

"Sorry professor," answered Lily sheepishly. "My hand--er--cramped up."

The words, 'Evans, Enjoying the test?' faded and reappeared again, 'Smart Evans. Hand cramping up. What a lame excuse.'

'Who are you?' Lily scribbled back.

Two rows back, fifth seat in the row right of you.

Turning her head surreptitiously, Lily saw Logan momentarily give her an amused wink before returning to his test, writing hastily and biting his lower lip to wear a look of deep concentration.

What do you want? If you can't tell, I'm kind of taking a test right now.

Aren't you a good little girl?

No, unlike you, I just have my priorities straight.

Well, we'll see. Just wanted to remind you--October 31^st. Halloween. 11 o' clock. Heads room. Make sure no one is following you.

Fine. Can you leave me alone now? What are you using anyways?

Whatever you say Evans. I'm using a Tricking Quill. Brilliant invention. By the way, do you know the answer to number fifty-two?

No, Lily lied.

Waiting a few more minutes before writing another word on her parchment, Lily surmised that Logan had finished writing on her test. Realizing she only had forty five minutes to answer the remaining ten questions and do the practical part, Lily cursed at Logan and focused solely on surviving through the test.

Lily had shrieked, and then looked towards Logan. Watching Lily from the corner of his eye, James knew her hand hadn't cramped up, as it was too obvious Logan was playing some practical joke on his Evans. No, not his Evans, because Sirius had told him Murray asked Lily out to Hogsmeade, and it produced an abysmal effect on James, namely a deep, life-altering depression. When the test was over, he turned his test in right after Lily--Stupid git, James thought, besides the test being long, it was a cinch. What a good waste of two hours, James thought.

"Evans!" James shouted, running to catch up with Lily.

"What Potter?" answered Lily sharply, turning abruptly as she recognized the voice from the countless times James asked her to Hogsmeade.

"Was Logan giving you a hard time?" asked James, panting from sprinting up the stairs and down the hall to catch up to her.

"No," said Lily defiantly, although she felt guilty lying to James--well she felt guilty lying to anyone. "It's none of your business Potter. My hand cramped up."

"Well--"stammered James. "If DeGrasse gives you a hard time, you tell me and I will..."

"Potter, how many times have we been through this?" said Lily in a bored voice. "You. Are. Not. My. Knight. In. Shining. Armor. And. Never. Will. Be. Therefore, leave me alone," Lily finished, poking James' shoulder at every biting word she said.

Turing away, James watched her long, bright red hair disappear down the hallway. He wondered why Lily had lied.

"Prongs! Guess who Moony and Wormtail asked to Hogsmeade?" said Sirius, catching up to James on the way to the Great Hall.

"What?" asked James, caught-off-guard.

"Well, Moony finally had the guts to ask Vivian Flores out to Hogsmeade," said Sirius, elbowing Remus and causing him to blush. "And Peter asked Michelle Lee, and she was really nice so she said yes! You lot all got dates this time! I don't have to worry about you tailing on my dates for the first time!"

"You're taking someone?" asked Peter incredulously. "You never said anything."

"I never have to Wormtail," said Sirius, smirking. "I'm taking Amy Amalia. I know, I know what you all are thinking. Whatever happened to Sirius' three-dates-in-one-day system? Well, some girls found out and were upset about it, because you know girls are always talking to each other. So, it's just Amy and me this Halloween at Hogsmeade." Sirius shrugged, taking a seat at the Gryffindor table and pouring himself a glass of pumpkin juice.

"Wow, Sirius Black taking only one girl on a date." replied Remus dryly in mock shock. "Wow..."

Chapter 5: