The next weekend was the final game of the Quidditch Cup. Slytherin versus Gryffindor. What a surprise. They were nearly tied for the House Cup; Slytherin was forty-nine points above Gryffindor with 550 points.
James Potter watched the stadium fill up with students. He smiled faintly, remembering all the games he had played since he joined the team in his third year. And here he was; Quidditch Captain. But, that was about to come to an end. He would be graduating.
Joshua Spinnet came up beside James. “What’s wrong? You look… I don’t know. Tense.” He looked closer. “You look like you’re about to cry,” he added, surprise and a hint of disgust laced into his voice.
James chuckled. “This is the last time I’ll ever fly around this pitch; last time I’ll see the entire school sitting in those stands.”
Joshua looked at James for a moment longer, but nodded and looked out over the pitch. He seemed to understand a bit of what James was feeling.
Suddenly, James turned to Joshua. “Technically, you’re not supposed to know until this summer, when you get your letter, but I’m making you Quidditch Captain.”
“Huh?” Joshua whimpered. James laughed at his distress.
“You’re going to be the Captain. You’ve come along rather nicely,” James said, putting a pompous-sounding drawl into his voice and he drew himself up to his full height. “And I think you’ll be able to keep the team in shape next year.”
Joshua whimpered again.
“You don’t want it?” stated James, pretending to be surprised. “Well, then, I guess I could give it to Autumn. She’s a pretty good little flyer-”
“NO!” shouted Joshua. The other team members and Samuel, who was helping with strategy, turned to look at Joshua with questioning looks.
“He thinks I’m going to give Captain-ship to Autumn,” claimed James, pointing to Joshua.
The slight girl looked up. Or tried to. She had been in the process of pulling her scarlet robe over her shirt, pants and padding, and when she looked up, the edge of the robe got caught on her locker door. With a gentle teasing, Cory reached over and unhooked the robes for the other girl.
“You’re going to make me captain?” Autumn asked, her voice shrill with surprise.
James laughed. “No, unfortunately I’m not, I’m sorry. None of you should know this until next year, but if you promise not to tell anyone…” James looked around the dressing room. Everyone shook their heads, and mimed crossing their hearts. “I’m going to make Joshua, here, the Captain.”
“Oh good! I wasn’t ready to be the Captain. Joshua’s a much better flyer,” admitted Autumn with a sigh.
“He’s a pretty good kisser, too,” admitted Cory with a smirk. Joshua blushed and looked down at the ground. James laughed, and clapped the younger man on the shoulder.
“Relax, will you? So you all agree with the decision?” James looked around once again at his team mates. The two second year Beaters nodded, as did Cory and Autumn. Antoine continued to lace up his boots; he was a seventh year and had no further say in who would be Captain; he had agreed about Joshua with James when the latter asked him for his opinion of the sixth year.
“Great.” James looked out to the pitch, and saw that it was full. “You all can still owl me for help; I won’t care.” He gathered up his broom and started to walk back to the door. “Oh, Sam; would you mind training under this dolt?”
Joshua spluttered angrily, but James ignored him. Samuel narrowed his eyes at Joshua Spinnet as if assessing him. The carefree smile that came across his face as he nodded indicated his agreement.
“Good. Joshua, when you hold tryouts, make sure you take a good look at little Samuel Donnelly. He’s a pretty good Keeper, but I think he’s got the potential to make a good Chaser as well. And it only took three snowballs to come to that conclusion,” said James, alluding to the snowball fight they had before heading to Hogsmeade for masquerade costumes.
Joshua looked over at Samuel, with an appraising look in his eye; the other teammates could tell that he was teasing. He walked over to the first year and pulled him off the chair. He walked around him, poking and prodding the little boy, pulling his arms and putting on a show. “I’ve seen him fly during practice; he seems adequate. I think he’ll do.”
Samuel grabbed the Quaffle sitting on the bench, and pushed it into Joshua’s stomach. The older boy let out a great gasp of breath, and doubled over. The other teammates laughed, and Samuel nodded once.
“Yeah… I’ll keep an eye out for him in tryouts.” Joshua’s voice seemed rather wheezy. The team laughed again, and Samuel nodded cockily.
Joshua straightened and threw the Quaffle back at Samuel. The brown-haired boy caught it easily before it smashed his nose. Joshua seemed disappointed. Before he had to say anything else to Samuel’s cocky visage, he turned and grabbed his broom.
“Let’s start this game, shall we?”
“I believe I’m the only one allowed to say that until next year, Spinnet,” James said menacingly
. Joshua looked guiltily up at James. He was a couple inches shorter than James; just under sixth feet.
“All right, guys,” James said, looking around slowly at his team again. “Last game of the year; for two of us, it’ll be our last Quidditch game of a school career.” James shared a glance with Antoine. “If we lose it, I won’t really care. As long as we play it to the best of our abilities.” James paused. “I mean, I would love it if we could win.” He paused so the others could chuckle. “But if we don’t, I don’t mind. Gosh, I almost can’t believe I’m saying that,” he admitted, pressing his hand to his forehead. His teammates nodded in agreement, but continued to smile. “Just… let’s give the school a game to talk about.”
The others cheered and brought their hands in for their customary cheer. They shouted ‘Gryffindor’ at the same time and, with their heads lifted, they walked out onto the pitch.
The game was a long one, and Cory Firion only let one Slytherin goal through, not that she wanted to. The Slytherin Keeper, however, let past thirty Gryffindor goals, stopping half as many as well.
After three hours of a taut atmosphere, the Slytherin Seeker finally caught the Snitch.
The game ended 160 to 300; Gryffindor won the game, and the Quidditch Cup. The win also put Gryffindor in first place to win the House Cup with 801 points. James thought that it was a splendid way to end the year; giving up the Snitch in the final game, but (almost) winning two Cups.
Lily would’ve been proud of him.
May passed quickly as it was filled with studying that the Marauders required to be broken by frequent trips outside, games of Exploding Snap or wizard’s chess, or just lounging in the common room.
A few weeks after the final Quidditch game, the final full moon of the school year hung over the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
Lily was left alone once more as James had to run outside to be with his mates that Monday night.
There wasn’t very much to do that night; only a couple of kids were caught in the hallways. She missed James on that slow night, but her mouth curled upwards when she realized just how she felt.
She was missing James, when this time last year she was only too happy to be almost rid of him for an entire summer. Oh, the difference a year made. She sighed, and leaned against the window. It just so happened to be the window where they shared their first real kiss. Her lips titled upwards again when she remembered that. She blocked out the events that followed directly afterward.
Lily pulled the necklace out of her blouse and fondled the charm. She had caught herself in the midst of daydreaming about her wedding before, each time seeing the face of James standing in front of her. He had looked incredibly handsome. She bit her lip and giggled.
She took a seat on the on the window ledge. She saw a very small dark shape move across the lawn. It disappeared under the Whomping Willow. The tree, which had been around for all their seven years, stilled quickly, and Lily watched for movement of James, Sirius and Remus. She didn’t see them, and figured they had performed a Disillusionment Charm. Then, she remembered the Invisibility Cloak.
She wished good luck to James and his dear friends, and got up from her seat. After finishing her rounds, she walked back up to her dormitory, took a quick shower, and fell asleep on the couch.
She was woken by a loud clattering. A soft curse came after, in James’s voice.
“James? Are you back?”
The door to the bathroom opened and James’s head and bare torso came into view. His right arm was being held across his waist; his left side was hidden from her view.
“Hey, Lils.”
He sounded tired. Lily stood and walked over to him. “Are you all right? Are you hiding something from me?”
“Um… what?” he asked, trying to sound nonchalant.
Lily pushed the door open so that all of James was visible. She gasped. Along James’s left side, hidden partially by his hand, blood caked his skin.
“Oh, James! What happened?” she asked, gently moving his hand away. A long gash”it looked deep, too”was under his hand, right below his ribs. She winced at the sight; James winced at the feeling.
“Moony got a bit out of control… ouch… He just scratched me; it’s not a bite.”
“I admit, I’m very glad to hear that.” Lily moved James to sit down atop a small stool beside the tub. “Wait here; I’ll go get my wand.”
James nodded, and Lily ran into her room.
“Don’t move, you silly!” Lily admonished as she came back into the bathroom and saw James wincing from his attempts to take off his shoes. She knelt down on the marble tile next to him. She swallowed before removing James’s hand from his side again. The wound was bleeding afresh, and her face screwed up. She didn’t do well with blood, but for James’s sake, she steeled herself.
Lily walked on her knees over to the sink and grabbed a rag. She soaked it in lukewarm water, and then commenced cleaning James’s wound. Once the blood was gone, she used her wand to heal the cut.
James sighed gratefully as the pain subsided.
“It might still bruise; I just wanted to close the cut.”
“That’s fine; as long as I’m not in danger of bleeding to death.”
Lily admired James’s ability to crack a gentle joke. She pulled his head down to kiss him gently.
“You’re all right, otherwise?” she asked, running her hands over his face.
“Yeah, I’m fine. Sirius got a bit cut up, but it was nothing too bad. Peter escaped danger like he always does. There’s more than one good thing about being a rat.” “And Remus?” Lily started to remove James’s socks. It caused a funny feeling to enter her stomach; it was a very wife-like thing to do. She also noticed that he had nice feet.
“We got him calm enough so that he didn’t try killing any of us again. It just took a bit longer than we would’ve liked.”
“Do you think some of his human emotions affected his thoughts as a werewolf?” asked Lily. “Like, can his fear of graduating make him a bit angrier as a werewolf?”
James thought for a moment as he looked down at Lily. “I don’t think he’s afraid of not graduating.”
“Perhaps not the fear of not graduating, per se. But the fear of what comes after.” She looked up at him again. “Life, and a career, and this War.”
James nodded. “I’m not positive. You know Remus; he can be secretive at times. But I wouldn’t be surprised if the emotions carried over.”
Lily nodded, and smiled as James stroked her chin softly. She had folded her arms across his lap, and was leaning against him. His gaze traveled over her face. Lily returned the gaze.
“What? Why are you looking at me like that?” she questioned, not unkindly.
“I was just thinking about everything we’ve been through. This whole year… It’s nearly over.”
“It’s been a crazy year.”
James chuckled sarcastically. “Really? I thought it went along swimmingly.”
Lily swatted his thigh gently. “I wouldn’t trade it for anything though.”
James nodded. “I agree. I finally got Lily Evans; why would I trade it?”
Lily narrowed her eyes playfully at James. “I finally got James Potter to act his age.”
James scoffed. “I’d like to think I did that on my own, thank you very much.”
“Oh, and Merlin’s my uncle!” retorted Lily. James glared at her.
They broke into laughter at the same time. James reached down to pull Lily up to him; he did it slowly so that he wouldn’t aggravate the cut. He wrapped his arms around her and hugged her tight enough to show his feelings, but not tight enough to hurt himself. Again.
Lily hugged him back, reveling in the feeling of his arms around her. It wasn’t the first time she had felt such peace and security, and it wouldn’t be the last. At least, she had a very sneaky suspicion that it wouldn’t.
A few minutes later, James pulled away, citing that he had to shower before heading to bed. Lily nodded, and left the bathroom. She curled up on the couch in the common room, her eyes closed as she waited.
James came and sat next to her minutes later. He pulled her close and together they watched the flames begin to die.
“What are we going to do? When we leave here, I mean?” asked Lily quietly.
James was silent. Lily was about to reiterate her question, thinking that he didn’t hear her, but then he spoke.
“We’re going to live.”
Lily’s heart swelled. “I love you, James,” she whispered, kissing the arm that was wrapped around her.
“I love you, too, Lily.” James kissed her temple gently and shifted closer.
Together, they fell asleep watching the flames die.
When two house elves came into the Head’s room, they saw the young couple curled up on the couch together. They looked at each other and sniggered. “Mopsy is thinking that the miss and the sir are in love.”
“Flopsy is thinking so, too, Mopsy.”
The two elves giggled again and started to tidy up.
.