Let’s catch up a bit, shall we? Both groups of students made it through their first week all right despite the fact that half of them were a bit disoriented. But this weekend something big is happening. No, wait not big something HUGE is happening. The Quidditch Cup matches are set for this Saturday. No problem. Both the Potters can play right? Wrong. You see both of them can play all right, but they play different positions. James is a Chaser while Harry is a Seeker. How will this unfold?
James was sitting in the Common Room with a dazed look on his tired face. It seems he had stayed up all night thinking about today’s match. Ron came bounding down the stairs his red hair flying in the breeze even though there was no breeze. It seemed he had ruffled it to make it look worn from the wind. He noticed the purple bags underneath James’ eyes. His glasses only made them magnified ten times. “Ah Harry? You look a bit tired. You sure you’re up for today?”
James seemed to snap out of his daydream at that precise moment. “I’m fine-Just-can’t-play-Seeker,” he murmured dully.
Ron’s eyes grew wide as he put an arm around James’ shoulder. There were other students in the room at the time so the Harry thing had to stay. “Look, Harry. You’ll do fine. You’re never nervous.”
“Right,” was his simple reply as Ron led him towards the portrait hole. He had to support him all the way down to the Great Hall and once they arrived there the whole Gryffindor table erupted with applause. This only made James feel worse as he slumped on the bench next to Lily.
Lily had to hold in her laughter. She had never played Quidditch in her life, so she wouldn’t know the pressure. But today she would find out what those pressures were. “So, you ready for the match later, Ginny?” Hermione said cautiously.
“WHAT? I play Quidditch?” Lily stammered as she spit her pumpkin juice out of her nose in surprise. This seemed to make James perk up a bit because he then returned to his favorite pastime of abusing Lily.
“What’s a matter Evans? Been a witch all this time and you still can’t fly a broom straight?” Ron cast a sideways glance at Hermione before sneezing into the bowl of pudding he was eating while Hermione remained completely calm and collected as usual. The remark seemed to leave a bit of a mark on Lily however because she picked up Ron’s bowl of pudding and slammed it into James’ face making his glasses go flying.
James just sighed and pulled the bowl off of his face before licking the remaining pudding off of his face. Ron retrieved his missing glasses and handed them over, but not before telling him that he had sneezed in that pudding. James reacted by coughing uncontrollably and making a very good impression of throwing up but the other three knew better then to believe him. Meanwhile the whole mass of students sitting at the Gryffindor table was staring at them with wide eyes.
Ron shrugged it off and stood up waiting for the other two to follow as he headed of to the Quidditch pitch. After changing into their scarlet Quiddtch robes the Gryffindor team sat down to listen to yet another pep talk from yet another captain. This year it was Katie Bell the only remaining original Quidditch team member besides Harry. This year’s pep talk was extremely long and boring resulting in Lily curled up like a cat across Ron’s lap and James’ head lolling back and forth on Ron’s shoulder.
After realizing that half of her team was asleep, Katie cut her speech short and led them out onto the field. Three fourths of the stands were decked out in red and gold all cheering “Go, go Gryffindor.” Yes, even though Gryffindor had beaten Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw this year they couldn’t bare to see Slytherin win the Cup again. But there was still that highly noticeable section of green and silver all hissing and singing their favorite tune ‘Weasley is our King’ as well as the newly added verse about Ginny.
Ron knew better then to take this too seriously. He had played fine last year with this stupid song as well as all of this year but it was a bit different for Lily. As the Slytherins burst into “Weasley is our King. Weasley cannot score a thing, she cannot hit a single ring, that’s why Gryffindors all sing Weasley is our King.” She turned a violent shade of purple A bit odd to call her a King isn’t it? It’s all part of the insults of Slytherin House. Her face showed her anger more then anything.
“What a load of rubbish,” she muttered under her breath as she fingered the Cleansweep Seven in her hand. James looked a bit insulted as well as they had added a verse about Harry.
The sea of green and silver then burst into “Potter is a witch. He cannot even see the snitch, he’ll never ever catch the snitch, that’s why Slytherins all sing Potter is a witch.” Sure it was poorly written but insulting all the same. James’ face turned an eerie pale color as he ran his hand down the smooth handle of the Firebolt. Ron on the other hand was laughing so hard he was crying. He wiped the tears from his eyes quickly because of the death stares he was getting from James and Lily as well as the rest of the team.
Just then Madam Hooch’s whistle blew. The two teams assembled on the line marking half the field. Katie stepped forward to shake hands with the Slytherin captain who was of course a guy. They never let girls play on the Slytherin team. From what Ron could see over the head of James and Lily it looked as if both of them were attempting to crush each others’ fingers, but neither of them showed any sign of pain. Time seemed to stand still for a moment while James caught Draco’s cold grey eyes. He was determined to catch that snitch and prove himself-or rather Harry’s self- to him.
At that, Madam Hooch released the Bludgers and the Golden snitch. James’ eyes followed the glint of gold intently as long as possible before it disappeared. Then, as one she blew the whistle and threw up the Quaffle. As one fourteen broomsticks rose into the air as Lily caught the Quaffle in midair. Ron hovered anxiously in front of the goal posts as he watched the Quaffle’s progress down the field. James on the other hand was circling the field for that one hint of gold that was the snitch. It seemed Malfoy was doing the same because he was right on James’ tail, literally. He had a hold of the tail of the Firebolt as he flew behind him smirking. “Having fun, Potter?” Draco taunted him in his annoying drawling voice. Down below you could hear the heated moans of the Gryffindor supporters calling for a penalty as one “HOLDING!”
Laughing lightly James replied, “Actually, this is rather fun.” And with that he turned the broom sharply towards the ground making Malfoy go down with him. Being Malfoy he didn’t have the brain to let go and just went plummeting to the ground. James pulled out of the dive swiftly but Draco couldn’t seem to let go and went flying face first into the manicured grass below.
Meanwhile, Ron had just blocked another shot from the Slytherin Chasers making the score 30-10 Gryffindor. He tossed it skillfully to Katie who passed it to Lily who shot and… missed again. There was another groan from the red and gold in the stands as Slytherin came down and scored again. The score was now 30-20; this was still a very close game and James had just seemed to realize that it was for the Quidditch cup. He started frantically circling the field again and noticed a glint of gold below. He dived quickly down on top of one of the Slytherin Beaters and it turned out to be a gold watch. The Beater seemed to notice his presence then because he slammed him in the nose with his bat.
Now with a bloody nose he flew back to the Gryffindor side of the field and hovered next to Ron. “Is this always this brutal?”
“Depends on who they’re playing,” Ron shouted as three Chasers started bearing down on him. He made a wild dive in front of the hoop but missed making the score 30 all. With his ears glowing red he tossed the Quaffle back out. “It’d be good if you caught the snitch soon…”
At the moment James was a bit preoccupied with thoughts of being a Chaser on this team. They would have had the lead if he was Chaser. But he wasn’t he was the Seeker and he had a job to do. He let out an odd yelp as he noticed Malfoy diving for something: something gold. He accelerated on the broom as fast as he could. He was just behind him, he was neck and neck, and he had pulled ahead and then hit the ground with a THUD. Malfoy was laughing above him. “Ever hear of the Wronski Faint, Potter?” It seemed Draco was still sore about the whole dive thing earlier. He pulled a candy bar out of his pocket wrapped in gold paper. So that was what he had seen.
Fuming, James took off again at full speed. His ears were throbbing but he could still hear a chorus of “Weasley is our King” the original version. He chanced a glance back at Ron who had been knocked by a Bludger leaving the goal posts wide open. What were these beaters thinking? James thought angrily as he looked at the Slytherin goal posts. They all seemed to be celebrating the goal that had put them in the lead.
James groaned as he saw Malfoy slapping all of the other Slytherin team members on the back. James rolled his eyes irritably and noticed something down by the goalposts: the snitch! He hovered over there slowly so the other team wouldn’t get too suspicious and then his fingers closed around the golden ball. It felt cold to his touch as it struggled to get free with its silver wings fluttering. He could feel the excitement in the stands as Lily, Ron, Katie, and the other members of the team bombarded him and they flew slowly to the ground in a big scarlet and gold lump.
As they stood in a line waiting to receive the Cup they were to shake hands with the enemy -er- I mean the other team. James reluctantly extended his hand to Draco and they shook but not soon after did the buzzer in James’ hand go off giving Malfoy a small shock. Draco angrily shoved his fist at James’ already bleeding face but he dodged it resulting in the other Slytehrins bearing down on him. He could feel their anger but he could also feel his team’s breath behind him and backing him up. He felt Katie’s hand on his shoulder as Madam Hooch blew her whistle.
“This is unacceptable! You all receive detention!” she yelled at the Slytehrin team.
Smirking lightly James waved back at Draco as he and Ron held the silver Quidditch cup. “You did it, Harry!” Ron laughed as they and the rest of the team were lifted up by the sea of red and gold now spilling from the bleachers onto the field. Lily was next to Ron and she began laughing.
“It’s a rush,” she panted. “But I don’t think I ever want to do it again.”
Ron grinned and exchanged a glance with James. He then ruffled Lily’s hair a bit much to her dismay as they were carried through the oak front doors, but before the entered the Great Hall James hit his head on the top of the door. “Ow…” he muttered as he rubbed his head. This was definitely going to be a night to remember.