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Pick-up Quidditch


Since September 1 was a Friday, the students at Hogwarts had the rare treat of their first days at the castle were free days. The energy of it filled the school halls and spilled onto the grounds. James, Peter, Remus and Sirius went back up to their dorm to collect James’s broomstick, planning to go outside and have a go at flying. In the bright sunshine outside, James quickly leaped onto the broom and took off into the sky, leaving the three of them running along behind him, like children following after a kite, all shouting and waving as they chased him along across the grass. He felt alive in the air and did a quick loop-de-loop before leveling off and enjoying the feeling of the air passing through his hair and over his face.

“Hey, nice flyin’ Potter!” Called a voice, too close to have come from the ground.

James looked ‘round and spotted Bilius and Derek, both hovering not too far from him on their own respective brooms. Grinning, James waved at them before turning and steering over their way. “Nice day for a go on the broom, isn’t it?” He asked as he approached, “Too bad the try-outs weren’t today! Blimey, I doubt any person in the world could possibly fly poorly on a day like this, ‘ey?”

“Doubt it,” agreed Bilius, smirking.

“When are the try-outs, by the way?” James asked, trying to sound as casual as possible.

Derek replied, “I haven’t booked the pitch just yet, but they won’t be too much longer. Reason being, I want to get the Gryffindor team in place before focusing too much on this whole school team job, you know?”

James nodded, “That’s a grand idea. Well - just - just let me know when they’re going to be, alright? I’m going to try out.”

“You don’t say?” Derek snickered, “I never would’ve pegged you a Quidditch player, James.” James was about to protest and remind Derek that he did actually know he played Quidditch, when Derek’s mouth split into a sarcastic grin.

“Don’t listen to him, mate,” said Bilius, “Of course he knows you want to play Quidditch. Bloody everyone who’s talked to you for more’n five minutes knows.”

James laughed. “Alright. Well, thanks. I’ll see you lot later, then?”

“Always do,” Derek answered and he watched as James spun off from them, effortlessly guiding his broomstick through the clouds.

James landed a couple moments later on the grass before the other Second Year boys and handed his broom off to Peter, who was squeaking for a turn. “There you are, Peter,” James said, grabbing hold on Peter’s hands and showing him how to hold onto the broom. He watched as Peter took off, rather wobbly.

The boys took turns on James’s broom for the better part of the morning leading up to lunch before going inside to eat. They had sandwiches and ice cold glasses of tea. James chattered on and on and on about the Quidditch teams and the hard work he planned to put into preparng for the rry outs. Once they’d finished eating, Remus excused himself, sick of all the Quidditch talk, and went up to the dorms, but Sirius, James, and Peter returned to the grounds.

The pitch was open, they found, and several other people had the same idea to go out to fly on the beautiful day, and the field was a bit crowded. Derek and Bilius were there, and several Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs, and even a couple of the Slytherins. Lily Evans was sitting in the stands with her broom propped against her knee, James noticed, but he waited until Sirius had pointed her out before going over to say hello.

“Oi, Evans, you having a go at flying?” Sirius called as he walked over.

Lily looked up from the book she had balancing on her lap - Quidditch Through the Ages - and saw the boys coming toward her. “I am,” she said.

“That’s a nice broom, that is,” said Sirius, coming up and running a hand over the fine twigs that made up the end of the broom. “Have you taken it up yet?” He asked.

“Not yet,” Lily admitted.

Derek’s voice suddenly broke through the general hum of talkative voices, “Hey Potter! You want to join us? We’re doing a bit of a pick-up game!”

James grinned, “Are you nutter, of course!”

“How about you, Evans? Black? Pettigrew?”

Lily jumped up, “Sure!”

“We haven’t got brooms,” Sirius called back, thumbing at Peter and himself. He turned to James and Lily, “You two have fun, though, we’ll watch from here. C’mon Peter.” Sirius pulled Peter along the bench and they found a good place to sit and watch the little game from.

James and Lily went down to the field, where Derek and the others had gathered together. The Slytherin captain, Alistor Mulciber and Derek Bell were picking teams and Derek motioned for Lily and James to join him.

“Oh my goodness,” Lily mumbled.

“What?” James looked ‘round to see she was looking over at the Slytherin pick-up team. And there among them was Severus Snape. He scowled back at James with a nasty frown. James scoffed, “Well we’ve got this game in the bag then, haven’t we, with that git flying for them.”

Lily turned to face James. “Don’t be such a stuck up toadwart,” she said.

James shrugged, “I’m only saying that our team actually has people on it that can fly for a damn is all,” he said. “What’s so toadwarty about that?”

“Boasting is toadwarty,” Lily answered, “And it’s all you ever do.”

“It’s called confidence, Evans,” James said.

“It’s called arrogance is more like, Potter,” Lily answered.

Derek ushered them away from the other team quickly, his face flushed with excitement over the impromptu game and looked over the students he’d selected. There was a pretty good mixture of Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, and Ravenclaws in the batch. He grinned ‘round at them, “Alright guys, we need to win this,” he said, “I’ve got a couple galleons riding on.” He looked about, “Let’s see… Alright, well, for the first bit here I’ll play keeper, since that’s what I’m best at. And… ok, Lily, you be a chaser. You’re going to work on putting the quaffle through the rings,” he explained.

“I know what a chaser does,” Lily said, nodding, excited as adrenaline began it’s way into her bloodstream. “I’ve been reading up.”

“James, you have a go as seeker.”

The thrill of excitement that coursed through James’s veins was everything. He nodded, grinning, “Absolutely.”

“Alex, you be a beater, and Penny, you’re our second chaser…” Derek went on assigning roles to each of the students in the cluster around him. When they’d finished naming all the positions, he turned ‘round to face the other team’s captain. They approached one another and shook hands and Derek said, “We’re playing clean, Mulciber, remember this isn’t for any house points at all, it’s just in fun.”

Mulciber grinned wickedly, “Of course it is.” They shook hands and Derek turned back to the team waving for them to go off to their respective places on the pitch.

From the stands, Sirius and Peter watched as James and Lily rose up into the air. It was as the other team was flying up to meet them that Sirius noticed Severus Snape on the other team and he chortled to Peter, “Oh look, Snivelly is playing. This ought to be interesting.”

Peter snickered.

The game commenced as Alice bell tossed the quaffle into the air from the ground below and released the other three balls from the case. The bludgers went speeding up into the game like bloodthirsty minions and the snitch seemed to shimmer and then disappear into the sky. James circled, watching the game commence and clutching his broom. He looked up and saw Severus Snape was doing the same and he called out, “Oi, Snape, are you a seeker, too, then?”

Severus pretended he couldn’t hear James, but he could. James knew it, too, by the way Severus’s jaw set. James grinned and spun a few fancy turns on his broom, showing off, and said, “How are you going to see the ball, Snivvey, through all that hair?”

“How are you going to see it, Potter, ‘round all that ego?” He snapped back.

“Ohh ho ho ho!” Laughed James, “At least I’ve something to have an ego about!” He zipped past Severus, dipping toward the ground. Severus followed, thinking he may have seen the snitch, but James only pulled out of the dive cackling as he did, leaving Severus behind easily.

He was on his way back up to hang above the rest of the play when Lily shot by, the quaffle under one arm, and easily threw the ball past the keeper for the other team and through the hoop beyond. Several shouts came from the stands. Sirius and Peter were on their feet and Sirius was pumping the air with his fist. Lily was flushed when she flew back down the pitch from the rings and quite breathless, “I think I rather like quidditch,” she informed James.

“Blimey, good goal, Evans,” he said excitedly.

She grinned.

A bludger came at them suddenly, hit by one of the Slytherins - Evan Rosier - and James quickly jumped between Lily and the bludger without thinking about it, taking a hit in his shoulder. He grunted in pain. Alex Tinnamin - who was playing beater today - quickly flew up with his beater’s mallet and sent the bludger off in return to Evan with enough force that Evan nearly fell off his broom with the strike as the bludger kept on bowling across the pitch. “You alright, Potter?” Alex asked.

“I’m fine,” James replied, “I can take a bludger hit with no problem!” He clutched the shoulder, though, as it was smarting quite a lot. No way was he going to admit how much it hurt in front of Lily Evans, though, and he quickly darted away to recover from the ache in his arm.

The longer the game went on, the more dirty the other team seemed ready to play. Alistor Mulciber was certainly not listening to Derek’s advice that the game should be played cleanly. Several times they made illegal action in the plays they were going and at one point Antonin Dolohov very purposely hit Bilius Weasley in the back with his beaters mallet when there were no bludgers anywhere about. Even with all of the dirty play, however, Derek’s team was still up on the points, thanks to Lily, who was a natural at Quidditch, and had scored several times against the Slytherin keeper.

Still, James knew it was important that he catch the snitch - and soon. Though his shoulder still hurt, he swept about over the others, his eyes peeled, closely followed by Severus Snape. He clutched his broom with one hand and stabilized his shoulder with the other. Severus hovered slightly below him, watching Lily as she tore down the length of the pitch, covered closely by Geoffrey Mulciber, who was playing Keeper. It was then, as Lily moved through the sunlight and her hair caught the rays of the sun, that a flash of gold caught Severus’s attention and for just a moment he hesitated, thinking it might have been Lily’s hair that flashed but no - there it was again - and his eyes focused on the tiny round ball and he dove for it.

“JAMES!” Screamed Peter from the stands, pointing his pudgey little fingers at Severus as he dove down - down - through the bustle of the game as Lily’s quaffle hit the rings…

James dove for it. He pushed his broom hard as he could, knowing he could outfly Severus Snape on the old school broom if he just leaned a little - bit - harder…

They collided just feet from the ground, the two brooms knocking into each other, sending both riders rolling onto the grass of the pitch and the little gold ball sweeping off across the grass. James leaped to his feet, using Severus for leverage, and jumped into the air, only just barely catching the snitch before it escaped completely, his fingers tightly closed over the ball’s wings as it flapped, eager to get away. “Got’cha!” James shouted, beaming.

Severus felt a wave of anger wash over him and he muttered, “Locomotor wibbly!” James legs instantly became jelly-like and he tripped over his own feet, slamming shoulder-first into the ground with a crunch that was quite gut-wrenching.

James let out a shout - unable to hamper the noise for the pain that shot up his arm. He only just managed to hold onto the snitch - and it was only because the hand that held it was the one that had crunched and he didn’t dare move a single muscle, for fear of how much it would hurt. “Bloody hell!” He groaned, agonized, as Derek, Alistor Mulciber, and several others - including Lily - landed on the grass. “Oh bloody hell, my shoulder!”

Severus was just getting up, dusting himself off, a seam in his robe torn from the impact of the two broomsticks, and glowering at James. “That was an illegal play!” Snarled Alistor Mulciber, angrily, “It doesn’t count.”

“Don’t be sore just because you didn’t win,” retorted Derek, “If you wanted to call every dodgey play that was done this go then you would’ve been thrown off the pitch ages ago. Don’t go calling penalties now you’re the one that’s wronged, Mulciber.”

The two boys squared off as though to fight and Bilius cleared his throat, “Both of you, that’s enough, or I’ll have to tell Madam Hooch and that’ll just muss up the whole Quidditch season… c’mon,” he grabbed Derek’s shoulder, “This isn’t worth the battle. It’s not an official game anyway,” he reminded his mate.

Derek scowled. “I won’t forget this, Mulciber. Just you wait --” he pointed at the Slytherin captain, “And don’t think I don’t know who your dirty players are - we won’t have any of that lot in the school team, either!”

Mulciber snorted, “I wouldn’t want to play with a bunch of ruddy mudbloods and muggle lovers anyway.” He looked pointedly at Lily, who had come to a stop just a couple steps from Severus, who she’d been about to check on before he’d very pointedly shook his head for her to stop.

Sirius and Peter had arrived on the field by then, and before Derek could have a go at Alistor Mulciber, Sirius said, “James’s hurt, we need to get him up to the hospital wing.”

Bilius pulled Derek back, “C’mon, it isn’t worth it.”

Derek kept his eyes on Mulciber as he and the reset of the students that were playing on his team helped James off the pitch and across the grounds. Derek was fuming as they climbed the stairs to the hospital wing. “Ruddy want to play unfair, do they? And in a pick-up game, no less. They’ll be sorry… bloody gits…”

Bilius took a deep breath, “S’gon be alright, Der… They’ll get what’s comin’ to ‘em… the whole lot of them. The bad guys never finish first.”

Derek, “Actually the phrase is nice guys finish last, but thanks.”

Bilius shrugged, “I don’t know the muggle slang, mate! None of that muggle jargon makes any sense!”