Blood Status || Marauders Era

Chapter 73|| A crush

It was a crisp January, no wind, but no shining sun either, only clouds. And yesterday, it had snowed badly, so there was a chance of that today. But overall, it was quite good conditions for playing Quidditch, as there was no wind, and it wasn't swelteringly hot. James had trained us all until we could do no more a night ago in preparation for today, and last night he had said we needed a long rest and to lift ourselves up for today.

Fabian and Gideon along with Natasha, James and I would be playing again but this year, there needed to be another Chaser and another Seeker since the last two had left Hogwarts. Niamh and Richard were good additions to the team but we had to get new blood, we couldn't run on no Seeker and two Chasers. So, James put on try outs and we ended up with Mason Goldstein as Chaser, and Gabi Warren as Seeker.

Mason Goldstein had apparently a famous Muggle father but none of us really cared much, no matter how confident his bragging was, the team was nearly full with Purebloods, but Gabi was Muggleborn and she still didn't know his father. Then, Mason talked about his mother who got all O's on her NEWTS but still, we didn't care. The brunette was only on the team for his Chasing skills, not his excessive smarts for a fourth year.

Or sharp jawline, which was a rather odd thing for him to point out.

Gabi Warren was quiet, she was nervous a lot of the time, and she stayed silent during team activities, but when she was on the pitch she thrived. The short haired blonde was obviously not thinking about all of her worries when she was flying, and it seemed that she always had fun trying and usually being successful in catching the snitch. The third year had very good skills, knowing she'd only been flying for three years.

They had only been training for four and a half months but since James was put into Captaincy, they had trained as hard if not harder than the rest of us, so much so that they were ready to be in a game two months in. However, we were now currently all sitting in the changing rooms, brooms in hand, Quidditch robes on, listening to James' speech, or what he called a motivational speech.

"Right, gang, we do have new faces, I hope you aren't as worried as I am right now. You have to do well or training will be more difficult and it will reflect badly on me as Captain, get it? So, do what you do best, or what you want to do best, and win that shit," James said, loudly exclaiming the last part. Fabian and Gideon high fived him while Natasha and I shared a look, Gabi had gone a bit green.

As we walked onto the pitch, all of our team was greeted with the familiar sound of cheering and booing alike, there was a very large divide in houses when it came to competition. The team and the crowd was also introduced to the usual Leon Jordan's voice, welcoming us on and giving a commentary of who was playing and general chat. Then, the Slytherin team walked onto the pitch, they were smug since we didn't win last year, but we were even more determined now.

"They look really determined on the Gryffindor side, the new faces look ready to do their job too, after the really sad loss last year, Gryffindors are back to beat everyone's arses," I heard Leon comment.

The whistle blew when James and Malfoy shook hands and I heard Leon's familiar, "And they're off." His commentary was no longer necessary for me to hear, I needed to be fully focused on the game and catching and scoring with the Quaffle, it was sad that I couldn't do something as trivial as listening to someone talk but focus was compulsory.

The game didn't start well, the weather was a great help to our players, our teams soaring and making complicated movements all around the pitch, whether they were avoiding bludgers of catching the big red ball. I had so far only touched the Quaffle once, Slytherin had largely been in possession of it for the first five minutes. They had also scored twice, giving them a twenty-point advantage.

Suddenly, everything went faster, Crabbe hit a bludger purposely at James and so, he took a penalty after confirming he was well enough to continue. He scored. The ball was then passed and intercepted by us Gryffindor Chasers; we were back in our element. I was imagining that it was just training and the only people watching me was my team as I scored for the first time this game.

"She's back in the game everyone. That's Athena Pattinson for Gryffindor there," Leon's voice carried from riding on the back of the wind. For some reason, his voice and conformation I had scored gave me energy. Within ten minutes, I had scored again. Twice. Then, the whistle blew, it was almost too immediate, too soon. It felt like we had been playing for ten minutes. But no, the snitch had been caught and it had been caught by Gabi.

It wasn't that none of us had faith in Gabi, it was just very surprising how she quietly and calmly caught the snitch without freaking out or throwing up, she looked very nervous back in the changing rooms. "How the fu-" "Language James, there's children!" James just laughed at me and jumped up and down, I could feel his positive energy, it was his first win as Captain, that did look good for him.

"Well done you lot, there'll be a party in the common room now, come on," it was Sirius. It was scary how quickly he had gotten down here from the stands, considering that there must have been fifty Gryffindors surrounding us trying to talk to James, most of them being first and second years.

James and I gave each other a look, grateful for an excuse to get out of the limelight of the younger years, they were quite tiring to talk to, and as much as we loved the attention, first years were a nightmare to deal with when they were excited.

Opening the portrait hole, myself and James came face to face with a lot of Gryffindors, most of them fifth year and above but there was some sneaky younger students. There was also a lot of noise, a lot of stolen food (presumably from the kitchens) and some bottles of butterbeer and Firewhiskey. It seemed like a typical Gryffindor party, the only exception being that Sirius was the DJ.

He was starting to play some David Bowie song with the record that Remus got him for the Christmas that had just passed. There was a lot of recognition from Muggleborns and Half-bloods of the music, but what was more entertaining was the reactions from the Purebloods to a lot of the Muggle music. The reactions were divided between confusion, recognition and enjoyment. 

"Have a Firewhiskey!" Sirius shouted to me over the noise of the crowd of fifth year Gryffindors near where we were stood. I grabbed one hesitantly, it was nice but it was also school tomorrow so it wasn't the wisest decision. "Thanks," I said, taking a sip and bracing my body to get used to it, I hadn't had a sip of this since the last time we snuck out under the invisibility cloak.

I excused myself and let out a breath I didn't know I was holding in, there was a funny feeling in my stomach but I put it down to Firewhiskey and winning a Quidditch match. The only reasonable thing left to do was to talk to Lily and see if she could diagnose whatever was going on with my heart and my body, I assumed she reads a lot about different things so I had hope.

"Lily, I need to talk to you, I feel funny," I told her. She looked concerned at me, then glanced at my Firewhiskey and grabbed the bottle, placing it on the table closest to us. I laughed shortly, "I've only had one sip, it's not the Firewhiskey. It's something I'm feeling, it might be an illness, I don't know. I just talked to Sirius and that was when it started, my heart was kind of jumping and it felt like it was being ripped apart, and then I went a bit dizzy and my breathing was.."

I demonstrated how I felt with my hands, it was the only way I could show and explain exactly how I had felt, instead of worrying, Lily grinned, "It started when you talked to Sirius? Random question Athena but, have you ever had a very serious crush on someone or really liked someone? Properly?" I shook my head, not that I recall, I hadn't really found anyone right for me before.

Lily then said something which I heavily tried to deny, "Are you sure Sirius isn't making you feel like that? Not in a bad way but... do you perhaps have a tiny crush on him?" 

I shook my head, my hands, and tried to repeat the word no as many times as was humanely possible, "I can't like him, it's forbidden. He's supposed to be like, off limits, in a best friend kind of way, I'm not allowed to like him like this. In fact, I hated him about one and a half months ago. I can't."