Mischievous-A Marauders Fanfic

21-A Bad Day For Quidditch

"Okay. I'm worried he suspects we're up to something."

James sighed as they left the common room and headed down the stairs.

"Nash isn't stupid, you know" he pointed out. "You've been acting really weird around him lately. And you're his focus. It's obvious he knows something is up."

Sephy humphed.

"But seriously, please sort out your emotions, Pygmalion" James commented blandly. "It's bleeding awkward for the rest of us."

"There's nothing wrong with my emotions" Sephy replied tightly, as they reached the bottom of the moving stairs and set off for the covered bridge and the Quidditch pitch.

"Then why are you being like this, Perce?" James demanded. "Where's cheeky Persephone gone? Why are we all of a sudden faced with bland looks and nervousness?"

Sephy humphed again, and didn't speak until they reached the training pitches, no matter how hard James pleaded with her.

"Fine" she snapped, as they stood in the broomstick tent. "If you really must know. I'm bloody terrified, just like Halley is. I'm scared of keeping things from Nash, I'm scared of the Lethifold, I'm scared because Halley's scared-James, she fought that thing off with a Patronus that wasn't even corporeal. And she's still bloody terrified of it. She doesn't show it. None of us do. I'm also scared because-" Sephy's words caught in her throat, and she leant on her broomstick, swaying.

James waited patiently.

"In January" Sephy carried on quietly, so quietly James had to step forward a little to hear her. "In January when I dueled Snape in the corridor. He could have killed me if Kennedy hadn't come. You saw the spell he used. What it did to Halley-and it only glanced her arm. If that had gone through my chest or my neck-and it could have, you saw how helpless I was..."

"And now we're going up against people with the same intent but more powerful" James muttered, and Sephy nodded.

"I think you needed that off your chest" he continued, trying to lift the mood a little. "Perce, sit down."

Ignoring the benches, Sephy sat with a bump on the floor. James sat on a nearby bench.

"You don't have to come" he offered. Sephy shook her head frantically, holding back tears and looking up.

"I can't not come."

"Fine" James sighed. "Get up. Come and hit some tennis balls at me, Perce. Please?"

He held out his hand. Sephy grabbed it, scrambling up, and the two of them took their brooms and made it out onto the pitch.

"About time!" Nashville shouted at them.

"Sorry!" James yelled back. Beside him, Sephy winced.

"Take these" the Quidditch Captain ordered, passing a bat to Sephy and some tennis balls to James when the pair got close.

"Warm up" came the command. Passing the bag to Sephy as he mounted up, James couldn't help but feel like Nashville was being a little bitter today.

Up in the air, Sephy was struggling a bit. The wind was cold and strong, and every now and again she'd get buffeted about a bit due to her small frame. But she dutifully kept smacking tennis balls left and right for James to catch, and it seemed he wasn't on full form either. Below, Nashville was carefully levitating the poles and the sandbags out of the store cupboard. Sephy saw this and cursed. Agility drills for the Chasers and Seeker. Power drills for the Beaters and Keeper. Lovely.

When Nashville called his team down with a piercing whistle, it didn't take long for the poles to rearrange themselves in the air in a beastly obstacle course between the two sets of goal hoops. There was a collective groan from everyone.