Wonderwall || James Sirius Potter

9.

James had awoken nervous, the first quidditch match of the season was today and it was Gryffindor versus Slytherin. Previous years James had been very excited to beat Slytherin into dust. Now he found himself hesitant and he blamed his new found friendship with Cassie.

James' friendship with Cassie was still new and since he enjoyed her company he was anxious that a fight would occur all because of a Quidditch match. James felt distraught and couldn't help but blame Cassie for it. When she walked in and gave her usual perky 'Good morning!' James snapped back at her,

"Is it?" Cassie was a little startled by his response to her greeting, but she smiled kindly at him anyway.

"Sure, we'll have a friendly, competitive game of quidditch. You're going down Potter!" Her chuckle made James feel entirely better about his worries.

"Please, Gryffindor will beat Slytherin into a pulp!" James jeered and stuffed bacon into his mouth. His previous nerves were slowly being forgotten.

Cassie waved her goodbye to the boys wishing Fred and James "Luck." and clarifying after that she meant bad luck of course, with a wink. She'd only gone over to wish them a good morning and spew a few friendly insults. Both of these things caused James to feel increasingly better about the game.

After his team was ready James gave them his newly prepared pep talk.

"I don't care what team we're facing, all I care is we beat them." He eyed each teammate and added as an afterthought. "Oh, and use the techniques we went over in practice. Fool proof those are."

The team let a whoop as they exited the changing rooms. Fred clapped James on the back.

"Best before match speech ever." He winked and followed the rest of the team.

Upon entering the pitch the noise was deafening. The crowd was cheering, booing and screaming. Some people were clamoring excitedly about the game and other were just yelling to make noise. It was exhilarating.

"I want a nice, clean game." The very old Madam Hooch warned as she did each year. For once though, Slytherins and Gryffindors might listen. It wasn't entirely likely, but you never knew when competing Captains were friends. "Captains shake hands."

Cassie and James grasped hands in a friendly matter, Cassie winked at James and gave his palm a quick squeeze. Then hands were released and brooms were mounted. The whistle blew and the players took to the air, chasers zooming around with the quaffle almost immediately.

James and Fred sped around and protected their team. They stopped bludgers from colliding with teammates and propelled them to the threats on Slytherin team.

James was forced to keep hitting the bludger away from Wood, as he was Flint's main target. James hit the bludger towards the back of Flint's head. . Fred was aiming bludgers at Zabini, who kept ramming his full body into Caroline Creevey.

"Hey lay off my sister Zabini!" Chris called as he accepted the quaffle from Zabini and scored.

"Thanks bro!" Caroline snatched the quaffle after it'd been scored with and soared to the other side of the field and scored to a loud cheer in the green part of the crowd.

"Brother and sister competition down there folks." The commentator called over the crowd. Usually that kind of scene would cause James endless amounts of humour . However, James wasn't paying attention to any of that anymore.

"The snitch, Malfoy has seen the snitch!" That's where it all went wrong. Cassie was diving for the snitch as Wood followed behind her, attempting to catch up to her.

Flint was an idiot; thats the first thought James had. The second was 'Shit' as he watched the bludger whizzing toward Cassie's chest. His last thought was screamed aloud.

"NO!" James dived forward. Maybe he was ridiculously stupid, maybe he was too brave or maybe he had a death wish. Whatever it was, it caused him to fly his broom between Meg and the bludger hit by Flint the dumbass.

SMASH!

Blinding pain,

falling,

blackness.

"James you're such a sweet idiot." He'd heard the soft, humoured voice as his head swam, trying to escape the blackness. He awoke to blinding light, his hands flew to his eyes and covered them. He groaned.

"Finally! You're awake!" Fred's voice was much too loud and caused James to clutch at his head and groan again. Another voice shushed Fred.

"Pomfrey said he almost got a concussion from the bludger."

"What happened?" James inquired in his confusion. He blinked, allowing his eyes to become used to the bright light. He saw his three friends seated beside him. Cassie on one side, Fred and Alfie on the other. His brother was there too, standing at the end of his bed.

"Flint threw a bludger at Wood, but he miscalculated and it was flying straight at Cassie. Then you decided to be incredibly dumb and jump in front of the bludger. It hit your bat and the bat smacked you on the head." Albus explained with irritation. He took the seat beside Cassie rather angrily.

"You're supposed to swing the bat mate." Fred informed him.

"It was very sweet of you to protect me." James grinned slightly at Cassie's words. His headache had to be worth that sweet and caring look she fixated on him. "Plus all the Slytherins love you now. Heard you're invited to the celebratory party later." Cassie's grin grew and James' turned into a scowl.

"Next time let it hit her." Fred whispered conspiratorially.

"Next time I'll aim it at her myself." James grumbled. He never liked losing a game of quidditch, plus his head was throbbing unbearably. He didn't think he could deal with the teasing his friends would want to lather upon him. Perhaps at a later time, but now all he could think of was his throbbing head. Luckily, Ms. Pomfrey came in at that moment and shooed the others out.

Ms. Pomfrey was the daughter of Madam Pomfrey, the nurse who'd been at school when James' dad had gone. Ms. Pomfrey was very similar to her mother judging by his fathers descriptions of her. Ms. Pomfrey was short, and had short brown hair that she kept in a loose bun, she had a right temper too. She always insisted on being referred to as Ms. as her mother had been Madam.

"You again." She huffed at James. He changed his mind, it wasn't so lucky that she'd come and scared off his friends. He'd prefer Cassie's face over Pomfrey's snide remarks even if the latter meant his head would stop feeling as if it was splitting itself in half . "Drink this."

She stuffed a drink into his hands and watched him gulp it down quickly. James had learned never to let the awful medicines last and to always get rid of them as quick as possible. He made a face at the bitterness that managed to touch his tongue, but soon his head was cool and light. It no longer throbbed like a rave party was happening inside of it, this he was very thankful of.

"Sleep." Ms. Pomfrey ordered him.

"But-" James wanted to argue. He felt better and all he wanted to do was complain about quidditch to his friends.

"No buts, just snoring." Her look dared him to argue, he almost did. To be honest though, he was extremely tired and sleep did sound fantastic, even if he had just woken up. He closed his eyes and leaned back. Napping was always good.