"You owe me a galleon." Terrence laughed as he chased a wildly laughing Lily through the corridor.
"In my defense, no one thought the Beauxbatons Champion would come out first." she smirked, turning a corner as she looked back and pulled a face at him.
Her hair was a mess from all the climbing up and down from the willow tree, and her robes were slightly dirty from the short trek through the woods, but Lillian Ariana Smith had never felt more alive.
Apparently, that fun was short lived because she bumped into somebody right that moment. Terrence however, had rushed to her aid and she got back to her feet, her head paining slightly.
"Lil?" she froze at Percy's voice. Sure enough, when she looked up, she saw Penny and Oliver standing next to the boy. "Where were you? We'd been looking all over." he said, his forehead creasing in worry.
"I-uh,-" she struggled to come up with words to explain.
"We went to Hogsmeade, bought some snacks, climbed a willow tree, and watched the entire task from there." Terrence answered with an innocent smile. Lily shot him a look.
"As if." Percy scoffed. "The exits were being guarded. There's no way you could've gone out."
"You're right. He's just pulling your leg." Lily prodded, before squeezing Terrence's arm in warning. "Hi Penny. Is something wrong?" she smiled at the girl, who stood there, watching her with an amused smile on her face.
"No." she shook her head with a light giggle. "I just didn't know you and Higgs were a thing." she gestured at them. And that's when Lily noticed his arm was wrapped around her protectively from when he'd helped her up, and her arm was still holding his from when she'd squeezed it in warning.
Terrence let go of her just as quickly as she did him. "I- we're not a thing." the boy said, his face going red.
"Oh." Penelope Clearwater said, surprised. "I'm sorry. You would look really good as one though." she shrugged nonchalantly.
Percy cleared his throat. "I'll see you at dinner then Penny?" he asked, looking at the girl.
"Of course." she smiled, kissing him, at which Lily looked away. "Bye Oliver, bye Lily, bye Terrence." she smiled dreamily at them all before slipping away happily.
Lily opened her mouth to speak but was abruptly dragged away by Oliver, who hadn't said a word since she'd run into them all. She glanced behind at Terrence and Percy who were left together.
"Okay," Oliver breathed, looking slightly angry. "You better explain what you were doing. You look like a mess." he looked at her robes with a small frown.
"Always good to hear stuff like that Livvie." she smiled sarcastically. "I was doing exactly what Higgs said we were doing. He knows a secret exit through the Forbidden Forest."
"Oh." the boy let out a relieved sigh. "But still, couldn't you have brought me along as well? I was stuck third wheeling them for the entirety of the second task. It wasn't pretty." he shuddered, probably recalling memories. "Those two don't fit well together."
"Sorry." she pouted. "Terrence just dragged me away without a word. But good news, I've made up my mind." she showed him a smile of victory.
"About what?" Oliver asked suspiciously.
"I am not going to tell Percy about anything. In fact, I'm going to focus on moving on."
"With Higgs?" he asked, blinking furiously.
"Of course not." Lily scoffed, slapping his arm. "We're just acquaintances, maybe friends by this point, but nothing more. I made that very clear ever since the start." she assured. "I mean that I'm going to focus on next year's Quidditch and studying for OWLs."
"Thank Merlin." Oliver muttered. "I'm fine with you being friends with him but dating someone on the Slytherin Quidditch Team, that would just be-"
"I know." she grinned. "It would only make things more complicated. Calm down Mr. Wood, this isn't going to ruin my Quidditch performance."
_____
"Hi Ron!" Lily bubbled excitedly as the eleven year old sat down next to his twin brothers. "Aw Perce he's so cute!" she cooed, patting the boy's fiery red head. "By far, the best looking Weasley."
Ron just smiled at her adorably, clearly still exhilarated by the fact that he had been sorted into Gryffindor. The twins however, weren't pleased by her declaration.
"Oi!" they pouted. "May we have to remind you that we exist?" George (She was sure it was George, because she'd come to know how each of them acted over the years) snarked.
"You're adorable too, don't worry." she rolled her eyes. "Ask Angelina if you want." she nudged the girl beside her who just shot her a glare. Both the boys blushed.
"Ahem." she looked to her other side, where Oliver was sitting. "I think you're forgetting about the king of adorableness. Me." he quipped, lifting his nose in the air.
"Of course. How could I forget." she rolled her eyes, turning to the listening crowd. "Later, I'll show you a picture of Oliver in a kilt-"
"Okay that's enough!" he shouted, slapping a hand over her mouth as she could continue. Percy on the other hand looked eagerly as Harry Potter got onto the stool to be sorted.
"Gryffindor!" the hat yelled out and the entire table burst into cheers.
Percy was probably the loudest as Harry sat down next to him, across Ron and a bushy haired girl. The boy looked a little intimidated with all the applause. Dinner passed like normal.
_____
"Harry Potter?" Katie Bell, one of the newest additions to the Gryffindor Quidditch team asked in surprise. "He's only a first year, Wood."
"I know, but McGonagall pulled me out of Muggle Studies just to introduce me to him." the new captain said. "She said he might even be a better seeker than Charlie."
"Better seeker than Charlie?" she screeched. "No way."
"I took him out for practice this morning, and she's true. He's small, he's agile, and his skills on a broom - I'm kind of jealous." he admitted.
"Wow." Lily said, slightly amazed. "Well, let's see how things go during practice then."
"You certainly seem excited."
"Of course I am." the girl rolled her eyes. "We haven't competed since a year. I love Quidditch, but I love playing Quidditch against Houses even more. Besides, I told you I'll be focusing on only Quidditch and OWLs this year, right?"
"Right." Oliver nodded. "Is Murphy still in awe?" he asked.
"After I told him this summer? You know how long it took him to actually believe me. It's not as if I could use any spells to demonstrate either. But I showed him the pictures, of Hogwarts, us, me in my Quidditch uniform, me flying in my Quidditch uniform. He almost fainted at that one." she giggled at the memory. "But he finds it fascinating. And he swore he wouldn't tell anyone. And he hasn't. I trust him. I just feels good now because I can finally send him pictures from our year here."
"Good to know. Although I can't say Percy is pleased with you opening Murphy's letters like a squirrel finding a walnut." he grinned.
"There you go with Percy again..." she shook her head. "He doesn't like me Livvie. It's been half a year since he and Penny got together. I've moved on."
"If you say so." the boy shrugged, knowing all well that she hadn't. Lily pretended as if the couple didn't affect her anymore, all the way since the trio had spent half of the summer at Oliver's house in Scotland.
_____
"We know Oliver's speech by heart. We were on the team last year." Fred smirked as the team huddled together right before their first match of the season. Against Slytherin.
"Last year? I've been hearing it since the last three years." Lily scoffed.
"Shut up, you two. This is the best team Gryffindor's had in years. We're going to win. I know it." Oliver said, with a determined glint in his eye.
"Yeah, as if you haven't been saying that since the last three years." Lily suppressed her laughter. Oliver just looked at her, not in the least amused.
"Harry's a fine seeker." Wood stated proudly.
"Oh we know. You're his biggest fan. We even made a jingle about it." George said with a smirk. "Katie, would you do the honours?"
The girl started by dropping a beat as Fred and George started singing. "Potter is Wood's?"
"Messiah, messiah!" Lily and Angeline chanted.
"Wood thinks we're gonna win, but with who's help?"
"Potter, Potter!" the chanting continued.
"Because he is Wood's?"
"Messiah, messiah!"
Oliver gasped as the rest of them stopped singing, "We're supposed to be on the field in what – two minutes, and you lot are making songs?"
"It was more of a cheer really." Lily smirked unashamedly, looking at Harry who looked on with a comical expression. "Besides, it calmed the boy's nerves, see?"
They heard Madame Hooch yell for them to come out and for some reason, Lily simply knew that they were going to win. Especially with her powers of Legilimency, she could read the Slytherin team's play. It wasn't always easy though, and she used it only when she absolutely needed to, because with the entire school in the stands as well as the players on the pitch, she could hardly read minds without giving herself a migraine.
Thankfully, they won the match, after Harry caught the snitch, in his mouth. But Oliver was happy either way. They'd won. And that was all that mattered. Of course, he'd hit his snags, like a jinxed broom. No one was sure where it came from (Lily suspected it was Flint), but despite it all, they'd won.
As usual, Percy came to congratulate the team from the stands after the match was over.
"You played brilliantly today. And that Parkin's Pincer? Remarkable." he praised, hugging her tightly.
Lily's throat went dry and she just mumbled a 'thanks' before quickly unraveling herself from his arms. Percy didn't notice in the least as he went on to congratulate Oliver and his brothers. Amidst all the celebrations she saw Harry standing there timidly. She made her way over to him and clapped his back.
"You did good there Harry." she grinned. "Not bad for your first match, not bad at all."
The green-eyed brunette smiled. "Thank you. I- I'm not sure what went wrong with my broom though. Do Nimbus 2000's do that often?"
Lily's eyes widened and she rapidly shook her head. "You broom was jinxed Harry. We're not completely sure who did it. You might want to keep an eye on it before our next match, eh?"
Harry nodded. "I'll do that. Thanks again."
She waved at him before she approached Oliver and Percy again.
"What're you still doing here?" the captain of the Gryffindor team asked.
"Excuse you?" she sputtered. "Do you not want me here?"
"No silly." Wood slapped her arm. "I just thought you'd be rushing off to the Potions room right about now."
"And why would I do that?" she snorted. "I can talk to dad later after dinner. It's just one victory Livvie."
Percy looked at her as if she'd gone mad. "You mean you don't want to ask him what happened when his robes caught on fire?"
"His robes what?" Lily gasped, alarmed at once.
Percy explained what had happened. Lily had been so distracted with Harry's broom that the Quaffle had been stolen right from her hands and then she was so focused on getting it back and scoring that until she finally did, Harry's broom was back to normal.
Without a word, Lily ran to the Hospital Wing, still clad in her Quidditch uniform and broom in hand.
Madame Pomfrey had just finished working on Severus Snape as he attempted to get off the bed.
"Dad!" she cried in relief when she saw that he was still in one piece as she ran over and hugged him. "Is he alright?" she asked Madame Pomfrey, "Are you alright?" Lily looked up at her father before disengaging herself from him.
Over the years, Lily had discovered that the entire staff, leave apart the elves and Filch knew about her relation to the Potions professor. So she didn't mind hiding the fact when they were around them.
"I'll survive." Severus responded with a dry chuckle.
"He will. But he has a horrible scald on his calf. You'll need to apply the ointment twice a day Severus." the matron sighed. Lily's eyes shot down and sure enough, there was a purplish-red bruise on his calf.
"Who would do that to you?" she asked with a bitter face. "Why would anyone do this?"
"No idea yet." Snape quipped, covering the wound. "Your playing today on the other hand, excellent." he smiled proudly.
"But we beat your House's team." she said with a slight snort.
"That, I'm not the happiest about." her father admitted. "But my daughter comes before my House."
Lily grinned. "I've got OWLs to study for now. We'll talk after dinner." she assured, squeezing him one last time before heading out for the Quidditch changing rooms.
Word count: 2110