Lily thought she'd be the first in the locker room, getting there ten minutes before the time James had announced, but she wasn't alone when she walked through the door. Annie Silsbury sat on the bench, slipping on her gloves.
"Hey, Lily; I'm just suiting up" she said, looking at Lily; Annie's normally apathetic face turned into one of uncertainty. "Where's Harris? I figured he'd be with you. You're practically joined at the hip you two are."
"You haven't heard?" Lily asked though it wasn't shocking as Annie had probably been in the locker room or at least on her way when the altercation took place.
Annie's brow furrowed, "Heard what?"
"Eli's not going to be playing today," Lily said, her mouth ending in a thin line as she sat down beside her teammate. "He got himself into some trouble."
"What happened?" she asked, her green eyes wide. It was rare to get an emotion aside from anger out of Annie. Lily was just happy Annie's fiery anger was never directed at her.
Lily shrugged, "I don't know. He got this letter at breakfast, and the next thing I know, he's storming out the door, and there's this huge commotion, and by the time I got out there," Lily stopped, sighing, "he was outside of the Great Hall swearing at his brother, Nicholas. James had to hold him back. According to Nicholas, things were physical, and Master Lang came out and sent Eli up to McGonagall's office and said he couldn't play Quidditch today."
"Merlin," Annie breathed, pausing for a moment; Lily braced for a hotheaded response. "We are talking about the same person, right? Harris. Eli Harris. He wouldn't do something like this."
"I saw it," Lily said, sitting beside Annie but not looking her in the eye; Lily didn't want Annie to blame her for it, and she didn't want an explosive bout of anger. "We're short a Chaser unless James comes up with some brilliant plan."
Annie shook her head, staying surprisingly calm, "I told James to find a few backup players, but he said we wouldn't need them. Look where that's gotten us. Damn it."
"Where the hell is James Potter?"
The angry yell was something Lily expected from Annie in their conversation, yet Lily wasn't shocked when she saw the person to whom the voice belonged.
Lily and Annie looked up from their conversation to see Jake Turner, a fourth year and one of the team's two Beaters, walk through the door. Lily noticed his anger and sighed. Jake, though a great Beater, was a bit of a hothead. He could be a really nice guy, but once he got angry, there was no turning back.
"Calm down, Turner," Annie said, looking down at her fingernails.
"What the hell happened with Harris, Potter?" Jake asked, turning his attention to Lily.
She prepared to begin her explanation for the second time, "I'm not really sure, Jake. He's not playing today; there was-"
"Annie, go get Tyler," Jake said, interrupting Lily.
Lily watched Annie raise an eyebrow at his sharp order. She prepared herself for a blowout between Annie and Jake; it was a well-known fact that the pair didn't get along. Having Annie and Jake in the same room was like setting gasoline on fire.
"It may have escaped your notice, Turner, but you aren't the captain," Annie said, her voice rising. "And Tyler isn't on the team anymore."
Lily braced for an explosive reply from Jake.
"Yeah, her idiot brother kicked him off."
Lily felt as if someone had slapped her across the face with his remark. As big of a pain as James could be, Lily refused to stand for someone making a rude remark about their family. She also noticed a subtle dig at Eli and herself. It seemed they weren't acceptable Chasers in Jake's eyes.
"Lay off of James, Jake," she said, crossing her arms and standing up from her spot on the bench. "He's the captain and can make any decision he wants. You aren't the captain, Jake."
Jake scoffed, narrowing his eyes at Lily and cocking his head to the right, "You're twelve and don't know what you're talking about. Shut up, Lily."
Lily opened her mouth to retort, but someone had done it for her.
"What did you just say to her?"
Lily turned to see an irate James standing in the doorway with his arms crossed and his hair sticking out in every direction- a clear sign of James's distress.
"James," Jake said, holding up his hands in front of him. Lily knew Jake liked to talk big until someone showed up to knock him down a few pegs; as captain of the Quidditch team, James was usually that someone. "I didn't-"
"No, I'm pretty sure you did," James said, walking over to Jake slowly. Lily took a few steps back, not wanting to get between the two boys. "You can't talk to my little sister like that, Turner. I am not going to stand for it."
Jake cowered back, "James, you stop it. I didn't mean it."
"Apologize to her," James said, his voice demanding.
Though she tried to keep her face neutral, Lily couldn't help but smirk Jake's way and almost laughed at the hole he had dug himself into. James putting him in his place really served Jake right for storming into the locker room fuming with so much anger that he was willing to blowup at anyone.
"No," Jake said defiantly, pointing Lily's way. "She's all smug. Just look at her."
"Don't be proud, Jake. Just do it," Annie said, laying down on the bench.
"Apologize to my little sister," James said, getting so close to Jake that their noses nearly touched.
Lily felt like she knew where this situation was going to go, and she knew that she, a small second year, stood no chance at stopping a fight once it got going.
"No."
James lost it, shoving Jake backward into the bench where Annie lay. Lily jumped at his sudden bout of violence. Although she had expected it, Lily didn't want to see a second conflict.
"Hey!" Annie said, pushing Jake off of her and toward James.
With the push from Annie, Jake ran back at James, tackling him to the ground.
"Stop!" Lily yelled, not knowing what to do. She was so much smaller than the both of them, and he knew trying to pull them apart would prove useless.
"HEY!"
The loud voices belonged to Bobby Chasity, the other Beater, and Damien Hughes, the team's Keeper. The pair sprinted through the door, and within a moment, they had pulled Jake off of Jakes, each holding one of the fighters back. Blood ran out of the corner of James's mouth, and it looked like Jake had the makings of a black eye.
"What is going on in here?" Bobby asked, his voice loud yet calm. Lily knew that among the trio of James, Bobby, and Damien that Bobby was certainly the most logical and the voice of reason. After all, he was named a Gryffindor prefect.
"Nothing," James said, spitting the blood out of his mouth and onto the floor before pulling out of Bobby's hold. "Let's just get ready to go out and play the stupid Ravenclaws."
"Are we going to ignore this?" Bobby asked, pointing between the two. "How are we supposed to play when you two have just had a fight?"
"Your moral compass comes second to Quidditch, Bobby," Damien said, letting go of Jake.
The six members of the Gryffindor Quidditch team stood in a tense silence as both James and Jake nursed their wounds. Lily decided to break the silence and steer the conversation completely toward Quidditch; it would definitely prove more productive than talking about James and Jake's fight, "So what are we going to do about Eli missing?"
"We play with two Chasers; we don't have much of a choice," James said, running his hands through his hair. Lily knew he only did that when he was nervous. "Annie, Lily, you can't let us down."
"Why don't we get Ty?" Jake asked. Lily was surprised at his sure, calm tone after the fight, but she was even more surprised that it wasn't James who threw out a definitive retort.
"Absolutely not," Annie said, causing all heads to turn to her. "That git will sit in the stands as a spectator. The matter is final."
"Annie, you do realize that he's you-"
"Boyfriend?" Annie finished, cocking her head to the side. "Yes, I know he is, Damien. I'm completely aware of my relationship status, thank you very much. I'm also aware that he isn't on the team, and adding him back onto the roster isn't right. I won't let it happen."
"How are we going to win with two Chasers though?" Bobby asked. "Ravenclaw was pretty solid last year, and they haven't changed anything about their team. It's the same dynamic."
"I'm saying we get, Ty," Jake said, standing up from the bench. "We'd be stupid not to."
"We aren't getting Ty," Annie and James said together. Lily found it hard to believe that Jake was still pushing this.
"What about all of our plays, huh?" Jake asked. "We formed those with three Chasers, not two. I guarantee you that Ty could pick them up easily. Most of them are still the same as last year's. We-"
"Get it through your thick skull, Turner," Annie said, her voice booming. "We aren't getting Ty. Lily and I are going to have to suffice for this game. If we lose, we lose."
"Maybe I don't want to lose," Jake said, his voice louder than Annie's.
Lily wondered how they could play as a team with so much animosity and toxicity. She felt bad for speaking previously as it looked like she was the cause for this second round of arguing.
"Do you think any of us do?" Annie asked exasperatedly.
"Gryffindor!" Master Lang called into the tent before the argument could take an ugly turn. "Please get to your spot! The match is about to start."
"We're on our way," James said, standing. "Let's just forget about all of this, and go out there and get this game over with. Clear?"
"Perfectly," Jake said.
Lily shook her head as she put on the rest of her Quidditch gear; how could Gryffindor win when everyone on the team seemed to be on a different page?
James and Damien, as Seeker and Keeper, led the team out of the locker room with the two Beaters, Bobby and Jake, following closely behind. Lily walked beside Annie in the rear.
"Nervous, Lily?" Annie asked her.
Lily shrugged, "I've played Quidditch at home, but I don't think I've ever played a game against a team that wasn't full of Weasleys."
"Hogwarts Quidditch is a different beast than a family match. The Ravenclaws are especially different. They're good; that's for sure, but look out for the Beaters. The Lovegood twins know how to hit a Bludger and won't hesitate with it," Annie said.
"Have you ever been hit badly by a Bludger?" Lily asked as she had never been hit by one seriously. Sure she's been bumped by them every once and a while, but nothing was ever catastrophic.
"Third year, a Hufflepuff Beater hit one, and it totally shattered my femur. Madam Pomfrey fixed it up easily though. It hurt an awful lot, but I was on my feet within two days.
Lily tried to hide her wincing and nerves, but Bobby caught on, "Way to scare the rookie, Annie. You've got nothing to worry about, Lil; I'll keep you safe from Bludgers."
"Thanks," Lily said, not feeling any more encouraged. When she played with family, the games were fun and only earned bragging rights. Games at Hogwarts were for the Quidditch Cup, and Lily knew that the dignity of the Gryffindor house was at stake. Lily's nerves continued to run wild on the walk to the entrance platform. The walk seemed to take hours, but in two minutes, they stood there.
"We're here," James said, sounding dejected. "Let's forget about what happened today, and go out there and do something."
From behind the curtain separating the locker rooms from the pitch, Lily could hear the roaring chatter from the crowd. She bit her lip to try and let the nerves that were eating her alive out somewhere. She felt herself draw blood when the announcer introduced Gryffindor and the curtains parted. Her first Quidditch game: it was about to happen.
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Hi guys! Hope you enjoyed it! Don't forget to vote and comment if you did! Sorry I've been absent as of late. School's started back up, and I've also been editing Lily Potter and Neoma's Trance. Though I haven't posted any of the edited chapters, I think it'll be much better though pretty much the same...if that makes any sense.
Thank you for reading my work! Don't be shy! Vote and comment or feel free to message me! I'm up for it all!
-aquaseahorse