Although she was supposed to be focusing on Quidditch, Lily couldn't think about the game as she and Eli walked down to the pitch.
"You're still thinking about the Sanger twins, aren't you, Lil?" Eli said.
"You practically read my mind; it's probably all over my face," Lily said, shaking her head. "I'm trying to keep my mind on Quidditch, but it keeps wandering back to the twins and that stupid letter from M...whomever that is."
"We can deal with all of that after the game," he said. "You sounded so focused back in the Great Hall. What changed"
"I don't know," she said, shrugging. "I just keep thinking back to that stupid letter and all of that money in it. Why on earth would Addie and Romy need that kind of money? They're only twelve. They're our age, Eli. Why do they that?"
"None of us can answer that right now," Eli said. "We just have to stay focused on Quidditch."
"That you do!"
Lily felt James' familiar arm sling over her shoulder, "Aren't you supposed to be in the locker room already, James?"
"Yeah, Jimmy," Eli said, smirking.
"Ha, very funny, Harris," James said.
"It's McGonagall now, Jimmy," Eli said, smiling over at James.
"Oh yeah, sorry, my bad, McGonagall," James said. "Anyway, why can't you focus on Quidditch, baby sister?"
Lily rolled her eyes at the term "baby"; in a few months, she'd be thirteen, and a teenager certainly couldn't be called a baby by her brother, "It's nothing, James. I think I've got it under control. I'm ready for the game."
"You better because we're about to go against the phenomenon, Dakota Samson," he said. "She's a talented second year Quidditch player such as yourselves, and she's supposedly a killer Beater."
"Dakota Samson?" Eli asked. "That girl's a Beater?"
Lily knew exactly what Eli was referring and why he was so surprsied. Lily and her friends had shared classes with Hufflepuffs in the past, and she had seen Dakota Samson in them. Dakota Samson certainly did not have the typical build of a Beater. She was shorter than Lily, which was a feat in itself, and wasn't very muscular at all. Had Lily not attended the Hufflepuff-Slytherin Quidditch match before winter holiday, she wouldn't have guessed that Dakota was a Beater.
"Were you not at the Hufflepuff-Slytherin match, McGonagall?" James asked. "She killed it out there, and now, we have to face her."
"You're forgetting the fact that you've got two fantastic second year Chasers on your team, Jimmy," Eli said.
"And Annie; she's pretty good, too," Lily said.
"She's a Quaffle-hog," James said. "Don't let her take the ball from the pair of you. You are better than she is."
"I doubt that," Eli said. "She's been on the team for years."
"Oh, age is but a number, young Eli" James mused. "Anyway, if we want to win against Hufflepuff today, you two have got to be in top shape, and you can't let Annie hog the Quaffle. Deal?"
"I suppose," Lily said as the three arrived in the Gryffindor locker room.
"I thought you all were never going to get here," Jake said. "We've barely got any time left for a stupid pep talk, James."
Lily watched James give Jake a tight smile, "Well, that doesn't mean that there isn't enough time, Turner."
"By all means, James, just hurry up with it, so we don't get disqualified for not showing up to the pitch on time," Annie said, from where she lay face up on the bench.
"We'll get there on time; don't worry about that," James said. "Alright, everyone take a seat, and I'll get this pep talk started."
Lily and Eli plopped down at the end of the bench, in between Bobby and Damien.
"So pep talk," James said, walking back and forth. "Yeah, we've got to go out there and take down the Hufflepuffs. They're good, but we've got to be better. Or else we've got no chance to win the Quidditch Championship come time when we play Slytherin in April. A lot's riding on this game."
"Wow, consider me pepped," Jake said.
"You are the literal worst, Turner," Annie said. "Can't you just let it go for once?"
"Absolutely not," Jake said.
"Anyway," James began; Lily could tell that he was trying his hardest to bite his tongues, "let's just get out there. Grab your stuff and put your hands in."
Lily grabbed her broom from her locker before running over to the team circle. She put her hand on top of Annie's and looked up at her brother.
"Everyone in?" he asked, looking around at the six teammates, who looked back at him. "Alright, Gryffindor on three. One. Two. Three."
"GRYFFINDOR!" the team yelled, sending their free hands into the air.
The team got into formation, the Seeker and Keeper leading, the Beaters following behind, and the Chasers bringing up the rear, and started their walk to the pitch.
"You two ready?" Annie asked.
"I was born ready," Eli said, putting a smile on his face. "Let's do this thing."
"What about you, Lil?" Annie asked.
"I think Eli hit the nail on the head," Lily said, looking around Annie to her friend. "We've got this. Dakota Samson or not. We're going to win."
"Don't worry about Dakota Samson," Bobby said, looking back at Lily. "We won't let her Bludgers get anywhere near you three. You're safe with us as your trusted Beaters."
"Sorry, but I don't know how much I trust Turner," Annie said.
"Oh please, I care more about winning this match than I care about seeing a Bludger go through your skull, Silsbury."
"Ouch," Lily heard Eli say under his breath.
"Would you two stop it? We're about to get out there," James said from the front of the procession.
"I'll stop if Turner isn't going to be the Beater protecting me out there," Annie said. "He's going to get me killed out there."
"We'll run the plays that we already know," James said. "We aren't changed them because you feel insecure about Jake's abilities, Annie."
"You're joking me, right?" she asked as the team came to a stop right before the curtain that separated them from the crowd.
"HERE'S HUFFLEPUFF!"
"Can you guys stop arguing? They just announced Hufflepuff, and we're going to go out there," Lily said, tired of holding her tongue.
James, Bobby, Damien, and Eli all looked slightly impressed that Lily had spoken up while both Jake and Annie looked fairly annoyed at her burst of words.
"Are you really going to let her talk to us like that, James?" Jake asked, his mouth wide open. "You're the captain, not her."
"Believe me, no one can control my sister," James said, shaking his head.
"AND HERE COMES GRYFFINDOR!"
"Well, let's go," James said. "Forget all of this, and let's just go get out there."
Lily nodded at her older brother and followed his lead as the curtain opened, putting them on display for their fellow students. James kicked off from the platform, and the rest of the team followed. Lily felt the wind flying from her short hair that hung out of her lion hat. She let her lion roar in the wind as she followed her team, circling around the pitch. After a minute of flying, the Gryffindor Quidditch team landed on the grass pitch, standing across from the intimidating Hufflepuff team in their canary yellow robes. Lily saw the short Dakota Samson with her brown hair in a plait and a Beater's club in her hand.
"Are both teams ready and aware of the rules?" Master Lang asked. Everyone nodded. "Captains, shake hands."
James stepped forward and shook the Hufflepuff captain's hand. Lily swore that he was trying to crush the girl's hand.
"Alright, take to your brooms, everyone," Master Lang said.
Lily mounted her broom, in front of everyone. Annie and Eli flanked behind her, Bobby and Jake stood behind them, and James brought up the rear, looking prepared.
"Ready, Hufflepuff?" Master Lang asked.
"Ready," the Hufflepuff captain said.
"Ready, Gryffindor?"
"Ready!" Lily heard James yell from behind her.
Lily watched intently as Master Lang bent down the chest and yelled, "GO!"
She saw the balls take off into the air, and she zoomed forward, missing the Quaffle by inches as one of the Hufflepuff Chasers grabbed it. Lily cursed under her breath and sped off after the Chasers, following behind Annie and Eli in a straight line. Annie ducked below two of the Hufflepuff Chasers, Eli flew above them, and Lily nabbed the Quaffle from in between the two confused Hufflepuff Chasers. Quickly, she spun around and headed toward the Hufflepuff goal, a Bludger whizzing right in front of her nose. Out of the corner of her eye, Lily saw that the Bludger had come from none other than Dakota Samson.
After kicking the thoughts of Dakota Samson out of her mind, Lily continued her flying to the Hufflepuff goal before tossing the Quaffle to Eli and having him throw it back to her. Like lightning, Lily caught the Quaffle and threw it into the goal.
"TEN POINTS TO GRYFFINDOR FROM L. POTTER!" the announcer yelled.
Lily and Eli crossed in front of one another, high-fiving as they flew. The two second year Chasers watched as the Hufflepuff Keeper threw the Quaffle across the pitch. They watched as Annie intercepted the ball and flew overhead.
"TOSS IT, ANNIE!" Eli yelled, flying halfway to the senior player.
Lily swore that she saw Annie shake her head at them. Lily moved to put herself in a position to catch the Quaffle, but she watched as Annie launched the Quaffle from halfway down the pitch toward the center goal. Lily wasn't shocked when one of the Hufflepuff Chasers caught it and returned it for a goal.
"TEN POINTS TO HUFFLEPUFF!"
Lily groaned and got into position to catch the Quaffle from Bobby. As soon as the Quaffle met her finger tips, Lily was flying as fast as she could toward the opposite side of the pitch, keeping her body as close to the broom as possible. She repeated the same play, tossing the Quaffle to Eli, only to catch it again and put it through the lower right goal.
"TEN MORE POINTS TO GRYFFINDOR! TWENTY TO TEN WITH GRYFFINDOR IN THE LEAD!"
"YES!" Lily yelled, throwing her fist into the air as she charged after the Quaffle as it flew above her head.
Thirty more minutes passed, and Lily had scored three more goals for Gryffindor while there had been two more Hufflepuff goals.
Lily aimed her shot at the Hufflepuff goal yet again, and as soon as it went through the goal, the announced let out yell through the microphone, "L. POTTER GETS A GOAL, AND J. POTTER CATCHES THE SNITCH! GRYFFINDOR WINS! GRYFFINDOR WINS! GRYFFINDOR WINS!"
Lily descended to the pitch, throwing her broom to the ground and running up to her brother, being caught in his hug.
"That was crazy, Lil! All six goals from you!" he said as they jumped up and down together.
Lily pulled out of her brother's hug before engulfing Eli in one.
"WE WON!" he yelled.
Lily pulled out of the hug, "We've got to go shake hands with the Hufflepuffs."
Following Master Lang's orders, Lily, James, and Eli went over to the other members of their team to join in in shaking hands with the Hufflepuffs.
One hour later, Lily was in the Gryffindor common room, celebrating the win with her fellow housemates.
"But seriously, that third goal was the best out of all six," Rudy said. "It just slipped right through the Keeper's fingertips. It was awesome!"
"It's official; my cousin is the greatest Chaser in the world," Hugo said, putting his arm around Lily's shoulders.
Lily laughed and pulled her cousin's arm off of her, "What about Vic? She's playing for the Holyhead Harpies."
"Vic's got nothing on you, Lil."
Lily rolled her eyes, "What about all of the professional Quidditch players out there? A professional wouldn't have missed that tossup at the start of the game."
"Even the best make mistakes, my friend," Hugo said, patting his cousin on the cheek.
Lily shrunk away from him, and as she moved her head away, she spotted two familiar faces coming through the crowd of partying Gryffindors.
"Cassie, Nora, how'd you two get in here?" Lily asked.
"I knew the password," Cassie said.
Eli raised an eyebrow, "How?"
"I'm a Ravenclaw," she said. "We know everything."
"Anyway," Nora interrupted, "you'll never guess what we saw."
"What?"
"The Sanger twins," Cassie said.
"Headed out into the forest," Nora said. "We saw them when we were walking back up from the match."
"And you'll never guess what we got this morning," Hugo said, looking back and forth before putting his hand into his bag.
Lily watched as Hugo went from being cool and collected to being panicky, "Hugo, you still have it, right?"
"There's a hole," Eli said, his eyes wide. "There's a hole in the bottom of your bag, Hugo."
Hugo put his hand through the hole and looked up to his friends, "Oh no."
"Oh no indeed," Lily said.
-+-
Here we go! Chapter Twenty-Eight! Don't forget to vote and comment if you enjoyed it! Feel free to leave all of your conspiracy theories in the comments. What do you all think the Sanger twins are up to? Thanks for reading, as always!
On a sad note, I'm sure you're all aware that Alan Rickman passed away a few days ago. He brought a fantastic take to the character of Severus Snape, and no one could've played the character better. He'll be missed.
-aquaseahorse