Nothing became of the rest of the detention in the owlery. In fact, nothing became of the rest of the month of April or the Easter holiday that Lily spent with the entire Weasley-Potter clan at Shell Cottage. The only thing coming was the final Quidditch match of the season: Gryffindor versus Slytherin. Hogwarts was absolutely buzzing with the students' excitement over the match between the two houses with the largest rivalry in the Wizarding World.
"Do you guys think you'll beat Slytherin?" Rudy asked on that electrifying Saturday morning over breakfast. His face was painted half-red and half-yellow. It was clear who he was supporting.
"Absolutely," Eli answered through a mouth full of biscuit—he had told Lily that he wanted to "carb up" before the match.
"I think we've really got a good shot," Lily said with a smile as she brushed part of her lion hat's shaggy mane out of her face. "Slytherin's definitely going to lose."
"And Gryffindor is definitely going to win," Eli said from across the table.
He held up his hand, and Lily gave him a high-five.
"So how many points do you actually have to get to win the Quidditch Cup?" Rudy asked after swallowing a gulp of pumpkin juice.
"Two hundred?" Eli said, unsure and turning to Lily.
"We need to finish the game with two hundred more points than Slytherin," Lily said. "That means James catching the Snitch after we've at least scored five goals more than the Slytherins have."
"That seems doable," Rudy said, shrugging.
"It absolutely is if we keep Slytherin from scoring and can get past Nora at Keeper," Lily said before turning to Hugo, who hadn't said a word all morning and was currently starting into his cereal.
"Who will you be cheering for, Hugo?"
Hugo, who was most likely the only person at the Gryffindor table not wearing the house's colors, jumped at Lily's mention of his name but immediately looked back down into his soggy breakfast,
"Don't know. Hard decision."
"Can't. Form. Complete. Sentence," Eli said robotically before dissolving into a laugh.
Lily was worried when she saw that Hugo didn't even flinch at the jest or let out some loud, stupid comment that would've made Lily embarrassed to be related to him. No reaction.
"Hugo, you have to cheer for Gryffindor," Eli said, his voice suddenly serious.
"Aww," Lily said, a smile coming onto her face as she really realized what her cousin was dealing with. "You want to cheer for your house but also want to cheer for your girlfriend. How sweet!"
"Not sweet. Sickening," Hugo said. "Going to throw up."
"Hugo, you can cheer for both teams," Rudy said.
"Absolutely," Lily said.
"Absolutely not!" Eli said, slamming his hands on the table. "You can't be seriously considering supporting Slytherin, can you? Malfoy's on the team. My...Nicholas Harris is on the team. We have to beat them."
Lily blinked at Eli's strange mention of his biological brother, but the conversation still continued.
"A very true point," Rudy said.
"Rudy, whose side are you even on?" Eli asked, looking at his friend across the table.
Rudy shrugged, "Call me impartial."
"Well, we haven't got long to debate all of this because the mail's coming," Lily said, pointing to the ceiling where owls began to descend onto the students. "That's our cue to leave, Eli."
"You better cheer for Gryffindor, Hugo," Eli said as he stood.
Lily shook her head and grabbed an apple as she prepared to leave as well, "Cheer for both teams, Hugo. There's the solution."
"It's not the solution," Eli said, looking at Lily with wide eyes.
"We will have this discussion while we walk down to the pitch," Lily said. "Now, let's go before James yells at us for being late."
"Gryffindor or else, Weasley," Lily heard Eli call as she started toward the door.
Tapping her foot impatiently, Lily waited for Eli to finish teasing her cousin.
"You know that Hugo's under a lot of internal pressures, right, Eli?" Lily asked once her friend made it to her. "You can't make him cheer for Gryffindor when Nora's on Slytherin."
"I know, but Hugo's my best mate. I know that you'd give Rudy a hard time if he started cheering for the opposing team," Eli said.
Lily sighed. What Eli said wasn't false.
"I guess you're right," Lily said with a shrug as they exited the Great Hall.
With that, the two Gryffindor Chasers began to make their way down to the Quidditch pitch.
"Are you ready for this, Eli?" Lily asked, thoughts of Hugo behind her.
"I think so," he said as the two walked through Hogwarts' grand front doors into the blinding sunlight of May. "I'm ready to take the Slytherins down and to hoist the Quidditch Cup above my head."
"Same, I want this win so badly that—"
"Hey! Potter! McGonagall!"
Lily turned over her shoulder, squinting in the sunlight, to see a blonde girl in a green Quidditch uniform a few steps behind them: Nora Nott.
"Nott, I'm sorry, but Eli and I just can't be caught talking to the enemy before the game," Lily said with a tight smile. "I'm sorry."
Nora rolled her eyes, "You guys are just scared that you won't be able to get anything past me. I am a fantastic Keeper."
"Oh yeah?" Lily asked with a scoff. "Well, Eli and I happen to be fantastic Chasers."
"Then, it'll surely be fantastic matchup," Nora said, her smug face melted into a bright smile.
Lily's sarcastic banter did the same, "I'm sure it will be. It's going to be a lot of fun."
"We're still going to win though, Nora," Eli said, interrupting the girls. "Gryffindor's going to be the champion this year."
"In your dreams," Nora said with a laugh. "We all know that Slytherin is going to win."
"And here I thought that the competitive edge among friends was gone," Lily said with a chuckle. "I'm excited for the match. Like I said, it'll be fun to finally play against you, Nora. It'll be a challenge for sure."
Nora gave a playful sigh while dropping her shoulders, "And you guys are definitely going to be a challenge for me. I've seen you two play, and I'm scared that every shot you take is going to go right through my fingers."
"Honestly," Eli said with a genuine sigh, "we're scared that not a single shot we take is going to get past you."
Lily nodded, "It's true. You're super good, Nora."
"No, you guys are super good," Nora insisted.
"No, you are, Nora."
"No, I'm pretty sure—"
"Can we just settle on the fact that we're all super good Quidditch players and leave it at that?" Eli asked with a laugh.
"Fraternizing with the opposition, are we, Nott?"
The bantering friends turned, not surprised but annoyed, to see Scorpius Malfoy swaggering toward them with a stupid smug look on his face.
"Get out of here, Malfoy," Lily said. She was as disenchanted by him as ever.
"Nice to see you, too, Your Highness," he said, sweeping a bow. "How's daddy doing?"
"Fine, thanks," she said, resisting the urge to spit in his eye. "Now, how about you leave us alone?"
"Now, not without naughty light Nott," he said, wagging his finger at Nora.
"Get the hell out of here, Malfoy," Nora said, her voice flat. "Just because we're on the same Quidditch team doesn't mean that you can boss me around. You aren't the captain, you snake."
"Ouch, that hurts," he said without an ounce of feeling.
"We're going to the Quidditch pitch—just leave us alone," Eli said.
"Like I'm going to listen to the little Harris who couldn't—"
"My last name's McGonagall."
"—get himself sorted into Slytherin and disappointed his entire family."
Lily felt the tension rising in the air. She watched Scorpius's smirk deepen. She watched Nora's eyes widen. She watched Eli's fist tighten. Not wanting a large duel to break out, she grabbed her friends by their wrists, "Let's get out of here."
Although Lily could hear Scorpius's snarky comments behind her, she decided not to listen and led her friends down to the pitch.
"Sorry about that one," Nora said. "He's a bit of a bad seed."
"A bit," Lily scoffed. "More like just a bad seed."
"Entirely awful," Eli said.
The three continued down the hill to the Quidditch pitch. Once arrived, Lily and Eli parted ways with their Slytherin friend and headed into the Gryffindor locker room.
"Finally," James said, walking over to them and closing the curtained entrance behind the two second year Chasers. "I've been waiting for you two, so I could give my pep talk with everyone present."
"How could we miss the last one of the year?" Lily said, not quite sure if her words were genuine or sarcastic.
"Easy. You couldn't," James responded, clapping his sister on the back.
Lily took a seat on the edge of a bench next to Annie, looking over to James, who stood in the center of the room, rubbing his hands together.
"Okay," he began, "the final Quidditch match of the school year. We have to win. We've got three killer Chasers, two awesome Beaters, a great Keeper, and me, and I'm fantastic. Yeah, and—"
"How inspirational," Jake said, scoffing.
"I wasn't done," James said, turning his head to the cocky Beater. "Anyway, I've said since the beginning that we were kind of like the dream team. Damien, you follow that Muggle sport that had a dream team once, don't you?"
"Basketball?" Damien asked, raising an eyebrow. "Are you talking about thee Dream Team?"
"Okay, honestly, what are we talking about?" Annie asked, looking around for someone to give the rest of the team information on the Muggle sport. "What in the hell is basketball?"
Damien answered, "Muggle sport where they bounce a ball up and down and try to throw it through a hoop. Anyway, there was this team of American basketball players that everyone called the 'Dream Team' back in the nineties, and they crushed all of their opponents in the Olympics, which is kind of like the Quidditch World Cup but for all Muggle sports. Basically."
"And we are the magical equivalent of that Muggle dream team," James said. "Look, we have to get out there and win this match. We can't let this one slip. Gryffindor needs to have another Quidditch Cup win because we are by far the best house, and no one wants a Slytherin win except for the Slytherins."
"You think that Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw will want a Gryffindor victory?" Annie asked. "How do you know they won't cheer for the Slytherins?"
"Because like I said, no one wants a Slytherin victory," James said as if Annie's question had been stupid and unwarranted.
Lily shook her head and spoke up, "Does it matter what the other houses think if we get a Gryffindor win? It really only matters for us Gryffindors if we get the win."
"That is a good point, but we do also want to show everyone else that we mean business when it comes to Quidditch," James said, pointing to his sister. "This will be a prequel to next season. An overture, really, for when we absolutely steamroll the competition next year."
"Gryffindors, to the pitch please," Master Lang said, his head peeking through the curtains to the Gryffindor locker room.
"Of course," James said, turning to the referee and then back to his team. "Well, let's go get them."
The team hurried to their lockers, grabbing their brooms and other essential Quidditch gear before returning to the center of the room.
"Hands in," James said, putting his hand out.
Without question, the team followed, putting their hands into the center of the circle.
"Gryffindor on three," he said, looking around the circle and meeting everyone's eyes. When James' met Lily's, she knew that he meant business and that losing was not an option. "One. Two. Three."
"GRYFFIDOR!"
The seven lions headed out of the locker room, walking to the curtain that concealed them from the crowds of students ready to see the final Quidditch match of the year.
"HERE COME YOUR SLYTHERINS!" Lily heard the announcer shout on the other side of the curtain.
There was a very mixed reaction from the crowd—some cheers, some jeers.
"Let's do this," James said, his voice low.
"AND HERE ARE YOUR GRYFFINDORS!" the announcer's voice boomed.
Those words ringing in her ears, Lily mounted her broom, and for the final time that year, she flew out of the curtained locker room area and out over the pitch. The crowd roared around her as her own lion hat let out its own roar as the Gryffindors circled above the pitch and the stands.
When the Gryffindors descended onto the field, Lily handed the lion hat off to Al in the stands before joining the rest of the players with feet on the grass.
"Are both teams aware of the rules and stipulations of this Quidditch game?" Master Lang asked. When both teams nodded, he continued. "I don't want to see anything illegal in this game because of your house rivalry. Now, team captains: shake hands."
Lily watched as James gripped the Slytherin captain's hand with a glint of aggression in his brown eyes. She could only hope that this game didn't end with someone in the hospital wing.
"Mount your brooms, ladies and gentlemen," Master Lang said.
Lily followed the order, ready to fly and start the game. She gave Eli a nod, knowing full well that they were ready to win. Turning back, Lily saw Master Lang release the Snitch and Bludgers, and as soon as the Quaffle left his hand, she was in the air, zooming after it with her body pressed against the broom.
Lily snatched the Quaffle out of the air and sped across the pitch, taking a Bludger to the foot along the way. As she felt the Slytherins gathering around her, Lily tossed the Quaffle Eli's way, but it was quickly intercepted by Annie—ever the ball hog.
Shaking her head, Lily watched as Nora knocked the Quaffle away toward a Slytherin teammate.
"Nott hits the Silsbury shot out of the way!" the announced yelled. "Slytherin now in possession of the Quaffle!"
"Goddammit!" James yelled.
With haste, Lily tried to catch up to the Slytherin Chaser, but alas, he threw the Quaffle right past Damien's fingers.
"TEN NOTHING SLYTHERIN!" the announcer yelled, much to the happiness of all of the Slytherin supporters.
Damien, now in possession of the Quaffle, tossed it to Eli. Seeing that her friend had the ball, Lily flew to his side, flanking his left in order to take any incoming Bludger hits to protect the Quaffle-carrying Chaser at all costs.
Eli tossed the Quaffle Nora's way, but when she deflected it with the end of her broom, Lily caught the ball and tossed it through one of the lower goal posts.
"LILY POTTER WITH A GOAL! TEN POINTS TO GRYFFINDOR!"
Lily pumped her fist in the air and gave Nora a playful shrug before heading back on the defensive.
The back and forth between the two teams went on for an hour until Gryffindor had racked up seventy points to Slytherin's thirty points. Lily had managed to get past Nora five times, and Eli two; Annie had missed all of her shots.
"AND IT COMES DOWN TO THIS! IF GRYFFINDOR SCORES ANOTHER GOAL AND CATCHES THE SNITCH, THEY WILL HAVE WON THE QUIDDITCH HOUSE CUP!"
The announcer had no need to tell Lily that as she had been keeping track in her own mind. One more goal. Catch the snitch. Win.
Quaffle in hand on the return from Damien, Lily flew back to the opposite side of the pitch, flanked by her fellow Chasers.
"GET THE GOAL, LIL!" James yelled from above.
Lily threw a quick glance and saw that he was within feet of catching the Snitch.
"Lil, let me take the shot!" Annie said from Lily's right.
Despite feeling slightly guilty for not passing the Quaffle to her superior, Lily knew that the only secure way for a Gryffindor win was for herself to throw in the final shot.
"I've got it, Annie," Lily said, nodding. "Let's just finish this."
Those words hot on her tongue, Lily sped forward before taking a fast duck to evade a whizzing Bludger and throw the final shot at the goal.
Lily held her breath as she watched the Quaffle leave her fingertips in slow-motion. The Quaffle spun through the air. Nora's fingertips grazed the side of the Quaffle right before it knocked off of the inside of the hoop and right through the center of the goal.
"GOAL! LILY POTTER PUTTING TEN MORE POINTS ON THE BOARD FOR GRYFFINDOR!"
Before Lily could even look up to see where James and the Snitch were, the announcer began to shout once more, "JAMES POTTER CATCHES THE SNITCH! GRYFFINDOR WINS! GRYFFINDOR WINS!"
A victory scream ripped through Lily's throat, throwing her fist in the air at the win as the Gryffindors in the stands let out a roaring cheer that rang in Lily's ears.
Amidst the excitement, Lily descended to the grass of the pitch and dropped her broom, running to the center of the pitch where the rest of her team gathered.
Lily crashed into Eli, giving her Quidditch best friend a hug.
"We won, Lil! We won!" he yelled over the rowdy crowd.
"We did!" she yelled back to her friend.
Lily let go of her friend and looked up at the spectators with a happy sigh before being scooped into a hug by her brother James. Lily's legs swung around as James spun her around in a circle.
"THE DREAM TEAM, LIL! THE DREAM TEAM!" he yelled into her ear before he put her down on her feet.
Though Lily was a bit dizzy from all of the spinning, she watched as the majority of the Slytherin team stalked into the locker room. Only Nora and a Beater remained on the pitch, shaking the hands of the Gryffindor team.
"Congrats, Lil," Nora said as she pulled Lily into a hug. "You were awesome."
"So were you," Lily said, pulling away but holding onto her friend's forearms. "I didn't even think that last shot was going in. That was pure luck."
"A win's a win," Nora said before looking back toward the locker room. "I should head back with the rest of my team. There's bound to be a debriefing."
"Well, hopefully, it's not super boring," Lily said with a shrug before giving her friend a second hug.
"You're the best, Nora."
"And so are you," Nora said before walking back with the other remaining member of her team to the Slytherin locker room.
As Lily watched Nora leave, Annie put her long arm around Lily's shoulders.
"What a season, Lil," she said. "Taught you everything you know, now, didn't I?"
Lily found it hard not to laugh at Annie's assertion but decided it best to appease her, "Yeah, definitely, Annie. You taught me everything I know."
Suddenly, Bobby was behind the pair, "Presenting of the Quidditch Cup, ladies."
"Sure, Bobby," Annie said, taking her hand off of Lily's shoulder.
The two girls followed him to the center of the pitch where Master Lang stood with the Quidditch House Cup. Lily found herself between Eli and James. The victorious Quidditch team stood in a line, arms around each other's shoulders.
"For outstanding excellence in Hogwarts Quidditch, I present to you, the Gryffindor Quidditch Team, the Quidditch House Cup! Congratulations!" Master Lang said, his voice amplified throughout the pitch.
James, being the team captain, accepted the cup and hoisted it above his head, gaining intense cheers from all around the stands.
For the final time that day, Lily took in the applause, closing her eyes and allowing the noise to fill her. When she opened them, she noticed someone different in the crowd. The person was most certainly not a student as he looked to be sixty and had a large, white handlebar mustache, which Lily could clearly see from the pitch. Notepad in hand, the man appeared to be scribbling down notes.
Though she wanted to point him out to the rest of her team, she just couldn't. She didn't want to take away from the joy of the Gryffindor win, so she took a deep inhale through the nose and vowed to remember the moment.
-+-
Woo! That was the longest chapter that I've ever posted! Woo!
The action is surely going to pick up in the next chapter, but I don't know if it's going to be this long...
Anyway, more news! I submitted this (and everything else I've written in 2016) into the Watty's!! Woo!!
Yeah...that's it! Woo!
Thank you for reading!!! Don't forget to vote, comment, and share if you enjoyed the chapter!!
-aquaseahorse