After about a month of quidditch practices, James Potter had ensured the Gryffindor team looked stronger than ever. Quidditch was James's pride and joy--always had been--so he intended to do everything in his power to ensure that Gryffindor won the Quidditch Cup this year.

James turned to his team huddled in the changing rooms. "Alright team, the first match of the season."

His voice was the only thing you could hear above the shivers from the team.It seemed that everyone's teeth were chattering as they tried to fight the cold weather off.

"Marlene, Sirius, I want you to use the strategy we worked with on Monday at practice," James spoke with direct eye contact. "Laura please make sure to cover more to the right because that's the side their chasers favor."

James paused before speaking to his fellow chasers.

"Thomas, Kayley, just make sure to pass right to whoever you're aiming for. Hufflepuff is known for their interceptions," he reminded them as if they could've forgotten. "Alyssa catch the damn snitch quickly because with these weather conditions any of us could fall off our brooms."

James looked around at his team. Their nervous jitters emanated around them, and James allowed them to bounce off of him. He let his mind take him to one hour previously.

**

Lily shot up from the Gryffindor table just as James was about to leave for the changing rooms.

"James!" Lily said, grabbing his attention immediately.

"Yes, Lily-flower?" He replied, grinning as her face flushed.

"Uh," she stammered.

Lily really hated when his hazel eyes looked right at her green ones and didn't flit away. She didn't think it was human to be able to maintain eye contact with someone so easily. It was always her who broke eye contact first, and Lily never liked to lose at anything.

"I just wanted to wish you good luck before the season opener," Lily finally said.

His grin widened dramatically, almost making Lily swoon before she chastised herself.

"Why thank you. Are you coming to the match?" He asked rather stupidly as she was dressed in all red and gold.

Lily punched James in the shoulder.

"Git. What does it look like?" She gestured towards her face that had gold and red lines underneath her eyes.

He noticed that it made her eyes pop even more.

"I thought that was just a new fashion statement or something."

Lily shook her head as she giggled quietly.

**

Sirius clapped James on the shoulder as they heard Jordan announce the entrance of the Hufflepuff team. James quickly snapped out of whatever trance Lily had put on him and prepared for their turn to enter the quidditch field.

"And their star seeker Amos Diggory! This marks his third and final year of captaincy." Jordan's voice boomed. "Many thought that choosing Frank Longbottom over him for head boy was a controversial move."

"Mr. Jordan, please comment on the sport, not the politics."

The Gryffindor team chuckled as they heard Rodger and McGonagall arguing.

"And now ladies and gentlemen hold onto your hats. Entering the arena is none other than the Gryffindor team!"

James led his team onto the pitch. As if it were a routine, he searched the roaring crowd for a particular redhead and frowned when this proved just as difficult as it had in past years. He really should've learned the first time that trying to find Lily in a sea of red and gold was nearly impossible, nearly because he had always managed to find her eventually.

"James Potter, as the Captain, has organised a spectacular team this year," Jordan said as the Gryffindor team made their way to the center of the pitch. "No one was surprised when he was named Captain, as he is pretty spectacular himself." 

James bowed and winked, which earned both roars of laughter and boos from the students watching.

"The beaters, Marlene McKinnon and Sirius Black are quite the dynamic duo as well."

Sirius and Marlene high-fived at this behind James and he laughed heartily before turning his attention to Hooch and Diggory. He could see Diggory's smirk from here and James scrunched his nose, not really wanting to partake in pre-game banter.

"Potter, you think when I win this game Lily will go out with me?" Diggory asked, the smirk not leaving his face.

James had to try not to break a few choice rules right then and there. He reminded himself that there was no way that Lily would ever go out with him and there was also no way that Gryffindor would be losing this match. He couldn't allow that to happen.

"I don't know, she doesn't like the arrogant type of bloke," James rebutted.

Diggory rolled his eyes at James's words when Hooch drew their attention from each other for a moment.

"Alright, I want a nice clean game boys, you hear me?" Hooch asked sternly.

They both nodded. Hooch was strict about all things when it came to Quidditch, but James was on her good side for more than a few reasons. He was a quidditch fanatic and took the game seriously, probably more seriously than she did. But, he might want to blame her favor for him on his charm.

He looked around the stands and finally found the red-head that he was looking for. Her hair was drenched because of the relentless rain, but it didn't appear to be bothering her. Lily looked as if she had positivity bouncing off of her, and James felt that she most likely did. Mary was sitting next to her on her left side and on her right side was Remus. He looked tired, but practically everyone around Lily was glowing because of her spreading positivity. Alice was sitting behind them next to Frank with the same gold and red stripes underneath her eyes as Lily and Mary.

"Mount your brooms."

...

James called a time-out an hour into the game. The seekers had not yet seen the snitch and everyone's shakes were interfering with their flying. James was personally having trouble seeing through his goggles because of the rain, but the rest of the team was shaking from how cold they were underneath their robes.

"Prongs, get Evans or Moony down here right now so they can do some weird magic and make us warm and dry." Sirius demanded with a dangerous tone.

James remounted his broom and flew up into the stands where Lily sat.

"Evans, your presence has been requested in the changing rooms," James said, shivering in the now torrential downpour.

She furrowed her eyebrows in response and Mary shoved her shoulder forward.

"Go Lily, Gryffindor needs you!" Mary shouted.

"How am I supposed to get down there?" Lily retorted.

"Get on the back of my broom!" James bellowed.

Lily raised her eyebrows but carefully swung her leg over the back of his broom and wrapped her arms around his waist tightly.

"Woah Evans, any tighter and you might chop me in half."

"Oh this is a terrible idea." Lily shook her head as James started to fly down to the changing rooms.

She gritted her teeth so she didn't scream. James gracefully landed them by the changing rooms. He took her by the hand and led her into the room of tired Gryffindor Quidditch players.

"The savior that was requested is now here at your service." James bowed down to Lily and she rolled her eyes playfully. Sirius cleared his throat determinedly.

"Evans, do you know how to do the water-repelling charm?" He asked in a serious tone. One which he did not use very often. This made Marlene stare at him with a grin attached to her face. Lily nodded. "Can you use them on our robes?"

"It would be easier if you're all dry and I expect we don't have much time," Lily said, making the team dry themselves off with their wands.

"Alright c'mere Marlene."

Everyone watched in the changing room as Lily placed the charm on her best friend's robes. Marlene was however focused on the snarky comment Lily said to her that only she could hear.

"If you stared at Sirius any longer, then you probably would have removed his clothes with your eyes."

"Says the person who was clutching to James as if he was your lifeline."

Lily stood transfixed for a moment as she looked at Marlene, her best friend since the second year.

"Don't worry no one else saw," Marlene winked at her and Lily moved to the next person she needed to place the charm on.

...

James wasn't focused on the commentary, the way Diggory was glaring at him, or the boos of the Slytherin side of the audience. He was focused on the game at hand. He had told Alyssa to make Diggory think she saw the snitch and then pull out of a dive very quickly. The score was currently 80-70 Gryffindor. If James and his fellow chasers kept passing consistently they should be able to score at least thirty more points.

Ten minutes into the game after the time out, the score was now 100-80 Gryffindor. Alyssa flew by James at an alarming rate, and that meant only one thing. Sirius was chasing after a bludger that was headed straight for Marlene who had her back turned towards their keeper. James turned his head just as Thomas passed him the quaffle.

"Longg passes the ball to Potter. Potter advancing down the pitch. He fakes a pass to Longg and sends it right to Harden."

Kayley advanced toward the three hoops and extended her arm behind her to throw the quaffle. The crowd cheered unenthusiastically when she scored.

Suddenly Rodger's excited voice booms over the stands. "AND FREED HAS CAUGHT THE SNITCH!"

James's neck whips around like the speed of lightning and he tilts his broom towards the direction of Alyssa. He landed on the pitch and dragged his broom behind him as he sprinted to her.

"Told you missing the tryouts wouldn't affect me much, Captain." Alyssa is beaming, but before he could reply someone leaped onto James's back.

"The only reason we won was Evans's handiwork," Sirius laughed as James spun him around in a circle.

...

Lily sat on the floor of the girls' dormitory having Marlene recount what Sirius told her for the fifth time.

"He just strode up to me, said that my Quidditch robes looked good on me, winked, and left with Remus! What does this mean?" Marlene sighed exasperatedly into her pillow, "Why do boys have to be so confusing? Why can't they just say what they're thinking?"

Lily had an idea, of which she was not sure how her friend would take it, but before she could propose it, Elizabeth walked in with a bloody nose.

"Tell your maniac friend to leave me alone! I know what I did was wrong, but that was almost two months ago!" Beth said, her eyes darting from Lily to Marlene and back.

Lily narrowed her eyes on Beth. She knew Mary quite well, which meant she knew she would not attack unless provoked.

"What did you say to her?" Lily asked with an even tone raising her eyebrow.

Beth shifted uncomfortably. That was confirmation that Mary was provoked. It was lucky that Beth knew better than to lie to Lily.

"After the match was won by Gryffindor, I got up with Timmy--who is now my boyfriend, by the way-"

Marlene sat up from her bed and started to pull clothes from her dresser.

"We don't care, by the way," Marlene's voice was clear and curt as she glared at Beth.

"Anyway," Beth continued. "Timmy starts to walk in Mary's direction and I try to ask him what he's doing, but he shrugs me off. When we reached Mary she raised her eyebrows at us and asked what we wanted. Timmy said that because of Mary's friendship with James he wasn't allowed on the team."

Lily arched one of her eyebrows at Beth.

"James said that he let in more goals than Laura did. It had nothing to do with Timmy  cheating on Mary," Lily stood up and walked over to where Marlene was standing in front of the mirror.

"Do you think that I should shower?" Marlene asks Lily, still surveying herself in the mirror. Lily wrinkled her nose at her friend.

"Probably a good idea, Marls." Lily turned to Beth as Marlene entered the loo. "James takes Quidditch very seriously, what happens outside of the pitch doesn't affect him on the pitch. He would've picked Timmy if he thought he had been the better player."

Beth's face grew hot, but she didn't reply.

Lily thought it was best if she removed herself from the dorm before things escalated more, and she remembered where she had gone with Mary on Halloween.

...

She now sat in the marauders' dormitory, watching the boys argue over something. Lily didn't quite know what it was, and this could be blamed upon the fact that she decided to focus solely on what James looked like when he argued, but she found that in the long run, what would it matter if she admired James Potter's looks?

"Are you ready for the party?" Remus asked gently,

looking directly at Lily.

Lily reckoned Remus was too perceptive not to know that she had just openly gawked at James, yet she pushed this thought to the back of her brain and replied.

"I'm not in the mood to party," Lily shrugged.

Remus frowned and looked to Sirius and James for help.

"Well partying always helps me get my mind off things, maybe it could work with you too," Sirius said.

"Fine," Lily said stiffly, getting up off the ground.

"It's only a small celebration anyways." James said quietly, slinging an arm around her shoulder.

Lily snorted and arched an eyebrow. As she did this James could not help but absolutely melt underneath her gaze.

"You expect me to believe that Gryffindor will have a small party after they just won a grueling match?" Lily shook her head. "Not in a million years."

"Okay fine, just a bit bigger than small." James relented, smiling down at the redhead.

At that moment, Sirius swung open the door of the dormitory and loud music blasted into the room. Lily smirked at James.

"Okay, maybe it's a big celebration, but we deserve it. After that match, I thought my arms were going to fall off," James spoke as they walked down the staircase, with his arm still around her shoulders.

"I'd like to at least stake claim at helping you achieve that victory." Lily said after she accepted a butterbeer. James smiled and rolled his eyes.

James smiled brightly as she led him into the group of dancing people just as a Micheal Jackson song blared through the speakers.

It was there dancing in the Gryffindor common room that Lily Evans realized a couple of things. She realized she didn't care what happened in the future as long as her friends and family were by her side. She also realized hesitantly that James had been an active part of her life recently.

Under the dim lights of the common room, Lily couldn't help but wonder what it would be like if James was more than her friend.

...

Author's Note:
I don't think this is my best chapter, but I like the ending and right now I don't have the energy to change it. A bunch is happening in my life rn. I might edit it later though. Lee Jordan is one of my favorite characters so of course I had to include his dad! Stay safe in this crazy fucked up world!

Lmao anyways thanks for reading
-teddy✌️

**edited August 2021