Chapter 1
"…Although there's no denying the talent of each individual on the Chudley Cannons…until they get their act together, their chances of winning the Quidditch Cup are nil. And with James Potter reigning as their captain, I doubt they'll be seeing a glitter of gold anytime soon."
"Leigh," Lily said, "I know you love me and all, but must you insist on quoting my articles to me? Besides, that article ran a week ago, why are you bringing it up now?"
Leigh shrugged, "Just wondering what inspired James Potter, Quidditch Captain Extraordinaire, to write a letter to Jim."
Lily snorted, "He wrote a letter to Jim? You must be joking…he probably can't even read, let alone write."
Leigh raised her eyebrows and said nothing.
"He wrote a letter to our EDITOR?" Lily yelled.
"I take it you didn't see today's paper then…" Leigh held back a laugh as she dropped a copy of the Prophet onto Lily's desk.
Lily opened the paper, furiously searching for the letter. When she found it, she read it silently…well, mostly. "Oh, ho! I'm a reporter `who claims to know about the sport of Quidditch and the way its really played in spite of the fact that she has yet to play in a game, real or otherwise.'?!"
"Careful, Lily…you know how volatile you are."
Lily glanced up, confused by Leigh's choice of words, "Volatile? I don't think that's the word you're looking for. It means-"
"Prone to violence, I know what it means, Lils. And that was the word I meant."
Lily narrowed her eyes and glared at Leigh for a second and said, "I was actually going to say "Inconstant" but whatever…" before returning to the article. "Ha! `She can make all the remarks about me that she wants, but I resent her attacks against my teammates.' Yeah, right."
"Lily…why do you let this guy get to you? You know it only antagonizes you."
"I don't let him get to me…he just does. It's like he knows how to get under my skin. Ugh, I hate him."
Leigh smiled and remarked, "On the other side of repulsion lies attraction."
Lily's eyes all but bulged out of their sockets at Leigh's insinuation, "Oh, Merlin! Never! Not in a million years!"
Leigh laughed, "Methinks the lady doth protest too much."
"Leigh! You keep this up and you'll be on the same list with Potter!"
Leigh put on a face of utmost seriousness and replied, "Lily…hon…don't take this the wrong way, but I just don't think of you that way."
"LEIGH!"
"Oy, Lily, calm down. I'm only joking."
Lily glared some more.
"You know…you really do need to calm down…chill out…relax! You're 20 for Merlin's sake! You're supposed to have some fun once in a while."
"I can't help the fact that I have my priorities straight."
"And those would be…?"
"Education…career…marriage…children…"
"Uh-huh, now correct me if I'm wrong here, but you seem to have already taken care of your education and career…so wouldn't marriage be the next step?"
Lily looked away nervously, realizing the trap she had just set for herself, "Well, I guess…but-" she broke off.
"But what, Lily?" Leigh prompted.
"I just don't want to get married right now."
"So don't…but that doesn't mean you can't date!"
"Right…and how do you propose I go about doing that?"
"Well…I could set you up with a friend of Jason's…"
Lily's eyebrows shot up, "No…I'm not going out with some lawyer guy!"
"Well, the guy I was thinking of actually isn't a lawyer."
"Well, he knows one and that's generally not a good sign."
"I'm going out with one!"
"I know…but I knew you before you did, so that's…different."
"Oh, come on, Lils. Just one date and if it's that bad, I'll never bug you about it again!"
"It…doesn't work that way."
"Then how does it work?"
"I don't know…I meet a guy and we just click, I guess."
"Right…and how do you expect to actually meet the guy if you never do anything besides work?"
Lily avoided the topic, "I gotta go. I'm supposed to cover another Quidditch game tonight and I wanted to run to the gym before I went."
Leigh, obviously exasperated, sighed and said, "Fine…take it easy it on them this time."
"Hey…I just call it like I see it," Lily called out as she left the room, shutting the door behind her. She leaned back against the door as a memory flooded her mind.
~Flashback~
"Mom? Where's Dad?"
A tired woman in her 40's looked at her young daughter smiling, the best she could manage anyhow, and said softly, "He's gone, sweetie. He won't be coming back."
~Present~
Lily's eyes shut as she recalled that day with perfect clarity. She had just walked into the dining room to see her mother looking over stacks of papers - papers she now knew to be bills - with a worried look on her face. Now, nine years later, she understood the reasons behind her mother's sadness that day. Her father had just left them for his secretary - original, huh? - but when he left, so did most of his income. What he sent each month was just enough to cover her tuition at Hogwarts. She had always wondered if perhaps that was the reason why Petunia hated her so much…her going to an expensive school when their mother could barely afford it.
Her mother had attended Cambridge University, but upon marrying her father had dropped out to be a stay-at-home wife. It was what she had always wanted anyway. Unfortunately, it also left her without many options when he left. Lily admired her mother greatly for the hard work she had done for her sister and her. She took on two jobs while attending night school to finish her degree. Three years, she did that…three years. So Lily grew up refusing to let herself depend on anyone that much. In fact, she prided herself on her independence, but sometimes she wondered what it would be like…just to have someone else to depend on. Sighing, she left to go to the game.
*~*~*~*~*
Sirius groaned once more as their supposed star Chaser, James, missed yet another goal.
"Gah! James! How are we supposed to win if you keeping missing the goals?!"
"Relax, Sirius, I'm just having fun…its only practice," he replied, shrugging it off.
Sirius exhaled sharply, getting annoyed at how this warm-up practice was turning out. "James, I want you to remember this, I'm not going to tell you again…you play like you practice."
James rolled his eyes and flew back into the line-up to run another play as Sirius muttered under his breath.
"Hey, Potter…he getting on your case again?" Brian Andrews, a team beater, teased.
"Oh, yeah…good old Padfoot…we can always count on him to bug me."
"Well," Ally Freeman, the team's Seeker, defended their coach, "he's not half-bad, you know…considering he's only coached for a year."
James replied, "I never said he was bad." He sighed. "Come on, you guys, let's just get back to work…"
"Ahh, now you wanna work," Ally teased.
"Or…even better…" James said as an idea began to formulate inside his mind. He called over a few of his teammates to go over his plan.
They got into position to run their play. Ally went high above them as a Seeker generally does. James raced toward the goal as John (another Chaser) threw him the Quaffle. He caught it deftly and held it under his right arm to protect it. He flew full-speed towards the Keeper, but just before he got there, he accidentally-on-purpose dropped the Quaffle.
"Oops!" he exclaimed as he tilted the broom to the ground, chasing the Quaffle at full-speed. He finally caught the Quaffle but he remained in his dive, performing a move generally reserved for seekers. At the last second, he finally pulled up and shot off to the goal again. This time, he flew to the goal farthest from him, then looped above and over the keeper, scoring in the other ring while upside down.
His teammates cheered at the goal as they admired James' daredevil moves. The coach, however, didn't look too happy with him.
James was laughing and joking with his teammates when Sirius called him down a few minutes later, after he had finally calmed down enough to talk. He flew down to the ground to talk with him. However, Sirius led him to the locker room.
James sat down on the bench and watched Sirius as he paced back in forth in front of him. Sirius stopped and rubbed his eyes before saying, "What the heck kind of stunt were you pulling out there?!"
"What are you talking about?" James asked. "I was just showing you the kind of stuff that scores goals!"
"NO! You were showing me the kind of stuff that gets you benched!" Sirius yelled. Calming down, he said, "I didn't like what I saw out there! I didn't see a star pulling a good move to score a goal. I saw a clown performing reckless circus moves! Look, I was your best friend at Hogwarts and I know you better than anyone on that team and I know you're not going to like what I'm gonna tell you. But at this point, you're proving Evans right! I didn't want to admit it because I'm your friend, but now I know you don't need a friend…you need a coach. I'm benching you indefinitely until you can show me the kind of leadership I need to take this team to the Cup. Is that clear?"
"As glass," James returned, his voice heavy with anger and disappointment.
"You're dismissed," Sirius said as he left to return to assist the other team members with their practice.
*~*~*~*~*
Tim watched as Lily entered the gym and called out, "Ahh, Miss Evans! Your usual spot is open."
She smiled, "Thanks, Tim."
"You're quite welcome. Have a good workout!"
As Lily made her way over to her usual treadmill, she passed by a young man hitting a punching bag hard; he grunted with each hit. His back was towards Lily and she stopped to admire the view…as he wore no shirt. He moved around to the other side and Lily caught a view of his face. As soon as she did, she no longer enjoyed the view - well, she did, but like she was really going to admit that? - because the man in question was none other than Mr. James Potter.
"Oh, sod a dog…could my day get any worse?" Lily muttered aloud to herself.
James stopped at the sound of her voice and looked up to see her. "Evans?"
Apparently, it can, she thought as she forced a smile to her face and went into reporter mode. "Mr. Potter, what brings you here instead of Quidditch practice? You do generally practice before a game, correct?"
"Yeah, we do," he replied.
Not getting the answer she wanted, she tried again. "So why are you here?"
Not wanting to divulge the truth, James answered, "I'm on vacation."
"Vacation? At the beginning of the season?"
"Yeah."
"Sorry, but I don't buy that."
"Fine, but I'll only tell you off the record."
Lily sighed. "You have a deal."
"I'm benched indefinitely, you happy?"
Lily frowned, "Not particularly."
"Why not? It's your dream come true, isn't it?"
"Hardly, you're not in my dreams. Why were you benched?"
"I did a move in practice that my coach termed `reckless'."
"Ahh, why am I not surprised?"
"I don't know; why aren't you?" James said, getting aggravated.
"Because you're not careful on the field. That's why you're not a good leader."
"I'm a good leader."
"No, you have the potential to be a good leader, but right now you're not living up to it. Your teammates need you to be serious, to be a team player…not a superstar."
"Being a superstar is being a leader."
"No, being a leader is being willing to let someone else take the glory."
"And I suppose you know all about letting someone else take the glory?" James retorted in a sarcastic tone.
Lily didn't reply at first, but then she said, "Look, as much as I would love to stand here and argue with you all day, I don't have the time. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go workout and then go to the game. Good day, Mr. Potter."
Watching her walk away, James socked the punching bag one more time…really hard.