Seeking

Leslie Lalaith

Rating: PG13
Genres: Drama, Romance
Relationships: Lily & James
Book: Lily & James, Books 1 - 5
Published: 16/05/2004
Last Updated: 24/05/2004
Status: in_progress

AU Lily Evans joins a Quidditch team for the summer, little knowing that she would meet the man who will change her life forever...James Potter, of course.

Chapters

1. Chapter 1

2. Chapter 2

3. Chapter 3

1. Chapter 1

Author’s Note: This is a fic slightly based off the movie Bend it Like Beckham. At least, it starts that way. We’ll see how it turns out.

Disclaimer: This was not written with any intent to plagiarise or steal ideas or characters from either J. K. Rowling or the movie Bend it Like Beckham.

Ch. 1

Lily Evans shook her head tiredly. She had just graduated from Hogwarts, and to tell the truth, had no idea what to answer her best friend, Katrina Worthington. Kat had just asked her what she was planning on doing after school. Lily, who had always been a rather good student, had secret hopes of becoming an Auror, but knowing they accepted only the better than best, didn’t really want to voice that wish aloud.

“Maybe I’ll play Quidditch…” she muttered as she packed her trunk.

Kat’s eyes widened. “Oh, Lil, you could!” she cried seriously. “I mean, you’re awesome at it and you’ve been on the school team for six years and, what a great idea!!” Lily shook her head wearily.

“Come on, Kat, do you really think my parents would like that? They might be Muggles but they still want me to have a worthwhile career.”

“Yeah, but this is not a career, it’s just a bit of fun before you go and study some more and become an Auror,” she added slyly.

“How the hell did you know about that?” Lily demanded, unable to keep from blushing. Kat rolled her eyes.

* * *

As it turned out, Lily’s parents weren’t really thrilled with the idea of their bright daughter wasting her time playing sports, but after Lily promised them that it was only until she received the results of her NEWTS and found out whether or not she had made it into Auror training, they agreed.

* * *

Lily immediately set about contacting the local teams, none of which needed an opening for a Seeker. A little frustrated, she next tried the county teams, then the state. Finally, at the state level, there came an offer.

Most of the managers she spoke to weren’t interested in signing her on for an uncertain number of months, and without any recommendation other than that of her House Quidditch captain. Where the highest praise that Fisher could bestow on Lily would have counted for something at regionals, at state levels, they were like child’s play. The fifth person Lily talked to one Saturday soon after the start of her holidays finally agreed to let her come out and show her skills.

* * *

The day of the tryouts was bright and sunny. Lily, who had memorised the directions, Apparated there at seven in the morning, hoping that she would have some time to get used to the pitch and the conditions. Unfortunately, even though she was two hours early, the team was already there.

She walked down to the field, taking in the calm surroundings and utter silence, broken only by the calls of a dark-haired man, obviously the coach and the shouts of the team members as they flew around, high above the ground.

The dark-haired man frowned as he spotted her, and signaling to the others to continue, flew over to her, falling into a steep dive to land smoothly in front of her. Lily seemed unimpressed by his daring; she probably could have done moves as smooth herself.

Lily looked up at him and smiled nervously. He had dark raven-black hair and piercing eyes that should have been grey, that she expected to be grey, but that had to settle for a warm hazel. The expression in them, consisting of irritation at the interruption and annoyance at her obvious nervousness, didn’t match with them at all. He wore a pair of thin glasses, through which he was surveying her a little curiously and more than a little confusedly.

“I’m Lily Evans. I called you Saturday about the position you had open…” The man nodded and she continued, “Sorry I’m a little early, I wanted to come out and see the pitch…” She trailed off, the man was frowning at her.

Abruptly he turned away from her and beckoned a short plump witch with brown hair. She was holding a clipboard, and staring up at the players but when she spotted the man beckoning, she hurried over.

“May, did you ask a-a,” he turned to her,

“Lily Evans,” she repeated.

“Yeah, did you ask her to come out today to try out for Chaser?” he asked with a soft Irish accent.

“No, not Chaser, Seeker,” Lily corrected.

“No, we need a Chaser.” At the startled look on Lily’s face, he frowned at May. “Damn it, May, can’t you even get the positions right? Can you play Chaser at all?”

Lily blushed and shook her head. The man frowned. “Damn,” he said again. “That means I’ll have to.”

“What?”

“What? I’m the seeker, but I can do chaser too.” Frowning, he added, “though I PREFER seeker.” Lily blushed again.

“D’you have a broom?” Lily nodded and held it up.

“Good then, let’s get going.”

“Sorry?”

“What now?” he asked, impatient with her hesitation.

“Don’t I-do I have to- try out or anything?”

He grinned. “No, I can tell you’re good.” At her unconvinced expression, he sighed and said impatiently, “Truth is we need another player now, chaser, seeker doesn’t matter what. And you look all right to me. So s’far as I’M concerned, you’re in. And as I’m captain and coach, it’s what I say that matters.”

He grinned again, and Lily thought, full of himself. He turned back around and hurried off.

“Ah, Coach?” Lily called after him. He turned around again, thoroughly frustrated. “Your name?”

He flashed her a smile.

“James Potter.”

~*~*~*~*~*~*

Short chapters, mates. Hope you all want more.

~ Leslie

2. Chapter 2

Author’s Note: Just a quickie. Enjoy (I hope!)

Disclaimer: Innocent until proven guilty? * Hides behind computer * Don’t sue me!

Ch. 2

Lily, it turned out, fit right in with the team. The other men and women were nice to her, and particularly grateful to her, as it was, as James said, her fault, that he was playing.

James worked them hard and only when Lily began to feel a little dizzy did he let them go.

“Are all practices this long?” she asked a pretty girl with long blond hair who had smiled at her and introduced herself as Darcy Morris.

“No, he was just testing you. You were really good out there, not to mention you lasted longer than any of us have at the beginning.”

Lily nodded and tried to smile instead sat down unsteadily on one of the bench’s in the locker room, clutching her head.

Lily soon brought her stuff and had moved into the same set of villas as the rest of the team. She shared a villa with Darcy, who soon became a good friend. Darcy, in addition to being extremely friendly also gave her the general gossip about the team.

Lily soon found out from her that their team was the best in the region and always came out first in the district levels competitions, that the Flying Fireballs (their team) was notorious for training in the middle of the mountains and using bits of ice for their snitches, (Lily could’ve believed that, it was cold enough) and also learned the personal history of each player, as much as he or she had told, and the rest what Darcy knew and what they themselves had no idea Darcy knew.

For instance, she learned that James, who had attended Hogwarts four years before Lily, had been signed on to Flying Fireballs and played with them for a season before he had injured his knee so bad he couldn’t play anymore.

Then he had taken over the role of coaching, something he had done for three years. It was only when Lily came on that he had reluctantly, so he told the team, though they constantly teased him that he had secretly been longing for an excuse, taken over the position of head Chaser. “And only so we can win the damn thing this year!”

* * *

Lily was stretching on the floor of the living room, in front of a blazing fire. She was wearing a pair of sweatpants and a sweatshirt that said Oxford University on it, listening as Darcy read aloud a hilarious article from their favorite magazine.

It was snowing outside, as usual, as Lily would say. Both of them were laughing after each sentence, Lily still trying to do her stretches to keep her stiff ankles flexible.

The door suddenly banged open bringing in a gust of cold wind, and a whirlwind covered in snow. Lily jumped up and ran to shut the door behind the person, who was so completely covered in snow that she had no idea who it was.

Darcy was helping the person dust off the snow, revealing a wet and smiling James Potter.

“I came to find out what you two found so funny; we could hear you next door, through the storm.”

Lily glanced out the window unhappily; she hated the awful weather they had up here, but turned back to James, smiling.

“Read this,” Darcy commanded, thrusting the magazine into his hands. James raised his eyebrows.

“What’s this? Reading a ‘Banned’ book?” he teased. It was a standing joke that James didn’t let the team read anything other than Quidditch magazines and books, a rule that they all broke every day, James included, for lack of anything else better to do during the long storms.

But he read it, and couldn’t help laughing as well.

“Isn’t it hilarious? I’m going to get Amy and Kurt too,” Darcy announced, running outside and over next door in nothing but her slippers. Lily ran to close the door behind her.

“She’s crazy,” she said with a smile. James nodded.

“Oxford University? What’s that?” James asked curiously.

“It’s a Muggle school. My brother goes there.”

“That would explain why it looks about ten times too big for you,” James said with a grin. “Got any more oversized clothes you’d mind lending me? This is completely soaked,” pointing to his shirt.

Lily laughed but went into the bedroom to root through her closet. She came back with another similar t-shirt and a pair of what were obviously boys’ shorts. James raised his eyebrows at Lily, who blushed.

“My brother’s.”

“Ah, and does ‘your brother’ have a name?”

“Chase.” James went into the bathroom to change and Lily made hot chocolate in the kitchen.

“Where is Darcy?” she wondered aloud a couple of minutes later, as James wandered back into the main room. He grinned.

“Don’t you know?”

“Know what?”

“You mean Darcy’s been giving you all the gossip on everybody but her? She’s going out with Carter, if you didn’t know. That would be why she doesn’t come back so quick.”

Lily sat back near the fire, and resumed her stretching. “She never told me,” Lily said with a shrug.

“What’re you doing?” James asked, after watching her for a few minutes.

“Stretching.”

“Yeah, I can see that. Why? Do I not keep you fit enough?” with a grin. Lily shuddered.

“Your training’s just fine, Coach.”

“Then, why?”

“My ankles get stiff. Too cold.”

James frowned. “Cold?”

Lily gestured outside, where the snow was still flurrying.

“Why’d you come here then? Didn’t you know it’s in the mountains?”

“I was desperate,” Lily said frankly, with a little smile. “No team that had openings was willing to take me for an indefinite amount of time.”

“What?” he asked startled. She looked up at him a little confused.

“Yeah, I can’t play Quidditch forever. My parents won’t let me.”

“To hell with your parents, you’ve got to stay!”

“James!” she cried angrily.

“I’m serious. I can’t let you go, we’re a great team with you.” She scowled and he crossed his arms, smirking a little.

“You’d better get used to the cold; you’re staying with us, kid.”

~*~*~*~*~*~*

Not much, yet. Getting there.

~ Leslie

3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: The following was not written in an attempt to plagiarise the works of J.K. Rowling.

Ch. 3

Lily thought her life was just about perfect when an owl arrived from her parents.

The weather was so bad up in the mountains, they only kept eagles, but Lily, who thought that her parents, who had taken only reluctantly to using owl post, would freak out if a full-grown eagle landed in their living room, only used them to mail her brother.

The letter, which had reduced Lily to angry tears, was a simple request to come home at the end of the month; her NEWTS would be here and then her parents wanted her to start looking for a job, while the Auror training department considered her application.

Darcy was quite shocked when Lily told her. They eagerly discussed what Lily could possibly say in reply that might convince her parents that staying was a good idea too.

“I wouldn’t get my hopes up,” Lily said gloomily, one day in practice, when they were all doing sit-ups. Then catching James’ eye on her, she shut up, mouthing, “Later,” at Darcy, who nodded.

After the warm-up, the entire team sat inside the training building to hear what James had to say about the upcoming state-level competitions. Lily tuned out halfway through; it wasn’t as though what James was saying wasn’t interesting, she just couldn’t help thinking that she probably wouldn’t be here for the finals.

She turned to Darcy, who offered a sympathetic smile, but said nothing. Lily sighed. James heard her and scowled.

“Evans!” he barked. She looked up, startled. “Have you heard a word of what I’ve just been saying? Five rounds.”

It was Lily’s turn to scowl; it was cold outside and running never warmed her up enough. She frowned and watched as the rest of the team filed out. She had trained with James enough to know the unspoken command that followed any remonstrances: five rounds and stay behind a minute.

She looked up wearily as James grabbed his own broom and walked over to her, a stern expression on his face. “It’s not all right to just sit there and completely ignore everything I say, Evans.”

She looked up at him, a retort springing to her lips, but instead looked back down, frowning.

“What?” he asked, a slightly amused note in his voice. Lily shook her head. James always seemed to find Lily’s sullen obedience extremely amusing, and even while reprimanding her, seemed to be looking for something more to come from her than the usual “Yes, coach. Sorry coach.”

Lily had never said anything though, and it always surprised her a little that he seemed to almost be expecting a reply. Certainly, nobody else ever spoke back to James when he was scolding them.

He nodded at her and walked out. Lily scowled at his retreating back then followed him out, to run around the fields. By the time Lily was done, the rest of the team had finished with their warm-up flights and was settling in for a scrimmage.

James grinned at her as she flew up to where the rest of the team was already playing. “I released the Snitch ten minutes ago. Good luck, Evans,” he said and she could have sworn he was smirking.

She scowled in response and flew off, James’s laughter echoing in her ears. This was just his subtle way of telling her that he was a better Seeker than she was. She knew James had never gotten over being relegated to Chaser, and though nobody even attempted to compare them, she knew she was the tiniest bit better.

So he got back at her with small things like this, or by ‘accidentally’ finding the Snitch first. At such times, Lily thought he acted not like a coach, but more like a jealous two-year-old.

After about ten minutes of fruitless searching, she glanced over at James, to see if he was enjoying her failure. Her eyes widened as she spotted the Snitch loosely clasped in his fingers.

Lily zoomed over and braked in front of him so hard that he unconsciously leaned back.

“James Potter, why the hell do you have the Snitch in your hand?” she yelled.

The whole team turned around to look at her. James seemed only amused by her anger.

“You’re not the Seeker, you’re just a Chaser-,” she spat out the last word as though it were a disgraceful thing, “-you shouldn’t even be looking for the snitch anyway, if you can’t stop acting like a two-year old instead of a TWENTY-two year old, I swear-”

“Evans, I didn’t even release it yet,” James broke in smoothly, though his eyes were wide with surprise at Lily’s reference to his age, something she never did.

The entire team knew that James hated to be reminded that he was already 22, and that he still didn’t have a proper career, but James had not known that Lily even knew his age.

Lily glared at him. She reached across and grabbed his hand, then pried the Snitch out of it, turned around and let it go, watching as it flew off towards the posts then disappeared.

She turned back to him, scowling furiously, then turned and flew straight up, as far away as she could get from that annoying James Potter.

Lily didn’t speak to anybody for the rest of practice. She followed any commands James had, but only said, “Yes, Coach” and “No, Coach,” instead of addressing him as James as the team usually did.

She had flown off into the clouds for ten minutes, and returned with her sweatshirt damp and her hair wet, but her eyes sparkling, the Snitch lazily clasped in her fingers.

“Took you ten minutes?” May asked, a little more professionally than usual, as she returned the ball to its box, holding her clipboard to record the team’s stats; May could never understand Lily’s anger at James’s innocent little teasings – she would have done anything to be in Lily’s place just once.

“No, two,” Lily replied sweetly, aware that James, who was putting the rest of the balls away, was listening.

“What were you doing up there so long then?” May asked surprised. “Flying,” Lily tossed over her shoulder as she walked over to where Darcy was waiting for her.

They continued on to their villa, continuing their conversation from the morning. “You don’t know my parents, they’re not like yours. I swear, my dad would come and get me if I didn’t come home myself,” Lily said shaking her head.

“What, he’d carry you off or something?” a teasing voice from behind them asked. Lily ignored it and continued talking to Darcy, who shook her head at James, but smiled. She didn’t really approve of James’s antics when it came to the whole Seeker-Chaser issue, and definitely didn’t approve of his baiting of Lily, who tended to take things seriously, but had to admit that today’s episode had been rather funny.

“We won’t let him, will we, Morris?” James continued as well, with a grin above Lily’s head at her. Darcy laughed.

Lily frowned at her, then turning to James, said coolly, “If you don’t mind, Coach, we’re having a private conversation here.”

“What’s so private about it? As your, uh, Coach, shouldn’t I be aware if somebody’s coming to abduct my…Seeker?” with a smirk, knowing that tiny pause would have infuriated Lily.

“No,” she said rudely, before following Darcy into their villa and slamming the door in James’s face.

Lily took a warm shower, then slipped into a green sweater and jeans, her wet hair spilling in waves down her back. She walked into the kitchen and opened the fridge, rummaging for something to eat, when a voice behind her made her drop the cheese she was holding. She turned around and glared at James, who was leaning in the doorway, watching her.

He couldn’t understand why she was still mad, he’d only said that Kurt had made lunch for everybody. He frowned a little; she was completely ignoring him as she made herself a sandwich. She took a bite then got up to pour herself a glass of milk. When she sat back down, James had gone. She smiled in relief.

* * *

Lily sat in front of the fire, a few days later, stretching, listening to some gossip Darcy was telling her, though most of it went right over her head. She was nearly falling asleep when a smiling voice jerked her out of her stupor.

“I wouldn’t waste your time; she’s nearly asleep.” Lily opened her eyes tiredly.

Somebody with dark hair and grey- no hazel eyes was smiling at her. James.

Lily rubbed her eyes and shook her head. “Am not,” she murmured. James grinned. She closed her eyes a little, instantly falling into a light sleep.

James shook his head amusedly at her, then at Darcy’s disappointed expression. “I’m going to see what Carter’s doing then,” she said, and ran out.

James picked Lily up and tucked her into bed before heading home himself.