Chapter 14- Changing Positions and Changing Opinions
"Where's James?" Aubrey yelled up to Ryan.
"Dunno," Ryan called back, spinning her broom upside down in a way that would make most people throw up. "It's Sirius' week to keep up with him. I had it last week."
"Amusing," Aubrey called dryly, mounting and kicking off into the air. "Then who's keeping up with Sirius?" Ryan laughed and shrugged.
"Did he mention what he's planning?" Trey asked, stopping next to Ryan with the Quaffle in his hands. "Because he mentioned something about a new training plan. And since you're the unofficial co-captain and all-"
"I probably know even less than you do," Ryan said. "He never tells me anything. Well, anything about Quidditch. He tells me when Lily's being a bitch or when the prefects are being assholes or when we need to buy a muzzle for Sirius."
"He must talk to you a lot, if he tells you every time Lily's a bitch to him," Mark said, joining the circle after hitting a Bludger.
"Even more often when it comes to Sirius needing a muzzle," Aubrey added cheerfully.
"They're getting better," Ryan said, flipping back right side up before her head started hurting. "Lily and James, that is. Not James and Sirius. Buying a muzzle for Sirius wouldn't do any good. But Lily and James are getting better."
"They were walking down the hallway together the other day," Cameron piped up. "They looked pretty happy together." Without warning, he snatched the Quaffle from Trey and zoomed off down the Pitch. Trey swore under his breath before flying after him.
"Oy, you overgrown prats!" James called from the ground cheerfully. "Get your arses down here! I've got a new practice idea, and I want to try it out."
"Great," Mark grumbled.
The six of them landed in front of James. He stood next to the open ball crate on the ground in front of him, and an extra pair of Beater's bats sat next to it. "What are the extra bats for?" Aubrey asked curiously.
James grinned. "We're going to try something new, and I didn't think either one of you would let anyone else touch your bats. So we're going to borrow the school's."
"Why would anyone else need to use a Beater's bat?" Stephanie asked.
"Ah, thank you for asking. I don't think we have enough appreciation for the positions everyone else plays. We could play that way, with all of you thinking you play the hardest or the most important position. Or… we could try out each other's positions."
"You're joking," Trey said, staring at him in disbelief.
"Nope," James said cheerfully. He picked up one of the bats and tossed it to Trey. "Thank you for volunteering. You look like you could make a good Beater. Cameron, give the Quaffle to Ryan."
Ryan caught it a little clumsily. "Are you doing this to make us look like idiots?"
"Possibly," James said, still grinning. "Stephanie, pick a position."
"Uh… Chaser?"
"Excellent. Aubrey?"
"We play together really well though!" Aubrey argued. "It isn't like the Beaters work alone and the Chasers just try to stay out of the Beaters' way and the Seeker just flies in middle of it all without paying attention. Is this really necessary?"
"Chaser it is then," James said in answer to her question. "Cameron?"
"Keeper, I guess."
"Good choice. Mark, you're a Seeker. Good luck with that. Everyone know what they're doing?"
"Rebelling against our captain who seems to have gone temporarily insane?" Ryan suggested.
"I meant your positions. Try rebelling and I'll pull out the Head Boy badge."
"But we only have two weeks until we play Hufflepuff," Mark said. "We need practice in our own positions, not everyone else's. And I can't play Seeker!"
"You asked me yesterday why we were still practicing so much," James said easily. "I think you're probably as ready for the match as you can be at this point, at least without some… appreciation for everyone else. I'm not saying we don't play well together. I'm just trying something. One practice at Seeker won't kill you." He turned to everyone else. "Any questions?" No one said anything. "Good. You all know what to do by now, right? Chasers, try the three-man weave for right now. Shoot on whatever goal you want. Cameron, remember to guard all three posts. Trey and Mark… Eh, good luck with that."
"Good luck with that, he says," Trey muttered darkly. "I can hit a bloody Bludger, thanks!"
"Well, that's good to know," Aubrey said innocently. "Can you control where you hit it, or are you proud just because you can hit it?"
Mark snickered as Trey scowled. "If I can aim where I throw a Quaffle, I can aim where I hit a Bludger."
"Nice theory," Ryan quipped.
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"Ryan's a cheater!" Cameron declared as the team walked into the locker room.
"It was getting disgustingly pathetic," Ryan said, shrugging. "No offense, Mark, but it's a damn good thing you weren't thinking of ever playing Seeker."
"Can I hate our captain?" Aubrey asked, tossing the Quaffle to Cameron.
"Despite the fact that he's way better than the last captain," Mark said, "yes."
"Good. Because I do right about now. A whole hell of a lot."
"See, guys?" James called cheerfully. "That wasn't too awful, was it?" He ignored the swear words that entire team seemed to have fun throwing at him. "I think all of you had better stick to your own positions, though. That didn't turn out quite as well as I had hoped, but at least you all know what kind of hell the others have to go through on a daily basis, yeah?"
"James, if you enjoy having hair on your head, you might want to shut your mouth right about now," Ryan said.
James laughed and held his hands up in mock surrender. "Alright, alright. It wasn't the best of ideas, but it was alright. As long as I promise to never put you through that again, can you promise to win me the Cup this year?"
"Hell yeah!"
"Good. I'm going to hold you to that, you know. Anyway, hurry up and get out. McGongall yelled at me for not locking up properly. She thinks Slytherin might try and sabotage our gear. The sooner you leave, the sooner I can leave."
"Take as long as you can, guys!" Ryan called cheerfully.
James shot her a dry look. "You're going to have to stay too. I need to talk to you."
Ryan groaned. "Never mind. Hurry up, you prats! The sooner you get out of her, the sooner I get to see my boyfriend. Move, move, move!" Everyone laughed and made comments about just what she was going to be doing with her boyfriend.
Half an hour later, Ryan and James headed back to the castle. "So?" she asked, giving James a look. "What did you want to talk to me about?"
James shot her a dry look. "I'm pretty sure you know what I need to talk to you about."
"Probably. Is this on behalf of the Marauders or on behalf of yourself?"
"Er… Remus noticed first, actually. Obviously. But I noticed, and I said something to him. I convinced him to let me talk to you about it since you're, you know, especially touchy about that. You almost bit my head off the last time."
"The last time, you were doing it with me."
"Yeah, well. Maybe Remus would have been better to say something then, since he's never done it. But that's beside the point right now. You really-"
"Shouldn't be starting again just because life isn't going my way," she said in a monotone. She shot him a slight smile. "So I've heard."
"I'm serious, Rye."
"Speaking of him, do the other two know?"
"Yeah. They do. And no, they don't know I'm talking to you. Well, they might, but they didn't ask me to. So don't blame them for this. This is purely me and Remus. Do the girls know you started again?"
"Did they ever know would be the better question." James shot her an accusatory look. "Well, we weren't that close the last time I was doing it! By the time we became really good friends, I'd stopped. Now I've started again."
"It's harder to hide it from your best friends than it is to hide it from your dad."
"Obviously." She rolled her eyes, smiling slightly. "It's not that big of a deal. Really. It's not as bad as the last time. Once a day, two on a bad day. It's not that bad, really."
"Then stop."
"It's not that simple."
"It was last time."
"Last time was completely different. Last time was because I was a selfish little brat that wanted to rebel. This time is completely different. It's… to make me feel better."
"It'll start affecting your Quidditch."
"Oh, thestral dung. It won't unless I do it for years, and do a lot more than I'm doing now. Just chill." She walked a little faster to get away from him. James let her, figuring she wouldn't talk to him anymore anyway. It wasn't worth it if she wasn't listening.
He sighed, shaking his head. "Bloody birds. Remus gets to effing do it next time."
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So? -Ryan
So what? -Lily
Oh, you know exactly what I'm talking about, Lily. -R
FYI, she's talking about the looks you and lover boy James keep sending each other. Just in case you were still a little unclear on what she was talking about. -Morgan
Yes, Morgan, I managed to gather that much, thank you. And don't think I can't read what you just scratched out. -L
She's only trying to be optimistic, Lily. You can't really blame her for that. -Alice
You're supposed to be on my side in all of this. The reasonable one, remember? The one who reminds this little optimistic Fireball that her dreams are hopeless? -L
Ignoring the explicit use of the nickname of d00m, you just proved that you've been talking to James way too much. Which only proves to encourage me even more. You're meant for each other, Lily! -R
Tell me she didn't. Please tell me I didn't just see the Line on this parchment, which by the way started out as my notes. -L
I'm afraid she did. And you did read it. Don't kill her, though. And stop pretending you, of all people, actually need to take notes in this class. -M
Yeah, Lily. You're not allowed to kill me. Just imagine how much you would regret it when you figure out that you really do need my help after all. I mean, it's not like you can bring a person back after you kill them. -R
I don't think she's violent enough to kill you right now anyway, Rye. She's smart enough to wait until you least expect it. -A
Oh, please. After years with the Marauders… Do you think she would be more likely to kill me if I mentioned the fact that threatening to kill me is very Marauder-ish? -R
I wouldn't try and take that chance if I were you. -M
Alrighty. -R
I wouldn't kill you, Rye. Not yet, anyway. Not until after I prove to you that I have no interest in James whatsoever and you see that he no longer has an interest in me. -L
Can I tell her? -R
Tell me what? -L
Not unless you want your head bitten off in the middle of Charms. Which, by the way, might be just a little obvious if you don't want anyone else to know about it. -M
Alice, what are they not telling me? What do I need to know? Is this some big secret that I really need to know for my sanity and well-being, or is this just something that they want me to ask about so that I can find out it's nothing to worry about? -L
It's probably nothing, but I really can't make any promises with the two of them. -A
It's nothing really that important, Lily, it's just that… -M
What Morgan's trying to say without really saying it is that you're just being an idiot, Lily. James still fancies you. That I can tell you for certain. You, I don't know about. But James… I could give you ass loads of proof if you want it. -R
Spare me. Let me live in my blissful thoughts that James no longer has feelings for me other than friendship. Or, you know what, let's make that even better. Before this year he was just an arrogant berk that enjoyed asking me out as a joke. -L
Whatever, Lily. Think whatever the hell you want, but one of these days, you're going to listen to me. One of these days, you hear me? -R
-Ryan Miller, Lily Evans, Morgan Watson, and Alice Carter
Seventh year, Charms class, November 7, 1977
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"Rise and shine, my chick-a-dees!"
"Oh, sweet Merlin," Morgan groaned, barely lifting her head from the pillow. "Is it Quidditch already?"
"Yup, yup, yup!" Two weeks later, a very happy Ryan was strangely awake for as early as it was in the morning. This could only mean one of two things: she was on a certain time of the month or there was a Quidditch match. It was usually pretty safe to assume it was the latter if it happened on a Saturday.
"Why can't you be like this during the week, Rye?" Lily asked, yawning.
"Why can't you shut up?" Kaitlyn snapped before yanking her curtains closed.
Ryan just grinned. "Because. That would require missing out on an extra hour of sleep on a regular basis. This way, you know when to expect it and I still get to sleep in most of the time. Now, up!"
"Just because you need to get up early doesn't mean the rest of us do," Meredith said snidely, sticking her head out from between the curtains. Her usually perfectly placed hair was sticking up in all directions, but Ryan didn't feel like pointing it out.
"Oh, but the sooner you get out of here, the more chance you have of getting a seat close to James," Ryan said sweetly.
Meredith smirked. "I don't have to be close to him for him to notice me." Ryan couldn't help exchanging a look with Morgan as Meredith climbed out of bed and headed towards the bathroom.
"Well, I'm going to head downstairs," Ryan said cheerfully. "You guys hurry up and come down, `kay? I don't want to have to deal with James stressing on game day too much. He's no fun on match day, generally. So-"
"And you ramble on match days," Alice said, cutting her off with a smile. "Just go on down, we won't be too much longer."
"Alright." Ryan closed the door behind her, whistling cheerfully to herself and snapping her fingers on her free hand, making a tiny fire ball appear and disappear with each snap. When she reached the common room, the Marauders and male Quidditch players were already there. "Morning, boys."
They greeted her in various stages of consciousness. James and Cameron seemed to be the most awake, followed by Remus ,Trey, and Mark, followed by Sirius (who only opened one eye to look at her and then closed both of them again) and Peter (who was laying on the rug in front of the mantel with a pillow under his head).
"Are you ready?" James teased. "Not going to fall off your broom? Run into a pole? Get hit with a Bludger?"
"Yes, and no to the last three," she said, grinning. "The girls should be down in a bit. Oh, and Meredith has her sights set back on James again."
"Thank you, Merlin," Sirius said, opening one eye again. "About time she went back to him. Normally, having girls obsess over me is great, but that bird scares the flippin' shit out of me."
"Are you sure you don't want her, Padfoot?" James asked. "I mean, she's all yours if you do."
"Nah, Prongsie. I think you can have her. You need more worshippers as it is if you ever want to be able to compete with me."
"You're breaking the first two rules of non-Prickiness," Ryan said in a sing-song voice.
"The first two rules of non-Prickiness?" Mark asked, frowning. "What the hell is that?"
"The rules on how not to be a prick. First rule is don't be overly arrogant and the second rule is don't treat girls like property that you can pass around between your friends. Sirius just broke the first two rules of non-Prickiness."
"Why would you need rules of non-Prickiness?" Cameron asked.
"Because. Lily used to consider James a prick. So we gave him non-Prickiness lessons and made Sirius sit in on them. Neither one of them seemed to have gotten very much out of them, but it doesn't really matter."
"Morning, gentlemen," Aubrey said in a sing-song voice as she and Stephanie reached the common room.
"What is with you birds and your morning person… ness?" Mark asked.
"Because we didn't stay up all night worrying about whether or not we could hit a Bludger away from our teammates instead of at them," Aubrey said cheerfully before bounding over to the Portrait hole and climbing out.
Mark glared at the portrait hole after she disappeared through it. "She really pisses me off. One of these days, when she's not looking, I'm going to hit the Bludger at her."
"Now's a bad time to decide you hate your teammate," James said, not being able to hide a smirk. "C'mon. Let's go get breakfast before all of you are awake enough to realize we actually have a match today."
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