i really loved him

chapter 18

Sunday, 14th December, 11:02 – It was the morning after the Gryffindor-Hufflepuff match and subsequent victory party. So, no one had much energy to do anything other than lounge in the common room and soak up the warmth of the fire.

Outside, the sky was bright, and a few light snowflakes floated down past the window, brushed gently aside by a silent breeze. The Marauders were huddled together on the sofa beneath one of James' many blankets, Marlene lay on her back beside the fireplace and Lily and Dorcas were curled in separate armchairs, each with an open book. Though Dorcas wasn't paying any particular attention to hers.

"Hufflepuff's new keeper was good, wasn't she?" she was saying thoughtfully.

"Yup," Sirius agreed absentmindedly. Remus had fallen asleep on his shoulder, and he was taking great pleasure in doodling on his hand in ink. "I only got a few past her. Would've been more if not for Brikke, the little sod."

They'd had some trouble with the fourth-year chaser since he joined; Brikke was rude and sour, often unwilling to do as James asked. When he pulled himself together and played properly, he was excellent, but spent much more time refusing to collaborate and doing his own thing.

He tended to keep the quaffle for himself, trying to score without passing once and regularly being intercepted before he could. It was a technique that Sirius too made use of on occasion, but he never failed to succeed with it, so was generally known as Gryffindor's daredevil instead of a hog. As a consequence, he and Brikke were constantly butting heads; their fellow chaser, Tubby, had been forced to separate them more than once after wands were drawn.

"Want me to whack a bludger at him next practice?" Marlene asked seriously. "Always thought he could do with a few manners knocked into him."

Sirius looked delighted, but James sighed and slapped him lightly over the head.

"Violence doesn't solve everything, McKinnon," he admonished.

"Yeah," she snorted. "Like you don't hex Snape at every possible opportunity."

Lily looked up then and James grinned at her, hoping that his deadly feud with her childhood best friend was, in fact, impossibly attractive. She glared daggers at him before going back to her book.

"And anyway," Marlene continued with a smirk. "My violence saved your arse three times yesterday."

"Oh, it was at least four," Dorcas said sweetly. "There was the bludger he didn't notice coming straight for his head, the one that Guerra beat from above, the—"

"Alright, I get it!" James grumbled as Peter and Sirius began to snicker.

Searching for the snitch tended to take his mind off of incoming lumps of iron. Without a doubt, he would have been in the hospital wing right now having all of his bones repaired by Pomfrey if not for Dorcas and Marlene.

"So, sometimes violence works," he admitted. "Speaking of, how's that Dopplebeater Defence coming along?"

They exchanged a satisfied smile.

"The other day, we got the bludger from one edge of the pitch to the other," Dorcas told him.

"It was brilliant," Marlene grinned, staring back up at the ceiling. "We still clash bats sometimes, though. Need to work on that."

"Great! That's what we'll start with in January, then," James said happily.

After their success, he'd had agreed to let the team off for the last week until the end of term.

"Can't wait for the holiday," Peter said wistfully. He was sat next to James, almost completely enveloped by the blanket with only his head visible. "Homework's been mental this year."