A Cup Affair

Chapter Ten

Hello, guys! Hope you've enjoyed Jilytober as much as I did. A whole month of stories for our favourite couple is dreamy.

Tomorrow I'll post a translation from an old story, canon-ish - our dear old James as Lily's DADA substitute professor.

Our chapter today has a bit more of Sirius and Lily interaction, for those who love that friendship just like I do...

Without further ado... here we go!

If anyone thought it strange to see Lily calling James by his given name on the next day, they said nothing; except for a glance shared between Marlene and Remus, the "novelty" went by unnoticed.

They had a quick breakfast and ran to the training field, where they met Benjy on the stands.

"Benjy!" Lily called out, with her usual animation whenever she met her colleague, who smiled back and hugged her.

"Hey, partner! Alright?"

"Yeah, nothing like vacations..." she replied and winked. The others greeted Benjy and sat next to the field. "What are you doing here?"

"Well, we'll have the Minister on today's training."

"What?" Lily cried in surprise.

"It seems the talk back in England is that she's not giving enough support to our squad," Benjy explained while they stared ahead to the still empty field.

"Well, of course not! She's the Minister for Magic! She can't spare the time to watch people flying around on brooms!" Lily argued, then whispered, "and her son was just murdered in here, what do people expect?"

Benjy shrugged, watching attentively as said people started to fly around on brooms.

"Fact remains that she's coming," he said, "we're taking an official picture of her with the squad."

"Does she know James is the only suspect?" Lily asked with a frown. Benjy raised an eyebrow at her.

"No, she doesn't know James is the suspect," he replied, with a big emphasis on the name. Lily blushed lightly.

"Benjy, it..."

"It means nothing, nothing happened, I'm sure, partner," he smirked, "just the two of you in that wonderful hotel room..."

Lily rolled her eyes and slapped Benjy across the head, but he only chuckled.

"Hey, wasn't he the bloke who fancied you at Hogwarts?!" Benjy asked, clearly having way too much fun. "With a passion so fierce and arden- ouch, ouch, I'll stop!" Lily had hit Benjy anywhere she could reach until he relented with a laugh.

"It's nothing like this, Benjy. He used to fancy me, but it's been more than four years and-"

"Used to fancy? Try used to worship," Marlene cut in, joining them. Lily rolled her eyes and Benjy laughed again.

"It wasn't like that, Marls," Lily disagreed with a disapproving look.

"It was precisely like that, Lils, and you know it. You are talking about James, aren't you?"

"Whatever. The point is that he's a suspect in my investigation," Lily dismissed her argument.

"Who you're on a first name basis with, and who's staying in the same hotel room as you," Benjy added. Marlene grinned.

"With other four people, and even if it wasn't the case, it would mean absolutely nothing, since he still is my suspect, and also because nothing is happening," Lily emphasised.