Deer in the Headlights of Love

Chapter 4

James's POV

I was starting to get anxious. The first Quidditch match of the year was coming up; Gryffindor against Ravenclaw. I know what you're thinking. But it's Slytherin you should be worried about! I know, but that year's Ravenclaw Quidditch captain is Jackson Davies and I knew he put a really good team together. But that doesn't mean that we didn't have an amazing team. I was captain, so that's naturally a plus. I was one of the Chasers, along with Lowell Goldhorn and Brooke Prott. The beaters were Sirius (Black) and Octavia Reynards. Keeper was Marlene (McKinnon). And Alex Thomas was Seeker. Honestly, so many brilliant players tried out it was hard to choose.

I woke up early on the day of the Quidditch match. I got out of bed and woke the boys that were on the team before I went to get ready. I told them to hurry up and that I'd meet them in the Common Room.

I sat down in an armchair, thinking of tricks for the coming match. I heared the girls' dormitory door close and looked up. Lily was walking down the stairs, a tired smile on her face.

"Hey," she said.

"Hi," I said.

"I came down to wish you good luck," she said. The doors to both dormitories opened and the team came into the Common Room. Lily looked at them, frowned slightly, and turned back to me. "Good luck," she said. Then, the best thing ever happened. Lily kissed me. Well, she kissed my cheek. I looked at her, shocked. She smiled her usual beautiful smile and went back into her dormitory. Suddenly, there was only a little bit of nervousness left in me. I knew we ere going to win. Sirius and Marlene smirked on our way to breakfast, while we were eating breakfast, on our way to the changing rooms, and at the changing rooms.

"Will you two stop?" I asked them.

"I have no idea what you're talking about Prongs," Sirius said, but he and Marlene stopped smirking as I began my pre-match captain speech/pep talk.

"Alright team," I began, "We have the best team Hogwarts has ever seen. We've practiced hard and no matter how good or bad the Ravenclaws are, I know we're going to win."

Everyone nodded as they finished putting on their robes. I could hear the babble from the stands growing louder and louder as they filled up with students. I peeked out of the changing room to see if any more students were still coming. As the Ravenclaw team walked onto the pitch, I knew it was time. I turned to face my team.

"Everyone ready?" I asked, picking up my broom.

"I think so," Octavia said. Everyone picked up their brooms and we headed out. We were greeted by ear-piercing cheers from all over the crowd. We walked to the middle of the pitch where we met up with the Ravenclaws.

"Captains, shake hands," Madam Hooch called. The Ravenclaw captain, Jordan Felide, and I shook hands and didn't care about being friendly. "Mount your brooms."

Both teams mounted their brooms and, on Madam Hooch's whistle, flew into the air. The commentator was a Ravenclaw boy named Lenard Magnolis. He was a year below me and I only spoke to him like three times throughout my time at Hogwarts, but he was nice.

"The Quaffle and Bludgers are released," Lenard's loud voice called. "Lowell Goldhorn of Gryffindor gets the Quaffle and passes it to James Potter of Gryffindor..."

Once I caught the Quaffle, I stopped paying attention to Lenard's commentating. I focused on the middle hoop on the Ravenclaw's side of the pitch. Their Keeper, Mason Elks, was really good, but I've been playing Quidditch for awhile. I headed for the hoop on the left side in order to trick Elks into thinking I was going for that hoop. But moments before I would've crashed into him, I dove sideways and threw the Quaffle into the middle hoop. The crowd burst into cheers and I heard Lenard say, "Ten points to Gryffindor!" with a hint of anger in his voice. I flew back to our side of the pitch and dodged a Bludger that was headed my way.

Ten minuets later...

We were in the lead fifty points to forty. It started to drizzle a bit, but that didn't bother me. I had scored two more goals and almost scored another, but Elks blocked it. As I dodged a Bludger after passing the Quaffle to Brooke Prott and saw Alex Thomas zoom past me. Then-

"Alex Thomas of Gryffindor has caught the Snitch!" Leynard's voice called. "Gryffindor wins!"

I flew to the ground with the rest of the team. We all started cheering as some Gryffindors from the stands came over and joined us. I felt a tap on my shoulder and turned around. Lily was wearing my sweater with a large grin on her face. She hugged me and I hugged her back. It would have been a nice moment if we were alone, which we were far from being.

We all made our way back to the common room, celebrating. I wanted to be alone with Lily, but also wanted to celebrate with the team, so that's what I ended up doing.

We partied all night and if McGonagall hadn't come in at midnight and told us to go to sleep, we would have been partying until sunrise. That was a fun night, one I surely won't ever forget.