Lily Potter and the Shadows' Misfortune

Chapter Sixteen

Lily thought she'd be the first in the locker room, getting there ten minutes before the time James had announced, but she wasn't alone when she walked through the door. Annie Silsbury sat on the bench, slipping on her gloves.

"Hey, Lily; I'm just suiting up" she said, looking at Lily; Annie's normally apathetic face turned into one of uncertainty. "Where's Harris? I figured he'd be with you. You're practically joined at the hip you two are."

"You haven't heard?" Lily asked though it wasn't shocking as Annie had probably been in the locker room or at least on her way when the altercation took place.

Annie's brow furrowed, "Heard what?"

"Eli's not going to be playing today," Lily said, her mouth ending in a thin line as she sat down beside her teammate. "He got himself into some trouble."

"What happened?" she asked, her green eyes wide. It was rare to get an emotion aside from anger out of Annie. Lily was just happy Annie's fiery anger was never directed at her.

Lily shrugged, "I don't know. He got this letter at breakfast, and the next thing I know, he's storming out the door, and there's this huge commotion, and by the time I got out there," Lily stopped, sighing, "he was outside of the Great Hall swearing at his brother, Nicholas. James had to hold him back. According to Nicholas, things were physical, and Master Lang came out and sent Eli up to McGonagall's office and said he couldn't play Quidditch today."

"Merlin," Annie breathed, pausing for a moment; Lily braced for a hotheaded response. "We are talking about the same person, right? Harris. Eli Harris. He wouldn't do something like this."

"I saw it," Lily said, sitting beside Annie but not looking her in the eye; Lily didn't want Annie to blame her for it, and she didn't want an explosive bout of anger. "We're short a Chaser unless James comes up with some brilliant plan."

Annie shook her head, staying surprisingly calm, "I told James to find a few backup players, but he said we wouldn't need them. Look where that's gotten us. Damn it."

"Where the hell is James Potter?"

The angry yell was something Lily expected from Annie in their conversation, yet Lily wasn't shocked when she saw the person to whom the voice belonged.

Lily and Annie looked up from their conversation to see Jake Turner, a fourth year and one of the team's two Beaters, walk through the door. Lily noticed his anger and sighed. Jake, though a great Beater, was a bit of a hothead. He could be a really nice guy, but once he got angry, there was no turning back.

"Calm down, Turner," Annie said, looking down at her fingernails.

"What the hell happened with Harris, Potter?" Jake asked, turning his attention to Lily.

She prepared to begin her explanation for the second time, "I'm not really sure, Jake. He's not playing today; there was-"

"Annie, go get Tyler," Jake said, interrupting Lily.

Lily watched Annie raise an eyebrow at his sharp order. She prepared herself for a blowout between Annie and Jake; it was a well-known fact that the pair didn't get along. Having Annie and Jake in the same room was like setting gasoline on fire.

"It may have escaped your notice, Turner, but you aren't the captain," Annie said, her voice rising. "And Tyler isn't on the team anymore."

Lily braced for an explosive reply from Jake.

"Yeah, her idiot brother kicked him off."

Lily felt as if someone had slapped her across the face with his remark. As big of a pain as James could be, Lily refused to stand for someone making a rude remark about their family. She also noticed a subtle dig at Eli and herself. It seemed they weren't acceptable Chasers in Jake's eyes.