Lily Potter and the Shadows' Misfortune

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Although she was supposed to be focusing on Quidditch, Lily couldn't think about the game as she and Eli walked down to the pitch.

"You're still thinking about the Sanger twins, aren't you, Lil?" Eli said.

"You practically read my mind; it's probably all over my face," Lily said, shaking her head. "I'm trying to keep my mind on Quidditch, but it keeps wandering back to the twins and that stupid letter from M...whomever that is."

"We can deal with all of that after the game," he said. "You sounded so focused back in the Great Hall. What changed"

"I don't know," she said, shrugging. "I just keep thinking back to that stupid letter and all of that money in it. Why on earth would Addie and Romy need that kind of money? They're only twelve. They're our age, Eli. Why do they that?"

"None of us can answer that right now," Eli said. "We just have to stay focused on Quidditch."

"That you do!"

Lily felt James' familiar arm sling over her shoulder, "Aren't you supposed to be in the locker room already, James?"

"Yeah, Jimmy," Eli said, smirking.

"Ha, very funny, Harris," James said.

"It's McGonagall now, Jimmy," Eli said, smiling over at James.

"Oh yeah, sorry, my bad, McGonagall," James said. "Anyway, why can't you focus on Quidditch, baby sister?"

Lily rolled her eyes at the term "baby"; in a few months, she'd be thirteen, and a teenager certainly couldn't be called a baby by her brother, "It's nothing, James. I think I've got it under control. I'm ready for the game."

"You better because we're about to go against the phenomenon, Dakota Samson," he said. "She's a talented second year Quidditch player such as yourselves, and she's supposedly a killer Beater."

"Dakota Samson?" Eli asked. "That girl's a Beater?"

Lily knew exactly what Eli was referring and why he was so surprsied. Lily and her friends had shared classes with Hufflepuffs in the past, and she had seen Dakota Samson in them. Dakota Samson certainly did not have the typical build of a Beater. She was shorter than Lily, which was a feat in itself, and wasn't very muscular at all. Had Lily not attended the Hufflepuff-Slytherin Quidditch match before winter holiday, she wouldn't have guessed that Dakota was a Beater.

"Were you not at the Hufflepuff-Slytherin match, McGonagall?" James asked. "She killed it out there, and now, we have to face her."

"You're forgetting the fact that you've got two fantastic second year Chasers on your team, Jimmy," Eli said.

"And Annie; she's pretty good, too," Lily said.

"She's a Quaffle-hog," James said. "Don't let her take the ball from the pair of you. You are better than she is."

"I doubt that," Eli said. "She's been on the team for years."

"Oh, age is but a number, young Eli" James mused. "Anyway, if we want to win against Hufflepuff today, you two have got to be in top shape, and you can't let Annie hog the Quaffle. Deal?"

"I suppose," Lily said as the three arrived in the Gryffindor locker room.

"I thought you all were never going to get here," Jake said. "We've barely got any time left for a stupid pep talk, James."

Lily watched James give Jake a tight smile, "Well, that doesn't mean that there isn't enough time, Turner."

"By all means, James, just hurry up with it, so we don't get disqualified for not showing up to the pitch on time," Annie said, from where she lay face up on the bench.