Lily Potter and the Shadows' Misfortune

Chapter Thirty-Eight

Nothing became of the rest of the detention in the owlery. In fact, nothing became of the rest of the month of April or the Easter holiday that Lily spent with the entire Weasley-Potter clan at Shell Cottage. The only thing coming was the final Quidditch match of the season: Gryffindor versus Slytherin. Hogwarts was absolutely buzzing with the students' excitement over the match between the two houses with the largest rivalry in the Wizarding World.

"Do you guys think you'll beat Slytherin?" Rudy asked on that electrifying Saturday morning over breakfast. His face was painted half-red and half-yellow. It was clear who he was supporting.

"Absolutely," Eli answered through a mouth full of biscuit—he had told Lily that he wanted to "carb up" before the match.

"I think we've really got a good shot," Lily said with a smile as she brushed part of her lion hat's shaggy mane out of her face. "Slytherin's definitely going to lose."

"And Gryffindor is definitely going to win," Eli said from across the table.

He held up his hand, and Lily gave him a high-five.

"So how many points do you actually have to get to win the Quidditch Cup?" Rudy asked after swallowing a gulp of pumpkin juice.

"Two hundred?" Eli said, unsure and turning to Lily.

"We need to finish the game with two hundred more points than Slytherin," Lily said. "That means James catching the Snitch after we've at least scored five goals more than the Slytherins have."

"That seems doable," Rudy said, shrugging.

"It absolutely is if we keep Slytherin from scoring and can get past Nora at Keeper," Lily said before turning to Hugo, who hadn't said a word all morning and was currently starting into his cereal.

"Who will you be cheering for, Hugo?"

Hugo, who was most likely the only person at the Gryffindor table not wearing the house's colors, jumped at Lily's mention of his name but immediately looked back down into his soggy breakfast,

"Don't know. Hard decision."

"Can't. Form. Complete. Sentence," Eli said robotically before dissolving into a laugh.

Lily was worried when she saw that Hugo didn't even flinch at the jest or let out some loud, stupid comment that would've made Lily embarrassed to be related to him. No reaction.

"Hugo, you have to cheer for Gryffindor," Eli said, his voice suddenly serious.

"Aww," Lily said, a smile coming onto her face as she really realized what her cousin was dealing with. "You want to cheer for your house but also want to cheer for your girlfriend. How sweet!"

"Not sweet. Sickening," Hugo said. "Going to throw up."

"Hugo, you can cheer for both teams," Rudy said.

"Absolutely," Lily said.

"Absolutely not!" Eli said, slamming his hands on the table. "You can't be seriously considering supporting Slytherin, can you? Malfoy's on the team. My...Nicholas Harris is on the team. We have to beat them."

Lily blinked at Eli's strange mention of his biological brother, but the conversation still continued.

"A very true point," Rudy said.