Harry climbed through the portrait hole, and was met with screaming, cheering and yelling. “We won!” cried Harry’s best friend, Ron. “We won! Four hundred and fifty to a hundred and forty! We won!”
Up in heaven, a mother and father cheered for theirs son’s team’s victory. “I knew they could do it! I knew it,” Lily exclaimed, ecstatic. “This is great! Harry must be delighted!”
James was beaming at his son. “He chose a strong team. And Ginny is a great Seeker, she must’ve been a brilliant replacement.” His smile expanded. “And that Demelza Robbins is an excellent Chaser! She reminds me of one of the Chasers on my team in seventh year. Remember Stebbins, Lily? Remember that game against Hufflepuff, where he scored nine goals in a row, even though it was a huge storm? The Quaffle was blowing everywhere, and our Keeper fell off his broom. But if anybody couldn’t handle the conditions, it was “” He fell short when he remembered that Lily didn’t need to hear a rerun of the whole match. “It was a great game,” he said, summarising what could have been an epic story.
She grinned. “I loved watching you play Quidditch.”
“Though you pretended you didn’t,” he reminded her.
“Can you imagine how conceited you would have been if I’d told you that you looked amazing up there?” Lily grimaced, visualising the scene.
James chuckled. “I know, I know.”
Harry entered the common room, hardly daring to believe it. He had a stunned expression on his face, as if he thought it was a dream, even though Ron was waving the Cup in his face. But he wasn’t looking at Ron. He was looking at a certain redheaded girl.
“Look at him staring at Ginny, Lily!” James cried, pointing. “Look!”
“I am, James, I am,” Lily assured him. Then she let out a sigh of content. “They’re going to make such a cute couple!”
“Harry needs to hurry and stop pretending he doesn’t like her, then,” James said, looking pointedly at Lily.
“You’re never going to let me live it down, are you? Me hating you?”
“Short answer, no. I will never, ever, ever let you live it down.”
Ginny Weasley made her was towards Harry, a determined expression obvious on her freckled face. She was running towards him, looking powerful. Harry did not move, he just watched her run through the crowd, directly at him.
Lily let out a squeal. “She’s going to kiss him!”
“Attack him, by the look of things,” corrected James, watching Ginny Weasley run at his son. “Remember the first time we snogged, Lily? That was a good day. Well, until you suddenly jerked your knee up into my “”
“You were trying to stick your tongue down my throat, as it happens!” Lily said, cutting James off. “But I’ll admit that it was quite enjoyable before that part!”
Ginny had thrown her arms around Harry, and Harry pulled her too his chest, looking like there was no place he’d prefer to be.
“Aww!” Lily squealed. “He’s so gentle with girls, Harry is. Look at him hugging her like that!”
“Must be my genes,” agreed James. “My hair, my Quidditch talent, my disregard for rules,” “ Lily gave him a death glare, as if Harry inheriting that particular trait was all James’s fault “ “and, obviously, my skills with females.”
“What skills?” Lily laughed.
James scowled. “If I didn’t have skills, you wouldn’t be my wife, would you?”
“Mary always assumed it was a love potion,” Lily reminded him.
“Would I have sunk that low? Would I?”
Lily only raised an eyebrow in response.
Harry had moved his lips to Ginny’s and she returned the favour, pushing hers to his. The noise in the common room began to evaporate. Harry and Ginny held their positions, eyes closed. There common room was silent, but the pair didn’t notice.
“Finally!” cried James. “God knows how long we’ve been waiting for that! A much better choice than that Cho girl, might I add.”
“They look so beautiful together. That’s what we must’ve looked like,” sighed Lily.
“If that’s true, then Ginny will lift her knee up right about... now.” Unsurprisingly, she didn’t. “Bit more romantic than ours, Lily.”
“Most kisses usually are,” Lily agreed.
“Most kissing does not end with the girl assaulting the poor, innocent boy.”
“Oh, stop it,” she growled. She grabbed James and pulled him to her. They kissed, a mirror of Harry and Ginny’s.
James did not miss the uncanny resemblance. “Potters go for redheads,” he concluded, grinning at his son.
~Midnight Storm