"AAAAAAAAAAND THIS EVENING... WE HAVE THE FIRST MATCH OF THE HOGWARTS QUIDDITCH SEASON BETWEEN.... HUFFLEEEEEEEPUUUUUUUUUFF AND RAVENNNNNNNCLAWWWWWW!" Dexter's voice carried 'round the pitch, echoing off the stands as students from all four houses crowded into the stands excitedly, the lights over the pitch turned on in the late afternoon light. The trail to the pitch from the castle was strewn with fairy lights that floated over the walkway, illuminating the stragglers as they hurried across the grounds to see the match.

"CA-CAW, CA-CAW! RAVEN-CA-CLAW!" shouted Ravenclaws in the stands, chanting and clapping.

"For a bunch of smarties you'd think they'd have a better chant," muttered Wally, rolling his eyes as he followed Ollie Kent up through the stands. Ollie laughed, and nodded, grinning back over his shoulder at Wally. "Aw look the wee ones think they're clever flapping their arms like they've got wings, the little tossers." 

Oliver glanced over the wall of the stair that led up to the top boxes and smirked, then looked back at Wally, "I remember you making lion claws in our first year." He mimed at scratching the sky, mocking Wally's younger self.

"Oi shut it!" Wally demanded, "Or there won't be any snogging for you later."

"Oh come off it, Wally, I know better - of course there will be snogging later, you're not able to resist me." Oliver laughed all the harder, eyes sparkling as he paused on the landing above where Wally stood, did the lion claws again, then turned and jogged up the steps, Wally following after him.

"THE EAGLES AND THE BADGERS ARE READY TO GO AT IT HEAD-TO-HEAD! AND WE'VE GOT OUR NEW REFREE IN PLACE, THE ONE AND ONLY JAAAAAAAAMES POTTTTTTTTTERRRRRRR!"

The Gryffindors let out loud shrieks and cheers - even little Sarah, who was wearing her quidditch goggles to the game and could read everything Dexter was commentating. She clapped excitedly and quickly signed to Macy how excited she was and Macy hugged her sister tightly.

Down on the field, James was stretching his shoulders out, the silver whistle laying across his chest, eyes searching the stands for Lily, Sirius, Remus, Peter and Dora - all of whom had said they would come to the match to see his first time out as a referee, but none of whom appeared to be actually at the match. James frowned, wondering what was making them so late and hoping that everything was alright. Lily had said she was alright when he left - surely if something had changed, she would've sent word? Or Dora would have?

He spotted McGonagall in the box directly behind Dexter's commentator seat, Dumbledore just settling in beside her and Elphinstone Eurquart, who looked jovial and was laughing loudly, head thrown back as he clapped and looked over at Dumbledore. Minnie was peering down at him with interest and he waved at her - she waved back, then turned to Elphinstone as he tapped her on the shoulder.

James bent to unpack the balls, tucking the quaffle under his elbow and holding onto the snitch in his fist. The little wings fluttered between his fingers eagerly and he felt the tiny gold ball bouncing off his palms. The ball was particularly energized. For old times sake, he released it and caught it again a couple times, grinning at the ball's tenacity as it fluttered doubly hard against his hand each time he caught hold of it again. The bludgers shivered and bucked against their bindings in the box.

When he looked back up again into the stands on his way to the center of the pitch, it was to see Remus peering over the box wall down at him, Peter beside him, offering him up a licorice wand, and Sirius and Lily talking, looking at one another instead of down at him. He waved and Peter waved enthusiastically back. 

Where's mum? he mouthed.

Remus pointed to the box where McGonagall sat and James saw Dora excitedly sitting beside McGonagall, whispering into her friend's ear. Minnie covered her mouth and wrapped Dora into a great big hug as James watched.

James looked back to Lily and Sirius, but neither were looking still.

"AND HERE COME THE CAPTAINS!" cried Dexter.

James turned to see the Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff captains coming out of the locker rooms and pushed Lily and Sirius's non-attentiveness out of mind, waving for the captains to come forward. He used his wand to aim at his throat, the quaffle and snitch still held firm with his other arm, and he announced, "To determine who will play offense first, we'll flip a knut. As is tradition, the team with the highest score last term calls the toss - Hufflepuff. Jackson - what's your call?"

"Tails," Keigan Jackson, the Hufflepuff Captain, said.

"Very good - Hufflepuff calls tails," James said.

"AND HERE'S THE TOSS...." Dexter yelled.

James flipped the knut he'd fished from his pocket with a flick of his thumb and the little bronze coin flew into the air spinning, landing on the grass. "Heads - Ravenclaw on the offensive!" James announced, pointing to the Ravenclaw end of the pitch. "Captains, shake hands - let's have a good clean game, yeah?"

Keigan Jackson and Olivia Cross, the Ravenclaw Captain, shook hands. "Good luck, Cross," Jackson said with a smirk.

"Don't need luck, Jackson," Olivia answered, smirking right back.

James tucked away the wand, blew his whistle and mounted his broom, spiraling up into the air to game level. The teams had taken to the skies at the same time - Keigan Jackson flying down pitch to the rings to take up his position as Keeper as Olivia settled into her role as Center Chaser. The audience was cheering and James could see Oliver and Wally shouting and waving their arms, apparently cheering for Ravenclaw this evening.

In the air, James flicked his wand to release the bludgers, threw the quaffle into the air, blew the whistle and released the snitch in a quick motion. The snitch zipped away quickly, disappearing nearly as quickly as he'd let it go - eager to be sure it got away from him this time - and the bludgers were whizzing past his ears as they went hurtling toward the Ravenclaws as Olivia Cross quickly shot forward and grabbed the quaffle.

"AND THE SNITCH IS RELEASED - HERE WE GOOOOOOO!" Dexter cried. "It's Cross with the quaffle right off the throw and Cross throws to Butler, to Watson - back to Cross. Near miss of a bludger from Tisdale. And they're down the pitch. Jackson ready in the rings - Cross to Watson to Cross to Butler to -- WHOA! GOAL! Ravenclaw!!!"

James had himself a busy game - concentrating on where the Quaffle was and watching for any potential penalties, but luckily both Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff had some decent players and weren't exactly frothing with dirty plays - not like a Gryffindor-Slytherin match might be for instance, but still he'd never refereed before and it was very important to him that he not miss anything that ought to be called and wanting to be utterly unbiased between the teams as best he could be, so he paid careful attention.

Meanwhile, in the stands, Lily and Sirius were so not paying attention.

"Are you two even watching the match?" Remus asked, looking over at them.

"Yeah, it's grand," Sirius replied without looking up.

Remus said, "Yeah, you're watching? Who's winning?"

Sirius shrugged, "I don't know - it isn't Gryffindor that's playing is it? I'm only here to watch the referee." 

Remus shook his head and looked back down at the game.

"Muffliato." Sirius hissed, then turned back to Lily. "I mean, what would you possibly want to wait for?" he asked lowly.

"For the right moment!" Lily said persistently. "I have an appointment at Mungo's on Thursday. I'd like to confirm it by an actual mediwitch before I do getting him excited. You know James is going to want all of the proof before he'll get excited. He has to see things to process them. Remember how long it took him to process the first time we kissed? I expect this will be quite a bit longer! If I wait 'til Thursday I can have the mediwitch make a sonogram!"

"But then I have to keep this in until Thursday!" Sirius whined.

"I think you'll manage!"

"Lilith, it's already burning a hole in my mouth!"

"Well I'm afraid your mouth is going to have to survive being holey."

"You know Mum's over there telling Minnie, don't you?"

"What? Is she?" Lily looked 'round over to the box where Minerva and Dora sat, heads bent together much like Lily and Sirius were now. "Oh my stars, mum! Ugh." She sighed.

"You know Minnie's probably revising her retirement plan in her head right now. Timer's on folks, just eleven years left and Minnie's done before the progeny of James Potter haunts the halls."

Lily laughed. "Only because he'll have been trained by all four of you. Left to his own devices and my baby would be innocent - like his moth--"

"Don't you dare," Sirius guffawed, shaking his head, "Don't you dare act like you were anything but an accomplice to us! Sure there were the odd times that you didn't follow along with us, but nine out of ten you were leading the calvary."

Lily pushed him, grinning because she couldn't much deny that.

"Can I at least be there when you tell him?" Sirius begged.

Lily hesitated.

"What? Why are you hesitating?"

"I - I was thinking."

"About what?"

"That you - that he ought to be the one to tell you."

"Oh Lilith, come now, it's too late for that, I already saw the vial turn pink, darling."

"Yes I know but, I think it might be an important part of the - the celebration of it, though, getting to tell his best mates. I think he ought to tell all of you. Which is why I forbid you to tell Remus or Peter anything!"

"And what are you going to do? Confund me?" Sirius laughed. He paused, studied hers seriousness a second and went, "You are not fucking confunding me, Lilith."

"No, no, of course not. But - but I think you ought to let him tell you about it... and... you know. Act surprised."

"He would know I was acting surprised," Sirius laughed.

"Please, Sirius?" 

"I mean, you know I love a good opportunity to overreact to a thing but I promise he'll know before I even finish my performance," Sirius shrugged.

"Thank you. Just do your best."

"So you'll tell him tonight, then?"

"No, Sirius - I told you. I want to wait until after Thursday."

Sirius sighed. "Liliiiiiith..."

"I have to do this my way Sirius. It's a very important milestone for me - for us - for all of us but especially for me and James, you know? I have to do it my way. Please understand."

Sirius whimpered and pressed his face against Lily's shoulder.

She laughed and kissed his forehead. "I PROMISE you will survive, honey."

"I don't think I will."

"You will." Lily answered, dismissively. She bit her lip and tried to resist the urge to hold her hand against her stomach, not wanting to give anything away to wandering eyes. She stared down at the pitch, anxiously, her eyes searching for James and spotting him as he went racing back, grinning and throwing a wink her way. Her heart fluttered. She looked at Sirius. "Hey."

"What?"

"This is technically Harry's first quidditch game."

Sirius grinned.

Meanwhile in their box, Elphinstone Urquart looked over at his wife and her best friend and asked, laughing, "What are you two hens clucking about over here?"

"None of your business, Elphie!" Dora said, grinning.

"Nothing which you need to be concerned about," agreed Minnie.

Urquart mused and rubbed his chin as Minnie and Dora dissovlved into quiet giggles.

Out on the pitch, the quaffle was flying overhead - Ravenclaw in the lead but not enough that capturing the snitch would be orvershadowed... James followed the teams as they shifted based on the location of the quaffle... and then there was Seirgei Goldstein, diving, his blue robes fluttering behind him as he shot down, down, stretching out his palm and --

"GOLDSTEIN WITH THE SNITCH! Ravenclaw WINS!" Dexer shouted.

"CA-CAW CA-CAW! RAVEN-CA-CLAW! CA-CAW! CA-CAW! RAVEN-CA-CLAW!!"

In the stands, Wally shrugged and he and Oliver joined in the chant, laughing at themselves the whole time, and blue banners dropped from the high boxes as the Ravenclaw team descended in a lump, flying down upon their Seeker with shrieks of delight and celebration.

James landed on the pitch as Ravenclaws rushed across the grass to cheer with their house and James hurried over to the Hufflepuffs. "Hey -- good game you lot," he said to them each, giving hem pats on the back. "You all flew brilliantly. Excellent work. Great skill. Better luck next game, hey?"

"Thanks Potter," said Keigan Jackson, giving James a bump of he fist as he followed after his team into the locker rooms.

James was suddenly hit with a hug from behind and he grinned, turning about to find Lily there behind him. "There's my beautiful wife," he said, grinning and pressing his mouth to hers as he scooped her up, lifting her clear off the grass and spinning once before catching himself. "Oh shoot, I'm sorry, love. Are you feeling better?"

"Much," Lily nodded as he set her down gently. She stared up into his eyes, her arms a ring about his shoulders, and she kissed his chin, grinning. "So, so much better. Honey - you were such a great referee! The best." She kissed him again and ran her hands through his hair, grinning up at him, "I loved how encouraging you were to the Hufflepuffs just now, too." Her eyes glimmered as though she were about to cry with the though of it. "So - so supportive and - and nurturing - and - you were so - so good..."

James laughed and hugged her, "I didn't think you were so passionate about refereeing," he chuckled.

Lily nodded, laughed, and pressed face into his neck as he shrugged and held her tight, just glad to be getting so much praise and attention from her and never even pausing to wonder why.

Sirius shook his head from a couple steps away.

"So fucking thick," he muttered, even as Remus and Peter rushed ahead of him and joined in the celebratory hug, wrapping their arms about them both, too.

"Good job Prongs!" shouted Peter excitedly as Remus clapped James on the back. 

Sirius grinned and ran up too, "Heyyyyy, what a fucking great referee this game had, what!" and he joined the hug, too, his eyes meeting Lily's over James's shoulder, and they shared a knowing look as Sirius wrapped his arms tight and squeezed on the lot of them.