House Pride

James Potter smiled as he saw Lily Evans walk by, one of the reasons why he was in love with her was her large amount of house pride. Although she was completely inept at Quidditch, she still made the effort to go to every game, decked out in full Gryffindor colors. Today was no different.

Trying to calm his nerves before the big game Lily was an easy distraction, she was rather pretty and he loved her hair, even if it did clash with the house colors.

"You know you really should eat something" Remus, the ever reasonable one, pointed out, "If you don't get food into you there is a high possibility that you could pass out whilst holding the quaffle."

"What the hell does 'whilst' mean?!" Sirius asked angrily, "It's not even a bloody word I bet!"

An argument ensued which the nervous James tried to tune out. Most of his house were showing a great deal of pride, excited that Gryffindor had once again made it into the final match thanks to his amazing leadership skills (if he did say so himself.)
In his seventh year, James would not allow them to lose the cup, he needed something he could take with him, give him a reason to be proud, and hopefully make Lily consider dating him.

They headed towards the Quidditch pitch, Remus and Sirius still bickering. James preparing his pregame speech, he really needed a way to get his team excited and by doing so get his house back on top after last year's…horrible loss to Hufflepuff. They needed something to be prideful of again, especially since they lost the House Cup every year due to the Marauders antics, Quidditch was really all they had.
…
Lily sat on the Gryffindor bleachers nervously, she didn't understand a bit of Quidditch but hell if she didn't want her team to win, and she did have Frank and Alice to help explain to her, if they could ever stop snogging.

She frowned as Slytherin got a goal, at least that's what she presumed happened since they did get a point. If they didn't win this year she would have to beat James Potter with spells, it was her seventh year and she wanted Gryffindor to be on top when she left, just like when she had first come.

Zoning out from time to time, Lily missed a lot of the action, which she really didn't care about anyways; she just wanted her team to win. By the end of two hours she was getting quite fed up that Tom hadn't caught the snitch yet, he had assured her that he would have it in the first five minutes.

"And it seems Thomas Blake has caught sight of the snitch! He and Jason Flint are head to head!" The announcer, Lily never bothered to remember her name, announced.

The audience stood up with batted breath, watching the two in their race, hoping the team they were rooting for would win. Lily watched as Tom dove, a risky head first move toward the ground, inches ahead of Flint, and clasped something in his hands.

The game stopped, there was silence in the audience waiting for the announcement, hoping that either Gryffindor had or hadn't gotten the snitch.

"And Gryffindor has won the game!" The announcer called, "Gryffindor has won the Quidditch Cup!"

The Gryffindors cheered, some planning the after party, while the Slytherins sneered, calling out that they had cheated. There were mixed feelings from Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff, but Lily didn't care, they had won! They'd earned back any pride they'd lost when they had lost to Hufflepuff least year, they were top house again.

Lily smiled, getting ready to lay a big one on James when they got to the common room.