Wilting Lily

by Loony Bin Escapees

There's something wrong with Lily, James puts his arrogance aside to find out, and they fall in love. PG just for safety.

Wilting Lily

By Loony Bin Escapees

Rating PG (for right now)

DISCLAIMER- Alright we admit it! *Sob* we don't own Harry Potter! The Padfoot killing J.K. Rowling does!   *Sobs over Sirius's grave*

A/N:  Ginny came up with the owl names.  Well, Nuisance is Lorelei's, but still.  I'm not sure how much Kai is helping…or if… 

Chapter One:  Worst Summer Holidays Ever

            Lily Evans unpacked her trunk as her snowy owl, Scylla, hooted for attention.  "Hold on, I've got to put away my things," she said soothingly to the owl.  She was carrying her robes to her laundry hamper when a brown tawny owl soared in.

            "Not again," Lily groaned, taking the piece of parchment, which most likely contained a message asking her out, again, because frankly that was all he ever said to her. "That arrogant, boisterous troll, whose broomstick is too far up his behind to realise that he has actually been rejected, and that there is at least one girl who doesn't swoon at his presence.  He doesn't even really know me. He thinks that the fact that he thinks I'm hot is sufficient for a relationship. Why I'd like to take my wand and throw a Curse of the Boogies straight at his over-inflated head…" Lily muttered darkly, to no one in particular.  Scylla hooted sympathetically, and Lily let her out of her cage.

            Scylla shooed Nuisance, well at least that's what Lily called the owl, out of her room.  Lily rewarded her with Circus Peanuts, the owl's favourite sweet.  Lily dumped the robes into the hamper, and went back to her trunk to grab her books to put on her bookshelf.  She picked up her History of Magic book and dropped it, and put her hands to her head.  All of a sudden her head hurt more than anything ever before.  She dropped to her knees, and thought to herself, "if the Crucatious is any worse than this, I don't think anyone could survive it.  None of my other headaches were ever this bad."  Scylla flew out of the window, and down a story, into their parent's open window.  She flew into the living room, where Lily's mum, Susanne was watching the television.  "Hoot!" she cried urgently, flying towards the stairs.  Scylla hooted urgently once more, now on the stair-well. Susanne looked up, and reluctantly followed the owl thinking that she needed to have a talk with Lily about letting the owl out in the house.

            "Lily?" Susanne called to the door.  What came out as a reply was what sounded like a strangled cry.

            "Mum?" Susanne opened the door and gasped at the sight before her.  Her youngest daughter was crumpled on the floor, hands clutching her forehead, silent tears leaking out of her eyes.  "Lily, what's wrong?" 

            Lily began to shake, "My—head—hurts—so—bad." She choked out painfully, and crying even harder.

            Susanne helped her daughter into her bed,  "Try to sleep, I'll get you some pain reliever. Do you want me to notify anyone?"  Lily shook her head, visibly relaxing some.

            Susanne patted her daughter's slightly shaking body, "Its going to be alright, I promise."

            How wrong she was.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

            James waited for Lily's response with his window open.  Finally he could distantly make out his owl, Turkey, which Sirius named for him.  He could've killed Sirius, because now the owl wouldn't respond to anything else.  "Hi, Turkey!  Where's my loving reply?"  The owl hooted resentfully, flying around James's head, showing the seventeen-year old boy that he didn't carry a letter.

James's sighed.  Why didn't Lily see that they were perfect together?  He heard his door open.  That would be Sirius, his best friend.  They might as well have been brothers, they had lived in the same house ever since Sirius had gotten fed up enough to run away from his decidedly Slytherin family.  The Potters had gladly taken the boy in, he was over there all the time anyway.  In fact the only thing that differentiated the two was that Sirius's hair was much more tame than the Potter's natural cowlick, and that the former lacked the legendary bad eyesight.

"So, Prongsie boy, rejected again?"

"Why doesn't she realise that we're perfect together?"

"Because she doesn't like you," Sirius laughed.

"But, why not?  What's wrong with me?  I'm perfect for her!" James exclaimed.  "All it would take to show her that is one dinner!  Why can't she at least just go have one dinner, one dinner with me?"

"I don't know.  Can we talk about something else.  All I hear is Lily, Lily, Lily, Lily, OW!" James had thrown a pillow at him.

"Fine.  Do you have a girlfriend for the summer?"

"I just got an owl back from Elizabeth Haricot.  She said yes."

"That really pretty Ravenclaw Chaser?" James asked.

"Yep, the Sixth-Year."

"What do you know about Loony Moony?"

"Single—far as I know."

"Peter?" James asked.

"Single, we really should help him get a girlfriend."

"He hasn't had one since…gosh, Fourth-Year was it?"

"Disaster, if I remember," Sirius said.

"Remus has got tons of girls in love with him, he's just afraid to go out with anyone."

"I know," Sirius said, "why can't he just go out with a girl, and if they get serious he can tell her about his…condition."

"Yeah," James said, "but remember, we had to find out for ourselves."

"Let's go do something…I'm bored."

"Maybe we should unpack?" James suggested sarcastically, knowing full well that they never unpacked until over halfway through the holidays.

"Nope, I don't even want to look at my school stuff for a few more weeks, we just got out!"

"Okay, then what do you suggest?"

"Flying.  Your dad put up a diversion charm, so no one will see us."

"Okay," James answered, habitually running his hand through his untidy hair, making it even untidier.

"Maybe we'll find Lily's house, and see if we can try to visit her," Sirius suggested.

"Oh, good," James said.  "Maybe she just wanted me to physically be there for me to ask her out.  She can't possibly hate me, can she?"

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

"Lily!  Hurry up, we've got to go shopping for new summer clothes!" Susanne yelled.

"Argh!" Lily said, putting on a shirt that was slightly too small, pulling it down hard to cover her midriff, because after a year of wearing heavy robes, it just felt awkward to have her belly showing.  She gave Scylla a pet, and headed for the stairwell.  She had only reached the second step down when the world went black.

"Lily!" Susanne exclaimed as she heard crashing down the stairs.  She rushed to see her youngest daughter laying on the floor at the bottom of the stair-well.  "Lily, are you all right?"

Lily blinked a few times, "Yeah," she answered, voice sounding distant, "I just tripped over my feet coming down, no big deal," Lily said regaining her composure.  She stood up, and ignored the fact that her shirt had come up, exposing her slim belly.

Susanne smiled down at her daughter.  After the headache thing last week, and now her falling, she was a bit worried.  Of course, she didn't know that Lily had another headache that week, but Lily didn't want her mum to get all worried.

Lily got a seven more summer-time shirts, and three new pairs of shorts, when they came home, there was a strange car in front of their house.

"Hullo, mum!" Lily's older sister, Petunia greeted, ignoring her younger sister.  "I wanted to introduce Vernon Dursley, he's my fiancé, and we just got engaged today!"             

"Oh, hullo, Vernon, may I get you some tea?" Susanne greeted warmly.  Lily tried to sneak her way upstairs, but was caught by her mother, "Lily, dear, say 'hi' to Vernon and your sister!."

"Hullo," Lily said quickly, not bothering to turn around and face them, and hearing a noise from the fireplace, that sounded faintly familiar.

"Evans!" greeted the last voice on this earth she wanted to hear.  How did Potter, she turned around and saw two figures, no, Potter and Black get into her fireplace?  She wasn't hooked up to the floo network!  How did they even find her house?!

"Lily, what are you freakish friends doing here?!" Petunia shrieked.  "They're ruining my—"

What exactly they were ruining they didn't find out, James had sent a hex, sealing her mouth shut.

"Petunia?  Darling?  Are you all right?  What are these—these—" Vernon began to grumble. 

"Petrificus Totalus!" Sirius exclaimed.

Lily looked at them with a mixed expression of shock, anger, and a hint of amusement.  "What—what the—"

"Lily Evans, will you go out with me?" James said, brushing himself off.

"Shall we go outside?" Lily asked, not wanting her sister to intrude on her life.  As far as Petunia knew, everything at Hogwarts was just perfect.  They followed a fuming Lily out into the backyard.  "No!  I will not go out with you, no!  You just embarrassed me, not to mention hexed my sister and her fiancé!"

James and Sirius pointed their wands towards the house and muttered the counter curses disappointedly.  "Look, we had to get them to stop yelling somehow."

"And," James began, "we're of age!"

"Ha!" Lily said, "Maybe in years, but you're still decades away from it mentally.  You're so immature!"

"I'm immature?  If I were to 'mature', would you go out with me?" James asked hopefully.

"Argh!" Lily exclaimed.  "Get—out—of---my—life," Lily said through breaths, feeling the onset of another headache.  She ran up to her bedroom before her mum could over-react.  "Scylla, no!  Stay here!" Lily said through tears of embarrassment and pain, as her owl tried to sneak out to get her mother.  The owl obliged, flying down to try to comfort Lily.  Lily listened as her mother tried to smooth things out with her sister and her fiancé, and heard James and Sirius enter back into the house, slamming the door on their way in.  Luckily the pain began to subside.  Petunia shrieked a few most likely unkind things at James and Sirius, before she was silenced again.  Vernon began to roar at them before he was silenced as well.  "Thick-headed git.  No wonder he's marrying my sister," Lily thought bitterly.

"Lily!  Lily!  Come put them right!" her mum exclaimed.  Pushing away the excruciating pain in her head, Lily got up and climbed slowly down the stairs, wand already out.  She was prepared to undo a full body-bind or something similar, but instead, she saw a toy wooden horse, and a toy wooden hippopotamus.  Lily allowed herself a small smile before asking her mother, "which is which?"

"The—the horse is your sister, the hippopotamus, Vernon," Susanne panted.  "I don't want you to go anywhere near either of those boys."

"Don't worry, I won't," Lily mumbled before changing the toys back to the people.  She rather preferred them as wooden toys.  Lily made her way up the stairs, leaving Petunia and Vernon to shout after her.  Lily magically locked her door and window as she lay down to try to sleep off the headache.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

"Rejected!  Again!" James moaned, sitting in his own chair at his own house.

"Maybe she does hate you," Sirius suggested.

"Oh!  Why?"

"I don't know.  But you have to admit, her sister and that fat guy make pretty good wooden animals."

"I can't believe Lily's related to an ugly freak like that!  Could you imagine living with her?" James asked, ignoring Sirius's joke.

"It wouldn't be fun, I know.  Give it up!  Move on Prongs!" Sirius pleaded for the umpteenth time since Fourth-Year, when he first tried asking her out in the middle of a Quidditch match by writing it in large letters across the sky.  It was against Slytherin, and they still won, miraculously as some of the Gryffindors thought considering their Chaser had his mind up in the clouds (literally).

"Why is it her?  Is it because she's the one girl on the planet that you cannot get?" Sirius asked.  "You're probably the most popular guy, after me of course."

"After you?" James asked, his familiar grin returning.  "I think you've got it backwards, my dear Padfoot."

"Allergis!" Sirius exclaimed, waving his wand.

Suddenly, James was breaking out all over his body.  "You!" he screamed, "Mordicus!" James roared, Sirius began running away from a set of teeth, looking remarkably like Muggle dentures, chasing Sirius around the house, and threatening to bite him.  Just then, James started sneezing as his eyes began to water, still scratching at his body.  "Healo!"  To James's content, his nose began to clear, and the hives covering his entire body disappeared.  He could hear Sirius desperately yelling "Impedimenta!" to ward off the teeth, but of course, only James could get rid of them.  After watching Sirius struggle, he finally repealed the teeth.

"It bit my bum, you prat!" Sirius whined.

James laughed at his friend.  "Yeah, well, I was covered in hives!  Truce?"

"Fine," Sirius agreed.  "Dang, those things are strong!" he exclaimed, rubbing his back-side.  James laughed, pretending to be bothered by a "remaining hive" to not get cursed again.

"Shall we floo Moony and Wormtail?" James suggested.

"Sure, why not?"

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Lily spun around in her favourite dress.  It was plain white, silky-feeling, and two sizes too small.  She got out of it with difficulty, and decided to put on the emerald-green dress that her mother had bought her for this night.  She was going out with her father to see Fiddler on the Roof.

"Lily!" her dad called.  "Are you ready?"  Her dad, Jonathan Evans was dressed up as well, in a black tuxedo, and a light blue shirt that matched his kind eyes.  He had sandy-brown hair, and a kind face.  It was then Lily could see traces of her father in her.  Susanne had given her red hair, green eyes, and freckles but Jonathan had given her his smile.  Lily came down the stairwell in her new dress, smiling the same smile that adorned her father's face.

"You look like an angel," Jonathan said with a smile.  "Let's go quickly, otherwise, we'll be late."

"Okay," Lily answered smiling.  They went out to dinner and had to rush to make the show on time.  They made it with only two minutes to spare, and were among the last to arrive.  When the certain opened Lilly allowed the musical to cast its magic and take her away with the characters.  Lily never wanted it to end, and after the certain closed and she and her father were making their way to exit, she grabbed a few extra programs to try and save a bit of the spell.

"Did you like the show?" her father asked fondly.  Lily nodded, stifling a yawn.  "Come on, your mother will want us home before midnight, or she may never let me take you out again."  Lily and her father laughed as they made way to their car, at the very back of the car park.  Lily opened the door, suddenly very dizzy.  She collapsed, and began to convulse.  "Lily!" her father cried, running around to the right side of the car to hold his daughter.  "Lily, please, be okay." he said, lifting his daughter with difficulty into the back of the car.

Lily awoke again to a world of bright white.  "Where—where am I?" she managed.

"Lily?  I'm Doctor Collin Palin.  How are you feeling?"

Lily's eyes adjusted to the light, and she saw a tall, well-built man with dark, spiked hair.  "He's a James Potter wannabe in a lab coat!" Lily groaned as she shuddered at the thought of Potter being a doctor.  "I'm fine," Lily insisted, attempting to sit up. 

Dr. Palin put up a hand to restrain her from doing so, "No, just lay here for now.  I want to do a few scans when you're up to it.  Probably in the morning."

"I can do them now," Lily insisted.

"No, its best to wait.  Your father will be back in a few minutes, he's ringing your mother."  Lily groaned once again.  "Now, get some sleep." Dr. Palin said.  Lily closed her eyes, not going to sleep.  She heard her father's and the doctor's voice outside of her curtain.  She listened to them talk for a while.  There was a while of silence before she heard her mum talking frantically to her father and she drifted off into sleep.

When she awoke, she was in her own hospital room, rather than curtained off in part of the Emergency Room.  Her parents were not around.  She looked at a clock, it was seven-thirty in the morning.  Lily sat up and looked around at the white room she was stuck in.  She looked around frantically for her coat, which held her wand.  She was in a hospital gown of course, and she couldn't see her stuff anywhere.  She saw a set of doors that looked like it could be a closet.  She got up to go to the supposed closet when she felt a pain in her arm.  She hadn't taken in the fact that she had an I.V. in her arm.  "Ow!" she exclaimed, looking at the blood come up from under the tape.  She bit her lip to keep from swearing. She heard the door beginning to open and laid back quickly. 

"Morning," said a bright and cheery nurse.  She went over to Lily, "You can call me Jessica.  Oh, dear, you didn't try to take your I.V. out, did you?"

Lily shook her head, "No, I was trying to get over to the closet, to make sure something didn't fall out of my pocket."

"What was it?" Jessica answered, moving towards the set of doors.

"Oh, I'll get it later," Lily said quickly, before Jessica reached the closet.

"Okay, dear," Jessica said with a smile.  "I've got to take that I.V. out.  You'll need a new one, I'll be right back."  True to her word, Jessica was back in a few minutes with a new I.V. bag and needle.  Lily hated needles, and looked away when Jessica took the one out of her right arm, placing over it a cotton ball, taped on.  "Just relax, dear, won't hurt a bit."

"Compared to the Crucatious Curse, of course not, or those dratted headaches," Lily thought.

"Er, is there a way I can get over to the closet with this thing?" Lily asked.

"Just move the bag with you," Jessica said, "and keep it above your head.  I'm going to page Dr. Palin and tell him you're awake, so I'd suggest not leaving your bed."  Jessica made a few notes on a clipboard at the end of Lily's bed.  Lily laid down back down in her bed.  Right after Jessica left, a brown tawny owl flew in the open window.  "No, Nuisance, you have the worst timing of any owl I've ever seen!  Wait, no, its just James with the bad timing," Lily muttered taking the parchment.  "Shoo, I've got Muggles coming in any second now!"  Nuisance bit at her ear, clearly, James wanted a response.  "Look, hide, and I'll write the git back!" Lily whispered to the bird.  The owl complied, hiding somewhere outside out of sight.  Lily unrolled the parchment and read through it quickly:

Lily,

Hi!  Sorry about the other day.  Sirius just had the idea that maybe if I asked you in person, things would go better.  Anyway, Sirius let what slip happen to my parents, and my dad's holding me at wand-point to write you this apology letter.  (Lily laughed at the thought of arrogant, I'm-king-of-the-world-and-God's-gift-to-women James being held at wand-point.)  Anyways, I'm sorry about your sorry-excuse for a sister and that lame prat she's marrying.  I'm sure you were able to restore them.  My dad says that I'll pay your family for any damages, just write back if there were any problems, and write back anyway.

Love,

James Potter

"Ha, there's a thought, James Potter writing an apology letter," Lily laughed, hiding the letter in a drawer in the dresser on which the clock and a telephone sat.

"Lily, how are you feeling?" Dr. Palin asked with a smile.

"Fine," Lily said testily.

Ignoring Lily's tone of voice, Dr. Palin continued, "Now, you can take all of your tests right now, or you can take one, come back and rest, or you can wait for your parents to come."

"I'd like to get through this as fast as humanly possible," Lily sighed.

"Okay, I'll have Jessica take you, and we'll get through everything 'as fast as humanly possible', he said with a smile.  Lily felt like hexing him…or James.  Either would make her happy about now.  In a few minutes, Jessica was back in her room, smiling.  "Why does everybody smile?  Makes me feel like I'm about to drop dead, and they want me to think nothing's going on."  Jessica moved the I.V. bag from her bed to a wheelchair.

"Can't I walk?" Lily asked.

"No.  Sorry, dear, doctor's orders, sit down, and we'll get this over with."  Lily muttered a curse (if only she had her wand) under her breath.  "Sorry dear, didn't here that."

"Oh, nothing," Lily said, "Just thinking to myself."

"Okay, dear," Jessica said, still smiling.  "If she says 'dear' one more time, I think I'll transfigure her into a deer," Lily thought.  "Here we are, first we're going to get some blood drawn."

Lily stifled a groan as Jessica wheeled her over to one of the tables.  A man dirty blonde hair smiled.  "Name?" he asked.

"Lily Evans," the man had Lily answer several more questions before tying and elastic band around her arm. 

Lily looked down, suddenly fascinated with the white table in front of her.  It looked like bleached wood, and you could make out the darker spots, they were a light grey.  Lily bit her lip against the needle being stuck in her arm.  Finally he announced, "All done!"

Lily managed a slight smile that she knew looked more like a glare, before being taken to a dark room.  X-Rays…Lily again answered another list of questions, then stood, turned, and laid down on a table, according to the technician's orders.

Last stop was a CT scan.  She laid down on the 'conveyor belt', and was rolled into the tube.  There were a bunch of flashes before she came out with stars in her eyes.  Jessica took her back to her room, and Lily laid down and fell asleep.

Around noon she woke up again.  Her parents were beside her, as if on cue, Dr. Palin entered, carrying two thick packets.  "Mr. and Mrs. Evans.  I'd like to talk with you outside."  Her parents stood up.

"I want to hear!" Lily protested.

Susanne looked at Jonathan, and he nodded.  "You can tell us in front of Lily."

Dr. Palin took a deep breath.  "Lily has brain cancer.  We'll have to do a Biopsy, probably tomorrow, and from there, we'll have to discuss options."

"Am I—going to die?" Lily asked.

"Right now, we really don't know.  It's pretty widespread, over the frontal lobes.  Lily, I want you to answer some questions for me." Lily nodded, "Have you had any severe headaches?" Lily nodded again.  "How often?"

"Er, about once or twice a week."

"Since when?" Dr. Palin asked.

Lily looked away from her parents.  "About two or three months at least."

"Lily!" her mum exclaimed, "how could you not ow—tell me?!"

"Mrs. Evans, Mr. Evans, could you step outside?"

"I want to know what's going on with my baby!" Susanne protested.

"I am not a baby!"

"Susanne," Jonathan began, "let's give Lily a little bit of privacy."

"She's got cancer, Jonathan!"

"Susanne, come on, she needs her privacy."

Lily waited until her mother was telling off her dad before turning back to face Dr. Palin.

"Have you ever fainted?" he asked.

"Well, I remember, I think a few times."

"And how many seizures, that you know of?"

"Just that one," Lily was now feeling very small.  Nuisance was flying around outside, luckily someone had closed the window, "Why was it open in the first place?" Lily thought to herself.

"Why didn't you tell anyone?" Dr. Palin asked, Lily's eyes moved from the window to his lab coat.

"Because," Lily paused, "Because, I thought I was perfectly fine."

"Well, I'm sorry you're not.  I'll see if I can schedule a biopsy for later in the afternoon."  The doctor began to walk towards the door.

"Can you tell my parents that I want about ten minutes alone?" Lily asked.

"Sure, dear," he said, "I wonder if he'd make nice stag?  Stags are always handsome," Lily thought to herself.

Lily dug through the desk by her bedside table until she found paper and pen.  She found a notepad, with the hospital's heading on it.  She tore off the heading, and began to write to James.

James,

You are the biggest jerk on this earth, you should be apologising of your own free will.  Why'd you have to go off and transfigure them?!  (Nuisance flew up to the window and it magically opened, "Oh," Lily said to herself, "it's charmed to open windows when only the receiver is there.")  Your owl is annoying, and how the crap can it open the windows?  Please don't owl or visit me any more this summer, I have too much going on.

Lily Evans

She gave the letter to the owl, and it soared off.  It was out of sight when her parents came into the room.  Her mother was crying, and her father holding her mother, it looked as if he was holding back tears.

"Lily?" her father asked, "you aren't opening the window are you?"

"No, I can't even reach it, I have this stupid thing in my arm," Lily said, not meeting her either of her parent's eyes.  Her father lowered her crying mother into a chair, and embraced his youngest daughter.  Lily could have sworn she felt a single tear land on her head.

"I'm not going to cry," Lily said to herself.  "I'm not--," a single tear escaped her eyes, and soon her face was streaming with silent tears.  She felt her mother embracing her as well, and her hair get slightly wetter.  How long it lasted, Lily didn't know.  There was a knock at the door.  "If that is James Potter, I think I will hex him to the other side of the world!" she thought to herself. 

"Hey, Lily," her older sister, Petunia said, "I'm sorry about the cancer thing."  Clearly she still wasn't over the whole incident when she brought Vernon over.

"Yeah, I am too," Lily answered, busying herself with the pattern on her blanket.

"Lily, you have nothing to be sorry over!" her mother interjected.

"James Potter and those Marauders are the ones who should be sorry.  Its their fault," Lily thought angrily, "well, maybe not Remus Lupin, he can be nice."  She had no reason to blame them, she just did.

Petunia left soon after, and her mother and father stayed with her until it was time for the biopsy.  Another nurse, Deanna, took Lily to be prepped for surgery.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

James and Sirius were tossing a Quaffle back and forth out of boredom.  "She's not going to answer you," Sirius said.

"But, I told Turkey to stay until he got an answer," James insisted.

"Like that means much.  He didn't come back with one last time," Sirius pointed out.

"Her owl probably pushed him out.  Maybe her owl wasn't there," James thought aloud.

"Ha, she probably is telling her owl not to leave her just to get rid of Turkey," Sirius said with a laugh.

"There he is, look, he's got something!" James exclaimed, getting hit in the back of the head with the Quaffle.  "Ow!  Hey!"

"Wow, she did write back.  I should hit you on the head more often," Sirius suggested with and evil grin.

"Hm," James said, taking the folded piece of Muggle parchment.  "Look, she ripped the top off.  Wonder why."

"Maybe she's using hotel stationary and doesn't want you to know where she is," Sirius answered.

James read through the letter.  Sirius snuck up and read it over his shoulder as James reread it slowly.  James placed it in the pocket of her robes.  "I wonder what's going on," James wondered aloud.

"I don't know, but I wouldn't suggest owling her," Sirius said warningly.

"What if—"James paused, "What if by 'don't owl me' she means 'owl me only if you care about me', I mean, girls are weird like that."

"James, what part of 'she hates your guts', do you not understand?!" Sirius exclaimed.

"She never said that, you did," James defended.

"That's because she's too nice to come out and say it!  Any idiot would have realised that by now."

"Now wonder you think it."

Sirius made a sound of rage.  "I am not an idiot!  I'm pointing out that probably Snape has realised it, and you haven't!"

"You admitted it, you admitted it."

"Did not," Sirius defended, shaking his head.

"I'm writing her back," James said, pulling a quill and parchment from his desk, sitting down.  He paused a while to think before writing down.

Lily,

Look, I'm sorry, I truly am.  I know you said not to owl you, but I want to let you know that I care about you.  Why'd you rip that Muggle parchment?  Forgive me for being the biggest jerk on this earth.  Whatever's wrong, I hope it turns out okay.

Love,

James Potter

P.S.  Oh, that's just a useful little spell my dad performed

"Come on Turkey," James said, "you know who it's for.  Now, be nice to her, I want a reply, but don't pester her about it okay."

Turkey hooted, meaning that he understood, and flew out the open window.  James closed it behind the him.

"She doesn't hate my guts!" James exclaimed with a large grin.

"I wouldn't be too sure about that, Jamsie boy."

"Why not?  She's finally talking to me!"

Sirius shook his head and laughed.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Lily awoke, her head hurt, even though she was on drugs.  "Oooh, something feels soft," Lily said, petting the brown tawny owl next to her.  "Argh!  James whateverhismiddlenameis Potter!" she cried, untying the parchment.  "Aw," she said, while still incredibly angry at him.  She took another piece of paper off of the notepad, and in large, shaky handwriting resembling nothing to her small, neat, curly handwriting she wrote a response.

James,

You self-righteous PRAT, I said no more owling!!  But thanks anyway.

Lily Evans

She sent the letter with Nuisance, and cried herself back to sleep due to the pain and her anger.

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James woke up to Turkey sitting on his face.  "Argh!"  He was glad that at least the owl had a letter for him.  "Lily!" he exclaimed with a dumb smile.

"What happened?" asked a groggy Sirius.  "You woke me from my beauty sleep."

"No amount of sleep can make you more beautiful than I, Padfoot.  Lily wrote back!" he announced.

"I already am more beautiful than you, Prongs, my man."

James tutted as he unfolded the letter, which was on the same type of Muggle parchment.  He read it and smiled, "She thanked me!  Next stop—loving me, next stop—snogging in the Common Room, or after a Quidditch match."

"Prongs, I have the distinct feeling that she was on drugs when she wrote that," Sirius said, looking at the letter.  "Look at her handwriting, and she thanked you."

"That would be you, my dear Padfoot."

"Hey!  The Muggle told me that it smelled good, and that everybody loved it, and that it'd make me sexier!  I was seven years old!"  Sirius protested. 

James laughed, "Well, she didn't tell me I couldn't owl her back."

"Why don't you try…ringing her, that's what it's called, I think."

"Like wringing her neck?" James asked incredulously.

"No, Muggle invention that you can use to talk to other Muggles."

"How do you know about those?" James asked.

"Peter," Sirius explained in one word.

"Okay…how do they work?"

"Well, doesn't your dad have a tmellytone in his office?  For emergencies?" Sirius asked.

"Oh!  That thing!  Yeah.  He even gets the Muggle directory, so we can find her number!"

After calling ten wrong Evans, they found Susanne and Jonathan Evans.  The phone rang and rang.  Finally they gave up.  They called several numbers, most incorrect, and only two more with no one picking up.  They underlined the three numbers that they got no answer, and called them all back until they were down to Susanne and Jonathan Evans still not picking up.  They deducted that had to be her number and that they were on holiday or something.

James decided that he would owl her.

Lily,

Hey!  What's your phone number or parents' names?  I hope you're having fun over the holidays.  I am, thanks for finally answering my owls.  By the way, you're welcome for the owl, it was no problem.

Love

James Potter

James sent the letter off with Turkey, while Sirius lectured him not to.

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Dr. Palin and a strange man came in.  "Lily, this is Dr. Paul Brandewine.  He's an oncologist, you know what that is, don't you?"

Lily nodded, looking at the man in front of her.  He was medium height, and had dark hair similar to Sirius Black's, she already didn't trust him.

"Where are your parents?" he asked.

"They went out to dinner.  What are the results?" Lily asked.

"Miss Evans, your tumour is malignant—" Dr. Brandewine began.

"How long am I going to live?" Lily asked, staring up at the ceiling.

"It depends.  I'd say, if it goes untreated, maybe six months to a year.  But, we have treatment options.  I think we will try to surgically remove it in late September."

"I go to boarding school.  I have duties there.  I'm a Prefect, I've been nominated for Head Girl, I can't just not go my last year!"

"We'll see about you going to your Boarding School.  Where is it?"

"Somewhere in Scotland.  I don't really know.  But, there's an infirmary there.  I'm sure they could take care of me!"

"What's it called?  I'll send a letter to the Headmaster."

"I--er," Lily thought fast, "I don't remember, my head kind of hurts, I can't really think."

"And you've been going since when?"

"Since I was eleven," Lily answered.

"I'll give a letter for your mother to send to the Headmaster," Dr. Brandewine said patiently.

"I'll get it to him," Lily answered.

"I'll write it up for you to give to him," he said still annoyingly patient. "But your health is more important than some Boarding School, I'm sure you could go to any other school."

Lily was about to protest, when her mother came through the door, saving her from having to go for her wand and ending up having to perform a memory charm.

Introductions were established again, and the news was delivered.  Susanne was interrogated about Lily's school, and luckily she had enough sense to play dumb as Lily had done.  "Mum?  Where's dad?" Lily asked.

"He's putting in night hours, honey, he'll be back tomorrow," Susanne answered.  "But I think it's very important to Lily that she make her last year, I'm sure the Headmaster wouldn't mind letting her come back here for treatment."

"Oh, yes, what is the Headmaster's name?" Dr. Brandewine asked expectantly.

 "Dumbledore, Albus Dumbledore," Lily answered, instantly wishing she hadn't.  Dr. Brandewine raised an eyebrow, and walked out the door, followed by Palin.

Susanne burst into tears again, and embraced her daughter.  After a few minutes of letting her mother cry on her shoulder, Lily quietly asked, "Mummy?  Could you get me my wand?  It's in my coat pocket."

Susanne nodded and swiped at her eyes as she went over to the closet.  "Here you go.  No hexing the doctors, and you must hide it."

"Okay, and could you send Scylla up here, I want to go to sleep now, alone if you don't mind.  Don't wait until morning, she'll just perch outside my window.  And open it a tad, will you?" 

Her mother opened the window barely enough for the owl to fly in and nodded.  "Goodbye, sleep well.  Ring if you need anything, or if anything happens.  I love you."

"Love you too, mum," Lily answered.  After her mum left, Nuisance flew in, bearing a letter from James.  "Ugh," she groaned, and read the letter.  Ripping off the heading of another piece of paper, she set to write back to him.

Arrogant Potthead,

Do you honestly think that I am stupid enough to tell you that?  Fun, yeah…  How do you send a Howler?  By the way, I don't remember what I wrote to you last time, but disregard it.

Lily Evans

P.S. Please don't write back.

She sent the letter off with Turkey, and it was only a few more minutes before her own owl flew in.  "Hi, Scylla!" Lily said, petting the owl.  "I've missed you.  I'm going to have a job for you in a while, but not right now.  I've got to wait for Dr. Brandewine," she rolled her eyes at the name, "to get finished with a letter for Professor Dumbledore."

Scylla hooted understandingly, and flew out the window, circled the sky a few times, and perched herself on the window.  About half an hour later, a nurse, Michael came in with the letter to Professor Dumbledore.  "Couldn't deliver it yourself, now could you?" she thought thankfully.  He smiled at Lily, who was tempted to go for her wand, and left her.  Scylla flew in from her perch, and offered her leg for the letter.  Lily took it out of the envelope, unfolded it, rolled it up, and tied it with a ponytail holder from her wrist, and sent if off with Scylla.

Lily transfigured one of the pieces of paper she used to write James into a small mirror and looked at her face.  She was paler than usual, and some of her beautiful red hair had been shaved back for the biopsy.  "Got to fix that before school starts again, wonder if I can get Professor Gimlicks to whip up a hair growing potion before school starts," Lily thought to herself, and there were bandages wrapped around her head.

After returning the piece of paper to its original state, Lily laid down and fell asleep.

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James and Sirius were practising hexes on each other, a popular past-time for them, now that they could.  James's dad were taking them to get their Apparition tests later that day.  "Finite Incantatem!" James called, ending both of their pains, and returning their body parts to their original places.

"What was that for?" Sirius asked, "I was about to throw a Flying Elephant Ears Hex at you!"

"Turkey got another answer!" James exclaimed happily. 

Sirius read the note over James's shoulder, "Told you she was on drugs!"

"She was not!  She was probably just really tired or something," James insisted.

Lily,

Hi!  I'm not sure how you send Howlers, not legally anyway.  Anyways, I should have guessed you wouldn't tell me, want me to find out for myself do you? That's okay, I like it when a girl plays hard to get.   I think I may have found you, but no one is answering.  Are you on holiday somewhere?

Love,

James Potter

James sent off the letter, and began the "practise" with Sirius again by throwing a Tumbling Hex at him, causing him to do a round-off, backhand spring, backhand spring, and a back layout into the wall.

"Clean that up," James's father, Nicolas Potter said with a laugh.  "Nice one, James, saw the whole hex.  You know, Sirius, you should have been a gymnast." 

Sirius glared daggers at James, muttering the Repair Charm.  "Apparation Test time?" he asked, eager to change the subject.  No one had ever seen Sirius or James so eager about a test.

"Yes, come on, let's Floo to the Apparation Headquarters, Sirius you go first, then James, I'll meet you there." 

Sirius took a pinch of powder and called "Apparation Headquarters".  James, and then Nicolas Potter soon followed.

After about an hour of Apparating and Disapparating, James and Sirius both passed with flying colours and received their licenses.

"Shall we go to Lily's?" James suggested.

"Yeah, let's Apparate in her backyard, then walk around to the front and knock.  I think it'll be safest," Sirius said. 

They Apparated into her backyard, and walked around the side of the house, and knocked on the door.  They waited five minutes with no answer.  "Alohamora!" James muttered, unlocking the door.

"James!" Sirius mock-scolded.  "I was going to do that!"

James smiled and walked into the empty house.  James proceeded upstairs to look for Lily's room, while Sirius explored downstairs.  James found Petunia's old bedroom and then came upon Lily's room.  It was neat, but looked lived-in, unlike the room he had just been into.  He looked through Lily's jewellery, her closet, and even her desk.  He took a quick sweep of the rest of the upstairs, and then quickly dashed down the stairs to meet Sirius.

"Nobody home," they concurred simultaneously.

"Doesn't look like they went on holiday," James began, "everything would be neat and organised."

"Yeah, it looks as if they just deserted the house all of a sudden," Sirius agreed.

"Think it was because of us?" James asked doubtfully.

"No, can't be.  Something must have happened."  They spent the rest of the evening discussing unlikely scenarios as to why the house was deserted.

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Scylla came back with two letters.  One addressed to Dr. Brandewine, and the other to Lily.  Lily set aside Dr. Brandewine's letter and opened her own.  It was Dumbledore's loopy scrawl.

Dear Miss Evans,

I am saddened to hear about your present condition, and will be excused from class whenever you need treatment, however you will, of course, be expected to make up your assignments.  I hope that you feel better soon, and I have sent a letter to Dr. Brandewine stating the same thing.  It says that you go to Rannoch, some Muggle boarding school

On happier note, I'd like to inform you that you're this year's Head Girl.  You're official letter and badge will be arriving soon.  I wish you a good next year.

A. Dumbledore
Headmaster, Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry

Lily smiled, she was Head Girl.  Her mum came in a few minutes later.  "Mum!  I'm Head Girl!" she exclaimed.

"Oh, I knew you could do it!" her mum said, hugging Lily.  "So, I suppose that Headmaster Dumbledore got your letter, and everything is fine?"

"Yeah, there's a letter for Dr. Brandewine," Lily said, handing her mum a letter, which Lily noticed was in a Muggle envelope, rather than the parchment of her own letter.

Susanne looked at her daughter seriously, "Are you sure you want to do this?  We'd really like you at home," she said hopefully

Lily sighed, "I want to live Mum.  I don't know if I'll get another chance." Susanne nodded, crying again.

A date for surgery was set, 20 September.  Lily was released from the hospital two days afterwards.  Once she got home, she ignored all of James's owls, his rings, and his visits.  She went to Diagon Alley two weeks before school was in to try to avoid them, knowing that they wouldn't do their shopping early. 

The rest of her holidays were spent mostly inside, due to the fact that her mother would hardly let her leave, and therefore was unable to get her Apparation license that summer.  With help from her medication, she only fainted once more, and had about three more headaches that summer.

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"Hogwarts letters!" Sirius exclaimed to the gloomy James.  "James, you're letter is pretty heavy, maybe it's they've decided to list out all of your detentions, leading to your expulsion."

"Yours would be just as long, or longer," James pointed out weakly, snatching his own letter, he tore it open, and a Golden Badge with 'Head Boy' on it fell out.  "Wow, I'm Head Boy!" James exclaimed, "how'd that happen?"

"You got Remus's letter?" Sirius suggested.

James read the Head Boy letter, which had his name clearly written on it.  "Nope, it's mine."

"Wow!  Shall we owl Moony and Wormtail and set a date to get our stuff?" Sirius suggested.

"Sure, how about the Monday before school gets in, we can Apparate, and there shouldn't be too many people then."

When Monday came, James told Remus all about Lily, Peter listened as well, but he just didn't have Remus's wisdom.  "I just don't know what's with her!  She was owling me, and all of a sudden she just stopped!"

"I still vote that it was drugs," Sirius said.

"I say that Lily isn't as stupid as you, Padfoot," Remus said, "she's probably just having problems with her family or something."

"I don't think a pretty, smart girl like Lily would ever do drugs," Peter added.

"Oy, Moony, how did you not get Head Boy, and I did?" James asked.

"I asked Dumbledore not to make me Head Boy.  I guess you were a runner up for Gryffindor, and they wanted a Gryffindor Head Boy," Remus answered.

"You asked not to be Head Boy?" James asked incredulously.  "Why?" he demanded.

"You know why!  Being a Prefect and out…sick…once a month is one thing, but Head Boy is a big responsibility.  I don't think I'd do too good at that."

"If you had to ask not to be Head Boy, I think that says Dumbledore has quite a lot of trust in you, despite…you know," James pointed out.

"Yeah, well, now we both have some authority, and can boss Sirius around," Remus said, causing Sirius to glare, and James, Peter, and himself to laugh.

A/N: I think I'm going to cry!!  Now review!!!  I its easy, you see that button in the corner?  Click it and review!

That was Ginny, Lorelei asks kindly for a review, unlike certain other twins…