James' POV

I woke up, startled. Not knowing why, I sat up in my bed, rubbing my eyes. It was only 3.45 am, but I decided to go downstairs. Slowly, I got up and went downstairs to the heads' common room. 'I guess Lily's still asleep, better go back to bed.', I thought and was just about to go back upstairs when I heard something.

"No... No, please, no..." I heard coming from Lily's dorm. Tentatively, I walked the stairs up to her door and knocked quietly.

"Lily? Lily, are you awake?" I asked softly, and opened her door. It was dark, so I whispered 'Lumos' and walked toward Lily's bed. When I saw that she was asleep, I felt really bad for walking in, so I turned to leave.

"No! No, please don't!" Lily almost screamed, and I probably jumped 4 feet into the air, and looked over my shoulder to see if she had woken up.

But she hadn't, she was just whirling around in her bed. Her movements where jerky and she seemed terrified.

"Lily" I said, "Lily, wake up" but she just groaned and continued twisting around. I gently laid my hand on her shoulder and shook her.

"Lily" I said more loudly, "Lily, you are having a bad dream, come on, wake up!" she stilled, and then turned towards me, opened her eyes, blinked a few times before realising that I stood there.

"James!" she cried out, "What are you doing here?" her eyes full of panic, and voice slightly hitched.

"I'm so sorry Lily, but I woke up and then I heard you speaking, so I came here to see if you were awake, and then you weren't, and then you cried out and then..." I was about to continue my rambling when she cut me off.

"Okay, James, I understand. Now, please, could you leave?" she asked with a small voice.

"Are you sure?" I asked, "You seemed to have a nightmare"

"I... I'm fine. Just, go to bed, James. Go to bed." she whispered. But I could see in her face that she was anything but fine, so I shook my head.

"No, I'm not going to leave. I'd rather see you told me what the dream was about. But I can't make you, so if you don't want to I'll just stay here with you until you fall asleep again." I said, and tried to sound determined and consoling at the same time.

Lily just nodded her head and moved over to the other side of the bed.

"I don't want you to just stand there, it's creeping me out, please sit." she said, and I sat down next to her. She moved underneath her sheets and then flopped her head down on her pillow, facing me.

"So..." I begun,"Want to tell me what the dream was about?" Lily looked at me, but shook her head silently.

"No, I'd rather not. But please, stay." she said cautiously, I nodded and tried to make myself comfortable by stealing some of her sheet.

Soon enough I started to feel very sleepy, and when I turned to face Lily, she was asleep. But I didn't have enough energy to go to my own dorm, so I fell asleep there. Next to the girl I'd fancied for a couple of years now.


Lily's POV

The sunlight woke me up in the morning, and as I had forgotten about the nights happenings I got a real shock when I turned around and found a body next to me. I soon remembered, and tried to carefully get out of bed without waking James up.

"Well, good morning" I heard James' sleepy voice call. I turned around to face him, and he smiled.

"Good morning" I answered, "Weren't you supposed to leave after I had fallen asleep?" I asked curiously.

"Yeah, about that... I'm terribly sorry, I fell asleep too" he shot me an apologetic smile. I gave him a small smile, and tried to get up. But before my head had properly lifted from my pillow James' hand pushed me down again.

"Hey, I'm trying to get up here!" I said, flapping his hand away. But he just looked at me seriously, keeping me down.

"What did you dream about last night?" he asked me silently. I shrugged and looked away.

"Nothing, it was just a bad dream." I said swiftly.

"Lily, please, you would never ask me to stay because of 'just a bad dream'." he looked at me, and I sighed.

"I dreamt about my parents" I said worriedly, "I dreamt that Death-Eaters came to our house, and that they were going to hurt my parents because of me" I was near tears now, so I turned away from James. I could hear him breathing, and feel him crawling closer to me.

"Lily..." James whispered, "Lily, it's going to be okay, I promise. They wouldn't touch your parents just because you're a witch." I felt his arms coming around me, and he hugged me tightly.

I sniffed and shifted around, so that I faced him. It felt strange having him there, of all people. The boy that I'd detested in 6 years, were now the one trying to comfort me when I was feeling bad. I realised that he actually had changed. That he was more mature now, and I liked it. I liked him.

I hugged him back hard, actually crying into his shoulder. And he stayed, he patted my back and whispered consoling words to me.