When the Wind Blows
Summary: When Lily falls mysteriously ill during the winter of their seventh year, James is determined to get to the bottom of it. Established Lily/James. This story is canon in that it respects relationships as they're described in the book (not as I might prefer to imagine them) and could have realistically happened in the HP world. Not AU in any way.
Rating: K+/PG.
Author's Note: I don't usually write or read HP fanfiction, so writing this was a very nerve-racking experience for me, perhaps more so than any other story I've written. You know have you have to think about something really happy to summon a Patronus? I think about getting reviews!
Chapter 1
Worries
So you sailed away
into a gray sky morning...
January has always been James's least favorite month. Without Christmas and the school holidays to look forward to, he sees winter for what it really is – a season of short, dark days, and cold weather that leaves the Quidditch pitch covered in frozen mud. Sometimes, on nights when he can hear the chill wind whistling outside the dormitory window, he dreams of long, hot summer days. Of sunburns and swimming pools. He's never seen Lily in a bikini, but he'll bet any amount of money that she looks great in one.
Even inside Hogwarts, James can't escape the winter. There's a nip in the air of the wide stone corridors, and he's stopped putting his hand on the railing when he goes up and down stairs because it's always chill to his touch. There seems to be a chill in his very bones when he and Sirius arrive in the Great Hall for breakfast that morning, both of them bleary-eyed and exhausted. They were up late studying for the Transfiguration exam today. Seventh Year is only halfway over, but the pressure to pass NEWTs is mounting. James constantly feels torn in two: he wants to do well in school, but classes seem so trivial compared to what's happening in the rest of the wizarding world. Lily is the only person who helps him feel grounded now.
Lily wasn't in the Gryffindor Common Room when he left it, so James expects to find her already in the Great Hall, having an early breakfast. The enchanted ceiling above him is a dull, washed-out wintery gray as he scans the tables for Lily's fiery, dark red hair... which he can't find anywhere. When he spots a table full of her girlfriends – most of them have their Transfiguration textbooks open as they eat, studying for that exam – he makes his way over.
He sits down next to Mary Macdonald, one of Lily's best friends, who's spreading butter on her toast in an awful hurry, like she's nervous. "Hey, Potter," she says, glancing at him. "Lily's not here," she adds. She knows he's looking for Lily before he can even ask the question.
"You know where she is?"
Mary doesn't look at him. "Yes" is all she says. James waits for her to go on, but she doesn't.
"Well, where is she?" he demands. He's already exhausted and on-edge from stress and lack of sleep, but now he's really starting to get annoyed.
Mary seems to take an especially long sip of her orange juice before answering, "Hospital wing."
Her words might be strong coffee for the effect they have on James. The fog in his tired mind instantly clears, and he sits up straight on the bench, alarmed. "The hospital wing?" he repeats. "What – "
"Keep your voice down," Mary hisses at him. She moves closer to him on the bench and goes on, in a whisper, "She woke me up last night, saying she thought she had a fever and asked me to go to the hospital wing with her. So I took her, and I wanted to stay and find out what was wrong, but Madam Pomfrey said she'd take care of her and made me go back to bed."
James is quiet for a second, processing this news, but it does nothing to ease the worry inside him. At last he says slowly, trying to convince himself, "Well, if she's with Madam Pomfrey, she's in good hands. I mean, it's probably not anything serious."
"Yeah," Mary agrees, "it's probably just some bug. There's lots of those going around in wintertime."
They're both quiet for a moment, and in the silence, James tries not to think of the ugly rumors that lurk in the school hallways. He tries not to think of all the students who didn't come back to school after the Christmas holidays because their parents were too afraid that even Hogwarts isn't safe anymore. Maybe they're right. He tries not to jump to conclusions, but it's like a dam burst in his mind, and now all the worst-case scenarios are flooding out. Lily is Muggle-born. Maybe someone's cursed her to make her fall ill. Maybe she's been poisoned. Maybe it's fatal. Maybe it's already too late.
James tries to tell himself that Lily probably just has some boring winter illness, but when he glances at Mary, she looks as nervous as he feels, with her eyes sunken down, her mouth set in a thin line.
"It's just..." she murmurs, almost to herself, "Lily's always so brave, you know?"
James has to smile at that. Saying Lily's brave is like saying her eyes are green. It goes without saying.
"I mean, she's got more guts than anyone I know," Mary goes on, "and last night, she seemed scared. Like, really scared."
James tries to pay attention to the noise and commotion of the Great Hall. The other students are loudly talking, eating, getting up from their tables, just like they do every morning, but James's mind is reeling with the worst possibilities. He knows that a number of Slytherin students are planning to join the Death-Eaters after graduation, and his blood runs cold as he remembers that one of them is Severus Snape, Lily's former... friend, or whatever they used to be to each other. Maybe now he's trying to get back at Lily for cutting ties with him in fifth year. Which, in James's opinion, is still the smartest thing she's ever done.
The chill in his blood turns to heat, to his heart pounding angrily in his chest, as he vows that everything he's done to Snape in the past will pale in comparison to what he'll do if he finds out Snape –
"You know, there's still some time before classes start," Mary says, snapping him out of his rage. "I was about to head to the hospital wing and try to see her. You can come with me, if you're done."
James looks down at his plate. He hasn't eaten one crumb of his breakfast, but he doesn't feel hungry. All he wants is to see Lily, to know that she's all right. He picks up a slice of toast, takes one bite, and throws it back down. "I'm done," he declares. "Let's go."
He and Mary practically jump off the bench and run out of the Great Hall towards the hospital wing.
