Chapter 1: Part 1

Lily struggled weakly, but the fallen rubble didn't move. It was crushing her, pressing the breath out of her lungs, and she thought, as she lay there gasping for breath, that this was what Death's embrace must feel like….

James.

It was only a soft whisper at the back of her mind, but it was a whisper nonetheless. A few months before, Lily would have been asking herself why she was thinking about him at a time like this, but now she was certain as to what the reason was.

She loved James. It was as simple as that. And, lying there, Lily finally admitted to herself what she'd been afraid of, because it was what caused her parents' marriage to fall apart, what had caused Petunia to decide to leave and get married just so she could spite their father. She loved James. And now, Lily almost laughed at how absurd she was. She could have told herself this and realized it months ago, but instead she'd lived in a delusion that could have instead been spent with him. James. She'd been avoiding even thinking about him since their fight after Christmas, but now she couldn't stop thinking his name.

"Goodbye," she whispered to him, wishing she could lift the ruins off of her, wishing she could run to him and tell him how sorry she was, how much she loved him.

Goodbye, James.

Chapter 1: Part 2

Meanwhile, James was fighting for his life.

A few other Death Eaters had followed him and Sirius into a back alley near one of the shops that they still hadn't managed to knock down.

James pushed his glasses up onto his sweaty nose. He and Sirius were cornered, and he needed to find Lily.

Sirius looked at him. "Oh, just go. I'll hold them off."

James grinned and ran out of the alley, shooting a Stunning spell at one of the Death Eaters as he ran by. Neither of them turned and followed him, which he thought was a bit strange, but he had other things to worry about.

Lily, thought James desperately. Where is she?

The last time he'd seen her, she was fighting another Death Eater, a big, dark one, and then that Death Eater had forced her into one of the shops lining the main street. And James had lost track of her, had lost track of the promise he'd made her, when he'd said that he'd never let anyone or anything hurt her, no matter what. Of course, he hadn't said it to her face, but that was kind of the point of unconditional love – you knew it without having to ask.

But James didn't have the time to dwell on things like that right now. The thin Death Eater raised his wand high and opened his mouth, but James shouted, "Silencio!" and the Death Eater choked. James knew it wouldn't help for long, and that the Death Eater would recover in a second, so he yelled, "Stupefy!" and the Death Eater slumped to the ground, unconscious.

James hurried back to the main street, still checking behind him for Death Eaters, but there were none. Okay, all right, he thought, giving himself mental instructions so that he wouldn't fall apart. Find Lily now.

James ran back up the street, to the building where he'd seen Lily disappear.

It was gone.

Or, more accurately, it had fallen in on itself, rubble strewn everywhere, the perfect picture of chaos.

Oh, Merlin, no…

"Lily!" James yelled, hoping for an answer, although he knew there wouldn't be one. He ran into the rubble, using a silent spell to lift away as much of it as he could, until –

"James?"

Her voice was quiet, too quiet, and choked, as if it was physically hurting her to speak. But it was her. It was Lily. He would know her voice anywhere. James ran toward the place where her voice was coming from.

There. He saw a pale arm, which he followed up to a body. Lily's body. It was buried in the rubble, which was crushing her. But she wasn't dead. He'd hear her speak. She wasn't dead.

"Lily? Are you okay? Can you hear me?"

He thought he heard a slight cough, and then her voice came out: "Yes, I can hear you. I'm cold, James. I want to go home."

He nearly broke down then, but he told himself he had to be strong, if only for her. And wasn't that enough? Lily was all right. She was alive. James was alive too. Nothing else mattered.

Then he heard a racking cough, and the hand shuddered violently.

"It's – it's all right, Lily. Don't worry. I'll get you out of there."

"I'm sleepy, James…" Her voice was growing softer.

"Don't sleep, Lily. Don't. You can sleep after I get you up to the castle, okay?"

"Mkay."

James pulled his wand out of his pocket and whispered, "Wingardium Leviosa," lifting the rubble carefully, trying not to take too long.

Finally, all the rubble was cleared away. Lily lay there, looking small and broken. Her eyes were closed.

Now unable to stop the tears, James hurried forward and gathered her up into his arms. She didn't move or make any noise.

James rubbed his nose on his shoulder and then turned toward the castle and started running.

Chapter 1: Part 3

Lily felt like she was in a dream. She was also pretty sure she'd broken a few ribs, and her leg, and also maybe her elbow, but the hurt had faded away, leaving a dull numbness in its place. She was cold. So cold. She felt like she was flying.

Merlin, I must be going crazy.

She noticed that her eyes were closed and opened them slowly. For some reason, she was looking up into the face of James Potter, who seemed to be carrying her and – crying? James Potter didn't cry. Not even when he'd found out that Death Eaters had killed his mother. She remembered what she had been thinking about before she'd blacked out, and then decided that this must be some sort of dream. James hadn't come with them to Hogsmeade, as far as she knew. She had told Sirius not to tell him about anything. Especially not the Death Eaters. James would only have wanted to come so he could avenge his mother.

His tears splashed onto her arm, and Lily shivered, because the tears felt warm to her.

She decided to speak, then, because if this was a dream, maybe it meant that she had to tell him what she felt, even though she was probably dead already, even though maybe he didn't care. She still had to tell him.

Lily opened her mouth slightly – and stopped. James was looking down at her now, and they were on the castle grounds, surprisingly.

Lily looked up into his eyes, wishing she never had to stop looking; wishing this moment would last forever.

Well, that would be a bit awkward, wouldn't it? Not to mention uncomfortable.

Lily sighed inwardly. Well, she couldn't be too damaged if her sarcastic and occasionally annoying inner voice at the back of her head (which really couldn't be blamed on anything but her own overactive mind) was back.

James looked up again, and then they were inside the castle and up the stairs in the Hospital Wing. He laid her down on one of the beds and then went and called Madam Pomfrey, who came running.

"What happened?" said the nurse, flustered.

Lily didn't hear James's answer, because he and Madam Pomfrey moved over to the side of the bed and started talking quietly. Lily knew that Sirius had probably told James all about the letters and the things that she and Sirius had figured out by listening to the Slytherins, but she'd never imagined that he would tell James that they were going to Hogsmeade. She hadn't known herself until a few hours ago. Lily strained her ears, trying to hear what James and Madam Pomfrey were saying.

Chapter 1: Part 4

Poppy Pomfrey was having a strange night to begin with. First, Dumbledore had come in around half past eight and told her that he thought she could be expecting a sudden upswing in patients and that he had to go to Hogsmeade. And then he'd gone.

Madam Pomfrey had always known that Dumbledore was strange, but if she hadn't known better she would've thought he was completely off his rocker. And that was before she'd figured out that most of what he said turned out to be surprisingly accurate.

Lily Evans was, she was sure, just the beginning. Whenever Dumbledore got that look in his eyes, she knew something had gone extremely wrong. The last time Madam Pomfrey had seen him look like that, the Chamber of Secrets had been opened for the last time, and that poor girl from Ravenclaw – what was her name? Myrtle? – had just died.

Madam Pomfrey listened in awe as James Potter told her all about the Death Eater attack, how it had been coming for years, how Severus Snape had been behind it. This was nearly as bad as the Chamber reopening.

Was that what Dumbledore had expected? Another death, maybe, like Myrtle? It was certainly likely, seeing as apparently half the seventh years were in Hogsmeade. If Lily Evans hadn't been on the edge of death, Madam Pomfrey would have run and alerted the rest of the teachers immediately. As it was, she had a fine job just making sure that Lily didn't die right then.

"What happened?" she asked James as she worked.

"A – a building fell on her. I think it was a house." James's voice broke, and Madam Pomfrey spared a second to give him an encouraging look. Of course she'd known from the second she saw the expression on his face that he was head over heels for the girl. His shirt was stained with Lily's blood, which was seeping from her head and chest. That wasn't what was worrying, though. The way it looked, the girl's left leg and left arm were broken, along with three of her ribs. Even that wasn't too hard to fix, but one of the broken ribs had pierced Lily's lung, and the other had punched straight through her skin, causing blood to stain her shirt.

After thoroughly probing the girl's wounds, Madam Pomfrey flourished her wand and starting the mending process.

"Mind you, she won't be good as new," she said to James, who had relaxed visibly when he saw the nurse start to work. "That'll take a while. But she'll live."

Chapter 1: Part 5

"I need to go back." Those were the first words James was aware of speaking after he'd put Lily down.

Madam Pomfrey looked at him like he was insane, which maybe he was, but he'd left everyone back in Hogsmeade. And besides, he wanted to find the Death Eater that was responsible for that building collapsing and kill him.

"You can't possibly be serious!" exclaimed Madam Pomfrey. "You need to go straight up to your dormitory and stay there until it's safe."

James nodded, and then exited the hospital wing. He walked as far as the next corridor, and then checked that no one was around. As soon as he was sure that nobody could see him, he pulled the Invisibility Cloak out and put it on. James wished he had the Marauder's Map, but Remus was fixing it, working out some of the kinks.

He got as far as the one-eyed witch statue on the third floor and tapped the statue's hump, saying, "Dissendium."

James lowered himself into the hump when it opened up and, dumping the Cloak at the mouth of the tunnel, started running as fast as he could along the passage. When he reached the stairs, he went a little slower, finally slowing to a walk as he got to the end of the stairs, feeling above his head to make sure he didn't bash his head on the trapdoor in the Honeydukes cellar. James's fingers finally found the door, and before he emerged into the cellar, he whispered, "Lumos," and his wand tip lit up.

Slowly, carefully, James pushed up the trapdoor, making sure that he didn't make more noise than he could help. The Death Eaters could know about the secret passages out of the castle. He was sure that by now they knew about the one under the Whomping Willow, because they had Snape on their side.

Snape. James couldn't stand him. It was mostly because he was a Death Eater, one of the people who were responsible for killing his mother. And also, though he wouldn't admit it to anyone, he'd always suspected that Snape had feelings for Lily. Maybe he was wrong, but he'd tried to warn Lily before, and he wouldn't do that if he thought she was just another Mudblood.

The cellar was deserted, and James ran out into the street. A Death Eater who had apparently been waiting for someone to come out of Honeydukes fired a spell at him, but he blocked it with a shield charm and fired a jinx back in retaliation. The jet of purple light that flew out of James's wand hit the Death Eater square in the chest, and he crumpled. James ran past him, seeing groups of students and Death Eaters fighting all over the village. Whenever he had a clear shot, he fired spells and jinxes at any Death Eater he could see. Now he had a new goal: Find Snape and kill him.