Notes: This is a trilogy for FezandBowties' 100 Song Titles Challenge at the HPFC forum. Three unrelated chapters, three unrelated songs, one couple. This is all for Janina. I miss you, Argent! This is why I wrote JPLE. All for her.
Disclaimer: J.K. Rowling owns these babies. Jay-Z owns Forever Young. However, I own the lyrics to the song James sings.
"Heaven can wait, we're only watching the skies.
Hoping for the best but expecting the worst.
Are you gonna drop the bomb or not? "
-Forever Young
Life is for Living
"Stupefy!"
"Sectumsempra!"
"James!"
"Prongs!"
"Bloody hell, Prongs, wake up!"
"Don't fall asleep, you git! Prongs!"
"James!"
"Prongs!"
-m-
"Sirius!"
"Bloody hell, woman, I'm trying to carry my best friend here!"
"Shove off, that's my husband!"
"Stop it, both of you!"
James was surrounded by fog while a bright light stabbed his eyes. He tried to wade his way through the fog. It was hard, for the fog was getting thicker. It was suffocating him, trying to cut off his air supply.
But, bloody hell, he was not going to let it win!
"Oh my god, Rem, I think he's coming to!"
James scowled. Why was the bright light getting dimmer? Was somebody pranking him?
Was it Snape? He was going to wring that greasy-haired man's scrawny neck. Who gave him the right to prank the one and only king of pranking?
The light was dimming even more, he tried to run after it and pull it back.
"You jinxed it."
Lily clasped James' hand in her own as he lay on their bed. Sirius had laid his best friend there as Lily tried to check her husband for any major abrasions and cuts. Sirius was wearing a hole in their expensive rug with his pacing. Remus sat on the chair beside Lily, holding a few sheaves of parchment containing information about the next raid. James was laying still, his glasses on the table beside him with a glass of cold water. His normally lively face was expressionless and calm. His skin had a yellowish tint and his hair was messier than normal.
Lily remembered a time when his hair was messier than it was now. That had been on the Valentine's Day of their Fifth Year when Lily had cursed him to be attacked by a hundred magpies for singing a song to her.
"Hey, Evans! Prewett said that you like listening to the birds' songs."
"Yes, so?"
"A thousand words I never got to say
A million hugs I never gave away
A trillion tears I've shed today
And my only heart that you kept at bay…"
"Do you live to embarrass me, Potter?"
He had looked so hurt after the incident, she almost uttered an apology.
Almost.
Before he decided to release his disappointment by cursing the Slytherins to have greasy black locks.
"Snivelly! Hello, old hag. We're here to give you and your fellow housemates a gift."
The light glinted off the gold band around her finger. She smiled softly to herself, remembering James' proposal during their Graduation Rites. He had used his power as Head Boy to deliver a speech and used that speech to enumerate all the pranks they were able to accomplish.
"Perhaps our biggest accomplishment as Marauders was yours truly finally owning the heart of the lovely Lily Evans."
"No way, Prongs! She's just a silly bint."
"Pads. It's James' time to talk. Don't ruin his moment."
Lily was astonished when Sirius turned pink and sat down again, muttering an apology not to James, but to Remus. She giggled a bit, thinking of how compliant Sirius was with Remus beside him.
Lily glanced again at the prone figure of her husband and her musings ended. It did no good to dwell on the past when the present needed attention.
"When will he wake up?" Lily asked.
"Madame Pomfrey told us to wait for a few hours. He'd probably awake a little later." Remus responded without removing his attention from the papers.
"He's not going to die, Evans. Easy." Sirius said, hoping that he did not sound unsure.
"It's Potter now, Black. We're married." As if to remind Sirius, the diamond on Lily's ring caught the light and glinted.
"I know. I was at the wedding." Sirius smirked.
"Wasn't that where you flirted with every girl? Like Petunia? Then her brute of a husband staged a fight wherein you, Black, were knocked out?"
"I do that in every party, Evans. It was nothing new. The ladies love to love me."
Remus smirked behind the papers he was holding. "Oh, I think I remember that. Didn't you publicly humiliate the groom by recalling all his failed wooing?"
A groan rose from the figure lying prone on the bed. "Oh don't remind me."
"James!"
"Hey, it feels good to be missed, but you don't have to smother me!" James chuckled as Lily immediately circled her arms around his body.
"You idiot, what were you thinking? I could have handled it myself!" Sirius yelled just as Lily shrieked, "James Potter! Black could have handled it on his own! You didn't have to go play the damn hero!"
Another groan escaped from James' lips. "You save a bloke and all you get is complaints."
"Not that I'm ungrateful, Prongs, it was really a nice gesture, I mean you coming to my rescue? Oh my hero!" Sirius mocked.
Lily glared at Sirius before turning back to James. "You shouldn't join the next raid."
"Life is for living, Lil, not for living uptight."
"I don't care, James!" Lily yelled. She turned to Remus who was staring off into the distance with a faraway look in his eyes. "What do you have to say, Remus?"
Remus rubbed his right eye with the back of his palm and said in an even and calm tone, "Lily, James knew what he was getting in when he joined the Order. We all did. And it's in his nature to protect his best friend. You can't blame him for trying to protect Sirius."
"I think I liked it more when all I had to worry about was parts of your body in the wrong places due to a prank gone badly." Lily frowned.
"We can't live forever young, Lils."
"I know that."
Sirius offered his trademark cheeky grin. "Though I won't be opposed to living forever young."
"Sure, Sirius. You sit there looking like your seventeen-year old self while I look like an old hag with a head full of gray hairs and wrinkles ad a dozen scars on my ugly face."
"Damn it, Rem, you know I hate it when you talk yourself down."
"I do not talk myself down. I'm merely stating the truth."
"Well, I think you should look in a mirror." Sirius said as Remus scoffed. "I'm serious, Moony!"
"You're always Sirius."
Sirius glared. "Have you ever thought that someone might think your scars were sexy and your hair shaggable?"
"My scars are not 'sexy'. They are a constant reminder that I am dangerous. I take risks."
Sirius and Remus continued to bicker as Lily fussed over James. After checking his vitals and his bandages, she said in a firm tone, "I'm coming to the next raid."
Sirius and Remus stopped bickering and turned to Lily, their faces flushed and eyes wide.
James turned incredulously to his wife, his hazel eyes wide behind his glasses. "What?"
"Like what you said, life is for living."
Remus nodded and fingered one of his scars. "And what is living without risks?"
Reviews? Tell me what you think of my first JPLE. =)