A/N: It was going to be a one-shot but just kept getting longer and longer… expect several chapters. The premise: Lily gets sick and loses her voice. Enjoy!

Lily Evans had lost her voice. She had gone to bed Friday night with a slight ache in her throat. When she woke up on Saturday morning she was overwhelmed by the aching and the exhaustion. There was no way that she was getting out of bed. She tried to call out for help. Instead of words only horrible rasping sounds came out of her throat. She could only maintain her attempt at communication for a couple of seconds before it dissolved into a dreadful coughing fit.

A few minutes later, as she was hacking away again, Marley opened her eyes wide and looked around, trying to locate the source of the disturbing noises. She saw Lily's entire bed shaking in time to what she now figured were actually just coughs- they certainly didn't sound like any sort of human cough noises though.

"Lily? Lils! Is that you making those vile sounds? Or has Whiskers eaten something he shouldn't have again?" The only response she got was more "coughing".

Cautiously, she pushed aside the hangings. Lily made another effort to speak. An awful noise emerged. Marley only said "Oh my," before retreating a meter out of shock. Lily started gesturing rather wildly with her arms.

After a few minutes of charades Marley finally figured that Lily was shooing her to breakfast and asking if she could bring some tea back. After repeatedly encouraging her sick friend to go to the hospital wing Marley got dressed and left for breakfast.

Lily dragged herself, still wrapped in her blanket, out of bed with a Herculean effort. She was already out of breath just from standing up. Then she felt the dizziness start to take hold. Oh boy, this was going to be a great day.

She stumbled around the room. She brushed her teeth and ran a comb through her hair a total of three times before she gave up. She grabbed a box of tissues, a glass of water and a handful of winter clothing items on her way back to bed. She collapsed on her bed with a silent groan. After a few minutes of regaining her strength she decided to dig through the pile of clothes to see exactly what the fruit of her spoils was. Lily now had:

-One right-handed brown suede glove

-One right-handed blue mitten with white spots

-One left-handed plain black glove

-A large red sweater featuring a crooked three-legged moose (an early knitting experiment of her mother's)

-a hat that was too small for her head

Lily eagerly put on the black glove, blue mitten and hideous sweater. She perched the hat on her head, where it was sure to both look ridiculous and fall off as soon as she moved. She exhaled with relief and wrapped her blankets around herself in a cocoon of warmth and comfort. Then she lay back, losing her hat in the process, to take a nap.

Marley was enjoying her waffles and bacon at breakfast when Sirius sidled up to her.

"Hey Marls, we have an extra practice today at 2. Our esteemed captain apologizes for the late notice but he only just got word about pitch availability. Apparently half of Ravenclaw has got the flu and can't fly without losing their lunches."

"Charming." She said as she pushed away her half-eaten meal. "Maybe that's where Lily got it from".

"No. No, that's not right at all. First of all, Lily, although a beloved firecracker of a friend, is not nearly as charming as I am. Secondly, since said fledgling of a friendship is only a couple of months old, I highly doubt she had picked up anything from me. Other than a few choice curse words perhaps…and a couple of confiscated dungbombs."

"Those are yours? I saw her carrying three bags full to the storage room yesterday evening, muttering under her breath."

"Which storage room was that dearie? It was so much easier when the caretaker wasn't visiting his mother and he was in charge of this sort of thing." Sirius asked innocently.

Marley raised her eyebrow and said, "Honestly, as if it would tell you! Lily went to a lot of effort finding the perfect spot for them. Anyways, I wasn't talking about Lily's charm; I was talking about how she's lost her voice."

"She's sick? Ah, it's probably from being in the dungeons. There are lots of cold, wet unpleasant things lurking, and I am not just talking about Snivelly."

"I doubt it. The potions classroom is generally kept quite warm… generally by the frequent explosions of Pettigrew's cauldron." Marley said.

"It'd be that drafty North Tower then. I keep sending the headmaster letters about it, but he refuses to address the blatant child cruelty."

"Some of those corridors are freezing but still not nearly as cold as outside. If James keeps insisting that we practice then he'll soon have a team of popsicles."

"Outside you say? Well the only storage areas outside are near the locker rooms, caretaker's hut and the greenhouses." Sirius grinned, "Almost all of the greenhouses are kept very warm throughout winter, making them excellent areas to sneak off to for a break from care of magical creatures or a quick midnight snogging session. The exception is the currently abandoned section of Greenhouse 4." Marley's lips tightened as she fought to keep her expression impassive. He continued, "This is because some irresponsible students smashed a couple of windows there a few nights ago, completely by accident of course, and no one has noticed… except for maybe a certain Head Girl who walks by it every morning. And just maybe she, who is friendly with the Herbology professor, realized that it makes an excellent spot for storage for contraband items." She opened her mouth to laugh and make denials. Sirius lightly grasped her arm and said, "Shhhhh. Enjoy your breakfast. I've got to run! Pip pip!" and left her dumbfounded at the table.

"Crap." Marley said. She was glad that Lily wasn't around to know how easy she had been to crack.

Sirius sauntered off, quite pleased with himself. He had seen Lily inexplicably around the dungeons, North tower and the greenhouses yesterday using the Marauder's Map. It was good to cover up his source of knowledge by making Marley think that she'd spilled the beans. It was also good to know that she hadn't been waiting for a bloke. That would not have pleased James. This was important because Pleased James ran much better Quidditch practices than Not-Pleased James.

When Lily woke up again a few hours she was already feeling a bit better, but was still unable to make non-frightening noises. She noticed a mug of tea on her bedside table. Marley had also kindly left a bunch of chocolate frogs near it. Lily munched on them as she contemplated her situation. She had quizzes on Monday morning in Charms and Transfiguration. She had meeting at lunch with the president of the Gobstones Club that she had been putting off. On Tuesday she had a prefect meeting. At this point she wasn't very worried because she was sure she'd have her voice back by tomorrow… tomorrow evening by the latest.

Lily became annoyed very quickly. She was tired of communicating through charades. She was tired of bundling herself up in more layers than were comfortable. She was almost tired of drinking tea. Almost.

That's because it was Marley's way of helping out. She never really knew what Lily was going on about with the hand waving, kicking and gazes that ranged from frustrated to pleading. So instead, she just always assumed that Lily wanted tea and was constantly bringing her fresh mugs full.

Lily sometimes used parchment and a quill, but it wasn't always very effective. Marley was very impatient. As soon as Lily started to scratch on the sheet she would start reading it, trying to anticipate the next word. She wasn't very good at it. Tired of the silence, she made up for it by talking more. More often than not, by the time Lily had finally finished writing something Marley was already on a different topic.

Some of the other Gryffindors were just uncomfortable with the whole ordeal. They didn't like speaking to someone who would only look at them and nod along. They started to avoid her, disliking the awkwardness. After Saturday morning she started looking for a more private place to do her assignments. She was chased out of the library when her sneezes annoyed Mme. Pince. She was chased out of Greenhouse 4 (the warmest of the greenhouses) by a particularly vicious plant that took a chunk out of her scarf. After a couple more incidents she finally found refuge in the kitchens.

Sirius showed her the way to get into them when he found her sitting miserably in the corner of the common room on Saturday night. The house elves were very nice and brought her more cups of tea than even Marley. They didn't mind her being there as long as she and her germs stayed by the fire, far from the food.

Sirius was the only one actually enjoying Lily's illness. He had repeatedly told her that it was great for their friendship. He spent a lot of time with her that weekend. He told her about the Marauder's exploits (because she couldn't tell them off), about his extensive opinions concerning sandwich toppings (because even when she was banging her head on the table he only took it as encouragement), a couple of secrets (because there wasn't a real danger of her repeating them), all sorts of jokes (he liked how the dirty ones made her face turned a little red) that were sometimes brilliant but sometimes horribly cheesy (using her facial expressions to gauge their effectiveness for future reference).

On Sunday night Lily was annoyed and feeling a little lonely after her roommates (other than Marley) had practically run in the other direction after spotting her. She finally decided to seek the medical expertise of Nurse Stamps. From their "conversation" Marley understood that Lily was going to go put in a mail-order for more socks. She was a little confused but decided it was a good idea for Lily to leave her den of disease and get some fresh air. Also, the girl could use some more socks. Marley personally kept forty-seven pairs and asked for more each Christmas. That way she easily delayed the inevitable washing as much as possible. With a fresh mug of tea and some encouragement, she sent Lily on her way.

Lily had only just left Marley when Sirius intercepted her. "Hey there Lily-pad". She grimaced. "Where are you headed?... nope, I'm not sure what that gesture means. I think that it may in fact have an incredibly rude meaning in Australia. Or maybe Germany. Have I ever told you about the time that James and I found ourselves in Germany? Well, it was summer after third year and James' mother had just asked us to buy some milk. James, being the twit he is…"

When he told the part about Helga beating James with a broom while he was juggling bread buns to earn some muggle money she couldn't help but laughing. The horrible raspy noise surprised Sirius who panicked a little and had to ensure that his companion was still breathing (albeit barely).

"Those healers keep telling us that laughter is the best medicine. That certainly didn't sound healthy. I guess they are a bunch of quacks after all. Have I ever told you about the muggle healer they took me to when I broke my ankle? He tried to give me these odd tall walking sticks. Clunches I think. Yes, clunches. He walked into the room, carrying a pair of long pointy clunches. I thought he was going to hand me one and challenge me to a duel..."

A couple of minutes and a few unable-to-breathe scares later the pair came upon the hospital wing. Sirius tipped his imaginary hat saying, "Milady," and walked off, whistling the James Bond theme.

"Now what did you say was wrong with you?" Nurse Stamps asked her again. Lily gestured at her throat and made an awful croaking noise.

"Ah, lost your voice? Well, you can have this bed. I'll be right back with a potion that may help." At this point Lily would be surprised if anything short of a throat transplant would be effective.

She started to look around the room but caught sight of what could only be her reflection in the window. She had to wave her arm a couple times, watching the other Lily carefully, to be sure. The other Lily had a messy red nest on her head. There was a small hat actually dangling off of it, one of its tassels tangled in the mess. Her skin was pale except for her bright red nose. In short, she looked awful. Why hadn't anyone said anything? Marley should have at least pulled the hat off- who knows how long it's been living there.

She frantically tried smoothing out her hair but soon gave up. It was a lost cause. Then she realized that she was still wearing the awful moose sweater. She groaned silently and vowed to never show her face in public again. Well at least James hadn't seen her.

They had become friends a few months ago, right before the end of last term. They hadn't spoken much over the summer, but she was delighted when on the platform he greeted her like an old friend. They had been working well together as Head Boy and Head Girl and Lily was surprised by how much he had changed. It reminded her of how much she had changed. She was longer the scared muggle-born perfectionist that needed to prove herself to the world. She was now much more aware of who she was and what was really important. It still annoyed her when Sirius described how they blatantly disregarded rules, but so long as no one was hurt by it, she now found the stories clever and amusing. Lately she had even personally found that breaking the rules could be very rewarding (midnight snacks from the kitchen came to mind).

Lately she had found herself thinking more and more about James. Whenever she did anything daring or crafty he was the first one that she wanted to tell. She figured that he would give her that mischievous smile of his. Or maybe he would ruffle her hair or tell her off teasingly. She remembered how once on her birthday a few years ago the Great Hall had rained waffles. She could never predict exactly what he would do, but she always eagerly anticipated it. She wasn't exactly sure why this friendship excited her so much, maybe it was the unpredictability of it. In any case, she somehow knew that it was a good thing he hadn't seen her looking like doll that had been chewed up by its owner's dog, spat back out and dressed in the ugliest sweater known to mankind.

The nurse came back a few minutes later with a tray. She walked past Lily, heading to the further beds. She called out,

"I have your dinner here! But you won't see a crumb of it if you've messed with the bed again! Expanding it to three times its size! Making it walk around the room! I can't deal with any more of your shenanigans today; I do have other patients Mr. Potter."

Lily froze. Potter? Surely…not Potter comma James… some other Potter. Maybe someone with the first name Potter! Yes. Some other Potter. Some other Potter who charms his bed. Some other Potter. Definitely.

She turned her head slowly in that direction. She saw Nurse Stamps reaching for a curtain to pull it back. A rush of adrenaline surged through Lily and she threw herself off the bed, landing with a painful thump. She considered the options. She could hide under the bed where she could fix her hair, or at least conjure up a hat (that would actually fit on top of her head, and not be dragged along by it). She would eventually be discovered, but at least she would look a little more presentable (hopefully). She would still be wearing the awful sweater though. That left option 2. Lily started dragging herself back towards the door to the hall. She started wheezing and coughing but refused to slow down. She was counting on the fact that Nurse Stamps would be distracted by whatever Potter had done with his bed (because surely he had done something or another).
She was just thinking that she could make it when everything started spinning. She kept going, pulling herself with her elbows. Only a couple more meters….

"What do you think you're doing?!" Stamps cried out.

Oh no.

A/N: Hope you enjoyed it! I am writing this because I like Lily, lost my voice once and spent an awful 2 weeks in forced silence. Poor girl, will she catch a break? Keep an eye out for part 2!