Lily could not keep track of how many times she'd paced the trauma ward at St. Mungo's. For the last four days, her strides had been wearing away at the tiles. Occasionally, she'd take a break and go into her father's room, but her mother sitting vigil over his unconscious form was becoming too much for her to handle. Petunia had stopped coming after the second day, denouncing both the magical hospital, and the hex that had put her father there in the first place.
Lily had spent about forty minutes in her father's room before she had retreated to her pacing ground.
After another hour, she was not only aware of the fact that there were 24 blue tiles, 120 green, and 66 black tiles making up the floor, she also knew where each was located with her eyes closed. She had started a game where — with her eyes sealed tightly — she could pace only on the black tiles. It had been going quite well for about ten minutes, but ultimately proved to be dangerous as she collided with someone in her path.
As her eyes sprang open, she began to mumble an apology that stopped dead on her lips when she realized who she'd crashed into.
"Potter," she said uncomprehendingly, clearing her throat and avoiding his eyes. "I — I'm sorry." He was the last person she'd been expecting to see there. Lily Evans and James Potter weren't on the best of terms. They were polite enough to one another — mostly because Lily was friends with James's mate Remus — but they hadn't had many in depth conversations.
"Don't be," he replied. "I mean, it was probably my fault. I wasn't paying attention."
"My eyes weren't open," she told him dumbly.
"Best to blame us both then," he said. Though she could tell that he was trying to be light-hearted, she could hear how gruff his voice was. Coupled with the fact that he was in the trauma ward, something was clearly wrong. Truthfully, though, she didn't want to know why he was there. She didn't want to be burdened with any other problems; she wanted an escape.
Before she could excuse herself, though, James spoke up. "What are you doing here, Evans?" he asked her, using the question as a distraction from his own worries.
"Oh," Lily shrugged, trying to be nonchalant about what was probably one of the most defining events of her life, "my dad's here."
"Your dad?" James repeated, clearly confused. "Wouldn't your dad be in a muggle hospital?"
"He would be," Lily agreed, strategically nodding her head so that her hair covered her face to hide the tears were springing to her eyes, "but he was hexed pretty badly."
"Hexed?" James asked, shaking his head back and forth. "Merlin, Evans, that's awful. Do you know —"
"We don't know who," she cut him off, furiously wiping at her eyes before tears managed to spill over. "I can assume why."
James stared at her perplexedly, not wanting to push her into speaking, but still interested in what she had to say.
She looked down to her feet, and started scuffing a green tile. "I don't know if you'd noticed," she said, addressing James without really acknowledging him, "that after that fight Severus and I had last year… Well, I've been pretty outspoken about my blood status, and about the war in general. Evidently, I've been too outspoken," she declared, her voice cracking, "because —"
"Evans, stop," James cut her off vehemently. "You can't blame yourself for this. Muggles with no connections to the wizarding world are being targeted; you have no idea why they went after your family. Besides, it's... it's an important cause to be outspoken about."
She nodded, but she was unsure about how to reply. If James had been someone she was closer to, she would have gone on a rant, blaming herself while she proposed dismantling the entire wizarding political system. As it was, she continued to stare at the floor.
"How's your dad?" James asked when Lily remained withdrawn.
"He's…" Lily shook her head back and forth, unable to talk about it. She wiped at her eyes again, cleared her throat, and then asked, "What brings you here?"
"Hopefully nothing that can't be fixed in a couple of days," James said dismissively. His tone again was indicative of the fact that whatever he was there for was something serious.
Lily looked up at him, read his face, and then nodded. She didn't want to press him, but she also had her own worries to ease. "It's nothing involving Remus —"
"Remus?" James interrupted, his eyebrows puckering together. "Why would it be anything involving Remus?"
Lily's cheeks flushed as she was reminded of the fact that the marauders — as the boys called themselves — didn't know that she knew about Remus's condition.
"I just had to check," she replied. Lily chose that moment to try and make her escape, excusing herself from the conversation, but as she walked away James persisted.
"Why, though?" he urged.
Lily shrugged, not entirely up to playing a guessing game. "He just looks so sick all the time," she said, attempting to be causal. "You know how it is."
"Evans, do you know?"
"Do I know what?" she replied, playing dumb.
"Nothing," James dismissed her, his face falling. "Never mind. It's nothing involving Remus."
She gave James a slight smile. "I'm glad to hear it, James." At that moment, Lily's mother appeared and called to her, and Lily quickly excused herself from James's company.
Two days passed, and Lily Evans had not seen or heard from James Potter. She hoped that whatever person he was visiting was faring better than her father, who remained in an unchanging, unconscious state.
On the third day, Lily had returned to her pacing when James reappeared once more. He walked too close to her for Lily to pretend that she didn't see him, and so they had to exchange hellos.
"How's your dad?" James asked, clearly trying to be kind. It was obvious from her bloodshot and tired eyes that things were not going well.
"No change," she dismissed him. "How's the person you're here with?"
This time it was James who cleared his throat and kicked aimlessly at the ground. "It's my mum," he confessed after a long pause. "And same as you, no change."
"I'm sorry to hear that," Lily said. She meant it sincerely. She wouldn't wish her current situation upon anyone. Still, she delved for more information. "May I ask what brought her here?"
"Can we take a walk while we talk?" James asked. He wasn't turning her down, but he also wasn't comfortable with facing her green eyes as he spoke.
Lily wordlessly accepted his request, and soon the two were pacing the trauma ward together. "My mum," James said, "is an Auror. Pretty high up. It's a risky job, and she ends up here sometimes. She had a bit of a close call last week — met up with Voldemort himself." James's voice was fragile, but he carried through. "The healers don't know what kind of hex she was hit with. They said it's nothing they'd ever seen before. If it was an unforgivable, at least it would be recognizable. As it is… I don't know, it's a bit of a waiting game, I suppose." His words were nonchalant, but his tone was anything but.
"Potter," Lily muttered, "I'm so sorry. That's noble, though. Being an Auror. I'd like to do that someday. Thank her for me, will you?"
"When she's up for it," James said, tossing her a delicate smile, "yeah."
Over the course of the next week, James and Lily met up in the corridors of the trauma ward every day. At first it was mere coincidence, but then they started to plan it. They would get lunch together when things were too overwhelming. They talked a lot. At first, it was mostly about their parents, but the more time they spent together, the more their conversations turned into those of friends.
This unlikely bonding continued for weeks. Lily stopped calling James "Potter" and James started calling Lily by that moniker. James was introduced to Mrs. Evans. Lily was introduced to Mr. Potter. They were becoming quite inseparable, spending so much time together that it surprised even them.
Five weeks into their new found friendship, things took a turn for the worse.
It was 8 P.M. on a Wednesday when Lily went to seek out James. He'd been absent all day, and she was starting to get worried.
Lily had memorized the path to his mum's room, and she could make that walk with her eyes closed, too. When she got there, she rapped gently on the door and waited for a reply.
It took a moment, but the door eventually creaked open to reveal a highly disheveled Sirius Black. "Ah," he said weakly, lifting a hand and scratching at his scraggily hair, "Evans. It's not really the best time." This was followed by a brief pause wherein he pondered what exactly Lily Evans was doing in a wizarding hospital, but before he could question her, James appeared alongside Sirius at the crack in the door.
His eyes were red, and he'd clearly been crying. "Hey, Lil," he said feebly, pressing his palm to his eye, "sorry I missed lunch today."
"Don't be," she breathed out uncomfortably. "I just wanted to check in. Are things —"
"Let's walk," James cut her off. He slipped out of the room and mumbled to Sirius and his dad that he'd be back.
Their walk ended up being more of another pace around the trauma ward, as James wasn't up to much more than that. His mother was fading fast, and they couldn't support her anymore. Things were coming to an end. The pair stopped walking as James got overwhelmed, and together they slumped onto a bench. As James struggled to hold it together, Lily firmly grasped James's hand and encouraged him to cry it out.
She couldn't say how long they sat there, only that they remained until James had pulled himself together enough to return to his mother's side.
The following day brought about the end of Mrs. Potter's life. She went quietly — the exact opposite of how she generally lived. James disappeared from the hospital to take care of affairs at home, and Lily remained stuck in place.
A few days later, they both found themselves standing at Mrs. Potter's funeral. James mourning the loss of his mother, and Lily mourning the woman who had brought them together. Unfortunately, Lily disappeared from the funeral before she had a chance to pay her respects, as she herself was being summoned to St. Mungo's.
It was her turn to face destruction, as her father's heart was giving out, and he didn't have much time left. She spent the next day and a half huddled in the small hospital room with her mother and sister, hands joined together as they prayed.
The end of the second day found James taking a break from his own grief in order to stop by and check in on Lily. He was unsurprised to find her pacing around the ward on the green tiles with her eyes closed. He was surprised to see the stream of mascara staining her cheeks. Instead of blindly smacking into each other as they had on James's first day in the ward, he placed a steadying hand on her shoulder and stopped her pacing altogether.
As soon as his hand touched her, Lily fell apart. She crumpled into his touch, and soon enough the two were intertwined, sobbing into each other's arms. Lily didn't need to tell James that her father had passed away. James didn't need to tell Lily that he wasn't adjusting well to his quiet house. After five weeks of nothing but continuous conversation, they suddenly found that they had a remarkable ability to communicate in silence, too.