Author's Note: This is the second chapter, because apparently someone reads this story. Well, thanks. I'll try to upload as regularly as possible.
Still not mine. I can only dream.
The fire was burning low. The girl had yet to wake up.
Remus had said that some people died of shock. It didn't even have to be the oh-my-god-I'm-dying shock, it could also be a oh-my-god-I-lived shock.
That was stupid, James concluded. She had made it this far. He'd be pissed off if he lived through the same and then just died of a stupid old shock.
Not that he was complaining about the fact that she might not wake up, no. Better for them. They'd bury her somewhere and get on with their life. The last thing they needed was someone else to worry about.
Maybe those were cruel thoughts, maybe they were just true. He knew it would have been better for his parents if he had never happened. Maybe she knew it was best not to wake up. The world she'd wake up to was mean and unfair.
He built the fire back up. Having one was both good and bad, it kept away animals and pocket thieves, but it attracted other...people. Monsters.
But with Winter approaching, they didn't really have a choice.
James shivered. He had wrapped his jacket around the girl because she wasn't dead yet and Remus as well as Sirius wouldn't wake up again if they fell asleep without one.
He had volunteered to be on first watch, and not because he wanted the girl to see him, her handsome savior, first. Just because.
Obviously Sirius had cackled like crazy with his lack of reasons.
He sighed again, mostly just because he had started to do it about as much as he breathed. There were too many things to worry about to not do it.
The girl's eyes twitched. He held his breath. It stopped. He sighed.
The moon had come out, though it wasn't up in the sky yet.
The girl's eyes twitched. And opened.
He blinked. She blinked back. Then she lunged away.
"Who are you?" She demanded. "What are you doing here? Where am I? Get off!"
He blinked again, and stretched out his hand to push her back down.
"Calm down," he said. Her panicked face transformed into a deep and angry frown.
"Don't tell me what to do! How dare you!"
For a second, he stilled. Enough time for her to slap him across the face, get up and start running into the woods.
"Hey!" he shouted. Fuck Sirius and Remus, he needed to get to that girl, at least to get back at her. His whole face was stinging.
"Hey!" he shouted again. "Stop!"
She was fast, like a frightened animal, but years of everyday walking gave him a definite advantage. He caught her only a few steps further, tearing her to the ground while landing on top of her.
"Hey," he said a little softer. "I don't want to hurt you, but you can't-" He stopped.
She had bit him.
That bitch had bit him into his arm, hard. He could feel the blood trickling down his arm.
"Get off me!" she screamed. "I don't care who you are, GET OFF ME!"
She was hitting him again. He had had enough.
He grabbed both her arms and roughly held them above her head.
"Shut up," he snarled. "Shut up and listen to me, or do you want to die?"
She kicked him in response. He wanted nothing more than to punch her.
Scratch the frightened animal part. She was a beast.
And she was screaming.
He held his hand in front of her mouth. Even if he wanted her to attract attention, for someone to kill her, and he would gladly take his death in account for the greater good, there were Remus and Sirius to think about. He didn't want them to be killed.
Or their ears to explode.
"Shut up," he told her. She sneered at him and tried to bite his hand.
His eyesight was flecked with red.
Someone pulled him off her, dragging him back. Two arms on each side. Sirius' face close to his.
"James," he asked lowly. "What the hell is going on?"
It was kind of ironic for James to be forced to sit at the fire to calm down. He was still sulking, and his arm had yet to stop bleeding.
At least the girl would talk to Remus, Sirius had pointed out.
Yeah, thought James. Applause to her.
Remus was a messenger now, telling them bits of information about her as he learned. It wasn't that much.
Her name was Lily.
And the only thing she could remember was her name.
Remus had concluded that the shock must have made her forget everything, or something like that.
James couldn't say he cared. So what if she had no memory?
Sirius sat down next to him.
"So what do we do with her now?" he asked.
"Give her a bit of food and see if she can make it on her own," James snapped. Sirius grinned.
"God, James, stop being such a pussy. Just because she bit you."
James' eye had begun to twitch, a pretty sure sign that he was furious. He avoided looking at Sirius.
"I want my jacket back."
"She needs it more. Be a gentleman."
"I don't care about what she needs, you hear me? Fuck her."
"Oh, I'm planning to. Come on Prongs, what harm can a girl do? If we remove all her teeth, so to speak."
James turned to Sirius then, a disbelieving look on his face.
"What harm? Are you kidding? We have no idea who this girl is, she could be one of them and a spy or the daughter of some kind of count who will have our heads if we get too close to her, and she probably can't work. So, what harm can she not do?"
"So, we should just put her somewhere in the woods and watch her die."
"Gladly," James grumbled.
"Let's give her a chance." Remus had appeared out of nowhere. "But we should ask if she wants one."
"Moony! Aren't you on watch for a special feisty little girl?"
"She's asleep now." Remus flopped down next to James. "And as much as it pains me to say this, because I know James is right, we should give her a chance."
"You know," James retorted, "I always felt like I should give putting a bullet through my brain a chance. I should do that now, too."
Remus sighed, Sirius snorted and James relented.
"Fine." He glanced over at the small figure next to the fire place. "But I really do want my jacket back."