Authors Note: It's picking up a bit...and I still own nothing.

For a moment, Lily assumed it was yet another stunt from the infamous group, and continued reading. Only when she glanced over her shoulder, to see him convulsing on the floor, did she panic. By the time she jumped over the back of the couch, he was screaming aloud, though he was clearly unconscious.

" James!" she yelled his name over and over, attempting to drown out his screams, his rambling of words that made no sense when strung together, or even in separate.

His body began twitching around, similar to a fish out of water. She yanked at his shirt collar, slapped his cheeks, and multiple other tactics in an attempt to wake him. None, however, were successful.

She looked towards the balcony of the boys dormitories, as though calling towards some kind of higher, spiritual power. Instead, it was Sirius Black. And he appeared only after her second call for him, rubbing his eyes, black hair in all directions.

He grumbled in protest to being woken, and in the common room with his mismatched pajamas on. Though he was hit with a sudden burst of energy after seeing the two on the floor below him.

" Blimey!" he yelled, running down the spiral stairs, landing on his knees across from Lily over James' twitching body. " Prongs!" he screamed, as though a different name- which was unknown to Lily would suddenly stop the mysterious trance. He pushed his glasses, pulling back one of his eyelids. " Bloody hell! Moony!" he yelled, again with unfamiliar terms, " bananas, Moony, bananas!"

Watching James yell out and arch his back, all while in an unconscious state, left Lily in a panic, as she could not think of any logical antidote that would help him.

But, someone did.

Fast enough that his robe flew in a perfect horizontal line behind him, Remus Lupin came racing towards them, the yellow fruit clutched in his hand.

" Okay, okay" he breathed, as though in a rushed- but familiar-routine. He kneeled at James' head, peeling the skin of the banana. After breaking off a piece, he gently pushed it past the mouth of the screaming student.

Before Remus could even remove his fingers, James had relaxed with ease to the stone floor, motionless. His breath ragged from his rapid movements, his eyelids fluttering open.

Remus helped him slowly sit up as he began choking on the contents in his mouth, though he managed to work his way to swallowing, rearranging his glasses to his nose.

" Thats it mate, you're alright" Sirius said calmly, rubbing his shoulder, " you're alright."

" We're getting better at this" Remus smirked, following a sign of relief, " though we should come up with a plan in case he ever swallows his tongue."

" I reckon you're right."

James, who had just rid himself of his midnight snack, glanced over at Lily. While relieved that he was now temporarily alright, she was mildly confused as to what she had just witnessed. And, she was the only one by the looks of it.

" Not to be forward, but, what the hell just happened!" she yelped, " could one of you please explain?!"

Both Sirius and Remus rose up to their knees, were they towered over a recovering James and a rather quizzical Lily. " No, we wont" Sirius said, rather coldly, despite Remus looking like he wanted to object, but held his tongue.

" You don't give him the light of day" the dark haired friend continued, " now, you can stay in the dark."

The two left the room without another word that could have shattered the ice cold feeling they had left behind. Their speechless friend was dragged along with them.

Lily slept without ease for the remainder of the night. She had seen James, his body withering without his acknowledgement, without his control. Speaking a language, if it really was one, she could not understand, nor attempt to identify. And, not a single word of explanation, not a word of meaning. But, at least two people knew what was going on, three including James himself.

During breakfast the following morning, Lily searched for James in the Great Hall, just as he had done the night before. He never showed. In fact, none of the four did. Same in all the classes they shared throughout the day. Her plan had been to try and interrogating James in Transfiguration, the only she class she shared with him that none of their friends happened to be in.

However, it was a plan that was not given the chance to succeed.

She skipped dinner for the second night in a row. Throughout the day, there were no screams or roars of laughter in the halls, as the four had remained hidden. Only something so serious would keep them at bay for such a long period of time. And if she could not speak with James personally, she would resort to her second, and what was usually her first, source- the library.

Certain enough, there would not be any resources on James Potter, she could have another place to start. The language he was speaking, she knew it could not have just been noise. The wet hissing, the sharp gasps. He was certainly saying something, though any receiver of such a message the night before could not decode it. At least, she assumed.

She was nose deep in a ratted linguistics book when she heard disturbance in a neighboring aisle. The entire school was to be at dinner, thus her surprise when seeing another student hidden in the corner by the tall window, reading by a very dim light on the end of his wand.

It was something to be ignored at first, until a second look made her realize that under the stiff hood was the unkept hair of-

" James" she said quietly, though still enough for both to hear, as they were the only ones there.

He jumped like a caught criminal, attempting to make an escape, Lily, however, blocked him against the book case, holding him in place despite a significant size difference.

" No, thanks...I'm not hungry" he suttered in response to her question, while still trying to break away.

Lily snatched the cloth covering his elbows, looking into his dark eyes, which were overshadowed by the horrible lighting. " James, I just asked you if you wanted to get some desert."

" I know, and I said..."

" I asked you in parseltongue" she said in a stern tone, tightening her grip, " and you understood me" his struggling immediately ceased, " you can talk to snakes, can't you?"