Measles

Lily woke up to find herself lying on the bathroom floor among tissues. Turning her head, she saw the sleeping form of James with his arm resting on her back. She couldn't believe they'd fallen asleep in the bathroom. For the second night in a row she hadn't slept in her bed and it wasn't good for her. As quietly as she could, Lily got up off the floor and tip toed back into her room to get some fresh robes. When she was back in the bathroom, she glanced in the mirror and nearly screamed. Her face was red and had blotchy spots all over it. Usually her face calmed down half an hour or so after she had been crying but today something was wrong. She looked down at her hands and saw red spots there too. Something was definitely wrong.

Lily had to do something about it; she couldn't go to classes like this! She was passing through the door when James stirred and stuck his head up. "Lily, where are you going?" he asked looking dazed and confused.

"I'm going to the hospital wing," she said moving into her bedroom and placing the clean robes she had just retrieved down on the bed. James' sleepy form emerged from the bathroom. "Why?" he asked following her down into the common room.

"Because there's something wrong with me," she said ducking through the portrait hole. James stood still on the spot gazing at the spot where Lily had been standing. "That girl is so weird sometimes," he said to no one.

Lily walked briskly to the hospital wing where the nurse was fixing up a bed. "Good morning Miss Evans, what can I do for you?" she said not looking up.

"Could you please tell me what's wrong with me," she said. The nurse looked up shaking her head.

"What do you me-good heavens!" she said taking in Lily's image. "Sit down," she said ushering Lily to one of the beds.

"I woke up like this," she said holding out her arm which the nurse was inspecting.

"Ok, I'm just going to do some tests to find out what this is exactly," she said bustling up the wing.

This was definitely not how Lily wanted to start the day.

When James entered the Great Hall he scanned the room quickly for Sophie and Charlotte. He knew that they weren't talking to Lily but he also knew they'd want to know if something was wrong. Seeing Sophie's mahogany head at the far end of the Gryffindor table, James jogged towards her.

A first year boy was sitting where Sophie was trying to sit. She tapped the boy on the shoulder. "Move it you little shit," she said pushing him a bit.

Reluctantly the boy stood up. "Rude bitch," he mumbled as he was walking away.

"Excuse me?" Sophie said. "That's not very nice," she said before performing the furnunculus hex on him. Immediately giant boils appeared all over his skin. The boy ran away screaming. Sophie took her seat just as James ran towards her.

"Sophie," he puffed as he reached her. "Lily's-"

"I don't care what Lily is," she said starring straight ahead of herself.

"But she's in the hospital wing," he said pushing Sirius to the side and sitting down beside Sophie. It was obvious he had stirred something inside of her for her next words conveyed clearly that she cared.

"What happened?" she said in a small voice.

"Nothing, well I don't actually know. She just left me saying she was going to the hospital wing."

"Right, I'm going to find Charlotte," Sophie said standing.

"No, I'll do it, you go and see Lily," James said also standing.

"I don't think either of you will have to," Remus said pointing towards the doorway. Sophie and James looked up and saw Charlotte coming through the door with Sam. Both Sophie and James rushed towards her shouting her name.

"Oh God, what do they want," Charlotte said turning her head away from the pair running towards her.

"What?" she said angrily. She really didn't want to hear anything that they had to say.

"It's Lily," Sophie said.

"She's in the hospital wing," James finished.

"Why? What happened to her?" Charlotte said losing the anger.

"We don't know. We're going to the hospital wing now," Sophie said moving towards the door with James behind her. Charlotte began to follow when Sam called out to her.

"Charlotte where are you going, I thought we were going to breakfast?"

"Sorry, but I have to go."

"What! I thought you never wanted to speak to them again!"

"Yeah, but Lily's my friend and she needs me," Charlotte said walking away from the fuming Sam Perkins.

On their way to the hospital wing, James turned to Charlotte. "Why did you leave him like that? I thought you didn't want to speak to Lily again and now you're with us on the way to the hospital wing to see her!"

"Never mind, I'll explain later. It's the same reason Sophie's here." She said continuing on. James turned to Sophie looking for assurance and she nodded in agreement.

Finally they reached the hospital wing. James burst through the doors followed by Sophie and Charlotte. Lily was lying down in one of the beds, still red and blotchy. She appeared to be sleeping but that didn't hold Charlotte and Sophie back. "Lil," they cried running towards the bed.

The red head looked up and saw her two best friends running towards her. Slightly puzzled she looked up and smiled. "What are you two doing here?"

"James told us something was wrong," Sophie said.

"Yeah, so we came. Do you not remember our promise," Charlotte said.

"Of course I do, but its nothing, seriously," Lily said sitting up.

"So what's wrong with you then?" Charlotte asked sitting down on the edge of the bed.

"I've got the measles," Lily said pointing to the red spots all over her.

"The…the measles, you've got to be kidding right?"

"Why?" Lily asked looking between them.

"James came running from your dormitory saying something was wrong with you and we rushed here and now we find out you've got the measles," Sophie said taking a seat beside the bed.

"Well, sorry to disappoint you, I'm sure you would rather me have some deadly disease, I'll try harder next time," Lily said looking away from Charlotte and Sophie.

"Lil, I didn't mean what I said last night," Sophie said. "I'm really sorry."

"I'm sorry too," Charlotte said looking genuinely sorry.

"That's ok, I'm sorry too, I'm such an annoying person," Lily said looking down.

"Don't be silly, everyone's annoying sometimes," Charlotte said. "And I can think of heaps of people a hundred times more annoying than you," she finished pointing towards the door where James was still standing awkwardly.

"Aww, thanks guys," Lily said reaching forward to hug her friends. When she pulled away she looked up towards where James was standing. She smiled at him thinking about him comforting her last night and how kind he had been. Maybe he wasn't different. Maybe he had changed from his old, arrogant, annoying ways.

"Well, I think we should get going to class," Charlotte said getting up off the bed.

"Besides, you'll probably want to talk to the idiot that made us think you were dying," Sophie said also standing.

"And we don't want to catch the measles. We'll see you later."

When Sophie and Charlotte had exited James made his way over to Lily who was still sitting up. "Hey," she said as he seated himself beside the bed.

"Hi," she said brightly.

"How are you feeling?" he asked her.

"Hot."

"You look it too," he replied. Lily didn't know it, but James comment had a double meaning.

"So you told my friends I was dying," she said trying to make conversation.

"No, I just said something was wrong. So maybe I over reacted a bit, but when the person I love says something like that, I worry," he said looking at his hands. Lily blushed, not that James noticed. Even if he had been looking at her he wouldn't have been able to tell the difference between the spots and the blushing.

"Well thanks for telling them anyway."

"No problem, but what's the promise you guys made, the reason why they both came so eagerly?"

"Oh that, it's just something we promised each other when we were in first year. We promised that if something ever happened to one of us, we'd be there for each other, no matter what had happened in the past or what was happening in our lives. We've always stood by it," Lily explained to James.

"Oh," was all James said. Lily was unsure of what he meant by the word.

"So, I guess I'll go now too," James said making to leave.

"Alright, I'll see you later, right?" she asked with a hint of desperation in her voice.

"For sure, you won't be able to keep me away," he said grinning leaving the hospital.

A/N: does this font look big? maybe its just me

this chapter is not very long or good. but good news for the people who actually like this story i'm sick so i have lots of time to write. bad news for those people is that i'm getting better.

enjoy, please review

anie