Chapter Ten: Awakening

Lily was aware of the throbbing in her head before anything else. It felt as though someone were repeatedly smacking a sledgehammer against her skull. All around she could hear concerned muttering, none of which she could comprehend. Everything melted into an irritating buzzing sound, only adding to her pounding headache.

Her eyelids were heavy, and she couldn't open her eyes. Everything ached – her arms, legs, ribs, stomach – especially her stomach. Her limbs felt heavy, and she just wanted to fall back into a deep, dreamless sleep. Vaguely, she wondered where she was and why she hurt like this, what had happened before she'd awoken.

She struggled for a few moments to recall the last thing she remembered. She'd been working on Runes with Remus, then supper, then Beth…Beth's strange warning. Clarke. James and Clarke, dueling. Panic consumed her brain and she gasped, struggling against the weight in her arms and legs.

"She's awake!" someone said.

"Go get the matron! She's having a fit or something!"

"Lily, Lily, it's okay," someone said, slipping their fingers into hers. She gripped the unknown hand tightly, trying to calm her pounding heart and slow her breathing. Carefully, she pried open her eyes. The room was dim, lit only by a handful of lamps. The people around her bed slowly came into focus.

"Back up, back up," barked a voice. "Who let all you people in here?"

"You did," someone answered in an undertone, and a couple people chuckled.

Madame Pomfrey bustled into view, peering down at Lily with sharp concern. Lily lay still as the matron passed her wand over her body and poked and prodded her, checking her over completely. Lily followed the movements with her eyes, head pounding and body aching too much to move anything else.

"Well, you'll live," Madame Pomfrey said after a bit. "No lasting damage anyway. I'll have you stay the rest of the night just in case, to monitor your head. Nasty business, head injuries; you hit it pretty hard when you fell. But if the night goes well, by tomorrow afternoon you should be able to return to your normal routine."

"What time is it?" Lily asked.

"One in the morning, dear. You've been out for some time," the matron answered. "Your friends are very concerned about you," she added, casting a glance at the small group gathered around Lily's bed.

Lily looked over to see Allie and all of James's friends standing there, watching anxiously. Only then did she realize someone was still holding her hand. She glanced sideways to see James Potter sitting there, his hand covering hers as though it were the most natural thing in the world.

"Fifteen minutes," Madame Pomfrey said, pointing her finger around to all of them. "Then you need to let my patient get some sleep."

Lily gently disentangled her fingers from James's. He didn't look overly concerned by this. "You look a bit worse for wear," she said. He grinned, showing off a split lip and a cut cheek, and shrugged.

"You should see Clarke," he answered. He gestured toward the other end of the room at a bed with fully-drawn curtains.

"Oh, Lily, are you okay?" Allie said suddenly, rushing forward and grabbing Lily's hands. "I was so worried. I mean we. We were worried. Of course. James came and got us as soon as you were safe. I'm so glad you're okay. Does it hurt much? It looks like it might," she rambled.

"I'm fine," Lily assured her, squeezing Allie's hands. "It only hurts a little. Honest. It was an accident anyway. If someone hadn't insisted on starting a duel in the middle of the castle–"

"Oi! I was defending you, if you weren't paying attention," James argued.

"I never asked you to defend me," Lily said. "And I wouldn't have needed defending at all if you hadn't decided to pull your wand on Clarke when he had his back turned."

"Mate, you didn't," Sirius said, looking appalled. James's defenses went up instantly.

"It wasn't like that! He provoked me," he said. "He was saying all kinds of awful things about Lily and about me and he deserved what he got. Had it coming, if what Remus said is true," he added, scowling.

Lily gave Remus a sharp look. He wouldn't meet her eyes.

"I think we should all go to bed," Peter said softly, breaking the tense silence. "Lily needs to rest, and I dunno about all of you, but I'm knackered. Can we please?" He gestured toward the door hopefully.

"I agree," Lily said immediately. "I'm tired, and you should all go get some sleep. I'll see you tomorrow," she added to Allie, squeezing her hands again. "Goodnight," she said to the group in general.

Remus, Sirius, and Peter all smiled at her uncertainly.

"Goodnight, Lily," Remus said. Peter nodded.

"We-we are glad you're okay," Sirius said gruffly, clearing his throat. "Night." Lily nodded at them. It felt odd for James's friends to be worried about her.

James reached over and touched her arm uncertainly, just for a moment, before pulling back. "Goodnight. And, sorry I suppose. It's kind of my fault you're in here. I'm glad you're alright though."

The five of them departed, and Lily lay back against the pillows. Almost as soon as the latch on the infirmary door clicked into place behind them, she was asleep.

X

"So what happened?" Sirius asked for probably the tenth time. James groaned and buried his face in his hands.

"I told you already. Clarke was being an arse, so I threw a hex at him, and then we had a sort of duel, and then Lily got hit, and then Flitwick showed up and it was all over."

"Yeah, but what did Clarke say?" Sirius pressed. Why he wanted to know the exact details of the encounter was unclear, and his insistence was only making James more miserable about the situation.

"He said something like, 'Fine, Evans, be a prude and a snob. Potter likes them hard to get.' And I dunno, I just snapped. I'm so sick of him, Padfoot. I just wanted to put him in his place," James said.

"Warranted," Sirius said. Remus made a noise of disbelief

"Not warranted!" he argued. "James could be expelled for pulling a stunt like that. He's Head Boy!"

"Exactly," Sirius said, shrugging. "He's Head Boy. He's not going to be expelled. Besides, at this point it's just Clarke's word against James' right? We'll just get Evans to say it was self-defense. Clarke threw the first spell. Clarke gets punished; all is well. Problem solved."

"Evans won't agree to that," Peter said, frowning. "You know she won't."

"Oh, I don't know," Remus said thoughtfully. "She probably wouldn't mind seeing Clarke stripped of his Prefect badge. You didn't hear the kinds of things he said to her in Runes today."

"How do you speak in Runes? Aren't all the Runes from dead languages?" Sirius asked. Remus scowled and hurled a pillow at him.

"Not the time, Padfoot," Peter said, shaking his head. Sirius shrugged.

"Just trying to lighten the mood."

James threw himself onto his bed violently. "I'm such a bloody idiot," he moaned. "Why can't I ever just walk away?"

"Aw, don't beat yourself up, Prongs," Sirius said cheerfully. "At the very worst, you'll be expelled and can live the rest of your days knowing it was in defense of Lily Evans' honor. At best, Clarke gets expelled and we never have to see his ugly mug again."

"Great," James muttered into his pillow. "Fantastic."

"What will probably happen is you'll both be reprimanded and given detentions and you can go on hating each other from now until the end of time," Remus said reasonably. "No one has to be expelled."

"But it's more fun if someone gets expelled," Sirius insisted.

"No one's getting expelled!"

"Two sickles says Clarke gets the boot," Sirius offered.

"Five sickles says no one gets the boot and Prongs and Clarke serve detentions until the end of term," Remus countered.

"Eight sickles says I'm not Head Boy anymore after this," James added miserably.

"Five sickles says James is still Head Boy, but Clarke loses his Prefect badge," Peter said.

They all shook on it. James continued to moan about his own idiocy until Peter chucked a shoe at him to make him shut up so they could all go to sleep.

A/N: Chapter 10! This story has come so far! Again, thanks SO much to all my reviewers - I got so many last chapter! You're all awesome. This chapter is short, and it's late, so I'm sorry. I hope you liked it though. Please let me know what you think. I love reading your reviews, and I really do try to answer every one (that said, if you've reviewed and haven't gotten a reply, I apologize; sometimes I read them on my email and then delete the email and forget to reply to the review - but only sometimes!).

So I'm excited about where this story is going now. Not because it's particularly cheerful, but because it's just better than it was before. If you read the original version, I hope you agree with me (if you can remember that far back - it was a long time ago). If you didn't read the original version of this story, more power to you! Nothing to compare against.

Thanks so much for reading. You rock. (Yes, you!)

Cheers,

Megan