Author's Note: I don't want this story to focus solely on James/Lily, as much as I love them, so the first part of the chapter will be from Remus' point of view. If you have any constructive feedback, please leave it for me!

Remus thought he might vomit, looking down at how still Lily was laying, blood caked under her nose and bruising around her throat.

"Someone should let the girls know," Peter whispered.

"James and Sirius, too," Remus said as he levitated his friend. "They'll want to be told." With a curt nod, Peter carried the map with him out of the dungeon corridor.

Thank Merlin we made that map, thought Remus, aware that Professor Slughorn's schedule allowed for a free period both before and after lunch. It was unlikely that anyone would've found her for at least another hour, had Mary not found him and Peter in the Common Room during free period asking after Lily.

"What happened?" cried Madam Pompfrey when Remus entered the Hospital Wing.

"Not sure," he sighed, levitating Lily onto a bed. "She didn't come to Charms or lunch so we all assumed she was ill or something until one of the girls checked the dormitory. Peter and I found her like this in the dungeon corridor."

"My word," breathed Madam Pomfrey as she cast her diagnostic spells. "She has a broken nose, at least one broken rib, those eyes are nearly swollen closed..." Despite the unhappy diagnosis, Remus sighed in relief. He had full faith in Madam Pomfrey's ability to heal all of those injuries.

"What the hell happened?" demanded Dorcas, slamming the Hospital Wing door open, the rest of the sixth-year Gryffindors in tow.

"She'll be okay," answered Remus.

"She's bloody unconscious," Sirius argued.

"Seems like a minor concussion," Madam Pomfrey tutted. "Which I require privacy to heal."

"Yes, Madam Pomfrey," Remus closed the curtains.

"How could this happen?" Kiara slumped into a chair, clenching and unclenching her fist.

"I already told you everything we know," answered Peter. "Mary told us you lot couldn't find Evans, we started walking around the castle, we found her down near the dungeons. Remus brought her up here while I went to fetch all of you."

"I knew we should've waited for her after Potions," Dorcas shook her head. "And then she didn't come to Charms, and Lily never skives off class, not to mention that she loves Charms..."

"Which is why we assumed she was ill, Dor," soothed Mary. "You couldn't have expected that."

"She was acting odd at the end of Potions, though," Dorcas argued. "I just thought it was something about the Amortentia. It made all of us a bit mad."

Remus looked to James, who'd normally be interested in this sort of development (though he'd try to hide it of course), only to realize that his friend was holding his hand in an odd matter.

"Prongs, are you bleeding?"

"It's nothing," James grunted. "I'm fine."

"That's the first thing he's said since I told him," Peter whispered in Remus' ear. "Punched a wall and stormed up here. Fairly sure his hand is broken." Remus sighed. Normally, Sirius would've been able to handle the injury with ease but there would be no easy way to explain that skill to the non-marauders present. Remus looked to his long-haired friend who shook his head once, signaling that it wasn't worth the risk to heal James' hand so openly.

"She needs rest," Madam Pompfrey announced, leaving Lily's bedsides and closing the curtains behind her. "And you all need your education. There's no sense in missing class to sit with someone who doesn't know you're here." The girls and James did not move.

"C'mon mate," Sirius nudged James, as Madam Pomfrey tended to his injured hand. "We should tell McGonagall what's happened. Not to mention the girls will need notes, you know Evans is overly obsessed with her studies." Nodding once, the bespectacled boy allowed himself to be led from the Hospital Wing.

Remus had never seen his friend so quiet, especially considering that Transfiguration and Defense were his favorite courses. Instead of volunteering answers or cracking jokes, James spent the afternoon silently and meticulously copying notes.

Even James himself was not completely sure why he was so effected. Of course, Lily was his friend and no one deserves to be treated as she had been. The fact that he found her beautiful was irrelevant, he told himself as he snuck to the Hospital Wing under his invisibility cloak that evening. Silently, he placed that day's class notes on the table beside her bed and, unable to stop himself or really explain why he was doing so, reached out a hand to smooth Lily's hair behind her ear.

"James?" she breathed, causing him to jump back.

"You're... Er, you're awake?"

"Looks like it," she replied confusedly as she rubbed her eyes. "Are we in the Hospital Wing?"

"Er, yeah," James stared uncomfortably at his feet. "Remus and Peter... They, er... They found you down by the dungeons."

"Right," Lily nodded in that matter-of-fact manner she had.

"D'you want me to fetch Madam Pomfrey?"

"No," Lily answered, waving a hand. "Wouldn't want you to get a detention for being out after curfew." James nodded.

"Er... James?"

"Yes?"

"Why are you here so late? Mind, my eyes are pretty swollen so making I'm seeing things strangely but it seems pretty late."

"Just... Dropping off some lecture notes for you," James snatched up the parchment in question like a lifeline.

"Oh. Thanks."

"Right," nodded James again, trying to fill the silence. "Er... Guess I'd better get back to Gryffindor Tower then."

"Sure," Lily nodded as well. "See you around then. G'nite, Potter."

"G'nite... Hey, Evans?" he called, hand poised over the Hospital Wing door. "Are chocolate frogs your favorite sweet?"

"I like them fine, although I adore the dark chocolate bars from Honeyduke's."

"Right," James nodded for the last time, turning the door knob. "See you around, Evans."

Madam Pomfrey, though she did not know of her patient's alertness Friday night, required that Lily remain in the Hospital Wing throughout the day Saturday, finally allowing her to rejoin the rest of the student body in time for breakfast Sunday morning.

"I can prepare my own plate," Lily sighed exasperatedly as Dorcas and Mary both attempted to assist her. "Truly, I'm not an invalid."

Her argument was cut off, however, by the arrival of an owl carrying a large package heading straight for the redhead. Upon opening, she found a large package of dark chocolate from Honeyduke's.

"Someone sure knows how to cheer you up," commented Kiara. "Who's it from?"

"There's no note," Lily shrugged, sneaking a look down the table at James, who ducked his head as soon as she caught his eye. Smiling, she grabbed her goblet from Mary's hand. "Let me pour my own bloody pumpkin juice!"

"I'm just trying to help," Mary mumbled.

"I know, doll," Lily sighed. "But honestly, all that's left is this one scar on my hairline."

And that's only because I asked her to leave me a reminder, she added silently.

"And you still can't remember who it was?" Dorcas raised an eyebrow.

"No clue," Lily answered shiftily. Of course, she remembered Lawrence Avery standing over her. She also remembered how everyone, herself included, had treated Mary with kid gloves last term after he and Mulciber had attacked.

"And you don't need anything," Dorcas prodded.

"Nope," said Lily. "The only thing I'd really like is to learn some more of that self-defense Kiara's parents taught her."

"Consider it done," Kiara nodded. "Kingsley and I have been getting those lessons for years."

"Perfect," Lily nodded. "That's all I really want."

Because I refuse to be a victim. I won't have someone around to protect the Mudblood forever, she told herself, growing in determination to stick up for herself