Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Harry Potter copyrights, nor ever will.

"What!" bellowed Sirius directly after Remus' revealing monologue.

Frank who had been shocked into silence for a moment, was revived by Sirius' shout and immediately jumped up jerkily and said, "I gotta tell Alice; she was devastated when we all thought Lily died. They were- are- best friends! Oh Alice is going to be so excited! This is such great news! I can't wait to tell everyone!"

"Calm down lover boy," said Sirius as he pulled Frank back down. "You'll just have to wait a few more minutes to see your beloved Alice because I sense that there is more to this story than Remus is letting on."

At the insistence of Sirius' sharp penetrating glance, Remus continued. "Lily's parents were killed by you-know-who; I think that's why she went after him. And now, well the healers don't think she's going to make it. It seems that she was hit by a very dark curse in the last few seconds of their duel. No one can figure out what curse it is, not even Dumbledore, who was called in as soon as they got her here. Everyone is surprised that she has lived as long as she has."

"Damn it!" cursed Sirius softly but angrily as he pounded his fist on the table. "James is going to go jump off a bloody bridge! He can't lose Lily again!"

"Wait! Does he know it's Lily?" asked Frank.

"No," said Remus softly. "She was using disguising charms and was hiding out in muggle London. We are the only people who know her true identity. Not even Dumbledore knows.

"But, I heard some talk when I was trying to get in to see her; the charms she put on herself have slowly been wearing off. From what I gather no one has been able to recognize her yet, but I think they soon will. Especially if Dumbledore gets called back in- he'll know it's her now."

"What do we do?" asked Frank, who had calmly down remarkably.

"She's not going to live?" asked Sirius as he rubbed his face tiredly.

"Probably not."

"Then we don't tell James, or anyone."

"But what if someone recognizes her?"

"We can cross that bridge when we come to it; right now, I'm just concerned for James' sanity if Lily, the real Lily, dies. We can handle Meg's death, but James is still recovering from the attack, though he won't admit it, and coupled with his dad's death and his mom being hurt- I don't think he could handle Lily's return and then death."

Suddenly Alice popped into the hospital tea room. "Hello boys," she said cheerily. Then when she looked closer she asked, "What are you three up to? You look as if you're plotting."

"Now Alice, us plotting? That's ridiculous," said Sirius, quickly trying to cover his fatigue and worry.

"No, I know that look Sirius Black. It's that look that appears and then soon after, something happens to Fiona, or a Slytherin, or me or Lil… or someone else," Alice quickly covered.

Frank looked imploringly at Sirius and Remus. It was obvious that Alice was still grieving for the loss of her friend. They both shook their heads slightly. They liked Alice, but she was very excitable and they didn't want her going around spreading the news of Lily's return.

"Honestly honey," said Frank. "We aren't planning anything. How could we? This is a hospital; there's no one to prank and nothing to prank them with. We're all just tired and were reliving some of the Marauders' finer moments back at school to stay awake and lighten up the mood a little."

Alice relaxed and said, "I understand that. There was so much damage done the other night. I just saw James speeding through the halls. The poor thing looked a wreak. What with his father gone and his mum still here, I don't blame him."

"Umm," agreed Sirius sullenly.

"So are you done with getting info for the report?" Frank asked his girlfriend.

"Yeah, I just finished getting all of the statistics and the details like names and ages. The staff here was all in a tizzy. This is the first time I have been able to get anything out of them. They are just now organizing things; now that they have less patients that need immediate care, they have time to do that," Alice explained.

"Well, then why don't we leave. Moody said that once you were done, we could leave for the night. I've already made sure my sister got home safely and she's pretty much back to normal now, finally, so we're done here. Come on, I'll take you home," said Frank.

"How sweet," Alice commented with a lovesick smile at her gallant boyfriend. "Bye boys! Give my best to James and Mrs. Potter."

"We will," promised Remus.

As Sirius watched Frank and Alice walk out of the room hand-in-hand, he was strongly reminded of all the times he had watched James go off with Lily like that. Sirius could almost see the huge grin that always spread across his best mate's face whenever he held Lily's hand or kissed her spontaneously in the hallways. That's what Sirius wanted for James; not the agonizing dead look that had lain on James' face from the moment he had gotten the news until he had entered Auror training three weeks later. Only then was the emotionless, gaunt look replaced by hard determination; James was going to find Lily and if he didn't, he was going to avenge her death.

"How long do you think he'll last until he tells Alice," Sirius asked Remus quietly.

"Well, Alice can be pretty persuasive… I'd guess… three minutes."

"So, about the time it'll take them to get to the lobby."

"Yeah, I'd say that would be about right," said Remus casually.

"I wouldn't want to be Frank right about now," Sirius stated.

"Nope. He's probably getting the third degree right now."

"How did you know?" Sirius asked, abruptly changing the subject.

Remus, trying to pretend to be oblivious, said, "Well, Alice used to wheedle things out of Frank all the time back at school… that's why we never told him anything… not that we told him all that much since he was a year ahead of us… would've made a damn good Marauder though. He always was good at thinking on his feet and his notorious clumsiness always made it seem unlikely that he could pull off any stunt at all; though it seems that he's grow out of his awkwardness, or at least harnessed it so that he can move around without tripping over himself."

Finally, Sirius had had enough of Remus' fake stupidity that had turned into a monologue similar to one of Frank's. "Remus! Please! Shut up! And stop avoiding the question you know I'm asking!"

Deciding that there wasn't too much harm in letting Sirius in on another of his secrets, Remus said, "Well, Lily and I used to patrol together when we were prefects and I got to know her quite a bit. We would always come up with the most random things to talk about. One of the things she mentioned quite a bit was about her cousin's restaurant, the Blue-Eyed Daisy. She told me where it was, and we even went there during one of the vacations once.

"Also, Lily was always fascinated by charms, as you well know. One of her favorite kinds is disguising charms. She practiced them constantly and got quite good at them. Sometimes she would use them to sneak up on me right before patrols, or in the library. She transfigured her features often; I think she used it as an escape when life got too much; you know when the Slytherins were giving her crap, or she felt overburdened by homework and tests. Like you and James when you go flying to get away from it all.

"Well anyways, like James, I didn't totally believe that Lily was dead. It just seemed too surreal. It took me a while to remember the Blue-Eyed Daisy, but then we went there, and I recognized most of the staff from when I had visited with Lily, and then I saw a new girl, our waitress. The more I looked at her the more I saw one of Lily's favorite disguises; then when she used her middle name, I knew it was Lily."

"Why didn't you tell anyone?"

"I thought she would at first. She asked me to stay away from the restaurant and from her, so I did. I only assumed that she wanted to talk to you by herself. Then as the weeks went by, I realized that she wasn't going to. Then, James fell in love with her. I talked to her again; she swore that if I breathed a word about her real identity, she would deny it and thus break James' heart again. So, I retreated, and here we are today."

"Do you love her Remus?" asked Sirius slowly and carefully.

"I've asked myself that a great many times and I think ultimately, I have decided that I do love her, but only as a best friend, a sister perhaps. There's no spark of attraction between us, but I love spending time with her and I love her personality. But, I have heard James go on and on and on about Lily…"

"Who hasn't?" asked Sirius rhetorically.

"And his feelings were far different from mine," continued Remus as if he had not been interrupted. "He wanted to be more than friends with her, and friendship is all I have ever wanted with her. He saw her in a different light than I did."

"The way that you talk about her and the way James talk about her makes me think that I have been missing out on something."

"I think you have."

"If by some grace of Merlin, Lily lives through this, I think I'll make a greater effort to get to know her, not just as James' girlfriend, but as my own friend."

"Your life will be all the richer for it," said Remus seriously. He valued his friendship with Lily above a great many things and was very hurt when it had dissolved over the past months because of their differing opinions.

"I think we should go find Prongs," said Sirius after a moment of silent contemplation.

"I agree," said Remus as he lifted himself out of the chair and picked his book off of the table.

The two Marauders walked out to find their friend who was probably still roaming the halls of St. Mungo's, lost and disheartened.

Or so they thought. In actuality, James had just finished visiting his mother, who was now taking a nap. He was quite in his right mind since he had taken some much needed potions and had been given a few healing spells. Now, James was slowly sauntering the hallways of Mungo's as if he had all the time in the world.

James was broken out of his not so pleasant reverie concerning funeral arrangements by a frenzy of activity that was centered around one room. Feeling somewhat responsible for all those wounded in the New Year's Eve attack, since it was his family's house and party, James decided to make some inquiries.

"Excuse me," he very politely asked of one of the less hurried healer assistants. "Whose room is that?"

"Someone wounded in that attack the other night at the Potters' party. No one has stepped forward to identify her; all anyone here knows is that she's the girl who took on you-know-who."

"Well perhaps I can help. I'm James Potter and I know just about everyone who went to my parents' party."

"Fabulous! We're not supposed to let anyone in, but you can take just a peek to identify her."

"I'll do my best," promised James.

"Okay then, make it quick and don't get in anyone's way. She's still in great danger of dieing; no one can figure out what curse was used on her, not even the great Professor Albus Dumbledore."

"That is a grave matter indeed," said James trying not to laugh at the young and obviously very inexperienced assistant healer. "Well, I'll just have a look and report to you directly."

The young healer-in-training nodded and James walked towards the door that still had healers slipping in and out carrying clipboards and papers and potions and books to consult to try and find a cure for the curse on the patient.

Just as he was entering the room during a lull of activity, James heard his name called from down the hall. The voice sounded a lot like Remus' and it sounded urgent. James decided that he would just slip in, identify the patient and then see what Remus wanted. He hoped nothing was wrong with his mum… or Meaghan…