Lily couldn't see. She was completely enveloped into darkness, the air was humid and she felt like she was suffocating. Her hands clasped around her throat when she tried to inhale; her throat had closed over. "Mudblood. Mudblood. Mudblood." She heard the chants around her, unable to respond. Her inner voice was screaming, HELP. "Mudblood. Mudblood. Mudblood." NO, STOP. She sunk to her knees, cowering over and trying to cough, only to cause a great pain in her chest. What's happening? I don't understand. "Mudblood. Mudblood. MUDBLOOD." She turned over and led on her back, the humidity of the air getting thicker by the second, the chants getting louder. After one last attempt to cough, Lily allowed the ground the swallow her up, the pain in her chest growing stronger.

"Lily, hey, come on," Lily felt a cool, soothing hand on her burning arm, "it's just a dream, Lily." She recognised the voice as James', and turned her head to face him, opening her eyelids wearily.

"Hey there, Evans." James looked relieved that Lily was awake, his worrying eyes slowly growing brighter again.

"I'm so sorry, did I wake you again?" Lily sat up, rubbing her eyes and feeling guilty. Every night after she had gained consciousness, she had been having vivid nightmares, many involving her suffocating. Every night since, she had woken James with her crying.

"There's no need to apologise, you can't control nightmares, that's what makes them so scary." It was becoming such a regular occurrence that James sometimes fell asleep in the chair next to Lily's bed instead of his own.

"You're barely getting enough sleep, and you were in the exact same attack. I'm just waiting for us to be sent out of here so I don't have to wake you up every night." Lily sighed and pushed her hair away from her face. Looking back at James she was unsure about his expression, he looked a little hurt.

"Well I don't know about that, I quite like our early morning talks. Anyway, won't you just wake up Mary and everyone else instead?" He asked with a raised eyebrow.

"They always get more sleep than me anyway, consider it my revenge." She grinned, menacingly.

"I don't think I've ever seen this side of you, Evans," He smirked and patted her on the shoulder "well done."

Lily looked at his hand on her shoulder, and then looked up at James. His eyes followed hers, from her shoulder, to her face. They sat looking at each other for only a few seconds, but to Lily it seemed a lifetime. It was similar to her dream; like she was being enveloped into darkness, but she craved it.

James broke the silence. "Are you sure you're okay? Was it the suffocating dream?" His eyes grew with concern.

"Almost always." Lily had spent every night talking with James about her dreams, and she hoped he didn't want to talk about it anymore. There was a short pause before James spoke again.

"Do you wanna see if I can get these wrappers into that cup over there?" He pointed to an empty glass a few beds away from the pair of them, and rustling together sweet wrappers in his hands.

"Where did you get those from?" Lily asked, looking towards his hands.

"Oh… well some of them are gifts for me, and some are for you, but I don't think we should risk sugar before bed with your nightmares." He looked towards the bottom of Lily's bed, where her sweets should have been.

"I see... you were doing me a favour, were you?" She asked sarcastically.

"Well of course," he replied, placing his hand on his chest "I am pure of heart and do not wish to see you suffer. Now lets play."

The two of them played James' very basic 'throw the wrapper into the glass' game, with James very rarely succeeding, for nearly half an hour before Lily spoke again (if you exclude the occasional swear word and frustrated sigh every now and then).

"You know, for someone who is not only a chaser, but Gryffindor's captain as well, you are appallingly bad at this." Lily laughed, managing to get yet another wrapper into the half full cup.

"Have you rigged this somehow? Is there a charm on the cup? Or on my wrappers? Or on my arms? Are you cheating, Evans?!" James was getting increasingly frustrated at his very poor attempts. Lily noticed how red his cheeks were going and couldn't supress a smile.

"I am offended you think that, Potter." Lily replied, fake gasping at his complaints.

"Prove me wrong, Evans." He turned to her, raising his eyebrows and grinning, that sincere smile that Lily liked so much.

James didn't expect her response, and if she was going to be totally honest, neither did she. Lily lent forward and kissed him, overcome with emotion from the past few days. She was anxious to leave the safe hospital wing, and anxious to leave James. Waking up to see him after her nightmares had brought her so much relief. The thought of him not being there caused that pain in her chest she dreamed about. His grin, his stupid grin, she thought, I don't want to be without that stupid grin. She put all that emotion into the kiss, and hoped he would feel how she felt.

She pulled back, and looked at his face, which had turned a light pink. He was staring at her lips before his eyes slowly moved to meet hers. Pausing there, Lily's heart was racing, oh god, she thought, he doesn't feel the same.

He stared at her for a few more seconds before speaking.

"This sounds pretty morbid, but that attack on us might be the best thing that's ever happened to me." Before he leant back in for his lips to meet hers once more.