Chapter 14:

James Potter POV

James, Remus, Lily, and I were sitting in the Great Hall with the rest of the students from the courtyard. The teachers assured all of us here to question us on what we saw. Most students think that he jumped. The three of us hadn't seen Peter in like a year, but I didn't know that he wanted to kill himself.

"Where's Dora?" Lily whispered to me.

"She's in the library studying," I told her. "She's been there all morning."

"I was there all morning," Lily told me. "Dora isn't there." I stared at her in shock. Why would Dora lie to me? I didn't have time to reply as Dumbledore came sweeping into the room. He stood at the podium.

"I know we are all mourning the loss of a fellow student," Dumbledore began. "I am here to assure you that Peter Pettigrew did not commit suicide." Whispers immediately spread throughout the room.

"Someone killed Peter!" Sirius actually looked shocked.

Remus shook his head in disbelief, "Why would someone want to kill him?"

I shrugged, "We didn't really know him."

"Peter Pettigrew attacked another student," Dumbledore continued and we all immediately stopped talking. "This student was badly injured in this attack. While trying to save her life, the student that was attacked and another student fought him and he fell from the tower. The student that was attacked is currently alive and being worked on by Madam Pomfrey. Classes are canceled for the rest of the day. Please, return to your dorms."

Everyone began to make their way towards the door, "We have to tell Dora about this?"

"Why would Peter try to kill another student?" Lily asked.

"Maybe, he was looney," Sirius shrugged. "Doesn't matter now, does it? He's dead."

"James!" The four of us turned to see Emmeline running towards us. "You have to come with me." She looked absolutely frazzled and like she'd been crying. "All of you should come."

"Why?" I questioned, for once unsure about breaking the rules and following her.

"The girl that Peter tried to kill in the tower was Dora," Emmeline began to cry, but I froze. What the hell was Dora doing in the Tower? Why would Peter attack her? Oh god, what if she didn't make it? The thought of my girlfriend dying was enough to make my knees weak. I couldn't lose her. This wasn't supposed to happen. She wasn't supposed to get hurt.

I spoke quickly as we started to walk towards the infirmary, "Is she okay? What did he do to her?"

"I don't know," Emmeline told me. "I saw Severus bring her in and she looked bad, James."

"Snape?" Sirius hissed. "What was he doing there?"

"He saved her life," Emmeline told him as she wiped her eyes. "He found Peter attacking her up there and stopped him."

Lily, who was gripping Sirius' arm tightly, looked at her in shock, "Severus killed Peter?"

"I heard Professor Dumbledore talking to Madam Prophecy, Dora shoved him away at the same time Severus sent his spell. The joint force knocked him out of the window. They both killed him, Lily."

Remus who was walking neck and neck with me glanced at Sirius, "Do you think that Bellatrix put him up to this? Maybe, she put him under the imperius curse."

"It doesn't matter!" I shouted. I couldn't handle all of their all of there chatter. Nothing mattered now except whether or not Dora pulled through. "Dora is hurt and until she is better nothing else matters." I shoved the infirmary doors open. The first person I could see was Severus who is talking to Auror Moody. Remus, Sirius, and went over to him, "Thank you, Severus,"

"I'm in debt," Sirius told him.

"We owe you so much," Remus whispered. "Thank you, for you did for her."

"She didn't deserve to die," Severus whispered.

The Professors turned at the sound of our voices and gave me a view of my girlfriend. She had bruises on her arms and one on her face. My legs brought me closer and I saw the cut on her forehead and the fingerprints on her throat. They were dark purple. He'd strangled her.

"Mr. Potter." I walked to Dora's side, ignoring the protests of Professor McGonagall.

I took her left hand in mine before running my finger across her cheek, "Dora?" I whispered softly to her. "When will she wake up?"

"We gave her something to put her to sleep." Madan Pophrey told me. "She was distressed, but she should be awake by morning."

"You five should be in your dorms," Professor McGonagall said sternly.

"We aren't leaving her," Sirius said, taking his cousin's free hand. Lily and Emmeline were at his side while Remus stood next to me.

"Let's leave them be, Minerva." Dumbledore said quietly, "Ms. Tonks is in good hands here."

Nymphadora Tonks' POV

When my eyes finally opened the sun was shining through the window. I must have survived then, Severus must have gotten me to the infirmary in time. I looked to my left to see James and Remus at my side. James had his hand in mine and his head on my thigh. Remus was curled up in the chair next to him. On my right is Sirius, Lily, and Em. I squeezed James' hand hoping to only make him. He jumped, looking up confused. He jumped forward when he saw me smiling at him.

"Christ, Nymph," James whispered. He leaned forward and kissing my forehead being careful not to touch my cut. "You scared the hell out of me."

"Sorry about that," I rasped jokingly, my voice came out weak and raspy due to the damage to my throat. "I'll try not to get killed next time."

"Why were you up there, Nymph?" James was not amused by my joke. "You told me you were in the library."

I closed my eyes, "I'm sorry, I was trying to keep you all safe."

He stared at me in surprise, "What are you talking about?"

"I knew she was after me," I told him softly. My voice came out in low whisper making him lean forward. "Bellatrix has killed people in this school to make a point. Everything was fine last year because none of us were talking. Things were better this year and I didn't want her to hurt you. Any of you, so I isolated myself, and if she wanted to hurt me the only person she could hurt to do it was me."

"Nymph," James was practically shaking in anger. "You almost got yourself killed!"

"But it wasn't you, Lily, Sirius, or Remus," I told him. "That was the whole point. She knew I was alone up there. I didn't know she would send Peter and certainly didn't know that he would die."

James took my face in his hands, "Never again, Nymph. We are in this together and we will not let you sacrifice yourself. I refuse to be sitting at your bedside wondering whether or not you will be okay again. You don't want to lose us, I get it. But we won't lose you either. We fight together, that is the Marauder way."

I couldn't help but smile, "I know, I'm sorry James." Madam Pomfrey came into the room and turned on the lights. The others jumped awake.

Remus shot up, "Dora, are you alright?" I gave him a small smile and a nod.

"Is she going to be okay?" Sirius asked Madam Pomfrey.

"She will be fine," Madam Pomfrey handed me some salve for my bruises. "Put this on your bruises twice a day and they will be gone in a week. Classes today are also canceled. So, I'm going to release you back to your dorm."

"Thank you," I rasped.

"Your head of house left robes for you," Madam Pomfrey told me. "I want you back here in a week so that I can check your progress."

"Let's let her get dressed," Lily suggested. "We will meet you back in the dorms." Sirius, Em, Lily, and Remus took turns hugging me before they left the room.

"Do you want me to-" James began but I cut him off.

"No, stay," I whispered. "I need your help." He wrapped his arm around my waist and slowly helped me off of the bed. James untied the hospital gown and let it fall to the floor. He took a sharp intake of breath. It didn't occur to me that he could see the damage that Peter had done to me during our fight. There were large bruises on my stomach and hips, but the biggest ones were on my thighs where Peter's knees were digging into when he was choking me.

"God, Nymph," James whispered, setting his forehead on mine. "I'm so sorry this happened to you."

"I'm okay, James," I said softly. "It's going to be fine."

"We will keep you safe now, Nymph." James helped me get dressed and walked me back to the Common Room.

Everyone sat with me when I got back to the Dorm. I explained to them what happened in the tower, leaving out why I was in the tower in the first place. I had every intention of talking to Severus tomorrow before we met with the Aurors to give our statements on the attack.

Everyone slowly went to bed after the sun went down. James holding out until almost midnight before I convinced him that I would be fine on my own. Now, sitting on my own staring at the fire, I couldn't help but feel how stupid I was. I couldn't protect my friends the way I was and it's because of one reason, one that might be selfish, I don't want to die.

"Dora," I looked up to see Remus standing behind me.

"Hello, Remus." He sat down next to me crossing his legs. "Jame told me about what you've been doing."

I let out an exasperated sigh, "Please, I don't need another lecture."

"I wasn't planning on lecturing you, Dora," Remus assured me softly. "Just a little advice."

"Go on then."

"Don't blame yourself."

I looked over at him, "What are you talking about?"

"Every decision you've made about your life in the last three years has been because of your family," Remus told me. "You made them because if you family hurt anyone else you wouldn't be able to live with yourself. I need you to listen to me. Bellatrix, Narcissa, anyone from your family that follows Voldemort are going to kill people for all kinds of reasons. But none of that is your fault and you can't save everyone. This is war and people are going to be killed on both sides."

"Is that your way of saying that I can't protect any of you from them?"

"No, Dora," He chuckled. "It's my way of telling you that you can't beat them by hiding. We all need to step out into the open and fight back. We can't protect anyone if we are hiding in the corner. I'm saying let's all learn to fight back and keep each other safe while we are doing so."

He was right, I knew that. Hiding, making myself a target got nothing done. If my family was fighting on one side, the rest of us needed to be fighting on the other, it was time to even the scales. "Thank you, Remus."

"Please," He sounded a little distressed. "Just fight to live. I won't lose you, Dora. I don't think I would survive it."

I looked over at him and really noticed how he looked. He had dark circles under his eyes and he looked so tired. It's always been so complicated between the two of us, especially since we'd been together but I had been under the impression that he'd moved on. I wasn't aware that what happened with Peter had affected him so much. "Remus-"

"I should get to bed." Remus stood up, cutting me off. "Goodnight Dora."

"Goodnight Remus," I said as he walked up to the dorm, leaving me more confused about what my heart wanted then I have been in months.