Happy Saturday! I hope that this finds you well :)

I still haven't replied to comments from last week (sorry!) but I'm getting to it today x

Also - I edited chapters 20/21 together, so, head's up, after the dividing line in the middle, we're switching perspectives.

Remus was waiting patiently for him in front of the nearly empty shop window outside Purge and Dowse. He was thankful, James was, that it was late in the evening, because he couldn't even imagine what the two of them must have looked like, standing in front of a shop that had clearly been abandoned years before.

James quirked an eyebrow at Remus. 'This is your hospital?'

Remus nodded. 'St. Mungo's, yes.'

James nodded slowly and turned to scan the shop window again. 'How're we supposed to get in there?'

He turned to look back at Remus and there was something slightly amused about his expression now. James couldn't put his finger on what it was that had changed in Remus' expression — he wasn't smiling, wasn't smirking, he looked, on the surface, completely the same — but there was something just a touch lighter about the way he was looking at James now.

Despite his clear amusement at James' confusion, Remus didn't feel that he needed to address James' query. Instead, he just stepped forward, towards the busted up dummy in the window and whispered, 'I'm Remus Lupin, acting Minister for Magic. We're here to see Lily Evans, the Minister.'

James — he looked between the dummy and Remus' face, his confusion increasing all the time because how, first of all, would that dummy hear him through the glass if he was whispering like that, especially because, even though it was late, the city was still buzzing around them, and how would the dummy hear him anyway because it was a dummy —

But then the dummy nodded — nodded — and waved them forward with a tiny movement of its hand and Remus turned and said, 'Ready?'

James didn't even have time to ask what he needed to be ready for before Remus stepped forward through the glass and disappeared.

He really should be used to this by now, magic, but —

He shook his head slightly and, before Remus decided to abandon him entirely, stepped through the glass.

It felt surprisingly liquid around him, like moving through thickened water, and if James expected that the hospital would be quieter than the pavement outside, he was immediately mistaken.

They appeared to be in a waiting area — there was a welcome desk in the far corner with a small queue and rows and rows of chairs throughout the space where people were waiting, some with injuries (like the man along the far wall with an elephant's trunk in place of a nose) that, to James, looked absolutely horrifying. People, staff, presumably, because they were all wearing lime green uniforms, were bustling in and out of the waiting room through a set of doors to their right, escorting some people back to other areas of the hospital.

Remus turned, once he confirmed that James had, indeed, followed him through the window, and headed towards the end of the welcome queue. They stood there quietly for a few moments, Remus watching James, James watching the staff continue to flow in and out picking up new patients.

Despite the length of the line when they'd joined the back of the queue, they were only waiting for a few seconds before they reached the front. The man behind the counter looked at James, a slightly puzzled expression on his face, before his eyes flicked to Remus.

He immediately straightened.

'Minister —'

Remus chuckled and James noticed Remus' gaze flick down to the name badge pinned on the man's chest.

'I'm just the acting Minister, Oliver.' Remus smiled, and it was a soft, warm, welcoming sort of smile. 'No need for formalities.'

Oliver didn't look like he knew how to respond to that. He made a few sounds, but nothing coherent emerged.

Remus, though, apparently didn't need a response because he carried briskly on. 'That said, I wanted to check in myself and Mr Potter here. He's a Muggle, but he's been granted access by the Minister.'

'Mr Lupin,' Oliver cleared his throat and looked down at his hands. 'I understand that, but, uh — Muggles aren't — aren't permitted inside the hospital unless they're here for treatment.'

'No, no, no,' Remus shook his head appeasingly. 'I understand, Oliver. But Mr Potter, here, is the muggle Prime Minister and the Minister has requested that he meet her here for an urgent meeting.'

Oliver still looked a bit hesitant, but Remus gave him a warm smile that James was sure was hiding quite a lot of strength. 'As the Minister is unable to travel herself, I'm sure you understand why Mr Potter has to meet her here.'

'I —' Oliver cleared his throat. 'Yes. Yes, of course, Mr Lupin. You know the way?'

Remus nodded. 'Yes. Thank you, Oliver. Have a lovely evening.'

Remus stepped back from the counter and started walking swiftly through the lobby towards the lifts.

Remus pressed the button for the fourth floor and the doors slid shut immediately. Neither of them spoke as they rode up — Remus was standing still, back straight, his hands clasped neatly in front of him, and James was too busy fighting the anxiety building in his throat again as they got closer to the fourth floor.

He was going to see her again.

He was going to see her again, but she'd been hurt and he had no idea what state she'd be in or what kind of state she'd been in before he'd been allowed, and the not knowing was killing him.

The lift dinged and the doors slid open.

This level looked, honestly, exactly like a regular hospital — there were sleek, clean tiled floors, white walls, more people in green uniforms sweeping up and down the ward making notes on clipboards. It felt familiar, oddly so, because the placard on the wall beside the nurses' station at the front read 'Spell Damage' and there were people preparing smoking goblets of things to, presumably, carry into patient rooms — it was similar enough, familiar enough, that it made the unfamiliar things feel all that much more uncanny.

As he scanned the floor, James noticed two people in black cloaks standing on either side of a door at the far end of the hall and, without thinking, he started quickly out the lift towards them. He saw Remus jog a few paces to make sure he kept up, saw Remus waving his hand dismissively at the guards — they had to be guards — because they'd starting rifling around inside their cloaks as James approached, but he didn't care if they shot some kind of spell at him, didn't care if they kicked the ever-loving shite out of him.

As long as he got to see Lily at the end of it, he didn't fucking care.

'He's with me,' Remus said, and his voice had that authoritative tone that James had heard earlier. 'Dawlish, Allingham — stand down.'

One of them, the guards, immediately dropped their hand from inside their cloak, but the other maintained intense eye contact with James as he approached. James didn't say anything — well, he muttered a 'hello' as he pushed past, but it was far less than he normally would've done — before he pushed open the door to what had to be Lily's room.

And there she was.

Jesus fucking christ, there she was.

She was sitting in bed, her glasses on, an enormous newspaper in her hands and a stack of dark red folders on her lap, and she looked — god.

She had a few long, angry scars on her arm from what James could see and she had a cut on her cheek that was bleeding through its dressing and god knew what was wrong with her internally, but she was sitting up and she was reading and she was awake and god.

His breath fell out of him in a rush. 'Lily.'

She immediately looked up from her newspaper. 'James.'

He was across the room in three long strides.

He could feel his hand shaking as he reached up and brushed his fingers carefully along her unbandaged cheek, and he wasn't planning on doing anymore than that because he didn't know where she was hurt and he didn't want to accidentally make it worse, but she was here and she was solid and she was okay and then she reached up and pressed his hand to her cheek and all resolve he had nearly went out the window.

He leaned down and pressed his lips against hers. It was light — he was terrified of hurting her, absolutely terrified — but he exhaled when their lips met and her hand jumped up from the bed and she immediately threaded her fingers through the hair at the back of his neck.

And that, her hands in his hair, her lips against his, the reality of her —

He hadn't realised just how much he'd missed her, how worried and anxious and empty he'd been until all of a sudden she was there, filling him back up again.

He pulled back and rested his forehead against hers, exhaled hard against the emotions rolling through him. He brushed his thumb along the apple of her cheek and she breathed a laugh as she reached up and brushed the tears off his face.

'I'm —' There were too many things to say, too many things he needed her to know.

Remus cleared his throat behind them. 'I'll, uh — I'll leave you two to it. Minister —'

James straightened up, let his hand fall from her face, and Lily smiled softly at Remus over James' shoulder, a slight arch to her eyebrow. 'Remus.'

Remus held her gaze, the ghost of a smile on his face, before he took a deep, steadying breath. When he spoke, his tone was far less formal and had an almost gritty edge to it. 'Let me know if you need anything, Lil.'

Lily nodded, her smile widening the slightest bit. 'I've got everything I need,' she said softly. Her eyes flickered to James for a moment before she met Remus' gaze again. 'Thank you.'

Remus nodded once before he stepped forward and held his hand out to James. 'I wish we'd met under better circumstances,' he said, giving James' hand a firm shake. 'But I expect we'll be seeing quite a bit of each other.'

His eyes flicked to Lily over James' shoulder and James heard her breathe a laugh. James' lips twitched just a bit as they hitched up into the slightest smile.

'I expect so, too.'

They just caught Remus speaking to the security outside Lily's door before the door clicked closed behind him and the room fell completely silent. And now that they were alone, that it was just the two of them —

'Lily.' James turned back around and Lily immediately reached forward and tangled her fingers through his for a moment. She slid over in the bed towards the far edge, lifting her hips carefully up off the mattress and ignoring James' protests that, really, she needn't move and you're going to hurt yourself, Lily, my god.

She smirked at him as she settled into her new spot on the edge of the bed and patted the free space next to her, inviting James to sit.

'I'm already hurt,' she said. 'I'm here, aren't I?' Her smile widened a touch but James just frowned at her as he sat carefully on the edge of her bed.

'That's not funny.'

Her eyes lightened as she reached forward and wound her fingers through his. 'It's a little funny.'

James shook his head and he squeezed her hand. 'I was worried sick about you.'

She immediately sobered. 'I'm sorry.'

He shook his head and looked down at their hands. Played with her fingers.

'You don't have to be sorry,' he said. He looked up at her and he wished, truly, that she could know just how much he meant it. 'You never have to be sorry for doing what you have to do. I just —'

He sucked in a sharp breath and tightened his grip on her fingers again. 'I was just so worried, Lily.'

'I was always going to come back,' she said. She opened her mouth like she was going to say something else, but she seemed to think better of it and opted to stay silent.

He wanted to frown at her, to say you can't've known that, Lily, but it wasn't going to do anything to snap at her about that now. Because she was here. She was here — her hand in his and the heat of her thigh against his knee confirmed as much — and as long as she was here there was no sense in losing himself to what might've been.

She was here.

And, right now, that was all that mattered.

'So,' Lily saw James look up at her out of the corner of her eye, but her gaze remained trained on the plate resting on James' knee. 'I don't know if you're ready to talk about everything, but…'

Lily'd had pudding, a bright red apparently strawberry-flavoured jelly, delivered an hour earlier and they were now poking at the remains with their spoons. Lily rolled a bit of jelly around before she scooped it up off the plate and plopped it into her mouth as she met his gaze.

'Why wouldn't I be ready?'

James shrugged and rolled a piece of jelly over with his spoon as he muttered something like you're still in hospital and I don't know if —

'I've been in worse states than this,' she said. She didn't tell him about the time — though she was certainly thinking about it now — that she'd been unconscious for over a month. Didn't tell him the stories behind the many, many scars she had scattered across her body.

Further traumatising him with stories about times she'd had closer brushes with death wasn't likely to take the terrified, slightly fragile look out of his eyes.

James' eyes widened a bit. 'Have you?'

She nodded and took another bite of jelly before she let her spoon fall, with a clatter, onto the plate.

'But anyway, what do you want to know? I'll tell you everything, of course, but you'll have to remind me what it is you already know.'

James nodded and sliced his spoon through a bit of jelly. He rolled it around absently before he set his spoon beside hers and moved the plate off his lap onto her bedside cabinet.

'Last I heard,' he shifted on the edge of her bed so he was sat a bit closer to her, 'was when you came to my office in July. I haven't heard anything from anyone since then. That night, you said Moody'd found their headquarters and you were going to raid it with them. After you raided a few of the smaller spots.'

Lily hummed and nodded as she leant her head back onto the pillow behind her. She closed her eyes for a moment to try and gather her thoughts, to think herself back to the beginning of the timeline.

'We raided about a dozen homes throughout England,' she said, opening her eyes. 'There was one in Wales, actually, but most all of them were in England. I didn't participate in those, outside of my usual role as Minister, because Moody didn't want word to get round that I was going to be in the field. He didn't want a bigger target on my head than the one that already existed.

'I met with Albus Dumbledore, the Headmaster of Hogwarts, over that period to further increase security at the school and to follow-up, unofficially, on some of the reports of attacks we'd been getting from within the school and the small town of Hogsmeade just down the road. We made a few more arrests on that information and those people were able to give us some information that, ultimately, helped us close in on a few more safe houses.'

She cleared her throat and James leant forward to grab her cup of tea from the bedside cabinet. He handed it to her and she gave him a small smile in thanks. It was a bit chilly at this point — she could just cast a warming charm on it and heat it back up — but she honestly just couldn't be arsed.

And, really, it wasn't so terrible to just throw back the last dregs of slightly cold tea.

Well, alright, it was kind of terrible, but there was something about being laid up in a hospital bed because of recently sustained injuries that put those sorts of things in perspective.

James took the empty cup from her hand, raising his eyebrows at her when she started to protest that I can do it, James, for god's sake, and set it back onto her bedside cabinet.

She sighed and shook her head at him, the smile tugging at the corner of her lips for a moment before she sobered.

'Anyway.' She cleared her throat again. 'We spent the month prior to the raid going into smaller houses and gathering any additional information we could. And, I have to admit, I was sceptical about Moody's strategy at first, but it really did help smoke out some people that, until recently, were only rumoured to be participating. Well, we knew, but we didn't have any solid evidence.

'We raided Aftdown on the 20th of August. And I don't — I don't remember everything from that night firsthand, so some of this is what I've since had reported to me by Moody and Longbottom. Longbottom, by the way,' Lily shook her head. 'He's a fucking genius. A genius. And just — he's a brilliant leader. It was an honour getting to work with him.'

She was quiet for a minute, giving James room to say… she didn't know what, something, but he sat there silently, just holding her hand. After a moment, she took a deep breath and began again.

'We went in around 1900 — they were having a meeting, actually, so the place was packed. We had ten Aurors on the raid, but there were thirty people there. We were helped by the fact that we put up anti-Apparition jinxes — spells that keep people from spontaneously disappearing,' Lily clarified. 'And we went in and were able to almost immediately Stun ten people and get them out of the way, but it was still something of a fight.'

James frowned at her. 'Why didn't you take more people?'

She shrugged one shoulder and then immediately regretted it as pain radiated down her arm. She grimaced and James immediately moved his hand from hers. 'What's wrong?'

She shook her head and gritted her teeth as she reached out and took his hand again. His hand curled a bit hesitantly around hers, but he tightened his grip once she squeezed his hand. 'I just moved my shoulder in a way I shouldn't've done,' she said, her teeth still gritted. 'It's settling down, but —' Another shock of pain spread through her arm and she gripped James' hand harder. 'Fuck, it hurts.'

'Do you need me to call someone? A nurse or doctor or?'

Lily shook her head. 'The healers are busy. I'm alright, I just need to relax into it.'

'Lily —'

'James,' she flicked her eyes up to his, her tone was a bit sharper than she intended. She took a breath and consciously relaxed. 'I'm fine.' Her voice was softer this time, calmer. Kinder. 'Seriously.'

James held her gaze for a moment before he nodded. 'Okay.' He paused for a beat before he said, 'So, you went in, immediately stunned a few people and then, presumably, all hell broke loose?'

Lily chuckled. 'It's like you were there.'

James grinned, but it wasn't his usually bright, easy smile — it was slightly strained, a little stressed, and she squeezed his hand, brushing her thumb along the back of his knuckles.

'We'd arrested a fair few of them, maybe half,' she said, her eyes floating to the ceiling as she tried to remember, 'before they realised I was there. I became, as you can imagine, something of a target.'

She looked back down at James and frowned at the look on his face. 'I wasn't immediately knocked cold,' she said, attempting a smile, 'because I'm not so far out of my training that I've completely forgotten how to conduct myself, but it was an embarrassingly short amount of time afterwards. In my opinion, anyway.'

'What'd they get you with?'

Lily went to shrug but she caught herself just in time. 'Not sure. Marlene —'

James furrowed his eyebrows, a look of surprise on his face. 'Your friend from school?'

Lily smiled and nodded. 'Yeah. She's a healer and, of course, she's my healer right now. But anyway, we have no idea what hit me. Marlene and her trainee healers have run every test they can think of, and they still aren't sure what it was that they hit me with.

'It's likely that it was a cocktail of things,' Lily said. 'The effects became intermingled and then it can be hard to parse the spells. It's easier with potions because you can separate the ingredients and while you can do that to some degree with the body…. It's just a more complex system. Especially because every body responds differently to spells, even if it's just a subtle difference.'

James nodded slowly and hummed. 'That makes sense. But they're still able to treat you?'

'Mhmm. I have to take a cocktail of things because they want to make sure they're addressing every possible issue, but it's not so bad. The taste is bloody horrible, but I'll take it if it means I get to leave this damn bed soon.'

James breathed a laugh and shook his head at her just slightly. 'You're… so you.'

Lily grinned. 'No other way to be, is there?'

James tipped his head at her, his smile widening just a touch. 'I guess that's true.'

They were quiet for a beat before James' expression settled and he looked at her seriously again. 'But you arrested them all? Is this….'

He trailed off like he didn't want to say it, but Lily wasn't afraid to voice it. 'Over? Yeah,' she nodded, the weight in her voice contrasting sharply with the deeply elated feeling in her chest. 'We've got trials and sentencing and so, you know, from that standpoint, we'll still be dealing with this for a while. And there will probably be some mild fall out — stragglers, all that sort of stuff — but we got the central group. Malfoy, Nott, Avery, LeStrange's younger brother… we got them all.'

James exhaled heavily and Lily felt it, the weight he'd been carrying since he came into office eighteen months ago, she felt it lift up off his shoulders. And she knew how miraculous it was, that feeling, and she inhaled, a soft smile spreading across her face.

'We couldn't've done it without you,' she said. She ran her thumb along his knuckles again. 'You were invaluable, James, really.'

James shook his head. 'Lily, it — it was all you.'

'Alright, it was both of us.'

James laughed as he leaned forward, his gaze flicking down to check that he wasn't pressing against her in any way that might hurt her. He rested his forehead briefly against hers, his smile bright in her eyes, and nodded just slightly.

'Alright,' he said, his lips brushing against hers, 'it was both of us.'

See you tomorrow! x