25

James backed away, his wand held aloft in front of him. Rochefort's wand was held at his side, but James held out little hope that it would stay there. 'In a way, I ought to say thank you,' Rochefort said in that dreadfully silky voice. 'I marveled at your little fireworks display at the school yesterday. The Dark Lord loved the idea. The mark hanging over this train was inspired by you, Potter. Do you feel proud?'

Rochefort's face then mutated, turning into a horrible skull with a snake trailing out of its mouth as James suddenly found himself staring at the Dark Mark—

He awoke with a start. Panting, he took a few moments to take in his surroundings. He was back in his four poster at Hogwarts, and his alarm clock informed him it was 3:00AM in the morning. They had returned to the school fairly shortly after their visit at St. Mungo's. Albus Dumbledore and Millicent Bagnold had agreed that at this point and time, the safest place for the youth of the wizarding community was Hogwarts' School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. It had been a bit disappointing to cut the winter holidays short, but there hadn't really been any negotiating with his parents, who had insisted that he go immediately via the Floo Network.

James hadn't missed the nightmares. For a few blissful days over the winter holidays, he had forgotten about them. He had slept soundly. Sharing a house with his best friends had been a great way to take his mind off things. But then the attack on Frank and Alice had sent everything tumbling into a spiral of chaos once again.

Their return to the school a few days earlier had been somewhat amusing. Arriving in the Headmaster's office, they found Professor McGonagall waiting for them. 'Welcome back,' she had said crisply. 'I was rather hoping a bit more time would have passed before we were all together again.'

'Nice to see you too, Professor,' Sirius had quipped.

McGonagall had looked at him coldly. 'I was referring to the nature of your return, Mr. Black, not a desire to see less of you. Although I am beginning to re-think the second part,' she had said to general amusement from the group.

'Where's Severus?' Remus had asked Lily as they began to head back to their dormitories. Lily had looked uncomfortable; she had re-joined the group to return to Hogwarts, with the rest of her family heading to North America to lay low for a bit. Snape had disappeared at the hospital.

'With his father,' she said. 'He wasn't too happy Sev snuck off to the hospital. He can be—temperamental,' she said carefully.

Sirius had snorted. 'That explains a great deal,' he mumbled to more general amusement.

But slowly, the amusement had died away. The school was very slowly re-populating with students being sent back early by their parents to keep them safe. Classes were not due to start for a few more days, so there was not much to do other than lounge around common rooms. James was not entirely sure he liked this, as it left him far too much time to think. And the dreams had started again.

He sighed and stepped out of bed and sliding silently out of the dormitory. He made his way down to the fireplace and sat down, staring into the crackling embers. It had been out of that fireplace that Rochefort had first informed James that he was at the top of his list, that he was going to find him and kill him. It had filled James with dread—not at the thought that an exceptionally powerful Dark Wizard was out to murder him specifically, but at the risk he would be bringing upon his friends and family.

'Just like old times,' came a voice behind him and he turned to see Lily Evans walking up, a book in her hand as she sat down. Her long red hair was tied back in a ponytail and she was wearing fluffy pyjamas with—James suppressed a smile—Rudolph the Red-Nosed reindeer emblazoned upon them. 'What's got you awake tonight?'

'The usual,' James replied.

'Dreams?' Lily asked.

James nodded. 'Look, Evans,' he said suddenly. 'I'm sorry. About the fight with Sn—Sev,' he corrected himself quickly.

Lily held up a hand. 'In the spirit of Christmas, I'm just going to forget that happened,' she said stiffly. 'For both of you. I won't be so forgiving next time, though,' she said with a small smirk.

James chuckled. 'Fair enough,' he said. He stared at the fire for a moment. 'Evans, do you think he's right?'

'Who's right?'

'Snape,' James said.

Lily frowned. 'About what?'

James pursed his lips. 'About me being—well, dangerous. Maybe getting you killed.'

Lily sighed. 'How much detail do you want me to go into, here?'

'I've got time,' James said sarcastically and Lily laughed.

'Sev isn't like us,' she said slowly. 'And don't interrupt with any smart-alec answers, Potter. He's…shrewd. He thinks that the best way to emerge from a conflict unscathed is to never reveal your true intentions to anyone. So when you have someone like you, who openly, proudly—and correctly—declares that he is against evil like Voldemort and Rochefort, it flies directly in the face of everything he believes. Are you with me so far?'

'Yes…' James nodded, spotting holes in the argument but allowing her to continue.

'He wants me to be safe,' Lily said. 'He thinks conflict is coming and he isn't sure what side is going to be stronger. So he thinks that if I become too friendly with you, that I could be adding myself to certain peoples' lists.'

James found himself unable to disagree with the last point.

'But your question was different,' Lily said. 'You asked do I think he's right? And I can't say I fully do. There are some things that need to be opposed, there are some people that need to be defied, and there are some rights that need to be wronged,' she said firmly. 'In short, yes, there are some things worth dying in the name of.'

'I bet Snape loves hearing you say that,' James muttered.

Lily smiled faintly. 'To say he's not a fan would be an understatement,' she said. 'I do understand where he is coming from—but it's not a philosophy I can ascribe to. I think that angers him, but he finds it very difficult to be angry with me, so he allocates that anger to a more suitable source…do you see where I'm going with this?'

'You think he blames me because he's unable to blame you?' James asked.

Lily nodded. 'Precisely.'

'But you don't agree with him?'

'No, I can't say I do,' Lily said.

'So you agree with me?' James asked.

Lily laughed again. 'Don't tell anyone,' she said sarcastically. 'Look, Potter, you have your faults. You're overconfident to the point of arrogance, and that can bring a certain amount of danger with it.'

'Want to know a secret?' James asked.

'All ears,' Lily said.

'I'm not sure how much of that is real,' James said in a quiet voice. Lily cocked her head at him. 'The confidence,' he muttered. 'I mean—it's what you said about Snape—concealing your true intentions from people, or your true feelings.'

Lily nodded. 'I've said before, you two are more alike than you realize,' she said.

James snorted. 'And I've said before, words hurt,' he said with a smirk. 'I just—try to be what everyone needs me to be.'

'You think everyone needs you to be overconfident and arrogant? Potentially ignorant to danger?'

James shrugged. 'It seems to work for some people.'

Lily pursed her lips. 'Perhaps,' she said. 'But that's also no reason to go around bullying people just because you can.'

'We're talking about Snape again,' James stated.

'We are,' Lily said.

James shrugged. 'I've tried not to go looking for fights with him this year, Evans, I really have,' he said. 'He doesn't make it easy. Like you said—any time something happens involving you, he blames me.'

'But you don't have to rise to it,' Lily said.

'You sound like Moony,' James replied.

'Well, that's good!' Lily implored. 'Remus is incredibly smart and insightful, and if he's telling you that you need to ease off, you should listen.'

'Maybe it would be helpful if you were incredibly smart and insightful to Snape?' James asked. 'I'm not being sarcastic—but Evans, it's really hard not to defend myself when he full on attacks me,' he said.

'Boys,' Lily muttered. 'Too stubborn to know when to back down.'

'I beg your pardon—who are we calling stubborn?' James asked in mock surprise. 'You might be the most stubborn person I know. It's been three years, you've acknowledged I'm a half decent guy, and you won't publicly acknowledge that we're friends!'

Lily snorted. 'We would have to be friends for me to acknowledge it.'

'So what are we then?' James asked with a smirk.

'Just be content with confidantes for the moment, how does that sound?' Lily said.

James sighed. 'I'd rather be friends.'

'Well, there's always tomorrow for your dreams to come true,' Lily said airily. James looked at her in confusion. 'It's from Rudolph. It's a song.'

'How does it go?' James asked.

Lily went slightly pink. 'I don't sing, Potter.'

'Neither do I, Evans, but you had me carrying on a few tunes—or did you forget about the Melodus Draught incident in first year?' James asked.

Lily laughed. 'I could never forget that. Humiliating you is a memory that brings me comfort on a rainy day,' she said with a wink.

'Wotcher, Evans, you're cruising for payback.'

Lily smirked. 'Are you feeling better?' she asked suddenly.

James nodded. 'Yeah,' he said. 'The dreams stopped over Christmas—being home, having Sirius, Remus and Peter there…it was great. How was your Christmas going?'

Lily smiled. 'It was alright. Like I said—Christmas is one of the only times of year where Petunia seems to forget that I'm a 'freak',' she said, holding up her hands to do quotations. 'We watched Christmas specials together.'

'Like Rudolph?' James asked.

'Like Rudolph,' Lily said with a sigh.

'And how is the Rudolph I gave you doing?' James asked.

Lily had an odd look on her face for a moment. 'Just fine. He sits with all my other stuffed animals,' she said.

James had the sneaking suspicion that Lily was lying about something, but he did not press the point. At that point, a voice sounded from behind them. 'You know, I missed these,' Sirius said. Lily jumped and James rolled his eyes—Sirius was standing behind them, adorned in a bathrobe.

'Do you always sneak up on people?' Lily asked.

'Just you guys,' Sirius said loftily as he sat down. 'For two people who ostensibly hate each other, you sure spend a lot of time together.'

'We don't hate each other,' Lily said.

'Sorry—you hate James, James wants to marry you,' Sirius said with a wink. Lily rolled her eyes as James chuckled. 'So what's keeping you two awake on this fine morning?'

James shrugged. 'Just talking the night away.'

'So dreams again,' Sirius said.

'I tell you too much,' James mumbled as Lily laughed.

'Rochefort can bring it on. I think all of us together can take him,' he said, cracking his knuckles as he did so.

'I don't think Rochefort will just come up to me when we're all together in a group,' James pointed out.

Sirius shrugged. 'So we just stick to you like glue—then he'll have no choice. Problem solved.'

'How will we go to the bathroom?' James asked with a smirk.

Sirius waved a hand. 'We'll figure that out when we get to it,' he said and Lily laughed once again. 'Although Silly Lily here will have to learn how to use the boys' room.'

Lily's eyes narrowed. 'I thought I'd told you never to call me that again, or else,' she said threateningly.

'Yeah, I've decided I'd like to see the 'or else',' Sirius said with a grin.

Lily rolled her eyes. 'You get one freebie, Black,' she muttered.

'So when are you finally going to face reality and give my boy here a chance?' Sirius said off-handedly. Lily's jaw dropped momentarily and then shut.

'What—none of your—you—' she stammered.

'I have a hunch it'll be around the Quidditch Cup this year,' James said with a smirk. Lily glared at him.

'The way I hear it, you nearly lost our little bet at Christmas,' she said dangerously.

For one moment, both of their faces softened as they remembered just what had interrupted Frank and Alice from that first kiss together, but James recovered quickly. 'It's destined to happen, and I think I'm right about the when and where.'

'What are we talking about now?' Sirius asked, bewildered.

'Just a bet Evans and I have,' James grinned.

Lily raised an eyebrow. 'Don't go counting your chickens before they've hatched, Potter. Anyways—we should get some sleep. Good night, Potter. Black,' she added, sticking out her tongue as she left and went into the girls' dormitory.

'So what wereyou talking about just now?' Sirius asked.

James smiled. 'All I'll say is, it's never been so important to me that we win the Quidditch Cup,' he said.