Just as she'd said, Lily came in to say goodnight before bed. She gave James a rather passionate kiss before telling him she loved him and leaving.

"I love you," Sirius said in the girliest voice he could muster.

James glared at his best friend, sleeping just across the room from him. He wasn't sure if he'd be able to handle staying overnight with this guy, let alone the rest of Christmas break.

Sirius laughed and fell onto his back. "Ah, you've got it bad, mate."

James continued to glare, sitting up in his bed. "Oh, yeah? Who of us here was proclaiming his love for a girl he refuses to even let know he likes her on the train today?"

Sirius thought for a moment. "Did that sentence even make sense?"

James rolled his eyes. Then he sighed. "Whatever, Padfoot. I love her, and I plan on marrying her."

Sirius rose his eyebrows. "Yeesh, Prongs. I knew you were serious, but I didn't know you were marriage serious."

James didn't reply, he just laid back in his bed, staring up at the ceiling, thinking about Lily.

"Whatever," Sirius said, rolling over, away from James and towards the wall. "I'm going to sleep. Goodnight, Prongs. I love you."

James rolled his eyes again at the high-pitched voice and threw a pillow at his best friend. Sirius laughed and James said, "Night, Padfoot," before closing his eyes and quickly falling asleep.

...

James' eyes flew open. It was dark, still night. He'd only been sleeping for a few hours. Sirius was still dead out of it, but James could sense something was wrong. He sat up and groped around on his bedside table for his glasses and his wand before listening closely for anything out of the ordinary.

He then heard the sound that had woken him in the first place. It was a tiny whimpering noise, coming from the room next to his.

Lily's room.

James whipped aside his comforter and threw the door to his bedroom open, nearly tripping over the doorframe. He careened down the hallway, brushing the wall as he, tipsy from sleep, looped to the side and gripped the doorknob to Lily's room. He opened it slowly before stepping inside, looking around for anything that might be threatening his girlfriend. Peering through the darkness and then with a lumos, he saw there was nothing there. Focusing his attention on Lily, he made his way to her, doing his best not to trip over Sirius' piles of trash, and he sat himself gently on the side of her bed.

She had her knees pulled up to her waist, one hand thrown over the side of the bed, the other curled gently behind her face. But her face was tense and there was a thin sheen of sweat covering her brow. As her breathing suddenly picked up, her hand curled into a fist and she made another whimpering sound, louder with him so close to her. She tossed onto her back, legs straight and arms thrown across on either side of her. Suddenly, she heaved in a breath and a scream ripped from her throat. James managed to muffle it with a quick spell as she shot up in bed, eyes wide and her hair flying around her as if it were a mad forest fire.

She looked wildly around, breathing heavily as James removed the spell. She spotted him sitting beside her and suddenly burst into tears, hugging James close. James held her tightly and gently rocked her back and forth.

"Lily, love," James whispered. "What's wrong?"

She was breathing very heavily as she tried to stop her tears, but she managed to whisper, "Nightmares."

James paused in his rocking for just a moment, then started up again. "Do you want to talk about them?"

She sighed shakily before turning to seat herself on his lap, leaning against his chest as she played with his fingers. "Okay," she began. "They always start I'm back at home, in my bedroom, asleep. Then I hear a really loud scream from Petunia's room, and I'll get up and run to her room. She'll be curled up underneath her desk, where we used to hide when we were little, and she'll be crying. I ask her what's wrong, and then she'll look up from her hands and her eyes are gone." She shuddered and James quickly resumed his rocking. She sighed. "So I'll run away screaming down the stairs to go get my mum and dad, and I'm not able to find them, but there's blood all over the house. For some reason, when I'm in the dream, I can never register that there's blood all over, but there is. So then, I go into the kitchen, and I realise it's cold, so I try to shut the door, but I see something out on the front yard, and it's my parents. They're all mangled and dead, and that's always where I wake up."

Lily sniffled a few times tearfully, and James tried to comfort her. "Do these happen often?"

Lily nodded. "Nearly every night since I've found out."

James shook his head and kissed her cheek. "Lily, I'm so sorry. I love you. Is there anything I can do?"

She hesitated before replying. "Could you stay with me tonight?"

James smiled and kissed her hair. "Of course, love."

She smiled too and laid down on her pillow. James lowered himself down in front of her to face her and pulled the blankets over the two of them. James held Lily close, and she was out in just a few short minutes. James followed quickly afterwards, a small smile on his face, the feeling of being able to help Lily through something so traumatic the only thing on his mind.

...

Aw. Lily's got nightmares, so James is spending the night with her. :)

Well, hope you enjoyed another really short chapter! The next few are pretty short, and then they start to get longer as the story comes to a close. Only a few more chapters left. :( I've been posting every day-almost!-for 36 days now! That's a long time!

All right, stay tuned!