James let lily stay asleep on his shoulder for awhile, watching her chest rise and fall with each breath. She looked so young when she was asleep. It was a contrast to the mature, responsible person she had to be when she was awake. She really seemed years older than seventeen.

Eventually the night began to grow colder around them and james started shivering, despite the blanket wrapped around the two of them. He didn't doubt that lily was cold too. So he took her in his arms and walked her back up the the school. When he opened the castle door filch came bearing down on him but james argued with him relentlessly that he was head boy and if filch went waking a teacher they would simply be mad at him rather than james. Filch finally sauntered off, muttering things about what he would do to students if he were in charge. James was immediately glad that he wasn't.

James carried lily up to the gryffindor tower and sighed before walking over to the portrait of the fat lady. He was tired and knew he would have to give an explanation to people about where they were all day and why lily was unconscious in his arms.

"My, what happened to her?" the fat lady exclaimed in her high-pitched voice.

"Sugar quill." james said the password with a tone of finality and the portrait swung open, but the fat lady continued talking under her breath about "no need to talk to me that way!" and "oh, the poor dear, i was just wondering what happened!"

James walked through the portrait hole, thankful to see that the only people still up were frank and alice, marlene, remus and sirius, and a couple of first years that were undoubtedly too shy to say anything. Alice noticed them first

"What happened?" she asked automatically standing up from the armchair she had been sharing with frank and walking over to them. James shook his head

"I'll tell you in a minute. Can you and marlene manage to get her up to bed?" james had figured out a spell to get into the girl's dormitory a while back, but it was rather difficult and he wasn't sure he had the energy right now.

"Sure thing. Come here and help me, marlene." alice said and marlene walked over from where she was seated in front of the fire. the two girls managed to get a sleeping lily up the stairs and out of sight. James sighed and walked across the common room, each step draining. He sat down on the long couch next to remus and sirius.

"She alright?" asked remus in a very concerned sort of voice. James simply nodded, closing his eyes and putting his head back for a moment. A few minutes later marlene and alice came back down the stairs.

"So what happened?" alice asked again, going back to the armchair while marlene joined the boys on the couch.

"Why weren't you here all day, mate?" sirius added

"Well," james readjusted himself on the couch "mcgonagall told me earlier that she had to escort lily to a hospital in london because her father had a heart attack. We sat there all day and…" james pinched the bridge of his nose "he…" how to put this? "He didn't make it."

"Is she alright?" marlene asked immediately "well that's a silly question," she corrected herself "of course she's not."

"Poor lily." alice mused to herself

"Is there anything we can do?" sirius asked

"I don't know. I think lily just needs people to be there for her right now. She really hasn't been able to catch a break since… well, last year, really."

"I can't imagine." frank stated after a minute of silence "losing a parent like that, just out of the blue. Must be horrible."

Sirius gave a small scoff under his breath but nobody said anything. They all knew what his relationship with his parents was like and none of them took his laugh personally.

"It's scary, you know." james said "that could happen to either of my parents any time. It's always been a little like that, because they've always been aurors since i can remember, but now with the war and all… it's different."

"It could happen to any of us." frank chimed in "we really don't appreciate them very much, do we? We just sort of take them for granted and assume they'll always be there, but that's not how it is at all."

There was a silence and james knew everyone was pondering frank's words. Although james had always loved his parents very much he never thought much about what he would do without them. How would he feel growing up without his father's kind smile and lighthearted attitude. What would he do without his mother? Bustling around, always busy, but never too busy to really sit down and talk to james if he really needed it. How would he feel if they were suddenly just gone?

Everybody had problems with their parents but the truth was james had gotten extremely lucky. When he thought about sirius or remus and the relationships they had with their parents he found himself a bit lost. He knew peter didn't even have a father. He was raised by his mother and his grandmother. james's parents were kind, but strict. He knew he had a big head for most of his hogwarts career, but overall he was a pretty good kid. He was glad they had taught him how to be polite, how to fight his own battles, how to think for himself. James would always be grateful for them.