A/N: Am glad to be back! Had an excellent holiday but now I'm back home...and at uni. Crap! The updates may not be as regular as during the holidays but I promise that I am not abandoning the story at all! Even I want to see to the end of this and how it ends!

According to the HP website James was a Chaser and not a Seeker at all although he had the Snitch to show off only.

I can't remember who asked me this but no, Lily and James have yet to kiss in this story. Something to look forward to a bit later I guess.

Must also apologize because the holiday has wiped my mind clean and has given me stinky writer's block!

- - -

James was sure that his heart would stop but it continued to hammer like a drum while he watched the Grievers in their frenzy. The seven sinister shapes hunched over Lily with keen interest. Their hand-like appendages roamed around, barely inches away from touching her whilst they traced the contours of her body.

Angered that they dared to go anywhere near Lily and with a deep hatred and compulsion to get rid of them he strode in amongst their mass. The effect was instantaneous. His knees give way dropping him to the floor in front of her. The feeling of despair was so acute that he found it hard to breathe.

At once the Grievers inexplicably seemed to back off a little, sensing that they could be seen for the first time.

Fighting to control his breathing James closed his eyes letting the feeling roll right through him and when he opened them again he found that it was bearable. It was mostly because the Grievers had retreated to the darker corners of the room but all the same it was lessened and he found he could breathe again and the pressure in his chest lessened.

Lily slept on unaware of the struggles of James' wakeful world and he sat in front of her, wishing he could join her in her dreams. Unable to do little more he glared at each of the Grievers daring them to return at risk but none of them did and with time he would return his attention back to Lily feeling a kind of peace he had so desperately sought in the past week. Still, the Grievers were always on the edge of his thought, threatening to dominate and for the first time in his life he felt a deep fear. The Grievers were there for a reason...

Lily let out a small moan in her sleep and shifted. James reached out and brushed away the hair that had fallen over her face but she awoke at his touch and sat up.

"Jamie!" she exclaimed happily. "Are you all right?"

"I'm fine." He lifted the corners of his mouth in what would have been a smile.

"Like hell you are! You got hit by a bludger!"

"It's fine!" He repeated and subjected himself to her inspection of his newly healed ribs.

"Don't you ever scare me like that!" she snapped at him but then threw her arms around his neck and pulled him closer.

"I'm sorry." He hugged her back tightly; all the while looking over her shoulder at the nearest Grievers "It's getting late. Shouldn't you be going up to bed?" He said gently.

Lily nodded and let go reluctantly. James seemed...peculiar. "I suppose." She stood up. "I guess I'll see you tomorrow then." She turned to leave and the Grievers stirred. James saw them slink out of the shadows one by one to follow her.

His heart was racing again at the thought of them following Lily all the way to bed. "Lily!" She stopped with one foot on the stairs unaware that the Grievers were swarming around her.

"What?"

"Will you stay the night, with me- here?" James stuttered frantically searching for a reason for her to stay. He did not want her to know about the Grievers. "To be honest, I wouldn't mind having some company. I guess I've been a little off this week..." he trailed off and then felt some color rise in his face. "It's not to...you know...not to...but I uh...just wanted some company." He waited with a baited breath and to his relief Lily nodded.

"All right." If possible the Grievers appeared to be pissed off as Lily made her way back and took his outstretched hand. Once again they retreated back to the corners watching.

They settled back onto the sofa with James leaning against the arm and Lily resting against his chest. She snuggled closer and James wrapped his arms around her. If the Grievers wouldn't go near her while he was around then he vowed that he would never leave her side.

"You can sleep if you want. I don't mind." He said and she nodded already feeling her eyes close in his warmth. Within minutes her breathing grew regular and deeper leaving James alone to ponder why the Grievers had taken an aversion to him. Again he looked over to the moving darkness but saw that they had not left the corners. Releasing a shaky breath he rested his chin on top of Lily's head. He thought he wouldn't sleep but the rhythm of Lily's slow breathing was infectious and soon he was drifting off into a darkness of his own, one filled with Grievers and all of them surrounding Lily.

- - -

With a jolt James jerked awake. Bewildered he found himself alone with the pale morning light filtering gently into the room. The Grievers were nowhere to be seen and Lily was also missing. Alarmed he got up and was about to start yelling her name when he realized that she'd probably woken early and had returned to her room to get changed for the day.

James raced up the stairs and into his own room. He had a very good idea where the Grievers were or rather where they'd followed Lily. With record breaking time James hopped into the shower even before the water had warmed up and gave himself a quick shave before stumbling back into the room while trying to dress. The Marauder's Map lay open on his bed and he pinpointed the Lily spot to still be in her room.

"Why are you up so early?" Remus was sitting up rubbing his eyes. He was so accustomed to being the first up every morning that it came as something of a shock when he woke to see James up and awake.

Sirius moaned. "You have got to learn to shut up in the mornings!" he stretched out an arm to pull his alarm clock over and he groaned again. "I'm going to kill you two! It's not even seven!"

James looped a tie over his neck hastily trying to tie it while watching the dot obsessively as it moved around the room on the map. In his haste he'd knotted it instead but he left it and worked on his shirt buttons.

"Prongs! Slow down!" Remus thought his friend might unwittingly strangle himself with his own tie.

"I can't! Lily might come out of her room any second." He said while buttoning until he found that he was one button short on the left side telling him that he'd missed one at the top.

"And that's a bad thing?" Remus asked confused at why his friend sounded so concerned at Lily leaving her room. James explained what he'd seen as rapidly as he could, pulling on socks as he did.

"Something is going to happen to Lily; at best it will be unpleasant but at worst it'll be tragic." He finished. "There were seven of them! Ben had one and his broom had gone berserk and ended up crash landed."

"And these Grievers seem to be scared of you?" Sirius had been listening propped up on his elbows.

"I wouldn't say scared, but they don't like me and whenever I'm close they don't go near Lily. That's why as soon as I can I'm going to make sure that I'm there."

"They're not the cause-" Remus began.

"Yes, yes I know, but all the same I don't like them being around her."

"You can't be around her all the time mate. She'll think you're off your rocket." Sirius said. "Unless you tell her."

James wanted to laugh and it took him a second to realize that he was laughing, a kind of maniacal laughter that he had no idea he was capable of. "What do I say? Sorry Lily but you've got Grievers around you and that means you're going to suffer?" Neither Sirius nor Remus said anything but they exchanged a glance with each other. "I am not going to let anything happen to Lily." There was nothing but absolute determination and no one would doubt that he meant otherwise.

Something twittered high on the rung that Remus' bed curtains hung from and James gasped expecting it to be another Griever. "Is that a bat?" he asked after he got a good look at it.

Remus looked up and confirmed that James was not seeing things. "Sure is. Prongs, meet Chewy the bat."

"Chewy?"

Sirius made a face at the upside down bat. "Moony's latest acquirement. You remember that lesson where we had to transform a bottle into any animal we wanted? Well Moony turned his into a bat. My honest opinion is that Moony was better off with an empty bottle of Butterbeer. Damn thing does nothing but squeak when it wants to go out and squeak when it wants to come in, squeak when it wants to eat, squeaks when it wants to shit! I bet it bloody squeaks when it's even got an itch!"

"But you called it Chewy?"

Remus laughed. "Well Chewy has this thing about Padfoot's laces."

"Yeah, the bloody thing thinks they're some kind of delicacy." Sirius snorted with distaste. "Chews them like crazy! I've already had to fix them five times."

"What is it with you and animals? They all hate you!"

Sirius shrugged at James. "Beats me."

The Lily dot was making a move on the map. "Right, I'll see you guys later." James said and swiftly left the room.

Remus and Sirius stared after him.

"That's not healthy." Sirius commented on James' plan. He had never seen him so driven before.

"What else can he do?"

"Suppose."

"I wonder why they don't like him?" Remus wondered aloud.

"If I were some unseen shadow drawn to misery I wouldn't be too comforted if someone could suddenly see me. I'd feel exposed."

"Good point. Prongs didn't actively try to stop them from their activity until they started to haunt Lily right?"

Sirius nodded. "They chose the wrong girl to haunt." He meant it, no one knew James better than him and he knew his best friend would never let anything happen to someone he loved.

- - -

Lily didn't know whether she was more surprised to find James waiting for her at the bottom of the stairs or the state that he was in. He looked like he'd just stepped out of a shower and had thrown his clothes on with no regard. His hair was still dripping and his white shirt was soaked through and his tie hung in knots around his neck and the buttons were done wrong. He looked wet and cold and somehow...nervous; he kept looking around her but nevertheless he greeted her warmly and kissed her on the forehead.

"What happened to you? You look like a drowned duck!" she exclaimed.

James rubbed his wet hair. "I was trying to get a date with the giant squid but I think she wasn't too interested." He said lightly while watching the Grievers shy back.

Lily chuckled and grabbed hold of his tie and pulled him closer. "I bet you're disappointed." She said and began to loosen the knots. Once undone she worked on correcting his buttoning but James stopped her by holding her hands.

"Not at all." A moment passed and Lily thought his expression to be most peculiar until he drew closer and lowered his face to Lily's upturned one. With a gulp she thought he was about to kiss her but he did little more than touch his nose to hers.

She could smell the toothpaste on his breath as he continued to run the tip of his nose down the bridge of hers. It was a very little gesture but nonetheless the effect it had on Lily was profound. She would have moved in and initiated a kiss herself had a drop of water not decided to fall from his wet hair and drip straight into her eye. Blinded in her left eye she pulled away and blinked it away while regretting the loss of his closeness.

James was surprised at himself. Where had that come from? He'd always been fascinated by the way Lily scrunched her nose up whenever the particular expression was adequate. All he had wanted to do was smooth it over and little was he expecting one of those moments to pop up. Romance should be far off his mind with the Grievers about although he could not deny that in that instant it was very much clouding his mind and demanding attention.

Clearing her throat Lily finished buttoning up his shirt and left him to tuck it in while she finished his tie. "You're still wet but you'll do." She said and winced thinking that she sounded a lot like her mother.

"Thanks." James bent over to pick up his cloak that lay rumpled on the floor with no idea when he'd dropped it. He sneezed. "Excuse me!" he sniffed.

"That's what walking around wet does to you." She told him and they headed out of the portrait hand in hand. "Jamie?" she said after a while.

"Hmm?"

"Is something wrong? You don't seem right today." Lily actually thought that that was a bit of an understatement but if she'd learned anything about James it was that she'd never be able to get anything out of by force...instead to be effective she needed to use more persuasive ways. She inwardly snorted at herself; she'd never thought that she would resort to manipulative wiles to get what she wanted. Besides, it was put in for a good cause, he's been very distant as of late and now suddenly he seemed to not want to let her go and his display wasn't exactly what you'd call normal. Something had to be wrong.

"I'm fine. Honest!"

Lily wanted to roll her eyes; as much as he was trying to be convincing the way he kept casting wary looks about gave it all away. No one who was 'just fine' ever looked like that. "You've even cut yourself shaving."

Coming to think of there was a stinging sensation just below his jaw line. He wiped at it with the back of his hand carelessly. "It's nothing important."

Lily's frown deepened but he refused to say anymore. "If you say so." James could sense her mood changing and her manner grew brisk. It wasn't that he didn't want to tell her, he just couldn't...

"Mr. Potter." McGonagall called from behind them.

"Morning Professor." They automatically chimed as she approached.

She nodded. "Morning. A word please Mr. Potter."

Lily pulled her hand out of his. "I'll see you in the hall-" she began to back off.

"What? Wait!" he protested and pulled her back. "Professor can't we talk later?" he asked desperate not to let Lily walk off alone.

McGonagall's eyebrows arched. "Its about Quidditch and the Cup."

"Then it's okay that we talk about it later." The Professor was now openly surprised. Normally the mention of the word 'Quidditch' was enough to make the boy glue himself to a chair in order to listen.

"It will only be a few words I assure you." She said.

"Then Lily can stay as well." He said. It was hard to tell whether Lily was more shocked or McGonagall.

"What is wrong with you Potter?" Lily pulled herself out of his grasp again. "I'll see you later." She said firmly and walked off. What was with this sudden clinginess?

James watched her leave helplessly. Stuck in this living nightmare where shadows moved at will there was little that he could do as the darkness slinked after Lily.

McGonagall cleared her throat making James drag his attention back to her. He was suddenly restless, eager for her to say what she had to say so he could leave.

- - -

Lily continued to make her way to the hall somewhat puzzled by James' new behavior. He was still undeniably sweet but there was something in his eyes, the way they constantly shifted around as if he were searching for something, he looked...haunted. She shuddered involuntarily but thought nothing more of it.

She reached the landing pausing when she heard a weird scraping sound. Looking up she could just make out the misty outline of Peeves pushing with all his might at a rusted suit of armor through a broken banister the floor above. He was not paying any attention or thought to the fact that he could be pushing it straight on top of someone's head below. No doubt he just wanted to make some noise and a mess.

"Peeves!" she shouted but he couldn't hear her. With a resigned sigh Lily knew she wouldn't be able to run up and stop him before he completed his deed. Returning her attention to her own floor her heart almost stopped because crouched over his shoe was Brent. One look back up told her that the armor was toppling over the side.

"Brent!" she shouted and made a dive.

- - -

A/N: Okies, a minor spoiler, I just couldn't allow you guys to think that having seven Grievers has only amounted to a set of armor falling on Lily! Well of course it's not enough! No something very bad will happen!

Apologies for producing only a so-so chapter, I'm feeling a bit rusty and the writer's block doesn't help!