James spent the morning resolutely avoiding Lily and Sirius. For Lily, it wasn't difficult, because she was avoiding him too, no doubt hidden away in the infirmary. Sirius was much harder to shake off.

"I'm sorry. I tried to tell you," Sirius had said, after James had told him about his encounter with Lily that morning.

That was the last thing James had wanted to hear. Finally, he could no longer stand the pitying looks and the questions about how he was doing.

"Terrible, okay?" he finally snapped. "Severus Snape's evil doppelgänger beat me senseless a week ago. My parents are dead. I'm stuck in the middle of an impending war, even when I travel two hundred and fifty bloody years into the past. And on top of everything, I've messed everything up with Lily."

Sirius shot him a wounded look. "I was only trying to help."

"Wait, Sirius…"

But Sirius was already walking away. James groaned and buried his face in his hands.

"Rough day?"

He jumped. Anne was leaning against the doorframe, eyeing him with raised eyebrows.

"What are you doing here?" he asked stupidly.

"This is my room," she said, smirking. "I could ask you the same question."

His face flushed. "Sorry. I was just wandering. I didn't know this was your room."

"Walk with me," she said.

Before he could refuse, she had grabbed his arm and was leading him away. He dug in his heels.

"Really, Miss Ferguson-"

"Anne."

"Um, right. Anne. I should be going."

She laughed lightly. "You don't need to worry. I'm not trying to seduce you; if I was, I would have invited you into my room. I just think you look like you could use a friend."

"With all due respect, I have friends," James said.

Anne looked at him, one fine eyebrow arched. "Mr. Black and Miss Evans? Yes, but neither one is around to listen to you. I'm an impartial party. I'm happy to listen."

"Not so impartial," James muttered.

"If you're referring to last night, I assure you I was looking for some fun only. I'm not about to declare my undying love and beg for your hand in marriage," Anne said. "And I never would have presumed to kiss you if I'd known that there was some attachment between you and Miss Evans."

"There isn't," James said, unable to keep the bitterness out of his voice.

"Well, would you like there to be?"

"It doesn't matter what I want," James said. "It matters what she wants. I'm not going to harass her when she doesn't have feelings for me. I might have done that some years ago, but not now. I respect her too much."

Anne smiled.

"What?" James asked.

"You're a good man, James."

He shrugged. "Not really."

"You came to Scotland for your friend, even knowing she might not have feelings for you," Anne said gently. "You continue to stay for her. I would say that she'll have to work hard to deserve you."

"I'm not a good person. I wouldn't do that for anyone. I do it for Lily because I love her."

Anne was shaking her head.

"What?" James asked.

"I was just thinking that if you ever decide you want to move on from Lily… well, I have no other attachments."

"I'll keep that in mind. For now, friends?" he held out his hand to shake.

Her eyes glimmered with amusement, but she took his hand and shook it once. "Friends," she agreed.

A door flew open from down the hall, and James let go of Anne's hand. To his surprise, Cait sprinted towards him, Brian on her heels. Her eyes were red, her cheeks tearstained.

"What's wrong?" James asked, his heart starting to pound.

"It's Lily," Cait said. She let out a sob.

"What happened? Is she okay?" James demanded.

"No!" Cait wailed. "They took her away…"

"Who did?"

"Severus Prince."

Something constricted in James's chest, and for a moment, he couldn't breathe.

"How?" he managed to ask.

"I convinced her to come with us to the village today, and-"

"Well, where is she now?"

"Hogwarts," Cait sobbed. "She has to be. But I don't know what we can do. They'll try her, and they'll snap her wand, and then who knows what they'll do to her-"

Anne had clapped a hand to her mouth.

"But they have no way of proving she's muggleborn, right?" James asked desperately.

"They use veritaserum," Anne told him quietly.

James's mind was racing. All he could think of was Severus Prince standing over Lily's still form, only now, in his mind, Severus Prince was doing much worse to her than breaking her arm. He couldn't leave Lily to the monster who had hurt her and James.

"We have to go to Hogwarts," James said.

"You can't," Anne said immediately. "They'll only hurt you too."

"If they use veritaserum, I can prove I'm a pureblood," Jame said.

"That doesn't help Lily," Anne said.

"It could…" James said slowly.

Cait was nodding. "You're right. There's only one way to save her. A pureblood has to marry her."

James hesitated. He didn't want to force Lily to marry him, not when she didn't want to. But if it was saving her from harm, possibly even death-

"I'll do it. I'll marry her."

"…and so we have the proof that the witch Bertha McDougall illegally married a muggle, diluting her pure witch blood with the filth of muggle blood…"

From the seat next to hers, Bertha was steadily sobbing, silent sobs that shook her entire frame. Lily wanted to reach out to comfort her, but her hands were chained, and so all she could do was watch.

This had been—would become—the charms classroom, but it didn't look like a classroom now, not with all of these black-robed adults with cold expressions. Lily had looked around for any sign of a friendly face, but she had found only expressions devoid of all sympathy.

"…for which the sentence is death…"

The judge, a thin, bald man, turned his pale gaze to Bertha.

"…a sentence that will be carried out immediately."

Lily gasped. "No!"

Her voice was swallowed by the cries of the witches and wizards around her, but they weren't cries of protests, but rather screams for Bertha's blood. Lily tried to move towards Bertha, from instinct rather than logic, because they had taken her wand, so what could she really do to help? Someone's hands gripped her, holding her back, and Lily could only watch, sobbing, as Bertha was executed. With two words, she was transformed from a living being into a body, and Lily could only think that at least death in the non magical world made sense. When someone was killed in the muggle way, you could see the violence to it. In the wizarding world, it was too quick, too clean. It didn't fully capture that an entire life had been stolen, and in that moment, Lily hated it with a passion.

"You murderers…" she screamed.

But no one listened. They had moved onto talking about her crimes and her sentence.

Whoever was holding her hadn't let go now that Bertha's body was being taken from the room. If anything, their grip grew tighter.

"You know, mudblood…" the voice whispered.

Lily recoiled, because the person holding her was Severus Prince.

"You could save yourself," Severus murmured in her ear. "If you marry a pureblood, you won't have to be banished to the muggle world."

"And I suppose you're offering?" she whispered, a hysterical laugh bubbling out of her throat.

"Obviously."

Lily stiffened.

"Lily," he said quietly, his breath tickling her ear. "You're a beautiful mudblood. I've wanted you from the moment I saw you. I can save you. Let me."

She shrugged out of his grip. "I'd rather fuck a toad."

It came out louder than she meant it to, and suddenly, the cold expressions of the witches and wizards around her slipped, replaced by mirth.

"I'll destroy you for that," Severus Prince said quietly.

A chill went down Lily's spine, because she was sure he meant it.

"Do you confess to being a mudblood?" asked the judge severely. "Or shall we send for the veritaserum?"

Lily pressed her lips tightly together.

"Who were your parents, girl?" the judge snapped.

Lily felt a stab of grief. Who were her parents? People who had been enormously loving, who had been proud of Lily even when she'd been different… because of it, even.

"My parents," she said, raising her voice. "Were John and Margaret Evans. They were muggles. They were good people, and I'm not ashamed of them. I'm muggleborn, and I'm proud of it."

She glared at the judge, ignoring the sudden din of angry shouts directed at her.

The judge picked up her wand in both hands, and Lily winced. He was going to snap it. And now she was panicking, because she had been brave, and she had stood up for her parents and her kind, but what was the cost? Now, she would be stranded without a wand in a hostile time, not to mention a time when muggles were still persecuting witches and wizards.

"Stop!" a voice shouted from down the hall.

Lily froze, because she was sure she recognized that voice. But it couldn't be… what would he be doing here? Surely he wouldn't be stupid enough to walk back into danger, would he?

"Lily!"

No, he had definitely been stupid enough to walk back into danger, and for what? Now Severus Prince would just hurt him as well-

James Potter burst into the room, followed by Cait, Brian, Sirius, and Anne.

"We're engaged," James panted.

There was a sudden silence in the room.

"Lily and I are engaged to be married," James repeated, a bit louder now that he had his breath back.

"And who are you?" the judge asked, perplexed.

"James Potter."

There were some murmurs throughout the room.

"Potter?" the judge repeated.

From beside her, Lily saw Severus Prince stiffen.

"I didn't know they had a son named James," the judge said.

"They don't like to talk about me. They had to homeschool me because I'm such a troublemaker-"

"Evidently," the judge said drily.

"We should give him veritaserum," Severus cut in, his low voice cold.

"Agreed," the judge said.

James scanned the room until he found Lily. His eyes narrowed as his took in Severus Prince standing behind her, but he quickly approached.

"Are you okay?" he asked quietly.

She felt the strangest urge to cry, so she just nodded. As awful as it was to see James here in the midst of these horrible people, she had never been so glad to see him. James moved to sit beside her, and their friends crowded around them, and suddenly, even with Severus Prince's presence looming over them, Lily didn't feel quite so alone.

James and all of their friends had to take veritaserum to verify their identities, but then, all at once, they were free to go. Lily's hands were free, and the first thing she did was hug James tightly. They moved towards the door, but a shadowy figure swooped in front of them, blocking their path.

"I don't believe your story," Severus said quietly. He gripped James's sleeve, pulling him closer. "I don't believe the Potters have another son."

James looked him in the eye and grinned. "Veritaserum would disagree with you."

"I expect to see a marriage license, the next time we meet," Severus said. "Otherwise, I imagine something bad might happen to your mudblood whore."

Lily then did something incredibly stupid, but she couldn't resist. Later, she would blame it on the stress of the day; she stepped forward and stomped on Severus's foot, hard.

"Go to hell, Snivellus," she spat as he doubled over.

Their group left the castle hurriedly after that, Lily doing her best to ignore James's look of utter admiration.

After they were back at the Ferguson castle, James asked to speak to Lily alone. Cait gave her a quick hug before leaving the infirmary, Brian and Anne on her heels. Sirius shot them one last unhappy look before leaving the room as well.

As soon as it was just the two of them, James sat on the bad, letting out a shaky breath and running a hand through his perpetually messy hair.

"I can't believe that actually worked," he muttered.

Lily had trouble meeting his eyes, but she forced herself to do it anyway. "Thank you."

He nodded once. "You're welcome."

There was a moment of awkward silence. Lily slowly sat down beside him, careful to leave some distance between them.

"Um… Lily…" He took a deep breath. "You don't have to marry me, you know. We could go back through the stones… or if you want to stay here, you have other options. Brian said he would marry you, and it sounds like Graham would be willing to, as well. So just because I said I would… well, it doesn't mean you have to…"

Lily considered him. Could she really marry Brian, the man her friend was so besotted with? Could she marry Graham, a man who would never respect her? But at the same time…

"I can't marry you, James."

He let out a breath, as if he had been expecting this.

"Lily-"

"No, listen… I want to stay here, but I can't do that to you. Not when you don't have feelings for me. It wouldn't be fair-"

He let out a disbelieving laugh. "Don't have feelings for you? Lily, I've been in love with you for years."

"You have?" she whispered.

"Yes," he said. "I thought it was obvious. But I won't force you to marry me when you don't feel the same way."

Now, it was her turn to laugh.

"What?" he said, sounding hurt. "I didn't realize this would be so funny to you."

"No, it's not… it's just… where did you get the idea I didn't have feelings for you?"

"Sirius. He said you told him."

Lily felt a surge of anger. "He was wrong, James."

A look of hope spread across James's face, but it quickly turned to worry again. "But even if you like me, I wouldn't blame you for not wanting to marry me. I mean, we haven't even dated, really…"

Lily considered. "How about this. We'll get married, and once we go back to 1978, you and I can decide whether we want it to stay."

James smiled crookedly. "Deal."

He held out his hand, and she shook it. His grip was firm, and she found she didn't want to let go. Instead, she pulled him towards her, and she kissed him. After a moment, he kissed her back, and it was everything she had dreamed of. James Potter, as it turned out, was an excellent kisser, and she didn't want to let go. Eventually, she pulled away, both of them breathing hard.

"I just didn't want our first kiss to be on our wedding night," Lily whispered.

Their faces were still close, and James leaned in again, but someone cleared her throat behind him, and the two sprang apart.

Cait looked between them with a small smirk. "Sorry to interrupt. Lily, I just thought we should decide on a wedding dress for tomorrow."

"Tomorrow?" Lily repeated, a bit faintly.

Cait nodded. "It's all arranged for tomorrow afternoon."

"Wonderful," Lily said, not sure she meant it. She had only just come around to the idea of this marriage, and for it to happen so soon…

She glanced at James, and he gave her a look that seemed to offer her a choice. You don't have to marry me, he seemed to say again. Somehow, that just seemed to make the choice even more clear.

I do, she told him silently. I want to.

"I'll see you tomorrow," she told him.

His smile was radiant.