Chapter 26: In which James plays the hero (sort of), and Lily makes a deal (sort of)

All James wanted to do this evening was wrap himself around his girlfriend and go to sleep. It had been a long day, and now that things were good between them, he was feeling exceptionally tender towards her. He didn't even want to fool around. No, scratch that. Fooling around would be nice, too. But really, right now, some cuddle time was in order.

The only problem was, Lily was out doing rounds. So, James found himself hanging out in the Common Room with his mates, trying his best to keep his overtired brain focused on his wizarding chess match against Remus. Sirius and Pete had been building a card tower on the floor near the fireplace and debating whether Puddlemere's new Chaser, Finn Buchannon, was likely to break the scoring record this season, but apparently, they'd grown bored of that. Now their heads were bent over the Marauders Map as they plotted their next move.

Suddenly, Peter's head jerked up, and he looked at James with wide eyes.

"Ah, fuck," Sirius murmured, his eyes also jumping briefly to James' before darting back to the map. "Hey, Prongs?"

James' chin was propped in his hand and he was struggling to stay awake. No way was he joining them for a late night excursion. "What?"

"Looks like Evans is patrolling with Snivellus. Or else he's just following her."

James sat up straighter, his weariness rapidly receding. "Do you see Belby on the map?"

Sirius scanned the parchment and quickly found Belby in Hufflepuff's dormitories. James squeezed his eyes shut and buried a hand in his hair.

"Bollocks. Belby was supposed to have patrol with Evans; either he switched with Snape, or they've already finished rounds and Snape is just tormenting her." He opened his eyes and stood up quickly, bumping into the chessboard. His knight grunted in annoyance. "Whichever way, something's off. I've got to go find her."

"I'll join you." Sirius stood up, too, and wiped his palms on his jeans. "Pete and I were just plotting a kitchen run, anyway."

"No." James shook his head. "If Snape sees you out after hours, he'll definitely dock points, and I'd have to let him. Plus, maybe she's fine." He tugged on his hair. "I'll go under my cloak, and if everything's all right I won't even bother them."

"Are you sure?" Peter asked. "What if Snivellus wants a fight?"

"It'll already be two against one, Evans is a fair hand in a duel," James said confidently. "We'll be all right."

Sirius growled in frustration. "I don't like it. What's he up to?"

"I don't know, Pads, but I'm going to find out."

He bounded up the stairs to the Heads' Quarters and practically flew to his bedroom to grab his invisibility cloak. As he walked past his wardrobe he noticed his two-way mirror sitting on top; he grabbed that, too.

"Listen," he said, when he got back to the Common Room. "I do need your help." He held up his mirror. "I'm going to go now, under my cloak, but I'll need you to let me know where they are. I'll head towards the prefects' office, I think that's where Evans would try to go. If they change directions, let me know."

"Got it," Sirius said.

"Thanks, mate." With that, James hurried to the portrait hole and clambered out. As soon as he landed in the corridor, he threw his invisibility cloak over his head and began to run.

He paused as he reached the third intersection. He could turn left here, and follow the traditional path to the prefects' office from Gryffindor tower, or he could continue straight and take the secret passageway behind the statue of Thymos the Timid as a shortcut. On one hand, if he took the shortcut, he risked missing Lily if she was heading his way; on the other hand, if Snape was causing trouble, James wanted to get to them as quickly as possible. He pulled out his mirror.

"Sirius Black," he whispered, holding it close to his face. A moment later, Sirius' face came into view.

"They're in front of the prefects' office," he said immediately. "Just the two of them. Can't tell what they're up to."

"No, of course not." James mussed his hair, nearly dislodging his cloak. He straightened it over himself again and shook his head. "Thanks, Pads." He stuck the mirror back in his pocket and darted ahead towards Thymos, pushing the statue aside to slip into the concealed passage near its feet.

As soon as he landed at the bottom of the chute, he knew his bet had paid off. Snape was stalking towards him, ranting about ungrateful witches and new world orders. James approached him cautiously, trying to catch the gist of what he was saying.

"...thinks she's too good for me now, but I'll show her. He won't protect her. He can't. Not like I would. I told to her to listen to me, she'd be safe if she'd just listen—"

He was talking about Lily. A wave of fury crashed over James, surfacing a deep loathing for this greasy-haired git and bringing with it a wild, reckless anger. He whipped off his cloak and pointed his wand at Snape. "Oi! What did you do to her!?"

Snape's already pale face blanched in surprise. But his reflexes were good, and he immediately yelled "Stupefy!", sending a jet of red light out of his wand directly at James' chest.

James jumped to the side. "Petrificus totalus!" he yelled, but Snape threw up a Shield charm, and James dodged again to avoid his own rebounding spell.

"Glisseo!" Snape cried, and the ground under James' feet was suddenly as slippery as ice. He lost his balance and fell, narrowly missing being hit by another burst of red light from Severus' wand.

"Levicorpus!" James yelled from the floor, but Snape blocked the spell with another James had never seen. "Flipendo!" he tried again.

That one hit its mark and sent Snape tumbling head over heels down the corridor away from James. James quickly pointed his wand at the floor to undo the slippery spell Snape had cast, then began advancing on the prone Slytherin. His voice came out in a snarl. "Where's Evans?"

Snape hissed – literally hissed like a snake – in response. James raised his wand, preparing to dangle Snape from the ceiling until he revealed whatever he had done to Lily. But before the words were out of his mouth, the girl herself came sprinting around the corner.

"Evans!" James called, half-terrified and half-relieved as he watched her run towards them. "Are you alright?"

As soon as James took his eyes off him, Snape rose to his knees and made a slashing motion with his wand.

A searing pain tore across James' abdomen. "Shite! Ow!" he cried. Before he finished the words, another fiery slash ripped through his thigh. He glanced down and saw blood seeping from his wounds, darkening his t-shirt and jeans. He stumbled forward, landing on his hands and knees. "Bloody hell."

"Expelliarmus!" Lily screamed, pointing her wand at Snape. She flew past her ex-friend and slid to her knees beside James. "James! James, are you alright?"

"I don't know," he said thickly. His stomach was on fire, as was his leg. His blood seemed to burn as it poured from his body, dissolving his skin like he'd been doused with a Draught of Living Death. Irrationally, he scrambled to his feet as if to run away. But there was no escaping this agony. His leg buckled underneath him, and he hit the ground with a groan.

He felt someone pushing him, rolling him over. A blur of cream and auburn flitted in and out of his sight, along with ever-growing black spots. Bloody hell. He was definitely not alright. His eyes fluttered closed.

"No! Finite incantatem!" Lily cried, and James jerked his eyes open at the sound of her voice. "Finite incantatem! Remedio! Remedio maximo!"

Nothing worked. Lily's voice sounded like it was drifting away from him, replaced by a roaring in his ears that matched the inferno in his blood. The harsh flow wasn't stopping; his heart was a volcano spewing molten lava, devouring him from within. His limbs felt tingly, nearly numb and yet still blazing. He tried to lift his arms and found he couldn't.

"Reducio sanguis! Reparo dermis!" James couldn't understand half of what Lily was saying now, but she sounded so desperate. "What have you done to him?" she yelled at Snape. "Do the counter-curse, now!"

The other boy laughed scornfully. "Why would I do that?"

She leapt to her feet. "What is wrong with you? You're killing him!"

Indeed, James' vision was growing dark around the edges. Snape killed me? he thought. What a lousy way to go. He groaned and tried to lift his head, but it was too heavy. Where was his wand? Or if he could just get to his pocket, he could grab his mirror and call Sirius. But he couldn't move.

"Evans?" he whispered.

"Help him! Help him now, Severus!" James could vaguely see her standing over him, her pale skin glowing like an angel's. "Help him and I won't tell Dumbeldore about this! I won't tell Dumbeldore about the Legilimency! I won't tell him anything, just help him! Please!"

Snape was silent for a moment. James tried to look at him, but everything was blurry. He wished he could control his limbs better, wished he could feel anything other than his burning flesh. His chest seized, sending tremors tearing through his body, and he cried out in pain.

The convulsions stopped as suddenly as they'd come, and James took great, heaving breaths. He wished again that he could move his arms. If he were going to die, he would have at least liked to hold Lily's hand.

As soon as he had that thought, she disappeared from his view. He tried to protest, but no sound came out. He did not want to be alone.

And then she was back, kneeling next to him, squeezing his bloody hands tightly in hers. "It'll be alright, James," she whispered. She raised her voice and asked Snape, "What should I do?"

"Just keep him still," the other boy said tersely. Lily released James' hand and placed one hand on his uninjured thigh and the other on his shoulder. Snape began muttering some unfamiliar words. As he did, James felt a cooling sensation, like heat was being pulled away from his thigh as the blood flow slowed. He felt the skin across his wound stretch and begin to knit together. He inhaled sharply against this new bite of pain, exhaling slowly as the odd sensation faded. After a moment, he could wiggle his toes. His leg throbbed and ached, but it was still there. He was whole.

Snape treated the gash on James' stomach the same way, his face twisted as he snarled the words for the countercurse. "Looks like he'll need a blood replenishing potion," he said coldly after he finished. "You'll have to make it for him, or perhaps one of his Marauders can steal it from Pomfrey. I'm done here." He rose, hovering over James like a winged monster from a nightmare. Then he turned and began walking away.

Lily let out a shaky sigh and lowered herself to the floor, where she grabbed James' hand. This time when she squeezed, he was able to squeeze back. Just barely, but it was everything. He held on tightly and focused on breathing. As he blinked away the spots still swimming in front of his eyes, he realized he was crying.

"Merlin," Lily murmured, her chest heaving as she looked around them. She was gripping James' hand even more tightly than he was hers. "Severus!" she called, her eyes following him down the corridor. His footsteps slowed. "Sev, do you promise he'll be alright?"

Snape halted for a moment, but did not turn around. "He should be. Unless he does something stupid in this weakened state." He muttered something else that sounded like, "Which seems likely."

James wished he had the energy to offer a two-finger salute to Snape's back.

But Lily just nodded. She turned back to James and helped him to a seated position. Her eyes were bright, shiny with held-in tears. "Are you alright?" she whispered, kneeling in front of him.

"Mm," James mumbled weakly. His vision was clearing and his own tears had stopped flowing. "I'll survive."

With a choked sob, Lily threw her arms around him, knocking him flat on his back. He grunted in pain. "Oh, no! I'm so sorry! Oh, my god!" She pushed herself off of him and sat on the floor, peering down at him. "Did that hurt?"

James let out a wheezy chuckle. "Yeah, Evans, a bit. Trying to finish me off?"

"Don't say that!" The dam burst and a flood of tears spilled down Lily's cheeks. "I was so scared, James, for a minute I thought—you were bleeding so much—and Severus—"

"Yeah." James groped around for Lily's hand and brought it to his chest. "I'm glad you were there to convince him to save me."

"Yeah." Her hand moved slightly and she pressed her palm down, almost as if looking for his heartbeat. "I hope he would've anyway. I never thought he would kill someone."

As much as James hated Snape, he had to agree with her. He had thought Snape capable of myriad Dark curses and hexes, and obviously willing to align himself with an oppressive totalitarian cause. But murder? That was a whole other level. Sure, he and Snape despised each other, but he had saved Snape's life, once. Would Snape really have left him to die tonight?

James' heart was thudding in his chest, loud and strong as if to remind him that whatever Snape may have intended, James was alive. He knew Lily could feel it, too, could tell by the way her fingers flexed and relaxed against his chest. But the awareness of how wrong things could have gone hung in the air around them along with the smell of James' blood. Suddenly, he felt sick.

He pushed himself up on his elbows, then struggled to a seated position, wincing as pain radiated from the tender wound on his stomach. But he already felt stronger, and for that he was grateful. "Evans, we've got to get out of here," he said.

"Yes," Lily agreed, wiping her eyes and sniffing. She left a streak of blood on her cheek. "Unless you've got a blood replenishing potion on hand at the dormitory, we've got to get you to Madam Pomfrey right away."

James shook his head. "You can just heal me a bit more and we'll sort it in the morning." He leaned forward and slowly got to his knees, pain shooting through his thigh as he did. "But we've got to go now. I can't be here. And we can't have the other students seeing this."

Lily's sniffle turned into a snort as she stood up. "Don't want them seeing the great James Potter laid low, is that it?" She ducked her head to hide her face, or perhaps the wobble in her voice when she added, "Don't worry, Pomfrey can keep a secret. Your reputation will be safe."

If James didn't know her so well, he might have taken her banter to mean that everything was all right now, they'd faced a threat and survived and now things could return to normal. If he didn't know her so well, he might not have recognized the fear in her voice. But he did know her well, so well. And perhaps it was the magnitude of violence Snape employed or the reminder of the type of Dark magic the Death Eaters favored, but, even though James was standing on his own now, he knew it as surely as he knew his own name: Lily was terrified.

Of course she was. He was, too, if he were honest. But he played along with her attempt at deflection, offering her a bit of a smile. "You raise a good point, Evans. I do have a reputation to maintain." Merlin, his leg hurt. "But no, I was just thinking we wouldn't want the other students to find us here covered in blood. Looks like—" He paused and blinked as he realized it looked like someone was murdered because he nearly had been. A shiver rippled through his body, and he shook his head. "It'll scare the pants off them," he said instead. "We don't want that."

"Merlin, you're right." Lily's eyes were wide as she looked around them. "I'll clean it up. But then we've got to go to Madam Pomfrey, James." She worried her lower lip with her teeth. "It's so much blood. You need that potion."

"I'm fine, Lily. I feel loads better already." James tried to smile again. "I just need a tonic for the pain and a good night's sleep."

"No!" Lily let go of his arm and clenched her fists at her sides. "You don't know that! You need to be looked at by a Healer!"

James knew Lily was being stubborn about this, at least in part, because taking charge, being in control of the situation, would help her feel less afraid. But the idea of going to see the school healer made James' stomach flip. Even though he knew it, had felt it himself, he wasn't sure he was ready to hear from a professional just how close to death he may have been.

He sighed and ruffled his hair. "I'm so tired, Evans. And if we go to Pomfrey we'll have to tell her it was Dark magic, you know. I heard what you said to Snape. You told him you wouldn't tell what he's done, so long as he healed me."

"You think I care what I told Snape?" Lily's face was flushed and her eyes were blazing. "I thought you were going to die, James! I would've told him anything if it meant saving you!"

Hearing Lily say the words out loud hit James hard, maybe just as hard as they would have hit if he heard them from Madam Pomfrey. But Lily had also said something that softened the blow. I would've told him anything if it meant saving you.

He reached forward and grabbed one of his girlfriend's clenched fists, gently unfurling her fingers before tugging her towards him. She came reluctantly, a stubborn look on her face. He pulled her close and wrapped his arms around her.

"Hey." He brushed his lips across her forehead. "Thanks, Evans."

"You're welcome," she muttered against his chest. Then she raised her eyes and met his gaze defiantly. "I refuse to lose anyone else I love this year, James. I refuse. So, as soon as I clean up here, we're going to the hospital wing."

James suddenly felt light-headed. If she asked, he would tell her it was the blood loss. But he knew the truth, just as sure as he knew the smile curving his lips must look positively giddy. "Alright, Evans."

She glared at him for a second, as if she couldn't believe he had the audacity to smile right now, then nodded once. "Thank you." She turned and pointed her wand at the floor around them, readying whatever spell she planned to use to clean the floor, when James caught her by the wrist.

"You're welcome," he said as solemnly as he could manage, but he knew his stupid grin gave him away. "And I love you, too."