CHAPTER 15: THINK ABOUT ME

Tap tap tap. James awoke to a loud, incessant tapping at the window. Disoriented, he scanned his surroundings before remembering the events of the night before. Silently, Lily was asleep next to him and stirred slightly when he sat up. He walked as quietly as possible to the window where Clem waited. He unfurled the note at her foot, running a hand through his already messy hair in anticipation.

J, Thanks for checking in on me. It was a quiet night with E. and I have not heard of any other sightings. I should be back soon. -M. M.

Her note was vague, he realized. Purposely so; Marlene was clearly aware it could be intercepted. He stole a glance at Lily, who was still sound asleep, and strode out of the room, pulling a mirror from a pocket within the backpack from the night before.

"Padfoot." James called quietly into the mirror from the kitchen. He waited a moment before calling out his name again. Suddenly, a mess of shaggy dark hair replaced his reflection.

"What is it, Prongs?" yawned Sirius. He was clearly still in bed, looking bleary-eyed. "You woke- MERLIN!" Sirius shouted into the mirror, sitting up in his bed.

"What?" James asked exasperatedly.

"What the fuck happened to your face?" swore Sirius. James hurriedly walked to the bathroom to examine his face. The cuts from Snape's curse were in process of healing.

"The Death Eaters set up a trap for us last night. Voldemort lured us to a field with a portkey." James recounted. "Snape was there too… he's the one who did this to me. I guess he wanted to remind me what amazing mates we were at Hogwarts," he finished sarcastically.

"Bloody hell— how did you escape?"

"Didn't have to. He demanded that we join him," replied James matter-of-factly. "Obviously, we said no, and he left. But good ol' Voldy reminded us that it's our first and last relatively peaceful encounter."

"Peaceful? Look at your face, Prongs. What about that seems peaceful to you? After a quick examination of his cuts, James shook it off easily.

"I won't mince words, it was bad. He wanted Lily to help him because of her talent with Potions…" James trailed off, his mind racing with the possibilities.

"Why does he need Lily if he has Snape?" Sirius interjected.

"No idea. You should have seen Lily last night. It was bloody awful. She was sick everywhere and just froze. I feel absolutely shit that we got ourselves in that situation," he admitted dejectedly.

"James?" Lily called out to him and emerged from the bedroom to the kitchen.

James waved her over and took in her disheveled appearance. He tried and failed to keep his mind from wandering to inappropriate thoughts. After experiencing such a dangerous situation like the night before, it was easy to forget their kiss prior. He almost smiled at the memory but couldn't get the violent encounter with Voldemort out of his mind.

"When will you be home?" Sirius asked, sensing their conversation was quickly drawing to a close.

"I'll be there soon," James replied vaguely. "Come over and we'll talk more." Sirius's reflection quickly disappeared from the mirror.

"Talking to Sirius?" Lily asked, rubbing her eyes blearily, leaning on the kitchen counter.

"Yeah, just trying to figure out if we were the only ones targeted," he responded quietly. He spotted the kettle on the stove-top and began to pour water in for a cup of tea.

"And?"

"Nothing. He didn't know anything… Oh, and Marlene wrote back. She's fine and said she would be back soon." James handed Lily the note from his pocket.

It was silent as the two began to mentally sift through the chaos of the night before. It took a moment to remember that she and James shared a bed the night before. As the kettle began to whistle, the thought of being so vulnerable with someone she claimed to dislike made her suddenly realized that she felt very exposed. She crossed her arms over her chest and chanced a glance at James, who was paying her no mind.

How could she be so ignorant of her surroundings? Her mind raced with the possibilities of how to prevent from a similar event from occurring. The sound of the mug hitting the table in front of her tore Lily from her thoughts. She fingered the coin in her hand and examined it.

"What's that?" James's eyes widened, almost choking on his tea. "Shite, you kept it?"

"Yeah, but it doesn't look the way it did last night. It's silver now," she replied and handed it to James.

"You're absolutely right, it was gold last night. And it looks like some Muggle coin," he murmured. One side was blank and the other had an ornate drawing of a woman holding a baby.

"I've seen that somewhere before… I just don't know where," Lily said. James handed it back to her. "How did you know?" Lily asked curiously.

The strange events of the past twenty-four hours had put Lily's head in a fog. It was mentally, and emotionally exhausting to go from hating James, to kissing him and then suddenly being faced with the most feared man—if she could even call him that—in the Magical community. The days of living safely in anonymity were long over. It was almost comical how unprepared for something that she knew could happen once she was back in this world.

"Oh, that," James responded, "How many times did you see a Galleon while you were in Cokeworth?"

"Well only the one time that Sev—" Lily's voice broke as she replayed the events of the night before in her head. James, covered in blood. Unable to scream, it felt more like a nightmare than real life. She shut her eyes tightly and took a deep, steadying breath. She wasn't there anymore. She was safe. To her shock, her eyes opened to an unperturbed James. Maybe he was getting more used to her anxiety, Lily thought wryly.

"Only once," she finally answered. "When Severus showed me the difference between Magical and Muggle money."

"Right. That was basically my only clue. It seemed too good to be true. We were being followed." James concluded and Lily nodded in agreement.

It was a known, yet seldom voiced fact that this was a danger given that they were known to be potential members of the Order of the Phoenix. For all Muggleborn, there was no wiggle room in their position. With so-called Pureblood wizards, the line was growing impossible to walk. The Potters had made their choice long ago.

"Should we talk about last night?" asked Lily, reaching slowly toward James and laying her hand over his. He gazed at their hands with incredulous eyes and cleared his throat to speak.

"Lily!" Marlene's voice called out as she entered the flat. James sighed exasperatedly as their chance to air their feelings disappeared with the arrival of Marlene. Still, he felt a weight lifted of his shoulders knowing that she was sage.

"Mar!" Lily's face split into a wide grin. Marlene dropped her overnight bag to the ground and hugged the pair.

"Merlin's fucking left nut, I was going mad. I would've been back sooner, but I didn't want to worry Em until I knew exactly what happened. Tell me everything. Now!" she demanded pouring herself a cup of tea, letting go of them with a deep sigh of relief. The two detailed the encounter to Marlene and showed her the former Portkey.

"Shit, this was it?" Marlene picked it up gingerly and levitated it with her wand, studying it closely. "Well, I can't say for certain if this is a symbol of dark magic. It doesn't look like anything I've seen before, but I can show it to Uncle Jack on Monday."

"I was going to show my dad, he might know something," James responded quickly.

"That's a good idea," Lily murmured. Marlene lowered it back on the table. The phone rang loudly, a sound Lily felt haunted to hear so early in the morning. Marlene stood to answer it, but soon called Lily over to the phone.

"Hello?" Lily answered.

"Lily, thank goodness you picked up. It's Melody. I don't-I can't—" Melody stammered, not sounding at all like her usual self.

"What's wrong?" Lily asked, alarmed. James and Marlene shared a look of concern.

"You need to come over, now. I'm losing my bloody mind. Cassie is AWOL and-"

"What do you mean?"

"Just please come over?" Lily chanced a look at Marlene and James who looked even more alarmed. "Please hurry, if you can." The line went dead. Lily's hand shook as she hung the phone back up on the receiver.

"Er," Lily stammered. "That was Melody, she said Cassie's gone. I'm not sure what she means." Marlene's eyebrows nearly disappeared into her hairline.

"Do you need me to come?" asked Marlene.

"I can go with you, too, Lily," James added. She eyed the pair in front of her wearily.

"Er, I'm not sure that's a good idea. I can go alone," Lily said hurriedly. They didn't look too pleased, and Lily didn't blame them. She knew she should stand up to her friends. It frustrated her to wonder if they thought that she couldn't handle things on her own. "I want her to open up to me," she explained.

"That's fair," Marlene said. James nodded in agreement but looked fairly upset.

"I should go, then," said James abruptly. Lily and Marlene watched James gather his things and head out the door.

"Follow him," Marlene whispered, jabbing Lily's side with her elbow when the redhead didn't immediately go after him.

"James, wait!" He was already out the door heading down the stairs when Lily caught up to him. James stopped so swiftly that Lily almost ran into him.

"Oy, you're just going to leave?" Lily asked coyly. He looked down at his feet and smiled back. She became painfully aware of how close his face was to her own.

"Sorry, yeah. I'm going to go catch with Sirius, he's expecting me. I thought you were going to help find Cassie," he grumbled back.

"I did, but it's just… Don't be upset with me. I can handle this on my own. It'll be fine," said Lily, doing her best to sound confident. James grimaced and shook his head. Her attempt had clearly failed, but after the events of the night before, she couldn't blame him for being overprotective. The only solace was that Melody was a Muggle and Lily hoped that this would help her fly under the radar of the Death Eaters.

"Look, Voldemort wouldn't have a clue who Melody is. How could he find me in Muggle London?"

"The same way he did last night," retorted James without missing a beat. "And, you'd be the only Witch there. You'd want to protect your friends if you were attacked, not just yourself. They're a liability, Lily."

"They are people like you. They're not less than just because they don't have wands, James."

"You know that's not what I mean," James's face grew hot with embarrassment. "Look at where I'm at. If that's what my endgame was, I would've said yes to Voldemort last night."

"I know that, but it doesn't mean you' But, anyway, I'll see you soon?" Lily asked hopefully, her anger dissipating as quickly as it appeared.

"'Course you will, Evans," replied James, turning on his heel without a look back.

…

The hallway Lily walked down to reach Melody's apartment was familiar, although she was visiting under drastically different circumstances.

"Hey, come in."

Melody moved aside to let her in. Thomas sat ashen faced on the couch. The mood was decidedly solemn, and Lily wondered what it was he was doing here.

"What's going on?" asked Lily, sitting carefully on the couch.

"Molly called me. Cassie didn't show up for work a-fucking-gain. But I've gone by her flat, rang her, called up some mutual friends, and nobody has seen her. It's like she's disappeared, and I don't know what to do," Melody cried. Tears streamed down her face and Lily could only stare back at her, horrified at what she was hearing. "She wouldn't do something like this," Melody whimpered.
"She's been saying that all morning," Thomas noted softly, but Melody didn't seem to hear him.

"Did she leave anything behind? Like a note?" Lily asked as gently as she could after a few minutes of silence. The pair shook their heads in response. "What can I do?" asked Lily, holding Melody's hand.

"I just… she was so in love with her life here, you know. I can't understand why she would leave of her own accord. Will you come with me to her flat? I can't go alone. I went last night and didn't find anything, but I just have to check again."

"'Course, is Thomas coming with us?"

"I've been here all morning, so I'd appreciate it if you can keep her company?" he replied.

"Of course," Lily said. Melody walked him to the door and pushed it closed behind him.

"Molly was also here earlier, but she had her shift," said Melody and Lily rubbed Melody's back soothingly.

Lily looked at her strangely, unsure of how long Melody had known about this. They sat in silence for a long time and Melody rested her head on Lily's shoulder. Lily felt numb, unsure of how to comfort the girl sitting beside her.

"Come on, let's get on with it."

A/N- I'M BACCCCCCKKKKKKKK! Sorry for disappearing for over a year, but I'm back to finish this story. There's still so much I have planned, so thanks for reading! It means so much to me.