A/N: Welcome back! Did you enjoy the fight/duel from last chapter? Just a little bit of drama before the Christmas Holidays at Hogwarts. That's exactly what we need.

By the way, thank you Hani! I'm glad you like the story!

Disclaimer: I own the storyline and nothing else.

Chapter Seven

'And what are you doing here?' Madame Pomfrey demanded as soon as James had shut the door behind himself and Lily. 'Your new dressings aren't due until tomorrow!'

'Professor McGonagall wanted me to take Evans to see you.' James replied, edging a little in front of Lily, eyeing the Hogwarts matron warily; there was a steely glint in her eye that did not bode well.

'And why is that?' The matron's teeth were gritting, and her arms folded of their own accord. Lily wobbled a little with apprehension.

'I may have been kicked…' Lily mumbled, looking down at her feet. A slight smirk made its way onto James' face as he glanced sideways at her, suppressing a laugh.

'Kicked? Kicked!' Fire burst into Madame Pomfrey's eyes and she started to chivvy Lily towards one of the beds. 'You'll have to show me your leg… Now!'

Lily did as she was told, slipping off her tights and lying down on the bed; James turned scarlet as she flashed him with her knickers by accident in the process of removing her tights. He coughed, turning away so that no one could see the prominent flush in his cheeks.

With the bandage off, Madame Pomfrey bent over Lily's leg and peered down at it. When she had completed her examination, she strode off to fetch her dressing potions.

'If,' she began, dapping some of the smoking substance on Lily's injury, her hand shaking. 'If you so much as run with this injury I shall personally apply to be the Healer who amputates your leg.'

'Did you just say amputate?' James piped up, braving the tasking of turning back around to face Lily in order to ask the matron his question.

'Yes, Mr Potter, I did.' Madame Pomfrey confirmed grimly, continuing to daub at Lily's wound. 'We aren't just talking about any old wound. This was brought about by an ancient curse that – if it takes too long to heal – will take up permanent residence and begin to spread through the rest of the body. We'll be forced to amputate to prevent that should the healing process take too long. Unless, of course, St Mungo's find a faster, complete cure – there's always a chance they might…'

James waited for Lily to say something to that piece of news while Madame Pomfrey wrapped a new bandage around her leg; she remained silent, her eyes closed.

'Right.' Madame Pomfrey said crisply, straightening up. 'You're free to go… for now… Miss Evans – Lily – I'll need to teach you how to change your bandages yourself so you can do it when you go home for Christmas.'

Lily nodded, sliding off the bed and pulling on her tights before silently limping from the ward.

'Er – I – cheers, Poppy.' James saluted, trying to disguise his awkwardness and glancing towards the swinging hospital wing doors. 'See you…'

He chased out after Lily, who admittedly hadn't gone far with her bad leg. She was just turning the corner when he called out to her.

'Oy, Evans! Wait for me, would you?'

James jogged up to where she had stopped.

'You all right?' he asked tentatively, peering down at her, studying her eyes shrewdly.

'I'm fine, Potter.' she replied, the corners of her lips twitching up. 'I haven't actually lost my leg, you know.'

'I know that.' He put a hand on her shoulder. 'You just seemed upset. You know you can tell m–'

'I'm getting a little concerned.' Lily interrupted, knocking her fist gently against the side of his head. 'Are you sure my mum hasn't possessed you? This is the second time you've sounded like her.'

'What –?'

'I should really start calling you Mrs Evans full time.' She tilted her head to the side. 'Yeah, I think I will…'

'Evans, if you're sure you're okay…'

'Come on, Mrs Evans.' she said, rolling her eyes and starting to walk again. 'Stop fussing and start fuming. We're due a detention any time soon and you can bet McGonagall's sticking you and me together; there's no way she'll let you boys be together.'

'I have been in detention before, Evans.' James pointed out, following her, chuckling. 'Takes more than a detention to separate the Marauders.'

'Ah yes.' Lily nodded. 'Sorry, I forgot you were a demon student for a moment.'

'There you go again with your accusations.' He sighed, looping an arm around her. 'What'll it take for you to realise I'm actually a decent student?'

'Apply for Head boy and get the position.' Lily replied after a moment's consideration, smirking at the way he choked. 'Application's open to all sixth years.'

'You want me to apply for Head boy?' he checked, ruffling his hair with his free hand. 'Me?'

'Actually, I want that third year to apply.' Lily said, nodding her head in the direction of a younger student walking down the corridor about to pass them.

'You're hilarious.' he told her, pinching her cheek and grinning as she squirmed away from him.

'And you need to apply for Head boy.'

James narrowed his eyes while she smirked at him.

'That's my only term,' she said, her eyes sparkling. 'It's your choice. Take it or leave it.'

Not one to back down from a challenge, James stepped towards her, grinning as she had to crane her neck to look at him.

'I'll do it,' he conceded, and she laughed, 'but you have to apply as well – for Head girl.'

'Fine.' Lily held out her hand. 'You've got yourself a deal, Mrs Evans.'

They shook hands and then made their way to Gryffindor Tower laughing.

…

It wasn't until that night, as Lily lay in bed, listening to the snuffling snores of her friends, that she mulled over Madame Pomfrey's warning. She had been upset by the news and understandably so seeing as there was a chance, she could lose her leg. But now, as she mulled over that possibility, part of her brain seemed to sigh as if exasperated that she could be even the slightest bit surprised.

'Doomed…' she murmured, rolling over in her bed so that she was staring at the ceiling of her fourposter. The word was so familiar on her tongue, even if it caused her insides to twinge slightly. Lily chuckled quietly to herself. 'You couldn't have been a little more specific, could you, Acranum?'

She supposed, among all other doomed things in her life, she was doomed to lose her leg somewhere along the line. There were times when she wished her former Divination teacher had been less vague about the first part of his prediction. It would have been nicer to know exactly how she was doomed from the very beginning, rather than having to attribute things to his prediction later.

Maybe she would have been more careful with her leg if she had known before there was a chance she as condemned to injure, and perhaps lose, it. Then she scoffed. She knew herself well enough to know that would not be the case. James was right when he named her reckless. Perhaps. But Lily did think of the consequences of her actions, she just ignored those that posed a threat to her if it meant helping someone else.

'Jesus Christ, Lily…' she said to herself, chuckling faintly at her own thoughts. 'Get over yourself.'

Rolling onto her side, Lily tugged her duvet up a little and closed her eyes. Eventually, sleep hit her, and she drifted off, dreaming of Professor Acranum's prediction, the scene from her third year playing infinitely until the dawn came.

…

Professor McGonagall didn't organise a particularly strenuous detention for those involved in the duel. She had placed, as Lily had predicted, Lily and James together in her own classroom, while Sirius, Remus and Peter had their detention in Flitwick's classroom. The Slytherins were with Professor Slughorn and he had them cleaning cauldrons. McGonagall, on the other hand, had merely set the Gryffindors lines and left the two she was supposed to be supervising to their own devices while she went to have dinner.

Lily was unloading her school bag on the desk next to James', pulling out lined paper, a Muggle pen and a bulging cloth bundle of snacks gifted to her by the Hogwarts house-elves when she went to the kitchens to ply them with a cauldron of potion that dyed material whatever colour you wanted. They would have given her the food without her gift, but she didn't like going empty-handed; it felt like she was stealing from them otherwise. And the elves had been delighted, telling her happily which colour they planned to dye their school-issued pillowcases.

'What some?' she offered, untying the knot at the top of the bundle to reveal its delicious contents. James' eyes gleamed in appreciation.

'Cheers.' he said, reaching over and plucking a chocolate éclair from the stash. Taking a bite, and chewing on it for a moment, James glanced at her. 'Do this often, Evans?'

'Detention or bringing food?' she checked, chuckling, her had hovering over a jam doughnut.

'Both I s'pose.' James elaborated, smirking as she took her time eating her own snack before answering.

'You never studied Divination, did you?' she asked, and he shook his head. 'Well, most of my detentions came from Professor Acranum. We didn't exactly see eye to eye after – … But I always bring food to my detentions; I don't know how anyone makes it through without any.'

'Shows how many detentions we've had together.' James observed, stretching and leaning back in his chair, watching her.

'To be fair, before this year, I don't think we could be trusted together.' Lily replied fairly, writing out the sentence McGonagall had set them. 'Alone, that is.'

'Why?' James nudged her, smirking wider. 'I'll bet you just fancied the pants off me last year, Evans, and you just couldn't be trusted to keep your hands off me.'

'If that's how you want to remember things,' Lily said dryly. 'Although I remember it was more along the lines of, I couldn't be trusted to not hex you.'

'Fine.' James raised his hands in surrender. 'If you want to be so unromantic about the whole thing.'

Lily scoffed.

'More unromantic than you asking me out while you picked on Severus?' But she was grinning as she asked this.

'That's all a matter of perspective.' James defended, his cheeks reddening while she snickered beside him. 'And anyway, it was all in the heat of the moment…'

'I should hope so.' Lily winked at him. 'Or that'll make my nickname for you very awkward.'

'You're the one who decided to call me that.' he retorted, elbowing her lightly. 'Don't put the blame on me.'

'Fair enough, Mrs Evans.' she said, pointing her wand at the sentence she had written earlier. 'I take full credit.'

Murmuring something, Lily traced her wand along all the lines of her lined paper, and as she did so, the sentence copied itself across the page until it was there one hundred times. James chuckled, his eyes on her paper.

'Look at you, Evans.' he said, smirking. 'Never had you pegged as a cheat.'

'She never said we couldn't use our wands.' Lily quipped, shrugging. 'I'm just using my resources.'

'And you're a cheat.'

Lily snorted, poking him in the cheek with mock indignance; then she jumped, hearing someone saying James' name. Strangely, the sound seemed to come from down below somewhere, perhaps underneath the table or…

James reached into his pocket and pulled out a square mirror. Lily's eyes widened. Instead of seeing his reflection, she saw that of Sirius, and she shook her head slightly, trying to discern if she was hallucinating. Apparently, she wasn't, because a moment later James spoke to his mirror.

'All right, mate?' he greeted, grinning broadly at his friend. Sirius mimicked his expression, plainly lounging back in his chair in Flitwick's classroom.

'Any chance of you sneaking out?' Sirius asked, yawning dramatically. 'We're all bored to death over here.'

'It's only been ten minutes.'

Lily sniggered, hearing Remus' long, suffering observation from somewhere in the background of Sirius' reflection. She could almost see him pinching the bridge of his nose.

'Don't laugh, Prongs!' Sirius cried, plainly shaking his corresponding mirror as the image on James' end shook all of a sudden. 'You're a traitor enough as it is – hanging out with Minnie when we're all stuck with Flitwick.'

'That wasn't me.' James replied, biting back a laugh of his own. 'That was Evans.'

'Evans?' Sirius stopped shaking his mirror and leant closer to it. 'Evans is with you? Alone?'

'What's that supposed to mean?' James inquired, flushing a little when Lily laughed, leaning over his shoulder to wave at Sirius.

'That's dangerous, Evans…' Sirius warned seriously.

'Waving?'

'Being alone with old Jamsie here.' he elaborated, and she grinned, casting a glance in James' direction when he huffed indignantly. 'I'd watch out if I were you.'

'And why's that?'

'Well, you know what they say about stags, they're horny.'

Lily snorted and James growled, turning a wonderfully bright red.

'Are you in Flitwick's classroom?' Lily asked, pointing her wand at James' parchment to copy the single sentence he had written. 'We'll come and join you.'

'Really?'

'Really.' Lily smiled, getting out of her seat and prodding James. 'Come on, you; we'll get fat eating all of this by ourselves.'

'You've got food?' Peter's voice squeaked from inside the mirror and Lily laughed, shaking her head at James.

'You boys really have something to learn about detentions, don't you?'

What did you think? Would you like detention with the Marauders?

Anyway, next chapter marks the start of the Christmas holidays for our characters. Make my day and leave a review and I'll see you then!