The week following what would remain in Marauder's history as "the whiskey bottle incident", James had picked up the habit to always carry the Marauder's map with him, and keep an eye on Lily's little dot as it wandered around the castle, especially after curfew. Although he knew from experience Lily could very easily take care of herself when it came to Snape, James couldn't help himself but worry about retaliation from him.

Lily's rejection, then seeing her leave an empty room in company of his worst enemy couldn't have been easy on Snape. James feared it might have pushed him over the edge. Though he knew Snape would never do anything to hurt Lily, James still remembered vividly the extent of his magical abilities and the disgust in his voice when he called her a mudblood.

"For the love of everything that is sacred Prongs, either put that slice of pie down or bite into it but please stop hovering it over your plate, you're making me anxious."

Finally coming back to the present moment, James realized he had been starting down at his slice of pumpkin pie for the better part of a minute and put it down.

"Doesn't take much to make you anxious nowadays Wormy," he teased gently.

"Whatever," shrugged Peter. "At least I'm not glaring at that innocent slice as if it killed my parents."

"Yeah, that's because you eat everything before you can get a chance to even see it," said Sirius, happily jumping into the conversation. "I've never seen a human eat this much food before, you're my hero, Pete."

Peter hid his blushing cheeks behind the cereal bowl he finished to engulf.

"Guess it's the rat in me," he answered finally.

James rolled his eyes to the ceiling while Sirius laughed.

"Would you say that louder? I don't think the Ravenclaw table heard you."

Peter's muffled sounds of protestation were interrupted by the sound of hundreds of wings flapping together and entering the Great Hall. As the birds descended onto the four tables and students protected their delicious breakfast from feather and claws, James looked for the small black owl he had sent to Alice.

Surely enough, the bird landed on his shoulder almost immediately, a letter neatly tied around its leg.

"That's not your parents' owl, is it? Who's that from?" asked Remus, reaching inside his school bag to pull out a few Sickles for the owl on his plate holding out its claw with determination.

"Alice," replied James soberly. "Since when do you buy the newspaper?"

"Last week. Since when has Alice been writing you letters?"

"Mind your damn business mister prefect," smiled James as he ripped open the envelope.

Dear James,

I was delighted to learn that Marlene was made team captain this year, even though unfortunately this was none of my doing. I wish I had had the time between successfully passing my NEWTs and leading the Gryffindor Quidditch team, to focus on making you as miserable as possible and talk to McGonagall about it last year, but as you may have started to notice by now, the world does not revolve around your 'fat head', to quote Evans.

I have just started the first year training to become an Auror and everything is going well so far, I'm even being trained by Frank Longbottom, who was Head Boy two years ago, do you remember him? According to him, The Daily Prophet isn't at all reliable anymore and you should not believe them when they claim things are getting more peaceful in the Wizarding World.

With you being at Hogwarts I don't imagine you have lots of means of communication with the outside world expect for the newspaper and your parents, and I urge you to use your critical mind before you believe either of them. Your parents mean well and often have a tendency to protect you from the ugly truth, but it is becoming more and more dangerous everyday here, even if they hide it from you.

Stay safe in school and take back that Quidditch trophy from the Slytherins. I know you can.

Love, Alice.

P.S: I do miss you dumbass.

James put down the letter with a fake smile while Remus folded the newspaper with satisfaction.

"They said the Ministry is getting close to catching those bastards from Diagon Alley. They could already be locked up by now for all we know. There were no deaths this week, things are finally starting to clear up."

James opened his mouth then closed it, hesitant to tell him about Alice's warning. Remus had enough on his mind right now, with the full moon coming up. What good would it do to take away his hope? There was nothing four teenagers in their positions could do against such an evil force, that seemed to be everywhere and nowhere at once.

James shoved Alice's letter in his bag. He was suddenly not hungry anymore.

Raising his eyes from his untouched piece of pie, something caught his attention on the other side of the table, a few seats away from him. Lily had stood up and was walking away briskly, a newly opened letter crumpled up in her right hand, wiping tears from her face with the left.

Without thinking, James threw his bag over his shoulder and got up in one quick movement.

"I'll be right back guys," he blurred out before going after her.

Lily walked so fast she was already out of sight, although it didn't matter to James because he exactly where she was going. Not even bothering to take out the map folded neatly in his pocket, he headed straight to the abandoned room in the second floor where he knew he would find her.

He stopped when he arrived at the door. He hadn't exactly taken the time to think of what he would say to her. There was one thing that he knew and it was that she was upset, and he couldn't stand the thought of that. He took a sharp inhale and pushed the door open.

Lily was sat at one of the desks, leaning on the table, her face buried in her arms. She hadn't seen him enter and James stood at the door awkwardly, afraid to startle her.

"Are you okay?" he said finally.

Lily's head rose from the table and she shot him a deathly glance. Tears were running down her face and she looked so desperately sad it broke James' heart.

"Fuck off, Potter," she answered in a weak voice before letting her head fall in between her arms again.

Not sad enough to lose her stinging retorts apparently.

"I just wanna know you're okay," insisted James, taking a step forward with his hands in the air to signify he came in peace.

Lily rose her head again, dried her cheeks with the sleeves of her robe and straightened up in her chair.

"As you can see I'm wonderful."

"That I trust," smiled James, taking another step forward. "But what I want to know is if you're okay."

Lily scoffed and rolled her eyes. Her eyes were still glistening and there was a slight shake in her voice James had never heard before. But then again, he had never seen her being so affected by anything before either.

"Is it your family? Are they okay?" he asked cautiously.

"They're safe, if that's what you're asking," sighed Lily. She seemed to have given up on kicking James out of the room so he allowed himself to relax just a little bit and sat on one of the desk, putting his legs up on a chair so he was facing her and leaning forward to see her face clearly.

"The letter was from my sister, if you really want to know," Lily said after a while.

"Is there something wrong with her?"

"No- I mean not exactly," Lily hesitated, wiping the tears from her face once again. Her voice was steadier now, which James was grateful for. He really didn't know how to act when Lily was not being her usual confident self. "Well... yes. There is, and it's because of me."

"I'm sure it's not," said James because there was nothing else to say.

"It is," insisted Lily and suddenly the tremble in her voice was back. "I've been pushing her away. I've been using her new boyfriend as an excuse to grow apart from her and I keep telling myself I'm doing this to protect her, to keep her away from the entire magical world and to keep her from getting hurt but I miss her James, I miss her."

The words were flowing from her mouth as if she had been keeping everything for herself for too long and desperately needed someone to confess to. Her hands she had been holding in front of her face starting shaking and she hid them under the table before continuing.

"I've been trying so hard to protect her, I didn't realize she was trying to protect me. I'm so used to her being jealous of me, for everything: my clothes, my hair, mom and dad's attention, Hogwarts, even Severus I think. She used to be jealous of me and now she's scared for me and I don't know what's worse James, I don't know what's worse."

"Why would she be scared for you? Does she know what's going on in our world?" asked James, his mind racing. These kind of revelations from Lily were unexpected to say the least, and he tried to act as undisturbed as possible, so he could be in the best position possible to help her.

"She likes to eavesdrop. I think she heard your mom talk to my parents after... well, you know what happened."

"Yeah, I know."

James had noticed that it was becoming increasingly difficult to talk about Diagon Alley as the days went on. As if time, far from healing all wounds, simply allowed more space for the pain to grow.

"It's not a bad thing that she wants to protect you," he continued. "You should let her."

"And risk her getting hurt? She's a Muggle, James, what can she do?"

"I'm not saying she should fight in the war alongside you, I'm saying she loves you and wants to be in your life and maybe you should let go and allow it to happen."

Lily smiled sadly, looking away from James and through the window. Rain was running down the glass and the fog just permitted to see the edge of the Forbidden Forest, and the trees violently agitating their branches in the wind.

"I don't think anything can be done to salvage my relationship with my sister by now. We're too different."

"How's that?"

"She's... I don't know. The only thing she seems to be interested in is fashion, modeling and her new boyfriend. There's nothing wrong with that but we've been growing apart because she keeps comparing us in that way. Her looks to mine. She's got it in her head that I'm prettier than her and she hates me for it."

"Well, you are beautiful," risked James.

"That's the thing! I don't want to belong in a society where women's value only reside in their beauty. That's what caused Tuney's insecurities in the first place. Hell, that's what caused mine. But I am finally done needing that kind of validation. Tell me I'm smart. Tell me I'm capable. Tell me I'm the most powerful fucking witch you've ever seen. But for the love of God quit telling me I'm beautiful."

"Lily?"

"Yeah."

"You're the most powerful fucking witch I've ever seen."

"Shut up."

"I mean it."

There was a pause, in which Lily stared straight at James, a wordless exchange during which she tried to determine whether or not he was serious. James held his breath the entire time.

"Thank you," she said finally, turning her head away from him so he wouldn't see the newly appeared tears falling down her face. "Please go now."

He left without a word.