Have you ever been up all night

No, I didn't stop writing 'As we go on'. I was just so caught up in 'I'd love you to hate me' that I had difficulties in concentrating on somethin else. I'm sorry that you had to wait so long! Thanks to those who reviewed and also thanks to those who wrote to me and asked for the next part, you know who you are. If you didn't remind me, then this would have taken much longer.

And if you don't remember anymore (can't blame you there!), the last scene was Lily in Dumbledore's office, he told her about this prediction.

As we go on...

Part 2

Have you ever been up all night? Have you ever been awake for more than 24 hours? If you did so, then you know what it feels like. It is like sleep-walking, but at the same time, you're wide awake. It feels a bit like a dream, everything seems to be far away and blurred, but nonetheless strangely real. Like a film on television in slow motion. Or maybe like you feel a few seconds before dozing off after you were given an anesthesia.

Why am I boring you with these questions? Because that's how Lily felt when she left Dumbledore's office, like a part of this slow-motion film, waiting for someone to cry "Cuuuuut!" so that she could act normally again. But there was no one. No one cried "Cut", the corridors were totally deserted. If she had thought logically, then this wouldn't have surprised her as it was 10 minutes before the end of the second lesson and every student and teacher was sitting in his classroom, taking notes of medieval goblin revolutions or trying to pour a Polyjuice Potion. But Lily wasn't thinking straight, and so the fact that she seemed to be the only person in the corridors made her impression that she was completely alone and abandoned only more intense. She knew that her self-pity was pathetic, but she also decided that she had the right to act a little pathetic, after all, you don't get told every day that the most powerful dark wizard ever is longing to see you dead, right?

And so Lily walked down a stair in direction of the room most of you probably still know (A/N: It's the one where Lily caught James kissing this other girl the day after the Ball, just in case you forgot about that). As Dumbledore had given her the day off, she thought that this was the ideal place to spend the next few hours as nobody would find her there except for her friends. And they had to be in their lessons and weren't able to look for her.

Ignoring the knight's challenge to a duel, Lily muttered the password and climbed into the room, the portrait closing behind her. She took a quick look around and took in the picture of the four velvety sofas, the woolen carpet that looked completely clean although it was most likely that it hadn't been washed for at least ten years, and the pieces of fluff that were dancing in the sunbeams that came in through the only window the room had. From the outside, it was impossible to see the window, they had often tried to find it, but still it was there and lit up the room.

Lily went over to it and leaned against the window frame, her head resting against the cold glass and not really noticing the first green leaves of the trees.

Why did they have to name me Lily? Judith's a fine name. Or Kathleen. Whatsoever. But no, it just had to be Lily, and now Voldemort's after me. My child, defeating him? How ridiculous. This would require that I had a child, or that I'm going to have one soon. Damn, I'm fourteen!

The sound of the opening portrait caused Lily to turn around. James entered the room, looking totally exhausted, but his face brightened up quickly when he saw her standing at the window.

"Hi Love! Watcha doing? Have you been hunted to death by your admirers? I've been."

Lily shook her head, smiling slightly. "Express yourself clearly, Mr. Potter. Who was hunting you? Your or my admirers?"

"Yours. I'd never have thought that you were that popular!"

"Hey!" she protested immediately, but James just grinned and tugged her close, covering her mouth with his lips.

When they had both gained back their self-control, he dragged her to one of the sofas and laid down, pulling Lily down as well so that she was lying next to him, her head resting on his chest. "So, why're you here?"

She just sighed and closed her eyes, not willing to disturb the comfortable atmosphere by repeating the words Dumbledore had said to her. There was, of course, no chance that James would be satisified with such an answer. Knowing that there was definitely something wrong, he brushed the hair out of her face and began stroking it. "Come on, Flower, you know you can tell me."

"Don't call me flower. If I weren't a flower, then all this wouldn't have happened."

"What wouldn't have happened?" James peered down at her.

"My parents, for example." she whispered, and now James really was worried.

He grabbed her firmly around the shoulders, pressing her even closer against him than she already was. "Lil... You can't blame youself for their death. It wasn't your fault."

"Yes, it was. If I didn't exist, then they would still be alive." She bit her lips, forcing the tears that threatened to escape her to stop.

"What happened, dear? You weren't thinking like that this morning. If it was something someone said, then I'm going to kill this person."

"You'd have to kill Dumbledore." Lily whispered, the shade of a smile on her face.

James winced. "Dumbledore? Dumbledore did this to you? But why? And what did he say?"

"He didn't say that my parents' death was his fault, but that was the meaning of his words."

"Which words?" he pressed.

Lily took a deep breath, not sure what to say. What if he just laughed? Or decided to stay away from her in order not to endanger himself?

Hey, this is James, your friend! You love him, and he loves you too. - Does he? - Of course he does, he said so, remember? And James doesn't say words without meaning, not to his friends. And he'd never leave you out of selfishness. Never.

While Lily had been debating with herself silently, James had been waiting patiently, feeling that this wasn't easy for her, but now he lifted her up into a sitting potion, sat up himself and put her into a tight embrace. "You know that you can tell me everything, don't you?"

He felt her head nodding against his chest, then she began to repeat Dumbledore's words. When she was done, neither of them moved for a few minutes, only James' hand was still stroking Lily's hair.

"What d'you think?" Lily's voice disturbed the silence.

James looked out of the window, then down at her before answering her question. "I think we should do everything to prevent you from being alone, no matter where you are." He hesitated for an instant, then decided that a bit of humor couldn't do any harm. (You know that you mean what you're saying. You would like to do that! - Shut up!) "Not even in your bed. I'd take care of that."

"James!"

Lily glared, but this didn't bother him in the slightest. A glaring Lily was much better than a sad one because the latter made him feel like someone was stabbing his heart with thousands of tiny knives. So he smiled sweetly at her, eyes all wide and innocent. "Well, Dumbledore said something about a child, didn't he? The more you practise, the more you..."

He couldn't continue as her hand was hitting his face, but as she didn't put much strenght into the slap, he knew that she wasn't too mad.

"Ow." He grinned at her. "So I take it that you don't want to practise with me?"

"I don't want to practise with anyone."

"But if your opinion changes, you'll come to me, right?"

"Keep you hormones in check, Potter!"

"What did he do?" Remus entered the room just in time to hear Lily's last words.

"Oh, nothing..." She blushed.

Remus looked back and forth between a very red Lily and a grinning James. "Yeah, right. Bet it was something very much like spending the night together."

"You know me too well." James looked amazed, but not embarrassed at all.

"Even Snape could have figured out that one, Prongs. Although he has not to sleep in a dorm with you."

"What's wrong with sleeping in a dorm with James?" Lily asked curiously. She ignored James' invitation to find it out on her own and waited for Remus' reply instead.

"He's talking in his sleep."

"He is?"

"Yep."

"Am not!"

"Yes, you are."

"What does he say?"

"Nothing you want to know about, Lily."

"Sure?"

"Definitely. James' dreams are way too improper for your young ears too hear."

"Excuse me?" Now James was moving uncomfortable.

"Don't you remember your own dreams?"

"Nope."

"Well, maybe this is better for poor Lily."

"Why're you here, anyway?"

"Oy, Prongs, is there someone trying to change the topic?" Remus grinned.

"No. Why're you here?"

"Divination. Couldn't stand the thought of Mylar drawling on and on about the Grim she thought to see in my crystal ball. Most likely, it was just Sirius doing something stupid."

Lily smiled. "She'll miss James today. That he's not there robs her of the possibility to make any more predictions about this stupid photo."

"She owns a copy?"

"Yes. Rita waisted no time. And come to think of it, please remind me to kill Sirius. He's responsible for an awful lesson, full of death signs and so on."

"Mylar's lessons are always filled with that."

"Yeah, but normally, she doesn't concentrate only on you and me. And on our influence on our friends' lives."

"Oh, what did she say? Something interesting?" James leaned forwards.

"Nothing you would call interesting. Only that our love'll fail for sure 'cause you're far too stupid for me."

Remus laughed. "It was more something about your signs not getting along, I guess."

Lily grinned, then nodded, tousling the hair of a sulking James - although it didn't look any different afterwards.

"That brings me to something else, Lil: Why are you here? You should be in Transfiguration right now! Couldn't stand the thought of being away from Jamie-boy, eh?"

James covered Lily's mouth with his hand and nodded smugly. "Yeah. She missed me with all her heart and forced me to skip the third lesson." He gave the girl an aw-shucks grin, then became a bit more serious. "Actually, we're here 'cause Dumbledore told her about a prediction Voldemort believes in, a prediction concerning Lily, me and our child."

"It didn't concern you!" Lily had finally freed herself.

"Can you imagine any other boy as the father of your child?" James pulled a face.

"I can't imagine anyone at all as the father of my child 'cause I won't have one for at least the next four years."

"You sure?" he asked, the grin once again returning, despite their delicate situation.

Remus sighed. "Could you eventually stop discussing James' hormonal issues? I'd like to hear what this prediction was about."

"Of course." Lily agreed instantly, silencing James, who was about to protest, with a warning look. Oddly enough, he got the message and shut up. "It says that Voldemort has to look out for the child of the 'flower', as it could be his downfall, and also that he mustn't try to defeat love as it's stronger than him."

"And you are the flower, right?"

She nodded. "One of them, at least."

"And now Voldemort wants to see you dead." Remus came quickly to this solution.

"Yes. And that's also why he killed my parents." It didn't hurt her that much right now, as she was distracted by James as well as by Remus.

"Which means that we'll have to look after you."

"Yeah." James took part in the conversation again. "We have to make sure that there's always someone with her. I'll take care of her during those hours I don't have to practise Quidditch. And during the nights, of course."

"How come I never came to see this side of you before I agreed to become your girlfriend?"

"We were supposed to be just friends, I could hardly make any suggestions about sharing a pillow right then, could I?"

"I guess so." Lily shrugged and turned back to Remus. "Don't listen to that jerk."

"Well... He's right, you know. - Partly." Remus added quickly after seeing her disbelieving look. "Not about the part concerning taking care of you during the night."

"Oooooh." James looked disappointed, but was ignored by Remus as well as by Lily.

"But the rest was definitely right. You mustn't be alone even a single second."

"D'you think that would do any good? I just can't imagine that a man more or less to kill would stop Voldemort."

James reached for her hand. "It's the only chance we have."

*****

Sorry, sorry, sorry! This part was awful, I know that. You don't have to tell me. WRITER'S BLOCK! And it was also horribly short, I'm aware of that as well. But I don't have any time at the moment, please forgive me. I'll try to get up the next part of this and the fourth one of "I'd love you to hate me" as soon as possible, okay?

Disclaimer: Everything belongs to me as I'm J. K. Rowling, I'm sure you already noticed that by the brilliant way I'm writing my stories. No, no autographs today, sorry! And as I'm schizophrenic, I'm also the German cartoonist Tom, therefore the nice little cartoon right at the beginning's mine as well. - J/K, you all know that nothing belongs to me.

Anna, Cassie Lee: I'm terribly, horribly sorry! Please believe me when I'm saying that I didn't have a single second by myself! I'll hurry up! To Ana:): Which Coca Cola song? 'Always Coca Cola'? It's the only one I know...

RavenNat: Not much Remus, I know, but I tried, really. I'm not very good at writing Remus, you know...

Emma: You want to know why I made Rita's last name Magnus? I always imagined that she was married, but drove her husband to suicide. *g* No, honestly, I don't know. But I can think of her as a disappointed and left wife, that would explain her character.

Me, myself and I: I already said that I don't hate you in the slightest bit, I think. If not, then I'm doing it now. And no, I didn't block you or something. Promise. I'd never do that to you!

Allie: Dippet was the Headmaster in my last part? Ooooops! How come I don't remember and you do? Thank you for pointing it out. - Anyway, let's just say that Dippet became sick and Dumbledore took his position over in the middle of the term, okay?

Skyflyer: That's a difference between you and me: Your brother's in the army, and mine's still going to the kindergarten... Really, I'm not joking.

Elektra Potter: Of course I used Remus' name, but I think he was Moony right from the start. His nickname doesn't have anything to do with the other three boys (curse Peter!!!) becoming Animagi, I guess he got it the moment James, Sirius and Peter *can't suppress a growl* found out about the werewolf-thing.

Elendil: Erm, you're able to speak 6 (in words: six) languages? Wow. *is deeply impressed*

Jessie: Did you get my email? I'm not entirely sure if I spelled your email-address right... Therefore, if there was nothing in your mailbox, then tell me and I'll send it once again.

© Saralea