A/N: Ah, yes, it's
the dreaded…….CHAPTER ELEVEN!!!! *dun, dun, dun* Evilness! Was everyone
nice and surprised at the last chapter? Were ya? Were ya? Well goody. Perhaps there shall be some l/j soon. We'll
see, won't we? Muwahaha. This chapter
might be a little more….serious. Some angst, perhaps? But I had to put something interesting in this story, so here it
is.
***
"Lily . . . Lily . . . Talk to me . . ."
Lily floated in the air, in an odd place where light came
from everywhere, and nowhere. She could
hear James' voice.
"I never . . . end this . . . Lily!"
James? She thought confusedly. Why was James worried about her?
She pranced about the area, laughing. Life was so wonderful. She felt . . .light. Suddenly, a bright spot of light appeared
ahead of her. Intriqued, Lily took a
step towards it.
Pain.
Lily stopped, surprised, as the hissing voice entered her
head. She waited a second, but it did
not come back. Shrugging, she stepped
forward again.
Pain. Death.
Lily stopped again. It was definitely there.
She looked around, and noticed that every way she looked, there was a
spot of light like the one she was following.
Was she going insane? She
strained her ears to hear the mysterious voice again, but heard nothing. Furrowing her eyebrows and wondering about
her mental health, she took another step.
Pain. Death. Agony.
Harry. Oh, yes, Harry. He's mine.
Never, Lily. Never. I'll succeed. Pain. Death. Agony.
Harry. Death. Harry.
Death.
Again and again it repeated in her head, until she dropped
to her knees, sobbing and clutching her head, begging it to stop.
***
James, who's eyes had gotten somewhat used to the darkness
of the closet, rubbed Lily's hand gently, trying to comfort her. He had noticed a sweat break out on her
forehead. She thrashed about, muttering
about death and a person named Harry.
He wished he knew what to do. He
hated this feeling; this helpless, worthless feeling. Lily stopped for a minute, then mouthed words. James froze.
"The light . . . step for the light . . . no more pain . .
."
"No, Lily," James pleaded quietly. "Don't die ! I . . . I couldn't bear it."
He noticed when he spoke, Lily stopped moving and breathed
more regularly. As soon as he stopped,
though, she immediately began again, worse than ever.
"Lily? Lily, can you
hear me?" she stopped, seemingly
listening. "Lily, it's James. I . . .
guess I need to talk to you. Because I
don't want you to die. I . . . I do
hate you, after all"- somehow, that didn't sound as true as it might have –"but
I don't want you to die. Please,
Lily. You can't die." He paused, and Lily began to move again. Hurriedly, he continued. "Well, I guess I'll
keep talking. Let's see, what should I
talk about? I know. Let me tell you about my friends. First, there's Remus, Moony, we call
him. He's kind of the shy one of the
group, but . . ."
He leaned in close and whispered in her ear. Somehow, it felt nice. How very odd.
***
Lily breathed more easily.
The horrible hissing voice had been chased away. Instead, it was replaced by a soft, kind
one. It sounded like . . .
James? She thought with incredulity.
She listened to the voice.
Concentrating on it seemed to chase the hissing disappear
completely. She sat down, and listened
to it with her eyes closed.
"You wanna know why we call him Moony? Well, I'll tell you. After all, it's not like you'll remember or
anything. Remus is a werewolf. Yup.
I didn't believe it myself, until later."
Images flashed behind Lily's closed lids. Odd images, one she had never seen
before. Remus – was it? He seemed so
old – teaching, of all things, with . . . a boggart, could it be? More pictures came as James' mellow voice
continued.
"So then, when we found out, we worked to become animagi,
so we could keep him company. Sirius is
a big black dog . . ."
Another image flickered.
She could see a boy, flying – he looked remarkably like James – in a
storm. Suddenly, there was a flash of
lightning, and a huge black dog, lokking very much like the fabled Grim, was
seen. The boy gave a start, and swerved
his broom. Lily gasped, hoping he did
not fall . . .
"And finally, there's me.
I'm . . . I'm a stag. It's
pretty neat, since . . ."
Lily saw the same boy, surrounded by dementors. He was losing his strength, and the horrid
creature in front of him began pulling its hood back . . . Lily gave a start. Suddenly, from behind a bush, the same boy popped out and
pointed his wand at the dementors. It
was impossible! And yet, there it was,
in front of her very eyes. Well, in a
way. The boy shouted something – Lily
could not hear anything, James' voice was the only thing she could – and a
milky white stag leaped out of his wand.
Lily was amazed. That was
James? It seemed impossible, from what
she had learned about animagi. They
were supposed to reflect the person's personality to the letter. This animal seemed . . . brave, and kind. Those were not words associated with James.
"So . . . That's us.
I'm running out of things to talk about. I wish Sirius were here.
He could talk until his tongue was worn down to shreds . . ."
Lily, realizing her closed eyelids were not going to reveal
any more pictures, opened her eyes. Her
environment had changed. The light was
very faint here, and dimming by the moment.
Suddenly, Lily felt as though she hadn't had any sleep in a week. The little light there was winked out, and
she fell into a deep slumber.
***
James felt Lily's hand relax, and noticed she was breathing
more slowly. He stopped talking and
noticed she no longer thrashed about.
Now she simply looked . . . peaceful.
He removed his hand from hers and sighed. There was no more use for him now.
Leaning back on the wall behind him, he looked at her. Really looked at her. For some reason, he did not see the same
Lily he always had, all these years.
She didn't look haughty, or arrogant.
She didn't look mocking, or angry.
She just looked . . .like Lily.
There was no other way to describe it.
James did not remember leaning forward, but he had. Lily was centimeters away from him, still breathing softly. She was so beautiful.
James could not believe he had never noticed it before. He leaned forward, and gently, ever so
gently, he kissed her.
***
Lily felt that James had stopped talking, somewhere in the
back of her subconscience. The dream
she was in was not comforting in the least.
She kept seeing a red-haired woman – who looked remarkably like her,
strangely enough – shouting that they would never take her baby. The horrid man in front of her, his face
distorted with madness, would laugh, point his wand, and . . . that part always
seemed dim. Lily did not understand
whether or not the woman died. There
was only a flash of green light, and the whole thing started over. It was excruciating. Lily felt as though the woman's pains were
her own, deep down. She longed for a
way to escape the nightmare, but none came.
Over and over again, the scene played itself in her head. She willed herself to wake up. She wanted to scream until every last breath
had gone from her body. She wanted to .
. .
Her eyes fluttered open at the slight pressure of someone's
lips on hers. She looked at the
startled brown eyes. James' startled
brown eyes. He leaped back from her as
if burned, and huddled as much as he could in a corner far from her.
Lily touched her head, feeling as though it should have a
splitting headache. She blinked, trying
to sort together what had just happened.
First the clouds, then the light, then . . .
"James?"
"Yeah . . .?" James answered miserably.
"James . . . what did you do? I mean, one minute I was hearing horrible voices, and the next .
. ."
"I talked,," James said glumly. Had Lily not known James well, she ouwld have said he was about
to cry. "You . . . you sounded like you were dying. When I talked . . . you got better."
Lily felt as though she could cry herself, but perhaps not
for the same reason. James . . . James
had done that to save her life? She
peered at the boy huddling in the corner, looking so miserable. Maybe he wasn't that bad. Maybe he really was like . . .
"James? Was it
true? Are you all really . . ." she
whispered the last word, " . . . animagi?"
James only nodded, biting his lip.
"James, I'm not mad at you or anything. Actually, I'm kind of . . .grateful."
James looked up, looking hopeful.
"Really? You mean
it?"
"Yeah. That was a
really nice thing you did for me, and . . . I owe you."
"You don't owe me anything," he whispered.
He shuffled over to her on his knees. And looked into her emerald eyes. Lily held her breath. Would he . . .? Could he . . .? Without a
word, James leaned forward and kissed her.
Lily felt a rush of electricity run down her spine. A little voice in her head was incredulous. James?
Why James?
Because I love him! Lily snapped at it. She returned the kiss with her own.
***
James was ecstatic.
He couldn't believe that Lily actually like him back. Come to think of it, he couldn't believe he
actually like Lily in the first place.
He let the kiss last a while longer, then pulled back, grinning
slightly.
"Um, Lily? Look at
us."
It was a sight to look at indeed. Lily was covered in orange-yellow slime, except for her face,
which had miraculously been spared. James
was hardly in a better state himself.
His dosage had been considerably smaller than Lily, but the effects were
still noticeable. His robes were
slippery and even more brightly colored than Lily's, and his arms were slicked
with the stuff. Even his hair was
flattened out by it. Amazingly, though,
his face had not been reached either.
Perhaps he had missed something in the spell.
Lily looked at James, then at herself. She smiled faintly at first, then more
broadly, and finally burst out laughing.
James grinned. It really was
rather amusing.
"We look . . . like . . . overgrown . . .slugs!" she wheezed
between breaths.
James laughed and hugged her. Lily hugged him back, and her mouth met his.
All of the sudden, light flooded the room. Loud whooping sounds were heard.
"Woo, woo!" Sirius
said loudly, puckering his lips. "Lil and Jamsie, sittin' on a broom. . ."
He got no further, as two humongous balls of slime hurled
themselves at him, knocking him off his feet into a gasping heap of glop.
***
A/N: Awwwwww, how sweet!! *sniffles* I know, I'm such a
sucker for romance. I wish that would
happen to me! *pouts* Anyway, one last chapter, then its on to the
sequel!!!!
