DISCLAIMER! I don't anything but the plot and extra sort of main
characters…okay?
A/N polikner, answer to your question: "Why are 11-12 year olds going steady?" my answer: no clue but they are!!! See when these guys (girls) go out its more just like being good friends…Yeah that's my answer, other wise its more like I want them to be older, but wanted to do some first year stuff…So yeah…and I've never gone through every year b4. But the relationships aren't going to be lasting much longer.
CHAPTER 10
(A/N wow! That's far! I love reviews!! 13! 13! It's so great!! YEAH!!! I can die happy!)
IT was mid July, and Lily was starting to get sick of Quidditch…Not too much, but enough that she would be sitting at the breakfast table and ask "Pass the Quaffles" When what she really meant was, "Pass the waffles!"
Mindy giggled, "Here are the Quaffles!"
"Oh thanks." And she kept eating not even noticing.
"Do you think we should take a break from Quidditch today? Go to Diagon Alley today and get some ice cream." Mindy asked, thinking that Lily needed a break.
"Yeah, that'd be great!" Lily looked up from her plate and smiled.
*~*~*~*~*
They were preparing to leave with Floo powder, and it reminder Lily of "Floo" her stuffed bunny.
"Floo, would have wanted to see this." Lily said thinking out loud.
"What?" Mindy asked getting confused.
"Floo is my stuffed bunny!" Lily replied, and then told Mindy about Jimena's gift, back in first year.
"Strange." Was all Mindy could say. "So, I was wondering if Marvin had owled you or anything this summer."
"Ah, sort of, I owled him, and told him, I wanted to end it." Lily said quietly.
"You DID? Why didn't you tell me? And may I ask why!? I thought you guys were doing fine." Mindy ranted.
"We were doing fine, but it just didn't feel right, he was really getting on my nerves with that over protectiveness stuff. He owled me and said he agreed, and that we should just be friends, and he was glad I said it because he was afraid to." Lily said in one breath, she inhaled deeply. "I would have said something sooner, but all that quidditch!" Lily said laughing a bit.
"Yeah, but Quidditch is my life." She said simply.
"Oh my god! Mindy! You just sounded exactly like Robert!!" Lily screeched and pointed at her friend laughing.
"Lily! Just ruin my day talking about him! He even dared to owl me over the summer, asking me if HE should play for the England team, or Ireland. The nerve!" She ranted for the second time.
"I have to agree, that was quite low of him." Lily obviously agreed. "Let's go then, all right?" With that they floo powdered to the Ice Cream shop, and to Mindy's utter horror, there was Robert Saratoga, looking quite pleased that Mindy and Lily had just fell into the room.
"Hello Ewing." He said with false sweetness.
"Hello Saratoga." Mindy replied with venom.
"Why don't you step into my office?" He said and pointed to a table.
"I'd rather not-." She started to say.
"Sit down; sit down, andlet's discuss Quidditch!" Mindy couldn't resist, Lily was fun to talk to about Quidditch, but she didn't know the teams like Robert did, or have the passion like he did, which was as strong as hers.
Lily decided to make a quick exit and leave the two 'love birds' alone. She knew if they were able to have just one decent conversation together they would just click!
And much to her surprise, that's exactly what they were doing.
"Chudley Cannons are the best!" Robert said, and Lily knew that they were Mindy's favorite team too… 'Aww." She thought to herself.
She went off to by herself an ice cream, and ate it by herself, and sat by Robert's friends who obviously had the same idea she did about Robert and Mindy.
That's how Lily spent her day off from Quidditch, listening to Quidditch. Lily sighed and decided that it was worth it. Mindy seemed to be enjoying herself.
*~*~*~*~*
Lily was so happy to get back to Mindy's they both ate a quick dinner since it was quite late, and went up to their different rooms.
Lily was surprised to find a letter from Petunia, here it is.
Lily
I just wanted to tell you, that I'm glad we aren't living together anymore because I am quite happy living with Grandmother. (Yuck Lily thought, Grandmother hated Lily, good for you!) I hope that you are happy wherever you are considering the fact that you killed are parents. I've decided to let that slip, and I was wondering if you would come and stay here with me. I know we've never really gotten along, but we are still sisters. Besides you still haven't met my boyfriend yet! Yes, I'm still going out with him. I swear he is my soul mate! Well, this letter is getting long enough, so I hope your summer, and year have been going great.
Love (Lily could see that she had erased the beginnings of Sincerely.)
Petunia
Lily was shocked, her sister actually missed her! She knew she couldn't go with her Grandmother, but Lily thought her Grandmother had died…both of them, what happened had her parents lied to her about that? Lily dismissed those thoughts, and decided to write her sister a letter telling her why she couldn't go to Grandmother's. Since she was a witch.
It was an awful letter to write, and Lily figured that Petunia was going to hate her even more when she got it, but she didn't care, why would Lily want to stay with some one who thought SHE killed her parents. (A/N like always…)
Lily sent the letter off with Socrates, and went to bed…
*~*~*~*~*
Lily had been having nightmares for a long time, and they were always the same, her parents were being murdered, and then there was a bright light and it ended. Lily had finally started to remember them, it wasn't a good thing. She had had more trouble sleeping, then ever before during that summer, she really missed her mum and dad. Her Mum used to get her a glass of water when she had nightmares when she was little.
Lily awoke that night from the nightmare, feeling a bit sick. She tried to get back to sleep, but couldn't.
You know how sometimes when you're trying to sleep, and your thoughts seem to go exactly to what will keep you up the longest? That happened to Lily that night.
Did she really kill her parents? Was it because of her that they died? What would Voldemort want with her that was so important he had to kill her parents? Actually he had tried to kill HER. But she wasn't positive. Her thoughts went like that for a long time.
Her last clear thought that night was, Does it have something to do with my curse?
*~*~*~*~*
During August, Lily was having a really tough time dealing with her parents, but once again she didn't let it show. She would only cry when she was alone, late at night. Everyone assumed she was over it, she wasn't.
*~*~*~*~*
Lily awoke on September the first, ready to get to school where everything was normal, well as normal as it could get at Hogwarts.
Lily and Mindy were taken to the train station at 10:30 by Mindy's mum, in a taxi. The driver gave them quite a few looks, they laughed about it. The two owls were hooting obnoxiously.
Thankful to be at the train station, the two girls said good by to Mrs. Ewing and made a run through the barrier. Lily went first and ran so hard into some one she fell on top of them, and much to her surprise, it was (A/N of course they keep ending up on top of each other!) James.
"I'm so sorry!" She said getting up quickly. James didn't say anything he was just staring at her. "Ahem, James are you in there?" He shook his head and came back to reality.
"Uh, yeah sorry about that, spaced out. Lily you look really…different!" She took it as a compliment.
"Thanks, you do too!" James had grown a great deal taller, and they both looked more like responsible people then they had they year before. James was much taller then Lily now. She looked up at him. "You got tall!"
"Hey I was always tall!" He said offendly. (A/N that's not a word you know, but it is now.)
"All right, so tall-ER!" She corrected herself.
"And you're still the shorty you have always been."
"Don't rub it in."
" Where's Jimena and Sierra?" Mindy said finally, she had been letting the two get reacquainted.
"Hm, haven't seen them. Oh there they are!" Lily shrieked, and ran over to her friends.
"Lily! It's so good to see you!" Sierra said hugging her.
"Yeah, I was just talking to James, other wise I would have found you sooner!" She looked at Jimena; Lily got a letter from her over the summer saying that James had broken up with her. Everyone seemed to be breaking up, but Lily had expected it, they were only fourteen, well Lily was still 13, her birthday was in April.
"Don't worry Lily, I am SO over him." Jimena said joking a bit.
"Okay, good, don't let that guy's ego get to you or anything." Lily warned her friend. That had been Jimena's supposed reason for being able to get over him.
"I'm NOT." She defended herself.
"Okay, that's good. So, just wondering but, do you hate him?" Lily tried not to be blunt, but it was a bit hard.
"Sort of, he didn't even give a reason!" Jimena exclaimed angrily.
"He never does, how many times DID you break up with him in third year." Sierra asked lazily.
"What? We weren't breaking up we were just arguing." Jimena said hotly.
"Whatever you say." Jimena and James were as fickle as Sirius and Sierra, but Sirius and Sierra were still not together as of that moment.
Lily looked around her, "Where'd Mindy go."
"Over there." Sierra pointed to Mindy talking to Robert, again.
"Since when were they civil?" Jimena asked as they all watched them. "She still has stomped off angry yet!" She pointed out.
"OH yeah, I forgot to tell you about those two. I swear they belong together!" Lily explained everything from the ice cream shop to the "accidental" meeting at Flourish and Blotts. (A/N I don't know if that store was in Hogsmeade or wherever but it's in Diagon Alley now!)
"I was wondering when they would come around." Sierra said smiling; they had found a compartment while Lily informed them, of the new information.
Lily was beginning to wonder if the Marauders would show up.
"Where are the guys at?" She asked voicing her thoughts. Just then they walked in, trunks in tow.
"Hello, ladies, and Sierra." Sirius said expressing the resentment.
"Hello ladies and Jimena." James said, mocking Sirius.
"Hello ladies!" Remus and Peter said, after all, neither of them had dated within the friend shop circle. (A/N ha ha! That just sounds weird!)
"Please people; stop it with the rude comments!" Lily glared at everyone, right at that moment she was very glad that she and Remus had never gone out.
"Yeah, I know what you mean Lils." Remus said sitting beside her, and Peter next to him. Leaving the other two boys, to sit by their ex-s, but instead Sirius and James ended up fighting over who was sitting next to Lily. (A/N I wonder if that really is a word…)
James made a move to sit by her, and Sirius cut him off, James pulled him back.
"Sirius, I was going to sit there first!"
"No you weren't, I was!" Sirius said raising his voice.
"Stop acting so-so- childish!" Lily yelled, the two boys were quiet. "Just sit somewhere already and act mature." Lily was in a very bad mood then, she was mad that her friends weren't friends with each other, and had a feeling that being friends with the Marauders would be impossible while being friends with Jimena and Sierra. It just wasn't going to work, but Lily planned to try.
There was some more quiet bickering and finally everyone was seated. James by Sierra, Jimena by her, and Sirius by Jimena, Lily refused to have anyone else sit by her. The train was finally off to Hogwarts, and no one had said a word to each other.
Five minutes turned to ten minutes, and ten minutes to fifteen then an two hours had suddenly gone by. Sirius was going on a record, Lily thought smiling a bit. Lily then looked at James, he was staring at her, but he didn't seem to notice, he was probably thinking.
Then Lily looked at Sierra and Jimena, her first thought strangely came to 'teenage problems'. That was exactly what was going between them all. Lily, Remus and Peter at least, were as neutral as they could be; having friends of the opposite sex was difficult if they insisted on dating your friends.
Lily had a feeling fourth year was not going to be pleasant, all her years at Hogwarts, seemed a bit crazy, third year had been terribly sad, second year she almost died in a freak quidditch accident, and first year, was the most normal of them all.
The snack lady came by and the boys all got up to get some food.
"Finally!" Sierra said letting out a big sigh. "I thought I was going to die!"
"Yeah, this is awful!" Jimena agreed.
"Oh you two better start acting more civil around James and Sirius, or I won't be able to be friends with them, now while me and James don't particularly get along that well, Sirius is some one I would really like to keep as a friend!" Lily said angrily. "I'm pretty sure Remus and Peter feel the same way too!"
Her two friends glared at her. "Lily, its not that easy, you don't know what its like to break up with a boyfriend." Jimena said.
"Yes I do! Remember I broke up with Marvin over the summer!" Lily said indignantly.
"Oh why didn't you tell me!?" Sierra said.
"I did! I sent you both owls!"
"Oh." Sierra said embarrassed.
"I forgot too, sorry Lils." Jimena apologized.
"Its okay, I broke it off with him, and we are still being friends, not glaring and snapping at each other everyone we get!" Luckily Sierra and Jimena didn't have to reply to this because the Marauders came in the room, and all was silent again.
*~*~*~*~*
A few minutes before…
The boys left the compartment, happy to get away from the harsh atmosphere.
"God, I was dying in there!" Sirius said, almost like he was gasping for air.
"Yeah, I've never seen you be so quiet, for so long!" Remus remarked.
"Shut up, I didn't exactly want to fight with those…girls again."
"Lily didn't have to yell like that though." Peter chirped.
"Yeah, she gets scary when she does that." Sirius said with a shutter.
"Hey James why you being so quiet?" Remus asked when James still hadn't said anything.
"Uh, I've just been thinking is all?" James tried.
"Really, come on man, what's wrong with you? All summer, you didn't send an idea for a prank! I was getting worried!" Sirius said.
"Well, I've had a lot on my mind." James replied, getting a bit irritated.
"Not over Jimena? You guys weren't even that serious in the first place, no pun intended Sirius." Remus said.
"No other…things." He said, "I was worried about if we were going to get the potion working by fifth year." James half lied.
"Don't worry about THAT." Remus said feeling guilty. "It'll work, and I don't mind if it doesn't."
James couldn't tell them his real problem, not on the train anyways.
*~*~*~*~*
They compartment was silent, and Lily was going crazy, James was still looking at her in that weird way.
"ALL right, somebody better start talking to me right now, or I'm leaving!" She said finally.
"So Lily, how's quidditch going?" Remus said immediately jumping at the chance to talk to someone.
"Great, Mindy had me practicing all summer!" Soon everyone was joining in on the conversation about how their summers had went, except James, who continued to sit quietly.
(A/N don't worry there's a point to this, I think.)
James all of a sudden starting having a bad feeling, he looked at Lily again, she looked fine, was something going to happen? Maybe it was just nerves about going back to school, or maybe her life was in danger again…James didn't like that thought, Lily didn't even know about him being her protector so maybe he should tell her, right now!
James started thinking about it in his head…How would he say it?
'Lily, you know how you are cursed and everything, well me too!'
No, no definitely not that way.
'Lily there's something you should know, that would make my life 10 times easier.'
Don't even go there James. She'd probably think you'd gone crazy over the summer.
All of a sudden James's thoughts were interrupted by the train lurching to a stop. Everyone was in disarray for a moment, Peter had fallen out of his seat, and all their owls were hooting, and needed to be calmed, or in Socrates' case, picked up from where he'd fallen on the floor.
"What in bloody hell's going on!?" Sirius shouted.
"Calm down Sirius, maybe something just malfunctioned or something." Lily said in a rush to calm him.
"How can you be so sure?" James said finally, he was really worried now, his heart was beating fast, and his palms were sweating, he needed to get Lily out of there.
Just then Lily and everyone felt a thump, and then they heard it.
"What's going on?" Sierra wondered, fear in her voice.
"D-Do you think it's…You-Know-Who?" Jimena asked nervously.
"No way, what would he be doing here?" Sirius said trying to reassure them, but he couldn't hide the slight fear in his voice.
Lily all of a sudden got really nervous; she knew something bad was happening.
"Guys, I have a feeling something bad is going to happen." Lily said shakily.
"Don't worry Lils; nothing's going to happen to you." Remus said, and looked directly at James. (A/N remembers he knows too, he's known the longest!) "Nothing is going to happen to anyone."
"I'm still scared." Remus protectively put his arm around her. Then they started hearing banging coming down the corridor.
"What was that?!" They all said at the same time.
They all stood up, and looked out the door, and what they saw scared them to death: Death Eaters.
(A/N I was thinking, I should just leave at that, but I couldn't do that to myself, or you guys! I know what's actually going on here; I have it planned in my mind…for once)
As soon as James saw them he pulled Lily back in, knowing her life was in danger, he didn't know what to do. How could he save her?
Remus closed the door and locked it. They started to panic.
"What do w-we d-do now guys?" Peter asked scared to pieces.
"Think, think!" James muttered to himself. He had all his school supplies with him, including: His invisibility cloak. "My Cloak!" He shouted and dove into his trunk searching for it as quickly as he could. They could hear the Death Eaters coming down the hall way, looking through each compartment, and hearing 'stupefy' and other such things. Thank God no Avada Kedavras, James thought.
"Found it!" James exclaimed. They enlarged it with a quick spell and everyone went under it. But James was still worried, he still had that sickening feeling, death was getting closer…To Lily.
James moved towards Lily under the cloak, not knowing what else to do. He kept himself in front of her. It was his duty after all. 'The Connection' that forced him to protect her no matter what.
"Guys don't breath so loud!" James whispered even though he himself was breathing heavily.
"Oh my God, I'm going to die." Lily said quietly. James wondered if she had feelings that she was going to die, or was in danger. That creeped him out a bit.
"No your not Lily, as long as I'm around you won't." James told her.
"Yeah Lils, none of us will let you die." Sierra whispered.
They heard the Death Eaters stop outside their door, they all took a deep breath.
"I have a feeling this is the right door." A grim voice grunted.
"Remember, if the girl or boy is in there, we kill them, other wise just stupefy, we don't need that nonsense." Another voice commanded. Each voice made them all quiver in fear.
James was wondering what girl and boy they were looking for, him and Lily? No, they don't know about the curse, and why should they care? Then his thoughts went to the fact that Lily's parents had been murdered, and they might have been searching for her.
Lily's thoughts were mostly the same, except she didn't know about the boy, could it be her protector? Maybe she thought. Dear God don't let me die, she prayed, or My friends.
The door exploded and the two death eaters looked around, "they were here I know it, look at the trunks." The first one grumbled.
Shit!, James thought he hadn't had a clue to cover them up. Don't let them come in, they'll bump into us!
Lily at that moment really wanted to scream, she was so scared, she was backed up against the window by then, and her friends were trying not to breath loudly.
"Hm, they might be hiding somewhere, they were here, and I bet they knew we would kill them, so they ran for it. Remember, that boy gets feelings about when she's in danger.
James gulped; they were definitely talking about him and Lily for sure.
Lily knew it too, she was really afraid for whoever was protecting her, their life was in danger too. Lily was really scared when she saw the two Death Eaters step closer to them.
"Do you think there was a way they got through the window?" The one Lily assumed was the stupider one said.
"Hm, I doubt it you go on ahead and take a look if you want." No! No! NO! Lily wanted to scream. There were definitely going to get caught and she was going to die!
James was thinking the exact same thing. Except it was more like 'Lily, they are going to kill me and her, I hope they kill me first, actually they are going to have to!'
The second Death Eater walked straight toward them and ran smack into Sirius who punched him as hard as could, which was pretty hard.
"Someone's-." The Death Eater gasped for air. "Someone's here! Invisible!" He gasped again.
"GET THEM!" The other Death Eater screamed. Some how in all the confusion the invisibility cloak fell to the floor and all seven teenagers were out in the open. James' first instinct was to get Lily out of there as quick as possible, but he didn't know how. He kept looking for a way to escape but the door was blocked, or what was left of it.
"Leave them alone and take me instead!" Lily yelled.
"No, it's me you want!" James cried out trying to save Lily's butt.
"Ah, so here the two of them are just like the master said!" The smarter Death Eater said smugly. Lily stared at James, HIM?!
The jig is up James thought.
"Guess we should kill them." The stupid one said.
"No!" James cried and grabbed Lily's hand, and pulled her behind him.
"James you idiot, it's me they want, not you go!"
"No, it's my duty to protect you, and I'm going to do it!"
"Stupid, idiot!" She shouted in frustration, they were definitely going to die.
Lily and James both tried to think of a way to escape from this mess. The Death Eaters had tied up their friends, probably to torture them Lily thought and they were still conscious so they could see and hear whatever James and Lily said.
"So, why does Voldemort want us dead anyways?" Lily asked more bravely then she felt.
The Death Eater looked smug at this. "Because the two of you supposedly according to some prophecy are going to be a big help to his downfall, and he's not happy about that."
"Do you believe you 'Master' is worried about two kids defeating him? How wimpy is that!" James said fiercely.
"JAMES!" Lily scolded. The Death Eater looked, pissed.
"That wasn't smart boy."
'Think Think Think!' Lily and James were obviously thinking, they needed to get out of there really quickly.
The Death Eater held up his wand, James looked at Lily's scared face, then he looked out the window. His heart racing he grabbed Lily's hand again and will a lot more force then normal picked her up and threw her out the window, he heard her scream for a minute, then she was quiet.
James noticed how shocked the Death Eaters and his friends were, and jumped out after her. 'That was brilliant James." He thought to himself sarcastically.
He landed next to Lily who was out cold. He picked her up with surprising strength for his age and swung her over his should and ran as fast as he could to the front of the train, he knew he couldn't escape, they would only find him, but maybe help would be there soon.
He saw the Death Eaters jump out of the window in pursuit of him and Lily. The only real clear thought in James' head at that point was 'run'. Which didn't do him much good.
James noticed more Death Eaters at the front of the train, he was trapped, and she was going to die! He was going to die too! James panicked. He felt Lily waking up.
"James?" She said quietly. He couldn't let her die, he couldn't! Something turned in James' stomach at the thought of what they would do to her.
The next thing James knew there was a bright light all around him, and he fell unconscious. Next to a once again unconscious Lily.
*~*~*~*~*
Lily woke up first not too long after, the Death Eaters were gone, and James was next to her unconscious. She strained to remember what happened, but all she remember was James picking her up so fast and throwing her…At the WINDOW?
That must have been how they escaped, poor James, Lily thought looking at him, he looked very tired, she felt very tired too, she couldn't even sit up, it hurt too!
"Thanks James." She said quietly, and to her utter surprise, he opened his eyes.
"You're welcome." He whispered hoarsely. Well at least he's okay she thought
'Good she's okay.' James thought.
"James, you're awake!" She exclaimed and tried to get up, and then she noticed she had cuts up and down her, apparently from the window. "YOU threw me out a window!" She said, and just as she said that she thought, HOW?
"Yeah, sorry about that, but I didn't know what else to do!" James said rolling over onto his back. He said sorry! Lily thought, but he wasn't even sincere!
"It's okay, I think Madame Pomfrey can fix this easily when we FINALLY get to school." She finally managed to sit up a ways.
"We need to get back to everybody; they are probably thinking we are dead!" James said trying to stand up, and finding he couldn't. "Or, since I can't stay up, we can sit here and wait."
"What if the train leaves us?"
"It won't Lily trust me." They were silent a moment.
"James?"
"Yeah?"
"What the hell happened with the Death Eaters anyway? They just disappeared!" Lily said, she had meant it to sound more mature, but she couldn't think of a good way to say it.
"Honestly? I have no idea, I was carrying you-." Lily blushed at this. "And then we got trapped right here where we are, and I started to really freak, and then you started to wake up, I remember you said my name and then there was this burst of bright light," He stopped for a moment, thinking.
"And?"
"I went unconscious, and now I feel extremely tired." James said simply.
"I hope Dumbledore is prepared for me to ask him some serious questions." Lily stated.
"Yeah, I think he knows more then he's telling."
"James, so what do you think? You know, knowing that I'm the person you have to, err, protect?" Lily asked him, she didn't know that he'd known for a year that it was her.
"Honestly?"
"Yes, please."
"I already knew."
"YOU DID!" Lily screeched, with such energy, she felt some pain. "Why in the bloody Hell didn't you tell me!?"
"Calm down! All right, partly because I wasn't positive it was you, and partly because, last year you were having it rough anyways and it never seemed important."
"Not IMPORTANT!?" Lily was about to yell more, but was cut off, by a familiar looking professor of hers.
"Oh thank goodness you're okay!" He said looking very relieved.
"Well, I've been better, you see Professor we can't stand up." James said from the ground.
Dumbledore immediately conjured up some stretches where the two of them lay.
"Thank you Professor." Lily said politely.
"Lily, if you'd like I can heal those cuts up for you instantly with this quick spell."
"Please Sir, it would be quite nice, you see I was sort of thrown out a window." Dumbledore looked amused, but James blushed. "James, I'm still wondering how you managed to throw me…so hard."
"I can answer that Miss Evans; it's the Curse of course. Remember?"
"Oh yeah, I forgot about what the curse did, but I thought that only applied to me." Lily stated.
"No, both of you, and even more so for Mr. Potter here."
"Oh." Lily said, not knowing what else to say.
James finally spoke up. "Professor, what was that bright light?" Dumbledore's eyes twinkled, he knew something. "Ah, Mr. Potter, that was a good observation, but I'm afraid to say I can't exactly tell you what it was, let's just say it is something that has to do with your emotions at that very moment, and Lily's too."
"Oh." James and Lily were both a bit confused, Lily had been mostly unconscious, so how could she have felt anything, and James had been in complete panic, or so he thought.
"Miss Evans, Mr. Potter, I'm afraid there are many things about the curse I have yet to discover, you will find out a lot of it on your own, I can only give you information that you should know."
"Excuse me Professor, but can I ask, why didn't you tell me that James was the Protector of me?" Lily was still getting used to the idea.
"Ah, that I can answer easily, that way you two could become friends on your own, and not for some other reason."
Lily glanced at James, they certainly weren't that good of friends, but if they were going to learn about this…Curse they were going to have to work together.
*~*~*~*~*
Lily and James were both taken to the hospital wing as soon as they got to school, and they hadn't even got to tell their friends that they were okay, Dumbledore, who had brought the Professors with him to the train, sent McGonagall to free them of their bindings.
Madam Pomfrey as soon as she saw them, made a big fuss, and fixed Lily's scrapes and cuts, and gave them some sort of 'activitia' potion that would help them become their old selves again.
Lily sat up in her bed next to James'. She was a bit…Angry with him for not telling her, but she tried not to show it.
"James, why'd you break up with Jimena?" She asked him finally after a while of silence.
"Well, I just didn't like her anymore, I sort of like some one else…" His voice trailed off.
"Oh, she's mad at you for it, just try to be civil around her again, and maybe we can all be friends again." Lily told him, she wanted all her friends to be friends; it's not fun when they fight, and she told James this.
"Well, Lils sorry to burst your bubble, but Sierra and Sirius, are just as bad as me and Jimena!"
"I am so glad; I did not date with in my friend circle." Lily said smiling a bit. "And I don't plan to!" She didn't notice that James' face fell a bit when she said this.
"Yeah, plus you still got Marvin." James muttered.
"Nah, we broke up over the summer, good thing it was too, he was getting clingy!" Lily laughed at this. James laughed too, but for different reasons.
"We better beat them at Quidditch this year, or I'll never for give myself!" James said happily.
"Yeah, I can hardly wait for practice to start!"
"So we have two new people for the team, a chaser/ captain, and a beater, who's going to try out?" James asked Lily.
"Um, I think Winnie Williams is trying out for beater and I hope to god she makes it! I need a girl on the team! I think the new captain is supposed to be Robert Saratoga, Mindy's not going to like that, and the new Chaser might be Steven, Sierra's little brother!"
They continued to talk as friendly as they could, considering Lily was quite pissed at him still. Soon they were visited by their friends.
"Is it just me or do these two keep putting each other in the Hospital Wing?!" Sirius immediately said.
"Yeah, they sure do seem to have a knack for it!" Remus laughed. Lily and James both glared.
"So what happened to you guys!?" Sierra asked.
"Yeah, I thought you were both dead!" Jimena said worriedly, "Not that it would be a bad thing if Potter died." Getting glares, she corrected herself. "Just kidding, I don't want that!"
The two retold what happened; they had also told Dumbledore about it on the train. They conveniently left out the fact about the curse.
"I wonder what happened to the Death Eaters. I mean they were just gone?" Sirius asked stumped.
"Yeah it was really weird." Peter said, speaking for the first time.
"I wonder what that emotion thing was." Sierra wondered a loud. Surprisingly James blushed at this, but said nothing.
"I have no idea; I can't really remember anything…" Lily decided to tell her friends about the Curse, and that made the story make even more sense to their friends, except for Sirius and Remus, who already seemed to know.
"You two!?" Jimena exclaimed laughing.
"That is quite funny, but yet it makes perfect sense." Sierra commented. "Like that time on the Quidditch field in second year!"
"Ohhh Yeahhh." Lily said catching on.
"And that time at Lily's house last summer, the same thing happened." James said, everyone looked at him, no one knew about him going to Lily's.
"You went to LILY'S?" Sirius asked appalled.
"Well, yeah, I just had a feeling I should get there, and the connection between us, seemed to take me right there, since I don't even know where she lived." James explained.
"No, I mean, you never told me you went there? Why? When? How?" So James had to explain everything, including the fact that it was the day Lily's parents died, no one seemed to know that Lily had almost died that day too, no one had asked her about it.
"Lily! You never told us!" Sierra yelped, if she had known that, she would have been more…understanding or something.
"I didn't think it mattered, I didn't want you guys to worry about Voldemort coming to kill me or something, but that's too late…now." When they didn't respond Lily tried to get them to understand. "You guys don't know what it's like, and I don't want you guys to worry any more about me then you have to!"
James seemed to understand the best, and finally said, "Guys, it was really scary that night, and she probably didn't want to relive it."
"I just don't understand why you didn't tell us…anything!" Jimena said a bit hurt.
"James, you didn't tell us anything either, I mean normally when you save a person's life, you gloat, but you said nothing at all!" Sirius remarked.
Lucky for James and Lily, Madame Pomfrey came and shooed everyone out, for a young-ish lady she was quite fussy.
*~*~*~*~*
Lily and James were quite happy to get to class, but James was very surprised that Lily, Jimena and Sierra, were ignoring him, and the other Marauders! They hadn't even done anything, he thought everything had been cleared up, but apparently it hadn't, James couldn't even ask them about it.
So finally, James just stopped trying to talk to them.
*~*~*~*~*
(A/N dum dum dum!! I wonder what changed their minds…I don't know, I just threw that in there! That reminds me, isn't it weird that James threw Lily out a window, I mean I could think of better ideas to save a person, no wait that was my idea…apparently I can't!! So what did you think of this chapter, longest so far!! I didn't like it too well, but I was bored and wanted some action, so there you go! My fave part was writing that stupid Death Eater in there ( I decided it was Crabbe or Goyle!) So PLEASE READ AND REVIEW!! REVIEW!! REVIEW!! Toodles!)
*~Sierra~* ( nice I put my pen name in the story right? Okay okay I'm going!)
A/N polikner, answer to your question: "Why are 11-12 year olds going steady?" my answer: no clue but they are!!! See when these guys (girls) go out its more just like being good friends…Yeah that's my answer, other wise its more like I want them to be older, but wanted to do some first year stuff…So yeah…and I've never gone through every year b4. But the relationships aren't going to be lasting much longer.
CHAPTER 10
(A/N wow! That's far! I love reviews!! 13! 13! It's so great!! YEAH!!! I can die happy!)
IT was mid July, and Lily was starting to get sick of Quidditch…Not too much, but enough that she would be sitting at the breakfast table and ask "Pass the Quaffles" When what she really meant was, "Pass the waffles!"
Mindy giggled, "Here are the Quaffles!"
"Oh thanks." And she kept eating not even noticing.
"Do you think we should take a break from Quidditch today? Go to Diagon Alley today and get some ice cream." Mindy asked, thinking that Lily needed a break.
"Yeah, that'd be great!" Lily looked up from her plate and smiled.
*~*~*~*~*
They were preparing to leave with Floo powder, and it reminder Lily of "Floo" her stuffed bunny.
"Floo, would have wanted to see this." Lily said thinking out loud.
"What?" Mindy asked getting confused.
"Floo is my stuffed bunny!" Lily replied, and then told Mindy about Jimena's gift, back in first year.
"Strange." Was all Mindy could say. "So, I was wondering if Marvin had owled you or anything this summer."
"Ah, sort of, I owled him, and told him, I wanted to end it." Lily said quietly.
"You DID? Why didn't you tell me? And may I ask why!? I thought you guys were doing fine." Mindy ranted.
"We were doing fine, but it just didn't feel right, he was really getting on my nerves with that over protectiveness stuff. He owled me and said he agreed, and that we should just be friends, and he was glad I said it because he was afraid to." Lily said in one breath, she inhaled deeply. "I would have said something sooner, but all that quidditch!" Lily said laughing a bit.
"Yeah, but Quidditch is my life." She said simply.
"Oh my god! Mindy! You just sounded exactly like Robert!!" Lily screeched and pointed at her friend laughing.
"Lily! Just ruin my day talking about him! He even dared to owl me over the summer, asking me if HE should play for the England team, or Ireland. The nerve!" She ranted for the second time.
"I have to agree, that was quite low of him." Lily obviously agreed. "Let's go then, all right?" With that they floo powdered to the Ice Cream shop, and to Mindy's utter horror, there was Robert Saratoga, looking quite pleased that Mindy and Lily had just fell into the room.
"Hello Ewing." He said with false sweetness.
"Hello Saratoga." Mindy replied with venom.
"Why don't you step into my office?" He said and pointed to a table.
"I'd rather not-." She started to say.
"Sit down; sit down, andlet's discuss Quidditch!" Mindy couldn't resist, Lily was fun to talk to about Quidditch, but she didn't know the teams like Robert did, or have the passion like he did, which was as strong as hers.
Lily decided to make a quick exit and leave the two 'love birds' alone. She knew if they were able to have just one decent conversation together they would just click!
And much to her surprise, that's exactly what they were doing.
"Chudley Cannons are the best!" Robert said, and Lily knew that they were Mindy's favorite team too… 'Aww." She thought to herself.
She went off to by herself an ice cream, and ate it by herself, and sat by Robert's friends who obviously had the same idea she did about Robert and Mindy.
That's how Lily spent her day off from Quidditch, listening to Quidditch. Lily sighed and decided that it was worth it. Mindy seemed to be enjoying herself.
*~*~*~*~*
Lily was so happy to get back to Mindy's they both ate a quick dinner since it was quite late, and went up to their different rooms.
Lily was surprised to find a letter from Petunia, here it is.
Lily
I just wanted to tell you, that I'm glad we aren't living together anymore because I am quite happy living with Grandmother. (Yuck Lily thought, Grandmother hated Lily, good for you!) I hope that you are happy wherever you are considering the fact that you killed are parents. I've decided to let that slip, and I was wondering if you would come and stay here with me. I know we've never really gotten along, but we are still sisters. Besides you still haven't met my boyfriend yet! Yes, I'm still going out with him. I swear he is my soul mate! Well, this letter is getting long enough, so I hope your summer, and year have been going great.
Love (Lily could see that she had erased the beginnings of Sincerely.)
Petunia
Lily was shocked, her sister actually missed her! She knew she couldn't go with her Grandmother, but Lily thought her Grandmother had died…both of them, what happened had her parents lied to her about that? Lily dismissed those thoughts, and decided to write her sister a letter telling her why she couldn't go to Grandmother's. Since she was a witch.
It was an awful letter to write, and Lily figured that Petunia was going to hate her even more when she got it, but she didn't care, why would Lily want to stay with some one who thought SHE killed her parents. (A/N like always…)
Lily sent the letter off with Socrates, and went to bed…
*~*~*~*~*
Lily had been having nightmares for a long time, and they were always the same, her parents were being murdered, and then there was a bright light and it ended. Lily had finally started to remember them, it wasn't a good thing. She had had more trouble sleeping, then ever before during that summer, she really missed her mum and dad. Her Mum used to get her a glass of water when she had nightmares when she was little.
Lily awoke that night from the nightmare, feeling a bit sick. She tried to get back to sleep, but couldn't.
You know how sometimes when you're trying to sleep, and your thoughts seem to go exactly to what will keep you up the longest? That happened to Lily that night.
Did she really kill her parents? Was it because of her that they died? What would Voldemort want with her that was so important he had to kill her parents? Actually he had tried to kill HER. But she wasn't positive. Her thoughts went like that for a long time.
Her last clear thought that night was, Does it have something to do with my curse?
*~*~*~*~*
During August, Lily was having a really tough time dealing with her parents, but once again she didn't let it show. She would only cry when she was alone, late at night. Everyone assumed she was over it, she wasn't.
*~*~*~*~*
Lily awoke on September the first, ready to get to school where everything was normal, well as normal as it could get at Hogwarts.
Lily and Mindy were taken to the train station at 10:30 by Mindy's mum, in a taxi. The driver gave them quite a few looks, they laughed about it. The two owls were hooting obnoxiously.
Thankful to be at the train station, the two girls said good by to Mrs. Ewing and made a run through the barrier. Lily went first and ran so hard into some one she fell on top of them, and much to her surprise, it was (A/N of course they keep ending up on top of each other!) James.
"I'm so sorry!" She said getting up quickly. James didn't say anything he was just staring at her. "Ahem, James are you in there?" He shook his head and came back to reality.
"Uh, yeah sorry about that, spaced out. Lily you look really…different!" She took it as a compliment.
"Thanks, you do too!" James had grown a great deal taller, and they both looked more like responsible people then they had they year before. James was much taller then Lily now. She looked up at him. "You got tall!"
"Hey I was always tall!" He said offendly. (A/N that's not a word you know, but it is now.)
"All right, so tall-ER!" She corrected herself.
"And you're still the shorty you have always been."
"Don't rub it in."
" Where's Jimena and Sierra?" Mindy said finally, she had been letting the two get reacquainted.
"Hm, haven't seen them. Oh there they are!" Lily shrieked, and ran over to her friends.
"Lily! It's so good to see you!" Sierra said hugging her.
"Yeah, I was just talking to James, other wise I would have found you sooner!" She looked at Jimena; Lily got a letter from her over the summer saying that James had broken up with her. Everyone seemed to be breaking up, but Lily had expected it, they were only fourteen, well Lily was still 13, her birthday was in April.
"Don't worry Lily, I am SO over him." Jimena said joking a bit.
"Okay, good, don't let that guy's ego get to you or anything." Lily warned her friend. That had been Jimena's supposed reason for being able to get over him.
"I'm NOT." She defended herself.
"Okay, that's good. So, just wondering but, do you hate him?" Lily tried not to be blunt, but it was a bit hard.
"Sort of, he didn't even give a reason!" Jimena exclaimed angrily.
"He never does, how many times DID you break up with him in third year." Sierra asked lazily.
"What? We weren't breaking up we were just arguing." Jimena said hotly.
"Whatever you say." Jimena and James were as fickle as Sirius and Sierra, but Sirius and Sierra were still not together as of that moment.
Lily looked around her, "Where'd Mindy go."
"Over there." Sierra pointed to Mindy talking to Robert, again.
"Since when were they civil?" Jimena asked as they all watched them. "She still has stomped off angry yet!" She pointed out.
"OH yeah, I forgot to tell you about those two. I swear they belong together!" Lily explained everything from the ice cream shop to the "accidental" meeting at Flourish and Blotts. (A/N I don't know if that store was in Hogsmeade or wherever but it's in Diagon Alley now!)
"I was wondering when they would come around." Sierra said smiling; they had found a compartment while Lily informed them, of the new information.
Lily was beginning to wonder if the Marauders would show up.
"Where are the guys at?" She asked voicing her thoughts. Just then they walked in, trunks in tow.
"Hello, ladies, and Sierra." Sirius said expressing the resentment.
"Hello ladies and Jimena." James said, mocking Sirius.
"Hello ladies!" Remus and Peter said, after all, neither of them had dated within the friend shop circle. (A/N ha ha! That just sounds weird!)
"Please people; stop it with the rude comments!" Lily glared at everyone, right at that moment she was very glad that she and Remus had never gone out.
"Yeah, I know what you mean Lils." Remus said sitting beside her, and Peter next to him. Leaving the other two boys, to sit by their ex-s, but instead Sirius and James ended up fighting over who was sitting next to Lily. (A/N I wonder if that really is a word…)
James made a move to sit by her, and Sirius cut him off, James pulled him back.
"Sirius, I was going to sit there first!"
"No you weren't, I was!" Sirius said raising his voice.
"Stop acting so-so- childish!" Lily yelled, the two boys were quiet. "Just sit somewhere already and act mature." Lily was in a very bad mood then, she was mad that her friends weren't friends with each other, and had a feeling that being friends with the Marauders would be impossible while being friends with Jimena and Sierra. It just wasn't going to work, but Lily planned to try.
There was some more quiet bickering and finally everyone was seated. James by Sierra, Jimena by her, and Sirius by Jimena, Lily refused to have anyone else sit by her. The train was finally off to Hogwarts, and no one had said a word to each other.
Five minutes turned to ten minutes, and ten minutes to fifteen then an two hours had suddenly gone by. Sirius was going on a record, Lily thought smiling a bit. Lily then looked at James, he was staring at her, but he didn't seem to notice, he was probably thinking.
Then Lily looked at Sierra and Jimena, her first thought strangely came to 'teenage problems'. That was exactly what was going between them all. Lily, Remus and Peter at least, were as neutral as they could be; having friends of the opposite sex was difficult if they insisted on dating your friends.
Lily had a feeling fourth year was not going to be pleasant, all her years at Hogwarts, seemed a bit crazy, third year had been terribly sad, second year she almost died in a freak quidditch accident, and first year, was the most normal of them all.
The snack lady came by and the boys all got up to get some food.
"Finally!" Sierra said letting out a big sigh. "I thought I was going to die!"
"Yeah, this is awful!" Jimena agreed.
"Oh you two better start acting more civil around James and Sirius, or I won't be able to be friends with them, now while me and James don't particularly get along that well, Sirius is some one I would really like to keep as a friend!" Lily said angrily. "I'm pretty sure Remus and Peter feel the same way too!"
Her two friends glared at her. "Lily, its not that easy, you don't know what its like to break up with a boyfriend." Jimena said.
"Yes I do! Remember I broke up with Marvin over the summer!" Lily said indignantly.
"Oh why didn't you tell me!?" Sierra said.
"I did! I sent you both owls!"
"Oh." Sierra said embarrassed.
"I forgot too, sorry Lils." Jimena apologized.
"Its okay, I broke it off with him, and we are still being friends, not glaring and snapping at each other everyone we get!" Luckily Sierra and Jimena didn't have to reply to this because the Marauders came in the room, and all was silent again.
*~*~*~*~*
A few minutes before…
The boys left the compartment, happy to get away from the harsh atmosphere.
"God, I was dying in there!" Sirius said, almost like he was gasping for air.
"Yeah, I've never seen you be so quiet, for so long!" Remus remarked.
"Shut up, I didn't exactly want to fight with those…girls again."
"Lily didn't have to yell like that though." Peter chirped.
"Yeah, she gets scary when she does that." Sirius said with a shutter.
"Hey James why you being so quiet?" Remus asked when James still hadn't said anything.
"Uh, I've just been thinking is all?" James tried.
"Really, come on man, what's wrong with you? All summer, you didn't send an idea for a prank! I was getting worried!" Sirius said.
"Well, I've had a lot on my mind." James replied, getting a bit irritated.
"Not over Jimena? You guys weren't even that serious in the first place, no pun intended Sirius." Remus said.
"No other…things." He said, "I was worried about if we were going to get the potion working by fifth year." James half lied.
"Don't worry about THAT." Remus said feeling guilty. "It'll work, and I don't mind if it doesn't."
James couldn't tell them his real problem, not on the train anyways.
*~*~*~*~*
They compartment was silent, and Lily was going crazy, James was still looking at her in that weird way.
"ALL right, somebody better start talking to me right now, or I'm leaving!" She said finally.
"So Lily, how's quidditch going?" Remus said immediately jumping at the chance to talk to someone.
"Great, Mindy had me practicing all summer!" Soon everyone was joining in on the conversation about how their summers had went, except James, who continued to sit quietly.
(A/N don't worry there's a point to this, I think.)
James all of a sudden starting having a bad feeling, he looked at Lily again, she looked fine, was something going to happen? Maybe it was just nerves about going back to school, or maybe her life was in danger again…James didn't like that thought, Lily didn't even know about him being her protector so maybe he should tell her, right now!
James started thinking about it in his head…How would he say it?
'Lily, you know how you are cursed and everything, well me too!'
No, no definitely not that way.
'Lily there's something you should know, that would make my life 10 times easier.'
Don't even go there James. She'd probably think you'd gone crazy over the summer.
All of a sudden James's thoughts were interrupted by the train lurching to a stop. Everyone was in disarray for a moment, Peter had fallen out of his seat, and all their owls were hooting, and needed to be calmed, or in Socrates' case, picked up from where he'd fallen on the floor.
"What in bloody hell's going on!?" Sirius shouted.
"Calm down Sirius, maybe something just malfunctioned or something." Lily said in a rush to calm him.
"How can you be so sure?" James said finally, he was really worried now, his heart was beating fast, and his palms were sweating, he needed to get Lily out of there.
Just then Lily and everyone felt a thump, and then they heard it.
"What's going on?" Sierra wondered, fear in her voice.
"D-Do you think it's…You-Know-Who?" Jimena asked nervously.
"No way, what would he be doing here?" Sirius said trying to reassure them, but he couldn't hide the slight fear in his voice.
Lily all of a sudden got really nervous; she knew something bad was happening.
"Guys, I have a feeling something bad is going to happen." Lily said shakily.
"Don't worry Lils; nothing's going to happen to you." Remus said, and looked directly at James. (A/N remembers he knows too, he's known the longest!) "Nothing is going to happen to anyone."
"I'm still scared." Remus protectively put his arm around her. Then they started hearing banging coming down the corridor.
"What was that?!" They all said at the same time.
They all stood up, and looked out the door, and what they saw scared them to death: Death Eaters.
(A/N I was thinking, I should just leave at that, but I couldn't do that to myself, or you guys! I know what's actually going on here; I have it planned in my mind…for once)
As soon as James saw them he pulled Lily back in, knowing her life was in danger, he didn't know what to do. How could he save her?
Remus closed the door and locked it. They started to panic.
"What do w-we d-do now guys?" Peter asked scared to pieces.
"Think, think!" James muttered to himself. He had all his school supplies with him, including: His invisibility cloak. "My Cloak!" He shouted and dove into his trunk searching for it as quickly as he could. They could hear the Death Eaters coming down the hall way, looking through each compartment, and hearing 'stupefy' and other such things. Thank God no Avada Kedavras, James thought.
"Found it!" James exclaimed. They enlarged it with a quick spell and everyone went under it. But James was still worried, he still had that sickening feeling, death was getting closer…To Lily.
James moved towards Lily under the cloak, not knowing what else to do. He kept himself in front of her. It was his duty after all. 'The Connection' that forced him to protect her no matter what.
"Guys don't breath so loud!" James whispered even though he himself was breathing heavily.
"Oh my God, I'm going to die." Lily said quietly. James wondered if she had feelings that she was going to die, or was in danger. That creeped him out a bit.
"No your not Lily, as long as I'm around you won't." James told her.
"Yeah Lils, none of us will let you die." Sierra whispered.
They heard the Death Eaters stop outside their door, they all took a deep breath.
"I have a feeling this is the right door." A grim voice grunted.
"Remember, if the girl or boy is in there, we kill them, other wise just stupefy, we don't need that nonsense." Another voice commanded. Each voice made them all quiver in fear.
James was wondering what girl and boy they were looking for, him and Lily? No, they don't know about the curse, and why should they care? Then his thoughts went to the fact that Lily's parents had been murdered, and they might have been searching for her.
Lily's thoughts were mostly the same, except she didn't know about the boy, could it be her protector? Maybe she thought. Dear God don't let me die, she prayed, or My friends.
The door exploded and the two death eaters looked around, "they were here I know it, look at the trunks." The first one grumbled.
Shit!, James thought he hadn't had a clue to cover them up. Don't let them come in, they'll bump into us!
Lily at that moment really wanted to scream, she was so scared, she was backed up against the window by then, and her friends were trying not to breath loudly.
"Hm, they might be hiding somewhere, they were here, and I bet they knew we would kill them, so they ran for it. Remember, that boy gets feelings about when she's in danger.
James gulped; they were definitely talking about him and Lily for sure.
Lily knew it too, she was really afraid for whoever was protecting her, their life was in danger too. Lily was really scared when she saw the two Death Eaters step closer to them.
"Do you think there was a way they got through the window?" The one Lily assumed was the stupider one said.
"Hm, I doubt it you go on ahead and take a look if you want." No! No! NO! Lily wanted to scream. There were definitely going to get caught and she was going to die!
James was thinking the exact same thing. Except it was more like 'Lily, they are going to kill me and her, I hope they kill me first, actually they are going to have to!'
The second Death Eater walked straight toward them and ran smack into Sirius who punched him as hard as could, which was pretty hard.
"Someone's-." The Death Eater gasped for air. "Someone's here! Invisible!" He gasped again.
"GET THEM!" The other Death Eater screamed. Some how in all the confusion the invisibility cloak fell to the floor and all seven teenagers were out in the open. James' first instinct was to get Lily out of there as quick as possible, but he didn't know how. He kept looking for a way to escape but the door was blocked, or what was left of it.
"Leave them alone and take me instead!" Lily yelled.
"No, it's me you want!" James cried out trying to save Lily's butt.
"Ah, so here the two of them are just like the master said!" The smarter Death Eater said smugly. Lily stared at James, HIM?!
The jig is up James thought.
"Guess we should kill them." The stupid one said.
"No!" James cried and grabbed Lily's hand, and pulled her behind him.
"James you idiot, it's me they want, not you go!"
"No, it's my duty to protect you, and I'm going to do it!"
"Stupid, idiot!" She shouted in frustration, they were definitely going to die.
Lily and James both tried to think of a way to escape from this mess. The Death Eaters had tied up their friends, probably to torture them Lily thought and they were still conscious so they could see and hear whatever James and Lily said.
"So, why does Voldemort want us dead anyways?" Lily asked more bravely then she felt.
The Death Eater looked smug at this. "Because the two of you supposedly according to some prophecy are going to be a big help to his downfall, and he's not happy about that."
"Do you believe you 'Master' is worried about two kids defeating him? How wimpy is that!" James said fiercely.
"JAMES!" Lily scolded. The Death Eater looked, pissed.
"That wasn't smart boy."
'Think Think Think!' Lily and James were obviously thinking, they needed to get out of there really quickly.
The Death Eater held up his wand, James looked at Lily's scared face, then he looked out the window. His heart racing he grabbed Lily's hand again and will a lot more force then normal picked her up and threw her out the window, he heard her scream for a minute, then she was quiet.
James noticed how shocked the Death Eaters and his friends were, and jumped out after her. 'That was brilliant James." He thought to himself sarcastically.
He landed next to Lily who was out cold. He picked her up with surprising strength for his age and swung her over his should and ran as fast as he could to the front of the train, he knew he couldn't escape, they would only find him, but maybe help would be there soon.
He saw the Death Eaters jump out of the window in pursuit of him and Lily. The only real clear thought in James' head at that point was 'run'. Which didn't do him much good.
James noticed more Death Eaters at the front of the train, he was trapped, and she was going to die! He was going to die too! James panicked. He felt Lily waking up.
"James?" She said quietly. He couldn't let her die, he couldn't! Something turned in James' stomach at the thought of what they would do to her.
The next thing James knew there was a bright light all around him, and he fell unconscious. Next to a once again unconscious Lily.
*~*~*~*~*
Lily woke up first not too long after, the Death Eaters were gone, and James was next to her unconscious. She strained to remember what happened, but all she remember was James picking her up so fast and throwing her…At the WINDOW?
That must have been how they escaped, poor James, Lily thought looking at him, he looked very tired, she felt very tired too, she couldn't even sit up, it hurt too!
"Thanks James." She said quietly, and to her utter surprise, he opened his eyes.
"You're welcome." He whispered hoarsely. Well at least he's okay she thought
'Good she's okay.' James thought.
"James, you're awake!" She exclaimed and tried to get up, and then she noticed she had cuts up and down her, apparently from the window. "YOU threw me out a window!" She said, and just as she said that she thought, HOW?
"Yeah, sorry about that, but I didn't know what else to do!" James said rolling over onto his back. He said sorry! Lily thought, but he wasn't even sincere!
"It's okay, I think Madame Pomfrey can fix this easily when we FINALLY get to school." She finally managed to sit up a ways.
"We need to get back to everybody; they are probably thinking we are dead!" James said trying to stand up, and finding he couldn't. "Or, since I can't stay up, we can sit here and wait."
"What if the train leaves us?"
"It won't Lily trust me." They were silent a moment.
"James?"
"Yeah?"
"What the hell happened with the Death Eaters anyway? They just disappeared!" Lily said, she had meant it to sound more mature, but she couldn't think of a good way to say it.
"Honestly? I have no idea, I was carrying you-." Lily blushed at this. "And then we got trapped right here where we are, and I started to really freak, and then you started to wake up, I remember you said my name and then there was this burst of bright light," He stopped for a moment, thinking.
"And?"
"I went unconscious, and now I feel extremely tired." James said simply.
"I hope Dumbledore is prepared for me to ask him some serious questions." Lily stated.
"Yeah, I think he knows more then he's telling."
"James, so what do you think? You know, knowing that I'm the person you have to, err, protect?" Lily asked him, she didn't know that he'd known for a year that it was her.
"Honestly?"
"Yes, please."
"I already knew."
"YOU DID!" Lily screeched, with such energy, she felt some pain. "Why in the bloody Hell didn't you tell me!?"
"Calm down! All right, partly because I wasn't positive it was you, and partly because, last year you were having it rough anyways and it never seemed important."
"Not IMPORTANT!?" Lily was about to yell more, but was cut off, by a familiar looking professor of hers.
"Oh thank goodness you're okay!" He said looking very relieved.
"Well, I've been better, you see Professor we can't stand up." James said from the ground.
Dumbledore immediately conjured up some stretches where the two of them lay.
"Thank you Professor." Lily said politely.
"Lily, if you'd like I can heal those cuts up for you instantly with this quick spell."
"Please Sir, it would be quite nice, you see I was sort of thrown out a window." Dumbledore looked amused, but James blushed. "James, I'm still wondering how you managed to throw me…so hard."
"I can answer that Miss Evans; it's the Curse of course. Remember?"
"Oh yeah, I forgot about what the curse did, but I thought that only applied to me." Lily stated.
"No, both of you, and even more so for Mr. Potter here."
"Oh." Lily said, not knowing what else to say.
James finally spoke up. "Professor, what was that bright light?" Dumbledore's eyes twinkled, he knew something. "Ah, Mr. Potter, that was a good observation, but I'm afraid to say I can't exactly tell you what it was, let's just say it is something that has to do with your emotions at that very moment, and Lily's too."
"Oh." James and Lily were both a bit confused, Lily had been mostly unconscious, so how could she have felt anything, and James had been in complete panic, or so he thought.
"Miss Evans, Mr. Potter, I'm afraid there are many things about the curse I have yet to discover, you will find out a lot of it on your own, I can only give you information that you should know."
"Excuse me Professor, but can I ask, why didn't you tell me that James was the Protector of me?" Lily was still getting used to the idea.
"Ah, that I can answer easily, that way you two could become friends on your own, and not for some other reason."
Lily glanced at James, they certainly weren't that good of friends, but if they were going to learn about this…Curse they were going to have to work together.
*~*~*~*~*
Lily and James were both taken to the hospital wing as soon as they got to school, and they hadn't even got to tell their friends that they were okay, Dumbledore, who had brought the Professors with him to the train, sent McGonagall to free them of their bindings.
Madam Pomfrey as soon as she saw them, made a big fuss, and fixed Lily's scrapes and cuts, and gave them some sort of 'activitia' potion that would help them become their old selves again.
Lily sat up in her bed next to James'. She was a bit…Angry with him for not telling her, but she tried not to show it.
"James, why'd you break up with Jimena?" She asked him finally after a while of silence.
"Well, I just didn't like her anymore, I sort of like some one else…" His voice trailed off.
"Oh, she's mad at you for it, just try to be civil around her again, and maybe we can all be friends again." Lily told him, she wanted all her friends to be friends; it's not fun when they fight, and she told James this.
"Well, Lils sorry to burst your bubble, but Sierra and Sirius, are just as bad as me and Jimena!"
"I am so glad; I did not date with in my friend circle." Lily said smiling a bit. "And I don't plan to!" She didn't notice that James' face fell a bit when she said this.
"Yeah, plus you still got Marvin." James muttered.
"Nah, we broke up over the summer, good thing it was too, he was getting clingy!" Lily laughed at this. James laughed too, but for different reasons.
"We better beat them at Quidditch this year, or I'll never for give myself!" James said happily.
"Yeah, I can hardly wait for practice to start!"
"So we have two new people for the team, a chaser/ captain, and a beater, who's going to try out?" James asked Lily.
"Um, I think Winnie Williams is trying out for beater and I hope to god she makes it! I need a girl on the team! I think the new captain is supposed to be Robert Saratoga, Mindy's not going to like that, and the new Chaser might be Steven, Sierra's little brother!"
They continued to talk as friendly as they could, considering Lily was quite pissed at him still. Soon they were visited by their friends.
"Is it just me or do these two keep putting each other in the Hospital Wing?!" Sirius immediately said.
"Yeah, they sure do seem to have a knack for it!" Remus laughed. Lily and James both glared.
"So what happened to you guys!?" Sierra asked.
"Yeah, I thought you were both dead!" Jimena said worriedly, "Not that it would be a bad thing if Potter died." Getting glares, she corrected herself. "Just kidding, I don't want that!"
The two retold what happened; they had also told Dumbledore about it on the train. They conveniently left out the fact about the curse.
"I wonder what happened to the Death Eaters. I mean they were just gone?" Sirius asked stumped.
"Yeah it was really weird." Peter said, speaking for the first time.
"I wonder what that emotion thing was." Sierra wondered a loud. Surprisingly James blushed at this, but said nothing.
"I have no idea; I can't really remember anything…" Lily decided to tell her friends about the Curse, and that made the story make even more sense to their friends, except for Sirius and Remus, who already seemed to know.
"You two!?" Jimena exclaimed laughing.
"That is quite funny, but yet it makes perfect sense." Sierra commented. "Like that time on the Quidditch field in second year!"
"Ohhh Yeahhh." Lily said catching on.
"And that time at Lily's house last summer, the same thing happened." James said, everyone looked at him, no one knew about him going to Lily's.
"You went to LILY'S?" Sirius asked appalled.
"Well, yeah, I just had a feeling I should get there, and the connection between us, seemed to take me right there, since I don't even know where she lived." James explained.
"No, I mean, you never told me you went there? Why? When? How?" So James had to explain everything, including the fact that it was the day Lily's parents died, no one seemed to know that Lily had almost died that day too, no one had asked her about it.
"Lily! You never told us!" Sierra yelped, if she had known that, she would have been more…understanding or something.
"I didn't think it mattered, I didn't want you guys to worry about Voldemort coming to kill me or something, but that's too late…now." When they didn't respond Lily tried to get them to understand. "You guys don't know what it's like, and I don't want you guys to worry any more about me then you have to!"
James seemed to understand the best, and finally said, "Guys, it was really scary that night, and she probably didn't want to relive it."
"I just don't understand why you didn't tell us…anything!" Jimena said a bit hurt.
"James, you didn't tell us anything either, I mean normally when you save a person's life, you gloat, but you said nothing at all!" Sirius remarked.
Lucky for James and Lily, Madame Pomfrey came and shooed everyone out, for a young-ish lady she was quite fussy.
*~*~*~*~*
Lily and James were quite happy to get to class, but James was very surprised that Lily, Jimena and Sierra, were ignoring him, and the other Marauders! They hadn't even done anything, he thought everything had been cleared up, but apparently it hadn't, James couldn't even ask them about it.
So finally, James just stopped trying to talk to them.
*~*~*~*~*
(A/N dum dum dum!! I wonder what changed their minds…I don't know, I just threw that in there! That reminds me, isn't it weird that James threw Lily out a window, I mean I could think of better ideas to save a person, no wait that was my idea…apparently I can't!! So what did you think of this chapter, longest so far!! I didn't like it too well, but I was bored and wanted some action, so there you go! My fave part was writing that stupid Death Eater in there ( I decided it was Crabbe or Goyle!) So PLEASE READ AND REVIEW!! REVIEW!! REVIEW!! Toodles!)
*~Sierra~* ( nice I put my pen name in the story right? Okay okay I'm going!)