James sat in Dumbledore's office, all of his headmaster's words washing over him. All of yesterday's events had left him feeling confused. What the hell had happened? James put a hand up to his bruised cheek and touched it, flinching from the pain. His cheek was swollen, his lips bleeding, and he had a black ring around his eye. All this, for trying to save the one he loved? It wasn't fair. And now Dumbledore was telling James all about the aurors who were going to help protect the castle to stop Voldemort trying to kill him. In James' confused state, he thought in his mind, Just let Voldemort come, I don't care if I die. But he must have said it aloud by accident because Dumbledore gave him a very sympathetic look and continued speaking.

James wasn't sure whether he meant it or not. He really was very miserable, but did he really want to die? He didn't know. All he knew was that life wasn't worth living without Lily by his side. He thought back to those few weeks around Christmas. He had never felt happier – but there was always that feeling at the pit of his stomach. That feeling where you know something is going to go wrong. James never could have a happy time where he didn't think that something was going to go wrong. This time, he was right. It could never have carried on for much longer unless Lily had dumped Freddie.

James winced: Freddie. He'd almost forgotten about him. Almost. James sighed as memories of yesterday came flooding back to him…

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

It was another Quidditch match. Griffindor weren't playing, but it was still a pretty big match. Ravenclaw were playing against Slytherin and, obviously, pretty much everyone wanted Ravenclaw to win.

The previous night Lily had completely ignored James, however much he'd tried to get a conversation going between them. He was just getting sick of it and was about to just tell her why he'd had to end it with her when Lily had stood up, announcing that she was tired and wanted to go to bed. That had crushed James. Just when he was going to be honest with her, she'd left. Now he didn't think he'd be able to strike up the courage ever again.

"Shall we go?" That had been Remus talking.

"Yeah," said Sirius. "Big game; if we get there too late all the good places will be gone.

James stood up. Sirius and Remus began walking out of the hall. James had just reached the door leading into the Great Hall when he stopped, hearing his voice being called. He turned to look at the stairs. There stood Freddie. James sighed. "What do you want, Freddie?" He didn't want to be mean to Freddie, after all, he'd stolen his girlfriend, but he and Freddie weren't exactly on good friend terms.

Freddie walked towards James and before James knew it he was lying on the floor, wrestling to get away from Freddie. Freddie had a look in his eyes that was unnatural. They were flaming red, and James could tell that Freddie was going to kill him. "Help! Get him off me!" shouted James. In seconds, Remus and Sirius came rushing back, trying to pull the unnaturally strong Freddie off of their friend.

Freddie pushed Sirius and Remus off him and continued wrestling with James. Remus had hit the wall and was knocked out, but Sirius had just been pushed away and so ran into the hall shouting for Dumbledore to come. James heard Hogwarts students rush forward to see what was going on, and then he blanked out.

Apparently James had lain in the hospital wing for hours, unconscious. But for him it had been just a painful blink of the eye. He opened his eyes to see Sirius, Remus and Dumbledore, chatting somewhere around him. "Hey guys," he'd managed to get out. He coughed, choking on his own words. The three rushed round him immediately, telling him that they'd thought he was going to die. James managed to laugh. "Thanks, that's great reassurance." Knowing that if James was well enough to make a joke, he'd be fine, Dumbledore left, saying he'd be back later to talk to him.

When James had asked Sirius and Remus what had happened, the two looked at each other hesitantly. But then of course it had all come flooding out. Somehow, apparently, something or someone had put the imperius curse on Freddie to get him to kill James. "I wonder," muttered James. "Was that Voldemort, by any chance?" His friends nodded slowly. "Great… Hey, where's Peter?" No one knew. James was starting to worry. No one had seen Peter since Friday night and now it was Sunday afternoon.

"He might have gone home to visit his family or something," suggested Sirius.

"Without telling anyone?" pointed out Remus.

Another thought came to James. "Um – did anyone tell Lily what had happened?"

An awkward silence. "Um, yeah. As soon as she found out the whole story she – she went rushing to see if…if Freddie, was ok…" Remus looked uncomfortable. James didn't say anything. "But, you know, she was probably just feeling bad 'cause she'd been behind his back with you and everything…" Remus looked at Sirius for help.

"Yeah," said Sirius taking over. "She was probably just trying to make a point. You know. Trying to get at you."

James nodded slowly. Yeah…maybe.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Dumbledore and the hospital wing nurse had both insisted that James should stay there at least for the night. He would have stayed longer, but he couldn't stand just lying there in the hospital wing, thinking about everything. Instead he'd missed his classes and just wondered about the school, going to bed before he'd had to see any of his friends. He'd missed dinner as well, and was now sitting in Dumbledore's office, being told about Voldemort and aurors and close shaves.

"You can go now, James," said Dumbledore kindly. James nodded and stood up slowly, wincing from the pain in his muscles. "Oh, and James…" James turned round to see Dumbledore standing. "Please think long and hard about your break up with Miss Evans." James said nothing, and walked out of the office.

The next day, people gasped where James went, having not seen his face yet. He really did look terrible, and in lots of pain. Walking to Transfiguration, he bumped into Lily. Lily saw his face and gasped. "Oh, James…" she said, touching his cheek. "Are you alright?"

James smiled. "I'll live," he said quietly.

Lily brought her hand back down. "I'm sorry I didn't come to see you yesterday."

James said nothing. What was he supposed to say? "That's ok", or, "I understand"? There wasn't much left to say with him and Lily. Lily touched his cheek again affectionately and walked into the classroom, sitting in a far corner. James was about to walk in when someone bumped into him from behind. He turned round to see Freddie.

Freddie's eyes widened as he saw the injuries James had. "Wow," he said, actually sounding impressive. "I did that to you?"

Despite everything, James laughed. "Yeah. Didn't know you had it in you."

"Neither did I," agreed Freddie, looking uncomfortable. "Look, I'm really sorry, you know I…"

"Hey, don't worry about it. It wasn't your fault was it?"

Freddie nodded slowly, then continued on into the classroom, James close behind him.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

a/n: ok, so I know that this is all going pretty slowly at the moment, and I know this was a VERY short chapter, but I hoped you liked this chapter anyway. There'll be a big thing with peter coming up soon anyway, which I know you'll all love!! DIE PETER DIE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Review please, and I'll update. That's the rule. *eyes readers evilly*.

~rowan

xxxxxxx