That afternoon felt like the longest one they had ever had to sit through. Every second felt like an eternity as they waited for even the slightest hint about James' condition. Dumbledore had instructed the rest of the Gryffindors to leave them alone, but they were all so depressed and felt so sorry for the Marauders, Lily, and Rebecca that he hadn't really needed to bother. The four of them just sat there in silence, trying to banish the image of James' lifeless, bloody body from their minds. About three hours later Peter walked in and sat down with them, but they were too miserable to care about where he was the rest of the morning.
Finally about an hour after Peter had come, McGonagall entered through the portrait hole. She was trembling and extremely pale, but she managed a weak smile.
At the sight of her, all five of them jumped up. "How is he?" Sirius demanded the second he saw her.
"James will be just fine-"
She was interrupted by a loud round of applause, cheers, and whistles from the other Gryffindors throughout the common room. When the noise finally died down, she continued speaking.
"As I was saying, he is currently in a coma-"
"WHAT?!" Lily screamed. The temporary wave of relief that had flooded through her body vanished.
"Calm down, Lily," Professor McGonagall said kindly. "Wizards have a much better chance of making it through comas than muggles do; we know how to treat them. Trained Healers from St. Mungos will come up to the castle if James isn't awake by tomorrow afternoon, but I doubt that will be necessary. Madam Pomfrey has been very successful so far, now we just need to wait and see what happens. The five of you can go visit him if you'd like, although it's pretty pointless as he is unable to communicate."
Lily, Sirius, Remus, Rebecca, and Peter followed McGonagall out of the portrait hole and down to the Hospital Wing.
She led them over to his bed, drew up chairs for them all, and left them to go down to dinner.
Lily kneeled next to the bed and held James' hand, watching him lie there motionless. Remus, Sirius, and Peter pulled three chairs right next to the bed, and Rebecca sat down on Sirius' lap, watching James like the rest of them. After about 15 minutes, Rebecca stood up, and broke the silence. "Lil', we're going to go down to dinner; it'll give you some time alone with James."
Sirius looked as though he was going to protest, it was obvious he was reluctant to leave James, but one glance at the look on Lily's face as she stared at him was enough to convince him.
Lily just nodded, not taking her eyes away from James. She waited until she heard the door close, then she climbed into bed and wrapped her arms around him, placing her head on his chest. "James, I'm so sorry," she whispered. "I don't know what was wrong with me. Please pull through; I could never live without you. I love you and I want to spend the rest of my life with you."
Slowly, she started to drift off to sleep. She hadn't slept in weeks, but now that she was back in James' arms it was easy.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Lily felt herself being shaken awake, but she refused to open her eyes. She wasn't going to leave him, no matter what anybody said.
"Lily…Lily, please wake up,"
"Wait a minute…" she thought to herself, "THAT'S JAMES' VOICE!"
She popped her eyes open and sat straight up.
Lying there was James, looking very weak and very pale, but very much alive.
"JAMES!" she cried, trembling, "I'm so sorry. I don't know what I was thinking. I love you more than anyone else in this world. Please, forgive me."
James smiled as best he could. He was in a tremendous amount of physical pain, but he didn't care. He finally had Lily back; the world was right again. "Lily, of course I forgive you. I love you, and life just isn't the same without you. There's no point in living if I don't have you by my side."
He leant in and kissed her, but after a few seconds away, she pulled away and broke down completely.
"Lily! Calm down, everything's okay; we're back together."
"I know," she sobbed, "it's just that these past few weeks have been the worst of my life. What if you had died and the last thing I said to you was I hate you? I love you so much, I just don't want to loose you again."
"Listen to me…I promise you that that'll NEVER happen. We'll be together forever."
James wrapped his arms around Lily, who sobbed into his chest for the next few minutes.
Suddenly the door opened, and Sirius screamed "Prongs!"
Him, Rebecca and Remus rushed over to James' bed.
"How're you feeling, mate?" Remus asked as they all sat down around him.
"Not too bad," James said brightly. It was true that his body ached and he couldn't move without wincing, but he doubted there was any possible way he could be happier than he was at this moment.
"So you two are back together, then?" Sirius grinned.
"Yep," Lily said happily, wiping away what she hoped were the last few tears she would shed in a long time.
"Great!" Rebecca squealed excitedly, "I don't think I could stand seeing you two so depressed any longer."
"Where's Wormtail?" James asked, looking around, his face falling slightly.
"He said he had detention," Sirius said. "But he'll be in here to visit you tomorrow."
"No need." James said. "Somebody go get Madam Pomfrey. I'll let her check me out and then we'll all go back to Gryffindor Tower."
Lily got up, and went to fetch Madam Pomfrey. She came back with her, followed by Professor McGonagall, Professor Flitwick, and Professor Dumbledore, all of whom were positively beaming.
"Ah, Mr. Potter!" Madam Pomfrey said, delighted, "Thank god! I was quite confident that you had a good chance of pulling through, but still…I can't say I didn't have my doubts…"
She bustled about for a few minutes, checking James from head to toe.
"Er, Madam Pomfrey? Can I go now?" James asked hopefully. "I'm feeling much better."
"No, no, I'm sorry Mr. Potter but you'll have to spend the night, just to be safe. I'll give you another check-up tomorrow morning, and if all goes well you'll be back in the castle by breakfast tomorrow."
James sighed, but nodded his head in agreement.
"Drink up all of these potions," Madam Pomfrey said, handing James a large tray full of smoking goblets. "They'll ease the pain for tonight. The rest of you should go back to the common room, Mr. Potter needs his rest."
"Can I stay with him tonight, please?" Lily pleaded. She couldn't bear to spend another night away from him.
"No, I'm sorry Ms. Evans, but I don't think that's such a good idea-" Madam Pomfrey began, but Dumbledore cut her off.
"It's okay Poppy, let her stay." Dumbledore said, that familiar twinkle in his eyes. "They're Head Boy and Girl, they're very responsible kids. Plus they've been through a horrible ordeal today; and if it'll make them happy, let her stay."
Madam Pomfrey sighed, but nodded. Lily smiled, and Dumbledore drew up a second bed right next to James'.
"But the rest of you, OUT!" Madam Pomfrey said shooing Sirius, Remus and Rebecca out.
They all said goodbye to James and left.
"We'll leave you two alone," Dumbledore said, "try and get a good night's sleep, you've had a rough day."
"Goodnight," Lily and James said together, and the four teachers exited the room.
Lily climbed into bed with James and laid down next to him.
"So," James whispered into her ear, grinning mischievously, "We haven't talked in six weeks, but now we're back together, even more in love than before, and we have the whole hospital wing to ourselves for the entire night. What would you like to do?"
Lily laughed. "We've been back together for what? An hour? And you're already thinking about that?"
"Nah, I was joking," James sighed, "All I can think about right now is how I'm the luckiest guy in the world."
"And I'm the luckiest girl. I love you so much."
James pulled Lily closer, so that his body was pressing against hers. "I love you too," he said, and he leaned over to kiss her.
His tongue pushed hungrily past her lips, and massaged hers. An enormous wave of happiness engulfed him, he loved Lily more than words could explain, and now he was sure she loved him too. It was like the past few weeks had never happened; they were back together and everything was right again.
After about fifteen minutes they broke the kiss, flushed and out of breath. They stared into each other's eyes for a few minutes, until James finally got up the courage to speak
"Lily, will you do something for me?" he whispered, running a hand through her hair.
"Anything," she breathed, still staring into his eyes and wishing this moment could last forever.
"Will you marry me?"
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Oh good place to leave off right? Everybody's happy once again…but don't worry, this peace might not last too long (hint, hint). Lol. Hopefully none of you are confused anymore by the many mistakes I've made over the past few days because I'm a complete ditz and don't pay attention to anything. Like I said before I fixed everything up so if you're still confused you should re-read the last few chapters. I've added four or five chapters in the past few days because I was grounded and had a lot of time, but now I don't know how soon I'll be able to update. Hopefully it will be soon, and if it's not feel free to send me emails telling me to get off my lazy ass. Please review! Thanks!