"Oh shit, oh shit" Lily said getting to her feet.
"What is it?" Jenny asked.
"It's a body." Lily said slightly paniced. James got to his feet and ran to the body. Sirius let go of April and ran to the body as well. Remus stayed behind with the girls.
"Are they alive?" Sirius asked. James turned the body over to find that the person was a girl in a Hogwarts uniform. James thought she looked somewhat familiar.
"I have no idea." James said. He felt her neck and tried to find a pulse but couldn't find one.
"Who is it?" Jenny called.
"I don't know. She's in Ravenclaw" Sirius answered. Jenny came forwards and joined the boys.
"Oh god. Lee!" Jenny said. She moved the girl's hair away to reveal her younger sister. Her skin was cold and she was completely wet.
"What?" Lily and April said at the same time.
"James is there a pulse?" Lily asked as she crouched by Jenny. James frowned. He couldn't feel a pulse at all. That could have been his lack of first aid skills though. He looked at her chest. It was rising very slowly.
"She's alive." James said.
"She is?" April asked. April was holding Jenny, who looked like she was going to cry.
"Just about." James gave his things to Sirius and picked Lee up. "I'll meet you guys in the castle" He said as he was about to run off.
"No James." Lily said calling him back. She got out her watch and turned it into a portkey. "Everyone touch this." She said. When everyone was touching the watch they felt a tug at their navel and Hogsmeade suddenly disappeared. They landed in the hospital wing, Jenny and April fell over with the shock of landing but James was already at a bed.
"Someone get Madame Pomfrey" he said. Remus disappeared for a few moments. Sirius was helping Jenny and April to their feet when Lily noticed something.
"Guys, where's Peter?" She asked.
* * * *
"Well done Peter. You didn't kill her but then, your orders were to hurt her." Said Cole Kilroy. He was with Peter in a small gap between buildings in Hogsmeade.
"Is the dark lord pleased?" Peter asked.
"Yes he is. He has a new order though. He wants you to keep an eye on that Mudblood. Evans." Cole said.
"Did you succeed the other night?" Peter asked him.
"Unfortunately Potter got in the way but the next attack on her will succeed." Cole said.
"Can I suggest you don't go for her directly but for someone else. Lily can protect herself and she has James waiting on her hand and foot." Peter said. Cole smirked and clapped Peter on the back
"There's hope for you yet" He said "Now get lost before we're seen together."
* * * *
Lily and April sat on the sofa in front of the fire. They were still wet but they were drying slowly. Jenny was in the hospital wing with her sister. Madame Pomfrey had told them that Lee would be ok but she needed to stay in the hospital wing for a while. Jenny insisted on staying and as she was family Madame Pomfrey couldn't refuse permission. Lily and April however were anxious as to whether Lee would be ok. When they had left the Hospital wing Jenny was crying. The Marauders had gone to look for Peter, they reckoned that Peter had forgotten to touch the portkey so now they sat talking about something.
"Do you think she'll be ok?" Lily asked April.
"She has to. She's only in the fifth year." April said. Lily put her head on April's shoulder and they stared at the fire for a while.
"You girls alright?" James asked sitting down on the sofa next to Lily.
"Just worried about Lee." Lily said softly. James frowned slightly.
"Well, Madame Pomfrey said she'd be ok. Why don't you dry off or go and have a shower." James suggested. Lily nodded.
"Ok. April, will you be ok?" Lily asked her friend. April nodded.
"I'm going to our room." She said.
"I need to get some fresh robes. I'll be down in a minute" Lily said to James. He nodded and sat on the sofa. Remus sat on the sofa next to James.
"They don't look good do they?" Remus asked.
"No." James said.
"You really like Lily don't you?" Remus asked. James looked at Remus.
"Yeah I do." James said. "I like everything about her." James sighed. "and every time I'm near her I just want to hold her and protect her but I know she can look after herself but still. I just want to look after her." James said. Sirius had joined the group and was looking at James slightly disturbed.
"My god Prongs, I think you're falling in love." Sirius said.
"What?" James asked. "That's just stupid."
"Is it?" Remus asked James. James looked at Remus when it dawned on him that maybe he was in love with the head girl.
"Hey," Lily said. "Am I disturbing anything?" James shook his head.
"Um.No, you having a bath?" He asked.
"Yeah." Lily blushed slightly "I kinda forgot the password to the Head's bathroom."
"Oh, it's." James looked at Sirius and Remus. "I'll come with you. We don't want these two scum bags getting into out bathroom and spoiling everything do we?" James said grinning.
"Who said we were scumbags?" Sirius asked.
"I did, now sit Padfoot" James said pointing to the sofa.
"How bout I sit on your face." Sirius said as a joke. James quickly joined Lily and started for the Portrait hole when Peter stumbled in soaked to the bone.
"Wormtail!" James said slightly surprised. Peter looked at James and smiled. "What happened to you mate?"
"Oh, I got a bit lost. The rain confused me a bit." Peter lied.
"Oh right. Well I'll be back in a minute." James said. Lily and James carried on to the Prefect's common room. Once there they went through a secret passage to where two suits or armour guarded the head's bathroom. Their weapons crossed against a bare wall.
"Lemon squeeze" Lily said. The suits of armour lifted their weapons and the Wall disappeared. James looked at Lily confused.
"You knew the password?" James asked. Lily smiled.
"Yeah, I just wanted to spend some time with you." Lily said. She took James' hand and pulled him in the bathroom and put her things on the floor.
"I'm fine with that" James said quickly. Lily smiled and picked up a towel from a rack of nice warm fluffy white towels.
"Could you put on the Lavender and Camomile faucets while I change?" Lily asked as she went into a small changing cubicle. James quickly nodded his head and went to the appropriate taps. A pale yellow one for Camomile and a lilac one for Lavender. The bath was huge, it was more like a pool and it filled up within a few minutes. Kames switched the taps off where there were a few inches between the water and the edge of the bath. Five minutes later Lily came out wrapped in just a towel. James diverted his eyes to look somewhere else.
"I.I'll leave now." James said getting up
"No, stay." Lily said taking his arm to stop him from going.
"But you're having a bath" James said slowly. He tried to stop his eyes wandering but he couldn't help looking. Lily was revealing more then she normally did and even if most of her body was covered with the towel James still wanted to look.
"James." Lily said. James thought for a while, he was very tempted to stay in the bathroom with her but it was wrong. Nothing like this had stopped him in the past but it just felt very wrong.
"No, I can't. I'll be in the Prefect common room." James said quickly leaving the bathroom and a slightly annoyed Lily.
Lily let the towel drop and she slipped into the hot bath. She really didn't know what was coming over her. She had never felt like this. Every time she thought she had James figured just a little he surprised her again. Lily didn't know what was wrong with her but she wanted James to stay with her. She reckoned that the attack on Lee made her feel slightly insecure and the only person who she felt safe around at the moment was James. Of course she felt safe with all her friends and in the Gryffindor Common room but she felt safest around James.
Lily dipped her head in the water and did a few laps in the pool before washing herself properly. She finally got up and started to dry herself off. She changed quickly and went to the Prefect common room. She had left her things in the Bathroom, knowing the house elves that worked at Hogwarts would clean everything and return it to her dorm room the next day. James was sitting in a chair near the large fireplace. He was frowning and had his chin in his hands. Lily sat on the small coffee table opposite him, startling him out of his trance.
"Lily" James said. He looked at her surprised. Her hair was still wet from her bath and she smelled so sweet. She smiled at him. She was so beautiful and he had turned down watching her bathe. Was she changing the infamous James Potter?
"So you're finally calling me Lily?" Lily asked him amused. James gave her a shy smile.
"Yeah, I don't know why though" He said trying to act cool
"Will you escort me back to the common room?" Lily asked James.
"Yeah, sure." James said a little too eagerly. Lily raised an eyebrow at James' sudden change in behaviour.
"Are you feeling ok?" She asked him curiously.
"What do you mean?" James asked.
"Well, first you seemed to be a bit eager to do anything with me and then when I give you the chance to have a bath with me you turn down the offer and you're stammering and everything" Lily said. "You could be ill" Lily touched James' forehead as a joke but James looked at her seriously. He hand was soft and it made James shiver slightly. Lily looked at James seriously. James felt he had to tell Lily that he loved her. She had a right to know even if he had just realised it.
"Lily, I have something to tell you." James said uncertainly.
"What is it?" Lily asked seriously. She felt a lot better after having a bath. It was like the water had washed all her worries away. James took several deep breaths. Lily's green eyes glittered in the half light and she looked worried about him.
Lily herself was wandering what was so important that James was having difficulty telling her. James had always been so arrogant and up himself and he never faltered with his words. Always coming back with a smart and snappy come back or insult. She liked this version of James, the fumbling nervous James. The one that had enough sense to respect a girl.
"Lily, I don't know how to say this, no I do know how to say this but please don't over react or freak out." James said taking Lily's hands. Lily looked at their hands and then into James' sparkling brown eyes.
"God, this must be serious." Lily said worriedly.
"No, not really but I want to tell you." James took another breath. "I think I love you." He said. Lily snatched her hands away.
"What?" Lily asked slightly alarmed.
"I think I'm in love with you." James said. Lily looked at James slightly scared.
"You're in love with me?" She asked. "Since when? How? We've just started to know each other." James nodded.
"I know but I only realised earlier when Sirius mentioned it but I think I really love you." James said. Lily looked at him suspiciously.
"This isn't a tactic to get me in bed with you is it?" She asked.
"No! I would never do that to you." James said. "Unless you wanted to but I know you don't." Lily got up slowly and looked around slightly confused.
"I'm going back to the common room" Lily said uncertainly. She quickly left the Prefect common room and literally ran to her dorm room. James slumped in the chair that he was sitting in. That had gone so badly. It could have gone worse said the little voice in his head. She could have slapped you!