Chapter 17- Fainting in the hall

Lily woke up the next Wednesday morning and stretched, trying to keep her eyes open. They felt extremely heavy this day, more so than usual. It took her a moment to realize that it was a knocking on her door that had wakened her in the first place. "Lily," James said from behind the door. "There's only twenty minutes left for breakfast, should I go without you?"

Lily picked up her watch from the night stand and jumped up immediately, changing as quickly as she could manage. "I'll be ready in two minutes."

True to her word, Lily only took the time to dress, splash her face, and brush her teeth quickly, then she went into the common room where James had been waiting. Lily realized when they got to the Great Hall that she hadn't taken the potion that had been helping to keep her from feeling so weak. Oh well, she thought as she put some scrambled eggs onto her plate, I'll feel okay after I eat.

"Have some water," James urged, hoping Sirius had gotten up early enough to put the potion into Lily's drink. Remus had been at the table making sure that no one else drank from that particular cup.

"What took you two so long?" Remus asked, James being the one to pick up why they were being inquired of.

"I woke up late," Lily said, taking a bite of toast then washing it down a bit with her water.

"Oh," Remus said. He had been worried that James wouldn't have gotten Lily to come, and the vile Snape had given them might be the only one obtainable from the batch, since some of the ingredients tended to loose effect quickly.

Luckily it didn't take long for Lily to eat, though she wasn't using her best manners in the process. Just as James, Lily, and Remus were getting up to go to class, Sirius entered, looking proud of himself. "You did it then?" Remus whispered while Lily was preoccupied with grabbing her book bag.

"Yeah," Sirius said.

They all started to make their way to Herbology. Today they were supposed to be studying the uses of the adder's tongue with all the students from their year. The group of them were nearly outside when Lily had to lean against the wall to catch her breath. "Are you okay?" Remus asked as James took her book bag from her.

Lily nodded and put on a weak smile before everything went black to her. Sirius caught her and all three boys tried to help lifting her up. Sirius had the best hold and started carrying her, changing their course toward the Hospital wing.

When James was sure Sirius had her, he jerked around and started heading in the other direction. Remus knew what was going on. "We'll be there in a few minutes, you stay with her and make sure she's okay," he instructed before running after James.

"What did you do?!" James yelled at Snape when he found him. Severus had been in the green houses as people coming in were gossiping about Lily Evans fainting in the hallway. He was going back to see if she was all right when James meet up with him.

"Nothing!" Snape shouted back.

"That's bull you little pillock!" James threw down both of the book bags hanging on his shoulders and right hooked Snape right across the jaw. "You had this planned from the beginning didn't you?!" James slammed him against the stone wall. "Wanted to get the Muggle-born didn't you? Thought it would be fun to go back and brag to all of your bloody Slytherin mates!"

Snape loosened James's grip on him and punched James right in the gut. "You don't even know what you're talking about you maggot!" Snape said taking another swing but his arm was caught by James and twisted around his back.

"Tell me what you did to Lily!" James said, pulling Severus's arm further up, almost to breaking point.

"James! Stop!" Remus said, finally having gotten past Filch, who had stopped him for running in the halls.

"Give me one good reason," James said, anger flashing in his eyes.

"Because," Remus said, wanting to join in badly. "Lily wouldn't want you to lower yourself to that level on account of the slimy git."

James pulled up harder on Snape's arm, tempted but stopped, turning a pained Snape around, once again pushing him into the wall and pinning him there. "If Lily doesn't get better, I'll be back." Remus had already picked up Lily's bag, so James gathered his own quickly, then both of the Gryffindor boys turned around and left.

Snape, who had fallen to the floor in pain, stood and made his way the best he could to his own dormitory. When he got there, he extracted the papers that had been given to him along with the left over ingredients. "I did it right," Snape said, starting to cry and frantically looking over the instructions to make sure he hadn't missed anything. "I did it right, I had to have done it right. No, not Lily," he muttered still trying to read the paper through the tears.

"NO!" he screamed throwing the papers away from him and sinking down the wall closest to him and onto the floor.

"Where is she?" James demanded when they got to the Hospital Wing and saw Sirius standing outside the double doors.

"Madam Pomfrey had me put her in one of the beds and then ordered me out," Sirius said, somewhat distressed, but mostly in fear that James was going to turn on him.

"When can we go in? Was she breathing? What happened to her?" James started spouting off these questions as he paced the hall.

"Madam Pomfrey wouldn't let me in, but Lily seemed like she was alive," Sirius said. "Maybe it's just a side effect of the potion," he added looking to Remus for the answer.

"Possible," Remus said. He was glad to see James's expression change a bit.

"When can we see her?" James asked, some hope in his tone.

"Madam Pomfrey didn't say," Sirius said.

"I'm sure it'll be soon," Remus encouraged.

"Yeah, mate. We can all wait here until they let us in," Sirius suggested and Remus nodded in agreement. James's only response was to sit down against the wall across from the doors.

Fifteen minutes passed before Madam Pomfrey came out. "What are you three doing here? Go to class."

James stood up. "Is Lily all right?"

"She's fine, Mr. Potter, now go to class," Madam Pomfrey commanded, but the Marauders never gave up that easily.

"Can't we see her? Just for a minute?" Sirius asked.

"Are they out there?" the boys heard from inside the room.

"Yes, but you need to rest," Madam Pomfrey said turning her head into the room for a second, then turning back to the three seventh year boys in front of her. "Now, to class with you!"

"Come now, Poppy," Professor Dumbledore said, making his way to the top step from the Marauder's right.

"Headmaster," Remus said, now getting a bit flustered. "We were just asking about-"

"Miss Evans, I know, I know," Dumbledore said with a slight twinkle in his eye. "They have my permission to see their friend, Poppy."

Madam Pomfrey gave an exasperated look, "fine, ten minutes. Then she needs to rest!"

"Thank you," James said, not thinking while picking up Poppy in a giant hug, spun her around, set her down then went over to where his girlfriend was lying on a bed. "How are you?" James grabbed her hand.

"I'm okay," Lily said. "I just rushed myself this morning. I'll be all right."

James wanted badly to tell her what they had done, and apologize for trusting Snape, but what if it had worked? Maybe it was just a side effect, or Lily being really tired. There still had to be a chance, right?

"You scared us there, Evans," Sirius said, gaining his humor once more. "Don't do that again, or I'll have to hex you."

"Was that supposed to be a threat?" Lily asked cocking her head to the side. "Because I've seen your hexes Sirius; and besides the fact that you can't aim-"

"Fine, fine, just don't scare us like that again, alright?"

"I'll try," Lily said. She looked back at James, whose eyes were still filled with concern. "What?"

"I'm just worried," he said sitting on the edge of the bed next to her.

"I don't want you to be. Think about it this way; if I'm feeling like this it could be because its working?"

"What's working? What do you mean?" James asked, paranoid. Maybe Snape didn't do anything to the potion, but told her about it.

"The Chemotherapy James, are you feeling alright? Maybe I should be switching you places," Lily suggested playfully.

"Oh, that right," James said. "No, I'm fine, just concerned. Do you want me to take notes for you?"

Lily tried to hide the shock that he wasn't pawning the job to someone else. "Sure," she said. "I'd really appreciate that."

James leaned down and kissed her, a glint of happiness returning to his eyes. "We'll be back after dinner, okay?"

"All right," Lily said.

"Call if you need us," Remus said, as they all were leaving.

Lily turned over, closing her eyes as James took one more glance toward her. Please don't let anything happen to her, he thought, then left the Hospital wing.

A/N: Would you look at that: two chapters in two days…. I think I'm over the writer's block…. But I better not curse it. Anyways, I know the last chapter was a bit slow and WAY fluffy, but I just wanted to set up a couple of little facts and bits. Hope you like this chapter. It only took me 3 hours…. Or something like that.

Sorry if any of you have already read this and got an Author Alert, but since wasn't sending them out yesterday when I posted, I thought I'd post again, so that people that didn't know about it can read it if they want.

Thank you:

KSO: Yeah, we all know they start dating in 7th year, so I had to bring it in at some point. I do like having James still be James though, with thoughts like playing footsies instead of how he can cater to Lily's every whim… I hope you'll agree. Thanks for the review.

JamieBell: I didn't mean you didn't care in that way, I just meant you didn't get on my back, which I really appreciate. =) It think it's awful how they treat Snape, but I think they do treat him poorly. I hope no one thinks I've treated them that way, because I think I would hate myself for doing that. They all just egg each other on, and that's how it is, but that doesn't mean there isn't more to it. I'm now thinking about what's written in this chapter and wondering how you're going to react to that…. Oh no. Anyways, I've already written the last chapter in Harmony at Hogwarts, and I wrote that like after I had posted chapter 3, so I'll believe that. I can't wait to read more on that piece, btw.

Katkit: Thank you for reviewing, and you should get more sleep! =)

bitterHeart: Here you go, more with out having to wait too long=) I'll try to keep it up.

Lady Riddle: I'll tell you right now that it IS Tom Riddle that is the Potions Master in this story. I was going to make you wait until the next chapter to find it out, but I'll let you know right now, since you were so close. Don't worry, I have plans, and it doesn't really effect the story, but it's just a bit about him. You'll notice that I mentioned Snape had figured out how to get around Riddle a bit….it was just a thing I put in.

Misakichi1: Thank you for your review!

Josephine Sawyer: prepares fingers to type Chapter 16 was basically a set up, you're right about that. That and it helped me get past the writer's block. I'm glad you like the Snape characterization. That's one of those cliché characters that I was trying to avoid using everyone else's concept. I also like thinking he's not as big a git as he come off as. Whenever with the other stuff, but you might like to know (since doesn't seem to be sending alerts right not) that I wrote another chapter to the Resentment in which Snape reflects on some things.

Angulgurl: I'm sorry it took so long last time, but I'm going to keep up on this one until it's done now!

Mell Minamoto: I just appreciate any time you do review. Thank you so much! Hope you like this chapter.