His Last Chance

Moony

JK's

Chapter 3

Lily woke the next morning, though she had not opened her eyes. She felt her head against a pillow and covers, and she was laying on a soft mattress. She must have been in a bed. What had happened yesterday? She thought hard and couldn't remember. She opened her eyelids, and the familiar surroundings of the hospital wing was before her eyes. She sat up and turned her head. There was James Potter. James Potter???

"You're awake!" he said in his mockingly boyish way.

"What are you doing here?"

"Don't you remember?"

"Remember what?"

James shook his head.

"We were going to have a Butterbeer in the Three Broomsticks and then there was this gust of wind and you fell and your head hit the ice pretty bad."

Lily leaned against her pillows. It all came back to her. James smiled and scooted his chair over, then passed her a box of Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans.

"Let's eat these," he said, grinning.

Lily felt more than happy to be eating something and opened it. James pulled out a red one, "Do you think this is cherry? Or would it be like nail polish?"

And Lily laughed as he gagged and spit it out into the trash can.

"Blood!"

James' eyes twinkled.

"How long must I stay here?" Lily asked as she ate a green one, which turned out to be grass.

"Two weeks at the least, Madam Pomfrey's afraid you're gonna get amnesia or something and like forget everything."

"Oh..."

"I brought some Butterbeer cans from the Three Broomsticks though, we can drink here."

"Ok," Lily said and grabbed a bottle.

James pulled out a book.

"Lily, do Muggles write with this thingy called a pentsill?"

"Well you can write with a pen too."

"Muggles write with pins?"

"No pens! This..."

Lily pulled out a pen. James grabbed it eagerly and balanced it on his nose.

"Cool! It's a fun game."

"You WRITE with it James. Honestly, do you get any stupider?"

"Well I'm smart enough to do a puzzle!" James replied, setting a puzzle box on Lily's bed.

"How do you know about puzzles?"

"Oh, Peter told me. He has a Muggle Dad you know."

"All righty, let's build it then."

They matched pieces together in silence for a while, until Lily realized she as actually having fun. She couldn't believe. She was having fun with James Potter. Hadn't she swore he would be her archenemy forever? Hadn't she promised herself never to fall for him? And what was she doing now? Lily stopped. She leaned against her bed and stared out the window. She was not going to fall for him. No way.

James looked up.

"What's up?"

"I don't want to do this anymore James."

"Why?"

"I don't know."

"Well, what do you want to do then?"

"I don't want to do anything."

"Oh..."

There was a hint of hurt in his voice. He stared at the puzzle.

"Well, I guess, I'll uh... put the puzzle back in the box?"

"Yea go ahead. Then leave. I want to be alone."

"Oh – ok then... yes, I quite understand..."

He quickly dumped the pieces in the box and dashed out the hospital wing. Lily should have been happy. But she was not. Without James in the room, it felt lonely and quiet. There was no laughter, no sarcasm, no pranks. She didn't like it at all.

"No," she said loudly to herself, "James Potter is a nobody. You don't like him, and you never will."

If only that could convince her.