Disclaimer: I don't own any HP characters or the Carnival Cruise Line. (Although I do happen to recently be the owner of the Carnival Cruise Line Tycoon :P)

A Spring Fling

Chapter Eight: Day Four, Dealing

Lily awoke shivering. She pulled the covers tighter around her, but kept her eyes shut because she was just so tired. She thought how strange it was to hear voices around her...

"Being her mother, I understand that you people can help her, but I really think she needs rest right now."

"Mrs. Evans, I know you want what's best for your daughter, and that's why she needs to wake up and drink this right away. I am a medic-healer, mam, and this potion will ensure that she gets over her sickness right away."

"But,"

"If she doesn't take this, she could be sick for some time."

"Well, alright. I suppose you can come in then. Besides, it's not like I can get this boy here to leave,"

Lily suddenly realized that someone had their hand in her own, and she felt a hand graze her shoulder.

"Lily, Lily wake up."

But Lily didn't want to wake up; she was perfectly fine how she was.

"Lily, wake up."

Another voice entered the room; a male voice, a nice voice, a voice, well, a voice she wanted to see.

"Maybe I would open my eyes for him." Thought Lily, "But then again, I'm just so tired,"

"Open your eyes Lily, I know you're awake," the voice came more demanding this time; but strangely enough, Lily found it endearing. ", Please?"

Slowly, Lily's eyes opened. She blinked several times before her vision became clear, and saw in the room James, (holding her hand and smiling down t her), her mom, and Remus' mom?

"You'll have to drink this potion dear," said Remus' mom, Hattie was it? "It'll take away the cold. I was wrong, you didn't get pneumonia like I thought you would."

"Well that's a relief." Grinned Lily. Her throat felt constricted and tight. She thought it must have been from almost drowning or something of the sort; but once the potion went down, her throat immediately loosened up. She thought for a moment, trying to think straight. "So, what happened," she asked, "is everyone okay?"

The three standing people in the room looked at each other with grim faces.

"What's wrong? What happened? I'm guessing we won because we're all here, but, wait! Where is everyone?"

Lily's mom stifled a sob, and with a quick, "I'll be back in a while", left the room.

"I should go check on my family as well." Muttered Hattie as she too left.

"James, what happened?" Lily asked, starting to get a bit worried.

James sighed.

"Well, after I got stunned, (thank God it was just a stunner), I heard that you jumped in the pool after me and got me out, but then you got stunned yourself and fell back into the pool. After you had been in the pool for some time, my dad was able to dive in and bring you out. You weren't breathing, so he had to give you CPR."

Lily raised her eyebrows.

"It's true!" defended James, although he did seem to turn a bit red. "After that horrid deed that my dad did, (although it did save your life); Remus' mom came over and took you inside away from everything, and my dad woke me up with a reviving spell, so I was able to get right up and grab my wand. There were so many death eaters! I'd say about 15 of them. Up to then we had managed to take out about four of them; it was hard aiming out there and with them all on brooms. And then, well, Remus' sister Hailey was hit."

Lily gasped.

"Hit?"

James bit his lip, obviously not wanting to be the one to say it. "She was killed, Lily."

Lily hung her head, "I didn't even really know her."

James stuttered, "I, I really didn't want to be the one to, to tell you this, but Lily; there was someone you knew who died out there."

Lily grasped the blankets around her, not knowing what was to come.

James continued, "Your grandma came out onto the deck frantically looking for you, and, well, one of the death eaters saw her and finished her off with the killing curse. I'm really really sorry, Lily."

Lily's eyes widened in shock. Her grandma? Her own grandma, dead?

James continued, "After that, we all got our energy renewed from seeing someone so innocent murdered, that we went in full force and managed to stun a couple more death eaters, "we have them each in a full-body-bind and still stunned in my parent's room), and the rest flew off back to land."

Lily blinked back tears. Maybe, maybe if she didn't think about it at all then it wouldn't have happened. Wouldn't it work that way?

"Weird how the day began perfect and ended as a complete nightmare huh?" James concluded.

"Tell me about it."

"You want to go outside for a minute?" asked James, "Maybe get some fresh air? I think it would be good for you,"

Lily nodded, and they walked out onto the deck.

"Wow." Lily muttered.

Wow was the right word. Lily looked out a he damage that had been done. The pool was full of objects: lawn chairs, tables, cups; and the deck itself was even more trashed: tables were strewn around while umbrellas and coverings tumbled about.

Lily hid her face in James' chest; she wasn't there to fight. In Lily's view, she had been the first to wimp out.

As if knowing what Lily was thinking, James reprimanded her.

"You're probably beating yourself up that you weren't conscious longer to help, Lily. But it's not your fault! For goodness sake you were stunned! AND you saved my life! You did more than most of us." James laughed in an exasperated way, "I suppose as muggles would say, you took one for the team."

Lily laughed, starting to believe him.

Some of the workers started to cautiously come out onto the deck and start to clean up. James and Lily stood out on the deck for a while, just taking in the sun before it would go down and just letting the warm breeze blow through their hair, when they heard the loudspeaker come on.

"Ladies and gentlemen, I apologize profusely for the trouble that was caused out on the deck earlier. Some people must have come over this way in a boat of their own and decided to cause some trouble. The deck is, however, being cleared up as we speak, and dinner will be ready in just about half an hour; I am very sorry for the delay."

The loudspeaker clicked off, and people started to wander out onto the deck.

"Sorry that they're late for dinner huh?" mocked Lily; she looked at her watch and saw that it was 7:30. "An hour or so late,"

"I liked his description of the death eaters." James pondered sarcastically, "Random people who came on another boat to cause some trouble. Not to mention that they would have to go through a heck of a lot of trouble to get out here,"

Lily laughed, but suddenly fell down on her knees as fatigue took her.

"Wow."

Lily's eyes suddenly wanted to shut and stay closed. It took all her effort not to just fall asleep on the spot.

"Are you sure there wasn't some kind of sleeping drought in that potion Remus' mom gave me?"

James rolled his eyes.

"There probably was; moms tend to do that kind of stuff, make you do stuff without telling you; we should probably get you to your room then."

Lily put her arm around James, and they slowly made their way to her room, Lily fighting off sleep at every turn.

Finally, they managed to get to the door to Lily's room. When they opened the door, Lily shrieked. Lying on her bed was Lily's grandmother's limp form. Lily fainted, either that or sleep finally took her, James couldn't be sure, but he decided that it probably wouldn't be best if she stayed in the same room as her deceased grandmother while she wasn't feeling the best. He found a piece of paper, and wrote a little note to Lily's parents:

"At the moment, Lily is sleeping in my, (James), room which is E49. Don't worry, nothing is wrong, but when we reached this room, (so Lily could get some rest), the sight of her grandma on the bed made her faint, and so I am letting her rest in my own room. Come get her when you want. – James"

Picking Lily up in his arms, he pushed the door open and made the way down to his room. When there, James placed her down on his bed, and lay the top blanket over her. Feeling responsible to stay in the room and keep watch, he grabbed a book and settled down at the edge of the bed, feeling content to have his girl close by.

Arrggg, shortest chapter yet, I know, and I hate it! I hate short chapters! But I'm way past my deadline, and I figured I had to post SOMETHING, even if it is a bit short. The truth is, I dug myself into a bit of a hole last chapter, and I had a real hard time knowing what to do next. (I had a bit of help from a friend, JB, and he wanted me to mention that. LOL.)

I'm so sorry, but I don't have time for thank yous...THANK YOU TO ALL!