Disclaimer: Please refer to any of the previous chapters. My stance has not changed.

Ok, I lied. I said I was going to write that last chapter part 2, but I've changed my mind. I'm going to write a final chapter and then a conclusion. So here's the final chapter. Enjoy it. (I'll repeat, this story is no longer canon since OoTP was released.)

P.S. My holiday was lovely, thank you. And also… Eeeee!! Bring on July 16th!!

The Realization.

It was three weeks since Lily and James had got together, and they couldn't be happier. They were somehow content, at peace with each other, and with the rest of their world. They worked hard at their subjects, they enjoyed Hogsmeade trips, they laughed regularly and loudly with their friends. Sirius and Remus were delighted with their concoction, and were all too ready to take credit for it, a fact that Lily and James were too sickingly in love to care much about.

It was really quite disgusting, sometimes.

But no one minded that much, mostly, and as more weeks slipped by, and O.W.Ls came and went with much fuss and little reward, Lily suddenly found herself facing the end of another year, a year that had begun so very differently to the way it had ended.

She had started out with few friends, something of a loner, quiet, uncomplicated, and had quite suddenly found herself with the best friends she could ask for.

And fifth year ended and sixth started, and ended, with many adventures but few mishaps, and still Lily and James' love was strong.

Indeed, before long, the group found themselves facing their final exams, NEWTs and a life after Hogwarts.

Lily, James, Sirius, Remus and Peter were sitting beneath a big tree by the lake one warm spring afternoon, eagerly anticipating the holidays and making vast plans for the eternal summer after school, when it happened.

A cloud overcast the sun and a flock of horrible looking birds took flight from the Forbidden Forest, scattering far and wide.

And quite suddenly, a huge gust of wind swept up, cyclonic in magnitude, and the group of friends was compellingly swept apart.

Lily could hear screams from all around and she felt a spasm of panic – she had been swept off James knee and thrust angrily into the wall of the castle, where she was safe, if a little shaken. She could not see any of the others, anywhere.

It was dark – incredibly so for what had been only moments ago a warm, sunny day. The wind was blowing bits of dust into Lily's eyes and she had to screw them up tightly. Bits of twig were battering her bare skin and she covered her face with her arms, so as to better protect herself.

Somewhere in front of her, she heard the muffled cry of pain, the voice of Sirius taking her by surprise. Throwing her only safety to the wind, she leapt to her feet and slowly tried to battle her way through the furious gust to the source of that voice.

James had been caught offguard by the wind, and he tightened his arms around Lily just a moment too late. He found himself hugging thin air.

A second later he was tossed against the tree, hitting his head hard enough to see stars.

"Lily! Sirius! Remus! Peter!" he yelled as soon as he had shaken off the haze.

He could see nothing, hear little and there was no way of battling the ferocious winds keeping him thrust against the tree. Pulling out his wand, he began chanting spells – jinxes, hexes, protection spells, anything that might help him free, but nothing seemed to work until …

"Protego!"

The shield managed what nothing else had, and he managed to escape the choking hold of the tree.

A female voice screamed ahead of him and, recognizing Lily's voice, James struck out towards her.

Lily had, in her plight towards Sirius, found the Whomping Willow.

Struck across the face with a glancing blow by one of its flailing branches, Lily fell to the ground, hurt but not fatally so. She pulled out her wand and threw a Stunning spell at the tree's trunk, and by some twist of luck managed to hit the spot that froze the tree. Clutching the gash across her face, she continued to move forward, unaware that she had only a little time before the tree started moving again.

James had managed to fight his way across the grounds with his wand tip lit, and had spotted Lily, surging towards the Whomping Willow's trunk. He had been around the tree long enough to know the signs of it beginning to regain mobility, and Lily was too close now to escape its deadly reach.

Transforming into a stag faster than light, James galloped across the grounds faster than the tree could move and knocked into Lily hard, sending her flying across the grounds and just out of the tree's reach. At that precise moment, a lethal swing of a branch smacked into James, where Lily had been standing an instant before. Furious at being Stunned and at being hurled around by the wind that had now abated somewhat, the Willow doubled over its prey as James collapsed from the force of that first blow, and beat down on him with angry branch after angry branch.

Lily had fallen hard, but the impact had been softened by the grass. She turned with groggy eyes to see what had hit her, assuming it to have been the tree, and saw James' prostrate form being hailed upon.

"James!" she screamed, her mind whiring faster than her body could move.

Remus had appeared from the other side of the tree, and froze it with the help of a long branch.

James didn't move.

His battered body strengthless, his Animagus form slipped away to reveal the bloody, war-torn human inside.

"NO!" screamed Lily, fright giving her the strength to find her feet and stumble over to him.

Remus met her halfway and helped her over to where James lay. Together they managed to move him out of the range of the Willow's rage.

And still, James didn't move.

Lily, despite having just sat her NEWTs, could not think of a single spell that might save him.

Luckily, Remus could.

"Enervate" he cried, and James, barely alive, awoke from his sleep.

Lily knew he was on his last ounce of life, and she did the only thing she could think of.

"Vivaciobinda," she said before Remus could stop her, binding James' life strength to her own, and thus letting him draw on her strength.

For a moment he thought it had saved James' life, and indeed it had, but James had been very, very weak. Lily felt her own strength gurgling out of her as though down a giant black plughole, and as James drew a rebirthing breath of air, Lily felt herself faint.

Well, that concludes the final chapter. I'll have the conclusion up soon, I know exactly how it's going to go, so stay tuned and if you all reward me with a lovely multitude of reviews I may be inclined to post it very soon.

Have a safe and happy January.

Love you all dearly

Lawwwren.