It's not mine; J.K. Rowling owns everything.

Chapter 2: In Which James Finds a New Best Friend

or

In Which James Considers Homocide

They made it back to the common room without seeing anyone, which was a good thing. Not that they would've been in trouble, but James wasn't in the mood for dishing out detentions. Once in the common room Lily hurried to the fire and began warming her hands. The embers were low, but hot, and cast a warm glow over her. She almost looked like part of the fire. James enveloped her in his arms again. She fit there so perfectly. He could feel her breath flowing; it was so calming. He buried his face in her neck breathing in the soft scents of lily and gardenia. He could stay like this forever. Unfortunately the cosmos had other plans; damn cosmos. Right as he was about to take advantage of the empty common room and ask Lily what had happened that had caused Voldemort to come after her, his former, oh yes, former best friend Sirius Black came bounding down the steps and blinded him with a bright flash. As soon as he'd managed to blink the spots out of his eyes, he saw Sirius was standing at the foot of the stairs holding a camera and grinning like he'd just discovered a gold mine. James was about to go pound Sirius into a bloody pulp when he realized the Lily had collapsed. She weighed so little he hadn't even noticed at first that he'd been supporting her whole weight.

"Lily?!" He cried, worry filling his voice.

Sirius ran over to them, "Bloody shit, that wasn't supposed to happen."

"Is that all you can say! What the hell were you doing anyway? Trying to blind us!"

"No, I was just gathering a little black mail material and of course I figured you guys would want a memento from your first date." While they bickered, James laid Lily out on the couch. Shit, this was bad. He could see that she was breathing, but it felt like his world was disintegrating. He'd let her get hurt after he'd just promised to be there for her. That was going to look brilliant on his credit rating. Should he take her to the hospital wing? No, bad idea; she was drastically underweight and if they kept in her in the hospital wing for that, it would devastate her. He would definitely have to talk with her before he did something like that. Besides, what had caused her to faint anyway? Sirius ran back up the stairs saying he'd get Remus. James sat down on the couch next to Lily and gently held her hand in his. She looked for fragile lying there. A crash behind him let him know Remus and Sirius had arrived.

"Shit," was Remus' only comment.

He might have been about to say more, but at that moment Lily started to move. She seemed to be having a dream. James could see her back arching slightly off the couch as though it hurt her and her eyes were moving rapidly back and forth under her eyelids. He didn't know if her should try and wake her up or not. Then her face twisted into an awful grimace of pain and James knew he couldn't take it anymore.

"Lily," he whispered shaking her gently. "Lily, wake up. Please wake up." His words seemed to be having no effect then she bolted up, her eyes wide with terror, her mouth open in a silent scream. James tried to grab a hold of her, wanting to pull her to him and comfort her. As soon as his hands touched her arms she lashed out at him with her fists. Instinctively he caught her wrists.

"Lily, it's me James."

"J...ja..mes?"

"Yes, it's me Lily. Calm down, I'm not going to hurt you." He gently pulled her into his arms and rocked her as she began to cry. It must have been an awful nightmare to have her shaking so badly with sobs. It felt like her tiny body would just shake itself apart with the force of her tears.

"It'll be alright; everything's going to be fine. I'm here to help." He kept whispering those words over and over again in her ear. He didn't know if they were true, but he certainly hoped so.

Finally the tears stopped, but James didn't let go of her. He wanted to make sure that she would be alright. Not to mention, she felt pretty darn good nestled in his arms like this, except for the fact she was holding him so tightly he was having a little problem breathing.

"James," she sniffled into his shoulder as she loosened her death grip on him slightly.

"Shhh...it's going to be fine. Just take your time." He moved his hands up and ran them through her hair wishing she would let him do it when she wasn't sobbing.

"What happened?" She said her voice muffled in his shirt.

"Sirius was being an ass and scared the shit out of me and made you faint. I was really worried about you. Then you started having a nightmare, so I woke you up."

Lily lifted her head and looked around the now empty common room. "Where's he now?"

"Who knows, but if he were still around here I would be killing him right now," James said gently brushing a finger across her face. "We're going to have to get payback somehow."

"I've got a brilliant idea," Lily said he face twisting into a ghost of her impish grin. "I don't even remember what he did. I just remember the flash..." She broke off, her entire body shuddering at the mere memory.

"That was Sirius and his gods forsaken worthless piece of crap camera, and once I get my hands on that thing it will only exist as tiny, tiny pieces." James looked at Lily. She clearly wasn't paying attention to a single thing he was saying. "Lils, have you ever fainted when you're startled before?"

"Oh, I didn't faint because it startled me, it was more a reflex. My body just figured out that when you're unconscious...umm...well things aren't so bad," she finished not meeting his eyes.

It sounded like she was talking about someone cursing her. James' mind raced and he suddenly remembered all of those times when she'd flinch at his touch and duck at loud sounds. "Has someone been hurting you? Because if someone has I swear that son of a..."

Lily cut him off with her small delicate hand covering his mouth. "While I'd enjoy seeing someone beat up the Dark Lord, I don't want you to be in danger."

"Voldemort! Voldemort attacked you!" Lily nodded hanging her head like she was ashamed. "Oh gods Lils!" He whispered crushing her to him. "Thank the gods you're alright." This was something he'd never really had to deal with before. No one would ever dream of beating up Lily, or even making fun of her at Hogwarts because she was practically stamped on the forehead with 'If you hurt me, the Marauders will beat you into the ground'. And now she was hurt. She was hurt and he hadn't even known. The way Lily said it, Voldemort had hurt her repeatedly. He clung to her even tighter. "I'm so sorry."

"Why should you be James? You wouldn't hurt me, I know that. If anything, James, I'm going to hurt you. I spited Him, bested him even, and he's going to get back at me in any way possible. He could strike at anyone I care for...and I don't want that to be you James."

"I don't care about that Lily. What I care about is you." He said forcefully his voice filled with a tone that brooked no contradiction. Even Lily knew not to protest. Their conversation had tired her; he could see it in her drooping eyelids. She looked like she hadn't slept in months. "Here's what we're going to do. You're going to sleep in tomorrow and then I'm going to make you breakfast. And you're going to have to eat every single bite or you'll risk insulting me. Ok?"

"Mmm..." Lily was practically asleep in his arms, she looked so adorable.

He sat there a little while longer stroking her hair. "Come on Lils, bed time." He shook her a little; she didn't move. Damn, she was asleep and there was no way in the world he could wake her up. He also couldn't get her up to her bed in the girl's dormitory without setting off the alarms. Great, guess he'd be sleeping on the floor tonight. Cradling her in his arms he carried her up the staircase into his dormitory. Remus and Sirius, who were sitting on the floor talking, looked up.

"James, buddy, I'm sooo sorry. I completely..." Sirius shut up as Remus rammed him with his elbow.

"Shhh...She's asleep," Remus whispered.

Remus could be his new best friend, James decided. A, he had a brain, B, he had eyes, and C, he certainly didn't own a camera. James gently lay Lily on his bed and pulled the covers over her. Absentmindedly he brushed the hair out of her face. Realizing what he was doing, he pulled back and firmly closed the hangings around the bed. Turning, he went and sat on the floor with his friend, and former friend.

"What are we discussing?" He asked.

"Appropriate atonement punishment." Remus told him.

"But I didn't do anything," Sirius protested, "Ok, it might have been a little something, Ok, so she fainted, but big deal right?"

James just glared, Remus answered, "Wrong, so you had better start coming up with ways to make it up to Lily. After all she's your best friend's new girlfriend, so you're going to want to get along with her."

"Well put," James said giving a silent round of applause.

"Ok, ok, I'll come up with something."

"Great," James said, "Now you can start making it up to me. First you can let me have half of your bed."

"WHAT!"

"SHHHH"

"What?"

"Well, in case you haven't noticed my bed's occupied."

"So, climb in there with her."

Counting to ten was a good fight deterrent. By the time James got to 10 Sirius was practically begging to give James half of his bed. Remus told him as he brushed his teeth that his face had look positively scary.

As he climbed into Sirius' bed James knew it was going to be a long night. He wasn't even asleep yet and Sirius already had all of the covers. Lying on his stomach, James thought over the day; it all seemed so surreal. Christmas break started Sunday, which meant he had one more day with Lily until they went home for the holidays. He would hate being away from her, but he would make good use of the time. His dad was the Head Auror at the Ministry of Magic and would definitely know of a few defenses that could be set up against Voldemort. And James would make sure Lily had them all. When he finally drifted to sleep he was smiling. Lily Evans was his girlfriend and nothing was going to happen to her.

Hey Chapter #2 is up. I've got lots more coming if anyone's interested. I didn't think so, but I'm interested and that's what counts.

Thanks Daystar, my one reviewer. I guess I'll just have to keep posting for you since you complain and whine if I don't.