A HUGE 'thank you' goes out to Lisa who helped me with the plot for this chapter! (So let's everyone give her a pat on the back!) Also, a thousand apologies for not having this chapter up sooner! Thanks again to all of the reviewers!


An idle Thursday turns into anything but, and a little drama is infused into the Marauder's summer.


Disclaimer: I'm not JKR (who is the one who owns these characters), nor am I making any money off of this!

It was early afternoon on a Thursday when James was awakened by screech of an owl and the sensation of something being dropped onto his back.

"Alright, alright, Penni! I'm up!" he yawned lazily as his owl Pennifold landed on her perch on his bedside table in a whirlwind of flapping wings and flying feathers. James rolled over onto his back and peered with groggy eyes at the bundle of post the owl had dropped onto his bed, right next to Mickey the crup. Mickey jumped up, gave a short bark, then grabbed the bundle in his mouth, jumped down from the bed and scampered out of the small doggie hole in James' bedroom door.

"HEY! Mickey! Come back here!" James cried, throwing the covers off and leaping off the bed to chase the crup. As he threw open his door he could hear the twinkling of Mickey's collar as he ran down the stairs and through the downstairs hallway.

James banged on Sirius' bedroom door. "SIRIUS! WAKE UP!"

From within the room Sirius groaned loudly. "Shut up, Prongs! I'm sleeping!"

"Not anymore! Get your bum out of bed!" James figured if he had to be awake so did his best friend. He walked down the long hallway and made his way quickly down the stairs.

Mickey was sitting up on his haunches on a chair at the kitchen table, the bundle of mail in his mouth. James grabbed it and tossed it on the table, and bent down to scratch Mickey behind his ears.

"You silly little guy!" He said as he gave the crup a playful pat.

James tuned the Wizarding Wireless to a rock station, then retrieved two pieces of bread from the bread box and stuffed them into the toaster. He then rummaged through the refrigerator, found a jar of orange marmalade and a carton of pumpkin juice, and carried them to the table. His toast sprung up from the toaster, landed on a plate that had levitated out of a nearby cupboard and floated slowly over to rest next to the marmalade. Bobbing his head up and down to the beat of the music coming from the Wireless, James spread marmalade on his toast and read the headlines of the Daily Prophet, which was lying on the table, left over from when his parents had had their breakfast hours earlier.

He was about to take a bite out of the toast when he heard a pop and a familiar voice behind him.

"Hello? Hello? Is anyone home? Potter is that you?"

James turned around to see Lily's head in the small fireplace next to the oven. He was so surprised he almost dropped his toast.

"Lily!" His voice sounded shrill with surprise. He cleared his throat and tried again. "Evans. Hi. What's going on?"

"Well, er, I've finished that book I borrowed; I was wondering if now was a good time to return it." Lily spoke quickly and nervously.

James' insides jumped with joy, but he tried to remain cool on the outside. "Oh, sure, just come on through the family room fireplace. I'm in the kitchen." James paused, realizing the obviousness of his last sentence, and grimaced. "Yeah, um, yeah, just come on through whenever."

"Okay," With a pop Lily was gone. A few seconds later she came walking through the swinging kitchen door, holding the ancient book in her hand. She looked at James sitting at the table, still in his red and gold striped Gryffindor pajama pants, Quidditch t-shirt, and rumpled hair and smiled bemusedly. "Just wake up, Potter? Or are you going for the pajama party look today?"

James' eyes widened as he looked down at his clothes and realized he was still wearing his night clothes. Wishing he could dash from the room and put on something more presentable, he answered, "Erm, I did just wake up, actually. It's summer holiday, you know, I don't have to get up at 6 a.m. to go to class."

"Ah." Lily placed the book down on the table and sat down. She tapped the fingers on her left hand softly on the tabletop and looked around the kitchen, avoiding looking directly at James.

"Are you hungry? Would you like some toast and marmalade?" James graciously offered her his plate. "Or do you want some lunch? We have some great leftover roast beef and Dad made his famous rye bread yesterday."

Before Lily could answer, a still sleepy Sirius, wearing only a pair of white boxer shorts, came through the kitchen from the hallway door, rubbing his eyes with one hand and pulling at the back of his shorts with the other.

"Yeah, thanks for banging on my door, Prongs, I really wanted to be awakened by the sound of the house coming down around me," Sirius said sarcastically as he made a beeline for the refrigerator and peeked in. "Where's the pumpkin juice?" he yawned.

"Here on the table," James said, looking apologetically at Lily, who was wide eyed and blushing with embarrassment. He opened his mouth to speak again, but Sirius beat him to it.

"Never mind, I'll just drink milk." He reached for the milk and started drinking right from the carton. He smacked his lips and turned around. "Ahh, delicious! So today I thought we'd- BLOODY HELL!" He yelped as he saw Lily for the first time.

"Yeah, Padfoot, would ya mind putting some clothes on- we have a visitor." James said, sounding annoyed, but obviously holding back laughter

"I'll be right back," Sirius whispered, and dashed from the room as dignified as he could.

James and Lily looked at each other, then burst into laughter.

"I'm really sorry," James managed to say between fits of laughter.

"It's ok. Does he do that every morning? Because I know a lot of Hogwarts girls who'd pay to see a show like that."

"Yeah, I bet!" James took a bite out of his toast as Sirius re-entered the kitchen, this time wearing jeans and a t-shirt. "Well, look who's back! Lily and I are planning on letting spectators join us for breakfast from now on, we plan on making a pretty galleon from you," James teased his friend.

"Yeah, yeah, very funny." Sirius said, swiping James' second piece of toast and cramming into his mouth. "H'was I supos'd t'know Lilywashr?" He finished chewing the toast. "How are you anyway, Lily?"

"Great." Lily answered. "I came by to return the book I borrowed."

"Do you want another?" James asked.

"Er, sure, if that's cool."

"Of course. Hey, did you want something to eat? It is just about lunchtime."

"That roast beef and rye bread you mentioned sounds good."

James got up to make Lily a sandwich. When he was finished and had placed it in front of her, he excused himself to go upstairs and get changed. While he was gone Lily started in on the sandwich while Sirius began frying up a few eggs for himself.

"My O.W.L. results came today, did you guys get yours?" Lily asked Sirius.

"Uuum, I dunno, hey James, did the post come yet?" Sirius asked James as he came back into the kitchen wearing a t-shirt and jeans.

"Oh yeah, it's on the table- why?"

"Lily said her O.W.L. results came today."

"Is that so?" James lifted up the Daily Prophet to inspect the post. Sure enough, two large identical parchment envelopes, addressed to James and Sirius, were lying on top of the stack. "How were your scores, Evans?"

"Twelve O.W.L.s" Lily said proudly.

"Congratulations, that's great!" James said enthusiastically, handing Sirius his envelope. The two boys opened their envelopes and read the contents individually.

"Well?" James asked Sirius.

"Twelve!" Sirius shouted excitedly.

"Me too!" James shouted back, throwing the envelope and letter into the air. He and Sirius exchanged a high five and did a funky dance around the kitchen island. Lily looked on, one eyebrow raised, but a small smile forming in the corners of her mouth.

"I don't believe you two! You goof off all of the time, from what I see you never study, and you pulled off twelve O.W.L.s!"

"Oh, come on, Evans, we study lots!"

Lily gave James a look. He chuckled sheepishly. "Er, ok, so we don't. Hey, can I help it if I have talent coming out of my ears?"

"You have something coming out of you, Potter, but it's not talent, and it's not coming out of your ears, but your ass."

"Ouch, she got you there, Prongs. But, Lily, you did just as well, don't be mad." Sirius said, sliding his eggs onto a plate.

"We should Floo Moony!" James said, as if he had just thought to do so. "I bet he got twelve too!"

"Oh, yeah," Sirius said, putting down his plate, grabbing some Floo Powder from a small jar on the counter, and throwing it into the small fireplace. "Fifty-five York Circle!"

James stood next to Sirius and nudged him in the arm with his elbow. "Hey, move over, I want to talk to him too." Sirius obliged and they both peered into the small green flames.

"Helloooooo?" Sirius called through the fireplace.

"MOOOOONY!" James called as well.

Lily heard Remus' voice on the other side of the fire.

"Is something wrong, James?"

"Naw, you git- O.W.L. scores came today!"

"Yeah, Moony, whatcha get?"

"Twelve, same as I'm sure you two prats got."

"You betcha!"

"Wonderful. I love how I study day and night, you two goof off the whole school year, and we still get the same marks."

"Funny, Lily said the same thing."

"Yeah? Well she's a smart girl. Wait, when did you talk to Lily?"

"She's here now."

"Oh yeah?" Remus' voice sounded congratulatory. James looked over his shoulder quickly, then looked back, and put his index finger to his lips- trying to indicate to Remus that he should be quiet. Lily rolled her eyes at James' back.

"Hi, Remus," She called loudly so her voice would carry through the fireplace.

"Er, hi Lily," Remus called back.

"Well, Moony, we'd love to stand her all day and chat with you, but Evans wants to take another look at the library, so I've got to go. Do you want to come over later?"

"I was actually going to go to my parents' shop for a bit, I wanted to show them the O.W.L. letter, but I could come over in a few hours."

"Okay, just come on over whenever you can, I don't think we're going anywhere."

"Alright. Hey, have you talked to Peter yet?"

"No."

"He Flooed just before you did. He got three O.W.L.S- was really excited about it, too. So don't go teasing him about his marks if he Flooes you as well."

"Does he want to come over as well?"

"Can't, his mom wants him to stay put today. You know how she is."

"Bummer, oh well, see you later!"

"Bye, guys."

James and Sirius backed away from the small fireplace and turned around.

"I'm going to go take a shower," Sirius said as he gobbled down the last bits of egg from his plate.

"Good, you stink," James ducked as Sirius' fork went whizzing by his head. Lily laughed. James grinned. "C'mon, Evans, let's go get you another book."

Lily followed James upstairs, through the long hallway, then back up the twisting and narrow staircase leading to the Potter's library.

The library looked different in the daylight. Sunlight streamed in from a line of tall windows on the eastern wall and brilliantly lit up the expansive high-ceilinged room. On the three remaining walls hung old pictures of witches and wizards, most of them reading books or snoozing.

Lily put back The Power of Blood: Ancient Familial Charms and quickly immersed herself in perusing the Charms section. James sat down in a deep arm chair near the windows and let her look in silence for a few minutes before tentatively trying to strike up a conversation.

"So, Evans, what have you been doing with yourself all summer?" He called to her from across the room.

She answered without taking her eyes off of the bookshelves, continuing to finger the spines of the books and read the titles in her head while she answered James out loud.

"My family went on a week's holiday to Paris as soon as I came home from Hogwarts. But besides that, I've been mostly reading and doing our summer assignments."

"The summer assignments?" James said incredulously.

Lily added two books to the growing pile in her arms. "You know, the supplemental Transfiguration readings, the ten Potions essays, the Defense Against the Dark Arts book reports…"

"I know what the assignments are! I just haven't started them yet," James interrupted.

"Shocker," Lily said under her breath sarcastically.

"Heard that!" James answered. "Why've you started them so soon?"

"I have finished them actually."

"Finished! Good grief!

"If you haven't noticed, Potter, there's a lot of work to do, I thought it best to start early."

"Eh, I'll start eventually. I don't usually finish all of the work though."

Now it was Lily's turn to be disbelieving. "You don't? But you get detentions if you don't finish the assignments!"

"Phooey, what's so bad about detention anyway? Sirius and I are usually in it together, so we don't care."

Lily poked her head out of the line of bookshelves to look James squarely in the eyes. "You actually like detention?"

James shrugged his shoulders. "I'm not saying I always like it, but it's not bad. If I have to spend a couple nights cleaning out broom closets or scrubbing the floor in the Great Hall in order to avoid doing homework during the summer, then it's worth it. Besides, half of the time they put Sirius and me with Hagrid for detention, and he's loads of fun- we've gotten to see some pretty cool stuff in the Forbidden Forest."

Lily was aghast at James' flippant attitude. "But don't you feel like you should do the assignments simply because they are assigned and we're supposed to do them!" She carried her heavy armful of books over to an empty armchair next to James'. He stood up quickly and rescued a few books from falling from the top of the wavering pile.

"I don't need to learn the material by doing homework, Evans."

"Whoo hoo hoo, look who thinks he knows it all," Lily said, annoyed.

"Oh give me a break, you can't tell me you actually need to study so hard yourself, Miss Twelve O.W.L.S. Don't even try to pretend you aren't as smart as I know you are."

Lily felt a small surge of pride at James' compliment, but quickly covered it up with a stern reply, "Well I prefer to read, do homework and improve my mind and revel in the joy of discovery and learning instead of acting like a git with too much time on his hands who has to amuse himself by clowning around and picking on students who aren't as popular as he."

"I'm sure I don't know what you mean, Evans."

"Oh, yeah, I'm sure you don't, because the last week of school was soooo long ago that no one can remember it, ay Potter?" Lily's voice was heavy with sarcasm.

James crossed his arms. "You're still sore about that day by the lake when Sirius and I were dueling with Snivellus, aren't you?"

"His name is Severus, Potter," Lily interrupted, her voice dark.

"Like I said, Snivellus," James looked at Lily intently. "Why are you so quick to defend him?"

"Why are you so quick to pick on him?"

"You heard my father weeks ago! His whole family is full of Dark Wizards- the worst Dark wizards there are! You can't tell me he isn't too!"

"I just don't like to judge people without getting to know them!" Lily spit back.

"Oh, please, don't get all self righteous on me, Evans. The moment Snape entered Hogwarts he was none too quick with cursing anyone who got in his way, even if they were Slytherins! You can't tell me you don't remember?"

"I had a lot going on those first few months at Hogwarts, Potter. You know, with being a Muggleborn and all- trying to get accustomed to a totally new world and environment that up until then I had no idea existed. Spoiled adolescent boys perpetuating their Pureblood family feuds at school were the last thing that would have blipped on my radar screen."

There was something in Lily's voice that made James stop and take notice. He had never considered before what Hogwarts would be like for someone not accustomed to the Wizarding world. For a brief moment he found himself imagining what it would have been like in Lily's shoes as an eleven year old being put on a train to a boarding school where she had no friends, nor knew anything about the lives her fellow students lived. For the first time in his life, he had a glimpse of what it felt like to be lonely and scared.

James' voice softened. "Yeah, I guess you're right. You wouldn't have noticed a thing like that, would you?"

Lily opened a book and pretended to read. "No, I wouldn't have." Her voice was quiet.

"Well, I'd say you've acclimated extremely well, Evans." James said brightly, trying to improve the mood of their conversation. "You're always competing with Sirius, Remus, and I for head of the class- and you're a prefect to boot. I wouldn't be at all surprised if you are Head Girl someday."

"Thanks, Potter. I'd say I've acclimated extremely well too." This time she accepted his compliment without reserve.

James smiled at Lily, although she didn't know it because her head was down and she was reading. "There is something that you are wrong about, though." He said, firmly, yet cautiously.

Lily looked up. "What's that?"

"You called us spoiled adolescent boys. I know it may seem like I'm spoiled the way I act sometimes, but don't think that Sirius has ever been spoiled or treated well by his family. He had a pretty tough childhood."

"You've mentioned that."

"It's as true now as it was two weeks ago."

"You'd never know it to look at him."

"Well it's not exactly something he tells the world, is it? Besides, it's not like he cares; he dislikes his family as much as they dislike him."

"That's really too bad."

James shrugged his shoulders. "It's just how it is, Sirius accepts that and deals with it accordingly. He's pretty much put the differences with his family behind him and moved on- it's the rest of the Slytherins that haven't and try to make trouble."

"What do you mean?" Lily looked puzzled.

"Well, his whole family has been in Slytherin for centuries- most likely ever since Hogwarts was founded- and he was expected to be in Slytherin too. When he was sorted into Gryffindor not only was his family furious and humiliated, but his parents' friends and colleagues- all Dark wizards too- saw him as a blood traitor, and their children, the Slytherin students at Hogwarts, try to bully him around."

"Oh." Lily said simply.

"Yeah, so all those times you see us "hexing someone for no reason", it is not necessarily what it looks like. There's a very undercover and secret guerilla warfare going on between us and the Slytherins."

Lily looked at James as if she was not quite sure she should believe him. "Are you telling the truth, Potter?"

"Godric's honor," James said, raising his hand.

Lily squinted her eyes at him. "And I suppose you will tell me next that Snape is right in the middle of all of this?"

"Nah, he pretty much leaves Sirius alone. I'm the one who doesn't like the slimy trouser snake."

"Why?"

"Because he oozes Dark magic, isn't it obvious? I'm telling you, he's going to grow up to join his father right in Voldemort's inner circle, and when I graduate I'm going to join my parents as an auror- I want him to know just what he's going to be up against."

"Yowsers, all of these Pureblood politics certainly can give you a headache," Lily pressed her fingertips to her temple. "But I think instead of assuming all that about Snape you should talk to him and see if it is really true,"

"No one ever said life as a Wizard was easy." James said. "And, no, I don't want to talk to Snape. He doesn't want to talk to me either."

"Potter, you really can be impossible!"

James grinned at Lily, then stood up out his armchair and walked to the line of windows.

"Found your next great read yet, Evans?" He said, peering up through the window, squinting and shading his eyes against the sun.

"This one looks really good," Lily held up a thick volume. "It will really help me with Advanced Charms!" She picked at the front cover a bit with her fingernail. "It's a little moldy, though, but I guess that happens to old books, right?"

James did not respond; instead something in the sky held his gaze. Lily looked up and around her chair at him when her question received no response and saw that his eyes were fixated on one point on the horizon, his eyebrows knit together. Lily stood up and joined him at the window.

"What are you looking at?" Lily asked James.

"There's a flock of something coming this way, I'm not sure what it is."

Lily tried to look over the tops of the trees that outlined the Potter's front yard. Beyond the trees, coming closer with great speed was indeed a flock of what looked like to be about five winged animals heading west.

"What are they, geese?"

"I don't know," James craned his neck forward, a confused look on his face. The sound of heavy wings was very close now. The flock seemed to drop in altitude and head straight for the Potter's house.

"What on Earth?" Lily exclaimed as she tried to strain forward to see.

"GET BACK!" James shouted, throwing his left arm out in front of Lily and stepping back, forcing her to retreat backwards as well. His right hand immediately whipped his wand out of his jeans pocket.

Lily stumbled back several feet before she could catch her balance. She too pulled out her wand just as something seemed to hit the window she had been standing in front of with such tremendous force that the whole house seemed to tremble. With a horrific crash, the entire line of windows on the eastern wall shattered.

"Repairo!" James exclaimed and the shards of glass sprung back into their panels, making the windows whole once more. James and Lily stood side by side, still facing the windows.

"What's going on, Potter?" Lily asked, frightened.

Before James could answer, a dark shape appeared at the window. It was what looked like to be a large, grey, stone gargoyle, only instead of being made of stone this creature was alive and had tough leathery skin. Wings four feet in length flapped steadily as the creature hovered in the air and looked at Lily and James with pupil-less flame red eyes.

"It's like some kind of gargoyle," Lily whispered. "Can it get in?" All around the house the sound of flapping wings was deadening. Lily swallowed thickly.

"It tried to break the window before," James said, still holding his wand up. "But I think some kind of magic must have repelled it because it was thrown back."

Now three gargoyles were staring at them through the windows. Two more could be seen swooping up and down behind them. As if on cue, the three gargoyles pulled back then came flying at the windows with great speed.

This time, James and Lily were ready. As soon as the creatures hit the windows, the glass crashed into pieces as before, but with a loud "REPAIRO!" both James and Lily restored the windows. The gargoyles snarled in frustration.

"What the devil is going on up here?" Sirus exclaimed as he vaulted up the spiral staircase. He appeared at the top with his t-shirt on backwards- he had thrown it on in a hurry, and his black hair still wet from the shower. He saw James and Lily standing at attention and looked in the direction their wands were pointed. Seeing the gargoyles he muttered an expletive and pulled out his wand.

"What should we do?" Sirius asked, quickly crossing the room to join James and Lily.

"Pray that they don't come through the window," James said firmly, his jaw set.

"Should we go Floo for help?" Lily asked, biting her lip.

"We can't now, we need to stick together, and if we leave this window they'll come through it for sure."

"There are windows all over this house, Prongs, who's to say they won't just come in through one we aren't defending?"

James didn't have time to respond because at that moment, and with one fluid movement, all five of the creatures charged the window and burst through, spraying bits of glass everywhere. The three teenagers threw themselves down on the ground to avoid the flying shards of glass. James rolled onto his back just in time to see a gargoyle about to sweep down on Sirius.

"STUPEFY!" He shouted. The spell hit the creature, throwing it backwards, but not stunning it.

"Get up!" Lily pulled at James' arm while sending stunning spells at the gargoyles flying and screeching overhead. Like James' attempt, the spells merely caused the creatures to be hurled backwards.

"They must have tough skin!" James shouted as he grabbed Lily's outstretched hand and pulled himself off of the floor.

Sirius sprang up on his own. "Try hitting them in the eye!" He aimed his wand at the eye of the closest gargoyle and shouted "CONJUCTIVITUS!" It recoiled in pain and fell out of the air with a loud thud. Sirius pointed his wand at its eye again and shouted "STUPEFY!". Finally the gargoyle went limp.

"HA!" Sirius shouted in triumph, not seeing another gargoyle flying at him from behind. With its big claws it grabbed him by the shoulders, flung him across the room, and into a large bookshelf, which immediately fell over with a crash, burying Sirius under a mountain of books.

"Sirius!" James exclaimed while Lily screamed. He tried to run to his friend, but a gargoyle blocked his way. The winged creature hovered menacingly in the air in front of James, snarling and baring its long razor sharp fangs.

"STUPEFY!" James hit the gargoyle in the eye with the stunning spell and dashed over to where Sirius was laying, covered in old books.

"STUPEFY! STUPEFY! STUPEFY!" Three more gargoyles fell to the ground as Lily cursed them and dashed over to Sirius and James. Together, she and James threw books off of Sirius.

"Is he ok?" Lily panted, heaving an especially large text to the side.

"He's still breathing, but I think he's been knocked out," James responded gravely. His eyes landed on Sirius' shoulders where the gargoyle's claws and dug into his skin. "He's got these nasty cuts, too."

Lily pointed to James. "So do you,"

James looked down at his front, where blood was seeping through a long diagonal cut in his shirt. "Yeah, one swiped at me as they came through the window. Eh, it's nothing… ARGH!" He grimaced in pain and clutched at the wound.

Lily grabbed for his hands. "Don't touch it! Here let me help," She pointed her wand at James' chest. "Anesthisiate!"

James felt the pain lessen. "Thanks, Evans."

Before Lily could respond she and James heard thumps downstairs.

"Someone's coming up the stairs!" James hissed. He and Lily stood up quickly with their wands at the ready and approached the stairway.

A loud voice bellowed up at them from below. "JAMES? SIRIUS?"

"Dad! We're up here!" James called down.

"What in Merlin's name are you and Sirius up to, son? The Improper Use of Magic Office detected an unusual amount of spell occurrences here." Mr. Potter's voice sounded angry as he appeared at the top of the staircase, followed by Mrs. Potter. They stopped short when the caught sight of James' bloody shirt, Sirius lying unconscious among the toppled bookshelf and books, and the bodies of the stunned gargoyles.

"I don't know what they are, Dad. I was up here letting Lily look around the library when all of a sudden they flew in from nowhere and attacked the house." James tried to explain.

"I'll go for an Investigation Team, Harry." Mrs. Potter said to her husband, then immediately Disapparated.

Mr. Potter immediately inspected James' and Sirius' wounds. "Yours is a clean cut, James, but it's deep- we'll have a medi-wizard take a look at it. Sirius' looks more serious, but he'll be fine after a stay at St. Mungo's."

Mr. Potter then surveyed the gargoyles. "Transylvanian Gargoyles, probably the most vicious species in existence. You three were very lucky to have so successfully stunned them." He looked closely at one unconscious creature. "Yup, stunned right good, they are."

"Lily got most of them," James said.

Mr. Potter turned to Lily and beamed at her. "Well, James and Sirius were lucky you stopped in to see them today, weren't they?"

"We worked as a team, really," Lily said modestly, but quietly and out of breath. A funny pain in her stomach was growing, and she backed into one of the tall wingback chairs.

Mr. Potter and James approached her with concern. "Are you okay?"

Lily looked up at them and tried to smile. "Yes, I'm just a little overwhelmed that's all."

"That's understandable," Mr. Potter peered down at Lily. "I think we'll have a medi-wizard have a look at you too." He patted her shoulder and went back to kneel by Sirius.

"Okay," Lily whispered. The pain in her stomach was intensifying and becoming unbearable. She wished she could perform the Anisthesiate charm on herself, but her hand was too weak to lift her wand.

"James," Lily tried to raise her voice to ask him to perform the charm, but could only manage a murmur.

"The medi-wizards will be here soon, Evans. EVANS!" James yelped as he jumped to catch Lily as she fell forward in the chair and nearly tumbled to the floor. "Dad, she's fainted!"

At that moment Mrs. Potter Apparated, accompanied by aurors and medi-wizards.

"Move over, young man, we'll take over from here," A witch in medical robes took Lily from James' arms and levitated her onto a stretcher, which another medic had conjured. Across the room two other medi-wizards were doing the same thing to Sirius.

"Can you hold on here?" the medi-witch said to James, pointing to the end of Lily's stretcher.

James grasped hold of the end of the stretcher. Sirius' stretcher floated over to rest side by side with Lily's, followed by the other medics who also held onto the ends of the stretcher.

"They'll be on the first floor at St. Mungo's, Elizabeth- on the Creature Induced Injuries Corridor." The medi-witch told Mrs. Potter as she picked up a book from the floor and tapped it with her wand; the book glowed blue for a split second.

Mrs. Potter nodded then addressed her son. "We'll be there to see you soon, James- just as soon as we finish up the investigation here."

"Okay," James answered. The head medi-witch held out the book and the other medics grasped hold. James did the same, and instantly they were transported to St. Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries.


A/N: For those who may be curious, I named James' owl after Daisy Pennifold, the witch who started bewitching the Quaffle so it would not drop to the ground. (See JKR's Quidditch Through the Ages). I figured that that would be a fitting name for James' owl seeing as how he was a Quidditch player and probably had read that book!

Also, a "crup" is a magical creature I found in JKR's Fantastical Beasts and Where to Find Them. It is merely a creature who looks exactly like a Jack Russell Terrier, only with a forked tail. According to Fantastical Beasts, wizards keep them as pets, just like Muggles keep dogs. Unfortunately, I wasn't bright enough to cleverly name the crup with a name found from the Harry Potter world like I did for James' owl!

I wasn't really sure if gargoyles are evil… but I needed some kind of flying creature so that is what I came up with!

The term "trouser snake" I got from the movie Ferris Beuhller's Day Off. I really hope it doesn't mean something horribly offensive in the U.K., I just always thought that term was hilarious.

Keep an eye out for the next chapter to find out what happened to Lily and to find out who sent the gargoyles; I have part of it planned out, so I'm hoping to get it out faster than this one! Thanks for reading!