A/N: Hey all Thanks for all the lovely reviews, they are seriously what keeps me going!!! I know some of you are wondering how they made the train in the last chapterâ.well, what can I say? Like James noticed, it was all going in slow motion, the reality of the brawl was only a couple of minutesâ4.54 to be exact Once again, my method of splitting sections of a chapter is not appearing on the fanfic site, sorry if this has caused any confusion!
This chapter is dedicated to katmiester and her friends I'm glad you like it
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"Is he going to be all right?" Lily questioned later, voicing the words James could not.
Madam Pomfrey glanced over at Sirius' pallid face, his hair matted against his head with streaks of blood, cuts and bruises forming on his cheeks; pursing her lips she bent her head over the broken body, dressing his remaining wounds. "He took a nasty blow to the head, and he has a few cracked ribs, but nothing I shouldn't be able to fix. He'll be a right mess in the morning, though, in some severe pain. I don't know what you three were thinking, rushing off into that fray like that. Should have waited for the ministry wizards you should have."
Lily sank back into her chair, allowing the woman to continue her rant uninterrupted, though she expertly tuned the nurse out. What had they been thinking? For the life of her, Lily didn't know, but she half believed they'd done the right thing. They'd reached the train just as it began to pull away from the station, arriving at Hogwarts only to be ushered to the Hospital Wing by a frazzled McGonagall. They hadn't even been granted the chance to inform their friends of their whereabouts, nor had they been spoken to by any other teachers. Lily knew Maren would be in a right state when she found out what had happened, but truth be told, Lily was more worried about the punishment she believed would be dealt by the headmaster.
When Madam Pomfrey had finished telling the two of them off, she left the small enclosure where Sirius slept, giving Lily and James their "needed space for rest and relaxation," and as she moved, Lily was given a clear view of her sullen boyfriend. James sat limply on the bed adjacent to Sirius', the bandage around his head blotched with splashes of red, a swollen bruise darkening on his left cheek. Lily sighed, gently raising herself from her chair and gingerly sitting beside James on the starch white bed. "Seems we've been here more times than we can count this year, huh?" she murmured laughingly. When James didn't respond she slowly exhaled, her brow furrowing in determination, "James," she rested her hand lightly on his arm, "it's not your fault."
"I never said it was!" he muttered defensively.
"No, but I know you're thinking it. This was Sirius, plain and simple; he makes his own choices, no matter how ruthless. Even you couldn't have stopped him."
James sat in silence, digesting this last idea. "I suppose you're right," he whispered at last, "but I can't help feeling that it's my fault. I'm the one that went charging in, if I'd grabbed his wrist and turned towards the platform he wouldn't be in this mess!"
"If you'd grabbed his wrist, yeah," Lily grasped James' hand, stroking his fingers with her thumb, "but if you'd just turned he wouldn't have followed, you would have had to force him to come. He wanted to be in that fight, James, it would have always been his choice." She laid her head on his shoulder, her hair tumbling down, vibrantly glowing against his dark robes.
The two sat in an uneasy silence, each ensconced in their own memories. James tried hard not to think about Sirius' condition. Sirius, the boy he'd banded with to play pranks on the first day of school, the boy who'd later become the best friend he'd ever had, the boy who'd moved in with him when he'd had no other place to go, the boy who was closer to James than a brother ever could be . . . "He'll be all right, James, if anyone can pull through, Sirius can." Lily's comforting voice caressed his mind reassuringly as her thumb caressed his hand. It was Lily's word that he had to hold on to, the only comforting thought he was capable of processing.
"What do you mean he's 'indisposed'?" A shrill yell broke the silence, causing both Lily and James to jump a foot in the air. "I don't care if he's indecent! Sirius Black doesn't have anything we haven't seen before!"
Lily tried to hide her growing smile as the commotion outside their enclosed curtain rose in a crescendo of irritation. "Well, I guess Maren's found us."
"Look, no offense Madam Pomfrey, but you're still a bit new here and all, and well, bed rest and isolation? Nah, that's not how things are done at Hogwarts. No, really, I respect you and all but – what? Me? Impudent? Are you sure you aren't the one who needs the bed rest? I'm sorry for being rude," Maren's voice took on a more innocent tone, one that didn't fool Lily for a minute. "We're just really worried about Sirius, and we know that Lily and James are back there, so if you'll be so kind as to let us join them . . ." The answer Madam Pomfrey whispered back clearly wasn't the one Maren wanted to hear, for her tone became shrill once more. "Look, I really didn't want to have to do this, but if you don't let us in I'm afraid I may have to slug you, hey – OW! Remus! Get off me! Let me go!"
Lily shook her head, knowing it was almost impossible to get Maren to stop once she'd set her mind to something. Stepping out from behind the curtain, Lily tugged gently on Madam Pomfrey's sleeve, whispering pleadingly to just let Maren and Remus in for a few minutes, before someone else ended up in need of medical attention.
It was clear Madam Pomfrey was still fuming from her encounter with Maren, but seeing that she had little options, she reluctantly allowed the two teens back into the curtain with Lily, but not before warning them that if they caused any disturbance she'd inform the Headmaster immediately of their insubordination and lack of respect for their elders.
"Lack of respect for elders my arse," Maren muttered bitterly as Lily drew back the curtain, enclosing them once more, "What is she, twenty? There's no way she's more than five or so years older than I am!"
"Mari," Lily shook her head once more, this time in slight irritation, "unless you want us all to be thrown out, drop it, okay?"
Maren just rolled her eyes, about to retort, but catching sight of Sirius, she fell silent.
"Oh, Merlin," Remus let his breath out in a hiss, sinking down onto the bed beside James as though his legs no longer had the strength to hold him.
"He does not look good," Maren agreed somewhat pessimistically as she sat beside Remus, taking his hand in hers, comforting him as Lily had to James just moments earlier. "Is he going to be okay?"
"Madam Pomfrey said he'll be fine." Lily answered, her voice quavering slightly, "Just a mild concussion and a few cracked ribs, but nothing she can't fix." She tried to sound light-hearted, but knew that her optimism was lost on the others.
When no one replied, she fell back into her chair, lapsing into silence. Her gaze traveled across Sirius and back to James, pained by the guilty expression still gracing his countenance. Lily hated seeing James in pain, back in their fifth year she'd thought him to be invulnerable and had felt no guilt continuously shooting down his attempts to ask her out. But now she knew that James, too, was human, though he tried to hide his emotions, and seeing such a strong person in such visible pain nearly tore Lily's heart in two.
She was about to speak again when Remus rasped from across the room, "I shouldn't have yelled at him."
All three turned, astonished, to face Remus, who sat there with an expression of utmost sorrow as he gazed at his fellow Marauder. "I furious with him when he left, and he still thought that, when he went rushing in to fight, he still thinks I hate him."
Pushing his own guilt aside, James turned towards Remus, tearing his gaze from his best friend. "Remus, it's not your fault. Sirius knew what he did was wrong, and he deserved every minute of the cold shoulder you gave him, but he never thought you hated him."
Sensing that this argument ran deeper than neither she nor Maren could ever begin to comprehend, Lily quickly got to her feet, motioning for Maren to follow. "I think they might want to be left alone," she whispered to her best friend, expecting protests.
But, much to Lily's amazement, Maren nodded her head in agreement despite the confusion that clouded her eyes. "I think you may be right." And with that, the two girls stepped between the folds in the curtains, leaving the two boys alone with their sorrow.
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Kind of short, but that's all I had time for. I hope you enjoyed it!
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