A/N: The story starts getting incredibly sappy here so just bear with me unless you hate that kind of stuff. I tried delaying the romancey stuff for a lot later but…meh I haven't had anything to do lately so I've been writing mostly. I might have gotten a few spells or names wrong in here and if I did, please point them out.

Disclaimer I do not own Harry Potter

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James didn't know about the cure Remus had been given, and Sirius and Peter were nowhere to be found.

So he was alone, calmly walking to the Whomping Willow, not taking any care to where he was going. That was when he thudded against a massive Slytherin, standing at the lake edge with…

Malfoy and Snape? Together? That can't be good.

"I've been wanting to get rid of that filthy mudblood for years," Malfoy muttered.

The Slytherin James had bumped into was looking around for the source. James made sure to carefully edge away.

"Goyle, knock it off, whatever you're doing," Malfoy snapped.

James looked at the hole in the ice covering the lake, just large enough for a person to fit through.

"Pathetic Evans," Snape laughed, "with her disgusting mudblood ways."

James heart froze. Evans? Lily Evans?

"She's probably more use dead anyway," Malfoy smirked. "Too bad Lily, you were quite ravishing to look at."

James felt the anger rise within him, yet every moment that passed by was a moment less for Lily. He had to act, and quickly before she…

James saw the wands they were holding out, so easily reachable. He was a chaser; he could manage it.

He dashed as quick as he could, snatching the wands from all four members and throwing them in the hole, before ripping his invisibility cloak off to reveal James Potter, seething with fury and worry, wand pointed for attack.

"PETRIFICUS TOTALUS!" he shouted. All four Slytherins stiffened.

"POTTER!" Malfoy's eyes flamed with hate, but a small smirk came to his lips. "Better hurry Potter, drowning is not the only thing your girlfriend's going to be worried about under there."

James didn't need telling twice, ignoring the comment about Lily being his girlfriend. He took a deep breath and plunged, hoping he got some ice-cold spray in Snape's face.

It was too dark under the water. He searched frantically, but to no avail. James was almost positive that she was…

But she couldn't be, not while he could still save her.

Could he? After all, she must be at least unconscious by now. He had to face it; the chances that Evans was still alive were slim.

He lost hope, realizing that his lungs could not handle much more. If he couldn't last that long, then what hope did she have?

HE felt something that felt like a hand rub his leg, taking it as a glimmer of hope. He pushed himself further under, though he knew that his glimmer had faded. There was no one there.

James rose to the surface, coughing water as he met the freezing winter air.

The Slytherins were gone. Instead, two figures stood silhouetted against the moon.

"Where's Evans?" Sirius asked, pulling James to shore and handing him the invisibility cloak. James replied by giving Sirius a pained look of loss.

"No…" Sirius whispered.

They heard a cracking o ice and Peter gasped. A large, eggplant colored tentacle, the size of a tree erupted about 30 feel into the lake. It was wrapped around something limp.

The tentacle threw what it was holding, no, who it was holding. James stood up, prepared to catch her.

And he did.

She was pale, with only her hair as any color at all. She was breathing, though hardly.

"Take her to the hospital wing!" Peter urged. James obeyed instantly.

Madam Pomfrey asked for no explanations. She took Lily from James's arms and put her on an empty bed, then coming to shove James on another.

"Sirius!" James gasped. "What about Remus?"

"Don't worry about him," Madam Pomfrey said. "He's on the bed next to Miss Evans. The sweet girl brewed an antidote potion for him. He's tame, if you'd like to see him." With that, she walked out of the room.

Sirius and Peter went cautiously over to the bed, slowly drawing the curtains.

Remus pounced on Sirius and began licking him.

"REMUS, GET OFF!" Sirius yelled. The wolf slyly jumped back on the bed. "Ah, even our friend Remus likes the taste of revenge. Except that whenever I pounce on you, I am in DOG form, not a disgusting WOLF."

James wanted to laugh, he really did, but he was too worried about Lily.

When Madam Pomfrey came back in the room, James stuttered, "Will she be all right?"

She didn't answer, but instead forced a warming potion that tasted disgusting down James's throat.

"MADAM POMFREY!" he shouted.

"Really Mr. Potter! I have other students to tend to. What IS it?"

"Will Evans, er, Lily be all right?"

Madam Pomfrey's face turned into a frown. "It's impossible to tell. At the moment, I have managed to drain all the water from her lungs. But the poor girl has fractured ribs as well as hypothermia. She'll be here for quite some time, I'm afraid."

Remus let out a howl at that, a depressing howl in lament for Lily.

Lily coughed violently and everyone stared at her expectantly, but nothing happened. Madam Pomfrey poured some warming potion down her throat and then left to go back to her office.

"Would one of you be so kind as to explain the reasons for this situation?" Professor Dumbledore, who strode in through the hospital wing's main doors, said. All the conscious occupants of the room knew that Dumbledore only appeared when he knew something important had happened, and they saw this as a glimmer of hope that perhaps, finally, Snape and Malfoy would be expelled.

"Well sir," James stuttered. "We don't know the whole thing, but we DO know that Snape, Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle tried to kill Lily!"

Dumbledore said nothing but glanced at James. There was no shine in his eyes.

"Sir?" Sirius said. "You believe us, don't you?"

"Was there anyone around who may have been a first-eye witness…"

"Sir," James interrupted. "I arrived after Lily had already gone underwater. The four bloody…the four prats were standing there talking idly about her death!"

Dumbledore finally smiled. "Mr. Potter, who retrieved Miss Evans from the water?"

"Well…actually…you see I TRIED to but she had disappeared on me. It was…the giant squid saved her."

"I shall have a conversation with the giant squid," he said, ignoring the strange looks everyone sent him. It WAS Dumbledore after all. "Depending on what he says, we shall decide on a punishment."

"For who?" Sirius asked, but Dumbledore had already walked out the door.

"Confound it all!" James growled. "Dumbledore's not going to believe us, Malfoy and Snape are going to get away with attempted murder, and WE are going to get in trouble for being the heroes!"

"Maybe not," Peter squeaked. "I think Dumbledore has more sense than that. Besides, the squid knows what happened."

That didn't make James feel any better. He and the giant squid had a, uh, history?

Either way, Lily was quite possibly lying on her deathbed.

NO, James told himself firmly. There is no chance that Lily will not live.

Madam Pomfrey appeared moments later, ushering Sirius and Peter out and forcing James to lie down. Though the lights were turned off, the glow of the full moon showed all of Lily's pale, fragile state. The bed on the other side of Lily quivered and Remus began whimpering slightly.

James went over to his friend, sitting on the bed and stroking his fur, all the while staring at Lily.

She was hardly breathing.

But aren't the greatest moments in life supposed to be the ones that take your breath away?

So why was Lily's breath being taken away during a time of danger and dread?

Maybe she's dreaming of something (or someone) that's taking her breath away. Maybe each shallow intake is really a miracle, taking place in her dream.

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Lily knew that James was on the other bed; she was conscious of everything around her. but she could not react. She could not tell James a thank you for saving her life, which she so desperately wanted to do.

It wouldn't be a first, after all. He's saved her life before, hasn't he?

They were in their first year at Hogwarts, one of the first days of school. They were getting flying lessons and…

And Malfoy had jinxed her broomstick, with Lily on it. The broom began performing horse tricks, a hundred feet in the air, while Lily (who was afraid of heights at the time) clutched on for dear life. James flew up to her side and brought her back down safely.

Then there was that time in the Forbidden Forest, when a centaur almost trampled her to death, and James once again saved her.

He saved her from more than death, especially getting in trouble.

How many times had they brought out his invisibility cloak and snuck around Hogwarts, pestering the ghosts and suits of armors?

And then, it all stopped. Just like a heart can stop beating, their friendship stopped existing.

It wasn't because James had become popular. No, he had been popular since his first day, but that hadn't affected their friendship at all.

So what WAS it? All the reasons she had dreamt up were not the right ones.

An image flashed through Lily's mind, brief, yet very vivid, of an upset 11-year-old boy reading a letter from his father.

She was so CLOSE. What was it? She could feel the memory trying to get away, flailing back to the hidden corners of her mind. But she wouldn't let it get away, not this time.

James was watching Lily. Her eyes were squeezed in concentration and her lips were pursed. What WAS she doing?

A shock went through Lily's mind and she sat up straight, breathing heavily. James stood and rushed to her, Remus watching them both closely.

"Lily," James whispered.

Lily looked at him, gazing directly into his soft eyes. She didn't say anything, but merely sat there, searching his soul.

"I'm so close, James," she whispered, leaning a little closer.

"Close to what?"

"Your lip…I mean the tru…I…I…I don't know."

It was almost instinct, as if they had meant to be this way since the starts were first created. They both sat with their faces so close they could feel the other's breath, fingers intertwined in such a comforting way that they forgot they were two different beings.

James kept glancing from her fiery emerald eyes to her ruby red lips, both just like a jewel. After all, Lily was a jewel herself.

And they both finally took the plunge, lips locking, and everything around them melted away.

Remus wagged his tail happily.