A/N: "Bats are round!" – Sorry, Luke told me to write it. Two-month break and I'm back, enjoy! Thanks to those who reviewed, I will be changing the thing about James' eyes in Ch6 in the next couple of days. Thanks!

"So, do you make a habit of these doing these things?" James asked the woman before him.

She was now dressed in a clean pair of jeans and a fitted t-shirt, perched at the end of the bed on which he was still lying. She had refused to let him move but had offered him more water to drink. It helped a lot.

She laughed nervously. "No, actually this is the first time I've done anything like this."

"Like what? Running guys over and then kidnapping them, taking them to a random hotel in the middle of nowhere and then doing Merlin only knows what?" He looked down at his bare upper torso as he said this, looking at her with a raised eyebrow.

She looked around the room guiltily. "I was just checking you were okay."

"Oh," James sounded a little disappointed and the room descended into an uncomfortable silence.

"Did you just say 'Merlin' back there?" Lily interrupted the silence with a hint of disbelief.

"Uh…yeah…" James began, his brain working overtime to try and come up with an excuse as to why he would. Merlin wasn't a word often said in this world. It was a shame his usually sharp mind was failing him after his accident. "I like to be different."

"Oh," Lily said. "Because I thought for a minute there you…No, that's stupid. Never mind."

"No, what?" James urged her.

"No, I can't."

"He is," Lee's voice entered Lily's head.

"He is?" She said excited.

James stared at her oddly. "Who?"

"What?" Lily jerked her head up to look at him confused.

"You just said 'he is'. Who? And What?"

"Oh, uh, you. You're a wizard, aren't you?"

"No, are you sure you haven't been knocked on the head? Wizards don't exist."

"It's alright, you don't have to pretend," Lily said gently. "I'm a witch, too. Graduated from Hogwarts in '81."

"You're kidding?"

"No, why?"

"I graduated then, too!"

"Really?" Lily studied him. He had only been awake half-an-hour but he already looked a whole lot better. His pallid face had returned to a healthy glow, his dark hair, which he had run a hand through several times, looked windswept and his hazel eyes shone mischievously. He looked more familiar than ever before but she still couldn't put a name to his face.

"Yeah, I was a Gryffindor, Quidditch Captain and Head Boy. The name's…"

"James Potter," she gasped, getting up off the bed and slowly backing away from him.

"Yeah," James frowned at the fear on her face. "I take it you heard?"

She nodded. "I should have left you on the road," she spat at him.

"I didn't –"

"You could have got away then. Someone would have helped you. They'd have taken you to hospital, they'd have had you patched up in no time and you could have carried on. As it is you've been patched up with my shoddy magic and you're not going to be able to go anywhere on your own for a while because of it!"

"Excuse me?"

Lily trailed off her ramblings and looked at James confused. "Oh, right. I don't believe you attacked that woman. You were a lot of things at Hogwarts James, I know I told you often enough, but you would never do that."

"You're the only one who thinks so." James commented bitterly. "The Ministry's after me, my parents disowned me, my friends tried to turn me in. You're the only person besides Sirius who believed me without a doubt."

"Black? You're still friends?"

"Forever," James answered. "So tell me something."

"What?"

"Why do you believe me? Why aren't you running away or contacting the Ministry as we sit?"

"If I was anyone else, especially those who knew you, I might be but I'm not like that. See, I get a sense about people and, though I've known the you that you show to everyone else, I've seen you at your best too. No one who can comfort a clearly distraught first year when she's being bullied because she's small, overweight, wears glasses and is the biggest geek in her class, could do what you've been accused of."

"How do you know I did that?" James asked, genuinely surprised.

Lily just looked at him for a moment before getting up and heading towards the door of their room.

"Wait, that was you?" James asked after her.

Lily shrugged again but when she looked at James there were slight tears in her eyes. "I saw you do the same our final year, too. Head girl gets those privileges, you know."

"But head girl was…Evans?" James asked in shock. "You're Lily Evans? Wow!"

"Is it that hard to believe?" Lily rounded on him viciously.

"No, I'm just…I'm surprised, ok? When we left you looked so different."

"Yeah, well a lot's changed since then," she growled before storming out of the room.

"Are you alright?" Lee asked her once the door was shut.

"Oh, never better," she muttered sarcastically. "Turns out I've ran over a wanted criminal from a world I've been trying to avoid who just happens to have attended my school where he remembers I was the unpopular, fat girl with a grand total of three and a half friends."

"Three and a half?" Lee asked in confusion.

"Dave, Julie and Alice and I suppose my cat Sooty counts."

"Wow, that's pathetic."

"Thanks," Lily said sarcastically, took a calming breath and then spoke again. "Is there a reason you're contacting me right now?"

"Yes, you have less than an hour before we need to go so I suggest you get ready and make sure James is okay to travel."

"With us?"

"Yeah," Lee said as though this were obvious.

"What's he coming with us for?"

"Well, he's not well enough to be left to his own devices and I'm sure you don't want to see him left suffering with no one to look after him, do you?"

Lily didn't answer him, she just huffed and went back into the room she'd exited less than five minutes before.

"Look, Lily, I'm sorry," James began when he saw her.

She shook him off. "Doesn't matter. I was being stupid. I got past the weight problem and there was a lot of it, I know I look different. I'd have been more annoyed if you hadn't noticed, I think." She smiled at him as she knelt down to check the contents of her bag. She stood up and looked him over. "We're leaving soon."

"We?" James looked bemused.

"Yeah, you and me, there's no one else here, is there?"

"What makes you think I'd go with you?" He wasn't asking horribly, he was just genuinely surprised.

Lily recited Lee's reasons to James without actually telling him they were Lee's reasons.

"You think I need a babysitter?"

"No, but I'd feel worse than I do now if I left you alone. Let me look after you and get this done at the same time."

"Sure," he said. He needed to get away fast to avoid the Ministry finding him and at least if he was travelling with Lily he'd constantly be on the move. "What do you need to do?"

Lily stopped her searching of the room and looked at him. "Oh…um…I just have to give someone a message but I need to do it face-to-face."

"Oh, ok. Sounds good to me."

"Ok," Lily threw one last thing in her bag and then looked at James again. "You're…uh…you're going to need to get changed. A shower might not be a bad idea, either."

James nodded. "Could you help me up?"

"Of course," Lily ran to his side and lifted one of his arms to drape over her shoulders. She lifted him to his feet and supported him to the bathroom. "Are you ok with everything else or do you still need help?"

James could see the embarrassment on her face. "I'll be okay but I, uh, my clothes…I don't have any left."

"I can sort that out," she nodded as she propped him against a unit in the bathroom. She ran the water and sorted some towels. "I'll leave you to it, just shout if you need help."

James agreed and Lily left, leaving the bathroom door open a crack in case he did shout, which he didn't. While she waited for him to get out she performed a cleaning and repairing charm on the clothes he had worn when the accident occurred. They weren't as good as if they had been properly mended and washed or even if she had bought new for him but they were better than nothing, and she was quite pleased by how well she had done. Her magic seemed to be coming back to her fast, though it was incredibly rusty. There were still slight traces of bloodstains on his shirt; he would have to clean them himself.

Ten minutes later his hand appeared through the space of the door. "Can I have my clothes?"

"Course, is everything all right? You haven't knocked the scars and started them bleeding have you? They weren't done very well, I know."

"No, they're great," James said, taking the clothes from her.

"I'm sorry, I can't get all the blood out. I haven't used magic for a while…"

"It's alright, they're better than they were. Thanks."

Within twenty minutes they were back on the road, both inside the car this time. Just before they left, Lily had visited the shop next door to buy anything that was simple to eat and didn't need preparing. Mostly chocolate and ready-packed jellies and the like for James. She bought a few packets of crisps and pre-packed sandwiches for herself, too.

"How are you feeling?" She questioned him, her eyes trained crucially on the empty road before them.

"Better, thanks. And the jelly, nice touch," he laughed.

Her mouth didn't even twitch as she continued to concentrate on the road.

"So, what you said before, about not using magic for a while…"

Lily's hands tensed on the wheel. "I don't really think we're that friendly yet, do you?"

James looked out of the window at the long fields they were passing. "No, I suppose not."

"You only ran him over and saved his life," Lee sounded derisively in her head.

"Shut up," she whispered, but James heard and did as was said.