Love and Confusion
Chapter 7
Lily, obligingly followed Dumbledore, wordlessly walking quickly with him, down another set of marble stairs from whence Lily had just come. Her eyes were cast downward, following Dumbledore's footsteps. The Lily had almost collided with the headmaster again as they came to an abrupt stop in front of a pair of gloomy, expansive oak doors. Lily recognized these doors. She trembled and asked hesitantly,
"Why..why are we here? At the…" and she was cut off by a solitary hand raised. He grasped the handle and pulled open the doors to the Hospital Wing.
Dumbledore led Lily a little further into the Hospital Wing. He motioned for Lily to stand back and he told her to prepare herself. He drew back to curtains, and Lily inhaled sharply and couldn't contain the stinging tears as James Potter was revealed to her, lying amongst linen of white and pale blue.
Lily couldn't believe her eyes. She had just been going to find Dumbledore to talk to him about James. And now…here he was. 'Except it couldn't be him,' she told herself. 'James didn't have that pasty white look to his skin. His lips weren't blue like that. His flesh was not cold like a corpse. It just couldn't be James.' Lily wanted desperately for all of this to be a terrible nightmare or for everything just to fade around her so that she was awoken in her own bed. The truth of the room was overwhelming.
Yes, it was James, and this wasn't a nightmare. It was him but he looked cold and severely beat. He lay there, bruised and motionless. It broke Lily's heart to see him lying there. Now she could empathize with James for she felt what he had been feeling when it had been her in the hospital bed.
James was unconscious for nearly a week. However, when he awoke, Lily was by his bedside asleep in the chair; her school books, and parchment in a disheveled mess all around her. Her ink bottle was on the floor under her chair. Luckily, it had not spilt.
James tried to speak but his throat was dry, making his voice barely audible and raspy. "Lily," was all he was able to whisper hoarsely.
"Don't wake her mate. She's been here for three days straight. First time she's slept, she'll probably beat herself up when she finds out she did. Wha'd'ya need?" spoke Sirius on James' left.
"Water." James mouthed in reply, and Sirius produced a glass of water for James; he drank it gratefully.
"So, how long has she been here?"
"Well in and out all week but the past three days she hasn't moved from that chair. She had gotten all of her homework and class work assignments before. But man, you shoulda seen her in classes. Merlin, it was pathetic. She is either really obsessed,…or she really loves you."
Sirius knew better than to ask what happened to his friend.
James smiled and glanced over at his Sleeping Beauty. Lily was curled up like a cat and wore a look of worry on her face.
"You know…James…, she blames herself for…for whatever happened. I just thought I should…you know…prepare you."
James gave a saddened frown to Lily and heard Sirius tell him that he was going down to dinner and ask if he needed anything. He replied with a no, but asked him to bring something for Lily.
"Not a prob." Came Sirius' response.
About a half and hour had passed that James had been idly staring at the ceiling when Sirius came back with a tray for Lily. He left James and her to themselves and went off to spend time with Helen.
In the quiet silence of the night in the Hospital Wing, Lily's eyes flashed open to reveal dancing lights in her emerald green eyes to see James' hazel eyes looking back at her.
"James!" she exclaimed sleepily.
"Hey there flower." He responded in his still groggy voice.
"What happened? How did you end up in here?"
James sighed wearily, "I can't tell you."
"What! Why not?" she asked in a nervous frenzy.
"Dumbledore." He told her calmly, as it seemed, the one name settled her.
"Still. Why?"
"He just doesn't think you should know. Plus…" he drifted off.
"Plus…? What? James! Tell me."
He sighed again, knowing what line she was going to use next.
"You said something James, now you have to finish it." (And he was right.)
James began hesitantly, "It's…He doesn't think it's safe."
"Safe? James…What are you talking about?" she asked with a confused smile, the gleam of triumph from her winning phrase slowly fading from her eyes to reveal and intangible insecurity.
"Exactly as I said. It isn't safe."
"Don't you think I should know something about…whatever it is?...So that…I don't know…So that I can be alert?"
"No. You have nothing to worry about sweetheart. Really." He sounded more like he was trying to convince himself.
"Then why can't I know?" she contradicted him daringly.
"Sweetheart," James used soft tones, "Promise me that you won't think about this anymore."
Lily looked at him apprehensively but willing to abide and trust him.
Out of the two main doors to the Hospital Wing, the right sided think oak door creaked open. Lily and James peered around the curtain out of curiosity to see powder blue robes with silver embroidered threads in the shapes of moon, stars, and planets. There were delicate half-moon spectacles resting atop a crooked nose of a kind elder wizard. The eyes behind the glasses matched the elegant but casual robes. It was Headmaster Albus Dumbledore.
"Now, Mr. Potter, we aren't filling in Ms. Evans on you little escapades with the dragons and chimeras are we?" he asked with a humorous note in his voice.
Lily was wide-eyed for a moment before taking in the joke, and the playful twinkle in the old man's eyes. James grinned.
"Of course not." James reassured him in the same playful way, pretending to be shocked and indignant. "I wouldn't want her to get jealous when she finds out how much that girl dragon fancied me."
Dumbledore chuckled and said, "I was merely wandering about the halls thinking on if there had ever been a 'toilet water' flavored Bertie Bott's Bean and I thought that I would drop in and ask you Mr. Potter.
James knew he was being checked on but he would humor the headmaster. He put on a bemused thoughtful look and replied, "Well I've never had on of that flavor but Sirius swears he had one that tasted like wet dog fur."
James laughed inwardly that Sirius would in fact know what a wet dog's fur would taste like.
Dumbledore replied vaguely and rhetorically, "Wonder how he would know that flavor?"
James was quick to think and laughed it off with, "Professor, I'll give you three good reasons. One: It's Sirius. Two: We probably do not want to know. And three: I guess the smell."
Dumbledore put on a bewildered façade so James continued, "You know, like treacle tart. And cut grass. You smell it, so you sort of have an idea what it will taste like."
"I see. Well Mr. Potter I will certainly be on the look-out for toilet water, wet dog fur, or any otherwisely flavored beans. Good day to you both.
After Dumbledore was out of earshot James confided to Lily, "That man knows too much for his own good."
Lily smirked openly, her thoughts still not completely straying from how or why James was lying where he was at the present.
A/N: Sorry it took so long to update this story. It has been a while. Well im sorry that so many people end up in the Hospital Wing….i don't know what my problem is. Lol. I may delete this story…I may not. If anyone has ideas for me for later then let me know! Review Please! xoxo