Disclaimer: I own nothing you recognize.
A/N: Thanks to all of my reviewers, especially Spuffy Freak and nymphadora1982 for your complimentary/excited reviews. I hope that this chapter answers all questions for everyone. If not, I will try to edit it or just reply to questions. Please leave me a review letting me know if y'all liked my story and why/why not. I really appreciate all input. I am not a phlebotomist or any sort of medical expert, so please "suspend your disbelief" for all medical sections of this last chapter.
"O! whatever are my own sufferings, may my heart never, never be against those of others." – The Mysteries of Udolpho
At that moment, the door burst open.
"STUPEFY!"
"EXPELLIARMUS!"
"ADNECTO!"
Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, and Peter Pettigrew came running through the door like madmen. As Count Morano fell unconscious to the floor, wands flying out of his hands, and ropes coiling around him, the three Marauders quickly assessed the situation. Sirius and Remus ran to the bathtub, grabbing Lily's arms before her face could go under the water. Peter approached James, chanting, "Finite Incantatum," successfully removing the bindings constraining him, as well as the allowing the boy to speak.
The first words out of his mouth were, "Lily."
Sirius, being the stronger of the two that had gone to help Lily, was holding her above water, while Remus had removed his t-shirt and was tearing a strip of cloth from it. He tied the strip to her wrist, stemming the bleeding a little, and said, urgently, "We have to get her to the hospital wing."
Peter grabbed one of the scarlet towels from the cupboard beside the bathtub and held it out while Sirius and Remus lifted Lily's still form out of the bathtub, and the three of them succeeded in wrapping her in the towel.
Within forty-five seconds of entering the room, the boys were carrying Lily to the Hospital Wing.
Without a single question, Madame Pomfrey began to give orders. "Put her on that bed over there," she barked, pointing to one of the neatly made hospital beds. "Remus, look up her blood type. Pettigrew, get me some bandages from that cabinet over there."
The hospital matron had a catalogue of blood type for every student in the school. Once they reached the age of 17, they were asked to donate blood whenever it was needed, but they did not keep any on hand because most injuries at Hogwarts did not result in mass blood loss. Since he was in the Hospital Wing more often than any other student, Remus had become Madame Pomfrey's unofficial helper whenever he was conscious during his stays.
"She's B-," Remus called out.
Sirius, who was also B-, and Peter, who was O-, immediately began rolling up the sleeves of their robes, which they were still wearing. Peter handed the bandages to Madame Pomfrey as she began to shout instruction to Remus on how to set up the IV's to go from the boys to Lily.
"I think she's lost at least three pints. This is serious," Madame Pomfrey stated. "We need more, quickly."
James looked on, helplessly, cursing his A+ blood. Remus, too, looked on, guiltily, because although he had O- blood, he could not give any to her because of his condition.
"You can take more than a pint from me," Sirius supplied, and Peter quickly nodded his agreement.
"Don't be ridiculous, boys." Madame Pomfrey admonished, but before either of them could protest, a voice spoke up from the doorway. A voice that surprised the group not only because nobody else would be about at this time at night, but also because of whom the voice belonged to.
"I have O- blood," Severus Snape said quietly from the doorframe.
Sirius glared vehemently and opened his mouth to tell Snape that Lily didn't need his blood, but James put his hand on Sirius' shoulder to quiet him and said, gratefully, tears still shining in his eyes, "Thank you."
"Actually, if you could give her some plasma, that would be better." Snape winced at Madame Pomfrey's suggestion, but nodded anyways. Plasma donation was not an easy task in the wizarding world, as it brought great pain, and, oftentimes, bruising.
Blood was already dripping from Peter's arm directly into Lily's through a tube, and Sirius' blood was being collected in a bag. It was not safe to add too much blood to a body's system too quickly. Madame Pomfrey now set about preparing Snape's arm and the plasma machine.
Once she had started the machine, Madame Pomfrey went into her office for a moment, and Snape sneered at the group, "This does not leave this room."
"We will keep your secret if you will keep the rest of this situation to yourself. We do not want the school to know about this," James said, and all five boys nodded in agreement. "I just have one question, though," James continued, "Why are you here, and why are you doing this?"
"One hears many things in the Slytherin common room, Potter, most of which no one would want to know. I went to the Head dormitory, saw the trail of blood, and came here. As to why I am doing this, I have my reasons, and I am not going to share them with you." As James nodded, Snape thought back to last January. . . .
"You know, Snape, with this knife, I could sneak into your dormitory and into your school trunk. I know you have stuff of questionable nature in there, and I will turn you in for it."
Snape tried not to pale at Potter's threat, but he knew he would be true to his word. Unfortunately for Snape, Potter was expecting to find stolen potions or something to that effect, but what he would actually find if he succeeded could prevail in shortening Snape's life considerably. Over the winter holidays, Snape had joined the Death Eaters. If Potter found his mask and other relics, Snape would be in Azkaban or dead before he could say "Expelliarmus." When Lily came by and yelled at Potter, she had saved his life, and if there was anything Snape hated than this particular Mudblood, it was being indebted to her.
That evening, James, Sirius, Remus, and Peter sat around Lily's bed, laughing and forcing her to eat more food than she could handle. Since she had woken late that afternoon, the four had succeeded in distracting her from thinking of the events of the early morning, but, inevitably, she asked about it. "What happened once I passed out?" she asked quietly. "How did you guys get there?" "Who was that man?"
The boys looked at each other and nodded, consenting to tell her everything they knew. "That was Count Dioscuri Morano." Lily gasped at the name, for she knew the stories of what he had supposedly done: many deaths had occurred in which there was no evidence of either how or why they had happened, but many of the victims were connected to Count Morano. Authorities had begun to believe he was in some way responsible, and Lily knew James' father was the Auror in charge of capturing the man.
James continued, "He has had problems with my family for years. He's wanted to punish us for forcing him to run and hide, and he finally found a way to do so. He is now in Azkaban, awaiting trial, thanks to these guys." James began.
Sirius continued with the story, "The three of us," he indicated himself, Remus, and Peter, "knew that James was going to try to talk to you last night," Lily blushed at the fact that these boys probably knew everything about every conversation she had had with James, but nodded for Sirius to continue. He sighed. "Anyways, we have this map that shows the school and everybody in it, and we were wondering how the conversation went, and figured if he were walking about the school aimlessly that it didn't go well, but if he were in his dorm it may have gone well. But when we looked at the map, we saw Count Morano's name and the three of you in the bathroom, so we ran there as fast as we could."
"We got there just in time to see you go underwater," Remus continued. "Sirius stunned him, I disarmed him, and Peter bound him. Sirius and I took care of you, while Peter rescued James, and then we all brought you here." Lily blushed at how she was "dressed" when they came in. Correctly interpreting her blush, Remus added, "We didn't see anything."
Her eyes filled with tears as she whispered, "Thanks, guys. I don't know what I would do without you." She knew it sounded cheesy, but she also knew it was completely true. Her tears then turned to those of anger. "I just can't believe that he was able to manipulate me like that. I knew that there were things scarier than death, but it all just seemed so, so . . . surreal or something. I – I never knew that anyone could be so cruel or make me feel so terrible without once touching me. It would have been better if – if he had j – just killed me right out!" she cried out through her sobs.
The boys looked at each other helplessly; none of them ever knew what to do around crying girls, especially when it was a serious situation such as this, not merely a broken nail. It was Peter who finally spoke up, "Lily, we don't know what to say or do, but if you need to talk to somebody, we can listen."
Lily's sobs slowly subsided, and she looked up at them with red eyes, saying, "Thank you, again. I really appreciate everything." She paused. "There's one more thing I want to know." The boys nodded, encouraging her to continue. "How much blood did I lose?"
"Madame Pomfrey said you had probably lost about three pints." James said. "Sirius and Peter both gave you two pints, and – um – another person came and gave you some plasma."
She gasped and winced and the pain the person had surely endured. "Who was it? I want to thank them."
James shook his head. "We can't tell you. If we tell anyone, this person tells what he saw."
Lily nodded. "Did you know that researchers at St. Mungo's are trying to come up with a potion that replenishes blood?"
"Count on Lily to know something like that, Miss Potions Expert," Sirius quipped, to which Lily had the decency to blush.
Unknowingly, James had told Lily that it was a boy, but she did not let on. The boys stayed with her until visiting hours were over and Madame Pomfrey shooed them out of the Hospital Wing. The matron handed some Dreamless Sleep Potion to James as he left, knowing his scars would be just as difficult to heal as Lily's.
Halloween had been on a Wednesday. Lily missed classes on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, returned to her room on Saturday, where she found the bathroom scrubbed clean, and resumed classes on Monday.
Most students were glad to see her and asked if she was feeling better. The story the Marauders had told the school was that she had been sick with the flu. She smiled sweetly to all of her well-wishers, glad to be back to a little bit of normalcy.
One person was not all that glad to see her back, of course. Her Potions partner, Severus Snape, sarcastically welcomed her back to class. He had always seemed to have a personal vendetta against the Muggleborn witch who happened to be his equal, if not his better, at Potions. On top of that, Slughorn, the Potions professor, seemed to favor her over himself, who was always respectful to his professors, unlike the smart aleck Evans.
Snape scoffed at his partner, who was struggling to reach an ingredient on the top shelf. She was reaching with her right hand, keeping her left at her side, preventing anyone from seeing her wrist. He came up behind her and grudgingly handed her the frog eyes she was trying to reach, and as he did so, his sleeve slipped, revealing the fading greenish-yellow bruise that was on the crook of his right elbow. A slight gasp escaped her lips as her eyes took in the sight and put the pieces of the puzzle together. Who else is there at Hogwarts who would not want her to know he had helped save her life?
He glared at her, asking, "Is there something else you wanted?" he snarled, daring her to say something.
She shook her head, "No, nothing else." She paused, then added, tears shimmering in her eyes, "Thank you." Snape nodded, and they both knew she was thanking him for more than just the frog eyes.
Weeks passed and Lily became closer to James and the rest of the Marauders. Although she and James both had frequent nightmares about that Halloween, they endured day after day. They both resolved not to allow their distresses to effect the way they treated others and both strained to be kind to everyone, even their "enemies." Though the mark on her wrist faded slowly, Lily knew it would never disappear completely. Like the one on her wrist, her heart would always carry a slight scar.