A/N: I'm so sorry it took me so long to update, but I couldn't avoid it. I hit kind of a crisis, and it has since been averted, but I had to stop writing for a while. It's all good now, and I promise updates will be more frequent. Thank you. Please review, as always.

Chapter 6: Shocking Developments

While James and his team were celebrating, Lily, Maggie and the other three Marauders were watching Morgan's immobile body in terror.

"Is she going to be okay?" Remus asked, clearly the most shaken up by the incident.

"I hope so," Lily said, looking almost equally agitated.

Remus sighed and ran a hand over his face before standing on tiptoe to try and get a better look at Morgan. "Remus, is she going to be okay?" Veronica asked, tugging impatiently on his sleeve.

He whirled around. "I don't know," he snapped. "I certainly hope so."

"Me too," Veronica said sweetly. "I just don't know what I'd do if something happened to Morgan."

Remus barely stopped himself from rolling his eyes. "Yes, I don't think any of us do."

Remus looked at his friends quizzically. Lily was clutching her hair tightly with one hand and Maggie's hand with the other. Peter and Andrew looked mostly lost. Remus dropped into his seat and put his head into his hands. "God, I hope she's alright."

By this point, Veronica was livid, and she let Remus know. "God, Remus, you could at least pretend to not care so much about Morgan until after you've dumped me!"

"Veronica, no!" Remus said, jumping to his defense a little too quickly. "Morgan's just a friend. I don't like her in that way."

"That's not true," Veronica said, staring him levelly in the eye. She didn't sound angry, but defeated. "I've known all year, but you were sending mixed signals. One day I was sure you were totally into Morgan, and the next you did something really sweet for me, so you can understand why I was so confused."

"I'm sorry, Veronica," Remus said, admitting defeat. "I know that it wasn't fair for me to lead you on like this. I treated you like trash."

Veronica shrugged. "It's okay. I've done it to guys before. Good luck with Morgan." She looked up with a small, sad smile. "I really mean that."

"Thanks," Remus said.

Veronica smiled a tiny, little smile again and walked off. Remus turned to Lily and Maggie. "Did I handle that okay? I'm petrified of breaking girls' hearts."

"You were great," Lily reassured. "I'd go into more detail, but right now I'm really worried about Morgan. I wish we could go down there."

Maggie looked around at the almost empty stands. "Who's going to stop us? Those kids are down there around Ethan. Let's go. Anyway, Lils, you're head girl. Shouldn't you be able to get us down there?"

Lily grinned. "Yeah, you're probably right. Let's go."

Lily led the others down the many stairs to the bottom of the stands. Naturally on the one day their friend got hurt they had gotten the best seats in the stadium—at the very top of the stands.

They eventually reached the ground, and Lily led them across the pitch toward James. She was the first to reach him, followed closely by Sirius and then the others. She quickly laid a hand on his back and stood next to him, speaking quietly. "How are they?" she asked, withdrawing her hand once she had attracted James' attention.

James looked down at Lily and smiled slightly. "Well, according to Madam Pomfrey, they both deserve whatever they get because they play this sport. From the looks of it, though, Ethan's worse off, which is strange because he was much closer to the ground."

"I heard up in the stands that Professor Dumbledore softened Morgan's fall though."

"Madam Pomfrey said that Morgan's just knocked out," James supplied to the group, looking directly at Remus. "She'll have to stay a night in the hospital wing, but she'll be just fine by tomorrow morning."

"That's good since I just dumped my girlfriend for her," Remus said with a slightly sarcastic smile.

James shot Remus a confused look and turned back to Madam Pomfrey who was checking Ethan's injuries.

Lily let her eyes run over Morgan's body. She lay spread-eagle on the grass, but other than that looked like she was taking a nap on the Quidditch pitch.

On the other hand, Ethan looked horrendous. He too was unconscious, but he didn't give off the impression that he was asleep. His right arm was stuck at an unnatural angle, sticking away from his body at the elbow, while his left knee was terribly swollen and looked distorted. His left eye was blackened, and blood was trickling from just above his left temple. "Yikes," Lily said, looking at James again. "Ethan doesn't look too good."

James glanced from Lily's face to Ethan then settled his gaze on Lily again before sighing. "Yeah, I know. It's not good. I think I'm going to have to find another seeker."

Lily looked up at him sympathetically. Correctly interpreting her expression, James sighed. "Sometimes you just catch breaks like these. We'll make it. At this point we just have to hope that he can get back to functioning the way a 15 year old boy should. That knee looks nasty, and you always have to tread carefully around head injuries. Do you want to see if you can get Remus to take Morgan on up to the hospital wing? She has to stay there until she wakes up and then for another night just to make sure she's okay, and then will you, uh, stay with me?" James stuttered the last part uncertainly.

Lily smiled. "Of course," she said, before turning and telling Remus what he was to do. "Remus, hey."

Remus turned and looked at her.

"James wants you to take Morgan to the hospital wing. Do you think you could?"

Remus nodded and pulled out his wand. "Definitely."

"Remus!" James said, making sure his friend didn't leave. "Come back once you're done. Maggie, Lily, Liv, you and I will go visit Sirius as soon as I'm done here."

"Mags, Liv, you guys go on up to the dormitories so Liv can change and meet back down here," James said. The girls nodded and left.

James turned to Madam Pomfrey and Professors McGonagall and Dumbledore. "I'll be right back. I would like to know what's up with Ethan, but I need to speak to Lily for a moment."

James met Dumbledore's eyes and saw a twinkle in them. Did he know why James needed to speak to Lily?

James led Lily over to the lake, and they sat down under the giant beech tree next to the lake. "What's up, James? Is everything alright?"

"Yeah, everything's fine, Lil. I just wanted to talk to you. I don't know how many times I've wanted to ask you this so far this year, but with everything that's been happening recently, I can't wait anymore. I saw what happened to Maggie on her first date with Sirius. She had wanted that for so long, and when she finally got it, the day turned out to be horrible. I can't bear to think about something like that happening to you before we got the chance to date, if you'll agree obviously. Lily, will you please go out with me?"

Lily looked at James, shocked by his heartfelt speech. A nervous expression was playing across James' face, but he was meeting Lily's gaze levelly. Only when the nervous expression changed into one of total disappointment and sadness did Lily realize that she still hadn't answered James. She shook her head quickly and looked directly into James' eyes. "Of course I'll go out with you, James. I've been waiting all year to hear you ask that."

James smiled and reached out to touch her face quickly. "Thank you, Lily. This means a lot to me."

"It means a lot to me, too, James," Lily told him, smiling. "I want you to know that. I want this to work just as much as you do."

James grinned at her. "That's good. As much as I'm enjoying this conversation, and I am, I have to get back and see how Ethan's doing."

"Okay," Lily smiled. "That's fine. You are his captain, after all."

A little over an hour later, James Potter and Lily Evans appeared in the lobby of St. Mungo's with two small pops. James sighed and ran a hand over his face, knocking his glasses askew. He fixed them, and he and Lily approached the desk. A perky brunette witch greeted them with a smile that James had no desire to see. "Name of patient?" she asked in a friendly voice.

"Sirius Black," James told her, tiredly.

"Sirius Black, Sirius Black, Sirius Black," she repeated, shuffling some papers and tracing several lines with her right pointer finger. "Ah, here he is. It says family only."

"Are you two family of his?" the woman asked.

James nodded, hoping to get away without giving his or Lily's names. No such luck.

"Your names, please?" the receptionist smiled.

James cursed under his breath but turned an understanding smile to the witch, practically making her melt. "James and Lily Black, we're his brother and sister."

"Neither of you look like Blacks," the receptionist grinned.

"Adopted," James told her through tightly clenched teeth.

"Never thought the Blacks were much for adoption, or children in general," the witch commented conversationally.

"Learn something new everyday," James muttered, before Lily clamped a hand over his mouth and turned, smiling, to the witch. "He and Sirius are very close. James is just worried about him. Could you please tell us Sirius' room number?"

The woman nodded, for the time looking intimidated. "407. He's in the Humphrey K. Pellwater ward for reversible spell damage."

Lily and James nodded and hurried off before the woman could stop them. Quickly ascending the four necessary flights of stairs, James and Lily were soon standing with their noses to Sirius' door. James sighed and placed his hand on the door knob. Before he could open it, though, he felt Lily's hand on top of his. He looked down at her to his right. She smiled at him. "Go on, you can do it."

James smiled weakly and twisted the door-knob. There was a chart posted on the wall, magically keeping track of the spells Sirius was on. James surveyed it and staggered back as he saw the green line labeled "life support." "

"It's alright, Prongs," a voice said in a whisper. "The healer said it was just a precaution while they give me more blood."

"Padfoot?" James spun around. "Merlin, Sirius, you gave us such a scare."

Sirius blinked, and his face twitched as if he was trying to smile. "Sorry," he whispered. "I can't really move, other than to talk."

"That's okay," James said, his voice nearly cracking from his relief. He sat down next to Sirius in a plastic chair. Lily stood uncertainly off to the side, letting the boys have their moment.

"Maggie?" Sirius asked. "Is she okay?"

"She will be," James promised. "Right, Lil?"

Lily turned at the use of her name. "Huh?"

"Maggie will be alright, won't she?" James prodded.

"Yeah, yeah. Once she knows you'll be okay, she'll be great."

"You will be okay, won't you?" James asked.

"He'll be fine," a new voice said. James looked up to see a young man with black hair, a black beard and startlingly blue eyes wearing lime green robes enter. The man approached James as he stood. "James Potter," James introduced himself. "This is my girlfriend Lily Evans."

"Girlfriend?" Sirius whispered from the bed, but no one heard him.

"James Potter? I'm John O'Leary. I was the intern with Marie Corriveau on your father's case."

"Yes, I remember you," James said with a smile. "I don't have many fond memories from that day, I'm afraid."

"Understandable," Healer O'Leary said with a smile.

"What's up with Sirius, Healer O'Leary?" Lily asked.

"Please call me John. You too, James. As for Sirius, he should be just fine in two or so weeks. He lost an incredible amount of blood. Was it you who brought him to the hospital wing at Hogwarts, James?" At James' nod, he continued. "It's lucky you brought him when you did. Another 15-20 minutes and we probably wouldn't have been able to save Sirius. He can't seem to remember exactly what happened, though. Do you think you could fill me in?"

"Absolutely," James assured him. "He got into a duel with his brother and was hit with a Cutting Curse when he back was turned. It was very severe, and he lost a lot of blood very fast. We got him to the hospital wing within five minutes of when he was hit. I believe his brother hit at least two arteries."

"There were four sheared arteries when he arrived here."

James cringed. "That's rough." He turned to look at Sirius who was glaring at him.

"Girlfriend?" he whispered, accusatorily. "And you didn't tell me the first second you got in here."

"I'm sorry," James said. "I had more important things on my mind. Like, I don't know, whether or not you were alive."

"Fine," Sirius said, but he turned a pouting face on James. James grinned, glad that he was at least acting normal.

James and Lily stayed chatting with Sirius for over an hour before James finally stood and stretched. "Well, we should get going," he told Sirius, glancing at his watch. "I want to send Maggie over before it's after hours." He thought for a moment, before softly swearing, and continuing. "Plus, I really should check on Morgan and Ethan."

"Morgan and Ethan?" Sirius asked, confused. "Why do you need to check on them?"

"They both got hurt during the match today, particularly Ethan."

"The match!" Sirius exclaimed. "Who won?"

"We did," James assured him. "But thank Merlin it finished when it did. We were down to 5 players at the end."

"Okay," Sirius said. "Well, run along to check on your team, and send Maggie here. I can't wait to see her."

"She's the same way," Lily told Sirius with a grin, following James out.
They were walking down the hall of the ward when they ran into John O'Leary. "John," James called out, striding quickly toward the slightly older man.

"James, is everything okay?"

"Sirius is fine, but I had a question for you."

"Shoot," John said.

"I'm the captain of the Gryffindor Quidditch team at Hogwarts, and we had a match today, during which our seeker and one of our chasers went down. The chaser should be fine. She's tough, and it wasn't too long a fall. It's my seeker that I'm worried about. His injury looked pretty bad. Do you think that if he gets transferred here you could look at him?"

"I don't see why not," John told him, apparently thinking. "He probably wouldn't be placed in this ward, but I work off-ward quite a bit. Tell me his name."

"Ethan Burns."

"Alright, floo me at 12 Cherry Lane if he is transferred, and I'll do my best to get on the case, but I don't have too much authority since I just became a healer."

"Okay, thanks, John," James said gratefully.

"No problem." The two men shook hands and went their separate ways.

Maggie Correnti shot up from the hard plastic chair in the hospital wing. "James Potter!" she demanded, as the Head Boy entered. "Where have you been? I've been left here to look after your unconscious Quidditch players."

James grinned, slightly. "I'm sorry, Maggie."

"Where were you?" she asked.

"St. Mungo's," James told her without preamble. "Sirius is okay. Why don't you go visit him. He's in room 407. He'd be ecstatic to see you."

Maggie smiled and threw her arms around James. "Thank you, thank you, thank you. You're the best."

James smiled and called after her. "Send Lily in, please."

"Of course," Maggie laughed over her shoulder. "We wouldn't want you to be bored, now would we?"

"Lily," Maggie called, leaving the hospital wing with a smile on her face. "Liiily, your boyfriend wants to see you."

"Alright, alright, Mags," Lily said, rounding the corner. "I was just coming to find him, actually. You're in a good mood. I take it James told you about Sirius."

"Yes, he did," Maggie grinned. "I'm going to see him now. I'm so excited."

Lily laughed. "Go on, then. I'm just going to go hang out with James for a while."

Lily entered the hospital wing and sat on the plastic chair across Morgan's bed from James. "What's up with her?" Lily asked.

James looked up and shrugged. "I have no idea."

Lily nodded and silence descended upon the hospital wing. She looked around. The room was completely white, even the beds and the sheets. She sighed at looked at Morgan, who was undoubtedly hurt. Her blonde hair was stringy and was spread across the white pillowcase. Lily sighed and looked out the window to the dark night. The sky was a beautiful, velvety navy blue, and it looked so soft that Lily wanted to reach up and touch it. She sighed again, and this time James told her.

"What's up?"

"The sky looks so beautiful."

James craned his neck around to look out the window behind his head. "Yeah," he said very softly, as though he was trying to avoid disturbing a sleeping animal. "It does."

"I just want to go outside and touch it."

"Well, I can't help you touch it, but why don't we go outside?"

Lily looked regretful. "It's past midnight, James. That's against the rules."

James shrugged, a half smile playing at his lips. "Has that ever stopped me before? Live a little, Lil."

Lily smiled. "Alright, but I swear to God, if we get detention…" Her voice trailed off in a threatening manner.

James stood, chuckling softly. "Don't worry, we won't."

Lily followed him out the wooden door of the hospital wing, letting it softly swish shut behind her, closing off Madam Pomfrey's view of the young couple. "To be young and in love," she sighed, her mind exploring her past. "I'll let it go tonight."

James pushed open the huge oak doors and laughed in pure joy as the night air hit his face. His laugh had always been infectious, and Lily joined in. She wasn't sure what it was about James Potter, but he made everyone want to be closer to him. No one could get enough of him. He was charismatic, attractive, friendly, smart and talented at Quidditch, no doubt, but there were others with some or all of those traits. Something set James apart to the school and more importantly to her. Letting her thoughts float away in the night breeze, Lily collapsed on the cool grass and gazed at the shining stars in the dark blue sky. James lay down next to her, arms splayed around him.

"I love nighttime," he said. His breath danced up above his mouth before disappearing, as it does in cold winter air.

"Me too," Lily exclaimed, turning her hair to look at him. "Most people get scared at night, but I- I just love the mystery of the darkness."

James smiled up at the sky. "It's so beautiful."

Lily looked at him. "James?"

He turned his head to examine her face. Her red hair was the only bit of her that he could see in the extreme darkness. "Yeah?"

"How do you do it? You just have this quality, I guess, that makes everyone want to get to know you better."

"You mean other than my looks, talent, intelligence, charisma and girlfriend, right?" James joked.

Lily rolled her eyes. "Yes, James. I mean other than those qualities that you so modestly listed."

James laughed before thinking quietly for so long that Lily thought he had decided not to answer. Finally he spoke so softly that she almost did her his words. "My dad used to say that I had this amazing resiliency. When the most horrendous things happened to our family, I always bounced back the fastest. It hurt me as much as it hurt everyone else, but at the same time, I would always be okay a few days later. My cousin, Octavia, was hurt when we were in fourth year. It was a death eater. The healers at St. Mungo's weren't sure if she'd ever be the same again, but she was. She was in the hospital for four months, and everyone was a wreck except me.

"I don't know, Lil. Maybe it's my resiliency. Maybe it's the fact that something horrible can happen, and I can rebound from it and have fun. I don't know, Lil. Does that sound right to you?"

Lily smiled and shook her head in disbelief. "You are amazing, James Potter."

James sat up and moved to sit right next to her. "Amazing?" he whispered, the complimentary words playing across his brain, stopping him from thinking at all.

Lily nodded. "That's what I said."

James smiled and leaned down. Lily closed her eyes and waited for him to kiss her, but it never came. She opened her eyes and saw James examining her face.

"What?" she asked, suddenly more self-conscious than she'd ever been in her life.

"You're beautiful," James told her. His lips met hers in a sweet, wonderful kiss. He pulled away from her after a moment, but she leaned back in. Her hands found their way into his unruly, yet soft black hair, and James' were supporting her at the small of her back.

Eventually, he pulled away and looked down at the woman in front of him. "Lily Evans," he said. "You are beautiful."

Lily looked away from James' face and across the dark ground, thankful the night was masking her blush. "Thank you," she murmured.

"No need to thank me," James said, lying back down. "I tell the truth."

Lily giggled softly. "Thank you," she repeated.

They lay in silence on the grass for a long time before Lily finally spoke in a timid voice. "James, what happened to Octavia?"

James looked at her. He could see her features arranged in a fearful expression from the light of the slowly rising sun. "Lil, you weren't afraid to ask me that, were you?"

He hoped more than he had hoped for anything in a long time that she would answer no, but to his dismay, she nodded her head once.

James sat straight up and looked her in the eye. "Lily, I want you to trust me. It's so important to me. First, then I guess that you have to know that you can ask whatever you want, whenever you want, and I'll tell you the truth, I promise you that."

Lily nodded and looked slightly ashamed. James continued, "Tavi was sixteen when she and her boyfriend went to Diagon Alley one night for dinner. They never came back. David had been murdered by death eaters, but Tavi put up quite a fight. They injured her severely but couldn't kill her. She was found by Gideon Prewett, and he took her to St. Mungo's. They're dating now. Tavi's 19 and Gideon's 20."

Lily nodded again and sighed. "Look at the sunrise, James. It's beautiful."

"Yeah," James sighed. "It is. This is what's amazing about you, Lil. You appreciate the little things in life. A sunrise, for instance, Courtney was like that. She appreciated the beauty of small things. You remember how I dated Sarah Parker in fifth year, right?" At Lily's nod, he continued. "Well, she was very attractive, funny, nice, you know, all those things that I look for in a girl, but she didn't appreciate the little things. It wasn't so much a thing like a sunset because I've never met a girl who doesn't appreciate a sunset, but she didn't appreciate things like grabbing the last blueberry muffin at breakfast or getting a compliment from say Professor McGonagall. I need a girl who does that, and you do."

On Monday, everyone noticed the change in James and Lily's interaction with one another. They sat together at breakfast. Despite their being best friends for most of the year, it was clear to everyone paying attention that their relationship had been elevated to another level.

Lily was so incredibly happy, she was sure that she was on the verge of bursting. She had never liked some one so much in her life, and there had been some boys that she was sure she was in love with. Even with Jason Bradley the previous year, Lily had never felt weak in the knees at the sight of his smile, as she did with James.

The entire school watched the two or so weeks of obvious honeymoon period between Lily and James. When they were walking down the corridors, James' arm was always around Lily's shoulder, his fingers drawing mindless patterns on her arms or his hand squeezing the back of her neck. They were never away from one another. Lily was always in James' arms, his hand in her hair, on the small of her back, wrapped around her waist or holding her hand.

At the next Hogsmeade visit, in early December, three weeks after Sirius' release on November 17, Lily and James were obviously together. He took her to Honeydukes and then they walked down the streets. Peter watched his happy friends in absolute disgust, while waiting to meet with Snape and his cronies. He stared out the window of an obscure pub. Lily and James passed by, Lily on his best friend's back laughing nearly uncontrollably at something that James had said. It was sickening, how happy they were. Although neither of them looked nearly as in love as James and Lily, both Sirius and Maggie and Remus and Morgan passed Peter's lookout, looking 20 times happier than Peter had ever been.

He could help but envy his friends. Had he really made the right decision to support Voldemort? Was it too late to back out? He didn't think so. And with that thought, Peter Pettigrew ran. He ran faster and harder than he ever had before and didn't stop until he was his bed in the Gryffindor boys' dormitory, shoes still on. Once he had locked the door with his wand from his bed, Peter mulled things over in his head. Why couldn't he be as brave as James was? James could stand up to anybody. He didn't care what people thought of him, although he did greatly value Sirius' opinion, and he was the best friend that anyone could ever ask for. Peter sighed. He couldn't do anything about that. Lying in his bed, feeling fairly pathetic, Peter vowed to himself that he would do whatever he could to avoid the Slytherins he had gotten himself into that mess with and reestablish his relationships with the other Marauders.

Thank you so much. Please take a moment to review. It's what motivates me to update!