Good eve my lovelies! I hope all is fine and dandy with you and that you had a lovely scrummy Easter packed with far too much chocolate for your good. Unfortunately I took the advice of a dear friend of mine to heart and quite literally ate as much chocolate as I could. This has culminated in my dear mother signing me up to the gym. Be assured that this author would have her mother's head on a spit were it not for the fact that she loves her very dearly very very very deep down. And also, I've had so much of the darn choc that my entire body is currently fuelled by endorphins- endorphins make you happy, happy people just don't kill their mothers! Anyone getting that Legally Blonde vibe…? Well, moving on…

Disclaimer- Oh how I wish it could be mine…

Two summers ago...

'Good to see you son,' said Frank Potter, shaking James' hand as they stood on Platform 10.

'Good to see you too father.'

'And how were your exams?'

'Not too bad, thank you.'

Just then Sirius bounded up, eager to see a friendly face before he departed for what he had now coined as his bachelor pad, despite the fact it had a grand total of three rooms and was situated right next to a very busy trainline..

'Hi Mr Potter!'

'Good evening Sirius.' Frank took in Sirius' scruffy state with an aprraising eye. 'The latest fashion I presume?'

'Nothing but,' grinned Sirius.

'You off then mate?' asked James, turning to his friend.

'I am indeed,' said Sirius with a grimace.

'Remember you are always welcome for Sunday lunch Sirius,' Frank said smiling slightly. He didn't aprove of the Black family in any measure, but this son, the black sheep of the Black family as it were, was strangely endearing.

'Thanks Mr Potter. Have a good summer!'

James gave his friend a quick hug before Sirius strode off, walking directly past his own mother, a determined smirk on his face, while she waited to coo over his prat of a brother. She looked at him as though he was a pile of cat sick. He turned her hat into cat sick right before he turned the corner out of the station, grinning like a maniac.

Ignoring the banshee-esque screams from Mrs Black, James turned back to his father who, depite his usually austere manner was smiling at the spectacle that had just unfolded. 'Just promise me you will never do that to your mother,' chided Frank.

'I promise,' said James, smiling back. As they walked out of the station together, James caught a glimpse of red hair in front of him. 'Hey Evans!' he yelled after her. 'Have a good summer!' He knew right then and there he had made a big mistake. Lily had ignored him, but his father most definitely had not.

'James!'

'What?'

'That is appalling behaviour! What have I told you, time and again?'

James looked sulky as he reiterated lesson number... something... 'Never shout at a lady.'

'What else?'

'What do you mean "what else?"' asked James.

'I trust 'Evans' is not her first name,' asked Frank rhetorically. 'When talking to a lady, you will address her as, in this case Miss Evans, or by her first name which is...?'

'Lily,' muttered James.

'And a beautiful name it is too. So why not use it? I see she did not react favourably to your yelling at her, and one can hardly wonder why. Such manners are disgraceful and I for one am ashamed...'

James had switched off. His father, a just and upright man was, nevertheless, absolutely poker straight when it came to manners and such. As a boy, James had had these drummed into his head- at school he had let them slip, thinking they were no longer important. However, a public display of what Frank termed 'raucous and unruly behaviour' was shaming to himself and his family.

They left the station in silence, James angry with his father for reprimanding him in public, Frank angry with his son for letting him down in public. From that day on, James could never forgive himself, knowing that his last words to his father were spoken in anger...

Back to the present...

Back at Hogwarts, blissfully unaware of the commotion taking place at the other end of the country, Sirius, Remus and Peter sat in the kitchens, tucking into a large plate of chicken sandwiches (A/N don't ask me why they're chicken, I jut have this sudden craving for chicken at the moment… weird seeing as its past 11.30 pm and I have just had 3 cream eggs on the trot…).

'So,' Peter said thickly, trying to form comprehensible syllables through a mouth crammed with food, 'do they know when Nick is going to get back?'

'God knows,' Sirius said sullenly. He had resolved himself to trying to drown his sorrows in food. All that had yielded was severe nausea and a great sense of despair. He hadn't been able to stay in the hospital wing after Lily had been administered her second calming draught, it had been distressing enough to see her screaming like that. Plus, James deserved a little quality time with her.

'He was pretty messed up when they brought him up.' He turned a little green, remembering the vision of Nick lying on his stretcher. Then he looked at his sandwich, turned a little greener and threw it back on the plate.

'I hope he's okay,' said Peter quietly, looking down at his feet dangling half a foot from the ground.

'Me too mate, me too.'

Remus remained quiet, still replaying the spectacle of the match over and over in his mind.

'You thinking bout Lils?' Sirius nudged him slightly, bringing him out of his reverie. Remus nodded.

'I just keep thinking… what if…'

Sirius interrupted him. 'Look, James was there, thank Merlin, so don't go playing 'what if' games with yourself. It's not healthy.' Remus smiled slightly and nodded. He stared into the fire, trying not to play those 'what if' games with himself but try as he might, his mind couldn't seem to focus on anything else. He could see Lily's chalk white face, James' concentration, screaming, running… Then the scene changed. Lily's face remained, as did James' but more faces joined them. Unfamiliar ones in a distant place. There was blood dripping slowly from Lily's nose, James was… carrying her.

'Shit!' Remus stood up faster than a jack-in-a-box causing the other two to jump.

'What is it?' Peter asked fearfully.

'Did you see something?' asked Sirius urgently.

Remus nodded curtly. 'They're not in school.'

'Shit'

'Who?'

'Where are they?'

'Who?'

'I don't know.'

'Dumbledore?'

'Now.'

'What's going on!'

Before Peter could blink, his two friends were heading towards the portrait hole of the kitchens.

'We'll explain on the way,' Sirius said, grabbing his arm

James and Lily stopped whirling abruptly, hitting solid ground. James found his feet quick enough to prevent Lily from falling. He stepped out of the grate, lifting Lily into his arms as he did so. She did not resist him this time- her breathing had become extremely shallow and she had stopped blinking altogether. Had she not been emitting slight whimpers from time to time, she could have been mistaken for the dead, or a vampire. A slow trickle of blood was falling from her nose, a perfect smear on her deathly skin.

James looked around at the waiting room. It wasn't full at all- a man who had a carrot instead of a nose was reading The Quibbler. A young girl and boy were having difficulty sitting down seeing as they had accidentally stuck their heads together. Another man who James assumed was the father, was talking angrily with the receptionist and gesticulating wildly in the direction of his children who were now having a furious argument about something which resulted in the boy falling off his chair, dragging his sister with him. An elderly witch seemed to be in serious discomfort with the talon-like fingernails growing from her fingers at an alarming rate. Apart from that though, the room was completely empty but for the portraits of past healers of the establishment.

Striding past the reception desk and the Welcome Witch (a prissy forty year old who seemed much more interested in her nails than her job) towards the elevators the doors opened automatically for James and he pushed the button with the large gold 3.

'Level 3,' said a cool woman's voice. 'Potion and plant illnesses, including rashes, regurgitation, uncontrollable giggling, etc.' The elevator began to ascend and James grimaced. He never did much like hospitals… but honestly, who wants to be told that they're going to a floor with patients who are regurgitating Merlin only knew what? Hopefully no one.

Come on James thought desperately as the lift continued its sedate ascent up the building. Lily was now completely unconscious, yet her eyes remained open gleaming red like burning coals. She gave a slight sputtering cough and a trickle of blood escaped her lips, falling in a steady smear down her cheek. Shit shit shit.

Eventually, painstakingly, the lift shuddered to a halt and the doors flung open. James sprinted out, Lily in his arms. He stopped at a junction in the corridor- it had been so long since his last visit he couldn't remember where to go. Ignoring the 'quiet please' signs he yelled at the top of his voice,

'MUM!'

The trio skidded to a halt outside the ugly stone gargoyle, pausing for a moment.

'Got the map on you?' panted Remus. The Marauders map would allow them to see the password for Dumbledore's office without delay. Unfortunately, Sirius had left it in the dormitory and shook his head.

'Right, well there are only so many possibilities, start thinking,' said Remus. It was common knowledge that Dumbledore's office was locked with a password of sweet origin. Last year it had been Cockroach Cluster. No doubt it had been changed since.

'Fizzing Whizzbee,' tried Sirius, to no avail.

'Acid pop,' said Peter.

'Mars Bar,' Remus supplied. 'Muggle chocolate bar,' he explained to the other two who had given him quizzical looks. 'He's had sherbet lemon before.'

Just then, the gargoyle sprang to life and the slowly revolving staircase began winding its way upwards.

'I guess he ran out of ideas,' said Peter when they realised that the password must have been switched back to 'sherbet lemon'.

They ran up the stairs, not bothering to let the stairs just carry them up. They ran into the office without knocking and luckily, found Dumbledore sitting alone at his desk, stroking a placid Fawkes and reading the Financial Times.

He looked up politely, smiled and said 'And what may I do for you gentlemen?' He motioned to the three squashy armchairs that had just materialised in front of his desk (Dumbledore seemed to have an affinity for squashy armchairs). Peter and Sirius sat but Remus, the only one of the three who understood the real gravity of the situation stayed standing.

'Professor, I think we may have a very serious problem.'

'MUM!' Several angry healers poked their heads out from their respective wards, telling James to stop disturbing their patients. None of them seemed to realise he was holding a dying girl. This has to be some kind of nightmare. Mum, where are you?

'James?' He whirled around but couldn't see anyone. He had thought the voice had come from behind him. It took him a little while to figure out that the voice wasn't behind him, it was in the back of his head. His mother was nearby, but he could tell quite where. I'm by the elevator mum James thought desperately, willing his mother to hear, by the elevator, the elevator, by the-

'James!' The voice was real this time. A tall willowy witch with thick ebony hair, pale skin and piercing green eyes came running from a side corridor. 'What on earth-?' James, never so glad to see his mother in his entire life ran forward but, with the burden of Lily, couldn't hug her.

'Mum, I… I didn't know…'

'Explain later, she needs a ward, now.' James had seen his mother at many patients while with her at work, but rarely had he seen the amount of concern flicker over his mother's face as he did now. And it was this probably that made him follow his mother's orders immediately, his heart racing at five times its normal rate. First Nick, now Lily… who was next?

As Remus finished his quickly retold story, he glanced at the other two boys. Peter was as white as a ghost that has recently been covered in emulsion. Sirius' delicate green shade had returned again yet Dumbledore seemed completely unperturbed by the story. Remus could quite work out why the old man was remaining so calm- he almost wanted to shout out to him that Lily could be dying. Didn't he understand?

Dumbledore stared at a light patch on his desk, following the dancing dust as though hypnotised. He then looked up at Lupin- the young man had a quiet desperation in his eyes, a deep running pain. Looking down at his watch,

'Three, two, one,' and as his last word was uttered, the fireplace on the left hand wall burst into purple flames and Madam Ingram tumbled out. As she opened her mouth to speak, Dumbledore held up a hand to silence her and she froze, quite literally. He kept his hand raised, and as long as he did so, the plump witch could not move a muscle. Remus looked quizzically at him and the headmaster began to speak quickly.

'They haven't much time. I need two of you to follow Mr Potter and Miss Evans to London, the other, I need to remain here with Madam Ingram. I am afraid that the seriousness of this situation may be beyond what we had previously thought.' He quickly reached for a piece of parchment and a quill. He wrote five words on it, rolled it up and handed it to Fawkes who took it in his beak and disappeared in a tongue of fire.

'Professor, I don't-' Sirius began, now standing up and preparing to leave.

'When you arrive at St. Mungo's, Fawkes will lead you to where you need to go. I am quite sure that Mrs Potter will explain everything in due course. For the time being, I have some business that needs seeing to. I will follow on as soon as I can.'

'Helen's there?' asked Sirius, his furrowed brow releasing ever so slightly. 'Well, she should be taking care of everything. Right?' he looked at Dumbledore. 'Right professor?'

Dumbledore sighed the sigh of an old and burdened man. 'We can only hope Mr Black. We can only hope.'

By now, all three boys were drained of colour at the thought of what was happening to their friends.

'I'll stay,' said Peter quietly. 'I don't like hospitals much.'

'Fair enough,' said Remus.

'Take care mate,' Sirius touched him on the shoulder.

'You too. Owl me when you have news, alright?'

Once Sirius and Remus had flooed to St. Mungo's, Dumbledore lifted his charm off Madam Ingram who stood still, looking slightly confused.

'Se should remain like that for a few hours,' Dumbledore said to Peter quietly. 'I trust you will be able to keep her here until I return.

'I- I'll try sir,' said Peter. Dumbledore smiled at him.

'I shall return soon,' and he swept out of the office without another word, sealing the door behind him. Peter watched him go, heard him seal the office door behind him and let out a breath.

James sat outside the ward for what felt like hours. He could only see the tops of peoples' heads, scurrying busily to and fro. He wished he could do more to help, but with six fully trained healers in there, he wasn't likely to be of much help. So he sat and waited, and waited. Then he got up and did some pacing. And when that didn't work, he sat down again and drummed his fingers on the arm of the chair.

Eventually, his mother came out looking pale and drawn. James opened his mouth to enquire after Lily but seeing the look in his mother's face made him sick to the bone and suddenly he didn't want to ask anymore. He didn't want to know the answer.

'James, she's still here, but…'

'But what, mum?'

'She's getting worse, nothing's working. I can't trace the poisoning back far enough, the source of it is just eluding us.'

'Your positive it's not the overdose?'

'One hundred percent. No overdose of calming draught could cause the sort of symptoms that girl's got. Severe nausea maybe, but not the eyes. Or the…the blood.' James grimaced. He thought back to anything else Lily might have ingested, anything that could have done this to her, but nothing came. She simply hadn't done anything. He shook his head in despair looking down at the ground as he did so. Then he noticed a light patch on the floor. It grew brighter and brighter and soon his mother noticed it too.

'What on earth-'

Then suddenly flames erupted from the floor and quickly vanished again to be replaced by a fantastic bird with gold and red plumage. It flew into the air and rested on James' shoulder, holding out a slip of paper with its beak as it did so.

'Fawkes?' James whispered. He took the paper, unrolled it, read it and let out a loud 'Shit!'

Helen, too stressed to make a comment on her son's language, took the paper from him, read it too, and without another word, dashed back into the ward, letting the paper fall behind her. It floated casually to the ground, resting in a patch of light from the golden bubble lights that floated up and down the corridor. On it, the emerald ink shone brightly with the words:

Corpeus Malde Mandracana

Nicholas Foster

Just so you know, my lovely lovely people, the next chapter is going to be pretty mega… all for you  Aren't I lovely? Twas the idea of a lovely reviewer of mine, and also I realise how un-funny this chapter was, and I need to write something funny. So I promise that when I have 50 reviews, I will post a mega chapter. That's only 10 to go…! Plus this chapter was another shorty one, which aint really like me…

So now onto my thank yous:

Scowlingpixie- my next mega chapter is going to be dedicated specially for you, as you suggested it! Thanks as ever for reviewing you loveable, fantabulous, fantastic, gorgeous, amazing, awesome, great, magnificent reviewer (notice, I'm quoting you there!) x

Serentiyrose016- ah, how do you know it was peter…? Although, yes he is a scum bag and should rot in hell  thanks for reviewing!

Heaven and earth- gald you're enjoying it so far 

Greengrl- we've been rather neglecting each other recently haven't we! Tis the pressure of work I'm sure. But thank you for remembering me and reviewing this story- much appreciated.

Brona- aha, patience is a virtue! Xx

Gypsy-glass- thank you so much, that was a really lovely review! Oh, extra big mars bar for you because you're so lovely! Argh, I really have to stop using that word!

Amarvi- I really should write more fluff shouldn't I? The fluff gets sooo fluffy…

Zippyfox- as ever my love thank you so much for reviewing. Hoe you had a good Easter xx

Goodie2shoes19- was a bit depressing wasn't it? Sorry about that… and so was this. Eek! Not so good… we'll try and lighten up in a chapter or so.

IAMSOAP- aha, you'll just have to wait and see… teehee…

R xxx