As for the latin, (I got a lot of replies about this), mainly people asking what it meant. Now, I have to admit that my latin is a little sketchy, most of it comes from dad quoting stuff at me... some from church. Granted, I made purposeful mistakes in the latin for reasons that should become clear in this chapter but if you tried to translate the words themselves, a Latin scholar would look at you like you were on drugs. So please don't try just in case you get arrested- I wouldn't want that on my conscience! So read on and all should become clear.

So I leave you with chapter 7, mega as promised!

R xxx

Corpus Maldre Mandracana. James buried his face in his hands in complete despair. It all rested on Nick… but James didn't know where his ward was. He was at a complete loss at what to do, who to turn to. But to interrupt his anguished musing, two very familiar, very ruffled and very out of breath people came sprinting round the corner, skidding to a halt in front of James.

Sirius bent over, resting his hands on his knees and breathing heavily. 'Had… to choose… the… corridor furthest… from the… sodding… lift didn't… you Prongs?' he panted.

'What in the name of Merlin are you two doing here?' James asked blankly, staring at his two friends. 'Where's Peter?'

'With Dumbledore.' Remus took the seat next to James opposite the ward door, catching his breath, and turning his gaze to the ward door. 'Lily- ?'

'Should be okay,' James said quietly, but mum hasn't come back out yet.

'Dumbledore wrote some kind of note…' said Sirius who had plonked himself on the floor for lack of a better seat. 'They might have a little more seating,' he grumbled quietly.

'Did you see the note Prongs?' asked Remus, concern over his drawn features. James nodded dolefully but said nothing, still mulling those words over in his mind. He didn't yet know if the information would mean anything to his friends, but doubtless they would find out about it soon enough.

'If you're trying to be funny by not telling us, it's not working,' Sirius growled. 'Bloody annoying actually.'

'Corp…' James whispered.

'Huh?' came Sirius' helpful reply.

James restarted. 'What's the deal with Nick?'

'What in Agrippa's name does that have to do with anything?' asked Remus impatiently.

'Everything,' James replied. 'Do you know how he's doing?'

'Nope,' Sirius supplied, 'but I think we'd know if something had happened.'

'Couldn't you ask your mum?' asked Remus.

'Yeah, but I haven't had a chance to yet.'

'For the love of Pete, would you please explain why this has anything whatsoever to do with Lily before I do something very unpleasant and painful to your face.' Sirius' face was like thunder.

'Corpeus malde mandracana,' whispered James.

'Nick?' asked Remus. James nodded. 'Bloody hell.'

'Bloody hell is right,' said Sirius. 'As in, "what the bloody hell are you talking about"?' James rolled his eyes, this was going to take a while. He was spared from having to explain immediately by the reappearance of his mother.

She gave a wan smile, 'She's going to be fine.' James let out a breath he didn't realise he'd been holding and Sirius said 'Well thank fuck for that.'

'Sirius, darling, your courteous tongue ever graces the corridors I patrol,' smiled Helen as she embraced Sirius who had got up from the floor and given Helen a big hug (there had been an incident a year previously in the summer holidays when Sirius had been brought in by a sheepish James who had put a malfunctioning babbling jinx on him and Sirius had sworn for 4 hours straight without being able to control himself.)

'Good to see you again Hel.'

'Remus, how are you?' Remus got up and gave Helen a big hug as well.

'Not too bad thanks, and you?'

'Better than I have been the last couple of hours. I'm still working on that potion for you, give it a couple of months.' Remus smiled at her. Helen, who had adopted both Remus and Sirius (and Peter too) as extra sons had been doing research into werewolves and had convinced herself she could make a potion to help the condition. It wouldn't cure the disease but it would help the side effects a considerable amount.

'Can we go and see her?' James asked tentatively.

Helen hesitated slightly. 'You may… just, don't be startled by her appearance. The ordeal has wrought its effects.'

James' stomach lurched, he hated to think what might have happened to Lily during her time under one of the nastiest poisons wizard-kind knew. He looked at the other two.

'You go on in mate,' Remus said. 'Have some time. We'll try and find Nick.' And before Sirius could object, Remus grabbed him the collar and dragged him off down the corridor with a quick, 'See you later Hel.'

Helen looked at her son before gesturing him into the ward and then heading back towards her office for a well deserved cup of coffee.

When James entered the ward, it was deathly quiet. There were no other patients, just empty beds. There was one healer left, a young witch with cropped blond hair and baby blue eyes. In James' opinion she looked far too thick to have ever made it as far as a healer, and she gave him a sappy smile before leaving him in the ward alone. Except one bed.

'Can't keep your eyes off the girls already Potter?' came a small whisper from behind him. He turned slowly and had to suppress a gasp as he saw Lily, lying on her bed.

Her flaming red hair splayed out around her like a fiery halo and her skin was deathly pale against it. She had a large gash running from the tip of her right temple across her forehead, down her nose and over to her left cheek. James couldn't remember her having sustained such an injury but she explained.

'Poison does this thing, weakens the skin apparently.' She turned her head to one side and there was another slash running down her neck to her collarbone. James grimaced hating to think how painful they must be, or how many other cuts like that she might have.

But there was one thing more than anything that shocked him above all. His emerald-eyed goddess now had eyes of fire, as red as her hair. Lily caught his gaze and she must have realised he'd noticed.

'I want my eyes back,' she whispered, a tear falling from one of them and sliding down her pale cheek.

James moved over to her bed and knelt beside it, there being absence of a chair. He took her hand gently, not wanting to cause her anymore pain and she squeezed it hard.

'You won't hurt me. Your mum… she's a miracle worker.'

James smiled. 'I know.'

'She told me the-' she gesticulated to her face and neck, 'they should be gone within two days.'

'That's fantastic.'

'But they don't know about…'

James instinctively knew that she meant her eyes. He brushed another tear away from her cheek with his thumb. 'I'm sure they'll come back.' He kissed her hand and squeezed it again.

'Do you know what it was?' she asked him. 'The poison I mean?'

'Do you?' he asked tentatively. She nodded. So he nodded too. Then she smiled and said 'I don't mind really.'

'You… you don't?'

'No, because it means I know Nick's alive.'

While Lily had been fighting for her life, Nick was beginning to regain his in the Josef Wronski ward. His internal bleeding had been stopped easily enough by a simple potion but there was the problem with his having broken almost every bone in his body (bar the ones in his ears, two ribs and a toe). The healers had debated long and hard about it and eventually agreed that the only option had been to remove all the bones in his body and regrow them with the dreadful Skelegrow. Nasty. In the end, they had had to stun him for the entire process because he might have died from the sheer pain.

'No, I'm sorry, absolutely no visitors.' A rather prim healer stood at the doors to the ward which Sirius and Remus had eventually found.

'Very well, may we enquire as to his health then?' Remus asked with all the pretence of politeness, Sirius merely grinned. He could see his fists clenched at his sides and his jaw had set rigidly.

'He is in recovery,' snapped the healer who turned smartly on her heel and marched back into the ward, shutting the door purposefully behind her.

'Well that was friendly,' remarked Sirius casually. Remus didn't reply. 'Oh come on, Moony, perfect chance to explain this messed up Latin thingy.'

Lupin regarded him with a quiet disbelief. 'Remind me how you managed to get fifteen O's at OWLS.'

'Charm,' replied Sirius. 'I'm hungry, let's get something to eat and you can tell me about the corp… thing.' Remus rolled his eyes, but Sirius was already dragging him back towards the lift.

Lily was sleeping, her lashes brushing her cheeks at she dreamt. James stayed by her bedside, still holding her hand and watching as her wounds were slowly healed by the antidote his mother had administered. She moved her head slightly and mumbled something incoherent, but slept on.

Helen crept up upon her son, he hadn't noticed her enter the ward. She looked between James and the sleeping girl, noticing the way he looked at her. Lily' fortunes had barely changed from the last time Helen had seen her. It was a pity really, especially seeing how James would hardly stop yakking about her every holiday -and although he had never admitted to his mother that he liked the girl, it was blindingly obvious… especially to a mother's instincts.

'She's still beautiful,' she said.

James did not startle when he heard her voice, nor did he turn around.

'I know,' he said quietly. His voice sounded slightly strained, as though he was holding back pent up emotion. 'She…the cuts… I-'

'The antidote is working though?'

'I think so, they seem to be healing.' He turned his face to his mother's and she was not surprised to see he was crying. She walked over to him and held out her hand to him. He took it, stood up and hugged her hard. Even though she was a good three inches shorter than him, tall though she was, James could remember the hugs she would give him when he was little- like being enveloped in a cocoon of safety. He loved it when he remembered things like that.

'You do miss him, don't you Jamie?'

'Course I do.'

'It's only been five months.'

'Is it bad to still mourn after that long?'

Helen hugged her son even closer. 'Of course not.'

'It's just… seeing her like that, it-'

'Reminds you?' James nodded.

'You were far too young to have seen that. Far, far too young.'

'Mum, I was seventeen.'

'Far too young,' Helen whispered.

'Bugger me,' Sirius said, completely open mouthed.

'Rather not,' replied Remus, taking a sip of a brown sludgy liquid claiming to be coffee.

'Okay, okay, let me get this straight. Someone's spell making is as good as the giant squid's and their Latin is as good as mine, yet they manage to create a thing like that?' Remus nodded dolefully.

'Bugger me.' The sheer gravity of the situation seemed to have temporarily disabled Sirius' depth of vocabulary. 'And it's definitely with Nick?'

'Dumbledore seems to think so.'

Sirius paused just long enough to take a huge bite out of a giant chocolate chip cookie with flashing smarties. 'Tho, bathiclee…' he said thickly with a mouthful of food, and swallowing continued, 'Lily's life is tied to his.'

'Irreparably.'

'Forever?'

'Forever.' Then Remus said, his black humour coming through, 'until one of them dies of course.'

'Then-'

'The other one dies too.'

'Bugger me.'

'Rather not.'

Helen had conjured up two chairs ad two cups of (real) coffee for her and James. There they sat and chatted until Lily would wake up. Their conversation was rather fractured and slightly awkward, probably because James hadn't cried in front his mother for over six years…

Turning round the corner out of the station, James maintained the stony silence between himself and his father, glaring at the pavement. Having banished his possessions back to his house, Frank had decided to take advantage of the good weather to walk back home. Something James did not appreciate, as he had wanted to apparate, having passed the test last March.

Ten minutes later, they turned into a narrow street, lined by old Victorian terraced houses. The smell of wisteria was heavy upon the air and James breathed deeply, enjoying the pungency. Looking up, he saw four figures standing at the end of the road, all cloaked and hooded. They appeared to be waiting for something.

'Stay close,' murmured his father, surreptitiously drawing his wand from the depths of his cloak.

'I can take care of myself thank you father,' returned James scathingly, but reaching for his own wand all the same.

The first curse was thrown without any pre-emption. Frank hit the ground, twitching and grunting. The cruciatus curse. James fired some stunners at the group, hitting one who fell to the ground. At the same time, Frank stopped twitching and managed to clamber to his feet, albeit shakily.

The ensuing fight was like nothing James had ever or ever would witness again. The four in cloaks, he assumed to be death eaters, showed them absolutely no mercy and soon both father and son were critically injured.

As a last resort, James forced his mind into the melee, pushing through the occlumentic walls as hard as he possibly could. Each of the cloaked figures hit the ground, yelling; major migraines all around. Grabbing his unconscious father, his own breathing coming in short, painful bursts, he thought "St Mungo's" with all his might, and stepped into the void.

'James? James?' The voice was distant, but soothing. Slowly opening his eyes, he saw the pale face of his mother, gazing down at his with pronounced fear in her face.

'Mum…' he whispered. 'Where's dad?'

Helen smoothed back the hair from the forehead of her only son. 'The healers are still with him,' she whispered. 'But they, they don't…' she faltered. James sat up, feeling remarkably well considering the ordeal he had just suffered, and put his arms round his mother who dissolved into tears.

When she regained her composure, she sat up slowly. 'Well, at least you're okay my love,' she said smiling. 'You know you'd punctured both your lungs?' James shook his head. 'We all agreed, it's a miracle you managed to get here at all. But I- I'm so grateful.'

James said nothing.

'You've technically been discharged now,' continued his mother. 'But you could go and sit in the visitor's room if you like?'

James shrugged vaguely, but climbed out of the bed nonetheless.

'I'll bring you a cup of coffee,' said Helen, and left the room.

James wandered through the corridors, making his way to the visitor's room. He new his way well enough, his mother had worked here all his life, but he didn't want to go to that room. It never boded well, and it wasn't particularly welcoming either. Just beige.

He reached the door and stopped outside it, breathing in and out once. He turned the handle and opened the door.

'Lily?'

Frank may not have been the most fatherly figure, but he had been a constant, and when that constant disappeared, James had fought very hard to keep himself on his feet. Everything his father had told him about controlling his temper, protecting the weaker, never to submit to arrogance, had simply fallen away during his years at Hogwarts. But this year, he'd told himself he was going to be different, become the man his father had always wanted him to be.

Mr Potter had died at 9.17pm on the twenty second of June 1977 from "extensive internal injuries and blood loss." To James' friends, Frank had died of an unexpected heart attack. James had survived with little more than a few scars to tell of his ordeals. The pain of that night however, was one that ran deeper than anyone but his mother knew.

Remus was halfway through telling Sirius the exact circumstances of how the curse had come about and Sirius was halfway through his third pumpkin pasty.

'Okay, let me get this straight,' Sirius said, just about getting his head round it eventually. 'It was meant to be a Fidelius charm?'

'To a certain extent,' replied Remus. 'It was more to do with possessions than secrets, but it was based upon the same principle. A tiny fragment of the object or possession or whatever would be taken, added to whatever the entrusted person was to drink and the spell performed on the liquid before it was taken and "kaboom" instant secrecy of the object. It would supposedly, disappear to all except the entrusted until he chose to divulge its whereabouts.'

'But…'

'But someone got their incantations mixed. "Corpus" means body but "corpeus" can be interpreted as "corpse". As for "mandre"… in the supposed form, it was meant to me "entrustment" as in "mando" but cleary, the user wasn't being specific enough. It got mixed with "mancipo", to seize or capture.'

Sirius made a face, an ugly one at that and finally ceased eating.

'Then there is "mandracana". It was meant to be "instruction"… not curse.'

'Ah.'

'There's more.'

'More? Holy shit.'

'Well, there seems to be a problem with the words, because they sound so similar, they have so many meanings swept up in them- evil intent, wickedly, ill, alienate, command. You name it, there's almost fifteen black magic connotations between the three.'

'So what happened to the first ever case?' asked Sirius, now ever so slightly that charming green colour. Again.

'Well, the first case I'm aware of was a man that was supposed to be hiding his brother's trinket box or something…something really trivial because it was only an experiment.' Sirius nodded, this made sense.

'But the incantation itself creates a poison in the drink so the guy died. These massive gashes started to appear all over his body and he bled to death.'

'Mate, just eaten here.'

'Sorry. But the next case was worse.'

'Do I really want to hear?'

'It's interesting. Because by this time, they'd managed to find an antidote to the poison so the next volunteer, mad though he was, was saved the torment of the poison.'

'And that's interesting because…'

'Because,' Remus said exasperatedly, 'that's not the end of the story. Would you let me finish.'

'Sorry,' mumbled Sirius.

'So they wanted to check out whether this whole thing worked. But everyone could still see the trinket box thing so they gave up. And then a year and a half later, this volunteer guy died.'

'How?'

'Burst into flames.'

'Shit. How the hell did that happen?'

'Someone had thrown the box in the fireplace in a tantrum apparently. And thus-'

'They found out what the spell did.'

'Yup. And then the stupidest thing happened next. They printed an article about it in the newspaper. Including how to say the incantation, how it works, etcetera etcetera.'

'Well that was thick.'

'So now, I mean it's not commonly used, but it's serious black magic and, like I said, incurable.'

'…bugger me…'

Remus didn't even bother to say it.

But then James turned up, looking (if possible) half morose and half very happy.

'She'd like to see you,' he said. 'If, and I quote, you've had enough to eat yet.'

Remus and Sirius grinned- Lily was going to be alright… for the time being.

'Possibly one of the most potent poisons of the age, the toxin created by the curse of Corpus Malde Mandracana is lethal without an administered antidote within an hour and thirty seven minutes of consumption. Side effects are numerous and vary from patient to patient. The most commonly recurring are: Vomiting or nausea, uncontrollable giggling or babbling, pathological lying, bruising, inflamed airways causing breathing difficulties, rapid losing and regaining of consciousness, skin thinning leading to bleeding, internal haemorrhaging and rashes (ranging in colour from red to green).

If the correct antidote is administered, the patient will often have no recollection of the ordeal. Eye colour change has also been noted, although this is a less common occurrence.

Healer Archimedes Treshwythick was the discoverer of…'

James sighed a heavy sigh and shut the huge musty volume that lay open on his lap. A cloud of dust rose out of he cover, choking him slightly, though he stifled the noise quickly.

He sat in the dark cellar of St Mungo's hospital, an area technically off limits to the general public though Helen, much like her son, saw the rules as more sort of guidelines. She had given James permission to go down while Lily slept, on the condition that if he was found, he would be grounded until he was over fifty two years old.

As he sat in the half light, illuminated by the few candles suspended just below the ceiling, he stared down at the leather cover of 'Potent Poisons and their Properties' wondering, not only why the author seemed to have an obsession with alliteration, but also why he should have dared to keep his hopes up.

'Pathological lying'

The words had leapt out at him as though they had been highlighted. And now they were burned in his mind, echoing around with words he had heard only a few hours ago:

'James, you know I love you, right?'

'What?'

'Mmm-hmm. Sometime I think you're all annoying, so sometimes I don't like you very much… but sometimes you do look yummy on your broom. And I think I love you then. And you're being very nice to me now too. So I love you now too.'

I love you now too

I love you now too

I love you now too…

Unconsciousness had fallen upon Peter, and he sat snoring in a chair in front of Dumbledore's desk, the immobile frame of Madam Ingram a slightlycomical backdrop to the scene.

Dumbledore knew that with old age came its failings, but he should have never been this short-sighted. With two students in critical conditions in hospital, another out cold in his office, and a member of staff suspected to be either an infiltrator or a traitor, he began to despair, and Dumbledore was not usually one for despair.

Peter sat up, white faced and shaken. He stared into those warm yet piercing blue eyes and tried his best not to recoil in terror. If he had been found out…

'Are you alright?' asked Dumbledore.

'Yes sir,' came his quavering reply.

'You must be quite shaken by this evening' events I am sure.' Peter nodded. It was quite true, but he must block all thought, must block all thought, must block all thought…

But he knew that Dumbledore was a skilled legilimens and could tell if a person was lying as easily as Sirius could get with three girls in one night (that's very easily, in case you hadn't guessed). So he didn't tell a lie, but he didn't reveal every truth.

'You should go and rest. You may go to London tomorrow if you so wish.'

'I, I should like that, thank you sir.' And Peter left the office, as quickly as he could without suspicion. That was close. Very very close.

When Nick finally regained consciousness, the ward was bustling with healers and a pale light was streaming in through the window, heralding daybreak. As the healers seemed occupied with a young woman who only appeared to have two remaining limbs, they hadn't noticed his return to the land of the living. Nick tried to sit up, tried being the operative word. His body felt as heavy as lead and if he didn't know any better, he would have sworn someone had super-glued all the joints in his body together. He wiggled his toes and was met with a cacophony of cracking.

'That doesn't sound too good,' came a voice from his left but, being unable to move his neck, he couldn't' tell to whom the voice belonged.

'Too right Moony,' came another voice, not quite as sympathetic… more amused. 'Do you think he broke them?'

'I doubt it.'

Nick grinned as he recognised the voices. 'Hey Remus, Sirius.'

'Alright mate?' said Sirius as he stepped closer to the bed, in range of Nick's vision. 'How you feeling?'

'Stuck,' came the reply.

Remus came into view as well. 'Understandable really. Especially since you haven't ever used your bones before.'

'I haven't… what?' And then Nick's eyes scanned the room (or what little of it he could see). He noticed the rather low-hung ceiling and the blue walls and then said slowly, 'I'm not in the hospital wing, am I?'

'Hospital wing!' scoffed Sirius. 'Are you joking? Even Madam Ingram couldn't fix you up. Nah, you're in Mungo's.'

'Right,' Nick said slowly. 'So why are you here?'

'We came to visit you,' said Remus, hoping that in the present situation, Nick wouldn't ask too many questions. But he hoped in vain.

'Bad liar,' replied Nick.

'We'll explain in a minute,' said Sirius, 'but first, let's stretch you out a bit,' and with that he grabbed one of Nick's arms and wrenched it out sideways.

'OW!' yelled Nick, in serious amounts of pain. 'That hurt you mangy bastard!'

'Sorry,' grinned Sirius, not looking it at all, and taking each of Nick's fingers in turn and cracking it out of it's fused position, causing more vehement swearing on Nick's part. Remus was slightly more gentle, but that didn't stop it hurting like hell.

After ten minutes of Nick getting used to his new skeleton and a quick check over by one of the healers, Remus and Sirius sat down, ready to be bombarded with questions.

'Right,' Nick said, staring intenetly at the pair. 'If you're here, where is James?'

'Easy question,' answered Sirius. 'Don't know.'

'Don't know?'

'Well, he's around, but we're not quite sure. He probably fell asleep in a corridor somewhere and got lost. He'll turn up eventually.'

'The concern you hold over your friend is really quite moving,' said Nick, smiling slightly. Sirius merely shrugged and took a bite of a pumpkin pasty he'd managed to get his hands on. One of the young healers gave a loud cough and looked pointedly at a large sign on the wall saying:

EATING AND DRINKING STRICTLY

PROHIBITED ON THIS WARD

to which Sirius merely gave her a dashing smile and took another huge bite out of it in his usual disdain for the rules. The young woman's eyes did what Lily termed 'that melty thing' as she took in Sirius' looks, smiled bashfully and turned away.

'And what about Lily?' asked Nick.

'Now that's a bit of a different story,' said Remus. 'And it's also a bit of a long story.'

'Shoot,' said Nick, and so Remus recounted the events of the previous day (with unhelpful interjections from Sirius) until the whole story was told.

'So she fell asleep and we had a quick kip in Helen's office and then we came here,' finished Remus.

'Corpus Malde Mandracana,' whispered Nick. The two others nodded dolefully. 'I want to see her.'

well my lovelies, I do hope you enjoyed that :) You know the best way to let me know if you did...!

R xxx