Author's Note: Sorry it's taken so long to post… not that I have a million fans or anything cough, cough … but all the same I apologize! I had some extreme forgetfulness, an Algebra test to study for and 200 something problems to do for homework so sue me. Actually, please don't. Oh and there were some technical difficulties thrown in there as well. On with the story then…

Chapter Eleven – Um … Whoops?

Sirius normally liked being backed up against walls. He didn't mind being pressed against them and feel their icy solidness touch his skin. He didn't really care if when he walked away it looked like he'd made out with the wall (chances are he probably nearly did). Bottom line was he liked the wall. He didn't hate the wall.

Now, granted, normally he liked to be pressing a girl against the wall, not the other way around. And he also liked a heavy snogging and groping session to follow the pressing against the wall. He had no objections to touching and fierce eyes and fingers poking places and a girl in such close proximity to him. He honestly didn't. He liked it all … maybe a bit too much in some people's minds … but still.

But right now Sirius Black did not like the wall. Nor did he like the girl of who was pressing him against the wall. He did not like the situation he was in. Not at all. Not a teeny tiny sodding drop of it.

Lynelle was pretty, sure, but when she was pissed she really did not look that kind.

So, fellow reader, you might ask what situation Sirius was in (if you haven't already guessed). Well, I'll tell you.

Being cornered after dinner wasn't fun, especially when Sirius felt extremely bloated from eating way too many pumpkin pasties. But, somehow, Lynelle had crept up behind him as he left the Great Hall and yanked him into the broom closet, ready to give him a piece of her mind. She had shoved him up against the wall of the broom closet, just one candle floating in the air to keep the image of her scary face in his memory forever. Of course, this was the cat fight that every girl began when another girl got that one girl's "Man." Ah, yes, the glorious cat-fight. Which was only made worse by witchcraft.

"You said he liked me," Lynelle snarled, stabbing a manicured nail into Sirius's chest.

"It was an accident, Lynelle," Sirius exclaimed, attempting to wriggle out of his spot squished against the wall. "Honestly, I didn't know this was gonna happen!" he lied.

"You didn't know this would happen?" she hissed menacingly, her great blue eyes flashing with red flames of anger.

"No," Sirius stumbled, attempting to make up a good enough lie. "I didn't! I don't know how it happened but it did!"

"Well you had better fix it or someone's gonna pay," she growled, her angered face inches from his own. "And I think the person to pay should be that dear little mudblood Potter fancies so much," she sneered as an evil afterthought.

With one last push in the chest she stalked out of the broom closet, leaving Sirius to think of a way to fix the problem he made. Also, the one he had kept to himself.

"Are you done yet?" Lily moaned, rubbing her temples with her free hand.

"In a minute, Lily," James insisted, still sketching on his parchment.

Lily let out a bored sigh and felt her head, which had been resting on her hand, fall with a clunk to the table. James gave a start at the sound and glanced at her to make sure she was okay, including a sharp poke to her head to see if she was conscious.

"Well thank you for that, Potter," Lily snarled as she rubbed the tender spot on her head. "Please hurry up. Its past eleven and I have a quiz tomorrow to study for!"

"I have the same quiz and you're exaggerating."

"How am I exaggerating?"

"It is not past eleven," James said confidently. "It's past twelve."

Lily let out another pitiful moan along with a mourning sob. "Can we go now?" she asked, glancing at his wristwatch.

"Yes, fine, whatever," James answered. Anything to make his Lilykins happy.

Wait. Did he just say that?

"Wake up, Lily."

"Goway."

"Lily, wake up."

"Idonwanna."

"Lily, please wake up. Now."

"Lemelone."

"Hey, Lily, someone's ripping apart the Charms notebook."

Two terrified screams erupted in the dormitory as both Lily and Remus shot up in bed, hearts pounding, looking around for the culprit of book-ripping-upping. Their heads swiveled around frantically, attempting to find the book they were to save, but when they saw it was just a trick, they both glared at James with utter disgust.

"That was not funny Prongs," Remus declared, falling with a thump back onto his pillow, rolling over, pulling the sheets up to his nose and going back to bed.

"It was necessary to wake Lily up!" James protested even though he knew Moony would never understand.

Lily attempted to pull a Remus and flop back onto the bed and roll back asleep when James stopped her, grabbing her wrist as her head hit the pillow.

"Why the sodding hell did you wake me up?" Lily growled, wanting to go back to bed more than ever.

"Because we have a very important topic at hand," James said coyly.

"No, Potter," Lily said with a sigh. "I will not shag you. Thank you but no thank you now good night," she finished, rolling over, her arm twisted back in an odd angle, still attached to his.

"That's a very nice idea – but no," James said, dirty-boy-mind-land taking over. Fighting for control, he said, "There's the small matter of -" But he was cut short.

"Quidditch! Quidditch! Quidditch! Quidditch! Quidditch!" Sirius squealed, coming out of the bathroom with a bang, his hair wet but his smile bright.

"Quidditch," James finished dully.

Lily gaped at James. This was made to look like a very cruel glare as she stared "blankly" at him, daring him to go on, but was just ruined by the fact that her hair WAS standing on its edge, looking rather porcupine-ish and that she had bags under her eyes AND that she was yawning as she "glared/gaped" at him. Wow. Totally convincing.

"That Glare of Death doest work on me, Evans," James said flatly, staring right back at Lily. "It only turns me on."

Lily glared a little more, wanting to throttle him with her pillow. The only thing keeping from her from actually throttling him was the idea of walking around with a dead James attached to her hand. C'mon, he's gotta be at LEAST 150 pounds. Who wants to carry that much dead weight around?

Pun intended.

"Get dressed, okay Evans?" he continued, getting up and leaving her with the only option to get up as well. "We'll head out to the pitch in an hour… after we both eat."

"You are such an arse, Potter," Lily grumbled an hour later as they trudged down to the Quidditch pitch, ready to "play the final game of the season! The one that our life depends on! Dear man, OUR LIVES DEPEND ON IT SO DO NOT LET ME DOWN!" (That was to quote James's pep talk speech yesterday at practice. Granted, of course he fell into a heap on the grass and was shaking so badly, he nearly had to be taken to the Hospital Wing. And he looked like he was doing an odd twitch dance as he walked back to the common room. But whatever.)

"But a lot of people love me for it."

"I am excluded in that loving bunch then," Lily said.

James felt that pang of pangs of pangs of pangs go through his heart like a bloody dagger, but he attempted to brush it off. If only he knew that Lily felt the same way.

Quidditch sucks was the first thing to pop into Lily's mind that afternoon. Yes, truth be told she had completely forgotten about James having to play in the game that afternoon and it was also proven that she really shouldn't have eaten breakfast. This was made especially clear when she vomited all over the locker rooms.

"C'mon, Lily," James whispered urgently to her. "We need to be on the Pitch in, like, two minutes."

"Mmmph."

Lily was obviously was too sick to think of playing Quidditch. And she wasn't even going to be playing the sport.

"Lily," James repeated, shaking her knee with his hand. "Please, Lily."

Lily glanced up and saw his pathetically desperate face and, swallowing a gulp, stood up and followed him out of the locker rooms.

How Potter managed to play Quidditch with enthusiasm, Lily just didn't know.

Opening her eyes she looked up and found herself staring at the ceiling of the hospital wing. She wriggled, uncomfortable in her spot and winced as she felt pain shoot up her spine. From beside her she heard James jump and move closer to her.

"You okay, Lily?" he asked in a whisper, leaning over her to check that she was okay.

Lily pinched her eyes shut, tears of pain streaming out from behind her eyelids.

"Madam Pomfrey!" James called over his shoulder.

Within seconds the witch came bustling out of her office and over to where Lily lay, crumpled up, on the hospital bed.

"Yes, Potter, what is it?" she asked in a rush.

"Its Lily – she's in pain," James said, indicating said girl on the bed.

"Miss Evans?" Pomfrey asked, turning to her patient. "Are you okay?"

"Not really," Lily choked, tears still streaming out her eyes.

"Well … I wouldn't expect much else with a broken spine. It's going to take a bit for the pain to wear off. I'll get you some potion. Sit still and I'll be back in a moment." With that the witch wandered off in search of potion.

"What happened?" Lily asked weakly, turning to face James.

"Well," James said, rubbing his thumb against Lily's hand. "After we won, well, the Ravenclaws got a bit, well – pissed – so they aimed a – um – Bludger at us and – well – it ended up hitting you and you – er…" James trailed off, unable to finish what he was saying.

True story was the Ravenclaws got very upset with the Gryffindor victory, that they decided best chance to get revenge was pelt a Bludger at the captain, and, instead of hitting James, it hit an unsuspecting Lily, square in the back, knocking her off the broom, dangling over a hundred feet in the air, with wide, terrified eyes. James was able to get her back up to his broom, but her back was bleeding like mad from the contact and the broken bones. He sped off towards the hospital wing, flying through the halls due to Lily's pain (she was unable to walk at ALL). After the guilty Beater had been questioned, of course, all he could think of to say was, "Um … whoops?" in response to Lily's injuries which really shot James through the roof in the anger department.

Lily was already in tears, true, with all the pain. But hearing the story of her pain just made her cry more. And then, finding out that she'd only be in the hospital wing for another day, she cried even more, not wanting to leave the warm safety.

But, James being the excellent boyfriend he was –

Oh shit.

Lily so did not just think that. She so did not just think that.

Author's Ramblings: -Evil laugh- Oh yes, a fantastic chapter, in my opinion. This chapter took FOREVER to post 'cause I was having SUCH a hard time thinking of HOW to write it, WHAT to put in it and what ORDER to put it in. So I ended up writing four or so pages of one "chapter 11" and four or so pages of another "chapter 11" – then I edited around and smooshed it together in a nice little chapter. At least I think so.

Oh, and I have to defend myself momentarily. Some people have read Procrastinator-starting2moro's story, Hand-in-Hand, so those of you might think that I'm "copying" her work, just wording it differently. But I NEED to tell you that I had the idea to have a bunch of this stuff (like what happens in the next chapter and the things that have already happened) put in a story, and the only way to make it better was to sew them together at the hands. So, I can honestly say it does look similar to Hand-in-Hand, but I guarantee you that this is my One-hundred-percent original works and ideas. Honest.

Thanks for being awesome readers!