a/n: first of all, i would like to thank my reviewers:

Jenna, ourlittlesecret7, and ReadingRobyn, that is a part of the story, satisfy your answers by reading this chapter.

Robster639, merci!

CHAPTER 18: REALIZATION STRIKES

"Is it true that you placed a bet on me?" she asked bitterly, trying to hold back her tears.

"Lily, I…" James started but he stopped.

"You did win," Lily said sarcastically. "How much did you win?"

"Lily…" James said.

"I'm out of here!" she shouted. She got out of bed and magically packed up. She took off her engagement ring and threw it on the ground as the three stared at it in horror.

She apparated as she got hold of her things. Kristanna stepped in front of James. "Is it true, James?" she asked.

James nodded slowly. "But I did not mean anything!" he tried to explain.

Kristanna looked at him disbelievingly as she went out of the room, leaving Sirius and James.

Sirius looked at James. "Prongs," he started, "I didn't know. When and why did you do it?"

James sat down wearily on Lily's bed and started to tell Sirius what happened.

FLASHBACK

"James Potter. You're really famous but you cannot even hold Lily Evans?" the boy sneered.

"Shut up, Terret!" James shouted, waving a fist.

"Why don't you admit it, Potter. You're just a scum. You cannot even please her."

"Wanna bet?" James dared.

The boy smiled. "Of course, Potter. If you're able to do that, you'll never get a word from me."

"Deal," he replied. "What if not?" he asked.

"You'll face your greatest humiliation," Terret said.

END FLASHBACK

"Man, you're really selfish when you did that," Sirius said, sitting down a stool.

"I know, Padfoot. I just don't know what urged me to do it. Pride, I should say," James concluded.

"You really won the bet; you also won Lily's heart. But now, you lost her," Sirius said.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

James ended up drinking in the Leaky Cauldron all night. The effects started to go through him and he started to talk to himself.

"I did everything for her," he said, swinging his wine glass madly. "I did that to save her," he said further, hiccupping. Tom the innkeeper merely shook his head while he proceeded with cleaning the whole pub. At that instant, there was a new visitor.

She slowly walked towards Tom and talked to him. However, she paused for a minute and looked at the madly swinging guy at the farthest end of the bar.

"… and you know what she did? She forgot me! I did everything to make her remember me. And look what she did!"

She went nearer and nearer and her hood fell off. Her bright red hair glimmered in the dim candlelight. Tears fell slowly from her eye as she watched James, his misery. He looked worse than the way Kristanna described.

"We have come too far, James," she whispered. "I didn't know it will be like this." With that, she asked the innkeeper to give a room for James. She accompanied the man who carried him and she watched him. Lily held James' hand and cried.

"This is all your fault, James. You shouldn't have done that in the first place," Lily said, scolding the subconscious man. "You should have told me about it. You don't need to place a bet on me. I have loved you before and until now."

She turned to leave but she heard some indistinct murmuring. Then she realized that James was telling her, "Don't leave me here."

Lily was reluctant, but she obeyed. She sat down beside James but James pulled her. She ended up lying on the bed, facing James' face. She tried to arrange his stubborn hair and her hands landed on his cheek.

Lily fell asleep after watching over James' peaceful state.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Lily woke up inside the room. She glanced at the side and saw that nobody's there. James?" she called out. No one answered. She recognized James' writing on the lamp table. She opened the note and it said:

Whatever happened before, forgive me. I did that because I love you. Now, I am lost. I have to go back to the place where it came from. I have lost the bet and I have to go… Goodbye, Lily. I will never forget you…

Lily placed her hand on her mouth. She felt something unusual and depressing as she read the last two sentences of the letter. Because of this, she wore her coat and ran down as fast as she could out of the Leaky Cauldron. She bumped to Kristanna who asked her, "Lily, where are you going?"

"To the ministry," Lily panted, almost knocking her over.

"Why?" Kristanna shouted while they were standing on the busy street outside the pub.

"I have to meet James!"

When Lily arrived at the ministry office, she rushed up to James' office. She only saw Sirius.

"Lily, what are you doing here?" Sirius asked, putting his feet off the table.

Lily panted first. "Sirius, where is James?"

"He just left. He went to Scotland to end terms," Sirius replied.

"End terms? I don't understand."

Sirius sighed. "Let me show you." He stood up next to a small silver cabinet. With his wand, he locked the office door and touched, with the tip of his wand, the cabinet door. It opened up and there was a silvery glow coming from the inside. He pushed all the books aside and it revealed a small silver bowl engraved with runes, a pensieve.

"What does a pensieve have to do with this?" Lily asked.

Sirius carefully placed the bowl on his table and sat down. "Lily, usually, our office uses a pensieve for witnesses. However, James owns his own pensieve to relieve his stress for some times." Sirius waved his wand and the curtains covered the windows. "Lily, please don't tell James about this. He'll kill me." He pointed his wand to the pensieve and scanned all the memories. He was muttering, "I'm sure he placed it here…"

"What's taking too long?" Lily asked.

"Here," Sirius said. "Come with me, Lily," he offered.

They went to the place where they all came from: Hogwarts. Lily and Sirius saw themselves standing in front of the lake where they humiliated Snape. Lily saw herself by the lake, talking with Kristanna while James was under the tree, looking at her absentmindedly. Kristanna whispered something to Lily and Lily looked behind her, just to see James looking at her. The present Lily went nearer and saw James, really drawing her outline by the lake. Nobody knew that he was a good artist!

Lily looked again to the lake's view. A man approached James, who sighed.

"How pitiful. Famous James Potter cannot get the mudblood Evans," he said sarcastically.

James immediately crumpled the piece of parchment and said, "Terret, what do you want?"

"Nothing, Potter. I just want to say that you're a loser," Terret replied."James Potter. You're really famous but you cannot even hold Lily Evans?" the boy sneered.

"Shut up, Terret!" James said, waving a fist. Nobody seemed to notice the tension between them.

"Why don't you admit it, Potter. You're just a scum. You cannot even please her."

"Wanna bet?" James dared.

The boy smiled. "Of course, Potter. If you're able to do that, you'll never get a word from me."

"Deal," he replied. "What if not?" he asked.

"You'll face your greatest humiliation," Terret said.

Lily stood at the side, apparently transfixed. "What are you going to do?" James replied.

"I'll make sure that mudblood will get what she deserves," Terret said.

"Don't touch Evans," James hissed.

Terret merely smirked as he found his way back to the next row of trees. Janice flashed a smile at James and tailed Terret as he left.

Lily had barely looked at James' distressed form when Sirius pulled her and brought her out of the memory.

Lily looked at the swirling liquid of the pensieve as Sirius silently placed it in the cabinet, back to its original form. "Lily, James won't bet just because of his pride. I thought that was only the reason but I've found out that your life, everything you are, is at stake when he agreed on the bet. I know James all my life. Trust me…"

Lily looked at Sirius. He was looking sincere. After closing her eyes and reflecting on what she'll do next, she opened them up and said, "Where is he?"

"He's gone, Lily. If you manage to catch up with…"

Sirius was never able to finish his statement when Lily spun around and blasted the door lock.

"I'm going to find him, Sirius!" Lily gasped as she ran away.

"Lily, make sure that you'll pay for the door," Sirius said, looking at the blasted doorway as though he was computing the cost of the blasted door.

Lily came sliding back to the office and conjured a vial out of nowhere. "Sorry, I have to do this, Sirius but can I borrow the pensieve? I need it now!" she said with urgency.

Sirius obeyed, opening the cabinet once again. Lily dipped her vial and when the vial was full with the silvery liquid, she asked Sirius to return the pensieve and magically covered the vial.

She slammed open the door of Kristanna's office as soon as she apparated on the spot.

"If you're going to apparate inside my office, why not apparate directly?" the healer asked as she calmly continued to write on her documents. The door mended itself.

"I'm sorry," Lily said with an urgent tone, "but you gotta help me!" she pleaded.

Kristanna stopped writing and looked at Lily with a raised eyebrow. "About what? You look like this is a matter of life and death!"

"It is, Kris!" Lily exclaimed, throwing herself on her friend's desk. "This is my last chance to know where in the hell James went!"

Without any other choice, Kristanna opened her small chest on top of the table and took out a bottle with blue liquid. "Take care of this, this is very rare," Kristanna said, handing it to Lily. Lily excitedly took the bottle with shaking hands, and in her epileptic state, she accidentally let go of it.

"Lily, that is my last stock!" Kristanna shouted, leaping from her seat. "That costs ten galleons, actually!"

Lily did not even cry with the price. She knelt on the floor and stared at the gel-like liquid, looking at it miserably as though she would die without it. "Now, I will never be able to see James again," she said in a dejected whisper. She looked at Kristanna, expecting that her witty friend would think of a quick solution.

"I think I cannot do something about that," Kristanna said hopelessly.

Lily's eyes started to well with tears. "Please, Kris…"

Kristanna closed her eyes, not wanting to see her friend in a hopeless state. She tried to think for a while and she said, "Lily, I don't know if this will work but…"

a/n: Chapter 18 on the go! However, it is sad to say that this story will come to an end after few chapters. Anyway, it is comforting in my part because I don't have to brainstorm in a certain story, but to try to please my readers, I still have two more stories, The Four Crazy Signs of Love, and the just starting fic of mine, Miss Match. I do hope you try to read that stuff. I see that there are other reviewers coming from other stories of mine and I'm very happy.