James never left Lily's side in the infirmary for the five days she was either out cold, or dazed and confused when she kept calling him Bert whilst telling him he'd better watch out for the massive butterfly that lived under her bed. When she finally woke up as herself she found James sat on the chair next to her fast asleep, clutching her hand. A massive bouquet of Lilies was on her bedside table which filled the air with their sweet smell, but there was no label on them.
"James?" She whispered, still feeling quite queezy, and when she tried to raise her head a stabbing pain ran through her. James slowly woke up, rubbed his eyes, and as soon as he remembered who he was, and where he was he sat bolt upright.
"Lily, oh God are you all right?" James babbled, scanning her, making sure she hadn't gotten worse since he last saw her two minutes ago.
"I'm fine, I just… what happened after breakfast? And how long have you been there? I figured you'd be in prison for killing Aiden"
"Oh only a few minutes" He lied, laughing at her joke "I thought I'd come and check up on you, but I must have fallen asleep!"
"You know you don't need to protect me" She yawned "Oh, and who are the Lilies from?" James had ordered the biggest bunch of Lilies he could find for Lily, but still didn't want her to know it was from him in case she thought he was showing off how rich he was when Lily didn't have her father to support her.
"Oh, ur, Kara and Sasha brought them up yesterday, they're great aren't they?" James blurted out the first legitimate answer that came into his head.
"They're gorgeous! I love them, they look so expensive! Oh they're such great friends, don't you think?"
"Yeah. Great Friends" James murmured.
"Oh and why on earth am I here anyway?" The infirmary came into focus as her eyes adjusted to the bright, but as she tried to block the light with her hand the pain of the bruises smothering her arms forced them to her sides.
"Hagrid decided showing us a man eating spider would be a good idea and it attacked you" James explained.
"Oh, I vaguely remember that, yes! I remember being carried to Hagrid's hut and someone looking after me, I know because I could slightly hear their voice asking me to wake up."
"Do you remember who it was" James questioned anxiously.
"No, just the fact it must have been a man, why who was it?"
"Just Remus, I went to get Madam Pomfrey" He didn't want Lily knowing it was him that did it because he was still seriously embarrassed about talking to her after what happened. Lily knew it wasn't Remus, it was a much deeper voice, so she was confused as to why James would lie, but she couldn't figure out why because the last week was very hazy to her.
"Ah, Miss Evans, you're finally yourself again!" Madam Pomfrey marched over. "You're lucky mister Potter here sav..." But she was cut off by James shaking his head at her, so she wouldn't tell Lily it was him who saved her. "I mean you're lucky Mister Potter got me or else you probably would have been killed! What a stupid thing letting a grounds-keeper be in charge of children's safety"
"Yes, I am aren't I" Lily said unsurely "James, who was it that stopped Aragog from killing me?"
"Well Hagrid ordered him off you, then Sirius sent it back into the forest afterwards" James lied, getting a confused look from Madam Pomfrey.
"That doesn't sound like Sirius at all, he's terrified of spiders!" Lily knew when James was lying, and urged him to tell her the truth, whatever it was.
"Anyway, Miss Evans, you need to take it easy over the next 3-4 days, get a lot of rest. Mr Potter you can leave now, she's in safe hands." Madam Pomfrey interrupted.
"Bu..."James started.
"No buts, you've done plenty, so off you pop so you don't miss any more lessons"
"Yes Madam Pomfrey" He muttered and slumped off.
"Oh God Prongs, when was the last time you showered!" Sirius shouted as James sat down on the bench.
"Shut up Pads, I've been worried about Lily!" James hadn't eaten for five days, apart from the odd bight of toast Madam Pomphrey force fed him, and was practically inhaling his plate of pancakes, toast, teacakes, and crumpets.
"Fine, as long as you shower for about two hours I'll let myself be seen with you" Sirius stated, but got whacked in the head by James. "Fine I'll admit I deserved that. But as long as you're ready for the quidditch match against Slytherin tomorrow I'll let you off"
"Oh God that's tomorrow?" James had completely zoned out from the real world and was only concentrating on Lily and her getting better for the past five days.
"Of course it it! How could you forget? You've been force training me from the past three weeks for it!" Sirius stared astonished at his quidditch crazed friend, and was shocked that he could forget the most important game of the year.
"Anyway, let's just enjoy today" Remus butted in, clearly excited about something,
"How can we possibly enjoy today considering we have double potions, charms, defence against the dark and Arithmency?" James asked.
"Well, it's supposed to be a secret, but Dumbledore's given the whole school the day off because it's his birthday. We're not supposed to tell anyone, because he's going to announce it at the end of breakfast as a surprise, we were told in the prefect meeting yesterday" Remus explained.
"Great! A day of pranks me thinks" Sirius cried out, a billion possibilities rushing through his head at once.
"No way!" Sasha said firmly "We've got to spend the day doing something that couldn't possibly get us all expelled for once"
"And how does us letting loose a hundred parrots into the great hall, or making napkins spit at the Slytherins mean we might get expelled?" Sirius questions confused.
"I'll just forget you said that!" Sasha said "Now why don't we just spend the day doing nothing?"
"Uh, boring!" Sirius shouted "No, we should drench all of the Ravenclaws with water bombs!"
Through all of this Remus slowly began to feel a racing pain through his back, and running through him. He'd completely forgotten that night way the full moon, and just ignored the pains and carried on laughing and joking with the rest of them.
"Good afternoon sleepy head!" Sasha and Kara chimed together to Lily that afternoon, clutching chocolates and flowers in their arms.
"Oh hey guys" Lily greeted in a daze, and hauled herself up in immense pain, flinching with the heavy weight on her weak, bruised arms.
"Oh gosh Lily, you're covered in bruises, you look terrible!" Sasha squealed, laying eyes on her friend for the first time in five days.
"You're looking well too!" Lily laughed, wearily sipping her water.
"Anyway we got you these!" Kara shoved the chocolates into Lily's arms and she winced in pain "God, sorry Lily, I'm so clumsy!"
"No, I'm fine Kara, these Lilies are great too, thank you so much for buying them for me, they must have been expensive!" James had forgotten to ask the two to pretend they were from her when he asked their opinion on the massive bunch he had picked out.
"Lils, we didn't buy them for you, James did" Sasha pointed out "He didn't say they were from him, did he?"
"Of course not, or I wouldn't have thanked you!" Lily couldn't understand why he would have lied, and about such an expensive gift.
"He asked our opinion on about ten different flowers until we chose them and told him to leave us alone. That was probably the only time he left your side!"
"He stayed with me for five days!" Lily was bolt upright now, amazed at the new information she was hearing, was this the same James Potter she'd known for so long?
"Would you believe us if we said no?" Kara tried.
"Uh no. What else hasn't James told me?" Lily demanded to know.
"Well, what has he told you?" Sasha asked unsurely.
"He told me I was attacked by a man eating spider, Hagrid saved me, Sirius chased it into the forest and carried me to Hagrid's hut, and Remus healed my head wound." Lily told them, but was just faced with confused looks.
"Lily, you were attacked by Hagrid's spider, but it's James that saved you, carried you back, healed your wound, and sat by your bed five days straight to make sure you were alright" Sasha explained, shocked that for a guy that had been in love with Lily for five years he didn't do much to make her like him.
Lily just sat there, shocked by what she was being told. How could James lie about something like that, and why didn't she care that he had lied. Then she realized something she hated. She was falling for James Potter.
"Heyya James!" Shanice jumped into the spare seat next to James in the library where he was trying to study for the time he's missed in potions.
"Uhh, hi" James gave her an odd look and carried on with his work.
"So, whatcha doin the next Hogsmeade trip?" she asked whilst draping her arm over his book.
"Ohh, shame, I'm staying in the castle to, er, catch up on missed work, Lily's helping me" James lied, trying to prise her arm off his book.
"Ugh, yes, how can you hang out with that loser Lily?" Shanice groaned, trying to catch James' eye by hovering her head an inch away from his.
"Don't call her a loser!" This was an unexpected outburst, but Shanice just laughed about flicked her hair off her shoulder.
"Ohh, touchy!" She giggled "So, me, you, Saturday, three broomsticks?"
"No way!" James shoved her off the table.
"Playing hard to get are you?" Shanice giggled, running her finger over his shoulder. "As long as you know I won't wait forever!"
"Will you go away!" James shouted shoving her harshly out of the way to the floor and storming out of the library whilst Shanice sat in shock and everyone else in the library sat staring confused at what had just happened.
"James! When we said steer clear of Shanice we didn't mean shove her onto the floor then run off!" Sirius cornered James as soon as he met up with the marauders, Sasha, and Kara on the bank by the lake.
"Wow news travels fast here!"
"Never mind about that! We have a reputation to keep up, you can't just go round shoving girls around!" This kind of thing was the only thing Sirius really concentrated on, his reputation, and the gossip chain.
"God Sirius, the girl was smothering me, anyway, you pushed Kara out the tree that once!" He argued.
"I was seven, and she touched my hair!" Sirius shivered at the thought and sat down to get out his mirror and comb his hair.
"Well I think it's hilarious" Kara butted in from her shade under a willow tree. "She had it coming, and I absolutely loathe her, so what better excuse!"
"Hilarious!" Sirius said sarcastically, throwing grass right into Kara's hair.
"Oh right Black, that's pushing it!" Kara leapt at his, yanked the comb from his hand and threw it into the lake.
"OSMOND!" He screamed splashing through the water trying to find his comb "YOU'VE KILLED HIM! You crossed a line there Shaw" Sirius blubbed in a seriously hurt voice.
"You called your comb Osmond?" Sasha questioned, trying to refrain herself from bursting out laughing.
"It's Sirius' lucky comb Osmond, named after his favourite quidditch player, the beater Osmond Batterby. I bought it for him in first year because the handle looked like a beater's bat and it was his favourite colour" James explained.
"Yeah, and we all know how obsessed Sirius is with his hair, think of how terrible he'll look without his comb!" Kara taunted.
"Nice try Kara, but Sirius actually has a professional set of combs for different weathers, styles, and lengths." Remus shuddered at the long hours he spent while Sirius talked him through each individual comb, its name, and purpose before another sharp pain burnt down his spine, and as the sun set behind the glistening lake the faint outline of the full moon could be seen through the deep magenta clouds. That's when he remembered.
"Uh guys?" Remus murmured, nudging the Marauders and nodding at the moon.
"Oh God Moony!" Sirius' smile fell and a look of panic and shock replaced it.
"Um, guys we've got to go!" James babbled as he helped hauled Remus off the ground who was starting to twitch, and his pupils dilated to the size of grapes.
"Oh My God Remus, what's happening to you!" Sasha screamed as Remus growled at her.
"He's fine, seriously!" Peter insisted as Sirius and James where running with Remus towards the Whomping Willow.
What on earth just happened?" Kara whispered when they were out of site.
"I have no idea, let's go find out!" Sasha was up off the ground and running to the Whomping Willow, dragging Kara closely behind her.
Authors Note:
Now, I know I'm not involving Peter much at all. But I'm not going to lie, I absolutely hate him, it's just a shame he's essential to the entire story :-( He's just a slimy git and I really want to kill him off, but then Voldemort would never be killed and I'd hate him even more :-P , and I'll try to update by midnight tomorrow. Oh, and I've come up with a sign out phrase in dedication to the marauders themselves, so from me,
Mischief managed :-)