Authors note:

Oh my goodness I should really be watching Wimbledon final but I need to get this done, oh and GO MURRAY! Now I really better get on with this.

Lily was lounging on a couch by the fire in the common room, busily revising for the upcoming OWL's, when the door slammed open and a panicking James came charging through and up the stairs to him dorm, then all she heard was the slamming and locking of a door.

Hot on his heels was Remus and Sirius

"JAMES, COME BACK!" Sirius yelled, panting between words.

"Mate, it's ok we're here for you!" Remus was calling, and then they disappeared up the stairs.

A couple of minutes after that Peter fell through the door bright red and panting, barely able to say anything "Where… is…. James?" he gasped at Lily, and she just gestured up the stairs and peter lolloped after them.

After half an hour of banging on the door the worn out Sirius, Remus, and Peter came back down the stairs looking disheveled.

"Is someone going to tell me what's happened?" Lily questioned them, worriedly looking up at the staircase.

"It's not our place to say Lily" Is all Sirius said, and Lily knew that wasn't the time to ask more as it was the first time Sirius had called her Lily since they became friends.

"I'm going to see what I can do" Lily announced whilst putting her books down on the table and standing up heroically.

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure at this point you're the one person James is not going to want to see at the moment." Sirius remarked, but this just made Lily more determined to find out what was wrong, so she climbed the stairs and stood silently outside the door for a while. All she could hear were quiet sobs.

"James?" She whispered "It's Lily, please let me in" she pleaded. Nothing. "Look, James, I am so sorry for what I've done, please let me make it up to you" There was a click from the door. Lily pushed it open tentatively and slowly entered the room, locking the door behind her. After unlocking the door James leapt under the covers of him bed and curled up into a ball.

"Oh gosh, James, tell me what happened!" Lily approached him bed and knelt down next to the bed. Nothing. "Please" She said simply. After getting no response again Lily took her chances and carefully pulled back the duvet to reveal James lying in a tight ball, his hair a ruffled mess, and his glasses carelessly thrown away, a crumpled note clutched firmly in his hands.

"Oh James" Lily said softly, holding the tensed fist of his hands. "Let me help" and slowly but surely James released the note in his hand and pressed in into Lily's and she sat in silence as she read it. As she read James painfully dragged himself up and sat on the side of the bed, quickly brushing the signs of the tears away from his eyes.

"So?" He muttered. Knowing what it was like to be in his position after what happened to her dad Lily knew she had to be the strong one for James.

"So, what's going to happen is you're going to get up tomorrow morning, put on your best clothes, and go and see your mom, she needs you to be strong James."

"But how?" James sobbed.

"You let your friends help." And those were the last words spoken as Lily got up, sat next to James, and just hugged him.

"What can you hear?" Sirius whispered as the remaining three Marauders crouched outside the dormitory door trying to hear what James and Lily were saying,

"They're not saying anything!" Remus snapped "What's going on?"

"Maybe they've murdered each other?" Peter suggested.

"Oh shut up Peter" Sirius muttered, pressing his ear against the door. At that same moment the door clicked and swung open to reveal James and Lily stood there looking down on them, Sirius collapsed in on the dorm and face planted the floor.

"Oh hey guys, fancy seeing you here!" Sirius babbled as he quickly leapt up off the floor "We were just, er, checking for … stray frogs"

"Stray frogs?" Lily questioned.

"Yes."

"Well as long as you know that we know you're lying and you were actually trying to listen in on our conversation, then Ok, you were looking for stray frogs" Lily stated "Now I think you four have a lot to talk about, considering James will be allowed to take one person to the hospital with him" And with that she went to go back down the stairs.

"Wait" James quickly said, grabbing Lily's wrist "Lily, I want you to come with me"

"Me?" Lily was utterly shocked "You don't want one of your close friends?"

"Please" James couldn't bare going with any of the Marauders, they'd all cry just as much as he would, he needed Lily because of how strong she always was.

"Uh, yeah, sure, OK," Lily babbled, then flew down the stairs.

James was stood at the entrance to Hogsmeade where the wizard would need to apparate to meet him, waiting for Lily, tensely wringing his hands.

"Why on earth did I ask her to come?" He asked himself "She's not going to show up because she hates me" he just stood there, waiting to meet the wizard escorting him to the hospital planning an excuse as to why he's alone. Just as he was thinking this the clock struck ten and a made dressed in deep blue robes suddenly apparated in front of him.

"Are you James Potter?" He spoke sternly looking him straight in the eye.

"Yes," He muttered "Although I'd rather be someone else right now to be honest with you"

"Shouldn't you have someone with you?" He questioned

"Well yeah, but they can't make it" He excused, quickly glancing back toward the school, no sign of Lily. He couldn't believe she'd blown him off like that.

"Ok then, my name's Horvan Feedliser, head of the Auror office.

"I know Horvan, sir, you were there when my dad retired. He passed the title onto you"

"You can't be certain who you're talking to at the moment, now we need to be quick, take my hand and I'll tell you everything when we get there" He quickly said, looking around tentatively. He grabbed James' hand and was about to apparate when there was a shouting from behind them.

"WAIT!" Lily yelled whilst charging through up the path.

"Lily, where were you!" James gasped as he ran towards her.

"I don't know, I went down to the Great Hall to get a drink, and next thing I know it's an hour later and I'm just waking up with my head flat on the table" She gabbled.

"We really have to go" Horvan growled, checking his watch, and with that they apparated away. In under a second they were stood in a massive white entrance with a desk marked 'inquiries' in the center. Horvan quickly ran up to the desk and told her who they are. At just the mention of James' name the witch nodded and they were off up a flight of stairs to the fourth floor.

Lily clutched James' hand as they walked through the door.

"You can do it" She whispered in his ear.

The walk from the door to his mother's bed was excruciatingly long and was done in complete silence. James' mother was lying either asleep or unconscious in her bed, and on seeing her James just ran to her side and dropped down next to her, clutching her hand.

"Mum?" He whispered.

"I'm sorry but she's been unconscious since after we examined her" the ward's healer told him as she walked past looking pitiful.

Horvan stepped next to him "We need to discuss what happened with your mother" He said sternly, pulling James out of hearing range from Lily.

Not knowing what to do Lily just stood awkwardly next to James' mum

"What do you mean you couldn't do anything?" She heard James shouting. "You promised that our family wouldn't be at risk!"

"James you know we never promised anything about your family's safety" Horvan argued, raising his voice, now Lily could hear him. "When your father became an Auror the risk was always there, it was his risk"

"HIS RISK? You put him in a position where you know they will be constantly after them, and yet you did nothing to try and protect him and his family after he retired!" On hearing the word retired Lily turned to look at James' mum's face and, completely unexpected by her, discovered that James actually had quite old parents.

"No-one could have predicted this attack…"

"It shouldn't matter if anyone predicted it or not, the fact of the matter is that my mother is currently lying in hospital seriously injured after an attack by them and all you can say is 'there's nothing we could have done'!" with that James stormed back to the bed and resumed his position by his mum clutching her hand. Feeling like she was disturbing a moment Lily escaped the ward and went up to the top floor café to get a coffee.

James sat staring at his mother's face, trying to hold in his imminent tears. Lily came creeping through the ward door, but held back when she saw James talking to his mother.

"Mum, if you can hear me" he whispered "please don't leave me. You've always been there for me through the good and the bad. Through all of those times when I just couldn't stand up you were there to pick me up" a single tear rolled down his face "You of all people know that I need picking up a lot, and this is one of those times, mum" He sobbed "Please, just come back to me"

"James" Lily started.

"I just need her Lils" he cried.

"I know, it'll be all right" Lily walked up to him, picked him up off the floor and hugged him "She'll come back"

"I'm sorry but visiting times are over" a stern looking healer told them as she broke apart their hug "I'm going to have to ask you to leave the patient to rest"

"Are you going to ask my own son to leave me in my time of need" a weak voice spoke out from behind them.

"Mum!" James exclaimed and ran over to hug her. "Tell me what happened" He asked over her shoulder as they hugged.

"Sorry James but I don't remember a thing, just being out at The Leaky Cauldron' then I was out cold" James could tell his mother was genuinely upset for not being able to tell him anything.

"It's Ok, mum, you just need to rest and get better" He smiled at her, then tucked her back into bed then kissed her on the cheek "I love you mum"

"I love you to James" she smiled then fell asleep again.

This was a side to James that Lily had never seen before – a side that genuinely cared for the people that he loved. Lily couldn't help but stand there smiling until James turned around then lead her back out of the hospital ward.

"Thank you for being there Lils, it means a lot" James gave her a genuinely thankful smile, as opposed to the normal cocky 'fall in love with me' usual Marauder grin he had.

After a few more annoyed words with Horvan they apparated back to Hogsmeade where they said goodbye and began to walk back up to the castle.

"I'm glad your mum's Ok James" Lily tried to break the awkward silence.

"I am too, but now I know she's all right I've looked back on everything that's happened and it doesn't make any sense." James wondered.

"What do you mean?" Lily was confused.

"Lils, as much as you want to convince yourself otherwise people don't just randomly fall asleep in the middle of the Great Hall during breakfast, then not have a clue what happened when they wake up unless something, you know, happened" James tried to put it carefully.

"Nothing happened…" From the look James was giving her she knew she wasn't fooling him and she cracked "Ok then, I wasn't going to tell you because I knew you'd flip, but I got, err, side tracked by Severus."

There was just silence as James thought about how to react to this.

"What do you mean by 'side tracked' Lils" he was starting to worry.

"He knew about your mother and he was telling me that…" Lily began to explain.

"What do you mean he knew?" James panicked.

"Well someone must have told him"

"No, I only told you, Sirius, Peter, and Remus, he must have found out another way"

"You're not suggesting that it was Severus that did this James?" Lily was shocked at this accusation.

"Of course I'm not, but can't you see he's clearly on their side Lils?" James pleaded "How else could he have known if he wasn't on the side that was plotting it? He's even in Slytherin for goodness sake"

"You always find a way to turn things against people don't you James? You've never liked Severus just because of where he was put"

"No Lily, I don't like Severus because he's a prick" It was supposed to be a joke but by the look he got it clearly wasn't taken that way.

"Unbelievable" Was the only thing Lily said before she stormed off.

'It must have been a coincidence' Lily thought to herself after she ran into Severus when she got back to the castle.

"Lily." He muttered as they passed each other.

Tired of the awkwardness between the two of them since they arrived at Hogwarts, and also because of what James had just said Lily turned around and said "Severus?" and he stopped dead in his tracks.

"Yes?" He replied eagerly, yet still maintaining his composure.

"How about we do lunch later?" Lily suggested. Shocked by this niceness from Lily Severus muttered an agreement and ran off.

"What on earth is Lily doing?" Sirius asked the group as they sat staring at Lily and Severus at the next table along. The Slytherin table.

"Maybe he's got her under a charm?" Kara suggested.

"Or she's mental" Remus pitched in.

"She could have caught something from the hospital?" Sasha commented as she tried to listen in on what they were saying.

"Or maybe some idiot decided that by telling Lily how much of a Prick he thought Severus was it was going to make her like him instead of push her away." James muttered from his sandwich.

"James, I'm not even going to ask. But what I do suggest is that we go over there and figure this out" Sirius decided, jumping up from the bench and marching over to Lily and Severus pointing at the two of them.

"What's going on here?" He questioned.

"Oh for goodness sake Sirius stuff off back to the pons table and stop trying to act cool" Regulus yelled at him from the other side of the table.

"Regulus why don't you just keep your nose out of other people's business?" Sirius sneered. Lily had noticed that the only time that she saw Sirius like that was when he was around his family.

It was at this point that Severus butted in and said "Sirius I'm just talking to Lily, is that a crim…"

"Shut it Snivellus I was asking someone with a conscience" Sirius sneered.

"Sirius don't you dare talk to Severus like that" Lily defended him.

"But Lily, can't you see he's evil? Look at the people he surrounds himself with!" Sirius gestured vaguely at all of the dark wizards to be around them. Bellatrix Black stood up at this point.

"Oh cousin, why do you always have to embarrass our family like the other traitors?" She taunted, flicking his hair with the tip of her wand.

"Oh believe me it's our family that embarrasses us 'traitors'!" Sirius snapped at her.

"Really?" she laughed in his face "We'll see who the embarrassments end up being when we leave school, and you haven't got Hogwarts to protect you! Aint that right Severus?"

"Severus what does she mean?" Lily looked up at him with her big, questioning eyes.

"Lily, I…"

"Oh for goodness sake Snapey, what he's trying to say, my little innocent Lily, is that the only reason you aren't in a hospital bed right now alongside the blood traitor is the robes you wear on your back." And with that she signaled everyone to leave and they flounced off, leaving Sirius, Severus, and Lily.

"Lily, I swear…" Severus began to plead.

"James was right!" Lily realized "You really are one of them, aren't you Severus?"

"I really never meant for it to happen Lily, please believe me when I say I was helpless!" Sirius begged.

"Severus, I have just watched what 'they' can do, and I can't just take 'I was helpless' as an excuse for joining them. Sorry Severus but I can't forgive you" and with that Lily dragged Sirius back to the table of open mouthed Marauders and girls. Everyone was too busy trying to make sense out of what had just happened to see Severus running out of the Great Hall in tears.

Authors note:

Oh I just love Severus' story, I can't even put into words how much I cried when he died in the book – HE LOVED LILY, I hate how I can't get them together. Hey speaking of what happens in the future, I don't mean to sound completely dull but if Harry has his mother's eyes, why does he need his dad's glasses? If you know please tell me because it's annoying me.

Can I just say how much you reading this means to me :-) THANK YOU! Hey, you know what would be even better? Comments, comments are always fun :D Now it's midnight and I have to be up early, so:

Mischief Managed.