For the rest of the week, Lily's sleep was minimal – although it was starting to improve – and she had decided to take her protection one step further and was attempting to lessen her human contact as much as possible so that no one could be hurt because of their friendship with her. She started to go to breakfast early and leave before anyone else arrived, skip lunch, and only go to dinner for the last twenty minutes.
Her work, however, was amazing. She had finished reading all of their set books for that year and homework was done the night it was given. She practically lived in the library, only leaving when Madam Pince warned that they had half an hour to be back at their common rooms. James was nearly always still there – sometimes still a bit muddy from quidditch – and he smiled at her. It took everything in Lily not to run over to him, apologise and beg him to take her back, even though he was surrounded by his friends, but she knew that her plan for his safety had to succeed and so she walked straight past him, up the stairs to bed, pretending not to have seen him.
Lily managed to avoid most people by pretending to be asleep when everyone else came upstairs and she often heard them talking about her. "She's always asleep." "Do you think she's Ok?" and then she would be gone before any of them woke up the next morning. Even in lessons she had become more subdued, saying nothing more than 'hello' to Remus in potions lesson and trying her best to ignore the rest of the marauders when they attempted to speak to her at any other time – replying with only a simple nod.
Lily awoke early one Saturday morning, only to realise that everyone else was waking up too and all seemed very excited.
"What's going on?" She asked, half asleep and mid-yawn, the four girls laughed at her sleepiness.
"Thought you might not wake up in time!" Stephanie told her, brushing her long dark hair on the edge of her bed. "It's quidditch! First match of the season."
"Potter's captain and, from what I've heard, he's picked a great team!" Louise reminded her. "I think we're going to win the cup again this year."
"Great." Lily said, trying to play off her sarcasm as tiredness. The truth was that she didn't care all that much about Quidditch and she wanted to see James even less. "But I think I need to catch up on some work today." The girls shared a look. "What?"
"You're always working, Lil. Come and have some fun with us for a change." Stephanie told her. Lily sighed but nodded and got up to dress.
Fifteen minutes later the five girls appeared downstairs in the Great Hall for a quick breakfast before the excitement got too much and they went down for the first quidditch match of the season. It was clear from the look at the great hall that this was true of many people as the majority appeared to have already left and those who remained had donned scarves and cloaks – to protect from the October chills – that showed support for their respective teams. The Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs seemed just as excited as everyone else, after all it was a favourite sport of the Wizarding World, and whilst they didn't have a team in this game they would still enjoy it just as much as the houses competing.
Lily and her friends got to the stadium about ten minutes before the start of the match and the pitch was already packed with people waiting and chatting loudly to one another. There were so many people, in fact, that the girls had to fight to get into one of the observation towers and then even more to get to the front – which Lily was not bothered about but she was the only one of the group who wasn't.
Finally, the teams walked out onto the pitch where the captains shook hands. Lily knew that James was captain for Gryffindor but couldn't quite make out who was Slytherin's. Then the two teams were in the air as the whistle blew and the game started.
"Potter takes the quaffle without a moment's hesitation." The commentator began. "Passes to Smith. Intercepted by Winston who passes to Lindsey, who shoots but is caught by the Gryffindor keeper McConoughly. He passes it to Smith who passes it to Potter who shoots and scores!" The last part of her voice was blocked out by the sounds of cheering from the scarlet and gold clad Gryffindors and boos and hisses from the emerald and silver Slytherins.
After three more goals from the Gryffindors (two of which were by James) and two by the Slytherin chasers, the snitch was caught by the Gryffindor chaser and the crowd erupted into cheers around Lily. But her eyes were kept just behind the celebrating captain who was celebrating his win by flying with one hand in the air. Unbeknown to him, one of the Slytherin beaters – Lily couldn't quite make out who – had just hit a bludger towards James.
It happened in slow motion as Lily's eyes widened and mouth opened to shout but she was stunned into silence. The ball flew through the air and landed hitting the back of James' skull. His eyes flew upwards and his hands slackened on his broom before he slid of and thudded to the floor. There was a loud gasp from the crowd.
Before Lily even knew what she was doing she was gone. She ran down the steps towards the pitch where she had to push past a few teachers – she didn't even notice who they were – until she was next to James who had somehow managed to land on his back on the grass. Lily clasped his hand and his eyelids fluttered so that they were opened slightly and before they shut once more Lily could have sworn that he had smiled.
"Out the way please, Miss Evans." Professor McGonagall told her and she complied. She watched as he was levitated onto a stretcher and taken up towards the castle. Lily followed, not caring that she had just made a spectacle of herself in front of the whole school. She was soon joined by Peter, Remus, and Sirius - who put an arm around her shoulder as they walked in silence up towards the hospital wing.
"Only two visitors at a time please!" Madam Pomfrey called as James was hurried inside. The four people stayed outside the door for a moment but after the three boys seemingly communicated using only glances, Remus and Peter looked at each other and moved away.
"Give him our best!" Remus called behind them as they walked down the stairs again.
"How long have you known." She sniffled and Sirius laughed.
"I've known that you two were together since about a second after it happened. And I knew you liked him since before you knew. Before you ask," He continued as Lily made a noise as if to start to speak. "James didn't tell us, we just knew. He was happier than he has been for a while now. And we noticed him become more miserable – even if he pretends not to be. Come on, let's go and see if the idiot has come round yet." Sirius took Lily by the hand and the two of them walked inside and to the bed where James lay where they sat together beside him.
"So why did you break up?" He asked. "Clearly it was nothing to do with your feelings for him, and I'm fairly sure that his haven't changed."
"It had everything to do with my feelings." Lily mumbled but she didn't have to explain as James happened to groan as he came around at this very point. "James, how are you?" She grabbed onto his hand and he smiled.
"I thought I must have been hallucinating on the pitch, what happened to what you said two weeks ago?"
"I don't know. I saw you fall on the quidditch pitch and it all just kind of happened. I don't want to pretend that my feelings don't exist anymore. But for all of the reasons I explained, I totally understand if you don't-"
"Lily." James squeezed her hand. "I still don't care. I want you and I don't care about anything else."
Lily leant over the bed and kissed him, it was light at first but then the feelings the pair had subdued for a fortnight resurfaced and it became much more than that. After a couple of moments, Sirius cleared his throat and the couple fell apart; still holding one another's hands.
"As beautiful and romantic as this all is, can I just remind you that I am here to make sure my best friend is ok, and it's hard to do that when his face is blocked by a mass of red hair." His tone suggested a small amount of genuine annoyance but this was overshadowed by his jokey nature and the fact that he was, after all, happy to see these two together at last.
"Sorry." James and Lily mumbled but with grins still plastered on their faces.
"How's your head?" Lily asked him, trying to change the subject a bit.
"Sore. Feels like someone hit a ball at it." He laughed, rubbing it slightly and wincing.
After several minutes of chatting Sirius decided that it was time to go so that Peter and Remus could come in and say hello. Lily gave James another, much shorter, kiss and left with him. They met the boys on the staircase that led down to the seventh floor and told them they could go in, to which they nodded and hurried off. Sirius and Lily arrived back in the common room that was in the midst of a celebration of the winning of the first match. The party, however, stopped when they entered and the house crowded around Sirius and Lily to find out how James was doing.
"He's fine, Madam Pomfrey says he can come out tomorrow morning." Lily felt like she had said this at least a hundred times and excused herself to go to bed. She slept with the biggest smile on her face and she did it better than she had done in weeks.
Although Lily woke early for a Sunday the next day, she didn't feel half as tired as she had during the week. She hummed to herself as she dressed and washed ready for the day and then wandered upstairs to meet James – as she had promised she would do the previous night. He was released on time and simply told to 'take it easy' for a few days as his injury was not too serious. He told Lily this almost as soon as he came out of the hospital wing – before she even managed to ask how he was. James then took Lily's hand and led her upstairs towards the astronomy tower which was deserted.
James looked at her. He looked at her curiously and slowly reached out for her hand, which she took willingly. It was clear that he was trying to gauge her feelings for him – i.e. whether or not she regretted yesterday. Lily could tell that something was wrong and also knew that, whilst it was going on inside his head, it had nothing to do with his injury.
"What's wrong?" She asked, stopping in the alcove where they had sat together only a few short weeks ago when Remus was in the hospital.
"It's just strange. Are you sure you want this? You seemed dead set against it a couple of weeks ago, and as noble as you might have said your reasons were, it makes me wonder if they were reasons or excuses."
"James." Lily started, she could see the pain in his face and realised that his feelings really must be strong for him to be affected like this. This hadn't been her intention, she had never meant for him to get hurt, but rather, she aimed to protect him. "I promise that I was only trying to protect you. It broke my heart. But, as long as you are willing to accept the dangers that may occur because of being with me, I swear that this is what I want." Lily placed her hand over James' heart. She could feel the warmth of his skin through his shirt.
James took her hand off of his chest and kissed every one of her fingers before wrapping her arm around his waist and pulling her closer in. Lily could feel his breath on her face and could hear the mingled sounds of both of their breaths and hearts – which were beating profusely.
"I want you, Lily." James whispered so that only she would be able to hear him. He kissed her fiercely, as if to let her know that he would never willingly let her go. Lily moved her hands up to his neck; to his hair as she pulled him closer in, as if to reply and let him know that she never wanted him to leave her.
"Love comes with dangers – no matter who it is – and I am glad that our danger is one we can face together. One we would both face anyway." He told her as they broke apart.
"Come here James." Lily said trying to rub off some of the lip-gloss that had ended up smeared around his lips but he moved away.
"No, you're not getting rid of my evidence." He told her and grabbed her hand to led her back towards the common room. Lily laughed and grabbed hold of his hand with both of hers as they walked back.
It was no surprise to anyone in the common room – as the majority had seen Lily's display of affection at the match yesterday and those who hadn't had almost certainly heard about it – that Lily and James came in together, holding hands. When they entered, Lily noticed James beginning a slight swagger with the eyes of most of Gryffindor house (who were inside due to the cold rain outside) as they walked towards his friends by the window of the left side of the tower. Without a word, he sat himself down on one of the armchairs and pulled Lily down so that she was sat on his knee. She rolled her eyes but was secretly smiling as James put his arms around her to stop her falling off – and so that he could embrace her again – and simply stared at his friends who simply laughed slightly.
"So you've claimed James for your own then?" Sirius stated, with mock annoyance in his voice.
"You know it." James said not even allowing Lily to answer. Instead, she simply laughed and leaned back against him. She was finally comfortable and happy so the sleep she had ignored for weeks came back all at once and she fell asleep on James' shoulder.
Yay. New chapter. Hope you all enjoyed it, please review – I love reading them! And I'll see you all next time (hopefully not as long a wait) - Chescaannie xx