Guilty Love – by xxNEESHxx
Lily hates James. She always has, and she always will. But what happens when James is seriously sick and it's Lily's fault?
This chapter is dedicated to PadfootRulezz00 and Insomniaticluvah
for being my first reviewers, I love u guys!
PadfootRulezz00, you will find out what room it was in this chappy, I just didn't want to say before cos not many of the other students know about it. they wanted to keep it a secret XD
Guilty love
Chapter 2 – seeking for the seeker
Recap
Lupin frowned, than brightened, and said suddenly
"Maybe he's in the room!" Sirius and Peter jumped up and followed him as they ran out of the room, Sirius holding onto the map as though his life depended on it.
"The onlookers turned to each other in puzzlement.
"What room?" they asked.
End Recap
The Marauders (minus one) raced down the hallways to the Room of Requirement, dodging the few students that were already awake. They only slowed once they reached the third floor. They walked past three times, and then ran into the room through the door that had appeared in the wall.
They looked around eagerly... and found no sign of James. Sirius gave a strangled cry and kicked the wall viciously.
"Dammit!" he yelled.
"Over here Padfoot," Lupin called. Sirius spun round to see Lupin holding the invisibility cloak. "He must have come here and left." Sirius's face turned red, and Lupin quickly added "So now we'll be able to see where he is on the map."
They crowded round for the second time that morning and looked for the spot labelled James Potter. This time they found it, by the lake, and ran off.
They sped through the corridors again, having to dodge around more people this time, and sprinted out of the doors to the lake, where they again found nothing. They looked again, and went to Hagrid's hut, but only found Hagrid's new puppy, Fang there. Sirius growled with frustration, and whipped the map out of Peter's hand. Lupin took it gently and gave it back to Peter.
"Sirius," he said calmly, "You need to eat, we all do, so let's go down to the Great Hall and have breakfast, and then we can start looking again." Looking at Sirius's thunderous face he quickly added "And maybe someone will have seen Prongs!" This cleared away the anger, and Sirius grabbed his friends' arms, dragging them to the Great Hall.
When they arrived, Peter and Lupin deftly steered Sirius away from a subdued Lily, keeping him at the end of the Gryffindor table. Sirius scanned the room, then cleared a space on the table and jumped onto it. He cleared his throat loudly and shouted
"CAN I HAVE EVERYONE'S ATTENTION PLEASE?!" The babble of the students turned to silence as they looked at Sirius. A scandalized Professor Winsor hissed at him to get down, but he ignored the shy Astronomy teacher.
"IF ANYONE HAS ANY INFORMATION ABOUT THE WHEREABOUTS OF JAMES POTTER (see Moony, I do know long words!) PLEASE TELL ME, LUPIN OR PETER. THANK YOU!" He grinned and sat down again. "Now, we just wait for people to tell us where he's been."
Peter and Lupin smiled faintly, not sure it would work, but sure enough while they were sitting eating like pigs (or a werewolf, in Lupin's case) people kept appearing and telling them that they thought they'd seen James. Lupin whipped out a spare piece of parchment and a quill (receiving strange looks for having them with him even on a Saturday) and Sirius wrote down all the places they were told.
"Excuse me." The boys looked up to see their Headmaster standing over them, a very serious look on his face.
"Professor Dumbledore!" Peter, jumping to the wrong conclusion, began babbling about how Sirius was just worried about his friend and wouldn't climb on the tables again! Dumbledore cut him off abruptly.
"Is it true?" the boys looked confused "Is Mr Potter missing?" They nodded glumly, looking down at their plates. "Why haven't you told a teacher?" The three looked at each other, and Lupin spoke up.
"We don't think he'll be gone for too long, we're just worried about him because he's upset, but we thought there wouldn't be much point asking for help, he's only been gone and hour or so." The headmaster didn't look convinced, so Lupin added, "If we haven't found him by the evening meal, we will gladly accept your help sir. We don't want him out there for long either sir, it's cold, and he didn't take a cloak." Dumbledore nodded, and strode away to his place at the teacher's table.
The food disappeared, the sign that dinner was over, and Peter spread the map out before them. They searched again, and raced off , only to find, again, that he was not there. The whole morning was spent like this, and when they dejectedly came to lunch, they were watched with sympathetic eyes; by now most of the school knew about James's disappearance, although only the Gryffindors knew the reason.
The group left early, unable to bear the eyes on them, and went to resume their search. This time, they kept the map open as they walked, and when they saw James's dot moving, they changed direction. They followed the map to the edge of the Forbidden Forest, and halted, not sure about entering it. They had no qualms about going there when they were on their monthly explorations, but as humans? But then they saw James's dot stop moving, and realised that he was settling there.
They walked quickly but quietly through the forest, guided by the magical map. When they got to the clearing, they hid themselves, and peered out at their friend.
It was a pitiful sight. James was sitting against a tree, staring at the ground, shivering, tears streaming from his eyes. His whole attitude was one of broken defeat. Even his hair conveyed the same feeling of despair, hanging limply over his face, soaked and dripping from the rain the Marauders hadn't even noticed. As if on cue, another shower began, and James raised his head, looking at the heavens. He sighed, and took out his wand with a hand that shook. Pointing it at a pile of dead leaves, he muttered incino! Nothing happened. He gave a cry of despair and tried again, twice more, before he gave up and put his wand back, and leaned his head against the tree again. He closed his eyes, and Sirius turned to Lupin with a pleading look. Lupin nodded, and they crept forwards to sit at their friend's side.
James didn't open his eyes, and they looked at each other in puzzlement.
"Prongs?" Sirius asked. No reply. He frowned and shook James, who collapsed. "Prongs!"
Lupin pressed his hand against his friend's forehead and pulled it away sharply.
"He's burning up, he must have a fever," he muttered "Padfoot! Pick him up, lets go! Come on, we need to take him to Madame Pomfrey!" He elbowed Sirius, who picked up his friend bridal style and began running. Peter and Lupin followed is, all three going as fast as they could and shooting anxious glances at their unconscious friend.
There you go then, chapter 2. please enjoy, again, lots of love to u all. if u review, il send u hugs and the first 2 reviewers get the next chapter dedicated to them !
Goodbye, from the ever great (and oh so humble) xxNEESHxx