"Potter" she called.

James turned automatically at the sound of his name, but on registering who it was he quickly spun around again and continued down the hallway trying to ignore her completely. He really didn't want to get into it with her right now. It had been weeks since 'the incident,' but he was still so angry that he was likely to make a scene and expose them, which was the last thing either of them wanted.

"Potter, stop!" she called as he picked up his pace.

"For fuck's sake," he heard her mumble and he had to fight a smile.

"James," she persisted, hoping the use of his Christian name would get some reaction. "Look I'm sorry, alright? Don't be juvenile, you have to at least listen to me, this is getting ridiculous!"

Realising she wasn't going to leave him alone, and silently agreeing that the situation was becoming absurd, he decided she was right and that it was better to just get this confrontation over with. So he finally gave in and turned around, fixing his face into a look of complete indifference as he watched her hurry towards him.

When she finally caught up to him she jumped straight in before he decided to march off again, "I'm sorry, what I said was totally uncalled for, and unnecessarily cruel. It's just that things between us had gone so far, and we both seemed to be getting way too attached, and the only way I could see that would put an end to it before we both regretted it was to be harsh." she said quietly so as not be overheard before continuing in her normal voice, "I still want to try and be friends, these last few weeks have been awful with you avoiding me like the plague, and the tension is making it impossible to work together. Can't we just put all of this behind us?"

In reply he said scathingly "I'm not sure I want a friendship with you, I'm not even sure you know the meaning of the word." But he sighed and added, "You're right though it's becoming impossible to even be in the same room together, let alone fulfil our duties. So … fine, I agree to be civil."

When she started to smile at him he quickly added, "But I think it would be better if we stopped trying to be friends and continued to keep a distance between us. With us there never has been and never will be a middle ground, it's always one extreme or another." He looked earnestly into her face trying to get his point across and said: "We will never manage to have a normal platonic relationship, no matter how much we want it."

"Oh okay, I gue- guess you're right." She said quietly as she shifted her gaze so that she was staring intently at the floor.

He watched her and for a brief moment he had an all consuming and irrational need to make her smile again, but instead of acting on his impulses he said, "Have a nice time in Hogsmead… Evans." Before he turned and walked away towards the spot where his friends and Kim were standing, watching them with poorly concealed interest.

"I'll see you at five in the Three Broomsticks so we can escort the last students back," she called after him weakly.

Hearing the mild distress in her voice, but forcing himself not to care he just continued to walk away from her grunting in response.

--

At ten past five James absentmindedly checked the clock. Okay it was official, she was late.

He glared down into his half full mug, annoyed that she had the nerve to leave him waiting especially after all the times she had admonished him for his lack of punctuality.

"Prongs… James… Jamesie… Jim-Jam… Jamesie-poo… Potter!… Pot-Pot?…" tried an increasingly annoyed Sirius before he finally lost the plot and cried out frustrated. "Argh, what is going on with you? You have been distant and brooding for weeks!"

Instead of answering the question James posed his own, "Have you ever liked someone so much that it's like your skin is on fire just when their in the room and all you ever want to do is kiss them, and talk to them and just be near them, no matter what they have done or what they say?"

Sirius sat there with his mouth open for a moment before saying in an awed voice "Man, you've got it bad."

"Have you told Kim yet?" enquired Remus politely with a small smile.

"Told Kim what?" James asked sharply.

"That you… love her?" said Sirius slowly. "Who else would we be talking about?" he asked slightly surprised at James response.

James surprised his friend even further when he started to laugh in fact he laughed so hysterically that some third years on the table next to theirs in the Three Broomsticks got up from their seats and moved away in fear. Under normal circumstances anything that caused a Marauder to laugh like that did not bode well for the rest of the population especially those in the close vicinity.

"In love with…. Whatever gave you that insane idea?"

"Well you just said …. And well she is your girlfriend… at least I thought she was… and you told me you'd already… what were we supposed to think?" demanded a confused Sirius.

That stopped James's laughter cold, "I was talking hypothetically," he said quickly. "I wasn't talking about Kim," James said quietly.

"Okay" said Sirius looking at James suspiciously before turning to look at Remus with raised eyebrows. Remus just shrugged deciding to leave it alone. Sirius, however, couldn't he knew James better that anyone and he knew he was hiding something, but as he took in the picture of James staring intently at his drink he could not for the life of him figure out what it was. If he didn't know any better he could have sworn…

BANG!

"What was that?" asked Sirius alarmed as he spilled Butterbeer down his front completely forgetting about his previous train of thought.

When he received no answer he looked up from trying to dab at the wet patch on his shirt to see James and Remus staring out the window of the pub.

"Is that a fire?!" He asked frantically.

But whatever James and Remus were going to say was cut short when the screaming started.

They stood up as one, "Fuck!"

"We've got to get back to the castle!" squeaked Peter.

"NO!" commanded James, "we have to help… what about all the younger students? I'm Head Boy I can't just leave!"

Head Boy.

His heart stopped and he went cold

Where was Lily?

"LILY!"

"Did he say Lily?" questioned a stunned Sirius.

"Erm… I think so?" replied Remus sounding as though he didn't quite believe his own answer.

Before Sirius had any real time to contemplate this James had started running pell mell out of the pub.

Remus and Sirius looked at each other in shock before swiftly following him out with Peter lagging behind.

They watched completely confused as he ran down the street knocking people out of the way not even noticing when he passed Kim. They only had a moment to consider this before they saw a spell fire near some trapped forth years and ran to help.

--

The street was full of smoke, spell fire and Death Eaters. Many of the villagers and some of the braver and more talented older students were retuning fire. He could not see Lily or anyone else in the crowd, and he felt an iron band of pressure settle around his heart.

The crowd parted for a moment and James was just in time to see Lily by herself as she spun and shot an extremely powerful spell at a robed figure. He was momentarily shocked at the skill she was displaying, but he didn't have much time to appreciate her talent because just as she took down one, another two came up behind her ready to attack. No matter who she was, or how powerful, she would never be able to see them and protect herself in time, and so he shot the strongest spell he could aiming directly at one of the approaching Death Eaters.

But it wasn't enough because there was no way he could take them both down. The second Death Eater managed to hit her from behind, directly between her shoulder blades. She wavered on her feet, but amazingly she still managed to stay up right and erect a shield charm. It might have been enough, but unfortunately a third Death Eater had seen the fight and clearly outraged that a student was besting his comrades decided to involve himself. The Death Eater raised his wand ready to give the final blow.

"No!" was the only conscious thought James had before he started running towards her again his protective instincts kicking. When he was close enough James dove towards her knocking her to the floor, he needn't have bothered as she went down like a dead weight.

He had no idea what kind of damage the original spell might have done, but at least he had prevented further damage.

He felt a spell rush past his ear and saw a flash of green as the spell dissipated harmlessly into the ground. Shock and an intense feeling a sickness ran through his body… was that the…

Regaining his senses and a large, irrational, all consuming amount of anger he rolled off of her and shot a stunning spell so fast his hand looked like a blur, he momentarily saw the end of an unfamiliar wand pointing at his face before the spell hit its target and the imposing figure flew back a few feet with the force of the spell before falling to the ground with a thump.

Suddenly the sound of the Aurors arriving and Death Eaters leaving filled his ears and the tightness in his chest loosened, he stared unblinkingly at the clear blue sky before he took a deep steadying breath and sat up quickly turning towards Lily. He was just in time to see Jacob helping her up, seeing she was alright enough to stand, relief swept through him swiftly followed by jealousy.

--

"Lily are you ok?!" Jacob shouted, staring into her face. "Lily can you hear me? I don't know what you were thinking doing that, trying to protect those third years, you could have gotten hurt!"

"What am I saying you did get hurt look at you, you're bleeding!" he said as he reached out to touch the area where blood appeared to be spreading rapidly from somewhere on her back, but she flinched away. She didn't want anyone to touch her.

"I'm going to go find someone to look at you Lils," he said compassionately, "you need seeing to." with that he turned and hurried away.

Her eyes stared vacantly, until she felt the gentlest of touches on her arm she went to pull it out of that persons grasp, but when she saw it was James her eyes started to fill with tears.

He was inspecting every inch of her checking her for injuries, when he saw the blood he looked to her for permission, having received it in the form of a brief consenting nod, he didn't even hesitate before delicately pulling up her shirt enough to expose the wound pulling out his wand and healing it.

He really was talented, she thought distractedly.

His inspection finished his tortured eyes finally met her tear filled ones. As soon as he saw them he pulled her to him roughly securing his arms around her so tightly that normally she would have complained about lack of breath. Instead she wrapped her own delicate arms around his waist as a sob was wrenched from her throat

"I just couldn't stand by and do nothing… I just couldn't …oh Merlin! It was so stupid of me… I almost died… you almost died!" she choked out as her legs gave way, her body finally giving into the shock.

"It's okay," he whispered over and over again as he sank to the floor still embracing her. "You're alright, I'm alright. It was the right thing to do."

"I'm sorry about everything," she said as she continued to cry. "So, so, sorry I didn't mean it-"

"I know me too," he said in a choked voice.

"You were brilliant," he whispered into her hair, holding her as tight as he could, scared that if he let her go he would lose her.

Suddenly James felt himself being roughly pulled away. "I've got it Potter," Jacob said savagely.

James was about to step up to hit him, but unexpectedly he felt a restraining hand on his shoulder, when he turned to see who had interfered, he saw Sirius's accusing, yet worried face. Thinking he had been discovered and expecting to be shouted at, and punched even, he was surprised when Sirius hugged him roughly and said in a shaky voice: "Thank Merlin you're alright."

A few seconds later he pulled away to frown momentarily and then incline his head a little.

Looking in the direction of his nod James saw Remus comforting Kim.

James hesitated as he looked back to Lily only to see she was now being led away by Jacob and Emily. The decision made for him he turned and went to Kim.

--

A/N:

There you go to make up for the distinct lack of updates recently I humbly presented you with two lol.

My beta warned me that ppl might not like me too much if I waited to long to update after this one. So I will try my best to be swift. But as I have already warned my time is a bit strained at the mo. So if it takes a little while please forgive me, I'm hopeing to have it done if not by next weekend the weekend after.

Don't forget I always love to hear your favourite quotes to see if they match the Betas

Thank you to the beta cosmopolitan and to all those who reviewed

Justplainstupid, WhiteCamellia, Lady Knight Keladry, kiki08, Cymru01, Mrs.YoungRoseRamone, brianna24, IWantToMarryJames, KATExYOU