Hey,

Thank you to everyone who left me feedback over the past few months between updates. I did try and write but then job hunting, college work and general life things got in the way and I didn't have the time and energy to write a single word. I've given up all hope of regular writing this year, my last at college because at the moment I have 8 projects to finish by Christmas and not enough time to do them in. I had to give up doing NaNoWriMo because I simply do not have enough hours in the day. Please keep leaving me feedback though, because every bit of feedback left makes me feel guilty for leaving you guys hanging and means that when I get a few spare hours, I'm more likely to sit down and try and get a few thousand words written so that eventually I will be able to post the next chapter. I find guilt to be a brilliant motivated because I hate how it feels and will do anything to make sure that I can make the guilt go away.

Sorry this chapter isn't brilliant. I don't think James comes across as being angry enough, but I didn't want him to be melodramatically, unbelievably angry so I was stuck with what I'm posting here. I hope you enjoy it but if you have any suggestions on how I could improve it, please please please please let me know, leave me some feedback.

Hugs and stuff

Katie

Disclaimer: I do not own or have any rights to anything mentioned, described and included in any Harry Potter related book/movie or product. This is just my interpretation of how Lily and James got together. All rights reserved to J.K. Rowling.

Summary: After a confrontation with James after potions, Snape decides to seek his revenge in a way James will never expect against an old friend. Will James realize what he's up to in time to stop him before someone important gets hurt?

Innocent Victim

Chapter Nine: Long, Long Night

James' P.O.V.

Sirius popped his head through the gap in the curtain surrounding Lily's hospital bed, holding his hands up as if in surrender, showing that he was unarmed. "I come in peace! Don't hex me!" He called out to me as I by her bed, where I'd been ever since she'd been brought to the hospital wing soon after she'd collapsed in the main hall. Several times, Madame Pomfrey had tried to shoo me out, insisting that I was getting in her way and that I was better off going to afternoon lessons, that I could do no good sitting here and waiting. I'd just given her a look full of the contempt that I felt that deserves and remained sat down in my chair, wand laid across lap in easy reach and glared at anyone who came near.

I wasn't about to leave her anytime soon, knowing that someone in this school had poisoned her. You just don't expect this kind of thing to happen in a school. I felt guilty, we'd known that Snape had threatened her and we should have expected something like this to happen. We should have been ready for this!

I'd been holding her hand, gently rubbing small circles on the back of her cool hand. "Shut up, Sirius," I told him quietly, in a voice that told him not to mess with me at the moment. I didn't look up to meet his eyes, just saw him moving out of the corner of my eye, going to sit on the chair on the other side of her bed. "This isn't something to joke about," I reached out with my other hand to my wand and wrapped my fingers around the cool wood.

Sirius sighed, his expression forming into a frown as he walked towards the bedside. Sirius rarely ever frowns, he likes to try and find a joke or something good in every situation. I guess it comes from growing up in the stifling, controlling and highly prejudiced Black house, making him need to look forward and believe that life can only get better because if he spent all his time dwelling on the bad things he'd probably go crazy.

He stood awkwardly on the other side of the bed looking down at Lily. "I know, James," He reached out and stroked her cheek softly. Irrationally my gut clenched in a mixture of anger and jealousy at the gesture. I know he doesn't like her as anything more than a friend, if you can call bantering and teasing each other whenever the opportunity arises friendship. "Has she woken up at all?" He asked as he pulled his hand away.

I shook my head. "No, Pomfrey says that her body suffered huge trauma from the poison and that her body needs to rest in order to get better and the best way to do it is to let her sleep." I hadn't understood why when Madame Pomfrey had dealt with the poison and removed it from Lily's body, why she hadn't made Lily wake up so we could definitely see if Lily was okay. Then if Pomfrey was certain Lily was fine, they could give her a Dreamless Sleep Draught and then her body could get all the rest it needed. That way everyone would know she was fine and then she could rest, it would kill two birds with one stone.

Sirius wrinkled his nose in thought. "Well, Moony always says that apparently that natural sleep is better than a medicated one," He pointed out.

"And where did he find out that little gem of information?" I asked sarcastically.

Lily told me once about a muggle saying that when something like: talk of the Devil and the Devil shall appear. Well, when Lupin approached so quietly that I didn't even hear his footsteps on the stone floor, an ability I swear he gets from being a werewolf, and appeared by the bedside saying, "I believe it was Madame Pomfrey that told me that," it was little surprised I instinctively raised my wand and aimed it directly at his heart. This whole situation had put me on edge and I was reacting instinctively to protect Lily from any threats.

Just as Sirius had when he'd arrived, at the sight of my wand pointing straight at his heart, Moony raised his hands out of the pocket of his robes and held them up in the air to show he was unarmed. "Relax James," He glared at me. "We get your upset about what's happened but don't you think you're over reacting? Lily's fine and no one is going to hex her or poison her or hurt her in the Hospital Wing,"

That really got my back up. "Oh, really?" I raised my eyebrow sarcastically, working hard to keep my voice as calm as I possibly could, even as I lowered my wand. "Because no one ever gets hurts or poisoned here in Hogwarts, do they? And as part of Hogwarts, no one could possibly hurt anyone in the Hospital Wing," I snapped at him.

Remus rolled his eyes. "There are spells in place around this wing of the castle that stops hexes from working," He pointed out calmly.

"That's not going to stop someone poisoning her again!" The one person who I thought would understand how serious this was and yet he seemed to be acting like this was nothing. What the hell was wrong with Moony tonight? It wasn't like Lily had just snubbed her toe or twisted her ankle or some trivial injury like that.

He sighed. "I get your upset about this and I'm angry too that someone would do this to Lily, but do you really think Dumbledore is going to sit there and do nothing about this?" Moony pointed out to me. "He's up in his office questioning everyone who was near Lily at dinner. He's not going to let this rest,"

"Yeah, because whoever did it is going to own up and that they tried to poison another student." I said disgustedly. "The only people who were near Lily at lunch was myself, the people on either side of us who probably barely noticed we there and that weird Hufflepuff first year."

"Fitzgerald?" Moony questioned and I nodded. I didn't know the boys name or anything but if Moony, who prides himself in knowing everyone's name, says that the kid's name is Fitzgerald then I'll take his word for it. "He's a second year," He told me impatiently.

Sirius, who'd been quiet up until this point content to watch from the side as this happened, piped up at this moment. "And why exactly does that matter?"

Moony sighed. "It doesn't," He admitted. "But his best friend's brother is a fifth year Slytherin, one of those big louts who follow Snape and Mulciber around, hanging on to every word that comes out of their foul mouths. He's also not brilliant at magic and, as harsh as this sounds, he's easy to push around and easy to manipulate,"

Sirius snapped his fingers as if something had just occurred to him. "He's the one who is the child of a Squib!" He told me with a weird light in his eyes. "I overheard my father and his cronies getting all wound up about the thought of some Squib's kid coming to Hogwarts just before I ran away last year. I'm pretty sure they were talking about appealing to the Minister to ban him from being allowed to attend here."

"But he didn't have time to put poison into Lily's food," I pointed out. They were barking up completely the wrong tree here. "He was showing her some silly muggle 'magic' tricks,"

Moony looked as though he was about to say something but then turned towards the direction of the doorway that led into the ward. We all waited in silence as footsteps and a muffled conversation headed filtered into the room. Sirius walked over to the curtain and stuck his head round as whoever it was entered the room.

He turned back to face us. "It's Dumbledore and Lily's parents," He whispered. "Guess your going to be kicked out now, James."

I frowned. I didn't want to leave Lily, not even for her parents but I doubt Dumbledore would let me. Madame Pomfrey might not have been able to get me to leave but you can't exactly turn around and tell the greatest wizard whose ever lived no, especially when he's the headmaster of your school and he's managed to help you worm out of some pretty big scrapes and screw ups that you get yourselves into. Briefly, the thought of using a quick sticking charm to stick my butt to this chair crossed my mind, but then figured that if, miracle of miracles, one day I ever get the chance to ask Mr. Evans if I might marry his youngest daughter, the incident might come back to haunt me.

The footsteps approached the bed and I could hear the Dumbledore softly explaining to the Lily's parents about the treatment that Pomfrey was using in an attempt to reassure them. His wizened hand appeared through the gap in the curtain as he opened the curtain and stepped aside so Mrs. Evans and her husband could step through. They barely glanced at us as they hurried to the bedside. Well, Mrs. Evans barely noticed us. Lily's father, I noticed, glared at each one of us before he focused on his daughter, almost snatching her limp hand out mine.

"Ah, I see some of your daughter's housemates are here," Dumbledore said softly and Lily's mother looked up at us, brushing a strand of black hair out of her eyes as she did so, even as her father continued to ignore me. Looking at Lily's parents, I wondered where she had inherited her beautiful red hair and green eyes from because she resembled neither of her parents. "This is James Potter, this year's Head Boy who was with Lily at dinner, Sirius Black and Remus Lupin, who was Lily's patrol partner when she was a prefect,"

I nodded at her mother. "Nice to meet you, ma'am," I said politely, remembering all those lectures in manners that my own mother had given me in the past. It seemed like the politest greeting I could think of but even as I said it felt too trivial, like we'd just been introduced at a party or something. I wanted to say something else but couldn't quite think what to say so settled for tagging on, "I'm really sorry about what happened," to the end of the sentence. It still didn't feel right but it was the best that I could come up with and I was sorry, more sorry that they could ever know, because I'd known that Snape had threatened Lily and I'd known they'd do something sneaky and underhand but I never thought they'd do something like this.

She frowned for a moment as she at me, meeting my gaze as she seemed to assess my words. Meeting those dark eyes, I felt for a moment like she was looking deep inside me, seeing what I was like as a person and judging me for it. It seemed to go on for eternity but then she blinked and I managed to tear my gaze away from hers. She reached across and shook my hand, giving it a comforting squeeze. "Thank you, James," She said quietly, in a voice that sounded just like her daughters. "Madame Pomfrey said that you've been sat with her all day,"

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Dumbledore shooing Sirius and Moony through the corner and knew I would soon be asked to follow them. "I just didn't want her to wake up and be on her own," I admitted quietly. "And I needed to make sure that she really was okay. She's important to all of us Gryffindors,"

"Particularly to you, thought," Mrs. Evans gave me a wan smile as Mr Evans looked up angrily at her.

"Gwyneth, don't encourage him," He said quickly. "He's trouble,"

"Oh, Paul, he's just a boy yet," Gwyneth said calmly but firmly. "All boys are trouble when they're growing up. He's looking out for our little girl, you should be grateful!"

Mr Evans looked like he was about to argue with that which would have been awkward to have to watch. Thankfully, Dumbledore cleared his throat. "Perhaps it would be better if Mr. Potter went and reassured Lily's friends as to her condition," He said politely, diplomatically coming up with a way to avert any arguments.

I climbed awkwardly to my feet, "Sure," I agreed hastily, crossing over to the curtain. "I hope she gets better soon," I told her parents quickly before disappearing through the gap in the curtain, feeling like the biggest fool on the planet. I pride myself on always knowing what to say in any situation, but when I needed that ability the most it completely deserted me. Honestly, they must think I'm an idiot or something.

Padfoot and Moony were waiting for me by the doorway. "Merlin, that was awkward," Sirius chuckled nervously as we left the room. "It just reinforces how right I am to not meet Clarissa's parents just yet,"

Moony rolled his eyes. "You can't keep putting it off forever, Padfoot. One of these days, if you're serious about her, you'll just have to bite the bullet and go for it,"

It was then Sirius's turn to roll his eyes. "Whatever, Moony," He shrugged, refusing to be drawn on the subject. I don't think, despite how it appears to the outside world, that Padfoot is all that serious about Clarissa and I don't think she'd madly in love with him either. Both of them are quite independent people, but even the most independent people need someone to hold onto when life gets hard, that coupled with hormones, I don't think either expect the relationship to last once we leave school. "So, this Fitzgerald kid, he just came over and started pulling these muggle tricks?" He switched subjects, reverting back to the previous conversation that the arrival of Lily's parents had interupted, his voice firm. Any discussion on his relationship with Clarissa was strictly out of bounds to the rest of us.

"Yeah," I shrugged. "Lily had just picked out what she wanted to eat and the kid came over and sat next to her, wanting to show her this trick he'd just learnt or something. I didn't get how they worked and Lily said something about the hand being quicker than the eye and the klutz went and knocked her goblet over, spilling pumpkin juice all over Lily," I remembered.

Moony winced. "Poor kid," He sympathised. "Spilling pumpkin juice over Lily, he'll never live that one down,"

I shrugged, "At least it was Lily he spilt it down. Any other girl would have gone mental if he'd spilt it over her," A ghost of a smile formed on my face. "Lily calmly dried her robes with a quick spell and told him to pour her another drink, like nothing had happened."

Padfoot stopped dead at this. "He poured her the new drink?" He demanded, brows knitting together in thought.

"Yeah," I nodded, "So what?"

"I've read about these muggle magic tricks," He shrugged. "Found a book about them in an old junk shop in Diagon Alley a few years ago that I thought would annoy my parents if they found out I was learning about Muggle tricks."

"And?" Moony asked curiously.

"Well, half of them seemed to involved hiding hidden cards or stuff like that up your sleeve so that the audience can't see it but you can easily slip it out without anyone seeing it." Sirius explained. "If this kid is obsessed with tricks like that he's probably pretty good at slight of hand stuff like that. He could have hidden whatever it was up his sleeve, deliberately knocked the goblet over and then added the powder to the new drink as he was pouring it,"

I frowned, the theory making a lot of sense. "But why would he want to poison Lily?" I demanded. Fitzgerald looked like he was the kind of person who wouldn't hurt a fly. Besides, as the son of squib, he wouldn't really have much against a Muggleborn. They both faced pretty much the same kind of treatment from the purebloods. "And I would have seen whatever it was going into the drink."

They both shook their heads at this and almost simultaneously rolled their eyes at this. I swear their eyes must have huge muscles from all the eye rolling they've been doing tonight. "I doubt you would have noticed, James," Moony observed. I opened my mouth to deny it but he cut me off quickly, "Partly because you're always too busy watching Lily when she's around and partly, unless your specifically looking out for sleights of hand like that, they're pretty much impossible to spot,"

I felt a fresh wave of hatred and anger bubble up inside me, at the thought that someone who Lily trusted would have the nerve to do something so devious and underhand, something that could have killed her if we hadn't have gotten Lily to Pomfrey in time! Even when I was at my worst, I never slipped anything harmful into someone's food or drink. I was always upfront and open with my pranks and hexes and no one was ever seriously hurt. Even then I knew where to draw a line at was dangerous.

My hands clenched and balled into fists by my side and a black frown settled on my face. "Where the hell is the little slimeball?" I demanded, struggling to keep my tone even. It would do no good to start fighting with my own friends right now.

Sirius gave me an understanding look. "He's probably down in the Hufflepuff common room." He offered the information forward, bringing an irritated snort of annoyance from Moony. "We saw Sprout escorting him out of Dumbledore's office just before Lily's parent's arrived. We followed them down to the Main Hall and it looked like they were heading down to the basement,"

I grabbed hold of his arm and started down the corridor, tugging Sirius behind me, knowing that he would back me up in anything like this. "Come on," I called back to Moony, "Let's find this Fitzgerald kid and find out what the devil he was doing putting poison into Lily's drink!"

Not bothering to check if Moony was following us, knowing that he would probably disapprove of any kind of action carried out by us, so I was surprised to find my feet suddenly glued to the floor. I tried to take another step down the corridor, shoving my hands into my pocket searching for my wand to undo whatever spell Moony had cast, but found the momentum pulled me and Padfoot to a jumbled heap on the floor as both our wands flew out of our pockets, presumably into Moony's waiting hand.

"What the hell are you doing?" I demanded. "We have to find out just what the hell Fitzgerald is up to! Unhex us now, Moony!"

"No, not until you calm down?"

"How, in Merlin's name, do you expect me to be calm when someone poisoned Lily!" I demanded angrily. "Do you just want me to sit back and do nothing, let the teachers try and deal with this and end up letting the culprits get away with it!"

I tried to turn my head to glare up at Moony as I finally heard his footsteps heading down the corridor towards us but the way Padfoot and I had landed in a heap on the corridor, it would have involved my face getting closer to a part of his body that I never, ever want to be all that up close and personal with so I didn't. Instead I settled for mentally cursing him. "I understand that your angry about this, James, I really do. Lily is my friend too and I want to find the person who did this to her and beat the living daylights out of them," He sighed and in that moment, I think I realised just how much Remus cared about Lily, far more than the simple friendship that I thought was between the two of them. "But there is no point in going in, all wands blazing and tossing out accusations like leprechaun gold," Moony said firmly. "We don't know if Fitzgerald had anything to do with this in the first place. For all we know someone could have planted the stuff down in the kitchen, aiming for any Gryffindor at that end of the table and not aiming specifically at Lily," He pointed out, trying to calm my anger down a little and force me to think more rationally about this.

Unfortunately, the dose of logic that did slightly infiltrate my brain pointed out the problem with that argument almost straight away. "You know that idea is rubbish," I said hotly. "Do you really think the House Elves wouldn't notice something like that? And if it was really the jug of pumpkin juice or the plates food was poisoned, then how come no one else is lying unconscious in the hospital wing?"

For a moment, it seemed like Moony was lost for words, like he wasn't really expecting me to come up with such a reasonable argument. But he still didn't undo the hex and let me go about my mission. "But that still doesn't mean Fitzgerald did it," He pointed out calmly. I hated his calmness. How on earth could he be so calm about something like this? It just isn't natural.

Sirius swore at this moment. "Merlin's beard, Moony, let us up!" He snarled angrily. "Is this really the kind of argument we want to be having in an open corridor where Fudge could appear at any moment, looking for the merest wiff of trouble to land us in a months worth of detentions!"

Moony sighed and undid the spell, grabbing each one of us by the shoulders and hauling us to our feet. "Come on, there's that secret passage further down that should take us down to the corridor leading to the kitchen." He muttered, glaring at us both when we held out hands out for our wands. "I'm not giving you your wand back until you calm down, James. The last thing we want is for you to lose your rag and put the kid in the Hospital Wing. The last thing Lily needs right now is you being kicked out of school,"

I ground my teeth together in anger to stop me saying something I would regret later. Moony, as usual, was probably right about taking a calm approach to this but right now I was too angry to care. If left to my own devices, he was right; I probably would get myself kicked out of school by acting too hastily and then who would keep an eye out on whatever dark magic plots Snivellus and his Death Eater in training friends were hatching? I might have screwed up this time but you can bet your last knut that I'll make sure that nothing like this happens again.

Mind you, I didn't just need my wand to inflict damage. A good punch to the gut or face would work just as well as well placed hex. It just wouldn't be as dignified as using my wand. Resorting to Muggle Brawling is not my preferred method but it would do in this situation. I really, really, really wanted somebody to hurt for this, for someone to suffer for every last little bit of pain they'd inflicted on Lily.

I marched down the corridor behind Moony, temper fuming but I was trying to force a measure of calmness into it. It just wasn't going well. We reached the secret passage, hidden behind a statue of some old troll king and ducked inside, careful to shut the tiny door behind us, shutting us into the dark passage while shutting the rest of the world out, while we hammered this argument out.

"Give me my wand back," I ground out through my gritted teeth. It was so black inside this passage and I knew from past experience that there were many steps and pitfalls that could catch you out if you weren't careful.

"No," Moony sighed. I think he has slightly better sight than the rest of us, probably another by product of his lycanthropy, though he's always denied it. Somehow, he's always able to see slightly better than the rest of us in the dark.

Padfoot cursed under his breath. "Moony, give us our wands back now!" He demanded, almost rudely. "Unlike some people, we can't see as well in the dark and need our wands so we can light our way," Patience is not one of Padfoot's strong points, especially when he's irritated and particularly when he's in a small, dark and confined place. Ever since his parent's locked him in a cupboard that a Boggart had made its home in for two whole days for some minor mistake, Sirius has been not only claustrophobic but also very lygophobic as well ever since. This must be hell for him right now.

I sighed, "Give Padfoot his wand back, Moony," I sighed impatiently. "You can keep my wand if it makes you feel happy but let Sirius have a bit of light,"

We always try not to make a big deal out of Padfoot's problem, after all everyone is scared of something, but I really do think that Moony was being a bit insensitive right now. There were some rustling noises ahead of me which I took to be Moony passing the wand back to Padfoot. There was a grunt of thanks from Padfoot followed by the quick swish of the wand which produced a beam of light that was enough to light up the entire passageway for all of us. I really didn't need my wand to see where I was going because the floor where most of the trip hazard were clearly visible and I could see the shadows of Padfoot and Moony just ahead of me.

"So, why are you sticking up for Fitzgerald?" I demanded, needing to fill the silence.

"Because we don't know for sure that he did it,"

"You were the one who brought up the point that he had the opportunity and motive to do it," I argued back. "Who else could it possibly have been?"

Moony sighed. "In an ordinary situation, Fitzgerald is Lily's friend and he'd never even dream of trying to hurt her." He pointed out. "The guy is afraid of his own shadow most of the time and spends most of his life trying to attract as little attention as possible. Why would he do something like that? Especially when he has no reason to want to hurt any of the Muggleborns in the school."

"So?" I said belligerently. "He's the only person who could have possibly done it,"

Moony sighed. "So you keep telling me, James," He told me grumpily. "But like I told you before when you probably weren't even paying attention, Fitzgerald's mother is a squib."

"And his father was an Unspeakable," Sirius joined in. "From what I overheard Malfoy's father telling my own dear Father a couple of years ago, Fitzgerald senior was pretty damn high up the ranks of Unspeakables working for the Department of Mysteries,"

Something clicked inside of my head. The name vaguely rang a bell but for a moment I couldn't for the life of me remember why it rang a bell. Then the knut dropped. "Wait a minute, wasn't he one of the twelve people who went missing when that pub was attacked? Just before we started term?"

"That would be the one," He sighed. "The kid's mum is now alone in her home with no way of protecting herself should the Death Eaters decide to make her their next target."

"Making Fitzgerald a easy target for the Slytherins," Moony said logically. "If Snape and his thugs are behind all this, they know they couldn't get near enough to Lily to slip something in her food or drink without you getting suspicious where as someone like Fitzgerald who they could easily threaten and who Lily wouldn't think twice about talking to,"

I find it absolutely disgusting, if this turns out to be the case, that Snape would threaten some shy little kid's mother to get him to do so a horrible and nasty thing to someone who has never been anything but kind to the little boy. The poor kid is probably sat in his dorm room now, terrified that not only the fact that Lily might die from whatever it was that he put in her drink, but that if caught he'll probably get expelled from school where they'd snap his wand and he'd end up being just a vulnerable to the Death Eaters as his mother. And if he doesn't get caught out for this, Snape and his cronies will probably try and drag him into other plots they will no doubt come up with.

A well of pity filled my heart when I thought of the poor kid, if indeed he yet another innocent victim in all of this, just a pawn in a malicious and twisted boys power games. We'd have to go and confront this kid and find out what he knows, but I wouldn't use my wand or my fists on the Hufflepuff boy unless he really intended to hurt Lily.

"Guess we'd better go and talk to him," I sighed as we drew near to a flight of stairs that would take us down to the basement levels of the castle, quite close to the life like painting of a woodland scene. I've never actually been inside the Hufflepuff common room or dormitories because we've never really had a reason to prank the Hufflepuffs; they're not really a threat of the Quidditch pitch and they don't really side with the extreme viewpoint on the purity of blood that a few people in Ravenclaw and most of the Slytherin house subscribe to. "If we can find out what the hell happened, we can take it from there, I guess,"

The thought of having to be calm about all this and talk rationally when I just wanted to hex the daylights out of someone for doing this to Lily was galling though. I was so angry that I wanted to hurt someone, wanted to make them suffer how Lily must have suffered when the poison started rushing through her system. I wanted to make someone else hurt for all the long, endless minutes when I sat holding her hands, watching her small body convulse and thrash about as her body struggled against the violent effects of the drugs in her body. No one, least of all Lily, deserved that and I wasn't going to let whoever had planned this get a way with it. Logic tells me that Snape is behind all of this but as much as I despise the creep and everthing he stands for, I just can't believe that he would ever order something like this. Lily could have been killed! As much as Snivellus hates me, a part of me refuses to think that he would ever want to seriously hurt her to lash out at me.

Still, I'd stay as cool and as calm as possible until we found out which little slimeball had hatched this little plan but the minute we found them, I'd make sure that they'd end up in the Hospital Wing long enough to make sure that the minute they ever think about doing something like that again, they'd have second and third thoughts.

Something told me that tonight would be a long, long night.