The day hadn't started well. At breakfast Lily decided to go sit with Cam, as he seemed a little off with her the previous day. Lily had felt guilty for not paying him as much attention with all the studying and Head Duties she had had to do.

"Hey you." She smiled as she wrapped her arms around him. He gave her a kind smile before grabbing the pot of tea to pour them both a cup.

"We are still meeting tonight aren't we?" Lily asked him

He nodded at her. "Yep, as long as you can fit me in that is. I know you have head duties," he said with a twinkle in his eye.

Lily grinned. "Of course I can. I'll owl you later about when and where. I have to give some forms to James. He said he would give them to McGonagall for me."

Cam's eyes shifted from her gaze. "OK, as long as I get to have tonight with you and not Potter"

Lily smiled at this, "Ow is Cammy jealous of the head boy?" She teased in a baby voice

"Do I have a reason to be?" He asked more seriously

"No, of course not. Cam, you're being silly. This is a busy year for me, you have to understand that."

He sighed, "You're right; it's just that I have only seen you once in the last two weeks."

"I know, and I'm sorry, but we'll have a good time tonight, just me and you"

"Yea, you're right again. Anyway I have to get my books. See you later." With that he pressed a kiss against her forehead, grabbed a piece of toast and made his way towards the exit.

Sighing Lily rose from her seat. She felt that the tension between her and her boyfriend would not be easing any time soon, yet a part of her felt a little thrilled that for the first time Cam was jealous towards another boy.

Lily had always been on good terms with the boys in her year, and would often talk to them or even hang around with them, yet Cam had never shown any interest about it, shrugging it off as friendship. That is one thing that had secretly made them a brilliant couple; they both had complete and utter faith in each other..

Pushing everything to the back of her mind, she walked back to the Gryffindor table to sit with her friends.

.x.

Later Lily was in potions besides Cassie and Riley, all three of them working on an individual potion. Potions is her favorite and best subject, when she got into it she enjoyed it immensely, always wanting to do the very best she could with it.

Lily had chosen to work on a hair-growing potion. She was so caught up in her potion making and thinking about Cam that Laura and her revenge plans didn't cross her mind. Consequently, she missed the dirty looks Laura was sending her each time she got praised for her work.

She only remembered when it was too late.

"Lils how much unicorn hair do I put into my potion?" Cassie asked

Lily walked over to her potion to have a look, "I would say another two inches should do it, and maybe add a few more drops of Aloe."

Cassie nodded "And I am- Eurgh, what's that smell?"

Lily turned to see her potion fizzing and hurried over to it. It had turned a dark, moldy green colour and was bubbling violently. She quickly began to stir, trying to make it regain its smooth silvery colour, but it only seemed to bubble more violently.

Worry began to creep up on her as she began to draw the attention of the whole class. She moved quickly to try and add some more aloe to calm it down but it only irritated it more. Fizzing sounds started and her potion was on the verge of bubbling over when Lily stopped.

She searched for her wand, but couldn't find it anywhere

She didn't have a clue what was happening to her potion, but everyone had moved far away from her, some rushing out the door. Professor Slughorn was shouting at her to move away from her potion and so was the rest of the class. Lily looked wide eyed as the cauldron started shaking violently. She couldn't move, all she could do was stand and stare, horrified.

At the last second Lily felt someone's fingers close around her arm as she was pulled underneath their protection and thrown to the floor.

A loud bang erupted followed closely by a giant splash. No one moved. She could feel herself underneath the frame of someone masculine but then a painful feeling came over her. All of a sudden Lily felt the weight of the person above her lift as Slughorn was there picking up the figure. Quickly she looked at her arm and noticed a dark burn spread across most of it.

"Miss Evans are you alright?" He asked worried.

"Ye- Yes, I'm fine" Lily quickly moved her arm out of his line of vision.

"Right, then I need you to take Mr. Potter to the hospital wing as soon as possible," He instructed.

It was then Lily turned and noticed James' still form lying in front of Slughorn, who was kneeling beside him. Lily's eyes opened wide with horror as she dropped herself next to him, forgetting about the injury on her arm.

"Miss Evans, you have severely burnt your arm, I need you to accompany me to the hospital wing as I take Mr. Potter" Lily nodded at him.

Lily stepped back as the professor moved towards James,

"Levitatum" The Professor muttered, pointing his wand at James' unconscious figure.

He had used a weight lifting charm on him so he was no were near as heavy as he would have been, carrying him up the stairs.

When they arrived in the hospital wing James was quickly placed onto a bed. Lily sat on one next to him, whilst Madam Pearson shooed the professor out the door.

Pearson was back in a matter of moment with a large bottle of purple fluid. She placed the bottle on the table between Lily's and James' bed.

"Help yourself Miss Evans; I need to get to work on Potter."

Lily nodded and watched whilst the nurse turned James onto his stomach with her wand. She then removed his shirt and Lily gasped audibly. The burns on his back were horrific, spreading across his entire back and arms.

Lily's eyes began to fill with tears as she realized it was all her fault, James had done what he did to protect her, otherwise that would have been her lying in that bed and not him.

"Miss Evans, I do not need you crying right now, hurry up and treat your burns!"

Lily blinked away her tears and quickly began dabbing her wounds, wincing audibly at the pain and discomfort it was causing her.

.x.

An hour later and Lily was released from the hospital wing alone. James was still not awake, Madam Pearson had told her that she had given him sleeping draught and that he would be out for a while.

Lily made her way to the common room to find her friends, whom were both sitting in front of the fire in their usual places, accompanied by Sirius, Remus and Peter.

"Lil!" Riley cried as she jumped up from Sirius' lap to pull her into a tight hug. The others looked up and greeted her as she sat down beside them.

"How's Prongs?" Sirius asked.

"He's still asleep, but he'll be fine," Lily said quietly, looking down at the floor as no one said anything. "Sorry," she whispered suddenly.

Lily suddenly felt the need to cry after having such a bad day. First she had to deal with the guilt for Cam, and then James.

"Hey, Lil don't blame yourself! We all saw what happened; right now we have all just been thinking about ways to get that stupid wench back!" Riley said.

"Who?" Lily asked, frowning.

"Laura, who else?" Cassie said.

"She did that?! Wait… what did she do?"

"She put something in your cauldron" Remus replied

"What?!" Lily asked horrified.

"We don't know what it was, but three Ravenclaw girls, Tina, Regan and Sammy saw her put it in when you were helping me, so she's got isolation from potion lessons now and detention every Thursday and Tuesday for the next month." Cassie grinned.

Lily was in shock. She just stared, not sure what to say or do. "That stupid little desperate cow," she murmured finally.

"Don't worry Lily; we'll get revenge at dinner." Sirius exclaimed.

"No." Lily replied.

"What?" All five of them turned to her.

"Lily you are not serious, I told you if she did something again we would get her back whether you like it or not. I can't believe you are still protecting her," said Riley.

"I am not protecting her at all; all I'm saying is leave it…for now. At least until James wakes up and then he can decided what he wants to do."

They all thought for a moment, until a chorus of "fine" came from all five stubborn teenagers.

.x.

It was dinner time and Lily sat down at the Gryffindor table, as she was not in the mood to go and sit with Cam, and dove into her food so she could leave as quickly as possible without grabbing anyone's attention.

"Lil," Cassie started "Where's Cam been lately?"

The question took Lily completely by surprise "Sorry?"

"I mean, where has he been? You two are never together much anymore. Is something wrong?"

Lily gulped. Had she been pushing Cam out? If her friends were picking up on it, then maybe she was. "I have seen him; I sat with him at breakfast this morning."

"Yea but that was what, the first time in about… two weeks? And anyway, you came back not looking too pleased, so I thought something was wrong."

Lily really started to feel guilty. That was exactly what Cam had said.

"Just leave it Cassia," she snapped, "you're jumping to conclusions. Cam and I are fine."

Cassie just shrugged her shoulders and carried on eating in silence.

"Guess who?" said the voice of the very person who had created the uncomfortable silence between the three girls.

"Hey you," Lily smiled. "Good day?"

"Yea, it was fine, thanks. How are you?" Cam asked. "I heard about what happened in your potions class!"

This really seemed to annoy Lily. Her temper was on edge already, and she snapped at him, "You heard, yet didn't think to seek me out and see how I was doing?"

"What? No, Lily don't get angry at me, I found out about an hour ago but I heard you were fine and out of the hospital wing, so I didn't think there was any need to hunt you down about it."

Lily rolled her eyes "Fine."

Cam started to look uncomfortable, whilst Cassie and Riley avoided the couple's eye.

"So am I still seeing you tonight?" Cam asked warily.

Lily sighed "Yes, I just need to give those forms to McGonagall, seeing as James is incapable at the moment, so it might be a bit later."

Cam pursed his lips slightly before replying. "Yea, that's fine. When and where should I meet you then?"

"Well, if I go now then it will probably only take about fifteen minutes or so, so meet me outside the library in half an hour?" With that she forced a smile and left.

.x.

It was forty-five minutes later that Lily managed to leave McGonagall's office, after a long, in-depth conversation of what still had to be done throughout the year.

Feeling drained and tired Lily dragged herself out of her office. Walking past the hospital wing, she paused. Remembering James was still in there she opened the door and went inside.

Lily pulled up a chair besides James' bed and just watched him as he slept.

Time past and Lily could do nothing but stare, guilt occupying her every emotion. She placed a hand on top of his cold, motionless one,

"I'm sorry James," she whispered. "I should have moved, should have walked away from the cauldron, but I didn't! I was so set on fixing it, making it normal again that I didn't think about my safety…or anyone else's. At least its not permanent damage… but I still feel awful. Me and my stupid pride, I should have just walked away!"

She smiled slightly at him "You always have to be the hero." A small laugh escaped her lips "We can both be pretty similar when it comes to our pride."

"This is where you are?!" Came an angry cry from the doorway.

Lily turned to notice a fuming a Cameron staring at her with disbelief.

"Cam-"

"Forget it Lily, you are an hour late because you would rather spend time with bloody Potter! Just…just forget it. It just shows where your priorities lie." Lily stood up, but he had already turned on his heel and stormed off.

Lily sighed as the office door opened and Madam Pomfrey came running out, shooing her out of the hospital wing.

Lily couldn't take it, she found that it was all building up inside her, everything was going from bad to worse, and all her problems revolved around one person.

James Potter.

Finally, this chapter is up!! I have been revising and soooo busy lately, and my exams start this thursday so please be patient with updates, it really is hard even though i did promise frequent updates i am afraid i will probably have to break that promise (

I have replaced the intro and chapter 2 (only small things in that chapter) but go and re-read and REVIEW THEM!

pleaseee, i have just done three chapter straight, re-doing two and this one- MAKE IT WORTHWHILE YEA?! )

Thank you to all of you who have reviewed, and because of slow replies i have already got myself a BETA- Zolo Pfefferclusinkorn who has been brilliant with this chapter! But thanks to all of you who offered anyway.

So anyway, enough of my pointless rambling, which i am sure none of you have even bothered to read, go ahead and REVIEW!!

I WILL LOVE U IF YOU REVIEW!! (wow talk about desperate P)

PLF

xXx