Evans was a savior, she really bloody was. James had no idea how hungry he had been until she had gotten there, and mashed potatoes? Seriously, his favorite food on top of all of these terrible things overloading his senses was making everything fall to the back of his brain, letting his brain relax. For the first time in almost two hours, he felt his nerves slackening and the beating in his chest slowed to normal- well, as normal as it could try to be when Lily Evans was sitting on the floor not six feet from him, lounging on her robes while her Head Girl badge glinted on the collar of her shirt, and her green eyes sparkling in the firelight... Fuck! He had to stop looking at her, stop thinking about her... His father was in St. Mungo's and here James was, panting over a girl who had semi-loathed him since their first year? If the boys had been here, Sirius would have taken the mickey out of him for behaving this way. Well… maybe not. Sometimes when you're stressed, all you can do is focus on the parts of your life that aren't falling around yours. And by Merlin, he hoped that he wouldn't lose his friendship with Lily either, there was no way that he could bear that. James shook his head and directed his attention to the heaping plate of potatoes in front of him, just as Tilly appeared out of thin air again with what looked like the entire Gryffindor table's portion of the feast.
"Would the Head Boy and Head Girl like to eat in the common room?" she suggested, but James was having none of that. He and Evans were going to have a sad, lonesome, pity party with fattening foods on the floor of his room with no real lights and probably eventually some melancholy music. He was calmer now, but by no means did that mean that he was happy again.
"Thanks, Tilly, but I think we're well set here. Thanks for everything!" Evans was beaming at the elf with the smile she reserved for second-years asking if they could go to Hogsmeade. Tilly curtsied and disappeared behind the fireplace, leaving the two tired seventh years to their meal.
"Evans… Lily… Thanks. You know? For this. It means a lot. I'm not really going to be okay for a while, but this is helping. You know that if… well, if the lads were here, they wouldn't know what to do. Paddy would probably try to throw himself off the Astronomy Tower, Moony would try to find a logical answer or some other shit, and Pete… Pete would probably do something like this, just not quite as nice. I'm not sure he has the same connections to the kitchen elves, if I'm being honest…" He wasn't really sure that he should be talking this much, but what else was he meant to do? it's not as if he could bloody well talk about the weather or how excited he was for classes to start, or anything, right? Anyway, Evans was special! She just took charge all the time. Honestly, if they could have House Moms instead of prefects, Lily would have held the title since October of their first year. She also didn't hate him anymore, so why should he disengage? And seriously, those damn eyes of hers… Ugh. He was hopeless, but isn't that what a pity party is for?
"... know I worry about you, and if you need any more help let me know, it's not as though we won't be in close proximity with each other this term, right? Oh, James Potter, you're a bloody idiot, at least look at me when I'm being nice to you?" Bugger. Lily was in the middle of what sounded like a really sweet sentence (in another life, he would have teased the hell out of her for it) and he was being a right arse and not responding, just making terribly uncomfortable eye contact with those bloody gorgeous emeralds. Did she say that she worried about him? Damn he needed to be a better friend, starting once he figured everything out with his parents and… fuck, his parents.
Scrambling for parchment in his trunk, he started looking for a quill and some ink. He had to know if St. Mungo's had his parents, he needed to figure out a code, what if the letter was intercepted? Fuck, why didn't he have an owl? "Lily! You've got an owl, right, a nice tawny something, some name from a Muggle musician? Can I please borrow it, I need to know if my parents got to the hospital!" She pursed her lips, he could see she was upset from being cut off from scolding him, but she sighed, nodding her head. "You can borrow Elvis is you remember his name. What if it gets intercepted by the Death Eaters, what will you do? James, you really need to calm down, let me get you some ink and a quill!"
After a harrowing thirty seconds of finding parchment and related supplies, James sat down at his desk, where he assumed the administration thought that he would be doing homework and creating prefect rounds. However, if the rest of the term carried on the way this first night had gone, it seemed that he would definitely be spending all his time here writing hurried notes like the one he had just attached to Elvis. The barn owl looked a bit miffed to be used by a stranger, but with a few soft words from Lily, he was soon off into the night sky, hopefully with a keen sense of where London was located. James slumped, head on the solid wood, letting himself truly relax for the first time in about two hours. For once, he wished that the boys wouldn't show up tonight, just so that he could sleep and recover from this stress… Tomorrow, however, he would need their help. Something had to be done about Voldemort and his followers, in particular their idiotic names for themselves and their idea that fear was a way to create loyalty.
Sirius bounded up the moving stairs to the Fat Lady's portrait, hearing Moony and Wormtail panting behind him as they leaped over the disappearing steps and tried to keep up with him. The instant that Dumbledore had dismissed the students, Sirius had been off the bench and sprinting to get up to Gryffindor Tower. He was hoping that was where James had vanished to, and was praying that his best mate hadn't gone batty and tried (or succeeded) to throw himself off the battlements of the Astronomy Tower. Sirius glared at the Fat Lady until she swung open for him- the only two Gryffindors to know the password were both in the common room somewhere. Probably snogging, though the dramatic circumstances were a bit much even for him to accept. He raced up the steps to their dormitory, only to turn right around, nearly knocking over the two winded boys following him as he remembered James' new title. (To be quite honest, the only reason he knew where the Head bedrooms were was because in his fifth year, the Head Girl had led him up to hers. Luckily, nothing much happened between them that night, seeing as she decided to charm herself with excess body hair after she graduated, and became the bass player for the new band, The Weird Sisters. Weird was definitely the right word, and he did not want it to be a part of his reputation.) He was already feeling guilty about interrupting Prongs and Evans with whatever they were doing, but hey- his mate's potential bout of insanity had to be prioritized. Pushing open the oak-paneled doors, he shoved his way into James' new bedroom. "OI!" he shouted, only to see Prongs, weak and sad looking, resting with his head on his desk. Lily jumped when she saw Sirius, dropping the empty plate of mashed potatoes on the carpet. As Remus and Peter shuffled in behind him, Sirius was lost in confusion. No snogging… melancholy James Potter… lots of food… no snogging. Suddenly, there was a terrible pain in his ear and he was being dragged out of the into Lily's adjoining bedroom. She had Remus and Peter by the hoods of their robes, as well, and as soon as she had charmed the door shut she began to whisper-yell at them.
"James' parents were attacked by Voldemort's Death Eaters tonight, his dad is in St. Mungo's, and he is panicking! He can barely talk about, you should all be thanking me for making him eat and caring for him, unlike you pricks! and SIRIUS"- she was practically hissing at him- "Black, I know you too well. How DARE you barge in there thinking we were snogging? You are in possession of the single filthiest mind I have ever encountered and I have gone to school with Muggles who think a girl wearing tight jeans is something to eat for dinner! Do not get me started on how angry I am with you, because right now all of you need to get in there and help him figure out how to get settled with Quidditch trials, classes, N.E.W.T.S., and just the general mess that his life has fallen into. Do NOT mention any of what I've said unless he talks about it first, and I swear to MERLIN if you, Peter, take the mick out of him I will personally Stick you to the side of the Owlery for a week. Remus, please just be kind to him? He's very upset, and then he gets confused about being upset. You know, like when he lost to Ravenclaw last year because he accidentally forgot that their Keeper was left-handed and so he sent the Quaffle to the wrong hoop? This is like that except so much worse, and I've only just got him to eat, and it's like he's been Confunded, since he's actually thanking me for helping him and he hasn't made one damn joke yet in the past hour and a half. Please, just be his friends right now?" Lily finally relaxed, leaning herself against her bedpost and letting go of the three boys. Sirius massaged his ear, feeling as though he'd been assaulted by a Blast-Ended Skrewt that could talk.
"Merlin, Evans, I wasn't going to fuck with him this time! Thanks for hissing my ear off, now may I talk to my best friend?" Sirius waved a hand and ushered Wormtail and Moony back into James' room, slamming the door behind them. He liked Lily, but that girl could be a bit much. Hopefully she would go to sleep and they could all work this out in the morning.