Chapter Six

Keep me safe inside,

Your arms like towers,

Tower over me.

Evangeline lay on the bed of white linen in the Hospital Wing, motionless, in a deep sleep. It had been a week since she had been brought back to that castle after being found in the Forbidden Forest. Quickly after Evangeline had been brought to Madam Pomfrey, the new school nurse, she discovered that Evangeline had been pricked by the *Thorn 'O Lethargy Bush. The spines of this bush, were deadly if the person did not receive the antidote in a certain time period after they had pricked their finger, they would fall into a deep sleep for the rest of their lives. Red berries. Very delicious. These berries attracted animals and humans alike, which resulted in many mammals being put into a lengthy slumber.

There were some nights (and days) where Evangeline tossed and turned. Soaking wet with sweat as the antidote fought against the poison, that had worked its way into her system. Everyone had to be patient. Many students and relatives visited her as she slept, but she never knew they were there. Her father had been to see her, he was seeing Dumbledore about some 'Auror Business' and dropped by to see how she was coping. It hurt him to see his daughter, lying there asleep, unresponsive to everything. Her mother, sent flowers.

As she had spent so long in the Hospital Wing, Madame Pomfrey had her moved into a private room after four days, away from any prying eyes. She also didn't want Evangeline to spend too much time in the same room as Bellatrix Black, who was recovering from Evangeline's attack on her. The Potter girl went through a lot, for nothing really. Bellatrix was just unconscious, but the spell that Evangeline used had knocked the breath out of her, like stunning, only a much longer wait for any signs of the person waking up and there was no spell that could awaken her immediately. She spent five days in the Hospital Wing, until she signed herself out and was running round the castle torturing other students again.

'Madame Pomfrey?' Sirius called after the young nurse. He was sitting in the large armchair beside Evangeline's bed. Remus and Peter were sitting on the end of her bed. Remus, a book in his hand, Evangeline's favourite; Jane Eyre. Madame Pomfrey had told them that Evangeline could hear their voices, and it would help her to eventually awaken. Remus had been reading to Evangeline, day and night, to see if she would make any progress, but not an eyelid fluttered nor a hand twitched.

'Oh! Has Evangeline woken up?' shrieked the nurse who came sprinting out of her office.

'No,' mumbled Sirius, who was staring at Evangeline, who still remained asleep. She looked peaceful in her sleep, he thought to himself, but he just wanted her to respond to something, anything.

Madame Pomfrey frowned and walked over to Evangeline's bed. She reached out her hand and gently placed them on the sleeping girl's forehead. 'She definitely isn't as feverish as what she was a couple of days ago. That means the antidote is working.'

'But …' started Peter, he stopped to rephrase his sentence, 'Why hasn't she woken up yet?' His eyes glanced over at Sirius, who had not moved, he just sat there switching his glance between the sleeping Evangeline and the view of the Forest from the window.

Madame Pomfrey smiled politely in Peter's direction, 'We just have to be patient, the antidote is still acting in her system. I didn't know exactly how much poison she had extracted from the thorn, so I had to estimate.'

She saw the disappointed looks on their faces and comforted them,' She'll wake up in a couple of days, maybe less.' She smiled, and began to retreat towards her office, but she paused at the door and called over to the boys, 'Keep talking to her! It'll help.'

Sirius remained silent, and Remus opened the cover of the book, Peter looked at them, confused. 'Well, what do we say to her? I mean, It'll be … weird.' he said as he scratched his head.

Remus thought for a moment, 'We could tell her about the prank we played on Bellatrix yesterday?' he suggested, and glanced at Sirius. Remus got up and moved closer to Evangeline's sleeping body. 'Evie? It's Remy. Madame Pomfrey said that you could hear us, and that we should talk to you as much as possible. Um .. we pranked Bella -'

'Don't say her name.' growled Sirius, 'It's her fault that Angel is like this.'

'Sirius, she's going to remember what happened,' reasoned the werewolf, 'If she doesn't remember herself, I'm pretty sure someone will remind her, mainly said person that she attacked.'

'She won't tell her. I'll make sure of that.' Sirius said bluntly.

Remus snorted, 'And how are you going to do that? Offer yourself up on a platter to the Dark Lord for her? You won't be able to stop her, mark my words.'

'No, you mark my words, she is going to pay for what she has done. One way or another, I'm gonna -'

'Gonna do what?' piped Peter, who had remained quiet throughout most of the conversation.

'I don't see either of you doing anything to avenge Eva.' Sirius stated.

'Pfft, we don't need anyone to do that, Ja-'

'James wouldn't do anything,' snarled Sirius, 'Angel has been lying in that bed for a week, and he hasn't come to see her once!'

Remus grimaced and turned to read Evangeline's copy of Jane Eyre, he could have sworn he heard Sirius mutter, 'Selfish bastard.' Obviously aimed at James

Flashback To Earlier That Day

'Ah, Mr Potter, how is your sister coping?' Professor McGonagall asked James as we walked through the door of the classroom.

Sirius shoved past me, shot a venomous glare at James and hissed, 'Like he would know.'

James' eye's narrowed, his face twisted as he shot daggers at the progressive Sirius, he returned his attention to his Professor, 'She's fine, should be out of the Hospital Wing in no time.' he said sheepishly and walked over to his seat.

I sat down beside him, scared of the response I would get when I asked him a question. I buckled up the courage, deciding that he couldn't throttle me in front of a teacher; our head of house to be exact.

'James?' I asked as I pulled my wand out of my pocket.

'Hmm?' was the reply.

'Eh .. Why haven't you been to visit Eva yet? I mean she is your sister.'

'She could have killed Black! If she had, she would be in Azkaban!' he snapped and slammed his copy of 'Standard Book of Spells – Ordinary Wizarding Levels' on the desk, causing ink to splash out of the inkwell.

This had caught Sirius' attention, which wasn't hard. He was sitting in front of us, the seat beside him, empty. It normally held a giggling girl with raven black hair and startling green eyes, but not today. Or the next couple of days for that matter.

'Don't dare speak about Angel like that! She would never do such a thing, and you know that.' snarled Sirius, in a rather dog-like manner.

'No, I don't know any more. Jesus, one day she's bouncing off the walls, the next she's bloody depressed!'

'She's a girl, James. You obviously don't know them as well as you think. You don't even know your own fucking sister.'

'What the hell do you mean?'

This was obviously going to turn into a full-on boxing match. And here comes I, Remus John Lupin, Keeper of Peace between Maurauders.

'McGonagall is watching us.' I interrupted. But I was ignored.

'You're obviously too up your own arse to even care about your sister. Too busy being King of Hogwarts.'

'Oh, and you care about my sister do you Black?' retorted James, who was clenching his quill so tightly it snapped in half.

'Of course I do, she .. she's -'

'Like a sister to you?' James' eyes narrowed,' Or something else?'

'And what exactly do you mean by that?' said Sirius, who sounded disgusted.

'You know exactly what I mean. You dare hurt her and you will pay.' growled James.

'Oh, started caring now have we?'

James didn't reply, he simply picked up another quill and started writing furiously on the parchment set in front of him.

'You know, if you really did care, you would go and see her. And then maybe I would forgive you for abandoning her.'

End of Flashback

'Okay boys, I'm very sorry, but you will have to leave now. Visiting hours are over.' said Madame Pomfrey, who popped her head through the gap that the open door left.

'Mmkay,' came Sirius' muffled voice, it sounded as though he had been sleeping, 'Can we come back tomorrow?'

'Of course,' replied Madame Pomfrey who had entered the room, 'Visiting hours only,' she added sternly.

The three boy raised from their seats which they had vacated for the past three hours. Throughout those three hours, other pupils from Gryffindor had come to visit Evangeline including Lily and Isabella. They stayed for an hour, but then said that they were going to visit Hagrid and give him the low down on how Evangeline was recovering. As they were exiting the room, Remus set Evangeline's book on her bedside table, and whispered goodbye to her. Peter waved. Sirius remained behind, to clear up the chocolate frog and droobles gum wrappers that had found their way onto the floor.

Once he had lifted all the rubbish, she sauntered over to Evangeline's bed. He bent down and gently kissed her on the top of her head and whispered in her ear, 'Please wake up Angel, I miss pulling pranks with you.'

He stood back up and turned to walk out the door, as he pulled the door closed behind him, he stopped and said, 'Actually, I just miss you.' and quietly he pulled the door shut.

_-_-_

It was midnight, and pitch black in the Hospital Wing. All was silent, everyone of Madame Pomfrey's patients asleep.

'Alohomora'

The double doors of the wing opened, but no one was there, no one walked through them. There was a scuffling of feet, but still nobody was there. Across the room, the door to Evangeline's private quarters opened, and then closed, as if by itself. A light appeared in the room, bright enough to blind someone. And sitting on the armchair, by a sleeping Evangeline, was James Potter.

He had a guilty expression on his face as he studied the motionless body of his little sister, who was peacefully sleeping. He fumbled in his robes and pulled something out of his pocket. He got up and walked over to the bedside table, and on it he set a photo frame and in it was a photo of himself, Evangeline, Sirius, Remus and Peter at the beach over the summer.

He sat back down beside her on the bed and brushed a strand of hair of her face and tucked it behind her ear. He could hear her breathing, soft and gentle against the pillow. She was alive, yet so dead. The little sister he knew would be laughing loudly at a joke Sirius had told, or listening attentively to Remus, who would be explaining why you shouldn't add said ingredient into a potion or it might explode and she would grin to herself and glance over at Sirius blatantly hinting to him that they should try it sometime. The way she would act all serious when Peter asked a really dumb question about something in his homework, and she would be kind and patient enough to go and help him.

She had the qualities of all his friends rolled into one; loyalty, intelligence, kindness, patience, merriment and she knew how to pull a good prank. But one thing set her apart from everyone else. Her temper. It was the one thing she couldn't control, when she was angry, everything around her would go wrong. Lying there, she looked so serene and untroubled.

He smiled to himself as Evangeline twitched her nose and sighed deeply. She always was a heavy sleeper, nothing could waken her, even if you yelled at the top of your voice in her ear, she would just go on in a peaceful slumber, like she had ignored you.

He leaned in towards her face, and said, 'Please wake up soon Evangeline, we all miss you like crazy and Sirius is getting on my nerves. He says I don't care about you; of course I do! You're my baby sister, and I wouldn't want anything to happen to you. I'm sorry I wasn't there when it happened, I know I could have stopped you.' he paused for a moment, grabbing her hand, 'I know I haven't been the best big brother in the world, but I want you to know that I love you more than that. I mean who couldn't.'

He kissed her fingertips and gently placed her hand down on the bed, he slowly stood up, grabbing the invisibility cloak and shuffled slowly towards the door.

'Please be awake the next time I come and visit, I don't want to talk to you like that again' he said and threw the cloak over himself.

'You won't have to.' came a tired voice from the bed followed by the noise of bed sheets rustling.

James' eyes widened, he gasped and pulled the cloak, so forcefully, he was lucky that it didn't rip. 'Evangeline!' He was so quick to react that he nearly fell over his own feet to reach her bedside. He bent over and gave her a bone-crushing hug, that Evangeline thought had lasted a bit too long.

'Okay, James, you can let go of me now,' she chuckled weakly.

'Sorry,' he said sheepishly and sat down beside her on the bed, 'How do you feel? Should I get Madame Pomfrey?'

Evangeline smiled, 'I'm fine, just a little, oh what's the word … weak. And no, do not get Madame Pomfrey, I hate the way she fusses over every little thing.'

'That's good,' said James, 'Do you want something to eat? You look a little pale.'

Evangeline stared at him, 'Sheesh, you're as bad as that Pomfrey! But yes, I am kind of hungry. What have you got?'

'Well …' James stood up and wandered over to the large cupboard opposite Evangeline's bed, he opened it to reveal mountains of chocolate and sweets.

'Wow ...where did it all come from?' asked Evangeline quizzically, she was still astounded at the amount of food.

'Oh, a lot of people dropped by to pay their respects, it's not all from Gryffindors you know. Look.' James picked up a packet of chocolate frogs and took them over to Evangeline who was waiting eagerly for the tasty morsel, 'It's from Jane Campbell, she's in Hufflepuff.'

'Awk, that was nice of her,' cooed Evangeline, who ravenously ripped open the box which held the delectable chocolate frog, within a flash the frog was being wolfed down at a rapid speed.

'Whoa, slow down there. You'll choke,' warned James, who had brought over some more food.

Evangeline stuck out her tongue at him, but suddenly went very shy and unsure, 'James?' she asked.

'Yes, Evie?' he replied as he opened a packet of Bertie Bott's Every-Flavour Beans.

'How long was I asleep?' she asked timidly, while fumbling with the chocolate frog card; which held the portrait of Morgana.

'A week.' he replied bluntly.

Evangeline gasped, 'A WEEK?!'

'Yes.'

'The last thing I remember is looking straight into someone's dark grey blue eyes, the rest is a memory.'

'That was Firenze, he's a Centaur. After you went missing Dumbledore sent out a message to the Centaurs to look for you, and he found you at Lazy Eyes Creak.' said James through a mouthful of Pumpkin Pasty.

Evangeline wrinkled her nose at the sight, 'What happened to Black?' she asked him, so quietly as if she was hoping he wouldn't hear her.

'She's fine. You knocked her unconscious for four days. Pretty neat spell if I say so myself.' said James, who seemed more interested in the food.

'Well then, why didn't you come and see me until tonight?' asked Evangeline, who was eager to her his reply.

'How ..?'

'I could still hear things when I was asleep James. I respond to my name, Sirius said that I had been lying in a bed for a week and that you hadn't visited me once.'

'If you knew how long you had been asleep for, why did you ask?'

'I couldn't remember when he said it! I didn't know the exact day James! Please answer my question.'

'I was angry.'

'At me?'

'Yes.'

Evangeline looked at him intently.' Are you -'

'-Well, yes and no. I'm angry at you for running into Forbidden Forest without a wand -how could you be so stupid- and for doing that to Black. I thought she was dead at the time, I was seething with rage, I was angry at myself and you. But when I found out she was just unconscious, I was so relieved. But I couldn't forgive you for running away like that.'

'I'm sorry, I was so confused. I thought I had killed her, I was scared at what might happen so I ran. To the only place I thought no one could find me.'

James laughed, 'You were wrong, but I'm glad you were. I couldn't have lived with myself if Firenze hadn't found you. I should have ran after you and stopped you. Sirius would have committed suicide, he was past himself when you hadn't been found after three hours of searching.'

'I just kept running, straight ahead. If anything was in my way, I turned a different direction and ran until I came to another obstacle and did the same thing over again.' Evangeline explained.

'You aren't very good at getting yourself completely lost off the face of the earth are you?'

'I'm not sure if I was trying to get myself lost or not. I kept turning back, but something made me keep going on further into the forest.'

'Just the want to get away from what you had done?'

'Yes, I suppose so. I know it's only Black, but I still feel guilty about doing that to her.'

'At least we know that you are nothing like her, and just because you feel guilty after doing that to someone, definitely shows it. Plus, you have friends to live for, she doesn't.'

Evangeline remained silent, the moon beamed through the gap in the curtain, shining onto her.

'You better get some rest,' suggested James.

'Rest? You have got to be joking! I have slept for the past week, I'm not even the slightest bit tired.' complained Evangeline.

'Well, if you're not for. I am. I think I'll sleep in that chair.'

'Right, you do that. And seeing as your going to sleep, and I have no one to talk to. I might as well join you.'

'I hope you didn't mean that literally.'

'What? Eww, No!'

'Goodnight Evie,' sighed James, who had made himself comfortable on the large armchair.

'Goodnight Jamie,' teased Evangeline, who had snuggled under the duvet.

'You'll never grow up will you?'

'Nope,' said Evangeline who smiled into her pillow.

Hope you all liked the chapter! (: Reviews please! Constructive criticism and whatnot. Maybe some of your ideas for what you want to happen in the later chapters? I might not even end up using them, just getting people to think creatively (:

Hahaha, my brother is so blonde x] (no offence anyone) The matches we were using to light candles wouldn't work, they kept going out randomly. And he says ; Maybe they're out of date.

Tori xo