"Thank you," Lily said disappointedly to the nurse who'd just informed her of Petunia's situation. She'd had a severe allergic reaction to a chocolate bar that had nuts in it that she'd eaten for breakfast. Being fatally allergic to nuts, that had probably not been an incredibly intelligent idea on Petunia's behalf, but Lily had realised just in time. She'd also driven to the hospital without a licence, but the emergency nurses had said they would overlook that because it saved her sister's life.

Petunia, however, would have to stay in hospital for a few more days. As she already had today off work, Lily stayed with her sister in the hospital room, even though her sister was unconscious, and not extremely entertaining company. She'd been there for about three hours when there was a tapping at the window, and a tawny owl that she recognised as James' was waiting impatiently to be let in to drop off the package, which Lily assumed would be quite heavy.

She looked apologetically at the bird, and then whispered "Go to the courtyard, it'll be empty."

The owl hooted feebly, then flew away. Lily glanced at her sister and then left the room, also heading to the courtyard to receive the package. It was hiding in a bush to the side when she got there, and she quickly untied the heavy package from it's leg.

"Tell James I'll reply with another owl," Lily said to it, before it flew off. She carried the package all the way back to her sister's room before ripping it open.

Sitting on top was a letter from James.

Evans,

Sorry about the late reply. It took me a while to round up all my notes (as in, find some, then write the rest out for you), and this N.E.W.T work is overloading every single person in our year. Not only that, but the Quidditch season has started, which means that I have to incorporate practices as well as all the homework. Oh, and just so you know, Mary's been taking over your prefect duties while you've been away – I don't think she deserves it, but as you're not here...

Okay listen... I'm really sorry about what happened at the end of last year. I can't imagine losing a friend like Sirius, so I honestly have no idea what you're going through, and I hate to think that I was the cause of it. Even if I wasn't, I'm sorry anyway. And Alice told me of no such reason you weren't here, but Sirius heard from Alice what was going on, and eventually surrendered the information to me. Which brings me to my next question: why don't you want to tell Alice about you studying from home? I'm sure she'd be delighted to hear the news, and she's going to find out eventually anyway... But it is your choice.

I hope everything goes well with your new job, and I'm sorry about your dad. I'll only be a letter away if you need to talk, and I'm always happy to help you out.

Sincerely,

Potter.

Lily smiled in spite of herself at this, and she didn't know why. Was it because James had apologised to her, sincerely, for the first time in forever? Was it because he'd offered a shoulder for her to cry on (figuratively) if she ever needed it? Or was it because he'd given her the notes that she'd asked for.

She put the letter to one side, and picked up a blank piece of parchment. Underneath this was another note from James

Please use the blank parchment I sent you if you're going to send a reply. Padfoot picked on me for the entire week about the pink paper, and I never want that to happen again... He turned my underpants pink!

You probably didn't need to know that...

J.P.

Lily giggled softly. She decided that she was glad of contact from somebody at Hogwarts that wasn't Severus or Alice.

When she got home that day, she found another parcel on the doorstep, no doubt the work from the previous week that Lily had missed. She groaned inwardly – not only did she have the first lot to do, but she now had another week, as well as getting more work at work for the week. She felt that she would be insane by the end of the week. She picked up the parcel and went straight upstairs – the hospital had offered her a free meal, which she'd taken gladly, not feeling up to cooking for herself – where she wrote a reply to James.

Potter, James read out.

Thank you so much for sending the notes! And I noticed that you sent last weeks as well! I'll need them after the day I've had.

Thank you for apologising, but I don't think I'm ready to forgive you just yet. I think I should remind you that I'm only speaking to you for one purpose: because I need the notes, and I know you'll help me out.

Remember, please don't tell Alice.

Sincerely,

Evans.

"She didn't forgive me," he said, defeated.

"Give it time, Prongs," Sirius said from his own bed. "Look, we've pretty much been jerks to her since we met her and Sniv since we met them, so naturally it's going to take a while for her to forgive you."

"Don't you want her to forgive you as well?" James asked.

"No," Sirius shrugged.

"Why not?"

"Because I'm not in love with her."

"That's not the point! When you do something bad, you're supposed to feel bad about it, and it's not going to go away until you're forgiven. Maybe your family has rubbed off on you after all." James sounded concerned.
Sirius sat straight up in bed and was pointing his wand at James.

"Never compare me to them again," he hissed.

James nodded, noting the striking similarity between him and his older cousin at this point: if anybody said anything that insulted them, they would raise their wands. "I'm sorry," James said.

"Good." Sirius relaxed again. "Can you believe it's almost October already? I feel as though we've barely been here a week!"

"I feel like it's been longer," James groaned. "What with all the homework and everything."

Peter now popped his head in through the dormitory door. "Guys, what's an animagus?" he asked. "It's for my Transfiguration homework."

James and Sirius raised their eyebrows to each other, a challenge as to who was going to explain it. Sirius laughed first, so lost, and so had to explain to Peter what an animagus was, and that his friends were animagi, and that he was trying to become one.

The bespectacled boy read over the letter again. "'I know you'll help me out'," he quoted. "Hmm."

"How's your sister?" Anthony asked Lily the next day at lunch.

"She's alive," Lily answered, happily. "Uh, sorry again about yesterday. It's just... she's my sister. And, if I hadn't, she could have died."

"Then it's good you took the day off then. Catching up with your work well enough?"

"Yeah," Lily nodded, before turning her attention back to the magazine in front of her.

"What are you doing?"

"Crossword," she answered, looking at the clue for ten across: non-magical person. Then nine down: current headmaster of Hogwarts. Confused, she flicked to the cover, where the words The Quibbler were penned in fancy script.

"Delightful magazine," Mr Dursley commented. "Editor seems to think things like magic is real... I remember reading once an article about dragons being domesticated illegally in West Scotland. It's all absurd, of course, but it makes for a good read."

"Who brings it in?" Lily asked. She'd heard of it all right. One of the students that had graduated two years ago, Xenophilius Lovegood – his father was the editor.

"Arabella Figg, in Human Relations," her boss shrugged. "Why?"

"Just curious," Lily said, taking the magazine away with her.

Anthony turned to look at the other person in the tea room. "She's strange," he decided.

"Are you feeling okay?" Lily asked Petunia when she called her form home that night. "Sorry I can't come in – I've got all this work to catch up on."

"That's okay," Petunia said, sounding as though she didn't mind being alone. "Yeah, I'm feeling better, Doctor Hargrave told me what happened. I guess I kind of have to thank you?"

"Don't worry about it," Lily shrugged. "You're alive, right? That's mostly thanks to the doctors than to me."

"Whatever," Petunia shrugged. "So what's all this extra work? Is it from work?"

"No," Lily sighed. "It's my school work. I didn't do my last weeks work last week because I didn't have any notes, so now I have two weeks to do. I don't know if I'll be able to cope."

"Then don't do it," Petunia suggested.

"That's ridiculous, of course I'm going to do it. If I don't, I'll never be able to catch up when I go back."

"I thought you weren't going back."

"If I go back," Lily corrected. "Look, I'd better go get stuck into this work. I was just making sure you were okay."

"Bye," Petunia said, with no enthusiasm. Lily wasn't so enthusiastic either. She pulled out the essay on Veritaserum that she'd started the previous day.

OO

Defence Against the Dark Arts the following day consisted of writing notes from the board about werewolves. They'd covered it in detail last year, but their Professor seemed to think that a refresher course was in order. James, Sirius and Remus neglected to take the notes, and were passing notes to each other.

"Mr Potter, kindly inform me why you are not doing the work assigned to you."

James looked around. "Okay," he said, chuckling. "Well, as it happens, I have these notes stashed away in my dormitory, and read them over every night."

Most of the class stifled laughter. In the past few weeks, they'd learnt that their new professor was extremely strict, and had no problem issuing detentions to smart-arse students such as James Potter.

"Okay, not every night, but I know quite a lot about werewolves," James said.

"Alright, what does the werewolf respond to?"

"Most people will say it's only the call of it's own kind, but I reckon that if you hit it over the head with a plank, it would respond to that too... by ripping your throat out, but it is a response."

More laughter from the class.

"Detention, Mr Potter."

"Why?" Alice asked, as he walked away.

"Drop it, Prewett," Sirius warned.

"Detention for you too, Miss Prewett. Would anybody else like one?"

Sirius and Remus glanced at each other, and carefully raised their hands. The rest of the Gyffindors in the room followed, followed by the Hufflepuffs, then the Ravenclaws. The five Slytherins kept their hands firmly on their desks.

"Very well," he said, recognising the protest. "No detentions today. But I will not take kindly to another display such as this, is that understood?"

The class remained silent, and continued taking their notes.

Guys! I feel so rotten! After my big speech last chapter about not leaving you without more updates! I'm so horrible, I'm sorry! But, here's a new chapter, so that's good, right?

About the last bit - it'll come up later in the story. You're probably thinking "why on earth was that bit in there?"

Well, I was actually going to have a bit with Severus talking (huh...) to James, but I'm going to put that in a later chapter for you. Promise :)

Anyway, with it only being less than one week until Christmas, I've had lots of hours at work, and even got called in for an extra shift! (YAY! More money, right?), so I guess that's my pathetic and measly excuse for not updating. But, after Christmas especially, updates should become a lot more regular.

Oh, and some exciting news for me came on Thursday. As long as my exam results are good, I'll be attending WAAPA (the West Australian Academy of Performing Arts) come February. I'm fairly confident they'll be good. But yeah, it's like, the best place to study the performing arts in Western Australia, so I'm pretty excited.

Anyways, Happy Holidays, and hopefully I'll have another update soon!