Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Harry Potter or Harry Potter related copyrights.

It felt like only minutes to Lily before she was once again woken from her uneasy slumber by the sounds of struggle and of pain coming from James' bed; she had been dreaming of dark eyes following her in dark woods.

She sighed. Then she looked over at the two boys who, during the daylight hours, posed as his best friends. It was a miracle that they hadn't woken up yet. But, Lily was too compassionate to just ignore James, even if he had woken her up for a second time, and since it didn't appear that either Remus or Sirius were going to wake him up, Lily slowly pulled the covers off of her bed and got out.

Lily rubbed her eyes and walked as quickly as she could with her injuries over to James' side for a second time that night. Again, she sat down on the edge of the bed and began to call his name softly. This time, however, her passive method did not seem to work. So, she shook his shoulder gently and called his name a little bit louder.

James began to thrash violently and his face contorted in pain. Lily could only imagine what must be going through his subconscious. Where were these dreams coming from? Lily didn't seem to have a choice; she had to wake James up. Whatever pain he was going through in his dreams obviously felt real to him, and Lily wanted to end his suffering as soon as possible.

So, she walked swiftly back to the bedside table adjacent to her hospital bed, and retrieved her wand. Then she whispered an apology to James and proceeded to douse him with a jet of very cold water. He awoke with a start and sat bolt upright. James began to look around frantically, babbling incoherently.

Then Lily approached him quietly and placed a hand on his shoulder, "Potter?" she asked quietly.

James spun quickly, and in one fluid motion James grabbed both of Lily's shoulders and began to shake her violently. "Just finish me off like you got my parents and my best friend! I won't do your evil bidding anymore you foul creature from Hell!"

"Potter! Potter!" said Lily urgently. "Look at me! Look at me!"

Lily gazed directly into James' hazel eyes and maintained eye contact with him. James' eyes still darted nervously around as though he expected something or someone to emerge from the shadows at any moment, but he had stopped shaking Lily. His hands, however, remained perched on Lily's shoulders firmly.

"James, look at my eyes," ordered Lily softly.

James finally obeyed her command. He returned her glance and seemed to finally relax.

"You had another dream," stated Lily. "That's all that it was, a dream. You are in the Hospital Wing at Hogwarts and you are safe. Nothing is going to hurt you here," soothed Lily.

As Lily spoke, James visibly crumpled. His hands slipped from her shoulders, and he just slumped over, nearly crushing her. Then the tears started to fall. Lily felt so bad for him; it must have been one heck of a dream to make James Potter cry. She moved a bit closer to him so that it was a bit easier for the both of them. And then, Lily just let James cry on her shoulder while she rubbed his back soothingly and whispered anything she could think of that could be thought of as comforting.

And so they just sat there on a hospital bed in the dead of night; James clearly shaken and Lily trying her best to comfort someone who didn't even seem to realize that she was even there. In truth, James wasn't at all aware of his surroundings. But eventually, the dream began to fade and he could once more perceive reality for what it was.

"Oh Merlin Lily," said James as he returned to a clear state of mind. They separated and then James continued, "I'm sorry."

"Do you want to tell me what this dream was about?"

James pondered it for a moment and then nodded. "I can't verbalize all of it, but I will tell you what I can."

"Ok."

"Well, I had better start off with this; I now know who that man in the black cloak was from my first dream."

"Really? Who was it?"

"Voldemort," said James dully. Both he and Lily involuntarily shuddered slightly.

"How can you tell?"

"Because he was there again. I don't know if the person I saw in my dream is what Voldemort really looks like, but the figure was what my imagination came up with."

Lily nodded along, "Yeah, I see what you're saying; go on."

"Well, this time I was in my father's den. He and I were playing chess and my mother was near-by reading one of her romantic novel-thingys. Then all of a sudden these black shadows just suddenly appeared. They appeared out of nowhere. And then he showed up in the middle of them. With a wave of his hand, Merlin Lily, he didn't even use a wand…" James swallowed hard and then continued, "He bound up my parents and had them dangling on either side of him. And then he turned to me and said that if I wanted my parents to live I had to join him as a death eater. I said… I said…" James' voice faltered. "My mother was telling me not to, but he just slapped her and told her to shut up. So I said yes. I said yes! I told the worst murderer the world has ever seen that I would join him and assist him!"

"It's ok Potter," said Lily. "You were trying to save your parents."

"That doesn't make it right though."

"But it makes you human," said Lily as she stroked James' arm gently.

"So I said yes, and then he told me that for my first act as his loyal follower," James shuddered. "That I had to kill my own parents."

Lily gasped.

"I said no. So he used the Cruciatus curse, on first my mother and then my father. Then he asked me again to kill them. I still couldn't bear to just end my parents' lives, so he tortured them some more until they were begging for death. And still, even when they were gasping on the floor as their blood pooled on the carpet, I couldn't kill them."

"I don't know of many people who could kill their biological parents on a whim, or even a command."

"Sirius probably could after all they've done to him."

"But, that's another story for another day; finish yours."

"Ok. Finally Voldemort got tired of waiting for me to kill my parents, so he just left them there to die and apparated away. On of his followers grabbed my arm and we apparated to my front lawn. It was there that I was instructed to cast the dark mark over my own house. At first I didn't, even after I had been given the spell, so one of the hooded people sent a hex towards me. After that I did what I was told. The next part of the dream kind of flashed by; I saw myself get the official generic cloak and the dark mark. And then I went on all of these "quests" with them to kill and murder and steal. And I became less and less aware of the things I was doing; after a while I didn't even seem to care anymore.

"And then I was ordered on a "quest" with Voldemort himself. We were about to kill an entire family of muggles whose daughter, who was a witch, was a particularly troublesome thorn in Voldemort's side. Supposedly, she was quite the rabble-rouser," said James with an odd sort of proud smile before he continued.

"I was given the task of actually killing them, as usual. After the demented death eaters had their way with the prisoners, I was brought in. I quickly muttered the killing curse and was about to step back into the group when aurors appeared. Everyone apparated away except for me, I just couldn't for some reason.

"Some the aurors swarmed me, put an immobilizing charm on me and left to search the rest of the house. I was left with two aurors, one of which was Sirius. He starred intently at the bodies for a minute and then stormed over to me. He was on some crazy rampage; I have never seen him so mad before. He used curses I had never even heard of, until I finally fell in such a way that my hood fell back. He gasped and said, 'What have I done? What have you done?' I was unable to speak. He continued, 'You don't even know who you killed tonight do you?' I somehow croaked out a no. He laughed, strange I know, but coming from Sirius it wasn't that unusual. He's one of those guys that just laugh when something strikes him as odd, not just at the funny things. So he laughed and then said, 'You just murdered the family of Lily Evans.' Then he laughed some more and then suddenly he stopped. He froze and fell over on top of me almost immediately after I saw a flash of green light erupt from behind him and sink into his back. And that was when I was pulled out from under Sirius and was dragged away. After that I woke up."

"Do you get these kinds of dreams often?" asked Lily.

"No. Never ones this bad anyways. I had dreams before when I get a letter saying my parents died and ones like that, but I've never had to kill them before."

"What do you think might have provoked such vivid dreams?"

"Probably reading the newspaper and just the whole full moon thing," James sighed. "All it ever has is bad news of torture and death and my dad says that it's only going to get worse. I'm afraid for them Lily."

"I can understand why. From what I've gathered over the years, your family has always been one of those pureblood families that actually don't believe in the whole "blood matters" philosophy. Thus, your family would be a prime target in this war. Your family is also well-known and now your dad is an active auror again."

"Yeah, it's hard for me to be here when he's out there risking his life all the time. I just don't want him to die."

"You're lucky to have him," said Lily with slight envy in her voice. "Sirius talks about him all the time. He sounds like a great guy."

"He is," James assured her. "And I know that he's a capable auror- but… I'm still…"

"Scared?"

James just nodded.

"I would be too."

A silence fell over the couple. Then Lily stood up and walked over to where Madame Pomfrey stored the majority of her potions. She rummaged around in there for awhile and then emerged carrying a large vial and a cup with measurements marked on the side. Lily sat back down on the bed and poured some of the potion into the cup. When she was satisfied that she had the correct amount, she handed it to James and said, "Here, drink this."

James took the cup and said, "I always knew you were going to poison me one day Evans."

Lily laughed. "If I were going to poison you, you would have no idea that you were being poisoned. I would have an elaborate scheme and you would never see it coming. So don't worry, that isn't poison."

"Well now I feel so much better. From now on I am going to employ Peter as my full time food tester. He has to take two bites of everything on my plate and if he doesn't die then I will eat it."

"You honestly think I would use fast-acting poison so that you could die right in the Great Hall? No, that's too easy to trace."

"Wow Lily, it seems that you have put some research into this; now I'm really scared."

"As you should be," joked Lily. "I like to kill my victims thoroughly, starting with their minds. You know, freak them out a little. So watch out!"

James looked down at the cup of liquid and asked, "So what is this supposed to do?"

"It will help you fall asleep and it will make sure that you don't have any dreams at all. I suggest taking it sometime soon."

James downed the contents of the cup with a grimace. "Well, compared to the potion Madame Pomfrey used to heal me from a potion explosion in third year, that wasn't half-bad."

"Then that third-year antidote must have been absolutely horrid; the dreamless sleep potion is disgusting."

"You've had it before?"

"On numerous occasions," replied Lily evenly.

"What for?"

"In my second year I kept having the same dream every night, and every night I would wake up in a cold sweat and be unable to get back to sleep. So after three days, Marly made me go to see Madame Pomfrey and she gave me this potion. I had to take it every night for three months."

"What was the dream about?" asked James hoping he wasn't being too nosy.

"My mother's death," said Lily as she turned away.

"I'm sorry Lily, I didn't know."

"Most people don't."

Something suddenly then occurred to James, "Want to talk about it?"

"I suppose it's only fair since I prodded you so much tonight," started Lily. "My mother and my three sisters, Petunia, Violet and Daisy and I were driving home from the mall one afternoon when suddenly, a car came speeding out of the opposite lane and hit my car head on. My mother immediately died and my oldest sister Violet, who was sitting up in the front seat, sustained severe injuries and died in a coma three days later. Petunia, Daisy and I were released from the hospital a few days after that."

"How old were you?" asked James quietly.

"It was the summer after I had turned twelve. Right after my first year at Hogwarts."

"So do you live with just your dad now?"

"No. Four years ago my dad remarried this witch of a lady and I don't mean that she has magical abilities. She torments Petunia and Daisy and she hates me; all she has been trying to do since she received custody of us is to marry me off to some rich guy. It's funny, Petunia craves the attention that she gives to me; I despise it and wish that she would just leave me alone like she does to Petunia."

Just then James yawned. "I'm sorry Lily," he finally managed after another deep yawn.

"It's just the potion taking affect," she said dismissively. "Good night James."

"Night Lily," said James and he slipped back under his blanket after Lily had arisen from her seat and fetched herself some dreamless sleep potion and a few potions for the intense pain that was starting to creep up on her.

James slept peacefully through the rest of the night.