Be Here Now

Disclaimer: Oh, how I wish I owned Harry Potter…

A/N: Without further ado… CHAPTER FOUR!

x.o.x.o.x.

Hilary stands in the middle of the seventh year girls' dormitory, staring at the empty bed that used to be occupied by Lily's brilliant red hair.

"I can't believe she's lying in the hospital wing unconscious right now," Hilary sighs.

"She'll survive," Marlene assures Hilary softly.

"How can you be sure?" Hilary asks.

Alice turns from her dresser to smile sadly at Hilary Potter. "She's Lily Marie Evans, Hilary. She is the strongest person I know, especially after what we found out. She'll survive."

x.o.x.o.x.

James Potter steps inside the Head Common Room and smiles slightly at his surroundings, but he can't help thinking of Lily, so he doesn't have the concentration to admire his new living quarters properly. He sinks down onto a couch and stares into the fire.

"Prongs mate!"

James pulls the two-way mirror from his pocket. "Yeah Pad?"

"You need to stop wallowing! It's the first day of our final year, enjoy yourself!" Sirius cries joyously.

James grins ruefully at his best mate. "Did you already knock back a couple glasses of Firewhiskey, Sirius?"

"Maybe," Sirius replies slyly.

James rolls his eyes. "That's a yes."

"Whatever. The point is, why don't you get your arse into the Gryffindor common room to celebrate instead of wallowing over a girl that's currently out like a light?" Sirius demands.

"One day, Pads, you'll find a girl you love and when she's in the hospital wing, you'll be wallowing." With that, James zips out of the connection and rests his chin in his upturned palm. Sirius is right. It is our first day of our last year. Maybe I'll get out and squeeze in a few good snogging sessions before Lily returns, muses James. Yes, that's a good idea. James stands and strides confidently out the Head Common Room to find an adequate kissing partner.

x.o.x.o.x.

Emerald green eyes stand out like lamps in the darkness of the hospital wing. Shades are drawn and no light is visible except for the light under Madam Pomfrey's door. Lily Evans sits up in her bed, her emerald orbs scanning her surroundings. Finally realizing where she is, she sighs and slumps back onto the pillow.

"Madam Pomfrey?" she calls softly.

At once, the kind hospital matron is by her bedside. "Miss Evans! You are awake!"

Lily nods, smiling. "Yes that I am. What happened, Madam Pomfrey? How long was I out?"

"Not even twelve hours, dear. You met the Death Eaters on the train while trying to protect younger students. Professor Dumbledore is quite pleased with your work but has appointed a temporary Head Girl," the Healer informs her.

Lily bites her lip, trying not to let envy show. "Who?"

Madam Pomfrey smiles. "Your good friend, Hilary Potter."

Lily grins in relief. No doubt Hilary would return the badge right away; she wasn't a leadership type of person. "May I be released, Madam?"

Madam Pomfrey gives her a last checkup. "Yes, yes, go. It is the first day of your seventh year, after all. Go have fun, but not too much."

Lily smiles. "Thank you, Madam Pomfrey."

x.o.x.o.x.

"Hils."

Hilary bolts upright. "Lils?"

Her dearest friend's emerald orbs are staring at her. "May I have the Head position back?"

Even in the dark, Hilary can tell Lily is grinning. "Of course."

Lily takes the badge and pins it on, because her old badge had slipped off on the train. "Goodnight, Hilary. Sweet dreams." And like the wind, she is gone so quickly that Hilary's last thought before letting sleep claim her is wondering if she was a dream.

x.o.x.o.x.

Lily stands in front of the portrait to the Head Common Room. She whispers the password and steps in. She freezes at the sight. James Potter is locked in a fierce lip lock with a blond Ravenclaw girl.

Lily rolls her eyes. Typical Potter .Snogging a girl in the Head Common Room past curfew and at nearly two in the morning at that, she thinks slightly bitterly. She coughs softly.

James breaks apart reluctantly, looking up with murderous hazel eyes that soften immediately when he sees who interrupted them. "Evans! You're released!"

Lily scowls. "Clearly. Not much brain capacity, eh, Potter?" She glances past his shoulder and her eyebrows shoot up. "Amanda!" Amanda Ellery was a fifth year prefect. "Going for younger girls now, are you, Potter?" She turns back to Amanda. "You are out after curfew, and despite your prefect badge, I have to deduct ten points from Hufflepuff. Now you better go before McGonagall or Filch catches you."

Amanda, looking surprised, scurries out.

James glares at Lily, momentarily forgetting her fragile condition, both physical and emotional. "You didn't have to kick her out!" he yells angrily.

Lily doesn't raise her voice. "It is past curfew by more than three hours. In case you haven't noticed, it's two in the morning."

James throws a discreet look at the clock and sighs, going for a different tactic. "You didn't have to dock points!"

Lily wants to raise her voice, but she can't for lack of stamina. Madam Pomfrey had said that the curse had cut the skin outside her lungs deeply and speaking too much or loudly could cause her to lose her voice completely. "You and she are both extremely lucky I didn't give her detention, because that could affect you as well."

"I don't give a bloody damn about detention!" explodes James.

"But you give a bloody damn about some one-night stand?" Lily raises an eyebrow gracefully.

James stares at her for a moment, and then slides down onto the couch, placing his head in his hands. "Very good point," he mutters. "Why didn't you scream at me, anyway? You'd usually be screaming your lungs out."

"Maybe because my lungs nearly were cut out," Lily snaps testily and leaves James alone, walking into her dorm and slamming the door without noticing any décor and stumbling up the stairs impulsively.

x.o.x.o.x.

"LILY!"

The Hogwarts Great Hall stares as three girls jump up from the Gryffindor table to attack the reinstated Head Girl and said Head Girl giggling and hugging her friends back.

Lily sits as the Great Hall starts buzzing again and the students turn back to their breakfast. "Why so happy? I was barely out half a day."

Hilary places a goblet of orange juice in front of the Head Girl. "You scared us so much, Lils, that's why."

As the other girls include reasons, Remus interrupts. "Lily, Professor Dumbledore didn't contact your parents. We hope that's okay with you."

Lily, being the amazing actress she was (or just because she was used to the lie), replies easily, "Oh, no, Remus. I'm perfectly fine with that; no need for Mum and Dad to worry unnecessarily." Her voice catches slightly on the words 'Mum and Dad', but no one except Hilary, Alice, and Marlene notice.

x.o.x.o.x.

The seventh year Gryffindor girls exit the Great Hall, chatting animatedly, when a Hufflepuff girl in sixth year steps up to them, blocking their path.

"Well, well, well. If it isn't the whore Mudblood, the slutty half-blood, and the blood traitors," Maya Santiago sneers, flipping her blond hair over her shoulder.

"And the horny, whore, hoe, slut, stupid blond creature," Lily snaps back. She is prepared for Maya's outraged expression, but she isn't prepared for a strong hand grasping both her wrists and twisting them painfully behind her.

"Don't you dare insult my girlfriend," James Harold Potter snarls.

Lily stifles a gasp and Hilary stares at her twin brother with disgust. "That wasn't what you called her last night," she snaps back, trying to keep the pain out of her voice. James's hand is digging harshly into one of her deepest cuts.

"She wasn't my girlfriend last night," James replies smugly.

"And she won't be in two days," retorts Lily.

"Oh, trust me, Evans. I feel a deeper emotion for Maya here. It may even be love," mocks James.

Lily bites her lip hard. "Well, that's a surprise. I wasn't entirely sure that the James Potter was capable of love. After all, how could a cold-hearted person like himself be capable of emotions?" Lily feels a cut being slit open but she grits her teeth.

"MR. POTTER! MISS SANTIAGO! What in the name of Merlin is going on here? Mr. Potter, let go of Miss Evans right this moment!" Professor McGonagall shrieks, striding angrily to the trio.

Lily feels James's grasp slacken and pulls her arms completely out, wincing at the pain. Several more cuts had come open; mostly ones Marlene had bound together.

"Miss Evans! Are you alright?" McGonagall cries in alarm as Lily's dark blood starts dripping onto the carpet.

Hilary rushes forward, taking care to tread heavily on both culprits' feet, catching Lily just before she hits the ground.

x.o.x.o.x.

"JAMES! HOW COULD YOU?" screams Sirius, pacing the length of the seventh year boys' dormitory while his best mate watches him stonily.

"How could I what?" James asks calmly.

"Manhandle Lily, the love of your life, in such a way?" Remus clarifies for Sirius, enraged.

"As of this morning, Lily Marie Evans was no longer the love of my life. Maya Santiago is."

Sirius snorts. "Yeah, right. You spent six bloody years pining after Miss Evans, and you expect us to believe that? Even if she isn't the love of your life, you could get expelled for this!"

James snorts in turn. "Right. How could I? It's not as if I fatally injured her or anything. That was all to do with the Death Eaters."

"But you slit open her cuts again," Peter offers.

"And that is enough for her to testify for expulsion and sentence," Remus agrees.

"Whatever. Mum and Dad could just bail me out, and her mum and dad could just talk her out of it," James scoffs.

"Lily is right. Since when did you become such a cold-hearted beast? The old James Potter would have cared, the old James Potter would be staring off into space blankly while lying on his bed, trying to figure out how he would live without Lily Evans," snaps Sirius.

"She just triggered something! Last night, she kicked out one of my stands, and I couldn't bear that she'd be doing that all year! So I found Maya, who I've fancied for a bit now, and asked her to be my girlfriend. I just realized how much I cared. I mean, I have to live my life, right? I'm only seventeen! I can't just keep having one night stands!"

"I am truly disgusted with you right now, James."

Standing in the doorway is Hilary Potter, Alice Prewett, and Marlene McKinnon. Hilary had spoken.

James laughs. "Taking your best friend's side over your flesh and blood, Hilary?"

Hilary advances into the room, her identical hazel eyes boring fire into James's. "As far as I'm concerned, Lily Marie Evans is more of my sibling that you are. I know everything about her, and I thought I knew everything about you." She pauses. "I guess I was wrong."

James laughs. "Of course you didn't. A man needs his secrets, doesn't he?"

"Yes. A man. You are acting like a boy," snipes Alice snidely.

"Whatever. I'm going to go find my girlfriend now."

But before James can make it halfway to the door, Professor Dumbledore materializes. His face bears a grim expression. Everyone takes the cue to sit, even James.

Dumbledore enters the room. "I have some grave news."

Hilary tenses, Alice's ears perk, and Marlene looks stonily at the headmaster. Sirius, Remus, and Peter straighten.

Dumbledore's face is sad, regretful, and grim. "We are afraid that Lily Marie Evans has more a chance of dying than living.

x.o.x.o.x.

A/N: Should I continue? I want at least one review before I write any more chapters. Is that too much to ask for? Until chapter five…

~TrueLoveis4ever