Chapter 20: Pieces Come Together…

Come on Lily, you can get out of this. Just get to the Hospital Wing. Get to the Hospital Wing. I repeatedly told myself. Sirius smiled wide and his usually stormy, grey eyes were bright and slightly sadistic. It was terrifying. I was very used to Bellatrix looking like this. Sirius? Not so much. He raised his wand. Lily, think! Luckily, I was spared a diversion because one came walking our way. It was the Junior Death Eaters. It looked like all of them decided to take a walk for a change. There were Bellatrix, Lestrange, Avery, Mucliber, Crabbe, Goyle, Nott, Snape, Regulus, and the Carrow siblings. Okay, so maybe this wasn't so great, but, they would distract Sirius.

"Sirius! Attacking the mudblood?" Bellatrix asked gleefully. "You've finally decided to join us? Oh, your mum will be so proud!" She squealed.

"Only when hell freezes over, my dear cousin." Sirius said, laughing maniacally. "I'm attacking her for different reasons." Sirius explained, his eyes bring and evil. I took this opportunity to run. I moved away from him and the Junior Death Eaters, and broke into a run with only one goal in mind: Get to the hospital wing. "Get back here!" I heard Sirius bellow from behind me. Get to the Hospital Wing. I turned a corner. There were more people in this corridor. Get to the Hospital Wing. But, instead of having to push through them, they eventually made way for us, since Sirius was rapidly throwing spells in every direction. Get to the Hospital Wing. I finally came to the large brass doors of the hospital wing. I opened them with my wand and turned around a little as I got closer and I realized it was a mistake, but it was already too late. Sirius hit me with a spell and I felt myself fly backwards. I slid painfully across the floor. Sirius was charging towards me. I really didn't want to hurt him, so I put my wand in my back pocket.

"Sirius, really…" I said and put my hands up, showing him I wasn't going to hurt him. He fired another spell at me in response and I flew back even more. When I regained my sense of direction, Sirius was standing in front of me, panting. I was on all fours, but my leg was throbbing painfully, so I couldn't stand. He threw his head back and laughed again. I used this to carefully crawl away from him. As I did, I looked around for James. I saw him on the bed a few away from the doors I just flew through. He was staring open-mouthed, shifting his glance from me to Sirius and then back to me. I took my wand out of my pocket. "Episkey." I said, trying to see if it would work. If it was really badly bruised, it probably wouldn't. I used the nearest bed to try to stand up, and thankfully, I was able to. Walking was a little more difficult, because my leg still hurt a little, but I limped as fast as I could towards James and returned my wand to my back pocket.

"Oh no, you don't go anywhere near him!" Sirius shrieked as though he were drunk. He shot a spell at me, but he missed pretty badly. Get to James. Get to James. I told myself. I was almost there when Sirius grabbed my arm and threw me to the ground.

"Sirius!" James yelled, finally able to find his voice. Only then did I realize: Where was Madame Promfrey? Why didn't she come out of her office when she heard all the noise? The answer came through the Hospital Wing doors.

"I was watching the show from afar, but now I decided to join in!" Bellatrix said, standing next to Sirius. She quickly silenced him, pushed him into a chair, and tied him up. She started dragging me by the arm.

"Let go!" I screamed and tried shaking her off. She only laughed. She dragged me right next to James' bed.

"I'm going to torture you," She said, pointing at me with her wand, "While you watch. You know, so you can't do anything about it? Double the pain!" She explained, laughing.

"You're insane!" I glared at her. She stopped laughing and glared right back. Then, without warning, she pointed her wand at me.

"Sectumsempra!" She screeched. "Watch the pain! Watch the pain!" I felt my skin cut everywhere. It was even worse than last time. I let out a scream. Bellatrix laughed.

"Lily! Lily!" James yelled. He came down next to me. Bellatrix laughed and ran. The pain started to grow worse… "Lily!" James yelled again.

"Wand…back…pocket…D-Dumble…dore…" I croaked. The pain was starting to get worse and I felt a little light-headed.

"Lily!" James said softly. He started crying. "I c-can't remember t-the counter curse!" He said, tears spilled quickly down his cheeks.

"K-kiss…Imp…..Imp…Imper…iused." I managed to get out. His hazel eyes went wide. And my vision blurred…my eyelids closed slowly…

"How is she?" I heard someone whisper.

"Better." Another voice yawned. My eyes fluttered open.

"James?" I called out.

"Lily! Merlin, Padfoot, she's awake!" I turned my head towards him. He was sitting in a chair next to me and he was holding my hand. Sirius was standing up next to him. I realized then where I was: The hospital wing…but what was I doing here? Images came rushing towards me…visiting Dumbledore... Sirius putting his wand at my throat… running through the halls… Bellatrix…

"I guess we owe you a well overdue apology…" Sirius said sheepishly. "Really, I'm sorry for hurting you like that, I felt horrible when James explained it all to me." He said, turning red. It took me a while to register what he was apologizing for.

"It's fine, since you get it now…and you got what I was saying?" I asked James. Thinking it over now, I really wasn't making much sense…

"Yeah, it took me a while…I was still in shock over everything for a while and then finally when I thought it through, and when Dumbledore talked to me, I got it. I told Sirius, and he told Marlene…" He explained, and subconsciously rubbed a spot on his arm. Sirius did the same thing. I raised an eyebrow.

"She didn't take it well." Sirius explained.

"Quoting her: 'That's what she was trying to tell you two idiots! I can't believe you realize now, when she's unconscious and could've died!' And then she hit us both multiple times. And attacked us with birds." James shuddered.

"Died…isn't that exaggerating a little?" I laughed.

"Actually, no. According to Marlene, you haven't eaten a meal since Saturday morning. You had absolutely no energy, no sleep, and the way Bellatrix hurt you, you could've died if we waited any longer." Sirius said in a small voice. James had this strange, far away look in his eyes.

"Well, I am alive. And what happened is over. Everything's okay." I said, in attempt to get James out of it. The look was creeping me out.

"Yeah I guess…I'm going to go get Peter, Remus, and Marlene. They've been waiting forever." Sirius said, and he left. I sat up in my bed.

"I can't believe I forgot to ask, what day is it? It clearly isn't…oh what day was that…Sunday! Right, it definitely isn't Sunday…" I asked.

"It's Tuesday…it's about one in the afternoon." James said quietly. He bit his lip.

"What? I missed yesterday's classes? And half of today's!" I screeched. He laughed a little.

"You were out cold for two days, and all you can think about is that you've missed classes? That's typical of you."

"Please tell me you've been taking notes or something for me!"

"Uh, no, actually, I've been here for the past two days…and Remus, Peter, Sirius, and Marlene were here, too, at least until last night, but then McGonagall forced them to leave." He said, ruffling his hair a bit. My stomach fluttered and I realized how much I missed when he did that.

"She made them leave…she didn't make you leave?" I asked.

"Well she tried, but I had Sirius put a permanent sticking charm on the chair to the ground, and on my pants to the chair. Sirius' sticking charms work really well, so even McGonagall couldn't undo them, and Dumbledore refused to try." He laughed. His eyes weren't as bright as they were before. I shuddered as the mental image of his frantic eyes, right before I passed out, came up in my mind. I sat up further in my bed and crossed my legs. I turned my entire body towards him. I would have to kill this thing haunting him now.

"James, listen to me. What happened before is over, okay? We can't do anything about it, we can't change it, and I know you're the type of person to blame literally everything on yourself, and you hate people you care about being hurt, especially if you could've done something to stop it. But James, you can't always be running around, playing hero. The only one that's going to hurt is you. Your circle of people you need to protect will get too big. Sure, maybe if you listened to me, this wouldn't have happened, but that's exactly it. This is hard to hear, I get it. But, we can't sit here and mourn something we can't change! We need to learn and move past it, okay? So next time, if either of us was in a similar situation, we should first consult each other before doing anything stupid, like throwing ourselves off the Astronomy Tower!" I cried. He gulped.

"You found out?" He asked weakly. I nodded.

"Really, that was entirely stupid of you! Throwing yourself off the Astronomy Tower for nothing!" I said, shaking my head.

"You're not nothing, Lily, you're everything." He said in a soft voice, his eyes watery. I smiled. I wanted to hug him, but he was stuck in that chair.

"Lily, thank Merlin you're all right!" Marlene said, running towards me. She hugged me and sat down on the edge of the bed next to me.

"I've already yelled at those four idiots. The birds were definitely the best part, right?" She asked them, as they came in.

"No, I think the yelling was the best part, it didn't cause anyone any harm." Peter shuddered. Marlene glared at him.

"Oh, and if you were wondering, I had Helena and Marissa take notes for you." Marlene added. I shook my head. They knew me too well.

"Thanks." I replied.

"Lily, we're really sorry…we should've listened to you…" Remus said. Peter nodded, turning red.

"It's okay, guys. You were just protecting him, like good friends." I smiled.

"James, you want the sticking charm off?" Sirius asked, bringing out his wand. James nodded. Sirius muttered some counter curse that I didn't know existed, and James stood up.

"That reminds me, where's my wand?" I asked them. James turned bright red. I raised an eyebrow. Sirius, Peter, and Remus burst out laughing. I exchanged a confused glance with Marlene. Remus stopped laughing first.

"Knowing James, he's probably been holding it this entire time." He said, and started laughing all over again. I got up lifted James' hand that I wasn't previously holding. My wand was in his hand. I rolled my eyes and took it from him. It was insanely warm in the one place he was holding it. Marlene burst out laughing.

"Mate, you're obsessed!" Sirius snickered.

"Well, I think it's sweet!" I said, hugging him. He smiled, hugged back, and stuck his tongue out at Sirius, who stuck his tongue out back.

"Really mature, guys." Remus said, finally gaining control of himself.

"Oh, good honey, you're awake!" Madame Promfrey said. "Is everything all right? Does anything hurt? Head? How's the scratches on your stomach? Your arms?" Scratches where..? I rolled up the full sleeves shirt I was wearing. Along both my forearms were red lines. Marlene gasped.

"They're a lot better than they were yesterday." James said.

"How…?" I asked. He turned bright red and looked towards the ground. I probably didn't want to know.

"Well, I guess your free to go for now. Check back with me every three hours and if your head or arms or stomach starts to hurt, come back here." Madame Promfrey told me sternly. I nodded.

"Okay then, so Lily, why don't we go to the kitchens for some food? You haven't eaten in ages!" James said. I nodded. Madame Promfrey shook her head.

"I see you've finally gotten yourself unstuck?" She smirked and left.

"I didn't think she had a sense of humor…" Sirius muttered. I rolled my eyes.

"Let's go." I said to James. He put a hand around my shoulders and led me towards the doors of the hospital wing. I stopped abruptly in front of it.

"What's wrong?" He asked.

"Do they all still think…" I asked, my voice barely above a whisper. He shook his head.

"When Sirius and I found out about all of that from Marlene, we made sure we killed the rumors. On the other hand, everyone knows what happened." He explained as he pushed open the doors. I took a breath and nodded. Everyone knew already. It was fine. It doesn't matter what they think anyway. We walked through the halls without any disturbance, as usual. Occasionally, I'd get a few apologetic smiles, but other than that, it was like nothing happened, which was good. Along the way, we passed Snape. His eyes widened and his mouth formed an "O" when he saw us. James glared at him. I rolled my eyes.

"Don't be immature." I muttered. He crinkled his nose but decided not to say anything. Smart choice. We walked the rest of the way in silence, simply enjoying each other's presence. We got there and he tickled the pear…which laughed this time…

"You've been here before, right?" He asked.

"Well, yeah, that one time in the beginning of the year when you asked me to talk to Sirius. I've never eaten here though." I said.

"That…is a sin." He finished. He led me to a table and we sat down. Almost right when we did, Misty appeared next to us.

"What can Misty get for Master?" She asked in her high-pitched voice, bowing low.

"Misty, please, it's James." James said, smiling. "And, we'll get a little of everything that was at lunch today." He said. I raised an eyebrow. "You haven't eaten since Saturday morning. You're in no place to object." He said, breaking out into a smile. His eyes were bright, like they usually were, and my stomach felt all giddy again. I smiled and blushed.

"Where did Bellatrix go? If Dumbledore found out what she did, surely she'd be expelled…" I asked.

"We won't have to deal with her for a long time. She fled. She left Hogwarts. I'm pretty sure she would've been happy to join You-Know-Who, but she still has the trace on her, and it'll make whatever courageous people left in the Ministry come after her. Padfoot thinks she's staying at home with her parents." He explained.

"That's great!" I said happily. No more Bellatrix for the next one and a half years. James eyes' suddenly turned dark.

"Who do you think Imperiused you?" James asked, looking at his hands. Misty brought out the food, but he didn't seem to pay attention to it.

"Really, I think it was a random person that the Junior Death Eaters imperiused, and then they imperiused me." I said truthfully. Even though I hadn't really thought about it until now, I think it made the most sense.

"Oh. Well, I think it may have been Snape." He said. I looked at him incredulously, but let him continue, to see what convoluted way he would make Snape the mastermind behind all of this. Honestly, Snape? "Don't look at me like that! I have it all thought out. Okay, so I think it was all a plan to split us apart. That's why he made you kiss him. No, don't interrupt; I have an explanation for that too. Okay, so he changed his appearance somehow…Polyjuice Potion! That's it! He changed himself with Polyjuice Potion, then either Imperiused you himself, or had someone else do it! And then, his plan didn't work, that's why he was so surprised to see us together!" James exclaimed. I rolled my eyes.

"Why would he do that? What reason does he have?" I asked, just playing along.

"I don't know, there's something about him, there's something in his eyes…" James muttered. I shook my head and started eating the bread in front of me.

"James, really, just drop it." I said, putting my hand over his. He looked intently at me. I raised an eyebrow.

"Fine…but it was definitely him." He said. I narrowed my eyes. "Okay, okay, no more talking about it!"

"Good." I smiled. "Now eat, because I'm not eating this myself."

A/N: Chapter 20...55 Reviews...4 months...I'm pretty satisfied :D

Anyway, thanks to: ana-12, TotallyGaga, i3fiction-novels, and siriuslyhopelesslycrazzzy (who's read more than one of my stories :D) for reviewing pretty much every chapter :)

By this time next week: I would've seen the Deathly Hallows at least once once!(And I'm jealous if you have, who's seen it?)

Speaking of next week, I'm mostly likely not going to update again until the Sunday after next Friday :( I get together with friends and go on vacation during Thanksgiving weekend :)

Alright, so PLEASE REVIEW!

Thanks!

Love,

SAM :)