"What do you mean Lily's in the Hospital Wing?" Alice asked Remus at dinner. Her blue eyes were huge with worry and she had a death grip on Frank Longbottom's hand.

"I don't want to go into all of the details," the scarred boy replied. "Something happened and James carried her up to the Hospital Wing."

"James Potter?" asked Marlene McKinnon. She had her hands on her hips and was glaring between each of the three boys that stood before her. "What the hell is Potter doing taking Lily to the Hospital Wing? Do you two do something, Black, that caused her to get hurt?"

"McKinnon, I'm hurt," Sirius replied feigning a pained expression. "We were just innocently laying around the grounds when Lily was hurt talking to her so called friend Snivellus."

"Snape! I knew that no good, slimy Slytherin would get her hurt. She just couldn't fucking listen to me. Sev is good. Sev won't hurt me. Sev is my friend. Ugh! How could she have been so stupid?!"

"Marlene, people are staring," Alice told her nervously while looking around the Great Hall.

"I don't care if they're staring! Let them! All I care about is the fact that one of our best friends is in the Hospital Wing and we're not there."

"You won't be allowed in," Peter piped up.

"Oh yeah," Marlene rounded on him. "Why not?"

Peter, who was terrified by Marlene's attitude was too flustered to speak. Feeling pity for the boy, Remus spoke up.

"Dumbledore himself kicked us out of the Hospital Wing. Lily isn't in any state for visitors; the only reason James got to stay is because he refused to be treated until he was allowed to stay."

"Marlene," Alice said. "We can visit her first thing in the morning. There won't be classes tomorrow and I'm sure Madam Pomfrey will be in a better mood."

"Fine," Marlene snapped. "Can we at least go somewhere where these three can tell us what in the seven Hells happened?"

Marlene, who had a temper that rivaled only Lily's, waited for someone to answer her. The boys, not wanting to incur her wrath and keep their promise to Dumbledore, went up to the Gryffindor Common Room. Once they were there, Remus and Sirius were able to retell the events of the afternoon while leaving out the bit about the map. Emmiline and Alice were in tears and Marlene was getting more upset by the minute.

When the boys got to the part about Snape being tied to the tree, Marlene lost her temper. She could not believe that Snape would just stand by and let the Slytherins hurt the one person who was his friend.

"It's unbelievable," Emmeline said when she found her voice. "Poor Lily, to have to suffer like that. You guys were really brave you know, thank you for going after her."

Remus blushed at hearing Emmeline's words. He had always thought that Emmeline was attractive, but he was always too shy to let her know. Emmeline was sweet by nature, and always very sweet to Remus; he didn't think she would still be sweet to him if she knew his secret. Remus was always hard on himself for being a werewolf, he thought he was a monster and did not want to endanger anyone else's life by being involved with him.

"It was really no big deal," Sirius said with a wink. "We Marauders look for any excuse to kick some snake ass."

It was the middle of the night and James was fighting to stay awake. He had already sent the nurse away with his refusal for a bed; he didn't want Lily to wake up alone and scared. He held her hand and stroked her hair, willing her to wake up. James had never felt this scared in his life. If Lily didn't wake up, he didn't know what he would do—she was just about everything to him.

Lily had caught James's eye since their first year at Hogwarts. Her bright red hair and matching fire of a temper was a contrast to James's easy nature that he couldn't stay away from. He liked to challenge Lily. Her emerald green eyes show every emotion and James liked watching the light dance from them as she tried to figure out how to deal with him on a daily basis. He knew that he was hurting his chances of being with her by acting like an ass, but it was the only way to make her come out of her shell.

"Come on Lily," James murmured. "Please wake up."

James was remembering his life with Lily Evans in it. He recalled their first encounter on the Hogwarts Express, before they were even sorted into Gryffindor; that was when he first got on her bad side because he had made fun of Snape. It all came back to him. Every time James tried to talk to Lily, the greasy git was there to mess things up. James didn't mean to let Lily see him hexing Snape or pranking him, it just so happened that she was always around the corner from her friend.

"Some friend Snivellus turned out to be, huh Evans?" James joked quietly. "You can't let this get you, the Lily Evans I knew would fight and wake up. Please, please wake up Lily."

Lily stirred for the first time; her legs turned a bit and her palm twitched in James's hand. Slowly, her emerald eyes began to open and she blinked several times. She was groggy and disoriented, but most of all thirsty. She gingerly tried to get up, wincing at the pain her entire body felt at the movement. It was only then that she noticed her hand was in someone else's and she turned to see James.

"Potter," Lily's hoarse voice said. "What are you doing here?"

"I brought you here," James replied. "You sound horrible, let me get you some water."

James ran off to find the nurse and let her know that Lily was awake and thirsty. She gave Lily some water to sip on while she looked over her bruises. Upon seeing that Lily was not suffering internally, Madam Pomfrey gave her some potions to take away her pain and heal her bruises.

"You should be ready to go in the morning Miss Evans," Madam Pomfrey said gently. "You were very lucky not to have any broken bones. Please let me know if you have any more pain, I'm sure Mister Potter here wouldn't mind coming to get me if you do," she added and then left for her office.

"What do you mean you brought me here?" Lily questioned James the second the nurse was gone.

"You were already unconscious by the time I was able to get to you but Sirius, Remus, Peter, and I heard you screaming and we ran to you. There were a bunch of Slytherins hurting you and we fought them off before picking you up and carrying you here. Lily, you had me so worried, I thought you were never gonna wake up."

"You…and Sirius and Remus?" Lily was speechless. She thought the boys hated her. "Potter, Severus was there, he would've—"

"Snape was tied to a goddamned tree and he was watching you be tortured," James hissed; he was having a hard time controlling his own temper at the moment. "He was watching them Lily, what the fuck did you think he was going to do?"

"I d-don't understand," Lily started to cry. "S-Severus is my best f-friend."

"Lily, please don't cry over that asshole. I hate it when you're upset," James said as he put his arms around her.

James held Lily close to him as she cried. He didn't know what to say that would make her feel better, so he just stroked her hair and let her cry all her frustrations out. As Lily was crying, she realized how comfortable she felt in James's arms. She also realized how much he had done for her; not only had he and his friends probably saved her life by fighting the Slytherins, James carried her and made sure she was safe and getting help.

"Potter, I—"

"James," he whispered in her ear, tightening his hold around her. "My name is James."

"James," Lily said looking him in the eyes for the first time. "I…everything you did, I don't know how to thank you," she looked down, embarrassed.

Lily felt her face flush with color as James moved his arms. Here was a boy who, twenty-four hours ago, she couldn't stand and he saved her life. She didn't know why his moving his arms away from her would upset her; Lily thought he probably realized what he was doing and moved away because he was still mad at her from earlier in the semester.

"Lily," James said, tilting her chin up with his hand effectively banishing all of her negative thoughts. "Just knowing you're safe is enough for me."

Before Lily could reply, James put one arm back around her and moved her face closer to his. The last thought both teenagers couldn't help thinking was how well they seemed to fit together, and then James met Lily's lips for the first time.