Concertina: to fold, crush together, or collapse in the manner of a concertina.

August 24, 1978

He saw it again and again. The way she had just crumpled to the pavement, a surprised look frozen on her face, long red hair fanning out. He never heard the smack when she'd hit the ground, but Remus had. He'd been right next to her, fighting his own battle, but he hadn't been quick enough to help her. Now he sat across from James, head in his folded arms as they waited. Sirius had disappeared half an hour ago for a smoke.

James didn't know why he'd started with the disgusting habit and had threatened everything from his motor bike to his flask to get him to stop. Right now, though, he found himself wishing he were outside lighting up alongside him, just to get out of this too-small, too-cluttered makeshift waiting room.

They couldn't go to St. Mungo's. It was too crowded, too dangerous, and too nosy. On top of that, it was too far away. They were in Liverpool, in the back of an abandoned factory. He, Remus, and Frank Longbottom sat on dusty boxes in an old office. In the office across the hall there were a handful of cots hastily summoned by Edgar Bones, resident Healer. He had laid her on the one at the end, by the window. It was covered in old newspapers, and he figured she might like to have something to read when she woke up. Caradoc Dearborn was in the bed next to her. There were others, too, but James hadn't stayed in the room long enough to recognize them. Frank's wife Alice had taken him gently by the elbow and led him across the hall almost the moment he'd stood up.

"Edgar's good," Frank told him now, pulling the icepack away to check on the burn marks streaking his left arm. "He's healed almost every injury we've brought to him."

But James still saw it again and again; the way she just fell, folded to the ground in that burst of orange light, down in a second. The way her head had lolled limply when he'd finally managed to reach her side and scoop her up.

"Almost every injury," Remus mumbled into his arms.

"Shut up, Moony," James said harshly. More harshly than he meant.

"Well it's what he said," Remus slung back, head shooting up to look at James with wide, horrified eyes.

They had never seen such devastation so quickly. Bodies had littered the ground, flames leaping in half-collapsed buildings. And that laughter. It had been his laughter; James knew it. He had been there, for who else could have such an inhuman sound for a laugh?

"Don't get shirty with each other," Frank said grimly, wincing as he adjusted his icepack. "You signed up for this, remember? Her too. You never win anything without taking hits." Seeing both James and Remus blanch, he added hastily, "But like I said, Edgar's got a good track record with injuries."

He studied them as they settled back into the strangely tense apathy of this sort of waiting. James knew what he must see: two naïve kids barely eighteen spattered with the marks of a battle they obviously weren't nearly prepared to witness. That sense of adulthood that had come with finishing school and joining the order had dissipated like breath on a cold night the moment the curses had started flying. What the hell had they thought they were doing?

The door opened and both James and Remus leapt to their feet at the same moment. Alice was there, her braid coming out and her hands stained with red. She seemed dazed and James's stomach twisted painfully. But then she smiled.

"She's waking up," Alice told them breathlessly.

James was past her and across the hall in three steps. He slid past Edgar Bones and dove for the end cot by the window.

"Scottish boy's missing terrier found in New York Harbor," she croaked, rolling her gaze from thw window to him. "I always like happy endings."

"Lily," he whispered, knees hitting the floor as he let out a hysterical sort of laugh.

She fumbled to find his fingers, trying to lift her lips into a smile.

"Don't think you can get rid of me that easily, Potter."

"Wouldn't dream of it, Evans."

A/N: … hi? Um, yeah, so sorry for dropping off of the face of the internet there. Got super busy with school stuff. I'm here in the dorms now. Crazy orientation stuff is winding down and classes don't start until Tuesday, so I thought I'd let you all know what was going on, but I hate A/N chapters, so I wrote one more day. This one's for Oneofthosepeopleonthestreet who asked me a very long time ago for some Jily :) Here you are. Kind of.

Anyway, so I'm NOT abandoning this fic. Or any of my fics. But I am dialing the FF way down. It's because of college. I'm going to have to keep a 3.0 to keep my scholarships, so no FF writing for me until Fall break at the very earliest and probably not until Christmas, really. I'm sorry! I just don't have time anymore! But that doesn't mean I won't be checking for reviews now and again in between classes, hint hint. And of course, feel free to PM me any time! I'll probably get back to you, it's just writing takes up too much time, you know?

Thank you all so much! Hope to keep hearing from you!

Oh, yes, and if you care, I've decided to spew out all the half-finished FF documents I've been hording on this computer since I'm clearly not going to be finishing them any time soon and they deserve SOME purpose. I figure even if I don't get around to finishing them, maybe they'll inspire someone else to take up their own project. I know that's how a lot of my stories get started.