Hi guys! I planned on uploading this chapter on Sunday, but since I forgot, here is the 18th chapter! Hope you enjoy!

I woke up in a soft, comfortable bed. I didn't even wonder whose bed I was in, because I smelled at the pillow it was James's. Wood smoke and peppermint filled my mind and my soul, and I drifted back to sleep.

oO0Oo

When I opened my eyes again, it was to see untidy, raven black hair and a familiar pair of hazel eyes. Red lips parted and white teeth showed themselves when I slowly sat up.

"Hey there, beautiful," James said, sitting next to me on his bed. "How nice to see your eyes again."

I smiled weakly before remembering what happened. My muscles tensed. "Where's Ivy? Is she alright?"

"Easy there, tiger," James relaxed me, putting his hands on my shoulders and keeping me from jumping out of the bed. "You know how much I needed to fight to get you here in my room? Madame Pomfrey almost killed me when I said I was taking you to the dorm."

My hands touched his hair and I saw the scratch above his right eye. "What happened after I fainted?"

He smiled softly. "Let's talk about that later, all right? You just woke up."

"I want to know, James," I begged, but he shook his head and kissed the tip of my nose.

"And I will tell you when you're better. Until then, you do just as I say, understood?"

"Ay, ay, captain," I saluted and he laughed. "What's my first order, Sir?"

"Give me permission to kiss you," he whispered, that ridiculous grin touching his lips.

I chuckled. "Granted," I replied.

He kissed me in such a gentle way I felt like I was about to melt. It took away the pain and the terror from when I was abducted and filled my heart with the feeling I was loved. "I love you," he said against my lips and I smiled at the perfect timing.

I pulled back after a minute or two. "What's that delicious thing I smell in here?" I asked, putting my nose in the air and sniffing the air to recognize the smell.

"Your mother shared her secret recipe for her pudding," he told me, shrugging. "I thought I'd make it for you."

"That's unbelievingly sweet of you, Mr. Potter," I smiled and the blush that crept up his neck was one of a thousand.

"Eat," he ordered, "I'll go get Marlene and the others. They're dying to see you."

I loved my friends. You see, they had always been there for me, whatever mess I had to face, even my first feelings for James, but now I just... I couldn't handle to see them. Like James said, I would talk to them later, when I knew what had happened to Ivy, Snape and the rest of the Death Eathers, but first, I needed time. I didn't want them to ask questions I didn't even know the answer to. "Will they be asking questions? 'Cause I'm not ready for that –"

"I told them they only could see you when they shut about the events and they just have to be like always to make you feel better."

I closed my eyes and sighed heavily. "You scare me, you know that?"

"Excuse me, love?"

"You're just too perfect, James Potter."

oO0Oo

"Does she know, yet, Headmaster?" Minerva McGonagall asked Albus Dumbledore when they had a minute alone in his office.

"Does who know what, dear?" Albus asked. He poured two glasses of old Firewhiskey and drank both of them when Minerva didn't take the second glass from him.

"Lily Evans. Does she know why she was abducted by Walburga Black?" The professor's voice cracked at those two last words. Her hand covered her mouth and she walked through the room with quick, short steps.

Albus sighed. "No. I told James, since he's the one Ivy June contacted, but I asked him not to tell Lily. I want to tell her myself." He dropped in his chair and rubbed in his eyes with his thumb and index finger.

"But , why?"

"Because there's a lot more behind this, I assume," Dumbledore thought aloud. "Think about it. Ivy June, a Squib girl, born in a family full of talented and famous Aurors, gets abducted the same day Lily Evans, a Muggleborn, disappears. There's more to it than we think. I just haven't figured out what, yet."

Minerva leaned with her back against the cold stone of the wall next to the newly born Phoenix. "They have something in common. There's a reason they want those two. I bet it's something obvious, something so obvious we just don't see it."

Albus snapped his fingers and Fawkes raised his head at the sound. "Of course, that's it!"

"I'm sorry?"

"Think about it. Who is the one person both of the girls know? Who is the one they both trust?" Albus asked.

McGonagall's eyes became wide with comprehension. "James Potter."

Dumbledore looked at her with a content look. "Indeed, dear."

"Bloody hell," Minerva breathed. "You remember that boy – what was his name again – Felix Mason? He was abducted and killed, and if I'm not mistaking, he was in the same year as James."

"Yeah, I remember," the Headmaster slowly nodded, "you don't think that –"

"That's exactly what I think," the professor said and she closed her eyes. "The Potter family went into hiding after the Christmas holidays, and since that happened, Lord Voldemort has been killing people."

Albus sucked in a breath. "Voldemort is looking for the Potters."

oO0Oo

"Do it! Do it!" I yelled when Sirius had denied a Dare and had to eat an earwax-bean. "C'mon, Black! Put it in your mouth!"

"I hate you," he sighed, before sticking his tongue out at me and eating the bean. "Blech. Disgusting," he decided.

"Ha! Okay, who's next, Sirius?" I asked.

Sirius rubbed his chin and made a whole show of picking someone out of the group. Marlene, Alice, Remus, Peter, James and Frank sat in a circle on my bedroom floor, with me between James's legs. "Moony!"

It went on and on and on. My best friends humiliated each other, laughed at one another and I came to know a lot more about Remus and Sirius, like how Remus had once accidentally put on one of Marlene's knickers when the whole bunch had stayed at the Potter mansion a couple of years ago.

Around nine, James sent everyone out, apologizing to the guys and telling them they had to crash in the sofas in the common room, but they said they understood, sleep tight.

I lay down in my boyfriend's bed, closing my eyes and letting the soft sheets surround me. When he lay behind me, my back against his chest and legs around his, I let him hug me from behind.

"Are you feeling better, Lily?" he whispered in my ear.

I was already half asleep, so I muttered the answer. "Yeah. They're awesome people."

"I know. Now, go to sleep. Tomorrow it'll be a hard day for us."

"Mmmm."

"Love you, Evans."

This time, I turned around in his arms, kissed him on the lips and smiled at him in the dark. "I love too, James Potter. So, so, so much."

"That's my girl."

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