SORRY i have taken this long to get this chapter out! :( I broke my laptop but things have just got all sorted now and I have all my documents and everything and a nice new laptop! Enjoy this chapter- Bee 3

The first few weeks of school pasted in a blur of meetings with teachers, arranging and organising the prefect duties, for both of them and for James, as he was still captain of Gryffindor Quidditch team he had to reorganising team meetings and practice and trials to find some new talent for his team, determined to bring the trophy home one more time. So they were both feeling the pressures of their roles of Head boy and girl in conjunction with keeping up with their already high piling N.E.W.T work; so much so that they hardly had anytime alone together.

One night, after a month back at school, James and Lily managed to snatch an hour together in a secluded corner of the library; Lily was sitting on his lap rewriting some notes from one of her classes while he had his transfiguration textbook open attempting to read it while being completely distracted by Lily's presence. Throwing aside the textbook, James brushed Lily's hair out of the way and kissed the back of her neck. "Mm...James." She tutted, "Don't distract me."

"Why ever not?" He said. "The last time we properly kissed, more than a peck was on the train here. I know we've both been busy... but come one Dear, merlin I miss you,"

Lily turned her head to look at him, knowing he was right, knowing that although they had been together a lot, seen a lot of each other it had always been in situations where they could not really act as a couple. "You're right."She sighed as James wrapped his arms around her. "Let's make a promise." She said. "A promise that we will leave our Sunday Afternoon's completely free for each other?"

James nodded. "Sounds good. Why Sunday?"

"Don't know." Lily shrugged. "Just because we're so busy during the week I guess."

"Ok, now Dear?" He said questioningly, he gave her a knowing smile.

Lily giggled and kissed him, turning to face him, pressing herself close to him as they embraced. They stayed like this for a long time, caught in this passionate embrace in a dusty corner of the library, until they were rudely disturbed- "Excuse me?" A voice drawled. "Am I catching the Head Boy and Head girl in the act?"

James pulled himself away from Lily and turned to see Sirius standing there, his broad shoulders covering the way back into the main area of the library. James gritted his teeth, willing his best friend to go away. Lily had turned to see Sirius too and was beginning to move off of James's lap. He grabbed her waist to hold her there, annoyed at Sirius's disruption. She brushed her hair from her eyes attempting to look less ruffled. "We weren't doing anything." Lily said defensively.

"Sure you weren't." Sirius sneered and his eyes flickered down, looking at Lily's shirt- the first few buttons were undone. She blushed fiercely and crossed her arms

"Oh Sirius bugger off," James said annoyed hating to see Lily embarrassed because of his best friend.

Sirius laughed. James glared. "Look I came to get you because you missed practice." Sirius explained.

"No I didn't- its only-," James said checking his watch. "Oh shit. It's nine already. Where did the time go?" He looked between Lily and Sirius.

"I wouldn't like to guess." Sirius said with a cheeky smirk. "Don't worry Prongs. I covered for you. Said you had some special meeting- which," He added with a grin at the couple. "It seems like you did."

Lily blushed. "Sirius don't take this out of proportion. We were only kissing."

"Oh really?" Sirius laughed his eyes on James's, telling James with a simple look that he knew this wasn't true. "Okay." He shrugged and turned to leave. "Don't let me catch you up to anything again." He laughed and left.
"Urgh, why does he get like that when he sees us kiss or anything?" Lily asked, not liking the smirking version of himself Sirius adopted when he caught them being coupley.

"He's just jealous." James said loudly, to ensure that Sirius would hear.

James slid a piece of parchment across the desk to Lily during one History of Magic lesson.

"I'm so bored..." He had scrawled across the top of the page.

"Same here...just sleep- you never take notes in Binns's lessons anyway what would it matter?" Lily wrote back.

"Mmm...It's too hot in here to sleep- wish he'd open a window every now and then!"

"James! He's a ghost! He's not going to know if it's too hot or not! Why don't you just put your hand up and ask him if you can open a window?"
"Yeah right!" James smirked as he passed the parchment back to Lily.

"Well stop moaning then!" Lily wrote back rolling her eyes as she did so.

James shrugged and wrote back, a small smile on his lips. "Come on lets ditch the rest of this."

"And how do you expect we'd be able to manage that?"

James looked at her as he read her last message and pointed with his quill to the Head Girls badge gleaming on her chest. "Powers Dear! We just say we have to attend some meeting!" James grinned as he wrote.

"And that Potter is abusing your power!"

"Oh shut it Evans. Live on the wild side of life for once- you know. It's the middle of the day...so that means no one would be in the Gry. Tower- we'd have some privacy..." He looked up at her as she read his words and gave her a wink. Lily blushed at the thought of have some alone, private time with James.

She grabbed her quill and replied hastily. "That offer is tempting...plan?"

James grinned as he read her message. He quickly shoved his books, wand and that scrap of parchment in his bag and raised his hand, adopting the good Head Boy expression he was so apt at wearing now. As he waited for Binns to notice his raised hand, Lily feinted checking her watch and packed away her things as James politely explained about a meeting they had to attend.

As they slipped out of the classroom, James walked by Sirius, who caught his eye and mouthed "Good one." Raising his eyebrows and then glancing at Lily pulling a quick suggestive look. "Have fun." He muttered jealous that his best friend was ditching Binns's lesson to go off with his girlfriend; while he was stuck sitting next to Remus who was eagerly writing down every word their teacher spoke.

The weather was bitter; James was cold, colder than he'd been in a long time. The rain came down in sheets; he shivered, his hands slipped on the wet wood of his broom handle. He leaned forward, urging the broom to go faster, attempting to ignore the whistling of the wind that shook his body. He had known the weather was going to be bad, but not this bad. The match was dragging; Ravenclaw had improved this year and were giving his team a run for his money. Nevertheless Gryffindor will still winning by a small margin.

He looked over his shoulder; Sirius was flying towards him the quaffle tucked under his left arm, his right hand on the handle of his broom. His hair was ragged in the rain, yet he was grinning seemingly unconcerned as he flew directly into the storm. Behind him a blue blur was flying straight towards him, "Sirius," He yelled and he knew his best friend had heard him. "Behind you," He pointed with a numb hand at the pursing Ravenclaw. Sirius looked behind him slightly, unconcerned. He looked at James once more as they continued to fly forward in the rain.

Thunder rumbled in the darkening afternoon sky, disguising the sound of a bludger being directed his way. James didn't hear the bludger, didn't see it: the last thing he remembered was Sirius throwing the Quaffle towards their fellow chaser, watching the red ball soar through the golden hoop and then pain in the back of his head, blackness and a sense of falling...

Images and noise flickered through his mind as he fell in and out of consciousness: Sirius's face up close, his face filled with worry and fear, screaming, crowds, people pushing shoving to get close to something, someone...him? The sounds of the wind, the rain hammering down, someone prodding the back of his head, pain, noise, a whistle piercing the air, the referee rushing towards the crowds, some ones arms around him, Lily's worried face, her soft voice, her hand reaching for him then darkness again.

He woke to a bright light and the image of many faces crowded around him. He was lying down on a flat comfy surface. He blinked, he wasn't wearing his glasses, he could hardly see. He coughed, he couldn't find his voice. "What happened?" He said roughly.

Sirius was right beside him, leaning over him, his face etched with worry. "Bludger to the head," James groaned as he realised he was right, he could feel the pain now, throbbing at the back of his head. He tried to move his hand to feel the lump but Sirius clasped his hand. "Don't Prongs, you're bleeding."

"Glasses," James asked pleadingly. Sirius shook his head. "But you're blurred." Sirius half-laughed at this but he still looked worried.

James turned his head slightly and saw Lily standing at the opposite side of the bed to Sirius, she had tears in her eyes, and her usually perfect hair was tangled and a mess from the rain. "Jamie?" She asked reaching for his free hand.

"Lils." He whispered trying to smile but the pain was becoming overwhelming. He hardly noticed that the rest of the team were all grouped around his bedside, as well as Remus and Peter.

As James slipped back into unconsciousness, the nurse arrived at the bedside. She was annoyed at the number of visitors and how most of them were wearing extremely muddy and water logged Quidditch robes, she ordered the team away telling they weren't allowed back until they were clean, allowing only Remus, Peter and Lily to stay as they weren't in muddy robes; Sirius however refused to leave with the rest of the team. "No. I'm staying," he argued. The nurse glared. "He's my best friend."

"Padfoot," Remus said evenly, calmly. "Just go for a quick shower and then come straight back if anything serious happens we'll come and get you." Remus promised smiling at his friend.

Sirius crossed his arms. "I don't want to leave. I'm worried." He admitted.

Lily who had barely been listening to the argument looked up at the tone in which Sirius now spoke in. She let go of James's hand and moved to stand beside Sirius.

"Come on Sirius." She said softly. "I'll walk you back up to Gryffindor Tower. Help you clear you're worries."

Although Lily herself was worried she knew Sirius needed company and besides she'd been petrified from the moment she'd seen the blurred red figure falling through the sky, knowing it could be James and then watching as another red cloaked figure soared downwards after him; recognising the second red blur as Sirius she knew it was James who had been hit and was falling speedily to the ground. Her heart had leapt to her throat and even now she couldn't get rid of the fear that James was in trouble, in pain, even when she could see he was in the safest, best place possible.

She glanced back once at the boy she loved unconscious on the bed; the nurse now leaning over him, wand in hand. She gently guided Sirius from the hospital and out into the corridor. They didn't speak for a long time, the halls echoed with their footsteps and the sound of their wet cloaks. Finally Lily spoke "He'll be okay Sirius." She said gently.

"I just can't lose him." Tears burned in Sirius's eyes, he looked down to hide them from Lily. His voice caught as he spoke. "He's all I've got."

Lily half smiled understanding what he meant but not agreeing. She took his hand and squeezed it. "That's not true, you've got Remus and Peter and me." She smiled.

Sirius nodded, they were at the portrait hole by now, he dropped her hand and whipped his eyes on his wet sleeve. "Thanks Evans." He grinned. "See you in a bit." And with that he disappeared into the Common Room pulling on the face, the image, of cocky Sirius Black that everyone knew and loved. Although, Lily thought to herself, she preferred the other side to him, the side he rarely showed, the side she'd first seen the night he'd arrived at her door to tell James he was running off to be a Death Eater and the side she'd seen again tonight as he'd worried over his best friend and for the first time Lily truly saw why James cared about Sirius so much, she saw how deep their friendship ran, how much the Marauder's for all their show and bravado, really cared for each other and would easily protect each other to the ends of the earth.