Lily, for one. She had refused him yet again, but James felt his rejection more now than he ever had. Just when it had felt like things were going great between the two of them, when he had been succeeding in the wreckage of Lily’s solid protective barriers, it was all ruined. She said no. Why? James wondered. He had studied her so often in the past few weeks that he was finding it easier to read her emotions. And, just for a moment, on that night a week ago, James saw for the first time that Lily actually seemed to be feeling slightly more-than-friendly feelings for him. He could tell because he had felt that way for many years. They had been actually having whole, sincere, meaningful conversations for the first time in their six years as classmates; walking to classes together; joking and laughing; making fun of Professor Slughorn in Potions class…James hated feeling the way he was right now: desperately in love. He had thought that he had fallen in love with Lily four years ago, but that was nothing compared to how he was feeling now. He was hopelessly tangled up in Lily. When she smiled at something he said, his heart skipped madly. His face felt like it was on fire those times she caught him staring during History of Magic or any/every other class. He had been so incredibly jealous when she talked and laughed with the other blokes. But she hadn’t done that in a long time, so he shouldn’t be worrying, he told himself. When had she changed? She was still extremely bright and studious, of course, but her smile didn’t quite reach her eyes anymore. She seemed to be holding back”everything. Lily was now more reserved, more formal, more mature, more--
James leapt to his feet, his heart pounding in his chest. Something was wrong. He had no idea how he knew this, but he just felt that something was wrong with Lily. He bolted off toward the castle, slipping and sliding in the snow.
------------------------------------------------
She felt the sweat forming on her face as she ran up the stairs, The Bundle clutched to her chest. She turned into the doorway and slammed the door shut, locking it with her wand. She put The Bundle down inside an upright cage and rummaged around on the dresser looking for something. I must find it!
The door was blasted off its hinges and it crumbled into pieces, which sprayed everywhere. Lily dashed over to The Bundle, the shards of wood stabbing her body. She had to protect The Bundle, the helpless, defenseless, precious Bundle from that awful Dark thing. It was in the doorway.
“Stand aside…” it hissed from the blackness.
“No!” Lily screamed, shielding The Bundle from that Fear.
“Stand aside, girl!”
“NO!” she shouted again.
Its wand was lifted and Lily braced herself for the pain that was sure to come, all the while hiding The Bundle from view.
That blast of green light hit her in the chest. The pain! Ripped, torn…Not The Bundle! Oh, the pain! Agony…
Lily gasped, ending her scream, and opened her eyes. She shivered and quaked as the sweat rolled down her body, mingling with the tears on her face. She was cold, so cold. She needed warmth. The common room. Lily stumbled her way down the stairs, collapsing in the chair nearest the common room fire. She hated The Dream, hated it!
At that moment, the Fat Lady’s portrait opened and James came crashing into the common room, gasping as if he had run a mile. He looked around wildly, spotted Lily trembling and shaking in the armchair by the fire, and hurried over to her. Lily stood weakly to meet him. James said, sounding concerned, his eyes locking onto hers, “Are you alright, Lily?”
She looked at him, her eyes bright with unshed tears. “I’m-” she began shakily, still shivering. “I’m okay. You?”
James brushed her words aside, obviously being untrue. “What happened?” he asked her gently.
“I-” she said, wiping her face. “I”Why are you here, James? How did you know that something was wrong?”
She looked so badly shaken”her hair mussed from sleep, her eyes puffy and red, cheeks stained with tears”that James desperately wanted to wrap his arms around her and steal away some of her pain as she had once done for him.
“I don’t know,” he replied, briefly ruffling the back of his hair out of confusion. “I felt…I just knew. But what happened, Lily?”
He just knew ? Lily wondered. How could he know what I felt in my dream?
“I just…had a really bad dream,” Lily said slowly, hating her tears as they slid down her cheeks, betraying her again. She wanted so badly to just collapse into James’ arms, but held herself back. Apart from not wanting to be the damsel in distress, falling into his arms would be entirely out of the question.
James couldn’t stand it. It tore him up to see her in so much pain. He enveloped her small frame in his arms. Lily, caught off guard and still weak from the excruciating dream-pain, felt her knees buckle, and, wrapped in each other’s arms, she and James tumbled into the armchair behind Lily. “Oof,” she went as James fell against her. The chair, also surprised by James’ sudden movement, slowly tipped over as if in slow motion”Lily let out a small scream”and met the floor with a loud thump. There was silence for a minute. Lily, acutely aware of James’ heavy body on top of hers, tried to rise, but her legs had somehow become entangled in James’ long cloak. She was pinned. All of a sudden, the situation struck Lily as one of the most hilarious she had ever been in and she began to laugh. James finally got his own feet out of his cloak, rolled onto his back beside her, looked at her and couldn’t keep himself from chuckling as he watched Lily laugh, her hair and face lit from the golden sunrise barely shining through the window above them. Her laugh was absolutely musical to his ears, and contagious as well. James began to laugh in earnest.
Lily gasped for breath, her sides aching. There were tears running down her face again, but this time from mirth. She couldn’t remember the last time she had laughed so hard. It felt wonderful.
“I’m sorry, Lily,” James said as they finally controlled their laughter. “I did not mean to do that. Did I hurt you?”
“No, James, I’m not hurt,” Lily turned her head toward him. “Thank you.”
“For nearly squashing you?” he grinned.
Lily grinned as well. “No. For making me laugh like that. I haven’t laughed so hard since…a long time ago,” she admitted.
“Well, I’m glad that crushing the life of you had such a positive effect. I’ll make sure to do that more often.” Lily giggled.
They lay there on the floor for a minute, looking at each other. Lily was once again aware of the fact that she was tangled in his cloak. They were extremely close, a mere foot apart. Upside down, Lily looked out the windows. “It’s late,” she said.
“No, it’s really early,” James corrected. He looked at his watch. “Half past six. Maybe we should try to get some sleep?”
“Thank goodness it’s Saturday,” Lily yawned, attempting to free herself from the clutches of James’ slightly damp cloak.
“Oh,” James set up also. “Sorry about that. I’ll help.”
“It’s okay,” said a still-smiling Lily.
They got themselves untangled and set the armchair on its legs again. They stood there awkwardly.
“Actually, now that I’m up, I don’t think I’ll be able to go back to sleep,” James said, plopping down on the sofa.
“Me either, now you mention it.” Lily sat down and curled up at the other end of the sofa.
“I don’t bite, you know,” James said pointedly.
Lily ignored him. “It’s my turn.” They didn’t have to specify anymore when they were talking about Truth; they both understood. “What were you doing up so early?”
“I couldn’t sleep. I needed to think some things over, so I went down by the lake.”
“It’s cold outside,” Lily remarked.
“I don’t mind the cold that much,” James shrugged. “What was your dream about?”
Lily inhaled sharply. This was yet another unexpected question from James. She didn’t want to discuss this.
“I was being chased,” she said briefly. James sensed that she was telling the truth, but not all of it. He left it at that, however. Lily would tell him when she was ready.
James pointed his wand suddenly at the fire and the dying embers sprang to life.
“I thought you didn’t mind the cold?”
“You’re shaking.” James didn’t mention that Lily had only begun trembling when he brought up the subject of her dream.
“Oh.”
James knew that he was being very forward this morning, and that Lily didn’t usually appreciate his boldness, but that didn’t stop him from sliding over to her end of the sofa and wrapping his arms around her again to quell her shivering.
Lily let out the tiniest of gasps, but did not pull away. He nearly covered her entire body, which was still curled into a ball. His warmth was comforting. Lily relaxed and closed her eyes. Soon their breathing evened and their chests rose and fell in synchronized movements. They were in those same positions hours later when Remus Lupin came down the dormitory stairs to go to breakfast.