Flashbacks:
“And who are you taking, Sirius?” Peyton kept on.
“Kathleen,” he said confidently.
All of the girls turned to gape at Kathleen. “What?” they all asked simultaneously.
“He’s joking,” Lily said scornfully. “Do you honestly think she would date him again?”
“I was just kidding,” said Sirius defensively.
“That was pretty thoughtless,” Hallie pointed out.
“It was two years ago!” Sirius exclaimed.
…
“Oh, it wasn’t that bad. I’m totally over it and all. I just think that it’s just weird how he acts like we never dated.”
“Maybe he feels bad about dropping you just like all the other girls” -Lily paused for a moment- “but then you never know.”
~
“But you know what? I bet Annis will get married within the next year or so. They’re pretty serious, right?”
“That would be great. Annis would be, like, the best wife,” said Kathleen, nodding.
~
Then she felt a sheet of parchment beneath her hands, which were partially under Lily’s bed. Leaning her back against the bed, she slid the parchment around in front of her and saw Lily’s handwriting.
Kathleen frowned, immediately recognizing the male handwriting next to her friend’s. Feeling around back under Lily’s bed, she pulled out several more notes and began to read the notes to herself. Her expression became slightly darker with each one, until she dropped them on the floor, another wave of sickness coming over her.
“Prongs, there you are!” Sirius called out merrily. “I’ve been looking for you all over this damn place!”
James closed the Portrait Hole behind him and tiredly looked to where Sirius and Peter were standing.
The grin slid off of Sirius’s face. “What is it?” he asked, walking towards his friend.
“I was just looking for you two. Everyone else is down in the Hospital Wing with Kathleen,” James explained.
“What are you talking about?” Sirius demanded, looking alarmed.
“A half-hour ago, when I came back with Lily, she found Kathleen passed out on the floor upstairs.” James ran a hand through his hair. “We took her to the Hospital Wing, but we don’t know anything yet. Madam Pomfrey is doing all she can, so she won’t let us in. Lily, Hallie, and Peyton are outside the doors with Remus. I don’t know where Annis is; I think still in Hogsmeade.”
Sirius’s face turned white. Without another word, he quickly left the common room.
Peter stared after him. “Uh, should I go find Annis? She’d want to be here,” he said to James.
“Yeah, that’d be good. I’m going back down there,” answered James.
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Lily didn’t look up as James walked up to the group sitting on the floor outside the Hospital Wing doors. Her head was bent over to rest on her knees, and her hands were on the back of her neck.
Remus quietly shook his head at James when he saw him looking at Lily.
“Lily?” said James, ignoring Remus. He got on his knees on the floor in front of her.
Lily quickly stood up, letting everyone get a quick glimpse of her tear-stained face as she said, “I’m sorry,” and quickly walked away.
James started to get up as though he was going after her, but sat back down with a heavy sigh.
“She just needs a little time. She was afraid Kathleen was dead when she first found her,” said Hallie, resting her head back on Peyton’s shoulder.
Both girls had tears rolling down their faces. Remus and James sat there quietly for a little while, not knowing what to do or say.
“Wait, where’s Sirius? I thought he was headed down here.” James looked around to see if he had missed him.
“He came for a few seconds, just to find out if we knew anything else. Then he disappeared,” Remus answered.
“I think this is really scaring him,” said Peyton. “He’s realising how much he still really cares about Kathleen.”
Hallie let out a sob and turned her face.
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Lily walked along the empty corridors blindly, glad that most everyone was still at Hogsmeade. She wiped her eyes as she looked for a classroom with an opened door; she was too afraid to open another closed door and find a body on the other side of it. Nearly five minutes of walking finally sent her to the Transfiguration classroom, which had a thankfully wide open door.
“Sirius?” Lily asked with surprise, seeing him sitting in one of the desks in the back, staring at the wall next to it.
Sirius didn’t look up at her, so Lily walked closer to see what he was looking at. Carved there at the bottom of the wall was the small inscription of SB + KB, which Lily immediately recognized to be Sirius and Kathleen’s initials.
“Did you do that?” she asked softly.
Sirius finally looked up and nodded. “About a week after we started dating. It was December of our fifth year.”
“She was absolutely crazy about you then,” Lily remembered, staring off.
“Then,” Sirius emphasised.
“Well, of course she hated you after you dumped her. How would you like it if she had broken up with you a month after you started dating? She was coming to give you your Christmas present that morning, and instead, she found you asleep next to some-”
“Did you come in here to make me feel better?” Sirius demanded, cutting Lily off.
Lily threw a dirty look at him and turned to walk away, but Sirius grabbed her wrist before she could go anywhere.
“I’m sorry,” he whispered, a tear rolling down his cheek. “I know what I did was horrible.”
“Yeah, so do I. And so does Kathleen. But feeling guilty about it now that she could be dead doesn’t change anything. You broke her heart two years ago and didn’t feel a thing. I don’t care how you feel right now, and it’s stupid of you to expect me to feel sorry for you when my best friend might never wake up,” Lily said hatefully, her eyes flashing.
Sirius looked stung. He had never seen Lily this way, not even towards James. Before he could think of anything to say back to Lily’s rant, she was gone.
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Meanwhile, Annis was still on her date at Hogsmeade, not knowing about Kathleen‘s collapse.
“I’m really glad you could make it to Hogsmeade, Michael,” Annis said, smiling across the table at her boyfriend.
The two had walked around the village all day, finally ending at the Three Broomsticks, where they were sipping butterbeer.
“Do you want to know why I came?” Michael asked with a nervous grin.
“You hadn’t seen me in two months?” Annis guessed.
“Well, that too. I just wanted to remind you how much I love you, especially with the war going on. People are dying left and right, and we don’t know how much time we have left.” Michael got out of his seat and went down on one knee.
Before he could pull the ring box out of his robe pocket, Annis stood up. “I’m not ready for marriage!” she blurted out. “You’re crazy!”
“But, Annis,” said Michael, standing up with a hurt look on his face. “We could-”
“Annis!” came a breathless voice from the door.
Annis turned to see Peter Pettigrew standing there. “What are you doing?” she asked confusedly. “Me and Michael are-”
“Kathleen is hurt,” Peter said, interrupting again. “She’s in the Hospital Wing right now. You need to come.”
Annis gaped at him for a second, then quickly turned to Michael. “I’ve got to go,” she said faintly, turning heel and following Peter out the door.
“Lily? What are you doing here?” Annis asked, running into Lily outside the pub. “Kathleen is hurt.”
“I’ll be there later,” Lily said, not slowing down to talk.
She continued walking towards the back of Hogsmeade, where the Hog’s Head was. Kathleen stared after her for a moment, but quickly turned and headed for the castle.
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After more drinks at the Hog’s Head, Lily made her way back to the castle and started towards her dormitory. She came to the end of an empty corridor and dropped to her knees, too tired to make it all the way to the seventh floor. As Lily began to shake with sobs, she tilted her head to the ceiling as her tears started to fall. Covering her face with her hands, she let her body slump against the wall next to her and she was soon asleep.
Lily slept throughout the night there, until dawn came and someone came across her in the corridor.
“Lily?” the figure said, shocked.