“Lily?” the voice said again.
In the back of Lily’s mind, she could sense someone crouched in front of her, lightly touching her shoulder. The next thing she realised was that her head was not on her warm, soft pillow as usual, but was against a horrible stone wall that felt remarkably like the sides of the school’s corridors.
Lily’s eyes fluttered open. Her head pounded and her mouth tasted like some animal had died in it while she was sleeping. Rubbing her eyes, she glanced up and was startled to find that the someone who was so close to her in her un-showered state was Blake Ramsden.
Oh, Merlin’s beard, Lily thought. She rose slowly to her feet, closing her eyes to help her ignore the nauseous feeling in the pit of her stomach. It would be just perfect if she threw up in front of Blake, the only boy she had ever thought about dating.
“Er, how’ve you been, Lily?” Blake asked awkwardly.
Lily cleared her throat. “I’ve been better than I seem at this particular moment.” She sent him a slightly panicked smile, desperately wishing for him to be on his way.
Of course, Blake took no note of Lily’s unheard plea. “Haven’t seen you around very much this year,” he continued.
“Yes, I’ve been meaning to say hello.” Lily forced herself to smile, but couldn’t think of anything else to say. She ran her hands through her thoroughly unwashed hair and hoped her breath wasn’t too noticeable.
“We’ll have to catch up later. But, er, did you…?” Blake trailed off, motioning at where he had found Lily against the corridor wall.
Lily turned to look at the spot, and suddenly everything from the day before rushed back to her. Her hand flew to her chest as she leaned back against the wall. She thought no more of Blake as she raced to the Hospital Wing, leaving him standing there in confusion.
Lily burst through the doors to the infirmary, her concern for her friend more pressing than the hangover bearing down on her. She looked around wildly until she saw Kathleen lying in a bed on the other side of the Hospital Wing, all of their friends sleeping in chairs and on the bed next to hers.
“Lily?” Kathleen whispered.
“Kathleen! How long have you been awake?”
“Shh. Don’t wake up the others; they look exhausted,” Kathleen cautioned.
Peyton and Hallie were spread out on the bed next to Kathleen’s, Remus and James slumped over in chairs next to them. Annis had fallen asleep in a chair next to Kathleen with her head resting on the edge of the bed. Looking around, Lily noticed that only Sirius and Peter were missing. Then Lily looked back at Kathleen. She was pale with dark circles under her eyes and had an unsightly fluorescent glow from the lights above.
“You think they’re exhausted? You look like you haven’t slept in years. Have you been awake long?” Lily asked quietly, mindful of the boys snoring behind her.
“I’ve only just woke up when Madam Pomfrey came in here.” Kathleen laughed as much as she could, remembering. “She was a little angry that everyone had gotten in the Hospital Wing while she was away, but I talked her into letting them stay, since they had fallen asleep already.”
“Yes, sorry, I fell asleep before I had the chance to come,” Lily explained, feeling embarrassed and hoping no one would find out why she had fallen asleep. “What has Madam Pomfrey said?”
“Not much. Apparently, I was partly dehydrated and I’ve always been a bit anemic, so it all just took a toll on me and I fainted.”
Lily closed her eyes and took a deep breath. “You know, I was the one that found you.”
“Yeah, that’s what Madam Pomfrey told me. She thought you were a little shaken up,” Kathleen said, carefully choosing her words.
“Yeah,” was all Lily said in return. “So when are you going to be let out?”
“After a couple more days of beds rest, I’ll check on her and see how much she has improved,” Madam Pomfrey said, unexpectedly materializing behind Lily. “Now, it’s time for Ms. Brady to rest alone. Everyone out!”
The group woke up at these words and blearily opened their eyes.
“Come back later, okay?” was all Kathleen had time to quietly say to Lily before everyone realised that she was awake and began exclaiming over her.
Lily nodded and squeezed Kathleen’s hand before turning to leave. She saw James get up to follow her so she waited outside the Hospital Wing until he came out.
“Hey,” James said, finding Lily leaning against the wall as he closed the doors behind him. “How are you doing?”
Lily grimaced, remembering how she acted the day before when she didn’t know if Kathleen was going to wake up. She had totally shut down and walked away from James.
“I’m doing better than yesterday,” Lily told him. “Sorry for that little meltdown, by the way.”
“Don’t worry about it. I would’ve been the same way if I was in your position,” James said immediately.
Lily smiled at him gratefully. “Are you going back up to the tower?”
“Yeah, are you?”
Lily hesitated, knowing that she said no and easily make an excuse to be alone for a while. She looked into James’s eyes and could tell that he wanted to help her somehow, but could he? Or would letting him into the bad parts of her life only ruin the careful friendship she had just begun getting used to?
It didn’t take long for Lily to smile and nod at him.
The others tiredly walked out of the Hospital Wing a moment later, after promising to visit Kathleen later that day. Peyton, Hallie, and Annis leaned on one another as they went, filled with relief for their friend.
“Look up ahead,” Peyton quietly said with a smile. She lifted her hand to point towards Lily and James, who were just far enough ahead of the others to be out of hearing distance.
Sirius grinned at Remus. “And you thought he’d never make it.”
“He hasn’t made it yet,” Annis reminded them, turning her head to see the boys behind her.
Then everyone saw Lily turn slightly towards James and put her hand on the back of his forearm as she laughed at something he said.
“I wonder if it’ll be long, though,” Hallie said thoughtfully. “Hey, let’s leave them alone for a while and head outside.”
“You’re sure you don’t want to follow them until we get within earshot?” Sirius suggested, grinning.
Peyton rolled her eyes and steered the group towards the doors. “Let’s go,” she said.
After talking and laughing the entire way to the Gryffindor Tower, Lily went up to her dormitory to take a shower and James decided he should do the same. As he and Lily went their separate ways, James realised he had left Lily with a smile on her face almost as big as the one he had.
But while he showered and dressed, he knew that he still needed to know exactly where he stood with Lily to see if they were really friends yet. When he had finished dressing, there was a knock on his door. “Just a second,” he called out as he crossed the room.
When he opened the door, he was surprised to find Lily standing there. Her hair was piled on top of her head, still damp from her shower, and she wore some old, grey sweatpants and a shy grin.
“I thought I’d just come up here instead of waiting in the Common Room. There are a lot of people down there, and everyone wanted me to tell them all the details about Kathleen,” she explained.
“I understand,” said James. “Er, do you want to sit down or something? Sorry, the place is pretty messy.”
Lily laughed. “At least you don’t have bras hanging from the bed posts and hair products everywhere you go.”
“What, haven’t you seen Sirius’s side of the room?” James joked.
Smiling, Lily walked to what she guessed was James’s bed and sat down on the end. She stood back up, realizing she had sat on one of his cloaks.
“Wow, this is a nice cloak. What in Merlin’s name is it made from?” Lily asked in wonder, running her hand down its side.
James grinned. “Close your eyes and don’t look.”
Lily was confused, but complied and covered her face with her hands.
“All right, you can look now,” said James.
Lily looked up, expecting James to be standing directly in front of her, where his voice had come from. She saw nothing, even as she turned and looked around the entire room. Standing up to look for him in the closet, Lily hit something solid and fell back onto the side of the bed.
She heard laughter coming from the air in front of her, most likely at the sight of her shocked face. Then James materialized from under his cloak, still chuckling.
“You have an invisibility cloak?” Lily asked in astonishment.
“Yeah, my dad gave it to me. Been in our family for a while, I think.”
“Wow.” Lily was silent for a moment, then said, “That’s amazing. Hey, is that how you get around Hogwarts after curfew and always seem to know everything that ever happens?”
James grinned sheepishly. “It’s a part of it. The rest is just the mystery of James Potter.”
Lily rolled her eyes, but laughed as she smacked him lightly on the head. Grinning at her response, James sat down on his bed next to her and held up his cloak.
“Do you want to try it on?” he asked.
“Yes,” Lily replied immediately, quickly standing up.
James covered Lily with it and she became completely concealed from view. She walked around the room for a moment then pulled the cloak off of her head, causing it to float in the air without the rest of her body.
“This cloak is… amazing!” she said, her eyes wide. “Wait, does Dumbledore know you have it?”
“Probably. He knows almost everything I do, even if he never shows it.”
“Almost everything?”
James just smiled. “Maybe one day you’ll find out.”
“I doubt I’d ever know more about a person than Dumbledore seems to,” Lily said in disbelief.
“Well, I’d tell you. Hey, do you want to wear the cloak somewhere?”
“Tonight?”
“Right now,” said James. “We can go anywhere you want.”
Lily smiled as she thought, putting a finger on her chin.
“Okay, I’ve got it,” she said a moment later with a grin.