The red notebook had become her everything. Her name, her birthday, her class schedule, her friends, almost every detail about her entire life was in that notebook. She referred to it constantly, and when she couldn’t remember the notebook existed, someone always showed her its pretty red cover again and explained its purpose.
And so two months passed. But once February threatened to give way to March, life wasn’t always so good.
On the last day of February, the teachers began pressuring their seventh-year students even more than they had been. The N.E.W.T.s were fast approaching, and the teachers wanted to be sure that each student would perform their best.
The girl tried her best to keep up with her classes, but how could the teachers expect her to learn and remember things when she didn’t even know her own name half the time?
In fairness, the teachers were kind. They gave her as much extra help as they could without neglecting the rest of the class, but what she really needed was to be able to remember her life. She needed to remember her family, her friends, her enemies, her childhood, her goals.
She needed to remember. But she couldn’t.
James sighed, throwing himself down on a comfy armchair in the Gryffindor common room. Lily wandered over, her eyes green looking confused and lost, and stared out the window at the falling rain.
“Hey, Lily,” James said softly, “come and sit down.” But Lily didn’t respond. Darn this! I’m tired of Lily not knowing who she is! I wish she could remember everything again, he thought as he got up and tapped Lily on the shoulder. She whirled around, eyes wide.
“Y- Yes?” she asked quietly.
“Come and sit down,” James requested, his voice kind. The two Gryffindors sat in adjacent armchairs and stared at each other.
“How are you?” James asked, attempting to break the awkward silence that had fallen upon them.
“Um, fine, I suppose. Except…” Lily hesitated, her eyes showing pure confusion.
James sighed inwardly. “Which do you want to know, my name or your name?”
Lily gave him a weak smile. “Both. Oh, wait never mind. I have… a… notebook! I have a notebook. And the grey-eyed girl wrote everything down in there,” Lily said, brightening considerably.
She walked towards the staircases, probably to retrieve her notebook from her dormitory. However, she started up the stairs to the boys’ dormitories! “Lily!” he cried, running towards her. James grabbed her around the waist and pulled her down. “Wrong staircase. Didn’t want people getting ideas,” he explained.
“Oh,” Lily muttered, cheeks turning crimson. “Thank you. This one, then?” she asked, pointing at the staircase that lead to the girls’ dormitories.
“Yes, that one,” James replied. He watched Lily walk slowly up the stairs until she turned the corner and was no longer visible to him. James sighed and headed towards the portrait hole. He had to patrol the halls. He wished Lily could remember that she was supposed to be patrolling too.
The girl wandered around, lost once more in the large castle that she was supposed to remember. Where was she supposed to be going again? She dug out the red notebook from the blue denim bookbag everyone told her was hers.
She checked her watch. It was 9:05. According to the schedule someone had written in the notebook, she was supposed to be in Charms… wherever that was. Her green eyes clouded over with the effort of remembering where she was supposed to be. A boy interrupted her thoughts by calling out for a girl named Lily. Is that me?, she wondered. “Am I Lily?” she asked, turning around to face the boy.
“Yes,” he said, smiling. “You are.” But his smile quickly faded. “Lily, don’t- stop- LOOK OUT!” But the girl who was Lily knew no more.
For the second time James had to watch Lily tumbling down a staircase. It was no easier than the first time, almost more horrendous, in fact. He nearly fell down the stairs in his effort to catch her. But he failed. Lily finally came to rest at the bottom of the staircase, her limbs twisted around themselves, her red hair in her face. James ran down the stairs and gently brushed her hair off her face. “Lily?” he whispered.
Her eyes fluttered open. “J- James? Wha- What happened? You look different than you did a minute ago.” She struggled into a sitting position and smiled at him. “Never mind. I’d love to go to Hogsmeade with you… But do you think you could help me get to Madam Pomfrey first? I’ve got a splitting headache.”
“S- Sure,” James replied, barely able to think straight. “Just one thing. What’s your name, what’s my name, how old are you, and where are we? Okay, so that’s four things, but anyway. The questions.”
Lily sighed, rubbing her head with one hand while supporting herself with the other. “Lily Evans, James Potter, eighteen, Hogwarts. Now can I go to Madam Pomfrey?”
“Um… No, sorry. I can fix your headache, but we’ve got to go somewhere else. Somewhere soundproof…” he muttered, pulling Lily to her feet. They wandered around for a bit when James stopped. A handle had appeared in the wall in front of them, and the two teens walked in.
“Okay, so. Yeah. It’s just- It’s not January anymore.”
“What do you mean? It’s January 5th. Of course it’s January!”
“No, Lily. You fell down a staircase and something went wrong with your head. You couldn’t remember anything. It’s been three months.”
“You… You mean that it’s MARCH! But… But my classes! Tests! Essays! Spells, charms, potions, I haven’t learned anything in MONTHS! Oh, I must be so behind! I’ve got to study! Oh, no, I didn’t even- What am I supposed to do for my N.E.W.T.s? HOW am I supposed to take THE MOST IMPORTANT TESTS OF MY LIFE when I haven’t learned anything in MONTHS?”
Lily was pacing around the small room that James had taken her, nearly screaming, hands in the air. James was sitting on the couch that hadn’t been there when they first entered and was just watching her hysterics with his eyebrows raised. She turned around and glared at him. “Why don’t you SAY anything? Can’t you HELP me?” A small tear ran down her face.
Almost immediately, James was across the room and had Lily in his arms. After learning that her answer to his question would have been a yes, James had almost not believed that he was awake. He was very insecure, almost “ he kept putting his hand over Lily’s, holding Lily tight to himself “ as if to make sure that he was not dreaming, that Lily really had accepted him at last.
“Shh, don’t worry. We’ll figure everything out. I promise.”
“Don’t make promises you can’t keep,” Lily muttered, burying her face into James’ chest.
Professor Dumbledore’s office was roomy and had lots of chairs spread out all over the place, but Lily and James had chosen chairs right next to each other and were subtly holding hands while listening to Professor Dumbledore say, “Don’t worry, Miss Evans, I’ll arrange for tutors for you. I’ll also talk to the head of the N.E.W.T. examinations and see what we can do to help you. After all, it’s hardly your fault that you had a case of amnesia!” Lily breathed a sigh of relief. Professor Dumbledore would arrange everything. It would be all right.
“In the mean-time, I know that Mr. Potter here one of the best students in his N.E.W.T Herbology class. Perhaps he would consent to be your Herbology tutor?” Professor Dumbledore looked at James, a twinkle in his eyes. James grinned.
“Of course I’ll help Lily in Herbology,” James said. “Come on, I know that Professor Sprout will let us into the greenhouses if we catch her before she locks up for the night.” James stood up and pulled Lily down the staircase, yelling his thanks to Professor Dumbledore on the way.
Professor Dumbledore smiled and slowly got up from his desk. He walked across his office and petted his phoenix, Fawkes, who was sleeping on his perch. “Fawkes, my friend,” he muttered to the phoenix, “it seems that Miss Evans has given Mr. Potter a chance at last.”
Lily stumbled into her bed, still fully clothed. She and James had spent almost three hours in the greenhouses, where he had shown her almost everything that they had covered since her accident. They had worked straight through dinner, and had almost been locked out of the castle. The pair had dashed in only moments before Filch had closed and locked the doors for the night. James had then shown her the kitchens, where a small army of house-elves had given them dinner, dessert, and some extra “snackses” in case they became hungry during the night.
The Fat Lady had been irritable when they tried to get back into the Gryffindor common room. “Almost missed the curfew, there, dears,” she had remarked while smirking at their intertwined hands. Then Lily had stayed in the common room for another hour with James, talking about anything and everything that came to mind.
Despite her exhaustion, Lily smiled. She was happy. The only thing that worried her now was how her date would be. She smiled again. There was no need to worry. James would never let anything bad happen to her.