Shadows of Love 26

St. Mungo’s Hospital for Hidden Truths

“You can go and visit him.”
Lily lifted up her head at the moment she heard Mr. Potter’s voice. He was standing behind her and had a very worn-out look on his face.

Lily, Remus and Sirius stood up and wanted to go down to James’s room, but Mr. Potter stopped them. He placed his hands on Sirius and Remus’s shoulders as they stood on the two sides of Lily.
“Thank you for protecting my family”, he said. “If I just knew that this could happen, I would have never gone anywhere.”
“We didn’t protect them”, Sirius replied with a bitter tone in his voice. “James was severely injured.”
“It could have been worse”, Mr. Potter pointed out.
“Either way, there’s no need to thank us”, said Sirius and crawled out of Mr. Potter’s hands.

Lily didn’t understand why Sirius was so surly to Mr. Potter, but she preferred not to ask him. She didn’t want to have an unpleasant argument with him. As they were heading to James’s room, they encountered Mrs. Potter on the corridor. She cried -- they could see the dry teardrops on her cheeks.

Sirius opened the door and they stepped into the room. James smiled at them softly. He seemed a bit faint.
“You scared us so much!”, Remus spat at him and rushed to his bed. He took his best friend’s arm and grabbed it to let him know how worried he was. He released James’s arm and sat down to the little chair next to him.
“Are you all right, Prongs?” Sirius looked down at him.
James smiled at him and nodded.

Lily was the last to approach James. She sat on his right side, simply reached out her arm and grabbed James’s hand. They entwined their fingers. James’s grip wasn’t strong yet.
“How are you feeling?”, Lily asked.
James sighed and twitched his face.
“Better than you’d think”, he replied. “Though, my stomach hurts like hell.”
“I believe that”, said Remus. “I’ve never seen so much blood in my life and I don’t even want to again.”
“But I have no idea of what happened to me”, James looked at Sirius. “The Healers said there was a huge wound on my torso. I can’t remember anyone doing this to me.”
Lily glanced at Sirius. She saw he didn’t really want to tell James about Severus, but James said:
“I know you’re hiding something.”
“I didn’t even say anything”, Sirius raised his eyebrows.
“You didn’t, but Lily can’t hide her feelings.”
“I can hide my feelings!”, Lily spat at him.
“Fine”, Sirius stopped the quarrel. “You’ve been cursed. Snape, that bastard -- he did this to you.”
“Snape?”, James shouted surprised and he wanted to sit up, but as soon as he tried he turned pale and sank back to the cushions. “He wasn’t even there!”
“He was, actually”, said Remus. “He stood on the porch.”
“Merlin, I’ve never thought that little cockroach really wanted to kill me”, James shook his head with a mild frown on his face.
“What? Is that all?”, Sirius blinked at him astonished.
“That’s what you say?”, Lily bent forward. She couldn’t believe what he said.
“What?”, James looked at them. “Should I rampage and swear that I will kill him in return?”
“Yes”, Lily and Sirius replied in the same time.
“No”, said Remus. “But it’s a serious matter, James. He really could have killed you. You shouldn’t ignore this.”
“All right”, James rolled his eyes. “Then I’ll cast an Ear-shrivelling Curse on him next time we go hunting for Death Eaters again.”

Silence fell between them. James looked like he regretted that sentence. Lily narrowed her eyes suspiciously. Even if she hadn’t attributed great importance to what James said, Sirius would have made it clear that something was wrong.
“O-oh”, Sirius mumbled.
“You go where?”, Lily asked quietly.
“Well, errr, nowhere”, James replied, scratching the back of his head.
“You can’t lie to me anymore!” Lily turned to Remus and Sirius. “It is in connection with the thing you were talking about on the trip, isn’t it?”
“Actually, we weren’t lying”, Sirius answered. “We just didn’t tell you about something.”
“You told me you’d tell me!”, Lily went on, ignoring him.
“We’ve been fighting Death Eaters at night, okay?”, Remus said.
“Moony!”, Sirius shouted at him indignantly.
“Remus!”, James frowned at him with reproach in his eyes.
“We really can’t keep it as a secret anymore!”, Remus tried to defend himself. “Don’t you trust her? She’s been with us for so long and she did nothing we should be mistrustful to her of. I can’t see the point of acting as if we did nothing.”

Lily snapped her fingers and looked at Remus with satisfaction.
“Thank you very much! So, would you tell me why have you been making so much trouble and what you didn’t want to tell me on the trip?”
Sirius shrugged and sat back with his hands on the back of his head. He seemed to feel offended. He didn’t want to talk about this matter anymore.
“Because they are killing innocent people, that’s why we’ve been making so much trouble”, James replied.
“It’s going to end up in a war if we don’t act fast, Lily”, Remus approved.
“You want to tell me you joined the Order of the Phoenix or what you were talking about a few months ago?”, Lily raised her eyebrows.
“We didn’t join the Order yet”, James replied. “But we will. In a few days’ time.”
“Because that’s when you’ll be seventeen”, Lily nodded towards Remus and him.
“Yeah”, said James. “We just couldn’t sit and wait for our birthdays so we took action on our own.”
“That’s why you have a bloody wound on your back now.”, Sirius grumbled, looking at James with piercing eyes. “And that’s why Bellatrix and Blondie or who decided to assassinate us.”
Lily frowned at him and then turned to James.
“What kind of wound?”, she asked.
“The thing we didn’t want to tell you about on the trip”, James sighed. “It’s nothing, really.”
“You were hallucinating, mate!”, Sirius bent forward angrily. “You had fever for about two days!”
“What. Kind. Of. Wound?”, Lily asked again, raising her voice.
“We don’t know”, Remus replied. “He got it from a Death Eater, named Yaxley. The curse was unfamiliar for us.”
“Merlin’s beard, James!”, Lily spat at him. “Are you guys insane? That’s not an ordinary wound you could just ignore! If it was caused by a curse, then it’s far more dangerous!”
“It’s all right”, James glanced at her. “The Healers saw it. They did something to it and said it’s going to be healed. Maybe there’ll be a scar, but I don’t have to worry about it. And you shouldn’t, either.”
“Bullsh--”, Sirius started, but the door opened and a Healer stepped in.
“You need to leave now”, the man told them, looking at them strictly.
“Get well soon”, Remus stood up and pat James’s shoulder.
“Thanks, Moony”, he smiled at him.
“Try not to get killed, okay?”, Sirius turned to James before he went out of the room. His voice was serious but he grinned at his friend.
“I’ll be on it” James grinned back.

The boys left with the Healer. Lily stood up and she noticed she was still holding James’s hand. She forgot about it while they were talking. It was so natural. James didn’t even want to let her pulling out her fingers of his grip.
“Lily?”, he looked up at her.
“Yes?”, she asked. Her heart was beating very fast, though she didn’t completely understand why she had been so excited around him recently.
“Are you mad at me?”
“No”, she shook her head and glanced at her shoes sadly. “It’s just… I thought you might trust me enough to tell me what was going on.”
“I do trust you!”, James tightened his clench. “Look at me, Lily.” She lifted up her head. “I trust you just as much as I trust Sirius and Remus. I didn’t want you to get involved to this matter. I know you; you would have liked to help us fighting the Death Eaters.”
“And what’s wrong about that?”, Lily asked a bit resentfully.
“Nothing, but I’d feel awful if you were lying here, unable to do anything but looking at the ceiling. Listen carefully now. I don’t want you to get into any kind of trouble because of us. Can you accept it?”
“More or less”, Lily replied. “But you listen to me now. I’m going to join the Order of the Phoenix when I have to. If it really turns into a war, then it won’t be only your business. It’ll be every wizard’s and witch’s business and I’m not going to hide and wait for peace to come.”
Wide smile appeared on James’s face.
“I thought it’d worth a try, even though I suspected you’ll answer something like this.”, he said. “But I don’t mind it. This is what makes you the Lily Evans you are.”
“Exactly.”, Lily smiled back.

“Miss, you have to leave!”, said the Healer, who returned.
“Take care”, Lily turned to James again.
“You too”, he said. “And take care of Sirius, too. I’m not worried about Remus, he’s cool-headed enough.”
“I’ll try.”
Lily bent down and kissed James’s forehead. She could feel the heat of his hand even after she stepped out of St. Mungo’s.