She’s sleeping. She’s sleeping. She’s sleeping! James repeated in his mind, a mantra. It wasn’t a terribly difficult task, as it really did appear that Mary was simply sleeping. In fact, Sirius looked far worse for wear than Mary, who looked a bit like she’d washed ashore somewhere before simply falling into a fitful sleep. She’s only worn out, sleeping it off a bit, he told himself as he exchanged a look with Sirius, who had glanced back to see who was bursting into the Hospital wing.

James slowed his pace as he neared Mary’s bed. As soon as he was close enough, he gently placed a hand on Lily’s shoulder; she twitched, startled, but let out a long breath when she realized who it was. Her eyes, which were shining with unshed tears, were an unbelievable shade of emerald. 

-:- 

Mary thought she heard a voice again, was it Lily’s? No, no… She was spinning into her own mind, falling… She started, looking around wildly. She was standing in Hogwarts, somewhere near the Ravenclaw tower. There was one other person there, a small Gryffindor girl with wavy dark hair. The girl turned around, and Mary gasped; she was staring at a younger version of herself. Young Mary was holding a pile of books, and looking a bit frazzled. She looked one way, then the other, and finally took off down a third corridor entirely. Old Mary trotted after herself, her curiosity piqued. 

“Oy, Mary!” A vaguely familiar voice called, and old Mary quickened her pace through the corridor, wondering if the young boy was speaking to her, or - well, the other her.

“James!” 

Mary stopped dead, shocked. This wasn’t some sort of dream, this was a memory! Her eyes glazed over for a moment as she recalled her first real conversation with Sirius, Remus, and Peter. She had already known James from their shared love of Quidditch, she was well into her second year by the time this interaction had taken place. She shook her head, focusing again on the group before her.

"These are my best friends, Remus, Peter and Sirius," James was motioning to each boy in turn, but young Mary didn't need an introduction, she had known who they were immediately - though she hadn’t really spoken to the boys, she had seen them around, and heard of their antics. 

"Pleasure to meet you, fair lady," Sirius said with an extravagant bow.

Remus knocked him on the top of the head. "Excuse him," he added in an undertone, "His mum dropped him as a baby, poor thing, I'm afraid he's never been quite right since then."

Young Mary grinned, and Sirius huffed, "You know, Remus, when my mum dropped me, I didn't lose my sense of hearing."

"Yeah," James added with a lop-sided grin, "It's sharp as a dog's, eh?" The Marauders all laughed ,and Young Mary bit her lip to hide a smile at their contagious laughter even though she didn’t really know what James had meant by that comment, and she felt herself being pulled away again, into the white abyss with the voices of her friends poking through. It was James talking again, but this time his voice was at least two octaves deeper, and she couldn’t see him at all.

“Mary, you ought to wake up soon. The week after next we’re playing Slytherin, we need our star seeker!”

-:-

Mary began to fret wildly again, and Lily moaned in empathy for her friend, jumping up from her seat with such swiftness that she knocked James, who had knelt down between her and Sirius, clear into Sirius’ knee. James let out a muffled yelp and leapt to his feet, his eyes never leaving Lily, who was marching into Madame Pomfrey’s office, where the woman was in deep conversation with, of all people, Professor Slughorn.

“Excuse me, Madame Pomfrey,” she began, then nodded her head to Professor Slughorn, remembering her manners, “Professor.”

Before she could continue, Slughorn interrupted her, “Oho, my dear Miss Evans. This is terrible, terrible! I do hope you know that you can come to me anytime!” Lily gave him a very weak smile, but couldn’t bring herself to make any more than that feeble attempt at manners in her present state. She felt a vague pang of guilt at having blown off the two or three Slug Club dinners that the professor had already arranged during the year, but pushed that thought back for later rumination. 

“Thank you, Professor. Excuse me, but Madame Pomfrey, what is happening with Mary? She is very clearly distressed. Why is she still asleep? What has happened?”

Madame Pomfrey’s scowled unhappily, “She has been very badly injured. What she needs is rest! There are much too many people here!” She hurried around Lily, heading back into the infirmary, and gasped at the growing number of students at Mary’s bedside. 

“Oh, leave her be! Everybody out!” She turned back to Lily, “Lily, my dear, you may stay for another hour, but then you must leave her to her rest!”

Lily felt her cheeks going red - this was not what she had intended for when she’d gone to get the head nurse. She’d only wanted Mary to get some more medical attention, and wasn’t sure she wanted to be alone with Mary at this moment, when her friend was in this state. Remus and Marlene looked up at the clearly irritated Mrs. Pomfrey, and Sirius slowly inched out of his chair, sliding past James, who had gotten halfway between Mary’s bed and Mrs. Pomfrey’s office before that very woman exploded out of the office doors. 

Marlene wiped at her bloodshot eyes, and quickly darted past the rest of the group, pushing through the doors with unexpected strength. Remus and Sirius shared a look before tearing after her, both of them bursting through the double doors at the same time. James didn’t move.

“Madame Pomfrey. Would it be alright if I stayed here for a bit as well, just until Lily leaves?” Madame Pomfrey scowled deeply, looking to where Mary was writhing fitfully on the bed. Suddenly, Mary was still again, and Pomfrey sighed. 

“Oh I suppose, Potter. Only because you are the head students.” She looked at a clock on the opposite wall, which not only had hands for the minutes and hours and seconds, but also had several shorter hands which pointed to things such as “Potion time for bed 3,” and “Check up on bed 7!”

-:-

Mary felt herself fading, spinning again. Hogwarts was there again, somewhere below her - this time it was the Great Hall. There she was, next to the Marauders. And there was Lily, who still had the remnants of baby fat on her cheeks that had been gone now for at least a year or two, though it was difficult to tell because this Lily’s face was twisted in fury as she pushed past a group of younger years on her way to the Gryffindor table, where the young Marauders were seated. Mary’s hair was longer, and she too looked younger than she remembered from the last time she had looked into the mirror. Fascinated, she walked toward the Gyffindor table, trying to remember when this had taken place. 

"Potter!" Lily looked at James just in time to see his hand fly to his hair, ruffling it up messier than it was before.

"I know you missed me Evans, but if you're going to reject me so much you shouldn't seem so obvious about it,” He grinned lopsidedly. Sirius shook his head, raising his eyebrows but still smiling and Remus was pretending he couldn't hear them. Peter didn't have to pretend; he was utterly engrossed by his food.

"YOU - STUPID - BLOODY - ARROGANT - PRAT!" Lily Evans bellowed. Her dark red hair was down and shifted on her shoulders as she stomped up to him. Her green eyes seemed electrified with fury. It was obvious that she didn't notice that by now most of the Hufflepuff table as well as some of the Ravenclaws and Slytherins, were staring at her; Though it hadn’t been an uncommon spectacle to see Lily Evans reaming at James Potter, it was certainly unusual for her to do it in the middle of the Great Hall during dinner, and so Mary remembered precisely when this had happened. It had been the end of their fifth year. Someone less familiar with this pair may have wondered what James could have possibly done to make Lily so infuriated. He had always been pretty normal when Lily wasn’t around, and still was in that phase where he thought perhaps arrogance would impress her. Oh how long it had taken for him to realize how mistaken he was.

As it were, young James seemed relatively unfazed, and didn't move as she advanced toward him, except for to run a hand through his messy hair. "That was a lot of adjectives, Evans. I thought you normally phrased your sentences more eloquently." Old Mary giggled a bit, even though younger Mary seemed to have been able to manage something of a straight face. Luckily, nobody seemed to notice Old Mary’s presence. Lily, on the other hand, was not amused. Her face grew more red, and for a moment it looked like she was going to smack him. There was a split second silence.

"Eloquent my arse! I know that you're behind all of those dungbombs in the fifth year girl's dormitories. Do you have any idea how long it took us to clean that up!" By this point her face was so red that it was clashing wildly with her fiery hair. 

This is when the memory deviated from what had really happened. Mary remembered it quite clearly, really. He had eventually admitted in a kind of roundabout way that it was indeed the Marauders who had been responsible for the incident, and proceeded to ask Lily out. Lily had stormed from the table, forgetting to eat, and Mary had smacked James lightly on the back of the head, muttering something about him being an enormous idiot, before grabbing a few biscuits and going after Lily.

That had been what had happened. Not this. 

Lily’s face softened, and she sat down next to James. “Thank you … I - I don’t know what I would have done if you’d left.”

James smiled, putting his hand on Lily’s, and suddenly the rest of the Great hall was fading away, the other Gryffindor students disappearing one by one. “Lils, I’m not going anywhere.” The room was completely white now again. It was like it had been before, when she had been alone, but this time she felt more comfortable, because there was a table, and James and Lily seemed to realize she was there, now.

“Oh, Mary… You were right, I’m sorry!” Mary blinked a few times, and slowly walked over to the table. She sat down gingerly, happy that Lily and James seemed to see her now, but confused about where she was. Before she had a chance to respond to Lily’s odd comment, James interrupted again. 

“I just talked to Dumbledore…” he lowered his voice substantially, glancing around the empty space around them. “He wants to start a group, to train us for what might come in the future…”

-:-

The walk back to the heads’ dormitories was silent. Lily and James were both drifting in their own thoughts, tethered to reality at the warm point at which their inter-clasped hands touched. Lily was trying not to think of her best friend, all alone in the Hospital Wing, and instead focused her attention on what James had just relayed to her. James had shown her the list of twelve students he and the Headmaster had compiled. The list had composed of twelve names, all of them 7th Years, and most of them Gryffindors:

Black, Sirius - Gryffindor

Diggle, Dedalus - Hufflepuff

Prewett, Alice - Gryffindor

Evans, Lily - Gryffindor

Fenwick, Benjy - Ravenclaw

Dorcas Meadowes- Gryffindor

Lupin, Remus - Gryffindor

Macdonald, Mary - Gryffindor

McKinnon, Marlene - Gryffindor

Pettigrew, Peter -Gryffindor

Potter, James - Gryffindor

Vance, Emmeline - Ravenclaw

James had also mentioned that some Aurors would be overseeing their training, including Frank Longbottom, who had just graduated Auror training, and Fabian and Gideon Prewett, who were renowned for their skills. Lily couldn’t help but feel overwhelmed, thinking back to the small piece of parchment. Dumbledore must have been planning this already, she thought. It must be really bad out there. She felt her heart beating much more anxiously against her chest than it should be considering their leisurely pace, and then felt a squeeze on her hand.

“She’s going to be okay, Lily. She just needs some rest - it’s best we left her alone for a bit.” James seemed to be trying to convince himself as much as Lily, who couldn’t bring herself to respond. They walked the rest of the corridor in silence, arriving at the Heads’ dormitory in minutes. James, sensing that Lily didn’t want to talk anymore, kissed her on the top of her head.

“Goodnight, Lily - we’ll go see her first thing tomorrow.” He turned toward his room.

“Er…James?”

“Yes?”

“Could you - oh, nevermind. Goodnight James.” Lily pursed her lips, knowing what she had wanted to say was silly and would probably come out weird. James was curious, though.

“What?” He prodded, voice gentle. “I can think of very few ways you could end that sentence that my answer wouldn’t be “yes,” Lily,” he added, eager to reassure her.

“Erm, okay - well I was wondering… could you stay with me tonight? In my bed?” She asked, voice small. It had sounded weird…

“Sorry?” He wasn’t sure he could trust his senses. Had Lily Evans just asked him to share her bed? Had he actually been murdered today and not realized? Because this had to be heaven…

“Not to do that!” Lily clarified quickly, cheeks reddening. “I just mean, to sleep. Just sleep. Nevermind, I don’t know what I’m saying. Everything is just getting to me, you know? I’ll just-“ She felt her cheeks reddening, but James smiled at how adorable she was. He couldn’t even identify all of the feelings jumping around in him - maybe it was a mix of adoration, excitement, and protectiveness? It felt strange, and amazing at the same time. Later he would call it love - he was too afraid to call it that yet. At least not out loud. Not because he wasn’t sure of his feelings, but because he was afraid of her reaction.

“Give me a minute to change - I am going to cuddle you silly, Miss Lily.”