Chapter 41-Bitter Heartache
James awoke and looked around. His face was dripping in cold sweat as he had awoken from another nightmare where he had died. What did these dreams mean and where the hell was he?
He looked around and saw white sheets and a panic button. He relaxed. He was in St. Mungos. Why did Dumbledore send him here and where were the others? James turned his head to see a sleeping Katy Jones with a large band aid over eyes. Mud must have infiltrated it's way deep within her eyes to the point where they'd had to clean them out. James sighed. Lily must be in this ward somewhere.
He got up, his head aching. He felt a band aid on his own head, where he assumed it had bled. There was another on his arm where Venus had dug her nails into his skin. He remembered the event painfully. He made his way out of the room, careful to not wake Katy. He made his way down the hall, seeing that all the nurses were drowsing off.
It must be late. Sybll and Lily must be in the same room, he thought.
James peered into the room next to his and saw three beds, instead of two. Lily was breathing calmly and carefully in her sleep but Sybll appeared to be having a nightmare. He tapped her lightly, just enough so that she could escape the awful dream that was disturbing her. He made his way over to the other bed and saw what could only be distinguished as Sirius Black. He grinned. Sirius' face was buried into the pillow and he was snoring slightly.
How he missed his best friend so much. They had two separate lives now. James hadn't noticed anyone else in the room but to his dismay he saw Halle Douglas, or should he say Halle Black's head sleeping gently on the side of Sirius' bed. She appeared to be holding his hand. The scene looked all too familiar and he thought back to all the encounters these friends had experienced together. They had fought together and had healed together.
James made his way over to Lily's bed and held her hand, while pulling up a chair just as Halle had done. He kissed it and inhaled nervously.
"Lily, I love you. I never wanted to hurt you in my life and I am so sorry for putting you through all this. If it wasn't for me, you'd be safe and sound and you wouldn't be in danger," James said.
"Yes I would. I am a Muggle, James," Lily's soft voice said. Her eyes stirred and opened slowly.
"Well, not as much danger as you're in right now," James mumbled. He smiled as his girlfriend looked up at him.
"How do you feel, Flower?" he asked her.
"Not too good. I still have the taste of mud in my mouth. I think me and Sybll didn't get things as bad as you and Katy. You two were put in Intensive Care. Me and Sybll just got Sleeping Droughts. She didn't take hers though," Lily said, pointing over to Sybll who was snoring softly in her bed.
"I think Katy got it the worst. Venus just had a dislike for her," James said.
"Poor Katy, we dragged her into it too," Lily said. "They found pieces of barbed wire in her skin from when she was thrown into the cockpit."
"I thought I had it bad. All I have is a throbbing headache," James said.
"I know. Remus stopped by to see Katy a few times. She's going to be here awhile. They have to clear out her eyes, heal her ribs, remove the barbed wire. Poor Halle couldn't bare to go in there. She said she wished it had been her," Lily said sadly.
"No one deserves that. Not Katy, not Halle, not you, not me, not anyone," James said. "What happened to Sirius?"
"Well, when they first arrived, Venus grabbed your wand and hit him with a Curse. Dumbledore managed to stop every one sent after that. She would have killed him. They took her in and well, you know the rest. You sort of blacked out," Lily said.
"I think it was the stress and you were so weak and you were pushing your body to fight. Halle hasn't left his side. She's sat there talking to him. He should be fine soon," Lily recalled, looking over to the bed across from her.
"I can't believe any of this happened. It's awful. I hope when we become Aurors, we stop people like that," James said.
"You know we will, baby," Lily said, caressing his hand softly with hers.
"My parents could have stopped her," James said, feeling hot tears stain his face.
Lily looked at him sympathetically. They hadn't really discussed his parents, he had been keeping it inside for a long time.
"They knew about her. If they had known she was a teacher they would have known something was up. They put her on trial didn't they?" James asked.
"Yes they did, but she got off, which is no one's fault but the administrations," Lily said.
"She sold them out. She told Voldemort where they were and how he should do it. I could kill her. I hate her almost as much as Voldemort himself," James muttered, feeling anger penetrate throughout his veins.
"I hate her too. She will rot in Azkaban. And you know what? She'll have to live with the fact that she sold out her best friends. Every day she will have to think about her stupid jealousy and why she did it. She'll remember all the details of her dreadful sins. And she will have to live with the fact that we beat her. We defeated her James. We all did," Lily said.
"Your best friend in the entire world came to our aid when we all doubted him. He saved us. You saved us James. We worked as a team," Lily assured him.
James sat in silence for a moment, Lily's words tracing back and forth in his head. He leaned in and kissed her gently, something he hadn't been able to do in a while. He knew right then, that he was going to marry that woman.