Dangerous Game

 
When Lily reached her room she showered, scrubbing hard at her skin, as if she was trying to just peel it off all together. When she emerged her whole body was bright red from the rigorous scrubbing, and the hot water from the shower. Changing into new clothes, Lily threw out her blood covered shirt, and ripped bra.

She needed to go speak with McGonagall about a paper. Heading out, she saw James’ room was vacant, and he was not in either common room. Breathing a sigh of relief Lily headed to McGonagall’s.

James was out walking the hall, unable to sit still. He could not get the image out of his mind of Lily and Severus. Then he saw Lily, but this time she was alone. James needed to confront her, it was going to be the only way he could settle his mind.

“Lily!” He called out catching up to her, anger in his eyes.

Turning around to see who had called her, Lily froze, it was the second to last person she wanted to see right now.

“What the hell Lily? You leave me for—for him?” James asked her his hand pointing out in a random direction.

“I didn’t James…” Lily began but was cut off once again by him.

“I hope the poor bloke doesn’t fall for you bloody mind games as well. I hate him, I swear I do, but no one deserves to go through what I went through,” James said staring down at her.

“Listen!” Lily said reaching her hand out to lower his arm. Then she spotted it, and so did he, there was a line of blood that went down her wrist.

“What is that?” James asked her seizing her arm before she could pull away.

“Nothing let go!” Lily snapped, the way James did that, it almost made it seem like Severus, and she began to panic. What if it really was Severus? “I have to go.” With a twist of her arm, she pulled out of his grasp, and ran down the hall to McGonagall’s office.

James knew he had not been seeing things. Why did she want to hide it so bad? He watched her disappear around a corner, and then went back to his own room.

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Avery told Severus that he had seen Lily and James together once again. Rolling his eyes, he knew he would have to deal with Potter this time. Going to find Bellatrix and Mulciber he told them what had happened, and the forged a plan.

“Let’s go for a walk,” Severus said taking Lily’s hand with his own. She seemed less resistant than normal.

Lily followed, and they went down by the lake, finding an empty bench under an oak tree. It was cold out, and she tightened her cloak around herself a bit more once they sat.

“I know,” Severus said staring out at the water, his nails digging into her hand.

“You know what?” Lily asked him utterly confused about what he was talking about.

“You were with Potter,” Severus said his hand grabbing her under the chin hard, forcing her to look up at him.

“He just wanted to talk to me but I left,” Lily said frantically, waiting for some sort of punishment from him.

“So we will have to teach him a lesson then,” Severus said laughing manically. He looked to his right, and Lily followed his gaze. James was sitting on the grass, his nose in a book.

“No Severus, leave him alone! Please! It’s my fault, I should have kept walking!” Lily pleaded as she looked at James then back to Severus.

“I will deal with you later,” Severus said and nodded. Lily had not noticed his two cronies hanging out a few feet away. They swiftly walked over to James, grabbing him, causing him to jump, he was not expecting this.

James abruptly dropped his book, cursing he struggled against their grip on his arms and shoulders, “ger of me,” James shouted. He twisted and turned but it was to no avail, and his wand as in his back pocket, so he could not reach it

Lily gripped the back of the bench tightly, causing her knuckles to turn white. “You are to remain silent,” Severus said and with a flick of his wand he took care of that. Lily could not form a word, her voice snatched from her body.

He was practically dragged over to where Severus now stood, and Lily remained on the bench. James was thrown to the ground on his knees, causing pain to shoot up his legs. He stared at Lily, who just looked at the ground, not meeting his wide eyes

“You should have listened to her when she told you she did not love you anymore,” Severus said raising his wand. “Lily obviously wants to be left alone, but if you will not listen to her you will have to listen to me.”

James reached back for his wand, but to his surprise it was not there, turning his head he saw one of the guys that had dragged him over holding it. Turning back around to look at Snape, he saw Sirius running his way, knowing something was wrong, but he was intercepted a few feet away by Mulciber and Bellatrix who just held him back. “Get out of there James!” Sirius yelled trying to fight off the people who were holding him back.

Lily looked back at Sirius, then her attention was quickly taken back by James who was yelling in pain on the ground. His body was contorted backwards, and he was biting his lip trying not to give Severus the satisfaction.

He felt white hot pain shoot through his body, causing his body to contort backwards, feeling as if his spine and legs were going to snap. “Lily…” James managed to splutter pleading for help before yelling out in pain again.

Immediately, Lily pulled out her wand, but there was nothing she could do, she could not say anything, and when she tried to think of spells in her head to cast them silently they would not come, Severus had done something to that ability to. Crying, Lily looked at Severus, unable to do anything, she just ran towards the castle.

“Lily! Lily help him!” Sirius said shaking with anger as she ran past, but Lily just kept going, hoping that if she was not there Severus would stop. She burst into the castle knowing that she was going to be in trouble next time she saw him, but there was no way she could sit there and watch James in that pain.

The spell lifted, and James laid on the ground unable to move, panting and gripping at the grass. “Stay away from her Potter, or next time it will be worse,” Severus said with a sneer. James looked up at the boy, before his head collapsed back down on the ground. He felt his wand connect with his hand as it was tossed to him, but he did not have the strength to fight back.

He heard the pounding of feet nearing him, and he looked up to see Sirius kneeling by his head. “Mate, wake up,” he said frantically, rolling James over onto his back. Sirius could see James body was worn, and his eyes were closing with weakness, his glasses askew. “Let’s get you to your room,” he said hoisting him up off the ground, throwing James’ limps arm over his shoulder. The walk was basically a drag back to the castle. Another person from their Quidditch team had spotted what had happened, and helped Sirius take James up to his room.

Lily was sitting on the couch waiting for James to return, her voice had come back to her, but she knew when she saw James it would be on again. How was she going to explain what happened, why she did not help. Then she heard him outside the door, and when it opened she saw Sirius and another boy carrying James in. He looked weak, and pale. Standing up instantly wanting to run to him, she was stopped by two sets of eyes glaring at her.

“Go,” James said standing up himself, though using the back of the chair as support.

Sirius just nodded, knowing the tone in James’ voice, he was out for the kill. The two boys left, shutting the door behind them. He would go back later to check up on him.

“James,” Lily said moving to go to him, but was stopped by him putting his hand up.

“Don’t Lily,” James said looking at her, anger flashing in his eyes.

“But James,” she pleaded, her eyes brimming with tears. “Please.”

“Now you want to talk? After he just tried to fucking kill me?” James spat holding on tightly to the back of the chair for support.

Lily did not respond, he was right, but there were so many things he did not know that she wanted to tell him. “I can explain everything, just give me a chance.”

“I did Lily,” James said. “I gave you plenty of chance, but you did not want any of it. You have been avoiding me like the plague. You don’t know the way your words have hurt me Lily.” He was opening p to her a bit, trying to get every bit of anger and hate that had built up inside of him.

“I had to do it,” Lily said her body feeling weak under her.

“Just like you had to let him do what he did! You know Lily, I was wrong, everyone was wrong about you,” James said. “You seemed like the perfect girl, but I see it was all a lie. You don’t belong here, Gryffindor is where the brave, chivalrous, daring are supposed to be.”

Lily just stared at him dumbfounded, if he only knew what she was doing, he would not have said that.

“Slytherin is where you belong, lying ,back stabbing bastards doing anything to get their way, that sounds more like you,” James said finally getting everything off his chest. He felt bad for his harsh words, but his anger out did that.

“If you only knew James,” Lily said staring at him angry now. “You have no bloody idea what I am going through.”

“Please explain then,” James said extending out his arm.

“I can’t!” Lily almost screamed. “I have told you that I can’t!”

“Because you are lying.” James said before turning his back on her. Ignoring the pain, James quickly went up to his room, pausing at the door for a second. “I hope to God he is worth it Lily, because you have lost me, Sirius, and most of your other friends.” Turning on his heel, he went inside, slamming the door behind him.

Lily did the same, but instead of collapsing on her bed, she leaned on the door, before slumping to the ground in tears.