Our Seventh Year

At seven the next morning rain pattered against the windows, and Lily awoke with a start when a particularly loud bang hit the window. Rubbing her eyes, Lily wandered over to the window to see a soaking wet owl on the ledge pecking at the glass. With a bit of fumbling she was able to get the window open to let the owl in who flew and landed on James’ back.

“What the-” James said jumping at the wet and cold on his back. The owl shrieked, and bit at him as he pushed it off. James grabbed his glasses, sucking on the wound it had inflicted on his finger.

Lily coaxed the startled bird over, and took the letter from around his foot. It was obviously for James so she handed it to him as she looked around for something to give the angry bird.

“Side draw over there,” James mumbled pointing to his desk as he opened the letter urgently. It had to be an emergency, otherwise he would have gotten this letter at breakfast.

Lily sat on the floor with the bird, it was rather friendly now that it had its treat, and was nipping at her pajama bottoms. She figured she would let James read the letter and wait to see if he told her what it was about rather then ask.

James read to the bottom and flung the letter onto the floor before throwing back his blankets. “I have to find Dumbledore,” James said going to his drawers, almost yanking them out to retrieve clothes.

The bird jumped, and landed on the window seat with a hoot, and Lily scrambled up from the floor. “James? What is it?” She asked him staying out of his way as he darted into the bathroom to change.

“Remember what I told you last night? That anyone who stands in his way is killed?” James asked rushing back out of the bathroom. He had pulled on pants, and just changed his shirt in the open as he grabbed for a cloak then his wand.

“Well my father was attacked last night, he is in St. Mungos,” James said turning to look at her as she sat on the bed.

Lily was shocked, and her hand flew up to her mouth, “I am so sorry James,” she said quietly looking at him.

“Get dressed,” James said grabbing parchment out of his desk to write a note, and then stuck it on the owl who promptly flew off.

Lily shot up off the couch, and ran off toward her room grabbing whatever she could find, figuring that since James had not changed into school clothes, she would not either. She threw on a pair of simple black slacks, her schools shoes, and an orange sweater. Lily brushed her teeth, pulled up her hair quickly, and met him in the common room.

“Where are we going?” Lily asked him as he tossed her one of his cloaks which would be way too big on her but she did not protest, opting to sling it over her arm for now.

“To see Dumbledore then to St. Mungos,” James said hurriedly as he flung open the door and dashed down the steps. A few students in the common room stared at them oddly as they ran out.

She followed, having to run twice as fast just to keep up with him.

James skidded to a halt outside of Dumbledore’s office; he said the password, since all Heads knew it, then flew up the steps. The door was shut, but there was sound coming from the room, so he pounded loudly on the door until it opened.

“Ah Mr. Potter, I knew you would be coming, though I expected Mr. Black to be with you, not Miss. Evans,” he said moving aside to let them in. He conjured up two seats, for them in front of his desk, as he moved to sit behind it.

“I received word about your father’s condition a few minutes ago, I have already arranged for you to go directly to St. Mungos via floo powder,” Dumbledore instructed. Faux gave a loud but beautiful cry in the background before flying to land on its perch.

Lily opened her mouth to say something, but closed it as Dumbledore began to speak again, “I will inform your teachers of your absence, and have your work sent to you residence. Miss. Evans, do you need to contact your family?”

Lily nodded but said, “I can write them, there will be no issue.”

“You best be off then, your mother is expecting you,” he said as he stood up from his chair grabbing a small black pouch and throwing it in the fire, cause the red hot flames to turn green.

James rose from his spot, mumbling a thank you to Dumbledore and grabbing Lily’s hand. He knew there were other issues, such as telling Sirius, and clothes for Lily but that would have to wait until later.

Lily shuffled behind James, ducking to get into the fireplace. She had never traveled this way before, but figured it probably felt like apparating. Holding the cloak tightly Dumbledore smiled at the both of them, and James said, “St. Mungos”.

With a whirl, and such pressure that Lily thought she was going to be suffocated, and be sick at the same time, they flew in the darkness, and she held James’ hand tight.

They landed in a bright place, and Lily almost fell, but James caught her. This had to be St. Mungos the Wizarding hospital. Yet another place Lily had never been, but knew much about.

“Mum!” James cried letting go of Lily for a brief second to run over to her. She looked tired and frail, with dark bags under her eyes from lack of sleep.

Lily followed James but at a distance to give them some time as she looked around the place. There were many people sitting in the waiting room with different aliments, there was one child who had too many fingers for one hand and not enough on the other, sitting with a very angry mother, and what had to be the older sibling that caused the problem.

“Lily,” James said turning around to see her looking at everything in the place, she had never been here before so it was all new to her.

With a flick of her head, she turned to face James and his mother. This time she was able to get a good look at her. She was much shorter then James, and a bit shorter then herself. Her eyes were dark brown, and she had wavy brown hair and glasses. Now she knew where James got his eyes from, as well as his smile.

“Nice to meet you, I’m James’ mother if you could not guess, but you can just call me Matilda. I have already heard so much about you,” she said, though the strain could be heard in her voice.

“Nice to meet you as well, I just wish it was under better circumstances,” Lily said with a small smile. It felt awkward to be here, she had never met either of his parents before, and now she was going to see James father on his death bed probably. It should have been Sirius here, not her.

“Well, we had to meet sometime right?” Matilda said trying to add a bit of humor into this gloomy situation.

James was glad they were meeting, but he wanted to go see his father. His mother saw the anxious look on his face and turned to walk down the hall. Grabbing Lily’s hand, they followed to the lift and went up two floors before getting off.

“He is just down the hall,” she said quietly as they headed down. This section was even brighter then the main lobby and more healers were running around. Lily thought this had to be something similar to the intensive care unit at a muggle hospital.

James mother opened a door, and they all filed in behind her, Lily lagging behind a bit. If it were her, she would want to see her children first before anyone else, especially if it was someone she had never met before.

“Hey dad,” James said going to his side. He looked terrible, a busted lip, his arm in a sling, and his chest wrapped. He was very pale, and just all around looked weak.

“James?” He asked opening his eyes squinting against the light.

“Yes,” James responded pulling over a chair. His mother had told him the story. He was on his way home from work when he was attacked by two people, his father did not have a chance, luckily a passerby spotted what was going on and defended him.

“Lucky I even got away,” James’ father mumbled through his fat lip.

“Don’t say that dad. Mum said you should be out of here tomorrow morning,” James said concerned as he looked his father over. He was an again man, it really was lucky he had been able to get away, if that person had not helped him…he did not even want to think about that.|

That sat chatting for a while, as a family, so Lily pulled up a chair near the door, feeling like the odd one out. She could hear people rushing about outside, then a blood curdling scream causing all of them to jump, the commotion passed by though, and silence followed.

“Lils,” James said and she turned to face him. “Come over here, what are you doing there all by yourself?” He asked smiling over at her.

Lily smiled, and walked over to James’ side, standing behind his chair. This was incredibly awkward for first meetings, but she could not change that. He was very banged up, and bloody, even though the healers had cleaned him up.

“My, she is even prettier then you said,” his father replied to James, causing him to smile, and Lily to blush scarlet.

“Thank you,” Lily said squeezing James shoulder lightly.

“Obviously, I am his father, you can call me Jackson though,” he replied. “Not Mr. Potter, it makes me feel terribly old…well older then I am,” he said cracking a joke causing even James mother to smile.

They sat talking for a bit, well mostly the family, with Lily piping in here and there. At eleven thirty a Healer came in to tell them they had to change his father’s dressings, and for his lunch. So the three of them left for an hour, going to the cafeteria for lunch, the food tasted a bit like wood, and was about as rough as it as well, but it could have been worse.

A few hours of entertaining one another with stories, with a few interruptions by some healers, it was time for the three of them to leave.

James managed to steal a few moments alone with Lily while his mother talked to his father, “we will be staying at my house for a day or two is that okay?” He quickly grabbed Lily’s arm, pulling her to the side of the wall as a flock of healers rushed past with another patient.

“That’s fine,” Lily said looking down the hall after the people before turning around to face James once again. “I don’t have any clothes though,” she said tilting her head to the side a bit.

“We will figure something out. I have clothes you can wear to bed, we can write to Dumbledore tonight and ask him to send some our clothes for tomorrow,” he said grabbing her hand as his mother appeared out of the room, shutting the door behind her.

They walked down the hall, seeing many concerned faces, waiting to talk to their loved ones. Once at the main lobby, they apparated back to James house. The sun was low in the sky, fiving off red and gold hues on the mountains behind them.

Lily had to concentrate hard on keeping her eyes from opening wide, and her jaw dropping. The Potter’s house was beautiful. Their house sat on a big piece of land that was fenced in, gardens all around, and even a small pond in the back, well what she could see of it anyways. The house itself was two stories high, white with black shutters, and two tall chimneys off the top.

“Your house is gorgeous,” Lily said to James as they walked up the porch that wrapped around the side of the house.

“Eh it is home,” James said with a smirk opening the door for her as well as his mother. James knew he had a nice house, his parents were well off, he always had a decent life.

“I’m going to go write Sirius,” James called to his mother then jogged up the stairs taking two steps at a time. “Coming love?” He asked stopping at the top to turn around to face her.

“Yeah,” Lily said and she followed him up the steps, except slower this time. She still clung to the cloak James had given her earlier that day. His house was lavishly furnished; she would have never known that James came from this much money. He was never arrogant about it, and never showed off about it.

Lily came upon his room, she had seen him disappear behind a door near the end of the hall. As she came in, Lily found him rapidly trying to remove pictures from his walls. Most of them half naked girls, a few of them Lily recognized because they were muggle models.

“S-sorry about this,” James said blushing as he rolled them up putting them into his closet.

“It’s fine James, you don’t need to take them down,” Lily said taking a seat on his bed. The comforter was red with the Gryffindor symbol, and gold colored pillow cases. He had a desk in the corner, as well as his own bathroom.

He threw all the pictures into his closet, leaving only pictures of Quidditch teams, then him as his friends. James pulled out a chair by the desk, then rummaged around for a quill and some parchment.

“What’s this?” Lily asked grabbing a picture from his bedside. It was Sirius, Remus, and Peter, but she could tell the picture was not exactly aimed at them. In the background she spotted herself reading a book, and then lifted her head, turning it to the wind before glancing at the camera with a faint smile.

“Oh just a picture I took before the summer of my friends,” James said scribbling away. He knew what picture she had found, since it was sitting next to his bed, he was a bit embarrassed, but wasn’t going to point it out.

Lily smirked, setting the picture down before going to the window to look at the view. Their house sat on a small hill at the base of the mountain. The trees were all fire red, apple gold, and pumpkin orange, and the sun setting accented that. The pond in the back had a few ducks, and she could see a hammock swinging lazily in the breeze.

James looked over his shoulder at her before he finished off the note. “I always like it here in the fall,” he said as he came up behind her in the window. “Though during the summer Sirius and I go swimming in the pond which is nice.”

Lily moved as she felt him reach around her to open up the window, “Dart!” He called out and Lily saw a small little owl pop it’s head out of it’s cage outside. “Come on!” James called again.

“You may want to move,” James said with a smirk as he moved away from the open window. Lily did the same just as a small brown owl burst in through the window, before crashing onto James bed with a hoot.

James walked over to the bed with a small treat for the bird, and then tied the letter to its foot. “He is a bit…crazy if you couldn’t tell. He is young, so he still has problems with the whole landing part,” he said laughing.

The bird tilted it’s head to the side staring over at Lily before clicking its beak. “I think he likes you,” James said patting the bird lightly on the head. Instantly, Dart hopped to the end of the bed to where Lily was standing, and onto her arm.

“He is very cute,” Lily said petting it lightly on the head before walking him over to the window. The bird spread it’s small wings before taking off to Hogwarts.

“I also wrote a note for Dumbledore about our stuff,” James said coming behind her to close the window. “I should show you your room,” he said walking out of his room, Lily in tow.

Lily was in the room next door, it was not as large, but it was still bigger then her bedroom. It had a four poster bed that was white, with a blue comforter. Family pictures were on the walls, as well as the small dresser. Lily looked around, throwing her cloak onto the bed before looking at picture of what had to be a young James. He was only about three, running around in his diaper with his mother chasing after him.

“Hopefully all the ones of me in the bath have been hidden…or burned,” James said looking over all the pictures.

“But those are the best ones,” Lily said looking around. “My mum loves to show my entire collection of baby pictures, as well as my sisters to anyone who will look and listen.” She said before turning around to face James again.

“Well I will have to see them one day,” he said smirking before leaning down to kiss her lightly.

“No, no way, they are so embarrassing,” Lily said after returning the kiss. “When I was younger I went through a stage where I did not want to wear…anything, and my mother thought she would take loads of pictures of it.”

James just laughed, but was interrupted when his mother called them down for dinner.

They headed down the stairs, through the living room, then to the dining room of the kitchen. His mother had prepared a nice dinner, steak, potatoes, and carrots. Afterward, she excused herself, saying she had some gardening to do, and then she was going to a neighbor’s house to chat. She was not going to be back until later that night, and told them not to wait up for her.