Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?

Lily had not bothered to set her alarm; she was not going to class that day, or rehearsal. As a matter of fact, she had decided she was not going to go to play practice for the rest of the week. She had sent a letter to Dumbledore saying she had come down with a terrible illness and to her teachers the night before so they would get them at breakfast. She knew no one would question, and one of her friends could bring her school work.

Around eleven that morning she awoke, and lay in bed for a while until her stomach let out a long growl. She checked the time and saw that it was eleven thirty, all the students would be in class until at least noon, so it gave her time to slip down to the kitchens undetected.

Rolling out of bed Lily brushed her hair, but did not bother with makeup, and changed into casual clothes consisting of sweats, and a tank top. When she emerged she jumped when she saw someone laying on the couch. Curiosity overcame her, and she wandered over to see who it was.

James was deep in sleep, and when Lily entered the room he did not stir an inch. He had woken up once in the middle of the night when he lost the blanket, and pulled it back over him, but he had lost it once again.

What is he doing out here? Lily wondered to herself as she looked at him. After a second she blushed and backed up. He was shirtless, and Lily felt as if she were intruding. She backed up a bit when she realized he had cuts, bruises, and scrapes all over his back. They were new since there were trails of dried blood in some areas. What the hell happened to him?

Lily did not stick around though, James stretched in his sleep, and she was afraid he was waking up so she darted out of the common room and down the stairs quickly. She had pondered the oddity the whole way to the kitchens.

“Um, breakfast for…two please,” Lily said deciding to be nice and bring James breakfast. It was obvious he had not woken up for breakfast, or classes for that matter. Plus it was a thank you for coming to check in on her the night before.

“Here you are miss, can we get you anything else miss?” The elves all said as they shoved two covered plates at her, two cups, and a large jug of orange juice. “Cookies? Pie? Cake?”

“No, no thank you,” Lily said quietly as she slowly backed out of the room. She always felt bad leaving the elves since they were so eager to please, and seemed upset when people left.

“Your welcome miss, a pleasure, a pleasure,” they all chanted and waved to her as she left.

Lily jogged up the steps quickly, she only had a few minutes until students were released from class and the halls would fill up once again. She made into hers and James’ private common room in time and saw James was still asleep. She set his plate down, and filled his glass with juice before going to her room. When he woke up he could warm up the food.

James stirred about a half hour later, and he opened his eyes instantly when he smelled something good. He stared off the couch at a gold dome covering a plate. He blinked a few times before sitting up and rubbing his eyes.

“Alright,” he mumbled, though he was excited about it. He stretched before taking the cover off, and warming up the food. There was eggs, bacon, toast, and a waffle with syrup and butter on the side. He ate it quickly since he was starving. He downed his glass of orange juice in one shot before getting up.

“Hey thanks Re--,” James said as he walked into his room. When he looked up though he saw that Remus was still passed out in the bed James arched an eyebrow before shrugging and going into the bathroom to shower.

“Who else would have brought me breakfast?” James wondered aloud as he towel dried his hair, and moved to shave.

When he emerged once again, he saw Remus was still asleep, and James left him alone. He decided since he had nothing else to do he would go to his last class. It was advanced charms, which was an easy class, plus he may be able to see Lily again to see if she was alright.

James sat in his normal seat, glad it was a class he did not have with Sirius. He did not even want to look at him right now. When class began James was thoroughly disappointed when Lily did not show, and he spent most of his time wondering where she was, and who had brought him breakfast.

“Hey…Wormtail!” James yelled down the hall when he spotted his friend.

“Hey,” Peter said, his voice sounding a bit odd since his lip was still a bit fat. The swelling in his eye had gone down, though he had a decent shiner to replace it.

“Did you bring me breakfast this morning?” James asked, and by Peter’s reaction he knew it was a no. “Just wondering, when I woke up there was breakfast sitting on the coffee table for me.”

“No wasn’t me, I heard Lily wasn’t in class today,” Peter said as they walked.

“Yeah, she wasn’t. I was going to go see how she was now actually,” James said as they climbed up the stairs.

“See you later then. I have an appointment with my tutor,” Peter replied before going up another set of steps.

Lily was sitting in the shared common room with a book, Phoebe had brought her all the work she had missed, and promised to tell the professor that Lily was deathly ill. Her head popped up when the door opened again, and when she saw it was James, she went back to her book.

“Hey,” James said quietly walking into the room, before sitting in the arm chair next to the couch facing her on the couch. “How…are you?”

“I’m alright,” Lily said quietly, looking up at him from her book.

James saw that there was another empty plate sitting next to his. “Did…did you bring me breakfast this morning?” He asked her.

“Yes. I missed breakfast, and I noticed you did too, so I brought you some,” Lily said casually before looking down at her book. She had to ask, the question had been nagging her all day. “I-uh-couldn’t help but notice…you had cuts all over your back.”

“Thanks,” James said genuinely shocked as he processed all that information. After a second he responded with a quick lie, Lily couldn’t know about Remus’ condition, or what he personally was capable of. “I couldn’t sleep last night, so I went flying, and I crashed because the storm came up on me too quickly.”

“Oh,” Lily said believing it since he was an avid flyer. She didn’t even bother to chide him for being out so late at night. “How’s Remus?”

“He’s alright. He let him have my room last night since he and Sirius are still mad at one another,” James said leaving out the reason why. “But he’s alright. His fat lip has gone down.”

Lily didn’t say anything instead she flipped a page in her book. She felt horrible that Remus had gotten into a fight with his best friend, but Lily felt that Sirius deserved it. “Did you go to charms today?” Lily finally asked him. That was the only class she hadn’t received her work in.

“Yeah, do you want the notes?” He asked her pulling over his school bag, and unrolling a piece of parchment.

“If you don’t mind,” Lily replied grabbing her own parchment, a quill, and her ink well.

“It’s no problem,” James said handing her the parchment before sitting back in the chair. He secretly watched her out of the corner of his eye as she read over his notes, and took her own. He smiled as she bit the corner of her lip in concentration, and had to keep moving her hair out of her eyes as she wrote.

“Uh…what does this say?” Lily asked him quietly pointing to a word.

“Hang on,” James said getting up off the chair, and sat next to her on the couch. He leaned over her arm, and squinted a bit, “scales,” he said before sitting back on the couch.

“Oh right, thanks,” Lily said before finishing up the notes. She checked both sets over quickly before rolling up James’ notes and handing them over to him. “Thanks again.”

“You’re welcome,” he said sticking the parchment back into his bag. He didn’t move from the couch though, instead just watched the fire as Lily sat on the other end reading. James decided to catch up on some of his homework as well since he had nothing else to do, and Lily might help him if he had an issue.

After about thirty minutes of silence Lily looked over at James, “um…can you give me a hand with this charm? I can’t figure out the hand movement,” she said. Since she had not been in class that day, she had no idea what she was doing from the notes.

“Sure,” James said pulling out his wand. He put a pillow on the coffee table in front of them, than summoned a box from his room, putting it in front of the pillow case. “It’s all about the last movement of your arm,” he said, “watch.” With a flick of his wand, and the right words, the pillow had been banished to the box. James summoned it back, and set the pillow in front of Lily to let her have a try.

Lily took a deep breath and tried, but all that happened was the pillow quivered, then sat still once again. “Damn,” she said looking at James.

“You said it right,” he said with a smile. “Do it again, and I will help you.”

Lily raised her wand, and went to say the word, when James’ hand grabbed her wrist. Her breath caught, and she spluttered, lowering her arm once again.

“Sorry,” James said sheepishly pulling his hand away.

“No, it’s fine, I just wasn’t expecting it,” Lily replied. “Let’s try again.”

James grabbed her wrist once again, and they tried the charm. It worked this time, and the pillow appeared in the box with a quiet puff.

“Good, now try it on your own,” James offered, letting go of her arm.

Lily nodded and concentrated once James made the pillow reappear on the table. She was able to do it herself, and smiled lightly when she looked at the pillow sitting in the box.

“See not so hard,” James said quietly smiling at her.

“No guess not, thanks again,” she replied before practicing a few more times.

“We should get ready to go…rehearsal starts in an hour,” James said looking at her. Since it was the last week, he was required to go to all practices.

“I’m not going,” Lily said staring at him. “There is no way I am going to work with Sirius…not after…that…” she said feeling a stab of hurt.

“I understand, but you’ve worked so hard,” James said quietly watching her.

“I know. I am going to tough it up opening night because my parents will be there, then that’s it,” Lily said. “The professor thinks I am really sick, and she told me to get my rest so I would be ready for the opening. Sirius can work with Bridget tonight, she will be…delighted,” Lily said disgusted.

“Alright,” James said. He needed to go, there was no way out of it. “Do you want me to have Remus come see you afterwards?” James asked feeling a bit jealous that she wanted to see Remus over him.

“Could you? I would like to talk to him,” Lily said quietly with a smile.

“No problem. I have to get going though, I need to get dinner…speaking of that what are you doing for dinner?” James asked her packing up his bag.

“I’m not that hungry, I have some things in my room I can eat,” Lily replied.

“I’ll see you later then,” James replied smiling at her, before going up to his room to change. When he emerged again Lily was gone, and when he heard the water running he figured she was in the shower.

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A rehearsal the animosity between Remus and Sirius was tangible as they acted on stage. Even the professor could sense it, but she didn’t say a word to either of them. When they were off stage though that was a different story, they had started another argument, and their yells could be heard from the seats from backstage.

“You’re just fucking pissed I got into her pants first!” Sirius yelled.

“Piss off Sirius,” Remus yelled back, but they were hushed as a muffled voice separated the two of them. Remus came and sat next to James in the audience, ignoring all the looks he got from people who had overheard the argument.

“Lily asked me to ask you to go see her after practice,” James said quietly as he watched the stage.

“Thanks,” Remus muttered before grabbing one of his books to read.

The professor had kept Remus off the stage for the rest of the night; since it was easier to do scenes without the Friar then it was to do without Romeo.