The Marauders - Order of the Phoenix Part Three

A Knock to the Head

"Yes, I heard about that part," Lily said, and she ran her thumb over his cheek to find that part of what she'd thought was dust was actually a bruise and he winced. "I meant what have you been doing?"

He stared at her, his brown eyes welling.

"James... honey..." she whispered, and she cupped her hands 'round his cheeks and his free hand went up to cover hers, holding them there, his eyes closing.

"He needs to be laying down, miss," the mediwizard said gently. "He's taken a knock to the head at some point and - he seems to be having some memory troubles of some sort - anxiety -"

"Memory?" she asked. She looked at James.

"I didn't take a knock to the head," James argued.

She looked him over, "Well, honey, you do look like you might've done, you're bruised."

"I was moving rubble, I was just moving it aside and trying at helping people, but I only got like seven people before I passed out and --"

"Seven people?" the mediwizard said, "There were at least twenty."

James looked at him, then back to Lily. "I - I didn't, I didn't do enough --"

"Come, James, let's lie down." Lily glanced at the small little bed, then over at Remus. "Could you extend that up please, Rey?" she asked.

"Extend --?" the mediwizard chirped as Remus pulled his wand, and with a flick, first he'd undone the restraint on James's wrist.

"He has to stay laying down," the mediwizard said, disapproving of the restraint being taken away. "He wouldn't stay down and --"

"He will stay with me," Lily answered firmly. "Won't you lie down with me, James, if I am?"

"Yeah," he answered weakly.

"He'll stay laying down." Lily reaffirmed to the doctor.

Then with a swoop of Remus's wand the bed stretched a bit so as Lily guided James back onto it, there was enough room for her to climb on, too. She lay down beside him, both their heads on the same pillow, and she slid her hands up against his cheeks again, cupping them and he resumed covering her hands with his - both this time, now that his other was free.

"Thank you Remus," Lily said.

Remus answered, "Of course." He paused, "I'm going to dash home and let Sirius know what's going on. I'll be back. Need anything?"

"His Gryffindor jumper," Lily said, "The mirrors so he can take to Sirius. He has a spare pair of glasses in the night stand on his side of our bed, I think the mirror is there, too. Also there's a book on my side of the bed, it's got a reddish cover. Could you bring that as well?"

"Yeah, no problem."

"Oh and there's a lunch sack in our fridge, bring that, too."

"Okay." Remus nodded, and he dashed out.

Lily's eyes never left James's through all these commands, she just stared into his eyes, and he stared right back.

The wizard's voice came from behind Lily. "There were at least twenty people at Dunlewey Proper that I personally saw who said they were trapped in their houses and James got them out. He was pulled out of the wreck of the last one by Harry Underhill who saw him go in. He was struck by a falling beam as the house collapsed and his shield charm gave out. Underhill testified himself... We're waiting on a potion to help restore him up, but it takes time to brew and --"

James stared into her eyes, she could see in the way his searched hers that he didn't recall any of what the doctor was saying. It was the same searching look he gave her in Edinbugh that time, just after they'd seen their son, and Mopsus had cleared his mind of the memory he could not bear to carry.