You wish Potter : A Jily Fanfiction

Square in the Jaw

Remus clasped Lily's shaking fingers tightly in his own big, warm hands, and leant his cheek on the crown of her head as she buried into his neck. Her hot tears seeped through his t-shirt and onto his shoulder. The common room was empty, or nearly so, except the group of friends who sat huddled together on the sofas, staring into the crackling flames of the fire. Lily's brittle voice broke the swelling silence.

"Are they right, Remus, about James and me, are they right?"

Remus had no idea what to say. He was willing James to burst in through the portrait hole, to pull Lily to her feet, and to tell her how much he loved her, but the silence was deafening.

"Of course not," he whispered desperately into her hair.

*****

The heavy door burst open and Mulciber's shadowy figure stood in the archway, outlined by lurid yellow light and flocked by the bullish silhouettes of Avery and Rosier, moving at his sides like bodyguards as he strutted towards Marlene, Sirius and Remus, who were still stationed outside the classroom waiting for Lily.

Sirius rose slowly from the window ledge where they were sat. Scuffing his shoes on the flagstones and turning his wand between his fingers, he walked to meet them in the middle of the corridor.

"What do you want, Mulciber? There's no one to hex up here- maybe try the girls bathroom on the first floor; young and helpless- that's your preferred victim, isn't it?"

The bodyguards snarled, their meaty hands stiffening on the handles of their wands, but Mulciber's lip curled into some kind of twisted smile.

"Oh, Sirius Black, you don't really think that badly of me, do you?" he said, his voice dripping with false charm. "There's no need to get your wand in a knot; I'm not looking for any trouble; we're just here to get Severus."

Remus stepped down from the window ledge to stand at his friend's side. "I think you should leave, Mulciber," he said gravely.

"Oh no...I think we'll stay," Mulciber smiled mirthlessly. "We wanted to ask about that blood-traitor friend of yours actually- Potter. We've heard he's wearing down that pretty mud-blood."

Mulciber had taken a few steps towards them as he'd spoken, so Sirius was nearly at his throat when he lunged fervently, ready to throttle him, but Marlene appeared at his shoulder, holding him back, though her own wand was clutched apprehensively at her side.

"Don't even think about touching my friends you evil, disgusting, death eater," Sirius spat.

But Mulciber wasn't paying Sirius any attention anymore. He walked very slowly and erectly towards the classroom door, which had swung shut behind Lily and Severus, whose stunned faces were shining with sweat.

"What did you think, you filthy, little mud-blood? Did you think that by dirtying Potter's blood you'd be safe when the Dark Lord rises? You won't be, I can promise you that. You can't swan around on your high hippogriff inside Hogwarts forever," snarled Mulciber.

Lily's pulse quickened ,and a fiery heat boiled in her chest as his vicious words pounded inside her head. 'Is that really what people think? Am I sullying his pure blood?'

*****

The rain-splattered windows rattled in their frames, and an icy wind whistled through the cracks in the ceiling, blowing clouds of dust into the air, but the small fire in the corner of the room hadn't been lit. Professor Graves quietly shut the door to his office and swept across the room, his robes billowing out behind him, to sit behind the dark, wooden desk that dominated most of the room. On his stool, on the other side, James felt unnervingly close to the professor. By the dim light of the candle he could see grey lines of stubble in the wrinkles on his cheeks, as though the dust in the air had settled there, and his stern eyes, as black as the unlit coals in the grate, boring into him.

"You didn't see what Snape was about to do," James said at once. "Or what Mulciber had said to Lily!"

Graves ignored him. "I suppose you think you're some kind of hero, Potter," he said quietly.

"I'm telling you, Snape was about to hurt her! His curse- it hit my arm, but it would have hit Lily!"

Professor Graves looked at the crimson stains on the sleeve of James's shirt. "Liar!" His voice echoed in the cold, gloomy room. "Where could he possibly have learnt such a spell that not even I have seen?" he whispered, with a smile that showed his grimy, yellow teeth.

James opened his mouth furiously to reply, but he didn't know- it wasn't any spell he had heard before.

*****

"Stupefy!" came a shriek from the doorway to the classroom. James came dashing round the corner to see Lily pointing her wand at Mulciber, her expression wild. Mulciber yelped as he was flung into the stone wall.

"Get her Snape!" he snarled from the floor, his face contorted.

There was a loud bang and the door to the classroom splintered. Sirius attempted a leg-locker curse that backfired off the window, came hurtling towards them, and shattered the lamp above Marlene. James launched himself toward the scene, thought 'Levicorpus!' and flicked his wand at Mulciber's two cronies.

"SNAPE!" Mulciber bellowed fiercely.

Severus cried with wild desperation,"SECTUMSEM-!"

Then in one swift, shattering motion, just as Graves burst into the corridor, his face livid, James punched Snape square in the jaw. A moment later, Severus was squirming on the floor, clutching his chin and moaning in pain; bloodstains were blossoming like deep red flowers on James's shirt as he was hauled away down the corridor by Professor Graves. Lily gaped after him, gasping for breath, and leaving Mulciber to scrabble to his feet and scamper away down the corridor, followed by Snape, Rosier and Avery.

*****

James leapt down the last ten steps of the spiral staircase that lead to Graves's office. The professor hadn't been as negotiable as James usually found McGonagall and the other professors. He'd been given six weeks of Saturday detention, which, as James had pointed out, was conveniently the day that the Gryffindor quidditch team had the pitch for practice, so then Graves had made it ten weeks, and James had gotten out of there before he made it twelve.

When he reached the main corridor, James slowed down, ran his hand through his messy black hair and winced as he clenched his bruised knuckles. Then he remembered the deep gashes in his arm that Snape's spell had made a few hours ago. The cuts were raw and inflamed but they had stopped bleeding and the blood on his shirt had dried. That didn't stop people firing questions at him as he walked slowly towards the Gryffindor common room however. It seemed the news of the fight had travelled fast: everyone wanted to know who'd fired the first hex and who'd fired the last. But James was too tired to answer their questions, so he just told them that the other guy looked worse.

Lily rushed at James as soon as he had climbed wearily in through the portrait hole, and gave him a hug that nearly knocked him flat.

"Are you alright?" he asked earnestly, holding on to both her shoulders, and looking into her teary eyes.

Then she did something she had never done before and kissed him on the cheek.

The two of them sat curled up together in the common room long after the others had gone to bed. James had told her how much better she was than all those pure-blood goblins, and that she needn't worry about what they said, because anyone who mattered could see that she was more than worthy of the goofy prankster Potter. And now he was whispering quiet 'I love you's' and pressing small kisses on the top of her head as she drifted off.