The Marauders: Year Seven Part Two

The Circle Game

During the night, a knock on the window woke Lily Evans from a deep sleep, and a dream that she'd have rathered to stay in a bit longer.

Lily could almost feel the warm weight of the baby in her arms, could almost smell the damp sweetness of the little boy's head. She'd held him so that his little round head rested in he crook of her elbow, his perfect little lips a soft, glistening pucker in the middle of the chubby curve of his pinkened cheeks. She'd been rocking him gently in her dream, backward and forward, and she'd been singing, a song she'd heard on one of Sirius's records, one she loved very much.

"Yesterday a child came out to wonder... caught a dragonfly inside a jar... Fearful when the sky was full of thunder, and tearful at the falling of a star... And the seasons they go 'round and 'round, and the painted ponies go up and down... We are captive on the carousel of time... We can't return, we can only look behind from where we came... and go 'round and 'round and 'round in the circle game..." 

The baby had moved in slow, dream-like twitches and shifts, and Lily had bent forward, pressing her mouth to his forehead just where his hair met his skin. "You are so, so loved," she'd whispered to him. To Harry. For she knew that was his name. Harry. She could have held him forever, just rocking and singing him to sleep...

But then there'd been the knock.

Knuckles rapping on glass with an urgent air, followed by the muffled sound of someone shouting - "EVANS."

Lily's eyes blinked open and she stared at the dark ceiling, disoriented.

"EVANS!"

She turned her head and saw, in the bright, pale light of the near-to-full moon, the silhouette of James Potter on broomstick, just outside her bedroom window. She rolled out of bed, tugging her bathrobe onto her shoulders, and crossed the room, tugging open the heavy glass with some difficulty. "Not tonight, James," she said wearily as a rush of cold air came through the window, "It's the middle of the night." Last time he'd done this it had been to whisk her off on his broomstick for a date, and she was far too exhausted to go off on some grand adventure with him at the moment...

James shook his head, "It's not that. It's Moony." He came close enough to reach the window sill and pulled himself through the window, tripping and nearly falling on the carpet, only just catching his balance.

Lily closed the window tightly, being sure the latch caught, and turned to James. "What do you mean, 'it's Moony'? What's the matter with Remus?" She glanced at the window, at the moon, and her stomach turned, "He's not turned --"

"No, no," James said, "That's tomorrow night. But he's in a bad way. He's real sick. You gotta come help us." His voice was nervous with worry.

Lily kicked her feet into her slippers and hurried to her dresser. "What's the matter with him?" she asked, digging through the drawers for the small first aids kit that her mum had insisted she bring to Hogwarts - even though Lily had quite patiently explained that at school most maladies were healed by magic, not band-aids. However, seeing as Remus's ailment was of the magical sort, magic failed him by a good margin, and Lily thought perhaps the muggle kit might come in handy.

"He's sweating buckets," James replied, voice hurried, "And asking for Sirius, but bloody hell knows where that --" he paused, about to call Sirius something very rude, but he stopped mid-sentence instead, not wanting to offend Lily.

Lily took her potions kit, too, and the pair of them hurried down the little hall to the stairs. Crossing the common room, Lily asked, "How long's he been like this?"

"Dunno," James replied, "Peter and I woke up maybe ten minutes ago when he was shouting for Sirius..." He  frowned nervously.

They hustled into the dormitory, where Peter was sitting on the edge of Remus's bed, his eyes wide as saucers, looking a bit twitchy, as Remus whimpered and shook beneath the covers beside him. He scrambled out of the way the moment James and Lily entered the room, making way for Lily, who rushed to Remus's side.