Turning Tables

Chapter 6 - Truce

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The first thing Lily was aware of was the sound of a fire crackling nearby; the second was the warmth of the blanket that had been tucked round her, and the third was that her whole body felt incredibly stiff and uncomfortable. She carefully stretched out her legs, wincing when she felt her muscles seize as she tried to use them. She sat herself upright, and felt her head take one slow, lazy spin as she tried to orientate herself.

She was still in the library, on the sofa that she'd fallen asleep on after dealing with Sirius earlier, but someone had been in to light a fire and cover her with a blanket - one of the house-elves back from the ministry? As she moved her arms gently, trying to restore some of the feeling to them, the blanket slipped from the sofa and fell to the floor. Reaching to pick it up, Lily realised for the first time that it wasn't a blanket at all; it was a large hooded sweatshirt in red with gold stripes down the sleeves. She turned it over, and felt her breath catch in her throat as she read 'POTTER', and the number 1 printed underneath it.

'You looked cold.'

She jumped as James' voice came from behind her; she turned to face his direction and saw that he was sat in an armchair facing the fire, his body now angled round to face her. Her tongue felt thick and unresponsive but she swallowed and managed to reply. 'Thanks. You should have woken me though, Marly...'

'Is fine.' he interrupted before she could continue. 'Alice went and got some dreamless sleep potion and made her drink it. She took some too and they're both out cold on Marlene's bed. Should be asleep for another seven hours or more based on the dose they took.'

He got up, yawned and stretched his arms out above his head; the movement made his t-shirt ride up, and she caught a glimpse of his bellybutton and the trail of hair leading down from it. Mentally berating herself for the observation – shouldn't even be looking for Merlin's sake – she glanced quickly around the library again, pretending to be taking in her surroundings as he made his way over to her.

'I dosed Padfoot with it too, but a much bigger quantity so we shouldn't be hearing from him until tomorrow morning.' He hesitated before continuing. 'I actually came down to see if I could get you to take any, but you were asleep when I got here, and it seemed incredibly stupid to wake you up to give you something that would make you sleep.' He tried not to think about how she'd looked, how delicate she'd seemed curled up on herself; he couldn't explain to her the little jump his heart had done when he'd found her asleep on the sofa in his house or what had made him take his Quidditch hoodie off and wrap it round her and then stay in the room watching her sleep.

They stood there for a minute, each of them covertly observing the other, trying to puzzle out the other's mood until James eventually broke the silence. 'You know this is probably the longest time we've been in each other's company without fighting since we were eleven.'

Lily's lips curled up into a smile. 'Well, it's the longest time you've gone in my company without being an irritating prat.'

James crossed his arms and looked up at the ceiling for a few seconds before looking her directly in the eye and replying carefully. 'On balance, I probably deserve that.'

She wouldn't have been able to deny that she was a little taken aback. As soon as the comment had left her mouth she had realised that it could easily start an argument, and she didn't have the energy or the inclination for one of her and James Potter's famous battles. She was grateful to him for reigning in his temper on this one, but it did leave her feeling slightly guilty. 'I wasn't...I didn't mean it quite how it sounded.'