Turning Tables

Chapter 22 - Lies

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Lily was awakened by the quiet sound of a quill scratching across parchment. She could feel the warmth of firelight filling the room and the softness of pillows and mattress beneath her and she was almost too comfortable to move, but she was intrigued by the sounds of scribbling coming from across the room. She opened her eyes and sat up, hazily trying to focus on the figure sat on the floor of her room near the fire, one hand fisted in his mop of curling brown hair, the other working a quill across a chart, pausing only to dip into the inkwell set beside him.

'James?'

His head came up sharply, the scowl of frustration sliding off his face as he turned to look at her, his expression lighting up as he registered her altered position and focused gaze.

'You're awake. Actually upright and awake.' He began to stand to move over to her but she had already slid from the mattress onto her slightly shaky legs, wrapping a shawl from the bed round her shoulders as she went, and begun to make her way unsteadily towards his spot by the fire. She gracelessly slumped down alongside him, leaning into his side and he happily abandoned his quill and chart in favour of wrapping his arms around her. She turned her face into him, inhaling his heat-edged scent and feeling the warmth of his skin through his clothes. His abdomen rose and fell with steady breaths, and she allowed her head to move with the flow of his breathing as it rested against his chest, and his arms held firm around her, enclosing her in his protection and comfort.

'How did I get here?' she mumbled the question into his shirt, her fingers twirling patterns into the material under her hands.

'Here?' He planted a tired kiss on her temple, since it was the only bit of bare skin within easy reach, and her skin was just plain irresistible, with its light dusting of very faint freckles and its natural vanilla-tinged perfume that always fogged up his thought processes.

'Here, as in my own room rather than the hospital wing. I was released while unconscious? Pomfrey usually has more tenacity than that.' Lily's voice was still hoarse, but was significantly stronger and more even than it had been; she sounded like herself again, and he was profoundly grateful for that because nothing about this weekend had been scarier than how weak she'd sounded when she'd called out for him from her hospital bed.

'I had to make a number of promises, some of which I even intend to keep.' He freed one arm from her body and slid two fingers under her chin tipping her face back to look at her. He touched his lips to hers lightly, no pressure applied, just a light tickling sensation that sent her already vague thoughts tumbling. She closed her eyes and leaned into him, but he pulled back immediately, one hand still caressing her back gently. 'I thought you'd sleep easier here, and you didn't need medical attention anymore, just rest. Even Pomfrey admitted that. I got Dumbledore to spring you.'

'Oh. Well, thanks. I feel pretty well rested. How long did I sleep?'

'Altogether?' James released her from his arms, turned his head to glance at the clock on the wall and furrowed his brow in quick calculation. '38 hours or thereabouts. It's four in the afternoon on Sunday.'

'Wow.' Lily was silent for a moment as she absorbed the fact that she'd lost an entire weekend more or less. 'I mean, I remember everything up until I touched the girl, then I remember waking up for a while in the hospital wing, and then nothing till now.'