"You were meant to be mine.
I am all that you need."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"What the hell happened?"

Remus was trembling ever-so-slightly. Lily's head was in his lap and he was making sure she kept her eyes open. Still, they had no time to waste. 

"Bell, go get a professor, Dumbledore, McGonagall, anyone!"

Immediately, the frantic brunette beside him stumbled to her feet and dashed back down the hall. Sirius' hands were curling and uncurling into and out of fists every few seconds as he took in the sight of Lily. She was bleeding from several cuts- no, gashes -along her chest and left leg. Remus had never seen any injuries like it. His first instinct when he'd found her like this was that a werewolf had infiltrated Hogwarts castle and was after Muggleborn students- but the full moon was yesterday, he remembered well, so it couldn't be that. Swearing to himself after every failed healing spell he knew, Remus had presently thought he needed help, someone to watch Lily while he went and got a teacher or vice versa, when he heard the familiar voice of Bell appear behind him, and there she was with Sirius.

"Who did this?"

"Snape."

Sirius growled, quite literally, and immediately reached for his wand, eyes flashing with red-hot anger. "Where did he go, that scoundrel, that-"

"James already went after him. You should stay here."

The disbelieving look he shot Remus made his scarred friend wince. "I know, I know- I want to throw him off the Astronomy Tower too, but you wouldn't be able to find him anyway, they're probably halfway across the castle by now, and-"

"Lupin? Black?"

"Professor!"

Remus felt a small wave of relief as Slughorn, followed by Flitwick, appeared around the corner, Bell leading them, though he was still deeply scared about Lily's wellbeing. Quickly, their owlish professor of Potions knelt beside one of his most-gifted students, eyes wide and worried. Lily didn't even try to smile and Remus felt his heart give a lurch. Sirius drew back for a moment, muttering something to Bell, and from the way her expression hardened, she was just as furious at Severus Snape as Remus and Sirius. And Lily- who knew what Lily's thoughts were now? Only she and James knew the full story of why she was lying here, wounded so badly, in the middle of the hall, but neither were currently able to express the facts those surrounding them so desperately wished for.

Barely a minute after Professors Flitwick and Slughorn started busying over Lily, both of them feigning calm through poorly-masked alarm and concern, a shout could be heard and all (minus the injured redhead, still shivering and crying from the pain on the floor) looked up. From the doorway to the Grand Staircase emerged a stony-faced James Potter, a thin figure slung over his shoulder quite unceremoniously. As soon as he saw Lily on the ground, his expression melted away into one of panic and immediately he jolted forward into a run, reaching the group just moments later. Remus had informed the professors of all he knew of the situation, so they understood James' 'parcel' was the reason for Miss Evans' suffering.

Dropping the stunned Snape to the ground a few feet away from Lily, James clenched his teeth. At Professor Flitwick's command, the Slytherin boy was released from the Body-Bind Curse James had placed upon the him and he stumbled up into a standing position almost woozily. The skin around his left eye was darkened and one of his fingers seemed to be bent in a way it was not supposed to. His stringy black hair half-covered his face, and after the briefest few seconds of silence, Bell leaped forward, Sirius beside her, shouting furiously at Snape. They managed to land a few hexes upon him before Professor Slughorn pulled them back by their very collars, insisting that if they injured Snape too much, he may not be able to perform the countercurse and save Lily.

At that, all eyes turned to the redhead on the floor. She was blinking frequently, trying her best to keep her eyes open, yet she could not seem to find the words to speak at all, focusing her energy on breathing in and out. Snape gave a whimper and Professor Flitwick graciously reversed the tooth-growing hex Bell had (marvelously) placed upon the Slytherin a moment ago. His hand trembled as he raised his wand, pointing it at Lily, but Remus could feel no pity for the greasy-haired boy. He'd always been a prick, and though Remus hadn't always thought the amount of pranks they pulled on him were warranted in years past, now there was no doubt in his mind that Severus Snape did not deserve even one ounce of Lily Evans' friendship.

At the spoken words of the countercurse, the wounds upon Lily's skin began to close, and her sharp inhales and hiccups of breath began to even out. She slowly stopped trembling and managed to sit up halfway, leaning against Remus' chest in order to do so. James knelt beside her immediately, holding her hand, fretting over her, while behind him Professors Slughorn and Flitwick (mostly the Potions instructor) held back Bell and Sirius from leaping on Snape and battering him in a good old fistfight. Remus could tell, though, both teachers were only half-trying to restrain their students from giving the beatdown Snape deserved.

"She's lost a lot of blood." Remus' own voice sounded small to him and he nodded at James, who carefully lifted Lily into his arms. She draped her hands around his neck for balance, but was too weak to properly hold on, so James held her close against his chest, and from the look in his eyes, there was no way he would drop her. Quickly, the three of them rushed Lily to the Hospital Wing, Bell and Sirius close behind, and the two Professors who had come to Lily's aid remained behind to speak with Snape.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Merlin.

Bell fiddled with a loose, blank piece of parchment she'd found in her pocket a few minutes ago, folding it into a crane, then a seal, followed by a goose (really just a crane again), and so on. It gave her something to do, to focus on besides how Lily had to be sent to St. Mungo's now to recover from that awful curse Snape put on her. The staff at Hogwarts had plenty of questions- the hell was that spell, and how did he learn it, and why did he use it on Lily of all people -but they would not get many answers from anyone, least of all Snape. Bell was more furious than ever at Snape, and she still had a right mind to find that slimy git and pummel him, magic or no magic, either was fine by her. Beside her, Sirius watched as she methodically fiddled with the parchment, his gaze quite unfocused though not drowsy as it had been in Charms class.

Across from them in the Marauders' dorm, Marlene sat on James' bed while James himself paced in a circle around the room. Persephone and Remus sat together on the latter's bed, arms around each other but not quite canoodling, just holding each other at this moment when everyone needed comfort. Peter was seated cross-legged on the floor, staring blankly at the first page of the chapter on Merwyn the Malicious in his Defense Against the Dark Arts textbook. Everyone in the dorm was silent. Bell thought they all half-weren't sure what to say and half-still trying to figure out what now. Lily was at St. Mungo's now. No one knew when she'd come back to school. Snape was under great scrutiny from Hogwarts faculty, but for some reason that none of Lily's friends could grasp, Dumbledore wanted to be lenient on him.

That cowardly, horrid, menace of a boy had hurt Lily, someone who had always tried to treat him nicely even after he called her that awful word.

"It was my fault, I provoked him."

The troubled gazes of five Gryffindors and a Hufflepuff turned to James Potter. He'd stopped pacing and now sat down at the end of his bed, Marlene drawing her legs back so he wouldn't sit on them.

And the whole story came out.

"You don't deserve her."

James scoffs, incredulous. "Deserve? She's her own person, she can make her own decisions. Staying away from you? Probably the best choice she ever made. Then again, going out with me was a pretty fantastic idea, too."

Snape fingers his wand in his pocket and James starts to reach for his own.

"She was meant to be mine."

A sharp laugh comes from James as a pair of footsteps approach from behind him.

"To hell she was."

"James? Severus? What-" Lily trails off at how Snape's malice-filled gaze snaps to her and immediately softens. A beat. No one moves. Lily glances at James and seems to see something in his gaze that tips her off to the antagonism present. She steps between her former friend and her- well, who knows what their relationship status is now. They've been on a date, but neither has said anything about progression from here on out yet. 

"That's enough. Both of you."

Yet Snape swiftly draws his wand, James instinctively does the same.

"Lily, move."

The redhead's gaze sharpens and she raises her hands, palms held out to each boy, and after a tense moment, James steps forward and draws her aside, his arm around her waist. She blushes, yet does not protest, and though she glances once more to Snape (who has now lowered his wand), she does not seem to read the pain flickering through his gaze. James sees it, but he simply doesn't care.

"Let's go, love."

And that's the moment Snape snaps.

Just as James and Lily, his arm still around her waist, are passing him on the way to the Grand Staircase, the doorway just ahead of them, Snape's face warps into a mask of aggression and pain and he raises his wand. James fumbles for his own, but it is too late-

"Sectumsempra!"

The spell flashes through the air and James turns to shield Lily, not knowing she's already moved in front of him, reaching for Snape with a wide-eyed, pleading gaze. The next moment, she is on the ground a few feet away, blood seeping from long slices in her skin, already forming little pools in the cracks on the stone floor. James, for a moment, is too stunned to do anything, and it seems Snape is the same- but then a single footstep, then another, echoes down the hall, seeming oddly loud, and Remus turns the corner. In an instant, Snape is darting off and James starts after him, but then runs back to Lily, then changes his mind again and turns back toward the Grand Staircase-

"Snape did this?"

A nod is all James can manage in reply to Remus as he repeats this dance of back and forth once more.

"Go! You've got to find him, quick!"

So off James goes, white-hot fury racing through his veins, and a fight upon the Grand Staircase ensues. There's enough rationality left in his mind that he knows not to send Snape falling to his likely death despite how a part of him would very much like to do so, for Lily's sake, thus he refrains from any spells that may cause such a thing. Snape doesn't follow this principal, though, and twice James has to avoid blasting spells that crumble away the stair where he was just standing. The portraits around them are all shouting, a few of them cheering, most of them expressing shock or disdain for the enmity so physically shown. Before too long, though, Snape is distracted by deflecting an onslaught of hexes and James manages to stun him with a good "Petrificus Totalus".

After giving Snape a black eye with a fierce punch to the eye, not much caring how a knight in a portrait to his left cries that he's being 'a poor sport', James slings the immobile Snape over his shoulder and turns back toward the hall he came from. But which one is it? Damnit, he doesn't have the time to be lost- quickly, he calls to the portraits that his friend is badly wounded and did any of them see which way he and Snape ran onto the staircase from? It takes an anxious twenty seconds or so, but finally, a figure riding a rhino as if it were a horse leaps into the portrait of the knight and leads James back in the right direction. Hurrying back to Lily and Remus (and the rest who he does not yet know have gathered), he starts to panic but clenches his jaw and walks along, Snape's weight slowing his movement a good deal.

"And the rest you all know."

Silence fell again for a moment. James took his glasses off, rubbed his eyes, and gave a heavy sigh. Tears were brimming in his gaze and Bell only realized now that he was not the only one with wet eyes. Persephone was tucking a crumpled tissue into her pocket and Peter seemed dearly choked up, also a little nauseous. His stomach bug had been treated quite quickly by Madam Pomfrey and he was released from the Hospital Wing just minutes before James rushed in, carrying Lily. Somehow, he did not pass them on the way up, but Bell and Sirius had run into him (almost literally) and they turned him about, explaining what they knew in harried tones. Now, he ran his hand through his hair- a habit Bell knew he'd picked up from Sirius -and bit his lip.

"Why do things like this happen?"

No one responded for a moment, then Bell's gaze softened and she leaned the side of her head upon her hand, thumb on her chin and index finger on the side of her forehead.

"I don't know, Peter." Her voice was weary, and Sirius wrapped his arm around her shoulders, giving her a quick side hug, but she leaned into his embrace and he got the hint, not letting go. A thud was heard and all eyes turned back to James, who was now rising from his perch at the end of his bed. Bell could see the clear determination in his gaze, but the ferocity brimming beneath it worried her a little.

"I'm going to keep that bastard away from Lily once and for all." 

James looked around at each of his friends, one by one. Bell could feel resolve of her own bubbling up inside her now, too.

"Who's with me?"