Undying Love (A Jily Fanfiction)

Chapter 36: Sacrificial Love

You don't have love without sacrifice; you can't have sacrifice without love.

~Karen Kingsbury

"The Wiggenweld Potion wasn't supposed to work so fast," Lily heard Alice murmur to Marlene on the other side of the room.

Lily then tried her best to tune out Mary, even though she knew Mary meant only good.

"-and nobody knew what to do! You were asleep for three -no, two!- days before everyone realised you were under a spell. Now, I told them so! I suspected-"

"The girl looks like she's in shock." Marlene observed worriedly.

"- had so much fun being you. Of course there were the high expectations, perfect marks and prefect patrols to deal with -no, actually James took on the patrols himself- but you get the idea."

"James would want to know." Alice said cautiously. Lily's heart leapt.

"Slughorn was so confused and Peter was scared to death!" Mary giggled. "I think he even wet his pants when asked what powdered unicorn horn could do."

"Give the man a break," Marlene scoffed. "He's been working himself to death, taking care of two people." Then she smiled wryly, "he'd make a good dad, lucky for Lily."

Lily coughed purposely, glaring at Marlene, though Mary took that as unease and began patting her back. "Are you okay, Lily?! I knew whatever Snape slipped into your drink was bad, do you feel dizzy or headaches or stomachaches or anything?"

"Severus!?" She whispered in horror, the blood drained from her face. She knew Severus held a grudge against them, but never thought he would stoop so low as to use poison. Fear and anger sang in her veins, her white hands balled into fists. He could have hurt James!

"Oh, yes." Mary nodded frantically. "Apparently James bumped into him the other day, and he confessed. That's how we knew you drank the Draught of Living Death, anyway. And Peter was sooooo brave," she gushed, "he was the one who got most of the ingredients."

"-hasn't been acting right." Alice lowered her voice, and Lily had to strain her ears to hear her over Mary's babbling. "I think he's onto something, and it's not good."

Lily felt rude, but she had to do so. "Marlene? Alice?"

They hurried to her bedside, and said in unison with their worried expressions. "Yes?"

"What were you talking about?" She demanded, her previous well thought-of tactics to coax an answer out of her friends forgotten.

Alice pursed her lips together. "Nothing, Lily. Nothing you should worry about."

-

Long after her friend left, thinking she was asleep, she would toss and turn in her bed, pondering the meaning behind Alice's words.

She groaned into her pillow, hugging it to her face. Her hand came in touch with something slightly harder.

Puzzled, she reached inside the pillowcase and pulled out an unsealed letter. Anxiously, she pulled it out and began to read.

Lily,

I'm so, so sorry.

James

Attached was a Mars chocolate bar.

Mars.

A planet where the sun rose from the west.

The bastard didn't even have the guts to tell her plainly, and resulted to using poor implications.

Tears spilled out of her eyes as Lily clutched James' note to her chest, sobbing silently.