One Fight Too Many

They weren't what you would call a perfect couple. They fought constantly, and often the fights would turn into battles, of wits or sometimes strength. Most of their close friends knew that it was purely for sport, or at least that's what they had thought, until one evening things went too far.

They had been arguing over a potions theory, or at least that's what it had sounded like to the small crowd of people in the Gryffindor common room, who were trying not to hear the heated conversation. Then suddenly the two of them bolted out of their seats. James' hands were clenched in rage, and Lily's cheeks were flushed in fury.

"If that's what you think," James started, his voice getting louder with each syllable, "Then why don't you just LEAVE?"

"If you're going to be so immature," Lily said closing her books and gathering them in her arms, "Then maybe I will!"

"Fine," James replied, deflating as he watched her storm out of the common room.

This had looked like the end for the couple that had been Lily Evans and James Potter. It didn't look like there were going to be any more meaningless rows to keep everyone up until the dead of night; no more romantic kiss and make-ups that forced people to leave the room in disgust. For some people it was a time to rejoice, and find a new topic to gossip about; but for a select few it was a very worrying time; for they knew that the couple would just stop there.

And so the competition began. It started with the little things; a race to be the first one to answer a particularly difficult question, the race to get top marks. Eventually the competition grew so that people would stake bets on who would win. James would walk in to the Great Hall with his arm around a new pencil thin, goldfish dumb girl every week, acting as if he had gotten over their relationship. Then he would look to see if Lily had noticed. She had, of course, but she was too busy helping the captain of the Ravenclaw Quidditch team with his Charms homework, or the Hufflepuff Seeker with his History project. Often, she would turn and smile every time he walked by, just to make sure that he saw that she could be perfectly happy without him.

They were making themselves and miserable and they knew it. It was just how they were with each other. There was a challenge between them to always show that they could be better than the other. It was the same spark that made them the ideal couple, and when it was fanned into a flame, that turned them into the perfect rivals.

It all ended eventually, but not how anyone expected, or wanted.

It was a Saturday morning, the day of the Ravenclaw-Gryffindor Quidditch match. The teams had already arrived in the Great Hall, as well as most of the school, before Lily finally showed up to start the day's usual round of showing off. When she arrived, the whole hall went silent, watching her walk to the Slytherin house table, hand in hand with Severus Snape. The two were talking in low voices that seemed to travel through the hall in a muffled reverberation, Lily occasionally giggling, her cheeks flushed.

This seemed to push James to the end. He seemed to just snap right there, jumping out of his chair so fast that it fell to the ground in a clatter.

No one saw him again until the Quidditch match later that afternoon, in the air, flying with an energy that he had never possessed before. He seemed so determined to forget what was happening that he had blocked out all the activity around him. That was when a stray Bludger on its way back to the action on the field hit the end of his broom, sending him cascading to the ground thirty feet below, with nothing to stop him.

He landed with a thud in the center of the field, Quaffle still gripped in his hand. He was out cold.

After being brought to the hospital wing by means of Madame Pomfrey with Lily on her heels, James lay unconscious for the rest of the night and, in the morning Madame Pomfrey announced that he had gone into a coma. Of course his friends, Remus Lupin and Sirius Black came by periodically to see if there was any change, but it was Lily who stayed every evening after classes, talking to him, holding his hand, and blaming herself for what had happened. She was willing to do anything she thought might bring the personality back to his lifeless body, that she sat there, searching trough medicinal books, Severus occasionally accompanying her to make sure she didn't try anything that would get her hurt. But for the most part she would sit alone in the hard hospital chair, praying for James.

The weeks past and still James showed no sign of change, his face had gone a pallid white from lack of sunlight, and as the school year drew to a close he looked more like a corpse than an energetic teenage wizard. He would be sent home when classes ended, of course, while Lily would have to go back to her muggle family. It could be seen in the way she carried herself that she didn't want this to happen, and as the end of the term drew closer to its end she spent every moment with him, missing classes and meals to be with him, just in case he woke up.

But this didn't happen, and when his parents came to the school to take him back to their manor, she held his hand tightly to her chest and whispered in his ear, "I love you, so you better come back to me or I'll die."

She was pulled away from him and he disappeared into the crowd. As she boarded the horseless carriage with his best friends, she could be seen sobbing into Remus' shoulder. Why did she have to be so stubborn? If she had just listened to him in the first place, none of this would have happened.

When the Hogwarts Express made its stop at Kings Cross station, and Lily joined her parents and her sister Petunia, she watched the train as it pulled out of the station before whispering, "I'm sorry, James."

As the summer wore on and children began playing in the streets, Lily grew more and more withdrawn in guilt. She would eat only when forced to, and refused to leave her room. She stopped owling her friends and retreated into the folds of her blanket crying most of the day.

Then one day Remus, knowing how Lily blamed herself for what happened to James, came over to make sure she was okay. Petunia let him in, gawking at the tall man, before she showed him to Lily's room jealously.

At the creak of the door and the sliver of light the hall emitted, Lily buried herself deeper into her sheets, hissing in a hoarse voice, "Leave me alone, I'm not hungry."

Remus sat on the corner of her bed, "Lily," he whispered gently, and then when he got no reply, he said a little more forcefully, "Come out Lils."

Lily poked her head out of her hiding place in curiosity, "Remus? What in Merlin are you doing here?"

"I came to make sure you weren't doing what you are doing now to yourself. It's not helping the matter any; you torturing yourself. You know that," Remus shifted to face her, as she sat upright.

"But, I don't know what to do. It was my fault. I can't even face myself in the morning. I just want to crawl into my little hole and die," she admitted, sounding like a helpless child.

"That would piss James off, having to face the fact that his two best friends can't even keep his girlfriend alive while he's away." Remus chuckled when he saw the beginning of a smile play on Lily's face. "When he wakes up he's going to want you to be there, to tell you just how much better he could have pulled a performance like that and made you snap instead." She frowned and Remus decided to take a different approach to the subject. "But he will need you to be there for him, he's weak, and he needs your strength to help him," She slid into the hug he offered her and sighed. "He'll turn right back around and die if he sees you like this."

She looked up at him and sniffed, "Do I look that bad?" He nodded, wiping away a stray tear on her face. "Oh, I'm sorry."

"Now where's that smile that I'm used to?" he coaxed, and she smiled feebly, "Come on, you can do better than that. Don't make me call Sirius over here; he'll give your sister a heart attack."

Lily had to laugh at that one. Petunia had been known to hate all of Lily's 'kind', but picturing her sister finding Sirius Black at the front door made her think that he might be able to change her mind. "No don't do that, my parents would kill him."

"Then I want you to get better, for James." He added as an afterthought, "And me."

Remus left later in the day after making sure Lily wasn't going to go back to hiding in her room under the covers. Lily felt much after spending the day with him; what Remus had said really hit home. She left her room for the first time since the school year ended, and soon she was back to her usual routine of bugging her sister and owling her friends, who were beginning to think she had fallen of the face of the earth.

Early one August morning while the Evans' were sitting in the kitchen eating breakfast, there was a knock on the door. Petunia, as usual ran to answer it, wanting to be the first to know anything that happened in the house. Lily, who had just spooned some cornflakes from her bowl, heard her sister's trademark squeal, and a familiar chuckle, "Sirius!" She jumped and ran to the front door.

"Lils," he exclaimed, scooping the petite red-head into a bear hug, ignoring Petunia's evil glares. Then he asked, setting her down, "How've you been? Moony told me you nearly cried yourself to death.'

"Oh that," she said avoiding his concerned eyes, "Yeah, I did take a little guilt trip, but I'm all better now."

With that she turned around for him to get a good look at her. She was dressed to kill, in a short skirt, spaghetti top, her hair done into a messy bun; but she had lost a noticeable amount of weight since he saw her last at the station, and he frowned, but didn't say anything.

"So, what's so important that you to get out of your busy schedule and come to see little old me?" She asked, smiling at her friend.

"What you're not even going to invite me inside?" He accused, standing in the doorway.

"Nah, you can just stand there, I'll go and finish my breakfast. Then I'll come back to deal with you," she replied with a sly grin, turning and walking back to the kitchen which was still absent of Petunia.

"Lily Evans, you don't get your scrawny arse back here I'm going to turn your sister into a horse." Lily giggled at Sirius' empty threat knowing he would risk getting expelled for her sister, but stopped abruptly when she heard her sister scream.

"Sirius; my parents are here you know. You're not making the best first impression by scaring the wits out of my poor sister," she hollered, stomping back to the door, planning on yelling some more.

But changed her mind, when, instead of Sirius, a large black dog was in attack stance growling ferociously at a very frightened Petunia, "Get him away from me, Lily! Help, he's going to eat me."

Lily promptly put her hands on her hips and, trying not to giggle, and tapped her foot on the hardwood floor, "Bad dog! Now tell me why you're here or I'll call the dog catcher."

In the blink of an eye the dog was gone, in its place was the always handsome, Sirius Black; clad in leather, and a worried look playing on his usually carefree face, "It's James, he's back."

Lily gasped, not expecting this so suddenly, then reacted quickly by slapping Sirius across the face, "Why didn't you tell me!!" She hurried up the stair and stomped back, with her wand in hand.