epiphany, james potter

4.

Lyla woke up with sweat beaded to her forehead, the covers rumpled over her legs, and light shining on her eyelids.

One lucky thing about Lyla's dorm, she was the only one in it. Which meant that when she had a killer hangover, she could relish in the quiet.

Memories of last night flooded through her head, cringing remembering what James had done.

Now Lyla didn't necessarily want to go to Hogsmeade with Luke, but it wasn't James choice to make, it was hers.

Pulling herself out of bed, she quickly got ready for the day and left her dorm. She made her way throughout the common room, seeing last nights remains of the party still there.

"Lyla?" A voice calls out from the floor, She looks down to see Marlene flopped on the ground.

Lyla widens her eyes at Marlene's position, "What the hell are you doing?"

"I must've fell asleep here." Marlene let's put a pathetic laugh, "Help me up."

The girls eventually made it to the great hall, taking their usual seats.

Lyla looked around to see her friends all looking exhausted and cranky, great this would make for a good day.

"Lyla, did you end up getting your herbology homework done?" Remus Lupin asks from across the table.

Lyla knew that Remus was a werewolf, and she sat next to him in herbology, so she would commonly give him her homework so he could copy it down.

Lyla nodded, "I'll give you it later."

He gave her a nod of appreciation, and the table fell into silence once again. Then a loud agitating voice booms into her ears.

"We have a match against Slytherin today!" James clapped eagerly, "Who's excited?" He grinned from ear to ear.

Lyla rolls her eyes at his loudness, "Why are you so chipper? You drank way more then me last night."

He just grinned as a response, "You coming to the match Black?"

She looked at him weirdly, "Yes? I always do."

"See you there."

And so he did, while James Potter was trying to get the quaffle through the goal, Lyla sat watching him with a large Gryffindor scarf wrapped around her cold face.

Lyla, Lily, and Remus commonly sat together during quidditch matches, considering Marlene, Sirius and James were all on the team.

"And another point to Slytherin!" A random Ravenclaw announces from the booth, "Looks like Potter can't get the quaffle in."

James looked enraged from his position on his broom, Lyla was very confused, Gryffindor always beat Slytherin.

Suddenly, a bludger flies directly at James, hitting him in his ribs. He immediately stumbles on his broom, crashing down to the ground.

Lyla gasps and jumps up from her seat, she reluctantly follows the crowd of people circling around him.

Professor Mcgonagall quickly shoos the students away, calling Madam Pompfrey over. Sirius is leaned down next to James who looks slightly unconscious.

Lyla leans down next to Sirius, "James are you okay?" She didn't know why she asked, but their was a certain panic bubbling inside her stomach.

"Lyla?" A shaky voice asks from below her.

Before she can say anything else, a charm is placed on the boy so he an be carried away, and the teacher won't let anyone follow.

The match continued on but Lyla didn't stay, she couldn't. Something about seeing him in pain made her have an incredible amount of unsettling feelings.

She quietly made her way inside the castle, making sure no one saw her. She crept towards the hospital wing.

The door was slightly ajar, making a perfect gap for Lyla to sneak through.

The hospital wing was mostly empty, apart from the bed holding the curly headed boy she was looking for.

She stumbled over to him, somewhat regretting coming here, "James?" She whispers leaning down next to him, "Are you okay?"

He stirs quietly, "Lyla?" He smiles, "What are you doing here?"

"Coming to see if a big idiot was okay." She scowls, "That's you by the way."

"Did we win the match?" He looks eager for an answer.

She shrugs, "I don't know, I left early."

"You left just to come see me?" He teases, "Didn't know you cared that much."

Lyla just sighs, "I don't. Just would hate to see Sirius moping around if you were dead."

"Sure." James nods, "How bad is it?" He gestures down to his ribs.

Lyla gasps at the sight of his bruised ribs, she couldn't help her hand from gently touching them, even when he winced.

She moved his shirt up a bit more, to examine the damage, "Uh pretty bad." She admits.

"Poppy said I broke a few ribs, she's gonna heal them up thought." He takes her hand off his stomach.

"That's why quidditch is stupid." Lyla shudders, "I'd never play."

"It's stupid till you win." James shakes his head, "The feeling of winning, it's indescribable."

Internally Lyla agreed with him, she wished that she had something like that, she wished she had a thing that she loved so dearly.

Suddenly Lyla didn't hate James as much as she thought she did, when she saw him laying weak on the quidditch field she realized something, he was just like her. Everyone has weakness inside of them, even if you can never see it.

"Look James—" Lyla begins to say, but a new voices pile into the hospital wing.

"James we won!"

"Nasty fall mate."

"Those Slytherins stood no chance!"

Lyla was soon forgotten and pushed back by the rest of the quidditch team, but she didn't miss the way that James eyes never left hers.