Accio Evans

Chapter 22: Full Moon

"Where the hell have you been James Potter?" Lily screeched jumping from the sofa throwing her arms out dramatically as James and the remaining members of the team trudged through the portrait hole, a little while after Jessica had been escorted off to the hospital wing. "Do you know what time it is?" However once she saw James' face and the blood on his robes, she instantly forgot her anger and ran over to him, flinging her arms around his neck. "Are you alright?" she questioned, pulling out of the hug and cupping her hands on his cheeks, as if to check he was still flesh and blood.

"I'm fine Lil, seriously." James smiled at his girlfriend's concern. Taking her hands of his cheeks he continued to hold them, squeezing them reassuringly. Then Lily turned to the rest of the team, dishevelled and dirty, the tears dropping down Daniel's cheeks. She opened her mouth to speak but was cut off by Alice.

"Where's Jess?" she questioned, appearing behind Lily's shoulder, Hestia at her side. James and Sirius looked at each other and then at the floor, the rest of the team looking sheepish.

"Where is Jess?" Alice repeated, looking directly at James. A few seconds under Alice's intent stare and James caved.

"Hospital wing..." he answered.

The three girls gasped in unison and turned round the face each other, looks of horror and confusion spreading across their faces. The rest of the team took this as their cue to leave and skulked up their dormitories in silence. James and Sirius attempted to follow them, but were stopped by Hestia.

"Black, Potter, don't you dare move." Then she pointed a perfectly manicured nail towards the squishy red sofa in front of the fire, their usual seats, her red nail warmish glinting in the firelight.

"What happened? Is it serious?" Alice asked, once the five of them were seated. Looking at his best friend sheepishly, James knew Sirius was not going to say anything whilst Hestia was shooting him her death glare so he concluded it was all up to him.

"We were at practice..." he trailed off.

"Well we know that!" Alice snapped. "And the rest please Potter!" wincing with the use of his last name, James nevertheless tried to carry on.

"We were at practice and I was testing her reflexes, throwing golf balls and getting her to fly after them, and she went to catch one, leant too hard into her broom and over balanced it... she made the broom spiral out of control and went headfirst into the stadium wall..." James finished. Alice let out a sob and was consoled by Lily who felt tears prick in her eyes but resisted them.

"How badly is she hurt?" Lily asked, her voice trembling.

"Her arm and nose broken, shoulder dislocated and I think she's cracked a rib..." Sirius chipped in, finally caving into Hestia's death glare. Hestia was unusually quiet, the thing she did when she was upset but didn't want to show it. Leaning across Alice, who had her face buried in Lily's shoulder sobbing, Lily squeezed her best friend's shoulder reassuringly. Forcing her mouth into a small smile, Hestia managed to portray her gratitude.

"Can we go see her?" Hestia asked quietly, still staring into her lap.

"No-one's allowed in the hospital wing, its erm... blocked off..." James stammered as he tried to explain why the hospital wing was out of bounds without mentioning that it was because Remus was there preparing for his painful transformation into a werewolf tonight.

"Why?" Alice said, her face still buried in Lily's shoulder. Lily looked straight at James and a silent understanding passed between them.

"They want to give Jess the fullest attention, so they don't want us in." Lily lied. Rubbing circles on her friends back. Lily felt Alice nod into her shoulder. Lily felt awful about lying to Alice, but she needed to do to protect Remus.