lily pov
All day Lily hasn't seen James, which for most couples it's normal, however in Lily's case, her boyfriend likes to spend every minute of everyday with her. She has seen him in his happiest moments and moments when he was stressed but still always had a smile on his face. Even when the smile was obviously fake. But it seemed like nobody noticed so she let him be. She always hoped that one day, James would trust her enough to tell her what's always been bothering him. So it was a big surprise to her when Remus let her in his dorm and she saw James, silently sobbing his eyes out, not even noticing her.
She abruptly turned to Remus. "Why did you not check on him?"
"He never wants us to, why what did you see?" Remus asked, his worry starting to build up.
"He's crying, not breathing, I think he's having a panic attack, I've never seen him like this, but you must have you live in the same dorm. You must have seen him like this at least once, omg what if you haven't, what is James has been suffering this whole time silently with no one to help him. We need to help him Remus. WE NEED TO HELP HIM NOW!" Lily rambled.
"Ok ok just let me see him"
Remus saw him and nearly had a heart attack, the golden boy finally fell. The sun finally shone too bright. The same boy that reassured him that he wasn't a monster, the same boy that took care and told Sirius that he was loved after every bad summer, the same boy that always made sure that Peter ate and made sure to remind him that no one cared about his weight, was currently sleeping in his bed, cheeks red with tears, shivering.
"We will talk to him in the morning" He said.
"Ok"
Lily went back to her dorm, to find Marlene waiting for her.
"Where have you been?" She immediately asks.
"Checking up on James"
"Did you find out why he pranked me and pete?"
"No sorry"
Lily thought about telling Marlene about what she saw, but she didn't think that James would appreciate that, so she kept quiet.
"Oh ok but me and pete were thinking about getting back at him by telling him that we don't want to be friends" Marlene informed her.
"Oh I don't think you should try that"
"Why not, did something happen when you checked up on James"
"No of course not"
"Ok well I already got Mary's approval so we're going to do it"
"Mary is that true?" Lily shouts, as Mary walked up to the sofa where Lily and Marlene were sitting.
"Yeah I allowed it, it's about time someone gets him back for all he did"
"You do know that it's not only James doing it, it's also Sirius" Lily tried to reason with them.
"Yeah that's why a few weeks after we finish this prank, Mary's going to fake break up with him" Marlene explained.
"That's awful, you know how he gets, he'll start to think that nobody loves him again and isolate himself" Lily said
"He'll get over it when I tell him it was a prank" Mary tried to reassure her.
Lily sighed in defeat, knowing it was 2 against 1. She went to sleep and waited for the morning.
She already woke up to a bad start of her day, as she saw Marlene and Peter writing a letter in the common room.
"What are you doing?" Lily slurred (she just woke up give her a break).
"Writing a letter to James, his reaction is going to be so funny" Peter replied.
Lily sighed "You know what I think about this but whatever"
She left and went to the Great Hall, where James already was.
"James, I have to tell you something important"
"Good morning, what is it Lily?"
"Marlene and Peter are going to-" Lily started before she got cut off by Marlene, Remus, Sirius, Mary and Peter coming in.
A chorus of 'good morning' were said.
"Lily you were going to say something" James said.
"Oh never mind, it doesn't matter anymore"
"Oh ok"
Then at least 100 hundred owls came swooping in to deliver the mail. She saw James open his and his smile drop a bit before he put it right back up. She saw his eyes start to water a bit before he immediately left the Great Hall, not even bothering to eat.
Sirius, Remus and Lily ran after him, all the way up to his dorm, but James was faster.
When they got up all the stairs, they found the bathroom locked, Lily and Remus shared a look that said 'you know what this means' while Sirius shouted for James.
A loud thud was heard and that was when the bathroom door finally opened.
They saw James, unconscious on the ground, in a pool of his own blood.
"JAMES NOOO!!" Sirius shrieked.
Lily began crying but Remus stayed calm, or at least tried to stay calm.
"Come on we need to bring him to the infirmary but we can't carry him" Remus stated.
"Can you get Minnie, Moony?" Sirius asked.
"Ok" He said as he frantically left.
It felt like hours for McGonagall to get there, but it was probably just a few minutes.
"Oh my" She said as she saw James' body lying on the cold, tile floor.
"Mr Lupin can you get Madame Pomphrey" She added
"Of course Professor" Remus said as he was leaving, again.
When Madame Pomphrey came, everyone rushed to the sides of James so that she could heal him.
"Ok I need to get a blood replenishing and an awakening potion" She stated.
"I'll get it, Accio blood replenishing and an awakening potions" Professor McGonagall caught the potions from the air.
She gave them to Pomphrey and she thanked her in return.
She fed the awakening potion to him first.
"Sirius? Lily? Remus? Minnie? Poppy?" James asks as he woke up, confused.
Minerva and Poppy laughed at his antics.
"Ok Mr Potter you need to drink this potion" Poppy said
"Ok I guess but why is everyone here"
"Drink first"
James drank the potion and then Poppy got her wand and started to stitch James cuts together.
"Ahh fuck that hurts"
"Ok you will get your answers now" Lily said
"Basically you ran out of the Great Hall so we followed you and found you unconscious on the floor." Sirius said.
"Oh ok"
"But why did you do it Prongs?" Remus asked.
"Umm"
"We'll leave you alone, maybe he feels uncomfortable with us here" Pomphrey stated.
So Minnie and Poppy left and it was just the 4 teenagers.
"So?" Sirius urged him to carry on.
" Marls and Pete sent me this letter" He said as he handed them the letter.
Sirius and Remus looked at it in horror.
"But it wasn't even you it was Sirius" Remus said
"I know"
"Don't worry we still want to be friends with you it's just 2 people and you've got so much more friends than that, aren't you even friends with Crouch" Sirius said
" Yeah me and Barty are like 2 sides of the same coin."
"Ok rest for a bit and then we'll see him" Lily said.
So they got James in his bed and he slept for like 10 hours.
In that time Lily was writing a letter to Barty Crouch Jr.
To Crouch,
James wants to see you, I'll explain more when you're here
From Evans
When James woke up, Barty was already in the dorm.
"Hi Barty" James said.
"Hi James, we never talked in ages but Evans said that she would explain what happened and why you look like you just got out of a coma." Barty replied.
"Oh yeah so basically Marlene and Peter said that they didn't want to be friends anymore so he got upset and self-harmed. He was unconscious." Lily explained.
"Oh my gosh Jamie are you ok?" Barty responded, tearing up a bit.
"Yeah I'm fine Bee"
"But why would they do that we've been friends for like 10 years"
"They think I pranked them but I never"
"But don't they know that you get like this when something like this happens"
"Wait this kind of thing happened before" Sirius interrupts.
" Oh yeah I forgot you were here, before we went to Hogwarts, Jamie and I were in a friend group with 2 others and they both left him but stayed with me, and he did the same thing." Barty explained.
"Remember I only ever told you" James said.
"How could I forget, but I'm going to go talk to marls and pete" Barty said whilst leaving.
"K bye Bee"
"Bye Jamie"
"I'm going to go with him, see what happens" Lily said and then left in the same direction as Barty.
They found them both in the library (surprisingly).
"What happened between you and Jamie?" Barty asked.
"Oh you went to see him" Marlene said.
"Yeah and what happened" Barty asked again.
"We're just playing a prank on him Barty" Peter responded.
"Why?" He asked
"Because James and Sirius burnt copies of our stuff so we thought it was the actual things" Marlene said.
"Are you sure it wasn't just Black who did it?"
"Yeah I mean they always do stuff together" Peter said.
"But when I got pranked only Black did it not James"
"Well that might be you but I know it was both of them for us" Marlene said.
"So how long is this going to go on for?" Barty asked.
"Just a few days" They both answered in unison.
"Ok but I don't like this and I'm on James' side if anything happens"
"As we expected you to be" Marlene said.
"Ok bye"
"Bye Barty" Marls and Pete said in unison again.
Lily went back to her dorm and slept. (It was a very tiring day).
For the next few days, James was very silent and Marlene and Peter acted like everything was normal.
However, the thing that only Lily, and Barty, noticed is that James wasn't eating or sleeping and quite obviously wearing a fake glamour. On the last day of the prank, James' glamour started to flicker and he fainted. Lily, Barty, Marlene, Sirius and Peter ran towards him. (Remus is in the library).
"I'LL CARRY HIM TO MADAME POMPHREY!!" Barty shouted over everyone's voices.
Barty carried him all the way to the hospital ring and laid him on a bed.
"Oh my" Madame Pomphrey said as she saw what the diagnostic spell said.
"He's exhausted and needs food once he wakes up"
"Ok" everyone said.
When James woke up, he was asked a simple question from Barty.
"Are you okay?"
However James completely ignored that question as he saw Marlene and Peter right next to him with worrying faces.
"What are you doing here I thought you never wanted to see me again?" James asked.
"It was a prank James" Marlene said.
"Really so you're aren't mad at me?"
"Eat first then we can talk about it" Peter said.
So James ate (only like half of the plate) the food they gave him.
"Why did you prank us?" Peter started.
"That's what this is about, James never did anything, he told me not to do it. But I still did it" Sirius said.
"I TOLD YOU BOTH, JAMIE WOULD NEVER DO THAT" Barty shouted at them.
"Ok we get it you were right Barty" Peter said.
"Of course I'm right, I'm always right you should've known that by now"
Marlene rolled her eyes "Classic Barty"
"So the whole 'We don't want to be friends with you anymore' was a prank" James said.
"Yes" Marlene replied.
"Oh ok"
"James is that why you did what you did" Peter asked
"Yeah kind of"
"James how could we not want ti be friends with you, you're so kind and caring like you're drawing us to you." Marlene said
"Ok"
"You don't believe them do you?" Lily asked
James stayed silent.
"Well then we'll keep saying it until you do" Marlene said.
"Yeah ok"
Then out of nowhere, Barty hugged him so tight he could barely breathe.
"Never do anything like that again please"
"Ok"
"Promise?"
"Promise"
"Wow Crouch, if you carry on I'll start to think that you're his best friend instead of me." Sirius interrupted.
"Better start to think it because it'll happen sooner or later" Barty replied with a smirk.
"And I thought you were my brother's best friend" Sirius said.
"Nah that's Pandora's job" He replied.