Chapter 1: I Lose a Bet

(Code)

I stood pacing the floor. I had been uneasy about this plan from the begging, but now that it was actually set in motion I was feeling even worse. Much worse.

"You worry too much, Ryan," Claire said lightly, standing in the doorway of my new room. We'd moved to houses again due to the whole involvement with the Ministry. Neither our old house nor the Malfoy Manor were safe.

"Get out of my face, Claire," I growled.

"I'm not in your face," she pointed out, standing there with her stupid little smile. If you didn't know her, you never would've been able to tell she was pure evil by glancing at her. The blonde hair that fell down to her shoulders and her naturally youthful face made her look younger than she was. She had this innocent air to her. I wasn't sure if she'd practice it to get so good or if it just came naturally. The only give away that Claire wasn't a normal, good child was her ice blue eyes. She tried to hide it, but if you were looking for it was as plain as day. The hatred and the glint of evil and the emptiness in her eyes. It was terrifying.

"Please, just leave me alone," I said.

Claire completely ignored me and entered my room father. "When are we going to leave?" she asked.

I sighed. When had I got myself so tangled up in this mess? How? Why? I didn't want to do this anymore. I didn't want to be responsible for Voldemort coming back. I no longer was angry at the whole world. I no longer wanted to make everyone pay. Just James. And I didn't need the evilest villain in history to do that.

But I didn't have a choice now. It was either I finished the job and did my best to keep Voldemort under my control or I let Claire handle it. And she did want to destroy the world.

"I don't know," I finally answered. "When I find the right candidate."

"How long's that gonna take?" she whined.

"I don't know!" I snapped.

"You're always moody these days," she complained and left.

I was so tired of my sister, so tired of this life. I found myself crying over nothing and everything more and more these days. About the mess I've gotten myself into. About Lauren's death. About my shitty so-called family. About how much life sucked.

And it all started with this stupid plan. I wasn't sure what part of it made me guilty. I mean, sure, making everyone think Claire was dead and getting James chucked in Azkaban was cruel, but no worse than what he'd done to me. To Lauren. And no worse than what I've done before.

I don't think it was James I felt bad for. Maybe it was Hugo. Or Albus or Lily. Maybe it was that after this poor family had already lost so much I was taking another person I loved from them. They didn't deserve that. But James did. Didn't he?

For the third time in my life, and also the third time that month, I cried myself to sleep.


(James)

"I can't bring myself to talk to anyone anymore. I can't bring myself to eat or sleep or do anything. All I can do is sit and think. And I hate thinking. I hate thinking because it let my imagination run wild. It lets me imagine all the terrible things that are happening. It reminds me that all I'm going to have to do soon is think. And that terrifies me. It terrifies me because I think- no I know- I'll go insane. And I know I deserve it, I know I deserve to be locked up and worse, but that doesn't mean I'm okay with it. I don't know how much longer I can do this. I don't know if I'm going to even last long enough to get to Azkaban. All I know is that I'm scared and terrified and I can't hide it anymore."

I finally looked up to see Alice's face. It was pretty much blank. An expression that had been practiced over the years. She knew how much I hated to see the pity that she was feeling for me and so she masked it. She just listened. That's what I liked about Ally. She was maybe the only person who could listen to my nonsense- no matter what it was- and not judge me. Not pity me, or hate me, or get angry with me. Just listen and nod.

After a moment of silence Alice finally said, "You don't have to hide it, James. You're allowed to be scared."

"I can't though. I can't let Lily and Albus know how terrified I am. I can't let them know that I think I won't make it back out. They're still holding out hope that I'll get a short sentence and come back to them. That I'll be okay. But I know, I know, I'll die if I go Azkaban, Ally. And I can't do that to them."

Alice didn't say anything. I knew exactly why too. She didn't want to give me false hope. Sure she could say everything's going to be okay or don't worry we'll make sure you don't go to Azkaban. But she couldn't promise that. It was better, of course, that she didn't try to give me any hopes. Better that she didn't throw me a rope that wasn't attached to anything, but it didn't ease the pain. It didn't make it any easier to admit that there was no hope. I would be going to Azkaban and there was nothing I could do to change that.

"I'm going to do everything I can," she whispered. "We all are. It's going to be okay."

My voice was quiet when I finally spoke again. "Promise me."

She shook her head tears in her eyes. "I can't."

And that's exactly what I was afraid of.


The trial was scheduled for July 28th. Usually you had to wait months for a trial, but I suppose this was more important. This wasn't any matter of an under aged wizard using magic. This was as serious as it got. Murder with the use of an unforgivable curse.

July 28th. I had eight days left until my life was officially over. Until the beginning of my prolonged torment. Until the start of my end. My death.

I should've been cherishing these last few days. I should've been spending them playing Quidditch, hanging out with my friends, pulling pranks, but I couldn't bring myself to do any of that. I could barely stand to talk to my family knowing they'd be gone soon. I could barely choke down Grandma Weasley's amazing food knowing I'd never taste it again.

I couldn't do anything because everything felt like an end. It hurt too much to know it was the last time I'd get to do these things. There was no Quidditch teams in Azkaban. No good food. No one to talk to. It'd just be me alone with my thoughts. So shouldn't I prepare for that now? No matter how terrible it was shouldn't I try to get myself used to it appose to embracing everything I had now and then having to forget about it forever in just over a week?

There was a knock at my door. "Come in," I muttered, though I really didn't want to see anyone, let alone talk to them.

Albus opened the door tentatively. "Victorie's having her baby."

Truly I felt joyful at first. A smile may have even crept onto my face for a short second. But I pushed all those feelings down. There would be a baby. I would know the newest member of the next generations of Weasleys for eight short days and then I would never see him or her again. So why get attached now? Why get attached just to be torn away?

"Wish her my best," I said impassively.

"James…" Albus began.

Fred stormed into the room. "If you do not get off your sorry ass and go to the hospital with the rest of the family so help me I will-"

"I can't go anyway," I snapped. "House arrest remember?"

"It took a lot of fighting, but finally they agreed to let you go as long as the guard is with you at all time… and you wear these special handcuffs that prevent you from using any wandless magic."

I sighed. I really did want to go. I really did. But it was only going to make it that much harder. I could barely stand letting go of the people I loved now. It wasn't like letting go of my family as a whole. Not at all. It was letting go of each and every person. Letting go of Teddy, my big brother who taught me how to pull pranks when I was a toddler. And Lucy who I found almost unbearable but that didn't mean I was going to miss her any less. And Albus who I'd never be able prank again. And Fred who stood by me as my best mate. Listened to all my stupid problems. Participated in all my stupid plasn that would end up with us getting grounded. And Lily. Sweet little Lily who I'd never get to hug again. I'd never be there when she grew up. And Alice. No more Alice to cheer me up when I'm sad. No more Alice to talk me out of my bad decisions.

No more any of them. So why should I add another person to the list of people I'd have to let go of?

I was prepared to say no, prepared to fight them on it when Teddy walked in the room. He was beaming, but he also looked like he was going to be sick. "I'm gonna be a Dad."

I wasn't sure if he was talking to me or to himself, but I grinned. My first real grin in over a month. "And I'm going to be an Uncle."

Teddy looked at me, as if he just noticed I was there. "What the hell are you doing on your ass? Your nephew is about to be born! Get dressed and hurry up."

And for Teddy's sake, and only Teddy's sake I did as he asked.


I paced around the waiting room anxiously tapping the metal of the handcuffs I was wearing.

As I walked by Fred's chair he put his legs out and I tripped. Since my hands were bound I couldn't catch myself. Everyone laughed, including the Auror stationed to watch me- I still didn't know his name.

"What the hell was that for?" I snapped, rubbing my wrists, which I had landed on funny.

Alice preformed a quick healing charm on them. And Fred responded to me stifling more laughter, "I honestly thought you might wear out the floor and your sneakers."

I made a face at him and continued pacing- out of the reach of Fred's foot. With all the negative types of thoughts that I had had on my mind lately it was nice to think for something else. To think of the baby.

A woman came out of the delivery room. Immediately I rushed towards the door. "For someone who didn't even want to come, he's pretty eager," muttered Fred.

"The mother and the father request that you get to see the baby yourselves, appose to me revealing the sex. However only two are allowed in at a time."

Everyone stood up immediately. "The parents have requested to see Dom and James first," The delivery woman explained. She cleared the way. "Congratulations everyone to your new edition to the family."

"Merlin knows we needed a new edition after all we've lost," muttered Molly.

When I entered the waiting room with Dom- and the stupid Auror who wouldn't leave me alone- both Teddy and Victorie were crying. Dom rushed immediately for her sister so I turned to my brother.

"Congratulations," I said to Teddy. "You're a father."

He wiped away the tears on his cheek and hugged me fiercely. "I'm a father," he half cheered, half sobbed.

"You're going to make an amazing Dad," I told him. "And, hey," I said quietly, giving him a playful punch, "I guess this means you win the bet."

He grinned broadly. "I told you," he said triumphantly. "I told you!"

Both Victorie and Dom hushed him.


Teddy let out a low whistle. "I'm telling you, Jamie, Victorie is the most beautiful girl in the world."

"Don't call me Jamie," I had snapped, annoyed at the childish nickname. "And stop crushing on our cousin. It's weird."

Teddy picked me up. "You see, Jamie, she's your cousin, but she is not biologically my cousin, which means fair game."

I wrinkled my nose in disgust. "You're gross."

"Aw, you're just jealous Alice doesn't like you back!"

"I don't like Ally!" I insisted going beat red.

Teddy put me down and turned into a perfect image of me with his Metamorphagus skills. "Oh Alice. I love Alice so, so much. I'm in love with Alice Longbottom, but I'm just too much of a coward to admit it! How will I get her to love me back? How?!"

"I'm not a coward!" I shouted. "You're just jealous because you're a failure!"

Teddy turned back into himself. "You know you just called yourself a failure. Cause I had your face on." He stuck out his tongue at me.

I crossed my arms and pouted, "Failure."

"It's not failure, dear Jamie, it's called patience. Something you don't, and probably won't ever, have. I'm waiting. All in due time."

"If you even manage to take her out on one date, I'll give you a fifty galleons."

Teddy snorted. "A date is child's play Jamie. I'll do better than that. First I'll slowly win her over, then a date, then she'll be my girlfriend, we'll get married, and have three kids."

I snorted right back. "If you have kids with her I'll give you a hundred galleons."

"And if I don't I'll give you a hundred and ten," Teddy countered.


"You made a bet about me?" Victorie asked suddenly, glaring at Teddy and I.

"No, dear, it's not exactly like that. You see, I just-"

"When he was ten he bet he'd have a child with you," I interrupted.

"Theodore!" Victorie said, visibly offended. It's a good thing Dom was holding the baby right now because Victorie tried to leap out of bed. Dominique held her down.

"If she wants to divorce you, I win the bet," I said quietly to Teddy. Apparently not quietly enough though, because both Teddy and Dom took the honour of slapping me.

"Ow," I muttered.

"Vicky, I swear, I love you," Teddy swore. "I love you and the baby."

"I guess it's sort of cute that you loved me since we were ten."

Teddy snorted. "I loved you since we were five." Teddy went up to her and they kissed for a full fifteen seconds.

"Ahem!" I said loudly.

Teddy held up his middle finger, but ended the kiss anyway. "The reason we wanted you two in here first is because we have special news," Victorie began.

Teddy nodded. "James, Dominique, we want you to be the Godparents."

Dom squealed with joy, handed the baby to Teddy and squeezed her sister in a hug so tight I wasn't sure Vic would survive it.

I went up to hug Teddy. I still was quite a bit shorter than Teddy- and probably always would be since he chose to be tall- so my face was awkwardly buried in his shoulder.

"You're going to make an amazing Godfather, James, I just know it."

I was doing my very best not to cry. Not only did I have a new nephew but now he was my Godchild too? I was going to Azkaban and Teddy named me Godfather? Why would he do that?"

"Because I have hope," Teddy mumbled quietly.

"False hope is never a good thing," I muttered back.

Teddy pushed me away from him so I could see his face. His eyes, which were currently a nice hazel color were intense and serious. His face, which had been animated with joy just seconds ago, was now almost angry.

"Hope is never, ever a bad thing." I had never heard Teddy sound so serious. It was almost scaring me. I just nodded. "James!" he snapped. "Listen to me. Do not give up hope. This is not over."

Dominique was about to hand me the baby, a beautiful baby boy whose eyes were already changing color, when she noticed my cuffed hands. We all turned to the Auror.

"Please?" I asked. I wasn't even sure what made me ask. Before, I didn't even want to come, but now, now that I was here, leaving without holding my Godson in arms wasn't even an option. He would take these cuffs off me or I would cut myself open trying to get them off.

The man however didn't put up any resistance like I expected. He just nodded, wiped away a tear- a tear- and used his wand to make the cuffs fall to the floor.

Dom passed me the baby boy. He was so small. I remembered holding Albus as a baby, and Lily and all my other cousins. I had dropped baby Albus- partially on purpose, partially because he was too heavy- but I had held Lily in my arms for a long, long time. She was just so precious, so cute and at the age of three, especially after already having a little sibling, I was much more okay with the concept of a little sister. At that moment I had vowed to protect her all my life. To never let anything happen to her.

With this baby though, my godson, it was different. It wasn't a need to protect him so much as a… a fierce to desire to never leave him. To never ever let this child out of my sight. I didn't think there was any feeling stronger than the feelings I felt for Lily when she was born, but this was it. If there was any reason for me to fight, to not give up hope, it was for this bundle of joy in my arms. I would fight for him, I would do anything for him.

"Hey, Artie," I whispered. "I'm you godfather, James. I'm gonna take really good care of you, okay? As long as I'm alive no one's gonna harm a single little hair on your head… uh when you have hair that is."

Everyone laughed. Victorie, Dom and the Auror were crying.

"Where'd you get Artie from?" Teddy asked.

"Arthur," I said, as though it was obvious. "His name is Arthur."

Teddy and Victorie looked at each other. "That's perfect," they said in unison.

"Arthur Harry Lupin," Teddy confirmed. "I love it."

We stayed in there a little longer until Fred barged in the room and demanded to see his baby cousin, before he hexed someone.

As we left the room the Auror put a hand on my shoulder. I turned to him.

"I have a little brother," he said. "I would do anything to protect him."

I glanced at Albus. He looked young, sitting there in the waiting room a smile on his face, fidgeting excitedly. "Me too."

"I know. And I just want you to know I don't blame you. From what I understand you were trying to protect your brother?"

"Yeah," I said, nodding, my eyes still on Albus. "He's most of the reason I'm still okay. He needs me."

"I'm going to be fighting for you. I'll be trying to convince everyone you don't belong in jail. And I'm going to try my very best to convince everyone that your brother, your cousin and your friend would be dead without your heroic act."

I closed my eyes. "Thank you," I muttered, because I was pretty sure I'd cry if I said anything else.


When I got home I no longer barricaded myself in my room. There was no need I realised. In fact, there was much need not to. Even if I was going to Azkaban, even if I didn't want to give myself false hope, Albus needed me. Lily needed me. Little Arthur Harry needed me. And even if I wanted to give up on myself, I couldn't give up on them.

So I acted like a very normal human being. I choked down food at meals, even though I wasn't really hungry, just so no one would worry. I pretended to sleep at night, even used magic to make the bags under my eyes disappear, so no one would fret over me. I participated in the daily Quidditch matches we had. I almost got killed by Victorie and Dominique when I took baby Arthur for a ride on my broom.

Overall life wasn't sucking. It was like I could almost forget what was happening.

I was holding a sleeping baby Arthur when there was a knock on my door. Before I could even say come in the door burst open.

Brianna stood there looking like she was about to burst out yelling. No noise came out however. I followed her gaze to Harry.

"My godson," I explained rocking him in my arms.

She was silent for a second before finally saying, "I never thought you'd be good with kids."

"I've never really had the chance to be around kids, unless you count my cousins who're no more than three years younger than me. Artie isn't annoying like they are. Right, Artie? You're a good boy. Yeah."

Brianna nodded with admiration as he slept soundly in my arms. "He's the reason you're fighting."

"I- what?" I sputtered. I left the room momentarily to put Arthur in his crib.

When I came back she was standing with her arms folded. "Don't deny it."

I crossed my arms too. Two could play at that game. "Who said I ever had the intention of giving up? Who said I'm not still?"

She snorted and gave me a slightly exasperated look. "I can read you like an open book. I know you like a movie I've watched over and over again."

"How?" I demanded. "How do you know me so well when we met a year ago?"

She gave a slight shrug. "Wouldn't you like to know."

I stared at her and she stared back. I was the first to blink and she smiled triumphantly. Finally I asked, "Why are you here?"

"Why do you think I'm here?"

"Well, it's not to check up on me. When you came you already knew I was… acting normal again. So…"

"So…"

I sat down on my bed. I knew exactly why she was here. And I knew that she was well aware I knew. I also knew that Alice had sent her. And she'd waited until the perfect time too. Both girls, they knew me so well. Almost like they planned this. Alice was with me, trying to help me convince me that everything would be all right that I'd find a way out of this. Now Brianna was here to talk to me about the one thing Alice couldn't help with.

"If you can't admit a problem or a fear, you'll never get over it," Brianna said sitting down next to me on my bed.

"I don't know what you're talking about," I denied stubbornly.

"James." She said my name like you might scold a child.

"Brianna," I mocked using the same tone.

She gave me a look, again one that you would give a scolded child and left. I wasn't sure what made me do it but as soon as she shut the door I sprang up and tried the handle. Locked.

Despite the fact that I'd stayed in my room about ninety percent of the time since I came home, being locked in there bothered me. Being trapped was one of my worst fears.

It started from when Teddy had locked me outside one night while he was babysitting us, thinking it would be funny. I had almost got eaten by what I think was a wolf. At least, it seemed like a wolf although Teddy insisted he saw it too and it was just a large dog. I was young and small so I couldn't get over the fence we had. If an accidental burst of magic hadn't scared the wolf –or dog, whatever- away it would've gobbled me up. Teddy was grounded afterwards but it didn't help my fear of being trapped.

I tried to sit on my bed and be calm. She would be back. Soon. It'd been about five minutes before I started hyperventilating. The only thoughts that were going through my head were of Azkaban. This is what it would be like. This is how it would feel to live the rest of my days out in a cell. Except worse. It'd be smaller and the entire time I would know there'd be no escape. There'd be no reassuring myself someone would be there to let me out soon. It'd just be minute after minute of torture. I'd go insane. I'd be all alone and I'd slowly go insane. No one would be around to watch. I wasn't sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing.

I was so trapped inside my own head that I couldn't really hear much, but I did make out the words 'terrified' and 'trapped' so I assumed she was talking about me. Probably Alice and or Brianna.

I don't know when I started crying. I don't know when my shirt became soaked with sweats. I don't when I fell on the floor and I most certainly don't know when I started rocking back and forth. But I doing all those things when Alice came in.

She just held me, stroking my hair until I calmed down. I wasn't sure if it took five minutes or an hour but it felt like an eternity to me. And all I could think about was if I cracked under that little amount of pressure here, in my own room, how could I possibly survive even a minute of the wizarding prison?


A/N: Hey guys! Sorry for the late update. I've been really busy. Fortunately I'm on chapter 4 and will be able to post regularly. Around every ten days. It just takes a while to edit certain chapters which I'll try to do in advance in the future as doing it the night I'm supposed to update doesn't seem to be a good tactic.

1: Next update will be between October 22nd-25th.

2: I want to thank Rememberball518 for pushing me to update. If it weren't for you everyone would be waiting another week ;)

3: If you have any question concerns or comments feel free to review or PM me. Guests I highly recommend you get an account so I can thank you properly and answer your questions.

4: A lot of people have been asking about the Elder Wand. Here's my explanation: Harry puts it in Dumbledore's grave after the Battle of Hogwarts. As he willingly gave it up he is no longer the master. The next person to claim it was Lucius, who was disarmed by Hugo making him the Master. At the beginning of the book the Codes thought one of the Weasleys had taken the wand but in reality Hugo had no idea where it was or that he had disarmed Lucius while he (Lucius) was in possession of it.t Code started invading Hugo's mind in order to try and find the location of the Elder Wand. He succeeded eventually and him and Claire went to get it. However since Hugo didn't voluntarily give it up he was still the master of it. Causing Claire to make up her crazy plan to lure Hugo into the maze that was used for the 4th task and she was going to kill him so she could be master of the wand. However this failed epically and Hugo is still master. Claire no longer has time for this and so she plans to give the wand to Voldemort and forget about owning it for herself. Wow that was a long explanation. All of this either has and or will be explained in the book.

"The birth of a child is one of the greatest joys in life," Unknown.

-Monkeywoman14