I'll Wait For You
By Hazelmist
Disclaimer: I own nothing except the OC's maybe. Everything else belongs to the lovely author of Harry Potter.
Summary: Grace Adams just wants to live, but Sirius Black, the war, and a serial killer keep getting in her way. SBOC LJ AF RLOC. Sequel to I'll Fight For You.
WARNING! This is a sequel/spin off. You should read my Lily/James story I'll Fight For You first. Though it's not entirely necessary. I'll sum up the prequel real quick. SUMMARY: In I'll Fight For You Lily Potter is about to die and flashes back to the start of her Sixth Year. At the start of her Sixth Year, Lily's best friend Grace Adams and her cousin James Potter come to take Lily home with them. Grace's parents are murdered while they're there and Lily finds herself comforting James. Death Eaters attack. James takes her back to stay with his family and they grow closer as they prepare for and attend the funeral. Grace's mother isn't dead. Lily goes to stay with the Potters again for Christmas and Grace drags them on a hunt through the family mausoleum for her mother's body. Death Eaters attack at the Ministry Yule Ball and another friend, Tiffany's, father is murdered. Lily and James are entrusted with the care of Grace's mother who has been disguised and has a deadly secret that she can't remember. Lily and Grace are attacked on the train. Lily nearly dies. Lily turns James down one too many times. James moves on to comfort Tiffany. Lily finds a boyfriend in Rohan Corner, who saved her life. Lily learns that the Death Eaters are after a powerful weapon that only Hope, Grace's mother knows the location of, except that she obliviated herself. A skirmish with the Slytherins turns deadly as Hope's identity is revealed and a young Death Eater, Wilkes, tries to kill her. Grace jumps in front of the curse. Hope bargains for Grace's life and promises to find the weapon for them. Lily and her friends put the clues together and head back to the mausoleum to find the buried weapon but thanks to a spying device and their traitorous roommate McLaggen, the Death Eaters are a half step ahead of them. They fight their way through the Potter house, but Lily's friend Ophelia Lovegood is possessed and murders Hope. Lily becomes the new wielder of the weapon and Voldemort wants to use her to get to the power. Lily's boyfriend Rohan is tortured and killed and Lily narrowly stops Voldemort from murdering Grace as well. With the help of James, Lily reaches the weapon, takes care of the Death Eaters, saves her friends and survives the collapse of the mausoleum. After a misunderstanding and a long wait Grace comes out of her coma and Lily and James finally get together. The story ends here with a quick glimpse of their Seventh Year (Grace and Sirius finally make out and James, Lily and the others wonder where they will be in the future years) as the flashback is finished and Lily Potter dies knowing that her son will live because she loves him.
Author's Note: I know I said no sequel, and this is more of a spin off because it's told in 3rd person point of view, and will mostly be Grace's perspective. I do not plan for it to be very long. The Prologue is from the summer before their first year with some surprise appearances, but the first chapter will take place in their Seventh Year, a year after Gracie was almost killed and Lily went down into the mausoleum to get the weapon etc.
PROLOGUE
July 1970
Diagon Alley was hot and muggy. The heat bore down upon the witches and wizards that crowded the narrow street, making their movements sluggish and their tempers short and irritable. Cooling charms were a tricky business and there was only so much that they could do to alleviate the humidity and the tension it created. The weather wasn't the only thing weighing them down…
All of the warning signs were there – a violent storm was brewing and it was coming their way. It would be many more years before the rest of the wizarding world felt the full effects of this storm and were forced to open their eyes to the dark hurricane that had been silently gathering strength beneath their very noses; but by then it would be too late. By then it would be an unstoppable force, destroying and sucking up everything in its path, but on that hot day in July of 1970, the majority of the wizarding world was blissfully unaware of the death and destruction that the future had in store for them.
Fortunately, the two dark haired children wearing matching Puddlemere United t-shirts were among this population. If they had been privy to what the future had in store for them, perhaps they would have stayed like that, slumbering in the unbearable heat, avoiding the fated meeting that awaited them and would trigger the chain of events that would tear the wizarding world apart. But even at the tender age of eleven, they were already a part of something larger than themselves.
"Blimey, it's so bloody warm out," eleven year old James Potter complained, pushing his hair back from his sweaty forehead. He rested his skinny arms on the table outside Florean Fortescue's ice cream parlor, upsetting the half eaten bowl of ice cream. It tipped over and the melted chocolate dribbled out; slowly dripping off the table and into his cousin's lap. She didn't notice.
"Do you think they forgot about us?" Grace Adams asked, oblivious to the chocolate stain on her favorite t-shirt. She had her chin propped up in her hand and her blue eyes locked on something in the distance.
"Who?" James rubbed his eyes before lazily picking up his glasses and replacing them on his head.
"My parents, you moron," Grace said, rolling her eyes. "They were supposed to be back from their meeting hours ago."
"Hopefully, then I can guilt trip Dad into buying me that Silver Arrow!"
Normally the mention of anything Quidditch related would cause Gracie to light up like a firecracker, but today she was unusually pensive. Something was bothering her and it annoyed her that she couldn't figure out what that was.
"Come on, Gracie, let's go back and have another look at the Silver Arrow."
"All right," Grace sighed, rising to her feet. James threw some sickles on the table and they walked out into the unbearable heat.
"I wish first years could have brooms," James whined, as they moved through the crowd. "Maybe Gryffindor will make an exception!"
"What makes you think you think you'll be in Gryffindor?" Grace teased him. "I think you'd make a perfectly good Hufflepuff." James attempted to shove her into a barrel of beetle's eyes, but Gracie dodged out of the way.
"We were born to be Gryffindors and we'll die Gryffindors!" James dramatically struck a pose, pulling out an imaginary sword. Grace hastily glanced around to make sure the vendor wasn't watching and then thrust her hand into a barrel of unicorn horns. She pulled out a long one, wielding it as if it were a real sword. At least it trumped James's non-existent sword.
"Prove it," she urged him, dancing on the balls of her feet. "Prove your Gryffindor worth." James grinned and hastily upgraded the imaginary sword with a unicorn horn retrieved from the same barrel.
"Loser is a Hufflepuff," James said, sallying forth for the first thrust. Grace ducked and James leaped back before she could make her move. They circled each other closely, never taking their eyes off one another so that they were oblivious to their audience. Grace darted forward for another strike, which James expertly blocked with a parry of his own. The sound of the two unicorn horns clashing drew the attention of the shopkeeper from the customer he had been attending too.
"Hey! No touch those!"
But the two children were so caught up in their mock sword fight that they were ignorant of the shopkeepers threats. They ducked, dodged, lunged, and struck at each other; all the while dancing around each other with a grace that caused shoppers around them to pause to watch. Among the crowd were two young boys, and a pretty red haired girl. It was the girl that proved to be James's downfall.
He had managed to hit Grace so hard that she lost her balance. She stumbled back, giving him the opening that he needed. But at that moment when James should've claimed his victory, he was distracted by a pair of green eyes. James didn't understand why the small girl caught his attention. After all, he was only eleven, but there was something about the little red head with the amused green eyes that made him pause to take in the small smile that brightened her face.
Grace knocked him down and he dropped his weapon. It shattered upon impact and the rest of the world flooded in on them.
"YOU PAY FOR THAT! YOU PAY!" Grace was startled by the sight of the heavyset wizard barreling toward them. The second sword fell and broke alongside James's. She glanced at James, who took one look at the outrageous price for unicorn horns and got to his feet. They didn't have any more money on them, leaving them with only one option.
"Run!" he hissed, snatching at her sleeve. Grace shot off like a bludger, zig-zagging through the crowd and smashing into people. James was stealthier, weaving between shoppers with the elusiveness of a snitch. They separated without even realizing it, splitting off in to two opposite directions as the shop keeper started firing sparks close behind them. Grace ran as fast as her legs would carry her, but she couldn't get the people to move out of her way fast enough. The shop keeper's voice was getting louder and closer, and James had vanished. Grace was desperate for an out, so when someone forcefully grabbed her arm, taking her out of the shop keeper's line of vision; she let them.
"Come with me!"
Grace didn't like the tight grip that the boy had on her arm, but the shopkeeper's threats were in her ears and the crowd was starting to turn on her. When the boy tugged her behind a boarded up shop and down another alleyway, Grace followed eagerly. The alleyway was dark and dirty but it narrowed at the end, making it near impossible for the fat shop keeper to come after her even if he had noticed the sudden detour they'd taken. The space was so tight that Grace tried to pull her arm out from the boy's grasp but he held on, dragging her through behind him at an awkward painful angle. Her elbow scraped up against the dirty brick wall.
"Ow, that hurt!" Grace said, wrenching her arm out of his grasp as they stepped out on to the street. In addition to the scrape on her elbow, his nails had left deep crescent shaped marks on her arm.
"Sorry." The boy didn't look very apologetic, in fact he was smiling. Grace didn't like the way he smiled at her. It made her uncomfortable.
"Where are we?" Grace asked, looking away from the boy's creepy smile. They were back on the street, but Gracie was positive that they weren't in Diagon Alley anymore. It felt different, like the air itself was dirtier. All of the color that was in Diagon Alley seemed to have drained out of this place. Though the sun still beat down upon them it was darker here and the shadows themselves seemed to take on corporeal forms. For a moment she wondered if she had stepped into muggle London, but there were too many wizards and witches walking around.
"You've never been to Knockturn Alley?" The boy gaped at her.
"This is Knockturn Alley?"
The boy giggled in response to her incredulous question and Grace decided that she hated his childish giggle even more than she disliked his creepy smile. It set her nerves on edge. There was something off about the way he smiled and laughed at things. There was something off about everything here, Grace observed as they started walking again. She shuddered at the look the toothless wizard across the street was giving her.
"Are you scared?" the boy asked gleefully. He was shorter than her, but stockier than James. Grace suspected that he was about the same age as her, though it was hard to tell when he kept giggling like her six year old brother.
"No," Grace insisted, her eyes flicking back to the creeper across the street.
"I think you are." His hand gripped her shoulder so suddenly and his voice was so close to her ear that Gracie jumped. The boy giggled again, drawing the eyes of many more of the dodgy patrons. Grace was angry that he was making fun of her and calling so much attention to her, so she did what any child would do and pushed him.
He tripped over a crate of something that looked liked bones and fell face first into a display of giant black spiders. Grace laughed at him, quickly slapping a hand over her mouth to smother the sound. His arms flailed wildly as he tried to clean off his face of the crawling insects that were rushing him, creating a comical sight.
"Sorry," Grace pretended to apologize, as she moved to help him up. He took a swing at her, hitting her with a shocking amount of force, and she staggered back a step. He got to his feet without her help, throwing a handful of spiders at her. Grace wrinkled her nose and brushed them aside. When she looked up again, the boy was on her and had a hand locked around her forearm. There was no sign of the childish amusement that had been in his mouth and face earlier. His grey eyes were cold as marched her down the street.
"Hey! Let go of my arm!" Grace tried to pull her arm free, but the boy was surprisingly strong.
"Do you know what my uncle's going to do to you when I turn you in for stealing from him?" he breathed in her ear. Grace stopped struggling, feeling the color drain out of her face. "Unicorn horns are incredibly rare and very expensive. The theft of two such items just might warrant a stay in Azkaban."
"You're lying!" she spat.
"Perhaps," the boy shrugged, "But you don't know that, do you?"
He was right of course. Grace had no idea what the punishment for theft was for she had never had reason to care.
"It was an accident," she protested, feeling a cold sweat start to break out on her brow.
"I know, Grace, I know," he said, soothingly. Grace was perplexed by his behavior. She couldn't figure out what he was trying to do or where he was taking her.
"If you were just going to turn me in anyway, why'd you bother helping me escape?" she asked, glancing at his face.
"I'm not going to turn you in," he reassured her in that chilling voice that was anything but assuring. She had to get away from him but she wanted to wait until he led her out of Knockturn Alley. Too many people were looking at them and helping her seemed to be the last thing that they would do. Grace's mind raced as she stared hard at a skull and a snake that had been painted onto the side of a brick shop front. Something had been scrawled beneath it but the words dripped and shimmered, making it illegible.
"Girls like you don't belong in Azkaban," he continued, walking them directly into the brick wall with the spray painted skull. Grace flinched away, but the boy shoved her hard. She tripped forward, but instead of smashing her head, her hands slid right through the graffiti and the wall disappeared altogether. Grace blinked, finding herself suddenly standing in a dark room.
"But what you did Gracie was very bad and I'll have to punish you."
Grace's head swung around so fast that she got whip lash. She dug her heels into the floor, forcing them both to a stand still.
"How do you know my name?" she asked, widening her eyes.
The boy smiled, it was hard to make out his face in the shadows but Grace was sure that he could see her heart threatening to beat right out of her chest, and it pleased him immensely.
"Gracie," he said again, rolling the name over his tongue as if he were savoring each syllable. "Little Gracie Adams, I know everything about you and your family, but you have no idea who I am, do you?" he asked, scrutinizing her.
Grace's eyes darted desperately around the room but it was too dark. His eyes were burning into her with an intensity that frightened her.
"Where are Hope and Mark now?" he asked, swinging her around to face him. His fingernails clawed into her forearms but Grace couldn't feel the pain. Her entire body had gone rigid and numb. He or someone else had immobilized her.
"Why are you doing this?" Grace asked thickly from between lips that could barely move. It was him. She was almost sure of it. There had been a few times when her mother or father had immobilized her in order to punish her or keep her out of harm's way, but this was different. The magic was more uncontrolled, like that time when James had thrown her into a wall without touching her because she startled him. Unlike most magical children, he knew exactly what he was doing to her. She could sense it and she couldn't explain how or why.
"I'm only giving you what you deserve," he whispered, holding her closer to him. "You see, Gracie, your mother killed mine."
"Liar!" Grace spat out, but it was hard when he lips were so cold and unfeeling. An image of her mother – her beautiful, kind, smiling, gentle mother - flooded her mind, and Grace tried to shake her head.
"And your father put my father away in Azkaban, leaving me all alone."
"You're wrong," Grace said in slurred speech, refusing to believe that her mother could kill anyone or that her father could orphan a child like that. She thought of her father's bear hugs that swept her off her feet and the way her mother sat beside her, stroking her hair until she fell asleep. They wouldn't hurt anyone.
"Your parents destroyed my family, Gracie; and now I'm going to destroy theirs, starting with you," he sighed, smiling. He brushed back the hair from her forehead almost like the way that her mother did, but his fingers were cold as ice. Grace tried to fight the numbness, but her body was as rigid as a board. There was one part of her body that she could still move though. She went with the momentum, letting her body sway toward his. She was taller than him but her head dropped onto his shoulder. He chuckled, knotting his fingers into her hair.
"If you're good I might've even let you lose consciousness first…" he crooned in her ear.
Grace finally pried her jaw open and bit down on his throat hard. He swore, but Grace had managed to seize a sensitive and good sized chunk of skin between her teeth and refused to let go. He pulled at her hair, yanking her head back. But his control had slipped and Grace felt some of the feeling flood back into her limbs. It was painful, like pins and needles, after a limb has fallen asleep and has finally woken up, but Grace managed to lift her heavy arms high enough to sink her nails into his face. Grace's nails scratched and gauged at his eyes, even as Wilkes pulled at her hair so hard that her neck was threatening to snap.
"Stop!"
Grace felt her arms growing heavy, too heavy to hold up. The already dark room had taken on a cloudy appearance. The pain in her neck was unbearable. Grace let her arms drop, hoping that her body would fall too before her neck snapped off.
"You're going to kill her! STOP!"
Just before her eyes slid shut, she saw a dark blur of movement just over the boy's shoulder. Something heavy struck her, as she fell. Her back hit the floor, the boy falling on top of her. His eyes were closed now, his face slack. His fingers had relaxed their grip in his loss of consciousness, and now someone was pushing him off of her. She could breathe and move again.
"You okay?" a new voice; a new pair of eyes, dark but not empty. His hand was open and outstretched to her, offering her a hand up. It was hard to make him out, especially when his hair and eyes seemed as dark as the room they were in. Grace ignored the hand and struggled to get to her feet. She would never trust strangers again.
"I'm fine," she insisted when he tried to help her up. "I'm FINE."
"You're not fine," the boy said, following her movements worriedly with his eyes. They were brown. "He was-"
"It was just a fight," Grace said, wincing as she rubbed at her neck. She glanced down at the boy lying face first on the floor. An over turned chair with one of its legs splintered and broken, rested beside him. Grace looked up at the other boy who had obviously knocked him out with the chair. In the shadows she could've easily mistaken him for James except he wasn't wearing glasses and his eyes were so much darker and larger.
"Let's get you back to Diagon Alley," he said, reaching for her arm. Even though he had just saved her, Grace jerked back, snarling, "Don't touch me." The boy stepped back, holding up his hands before him, but hurt and anger flashed across his face.
"I'm not going to hurt you," he reassured her.
"He told me the same thing," Grace blurted out, pointing a finger at the boy lying unconscious on the ground. The boy followed her gaze, and his fists clenched as he glared down at the figure. His eyes flicked back to her, filled with concern and Grace immediately wished she hadn't said anything.
"Did he –"
"It was just a fight," she lied again, looking away before her face could betray anything.
"Look," the boy said. "I know that you're lost. James is looking for you."
Grace's eyes snapped back to the boy.
"You know James?"
"Er – not really – we sort of just met – but that's beside the point. I helped James search Diagon Alley for you and when we couldn't find you, I told him I'd try Knockturn Alley. If you'll just follow me, I can take you back to him," he offered. Grace stared at him, wondering if she could trust him. But he did know James. Then again, the other boy had claimed that he'd known all about her family too.
"Please, just come with me," he pleaded with her, looking at her imploringly with those brown eyes. "All you have to do is stay close and follow me. I promise I won't lay a hand on you, I'm just going to lead you back to Diagon Alley, and if I'm lying –" -he reached down and broke off the splintered chair leg – "You can stab me in the back with this." He held the weapon out to her. Grace took it from, stared at it for a moment, and then at the boy before her. She let it drop to the floor.
"I don't need that to beat the crap out of you if you're lying," she warned him, but she was grinning. Despite everything that had happened, she knew that she was going to like this kid.
"I don't doubt it," the boy said smiling at her over his shoulder as he led the way out. "Just please make sure that you're one hundred percent certain that I'm lying before you decide to make me cry like a girl in public."
Grace laughed as she followed him into the sunlight and back into Diagon Alley.
"Who are you anyway?" Gracie asked as they stood there blinking in the sudden onslaught of light.
"I'm Sirius Black," the boy said, flashing her a perfect grin.
"Black?" Grace frowned. "As in-"
"Yea, I'm part of that family," he said, kicking at the ground.
Grace knew what kind of reputation that the Blacks had. They valued pureblood over everything else and every single one of them had been in Slytherin. Still, she couldn't help but like this Sirius, especially after he just struck some kid over the head for her with a chair, and led her back to Diagon Alley after agreeing that she could beat the crap out of him if she wanted to.
"Sirius?" She grasped his wrist, causing him to look over at her. They were the same height.
"Do you think you could maybe keep all of this a secret? I don't want anyone to know that I – I lost a fight," she lied, dropping her eyes.
"Grace," Sirius began hesitantly, "I don't think –"
"Please, Sirius, please don't tell anyone," she begged him softly. She let her hand slide from his wrist to his fingers, pinning it to the shop front they were leaning against. Her fingers threaded through his as unconsciously as they done so many times before with Christopher and James, but Sirius wasn't used to being touched like that. His face turned bright red and he pulled his hand out from underneath hers.
"Sirius?"
"All right," Sirius said rubbing vigorously at his mysteriously flushed neck. "It'll be our little secret," he agreed reluctantly."But Grace –"
"GRACIEEEEE!" a whirlwind of brown curls and bright colors tackled Grace, nearly knocking her flat on her back. Grace laughed when she recognized the little boy that had thrown himself at her. She ruffled her little brother's hair as James and her parents quickly followed.
"Did you miss me, Chrissy?" she asked, holding her brother at arm's length.
"No, but Mum said that if I found you, she'd get me another ice cream," Christopher said smugly. "I found her!" he said holding up her arm, triumphantly. "I found her!"
James shook his head, grinning at her, before Sirius tapped him on the shoulder. The two boys bent their heads together as they spoke, as if they had been friends forever.
"Thank Merlin, you're all right! Christopher, stop pestering your sister!" Her mother pulled Christopher out of the way and her father swept her up into a tight embrace, sweeping her right up off the ground.
"Daddy!" Grace protested, a little embarrassed. Her father reluctantly set her back down on the ground, but he kept his arms around her. He crouched down so that they were on eye level. His face was etched with the relief he felt, but his body was still tense and his blue eyes guarded.
"Gracie, we were so worried. What happened?"
"I wound up in Knockturn Alley."
Her father swore softly under his breath, pulling her into another tight embrace.
"You're lucky that boy found you."
"Yea," Grace said, nodding and glancing in Sirius's direction, but she was thinking of another boy. She leaned into her father's chest, putting her lips close to his ear.
"Daddy," she whispered. "Did Mummy ever kill anyone?"
Her father froze. His eyes moved past her to the dark haired boy and then flitted to his wife who was trying unsuccessfully to talk their energetic six year old out of a second ice cream. She had one hand on her hip and the other held Christopher's sticky hand in hers. She looked relaxed but he knew her hand was on the spot where she kept her wand hidden. Her eyes met his and stopped, her smiling mouth turning down in a frown and her eyes darting to Gracie with concern.
"Daddy?" Grace prodded him gently.
"Who told you that?" Mark Adams asked his daughter in a strained whisper, his eyes never leaving his wife's.
"Oh – er – just someone I overheard in Knockturn Alley," Grace said, fidgeting. Mark knew there was something she wasn't telling him, but he didn't press. "But she didn't kill anyone, right?" Grace asked anxiously, twisting her head around so that they were eye to eye.
"No, Gracie," Mark Adams told his daughter. "Mummy didn't kill anyone."
It was the only time he ever lied to his daughter.
That night in Azkaban Aaron Wilkes was given the Dementor's kiss, officially orphaning his ten year old son Evan Wilkes. Evan did not cry. He barred himself in his room, ignoring the orders of his grandparents to come out and the pleas of the house elf that brought him food.
He realized now that he had made a mistake attacking Grace Adams in Knockturn Alley. He was lucky that the hard headed girl had no idea who he was and had decided to keep her mouth shut. No, he decided, it wouldn't do to attack her again or any of her family members. He'd have to wait until the time was right.
And so he waited…
A/N: So… What do you think? I know James, Sirius, and Lily technically met on the train in the flashback in DH but since I started writing IFY before DH and did not include the Lily/Snape friendship, I'm taking artistic liberties with this one as well. The next chapter will jump to their Seventh Year and there will be loads of Gracie/Sirius and perhaps some Lily/James. I've got about 2 more chapters written but I'm still tweaking them. I might change the summary too.