Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter – J.K Rowling does.
A frigid sensation reverberated through James Potter's spine as an Azkaban guard shoved him roughly into a cell. The stone walls, which were gradually eroding into absolute nihility, gave off an ambience of plenary foreboding. The room possessed a singular mattress with a thin, flea-bitten blanket. There was a small window in the corner of the room, if James craned his neck high enough - he would be able to see the torrential weather thrashing against the borders of Azkaban in menacing acerbity. This ought to be a pleasurable experience, James thought to himself sardonically.
He had no idea how his life had gotten to this point, but if he could take back the last six years of his life and do everything over – he would do it in a heartbeat.
"Oi, Potter, pay attention – the Dark Lord will be here in a minute," a Death Eater, who James seemed to recall of having the name Yaxley, snarled at him, "You've got to make sure you pay him the proper respect - or else, it won't be pretty."
"I'll shove myself up Merlin's baggy bloomers before I give Voldemort my respect." James said, not caring about the consequences.
"Is that so?" a frigorific tone asked, quite obviously amused, "I must say - I do admire your nerve, Mr Potter, almost as much as I despise the stupid Mudbloods that reside within our society."
It would seem that Lord Voldemort had arrived. James clenched his fists resentfully.
"But I did not call you here today purely so I could bask in your bravery – I called you here so that I could … make a proposal."
James narrowed his eyes in intense dislike; he knew he wouldn't like whatever was about to come out of that scumbag's mouth.
"You see," Voldemort continued, "I feel that your abilities would prove most useful amongst our ranks -what would you say to joining forces?"
Yaxley and a few of the other Death Eaters laughed – what would the Dark Lord want with some seventeen-year old wizard? He was barely of age, for goodness sake!
Voldemort silenced them with a cruel glance.
"What will it be?"
James pretended to be deliberating his options, "Well, I'm not sure, I always thought that becoming the conductor of the Knight Bus would be a pretty cool job – I don't know whether I'd be able to give up that dream for the mere purpose of polishing the floor your gnarled feet walk on."
"Careful …"
"I guess what I'm trying to say here is – I'd rather rot in Hell."
Voldemort tried to keep his composure in check, "I'm sorry you feel that way – perhaps I'll let you mull it over for a bit, see if I can't change your mind." And then, without any warning whatsoever, Voldemort screamed, "CRUCIO!"
James collapsed to the ground in a feeling of immense pain. It was like one thousand pairs of scissors were cutting into his very soul, threatening to make a permanent incision in his sanity. James screamed and screamed and screamed until … the pain stopped.
Voldemort turned to his 'faithful followers', "Keep him locked in here, make sure a Dementor is outside his door at all times – if he decides he wants to change his mind, let me know."
The Death Eaters nodded meekly; for fear of being the next person the Dark Lord's wrath would be unleashed upon.
Satisfied, Voldemort disappeared into the murky night with a swish of his velvet cloak.
James breathed out in relief – at least he was gone now, for the time being.
Whilst James was being imprisoned in the deepest parts of Azkaban, Lily Evans was busy packing for, what was sure to be, an eventful year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. She had received a letter eight days ago, informing her that she had been chosen as the Head Girl. To say that Lily had been pleased would be an understatement; she was positively elated. It was everything she had worked for in her entire Wizarding career. Her parents were just as excited as she was when she told them the news – they even got her a brand new owl! It was currently perched upon her windowsill, its supple feathers waiting to take flight.
"Azaiah," Lily sighed, "I know you're bored but I can't let you outside until we're on the train – please don't be mad with me."
The owl hooted in understanding and promptly flew over to her cage. Lily smiled and locked her inside – they were leaving for the platform in less than half an hour, after all.
"Lily!" her mother called out, "Come downstairs and have some breakfast, wouldn't want to start the school year on an empty stomach now, would we?"
Lily rolled her emerald eyes and hurried down towards the kitchen, where her mother was cooking eggs and bacon.
"Here you go, darling."
Lily hugged her, "Thanks Mum, I'm going to miss you so much."
Her mother looked at her fondly, "And you, my dear."
They sat down and started to eat, talking about little things such as the weather and the upcoming Muggle elections. When they were just getting ready to clear the dishes away, they were abruptly interrupted.
"MUM!" Petunia, Lily's sister, shrieked from upstairs.
"What is it now?"
"The freak has left her freakish textbooks lying about the house!" Petunia shuddered, "Would you please get her to take some responsibility for her own things?!"
"Whatever you say, dear." Mrs Evans was unfazed by this behaviour by now and decided that they would resolve their issues in time, and for now, it was best just to ignore it.
Twenty minutes later, Lily was fully packed and ready to go (after first sorting out the textbook debacle).
"Well, I guess I'll see you at Christmas?" Lily said to her parents, trying her best not to get upset over the fact that she was leaving them for several months, yet again.
"Definitely." Her father grinned at her, "Now, get going before you miss your train!"
Lily laughed and apparated to King's Cross Station.
It was as crowded as ever and Lily had to push her trolley through several different people before she could easily get onto the platform. As soon as she was on, however, she was immediately greeted with a loud squeal.
"Lily! Over here!"
Her best friend, Marlene McKinnon, was beckoning her towards the end of the magnificent train.
"How was your summer? Mine was amazing – you know that cute boy I was telling you about in my letters? Yeah, well, he and I are officially an item! Isn't that great? It's so great! I'm a bit annoyed that we have to go back to writing dumb essays about the treatment of house-elves, but there you go. And I –"
Lily was feeling overwhelmed already – Marlene hadn't taken a single breath since she had started talking, "Calm down, it's really nice to see you too but can we talk when we are actually sitting down in a compartment?"
Marlene blushed, "Sure thing."
They set off in search of an empty compartment - surprisingly, it didn't take too long. Lily started to catch Marlene up on her life, "My summer was great! A bit uneventful but I consider that to be a good thing! Tuney is still obsessed with her whale of a boyfriend and I've even been hearing talks of marriage, God forbid. Oh, and guess what? I'm Head Girl!"
Marlene smiled broadly, "Congratulations! They definitely picked the right person! I guess I'll have to be on my best behaviour around you now."
"Please," Lily scoffed, "As if you'd ever be a good, law-abiding student!"
"I never said I would be, Lils, I just said I'd be on my best behaviour – you know me." Marlene winked, "Don't you have to go to the Prefects compartment right about now?"
Lily felt her hands fly towards her face, "Oh, I completely forgot! I'll see you later."
"Keep out of trouble!"
Lily slammed the door shut and rushed to the compartment reserved specially for the Prefects. Luckily, no one was there yet. She let out a deep breath.
"Hey Evans."
Oh great, just what Lily needed.
"What do you want, Black?"
"I was just looking for James, have you seen him anywhere? I figured he'd be pining after you in the boys' bathroom but …" He made a random gesture with his hands, "He's nowhere to be found."
"Sorry, haven't seen him at all today." Lily said, slightly suspicious of Sirius' motives. Didn't they live together? How hard would it be to keep track of the messy-haired misfit? If this was some horrible prank, Lily would give them detention for life … But Sirius did look genuinely worried.
"I'm sure he'll turn up somewhere." Lily said bracingly, trying to sound encouraging.
Sirius lit up, "You're brilliant, Lily! I've got to go, see you later!"
Stupid Potter, always having to cause a drama; Lily thought to herself.
Once Sirius had left, a stream of fifth and sixth years started filing in. No sign of the Head Boy, though, Lily wondered who it was. She hoped it was someone sensible, like Remus, but she never knew with Dumbledore … anyway, whoever it was, they were extremely late.
After five minutes, Lily clapped her hands together, "Right, well, we'll have to get started."
She then went on to tell them all of the school rules (just in case anyone had forgotten) and when each person would be patrolling.
The Head Boy didn't show up for the entire meeting.
"Okay, good luck everyone – have a great first week back."
They waved her goodbye, leaving Lily to let Azaiah out and be consumed by her own thoughts.
An hour later, she found herself seated at the Gryffindor table – the Sorting Ceremony was now over. Dumbledore, the Headmaster, took this as his cue to stand up in front of the owl podium.
"Unfortunately, I have some very grave news to share with you all, so I would ask that you remain quiet."
The whole hall began listening with rapt attention.
"I'm sure some of you have noticed the absence of Mr James Potter, this year's Head Boy,"
Lily spit out her pumpkin juice; Potter was Head Boy? She certainly didn't see that one coming.
"We have just received news that he has been kidnapped –"
Frightened murmurs started to circulate around the room.
"By none other than Lord Voldemort, himself."
Lily felt like fainting – how had this happened?
A/N – how did you find the first chapter? Good? Bad? Should I continue? Feel free to leave me a review telling me your thoughts! I have big plans for this story so please bear with me. I'm going to try and update in the next couple of days, if this is received well. No promises, though! Talk to you guys later