Disclaimer: The only thing that is mine is the plot. But I think you knew that already.

A/N: Yes, I know, I know. I'm still working on PotC:TWoC but this plot popped in my head while I was reading PoA today. I hope you enjoy, and I would really appreciate it if you would review. Thanks.

Lost time is never found again.

~ Benjamin Franklin

________

Lost Time

Insomnia

________

He couldn't sleep and it was driving him mad.

He was always the first one snoozing in the dormitory, always the one who snored the loudest and kept everyone else awake. He was never tired, which probably attributed to his energetic and somewhat troublesome personality. Insomnia had never plagued him as it was now, keeping him awake until the first lights of the morning appeared in the window, leaving him to watch as the stars slowly faded into nothingness.

He had always slept well. That is, until the past couple of nights.

It wasn't as if he was having nightmares, it was the fact that he just wasn't tired at all. Luckily, tonight he had fallen asleep quite early, but had awoke for no apparent reason only a couple of hours later. It was strange: he would have a completely full day of mischief and roguery (as well as some studying and classes on the side), but fatigue did not hit him as it usually did. He sighed again and rolled onto his left side, adjusting the puffy pillow beneath his head once more.

"James," he whispered to the bed directly next to his own. "James, wake up."

The only sound that answered him was the chirping of the crickets.

"James, seriously. Get up."

No answer.

"James!"

Silence.

Aggravated, he stood up out of bed, pushing the comforter aside. The air in the dormitory was brusque considering the chilling December temperatures. He shivered and crept over to James's bed and whispered again as to not wake any of the others up, "James! Get up  you lazy prat." When no answer greeted him, he threw back the comforter and the sheets to find two pillows, one below the other, forming what had appeared to be James's body.

This caused him to frown. James never crept out at night unless they were together. It was an unwritten rule that had went unchallenged ever since their first year; for six full years they had traipsed the entire castle together, memorizing the secret passageways and intriguing rooms of Hogwarts. So the fact that James had left him to go sight-seeing alone was unnerving, to say the least.

Sweeping his hand through his thick black hair, he stood staring blankly at the bed as if James were to reappear there. Unfortunately, nothing of the sort happened. Shaking his head, he decided to check the common room, just in case James had gone down there for a bit of late night homework. Of course, as soon as he thought of James doing homework he rolled his eyes at himself. James never did his homework when he could get away with it; it was ludicrous if not somewhat idiotic to think that he would be catching up on his Potions homework at three in the morning.

Nevertheless, he crept down the spiral stairs to the common room. A small fire still cackled in the grate, sending an eerie reflection of shadows across the common room floor. All of the chairs were empty and no sounds save the cracking of the fire were to be heard.

Sighing, he turned to go back up to bed, when the portrait swung open.

Alarmed, he whirled towards the entrance to see no one enter. The portrait carefully swung back to its place.

"James, where have you been?" he hissed.

James Potter appeared moments later from underneath his invisibility cloak. He was about to yell at his best friend for not telling him he was sneaking out when he caught hold of his face.

He looked completely terrified. His usually untidy black hair looked even more windswept. His glasses were skewed over his blue eyes and his face was pale underneath a thin layer of sweat. He was panting as he flung his Invisibility cloak over the nearest chair and wiped his forehead with his sleeve.

"What's wrong?"

James looked at his friend, his hands nervously tugging at his sleeves. "Sirius…"

"What?" Sirius was quite alarmed at his friend's appearance. He seemed antsy, if not panicked.

"Sirius…this is going to sound completely mad," James confessed, walking over to a chair and sitting down in it, rubbing his eyes and setting his glasses straight. His eyes darted from the far windows to Sirius's face, back to the fire and eventually down at the floor. One of his legs was bouncing up and down as the other one lay limply at the side. James was still panting and sweaty, and he couldn't seem able to sit still.

"Will you just tell me already!" Sirius complained after a few moments, pulling up a chair to sit face-to-face with James.

He sighed and looked up. "Er…someone tried to kill me tonight."

Sirius couldn't help but smile. "You're right…you do sound completely mad."

"I'm not joking," he interjected. Sirius's smile still did not disappear from his handsome face, even though he took notice of the seriousness in James's tone.

"Come on, James. Who would kill you? Ok, granted that Snivellus would love to wrap his greasy hands around your neck…ok, and maybe the Slytherin Seeker Rachel Dolan wouldn't mind hexing you…and ever since you – er – accidentally tried to kiss Lily Evans she's been out to bid your time, but really…"

"Really, Sirius. I'm not joking."

"Fine, then. What happened?" he asked, sitting back in his chair.

James sighed as if asked to relay an entire historical account of the Goblin Rebellion. He folded his arms across his chest and blinked behind his glasses as if to re-focus his eyesight. He cleared his throat twice, fumbled with his cloak, and pulled his sleeves up past his elbows. He was taking such a long time to get ready that Sirius was about to comment when James finally spoke. "I couldn't sleep tonight…I guess I'm just nervous about the Quidditch match tomorrow. I was in bed thinking about the Wronski Feint when I heard voices outside of our window. They weren't loud, but it didn't seem as though they were trying to keep their voices down either. They belonged to two men, as far as I could tell, and they seemed to be arguing. Naturally, I got up to look out the window, and I caught them just as they headed into Hogwarts. I noticed that they were wearing long black cloaks."

"So you followed them, I reckon?" Sirius asked, stifling a yawn. Of all times, now he was getting sleepy…

"Of course I did. I knew they probably weren't teachers, due to the fact that it was two o'clock in the morning, and everyone – save Professor Dumbledore – is usually in bed by eleven. I grabbed the cloak and - "

"You didn't wake me!" interrupted Sirius, slightly offended. "Why not?"

James looked at him and shook his head, adjusting his glasses once more. "I…I don't know, to be honest. You were snoring-"

"I always snore," he mumbled.

" – and I figured, since you hadn't been sleeping well-"

" – so what? You never cared about my sleeping habits before."

"Will you let me finish?" snapped James, narrowing his eyes impatiently. Sirius could tell he was apprehensive and short-tempered; James got this way when he was either embarrassed or scared. "Anyways, back to the story before you start to pick a fight with me again. So I grabbed the cloak and walked down to the Great Hall. I figured that if they were going to come into Hogwarts, they would use the main entrance. I was right. As soon as I got to the doors outside of the Hall, I heard voices. Of course, I crept behind the statue of Snarfy the Sly as they got closer. I wasn't quite interested in what they were saying, I just wanted to see who they were…we haven't been able to go out into Hogwarts lately with Christmas coming up and Filch and his cat running rampant all over the school, so I figured this would be a perfect time to get out and stretch my legs you know?"

"Yeah, a perfect time to stick your nose in other people's business," added Sirius, grinning.

James glared at Sirius for a moment and continued as if he hadn't heard his comment. "Well, they were about to round the corner when they stopped dead, and I heard one of them whisper, 'He's here.'"

Sirius studied James and commented, "This better not be a joke, Prongs."

"Its not, so shut up and listen. I couldn't figure out who 'he' was until I heard the other one answer, 'He's behind the statue.' I was so shocked to hear what they were saying that I didn't move…which was a big mistake. The next thing I knew, the statue was blown apart, and I ducked for cover. Without the statue, I was visible. I scrambled up and ran for it…I don't think I've ever run so fast in my life.  They followed me, trying to jinx me. At first I thought it was a joke until the Impediment Curse missed me by an inch or two. I needed to lose them…they were gaining on me fast, and they didn't seem like they were going to let up. So I took them down the hall past the Potions class room, of course, and I was going to try to trick them by using-"

" – the Potions room closet," finished Sirius, nodding. "Smart move…its what I would've done."

"Right. So anyways, I led them in there. Of course, they didn't know that there was a trapdoor on the left side of the closet, leading to our common room. I ran inside of it and closed the door behind me…but as I didn't have my wand, there was no light. I couldn't find the door until they had reached the closet and dashed inside with me. The closet's not that big…I felt one of them grab me by my shirt. I guess I kicked him in the knee, because he fell and let go. I suddenly realized that the whole time I had my Invisibility cloak on…I don't know how they saw me…"

"They saw through your cloak?" Sirius repeated stupidly, frowning. "That's impossible…"

"Well obviously it isn't, is it?" snapped James so violently that Sirius was about to counter him. He had seen James in these moods before…he had been in one when Lily Evans told him for the sixth time that she wouldn't go out with him. He had been humiliated then…but Sirius knew that James was completely frightened now, due to the fact that James was shifting nervous glances over his shoulders ever few minutes. Then, he continued.

"So they were stuck there, and for a moment, all three of us were together in that cramped area. And then, right before I snuck out…"

"What?" Sirius asked again as James stopped, suddenly looking at the floor. "For bloody sake, just tell me, would you?"

James averted his eyes to the floor and lowered his voice to barely above a whisper."They…they used the killing curse on me. Or, at least, they tried to."

Sirius sat there in utter disbelief, his mouth hanging slackly and his eyes wide with shock. If James was jesting with him, it wasn't funny. But from the murky look in his eyes and the tenseness of his posture, Sirius knew this was no joke.

"And I thought you had gone out to try to sneak into Lily's dormitory," Sirius commented slyly as James looked over his shoulder again.

His quip seemed to ease the tension of the air slightly, although the apprehension in the air could have been sliced with a butter knife. He saw James blush then quickly recover by answering stupidly, "Shut up, Padfoot. This is serious."

"I know, I know, keep your untidy hair on," he retorted, stretching. "But I do reckon that you should go to McGonagall for this…or maybe even Dumbledore."

"Are you joking?" James asked incredulously. "They'll think I've been eating too many Pumpkin Pasties. Besides, no harm done, right?" Sirius noticed he was trying to smile but was consequently failing miserably at it. He still looked extremely shaky and pale.

Sirius had the urge to slap James upside the head and remind him that someone had just tried to kill him, and that Dumbledore should probably know about random people invading Hogwarts trying to kill its students. Unfortunately, Sirius had never been the type to do so. He knew James was as adamant as he was stubborn; Sirius could have yelled at him for three hours straight and all James would've done was complain about the volume of his voice. He knew Prongs well enough to know that giving him advice was like persuading McGonagall to never give homework. It was hopeless, it was time consuming, and it was pointless. All Sirius could do was hope it wouldn't happen again…and he would make sure to keep an extra eye on James too.

"I think you need a rest," Sirius observed. "You need your sleep. This Thursday is a full moon," he added importantly.

"Oh, right," nodded James distractedly, standing up. His eyes still looked shadowy and he kept looking behind his shoulder as well as steely glances towards the window towards the back. "Well, at least Moony will be alright for Christmas this Saturday."

Sirius stood up too and stifled another yawn. He studied James for a second; Prongs was now fiddling with his Invisibility cloak he picked up from the chair next to him. It seemed as though James could not sit still…he was undoubtedly nervous. "Time for bed," Sirius mumbled, noticing that the fire had completely burned out in the grate.

"Yeah, time for bed." The reply was blank, emotionless.

As they quietly walked across the common room up to their beds, a nervousness arose in Sirius that could not be explained. He stole a sideways glance at his friend who still looked extremely sallow. He was about to recommend going to Dumbledore again when his logic took over and told him it was a waste of time. So instead he asked, "You sure you weren't trying to sneak into Lily's room?"

To his surprise and relief, James grinned and replied, somewhat convincingly, "There's always tomorrow night for that."

~*~

I really hope you liked. Reviews are necessary for continuation, and I'd love to hear what you think!