James had left the astronomy tower headed towards the Gryffindor tower, that was until he was diverting his footsteps towards the statue he had charmed to move so many times, that he could now just let his wrist flick and it would move out of his way. He stepped through the darkened passageway and let out a deep sigh as he heard the stone statue once again slide into place.
"Lumos." he whispered, and the low blue shining light showing the path only a few steps ahead of him came into a barely visible view as he moved silently down the narrow corridor once more. The chill of the walls were causing Goosebumps to form onto his skin and he wished he had gone and got another jumper, but there was no time now. In fifteen minutes the prefects would be wandering the halls together in pairs to make sure everything was in tip-top shape and no students were caught having some late night fun, things had started buckling down again recently after dark. James worried quite often over this but knew it couldn't be anything too serious, Probably just someone pulling to many pranks or taking one to far. He shook his head as a cool breeze that flowed up the corrider reminded James that he was almost to the exit and would need to find the brick he had loosed for the invisibility cloak he had 'borrowed' from his younger sister, who had 'borrowed' it from her father. Grazing his hand over the stones of the wall the rough edges gave his fingers a momentary numbness until his fingers were shaking away the lose stone, his wand caught between his teeth blinding his right eye. The feel of the stone clattering into his hands spooked him slightly making him almost fall over for not picking it up right.
He reached his hand into the open space of the wall and felt around the cold damp space that was making him shiver until the silky material was grasped in his palm and he was pulling his arm back to his side and throwing the cloak over his shoulder. Picking up the stone once more and pushing it back into it's space he grinned to himself and turned away from it and pulling his wand from between his teeth. He moved his tongue around his mouth running it over his teeth and scrunching up his lips as he tried to get the wooden taste from his mouth.
The damp air made him realize he was outside before his eyes registered the new, yet somehow familiar surroundings. Every night he would come out here and wander in aimless directions for hours, It was truly pointless to why he did it, but he felt something calling to him, not within hearing but somewhere deep inside of him, and somehow every night it got him into coming out, rain, sun, or snow to search the grounds. Half the times he had almost gotten himself killed by one of the creatures that found 'safety' inside the woods from another beast, yet he somehow always managed to get away.
There was something he was looking for, he just wished he knew what it was so he could stop this mad search of his. This was his last year at the school and if he didn't find it he felt as if he could go mad with curiosity, with an ever longing want. He felt his ears twitch at how silent the forest was, aside from the snore of a nearby monster to deep in sleep to hear his footfall he felt alone, there wasn't the sound of distant footfall that made him jump from his skin when he least expected it, or the sound of hushed whispers as campers snuck out bravely in the night air away from the castles safety.
James felt his stomach turn slightly, his common sense and worry that had been trapped by his desires had now flooded through his thoughts and reminded him that this wasn't a good idea, this was past the stupidity of his normal actions and he looked to the sky before his surroundings and slowly his heart felt as if it were hitching up into his throat. He had gone farther than he had wanted to, farther than he had ever let his feet lead him. Where was he? This thought had now blended into the rest as he tried to take in his shadowed surroundings, there were very few things he could make out as his feet moved a bit faster into the woods and felt his shoe get lodged underneath a rooted up tree stump. As he fell to the dirt around him he groaned slightly in pain and his panic of his surroundings slowly faded away as he pushed himself into a sitting position, the pain in his leg wasn't terrible but it was still there. Pulsing against his bone, as if a boxer was taking rancorous swings at his opponent, and it bloody hurt.
Somehow along the trip James had lost his wand in the small clearing, he cursed out loud at himself at how he had done this. How would he ever find his wand in the dark. His attention turned back to his wounded leg and he sat himself up with a long perturb sigh escaping his lips. His hands had now been covered with speckles of cold wet soil that wouldn't budge from his hands. James tried to skim his hands across each other before giving up as the dirt only stuck onto his cold hands, he dragged them over the bottoms of his pants trying to get as much off his arms as he could.
The fall to the ground had caused him to become filthy and he looked around again just as the moon started to shine its light through the shedding fall branches, Illuminating the golden- green tinted leaves that wind and dying stems had caused to fall to the ground. He could barely make out what seemed to be a fairly few sized sticks and braches that might be his wand, or just another useless stick.
He wished he could apparate, but he knew that the barriers would never let him and he didn't want to find out what would happen if he tried. He continue to let swears slip from his mouth as he stood up from the ground using his hands to push him up and he tried to stand on his injured ankle but the same severe pain radiated up his leg and he automatically pulled up his hurt foot and looked around trying to distract him from the pain.
"Accio wand!" he called out in numerous agitated whisper yells, demanding the wand to take place in his hand until he was hit with a blue flashing light, sending him flying back into a tree. The pain from his ankle was nothing to what his spine now felt. Everything in his head was becoming cloudy as cackles filled the air from an unannounced source and he groaned at them. 'What just happened' he thought to himself as the rhythmic beat started to mellow behind his eardrums to a softer version. Footsteps could now be heard through the sodden leaves. He could barely make out a figure of a few people, to big to be children yet to small to be adults.
A raspy voice spoke first through the air, "Well, well, If it isn't the eldest Potter boy." his voice sounded like nails on a chalk board to James' aching head and he almost passed out right then and there. Did he know this voice? He recognized it somehow. He just wish he knew how. The shadow of a hidden smile marked across his attackers face as he was lifted to the air without a wand and thrown across the clearing into another tree.
The white spots that had just cleared from his eyelids now speckled across them in a violent paint show. So many thoughts were filling his mind as red sticky blood flowed down the back of his neck. Pain was covering his dirt covered body as an object jabbed into his side and he let out a groan and did his best to roll off it while the others were trying to figure out where he had just been tossed, the moon was shifting slowly and the light was fading from the clearing as James gripped the object that had stuck into his side. His wand.
For once the dark felt safe to him, If he couldn't be found yet they couldn't hurt him anymore. He could have hexed them away, but if they were students he didn't want to get in more trouble then he already would be, if he had been attacked and unable to defend himself he might get off easy. That was if he didn't get himself killed first that was.
A few more cackles filled the longing silence, burning through James' mind before another crack of spells broke out from an unknown direction. More of them. Is the only thing that could fill his mind at the moment and it stirred an uneasy feeling in his stomach, making it feel like his insides were trying to cram into each other in panic. Thoughts rambled on in his skull.
His mother and father would find him struck dead by someone.
He would never be able to apologize to Albus for stealing the first girl he liked.
He would never be able to protect Lily from blokes like himself.
That's when his Gryffindor stupidity started to kick in, and he pushed himself from the ground best he could between stumbling and the multiple pains from being thrown about by his attackers. Feeling his way along the trees he tried to make his way towards the colored flashes of spells being sent back and forth in sync so that there was always a distinctive grunt, growl or howl of pain from a certain person and by the sound of the most repeated, someone was losing horribly and quickly.
His eyes peered around the corner, weary of his slowed actions as he took another step trough the darkness, the flashes started to become brighter as they pierced his aching head with every cast, and the furious voices became louder. As he peered to the fight he could easily make out a small female, it was to dark to tell anything but the obvious, the only thing that pointed to this was her small frame. She was dangerously close to her attacker. He spells were emerging from her wand at a faster rate than the male that had turned his attack from James to her could, he words were vigorous and harsh, her had moving in such an agitated rate that James had lost his train of thought standing there in amazement.
That was until her attacker sent a 'crucio' spell at her, making her spell now seem like an Expelliarmus charm.
That was when the girls train of thought broke and she was sent flying to the ground in a writhing pain, her body jerking around and her loud piercing cry broke James' attention and he lunged at the tall male, his body colliding with the other one knocking him to the ground sending new spears of pain through the wounded parts of his body.
James somehow managed to pin the attacker to the ground and hold him down enough so his wand was being thrusting into the mans throat so hard he started to choke and squirm from under him as James' raspy voice now filled the air, the only other noises around him being the girl across the field scuffling in what sounded to be pain and grunts from the man he was holding down.
But his energy was slowly draining out from the nights events and he needed to see if the girl was alright.
"Immobulis!" he yelled out so that his spell shot through his wand and into the attackers throat, leaving an struggle he had left is his body in a frozen, somewhat frantic motion. Making James smirk in amusement, it turned out actually going to class could be affective these days aside from roaming around the school with Teddy doing something that seemed more enjoyable than listening to the older dust bags who taught him.
Another low groan broke through the air and James looked over at the girl who was now standing against a tree holding her arm in pain. The spell was difficult enough for a body to deal with, but the power of it behind the mans voice had made it stronger. Now her arm was off at an odd angle that made James' hurt ankle seem like a bump from walking into a wall.
James' pushed himself off the other man who would be lying still for a few more hours, hopefully long enough for him to be able to get McGonagall to find him and handle it. He was making his way over to the girl who had practically saved him as her head shot up in a quick speed, her movement terrified to the boy who had stopped the other. She started to stumble back holding her injured arm gingerly and gripping her wand her shaking hands could barely hold. "Let me help you.." James' voice whispered as he made his way closer to her with an extended hand. "Get away!" she screamed nervously, she didn't want him to know who she was, better yet she didn't want anyone to know who she helped.
"You're hurt..Just let me he-" James' started once more, he was now starting to worry that the girl was suffering from some kind of metal injury due to the spell.
"I can handle myself!" The girl stumbled a few times more as she let a few helpless wimpers of pain escape up her throat and past her stuttering lips. "J-Just get back to the castle!".
"I'm not going to leave until you do." He was now keeping his distance from her "You need help with your arm," he motioned to the oddly bent bone "it's broken."
That was when she took off running to the castle in stumbles and almost falls, before James could help her, before he could find out who she was.
Before she got tangled up in anything that could get her tangled up more in her already to be announced death wish.
