Lone Child

Chapter 8: Tom Riddle, Pranks, and Pissing contests

  In the weeks after the incident with the Basilisk poisoning Potter had come and thanked James multiple times for saving the life of his daughters.  Snape had come and thoroughly questioned him about what he had done to Evans but had yet to get more than the normal answer of N.Y.D.B.  At one time he had tried to dig into James's mind using Legilimency but ended up being thrown into a wall when James kicked him out. 

  Evans had thanked James once through Kat but steered clear of he and Triss.  At first it worried her thinking she had figured out one of his secrets.  After picking up a few stray thoughts James had found out that she had been out and about early one morning and had seen he and Triss practicing in one of their more violent sessions.  She was now scared stiff of both James and Triss. 

  Triss had thought it strange that the teachers hadn't really bothered him about the impression he had made so far but that was before James had told her about Snape.  Triss being her normal protective self went down to Snape office and gave him a long tongue lashing.  Needless to say Snape didn't even look James's way for a week.

  Finally it was the first night of Christmas break.  Dragon had sent them an owl saying that he had some stuff to take care of in America and wouldn't be around for Christmas break.  Dray and Kat had also decided to stay behind not wanting to leave James and Triss all alone at the castle as they were the only students staying that year. 

  After everyone had gone to bed for the night James decided to go explore the forest.  There wasn't much out there except for the half-giant, Hagrid.  James decided to follow him finding that there wasn't much else to do.  After trailing behind Hagrid for about 30 minutes James started to get board and was going to head back when a strange thumping sound caught his attention.

  At first James thought it might be a centaur or something similar but that thought was stopped when he heard a strangled cry.  Straying away from Hagrid, James ran towards the sound.   What he found horrified him.

  Lying dead on the ground was a pure white Unicorn dripping with it's own silver blood.  Hovering over the dead Unicorn was a cloaked figure that had several drops of the Unicorn's blood on its cloak.  The figure must have heard James approaching because it looked up right into James's eyes. 

  James stared right back and suddenly the plainly visible scar on his forehead burned.  'Riddle,' James thought to himself.  Suddenly the spirit of Riddle flew away from the body of the Unicorn as fast as it could.  James thought about going after it but decided against it knowing he wouldn't be able to kill it after it had had a meal of Unicorn blood. 

    James ran back through the forest and back to the school.  After about 10 minutes of full out running James finally got back to the common room.  He changed back to his human form and walked into Triss's dorm.  "Triss, wake up," said James shaking her shoulder.

  "What the hell do you want James?" Triss muttered into her pillow. 

  "Riddle is in the forest," said James.

  Triss sat up 100% awake.  "WHA-mhh" she yelled.

  "Keep your voice down! You're going to wake the whole castle," said James removing his hand from her mouth.

  "What do you mean Riddle is in the forest?" Triss demanded.

  "I went out to explore the forest and I followed a strange beating sound.  I found what ever was left of him feeding on a dead Unicorn.  I didn't follow him because with all that Unicorn blood running in his veins it would have been stupid," James explained.

  "How do you know it was him?" asked Triss.

  James pointed to the pulsing scar on his forehead.  "It burned.  It hasn't done that since I defeated the bastard," said James venomously. 

  "Okay, what's the plan for now?" Triss asked.

  "Lets leave it alone for now.  He's not strong enough to get into the school and I'm still planning a prank to play on Quirrell for trying to get me killed, and on Weasley and Black for nearly getting Kat killed," said James smiling evilly. 

  "Okay, it's your call.  Now get out so I can go back to sleep," said Triss going back into sleep mode. 

  "Night," said James heading back to his own dorm. 

  The holidays were rather uneventful.  James didn't tell anyone else about what he had seen in the forest.  Dragon sent both he and Triss several presents from America and his apologizes about them not being able to come home for the holidays.  As expected Professor Evans gave birth to two twin girls, Sara and Holly, on December 27.  Dumbledore had arranged Potter and Evan's classes so one of them would always be with the girls. 

  On January 3, the first day back for students, James, with the help of Jewel, executed his prank on Quirrell.  When Quirrell walked into the Great Hall he was dressed in his normal purple and black robes and purple turban.  With a small wave of Jewel's tail Quirrell was dressed as Raggedy Anne and had a life like dummy of a Vampire in front of him.  Quirrell screamed like a girl when he saw the Vampire dummy and nearly tripped over his Raggedy Anne skirt trying to run away. 

  The Hall rolled with laughter but that wasn't the end of the show.  With another wave of Jewel's tail Randal Black was dressed as Snow White and had a small roach climbing around on his dress.  Like Quirrell he yelled and nearly barbequed himself trying to kill the thing.

  Neither of those reactions were anything compared to that of Ronald Weasley.  With a wave of James's hand he was dressed as a multi-colored rabbit and at his feet was a baby Acromantula.  Weasley opened his mouth a screamed Bloody murder while trying to run away from the spider.  Unknown to him it was attached to him by an invisible thread.

  When Quirrell, Black, and Weasley had finally stopped running around screaming Potter stood from his seat and said, "Will James Cage please report to my office immediately." 

  James picked up his bag and walked towards Potter's office.  Inside of the office was a fuming Potter.  "Just what the Hell do you think you've been doing?!?!" yelled Potter while pacing back and forth across the room.

  "What do you mean, sir?" James asked.

  "You know perfectly well what I mean! Playing the pranks against teachers and other students and causing all of the other ruckus," said Potter.

  "You have no reason to believe that was me Professor," said James still playing dumb.

  "Don't I?  Every student and teacher that has been pranked has done something to you or your friends," said Potter obviously starting to get angry.

  "That could have very well been the Weasley twins.  Do try to stop blaming your own houses faults on others Potter," said a new voice.

  James turned around and saw Snape standing in the door way.  "Stay out of this Snivellus," said Potter. 

  Snape flinched at the name but didn't back down.  "As I am Mr. Cage's head of house I do believe it is my right to hand out punishments to him," said Snape.

  "Not when it involves my house, Snape," Potter yelled again.

  "Wow, and you claim the students act like children," said James in a mocking voice.

  At this both Potter and Snape stopped and glared at him.  "I agree with Mr. Cage," said yet another new voice.  Both men turned and saw Professor Evans standing in the doorway holding two babies in her arms.

  "Lily, what are you doing here?" Potter asked while gulping.  James had to stop himself from laughing.  He knew from past experience how dangerous it could be to anger a redhead. 

  "I was here to drop Holly and Sara off but as you to are having one of your pissing contests I'll take them with me.  Mr. Cage, you have my class next don't you? You can give me a hand," said Evans walking out of the room and motioning for James to follow her.

  "I thought you were mad at me or something," said James as Evans led him down the hall to her classroom. 

  "No Mr. Cage, I'm not.  In fact I owe my daughters lives to you.  I have a confession to make.  The morning after you saved them I went out to the Quidditch pitch looking for you to thank you.  I saw you sword fighting with Ms. Summers, and it scarred me the way you were carelessly hacking at each other.  I thought that might have been what you were really like," said Evans with a lot of her emotions in her voice.

  "Don't worry about it, what you saw was one of our rougher sessions.  Triss is a bit irritated that she can't beat me.  No worries though, she and I both take a potion to keep our injuries from being fatal or more than a few inches deep, then heals them," James explained.

  Evans looked at him for a second and said, "Is that why you're flinching with almost every step you take?" Evans half stated, half asked.

  "My healing powers don't react quite like they should when the potion is in my system.  My wounds have to heal normally.  It's a bit painful but I'm use to it," said James sheepishly. 

  "What about the blades?" asked Evans.

  "N.Y.D.B," said James.

  "Why are you willing to tell me about some things rather than others?" asked Evans getting frustrated.

  "If you want to know so bad, fine.  Over the summer I was a volunteer in a research project.  I ended up getting hurt and had to have a Titanium frame put in to support the bones in my hands.  My Guardian had the idea of having blades put in as well.  I thought it was a good idea," James lied. 

  "Oh," said Evans.  After a few more minutes of silent walking the group of four arrived at the classroom. 

  Several students were already inside and Evans handed Holly and Sara over to James and headed over to her chalkboard.  She wrote out that days lesson on the board as students filed in.  Triss, Kat, and Dray sat down around James and started to prep for the lesson.

  "Who are they?" asked Kat looking adoringly at the infants. 

  "These are Holly and Sara.  Professor Evans daughters," said James.  At that minute Evans returned.

  "Mr. Cage, you are excused from today's lesson, you may take Holly and Sara outside or about the castle but if they have one scratch on them when they are returned you are dead," she said to him in a low voice. 

  "Yes ma'am," said James walking out of the room with Holly and Sara.  During all of this James was trying his best to figure out why a woman he hardly knew would trust him with her only daughters. 

  'O'well,' James thought as he carried the two girls to the library.  Once he entered the library he conjured a twin wind-up baby rocker and set the two in side.  He pulled 'The Hobbit' out of his bag and started to read.  About an hour and a half later Evans walked up to his table but James was too engrossed in his book to notice.  However when she made her way to pick one of the girls up James was looked right at her. 

  "They are a bit quiet for babies aren't they?" James asked making Evans jump. 

  "Don't do that, you scared me," she said as she picked up Holly.  Even though the two were identical twins James could easily tell one from the other.  "I did notice they are really quiet.  They have hardly made a sound since the day they were born," said Evans with slight concern in her eyes.

  "They're very healthy so that's nothing to worry about," said James hearing her thought.

  "Do you have any brothers or sisters?  You seem to be very good with children," Evans said.

  "No, my foster parents couldn't have children, but Triss is good enough.  She acts like a toddler most of the time," said James.

  "I heard that Shadow!" Triss yelled skipping into the library.  She walked over to him and playfully smacked him upside the head. 

  "Hey what was that for?" asked James rubbing his head.

  "For calling me a toddler," said Triss poking James in the ribs playfully. 

  "That's it," said James before picking Triss up and tossing her over his shoulder.  "Excuse us Professor Evans," said James before heading out to the lake with Triss trying to struggle out of his grasp. 

Review responses:

Athenakitty: James already knows who his father and mother are.  Dragon will be kind of in and out of this story until the end of fourth year.  I'm not quite sure about Triss's parents yet.  I don't think James will develop any more powers until much later.  James is going to be very close with his little group.  Pettigrew won't be around till later.  James gets on very well with Lily for the time being.  James knows the 'base' of the reason his mother gave him up.  Yes, my story does follow some of the main events from the book. 

Cataclysmic: I have a lot of time to write and plan everything out as my father has a bunch of conventions to be at all the time, so I some time get out of school.  James's little sisters are one of my favorite parts of the story.  I should have quite a few chapters up soon after this one but even more questions will probably plague your mind.

Muggle: Thanks.

Pheonixman: Thanks.

Ice-baby-bubbles: Thanks.