Chapter 10 - In which James and Scorpius discuss soap

James sat in his bed, shaking. He knew something terrible -something incredible?- had just happened. He reached into his trunk, and pulled out a bottle of pills. He used to pop pills all the time. A lot of people did. Much more convenient than popping potions.

With the help of the pills, James began to doze off, and then he finally fell asleep.

He dreamt of a boy who looked a lot like him. Brown eyes, dark hair, glasses. He recognized this person immediately as James Potter. The other one.

"Something just happened," the other James said.

"I know," James replied.

"You were right about him being up to something," the other James said.

"Is it something bad?" James asked.

"He's playing God," the other James said. "A terrible God who picks and chooses who lives and who dies."

"What do I do?" James asked.

"The only thing that can destroy a god is another god," the other James said. "You have to make yourself into a god. You have to become an immovable object to his unstoppable force. Only then can you keep him from destroying all those around him."

"What will happen if I can't?" James asked.

"People will die," the other James replied. "Innocent people will die. It always happens when somebody becomes as powerful as he's going to become."

The older James began to fade out. "Wait!" James called out to him. But the older James didn't come back, and the younger James fell into a deeper sleep.

~*~*~

Al clutched Lily Evans hand. She'd passed out shortly after she'd been brought back, but she was still breathing. That's what really mattered.

"God, she's gorgeous," Al said. "And young. Like she hasn't aged a day since her death."

Scorpius poked the younger Lily. "She's… She's not dead is she?"

"No, she's fine," Al answered without even looking.

"I think we should take her to the hospital."

"She's so perfect," Al went on, ignoring Scorpius. "And so alive. Finally alive…"

"Seriously, mate, I think your sister needs to go to the hospital."

"Then take her!" Al snapped.

"Stop being such a dick," Scorpius muttered. He picked up Lily Potter. She seemed even smaller when she was unconscious; she couldn't have weighed over a hundred pounds. "Are you coming, too?"

"I need to stay with Lily," Al replied, stroking his grandmother's hair.

Scorpius raised an eyebrow. "Great. Leaving your baby sister for your dead grandmother. That's not sick at all." He left with the younger Lily in his arms.

Al stroked Lily Evans' cheek. She woke up then. One pair of green eyes met another. "Harry?" she asked.

"Close," Al replied. "His son."

"How long was I out?" Lily asked, her voice small and tired.

"Forty years," Al answered.

"Damn."

"But you're alive now," Al said. "I brought you back. You're my first, but I'm going to bring all sorts of people back."

"Are you going to bring back James next?" Lily asked.

A shadow passed over Al's face. "We'll see."

~*~*~

James woke up late the next morning. Fortunately for him, it was Saturday, so he didn't have anywhere to be. "McGonagall wants you in her office pronto," Pete said, tying his shoes.

"How come?" James asked.

"I don't know, but I think it's important," Alex said. "Something about your sister."

James shot out of bed. He stripped and put on a pair of jeans and a shirt. "You forgot your shoes," Alex called as James rushed out the door, but James didn't hear him.

James ran down hall after hall until he finally arrived at McGonagall's office. He didn't know the password -McGonagall changed it just about everyday- so he began banging loudly on the door.

The door flew open and McGonagall stepped out. "Tabby cat," McGonagall said. "That's the password."

"Right," James thought to himself. He forgot that it was always something cat related. In her old age, McGonagall had become a bit of a crazy cat lady, often walking around in her cat form and mingling with the seven cats who lived in her office.

"Pete and Alex said something's wrong with Lily," James said, out of breath.

"She's in the infirmary," McGonagall. "Follow me and…"

Too late. James was halfway to the infirmary by the time McGonagall had taken her first step.

James burst through the infirmary doors. "Where is she?" he yelled.

"Why are you yelling?" Pomphrey asked. "She's right here?"

James leapt to Lily's bedside. "Oh my god, she's dead!"

"No, she's just in a coma…"

"Oh my god, she's in a coma!" James clutched Lily's hand. "How did this happen? When will she come out of it?"

"I don't know, Mister Potter," Pomphrey said. "We're going to transfer her to Saint Mungo's this afternoon."

"This afternoon? I want her to get the best medical treatment and I want it now!"

Pomphrey sighed. "I'll give you two a moment." She left the room.

A moment later, Al strolled through the doors. "How is she?"

"You!" James screeched. He leapt across the room and shoved Al backwards. "What the fuck did you do to her?"

"Nothing," Al replied.

"I know you're lying, you stupid mother-fucking-son-of-a-bitch-dick-ass-ho-shit-whore-cunt-asshole-monkey fucker!" James punched Al square in the face, sending his brother toppling backwards onto one of the infirmary beds.

"What the fuck?" Al yelled, kicking James in the stomach.

James let out a war cry and tackled Al. "Die, mother fucker! Die!"

"Get off me, you prick!" Al scream, attempting to bite off James' ear.

James reached for a pair of scissors. He held them high in the air. "I'm going to cut off your cock with this pair of rusty scissors, you stupid fucker!"

Which is, of course, right when McGonagall entered the room. "Mister Potter! Will you kindly get off of Mister Potter, Mister Potter?"

"Go fuck yourself, you old bat!" James yelled. Oops. He hadn't meant to say that. He was just on a roll was all.

McGonagall wrestled the scissors out of James' hand. She was surprisingly strong for an old woman. "Now, does someone want to tell me what's going on here?

"I was just… um… we were rehearsing a play?" James offered. He looked over at Al, who had the biggest smirk in the world on his face.

"Yeah, a play," Al said, still smirking.

"What sort of play?" McGonagall asked, her eyes narrowing.

"It's, um, a historical play. About… house elves. Yeah, about The House Elf Riots. It's a rather moving play, showing the plight of a young house elf girl who's death at the hand of her master creates a world wide house elf revolution. We were acting out the death scene." James gave McGonagall his puppy dog eyes.

"Well, alright, but next time, Mister Potter and Mister Potter, perhaps you should practice somewhere where sick people aren't trying to rest," McGonagall said.

"There's only one person in here," Al said, "And she can't hear a thing."

That just sent James off again. It took four teachers to pry the two raging students apart.

~*~*~

"My dad's going to be here, soon," Al said to Scorpius.

"Are you planning to tell him about the impending zombie mayhem you're creating?" Scorpius asked.

"She's not a zombie," Al said, "And he's just coming to see Lily."

"Which one? His mom or his daughter."

"Daughter. I'm not telling him about the other one yet."

"Why?" Scorpius asked. "I thought you and your dad were all buddy-buddy, tell each other everything, go fishing together, read each other's diaries…"

"I'll tell him eventually," Al said. "I just want to bring back a few people first, though."

Scorpius laid back on his bed. "You know, something as big as a comatose girl, they're going to have the Ministry come."

"Seriously?" Al asked.

"Yeah. You know what that means? Dear Grandpa Lucius gets to pay a visit to Hogwarts." After the war, the Ministry had decided to place all Death Eaters on a probation, allowing them to avoid time in Azkaban and to get decent jobs. It had been Harry Potter's idea, actually. He was one of those "everyone deserves a second chance" kind of guys. So, Lucius Malfoy had been giving a rather high position in the Ministry, one of his jobs being that he had the right to constantly meddle in school affairs. "So," Scorpius continued, "Show I wear my 'I heart muggles' shirt or my 'Death Eaters are just cranky' shirt?"

"Muggles," Al replied. "While 'Death Eaters are just cranky' does have a giant smiley face on it, 'I heart Muggles' is a good shade of pink."

"That's just what I was thinking," Scorpius said. "See, I figure, as long as I'm at Hogwarts, he can't do anything to me, right? It's the perfect opportunity."

"Do you think she's going to be okay?" Al asked.

"Who? Oh, yeah, Lily. Um, sure, I guess."

"It wasn't supposed to happen this way," Al said. "I guess the amount of power the spell took was just too much for her. On someone stronger, it probably wouldn't be as damaging."

"I'm surprised you actually care," Scorpius said. "Last night you just shoved her to the side so you could see dear ol' grandma."

"I was just curious about if it had worked or not," Al insisted. "I didn't just forget about Lily."

"Your parents are going to freak when they see her," Scorpius said.

"I know," Al replied. "I wish I could tell them I'm sorry without telling them why."

~*~*~

"Do you have any idea how this could have happened?" Harry Potter asked, holding his young daughters hand.

"Not a clue," James said. He'd be damned if he was going to turn into a snitch.

"Yeah, I don't know," Al said. He'd be damned if he was going to do anything to halt his plans.

Harry sighed. "Poor Lily. She's so fragile. I want you both to promise me you'll take care of her, always."

James' eyes burned into Al. "I promise."

"Promise," Al echoed.

"We're taking her to Saint Mungo's now," Ginny said. "You two are welcome to come, but you should probably just stay here."

"I'll stay," Al said, choosing one Lily over the other.

"Me, too," James said, choosing to keep an eye on Al and figure out just what was going on.

After his parents and comatose sister had left, James wandered the halls, furious. He checked to see if he could enter the Room of Requirements, but of course it was locked.

And then he ran smack right into Scorpius. Scorpius jumped and squeaked. "I mean, um, Potter, what're you doing up here?"

"What're you doing up here?" James asked.

"…Nothing evil."

"Yeah, same here."

"I was just, um…" Think, Scorpius, think. "The Slytherin bathrooms are all out of toilet paper, so I thought I'd check to see if the one on this floor had any I could take. You know, you'd assume that the toilet paper here could just magically replenish itself or that house elves would be on constant paper watch, but somehow it's always running out."

"Soap, too," James said, staring at Scorpius with narrowed eyes. "We're out of it in the Gryffindor bathrooms right now."

"I hate the soap, anyway," Scorpius said, inching away from James. "I'm just glad that they don't use bar soap anymore. Can you even imagine how covered in germs those things were? I mean, I know Hogwarts is old fashioned, but having bars of soap for everyone to share? That's just gross. And the pink, granulated shit they have now isn't much better. I don't think it actually does anything."

"They really should just have liquid soap," James said.

"I for one am a strong defender of foam soap," Scorpius went on. "Also, I know it kills trees and everything, but wouldn't it be nice to have disposable paper towels instead of a few cloth towels that everyone has to share? Once again, that can't be hygienic. I mean, what's the point of washing your hands if you're just going to get strange diseases from it."

"Truly disgraceful," James said, dryly. "I'm just glad they have flushing toilets. I heard they still used chamber pots well into the 80's."

"I feel the same way about wizard robes," Scorpius said, clearly growing more and more nervous. "Just because we're wizards doesn't mean we want to wear a bunch of stupid robes all the time. I mean, you've got to hand it to muggles. They may be stupid and they'd all probably have been eaten by dragons or whatever by now if it wasn't for us, but they have great fashion sense."

"I hate how we're not even allowed to wear muggle clothes during class," James said. "Like they think one pair of jeans will cause a full scale uprising."

"Yeah, dress codes suck," Scorpius said, now all the way to the stairs. "If it was up to me, we could all come to class in striped pajamas and nobody would give a shit."

"I admire your vision," James said.

"Thanks," Scorpius squeaked, and then turned and ran down the stares as fast as he could.

James shook his head and sighed. "Well, that was weird."