"Severus!" James grabbed the other man just in time for his skull not to collide with the hard stone floor. "Severus can you hear-"
The fireplace flared green, making James leap into the air in fright, consequently dropping the comatose Potion's Master, and Lily screamed, a hand pressed to her accelerating heart. Sirius fell out of the flames, his handsome face drawn with lines of worry and panic. He ran a hand threw his long wavy hair, his dark eyes falling on Harry.
"What happened?" He demanded, feeling his stomach drop when he saw his Godson's pale form. His gaze fell upon Poppy and he paled noticeably, then Severus.
"What-"
"Sirius!" James called breathlessly, struggling to lift Severus's limp body, "can you-"
"James, my friend, are you a wizard or not?" With a flick of his wand Sirius had sent Snape hovering to an empty bed, not taking care to ensure he didn't hit his head on the metal bars before he lowered him onto the sheets.
"Sirius!" Lily said reprovingly, "he's got enough problems as it is without you adding a head injury to the list!"
Sirius snorted, "good."
"Padfoot," James said sharply, "put your differences aside, this isn't a laughing matter." He studied his son with barely disguised panic, "Lil's what're we going to do? Poppy's...and, and Sev's, and I don't know the first thing about serious injuries, and Harry needs-"
"James," Lily took her husband's face in her hands. "Harry needs us to be calm. He doesn't need two hysterical parents, he needs Healers."
"But we don't have Heal-" He almost shouted.
"No," Lily replied calmly, "but I was Poppy's Apprentice in my final two years at Hogwarts, and I did, unlike some, pay attention in Potions."
James took a deep breath as her words registered.
"Can you help Harry?" He whispered. Lily nodded.
"But I need help."
"I don't know anything-"
"James Charlus Potter!" His wife said in exasperation. "You've spent the last eleven years patching up our son when he's fallen over or, or, blown up that stupid cauldron you bought him for his seventh birthday! I think you're capable of assisting me now!"
"I'm sorry," he said quietly, gazing into her strong green eyes and determined face, "it's just...he scared me. He looks so..."
"I know," Lily dropped her gaze, biting her lip anxiously, "but he's going to be okay, love."
The two adults studied the three unconsious wards with similar expressions on their faces.
"It's strange, isn't it," Lily said, "how the few people who could actually help Harry got targeted too," her voice turned steely.
"Whoever did this made sure that it would be difficult to save him," Sirius said quietly. The anger was barely concealed in his voice.
"Whoever did this I'm going to kill them," James growled and his eyes were dark with fury and fear.
"Not right now," Lily knealt beside her son, "we need to fix Harry first."
The red haired witch waved her wand slowly over Harry, from his forehead and down his torso. A soft blue glow began to emit from his chest and a roll of parchment consisting of five lines appeared in her hand. She read it quickly, her eyes growing hard. Oh Harry, I'm so sorry...
Two broken legs
A fractured wrist and elbow, (right side)
Bruising to the front right of the brain
Blood loss to the forehead
Internal bleeding along ribcage, (danger: minimal)
The only relief the roll of parchment offered was that it stated that whilst Harry's injuries were bad, they were not life threatening, and the internal bleeding wasn't in any way overly worrying. That didn't stop her tightening her grip on the paper in pure anger that someone had harmed her son.
"Lils?"
"We need to stop the internal bleeding first," she took a deep breath. James nodded and kissed her forehead gently.
"Okay Harry," she murmered, "let's start fixing you, baby." His eyes remained closed and his skin was still a deathly pallor, but speaking to him calmed the frantic mother somewhat. She started to begin the spell that would knit his veins back together, and the muscle that had torn.
"Sirius?" Lily asked calmly.
"Yeah?"
"In Poppy's office is a vial labelled 'Blood Replenisher', and another labelled 'Pain Relief: Series 5'..." Sirius was gone before she'd even finished the sentence.
Harry's body began to glow a bright white as the charm began to work, and some of the colour returned to his cheeks. With a soft gasp his eyes fluttered open and found his mother's face watching him concernedly.
"Hi, sweetie, how are you feeling?" Lily asked gently.
"Like hell," Harry croaked. "Wha' 'appene'"
"Never mind that now, honey, I need you to take this," his mother pressed a vial of Pain Reliever to his lips, her green eyes were shining with worry. Harry pulled a face but didn't object. His pain was too acute for him to ignore the need for pain relief, Lily thought, pressing her lip together in fury.
"Harry!" A voice to her left made her jump. Draco and Hermione were sitting on a couple of wooden chairs, both faces pale and they looked shaken, but otherwise okay. "You're awake!"
"Yeah," Harry mumbled, closing his eyes, "yeah I'm..." Within seconds he was unconsious again.
"Asleep!" Sirius chuckled quietly.
"Is he going to be okay, Mrs Potter?" Hermione asked shyly, staring at the floor. Lily smiled reassuringly.
"Yes, Hermione, he's going to be all right soon," she said softly. Hermione's eyes widened.
"You know my name!" She exclaimed. Lily laughed.
"Of course, you are going to be in of my class you know," she teased.
"And mine," James grinned, but his eyes flickered to his son. So's Harry, he added in his head, when he's better. He hated anyone who would see his son hurt. Hermione smiled tentatively.
"This is Draco," she introduced, a blush forming across her cheekbones. Draco looked surprised that she had introduced him, and so, quite frankly, was James. A Gryffindor friends with a Slytherin? Oh sweet Merlin, Harry, what have you started?
"Hello," the blonde haired boy mumbled. James and Lily caught each other's eye, sharing a look of amusement, before she turned back to Harry to begin fixing his bones and administering potions.
"Hello, Draco," James smiled as he settled himself down next to the two first years. "So how come you three were all out of bed past curfew then, especially on your very first night in the castle?"
"Ermm, it's not, uh, Harry's first night...in the...castle..." Draco tried to steer the conversation in a different direction. James, however, wasn't fooled and he raised an eyebrow, causing the blonde to go bright red.
"Umm, I was, ah, sleepwalking," Draco cursed the fact that he stuttered when he lied, "and I, I somehow ended up outside the Gryffindor common room, and and, Harr-I mean, Potter, and Granger found me and escorted me," he swallowed, "back to, to Slytherin."
Jame chuckled at the two squirming children.
"You can tell me, you know, I'm hardly the Professor to bite your head off."
Hermione looked up from her shoes and stared at him with sad brown eyes.
"We know that, sir, but we think it'd be best if Harry told you what happened tonight, it's kind of personal and we don't know if we should be the ones to tell you."
"What happened?" James frowned, instantly worried.
"Well, basically..."
"Harry was worried," Draco jumped in, shooting Hermione a glare, "about you leaving Hogwarts so soon without telling him, and he was going to your quarters to ask you about it."
James eyed them suspiciously, clearly not believing they'd given him the entire story. He had to acknowledge that they were trying their hardest to conceal whatever it was that they were hiding from him though, and he was grateful in some ways that Harry had at least managed to find himself two loyal friends.
A sudden rumbling in the castle far down below their feet made them all freeze.
Lily met Jame's eyes.
"What was that?" Hermione whispered.
"Lily-" Jame began. But then a thought occured to him. He frowned. "Didn't you say you'd called for Albus and Minerva as well?" He looked at Hermione and Draco. They paled.
"Yes, but, but they didn't reply and I was more preoccupied with getting you..." Draco said fearfully. Lily stood up.
"James," she took her husband's hand and led him out of earshot of the students. "The Stone. The rumbling came from that area of the castle." The Philosophers Stone was currently being held at Howarts, unknown to the students, to keep it safe.
"The Stone's well protected," James said, but he looked worried. Another great shudder had them grabbing each other in order to keep upright. Lily raised her eyebrows.
"We need to help Severus first," he continued, glancing at his friend, who's face was white and shining with sweat, "and Poppy."
"I don't know how," Lily whispered, her eyes wide with fear.
"What!?" James placed his hands on her shoulders. "Yes you do, love, I have complete faith-"
"No James!" Lily interupted. "I don't know how because I don't think this is an ordinary poison. It's something a lot...darker," she whispered.
"Why didn't you say earlier?" He pulled her into a hug.
"I didn't want to panic the kids," she blinked as tears obscurred her vision, "do you know what was here tonight?" She asked quietly. James met her gaze and wiped her eyes with his thumb.
"It was Him," Lily whispered. "He was here. And I think He still is. Do you know how much terror that would cause if we told them?"
They were silent for a long time.
"What do we do? There must be some way to help them...I don't want Sev to die," her voice broke and she began sobbing in earnest.
"Ssh, shh, love, it's alright, we'll figure something out," James tightened his arms around her and held her close, feeling her body shake with sobs.
Far below them, a giant three headed dog, Fluffy, (Harry's dog's, Fluffy Junior, oversized parent, to be precise) let out a long and loud howl of contentment as a man in purple robes and a turban that smelled disgustingly of garlic releashed the large chains and manacles that bound him to the floor.
Lily and James stood stock still as the howl reverberated throughout the castle.
"Please tell me that's not..." She begged. A massive crash made the ceiling shake, loose bits of plaster raining down on their heads. A cacaphony of barking which seemed to be getting louder made them all wince and cover their ears.
"Professor!" Hermione and Draco yelled. "What is that?!"
"Umm, that is Hagrid's latest pet project," James called back, turning to his wife who was watching him with a funny expression on her face.
"Lily?"
"Someone set him free," she said quietly, trying not to let the first years hear her. James nodded grimly,
"so it would seem."
"Someone's down with the Stone," she said distractedly, "we need to-"
"No," James said firmly, "you're not going anywhere." She glared at him.
"The Stone," she muttered distractedly, "there's something about it that makes me remember...I read somewhere, I read..."
"Professor?" Hermione asked, walking over to them. "Are you talking about the Philosopher's Stone?"
"Err," Lily recovered her dumbfounded expression quickly, a skill she'd learned from Severus. "Yes, but how do you-"
"It's here in the castle, isn't it" The young witch interrupted.
"Yes," Lily said cautiously, "How-"
"I did a lot of background reading over the summer, I found Hogwarts fascinating, so I found out as much as I could about the wizarding world, and I researched Professor Dumbledore because he's said to be the greatest wizard of all time," she said all this very fast, "and I read about Harry too. He's in a few books, like The Rise and Fall of the Dark Arts...And I thought that maybe the reason you hid the Stone in Hogwarts was because you're scared that Voldemort's going to come back to power and if you have the Stone it means that that's one way that he cannot use to come back. But given the events tonight I think that someone's trying to get the Stone and we need it more than them so you have to stop them."
They all stared at her in amazement.
"How did you...?" James asked weakly.
"I'm a muggle-born," the bushy haired girl's bout of confidence had rapidly vanished and she was once again studying her shoes. "So Professor McGonagall brought me my letter and took me to Hogwarts. She was talking to someone in the-Leaky Cauldron?- and I overheard." She had the grace to look sheepish. "And then I researched the Philospher's Stone, and...and..." She trailed off.
Lily almost smiled. The girl was as keen a student as she had been! But in completely different circumstances.
"Why did you say we need the Stone more than them, Hermione?" Draco asked curiously.
"Because I read somewhere that if the Stone is melted and turned into liquid form it can be used as a Healing Potion," she said quietly. "It might heal them." She looked at Professor Snape and Madam Pomfrey sadly.
Lily gasped.
"It does!" She said excitedly. "I can't believe I didn't think of this! We need to get to the Stone and-"
CRASH!
The door to the Hospital Wing was blown off it's hinges and was flung across the room with surprising force, smashing into the far wall.
In the doorway stood a giant, growling, angry, three-headed dog.
That was actually a really long chapter for me! I hope you enjoyed it! If I get lots of reviews I might post another chapter soon. Like, really soon.
Thank you :)