A/N: Happy new year to those who celebrate it! (I don't) And happy birthday to our favourite dark lord =) And thanks to spammers... they make choosing names for unimportant characters incredibly easy.
Tittle: Promises of forever
Chapter: 10 – Night
Pairing: James Potter & Severus Snape
Summary: James survived that fated Halloween night, now with an infant by his side he has to face adulthood and a world that demands his son. Thank goodness he has Severus Snape on his side.
Warning: Character Death, OOCness, cuteness, AU, Harry's three months old instead of 15 months. Manipulative!Dumbledore, Evil!Tom Riddle
Disclaimer: This is a work of fiction, written to win the NaNoWriMo challenge. No money is being made from this and no copyright infringement is intended.
Previously:"Not you Harry, your father." he muttered before warding his house against possible intrusion and going up to bed.
Day Talks
James apparated near the Longbottom State only to watch as Frank ran up in the distance, not waiting for the aurors to arrive, James ran after him catching up with the senior auror just as he went to storm up the house. Roughly James pulled him to the side, both of them forced to hear Bellatrix giggling and the deep baritone of Rodolphus LeStrange.
"He's not here Bella no trace of anything regarding our Lord either, any other ideas to make them talk?"
"I'd say this wee one might make his mummy talk..." came the muffled giggle as Frank squeezed James' hand, thinking of Neville.
"It's a baby Bella." stated a much higher voice, James looked at Frank and mouthed 'Crouch Jr?' as both aurors inched close to the door. They could see Alice on the ground, a pool of vomit around her. Bellatrix had Neville in her arms and the baby was shrieking under a silencing charm.
"I know it's a baby you moron!" she screamed, sounding more like a troll than a human being. "But our Lord wanted to kill this one as well, so we'll just do it for him!" she finished in a lighter tone, and James could practically see her smile. The baby in her arms shrieked even louder, and the sound of a slap followed. "See... this is why I refuse to have children, they're too loud, too demanding and we get fucking nothing in return." She snarled, shaking the baby like one would shake a rag doll.
A noise drew their attention to the woman on the floor, she was shivering from the rounds of crucio she had to endure, but still there was a fire in her eyes. With a scream Alice staggered to her feet, facing Bellatrix. Frank could hear the exhaustion on her voice as she faced the three wizards and the witch.
"Gi...ve... back... my... son!" She panted through gritted teeth.
"Come get him then, sweet Alice." Bella mocked, "Before he dies!" she growled, as she pointed her wand at the infant and yelled...
"Crucio"
James and Frank heard Alice yell as she threw herself at the woman. Thankfully it was at the same time they heard the faint pop of the wards around the house falling.
The moment Frank heard the faint pop of apparition, he made his presence known to the murderers by punching Bellatrix on the face, and making her drop the infant. Neville dropped to the ground like a sack of potatoes while two out of the three wizards turned their wands on Alice, casting the cruciatus curse again, Rodolphus levelled his wand at Frank, an odd glint in his eyes as he engaged the senior auror in battle.
Meanwhile James snuck behind the duelling wizards, cradling Neville to his chest like he did with his own son and casting a mild healing spell on the boy. He was reluctant to bring him back to battle and as thus cast a warming charm on the baby, followed by a mild sleeping spell before he rejoined the battle, casting cutting curses on the wizards holding Alice under the pain curse, hitting only one of them.
Rabastan went down with a shout and a curse on his wand arm, slashing it open, while Bella recovered enough of her wits to level her wand at the auror's wife silently casting the insanity curse.
Barty continued to cast the pain curse on the young woman, his eyes lighting up with a mad glint as he dodged stray curses from James and Frank.
A stray cutting curse passed him over, brushing his cheek. He turned around to receive the equivalent of a bludger to the chest, the face of an auror entering his line of vision, along with the uniform of ten other aurors and the wooden leg of Moody.
The head auror took a quick look at the scene before shouting orders.
"Seize them, Siger, Evette, White, Melba, concentrate on Bellatrix! I want her alive! Katheryn, Homes, Banvard, Alvin get Rodolphus, Benson, bind and Portkey Rabastan to the Ministry! Kristian, Katrice search the rest of the house! Young, you're on Healer duty go check on the Mrs!" he snarled as he and another two aurors engaged Barty in battle.
With other four people battling with him Frank got a shot at Bellatrix, an overpowered cutting curse directly to her wand hand. He barely heard her howl as he watched three of her fingers fall on the ground.
He saw her bite her lip, easily drawing forth blood. Blood which was immediately spit back at him.
"Where is your little family now auror? Where's your mother?" She grinned, showing more teeth then it should be humanly possible.
With an enraged shout, Frank threw himself at the woman, attacking her with his bare fists. The other aurors were forced to dodge some of her stray curses or simply try and get the enraged father off of the woman.
Meanwhile James and Auror Young were checking over Alice, leaving the battle to everyone else. As Young went to touch her, Alice let out an ear-shattering scream, trying to get away from both of them.
James swallowed as he heard the sounds of fighting dying down. Just staring at Frank's half mad expression was enough for James to realize he would need grounding after this.
"Young, you take care of her as best as you can, take her to St. Mungos. I'm looking for Neville." he said and, without waiting for a reply, he left the charred and practically destroyed living room.
He found the boy where he had left him, pale and practically freezing with a red angry mark on his cheek. Gathering the infant in his arms he entered the former living room to see Frank being restrained by two aurors while the others bound the Death Eaters.
"Frank! You gotta get Neville to the hospital." He shouted, hastily putting the infant on his father's arms, ans shooing both of them out of the room. And with that, he was left to deal with the aurors.
How had he come by that information? A warning from his old contacts. What had happened to the family? Overexposure to the cruciatus. What of Mrs. Longbottom? He knew not.
It was as he was sitting outside the children's ward in St. Mungo's that reality finally came crashing down on his head. He had lost his wife, was about to quit his job – there was no way he would be able to look after Harry and still be an auror and a good father at the same time – his son was being hailed as some sort of messiah, his best friends were about to go separate ways in life, where he would be unable to follow, he had a scheme to fool the goblins and he, somehow, had a sort of relationship with a former Death Eater.
His other friend was having his life turn upside down, his wife insane from some unknown curse, his mother missing and his son in Intensive Infant Care.
He looked at the heavens, or pretended to, and said the first thing that came to mind that summed up the last week.
"I'm fucked."
"I seriously hope not!" said a gruff voice to his left.
"Hey boss," He muttered, staring at the auror for a moment before going back to his silent vigil.
"How are they?"
"Alive." came the dry response.
"You know what I mean Potter!"
"Alice is insane and the Healers gave absolutely no hope of her ever recovering, Frank got a few scraps here and there along with exhaustion and Neville..." he swallowed, at least when it had happened to him the stay had been only him and Harry... there was no worrying about anyone else, specially as Lily was dead and his friends somewhat safe.
Frank had, not only Neville to worry about, he also had his mother and wife. James couldn't even begin to think how he would have copped had he been in Frank's situation.
"Neville's in shock. LeStrange damaged his magical core according to the Healers and they're not sure if he'll pull through. The muscle and nerve damage are considerable and they can't give him anything until they're sure his magical core is somewhat stable, and they can't try and stabilize his magical core without calming him down first. He has been crying for the past thirty minutes, nonstop."
"He has? It's awfully quiet out here."
"One way silencing charms." James shrugged.
"I see... tell me Potter, where's your spawn?" Alastor asked, eyes serious.
"Ah... he's... that is..."
Alastor chuckled, lifting up a gnarled hand to stop the auror from babbling.
"Leave it, what I don't know I won't be able to say."
And with that he left but James was just too tired to understand the hint his boss had given him.
He was almost asleep on the hallway when Frank showed up, the angry red flush still on his face, his fists clenched and knuckles white, his breathing deep and controlled, as if trying and failing to remain calm.
"How is he?"
"He'll survive... he has a bruise on his cheek and his magical core is almost null. The Healers are afraid he won't recover."
James just nodded, gently nudging his friend's leg. Frank just smiled sadly at the gesture, nudging his leg back.
"And Alice?"
"St. Mungo's Mental ward. They're working on her, to heal her shell so to speak. There's absolutely no hope for her mind." He chuckled, the sound something dark and dangerous and something James had only heard one or two times when working with the other Auror.
"I wished I had killed her, I removed three of her fingers but it's no where near enough. I enjoyed her screams James I enjoyed making her suffer for what they did to Nev and Alice." And then Frank was looking at him, his eyes lost and haunted, his honey coloured eyes covered with something dark.
"Am I insane too? I enjoyed her pain, does it make me as bad as her? Did I step in some other reality while I wasn't looking?" He asked, probing.
"I wish we had," in fact he wished he had avoided his friend's eyes, but Frank never shied away from a subject, and this time neither would James. "I wish this last week had been but a nightmare, but it isn't, our families were ripped, torn up apart like nothing I've ever seen before." He sighed.
Looking around, and spotting some mediwitches and aurors a few feet away, he put up a privacy ward around both of them, staring at Frank with clear hazel eyes.
"If Narcisa Malfoy walked up this corridor and sneered at you, would you have the urge to curse her? Cut her fingers off?"
"What? No!"
"Would you curse, or even beat a Slytherin kid practising the Dark Arts?"
"Of course not! If they're only doing harm to themselves there's no reason to even bring them in for questioning!"
"Then you're not as bad as Bellatrix, not bad at all in fact. You just watched your boy and your wife being tortured by four mad people, if it had been me, I'd been shouting the killing curse at the top of my lungs, regardless of consequences."
"What about you? What of Harry? You left him with-"
"My muggle babysitter of course." He interrupted him with a meaningful look, just as a commotion was heard at the entrance of the ward.
"Where are they?! Where's my grandson?" Came the female shout. James just started giggling – thought he would vehemently deny it later – and Frank couldn't help but roll his eyes.
"That's one reason I call Nev my lion cub, he's the grandson of a lioness." he lifted his eyes to see his mother hastily approaching them.
James quietly dissolved the ward as Augusta swept Frank into a hug, her bottle green robes and lamp shaped, green velvet hat with an outrageously big red flower made of feathers were a very odd sight as she hugged her son, who was still in simple everyday robes. James couldn't help but smile, at least they could always count with Augusta's fashion sense to lighten up, at least somewhat, the mood.
Augusta gave him a smile, mouthing a silent 'thank you' before sitting with them. James gave her a half nod before getting up.
"Sorry Frank, but I've got to pick Harry up." he muttered embarrassed.
"Don't worry about it... go! Your babysitter must be pissed at you right now."
James just shivered and nodded, before walking out of the ward as fast as he could without drawing attention.
Coming out of the hospital he came face to face with Remus and Albus. The three of them stared at the other for a few seconds, blinking at the unbelievable coincidence, before Albus gave him that grandfatherly smile.
"What are you doing here James? Came to visit Sirius?"
"Ah... not really," he didn't notice Remus' eyes narrowing as he continued. "I was here with Frank. The news will be out tomorrow I think but it's something you might want to know Albus." He looked at his old headmaster, shifting from foot to foot.
"The Longbottoms were attacked tonight. The LeStranges and Crouch Jr. got through the wards." he swallowed, hearing a gasp from Remus and one from behind him, his face continued to be a mask of grieve as he heard Sirius approaching their little group.
"What happened? Can you tell us?" Albus gently urged, trying to lead the marauders back to Sirius' rooms.
"Not here... too many ears and I don't want to give Frank anymore reason to be pissed off." James agreed, walking through the now familiar corridors.
As they walked inside, James immediately collapsed on an armchair, briefly giving Sirius the evil eye – Sirius had the grace to look ashamed for a moment – before beginning his tale. He started from the moment they apparated near the State up until Moody showed up on the hospital. He watched as their faces went from righteous anger to horror to reluctant acceptance.
"Barty Crouch Jr.? Seriously? Never would've thought him to be a Death Eater." Remus muttered.
"Yeah I know! Wasn't he in Hufflepuff?" Sirius asked, and the Headmaster nodded in answer.
"Loyalty put to misuse. Never think that Slytherin is the only House Voldemort recruits from Sirius, the Dark has its uses not only for cunning and self-preservation but also for loyalty, hard work, knowledge and courage." the old headmaster said, staring at all of them, even as the three men shivered at the Dark Lord's name.
"Still hard to believe that little Barty could be a Death Eater though." Remus muttered.
James snorted, looking at all of them.
"Not only a Death Eater... he's part of His inner circle." James said, staring at the floor.
"He's got a mark?" Sirius' shouted, leaning forward, eyes wide.
"He does... and I saw him curse Alice Longbottom to insanity along with the LeStranges... one of the worst things I've ever seen. It's wrong of me but... I hope they get the kiss."