Dominique had thrown them all a curve ball that very morning, as the students gathered together in the Entrance Hall for the second First-year Acclimatization Readiness Training, shuffling and fidgeting en masse in a collectively vain attempt to generate some warmth in enervated limbs. A chilly winter breeze was snaking under the doors, and slithering its curious fingers up many a robe.
There was little chatter among the gathered students; even Dom was partaking in the gloomy mood. She had forgone giving either James or Fred a hug that morning, merely eliciting to cast a loose wave in their general direction. James wasn't too miffed about that arrangement; the fewer times he was forced face-first into his cousin's bosom, the happier he thought he would be.
Perhaps it had been the ongoing hostilities throughout the castle, and their obvious provenance in Dom's most prized creation, that had dampened her affable spirit, but she seemed dull and lifeless as she explained the rules to them that morning.
'Each team of four must nominate one member to be the Captain. Prior to the start of the Hunt the Captain must surrender his or her wands to myself or Professor Longbottom,' she gestured nowhere near where he was standing, 'for the duration of the Hunt. The trophies that you must find have been modified, and they can now only be activated by the Captain of each team, who must hold them in one hand and offer the phrase "Find Me" as per usual.
'Now for this Hunt, you will be permitted to cast Body-Bind curses only at each other, with the goal being to incapacitate another team's Captain. If a Captain is hit by a spell, our map will inform us, and you must bring the Captain back here to the Entrance Hall to be revived, before you may continue. Keep in mind that only the Captain can activate the trophies, so if you wish to continue the Hunt this is necessary.
'Should another member of the team be hit by the spell, you may choose to leave them where they lay, bring them back for revival, or, for those select few who are able, you may attempt the counter-curse. You may not transfer the wand of a fallen team member to the hands of the Captain, if we find out that this has occurred, that team will receive zero points for this round.
'As a reminder, the team headed by Clip Wallace is currently in first place, with fifty points, followed by Preston Lynch's team on forty, and Emry Sameer on thirty-six. The full leader board is, as always, available to view in the Great Hall.
'Finally, there will be a five minute buffer after the Hunt begins where no spells may be cast at all, in order for teams to be on their way before the chaos breaks out.'
As the scrolls were passed around, James' team formulated their plan of attack: Cassie was nominated as Captain, as Holly and Tristan had both out-scored her in Professor Meadows' target practice test by four to two. The three of them were to roam through the castle in a tight group, with Cassie putting their directions into the newly-acquired Map as they went, Holly and Tristan running guard duty.
Since Cassie and James weren't bickering over some nonsensical triviality, she had been fully focused on solving the riddles from the moment Dom had started the Hunt, and they had been one of the first teams out of the Hall.
Once they rounded a corner and were out of sight of the other teams, they crashed in through a side door into an empty classroom. James whipped the Invisibility Cloak from his bag, and threw it on over himself. He was their "ace in the hole" as Holly had called it; he was tasked with running about beneath the cloak, picking off the opposition Captains from places unseen, and disappearing again before they even realised what had hit them.
It was an incredibly bold tactic, for sure, as if he was to get hit by a Body-Bind, he would likely be frozen in place for at least the duration of the Hunt, and his team would have no support, and be down one person, if they got into a real duel. High risk, high reward, Tristan added, and James agreed.
The team then whispered hasty farewells, before James set out alone, a solitary Agent of Chaos.
He had anticipated it being a struggle, and it surely was, but he hadn't imagined that it would also be such unbelievable fun.
The sheer panic in the eyes of the students after he ambushed an unsuspecting party was the greatest reward. He had sent Emry Sameer back to the Entrance Hall not ten minutes into the Hunt, as he had foolishly walked around a corner at the head of his team. James, tucked in behind a door that stood ajar, sniped him square in the chest. His team scrambled around, wands out, for a good minute, before sullenly levitating their fallen leader back the way they had come. He heard their voices echoing down the hall, saying that one of them must have shot him by accident. James had almost burst out laughing at that, which would have well and truly blown his cover.
Right now, following at least a half hour of stealth and espionage, he was attempting to regain his breath. He had stood on the hem of his cloak just as he had been about to fire a Body-Bind at the Captain on Cat's team, a skinny, dark-skinned Ravenclaw boy. Instead of getting off a spell, he had stumbled, cursed in a way that his mother would have most certainly not approved of, and righted himself directly in front of Cat, in the form of a disembodied arm and half a leg.
He was no Lender, but four against one were odds that he hadn't wanted to take on, so he had fled blindly, finally managing to lose them in this little-used section of the third floor.
Now there was a sobering thought: the Lenders. Their message was still ringing clear in his mind, finish fourth, or they come after his friends. Deliberately losing was not a concept that was found in the mind of anyone with the last name of Potter, particularly not when Ginerva Weasley was their mother. The issue was that protecting his friends was very high on his list of priorities. He couldn't bear the thought of someone tossing Cassie in the lake, or dragging Holly out to the Forbidden Forest, all because he was too proud to just lose.
He was completely torn.
And that was all without even taking his loyalty to R.U.S.T into consideration. Nero, Wren, and their two musclemen, who had thrown so much support behind them. It had cost them so much in both Galleons and in their personal security, as the Hangings had shown. They had gained a target on their backs for helping James, and they were willing to take the risk. It would be poor repayment indeed for James to go and intentionally lose, after all that they had done for him.
His train of thought was interrupted as he heard a group of voices approaching down the corridor. He hastily stood up, brushing himself off and adjusting the Cloak to triple check that it was covering all of his extremities. As the group approached, he heard a voice that he recognised: Clip.
James couldn't believe his luck. If he was able to knock Clip's team out of the running then his own team had a real shot at jumping up the leader board, and it would keep them in the chase for the Mystery Grand Prize. He held his breath as figures appeared at the end of the corridor, waiting, watching to see who their Captain was before he took the shot.
The four students were arrayed in a loose triangle, with a diminutive Hufflepuff boy that James recalled was named Michael Tring, in the centre. His lack of wand, and the way the others were arrayed defensively around him marked him out clearly as the Captain.
Clip was on point, with Rain to his left, the side closest to James. A Slytherin first-year called Georgia Braithwaite stood watch on the other flank. Their wands were levelled, and James saw Clip scanning the path ahead of them, his eyes flicking back and forth in search of any kind of movement or hint of an ambush. This wasn't going to be an easy takedown.
As they approached up the corridor their voices came into focus, and James heard something that he certainly did not expect from the reigning F.A.R.T champions; arguing.
'Will you shut up Michael,' Rain snapped, 'if you don't quit your whimpering I will Bind you myself, and be done with this stupid competition.'
'Put a sock in it, Rain,' Clip snapped, 'you were the one that said you wanted to play, even though you are sick, so quit complaining about it. You are just making it worse for everyone.'
'I'm not the one who went and ran out into a corridor head first and got hit!'
Clip stopped in his tracks, about ten paces up the hall from James' hiding spot. Michael didn't notice, and walked into Clip's back, colliding with a squawk.
'Look Rain, I think I speak for all of us when I say we have just about had enough of you being such a… so mean. We get it, you're tired and sick, but you didn't have to come do this today, and you certainly don't have to carry on like that. If you can't be civil to the lot of us, then I've half a mind to leave you behind.'
'Oh,' she scoffed, 'so you are the team Captain now all of a sudden, are you? Think you can just boss us around, tell us what to do. If it wasn't for your stupid idea to go to the kitchens first, Michael would have never got hit, and we would still be in the lead. You've been hanging around Potter too much, thinking you are the boss of everyone, well I've had it with you, and this stupid club, I'm leaving by myself!'
James was finally shocked into motion as he saw her stride away from the group. Clip called out to her, but she just angrily stuffed her wand into her robes and kept walking, approaching James' spot. He scowled at her from where he was hidden, "hanging around with Potter?" the way she had said it, like it was something so distasteful, made his blood boil. She made it out like she had been listening to Preston Lynch, which stung James more than he would care to admit. He had tried so hard to help everyone, to get them to work together, but for every act of kindness his work engendered, Lynch was there to slander him behind his back, effectively undoing everything that he was working for.
And now it seemed like Rain was in league with him, too.
He felt his grip tighten on his wand, his nails digging sharply into his palms. He hadn't realised that he was shaking with anger. Rain was someone whom he called a friend, whom he had called a friend, and here she was bad-mouthing him behind his back, like some Lynch lackey. His anger reared up as she came abreast of him, striding past in that arrogant, straight-backed way.
At that point he lost control of his emotions, pure rage taking over. He stood up and in one fluid motion, shed himself of the Invisibility Cloak. He levelled his wand directly at Rain, watched as she spun to face him, an almost comical look of shock splashed across her face. She made to raise her hands, for what James didn't know, as he spoke in an icy voice.
'Petrificus Totalus!'
Her arms snapped down to her sides, her legs sprung together, and she toppled over backwards, stiff as a board. She came down hard on the flagstones, red-gold hair pooled about her head like so much blood. James smiled down at her wickedly. His anger at her, at Lynch, at the whole, stupid first year and their stubborn refusal to accept his help, was still firmly in control of his actions.
And then the lights went out.
Dense, inky blackness wrapped itself around James, cutting off all sources of light. It seemed to cling to him as he moved. He desperately threw the Cloak back over his head, and made to beat a retreat in what he was fairly sure was the opposite direction to where he had last seen Clip. There was only one thing that James could think of that would cause darkness this complete, and Clip's R.U.S.T sponsors must have been able to source some of it: Peruvian Instant Darkness Powder.
He took one step backwards, before his foot kicked something soft, and he tumbled to the floor. Rain. He was only able to watch, relieved, as a deep orange jet of light zipped through the blackness overhead, right where he had been standing only moments before.
Footsteps were advancing from the far end of the corridor towards him, Body-Bind curses were shooting over his head, the owners of the wands obviously still unaware that he had fallen down.
He saw only one option ahead of him; he had to try and outrun the Darkness, as he was just as blind as his targets while they were all still within it, he lost all advantage that the cloak provided. Before he pushed up and made a run for it, he felt for Rain's face, and leaned over her to the point where their lips were almost touching. In the darkness, fuelled by spite and anger, he smiled an evil smile down at her, and whispered:
'Watch me, Rain, as I take over the world.'
With a wicked laugh at the irony of using her own line on her, he pushed up off the ground and dashed off at a crouch down the corridor. Spells were flying over his head like a box of Weasley fireworks, the magic was charging the very air around him to the point where the hairs on his arms were standing on end. He felt something hot pass over the top of his head, and almost let out a yell when another jet of light shot past his left shoulder.
Clip had used too much Darkness Powder, surely. It must have been his entire stock, as it seemed to stretch on forever. He wasn't aware that the corridor had even been this long. Footsteps and voices were echoing about within the Darkness, and as he tried to stretch the distance between them he could no longer tell where they were coming from. One second he heard shouts from behind, then they seemed to be to his left, then directly in front. His back was aching from his awkward running position, but he dared not straighten for fear of being collected by a stray Body-Bind curse.
He was gasping, trying to force air into his lungs. Anger had long since subsided, with fear taking its place. He thought he saw a shadowy figure moving right behind him, and cried out, tripping over an undulation in the flagstones. He stumbled, landing hard on his shoulder. He felt his wand fly out of his hand as his left arm went numb. The Cloak slipped off his head and shoulders, barely staying attached where he had tucked it into his robe. He tried to keep his momentum by rolling, and half-way made it back to his feet, crashing out into blinding light.
He looked up, still trying to right himself, gather the Cloak about him and locate his wand, all at breakneck speeds. He barely registered three robed figures cresting the staircase ahead of him, before he collided hard with one of them, sending them both careening off down the stairs in a squealing, flailing tangle of robes and limbs.
They came to a rest halfway down the stairs and James fought frantically with his opponent. He tried to pin down her arms, prevent her from going for her wand, as he had no idea where his own had fallen. She hissed and squirmed, but he was bigger, and eventually trapped her down, straddled on top of her, her arms locked to her sides. She struggled one last time, before giving a defeated whimper. James brushed the hair out of her face to see–
'Holly?'
'J-James, is that you? I can't really see your face.'
Holly was lying, pinned beneath him, her face glowing. Her chest was rising and falling with each tiny breath. James, suddenly very aware how they were positioned, hastily shifted off of her, and slid out of the Cloak. Cassie and Tristan were at the top of the stairs, framed by the writhing, shifting darkness in the corridor behind them. Voices still echoed out of it, seemingly much fainter than they should have been.
Tristan had his wand levelled at James. Thank Merlin that he at least had realised who it was, or else James might have been the next casualty.
Like the bursting of a midnight bubble, the Darkness suddenly winked out behind them, and there stood Michael, Clip and Georgia, the latter two with their wands out, facing down a wandless Cassie, and an unprepared Tristan.
James had read a few wizarding stories in his youth; Aunt Hermione would not have had it otherwise, and he knew that it was at times like this that the hero often noted that time seemed to travel in slow motion. James could now well and truly attest to this not being the case, as Clip and Georgia fluidly lowered their wands and let loose simultaneous bursts of crackling orange light.
James could only watch in horror, as twin beams shot straight towards Cassie, tracking as if to his her square in the chest. She brought her hands up in the same futile motion as Rain had, and James grimaced, having played out this scene from the other side only moments ago.
At the moment before contact, James barely able to watch, he felt something shove him from behind, and he was knocked flat onto the stairs again, cracking his chin against the unforgiving stone. He bit down hard onto his tongue, tasting blood. Above him his vision was obscured by a frantic mass of dark hair and robes, but he heard a body hit the floor, and knew Cassie's fate was sealed.
He made to push himself up, and accept his own fate, when his fingers brushed against something that rolled beneath their touch. His wand. He made a desperate lung for where it lay at the edge of the staircase, and sprung up into a crouching position, wand lowered.
It took him a good few seconds to process the scene in front of him.
Cassie was standing, very much free to move, her hands still shielding her face. Clip and Georgia had identical looks of shock and were staring down at the gold-trimmed robes of Tristan MacMillan, who, at the last moment, and unable to cast a spell in time, had dove in front of Cassie.
He had taken a double helping of Body Bind, and now lay stiff an unmoving, but their Captain was, as yet, unharmed. Holly was scrambling to reach the top of the stairs to help, and James quickly followed suit, nearly tripping over the hem of his robes in the process. He dashed up the steps two at a time, trying to hold his wand steady to get a shot around Holly's backside.
Clip and Georgia were quick to recover, and they took in another collective breath, this time to finish off Cassie, and any hopes James would have had at getting his hands on the Mystery Grand Prize. They fired before James could do anything and helplessness took him yet again. If only he had–
'Flipendo!' Holly cried, and for the second time in as many F.A.R.T gatherings, Cassie was sent flying through the air, this time to come down with a crash, tangled up in a suit of armour.
Two jets of light shot through where she had been only seconds before, and fizzled lamely against the stone walls. James finally saw his chance, and sprung up the last of the stairs, leaping onto the landing. Before he had even hit the ground he had felled Clip with an expertly placed shot, square in the chest. Georgia, unsure of who to aim at, set her counter-fire between the two of them, and James came up out of a roll, and finished her off at point-blank range. She keeled over to lay next to Clip, embarrassment and anger warring in both their eyes.
'Please – I surrender!'
James jumped, he had forgotten entirely about Michael, who had been hiding very poorly behind a tapestry. James wasn't sure if it was the fact that his feet protruded from below it, or the distinctly human-shaped bulge which gave it away more.
He felt Holly tense next to him, ready to fire, but he waved her down, and sent her over to see to Cassie. He knew what she was thinking, take out Michael now and they remove one of their biggest rivals. They wouldn't be able to finish this Hunt, and so receive zero points, effectively knocking them out of the race for the Prize. Had it been Preston Lynch instead of Clip, James wouldn't have hesitated. He almost let Holly take the shot, for what Rain had said earlier, but he couldn't bring himself to do it in cold blood.
This was what he had been fighting for, for the past months, and now he had a chance to show them all that he meant it. To show them what it really was to work together, to look after each other, because if they didn't, then nobody else would.
'Come on out, Michael,' he called, 'we won't shoot, promise.'
The boy stepped out from behind the tapestry, his arms raised in the air as if in surrender. He was quivering slightly, and let out a whimper as his eyes fell on his two fallen teammates.
Out of the corner of his eye he saw Holly knelt over Cassie, trying to shift heavy pieces of armour off from on top of her. Wrap this up quick James, we've got us a Hunt to win.
'All right, Michael, you are free to go. You can take one team member back down to Professor Longbottom, or Dom, and get them to revive them, and then carry on the Hunt. If you do that, you still have a chance at finishing, and getting some points. I think they would all thank you for that. Just think, you would be the hero that kept their chances at winning the Grand Prize alive.
'As much as I'm sure we both don't like it, I would suggest Rain. She may be moody as an old Hag, but she can cast the counter-curse to the Body-Bind, so you don't have to make the trip with the others back down to the first floor.
'Now, if you'll excuse me, with you lot out of the running, we have a first place to attend to!'
Michael just looked up at James like he had been speaking Gobbledegook for the last minute. James sighed, and turned away to help Holly with Cassie.
'W-why?' Michael stammered.
James turned back to him, a stern look on his own face. He saw the small boy flinch back slightly, as if thinking James was about to change his mind just to be cruel, as if he were every bit the figure that Preston Lynch painted him out to be.
'You were there, at that meeting in the Gryffindor common room, right? The one that turned into a big fight?' Michael nodded. 'Well I meant what I said that day, we have to work together now. We have to protect each other, because there are people much bigger, much scarier, and much meaner who want to control us. They don't care how we feel about it, or who they hurt along the way, as long as we serve their needs. The only way that we make it through this year all unharmed is if we start throwing aside our stupid fighting and cooperate.
'That's what I'm doing here, a show of good faith, pay it forward, however you want to call it. Just remember this, and tell your friends, maybe they'll listen to you. We are going to show the Lenders that they aren't the Gods they think they are, and that nobody messes with these first years and gets away with it.'
By now Michael was smiling and nodding a bit stupidly. James shooed him off, and he dashed away down the stairs, before remembering his instructions, and coming back up with a sheepish grin to get Rain.
James turned back to his ailing team, to see Holly pulling Cassie to her feet. She had a nasty graze on her left cheek that was oozing blood, and a big tear up the side of her robes, but was otherwise unharmed. She was busy admonishing Holly, saying something about how if she had wanted to fly she would have joined the quidditch team, but her heart wasn't in it, and she gave Holly a quick hug, before they turned their shared attention to Tristan.
James suddenly realised that Cassie was the only one who was able to cast the counter-curse, yet she was without her wand, being the team Captain. They hadn't thought that one through particularly well. He thought that they might be able to finish the Hunt without Tristan, but after the sacrifice he had just made, it would have left far too bitter a taste in his mouth for that.
His fears were allayed as he saw Cassie casually pick up Tristan's wand from where it lay, and lazily cast the counter-curse.
'Did Cassandra Featherstone just break the rules?' James gasped.
She favoured him with glare number three. That one seemed to be reserved solely for him these days.
'I shall forever remember this day, James Potter, as the first time that you used my proper name.'
Before he could come up with what he was sure was going to be an incredibly clever retort, Tristan made his way to his feet shakily, and Cassie leapt on him, nearly knocking him back down in a crushing hug.
'Thankyouthankyouthankyou,' she squealed.
Tristan just sort of patted her back, a little awkwardly. Time stretched on, and she still hadn't let go. Now he thought of it, James was the only one on the team who hadn't got a hug yet. That hardly seemed fair.
After what must have been at least five minutes, James thought, she broke it off, and stared up at a very flustered Tristan Macmillan.
'Father often says that the quickest way to a lady's heart is to go out of your way for her,' he said drily.
Cassie blushed a brilliant shade of red and slapped him gently on the arm, but James noticed her little smile, and the fact that she stuck a little closer to Tristan for the remainder of the Hunt.
James stayed close to his team from that point onwards, never ranging out further than a single corridor or staircase in front. He kept an eye out for any potential ambushes, or any teams that they may run into unawares. Between his scouting, and the incredible power of the Map guiding them between locations, through previously unknown passages and shortcuts as if they were perfectly commonplace, they met nobody else.
The lack of action, and the fact that he was isolated from the group beneath the cloak, gave James plenty of opportunity to reflect on his actions of a few moments ago. He had few doubts that he had done the right thing in letting Michael go free; it was just the sort of opportunity he had been hoping for in order to show the other first years he really did want to make a difference.
His uncertainty lay in the outcome, in that they had taken down their main competition for first place. It was widely known that the combination of Clip and Rain in the same team was a potent one. Clip was unparalleled at solving the puzzles that they were handed, and Rain's knowledge of the ins and outs of the castle was second among first years to probably only James. And she had somehow achieved that without the help of an invisibility cloak to help her sneak about at nights.
With the 'Dream Team', as Freddy called them, now out of the running, there were few who would be able to stand up to the power of James' map. They were coming up on the last location, an abandoned room in the Charms corridor that was colloquially referred to as 'The Come and Go Room.' Not for any similarity it held to the Room of Requirement, but rather for some less-than-savoury practices that were oft undertaken within its dusty confines.
James' main concern was now that they were almost guaranteed a top-three finish; exactly the thing that the Lenders had warned him against. He had tossed and turned all through the night, trying to decide what to do about their threats, but had been unable to come up with a solution. If he helped guide his team to a victory here today, they may end up having to pay a much steeper price than this single, small win was worth.
He chewed on his lip as he popped his head around a corner, and waved his team forward. Surely they would meet another team before they returned to the Entrance Hall. He would have an opportunity then, he supposed, to intentionally lose the game, perhaps let Cassie take a Body-Bind curse. His team would be furious, sure, but he couldn't bear the thought of seeing their bodies strung up beneath a tree, swinging gently back and forth in the wind. He shuddered at the very thought of it.
Could he lose the game on purpose, though? The concept was just so alien to him. Competitiveness was in his nature, seeking the thrill of winning was the reason he played Quidditch, was part of the reason he had signed up for F.A.R.T. It was another conquest, another victory that he would be able to call his own, something to further distance himself from the shadow of his father.
He stood guard as Cassie ducked past him and into the Come and Go Room, flanked by Tristan and Holly. Victory or Danger? That was the question he was now facing, and he was no further to coming to a conclusion. He couldn't trust himself to make the right decision in a moment of panic. Heck, he didn't even know if there was a right decision.
He squeezed his eyes shut tight, and willed it all away.
Sadly, when he opened them again, it was all still waiting for him.
The group trotted off down towards the Grand Staircase, the lasts of their locations crossed off the list. James hung back a bit, lost in his own endless spiral of melancholy confusion.
A large part of him wanted the decision to be out of his hands, to be made for him. If someone snuck up on them from behind, they could easily hit him with a Body-Bind, and then it would be three against two. Surely Cassie would go down then. He slipped out of the Cloak, hating himself even as he tucked it away inside his robe.
They came to the final landing on the first floor. James had a clear line of sight down the stairway to where Dom stood, directly ahead of them, next to a life-sized version of one of the tiny statues that they had been hunting throughout the morning. All they had to do now was get Cassie, their Captain, to touch it, and they had won.
He still wasn't sure how he felt about that.
Holly let out a squeal and pointed mutely at the statue, Tristan shared an excited glance with her, and all three of the others picked up their pace for the final dash down the stairs. James cast a single, longing glance back along the first-floor corridor. If ever there was a time for someone to show up and take them down…
Resigned, he trotted off down the steps behind his team, who were chattering excitedly about the prospect of first place, and where they would land on the leader board.
They weren't even half way down the flight of stairs when several things happened at once, ripping James' attention away from his conflicting thoughts.
Firstly, he heard shouting drift up into the Entrance Hall from the grounds outside, his team stopped momentarily to search for the source. He saw, through the great vaulting windows, two teams coming together in the courtyard outside, and the way they were dashing frantically toward the castle meant that they must have also been heading for the win.
Even as they stopped to watch for only a second, he saw three students fall to well-placed Body-Bind curses. The remaining five approached the doors to the castle, and James recognised Cat, from her height. Nobody else in first year was that tall. A second figure, at the head of the other team, was running in a way that was by now painfully familiar to James.
Preston Lynch.
He felt a tug on the sleeve of his robes, and looked down to see Holly, already two steps below him, urging him onwards with the rest of the team. He made to follow, but at that moment, a third group burst forth into the Hall from the entrance to the dungeons, and all eight of them instantly froze.
It was Fred's team, also with eyes on the winning statue.
James' eyes were bulging. Here were three teams, all with a chance to get to the statue before them. Could he work it so that they came in fourth? He saw Fred raising his wand up at them. Was there a way he could maybe hit Cassie from behind, and blame it on a stray spell under the chaos of a shootout?
Could he live with himself if he did?
A particularly loud squeal rang out from the courtyard outside, and James watched in horror as Preston shoved Cat bodily off an embankment and into a row of hedges. James swore under his breath; that was a long drop, if he had hurt Cat…
It was in that moment that James' mind was made up for him. These were his friends, the only ones who had stuck beside him when the rest of the year group shunned him, refused to believe that he wanted to help them. They had alienated themselves within even their own houses, because they were willing to stand beside him, and he was here contemplating betraying their trust, because he was scared that they wouldn't be able to look after each other when this Hunt was all said and done. The very thing he was trying to perpetuate, he had been unwilling to participate in.
He was done with running, hiding from the Lenders and their shadowy scare tactics. He would fight them, together with his friends, because they refused to be afraid. They were not pawns to be moved about a game board at the whim of some twisted megalomaniacs.
A jet of light shot towards them, and he grabbed Holly by the back of the robes, snatching her in against his body. The spell whizzed through here she had stood, and she looked up at him through her eyelashes for a second, her breathing short and shallow, before he pushed her back down the stairs and yelled after her, 'run!'
Preston was now the only one left standing outside. His entire team lay scattered about him, and only his Captain counterpart from Cat's team was left, cowering in fear from the larger boy. James scowled in disgust, and ducked another spell sent his way. They were pinned down here on the stairway, being battered by the entirety of Fred's team. Preston was sprinting up through the doors, James watched in horror as nobody else noticed him. His team was under too heavy fire to stand up for the shot, and Fred hadn't seen him at all.
In a moment of what some would call bravery, and other, Cassie likely among them, would refer to as "Gryffindor Stupidity" James leapt up from where he was crouched, and vaulted over the bannister, leaping to the floor some six feet below. He landed and tried to roll, but came down hard on his ankle, and felt something pop. He gave a yell of pain, and stumbled up to his feet, desperately trying to get his bearings.
He was sheltered on his left by the colossal staircase, upon which his team was still desperately fighting. He heard a cry from near the dungeon entrance, which must have been one of Fred's team go down. Keep on fighting, guys.
Preston Lynch was mere metres from the statue now, a wide grin splitting his face. He had a hand out, as if anticipating touching it and scoring victory already. James tracked him with his wand, just like in the Defence lesson, he slowed his breathing as much as possible. It was now or never, he held his breath in a vain attempt to still his racing heart, and cried.
'Petrificus Totalus!'
His spell shot from his wand at exactly the same time Preston made a leap towards the statue. James watched in horror, he hadn't been aiming for that. His arm outstretched, in mid-flight, a near impossible target to hit.
Yet James had managed it.
Likely more through good luck than good management, James' had fired the spell a little low, and its adjusted trajectory clipped Preston in the hip as he made his dive. James let out a guffaw as he watched his rival stop in mid-air, all of his momentum gone. He crashed to the floor inches from the base of the silvery statue, his eyes boring into James with as much hatred as he could muster.
If the situation had been any less intense, James would have keeled over laughing.
He peeked his head around the corner of the staircase, to see Fred standing defiantly in front of his Captain, a tiny Hufflepuff girl with dark brown pigtails. He ducked and weaved between spells from both Tristan and Holly, and even as James watched, he saw the latter take a spell to the face, and fell with a scream of anguish.
He lined up Fred carefully, and prepared to let off another shot, before a cry from outside caught his attention. Cat. He had forgotten all about her. In a moment of panic and without a second thought, he limped off outside. If she had been hurt in that fall, he would really make Lynch pay.
With a grimace, James tucked his wand into his robes and eased himself down the steps to the courtyard, keeping his head down to cover himself from Fred, who had enough on his plate trying to defend Tristan's ever-growing maelstrom of curses.
On the second-to-last step he looked up, and directly into a pair of bright blue eyes, shimmering with a delightfully mischievous twinkle. He barely had time to fumble for his wand before Cat's voice cried 'Petrificus Totalus!'
He felt like something had punched him in the stomach, all the wind was knocked out of him. A slow ache was pulsing through his body. He strained, tried to move his hands, his feet, anything, but the spell held fast. He saw Cat and her Captain dash past him, and the rest of his Hunt was witnessed through sound alone.
Some time later, following a series of shouts, curses, and cries of "Petrificus Totalus!" Cassie's head appeared in James' field of view. A moment later, he felt the bonds dissipate, and he was free to move. He made to stand up, but his ankle gave way beneath him, and Tristan had to lunge to keep him upright.
James looked around at their faces, hoping what he saw in them was just his imagination.
'So?' he asked tentatively.
'Second,' Cassie sighed, defeated, 'Holly went down just before your little hero stunt to save Kattala. Tristan hit Fred with an excellent shot, but by then Kattala was already at the statue. So, second place it is.'
It was a disappointment, James would have to admit, but there were far worse things than losing to Cat, and for himself the greater victory had been the one he had fought over his fears of the Lenders. He looked around at his friends, standing together with smiles on their faces, and couldn't help but wrap them all up in a hug.
'Oof,' grumbled Cassie.
'Eee,' squealed Holly.
'I've been subject to more hugging today, than a week at home with my mother,' drawled Tristan.
The four of them nearly collapsed as a single, awkward group from the laughter that ensued.
Back inside Dom was busy reviving the remaining members of Fred's group. She ruffled Fred's hair and told him how proud she was of his third place. She seemed a bit more cheery now, so James decided it might be a good time to slip off to the hospital wing, before she decided to get huggy.
Cat peeled away from the group of first-years to walk with him. He ended up leaning heavily on her as they climbed the stairs together.
'That was a very brave thing you did back there,' she said conversationally, 'but why did you do it? I mean, you could have won, and then come looking for me. You didn't have to…'
She trailed off as they reached the landing, and turned to look at him.
'I'm not sure,' James replied truthfully. He didn't know why he'd done it, the same way he didn't know why he wanted to help Wren and Nero when they were hanging from the tree. Something in him just took over, and drove him to do these things. He supposed it wasn't always the best option, but he knew he couldn't just walk away from something like that.
He didn't know how to vocalise all those feelings, so instead he looked up at Cat earnestly.
'Because you are my friend, Cat,' was all he said. That's what friends do.
The look of surprise and delight she gave him in response to that statement was almost enough to wash away the pain of having fought so hard and only got second place. Almost.
They walked the rest of the way to the hospital wing in silence together, Cat humming happily under her breath, every so often breaking out into a little giggle.
She certainly was a strange girl.
When they reached their destination Madam Petheridge was all tsk's and admonishing half-statements, but she shooed him to a bed and Cat out the door, before bustling off to get her wand. James limped over to the bed she had pointed to, and made to lower himself gingerly down. He noticed something sticking out from underneath the pillow, a scrap of parchment.
He tugged on it, and his heart froze when he saw what was written. They were only five words, but they chilled him to the core. They were terrifying, they held his attention, and he couldn't tear his gaze away.
We will collect our debt.
A/N: Thank goodness James finally gets it together and manages a respectable finish in F.A.R.T club! Also, for those of you who are interested, the F.A.R.T club scoring works as follows: First place, 50pts, Second place, 40 pts, Third place, 36 pts, Fourth place, 32 pts, Fifth place, 30 pts... From there down to 15th each place gets 2 fewer points than the one before, down to 15th, which gets 10 pts. 16th-20th get 5 to 1 points, respectively.
Current F.A.R.T standings, after two Hunts are as follows:
First place: Cat's Team, 80pts
Second place-equal: Clip's team AND Fred's team, 68pts
Fourth place: Emry's team, 66pts
Fifth place: James' team, 62pts
Preston is down in tenth place on 41pts
I have a full excel spreadsheet and everything for this. I love me some stats.