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Read, Review and hang on the edge of you seats for the next chapter.
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The hooded being took a few steps in direction of where James and Remus were sitting. "Long time, no see," The voice came again and sent an awful shiver down James' spine. "I trust that you have been well." A sarcastic tedium filled the air.
James didn't bother to answer; instead he rose from his seat, promptly followed by Remus.
"Oh yes, the werewolf… I thought I smelled something..." The voice continued with a significant boredom, making the rest of his group laugh hoarsely.
"What do you want?" James' voice was stern and yet at the same time weak.
"Oh, just wanted to catch up with you." He answered ironically again.
"Do you use sarcasm as a defense mechanism because of your poor, sad upbringing?" James asked swiftly as he took a few steps forward.
When the man didn't answer James continued
"You know, how your father disowned you, the fact that your mother died when you were a baby so you were raised at an orphanage, how you had no family-"
"You be quiet boy!" The man hissed.
"Did I touch a weak spot?-" James now asked the man in a mock tone,"-Apparently I did." He smirked.
But not for long, all of the sudden a blue lightning shot in James direction and now everything went by in slow motion before his eyes.
The blue lighting moved closer and closer towards his chest, he felt someone on his left pushing him sideways and as he fell James looked the pusher square in the eye.
The pusher.
His friend.
Remus.
They held eye contact for a split second and as James felt his body hit the hard floor of the bus, he watched as the lighting hit Remus hard right in the heart.
Soon he was down on the floor as well, not moving.
James stared at his friend's limp body in disbelief, though he heard the other three figures laugh coldly he paid no attention to them. Soon the laughter turned into a dead stillness. The silence was broken by Voldemort,
"Get up." He spat out.
When James did not he raised his wand yet again and muttered "Crucio."
Unbelievable pain ran through James' body, his screams echoing through out the bus.
He landed feebly on the floor stumbling slightly, with his eyes shut.
"You killed 7 of my companions." Voldemort spoke rather dully, one of his followers hissing and another seemed to sniff quietly but Voldemort showed no indication of remorse and continued talking.
James' mind drifted back to the painful and awful night. After he'd been tortured for quite some time other Aurors finally came to their rescue and a fight soon emerged. He couldn't remember much but Voldemort had a point, he'd lost his mind and quickly there were a lot of bodies surrounding him.
Voldemort did not seem to notice how James had not been listening to what he'd been saying and finished saying,
"You are to join me."
James snapped his head up and asked as though he had not heard him "What?"
"You are to join me. You show an excellent skill in the act of murdering." Voldemort spoke again almost snakelike.
James could not help but laughing loudly, "Murdering? That will never happen. You can be sure of that."
Voldemort considered him for a moment before raising wand less hand and muttering "Bellatrix, bring in the girl."
----- In a galaxy far, far away -----
Lily's apartment, an hour earlier.
"Sirius! Where is all the rapping paper I bought?" Lily called out, sitting at the kitchen table, surrounded by gifts, ribbons, blank cards and tape. The only thing missing was the damn rapping paper.
She heard a hesitating sound come from the bathroom, "Sirius? What are you doing in there?" She asked; know having gotten up and knocking eagerly on the door.
"Well-" Came from the other side of the door, "-it seems as though I have gift rapped your entire bathroom."
"What?" A confused Lily asked.
"Like I said, I used your rapping paper to gift rap you bathroom."
"You used all of it?"
"I sure did." Sirius said proudly opening the door with an arrogant grin.
"I had six rolls of 7 foot long rapping paper, are you telling me that you used every single bit of it?"
"Well… there's some left, you know, some chunks I cut off and stuff…"
Lily sighed dreadfully and muttered something about needing a drink.
"Lily!" Sirius bellowed sourly, "You haven't even seen it! Plus, you don't want to go through the same jumble you did the last time you got drunk during you pregnancy. Remember you said it hurt like hell."
Lily had gone straight to Annabelle Potter the morning after the little scene to tell her that her son was back and safe and to get help from the Healer, she had been feeling lousy for weeks and couldn't hold anything down. That was when she found out that she was pregnant and thankfully Annabelle gave her a potion that would insure the baby's safety and drain her body from all alcohol. The side effects on the other hand were massive headaches, back pains and cramps. Something Lily would just call plain, simple Karma.
She rubbed her temple with her index finger and said "Don't remind me."
Sirius clapped her softly on the back, led her over to the sofa and asked her if she wanted him to rub her feet.
Lily smiled enthusiastically and said "Yes, please."
"Sit down then" he motioned and smiled back at her.
As they sat there in the sofa enjoying the silence for half an hour, Lily kept asking her self why it was always Sirius who took care of her, who offered to rub her feet, who played with her daughter when she did not have the energy to, who rapped her bathroom in rapping paper. At that last thought Lily giggled startling Sirius.
"What?"
"Nothing," She shook her head and smiled at him.
"All right" He smirked back at her and glanced over at the clock hanging on the opposite wall. "Half past eight." He muttered, "Shall we go get Anna from you parents'?"
"Would you mind going by yourself for me? I'm just feeling really awful tonight." Lily asked him, pouting.
"No, not at all." He shook his head, "Do you need anything? Shall I make you some tea before I leave?"
"No, I'm fine thanks."
"All right." Sirius stood up, kissed her on the forehead and said quietly "I'll buy some more wrapping paper on the way."
She laughed and said a word of thanks as he walked towards the front door.
He winked at her just as he closed the door after him.
Lily stood up and sat down in the same eat she'd sat in earlier that evening and continued writing Christmas cards. She did not know how long she sat there but as she sat humming Christmas tunes all the lights in the apartment were all of the sudden turned off.
"Wha-" Lily didn't get to finish as she heard a rough voice yell out.
"Seize her! Seize the Mudblood!"
She felt hands grab her and a heavy object stricken in her head making her lose conscience.
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So, both this and the last chapter were quite short, yet I still couldn't patch them up together to make one long, juicy chapter. I enjoy writing cliffhangers as you may have noticed. That's really the only reason for the super quick update.
If you want another quick update, bump the reviews well past thirty and the next chapter will roll in soon.
-BK
