Gah! I hate that I had to wait so long to work on this! You must all hate me now! I promise this chapter will make up for it though!

I don't own Harry Potter.

Chapter 14: Beginning Bang

James' POV

During Christmas Break, nearly everyone in the castle was leaving. I'm not just talking about the normal amount, I mean to say that the only ones not going anywhere were me, Sirius, Remus, Marlene, Mary, and a small handful of students from various houses. We totaled ten students in all.

A blizzard hit an hour after everyone had left. The wind howled throughout the castle, fist-sized snow clumps pounded against the wall. It almost didn't seem natural. Us remaining Gryffindors were gathered in the common room, just idly chatting. We had the entire tower to ourselves, and I got to say, it was awesome. We didn't have to worry about any first years or something overhearing us and we didn't have to worry about what we said, and there wasn't any homework to worry about. It was pure bliss for that first night.

If the blizzard hadn't been so bad, we would have gone outside for a snowball fight. It kept up through the night. Sirius was really jumpy though for some reason, and he kept looking at me like I was going to die soon. And I hate the fact that I can say it's not the first time he's looked at me like that. The last time he looked at me like that, I very nearly did die.

I hope he stops looking at me like that soon.

The second day of the castle being empty I finally asked him about it. The blizzard was still roaring outside the castle, but the house elves were doing a fantastic job of keeping this castle warm.

"I'm hoping it's nothing, mate," Sirius answered cryptically. I stared blankly at him for a moment.

"And this answers my question, how?" I asked at last. He turned to look at me sadly again, then out the window. He never answered. I frowned. "Sirius, talk to me. What's wrong?"

"Don't worry about it," he said. I frowned again.

"How can I not worry about it when you keep looking at me like I'm going to die any day?" I asked, maybe with a hint of anger. He frowned at me.

"It was just a dream, it probably doesn't mean anything anyway," Sirius said. I felt my jaw drop in confusion and my head tilt to the side. Before I could ask what he meant by that, he got up and walked out of the room. I stared after him, completely bewildered.

Nothing interesting really happened until later that night. We were all gathered in the common room, telling scary stories, when there was a loud bang. Marlene had been at the climax of a really good thriller at the time, and we all jumped at least two feet in the air and screamed.

"What…what was that?" Mary asked, clinging onto Remus for dear life. We all shook our heads. The fire in the fireplace shuddered and blew out, taking with it all of our light.

"Is it just me, or is it really creepy right now?" Marlene asked. I couldn't actually see her, so it was rather odd to just hear her voice.

"It's really creepy," I agreed. There was another bang. The girls screamed again.

"Should we investigate?" Sirius asked.

"Someone has to," I said. I pulled out my wand and muttered, "Lumos." The tip of my wand ignited in a soft light, illuminating most of the room in a pale blue light. I could see everyone's faces, looking much paler than normal and terrified. Whether it was just the odd light giving them the coloration or whether the blood had actually drained from their faces, I couldn't tell. My guess is that it's a combination of both.

Sirius and Remus both pulled out their wands and ignited the ends as well, making the room a little brighter. Mary's grip around Remus' arm lightened slightly. Marlene moved over to Sirius and grabbed his hand in both of hers.

"Come on," I said, getting to my feet and moving to the portrait hole. I climbed out first, wand at the ready. I paused just outside and looked around, making sure that nothing was around. "Nothing out here," I said, signaling everyone else to come out.

"I don't think I've ever been this scared," Mary stated as she climbed out of the tower. The lights in the hallway were out as well, which is odd because they're all separate candles. What could have put them out?

"Where should we go first?" Sirius asked. He stood next to me, looking as terrified as I felt. But we both put on brave faces for the others and made it seem like we weren't scared at all. Someone had to seem like they were in charge, and this was our specialty.

"It would be easier if we knew the general direction of the sound," Remus stated. I nodded in agreement. The portrait of the Fat Lady closed behind Marlene. She and Mary weren't clinging onto anyone anymore, but we could all tell that they were still scared. I was suddenly grateful that Lily wasn't here right now. I wouldn't have wanted her to try and put on a brave face in this sort of situation. That's how people (like me and Sirius) get hurt.

"You should get back in the tower and stay there," the Fat Lady said behind Marlene, making her jump. "Sorry dear."

"Do you know where the sound came from?" I asked.

"It sounded like it came from the Entrance Hall. Goodness, I hope no one is trying to break down the doors. But get back inside, where you're safe," the Fat Lady said. Sirius and I shook our heads.

"We won't be much safer there if we can't protect the school out here," Sirius said.

"We'll do what we can, and if we have to run we'll come back," I said to appease the portrait. She nodded, and the five of us started making our way to the Entrance Hall. Mary and Marlene kept their wands lit for light while Sirius, Remus, and I kept ours ready to fire a spell.

We stopped at every corner and peered around to make sure no one was going to ambush us. We found that every single candelabra in the castle (at least from Gryffindor Tower to the Entrance Hall) was no longer lit. There was no source of light in the castle except for our wands. And it was silent. Eerily so.

Sirius descended the Grand Staircase first. One of the steps creaked, and I was reminded of the beginning of the summer, when I heard him step on the creaky spots of the second floor of the Potter mansion when we went home. That hadn't ended too well. I hoped that tonight wouldn't end the same way.

There was an earsplitting shriek directly behind me, and our light dimmed dramatically. I heard the sound of someone's wand dropping onto the stairs. Sirius and I both turned and saw Mary halfway in the stairs, a hand covering her mouth and her eyes wide.

We all stood still for a few minutes, eyes wide, our hearts beating fast. I swallowed a lump in my throat and held out a shaky hand to Mary. "Sorry," she apologized as she accepted my hand. She grabbed her wand from the stairs and I pulled her out of the stairs. Sirius and I had automatically stepped over the trick stair. Mary for whatever reason hadn't, and with the suspense right now had screamed when she felt herself falling.

All five of us were shaking pretty badly. This whole thing was scary enough, with the loud bangs and the unnatural silence. But then this medieval castle had gone dark as well, meaning anything could be in any corner and we would never know until it was on top of us.

Another bang echoed up the stairs, fainter than the others had been. We jumped again.

"It sounded like it came from over there," Sirius said, pointing vaguely in the direction of the sound. I nodded and we slowly started walking towards the sound. I kept my wand raised.

As we drew nearer, we began to hear more sounds of a struggle. Something shattered against the floor. A curse was thrown. We peeked around the corner, our heads on top of one another in an effort to see what was happening, like a totem pole.

"Bloody Hell," Sirius muttered above me.

The Entrance Hall was a mess. Statues were in pieces all over the floor. The doors were blown wide open, though a charm had been cast upon them to keep the sounds of the outside world mute. Professor Slughorn lay slumped on the ground not too far away from the doors. The divination teacher, Professor Nastert, was boldly trying to fend off the attack with Professor McGonagall and the DADA teacher, Professor Hartwick. There were no other teachers around.

The attackers wore white masks that looked like skulls, and all of them had black cloaks with the hood drawn up, except for one, who had a black fedora on his head.

"Death Eaters," Remus barely breathed below me. I almost nodded, but I was too much in shock. Death Eaters had entered Hogwarts. Death Eaters had gotten past the boundary of Hogwarts.

"We have to do something," Marlene said quietly so only we could hear. She seemed to be empowered by the knowledge of what exactly was happening and was no longer scared. Sort of like 'Oh, it's just Death Eaters? Well then let's go kick their bloody arse!'

One Death Eater in particular caught my attention when she started laughing. She had just knocked down Professor Nastert and was giggling uncontrollably. I knew what Death Eater had that giggle. Sirius and I both knew. We'd heard it enough last winter.

"Bellatrix," Sirius muttered. I couldn't tell if he was angry or scared. I refocused my attention on the one in the fedora. He turned in our direction just enough so I could see his eyes and confirm my suspicions.

"Raston's here too," I said. Sirius cursed softly.

"What should we do?" Remus asked. As Head Boy, I knew I had to fight. But I couldn't ask the same of my friends. Then again, I couldn't very well stop them either.

"I'm required to tell you to go back to the Common Room. But I'm not required to enforce that," I said, stepping out of our little totem pole. We made a little circle. "Be careful. These people are here for a reason, and they're likely willing to kill for it."

They nodded, though I don't think they were glad for the reminder that they could be killed. Mary and Marlene let the tips of their wands go out, shrouding us in darkness. The constant spells flying around the corner lit the halls in reds and greens and yellows and blues. There was enough action to see by.

"We'll catch them best by surprise," I whispered. I saw them nod in the flickering colors. "On three. One, two, three!"

We all jumped from around the corner and fired various spells at the Death Eaters. They weren't prepared to defend themselves from this angle, so most of our spells hit their marks. None of us wasted any time in firing off more spells and dodging spells thrown at us. It wasn't long before we were separated around the room, joining our teachers in the fight. They didn't even tell us to go hide somewhere and wait it out.

I stood back to back to McGonagall when she was stunned, her elbow hitting mine and knocking my spell off course. It was scary to see one of the fiercest wizards I know fall in battle. I fired a body-bind curse at her attacker, the spell hitting its mark and protecting my back. My attacker had melded into the shadows, and I took stock of the situation.

Mary, Remus, and Marlene had formed a triangle and were protecting each other that way while attacking the Death Eaters. Sirius was fighting two Death Eaters at once but was holding his own nicely. All of our teachers were against the floor. I blame exhaustion.

"Does this anger you, James?" I herd Raston's voice ask from behind me. I whirled, wand raised, but didn't see him. My eyes scanned the surrounding gloom. "Do you wish we didn't exist?" Raston asked. A spark lit up down the hall, signaling where he was. I fired a spell at him and saw it deflected to the wall. "Do you wish we hadn't killed your parents? That they were still alive to protect you now?" I fired another shot blindly in the general direction. "They were quite easy to kill…barely even put up a fight."

Unknowingly, I took a few steps forward and fired another spell down the dark hallway. It was deflected again.

"Temper temper. What would your parents think?" Raston asked. I gritted my teeth and fired a few more shots. I heard his laughter. "Is this all you have? Is this all you care about your parents? I thought you loved them more than this!"

I took a few more steps and fired more spells, barely even processing what I was doing. "Shut up!"

"I'm sorry. Did I hit a nerve?" Raston asked sarcastically. "A shame your mommy and daddy can't hold you back now, isn't it? Or you might do something drastic," he said.

He was right. My parents couldn't hold me back now. "And it's your fault!" I screamed, running at him now. He laughed and lit the tip of his wand as he started to run away from me, down the halls of Hogwarts.

Sirius' POV

"And it's your fault!" James screamed, catching all of our attention. I barely had enough time between dodging spells and casting them to see him run off down the hallway. Raston's laughter echoed around the room. I fired off quick succession spells and took down one of my opponents, rounding on the other to do the same.

Why would James run off like that? What caused him to lose control? What was he blaming the Death Eaters for right now?

"Well, it seems like our fun is coming to its climax," Bellatrix said across from me. She was my opponent this whole time? Well if I'd known that, I would have fought a lot harder against her! "Our plan is falling into place."

"What are you talking about?" I demanded. We stopped firing spells at each other and settled for circling each other anxiously.

"Isn't it familiar though? As if from a dream?" Bellatrix asked, using that voice that I found incredibly creepy.

"Speak English you madwoman!" I snarled. I could see her smiling behind her mask.

"This is all being done for you, little cousin. The only way to hurt you, is to hurt James. And he's all off by himself now…" she trailed off. My eyes widened. No…this was exactly like my dream! They were going to kill James to hurt me! But why? What did I do?

That doesn't matter right now. Right now I have to go protect James before he gets hurt.

I fired a prank spell at Bellatrix which caught her completely off guard. It tied her up in ankle to neck rubber snakes. She lost her balance and fell to the ground with a thud. But by the time the thud reverberated through the stones, I was already working my way down the hallway James ran down.

I only hoped I wouldn't be too late to save my brother.

End Chapter

I'm actually close to the end with this story. There's only a few chapters left. I don't know what to think of that.

I'm going to try and have the next chapter up within the week, though I have SATs this weekend so I make no promises.

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