Disclaimer: As always I own nothing but the original characters and the situations all characters find themselves in. Everything else belongs to someone else and that's just the way it's gotta stay. Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoy this latest chapter and let me know what you think.
A Prophecy Learned
James and his undead accomplices had searched two hallways when they heard voices raised in anger, James sneaking over to press his ear to the door in the hopes of hearing Seth's voice telling someone off. But it wasn't his friend's voice he heard through the door. Instead, James was fairly sure that the very pissed off man doing most of the shouting was Lucy's great uncle. And what they were saying had his blood running cold.
"-if that doesn't work, try giving him some diluted foxglove to counter the affects of the potion. He has to stay alive until we're finished with Potter, otherwise it won't look like a murder/suicide. Dammit, how could you screw this up? I told you to only give the Muggleborn half the bloody potion. If he dies too soon it will be on your head, Hardwick!"
"He choked on it and spit some out, I was only trying to compensate." The other man, Hardwick whined. "And if he dies too soon then we'll just have to ensure there isn't enough of them left to identify which of them died first."
There was the sound of glass breaking. "The bodies have to be identifiable, otherwise the Chosen One will never stop searching for answers. It has to be obvious what happened or all our plans will be ruined and we'll all end up in Azkaban. There can be no loose strings for anyone to find, understand?"
"It might already be too late though. I know you said that your great niece will be able to convince the Chosen One and his family that the baby belongs to his oldest, and the blood can be tested to prove it, but from what I've heard the boy can't stand her now and is seeing someone else. Convincing the Wizarding World that James Potter was the type to cheat and sleep with a woman he hated…I say we erase the boy's memory and cut our losses. The Muggleborn can easily be made to disappear."
"Have you forgotten the prophecy, you dimwitted idiot? Today is the day. It all happens this evening. He must beget his heir, the heir from the prophecy tonight. If that doesn't happen the child will not exist to carry out his preordained destiny. That cannot be allowed to happen under any circumstances. Now here, take this with you and use it on the Ravenclaw. If his condition continues to worsen come and get me. I told Lucy she only had two hours to get the job done, this Kelsey boy must hold out another hour and a half, understand?"
"Understood, Sir."
Backing up from the door James hissed at the others to become invisible, just narrowly managing to get behind a suit of armor before the older man came out the door, closing it carefully behind him.
Trusting the ghosts to keep the man in their invisible sights James forced himself to dawdle behind the man until they had reached the next floor, only then feeling it safe enough to pick up speed and 'detain' the man until Hardwick spilled where he would find Seth.
Transfiguring the man into a mouse to keep him quiet, James glared down at the rodent before taking off after Jocelene, who was leading the way now that she knew where to direct them. Heart pounding like mad in his chest James kept a tight grip on his wand in his right hand and the vial of foxglove in his left.
Rounding a corner James spotted the lone guard standing outside Seth's room, blasting the man with a spell that ensured the man wouldn't be regaining consciousness anytime soon. Not sparing the man a glance James slid the vial into his trouser pocket and wrenched the door open, bursting into the room.
Seth lay as still as death on a bed, his skin grey and his eyes open but unseeing.
"Oh man, oh man." Hurrying to stand at the Ravenclaw's side James frantically pressed his fingers against the man's wrist, seeking a pulse as he begged his friend to look at him.
Having floated over to stand at James's side The Grey Lady studied the prone figure, her gaze one of pity as she realized what the boy had been given. "The foxglove won't work. He's already too far gone for that. There is of course a potion that, if given to him thrice daily for a fortnight, could revive and permanently reverse the effects, but I'm afraid there's little chance of us getting him to St Mungos in time for the antidote to be administered. I'm so sorry, James. He was…a lovely boy, I'm sure."
"But there's a pulse. He still has a pulse." James shot back fiercely, though the beat he felt under his fingers was weak and off beat
"I know but-."
"He has the antidote on him."
James and the Hogwarts ghosts went very still, all of them looking around for the source of the feminine voice who had spoken. Jocelene pointed to a large portrait over the fireplace, having recognized the voice immediately.
Flying over to the portrait the Amandes ghost inquired as to what the woman, Marian Amandes, had meant by her statement.
The handsome woman in the simple blue dress smiled out from her portrait, looking in James's direction as she explained her earlier words. "You wear the antidote around your neck, young Potter. My daughter gave it to you. Don't you remember what she told you?"
James immediately looked down, wrapping his fingers protectively around the crimson vial attached to the chain around his neck. "This? You mean…she said it was for someone I cared about, that it would buy me the time I needed. She meant Seth…this is…."
"His first dose of the antidote. Once you give it to him he'll have another eight hours before he'll be in the danger zone again. Now hurry up, he's fading quickly."
Not about to trust the portrait completely, especially since she was hanging in the Amandes house and had just admitted to being the mother of his mysterious seer, James unscrewed the vial's lid but held its contents out to The Grey Lady for confirmation that it was what the portrait claimed it to be. As soon as he got her okay James was leaning over the bed, forcing his friend's head back and mouth to open.
Pouring the vial's contents down the man's throat James watched and prayed for it to work.
)
Breaking into the estate James's relatives and friends weren't expecting much in the way of human deterrents. The worry, therefore, that what they would encounter was spells and enchantments that would slow them down in their search for those taken from them. With that in mind Harry had divided them up so that of the four groups they all had someone particularly adapt at detecting and deactivating those hurdles.
Neville's team included Lysander, Lisabeth, Victoire, Teddy and Luna. Along with Hermione's group they headed up the main staircase, separating at the top to each take a wing of the house. They hadn't gotten far down the hallway before they were hailed by a strong, male voice that had them looking around for the speaker.
The speaker, as Luna quickly figured out, was a man in a portrait, whose Amandes features gave away his ancestry even before he introduced himself.
"I'm Danny Amandes. Olly-Oliver is…regrettably my older brother. And if you'll stop for a moment I can tell you where Mr. Potter and Mr. Kelsey are located at the moment. There are spells that were activated as soon as you broke through the main estate barrier, spells it would be in your best interests to avoid and anticipate."
"And why would you help us?" Victoire demanded to know.
"Because my wife feels responsible for what's happening here today, my dear lady. She's the one who had the prophecy concerning young Mr. Potter, you see. It's her prophecy Oliver is trying to twist to serve his own purposes. He refuses to listen to either of us about it. He's too far gone in his own delusions to admit how badly awry things have gotten."
Teddy stepped forward, still keeping close to his wife just in case. "Exactly what is this prophecy?"
"I don't have time to get into all of it, my daughter Lyra will explain the whole of it to you after this is done. Suffice to say that James must live beyond today or the world will suffer greatly two decades from now. By risking the boy's life he is risking all the lives yet to be born."
"There's going to be another bad guy wrecking havoc on the world?" Neville demanded to know, his gut clenching at the idea. At the memories of all that had been taken from him and his friends by evil forces before.
There was sympathy in the older man's eyes as he looked down at the Herbology teacher. "Find James and take care of him, Professor Longbottom. Do that and the force for darkness will be turned into a force of light, one that will make your last few decades on this earth ones of unprecedented peace and prosperity for all." And now the man's eyes hardened with hot resolve. "So listen to me and listen well, all of you. My wife is giving your James and the ghosts instructions now, just as I am. The fates willing, you will meet up and all will go as it should. But you must do as I say, understand?"
"We understand. How do we get to them?" Lysander asked, forcing himself not to ask why Seth wasn't being given instructions too.
All of them listened closely to the man, committing his words to memory as he told them where to go and what to look out for. When he was done he wished them luck before fading out of the portrait like he'd never been there.
Not wasting any time the group sent off patronuses to alert the other groups of the situation and then took off to follow the instructions they'd been given. Avoiding the traps set out for them they all gave whoops of happiness when they caught sight of James coming down the hallway towards them, Seth riding on his back while the ghosts brought up the rear.
James was shirtless and looked to be in pain, but he was furiously alive and that was all Neville cared about.
Grinning at the sight of them James would have waved if his hands weren't full. "Bout time you guys got here!"
"You know how we like to make an entrance." Teddy called out, grinning like a maniac at his brother as he rushed forward to huge his brother tightly.
"Show off." James shot back with a laugh. "Lysander, you need to come and take Seth from me. Apparently I've gotta stick by Neville's side until we're out of this poorly decorated place." The woman had been very insistent about that, though she had assured him that it wasn't a matter of Neville safety that required this. She'd simply told him to trust her, and since she'd helped to save Seth James was willing to follow her orders to the letter.
Hurrying forward Lysander turned around while Teddy helped James shift the unconscious Ravenclaw onto the boy's back. "He's going to be okay?" Lysander asked anxiously, taking the older boy's weight without complaint.
"So long as we get him to St. Mungos in time for his next dose of the antidote he'll be fine. The first does was in the vial." James added, lifting up the chain so that his friends could see the now empty glass.
"Most excellent." Lisabeth announced with a huge smile.
"Most excellent." James agreed, acknowledging the rest of his family before cutting through them to stand in front of Neville, who hand hung back so that he could get his emotions under control before he approached the man who had stolen his heart without him even realizing it. But the man's heart was in his eyes, and James's could see it. His heart was in his too as James pulled the man into a hard hug, hanging on for several moments before pulling away to grin at the man. "Thanks for coming to rescue me."
"I'd say anytime, but it so often is with you Potters." Neville managed to choke out, lifting a slightly shaky hand to stroke James's hair back. "Now let's get you both out of here before something else goes wrong. And if the lady said to stick by me than you're sticking to me like glue, got it?"
"I wouldn't have it any other way."
Sending off a message to inform everyone that James and Seth had been located the now larger group headed out, taking turns sharing with each other what they had learned about the situation since they'd last talked to each other.
Having gone last James ended his explanation with a question for Lysander and Luna, as they were the smartest people in their group. "So what troubles me is, the portraits were trying to prevent Lucy and her psycho friends from letting her have her evil way with me, but at the same time according to the prophecy I'm supposed to knock someone up today who in turn will have a kid that will save the world. I mean it's not like I'm going to celebrate being free by…well…jumping some random girl." James finished lamely, since he wouldn't mind jumping Neville in celebration later if that particular activity was offered to him. But he couldn't knock Neville up, so where was this child supposed to come from?
Everyone considering the dilemma as they hurried down the hallway it was Lisabeth who came up with a viable explanation. "Maybe the kid in the prophecy isn't yours biologically, James. Maybe the prophecy just said that the kid would be conceived today and then later mentions he or she will belong to you. You love kids, you're the type to adopt." It went without saying that James wouldn't be having any the old fashioned way given who his bed partner of choice was. But as far as she knew Victoire Lupin was still in the dark about the situation, so Lisabeth counted on the others connecting the dots the way she had.
"Could they have screwed up that badly?" Teddy asked, trying to wrap his mind around the idea that his brother had been put in this situation for nothing.
"It would make the most sense given that it's James we're talking about." Lysander pointed out as he shifted Seth a little on his shoulders. "Prophecies are very subjective and open to interpretation after all. If the seer said something along the lines that the son or daughter of James Potter, born at such a time, would do this in the future, it stands to reason they would automatically assume that that child is James's by blood. They wouldn't know enough about him to look beyond the obvious conclusion."
James could feel a migraine coming on. "So I was kidnapped, sorta sexually assaulted, and Seth was nearly killed, all because the Amandes didn't stop to question my maturity and partner preferences. That's just great."
)
Heading down the stairs to meet up with the rest James was pleased to see that Lucy and her great uncle were all magically tied up at the moment. The rest of his rescuers were there and James headed down to be passed from person to person, plenty of hugging and kissing going on. Once everyone had seen for his or her self that James was okay the mood lightened up, James opting to let Lisabeth give everyone a blow by blow of what had happened and what they'd learned so far about the prophecy.
While everyone's attention was temporarily on the girl James gently steered Neville towards the fringes of the group before putting his lips against the older man's ear. Quietly he whispered that they needed to move over towards the middle of the room, directly under the glass ceiling.
Moving with James Neville walked over to stand in position, looking at James questioningly as they stood side by side.
Opening his mouth to explain that the portrait had told him in private that it was necessary for some reason, James didn't get a chance to get the words out as two things happened simultaneously.
The front doors burst open as five Aurors burst into that estate, Harry having called them in as soon as he'd gotten the message from Neville that James and Seth had been found and had indeed been kidnapped.
At the same time the floor directly under James and Neville's feet began to glow, and then suddenly the two were enveloped in a blinding white light that temporarily hid them from the view of everyone else.
Turning around to stare at the wall of white light that encompassed them James and Neville blinked several times when the woman James recognized as his seer from the zoo suddenly appeared in front of them.
"Hi. I don't have a lot of time, boys, so do as I say. Hold your right arms out please." When they did so the seer smiled and raised her wand, pointing it at the offered arms in turn. First Neville's arm and than James's came to be marked with strange designs resembling ornamental henna tattoos. "Okay, that should do it. The light will fade in less than a minute so I'll be brief. When the light fades away you two need to stick together and freak out if they try to separate you. They'll take you to St Mungos to be checked out, make sure that I can have access to you. I'll take it from there. I've got it all figured out. Okay?"
The men nodded, and prayed the woman continued to know what she was talking about.
