Lone Child

Chapter 43: Prophecies, arrival, and battle.

"Hey James, check this out!" Triss called as her boy friend entered the library, his hair still wet form a resent shower.

"What is it?" James asked, reading over Triss's shoulder.

The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches…

Born to the one who trice defied Him,
yet the spawn of the one who betrayed Him…

Marked as an enemy at the age of innocence,
yet awakened in half-form…

Thought as a snake, but really a lion…

The boy shall be abandoned in thought, but not in heart…

Caught in the fires of darkness and light, he will come into his own…

While 'The Final Battle' approaches…

"When was this one made?" James asked, inspecting the prophecy.

"1980. Doesn't give the seer's name," Triss answered.

James shrugged. "That's interesting. Why all the research in prophecies?" he asked.

"Remember a couple of years back when we thought Dumbledore was working to some kind of prophecy, but we couldn't figure out what it was?" Triss asked. James nodded. "I think this is the one. It makes the most sense. 'Born to the one who trice defied him', the son of Lily Potter, who was working against him. 'Yet the spawn of the on who betrayed Him', the son of Severus Snape, who is a spy. The only other person it could be is Dray, but his mother has never defied Voldemort. 'Marked as an enemy at the age of innocence', you were very young when he gave you that scar, still innocent. I'm not sure what the rest of it means, but it fits the best," Triss said, pointing to the important parts.

James shrugged. "You know very well my view of prophecies. I don't think they're at all accurate or decipherable, at least until they've already happened. At this point, I'm more worried about my own health when Trinity arrives. Hopefully, and this is a big hopefully, she'll find another love interest," James said, crossing his fingers.

Triss grinning in a down right evil way. "If I have my way, she will."

"So, who are you going to try and fix her up with?" James asked.

"Sirius."

"WHAT!?"

"Come on James, you know they'd be perfect for each other. Both are horribly annoying, and tend to be in the middle of things they shouldn't be. Unless, you want me to try and fix her up with your dad?" Triss asked innocently.

"He'd kill her right off the bat, though I'm not so sure that would be a bad thing," said James. This earned him a hard slap from Triss. "Alright, alright, I'll stop plotting to kill her!"

Triss glared at him. "You mean you've had other plots to try and off her?" Triss demanded. James smiled sheepishly. "Glad to know I'm not the only one," Triss commented off handedly. This was followed by a loud crashing sound.

Early the next morning, James and Triss were woken by a flustered looking Severus bursting into their room. "There is a girl here looking for you," he said, motioning to his son. James growled in annoyance at being woken, and stood, clad in his boxers. Triss did the same, only slightly less annoyed then James was.

The two bleary-eyed teenagers followed the older man to the Great Hall after making themselves presentable. "You would know Trinity would just burst in at 6 in the morning. Ugh, I don't need to be up for another 4 hours," James complained. If there was one thing he hated, it was not getting enough sleep all at once. He wasn't a person that could function on less than 8 hours of sleep at a time.

Following Severus, they entered the hall to be immeadiatly greeted by a tall blond, blue-eyed woman. "James! It's so good to see you again!" she yelled, eyeing him, before jumping on him in a hug.

"Ditto. I'd like you to meet my girlfriend, Triss," James growled, pushing Trinity off and slipping an arm around Triss's waist.

Trinity glared rather noticeably at Triss, before turning back to James. "As a favor to you, I was able to secure a rather large section of the Elven Military, able to come to your assistance when I call for them," Trinity said, flashing James a sickening smile. Triss rolled her eyes, unimpressed, and she could tell James was trying not to do the same thing.

"You didn't have to go to all of that trouble Trinity. I'm well aware that Elves prefer not to dabble in business that is not their own," James said, trying not to let any anger seep into his voice.

"It was nothing. All I ask in return is that you reconsider my offer," she said, looking at him suggestively.

"No. Rest assure that Triss and I are very happy together, and do plan on getting married after all of this is said and done with," James said, not trying to break the news to the woman softly. Trinity looked a little disappointed, but didn't let it get her down too much.

"Very well. I accept and respect your decision," said Trinity, even if her eyes were saying the exact opposite. James nodded.

"Hey Dobbs!" James yelled, breaking a slightly awkward silence. There was a pop and a small, shy creature appeared. "Dobbs, can you to me a large favor and show Trinity and the rest of her company to rooms?" James asked. Dobbs nodded. James and the creature had prearranged to send Trinity and her company to rooms as far away from Triss and James as possible, meaning they were sharing the North Tower.

Twenty minutes later, James was back in his bed, with the intent of sleeping until noon. This wasn't to be, however, as one soon-to-be-ex-minister decided to send him a wake up call. "Umbridge," James growled as the castle shook. Looking at his bedside alarm, James saw it was only 7:30. Royally pissed and ready to kill, James stormed to the grounds, a silver light pulsing around him.

"As the heir to Rowena Ravenclaw, I strip you of your title as minister and reinstate Cornelius Fudge as minister, regardless of his half state," James yelled, not bothering to leave the castle steps. There was a loud yelp, thump and small light show before all was silent. "The next person to wake me up will suffer a fate worse than death!" James threatened, stalking back to his shared room.

'Five-four-three-two-one…' James mentally counted. As predicted, Trinity burst into the room on the count of zero. Being the loving couple they were, James and Triss were sitting together in one of the many large, cushy chairs in the privet reading room of the library.

"I really hate to break up the lovely couple, but I think we have a problem," said Trinity, seemingly oblivious to the way James and Triss were sitting.

Bang! "You know Triss, I think I just felt the whole castle shake," James commented, standing. There was another loud bang, and the floor shook again. "I did just feel the castle shake."

"No, really? There are roughly two or three hundred people outside trying to break the castle wards," said Trinity.

James nodded. "Hogwarts feels pissed."

James Potter burst into the library, a stream of blood running down from a cut on his temple. "We're being attacked!" he declared.

"Plan of action anyone?" Triss asked.

"Hey Hogwarts, feel free to do your thing!" James yelled to seemingly nothing. The school rumbled for a minute, before there was the sound of another explosion, followed by complete silence.

Everyone looked confused. "James, what did you do?" Triss asked.

"I didn't do anything. Hogwarts has her own defenses that Dumbledore didn't set off. He may not be able to, so we really can't get on his ass about it, yet. Anyway, Hogwarts more or less just sealed herself off to those she feels she can't trust with her safety," James explained.

"What about your dad?" Triss asked.

James paled and took off into a run, the dungeons being his destination. Thankfully, he found the over sized bat right where he left him, over a steaming cauldron. "Are you alright?"

"Aside from drops of potions getting tossed in together because of the whole bloody castle deciding to shake, resulting in multiple explosions, I'm fine," Severus growled crankily.

"And to think, I thought I had to worry about you," James shot back, rolling his eyes.

Snape glared at him. It was quite obvious he was having a version of PMS only the elder Snape could have. "The only time a brat like yourself has to worry about me, is if I'm lying on my death bed, which I don't intend to have happen, ever," Snape hissed, returning to disposing of ruined potions.

"Whatever, you work on your plans to die in battle, I have to go talk to Dumbledore about the cause of our own miniature earthquake," James grumbled back, disappearing from the dungeons as easily as he'd appeared.

"So…what's your verdict?" James asked. Following the minor attack on the castle, he'd met up with Dumbledore to discuss upping the security around the castle. Several hours and many aspirin later, James hoped the Headmaster, holder of most of Hogwart's wards, had come to a decision.

"I think the only thing we really can do at this time is allow the castle to hold her own defense system. We don't have enough order members to do much in the way of patrolling the grounds. I also doubt the animals of the forest are going to be very cooperative," Dumbledore reasoned.

James nodded, partially agreeing with the old wizard. As a total, the Order had, maybe, 300 people. According to Lucius Malfoy, Voldemort had over 1000 new recruits, not to mention all of the returning supporters. As far as spies within Voldemort's circle went, there were four. Severus, Lucius, Draco, and another unknown.

"I'm going to have a talk with the spiders in the forest. I'm sure they would be happy to help us watch the grounds. I honestly don't think Hogwarts can keep out everyone that could pose a threat to her. She can't just lock out students that have the potential to be Death Eaters," James responded.

Dumbledore opened his mouth to respond when another explosion shook the castle. "Here we go again," James sighed. There was another explosion, but it didn't cause a minor earthquake. James eyes lit up. "I'll be right back," James yelled. He took off down the stairs like a 5 year old on Christmas morning.

Upon reaching the entrance hall, he was met by a very familiar pair. "Jack! Nix!" James yelled, embracing the young man and woman.

The young woman, Nix, punched James in the arm. "You need to teach your castle not to blow people up Shadow, that's our job," Nix laughed.

"Cage! What's with all the explosions?" This came from a singed and agitated potions master. His face was covered in soot and his hair seemed to be smoking.

Jack spoke up. "Sorry sir, that's our fault. My dear sister is a little trigger happy," Jack commented. Nix smacked him. Nix and Jack were half demon chaos twins, and couldn't help but cause destruction wherever they went. The difference between them and traditional demons was that they looked human. Both were dark haired and light eyed. The only way you could really tell them apart from regular humans was their slightly sharper teeth and their tendencies to blow things up.

"We see that I have warning next time you decide to blow up the castle!" Snape yelled, stalking towards the stairs to the Dungeons.

"What crawled up his ass and died?" asked Jack, pushing his shaggy blond hair out of his face.

"Buddha knows. Tell me Shadow, he's not of any relation to you, is he? You look just like him," Nix commented.

"My father, sort of. He and I don't get along that well. Then again, people that I'm related to have never gotten along well with me," James commented, almost looking sad. "Anyway, I take it Triss called for the two of you?" James half asked, half stated.

"No actually. It was a certain snake of yours. I'm actually glad she called for us. I would lover nothing more then to hand Voldemort's ass back time him in a plastic pretzel jar," Jack growled. Like James' parents, Jack and Nix had lost their mother to Voldemort. Because their father was a freelance demon, they'd never really met him, making them orphans. Even at the independent age of 26, both of them were still vengeful.

Nix broke in. "So, if your dad's here, I take it your mom is as well?" she asked.

"Yep, along with her husband James Potter, daughters Sara and Holly, and new Born son Harry," James practically spit.

"Hold up, I thought that was your- that bitch!" Nix yelled, understanding dawning on her.

Jack put a hand on his twin's shoulder. "Chill Nix. Anyway, I have good news for you. The demons have agreed not to take sides, thanks in part to your grandfather. Originally, they were going to go with Voldemort like last time, but that was before Voldemort threatened to kill them all and you know as well as we do that they would never consider joining the 'light side'."

"Wonderful. That's one less enemy to worry about. Come on, I'm sure Triss wants to see the two of you. After that, I'll get you set up with rooms.

Triss was ecstatic at seeing Jack and Nix. They had met some years ago, when James and Triss were still little. They'd been living in their demon forms around Dragon's house and had saved the, at that time, children James and Triss from a group of vengeful fire demons.

The arrival of the two demons also provided a reason for James to hide from Trinity. However, according to Triss, Trinity was having some 'quality time' with Sirius.

It seemed that's what most people were doing. Kat was off with Rome, Mel was with Vlad who had transferred to Hogwarts, Draco and Gin were in the library as far as James knew, and the twins were planning with two of the guest female elves that had caught there attention.

After hours of talking with the two older demons, James was about to suggest showing Jack and Nix to their room, when there was a knock at James and Triss' door. It was Draco.

"Voldemort's forces are mobilizing, right now. He isn't going to wait any longer. Severus and my dad have already been called. I'm not marked, I don't have to go, but he's going to be here soon," Draco gasped, breathless from the run to their room.

James jumped into action. "Triss, go find everyone, make sure their in doors. No one is to leave. Nix, Jack, come with me," James ordered.

"James, I'm not sure if we have enough explosives for what I know you're planning," Jack said.

"Between you, me, Nix and Hogwarts, I think we'll be fine. If absolutely necessary, we can call reinforcements, but I really don't want that," James responded, leading them back up to the entranceway.

Nix looked at his like he was insane. "You plan on taking on a whole army between the three of us and the castle? You're more cracked than I thought! There's no way!" Nix yelled.

James didn't respond. He was too busy planning. If everything worked the way he wanted it too, then the whole threat would be over before most of the castle even know what was going on. Checking his pocket for his wand, James waved his hand at the castle's main doors. Warm summer air swept in, but there were no threats to be seen.

"Come on. Jack, go over by Hagrid's hut, and stand ready. Nix, you take the willow. I got the front gate. If you blow anything up, make sure it's in groups. Hogwarts will handle the singles. Don't try Voldemort and watch out for our spies," James instructed.

"Your dad is going to be so pissed. I hope he didn't start any important potions before he left," Nix commented, sprinting to her designated position.

"Boom."

(A/N: Hey guys. Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, or whatever you're celebrating, if anything. I really thought I'd have this chapter up sooner, but I'm having school problems that have taken up much of my time. The next and I think last chapter will be up within the next few weeks, provided I don't self-destruct between now and then. I hope you enjoyed this chapter, even though I know it sucked."

Phenix-tears: Thanks. Lily rejected James because he is not the child of Jim Potter.

Japanese-jew: Hint? Hmmm…I don't know if I can do a sequel. I was thinking about going back to chapter 39 and making an alternant ending from there, where James dies and Triss inherits his power, but I'm not sure. I'll hold a poll or something in the last chapter to see what I'm going to do.

Lee black: Actually it's not that bad. Most of my injuries are from landings after a move. My nose was a casualty of a match with a person 20 pounds lighter than me that thought if they broke my nose they'd be able to pin me, wrong. I think that's the next one I'll be posting, if I don't decide to do a sequel of sorts to this fic.

Pheonixelemental: Yeah. It seems every wrestler I've met so far has had to have a ligament repaired in their right leg. I, of course, am not looking forward to this, but I'm hoping that, because I'm left handed, I won't have to. The elf, Trinity, is actually based on a really person. The whole condom thing actually did happen. My friend whom this happened to thought it would be something funny to add in, so I thought, why not? Well, after this everything will be happening fast. Umbridge will explode, no worries, and the wedding will happen.

Athenakitty: Yes, James has full access to his power. This will be better explained once I find that prophesy thing I made up when I started this story. Yes, Trinity will back off, and maybe into one of our other bachelor characters. No, Jim Potter will not dump Lily, and I'm not sure how I'm going to let Lily and James interact yet.

Jpthug12: Thanks. Good to know I'm not the only one.

Maxennce: Lily's a bitch, what can I say? She'll make up for it later I think, but still. Yes, James has only ever tried to do right by her and she's still angry, it's a redhead thing. No, I'm not stereotyping when I say it's a redhead thing. I am a redhead 8 months out of the year, and trust me, we can be bitches. I know, wrestling is a bit rough, but it's fun, and really good for you. However, I'm going to have a few small issues if I don't get a wrestling partner my own weight. My partner has almost no muscle and keeps dropping me face first onto the mat. She broke my nose giving me an iron palm, followed by a head butt, and then she caused me to face plant into the mat. Ugh… No worries, I always find accident-prone people to be cooler to hang out with, I just try to avoid driving with one.

Aauksharmony: Thanks. I'm not sure yet, but I think Lily and James will get along better in the end. We'll just have to see how this turns out as I write.

Clutchy: Okay. Well, with my luck being the way that it is, we're in totally opposite time zones where we'll never be online at the same time. Trinity will be very interesting.

M'Lady: Yes, having someone 1000 years old in love with a 6 year old, very scary. Triss won't have to be jealous, James is hers and you'd have to shoot me before I'd change that. Yes, the girls are planning something, you'll just have to wait and see if it has to do with Trinity or not.

Musicstarlover: I know, we were always laughing at our teachers. Sirius is okay with James Cage. They're friendly, but not exactly friends. Sirius and Remus are still very close, and Sirius and James Potter are at each other's throats. Well, Sirius is at Jim's throat, Jim is feeling really guilty.

Egyptian Flame: We'll see. I'm really not sure. My story senses tell me that this story is nearly over, but my reviewers seem to be telling me other wise. Lets just see how everything works out.

Shadowface: I'll try.

The Wise Sir Ivan The Shadow Lord: Thanks. Well, I don't have this limitation, so I can space out your pen name.

Wytil: Honestly, I'm having an internal battle on whether James Cage and Lily Potter will ever get along. I sort of have a developing idea, but that just night make things worse between everyone, so I'm going to wait and see what else I can come up with.

FluffyPinkSlippers: I'm working on it.

Delta T: …

A-man: Me neither…lol.

Katlyn: Wow, you were the first to figure it out. I'm proud!

Jennifer: Working…

LadyRaven13: Of course you know, Umbridge will get hers, even if I have to zap myself into the story to do it. More or less, James has told her off as much as he's going to, but there will be more talks between him and Lily. The only reason there hasn't been a scene with Snape yet is because I haven't been able to fit it in yet.

OrionTheHunter: Thanks.

SiLvErFaTeD: Thanks.

Mooneyoukai: Thanks. It's always nice to know people enjoy my writing.

Blackdragonofslytherin: I know everyone is looking forward to that.

Hair Brush User: I'm working on it! I promise!

Freedom Isn't Free: Of course that has been pointed out to me, but you must understand that James isn't 100 human. He's special. Plus, he does have his weaknesses, you just haven't seen them yet.

Fire Pheonix1: It's the Hunter's map because James hasn't gotten hold of the Marauder's map yet.

Laen: Working on it.

Monica: Hopefully I won't start confusing myself with my own plot. You will soon see your answer to both.

Insanechildfanfic: Thanks.

Jalise: Here is your update!

Nahirta: Yes, broken noses suck.