Lone Child

Chapter 44

"What, exactly, do you have going on in that human brain of yours?" Jewel asked, slithering up James' leg. The human in question jumped. He hadn't even heard the serpent approach. "Well?" Jewel demanded.

"Ever seen King Arthur?" James asked, grinning like a madman.

"So you have a full army of moots waiting by the forest to shoot them?" Jewel asked skeptically.

"Nope. I have elves and my own personal bomb squad." James responded.

Jewel transformed into her human state.

"Wonderful. Can you tell me why this will work?" she asked.

"I don't think it will, but we have less of a chance going face to face with, at the most, 100 wizards. Not all of the elves can do magic like we can. It's… complicated, but at least here we'll catch them off guard. Element of surprise, no?" James asked, ducking into his hiding spot. Jewel just switched back into her serpent form.

"I'll never understand your logic," Jewel commented, slightly bewildered.

"Neither will I, but so long as it works, it's fine." said James. "Draco said they were mobilizing so there is no set time for an attack.

"How can you be so sure they're attacking? This could be a distraction so they can go after the Ministry." Jewel warned.

"It's not," said James, his voice sure.

"How do you know that?" As a snake, Jewel sometimes saw things differently than James did, but James knew he was right.

"My head burns. Voldemort has been trying to break my defences for about 15 minutes, ever since Draco said something to me."

"Are you sure he can be trusted?"

"Yes."

"So long as you're sure."

"Speaking of the ugly," James said, eyes glued to a figure moving slowly across the grounds alone. James could tell by just his posture that he was expecting something. "Voldemort is on his guard. He knows something," James commented.

"Or he has something that you don't know about," Jewel said, foreshadowing.

At that moment, several explosions sounded, followed by screams of pain. "Thank you Jack and Nix," James whispered, watching as the ground exploded in several places, sending the invading Death Eaters flying.

"I don't see why you don't just use your power to kill them all, and then go after Voldemort," said Jewel, crawling up James' arm.

"Voldemort has had control of my powers, and he has a natural resistance to them now. If I thought I could kill him that easily, I would have just imploded his mind. As it is, there is a small chance that I will die along with him if he dies."

"WHAT!" Jewel demanded. "Did you ever bother to tell Triss about this?"

"No, and I don't plan on it. She wouldn't have let me leave the bedroom if she knew about that little detail. Just trust me, I don't plan on dieing, and if I do, I don't plan on staying dead."

Jewel nipped his arm. "Stupid human, always thinking you can escape death. I just hope you know what you're doing, because more lives than your own are on the line right now," Jewel hissed, disappearing in a puff of smoke.

James wondered what Jewel was talking about. He knew very well that no matter what, if he died, Voldemort would come with him. Then it hit him. Through their bond, James and Triss' very souls were connected. If he should die, and his soul slip away, Triss' would be dragged with it. It was a huge risk, one that he didn't want to take, but couldn't help.

Voldemort, who had some how managed to miss the attacking Elves, and Nix and Jack's firework display, stood about 50 feet from the main hall, putting himself in shooting range of some of the students firing out of the castle windows. "CAGE!" he screamed, his voice that of Satan's. No one moved. All spells stopped. When nothing happened, he pulled something from his robes. Wrapped up in a blanket, was small Harry Potter, wailing in discomfort and possible pain. "COME OUT NOW OR I WILL KILL THIS CHILD!" Voldemort yelled.

No matter how much James resented the baby, he wasn't about to let him die at the hands of Voldemort. "LEAVE HIM BE!" The familiar voice of Lily Evans-Potter yelled. At the front doors of the castle, a white-faced James Potter, and Arthur Weasley were dragging her back inside.

"COME OUT CAGE!" Voldemort yelled again, his wand now trained on the baby.

"Put the child down Tom!" James yelled, stepping out of his hiding place. Voldemort turned around to face him.

Voldemort grinned. "You're not as cowardly as I first thought Cage. I'll tell you what, I'll give your life for his," Voldemort said, holding the baby up.

"Fuck you. You set him down, allow him to be returned to his mother, and I'll face you down in a duel," James bargained. He wasn't about to just toss his life out on the line without some guarantee.

Voldemort glared at him, and set the child on the ground. Before James could erect a shield around the child, Voldemort cast the Cruciatus curse on the baby. Harry screamed, and James felt the child's power spike, before Voldemort was blown backwards, closer to James. James caught sight of a flash of blond hair, before he was attacked from behind by a large, smelly figure. At first, James thought t was a troll, but a troll wouldn't have been able to sneak up on James like that. Pushing himself into a standing position, James saw that the thing looked a lot like a goblin, but had the size and power of a troll. Before James could really react, the thing had picked him up, and slammed him into the ground. He hit the ground hard enough to create a small crater.

James, even with all of his power, didn't escape the hit unscathed. Forcing himself to crawl out of the hole, he felt a sharp pain in his side every time he tried to breath in, and his head throbbed. There was a scream from behind him and he hardly had time to get out of the way before the troll/goblin hit the ground. Where it had once stood, was Jewel in striking position. "Bloody Ridhuvs. Taste horrible," she hissed, slithering off.

Surveying the grounds, James saw people immerging from the castle, wands out, fighting the remaining Death Eaters. "Why can't anyone fucking listen to me?" James growled as a student fell due to an unknown spell. Even after everything Nix and Jack had done, there were still a lot more Death Eaters than there were Light Fighters. The Elves helped, but they were at a disadvantage, because they relied on weapons instead of magic.

In the thick of all of this were several familiar faces. Triss, sword in one hand, wand in the other, was shooting off all of the spells she could think of, and slicing apart any dark creature that came within range. Fleur and Victor and Cedric, for a reason unknown to James, were covering each other's backs about ten feet from where Triss was. Potter, Remus, Sirius and Arthur were not far away, doing everything they could. Everyone else was either still by the doors, or was on their own, not holding their own well.

Voldemort was nowhere to be seen, so James did the on thing he could at the moment. He jumped into the crowd of ever thickening Death Eaters. Lucius, Severus and a few others, had removed their masks, fighting against the Death Eaters. Several people, from both sides, were on the ground either injured, or dead. James was on a roll after a while using only his wand. He didn't want to use up more energy that he absolutely had too, and his wand was his best resource. Cutting through the masses, James could have sworn he even saw Dragon fighting, along with Libby, but he wasn't sure.

James pulled his arm back to fire another round of spells, when he felt it being ripped from his grasp. "Appello chalybs!" James yelled. His two best swords appeared in his hands, and he continues cutting through Death Eaters, quite literally. After a few minutes, he found himself missing his wand, as it was a lot easier to take out Death Eaters with it that with the Elven Daggers. Because it was so close ranged, he had to look out for the students and order members that popped up every so often as well. Finally growing tired of the heavy blades, he summoned his wand, and banished the blades.

James was more than a little surprised when he came across a black robed person that seemed resistant to the spells he was shooting off. It took his adrenaline filled mind a few minutes to realize it was Voldemort. "Amoveo Anima Corpus!" James yelled. Voldemort screamed as the spell hit him. James grinned. The spell was one of his own designs. It boded the soul permanently to a certain surface. It was sort of like what the other word used to bind ghosts to a certain area. "Lugolo!"

There was a splatter of blood, as Voldemort's hood fell down, showing clearly his serpentine face, now covered in blood. A large wound on his neck bled horribly, and he slowly turned an ash white color. "Umbra vindex all!" James screamed at the top of his lungs, all his power behind the spell. He immeadiatly felt his power drain, almost to the point of death.

Sliding to his knees, James watched as hundreds of misty figures circled around the dieing from of Voldemort, some that James knew, and some that he didn't know. First and foremost, James recognized his parents, Alex and Emma. They stood over him, watching him in concern. "Take the bastard to hell," James growled. His power was draining rapidly, and he was fighting to even stay kneeling.

Emma smiled down at him, and he felt Alex's misty hand brush over his head. "We will do as you say son. We love you," Emma's voice echoed in his mind. There was a great explosion, and that was the last thing James remembered.


"James?" James's eyes opened, seeing the white void around him. "James!" The voice yelled. The voice was feminine, but James couldn't tell where it came from.

"Where are you?" he asked.

"James, you are to be given a choice!" the voice echoed. James was confused. What kind of choice. "You may return to your world, and to your friends, however, I do not know if your physical body is intact. I can also send you to a different world, one where your mother didn't decide to give you up," the voice said.

"Where's Triss?" James asked. That was really the only thing on his mind. He didn't care about anything, be it life or death, except Triss.

"I can not say. Your love for her can not be allowed to make your decision," the voice said sternly. James was very tempted to tell it to fuck off.

"I choose to go home! I don't care about the shape of my body, I care about my friends and family!" James yelled.

"If you choose this, you may loose the chance to live a normal life forever," the voice argued.

James growled. He was in no mood to argue with the disembodied voice. "Send me back to where I belong!" James ordered.

"As you wish," said the voice. James felt a tug, not unlike that of a portkey, and his world faded into darkness.


All James could see was darkness. It had been like this for a long time now. Be it days, weeks, or months, James didn't know, but it was a long time. Every once in a while he would hear a voice talking to him. He never heard entire conversations, but he had heard something about a new baby, Triss, Sirius's impending marriage, and baby Harry's powers already developing. One time he could have sworn he'd even had Sara and Holly bounce on him telling him to wake up.

All of these things, James couldn't be quite sure had happened. More recently he found himself hearing the voices more often, and wasn't completely sure he hadn't gone insane. After all, insane people never know they're insane, do they? However, the time in the void was giving James a lot of long needed thinking time, and the first thing he planned on doing after he got out of the darkness was he was going to beg Triss to marry him.

While James had said that he and Triss planned to marry, he had never formally asked her, or put a ring on her finger. It was just assumed that the two would get married, without any real sign to show it. James had even picked out a ring in his mind. After that, he was going to hug every single person he knew. His time in the void, with no one to talk to, had made him miss human company, and realize exactly how much he had taken everyone for granted.

"Do you think he'll ever wake up?" This was undoubtedly the voice of Mel. James wondered once again if he was making the voice up.

Hermione's voice responded, "He better. I don't know how Triss will get along if he doesn't. He condition already has her so depressed, am afraid she won't live if he doesn't wake." James swore he could feel the fabric of the starchy hospital sheets. He was so worried about Triss, his mind hardly realized it.

"What's wrong with her?" James asked, his voice meant to be strong, coming out in a gurgle more than anything else.

"James?" Ginny's voice screamed. For the first time in a long time, James blinked, seeing light. James just repeated his question. Slowly feeling was coming back into all of his limbs. He could feel his fingers twitching, and his strength coming back. He could see the shapes of Ginny, Hermione, Mel, Roman, Draco and Vlad all hovering over him.

"Gin, go get Triss," Roman's voice ordered. As he said this, James pushed himself into a sitting position, feeling abnormally weak.

"James, you need to lay back down," said Draco, trying to push James back onto the bed. He was shoved off roughly by James.

"What happened?" James asked, rubbing his eyes. Slowly the figures around him were getting clearer.

"You've been in a coma for over 4 months James!" Vlad yelled. It was surprising to all of them that James was sitting up.

'Figures,' James thought. Pushing a hand through his hair, he was surprised to find it at his normal length, sitting just below his shoulders. Touching his ears, he felt the point that they came to, and knew he was in his normal form. This also explained why his muscles weren't mush from not being used for four months. "What happened? Is everyone all right? Is Voldemort dead?" James asked. He had so many questions, and it seemed he had so little time.

Draco laughed. "Take a deep breath James. Yes, everyone is all right. Somehow, we didn't loose anyone, but some people did loose limbs. Voldemort, as far as we know, is little more than ash at the bottom of the lake. By the way, Evans and Snape made a public announcement, claiming you as the heir to the Snape estate, and ¼ inheritor of the Evans estate, and holder of the Potter estate should something happen to Evans and Potter, until Sara, Holly and Harry turn 18. Cool huh?" Draco asked, nudging James.

James nodded, his slow brain processing the information. 'Evans and Snape claimed me as theirs? Why? I know the whole defeat of Voldemort thing is a huge deal, but still! They would claim me just because of my fame, would they?' James thought. The thought of actually getting to know, and being accepted by his parents was a very exciting one, but James didn't allow his hope to jump.

He was ripped from his thoughts by a large figure jumping on him. Falling backwards onto the hospital bed, he opened his eyes to see Triss's dark blue ones. Her flaming red hair framed her face, touching James'. James had never seen a more beautiful sight in his life. Even if Triss was sickly pale, and much thinner than James remembered, he still found her beautiful. Reaching up, and tucking her hair behind her ear, James felt the familiar point of her ear that he had. He looked at her questioningly, and then seemed to notice the bulge being pressed against him.

Pushing Triss back by her shoulders, he came face to face with her telltale bulging stomach. "How long?" James asked, looking up into Triss' slightly insecure cerulean blue eyes.

"6 months. I found out a little while after you fought Tom," Triss whispered. Tears had gathered in her eyes. Before the battle, and before James had slipped into his coma, he had made it very clear he didn't want any children until after they had graduated and been through University. He also said he didn't want to get married until then either. It was quite obvious she thought James would make her give the child up, one way or another.

James grinned at her, pulling her into a real, passionate kiss for what seemed like the first time in ages. When Triss pulled back, James looked directly into her eyes. "Triss, I have a very important question to ask you," said James.

Tears had started to fall down Triss's face, making her look even paler. "What?" she asked.

"Will you marry me?" James asked. Triss stared down at him for a minute, not quite processing the information. "Will you?" James asked again. He could feel the tugging on his soul bond, a tug that he hadn't felt in well over a year, since Triss' miscarriage. It made him smile. Focusing, he tugged on her end of the bond, tightening it. "I'll take that as a yes," said James pulling Triss down into another kiss as a grin crossed her face.


"Are you sure you can walk alright James?" Hermione asked for what seemed like the tenth time in 5 minutes.

"Yes Hermione. If I can go raid the kitchens at night for Triss, then I can walk," James growled, finally getting annoyed. It had been 2 days since he'd woken up, and a day since he'd been moved back into his own rooms with Triss. Triss, true to any pregnant female, had very strange cravings in the middle of the night. Rather than risk letting Triss wonder the halls by herself at night, James had gone for her. Surprisingly, his muscles hadn't really deteriorated at all in the few months he'd lain comatose.

"So long as your sure," Hermione responded, knowing that she was starting to push James' patience.

James nodded, wondering where they were going. Hermione had said that it was a surprise for his birthday, which was today. All he knew at present time, was that they were very close to the Great Hall. After several more minutes of walking at the agonizingly slow pace Hermione had set, they finally did reach the Great Hall. Tossing the doors open, James was nearly blown backwards by the force of the 'Happy Birthday's yelled by the crowd. James could have sworn that every person he knew was gathered in the hall. When he got close enough, he was nearly smothered in hugs. Among the group were Sirius and Remus, Sirius with a glowing Trinity on his arm, and Remus with, very surprisingly, his Aunt Libby. Derek was there, acting very friendly with Minerva McGonagall, Sara, Holly and Harry's baby sitter and ex-Hogwarts professor.

Triss was sitting at the head table with Dumbledore, who looked extremely uncomfortable in her presence. The night of James' waking, Triss had told him about how much she had disturbed her grandfather with her cravings, and flooing him at odd hours to go get her pistachio ice cream or other such items. James laughed at the look on the older man's face.

Of course, Lily and James Potter were at the party along with Sara and Holly. Sara and Holly had greeted James enthusiastically, as did Lizzy, who was seeing him for the first time since his waking. And of course, the most surprising couple at the whole party was Severus and a young female half-elf by the name of Lina. She was probably one of the prettiest elves James had ever met, not that he really cared about how she looked.

Like Snape, she had long ebony hair, but elven blue eyes. Unlike normal elves, her skin was darkly tanned, a sign of either having a dark skinning ancestor or spending a lot of time in the sun. Tattooed on her exposed shoulder, was probably the whole reason Snape liked her so much. She was branded with the mark of an expert Alchemist. James was happy that everyone was finding their life mates, even if they didn't know it yet.

After partying, and dancing until the early hour of the morning, Triss pulled off James to bed. He really couldn't find anyway to be happier at the moment, and made sure all knew it.

(A/N: To everyone that reviewed, I had a minor problem with my computer and some files were deleted, including my reviews and this chapter. I really don't want to write out my reviews twice like I did the chapter, so if you have a question that I didn't answer in the chapter, review again, I'll try not to delete them this time… To everyone e-mailing me about my bashing of other countries, leave me be! I'm part French, my best friend is 100 French, I can bash them if I want to! Plus, all my characters will be seen in a good light at one point or another, except Voldemort and a few others. To all Bulgarian people, I didn't say anything about being duck-footed. That was J.K. Rowling, I just used her description. I've never even seen a duck-footed person, bar a few select football players. Plus, it's not really bashing anyway. Bashing is showing specific prejudice. I hate everyone equally. Anyway, sorry about the lack of responses, but between Track (I quit wrestling. Got hurt, parents wouldn't let me continue.), an AP class, a Pre-AP class, and 2 Honors classes, plus my sister Anna, I just don't have the time to respond to them all again right now, as much as I would love to. Happy Valentines Day everyone! Balls on your forehead! LOL! P.S. The story isn't quite over yet! Look forward to a few more chapters!)