I Stand Alone- James Potter's Story, Part II
by: Star Gazer
Summary: It's James' second year, he gets on the Quidditch team and I don't wanna give the rest of the plot away. PG for minor Snape/MWPPLJ brawl (guess who wins?) and some other stuff, too, I guess.
Disclaimer: Jess Callier, Merlin Ridge, and anything else you don't recognize belongs to me! Me! Me, me, me, me! (sorry, I'm a bit possessive)
Author's Note: Thanks everybody for the positive reviews. Now I have some notes little comments to make:
1) Sorry about the Evans, McSalen, Evans, thing. When I wrote this, Lily's original last name was McSalen, but that was before that Scholastic chat, and then when I heard about it, I changed her name to Evans. I thought I got 'em all, but I was wrong. Sorry, again.
2) Yeah, this *is* the same series, previously titled "I Stand Alone", except I wouldn't recommend reading it...yet. I have to change SEVERAL things, and to make it longer/better. Besides, I removed all of 'em from the archive
3) Actually, I really don't know what happens when one feeds an owl a pound of sugar. Anyone wanna write a fic about it? Takers, anyone? I don't care...
4) On the Invisibility Cloak front, yes, I was aware of that, except I put a little spin on it. The Cloak *was* a family heirloom just...well, forgotten. If that sounds unbelievable, I'm sorry.
*************************************************
On the train ride back to Hogwarts, I pulled Sirius into an empty compartment.
"I found this at my house...look!" I said, pulling out books on Animagi.
"Yes! We should be able to turn into animals in no time!"
"Sirius, you have to promise to keep quiet about the thing I'm about to show you. Okay?"
Sirius' face lit up with glee. "You mean it's dangerous? Or illegal? Lemme see!" He dove at my trunk.
"Sirius, listen to me!" I said solemnly, putting my hands on this shoulders and shaking him a bit, to emphasize the point.
"O-kaaaay." He answered, almost sadly. "*Now* show me!"
I sighed. I knew this was going to be trouble. "Here it is..." I pulled a blue silk bag out of my trunk, and tossed it to him. Embroidered on it were gold stars and a silver moon. It was a knapsack that had belonged to my mother.
Sirius stared at it in utter disbelief. "James..." He began. "You brought me aside to show my a PURSE?!?"
I whapped Sirius on the back of his head. "No, dummy! It's *inside* the bag!"
"Oh."
He reached inside, and pulled out the fluid-like cloak.
"James, do you know what this is?"
"Yes. An Invisibility Cloak."
"Do you know what this means?"
"That we are in serious trouble because they were outlawed for civilians [A/N: In wizard terms, this means 'people who aren't involved with catching Dark Wizards'] a long time ago!"
"No! That we can cause even *more* mischief and chaos!" He began listing ways we could use the Cloak, his face giddy with delight, as he whirled around the compartment, holding my Cloak. "And then we could play pranks on Snape! And steal food from the kitchens! And play pranks on the girls! And play more pranks on Snape! And...And...And!"
I sighed again. He had lost it. Twelve years old and his mind's already snapped.
"And then we could play pranks on McGonagall. And spook Flitwick. And-"
Sirius was cut off by the arrival of Jess and Lily. He slyly slid the Cloak into his robe pockets. "Ah! There you are, my dears! We were looking for you!" He outstretched his arms, as if welcoming the two.
"Yeah. Right. So...How was your summer, James?" Jess asked, looking at Sirius as one would a insane person, which, if you think about it, he was.
"I'm fine. It was...erm, okay."
"Good. 'Cause mine was lousy." Lily said, "Petunia wouldn't leave me alone. Whenever one for her friends would come over, when they saw me, Petunia would mutter 'Don't talk to her. She's my second cousin twice removed- quite disturbed.'"
"I'm sorry," Sirius replied. "Have you seen Remus and Peter?"
"Now that you mention it, no."
"I wouldn't be surprised if ol' Petey missed the train!"
"Shut up, Sirius. Don't be so cruel!"
"Yes, ma'am."
"Don't call me ma'am!"
"Yes, ma'am."
As Sirius and Jess got into a raging battle, I left the compartment to find Moony and Peter. Sure enough, a few compartments away, there they were. But, Severus Snape was with them.
"Awwww! If it isn't the Squib and the invalid!"
"Leave us alone, Snape!"
"I'll do what I like!" Snape pushed Peter against the wall of the compartment, and Peter cringed in fear.
I decided this had gone too far. "SNAPE!" He snapped around, his eyes first filled with terror, and then grinned, in mock happiness.
"Potter! I looking for everyone's fa-vorite idiot!" I clenched my fists as he said the word 'favorite' like some Muggle was game show host.
"Can it, Snape! Leave them alone!"
"And what if I don't?" He walked closer attempting to make his one and a quarter inches above my head more visible. I wrinkled my nose. Yuck! Did this guy *ever* shower?
"Then I'll do *this* !" I yelled, as I upper-cutted him, giving the dimwit a bloody nose. He tried to throw a punch at me, but I ducked. I them gave him a black eye, as he tried do what *appeared* to be breaking my nose (with Snape's pitiful talents, honestly, I couldn't tell if he was trying to hurt me or tickle me).
Just then, Sirius, Jess, and Lily burst into the room. Sirius saw what was happening, and then dove right in, fighting tooth and nail.
"Jess, I'm going to go get a prefect or *somebody!* Lily cried, dashing out of the compartment.
"Yeah. You do that, Lily." Jess replied. She reached into the brawl, and pulled out Snape. "What do you bloody think you're doing?" She yelled as she punched him in the stomach. Hard. She then kneed him. Sirius and I winced simultaneously and went "Oooh!"
"Uncle! Uncle! I give up!" Snape cried, his voice extra-high because of the beating he just got.
"Yeah. You'd better." Jess then punched him in the stomach a final time. Snape fell to the floor in pain. Jess dusted off her robes "C'mon, everybody. I'm about to puke just for getting that near to the idiot. Let's go."
I whispered to Sirius: "I'm not *about* to disobey her after that little display of boxing."
"Me neither. But that was nothing. You should've seen her last year when Ari Prewett, that Ravenclaw seventh-year, said that she *fancied* Remus."
Remus came out from his hiding place under the seats. "Yeah. I always wondered when he got those scars..."
************************
The rest of the train ride was quite uneventful, compared to Jess knocking Snape unconscious. Slowly the conversation turned to Quidditch.
"So...have you heard the news? Good old Headmaster Dumbledore's changed the age limit for Quidditch to 2nd years, not 3rd years like before!" Sirius asked.
"He *has*? Yes! Gryffindor Beater, here I come!" Jess cried.
Lily looked up from her book; she never really liked Quidditch anyway. "It all sounds dangerous to me. 12 years old is just too young for such a unsafe sport."
Sirius looked offended. "Lily! How could you *say* such a thing?! Quidditch is fun, amusing, and a great form of exercise!"
"Yeah right. But if you five want to risk your lives on a silly broomstick, at least you're having fun."
"Um, them four," He corrected, pointing to me, Remus, Jess, and Sirius. "I'm with you Lily, Quidditch does seem kind of scary."
"You're both crazy!" Sirius yelled as he threw chocolate frogs at Lily and Peter's heads, but missed and hit me.
Soon we were all bombarding each other with candy and such.
~*~
Before we knew it, we were walking up to the dorm rooms, after the feast, glad we were back together, sad about class tomorrow.
~*~
About one month later, we had the Quidditch tryouts. It might not surprise you that I had made the Quidditch team (Chaser), Sirius was a Beater, and Jess was told 'Maybe next year'. She pouted for two weeks. ("Chicks...Don't even try to understand 'em", was Sirius' comment on the subject.)
We kept on researching the Animagus potion but found nothing that we didn't already know. It would be December before anything else interesting happened.
On Christmas Day, I was awoken by a flying teddy bear Sirius had charmed to wake everyone in the dorm room up by saying "Present Alert! Woo-hoo-woo-hoo!". If that wasn't enough, it did that at 5 o'clock AM.
I was reluctant to get up at first, but then when I saw the large stack of presents sitting on my mahogany trunk, I was up in a flash. I didn't expect to get that much! (But, later I learned that most of it were from Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, and Hufflepuff girls who had crushes on me).
Nine boxes of candy, four quills, one scarlet cloak, seven books, fifteen odd practical joke kits, and seventeen mushy cards later, I was done unwrapping all of my presents. None of which, were from my father, but I didn't care.
"What is she playing at?" Sirius cried, "Is she bloody crazy?"
"What?" Peter asked. Remus wasn't here; it was that time of the month again.
"Considering I had no idea what you just said, I don't know." I replied.
"It's my mum!" Sirius bellowed. "Look what she got me!" He brandished a box in my face. I grabbed it from his hands and read off the front cover.
"'Flourish and Blott's Deluxe Thank-You Note Set. Complete with optional recorded message- It's Magic' So what?"
"I *hate* thank-you notes. They're just so...ew!"
"Riiiight. So I guess I shouldn't be expecting any then. I'm going down to breakfast. Care to join me, Petey old boy?"
"Sure James. Sirius, you're crazy."
As Peter and I left the dorm room, Sirius shouted back at us: "And proud of it, too!"
~*~
We coaxed Lily into a private flying lesson sort of as a Christmas present, and, to my surprise she accepted.
"Okay, first you take hold of the broom and bring it up...good, good...No! No! Too high! No, now you're too low! Lily!...'kay, that's perfect! To make a left turn, lean to the left a bit, good...and to straighten it out, lean to the right...You've got the hang of it!" Sirius volunteered to teach Lily how to steer.
By January, she could fly almost as well as everyone else, especially Peter.
One day in early February, because everyone else had detention, or extra homework, except for me and Lily, I asked her if she wanted to go flying.
"I don't know, James. It's kind of windy...Besides, I've been everywhere. There's nothing more to see!"
I bent down and whispered in her ear, "But not Merlin's Bluff..."
Lily gasped. "You've been there?" I nodded. Merlin's Bluff was a gigantic hill, almost mountain-sized, beyond the Forbidden Forest. It was very hard to find, and even harder to travel to. Needless to say, not even many 7th years knew the way.
"I guess I'll go. Just give me a second to get my cloak."
"I'll get the brooms. Meet me on the front steps."
Lily practically threw her book down and shot down the steps.
~*~
"Lily?"
"Yeah?"
"Are you sure you want to do this?"
"Of course! I was born to fly! To feel the wind in my hair!"
"Then you're gonna have to open your eyes..."
Lily cautiously opened one eye. "Oh. Yeah. Sorry, I forgot."
We were flying over the Forbidden Forest, and a pack of woodland owls had soared right by us. To say the least, Lily got flustered.
"Alright, we're almost there. Look! You can see Merlin's Bluff!"
"Wow! It looks so peaceful!"
"Yeah."
"About how long until we get there?"
"Ten more minutes, I'd say. Why? Get scared again?"
"No! Just wanted to be back in time for dinner."
"We'll have plenty of time. It's what, maybe four o'clock right now?"
"Yeah."
"I'll race ya there!"
"You're on!"
We sped off toward the hill silhouetted against the quickly setting sun.
Ten minutes later, we landed on Merlin's Bluff, panting.
"I ::deep breath:: beat you ::deep breath:: fair and ::deep breath:: square!" I told Lily.
"No you ::deep breath:: didn't! Wooo! That ride's ::deep breath:: pretty exhilarating!"
"Yeah."
We sat there on the hill for a while, catching our breath.
"You passed."
"What are you talking about James?"
"You passed the final test."
"I don't get it."
"This ride. Landing, taking off, the works. It was the final test."
"Goody for me."
We talked for a while, just about school, our friends, and almost anything we could think of. Finally, Lily took a peek at her watch.
"Oh my! We've been sitting here for one and a half hours! James! We'd better get back to Hogwarts by six!"
"Yeah! I lost all track of time!"
"Me too."
"Wanna race again?"
"You're on!"
We were about half-way through the Forbidden Forest when it became dark and wind began to rage. Lily and I were still racing.
I was just pulling ahead when I heard a scream.
"JAMES!"
Lily? I turned back, and the wind was pulling Lily away...right toward a gigantic tree! I stopped my broom so suddenly, I almost fell off, too.
"I'm coming!"
Before I was halfway there, I heard a gigantic crash. I saw Lily's broom break into hundreds of tiny splinters, and Lily fell with it.
I dove downward so quickly, my ears began to pop. I searched the ground below but there was no sign of Lily.
"James!"
25 yards below me (27.325 meters, for our non-American friends -I did the math-), Lily was dangling off a branch, about a hundred yards (109.3 meters) off the ground. Her grip was slipping.
"Help me!"
I did the biggest dive I had ever (and probably will ever) done. All the while, Lily was screaming, but if I were in that position, so would I.
When I finally reached her, she was hanging by one arm. All I could think about was that if I slipped up, we could both lose our lives.
"Give me your hand!" I yelled.
Lily reached out as far as she could, but there were too many branches in the way. "I can't!"
Uh oh. "Um...I can't reach you either, so, uh...on to plan B, I guess..."
"James, this is not a time for humor!" Now I'm going to zoom ahead a bit through time, and there were only a couple times when Lily was this mad at me, and most of them were that time of the month, if you get my drift. Okay, back to the past.
"Lily! Do you have your wand?"
"No, I left it in my dorm room!"
"Crud, me too."
Guess I can't have any magical solution to this problem. Gonna have to do it the Muggle way.
Taking a deep breath, I took hold of a particularly large branch. I climbed on, grasping it with one hand, in my other hand, my broom.
"Okay, I'm coming Lily. Don't worry. I'll be here soon..." I continued saying coaxing stuff, as I carefully climbed through the branches.
At one point, I almost fell to my death, but I caught hold of another branch.
Finally, I was close enough to take Lily's hand. "Okay, I'm gonna pull you up, and then we're going to go on my broomstick..."
"Alright, just hurry!"
Taking yet another deep breath, I grabbed Lily's hand and pulled with all my strength. When she was sort of sitting on the branch, I took my broom out from under my arm and told it to hover. I then helped pull Lily onto the broom by her waist.
At last we were both on the broom.
"Ready to go?"
"Yep. Thank you so much James." Lily told me, kissing me on the cheek.
"Oh, shut up! I'm blushing!" Which I actually was, but who knew? It was dark, and we were in the middle of the Forbidden Forest.
The rest of the ride home was quite silent and uneventful. Because we both had to share my broom (If you forgot, her broom was smashed into oblivion).
When we were hovering over Hogwarts grounds, searching for a place to land, we saw that the Headmaster Dumbledore and Professor McGonagall were looking for someone, probably us.
"Albus! There they are!"
They came speeding up, to where we were as I landed gracefully.
"Potter! Evans! What do you think you're doing?"
"Um...landing?" I replied.
Professor McGonagall dashed up to Lily. "Are you alright?"
"I don't know..." She tried to stand up, but fell down. "Okay, maybe not."
"Albus, help me get her to Madame Reneé. Her leg may be broken."
"Potter, I'll talk with you later. Are you hurt too?"
"I have some cuts and bruises, nothing too seri-"
"Come with us."
~*~
The next few hours were a blur. Turns out that three bones in Lily's legs and four in one of her feet had been broken and/or crushed while she was falling. How this happened, I'll never know.
We told Dumbledore about our little expedition to Merlin's Bluff. He deducted twenty points from Gryffindor for disobeying the rules, and 10 points for sheer stupidity (my words, not his). He did however give me 75 points for nerve, and the both of us 15 for staying calm under pressure.
The rest of the year was an even larger blur of final exams, explanations, and teasings (Sirius, Remus, and Peter would frequently act out the scene of me saving Lily's life, complete with "James Potter, you're my hero! ::faints::" line).
Before I could say "What happened to second year?" the school year was over. Gryffindor had won the House Cup, mostly thanks to the Quidditch team winning the Quidditch Cup.
At the train station in Hogsmeade, Lily was picked up by her parents because 'our poor little darling nearly *died*!', and all the rest of my friends didn't take the train home either, so it was extremely boring.
That summer, my father out on business all of those three glorious months. Thankfully.
Guess now the only thing I have left to do is wait.
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Yea! I'm done! Sorry, this part was hard for me to write.
Does anyone have anything they want to see happen in the next parts of this series? Simply tell me in a review, and I might try to work it in.
Please review, it makes my day, and it only takes about 10-45 seconds.
Keep a look out for the next installment of I Stand Alone: James Potter's story.
by: Star Gazer
Summary: It's James' second year, he gets on the Quidditch team and I don't wanna give the rest of the plot away. PG for minor Snape/MWPPLJ brawl (guess who wins?) and some other stuff, too, I guess.
Disclaimer: Jess Callier, Merlin Ridge, and anything else you don't recognize belongs to me! Me! Me, me, me, me! (sorry, I'm a bit possessive)
Author's Note: Thanks everybody for the positive reviews. Now I have some notes little comments to make:
1) Sorry about the Evans, McSalen, Evans, thing. When I wrote this, Lily's original last name was McSalen, but that was before that Scholastic chat, and then when I heard about it, I changed her name to Evans. I thought I got 'em all, but I was wrong. Sorry, again.
2) Yeah, this *is* the same series, previously titled "I Stand Alone", except I wouldn't recommend reading it...yet. I have to change SEVERAL things, and to make it longer/better. Besides, I removed all of 'em from the archive
3) Actually, I really don't know what happens when one feeds an owl a pound of sugar. Anyone wanna write a fic about it? Takers, anyone? I don't care...
4) On the Invisibility Cloak front, yes, I was aware of that, except I put a little spin on it. The Cloak *was* a family heirloom just...well, forgotten. If that sounds unbelievable, I'm sorry.
*************************************************
On the train ride back to Hogwarts, I pulled Sirius into an empty compartment.
"I found this at my house...look!" I said, pulling out books on Animagi.
"Yes! We should be able to turn into animals in no time!"
"Sirius, you have to promise to keep quiet about the thing I'm about to show you. Okay?"
Sirius' face lit up with glee. "You mean it's dangerous? Or illegal? Lemme see!" He dove at my trunk.
"Sirius, listen to me!" I said solemnly, putting my hands on this shoulders and shaking him a bit, to emphasize the point.
"O-kaaaay." He answered, almost sadly. "*Now* show me!"
I sighed. I knew this was going to be trouble. "Here it is..." I pulled a blue silk bag out of my trunk, and tossed it to him. Embroidered on it were gold stars and a silver moon. It was a knapsack that had belonged to my mother.
Sirius stared at it in utter disbelief. "James..." He began. "You brought me aside to show my a PURSE?!?"
I whapped Sirius on the back of his head. "No, dummy! It's *inside* the bag!"
"Oh."
He reached inside, and pulled out the fluid-like cloak.
"James, do you know what this is?"
"Yes. An Invisibility Cloak."
"Do you know what this means?"
"That we are in serious trouble because they were outlawed for civilians [A/N: In wizard terms, this means 'people who aren't involved with catching Dark Wizards'] a long time ago!"
"No! That we can cause even *more* mischief and chaos!" He began listing ways we could use the Cloak, his face giddy with delight, as he whirled around the compartment, holding my Cloak. "And then we could play pranks on Snape! And steal food from the kitchens! And play pranks on the girls! And play more pranks on Snape! And...And...And!"
I sighed again. He had lost it. Twelve years old and his mind's already snapped.
"And then we could play pranks on McGonagall. And spook Flitwick. And-"
Sirius was cut off by the arrival of Jess and Lily. He slyly slid the Cloak into his robe pockets. "Ah! There you are, my dears! We were looking for you!" He outstretched his arms, as if welcoming the two.
"Yeah. Right. So...How was your summer, James?" Jess asked, looking at Sirius as one would a insane person, which, if you think about it, he was.
"I'm fine. It was...erm, okay."
"Good. 'Cause mine was lousy." Lily said, "Petunia wouldn't leave me alone. Whenever one for her friends would come over, when they saw me, Petunia would mutter 'Don't talk to her. She's my second cousin twice removed- quite disturbed.'"
"I'm sorry," Sirius replied. "Have you seen Remus and Peter?"
"Now that you mention it, no."
"I wouldn't be surprised if ol' Petey missed the train!"
"Shut up, Sirius. Don't be so cruel!"
"Yes, ma'am."
"Don't call me ma'am!"
"Yes, ma'am."
As Sirius and Jess got into a raging battle, I left the compartment to find Moony and Peter. Sure enough, a few compartments away, there they were. But, Severus Snape was with them.
"Awwww! If it isn't the Squib and the invalid!"
"Leave us alone, Snape!"
"I'll do what I like!" Snape pushed Peter against the wall of the compartment, and Peter cringed in fear.
I decided this had gone too far. "SNAPE!" He snapped around, his eyes first filled with terror, and then grinned, in mock happiness.
"Potter! I looking for everyone's fa-vorite idiot!" I clenched my fists as he said the word 'favorite' like some Muggle was game show host.
"Can it, Snape! Leave them alone!"
"And what if I don't?" He walked closer attempting to make his one and a quarter inches above my head more visible. I wrinkled my nose. Yuck! Did this guy *ever* shower?
"Then I'll do *this* !" I yelled, as I upper-cutted him, giving the dimwit a bloody nose. He tried to throw a punch at me, but I ducked. I them gave him a black eye, as he tried do what *appeared* to be breaking my nose (with Snape's pitiful talents, honestly, I couldn't tell if he was trying to hurt me or tickle me).
Just then, Sirius, Jess, and Lily burst into the room. Sirius saw what was happening, and then dove right in, fighting tooth and nail.
"Jess, I'm going to go get a prefect or *somebody!* Lily cried, dashing out of the compartment.
"Yeah. You do that, Lily." Jess replied. She reached into the brawl, and pulled out Snape. "What do you bloody think you're doing?" She yelled as she punched him in the stomach. Hard. She then kneed him. Sirius and I winced simultaneously and went "Oooh!"
"Uncle! Uncle! I give up!" Snape cried, his voice extra-high because of the beating he just got.
"Yeah. You'd better." Jess then punched him in the stomach a final time. Snape fell to the floor in pain. Jess dusted off her robes "C'mon, everybody. I'm about to puke just for getting that near to the idiot. Let's go."
I whispered to Sirius: "I'm not *about* to disobey her after that little display of boxing."
"Me neither. But that was nothing. You should've seen her last year when Ari Prewett, that Ravenclaw seventh-year, said that she *fancied* Remus."
Remus came out from his hiding place under the seats. "Yeah. I always wondered when he got those scars..."
************************
The rest of the train ride was quite uneventful, compared to Jess knocking Snape unconscious. Slowly the conversation turned to Quidditch.
"So...have you heard the news? Good old Headmaster Dumbledore's changed the age limit for Quidditch to 2nd years, not 3rd years like before!" Sirius asked.
"He *has*? Yes! Gryffindor Beater, here I come!" Jess cried.
Lily looked up from her book; she never really liked Quidditch anyway. "It all sounds dangerous to me. 12 years old is just too young for such a unsafe sport."
Sirius looked offended. "Lily! How could you *say* such a thing?! Quidditch is fun, amusing, and a great form of exercise!"
"Yeah right. But if you five want to risk your lives on a silly broomstick, at least you're having fun."
"Um, them four," He corrected, pointing to me, Remus, Jess, and Sirius. "I'm with you Lily, Quidditch does seem kind of scary."
"You're both crazy!" Sirius yelled as he threw chocolate frogs at Lily and Peter's heads, but missed and hit me.
Soon we were all bombarding each other with candy and such.
~*~
Before we knew it, we were walking up to the dorm rooms, after the feast, glad we were back together, sad about class tomorrow.
~*~
About one month later, we had the Quidditch tryouts. It might not surprise you that I had made the Quidditch team (Chaser), Sirius was a Beater, and Jess was told 'Maybe next year'. She pouted for two weeks. ("Chicks...Don't even try to understand 'em", was Sirius' comment on the subject.)
We kept on researching the Animagus potion but found nothing that we didn't already know. It would be December before anything else interesting happened.
On Christmas Day, I was awoken by a flying teddy bear Sirius had charmed to wake everyone in the dorm room up by saying "Present Alert! Woo-hoo-woo-hoo!". If that wasn't enough, it did that at 5 o'clock AM.
I was reluctant to get up at first, but then when I saw the large stack of presents sitting on my mahogany trunk, I was up in a flash. I didn't expect to get that much! (But, later I learned that most of it were from Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, and Hufflepuff girls who had crushes on me).
Nine boxes of candy, four quills, one scarlet cloak, seven books, fifteen odd practical joke kits, and seventeen mushy cards later, I was done unwrapping all of my presents. None of which, were from my father, but I didn't care.
"What is she playing at?" Sirius cried, "Is she bloody crazy?"
"What?" Peter asked. Remus wasn't here; it was that time of the month again.
"Considering I had no idea what you just said, I don't know." I replied.
"It's my mum!" Sirius bellowed. "Look what she got me!" He brandished a box in my face. I grabbed it from his hands and read off the front cover.
"'Flourish and Blott's Deluxe Thank-You Note Set. Complete with optional recorded message- It's Magic' So what?"
"I *hate* thank-you notes. They're just so...ew!"
"Riiiight. So I guess I shouldn't be expecting any then. I'm going down to breakfast. Care to join me, Petey old boy?"
"Sure James. Sirius, you're crazy."
As Peter and I left the dorm room, Sirius shouted back at us: "And proud of it, too!"
~*~
We coaxed Lily into a private flying lesson sort of as a Christmas present, and, to my surprise she accepted.
"Okay, first you take hold of the broom and bring it up...good, good...No! No! Too high! No, now you're too low! Lily!...'kay, that's perfect! To make a left turn, lean to the left a bit, good...and to straighten it out, lean to the right...You've got the hang of it!" Sirius volunteered to teach Lily how to steer.
By January, she could fly almost as well as everyone else, especially Peter.
One day in early February, because everyone else had detention, or extra homework, except for me and Lily, I asked her if she wanted to go flying.
"I don't know, James. It's kind of windy...Besides, I've been everywhere. There's nothing more to see!"
I bent down and whispered in her ear, "But not Merlin's Bluff..."
Lily gasped. "You've been there?" I nodded. Merlin's Bluff was a gigantic hill, almost mountain-sized, beyond the Forbidden Forest. It was very hard to find, and even harder to travel to. Needless to say, not even many 7th years knew the way.
"I guess I'll go. Just give me a second to get my cloak."
"I'll get the brooms. Meet me on the front steps."
Lily practically threw her book down and shot down the steps.
~*~
"Lily?"
"Yeah?"
"Are you sure you want to do this?"
"Of course! I was born to fly! To feel the wind in my hair!"
"Then you're gonna have to open your eyes..."
Lily cautiously opened one eye. "Oh. Yeah. Sorry, I forgot."
We were flying over the Forbidden Forest, and a pack of woodland owls had soared right by us. To say the least, Lily got flustered.
"Alright, we're almost there. Look! You can see Merlin's Bluff!"
"Wow! It looks so peaceful!"
"Yeah."
"About how long until we get there?"
"Ten more minutes, I'd say. Why? Get scared again?"
"No! Just wanted to be back in time for dinner."
"We'll have plenty of time. It's what, maybe four o'clock right now?"
"Yeah."
"I'll race ya there!"
"You're on!"
We sped off toward the hill silhouetted against the quickly setting sun.
Ten minutes later, we landed on Merlin's Bluff, panting.
"I ::deep breath:: beat you ::deep breath:: fair and ::deep breath:: square!" I told Lily.
"No you ::deep breath:: didn't! Wooo! That ride's ::deep breath:: pretty exhilarating!"
"Yeah."
We sat there on the hill for a while, catching our breath.
"You passed."
"What are you talking about James?"
"You passed the final test."
"I don't get it."
"This ride. Landing, taking off, the works. It was the final test."
"Goody for me."
We talked for a while, just about school, our friends, and almost anything we could think of. Finally, Lily took a peek at her watch.
"Oh my! We've been sitting here for one and a half hours! James! We'd better get back to Hogwarts by six!"
"Yeah! I lost all track of time!"
"Me too."
"Wanna race again?"
"You're on!"
We were about half-way through the Forbidden Forest when it became dark and wind began to rage. Lily and I were still racing.
I was just pulling ahead when I heard a scream.
"JAMES!"
Lily? I turned back, and the wind was pulling Lily away...right toward a gigantic tree! I stopped my broom so suddenly, I almost fell off, too.
"I'm coming!"
Before I was halfway there, I heard a gigantic crash. I saw Lily's broom break into hundreds of tiny splinters, and Lily fell with it.
I dove downward so quickly, my ears began to pop. I searched the ground below but there was no sign of Lily.
"James!"
25 yards below me (27.325 meters, for our non-American friends -I did the math-), Lily was dangling off a branch, about a hundred yards (109.3 meters) off the ground. Her grip was slipping.
"Help me!"
I did the biggest dive I had ever (and probably will ever) done. All the while, Lily was screaming, but if I were in that position, so would I.
When I finally reached her, she was hanging by one arm. All I could think about was that if I slipped up, we could both lose our lives.
"Give me your hand!" I yelled.
Lily reached out as far as she could, but there were too many branches in the way. "I can't!"
Uh oh. "Um...I can't reach you either, so, uh...on to plan B, I guess..."
"James, this is not a time for humor!" Now I'm going to zoom ahead a bit through time, and there were only a couple times when Lily was this mad at me, and most of them were that time of the month, if you get my drift. Okay, back to the past.
"Lily! Do you have your wand?"
"No, I left it in my dorm room!"
"Crud, me too."
Guess I can't have any magical solution to this problem. Gonna have to do it the Muggle way.
Taking a deep breath, I took hold of a particularly large branch. I climbed on, grasping it with one hand, in my other hand, my broom.
"Okay, I'm coming Lily. Don't worry. I'll be here soon..." I continued saying coaxing stuff, as I carefully climbed through the branches.
At one point, I almost fell to my death, but I caught hold of another branch.
Finally, I was close enough to take Lily's hand. "Okay, I'm gonna pull you up, and then we're going to go on my broomstick..."
"Alright, just hurry!"
Taking yet another deep breath, I grabbed Lily's hand and pulled with all my strength. When she was sort of sitting on the branch, I took my broom out from under my arm and told it to hover. I then helped pull Lily onto the broom by her waist.
At last we were both on the broom.
"Ready to go?"
"Yep. Thank you so much James." Lily told me, kissing me on the cheek.
"Oh, shut up! I'm blushing!" Which I actually was, but who knew? It was dark, and we were in the middle of the Forbidden Forest.
The rest of the ride home was quite silent and uneventful. Because we both had to share my broom (If you forgot, her broom was smashed into oblivion).
When we were hovering over Hogwarts grounds, searching for a place to land, we saw that the Headmaster Dumbledore and Professor McGonagall were looking for someone, probably us.
"Albus! There they are!"
They came speeding up, to where we were as I landed gracefully.
"Potter! Evans! What do you think you're doing?"
"Um...landing?" I replied.
Professor McGonagall dashed up to Lily. "Are you alright?"
"I don't know..." She tried to stand up, but fell down. "Okay, maybe not."
"Albus, help me get her to Madame Reneé. Her leg may be broken."
"Potter, I'll talk with you later. Are you hurt too?"
"I have some cuts and bruises, nothing too seri-"
"Come with us."
~*~
The next few hours were a blur. Turns out that three bones in Lily's legs and four in one of her feet had been broken and/or crushed while she was falling. How this happened, I'll never know.
We told Dumbledore about our little expedition to Merlin's Bluff. He deducted twenty points from Gryffindor for disobeying the rules, and 10 points for sheer stupidity (my words, not his). He did however give me 75 points for nerve, and the both of us 15 for staying calm under pressure.
The rest of the year was an even larger blur of final exams, explanations, and teasings (Sirius, Remus, and Peter would frequently act out the scene of me saving Lily's life, complete with "James Potter, you're my hero! ::faints::" line).
Before I could say "What happened to second year?" the school year was over. Gryffindor had won the House Cup, mostly thanks to the Quidditch team winning the Quidditch Cup.
At the train station in Hogsmeade, Lily was picked up by her parents because 'our poor little darling nearly *died*!', and all the rest of my friends didn't take the train home either, so it was extremely boring.
That summer, my father out on business all of those three glorious months. Thankfully.
Guess now the only thing I have left to do is wait.
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Yea! I'm done! Sorry, this part was hard for me to write.
Does anyone have anything they want to see happen in the next parts of this series? Simply tell me in a review, and I might try to work it in.
Please review, it makes my day, and it only takes about 10-45 seconds.
Keep a look out for the next installment of I Stand Alone: James Potter's story.