Part I: Espial.
James Potter, in a nutshell: annoying, ego-driven, confident and intelligent.
The king of Quidditch and the man of every girls erotic dreams. Annoyingly
charismatic and right now had his attention on a beautiful Gryffindor third
year, which he knew quite well. He flicked another small parchment plane at
her red, plentiful hair. It landed in the centre of it, slightly tilted on a
forty-five degree angle. She whirled around in her chair and then plucked
the small plane out of her hair, causing it to ripple in the dim, romantic
candlelight. He had a detention, as did she, most likely for the first time
in her life. She had not concentrated at all in her most hated subject; History
of Magic. The very strict and old-fashioned Professor Binns was getting extremely
old now, and Lily wished he could just somehow disappear. James had got it
for his usual pranking around. Professor McGonagall had decided it was time
that they tried to be less openly hostile to each other, and instead of pruning
poisonous blackberries out in the woods with Hagrid or cleaning Argus Filch's
office, they had to sit in a room with each other until ten O'clock in the evening,
completing assignments or homework. Professor McGonagall would check in to
see if they hadn't killed each other every half an hour. Every time she checked,
she sighed publicly to divulge in them how displeased she was that they hadn't
worked anything out. At eight thirty she walked down the corridor, expecting
that James was lying on the floor unconscious and Lily looking much more relaxed
when there was a yell.
'Potter!' Lily roared. James was laughing. 'Stop putting parchment planes
in my hair!'
James just managed to expel a small sound from his mouth before snorting into
hideous and prospering laughter once more.
'What is the problem here?' asked McGonagall frostily from the open doorway,
her arms crossed and her eyebrows raised above her glasses.
'Potter here, the stupid git, is throwing parchment planes in my hair!' Lily
yelled, constantly shooting tumultuous looks at James, who was wiping tears
from his eyes underneath his glasses.
McGonagall sent him a sobering look, warning him to calm down.
'Well, if Lily would talk to me, I would have no reason to send the planes to
her!' he said in his defence.
'Why is that?' McGonagall interrogated, she had an expression between thunder
and amusement on her face and was still peering at them over the top frame of
her glasses.
'Because' James said, shooting another look at Lily. 'There are notes written
on them. If she would talk to me, I wouldn't have to send the planes to her, would I?'
'No, but couldn't you find a little more…' McGonagall searched for the right word,
'practical way of doing that, such as a sheet of parchment?' Lily had a smug
look on her face, James wanted nothing more than to wipe it off.
'No! That would be so un-me!' he said, trying to give a sweet, innocent smile.
It came out utterly wrong.
'Right, well. You two have another detention together tomorrow night' she barked,
then turned around in a whirl of violet cloak.
'But Professor!' Lily called.
'Yes?' she said, turning around and gripping onto the doorframe.
'Well, I didn't do anything wrong, why do I have to slog out another detention
with him?' she whined.
'I would have thought it obvious!' McGonagall said, her eyebrows high on her
forehead.
When Lily didn't answer, she sighed and then engaged in explanation.
'If you would talk to Potter, or at least try, he wouldn't have done the planes.
He has another detention with you because he chose a deviant and uncalled for
way of communication. Any more questions?'
They both shook their heads mournfully.
'Very well, and don't kill each other.' McGonagall called down the hallway as
she left.
Lily flounced sulkily back into her seat, arranging her robes to sit perfectly
and artfully around her, so they wouldn't crease. She looked quite bitter.
'I'm not pleased about being here with you either,' James said, studying her
very carefully.
'Yeah, well any other person would be' Lily said satirically.
'I'm not that bad you know' said James, choosing to ignore her particularly
cutting mark.
'Yeah, sure, you have only been pulling pranks on me for the last three years
because you love me, right?'
'No, I do those pranks for revenge.'
'Avenge what?'
'Oh, so you are telling me, straight to my face, that you do not pull pranks
on me!' James said, his temper rising.
'Yes, I never pull pranks on you out of spite, I do them because they are funny!'
'Yeah, well I do them for revenge and your annoyance' he snapped.
'May be we shouldn't talk' said Lily, her sensitivity getting to her. She
thought: 'It's Potter for God's sake! P O T T E R! Your enemy!' She mentally
slapped herself across the cheek, twice and then looked at him haughtily.
'Fine. Be that way, I was just trying, though not succeeding, to be civilised'
he muttered, half to himself. This caught Lily by surprise, there was a bitter
edge to his voice. He turned around in his seat very quickly and faced the
blackboard, his face stony and not showing any emotion. His body language normal,
but Lily could tell he was thinking.
'What are you thinking about?'
'Nothing'
'You are so, tell me now!'
'No!'
'Why not?'
'Because I don't tell my enemies what I am thinking' he snapped irritably.
'Fine!'
He sat in a surly silence for the remainder of the detention. Every time McGonagall
checked on them she was disappointed. The two most academically brilliant and
approved of students in third year weren't getting on. She didn't expect them
to be kissing passionately, but she did expect a dramatic improvement in the
area of hostility. She came at ten O'clock and opened the door. Both were perched
on the ends of the desks they were sitting on and their books stacked neatly
behind them.
'Out you come then' McGonagall said sighing. 'Straight back to the common room.'
*
Dominic sat in his little room sighing. He was slowly drifting off to sleep
when passing footsteps went by the One-Eyed Witch statue. He went to the closest
point and whispered 'Potter' that only a Potter could hear. James turned his
head but decided to ignore it as he was ushered down the stairs by Lily.
*
'I am so sick of him!' fumed Lily from inside her dormitory. Her friends did
not share the same opinion.
'It is James Potter!' said Cheyenne.
'Exactly!' exclaimed Lily, now pacing up and down.
'James Potter is so hot!' said Polly, drooling over a photograph of him when
they had won the Quidditch Cup last year.
'What planet are you on? Planet delusional!?' shrieked Lily, wanting dearly
to go over there and smash the glass that was in the frame.
'I am not, you are on planet delusional, you are basically the only non-Slytherin
that doesn't like him!'
'Well at least I am an individual!' said Lily.
'A snob you mean, a wierdo perhaps?' called Jenny.
'Yeah, well I'm not in love with Sirius!'
'Either am I!'
'You are so!'
'No I am not!'
'Yes you are! You flirt with him so bad at breakfast; Oh Sirius! How can you
eat so much! Really? Cool! Even when you don't like the stuff he is talking
about you agree with him!"
'I do not!' said Jenny.
'Uh, Jenny you do' said Fiona, trying to keep the peace or remain impartial.
'I don't, and would you play all those pranks on James if you didn't like him?'
pointed out Jenny, swaggering slightly.
'Erm…'
'You wouldn't' again said Fiona, sitting on her bed and nursing her broomstick.
'I'm going to bed!' Lily announced, cranky at her friends.
*
'You have it for her so bad!' said Sirius.
'I do not!'
'You do so! Remus doesn't James have it bad for Lily?'
'Huh? Oh, what? Yeah! You do, sorry James, but I can't lie'
'And what about you and Jenny?'
'Yeah, but we aren't enemies!'
James gave him a withering look.
'Okay, okay! G'Night all!' said Sirius, surrendering.
'Night!' called Remus and Peter, shutting the curtains of their beds.
*
The next day was eerie, overcast and humid. Pessimism spread through the school
in the bitter and somber weather. James had come up with a plan to further
annoy Lily that day. He would be perfectly nice and charming towards her.
Be friendly and calm, just to get to her. James knew very well that it would
most irritate her, so he mentally prepared himself for what was going to be a
hard day. James got up and collected his new robes from the laundry room.
They had been freshly laundered by the house elves. James bought them to his
nose and smelt them. They smelt clean and florally, James loved that smell,
it reminded him of something but what it was he couldn't remember. He threw
them over his shoulder, along with his towel and then headed towards the bathroom,
his toiletry bag in tote.
*
James threw his cloak over his robed, pulled on some buried socks and then pulled
his trainers over them. James moved towards the door, but hesitated. He went,
hastily, back to the mirror, which was only half-awake, and in a very cranky
mood, and attempted to flatten his drying hair. He soon realised it was a hopeless
and abysmal task and conceded.
'You win,' he muttered to his hair. He walked to the door and then opened
it. Briskly walking, looking at his shoes, he bumped into some one. She was
about one and a half inches shorter than him and was wearing blue striped pajamas
and plain white slippers. She had her robes and towel thrown behind her shoulder
and it was hiding her long auburn hair.
'Why hello m'dear Lily!' James said politely, bowing deeply and graciously. He took her hand.
'Go away' she snapped, snatching her hand from his.
'Oh, we are a morning person!' James observed, his eyes twinkling. Lily just
glared at him after swabbing sleep from her eyes.
'Shut up Potter' she said, now smoothing down her red hair, brushing it from
her tired face.
'Well! I must be off!' James said cheerfully and he skipped light-heartedly
down the corridor, bowing at her when he reached the corner and then waved.
'What is he on?' Lily asked herself when he had finally gone.
Lily walked into the bathroom, hung her robes on the hook, which clasped around
them firmly and then yawned, releasing its tight grip slightly and then went
into a cubicle, preferring to shower over a bath.
*
'So' asked Jenny at the breakfast table, segregating her grapefruit and toast
like she didn't fancy to consume it, 'Where were you at six, possibly later,
this morning and where have you been since then?'
'I had a shower, and that took me about half an hour. Then I did my hair and
then I put my stuff back to see you emerging from bed.' Lily replied calmly.
She groaned inwardly as she saw Sirius, James and Peter enter the room, Remus
was already sitting with them so it was likely that Potter would too.
'Good Morning ladies!' said James, Remus opened his mouth to say he wasn't a
lady, 'And Gentleman' added James.
'So, I see you got up on the right side of bed for the first time this year,'
Lily said contemptuously.
'Yes, I am well Lily, how wonderful of you to ask!' gasped James, purposely
ignoring the antipathy in her voice.
'What drugs are you on?' asked Jenny, trying to jolly the mood up.
'Drugs? No!' James dismissed. 'It is just pure brilliance and eccentricity!'
he chortled.
Lily snorted obnoxiously into her cereal.
'May we sit here?' asked Sirius, waving his hand to indicate the seats next to them.
'Sure!' Jenny said brightly.
'You would say that!' said Lily, glowering at James with pure repugnance in her eyes.
'They asked,' Jenny shrugged, now looking along the table to see what she would
like to eat. Her toast was now very grape-fruity in flavor. She selected the
soft-boiled eggs, peeling one and sprinkling some salt over it.
'What do we have after breakfast?' asked Sirius, his mouth full; as usual he
was disregarding table etiquette.
'Sirius!' scolded Lily, taking one look into his mouth, unintentionally, and
then feeling no appetite.
'What?' he demanded, his full mouth hanging open. Some egg and bacon rolled
out of his mouth. Lily looked at him in disgust and Jenny giggled. Sirius blushed
and then attempted to clean up the mess with a napkin. He screwed up the napkin
and then bombarded it towards the Slytherin table, it hit Snape and Sirius gave
James a small high five, as Snape scanned the other direction. Serevus looked
in their direction and they busied themselves with food, James asking for the
bacon and Sirius re-loading his fork.
'What do we have now?' asked James, sipping at his goblet of Orange Juice.
'Uh, I have divination, what do you have?' said Jenny.
'I have Arithmancy, which means, James, so do you!' Sirius said resiliently,
slapping James on the back. James spat out some orange juice, Lily sniggered.
*
'Well that was interesting!' James said, stretching.
'What was interesting?' asked Lily from behind them.
'Arithmancy class, although, you wouldn't know. You were to busy doing Divination!'
said Peter. Peter had not yet got the gist of Arithmancy, he simply did it because
James and Sirius took it. Remus was off doing Muggle Studies, or practicing
his Defence Against the Dark Arts counter curse or something like that. Peter
wasn't as bright as James, Sirius or Remus. He never has been and regularly
depended on them to complete his homework on time. He even disregarded his pride
and loathing for Lily and asked her to help him on a charms essay. Lily had
enthusiastically executed hers the evening it was bestowed upon them. Remus
was intelligent, but not as quick or sharp as James or Sirius, and he missed
a lot of lessons too, which didn't help his cause.
'Shut up Peter' James said. 'We did some advanced stuff, me and Sirius, we
are going to the fifth years class, he invited us. WE get to miss Care of Magical
Creatures double, which is with Slytherins!' he told Lily.
'Yeah!' said Sirius, brightening up. He confided to Lily: 'Peter isn't going'
Lily snorted, as usual Peter was left out of things. Lily didn't feel any
empathy for him though.
'I'll race you to the One-Eyed Witch!' James declared, speeding away with his
book bag flying out behind him, moving with his running motions. The One-Eyed
Witch had been a monument for them. Sometimes James heard voices from it, but
he didn't think anything of them, weird things were happening everywhere in Hogwarts.
'James, you prat!' squealed Lily after him. 'Come back here!'
'Nope!' he said, turning slightly at the top of the stairs.
'Watch out!' called Sirius.
They raced to the One-Eyed Witch statue, James arriving first effortlessly not
panting nor sweating. Lily arrived, moments later and then Sirius did. Peter
came after about five minutes and he was heavily panting, even though he could
only manage what the others considered jogging.
'Can you hear that?' asked James once everybody had his or her breath back.
'No, what?' asked Sirius automatically. He was red in the face but not panting.
'Well…it's sort of a hushed whisper' James described. His ear tilted towards
the statue. 'It's loudest from here.'
'I can hear it too, it's saying "Potter"' Lily said informatively, Sirius
looked left out.
'Yeah!' James said, pausing to listen again. 'I swear, someone is calling out
Potter!'
'Maybe there is a secret passage behind there' Sirius said slyly. They had
discovered the route to the kitchens and a few secret passages through their
two and a half years at Hogwarts, and they had also discovered the Hufflepuff
Tower, a prefect had come out from behind a statue and he looked absolutely furious
with himself. He had tied to take points of them for being in their corridor,
but he couldn't as Professor McGonagall walked by from one of the classrooms
and stopped him.
James nodded in agreement, still listening.
'Potter!' it came again.
'What do you want?' James asked the voice.
'Dissendium!' the voice said into his head. Peter had already gone back down
stairs. He had a bruise on his leg and a cut arm. His quill had scratched him.
'Dissendium?' said James out loud, disconcerted. Before he knew it, the
One-Eyed Witch had moved to the side and there was a vast hole in the wall,
it was raised about two and a half feet of the ground.
'Well?' said Sirius, giving James a little push. 'Let's go!'
'Coming Lily?'
She grinned and refused the help James offered her, vaulting into the hole.
The wall slid shut.
'Look!' James said, pointing towards a little, thin line of light coming from
behind the wall.
'D'you think there's a door there?' asked Sirius whispering.
'Dunno!' said James, shrugging, his eyes alive with mischief.
They walked to the small, cramped and carved door. They all got their wands
out.
'Hello?' James called through the wall/door under the small fire lamp. The
light flickered as he moved back to avoid getting hit in the face by the
moving door.
'You was calling sir?' squeaked a very old house elf.
'Yes, I was' James said, like he was talking to an old friend but couldn't
remember that friends name. 'Sirius, help me!' he hissed out of the side of
his mouth. Lily caught this and she seized the situation firmly by the throat.
'Yes, we were looking for someone who talks through the One-Eyed Witch. Could
you please take us to your master?' she said firmly and kindly. James looked
at her and winked. She rolled her eyes but smiled back.
What they were expecting wasn't what they got. There they found and extremely
unfit and pale man, walking with a slight limp. He wasn't runty, but he definitely
wasn't fat. He looked almost identical to James except James was almost as tall
as he was. His hair was thinner and much greyer, almost a pewter colour. His
face had collected a long beard, which was becoming very straggly and knotted,
his frame was sagging, and maybe this was because his head would scrape across
the roof of the very low ceiling.
'Who-who are you?' James stammered, taking in every detail of the mans appearance.
'I' he said, looking from Sirius to Lily and then resting his eyes upon James,
'I am Dominic Potter!'
James stifled a gasp.
'We thought you dead!' James said, after recovering. 'Killed, murdered by some
lunatic, sixty years or more ago!'
'Sixty' the man, Dominic, growled, stroking his greying beard.
'You've been here for sixty years?' James faltered.
'Yes, I am bound here by a charm I need a Potter to help me. I need to find
a Miller, I need a flute and I need to find the dagger that killed all those
people' he said, his voice was raising slightly, as though he was trying not
to dare to be hopeful.
'Why didn't you-you get my father to set you free? He was here twenty years
ago, he would have set you free!' James said, confusion setting itself firmly
in his brain.
'I tried' he said, somewhat (wouldn't you be?) bitter. 'He wouldn't come, not
a natural troublemaker…but you! You are a Potter all right, not that your pappy
wasn't' he added hastily seeing James open his mouth. 'But he just wasn't that
inquisitive…like not cheeky enough.' He explained.
'What about you?' James asked, intrigued.
'Me? I was getting into trouble from my first day!' he said proudly, his eyes
shining as he reminisced the past.
Sirius nudged James, 'Like us eh?' he said affectionately.
James winked at his friend then went back to Dominic.
'So, why are you in here and why are we in here and most importantly, where does
this tunnel lead?' James asked his long lost uncle, there was something shining
in his eyes, so queer that even Sirius couldn't read it!
'This passage goes into Hogsmeade, the village, so you can go anytime you like…I'm
in here, charm bound because I discovered something accidentally, something
very terrifying, something that was hushed by Dippet so that even the parents
didn't know, except, of course, the victims and mine and Millers.'
'Why were you calling out my name?' James asked, still wanting some answers,
Sirius was looking as he always did before a prank and Lily was looking at
James.
'Because I need your help if I want to be free again' he elucidated, looking
at James sternly from under his brow.
'So why the whispers?' James asked.
Dominic opened his mouth but Lily cut across him.
'Why could I hear them too?' she said, looking a bit disconcerted.
'Aah' Dominic said, his eyes shining with a dizzy, giggly pride. 'James's mother
could hear my voice too, do you know why? Have you figured it out?'
Lily looked blank, searching for something but James had figured it out already,
Sirius got it just as James opened his mouth.
'Because she is a Potter too' they said synchronically, they looked at each
other and laughed, Dominic and Lily joined in; Lily with a half-hearted giggle
and Dominic with a hearty, booming laugh.
'That's right' Dominic said after the laughter had died down.
'So' James said, looking very, very worried at Lily; heaving a mist of sweat.
'I am going to marry Lily Evans?' Sirius snorted and sniggered. James thought
it was better to keep his mouth shut rather than to face the matchmaking activities
that Sirius would course them through for the next four years of their life.
Lily was looking slightly flushed, blushing a very pale red, her eyes would not
settle on James for more than a second.
'That's right!' Dominic said cheerfully, not realising what the problem was.
'He he he' Sirius muttered to James from the side of his mouth, daring to glance
at him every few seconds, often to catch him looking at Lily.
'Sirius!' Lily would shriek every time Sirius snorted with laughter at James.
'Okay' James said looking and sounding business-like. 'How do we help you to
freedom?'
A/N: Okay! Here is part One, even though it is chapter two! Thanks to the Dreamkeeper
who was my sole reviewer at the time I wrote this, keep pulling them in!
Disclaimer: I own nothing! (Exceptions: Jenny, Fiona, Cheyenne, Dominic, the house-elf,
characterisations and plot)
James Potter, in a nutshell: annoying, ego-driven, confident and intelligent.
The king of Quidditch and the man of every girls erotic dreams. Annoyingly
charismatic and right now had his attention on a beautiful Gryffindor third
year, which he knew quite well. He flicked another small parchment plane at
her red, plentiful hair. It landed in the centre of it, slightly tilted on a
forty-five degree angle. She whirled around in her chair and then plucked
the small plane out of her hair, causing it to ripple in the dim, romantic
candlelight. He had a detention, as did she, most likely for the first time
in her life. She had not concentrated at all in her most hated subject; History
of Magic. The very strict and old-fashioned Professor Binns was getting extremely
old now, and Lily wished he could just somehow disappear. James had got it
for his usual pranking around. Professor McGonagall had decided it was time
that they tried to be less openly hostile to each other, and instead of pruning
poisonous blackberries out in the woods with Hagrid or cleaning Argus Filch's
office, they had to sit in a room with each other until ten O'clock in the evening,
completing assignments or homework. Professor McGonagall would check in to
see if they hadn't killed each other every half an hour. Every time she checked,
she sighed publicly to divulge in them how displeased she was that they hadn't
worked anything out. At eight thirty she walked down the corridor, expecting
that James was lying on the floor unconscious and Lily looking much more relaxed
when there was a yell.
'Potter!' Lily roared. James was laughing. 'Stop putting parchment planes
in my hair!'
James just managed to expel a small sound from his mouth before snorting into
hideous and prospering laughter once more.
'What is the problem here?' asked McGonagall frostily from the open doorway,
her arms crossed and her eyebrows raised above her glasses.
'Potter here, the stupid git, is throwing parchment planes in my hair!' Lily
yelled, constantly shooting tumultuous looks at James, who was wiping tears
from his eyes underneath his glasses.
McGonagall sent him a sobering look, warning him to calm down.
'Well, if Lily would talk to me, I would have no reason to send the planes to
her!' he said in his defence.
'Why is that?' McGonagall interrogated, she had an expression between thunder
and amusement on her face and was still peering at them over the top frame of
her glasses.
'Because' James said, shooting another look at Lily. 'There are notes written
on them. If she would talk to me, I wouldn't have to send the planes to her, would I?'
'No, but couldn't you find a little more…' McGonagall searched for the right word,
'practical way of doing that, such as a sheet of parchment?' Lily had a smug
look on her face, James wanted nothing more than to wipe it off.
'No! That would be so un-me!' he said, trying to give a sweet, innocent smile.
It came out utterly wrong.
'Right, well. You two have another detention together tomorrow night' she barked,
then turned around in a whirl of violet cloak.
'But Professor!' Lily called.
'Yes?' she said, turning around and gripping onto the doorframe.
'Well, I didn't do anything wrong, why do I have to slog out another detention
with him?' she whined.
'I would have thought it obvious!' McGonagall said, her eyebrows high on her
forehead.
When Lily didn't answer, she sighed and then engaged in explanation.
'If you would talk to Potter, or at least try, he wouldn't have done the planes.
He has another detention with you because he chose a deviant and uncalled for
way of communication. Any more questions?'
They both shook their heads mournfully.
'Very well, and don't kill each other.' McGonagall called down the hallway as
she left.
Lily flounced sulkily back into her seat, arranging her robes to sit perfectly
and artfully around her, so they wouldn't crease. She looked quite bitter.
'I'm not pleased about being here with you either,' James said, studying her
very carefully.
'Yeah, well any other person would be' Lily said satirically.
'I'm not that bad you know' said James, choosing to ignore her particularly
cutting mark.
'Yeah, sure, you have only been pulling pranks on me for the last three years
because you love me, right?'
'No, I do those pranks for revenge.'
'Avenge what?'
'Oh, so you are telling me, straight to my face, that you do not pull pranks
on me!' James said, his temper rising.
'Yes, I never pull pranks on you out of spite, I do them because they are funny!'
'Yeah, well I do them for revenge and your annoyance' he snapped.
'May be we shouldn't talk' said Lily, her sensitivity getting to her. She
thought: 'It's Potter for God's sake! P O T T E R! Your enemy!' She mentally
slapped herself across the cheek, twice and then looked at him haughtily.
'Fine. Be that way, I was just trying, though not succeeding, to be civilised'
he muttered, half to himself. This caught Lily by surprise, there was a bitter
edge to his voice. He turned around in his seat very quickly and faced the
blackboard, his face stony and not showing any emotion. His body language normal,
but Lily could tell he was thinking.
'What are you thinking about?'
'Nothing'
'You are so, tell me now!'
'No!'
'Why not?'
'Because I don't tell my enemies what I am thinking' he snapped irritably.
'Fine!'
He sat in a surly silence for the remainder of the detention. Every time McGonagall
checked on them she was disappointed. The two most academically brilliant and
approved of students in third year weren't getting on. She didn't expect them
to be kissing passionately, but she did expect a dramatic improvement in the
area of hostility. She came at ten O'clock and opened the door. Both were perched
on the ends of the desks they were sitting on and their books stacked neatly
behind them.
'Out you come then' McGonagall said sighing. 'Straight back to the common room.'
*
Dominic sat in his little room sighing. He was slowly drifting off to sleep
when passing footsteps went by the One-Eyed Witch statue. He went to the closest
point and whispered 'Potter' that only a Potter could hear. James turned his
head but decided to ignore it as he was ushered down the stairs by Lily.
*
'I am so sick of him!' fumed Lily from inside her dormitory. Her friends did
not share the same opinion.
'It is James Potter!' said Cheyenne.
'Exactly!' exclaimed Lily, now pacing up and down.
'James Potter is so hot!' said Polly, drooling over a photograph of him when
they had won the Quidditch Cup last year.
'What planet are you on? Planet delusional!?' shrieked Lily, wanting dearly
to go over there and smash the glass that was in the frame.
'I am not, you are on planet delusional, you are basically the only non-Slytherin
that doesn't like him!'
'Well at least I am an individual!' said Lily.
'A snob you mean, a wierdo perhaps?' called Jenny.
'Yeah, well I'm not in love with Sirius!'
'Either am I!'
'You are so!'
'No I am not!'
'Yes you are! You flirt with him so bad at breakfast; Oh Sirius! How can you
eat so much! Really? Cool! Even when you don't like the stuff he is talking
about you agree with him!"
'I do not!' said Jenny.
'Uh, Jenny you do' said Fiona, trying to keep the peace or remain impartial.
'I don't, and would you play all those pranks on James if you didn't like him?'
pointed out Jenny, swaggering slightly.
'Erm…'
'You wouldn't' again said Fiona, sitting on her bed and nursing her broomstick.
'I'm going to bed!' Lily announced, cranky at her friends.
*
'You have it for her so bad!' said Sirius.
'I do not!'
'You do so! Remus doesn't James have it bad for Lily?'
'Huh? Oh, what? Yeah! You do, sorry James, but I can't lie'
'And what about you and Jenny?'
'Yeah, but we aren't enemies!'
James gave him a withering look.
'Okay, okay! G'Night all!' said Sirius, surrendering.
'Night!' called Remus and Peter, shutting the curtains of their beds.
*
The next day was eerie, overcast and humid. Pessimism spread through the school
in the bitter and somber weather. James had come up with a plan to further
annoy Lily that day. He would be perfectly nice and charming towards her.
Be friendly and calm, just to get to her. James knew very well that it would
most irritate her, so he mentally prepared himself for what was going to be a
hard day. James got up and collected his new robes from the laundry room.
They had been freshly laundered by the house elves. James bought them to his
nose and smelt them. They smelt clean and florally, James loved that smell,
it reminded him of something but what it was he couldn't remember. He threw
them over his shoulder, along with his towel and then headed towards the bathroom,
his toiletry bag in tote.
*
James threw his cloak over his robed, pulled on some buried socks and then pulled
his trainers over them. James moved towards the door, but hesitated. He went,
hastily, back to the mirror, which was only half-awake, and in a very cranky
mood, and attempted to flatten his drying hair. He soon realised it was a hopeless
and abysmal task and conceded.
'You win,' he muttered to his hair. He walked to the door and then opened
it. Briskly walking, looking at his shoes, he bumped into some one. She was
about one and a half inches shorter than him and was wearing blue striped pajamas
and plain white slippers. She had her robes and towel thrown behind her shoulder
and it was hiding her long auburn hair.
'Why hello m'dear Lily!' James said politely, bowing deeply and graciously. He took her hand.
'Go away' she snapped, snatching her hand from his.
'Oh, we are a morning person!' James observed, his eyes twinkling. Lily just
glared at him after swabbing sleep from her eyes.
'Shut up Potter' she said, now smoothing down her red hair, brushing it from
her tired face.
'Well! I must be off!' James said cheerfully and he skipped light-heartedly
down the corridor, bowing at her when he reached the corner and then waved.
'What is he on?' Lily asked herself when he had finally gone.
Lily walked into the bathroom, hung her robes on the hook, which clasped around
them firmly and then yawned, releasing its tight grip slightly and then went
into a cubicle, preferring to shower over a bath.
*
'So' asked Jenny at the breakfast table, segregating her grapefruit and toast
like she didn't fancy to consume it, 'Where were you at six, possibly later,
this morning and where have you been since then?'
'I had a shower, and that took me about half an hour. Then I did my hair and
then I put my stuff back to see you emerging from bed.' Lily replied calmly.
She groaned inwardly as she saw Sirius, James and Peter enter the room, Remus
was already sitting with them so it was likely that Potter would too.
'Good Morning ladies!' said James, Remus opened his mouth to say he wasn't a
lady, 'And Gentleman' added James.
'So, I see you got up on the right side of bed for the first time this year,'
Lily said contemptuously.
'Yes, I am well Lily, how wonderful of you to ask!' gasped James, purposely
ignoring the antipathy in her voice.
'What drugs are you on?' asked Jenny, trying to jolly the mood up.
'Drugs? No!' James dismissed. 'It is just pure brilliance and eccentricity!'
he chortled.
Lily snorted obnoxiously into her cereal.
'May we sit here?' asked Sirius, waving his hand to indicate the seats next to them.
'Sure!' Jenny said brightly.
'You would say that!' said Lily, glowering at James with pure repugnance in her eyes.
'They asked,' Jenny shrugged, now looking along the table to see what she would
like to eat. Her toast was now very grape-fruity in flavor. She selected the
soft-boiled eggs, peeling one and sprinkling some salt over it.
'What do we have after breakfast?' asked Sirius, his mouth full; as usual he
was disregarding table etiquette.
'Sirius!' scolded Lily, taking one look into his mouth, unintentionally, and
then feeling no appetite.
'What?' he demanded, his full mouth hanging open. Some egg and bacon rolled
out of his mouth. Lily looked at him in disgust and Jenny giggled. Sirius blushed
and then attempted to clean up the mess with a napkin. He screwed up the napkin
and then bombarded it towards the Slytherin table, it hit Snape and Sirius gave
James a small high five, as Snape scanned the other direction. Serevus looked
in their direction and they busied themselves with food, James asking for the
bacon and Sirius re-loading his fork.
'What do we have now?' asked James, sipping at his goblet of Orange Juice.
'Uh, I have divination, what do you have?' said Jenny.
'I have Arithmancy, which means, James, so do you!' Sirius said resiliently,
slapping James on the back. James spat out some orange juice, Lily sniggered.
*
'Well that was interesting!' James said, stretching.
'What was interesting?' asked Lily from behind them.
'Arithmancy class, although, you wouldn't know. You were to busy doing Divination!'
said Peter. Peter had not yet got the gist of Arithmancy, he simply did it because
James and Sirius took it. Remus was off doing Muggle Studies, or practicing
his Defence Against the Dark Arts counter curse or something like that. Peter
wasn't as bright as James, Sirius or Remus. He never has been and regularly
depended on them to complete his homework on time. He even disregarded his pride
and loathing for Lily and asked her to help him on a charms essay. Lily had
enthusiastically executed hers the evening it was bestowed upon them. Remus
was intelligent, but not as quick or sharp as James or Sirius, and he missed
a lot of lessons too, which didn't help his cause.
'Shut up Peter' James said. 'We did some advanced stuff, me and Sirius, we
are going to the fifth years class, he invited us. WE get to miss Care of Magical
Creatures double, which is with Slytherins!' he told Lily.
'Yeah!' said Sirius, brightening up. He confided to Lily: 'Peter isn't going'
Lily snorted, as usual Peter was left out of things. Lily didn't feel any
empathy for him though.
'I'll race you to the One-Eyed Witch!' James declared, speeding away with his
book bag flying out behind him, moving with his running motions. The One-Eyed
Witch had been a monument for them. Sometimes James heard voices from it, but
he didn't think anything of them, weird things were happening everywhere in Hogwarts.
'James, you prat!' squealed Lily after him. 'Come back here!'
'Nope!' he said, turning slightly at the top of the stairs.
'Watch out!' called Sirius.
They raced to the One-Eyed Witch statue, James arriving first effortlessly not
panting nor sweating. Lily arrived, moments later and then Sirius did. Peter
came after about five minutes and he was heavily panting, even though he could
only manage what the others considered jogging.
'Can you hear that?' asked James once everybody had his or her breath back.
'No, what?' asked Sirius automatically. He was red in the face but not panting.
'Well…it's sort of a hushed whisper' James described. His ear tilted towards
the statue. 'It's loudest from here.'
'I can hear it too, it's saying "Potter"' Lily said informatively, Sirius
looked left out.
'Yeah!' James said, pausing to listen again. 'I swear, someone is calling out
Potter!'
'Maybe there is a secret passage behind there' Sirius said slyly. They had
discovered the route to the kitchens and a few secret passages through their
two and a half years at Hogwarts, and they had also discovered the Hufflepuff
Tower, a prefect had come out from behind a statue and he looked absolutely furious
with himself. He had tied to take points of them for being in their corridor,
but he couldn't as Professor McGonagall walked by from one of the classrooms
and stopped him.
James nodded in agreement, still listening.
'Potter!' it came again.
'What do you want?' James asked the voice.
'Dissendium!' the voice said into his head. Peter had already gone back down
stairs. He had a bruise on his leg and a cut arm. His quill had scratched him.
'Dissendium?' said James out loud, disconcerted. Before he knew it, the
One-Eyed Witch had moved to the side and there was a vast hole in the wall,
it was raised about two and a half feet of the ground.
'Well?' said Sirius, giving James a little push. 'Let's go!'
'Coming Lily?'
She grinned and refused the help James offered her, vaulting into the hole.
The wall slid shut.
'Look!' James said, pointing towards a little, thin line of light coming from
behind the wall.
'D'you think there's a door there?' asked Sirius whispering.
'Dunno!' said James, shrugging, his eyes alive with mischief.
They walked to the small, cramped and carved door. They all got their wands
out.
'Hello?' James called through the wall/door under the small fire lamp. The
light flickered as he moved back to avoid getting hit in the face by the
moving door.
'You was calling sir?' squeaked a very old house elf.
'Yes, I was' James said, like he was talking to an old friend but couldn't
remember that friends name. 'Sirius, help me!' he hissed out of the side of
his mouth. Lily caught this and she seized the situation firmly by the throat.
'Yes, we were looking for someone who talks through the One-Eyed Witch. Could
you please take us to your master?' she said firmly and kindly. James looked
at her and winked. She rolled her eyes but smiled back.
What they were expecting wasn't what they got. There they found and extremely
unfit and pale man, walking with a slight limp. He wasn't runty, but he definitely
wasn't fat. He looked almost identical to James except James was almost as tall
as he was. His hair was thinner and much greyer, almost a pewter colour. His
face had collected a long beard, which was becoming very straggly and knotted,
his frame was sagging, and maybe this was because his head would scrape across
the roof of the very low ceiling.
'Who-who are you?' James stammered, taking in every detail of the mans appearance.
'I' he said, looking from Sirius to Lily and then resting his eyes upon James,
'I am Dominic Potter!'
James stifled a gasp.
'We thought you dead!' James said, after recovering. 'Killed, murdered by some
lunatic, sixty years or more ago!'
'Sixty' the man, Dominic, growled, stroking his greying beard.
'You've been here for sixty years?' James faltered.
'Yes, I am bound here by a charm I need a Potter to help me. I need to find
a Miller, I need a flute and I need to find the dagger that killed all those
people' he said, his voice was raising slightly, as though he was trying not
to dare to be hopeful.
'Why didn't you-you get my father to set you free? He was here twenty years
ago, he would have set you free!' James said, confusion setting itself firmly
in his brain.
'I tried' he said, somewhat (wouldn't you be?) bitter. 'He wouldn't come, not
a natural troublemaker…but you! You are a Potter all right, not that your pappy
wasn't' he added hastily seeing James open his mouth. 'But he just wasn't that
inquisitive…like not cheeky enough.' He explained.
'What about you?' James asked, intrigued.
'Me? I was getting into trouble from my first day!' he said proudly, his eyes
shining as he reminisced the past.
Sirius nudged James, 'Like us eh?' he said affectionately.
James winked at his friend then went back to Dominic.
'So, why are you in here and why are we in here and most importantly, where does
this tunnel lead?' James asked his long lost uncle, there was something shining
in his eyes, so queer that even Sirius couldn't read it!
'This passage goes into Hogsmeade, the village, so you can go anytime you like…I'm
in here, charm bound because I discovered something accidentally, something
very terrifying, something that was hushed by Dippet so that even the parents
didn't know, except, of course, the victims and mine and Millers.'
'Why were you calling out my name?' James asked, still wanting some answers,
Sirius was looking as he always did before a prank and Lily was looking at
James.
'Because I need your help if I want to be free again' he elucidated, looking
at James sternly from under his brow.
'So why the whispers?' James asked.
Dominic opened his mouth but Lily cut across him.
'Why could I hear them too?' she said, looking a bit disconcerted.
'Aah' Dominic said, his eyes shining with a dizzy, giggly pride. 'James's mother
could hear my voice too, do you know why? Have you figured it out?'
Lily looked blank, searching for something but James had figured it out already,
Sirius got it just as James opened his mouth.
'Because she is a Potter too' they said synchronically, they looked at each
other and laughed, Dominic and Lily joined in; Lily with a half-hearted giggle
and Dominic with a hearty, booming laugh.
'That's right' Dominic said after the laughter had died down.
'So' James said, looking very, very worried at Lily; heaving a mist of sweat.
'I am going to marry Lily Evans?' Sirius snorted and sniggered. James thought
it was better to keep his mouth shut rather than to face the matchmaking activities
that Sirius would course them through for the next four years of their life.
Lily was looking slightly flushed, blushing a very pale red, her eyes would not
settle on James for more than a second.
'That's right!' Dominic said cheerfully, not realising what the problem was.
'He he he' Sirius muttered to James from the side of his mouth, daring to glance
at him every few seconds, often to catch him looking at Lily.
'Sirius!' Lily would shriek every time Sirius snorted with laughter at James.
'Okay' James said looking and sounding business-like. 'How do we help you to
freedom?'
A/N: Okay! Here is part One, even though it is chapter two! Thanks to the Dreamkeeper
who was my sole reviewer at the time I wrote this, keep pulling them in!
Disclaimer: I own nothing! (Exceptions: Jenny, Fiona, Cheyenne, Dominic, the house-elf,
characterisations and plot)