JAMES POTTER AND THE THREE DOOR CORRIDOR: YEAR 4
by Professor Odysseus
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James read the Daily Prophet every day. He watched WNN, the news station, also. There was news of disappearances almost every day. And everyone knew why. There was a dark lord named Voldemort. He had started a killing spree, which had started with James' favorite teacher Professor Banks and James' friend Taylor Hitchcock. He had killed another dozen wizards over the summer. All wizards were scared of this new dark lord.
Despite the fear and tragedies of the Wizarding world, James and his best friend Sirius Black were in James' bedroom.
"I think," said James, munching on a Chocolate Frog. He looked at the list of Hogwarts supplies. "That our parents won't let us in Diagon Alley by ourselves!"
"Oh, boy! You're so smart, James!" Sirius said, sarcastically. "Come ON! After what happened last year? When we were trapped in Gringotts for a whole day? And with Voldemort on the loose?"
James nodded. "Yeah, you're right!"
"We're all going tomorrow to Diagon Alley, right?" Sirius asked. James nodded. Sirius reclined on his sleeping bag. He was staying at James' house while his parents were at Sirius' aunt's wedding. They both went to sleep. James forced his dreams away from Voldemort and onto the cruise the Potters and the Blacks were taking before school started.
Early the next morning, they awoke and went to Diagon Alley. Mr. & Mrs. Potter followed closely behind James and Sirius. James looked at his list. He pointed to Flourish and Blott's Bookstore, where James and Sirius bought their new textbooks. In Madam Malkin's Robes for all Occasions, James and Sirius each bought three new black robes. James' dress robes had a giant rip in them, since at the Christmas Party last year, they had torn, when Voldemort came and crashed their banquet. Sirius helped James pick out a new dress robe. James saw it and pulled it off the rack. It was very expensive. It was midnight blue with a high white collar and white cuffs. It was made out of silk and came with a matching cashmere cloak.
"Well, you do get the cloak too" James' mother said, as she looked at it.
"And it IS rip and stain proof, which is what he needs" Mr. Potter said. In the end they agreed to buy it.
Moving on to the last store, the apothecary, James and Sirius refilled their potion kit. Suddenly, as they were paying, someone let out a scream from the street. As James and Sirius stuffed the potion kit in their bags, they ran outside. James saw a flash of green light, then he saw people sprawled out in the middle of the street, dead. And you can imagine how that tied up traffic! The Minister of Magic and his crew came running onto the street. As they carried the dead off of the street, there was a loud bang. The tallest building in Diagon Alley, which was the Ministry of Magic Headquarters suddenly, exploded. Rubble fell from the building as it collapsed onto the shops below. There was screaming, as people fell from the windows of the Ministry building. James and his parents and Sirius sprinted to the grate, where they suddenly appeared in the Potter house.
The next day, Sirius' parents returned. They began to pack for their cruise, which was in two days.
On July 27, 1974, the Potters and the Blacks went to the docks on Diagon Alley. The seaman put their suitcases on carts. He took out a wand and zapped the carts away. As they walked up the gangplank onto the ship, the S.S. Esmerelda. The Potters and the Blacks had tea on their promenade. At noon, the ship began to cast off. They opened the windows on their promenade and waved at the crowd, who was watching the ship go. As James wiped his mouth with the napkins marked "Wizard Cruises: Making Cruises Magic, Literately!"
He and Sirius went shuffling along the decks that night, wrapped in warm winter cloaks, the night on the water was cold. Their parents were in their area of the promenade, having tea. James' mother had told him to wear his winter cloak; she was wearing her fur cloak. They had finally given and taken their cloaks. James put his thoughts to the fun that he had had today. He and Sirius had gone swimming and played Quidditch in the indoor Quidditch field.
The moon was out and the dim light from it vaguely lit the deck. James and Sirius leaned over the railing. Suddenly, a jolt almost knocked them overboard. The jolting didn't stop there. It was almost as if there was an earthquake on the ship, although the water was as calm as a sheet of glass. There was a flash of light. Voldemort was floating outside of the promenade. All of the nighttime strollers suddenly screamed and went running in all directions. James and Sirius went running to the stern, along the promenade. Like a machine gun, Voldemort fired curses. He kept missing them, sending the curses through the promenade windows and firing into the side of the ship. James and Sirius kept running towards the stern, James could see the Aft Well Deck ahead. He quickly threw open the door and he and Sirius ran through, slamming it closed after them. A curse struck the door, making a huge hole in it. They ran down the Aft Stairwell, which was beautifully decorated with white marble floors and cedar paneling. There was a beautiful marble and mahogany grandfather, which James almost knocked over, when he slid down the stairs. They came to a dead end. James was upset; he pounded on the wall. The panel opened. Downstairs, there were house-elfs. They were shoveling coal into the boilers, which made the ship go.
"Hello, sirs!" they squeaked, as James and Sirius raced through the boiler rooms. James grabbed open a plain white door and they ran down the plain staircase with ugly metal rails. They were in the cargo hold. Quickly, James grabbed his trunk and Sirius', that were in the corner. They grabbed their broomsticks and blasted off in the cargo. James quickly ducked, as he flew under a low rafter. They flew until they came to their staterooms. Locked.
"Alohomora!" James said. The door flew open. It was empty. Then James remembered they were having tea on the promenade. James opened the door to the promenade. He gasped at what he saw. There was a board, hanging from the bottom of the door, with a piece of a fur cloak. James gasped. The promenade was gone. It had been blown off by Voldemort. James and Sirius quickly ran up to the top deck.
"ACCIO!" James and Sirius yelled at the top of lungs. Suddenly, the Potters and the Blacks came jetting onto the top deck. They had made it in a niche of time; it looked as if they were all on their last gulp of air. They were soaking wet.
"What happened?" James asked, once his parents had regained their breath.
"We were having tea on the promenade, when the promenade shook and dropped into the sea!" Mr. Potter said.
"And my cloak got stuck on a piece of wood, but the cloak ripped. We were trapped under a piece of the deck!"
"Voldemort!" James said. "He's here!" Mrs. Potter and Mrs. Black both fainted simultaneously into their husband's arms. Once everyone was conscious, Mr. Black spoke.
"We have to get off the ship!" he said.
"How?" Sirius asked. "We don't have any floo powder and we can't apparate yet!" Suddenly, their door blasted open. It was Voldemort. He shot a curse, smashing the outside wall. There was a huge hole, then *gulp* the water. James quickly pushed his parents onto his broom; Sirius did the same. Then they pilled on, shooting off into the sky, dodging every curse. Voldemort yelled in frustration. The ship exploded into a million pieces, as did everyone and everything else on the ship. James felt a knot in his stomach. The ship was gone within three seconds.
They didn't stop flying until they were home. The next weeks were a blur. James, Sirius and their families were traumatized by the experience on the cruise. Soon, it was September 1st. James and his parents and Sirius and his parents all walked to the train platform, until students surrounded James and Sirius. Their parents didn't leave until their chariot to the castle had left.
James and Sirius were among the first to get to Hogwarts. James and Sirius waited in the courtyard, both sitting on small stone pillars. As they waited for Remus Lupin, Peter Pettigrew and Lily Rolins, they just sat talking. Then James looked down. He jumped up in an instant.
"Sirius!" he said. Sirius looked down and jumped up as well. On the pillars were small inscriptions. On the first on it read:
"Rest in Peace:
Professor R.W. Banks
1948-1974"
On the second one, it read:
"Rest in Peace:
Taylor R. Hitchcock
1959-1974"
James looked up from the pillars to Sirius. He had gone white. Professor Banks and Taylor Hitchcock were both killed by Lord Voldemort the previous school year. The tombstones began to shake as Professor Banks' head stuck out of the tombstone.
"Hi, boys!" he said, smiling. James and Sirius screamed. Turning around, they saw Taylor's head doing the same. Soon, Professor Banks and Taylor were both chasing them around.
"STOP!" Taylor called. James and Sirius didn't know why, but they stopped.
"Professor Banks! Taylor! You're, DEAD!" James said. Taylor and Professor Banks shrugged.
"Yeah? So?" Taylor asked, as if it was no big deal.
"Look at Professor Binns!" Professor Banks said. "Now we have something in common! Although Nearly Headless Nick is more fun to hang around with"
"But- but!" James began.
"Your animagi potion is gone. It spilled when it fell in the lake! Oh and it has a niche right under the buttons!" Taylor said. James looked at Taylor. He actually looked through Taylor.
"Gotta run!" Taylor said. "See ya later! Like in the afterlife!" He and Professor Banks flew back into their gravestones.
Remus and Peter came up to them.
"HEY!" Remus said.
"Professor Banks and Taylor! We just saw them!" James said. Remus fell to his knees laughing.
"No. REALLY!" Sirius said. "They were GHOSTS!" Remus stopped laughing.
"But they're dead" Remus began.
"WE KNOW THAT!" James yelled.
"Okay! OKAY!" Remus said. "Calm down! What did they say?"
"Taylor told us our animagi potion is gone, when it fell in the lake! And it had a niche under the buttons!" They walked up to their dorm. Their large cauldron, that was self-stirring, was over turned. It was empty. James, Sirius, Peter and Remus picked it up and looked at the buttons. Underneath it was a little niche. Remus turned green.
"You're right!" he stammered. They quickly ran down to the Sorting Ceremony. As they walked in, the hat erupted into song.
"Oh, there once was guy,
Who made me cry,
Then Gryffindor took me in,
And I was a king-pin!
I sort all firsties, big and small,
I sort those first years, I sort them all!
I sort them into houses of four,
This song isn't over, there's still more!
I sort 'em into Gryffindor,
Those who are brave,
I sort 'em into Ravenclaw,
Those who are smart,
I sort 'em into Hufflepuff,
Those who are loyal,
I sort 'em into Slytherin,
Those who are sly,
I've sorted students everywhere,
Yes, I've sorted them here and there,
I will sort you today,
Put me on, not too hard, or I'll break, I may!
I am a pro,
Where you go,
Is what I know!
I'm a scabby hat,
I'm an old and shabby hat,
But I'm really phat!
I know how to sort,
It's what I do best!
Hey look! The first years come in from port!"
Everyone applauded and the hat bowed. It was true. The first years didn't come on chariots. They sailed across the lake with Hagrid, the giant gamekeepers. The first years and Hagrid came in from a side door in the Great Hall. Professor McGonagall began calling names of first years. The sorting hat then picked their house. Soon, it was done and food popped up on golden dishes. James helped himself to some potatoes.
"You saw ghosts?" a voice asked. James turned his head around to see Lily Rolins. James swallowed his potatoes.
"Hi!" he said.
"You saw ghosts?" she asked again. She grabbed his sleeve.
"Excuse me!" James said to Sirius, Remus and Peter. Lily pulled him into the entrance hall.
"You saw GHOSTS?" she asked. James nodded.
"Can we go back in the Great Hall now?" he asked. Lily shook her head.
"No. What ghosts?" she said. She seemed worried.
"Just the ghosts of Taylor and Professor Banks. No big deal!" James said. He suddenly realized how unconvincing his choice of words had been.
"You saw GHOSTS!" she said.
"Okay. Yes. I did. Me and Sirius!" James said. He tried to walk back into the Great Hall. Lily stopped him.
"Listen, James! This is bad!" she said. James shook his head.
"How is it?" James asked.
"James! You're seeing ghosts!" Lily said, hugging him. She kissed him. They walked out of the Entrance Hall, into the Great Hall. Dumbledore began his announcements.
"I would like to say that all students are not to leave the grounds unattended, since Voldemort is on the loose. Now, we are perfectly safe here on campus!" Dumbledore added. McGonagall held up the Daily Prophet.
"And everyone knows after Dumbledore banished Voldemort last year, Dumbledore is the only one that Voldemort is scared of!" she said. Everyone applauded. Dumbledore blushed.
"And also, fourth years or above who would like to apply to be a prefect, please give your name to the suit of armor on floor three!" Dumbledore said. "A prefect needs to be someone who has rarely gotten in trouble and has good marks. And fourth years and above may apply for Head Boy or Head Girl. See the painting of Sir Cadogan on floor 7! Now, they must have excellent grades, the best grades out of all of the applicants! Now, return to your dorm!"
James and Sirius went up to the dorm and fell asleep.
The next morning, Sirius and James woke up extra early, they were working on their potion. It was going along well. Suddenly there was a loud call from the window. James and Sirius yelled and turned around. Taylor was floating by the window.
"Hey!" he said, floating over to the cauldron. "Good. You're getting it started again. His watch beeped. "Gotta run!" he said. "I'm teaching Nearly-Headless Nick to play basketball! Then we can verse Professor Banks and Peeves!" He zoomed out through the closed window. James and Sirius continued stirring until Remus and Peter woke up. Then they got dressed and left for potions.
Severus threw an exploding card. It hit James' cauldron and it exploded, shattering pieces of pewter. The pewter littered the dungeon. Professor Snape bared his teeth.
"Reparo!" James said. The cauldron fixed itself. Severus smiled as Professor Snape gave James a detention. James grabbed a dungbomb and threw it at Severus' cauldron. It exploded. Professor Snape glared at Severus. He gave Severus a detention. James could sing! But he didn't, because it would be very embarrassing, to break out into song during potions. Potions ended. Finally! James thought.
As he dragged his books upstairs at the end of the morning classes, he made a wrong turn. He leaned himself against a wood panel next to a painting of a magnificent castle corridor. He screamed as he fell deeper, deeper He landed with a thump. He screamed as a figure landed on top of him. Someone else screamed. James threw the figure off of him.
"Watch it!" said a familiar voice.
"Lily?" he said, shocked. Lily picked herself up. There was a rip in her backpack. Her books were littered the stone floor. Suddenly they heard a piercing scream. They both looked up, expecting to see someone dropping from the ceiling. No one came. The scream continued. It came from behind a door. James and Lily left their bags and books on the side of the room. The door was rotten; the wood had turned black and had mildew growing on it. James grasped the brass doorknob and pulled. The door was in James' hand. James threw it down on the stone floor and began walking down a corridor. The walls were covered with mold from the ceiling to the floor. The stone floor was chipped and cracked. Lily quickly followed behind him. The corridor got darker.
"Lumos!" James and Lily both said. Their wands lit up. James and Lily quietly walked through the corridor. He heard voices coming from behind a wall. As James and Lily walked on, they saw a row of three doors. The doors shuffled themselves like it was a deck of cards. James and Lily took the middle one. The corridor gave a giant lurch and Lily and James shot through the painting.
"How'd you get there?" James asked.
"See, for my art class, we have to copy a painting from the castle. I saw this one and it was really nice! I was looking at it and my bag ripped. As I picked it up, I hit my head and I zapped up there!" Lily said. She picked up her book, which was outside the painting. She also picked up a portfolio, obviously which was her art class homework. They're backpacks had miraculously appeared on their backs. They said goodbye and James ran up to his dorm. The potion was bubbling, but it wasn't on self-stir. Taylor was stirring it. His see-through arm was clutching a wooden spoon.
"HEY!" he said. He continued stirring. Professor Banks was floating around the cauldron, looking at it.
"No, no, NO!" Professor Banks said. "We need more lotus root not newt tails!" He grabbed a salt shaker and shook it in the potion. James threw his bag on his bed. He told them about the secret corridor and the three doors.
"There is a legend!" Professor Banks said. "Nick told me about it! The legend of the Three Door Corridor. Boy, was it creepy! See, there was once a man, who painted all of the paintings in the castle. He was measuring the wall for a painting, when he was zapped in. He walked down the stone corridor, just like you did. He came to the three doors, one is home, one is death and one is your worst nightmare. That painter was one of the best ever: Pierre-Simon Augustus. He wandered into the passage and got death. His life was sucked away from him like a straw sucking soda. No one really knows what happened, except that Augustus was last seen next to that panel. Then, here comes Hogwarts professor. He was leaning against the panel. Boom! He got worst nightmare. He told me that the goal is to make it to the back door, then you're home! He didn't make it and he was beheaded. Well, almost. But all of this is just a legend! Or is it? Nearly Headless Nick was that professor!"
James turned white. "Really?" he asked. Professor Banks nodded. He reclined inside the potion.
"Uh, Professor? You can die from being in there too long"
Professor Banks shrugged. "I'm already dead! Ahhh, feels like a Jacuzzi!" He zapped out. "Don't worry!" Professor Banks said. "I mean, the last person to go in there was Nick and that was about 475 years ago!"
"No!" James said. "The last people to go in there were me and Lily! Just ten minutes ago!"
Sirius walked in. "Hey!" he said. James told him about the three-door corridor. Sirius gasped.
"You know what we should do? We should see Nick!" Sirius said.
James and Sirius walked down to the common room, where Nick was in front of a mirror, adjusting his collar.
"Nick?" James asked.
"Oh, hi James!" Nick said. "What can I do for you?"
"Well" James said. "What do you know about the three door corridor?"
Nick turned white. "Not here!" he whispered. "Follow me!" He jetted down the hallway so fast; James and Sirius were running at full speed to keep up. Suddenly, they came to a small shed. James sat down on a small stool.
"No chance of anyone overhearing this!" Nick said. "So, about the three doors, see, there is a small room, the entranceway. I fell down through a panel on the third floor. Next to the painting of the castle corridor. See, I think that painting is the same corridor, only years before. The corridor isn't part of the castle, but another world, another land It is just so awful to think about it!" He shivered at the very thought. "Anyway, the doors shuffled themselves. Before they were shuffled, there were signs: 'Home' then there was 'Death' and then the last was 'Worst Nightmare.' And so, the signs disappeared. Then the doors began to shuffle. I thought I was going back home, but I went into worst nightmare. The goal is to get the door in the back of the room. But there was a revolution! Or rebellion or something! The grabbed me and magically tied me to the beheading machine and- here I am!" His head swung off of his neck. He pushed it back on. "However, if you make it past the worst nightmare, you get to be free!"
Within September, October and November nothing with the three-door corridor, James was avoiding it. Then, in December, James was in the hallway. He had just asked Lily to the annual Yule Ball on Christmas Eve. Then he felt a hand on his shoulder. He jumped. It was Rob, the Quidditch captain. He hustled James onto the Quidditch field. Inside the Gryffindor locker rooms, James saw no new players.
"Hi! I'm Rob Tanner!" Rob said. "Now! Here's our official player list for the school year of 1974-1975!" Rob cleared his throat. "Seeker: Rob Tanner. Beaters: Sue Gregory and Taylor Hitchcock!" A fourth year with dark hair and dark brown eyes stood up. "Chasers: Jonathan Miller, Dave Charleston and Liz Desson!"
"WHAT?" everyone asked in unison. "Taylor is DEAD!"
"You read last year's list!" said Sue.
"HI!" Taylor said. Everyone screamed. "What?" he asked. Everyone screamed again. James, the one not screaming walked up to Taylor.
"Let me handle this!" he said. "EVERYONE! Taylor is a ghost. Obviously he is playing again this year!"
"Yeah and look at this!" Taylor said. He grabbed his beater bat and a bludger came shooting at him. Instead of hitting it with his bat, he just stood and waited. The bludger flew through his head. Everyone applauded.
"But can a ghost play on a team?" Jonathan asked. Rob shrugged. Madam Hooch came into the locker rooms.
"Hey! Madam Hooch?" Rob asked. "Can a ghost play on our team?" Whatever Madam Hooch was expecting, that wasn't it.
"W-well, if he's a Gryffindor student" she began. The team started cheering.
After their practice, James walked with Taylor, who was floating a foot above the ground.
"Have to finish my homework!" he said.
"You still have work?" James asked.
"Yup! I have my regular classes, then I have Ghost Studies. We learn all about ghosts and how to haunt places! It's really cool!"
"There's a ghost class?"
"'Course! Maybe I'll haunt a house someday" Taylor looked fond. He sniffed and wiped his nose with a handkerchief, which was the same pearly white color as he was. "Being dead does have its perks!" he said. "See, I don't have to worry about doing anything dangerous because I'm already dead! And I'll be around forever!" he said. James noticed a slight bit of pain in his voice. James could tell that his dream was to be alive once again.
Once back up in Gryffindor tower, James began putting ingredients in the animagi potion, which needed a lot of tending. After that, he began work the common room with Sirius.
"So, Sirius?" James asked.
"What?" Sirius asked, looking up from his homework.
"About the three door corridor" James began. Sirius quieted him.
"James! We have to get through our homework first!" Sirius shook his head and began working. James was bored with his homework.
"Sirius! Want to play exploding snap?" James asked. Sirius shook his head. James suddenly had an idea.
"So, Sirius! Want to go into Hogsmeade and get some stuff from Zonko's?" James asked. Sirius' eyes lit up and he smiled.
"Sure!" Sirius said. They both ran up to the dorm and grabbed the Marauder's Map and the invisibility cloak. They both tiptoed through the common room and they waited for the fat lady to swing open. They quickly dived through. James took the map from his robe pockets and showed Sirius which was they were going. They were on the third floor. James looked at the map. The mark marked "Sirius Black" and "James Potter" were pointing a wand with a speech bubble "Ladjokah!" James said it the best he could and the mirror swung open. They walked through the passageway and opened a door. They were in a small, dark room. James opened two doors. James realized the secret passageway was a storm cellar. It was overgrown. It was behind Zonko's Joke Store. James saw the back door, but he thought it was better to go through the front. Taking off the invisibility cloak, they walked around the building and inside Zonko's. After replenishing their bag of jokes, they walked towards the door. The silence was broken by a high pitched scream. James and Sirius ran to the window. Someone was lying dead in the middle of the street, with Voldemort's Dark Mark hovering above him. James and Sirius gasped in unison. Suddenly, the porch collapsed. The window shattered, sending Sirius and James darting backwards. James and Sirius screamed. James had an idea.
"Sirius! We have to get back to school! That's where we're safe!" James and Sirius put on the invisibility cloak and ran through the back room of Zonko's. The back door was locked.
"Alohomora!" James whispered. The door blasted open. James and Sirius ran over to the storm cellar. The doors were stuck.
"Hurry!" Sirius whispered, as James tried again and again to wretch open the doors. James broke open the doors and they dived into the cellar. James felt around for the door leading into the passageway. James found it and pulled it open. He slammed it behind him and Sirius and he started running into the castle. Getting into their common room, they finished their homework and went to bed.
The next morning was Christmas Eve. James had almost forgotten all about it, aside from the fact he had done his Christmas shopping. At 5:00, James and Sirius put on their dress robes. James was wearing his expensive robes midnight blue robe with the high white collar. As they walked into the common room, they saw Taylor swoop down.
"Taylor?" James said. "You're going to the Yule Ball?"
"Of course!" Taylor said. "Have to go and pick up my date. She's a ghost that lives above Honeydukes! Oh and I hear Dumbledore's not going to be here! He's in New York at a Order of Merlin Convention!" Taylor swooped away, out of the room. Sirius and James sat in front of the fire on armchairs. Ariel Linderson, a girl in Gryffindor, came up to them. She was going with Sirius. They exited the common room. Lily came down the girl's staircase. She was wearing sweeping velvet emerald green robes. She had a large diamond necklace on.
"Hello!" she said. They both exited the common room. James and Lily walked down to the Great Hall. As they opened up the large doors, James saw the beautifully decorated Great Hall. In the center, was a parquet dance floor. Surrounding that were dozens of small, two person tables. They were covered with white tablecloths. There were little white menus with golden trim. James saw the staff table. Dumbledore was not there, as Taylor had said.
A wizard led Lily and James to their table and they sat down. They picked up their menus and James shot off green and red sparks from his wand; what it said on the bottom of the menu to get a waiter. A waiter came running over and took their orders. The music started up and Lily and James began dancing. As they saw the waiter bring their food, they sat down and ate. The lights went out. After five seconds, the lights came back. They weren't the same lights. They were green. The windows shattered and the decorations fell down. Voldemort walked in. He appeared to be alone. Walking up to Lily and James' table, he shattered the vase on their table. The flowers fell limply onto the tablecloth. James tried to remain calm, as he felt Voldemort's breath on the back on his neck. Lily screamed. Voldemort stepped away from James and he waved his wand. A cyclone appeared in the middle of the dance floor. It grew until it was almost to the top of the Great Hall ceiling. It spun around the room, knocking down beams from the ceiling. Dust from the ceiling came down on everyone.
"Lily!" James whispered. "It's coming our way!" He grabbed Lily's hand and dived aside, as the cyclone reduced the table to dust. Lily's hair, which was up when they had come to the ball, was now sticking straight back from the wind. A curtain blew onto James' face. He grabbed it and threw it behind him. Still holding onto Lily's hand, he tried to get to the door. The wind was overpowering. James actually went backwards an inch or two. He and Lily walked into the wind, curving a tiny bit. They quickly jumped out of the open window. The landed in the tulip border below. The Great Hall from the outside looked just as distressed as the inside had. Christmas tree ornaments were flying out of the windows. Suddenly, the tree came pummeling through the wall.
"Hang on!" James said to Lily. "I'm going back in!" James ran up to the Christmas Tree-shaped hole and ran through, Lily at his heels. The cyclone had destroyed mostly everything. Suddenly, then a piece of ceiling shot down onto the dance floor. Dumbledore came flying in on a broomstick. Dumbledore raised his wand as Voldemort, who was clutching something shiny, disappeared.
"And stay out!" Dumbledore said. Everyone applauded. Lily got up from the floor.
"Oh no!" she said. Her necklace with the large diamond was gone. The chain was still there, but the diamond was gone.
"Your diamond?" James asked. She nodded.
"We got it from a man secondhand, it was only 5 galleons. I guess he didn't know it was real!" she said. The Great Hall was now how it had looked right before Voldemort came in. Everyone still had their hair and clothes wrecked by the wind, but they all sat down at the table to have a bite to eat. At 2:30am, Dumbledore made everyone leave. James and Lily walked up to the tower.
"I had fun!" she said, once they were in Gryffindor tower.
"Well, goodnight then!" James said, as he walked up the boy's staircase.
* * *
Over the next few months, James, the animagi potion and his studies went well.
One day in April, James was sitting with his essay in front of the fire. He was about to dip his quill in ink, when Dumbledore's voice came over the PA system.
"I would like to announce next year's prefects and head boys and girls," James continued writing. "Gryffindor prefects are Sue Gregory and Sam Olliana!" Sue and her friends started screaming with delight. Sam Olliana, a fifth year, wasn't here. James saw Lily look slightly disappointed.
"Slytherin prefects are Bill Charis and Jan Peters!" Dumbledore said. "Ravenclaw prefects are Jessica Stanley and Oscar Larson! Hufflepuff prefects are Helen Heidlman and Brian LeJonesberg!" Dumbledore's voice paused. "And now for the head boy and head girl!" James bit into his apple and put his quill into the ink.
"Both from Gryffindor! Lily Rolins and James Potter!" Dumbledore said. "That is all!" James saw Lily and her friends dancing around. Then he passed out. James spilled ink all over his robe. His pointed hat fell off of his head.
James opened his eyes. He was in the hospital wing. He saw something looming over his head.
"HI!" Taylor yelled. James jumped and almost fell off of the bed.
"I'm Head Boy!" James said. He turned white again. "But I didn't-"
"Yes!" Taylor said, full of pride. "I put your name in! I knew you'd be too shy to put it in, so I took the liberty of putting it in for you!"
"Taylor, if you were alive, I'd strangle you right now!" James said.
"You know what?" Taylor said. "You can thank me later!" He zoomed out of the room. Madam Pomfrey walked in.
"Good!" she said. "I'm glad you're up!" She kicked him out. James still had ink down the front of his robes.
"Head boy!" Sirius said, teasingly.
"Taylor put my name in!" said James, growling.
"Oh well. Still, I'm surprised that YOU got it!" Sirius said, jokingly. James pushed him.
"You're right!" James said. "They must have forgotten to ask Filch about our own private file cabinet!" Sirius laughed. Every time someone got into trouble with Filch, he put their name on a slip inside the file cabinet. Sirius and James didn't have a WHOLE file cabinet, but they did have at least a drawer or two
"Congratulations!" Lily said. She was holding a badge marked "Head Boy" in one hand and "Head Girl" in the other. "Here!" she said, stuffing it into his hand. "We can't wear it until next year, though!" She walked away.
James spent the next month and a half studying for finals and working on the potion.
"It's about ready!" James said, stirring. He had come back from his first final. His watched beeped.
"Gotta go!" he said. "I've got my Arithmancy final!" He grabbed his backpack and ran down the hall.
James sat down at his desk, chewing on his quill, as he wrote down the answers. At last, the bell rang. Professor Vector, the Arithmancy professor stopped him.
"James!" said Vector. "You're a head boy now, eh?" Vector smiled and James gave a weak smile back.
He walked with Lily, who also had Arithmancy too. James and Lily soon got lost.
"Where are we?" Lily asked. James didn't say anything. Lily was walking next to the wall. She grabbed his hand with one of her hands and ran her other hand along the wall. She hit the panel. The hallway swung out from under them. They were in the three-door corridor.
James and Lily both took out their wands. Backpacks on their backs, they began walking. Taylor and Professor Banks swooped down.
"Hi!" they both said. James and Lily both waved. Taylor and Professor Banks walked next to them.
They came to the three doors. The doors shuffled. They all finally agreed on the left one. They walked through, one by one.
"Hello!" said a voice. It was a recording. "You have entered worst nightmare! Thank you for your patronage!" It started over. James saw the speaker, stuck out his wand and blew it up. As he stepped forward, he saw a flash of light. It was Voldemort!
Voldemort had a diamond. Lily's diamond from her necklace, that had been missing since Christmas. He put it on a tripod and everything was aligned. He moved the light towards where everyone was standing.
James and Lily ran to one side, Taylor and Professor Banks on the other. The door exploded. Voldemort grabbed a spray can and sprayed Taylor and Professor Banks with it. They screamed. James saw the can. It was marked "Ghost-B-Gone." James realized what Voldemort was up to. James ran up to Voldemort and knocked the can out of his hands from behind. The can continued spraying. James darted forward and tried to grab it. Voldemort was holding his feet.
"EXPELLIARMUS!" shouted Lily. James came flying out of Voldemort's hands. James grabbed the can, which was still spraying and threw it aside. Professor Banks and Taylor were still shrieking. They looked as if they were melting.
"Goodbye!" Taylor cried. Then, they became puddles. James felt a fresh surge of rage. He saw Voldemort, who was having Lily tied up. James untied Lily and they ran to the door. It was locked.
Voldemort positioned the diamond at the door. James and Lily dived aside. The door shattered open with Voldemort's curse. James and Lily darted through the door. They were home.
"Oh I am so glad!" Lily said. She was panting.
"Taylor and Professor Banks!" James said. "They didn't make it!" Tears came from Lily's eyes. She hugged him.
At the end of the year feast, Dumbledore announced that Taylor and Professor Banks' ghosts were gone. Mostly everyone was in tears. Dumbledore tearfully dismissed them. James and Sirius wheeled their trunks to the platform.
James kissed Lily goodbye. "Maybe you can visit me over the summer!" she said. "We live in New York now! Have you ever been to America?" James shook his head. Lily, Remus and Peter disappeared, as the train pulled away.