Chapter 29: More Bad News

Very early the next morning, we packed everyone's things, then climbed into dad's old car, bewitching it to fit all of us. We went to the train station first, dropping of Peter, then Erin. Then, we dropped off Lily in Surry, and finally, headed north to London to James' house on Diagon Alley.

"I'll help with your things," I said, grabbing some of Sirius and Addi's bags. We stepped out of the car and stood in front of the house. James was still inside, trying to get his things out of the car.

"What's that?" Addi asked me, looking up, above the house. I looked up, and what I saw shocked me. I felt my eyes grow wide with fright.

"It can't be," I said quietly. "No, not James' parents."

"What?" Addi asked. Sirius had noticed it too.

"The Dark Mark," he whispered, looking alarmed.

"Should we tell him?" I mouthed, pointing to James, who was still getting his things and hadn't seen it yet.

"What?" asked James, suddenly straightening up, bags in his hands. We fell silent. "What is it?" No one said anything.

"Well, I guess I'd better be getting…oh my god." James had seen it. "No!" he shouted. "No! This can't have happened! No!" James took off running towards the house.

"No! James, you can't go in!" I shouted, as Sirius, Addi and I took off behind him. James yanked open the front door and revealed the hall. Two lifeless bodies lay in it, James' dads nearer to the door, his mother's farther back the hall. While both of the bodies looked fine, besides the fact that they were dead, they both had wand in hand, looking frightened.

"Mum! Dad!" James cried. "NO!" He stood there, frozen, staring at the bodies of his parents. "No!" he still shouted. "Damn it! No! This wasn't supposed to happen!"

"Let's get out of here." We heard a voice at the doorway. Mum was standing there. "Come on, the ministry's arriving. Let's be going." We filed out the door, James last of all, staring back into his house. I looked at him. I knew what he must feel like. It's hard enough to loose one parent, but losing both at once, and knowing that they were murdered by a powerful dark wizard, it had to be terrible. Mum put her arm around James, comfortingly. We walked out into the small front yard, where ministry officials were now apparating in, with several small pops.

"Excuse me," said one of them, walking over to us.

"Yes?" said Mum.

"What are you doing here?" asked the official coldly.

"I was bringing James home," said mum.

"Oh," said the official, in a more kind tone. "Young Mr. Potter. Well, I'm terribly sorry. We'll all grieve the loss of your parents. Great wizard and witch they were. Never had a better Minister than your dad." He was weeping and turned to walk away.

"So who are you?" another official asked my mum. "And why was Mr. Potter with you?"

"Oh, I'm Sarah Lupin," replied mum. "My son Remus, over there, is friends with James. He was visiting, and I was just bringing him home. The other two kids were in James' parents custody as well."

"I'm afraid we'll have to take them, then," said the official. "We'll have to find them foster care."

"Oh, that's really not necessary," said mum. "They can stay with Remus and I."

"I'm sorry, but I can't let you take them," said the official.

"Please sir," spoke up Sirius. "We're going back to school in two weeks, and we'll all be seventeen soon. There's no use going through all the hassle of finding us foster homes for two weeks."

"Well, you've got a point there," said the official thoughtfully. "I'll tell you what, we'll just pretend that you never came here today. I'll tell the ministry that I was in contact with you, and that these three were supposed to be staying with you for the rest of the summer, Mrs. Lupin. How does that sound?"

"Great," I said, glancing at mum, who looked a bit unsure.

"Just one more thing then," said the official. He took Sirius and Addi's names for reference, then told us to get out of there before anyone else saw us.

"Master! Master James!" we heard a high pitched squeaking noise from behind us and turned around. A tiny house elf stood behind us, tears dripping out of its large ugly eyes, its ears drooping sadly. "Master James, I truly is sorry. Its all my fault they is dead! I was right there! I sees You Know Who and I says—I says you can't do anything to them! You must leave! But You Know Who doesn't fancy listening, he does. And all me fellow house elves, they be very bad—very, very bad! They joins You Know who so he doesn't hurt them. But me, I refuses. And then—and then—then he kills my family! Right in front of my eyes! I is so sorry Master James. I is bad, very, very bad. I deserves punishment, Master James!"

"No, no it's not your fault," said James. "I'm not angry at you in the least." Addi stared incredulously at the tiny creature, then bent and offered it a comforting hug.

"Aww, poor thing," she said as it clung around her neck.

"I've got something for you," said James. He pulled off his shoe, took off a sock and handed it to the house elf.

"You're free."

"I is free, Master James? I is free! I is going now," exclaimed the house elf. "I is going to meet you again someday, Master Potter. Thank you. You have no idea how happy you makes me. Goodbye." We waved half-hearted goodbyes to the heartbroken house elf.

The property was now completely swarming, both inside the house and out, with reporters and ministry officials. News was spreading rapidly throughout the wizarding world. Never had there been such a crisis. The Minister of Magic murdered by Voldemort; the news spread panic throughout Britain.

We headed back to my house in Wales, unable to think of anything else to do. James wouldn't speak, he wouldn't cry, he wouldn't do anything at all, except sit there wearing a shocked expression, his eyes wide.

"You all right, Prongs?" Sirius asked him. He nodded slightly, but otherwise didn't respond.

"I'm really sorry about what happened James," I said. "We know how you feel, though. It's hard to lose people."

"I hate Voldemort!" muttered James angrily. "I'll kill him someday! I'll get revenge!" I gave Sirius a look, and he looked back.

"Er, Prongs, that may not be the best idea," he said. Of course it wasn't a good idea, Sirius, so why'd you let Voldemort kill him? Why? James just shook his head and continued frowning. After a long car ride home, we unloaded James, Sirius, and Addi's things and put them back in the house. James sulked on the couch, though he still hadn't shed a tear. If I didn't know James as well as I did, I'd have thought he was taking the situation quite well. But I could always tell when something was upsetting James, and now it was quite obvious. Sirius knew it too. We sat around in my living room with him and tried to make him feel better. Not necessarily cheer him up, but at least make him show some sort of emotion, for we knew that he was holding everything inside. I knew that feeling, and it's hard. At that time, I would have felt better if James would have burst into tears, but he didn't. He wanted us to think he was that strong, but he wasn't fooling anyone. We all knew Mr. and Mrs. Potter, and they were the nicest parents you could have, and James loved them. I knew it was hard to loose a parent. I'd lost my dad only three weeks earlier, and I still felt tears come to my eyes at the thought of him. I knew James was suffering by acting like everything was okay.

"You know James, you're supposed to be upset," said Sirius. "They were your parents and you loved them. It's okay to cry. Would you believe that I cried when my dad died?" We'd never known Sirius to cry, and I guess he was trying to show James that if a tough guy like Sirius could cry, then it was all right for James to cry too. But he just nodded and sat frowning once again.

"Maybe we should let him alone for a while," I suggested quietly to Sirius and Addi. They agreed and we headed up to my bedroom, leaving James downstairs in the living room.

"I can't believe he murdered James' parents too!" said Addi, when we were in my room.

"Yeah," said Sirius rather solemnly. "But he's been getting a lot more powerful lately, Voldemort has."

"But why does he kill them?" asked Addi. "I mean, dad never said why he murdered mum, and then he killed him too."

"He wanted to kill me, remember Addi?" said Sirius. "That's why he killed mum and dad! Because he wanted to kill me! And he probably still wants to kill me!" Addi looked at him doubtfully, though I knew she'd heard that story before.

"It just makes no sense," I said. "Why did he want to kill you? Especially when you were like three days old the first time?"

"I guess I'll never know," said Sirius, shaking his head.

"So, do you think he wanted to kill James too?" asked Addi thoughtfully.

"Either that or…" Sirius trailed off.

"What?" I asked.

"Well, Addi and I were staying with James and his parents. Maybe Voldemort knew, and he was trying to find me and kill me," he said. "I got James' parents killed."

"I doubt that," I said, trying to convince Sirius that he hadn't gotten James' parents killed, though it did seem like a possibility. "I mean, how could have Voldemort known that you were staying there?" Sirius shrugged.

"I guess you're right."

"Well, then, the real problem right now is getting James to show his emotions. You can tell he's upset, but he won't do as much even get tears in his eyes," I said.

"Well, you know Prongs, so proud and all," said Sirius. "I reckon he just doesn't want anyone to know that he's upset. Like he can fool us." I nodded.

"So, how can we make him understand that it's okay to cry?" I asked. Sirius shrugged.

"What about Lily?" suggested Addi. "We should at least let her know what happened anyway."

"Good idea," I answered. "Do you want to go call her?" Addi shook her head.

"I don't want to have to tell her the bad news," she said.

"I'll do it," sighed Sirius, leaving the room to go use our Muggle telephone in the kitchen. He returned a few minutes later.

"Well, she was shocked to hear it," he said. "But she'll be coming early tomorrow. She said she wants to be here for James. Hopefully it'll help him to have her here."

"Maybe we should find James now," I suggested. They agreed and we went to the living room, expecting to find James, but instead we found only my mum, who was sitting, reading.

"Where's James?" I asked.

"Oh, he went up to the spare bedroom a while ago. I told him to. You've got a really upset friend there, and who could blame him? He's having a lot of trouble admitting to himself what happened. This has been really hard on him. I think the best thing you could do is leave him alone to think right now," said mum. I nodded.

"We've got Lily coming tomorrow. We hope she might be able to cheer him up," said Addi. Mum nodded.

"Good idea. Now why don't you three get off to bed? It's getting late. Addi, you can sleep down here since James took the spare bedroom. I'll get a cot."

"Okay, thanks Mrs. Lupin," said Addi.

The next morning, Lily arrived early. James still hadn't come out of the spare bedroom, so we immediately led Lily up to it. Frowning, she knocked on the closed door. No one answered.

"James?" she called. "James, it's me, Lily. Can I come in?"

"Yeah," a voice called. Lily pulled open the door. There sat James on the edge of the bed, still looking quite the same as he had before.

"Oh, James, I'm so sorry about what happened!" said Lily as she wrapped her arms around him. "James?" she asked, when he didn't answer.

"I'm glad you're here, Lil," he said quietly.

"Come on," Addi hissed, motioning for us to leave them alone. Sirius and I headed back to my room. We continued talking about James, wondering if Lily would have any effect on cheering him up.

We found out at dinner that night. James and Lily came down, and James' eyes were puffy and red, indicating that he'd been crying.

"He'll be fine," Lily told us quietly as they took a seat at the table. She kept a comforting arm around him as we had dinner. Mum wasn't up, she'd been feeling ill and went to bed early. That seemed to happen more and more often lately. So, Addi, Sirius and I had made dinner. Addi and I had let Sirius attempt to make the beef stew, which was obviously a mistake.

"Is beef supposed to be green?" asked Lily, as she ladled a scoop into her bowl. Sirius frowned.

"Er, of course it is," he said jokingly.

"Are you serious?" said James quietly, the slightest grin appearing on his sad face. We all laughed.

"Really, if Sirius' stew is that bad, try the pie Addi and I made," I said. "At least we can follow the recipe."

"Wow, you two can cook," said Lily, tasting it.

"Yeah, Moony," said Sirius. "If you and my sister ever get married, we're all going to move in with you because otherwise we won't eat. Erin and I are both hopeless at cooking."

"You think you're bad," said Lily. "You should see James trying to cook."

"We have," I said. "Him and Sirius together. You have to be careful though. It could easily be fatal."

"Hey!" said James and Sirius together. We all laughed. After that night, James seemed better. He was still grieving the loss of his parents, but at least he wasn't quiet and distant like he had been. Two days later, Lily had to go home, but promised to meet up with the rest of us in Diagon Alley the next week. The next day, mum informed us that a letter had come for James.

"James," she said. "This morning I got a letter from the ministry. They would like you to go sort through the things in your house today. Would you be willing to do it?" James frowned, but nodded determinedly.

"We can go with you if you want, James," offered Sirius, but James shook his head.

"No, I've got to do this on my own," said James. "I'll be fine, really. Shall I use floo powder, Mrs. Lupin?" He asked.

"Yes dear, if you don't mind," replied mum. "I'd drive you, but I'm afraid I'm not feeling so well lately."

"No, no, floo powder's fine," said James. "It's faster anyway." He took a deep breath and headed towards the fireplace. He took the small pot on the mantle and grabbed some floo powder. He took a deep breath and tossed it into the fire.

"Well, I guess I'll be back in a few hours," he said, struggling to keep a fake smile on his face. "The Potters!" he shouted, before disappearing into the flames.

"I hope he's all right," I said. "I wouldn't want to have to go through my parents old things."

"Maybe we should go after him," suggested Sirius.

"No," said Addi flatly. "He said he wanted to go alone, so we're going to let him."

Mum walked in the room, sipping from a mug of tea. She had gotten even worse looking than usual over the last few days. Her frizzy hair drooped around her wrinkled face. Her once bright blue eyes were now dull and colorless, surrounded by circles. She had lost a lot of weight and looked small and fragile.

"I'm going to go to bed," she said, barely above a whisper, sounding exasperated. "I'm not feeling so well again."

"Mum, I think we need to get the doctor," I said.

"Nonsense," croaked mum. "The money we've got, you're spending it in Diagon Alley on your school supplies."

"But mum, your health is more important," I insisted.

"I'll be fine, Remus," mum insisted. "Really, it's just a virus. Don't waste your time worrying about me. Now why don't you all go into town today for a while. You've had a rough time lately. Go have some fun." She headed up to bed. I shook my head.

"I don't know what to do for her," I said.

"Well, you tried to help," said Addi. "I guess that's all you can do."

"So, can we go into town?" asked Sirius. "I could go for traumatizing some muggle kids."

"Sirius!" said Addi, smacking his arm.

"Oh come on Addi," I said. "It is kind of fun."

"Want me to hit you too?" she threatened.

"You can't do that. I'm your boyfriend!" I said, running as she chased me across the room.

"Hey Moony, just for future reference, that excuse doesn't work!" said Sirius. "Believe me do I know." He added. Addi chased me around the room jokingly. I sat down on the couch and she came running after and sat down next to me, knocking me over.

"Going to hit me now, Addi," I asked, grinning, looking up at her.

"Of course not," she said smiling. I pulled her close and kissed her.

"Eww!" said Sirius jokingly.

"Hey Addi," I said. "Has anyone ever taught you how to play pitch black?"

"No!" said Sirius, running out the front door, Addi and I at his heels. We ended up going to town and traumatizing small muggle children at an ice cream parlor by making their ice cream fall off the cones, which Addi insisted was mean. Then Sirius bought ice cream, just so he could make it chase her, and finally got most of it in her hair. I got him back by carefully making an ice cream cone balance upside down on the top of his head like a hat, which Addi found incredibly amusing, as did most of the muggle children around. It took Sirius about five minutes to figure out what was so funny, and by that time, we had taken off running and were halfway back to my house.

When we got back, James still hadn't returned and mum was still sick in bed. We sat down to wait for James in the living room. After about ten minutes, the fireplace began to make the familiar noise of someone traveling by floo powder, and James appeared, carrying several large bags.

"Hey Prongs," said Sirius. But James didn't answer. He was ghost white and frightened looking, shaking all over. He turned and went up the stairs without even acknowledging us. I sighed.

"What do you think is wrong with him now?" I asked. Sirius shrugged.

"Seeing his parents things probably just stirred up some old memories."

"I guess you're probably right," I agreed.

"So, Addi the famous fixer of problems," said Sirius. "What should we do for him this time?"

"I don't know," she said thoughtfully. "I wonder if Lily would help this time."

"Well, she did the last time," I said. "But she just went home, and school starts in two days. I doubt she can come back again."

"We'll see everyone in Diagon Alley tomorrow though," said Sirius. And then two days after that on the Hogwarts Express."

"Yeah, everyone except for me," said Addi. "I've got to go to Clearglen. I miss all of you."

"Er, actually, you should probably be glad you're not there," I told her. "Your brother is completely crazy."

"Well, that's normal," she said, shrugging, as Sirius threw me a dirty look. I laughed.

"Anyway, though," I said. "You'll still come to Diagon Alley with us, right?"

"Yeah," said Addi. "I love it there. They've got the best stuff at some of those shops."

"You know, we're all going to be legal adults soon," said Sirius thoughtfully.

"Yeah, and some of us act it more than others," I said.

"Oh shut up," he said. "Really though, what do you think we're going to do?"

"Well, you, James and I all got scholarships to become aurors. So, I guess we will," I said.

"Yeah, and we'll all live in the same town, right next to each other," said Sirius.

"And soon it won't be a town at all," added Addi. "You'll have scared everyone away."

"Well, right now what we've got to worry about is figuring out what's wrong with Prongs," I said, changing the subject back.

"You know, Lily told me that her and James are head girl and boy at your school," said Addi.

"Really?" asked Sirius.

"You mean James didn't even tell you that?" asked Addi.

"Old Prongs must really be upset," said Sirius. I nodded.

"So, what do we do for him?"

"I don't know. Maybe we should just leave him alone. I can't believe him lately. He seems like a completely different person," said Sirius.

"Well, I guess things like that can change people. I just hope it's not permanent," I said.

"No, I'm sure we'll have the old Prongs back in no time. Just give him a few days," said Sirius. And that's what we did. James wouldn't talk to us, or even nod when we asked him something. He just sat there, with that distant, worried look that was so unlike James that it scared all of us.

The next day, we went to Diagon Alley, using floo powder since mum was still to ill to drive us. We offered to let James stay at my house and buy his things for him, but he silently followed us. We met up with Peter, Erin and Lily in front of Flourish and Blotts. Sirius and I pulled Lily aside for a few seconds to tell her about James. She just sighed and said she'd try to cheer him up, but she didn't know what to do for him. He seemed to be taking everything really hard. We stood back and watched as she walked over to him.

"Hi James," she said, smiling up at him. He had no reaction. It was as though he didn't even see that she was there. He just kept on staring off into the distance. "Are you all right, James?" she asked, taking his hand. She glanced back at us, looking puzzled. I shrugged.

"Well, why don't we go buy our books, since we're here?" suggested Sirius. We agreed and entered the shop. After buying six copies of every book we needed, we left. After that, we headed to the shop to get our new robes. Since they could only fit two people at a time for new robes, we had to wait outside. We let Lily take James in first. About twenty minutes later, they reemerged, carrying large parcels, Lily frowning slightly, and James still staring off looking worried.

"He didn't say a word the entire time," Lily told Addi and I quietly so that James wouldn't hear.

"You don't think there's anything really wrong with him, do you?" asked Addi.

"I think he's just taking his parents' deaths really hard," I said. Lily nodded.

"He doesn't want to admit it though," she said. "But I don't understand. I thought after I visited last week that he was getting better. At least he was talking then."

"Well, he did go to clean out his parents old things," I said. "I guess it upset him again."

"Hey Moony! Robes!" called Sirius. He and Erin had just come out of the shop, and Peter and I were getting ours last. After twenty minutes, we reemerged with new sets of robes for the year.

"Now what?" I asked.

"How about the quidditch supply store?" asked Lily, and I knew she was thinking that it would probably cheer James up.

"Okay. Good idea," I said. No one objected, so we went inside. James walked in and stared absentmindedly at the brooms on display. After Sirius spent nearly a quarter of an hour admiring a Lightning 500 broomstick, which was a lot more than any of us could afford, we left. James still looked the same as he had.

"Well, we still need some new supplies for our potions kits," said Lily, checking her list.

"Oh, and I could use some new quills and parchment," Erin added.

"Good idea," agreed Lily. "Is that everything then?" she asked.

"I think so," I replied, mentally going over the list of supplies.

"Can't we get some food first?" asked Sirius, spotting an ice cream shop.

"Oh no!" said Addi. "You're not getting ice cream after what happened last time!" Sirius laughed evilly.

"Yeah, why don't we go get some ice cream?" said Lily, taking James' arm and pulling him along. After we ordered, we sat down and began eating. I noticed James staring across the street at something, and I looked over, mentally smacking myself in the face when I saw that his house was easily visible from where we were sitting. Lily realized too, and frowned.

"James, going to eat your ice cream?" she asked pleasantly. James looked down at his bowl of ice cream and swirled it around with the spoon, not eating a bite.

"I'll take that if you don't want it, Prongs," said Sirius, who'd already finished both of the ice cream cones he'd bought. James slid it across the table at him silently. Lily sighed.

"James, I really wish you'd tell me if something's wrong," she said, resting her head on his shoulder. James slowly shook his head.

"It's nothing," he spoke in a slow monotone voice, and his eyes once again fixed upon his house.

"Well, why don't we go get those potions supplies?" suggested Erin suddenly. There was a murmur of agreement and we headed off for the store. After that, we made a quick stop for quills and parchment, and Sirius debated getting a Quick Quill so that he could sleep through class and still have notes. Finally he bought one, much to the envy of Peter, who hadn't brought enough money.

After that, we said goodbye to each other and Lily made yet another attempt to make James talk, which failed. Finally after a long hug and a reassuring smile, she left him to go with us.

"I just don't know what to do for him," she told me, looking worried. "Nothing can get through to him. I don't understand it."

"I'm sure he'll be fine soon, Lily," I told her, though I was starting to have doubts myself.

"Well, see you guys in two days," she said, forcing a smile and waving goodbye, and joining her mum in a car outside The Leaky Cauldron. Sirius, Addi, James and I took floo powder back to my house, and Erin took it back to hers. Peter was meeting his dad, who was coming to shop for a bit before they went home.

Seconds later, my living room began to form before us. We climbed out of the fireplace, carrying our parcels.

"So, Prongs, did you have a good time?" asked Sirius. But James was already halfway up the stairs, not acknowledging anything anyone said. We all exchanged glances and shook our heads.