Chapter Two: A Fresh Start
It was a bright and sunny morning when a most unwanted voice slammed into the brain of a sleeping boy. With jet black, messy hair, playful brown eyes, and a smile to make girls swoon, this boy was anything but happy. His mother was standing in the doorway of his room, yelling at him to get up.
"James Nigel Potter, you had better get yourself up this instant or I will forcefully drag you out of bed, and then put you in the bathtub, which, might I add, is filled to the brim with ice cold water." At the last part James groaned and then began to sit up, signalling that he was awake.
"I . . . am . . . up . . . Mum," he replied to her, yawning. After making sure that her son was going to stay awake, Nerida Potter left to prepare breakfast. James on the other hand was forcing himself to stay awake, knowing full well that if his mother came back and he was in bed, she would fulfil her threat. He dragged himself over to his closet, pulled on a pair of khakis and a white t-shirt, and shuffled to his mirror in an attempt to, once again, tame his unruly hair. Without any luck, James slowly stumbled down the stairs of his home, and into the brightly lit kitchen. After shovelling down a stack of pancakes and gulping down a glass of orange juice, he felt much more awake.
"Mum, I'm going to go outside and fly for a while, alright?"
"Have fun, dear, and don't cause any trouble," Mrs. Potter called after her son's retreating back.
James walked outside, and happily breathed in the fresh air, revelling in its fragrant smell. He swung his leg over his broom, and took off for the heavens. He loved the feeling of the air rushing through his midnight hair, sweeping it away from his face. He adored the freedom that he felt, up in his own world, away from all the tensions existing on the ground.
As the wind picked up, James raced towards the forest surrounding his house, urging the broom forward, pushing it to go faster. While whipping through the clear sky, James spotted two odd dots on the forest floor. Being the curious person that he was, James turned his broom around and dove towards the earth.
Softly landing on the ground, James slipped off his broom and crept towards the two forms. He was shocked at what he found. Curled up next to each other were two creatures that James would never expect to find in Britain. Sleeping just a few feet away from him were two powerful leopards, one a gorgeous white, the other a glossy black.
Not sure what do with the daunting animals, but knowing it would be dangerous to leave them alone, James quietly took out his wand, and muttered "Somnus." James them whispered, "Mobilicorpus," lifting them from the ground and floating them towards himself and his broom. He climbed onto his broom and slowly flew back to his home in search of his parents.
After placing the leopards on the ground outside his home, and binding them so that they wouldn't run away, James ran into his home. "Mum! Mum, come here. You won't believe what I found."
"James? What do you need? I'm in the living room," his mother replied. James raced into the room, and dragged her out to the backdoor.
"Mum, while I was out flying I found these two in the forest. I know that they don't live in England, so I wanted to know what we should do about them."
"Oh, my!" Mrs. Potter exclaimed. She stared in shock at the two animals. "I know of only two things that could explain this. The first is that they were brought here by muggles for a zoo and got free somehow. The other is that they are animagi. I am leaning towards the latter."
"Animagi?! Mum, I had to do a report on them at school. I looked up all the animagi that exist today, and there are only five. They were a cat, snake, sparrow, bear, and eagle. There were no leopards!" James replied quickly. He knew that there were at least three other illegal animagi running around Hogwarts, but he wasn't about to tell his mother that.
"Dear, they may be animagi illegally. We might as well check, there is no harm in trying." Mrs. Potter calmly replied. With that, she pointed her wand at the two sleeping creatures, and muttered a few words. A flash of blue light came out of her wand, encircling Archer and Lily.
Slowly, as if watching a movie, the two leopards began transforming back into their human selves. James gaped at the two teenagers sleeping peacefully in front of him. One of them was a beautiful girl around his age with deep red, curly hair. The other was a handsome boy, around the same age, with shimmery copper hair.
As James stood there, Mrs. Potter muttered a few more words, unbinding the two friends, and waking them from their sleep.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Lily and Archer groggily sat up, rubbing their eyes and looking around. When her eyes finally landed on the two people standing in front of her, Lily gasped, and elbowed Archer in the side. He looked at her, then in the direction of her gaze, and froze. Thoughts began rushing through the two teen's minds. OH BLOODY ####! What are we going to do? Who are they? Have we been kidnapped?! What is going on? We are in deep trouble! How are we going to get out of this? Maybe if we stun them we could run for it and . . .
Lily and Archer's thoughts were cut short when the beautiful woman in front of them spoke. "Well, dears, this has been quite an interesting day, and to think, it has only just begun. You both look famished. Why don't you come in and get something to eat? Oh yes, by the way, I am Nerida Potter, and this is my son, James. Come along now."
At those words the three teenagers moved into action. James snapped out of his shock, and Lily and Archer both rushed to their feet. Everyone followed Mrs. Potter into the house, sitting down at the kitchen table. Archer slipped into a chair with Lily gliding in next to him, across from them sat James. Mrs. Potter handed lemonade and a cookie to each person, sitting herself next to James.
Lily and Archer devoured the cookies, and gulped down the lemonade, carefully placing their glasses down on the spotless table. Once they were done eating, Mrs. Potter began to speak with a smile.
"Now that you are properly fed, would you care to tell us a little about who you are, and how my son came to find you?"
"Well . . . " Lily began, "My name is Lily, Lilith actually, and this is Archer. The two of us are travelling to visit our cousin, Joe." Lily gave Archer a sideways glance to make sure that he would play along. He gave her his answer by saying, "He lives near London. We were travelling through the forest when we must have fallen asleep, and that is probably where you found us."
"Quite interesting, I hope that you haven't had any trouble on your journey so far." Mrs. Potter responded.
James eyed the two, suspicious of them, knowing that they weren't telling the truth. Why didn't they mention they were animagi? Or about why they were travelling through the forest? There are better ways to travel.
Instead of voicing these opinions, he decided to take action. "Mum, I heard that there was a violent storm coming this way. It's supposed to arrive tonight. Maybe, if they wanted, Lily and Archer could stay here with us? I mean, there is no way that they would be safe out there. It is supposed to be the most dangerous storm to come here for the past ten years."
Mrs. Potter looked over at her son, searching his face. The only expression she saw was an impassive one. Smiling, she said, "I agree with James. You two will just have to stay with us for the next couple of days until the storm blows over. James will show you where your rooms are, and I won't take no for an answer. It is much too perilous for me to let you leave." With that she got up from the table, and left for the living room.
Inwardly Lily and Archer groaned. They were stuck. Mrs. Potter seemed like a very nice person, but experience taught them not to trust people by their looks.
(Memory) When Lily and Archer had first arrived at the orphanage, they met a man named Kellen Stuvier. He was in charge of the kitchens. Over time the two friends came to trust the cook. They told him secrets about their magic, their lives, who they liked and disliked, everything.
After a couple months Lily and Archer were called into Madame Miriam's office. It turned out that Kellen had told Miriam all of their secrets. She was extremely upset and scared. When Miriam threatened to kill them, Archer performed a Memory Charm on her, preventing her from remembering anything that she was told or said.
Once they had gotten out of Miriam's office, Lily and Archer headed to the kitchens where they met up with Kellen. After finding out what he was truly after, Lily performed a Memory Charm on Kellen too. This incident kept the best friends from ever trusting anyone again. (End Memory)
As James headed down the hall, Lily and Archer cautiously followed. James stopped in front of a beautiful dark wooded door. Pushing them open, the three strode into a beautiful room. In the centre of the large room stood a four-poster bed, with dark blue curtains surrounding it. Right next to the astounding bed laid an elegant maroon carpet, stretching in a circle of about 15 feet across. Large glass doors led to a balcony where an amazing view of the sunset could be seen. Lily and Archer stood in awe at the room. As they stood there stunned, James, smiling, said, "Lily, your room is this way." Turning to Archer, James said, "Archer, I'll let you get acquainted with your new room. Be back in just a minute." With that he and Lily set off for her room. Her room was around the corner and down a ways from Archer's, and it seemed to be in a whole other world. Instead of the dark wood, Lily's doors were of a lovely light birch wood. As she stepped into her room, she gasped.
"It's . . . gorgeous!" she exclaimed.
"I'll take it you like it," James said with a smile.
"Like it?! I love it! I adore the beach, mate, and you just gave me a room that looks like it. I . . . I . . . wow," Lily replied.
"Haha, good. I'm glad you like it," James laughed. "Well, I'll let you settle in, I need to get downstairs for a moment. See you in a little bit." James left the room.
Lily walked around the room, running her hand down the one of the smooth posts of her new bed, scooting across the plush carpet, and the gliding of the wood floor. Surrounding her bed were curtains similar to Archer's, but of a thin, veil-like cloth that she could see through. On the nightstand lay a conch shell. Placing it next to her ear, Lily heard the sound of the ocean waves reverberating out of it. Smiling, Lily moved towards the balcony. She walked out and found that hers faced the west, just like Archer's. She looked to her right and was surprised to see Archer leaning on the edge of his balcony, deep in thought.
"Sil!" She yelled over to him. He looked up and laughed.
"Stay there! I'll be right over!" he shouted back, and disappeared into his room. When he came back, he had a long, thick rope in his arms. Tying one end to his balcony, he tossed the other over to Lily. "Here, Kal. Tie this to the railing, and then we can get back and forth from each other's room without being seen."
Once she had tied her end, Archer cast an invisibility charm over the rope, keeping it from being seen by prying eyes. He then swung his leg over the smooth railing edge, and lowered himself onto the rope. Within two minutes he was climbing over the edge of Lily's balcony. "Hey, mate. So how's life over here?"
"Dazzling!"
"Want to show me what your room looks like? I could tell that you didn't like mine too much. To dark for you, eh?" he joked happily. "Ha ha, very funny, Sil," Lily retorted sarcastically. "It was nice. But, wait till you see mine, it is absolutely amazing," She turned around and pulled him into her bedroom. Looking over her shoulder to see his expression, Lily was happy to see that he was astonished. Archer's love of the beach was only paralleled by Lily's love for it. "No fair! I think I'm going to move in here. Sheesh, how come you get the cool room?" "I'm beautiful," Lily replied simply. Archer gave her a funny look. No longer able to keep a straight face, Lily fell over laughing. After a couple of minutes Lily was able to stand, but Archer kept shaking his head at her. "Now, now Lily. You should no better than to exploit your looks," he said with a fake disapproving look. "That James boy doesn't need to fall for someone who's leaving so soon." At the last sentence Lily's head snapped up. "And exactly what have you planned already, my dear Sil?" she smirked, arching an eyebrow. "You'll have to see, I haven't worked out all the kinks yet." "Fine then. Now, where is James? We need to erase his memory he saw our animal forms. I also want to have some 'fun'." Lily peered around mischievously. "Ah, a prank already?" Archer questioned, grinning. Lily nodded. "I can always count on you, can't I? So what is it?" "It's perfect! Here's how it works . . . "
It was a bright and sunny morning when a most unwanted voice slammed into the brain of a sleeping boy. With jet black, messy hair, playful brown eyes, and a smile to make girls swoon, this boy was anything but happy. His mother was standing in the doorway of his room, yelling at him to get up.
"James Nigel Potter, you had better get yourself up this instant or I will forcefully drag you out of bed, and then put you in the bathtub, which, might I add, is filled to the brim with ice cold water." At the last part James groaned and then began to sit up, signalling that he was awake.
"I . . . am . . . up . . . Mum," he replied to her, yawning. After making sure that her son was going to stay awake, Nerida Potter left to prepare breakfast. James on the other hand was forcing himself to stay awake, knowing full well that if his mother came back and he was in bed, she would fulfil her threat. He dragged himself over to his closet, pulled on a pair of khakis and a white t-shirt, and shuffled to his mirror in an attempt to, once again, tame his unruly hair. Without any luck, James slowly stumbled down the stairs of his home, and into the brightly lit kitchen. After shovelling down a stack of pancakes and gulping down a glass of orange juice, he felt much more awake.
"Mum, I'm going to go outside and fly for a while, alright?"
"Have fun, dear, and don't cause any trouble," Mrs. Potter called after her son's retreating back.
James walked outside, and happily breathed in the fresh air, revelling in its fragrant smell. He swung his leg over his broom, and took off for the heavens. He loved the feeling of the air rushing through his midnight hair, sweeping it away from his face. He adored the freedom that he felt, up in his own world, away from all the tensions existing on the ground.
As the wind picked up, James raced towards the forest surrounding his house, urging the broom forward, pushing it to go faster. While whipping through the clear sky, James spotted two odd dots on the forest floor. Being the curious person that he was, James turned his broom around and dove towards the earth.
Softly landing on the ground, James slipped off his broom and crept towards the two forms. He was shocked at what he found. Curled up next to each other were two creatures that James would never expect to find in Britain. Sleeping just a few feet away from him were two powerful leopards, one a gorgeous white, the other a glossy black.
Not sure what do with the daunting animals, but knowing it would be dangerous to leave them alone, James quietly took out his wand, and muttered "Somnus." James them whispered, "Mobilicorpus," lifting them from the ground and floating them towards himself and his broom. He climbed onto his broom and slowly flew back to his home in search of his parents.
After placing the leopards on the ground outside his home, and binding them so that they wouldn't run away, James ran into his home. "Mum! Mum, come here. You won't believe what I found."
"James? What do you need? I'm in the living room," his mother replied. James raced into the room, and dragged her out to the backdoor.
"Mum, while I was out flying I found these two in the forest. I know that they don't live in England, so I wanted to know what we should do about them."
"Oh, my!" Mrs. Potter exclaimed. She stared in shock at the two animals. "I know of only two things that could explain this. The first is that they were brought here by muggles for a zoo and got free somehow. The other is that they are animagi. I am leaning towards the latter."
"Animagi?! Mum, I had to do a report on them at school. I looked up all the animagi that exist today, and there are only five. They were a cat, snake, sparrow, bear, and eagle. There were no leopards!" James replied quickly. He knew that there were at least three other illegal animagi running around Hogwarts, but he wasn't about to tell his mother that.
"Dear, they may be animagi illegally. We might as well check, there is no harm in trying." Mrs. Potter calmly replied. With that, she pointed her wand at the two sleeping creatures, and muttered a few words. A flash of blue light came out of her wand, encircling Archer and Lily.
Slowly, as if watching a movie, the two leopards began transforming back into their human selves. James gaped at the two teenagers sleeping peacefully in front of him. One of them was a beautiful girl around his age with deep red, curly hair. The other was a handsome boy, around the same age, with shimmery copper hair.
As James stood there, Mrs. Potter muttered a few more words, unbinding the two friends, and waking them from their sleep.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Lily and Archer groggily sat up, rubbing their eyes and looking around. When her eyes finally landed on the two people standing in front of her, Lily gasped, and elbowed Archer in the side. He looked at her, then in the direction of her gaze, and froze. Thoughts began rushing through the two teen's minds. OH BLOODY ####! What are we going to do? Who are they? Have we been kidnapped?! What is going on? We are in deep trouble! How are we going to get out of this? Maybe if we stun them we could run for it and . . .
Lily and Archer's thoughts were cut short when the beautiful woman in front of them spoke. "Well, dears, this has been quite an interesting day, and to think, it has only just begun. You both look famished. Why don't you come in and get something to eat? Oh yes, by the way, I am Nerida Potter, and this is my son, James. Come along now."
At those words the three teenagers moved into action. James snapped out of his shock, and Lily and Archer both rushed to their feet. Everyone followed Mrs. Potter into the house, sitting down at the kitchen table. Archer slipped into a chair with Lily gliding in next to him, across from them sat James. Mrs. Potter handed lemonade and a cookie to each person, sitting herself next to James.
Lily and Archer devoured the cookies, and gulped down the lemonade, carefully placing their glasses down on the spotless table. Once they were done eating, Mrs. Potter began to speak with a smile.
"Now that you are properly fed, would you care to tell us a little about who you are, and how my son came to find you?"
"Well . . . " Lily began, "My name is Lily, Lilith actually, and this is Archer. The two of us are travelling to visit our cousin, Joe." Lily gave Archer a sideways glance to make sure that he would play along. He gave her his answer by saying, "He lives near London. We were travelling through the forest when we must have fallen asleep, and that is probably where you found us."
"Quite interesting, I hope that you haven't had any trouble on your journey so far." Mrs. Potter responded.
James eyed the two, suspicious of them, knowing that they weren't telling the truth. Why didn't they mention they were animagi? Or about why they were travelling through the forest? There are better ways to travel.
Instead of voicing these opinions, he decided to take action. "Mum, I heard that there was a violent storm coming this way. It's supposed to arrive tonight. Maybe, if they wanted, Lily and Archer could stay here with us? I mean, there is no way that they would be safe out there. It is supposed to be the most dangerous storm to come here for the past ten years."
Mrs. Potter looked over at her son, searching his face. The only expression she saw was an impassive one. Smiling, she said, "I agree with James. You two will just have to stay with us for the next couple of days until the storm blows over. James will show you where your rooms are, and I won't take no for an answer. It is much too perilous for me to let you leave." With that she got up from the table, and left for the living room.
Inwardly Lily and Archer groaned. They were stuck. Mrs. Potter seemed like a very nice person, but experience taught them not to trust people by their looks.
(Memory) When Lily and Archer had first arrived at the orphanage, they met a man named Kellen Stuvier. He was in charge of the kitchens. Over time the two friends came to trust the cook. They told him secrets about their magic, their lives, who they liked and disliked, everything.
After a couple months Lily and Archer were called into Madame Miriam's office. It turned out that Kellen had told Miriam all of their secrets. She was extremely upset and scared. When Miriam threatened to kill them, Archer performed a Memory Charm on her, preventing her from remembering anything that she was told or said.
Once they had gotten out of Miriam's office, Lily and Archer headed to the kitchens where they met up with Kellen. After finding out what he was truly after, Lily performed a Memory Charm on Kellen too. This incident kept the best friends from ever trusting anyone again. (End Memory)
As James headed down the hall, Lily and Archer cautiously followed. James stopped in front of a beautiful dark wooded door. Pushing them open, the three strode into a beautiful room. In the centre of the large room stood a four-poster bed, with dark blue curtains surrounding it. Right next to the astounding bed laid an elegant maroon carpet, stretching in a circle of about 15 feet across. Large glass doors led to a balcony where an amazing view of the sunset could be seen. Lily and Archer stood in awe at the room. As they stood there stunned, James, smiling, said, "Lily, your room is this way." Turning to Archer, James said, "Archer, I'll let you get acquainted with your new room. Be back in just a minute." With that he and Lily set off for her room. Her room was around the corner and down a ways from Archer's, and it seemed to be in a whole other world. Instead of the dark wood, Lily's doors were of a lovely light birch wood. As she stepped into her room, she gasped.
"It's . . . gorgeous!" she exclaimed.
"I'll take it you like it," James said with a smile.
"Like it?! I love it! I adore the beach, mate, and you just gave me a room that looks like it. I . . . I . . . wow," Lily replied.
"Haha, good. I'm glad you like it," James laughed. "Well, I'll let you settle in, I need to get downstairs for a moment. See you in a little bit." James left the room.
Lily walked around the room, running her hand down the one of the smooth posts of her new bed, scooting across the plush carpet, and the gliding of the wood floor. Surrounding her bed were curtains similar to Archer's, but of a thin, veil-like cloth that she could see through. On the nightstand lay a conch shell. Placing it next to her ear, Lily heard the sound of the ocean waves reverberating out of it. Smiling, Lily moved towards the balcony. She walked out and found that hers faced the west, just like Archer's. She looked to her right and was surprised to see Archer leaning on the edge of his balcony, deep in thought.
"Sil!" She yelled over to him. He looked up and laughed.
"Stay there! I'll be right over!" he shouted back, and disappeared into his room. When he came back, he had a long, thick rope in his arms. Tying one end to his balcony, he tossed the other over to Lily. "Here, Kal. Tie this to the railing, and then we can get back and forth from each other's room without being seen."
Once she had tied her end, Archer cast an invisibility charm over the rope, keeping it from being seen by prying eyes. He then swung his leg over the smooth railing edge, and lowered himself onto the rope. Within two minutes he was climbing over the edge of Lily's balcony. "Hey, mate. So how's life over here?"
"Dazzling!"
"Want to show me what your room looks like? I could tell that you didn't like mine too much. To dark for you, eh?" he joked happily. "Ha ha, very funny, Sil," Lily retorted sarcastically. "It was nice. But, wait till you see mine, it is absolutely amazing," She turned around and pulled him into her bedroom. Looking over her shoulder to see his expression, Lily was happy to see that he was astonished. Archer's love of the beach was only paralleled by Lily's love for it. "No fair! I think I'm going to move in here. Sheesh, how come you get the cool room?" "I'm beautiful," Lily replied simply. Archer gave her a funny look. No longer able to keep a straight face, Lily fell over laughing. After a couple of minutes Lily was able to stand, but Archer kept shaking his head at her. "Now, now Lily. You should no better than to exploit your looks," he said with a fake disapproving look. "That James boy doesn't need to fall for someone who's leaving so soon." At the last sentence Lily's head snapped up. "And exactly what have you planned already, my dear Sil?" she smirked, arching an eyebrow. "You'll have to see, I haven't worked out all the kinks yet." "Fine then. Now, where is James? We need to erase his memory he saw our animal forms. I also want to have some 'fun'." Lily peered around mischievously. "Ah, a prank already?" Archer questioned, grinning. Lily nodded. "I can always count on you, can't I? So what is it?" "It's perfect! Here's how it works . . . "