A/N – Hm, the review amount gets lower with every chapter. : ( That's a bit disheartening. But I am glad to know that at least 2 people are still reading my story. So a big, huge thanks goes out to Kats and Avid reader (cool name, btw!). This chapter is for them since they're still reading. : ) Thanks you guys! I'm also curious as to what happened to Ciria? You've disappeared on me! Anyway, please review! Now, on with the chapter.
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James woke with a start, but his eyes wouldn't seem to focus. A hand immediately went to his eyes, feeling for his glasses, which weren't there. He looked around as best as he could, and he spotted the blurry outline of his glasses, which were resting on a table next to him. He reached over and put them on, the room flooding into focus. Blinking, to help his eyes adjust, he saw that he was in the hospital wing, and he was surrounded by fellow Gryffindor students. Looking at the bed on his right, he saw his best friend, Sirius Black, who looked to be asleep, and on James's left side was Peter Pettigrew, who was also asleep. James continued to look around him, and he tried to figure out what had happened to him to land him and his friends into the hospital wing.
At that moment, Madam Pomfrey approached him and handed him a goblet full of a foul-smelling potion. She didn't say anything to him, which seemed a little odd, but what puzzled him even more was why he was there in the first place. Right as Madam Pomfrey turned to leave and tend to another student, James cleared his throat to get her attention.
"Uh, Madam Pomfrey?" The witch turned to look at him with a closed look about her face.
"Yes, Mr. Potter?"
"Erm, why am I here?" James asked. The medical witch opened her mouth, as if to say something, but she closed it. After a brief moment she said, "Well, Mr. Potter, I believe you should know why you're here." James knitted his eyebrows in confusion, but before he could ask anymore questions, Madam Pomfrey turned and walked off. James slumped back against the pillows of his bed, and he concentrated on trying to figure out what had happened. The last thing that he could remember was playing Exploding Snap with his friends, and then his memory went fuzzy.
James spent the rest of the day lying in the hospital wing. A few other Gryffindors had woken up since James had, but they had gone back to sleep. Sleep, it seemed, was avoiding James, so he spent the day thinking and theorizing as to what had happened, but he still didn't have the slightest idea. As the night approached, James received his first visitor, but it was not a welcome one. He watched as Professor McGonagall walked into the hospital wing and headed toward James's bed.
"Mr. Potter." She greeted him, but it wasn't the type of greeting that he had hoped to hear.
"Hello Professor." James replied in a very quiet voice.
"How are you feeling, Potter?" McGonagall asked, but her voice didn't seem to carry any sign of concern.
"Well, I suppose." James said, becoming curious as to why the Head of Gryffindor house was there.
"Are you? Then if you would please get dressed." Professor McGonagall said, pointing toward the neat pile that was his school robes. James got out of bed, and closed the curtain while he changed. When he emerged from the curtains, dressed in his Hogwarts uniform, he saw Professor McGonagall waiting for him with a stern look on her face.
"Mr. Potter, if you would please follow me." She said then turned and left the hospital wing. James followed behind her with a feeling of growing dread at the bottom of his stomach. He followed her as she walked down a long corridor and stopped in front of a statue of a gargoyle. James, who was busy wondering where they were going, missed the password that McGonagall had said to cause the gargoyle to spring aside. He followed his teacher up the staircase and stopped behind her when she had reached the door at the top of the stair. She knocked once on the door before opening it to reveal Professor Dumbledore's office. She stopped at the door and motioned for James to walk in ahead of her, which he did, and he approached Professor Dumbledore's desk, where the Headmaster was waiting.
"Please, have a seat, Mr. Potter." Dumbledore said in a kind, but commanding voice. James sat in one of the chairs, and he watched as Professor McGonagall moved to stand beside Dumbledore.
"James, I must say that very unfortunate circumstances bring you to my office." Dumbledore said, that friendly twinkle usually found in his eyes was no longer there, and his face wore a serious expression.
"I don't know what's going on, Sir." James said quietly.
"It seems that earlier this afternoon, many people in the Gryffindor common room fell unconscious for an unknown reason." Dumbledore explained. Images popped into James's mind, but he couldn't place what was going on in any of them. Although, he knew now that what Dumbledore was talking about was why he couldn't remember much.
"If you would, Mr. Potter," McGonagall said, bring James back, "tell us what you did to render these students unconscious."
"What?" James almost shouted after a short moment of shocked surprise. "You think I did it?" Dumbledore exchanged a quick glance with McGonagall before saying, "Would you care to explain, Minerva?" Professor McGonagall gave a short nod before turning back to James.
"Shortly after class was over for the day, a Gryffindor student came running into my office telling me that you had set off something and it was knocking everyone out." McGonagall explained, and James's jaw dropped.
"Me?! W-why would they think it was me?" James felt his heart rate go up in a slight panic.
'If they think it's me, they might expel me. My parents would kill me.' James thought.
"Apparently, when your friends were trying to help Mr. Pettigrew, you, instead, bolted for the portrait hole."
"I was trying to go get help! I saw everyone passing out, so I tried to… You have to believe me!" James pleaded. Dumbledore looked at him with a searching gaze, the kind that seemed to go straight through a person.
"Professor, please…" James looked at the Headmaster, who finally looked away and shook his head.
"He is innocent, Minerva." Dumbledore said, and McGonagall looked at him sharply.
"Are you sure, Albus?"
"Yes. Mr. Potter, you are free to go and pack." Dumbledore said, and James thanked him and left before either could find another reason for him to stay. After the door closed behind the young Gryffindor, McGonagall sighed.
"Well, if not him, then who?" She asked, turning to Dumbledore who only shook his head.
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James returned to the Gryffindor common room to find it clear of any clouds of smoke and students once again sitting in various places. James didn't see Sirius, Remus, or Peter anywhere, so he figured that they were still in the hospital wing. One thing that James did see were the wary glances that everyone else was now giving him. Frustration, weariness suddenly seemed to build up inside of him, causing him to loose his patience.
"I didn't do anything! Ok?" James shouted so everyone could hear. The students lowered their eyes, but he could still see some giving him worried glances. He sighed to himself, wishing that he could leave the school tonight, before heading toward the staircase to his room.
"James!" He turned at the sound of his name, and he spotted Lily sitting with her friends, motioning him over. He slowly walked towards them, taking time to glare at everyone else, and he sat down in a chair next to Lily.
"Hi." He said, staring at the floor.
"James, what was all that about? What's wrong?" Lily asked.
"Is it about what happened earlier?" Violet asked, and James looked up at the girls.
"Yeah, I guess, but it's not really about me." James said, and then raised his voice so that others could hear him, "Everyone thinks I did it, but it wasn't me."
"James," Lily said, bringing him back to their conversation, "what are you talking about?" James slumped back in his chair and told them everything about the cloud of gas (that he could remember, anyway), and how everyone now suspects him.
"So, hang on a minute, you were playing exploding snap with your friends after class, right?" Shelby asked, and James nodded.
"And then this cloud of something appears and starts to knock people out?"
"Yeah." James said. The three girls looked at each other with puzzled expressions.
"That really doesn't make sense." Violet stated.
"I know, I really wasn't paying attention to what people were doing at the time." James said.
"Well, someone obviously set something off in the common room." Violet said sarcastically.
"I know that." James replied harshly. Lily gave James a look to tell him to back off, while Shelby did the same to Violet.
"Let's try to figure this out, in a friendly manner." Lily said, and they began discussing who may have done it. After an hour or so, Sirius and Remus walked into the common room, and sat down next to James.
"My head hurts." Sirius whined, as he laid his head on the table.
"Then why aren't you in the hospital wing?" Shelby asked, and Sirius turned to her with a shocked look on his face.
"Stay in there and not go home for the holidays? I can't believe you just said that." Sirius said before putting his head back down on the table.
"Where's Peter?" James asked.
"Still in the hospital wing, he's still unconscious." Remus said, who was rubbing his head to help relieve a headache.
"We're trying to figure out who set that thing off in the common room." Lily said.
"Everyone thinks it was James." Shelby added.
"No, it wasn't him, it came from Peter's bag." Remus said, his eyes closed.
"What?!" The girls almost shouted causing Sirius and Remus to wince.
"It did?" James asked.
"Yeah, I was watching him as he got his quill out of his bag." Remus explained, now rubbing his temples.
"Huh." James said, and the girls seemed to go deep into thought over this revelation.
"I hope I don't insult anyone by going to bed." Remus said and slowly got up from his chair.
"Sirius, you going to stay?" Remus asked. A muffled response came from the other boy who had his head buried in his arms. Shrugging, Remus headed for the stairs.
"Goodnight, Remus." James said and received a wave in reply.
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A few hours later, the group of Gryffindor first years were still sitting at the same table while other students were scattered around the common room. Sirius had fallen asleep shortly after Remus had gone up to bed, but no one felt like waking him. Instead, James talked with Lily and her friends, about various things. They had stopped their investigation over the events that had occurred in the common room when they realized that they weren't getting anywhere, and the conversation had drifted between different topics.
James hadn't realized how little he knew about the three girls that he had known for a few months. He learned all about the girls' past and their families. He heard about Shelby's pet dog that she missed, Violet's passion for reading, and Lily's favorite pastime of drawing. In turn, James told them about his family, how he wanted to be on the Quidditch team (which Shelby did as well), and how he wanted to throw Snape out of a window. They would have sat there longer to continue talking, but one of the fifth year prefects announced that the first and second years needed to get to bed. James shook Sirius awake, who blindly stood up, mumbled a 'goodnight', and wandered towards the staircase, bumping into many things. James smiled and turned to see the girls laughing.
"Well ladies, I thank you for the pleasant conversation." James said, and he immediately wondered why he was talking like that.
"You are very welcome, Mr. Potter." Lily said with a grin, and the other two laughed. James smiled as well, realizing that she was mocking him, but in a friendly way.
"Goodnight." He said and headed for the staircase to the boys' dorm.
"Goodnight." The girls chorused and left.
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What do you all think? Just to let everyone know, I will continue to write and post chapters to this story as long as people are reading it (as few as that number may be…). So, once I stop getting reviews, I will probably stop posting chapters, so if you're reading please let me know. I enjoy writing this, but there really isn't a point in my updating this if no one is reading it. So, you know what to do…