Disclaimer- The characters, plot and places of Harry Potter are the property of JK Rowling.
Author's Note- A very distinct difference with this edited version is primarily noticeable in this chapter. It is written almost entirely from Lily's perspective. The original jumped so frequently between all five characters that it was never really clear what was going on and the pace was all over the place! Whilst it was a bit of a challenge to write only from one point of view it really gave me a chance to flesh the character out a bit more, as I hope I did with James in the previous chapter… although there I have only just begun :.smirks.: As the fic progresses I'll focus in more on some Frank, Bertha and Cedric angst too so that I can address some of the gaping black holes in 'what needs to be said'… ;) ENJOY!
PRIOR THE INCANTATEM
By Templa Otmena
Chapter Two- It Will Return You to Hogwarts
There was a world of swirling black and motion. And then there was nothing.
Somewhere deep inside a nagging torment born of fear and desperation tugged at the edges of consciousness that had not willingly been abandoned. The pain of these recollections grasped these moments of reprieve and demanded attention. There could truly be no rest in this state, not when the only solace received was dark and groundless agony. And with no decision having been made Lily Potter blearily woke and found that she had been called. She heard her name and although she could not identify who had spoken it, the voice was familiar and this comforted her as she closed her eyes again and inhaled a deep and refreshing draught of air. But that voice would not allow her to languish so. It spoke to her again. Hope. Relief. Fear.
'Lily! Lily! Open your eyes Lily!' A hitched breath. 'Lil. Wake…'
A hitched breath.The voice was familiar and she cared for the speaker. Of that Lily was certain. To hear and listen to that voice quivering with anguish hurt her too, more than she could say.
Once again the young woman opened her eyes, slowly and cautiously. She found that it was nearly as dark in waking as it had been before but that did not deter her. She could see a shadowy figure hunched over her. She felt restraints upon her arms and looked down to see strong and familiar hands crushing her limbs as though wishing to impress their strength into her. Her brow furrowed in confusion as her eyes drifted lazily back up to that figure as they moved their hands and arms and hoisted her limp body upon their thighs.
'James…' she breathed. So much love and hope was conveyed in that one syllable, uttered in little more than a whisper. She scrambled up, pushing away from her protector and facing him and in the light of the moon that fell in lilting shafts upon them. Dream or no it was James. Her beloved. Her lover. Her husband. Her friend. Tears streamed down his face, his depthless eyes glittering with untold measures of sorrow and joy. As she kneeled she moved towards him and embraced his face between her two pale and shaking hands as she wiped his tears away.
And as James stared right back Lily found that she could never have hoped for anything more. She remembered now and she knew that it had not been a dream and she choked on what her mind offered her. James, a parting smile, a desperate hope and then he was gone. She had fled at his bidding and then Voldemort had come and she knew then as she did now what that had meant. She threw herself at him then, crushing her trembling body against his own and she gave voice to her grief and relief. James had died, but he was here now and she was with him.
'Thank you,' she whispered. She felt James stiffen and pull back as he locked gazes with her. His heart was troubled and confused and his eyes widened as she breathed, 'You're alive…'
It was evident that James did not know what to say. His mouth opened and closed a few times before his lax expression crumpled with confusion. 'I… I don't…'
But before he could complete his bewildered utterance the icy tendrils of terror grasped Lily wholly and completely and they shook her. Her eyes shone with that fear and James reflected her same horrified expression from beneath his glasses. 'Harry!' She gasped. 'Where is he James? Where is he?!' The young witch looked around herself at the ground, as though hoping to find her precious boy huddled in his blanket mere feet away. But it was not to be. It was never that simple. Those hands grasped her arms again and Lily heeded their request and looked to James.
'I don't know Lily. He isn't here.'
Gone was James' bewilderment and shock. Lily could see it in his eyes. Panic was still there and worry. But deeper and stronger than that was an overwhelming shroud of defiance and strength. James was not so arrogant as to be confident in this dreadful moment but Lily basked in his quiet reassurances as she took a deep and calming breath and focused once again on her husband.
'What is the last thing that you remember Lily?' He quietly yet forcefully asked her.
And she told him. Voldemort had come and James had sacrificed himself for she and Harry, but in the end it had not been enough for the both of them. Voldemort had come before her and she had begged for Harry's life but neither had that been enough. And then Voldemort… wand raised…
James blankly stared at her as he absorbed all that she told him but he didn't speak. When Lily had finished he lowered his head and nodded. 'Me too.' Lily's eyes snapped up to meet his. 'The last thing that I remember is Voldemort, standing before me… wand raised…'
The heavy silence that followed this declaration was punctured by a voice from behind Lily. She whipped her head around to face the speaker as James' grip tightened reassuringly.
It was Frank. 'James… is it?!' Again James nodded. Frank coughed and looked decidedly uncomfortable with either his position or with what he was about to say, or both. 'I, er… well. That, that thing that I told yer 'bout earlier… That child. It, it looked at me an', it weren't worth mentionin' before but what with all this talk of wizards' an' wands… It…' He took a steadying breath. 'It held a stick, pointed it at me… and that's it. Last thing I remember…'
'A wand.' James murmured. Frank looked even more uncomfortable with this confirmation. To Lily, who had only just noticed the small gathering of three who stood behind her, it seemed as though the old man was only volunteering this information as some form of a last resort. That he just wanted to be gone and that volunteering such facts, no matter how irrelevant or seemingly bizarre, might just help.
'Bertha? Cedric?' James implored as he made to stand, helping Lily along with him. 'How about you two?'
Lily studied these last two people properly for the first time. Bertha Jorkins she recognised, as James had from her time at Hogwarts but the boy, as with the old man, Lily could not place.
She caught Bertha's gaze as she silently studied these strange and random companions and the witch whimpered and turned away. Lily frowned at this but before she could comment Bertha began to speak.
'The… the last thing that I remember is… I saw…' She was confused, and distressed. But as with Frank before her it seemed as though Bertha recognised the wisdom in laying all of her cards on the table, as it were. As strange as it may all have seemed they were all in a strange position. 'I, I happened upon, it had to have been… He was Peter Pettigrew… whilst on holiday. He… I…' her brow furrowed in consternation. 'It's impossible… but that's all I have…' She finished weakly.
Both Lily and James stiffened at Bertha's revelation. As too did Bertha a moment afterwards, perhaps having realised the significance that that name might have held for the Potters'.
'Ced… Cedric' Bertha breathlessly said. 'What about you?'
Cedric stood with is mouth agape. His gazed slowly shifted from Bertha's imploring face, drifted over Frank and Lily and then settled on James. Here his eyes widened and he swallowed audibly, finally looking away and intently staring at the ground. Just as it seemed that he would not speak or that he had not heard the young wizard looked up once more, transfixed on James he said, 'I was with Harry. We'd grabbed the Triwizard Cup but we got transported… it was a Portkey. We weren't told. We were… we were in a graveyard and there was a man there, he… he raised his wand…'
A pronounced silence followed Cedric's declaration. Lily's fevered mind was quick to grasp the facts and her worry twisted into something deeper and darker that she did not yet have the will to face. All that she knew was that at least four people's last memories before bizarrely ending up here, 'wherever we are', were possibly fatal. At least this posed a connection and an explanation just might follow. Lily then looked back to Cedric as he began to speak again. That same wary and reluctant expression shone through as it had with Bertha and Frank. He did not want to speak the facts but he knew that he had to.
'Mrs… Mr Potter,' he drawled. 'The, um… the Harry,' he rubbed a hand along the back of his neck. 'The Harry that I spoke of. He's… he's Harry Potter. He's your son but he's… he's fourteen…'
Silence. Horrible unending silence. Nothing at all in this world could have prepared Lily for what Cedric had said. Her mind was stunned, her thoughts stilted.
'Wait.' James said. 'You're saying…'
'Hold on Cedric,' Bertha interrupted. 'You said that you grabbed the Triwizard Cup.' Cedric stiffly nodded. 'But… the tournament isn't until June.'
'It is June… you've been missing for some months. You never came back from your holiday. The ministry has been looking all over for you.'
'What year is it?!' James demanded.
As Cedric stated that it was 1994 Bertha and Frank insisted that it was 1993.
Lily looked to James, that terror increasing with every minute. To them it was 1981.
'What do you mean I've been missing…?'
'James… have we been sent to the future…?'
'Where are we?!'
A tirade of questions erupted at once following the confusion of all present, Lily was quick to voice her own mounting concerns but one look at James' face silenced her and as he began to speak Frank, Bertha and Cedric quietened to.
'Look… this, this problem is far too big for us to contemplate alone. We've got to go and see Dumbledore… we're at Hogwarts Lily,' he muttered, having noted her hopeful yet despairing expression. Lily looked around her surroundings properly for the first time. Indeed, they were. 'I do not know what year we're in. It may not even be 1994 or 1993.' Cedric, Bertha and Frank exchanged worried glances. Lily moved closer to James. She enclosed his right arm within both of hers and urged him to look at her. He did, and he spoke but this time it was more to her although all could hear. 'All I know is that our one-year-old son is alone and defenceless in 1981. We have to get back.' With that he began to walk towards the castle, Lily at his side. Frank followed and then Bertha and Cedric. The group was silent.
'Now I have work for each of you. Fudge's attitude, though not unexpected changes everything. Sirius, I need you to set off at once. You are to alert Remus Lupin, Arabella Figg, Mundungus Fletcher- the old crowd. Lie low at Lupin's for a while, I will contact you there.'
'But-' said Harry.
He wanted Sirius to stay. He did not want to say goodbye again so quickly.
'You'll see me very soon, Harry.' said Sirius, turning to him. 'I promise you. But I must do what I can, you understand, don't you?'
'Yeah,' said Harry. 'Yeah…of course I do.'
Sirius grasped his hand briefly, nodded to Dumbledore, transformed again into the black dog, and ran the length of the room to the door, whose handle he turned with a paw. Then he was gone.
The possibility that something beyond time travel had occurred to them had not escaped Lily, and looking at James she knew that he too was intently evaluating their position and that he was coming to the same despairing conclusions as she had. The fact that their last memories saw them in definite life threatening situations narrowed the odds of what might have happened, but why were they here? And why in this time? These questions would not have answers until they could seek out Dumbledore, this Lily knew. And until this time Lily surrendered herself to her memories, as cold and malicious as they might have been.
James had died. The numbness had filled every part of her being and yet she had found it within herself to keep going. Harry had needed her and James had needed her to do this. It was death that was forefront in her mind, then and now. She did not want to die but as she cast her mind back Lily grasped a strange sense of elation with the notion of it. She did not want to leave Harry, even now every fiber of her being cried out for him, but she knew that through such a sacrifice her child would survive. Lily could not explain it but she hoped that this initiative still held true and that no harm would come to him. She had to believe this.
It was all just so confusing. Just as Lily yearned both in her memories and now to be with Harry, she desperately wanted James. She wanted to be with him and mingled with the elation and grief over her own possible death was the blind faith that she would be with James. These were the strange sensations that displayed themselves to the young witch as she tried to recall her last few moments of consciousness.
As she walked towards Hogwarts, the grass wet and brushing against her legs, she felt alive, this could not be some obscure incantation. As assuredly as her feet were planted firmly on the earth James' hand held hers. But were they in the future? A future where Harry was fourteen? Lily sighed in frustration, she was straying again. There could be no answers to these questions until they reached the Headmaster.
It took far too long for them to reach the great entranceway to the school but they did eventually. Lily sidled behind the great slabs of oak as James held them open for her, Bertha, Frank and Cedric. He closed them with a mighty thud that echoed throughout the silent hall.
'Dumbledore's office,' James whispered, reclaiming Lily's hand and once again leading the way.
The long corridor that led Sirius away from the hospital wing flew by in a whirl of shadowed shapes and colour. As the great black dog bounded by he knew that were he to look behind him or cease his rapid gait his will would crumble and he would return to his godson's side. He growled at this and forced himself to concede that there were no other possibilities, there were things that needed to be attended. He had to leave. There was truly no other place that Sirius would rather be at this moment than with Harry; helping him, supporting him…
'For the first time in his life!' He bitterly thought as he swiftly turned a corner.
But, behind his heated condemnations Sirius reminded himself that things needed to be done, to be set in motion. If not the ordeal that Harry had been through tonight would be meaningless, just as Lily and James' sacrifice would have been had their boy come to any harm.
'Grrwhoooooo…!'
Sirius releases a strangled whine, that of a dog in pain. How had this ever happened? Harry had so very nearly died this night. The last Potter, almost snatched away from him to be forever beyond his reach, just as they were…
'Harry saw them tonight,' he thought. It was a notion that he had tried to expel from his mind as he had cared for Harry. He remembered that moment so vividly when Harry confirmed Dumbledore's suspicions…
A quiet question, 'Your parents?'
A stricken answer, 'Yes…'
The dog shuddered as he recklessly flew down another corridor. Something within him had begun to throb in pride, hurt and misery at that moment. Lily and James would always be there for Harry. In whatever way at the end of all things they would be there, eternally with him.
'But what of me?'
Sirius would always blame himself. Lily and James no longer drew breath because of his dreadful error, a tragedy that would forever taunt and mark him. And his only task, his only chance to redeem himself was something in which he considered himself having failed at for the past fourteen years…
Sirius was only broken from his dark mire as he reached the foot of the staircase that he had descended. He was now within the ancient hall that led to the main entrance to the castle. With the same determination as earlier he kept going, not allowing himself a moment to linger and regret. However, as the animagai reached the entrance hall, just short of the doors he stopped. The dog raised his hackles. A ghost of something inexplicable danced on the fringes of his senses, which he stretched out as far as they would go. His ears twitched rapidly this way and that and his sensitive nose hastily sniffed the air. His efforts led him straight towards the towering doors where a strange scent still lingered.
It was strange, like nothing he had ever experienced before. Sirius was sure that had he been in his human form he would not have been able to sense it. It was intoxicating and yet it did not seem to be there. It smelt so fresh…it was exhilarating, refreshing and tranquil. Supernatural. Nose to the ground the dog tracked the scent right to the doors. Here Sirius stopped dead in his tracks. There was a painful familiarity to the scent that lingered beneath its overwhelming pungency. His heart leapt. He was not sure if he did recognise it but at he same time a feeling of half joy, half terrible sadness consumed him.
'It cannot be real! It cannot be him!'
He sensed James. He perceived his scent. The amount of times that they had been beneath that cloak together, hidden from Filch together… transformed together…
'Prongs…!'
It was entirely beyond reason and sense. In the face of such a heart-wrenching discovery duty was forgotten. Whatever it was that had been here, he had to know. Once again, nose to the ground, Sirius picked up the strange trail, heading towards Dumbledore's office.
To be continued…