An icy wind swept through, making the swings on the swingset creak against ice. Several inches of snow crunched under James's feet as he walked the perimeter of the playground. It was empty. He was the only one there. And he was getting cold.
"Evans," he said aloud, "If this is a prank, it's not funny."
And then -- a sound, quite different from the whistling wind and the rustling trees. A whimper, a human cry.
James froze in his tracks and listened.
"Evans?"
Another whimper, this time a legible word: "Potter. . . ."
James's heart catapulted into his stomach. "Who are you? Where are you?"
Louder: "Get out of here . . ."
What the Hell? Now panicked, James sprinted towards the voice, and located its source in some bristly bushes.
A girl, her face turned away -- her cloaks were ripped open, visible skin stained red.
"Oh my God, Ellen!" It was Ellen Bones, Lily's best friend. James immediately tried to close her cloak, warm her a little. "Get up! Get up! What the Hell is going on?"
He was trying to lift her, but she fought against him, trying to wrench her half-mangled body from his grasp. "Go away!" she screamed in panic and pain, pushing him off. "It's what he wants -- Go away, you know I'm going to die, just leave!"
"Ellen!" James yelled, his voice breaking, his own heart hurting for her -- she was in so much pain -- so much blood, everywhere -- "What's happened to you? -- God damnit, Ellen, I'm trying to save you, stop fighting me!"
"No . . ." Ellen weakened in his grasp, as her eyes widened at something over James's shoulder, her expression one of utter defeat. ". . . You've killed me."
And her body relaxed in his arms. She was dead.
James had no time to feel anything but shock when a soft voice came from behind him, "Naughty, naughty, Potter. . . . You've just taken a life."
He whirled around to see Severus Snape, his wand raised and his black eyes glinting, and behind him Lucius Malfoy, both with equally triumphant and twisted grins.
Oh, the anger, the hatred -- it surged through James like hot poison in his veins at the sight of his Hogwarts enemy. "You."
"Me." Snape laughed. He had reason to. He had a wand, whereas James's was deep in his pocket somewhere, and he had a second, whereas James was alone and defenseless.
"You can't give him all the credit," Lucius Malfoy drawled.
"No," James said, standing up. "You're right. I'll kill you, too."
"With what?" Snape mocked. "Your glasses?" His wand gestured towards James's eyes and instinctively James's hand moved towards his pocket, but -- "You'd be dead before you got to it," Snape said coldly. "Best stay still."
"You won't kill me," James said. He felt strong, confident, fueled by his anger.
"No?"
"You haven't got the guts. You didn't even kill Ellen, did you?"
Snape's eyes flickered, but for once he seemed to be able control his fury unlike James. "True," he said with a smile. "Lucius Malfoy's quite skilled in murder -- the Muggle way, with a knife."
"Exhilarating, really," Malfoy put it.
"You're sick," James said loudly to Snape. "You're too much of an evil son of a bitch to join the right side, and you're too weak to follow your own master's orders --" Got to distract him, need my wand --
"YOU ARE NOT IN A POSITION TO SPEAK, POTTER!" Snape yelled back. "You forget, I am the one with the wand!"
James's hand moved closer to his pocket, unnoticed by either Snape or Malfoy. "If you wanted to kill me, you could have done so already. You gotta lecture me before I die?"
"You're not going to die," Snape said slyly. "You're going to live, and you're going to Azkaban for the murder you've committed."
"I! -- I did not kill her!"
"But it would seem so. Her blood is on your clothes. And did you tell anyone where you were going?"
*Click*. Why didn't I see it before? "You wrote that note . . ."
"I did. Lucius, quick -- contact the Minister."
Malfoy nodded, stepped back, and Apparated.
"It'll never work. I've got the note --" Finally his hand was in his pocket, feeling for the note, but feeling only ash -- Wand, wand, where's my wand? --
"The note destroyed itself soon after you read. Little invention of mine, combustible ink --"
"I'll just tell them everything, everything you've said --"
"No you won't." Snape laughed malevolently. "Because you won't remember it." Finally, James's hand closed around his wand, and he whipped it out of his pocket --
"OBLIVIATE!" Snape screamed.
And James was blasted off his feet by the power of the Memory Charm. He fell, unconscious, into the red snow near Ellen Bones' body.