"Sirens are screaming and the fires are howling
Way down in the valley tonight
There's a man in the shadows with a gun in his eye
And a blade shining oh so bright
There's evil in the air and there's thunder in the sky
And a killer's on the bloodshot streets
Oh and down in the tunnel where the deadly are rising
Oh I swear I saw a young boy
Down in the gutter
He was starting to foam in the heat"- "Bat Out of Hell" - Meatloaf
Harry slipped silently down the hall, his footsteps making no sound as they impacted with the stone. His sneaking abilities he knew were only as good as they were because of the Dursleys, and if he hadn't had to develop them to keep from starving he would probably thank them. This skill was incredibly useful when Harry wanted to avoid contact with anyone, which was what he wanted right now.
It had been over a week since his first encounter with Lily and Remus in the hospital wing. He hadn't moved into Lily's quarters yet; Madame Pomfrey still wanted him under observation. She said that he had been hurt worse then most Aurors ever were, at least when they lived. Even Harry recognized that from the injuries he had had upon arrival, he never should have lived past that first day, especially in his malnourished state.
He had learned a fair bit about this new world in that time. Unfortunately, Harry didn't know enough about the past of his world to figure out just when they had become different, although he betted it was the mission that his father had apparently gone on. No one would say anything about James, and all Remus would tell him was that he had disappeared while on reconnaissance in June, and hadn't shown up until July of 1980.
After that, things seemed to go downhill. Voldemort had never perished, instead he was still very much alive, and his name was marked with deaths totaling well into the millions. It was scary to think that just that many people had died in the past years, even more so because Harry knew that some of them were bound to have been his classmates from his world. Dumbledore had died nearly 7 years before, while defending a large group of students from Death Eaters in Hogsmeade. Since then, all Hogsmeade weekends had been cancelled, and security around Hogwarts had tightened even more. Harry was surprised that Voldemort hadn't attempted an attack on Hogwarts yet, but he knew that special wards had been added, which unfortunately resulted in the petrification of quite a few Slytherin's, and even some Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, and a Gryffindor, who had made the mistake of joining the Death Eaters while still at school.
The Marauder's lives weren't that different from what Harry had imagined they could have been, with the exception of Voldemort. Both Lily and Remus taught at Hogwarts, Lily as the Charms professor (Filtwick had left to help with the war many years ago) and Deputy Head Mistress, and Remus as, of course, the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher. Harry was a bit excited to learn that Sirius was still alive in this world, and was glad that he could at least talk to him again, although it wouldn't be the same. Still, he would get a chance to apologize. He worked as an Auror, and apparently an amazing one at that. Pettigrew, naturally, was still a traitor. They had discovered him only months after James' death, and he had died while trying to escape when they caught him. Unsurprisingly, Harry wasn't the least bit sad that he was dead – he had seen what he could do, and felt that it was a well deserved punishment.
Lily had finally told him the day before about James. Not his father, but himself. He realized that this was a sign of how much she trusted him – she had kept his existence a secret until it was absolutely definite that Harry posed no risk. Lily hadn't lied when she originally told him that she didn't have a son named Harry – it was completely true. When he had been born, Lily decided to name him James instead. His full title was James Edward Potter, but he was usually referred to as simply Jimmy. She said that he looked nearly identical to Harry himself, except not nearly as skinny and without the lightening bolt scar. It was because of the likeness that Harry now had an elaborate disguise charm placed on him. Remus had remarked that it was like a remix of Lily and James' looks – whereas Harry (and Jimmy) had had Lily's green eyes and James' black hair, Harry now had Lily's chestnut-red hair and James' hazel eyes. Lily had said how she had always wondered what that combination of looks would look like, and Harry had to admit, they didn't look that bad. It was definitely a change, and he couldn't help but think that his hair looked like it was on fire, although it wasn't nearly as orangey-red as the Weasley's hair was. They had left the scar – no one in this world had one, and they could easily pass it off as a souvenir from an accident, which, in all reality, it was.
In turn, Lily, Remus, and the rest had learned quite a bit about Harry's world, although it was a bit of a censored version. They didn't know that Lily had died at the hand of Voldemort, or that the Dursleys had raised Harry. When he started with Voldemort's first downfall, he simply said that the curse had backfired on Voldemort when he had fired Avada Kedavra on Harry. An expression of guilt had clouded Lily's face when he talked about this, but nothing was said. He had then skipped straight to his first year at Hogwarts, for he didn't see the point of bringing up bad memories with the Dursely's, and gave them the summaries of the following years. They had all become rather uncomfortable when Harry explained to them about Tom Riddle and the Chamber of Secrets, and so Harry quickly finished that up and continued. He mentioned Sirius briefly, since it still hurt to talk about him. Both forth and fifth year hadn't been a very comfortable topic for any of the members of the room, Harry included, and quite a few looked like they were going to be sick during Harry's brief account of Voldemort's resurrection. He had left a lot out when he described the end of his fifth year – he didn't want them to know that the entire event was solely his fault, and that if he had just remembered the mirror that Sirius had given him – specifically for something like this – then everything could have been avoided. This fact berated him with ever breath he took, knowing that Sirius didn't have that luxury because of him, and he didn't want to have them hate him as much as he hated himself. Although he deserved it, he deserved every bit of anger and fury.
Harry banished his thoughts as he neared his destination, the Hogwart's library. His curiosity about James had finally consumed him, and knew that the Daily Prophet should have mentioned what happened. Hogwarts had every single issue since the paper's creation archived, and he had immediately planned to come here when Madame Pomfrey gave him permission to take a walk around Hogwarts after lunch. Whatever had happened had been horrible enough that no one would talk about it, and Harry desperately wanted to know what had killed his father here, so this seemed to be the logical solution.
Madame Pince was seated at her desk, with large stacks of books on each side, when Harry entered the library. She didn't even look up as Harry slipped behind a bookcase and made his way towards the archives. The room where they were kept was at the very end of the library, separated by an archway, which took Harry a few minutes to reach, longer then it should have because he was attempting to go silently and unnoticed. He had never actually entered the archives before, and so gasped when he actually stepped into the room.
There were shelves and shelves of scrolls, stretching all the way up to the ceiling (which was very far up). Each row held a year, separated into months by dividers. Every issue of the Daily Prophet was stored here, under various charms to keep them undamaged and unblemished. The only flaw was that if you didn't know the year and month that whatever you were looking for occurred in, you could be looking for weeks. Luckily for Harry, he knew both, and the July 1980 issues weren't too far up.
"Nope, nope, nope." Harry said, as he flicked through the tags attached to each of the scrolls, which read the major headlines of that issue. He knew, he was positive, that his father's death would be front page. Especially since he was an Auror, which Harry had been glad to learn. He had always wondered about his parent's professions.
Near the end of the July issues, Harry found what he had been looking for. Emblazoned on the tag were the words "Missing Auror's Body Found on Clock Tower." Harry was curious, and immediately pulled down the scroll and opened it up on a table. Promptly upon viewing the article, he was forced to swallow the vomit rising in this throat.
This was what had scared them so much. This was what made his mother cry and Remus become furious. Instead of just killing his parents and destroying their lives, he had done this.
It was James. Bloody and beaten. He would have been barely recognizable if not for the hair and the glasses, which had been left on his face. His hands had been bound together and attached to the top of the blood-covered clock face, and his feet were left to dangle. It was easy to see that he was dead, the blood everywhere was proof enough.
Missing Auror's Body Found on Clock TowerBody of James Potter, Auror, Finally Uncovered After 6-Week Disappearance
Early this morning, London-goers were greeted with the sight of one of our most prized Aurors hanging attached to Big Ben, the large clock tower in London. The first to spot this were Muggles, who immediately telephoned (the Muggle way of communicating similar to a fire call) their local authorities, which sent men to investigate. The Magical Law Enforcement squad was alerted not long after, and officials quickly arrived to take control of the situation.
"I had just stepped out of the underground when I saw him," a middle-aged Muggle woman told us, before she was Obliviated. "It was horrible, and I started to scream. Soon almost everyone joined in; the rest had run towards phones to call for help. I don't know how someone did it, or why. There was blood all over the clock face, and covering the man as well. His clothes were all tattered too; it looked like he had been tortured. And there was this large… thing in the sky. It was a skull, and a snake, all an eerie green colour and floating just above where the man hung. Then all these people started appearing, more coming every minute, and they just appeared out of nowhere. Just poof! Right out of thin air! Most of them ran towards the tower, but quite a few just stayed where they were, screaming and crying. They said horrible things, just plain horrible. Thank God there were no children around."
The man was identified as James Leonardo Potter, who had been missing for a total of five weeks. One of our strongest Aurors, his death has shaken our world hard. His family and friends arrived on the scene just as his body was being brought back down to the ground, and their reactions terrified and saddened everyone. Lily Potter, who is currently near nine months pregnant with the couple's first child, collapsed on the street screaming and crying. A light stunning spell later was applied to safely transport her to St. Mungos. Sirius Black, Potter's partner and another top Auror, began screaming like a manic, and had to be forcibly carried off the scene after he started flinging spells at bystanders. Remus Lupin, a childhood friend, remained fairly composed, and left the scene along with Lily Potter.
The body was taken down and transported away fairly quickly, and the blood and Dark Mark, as well as the memories of various Muggles, were gone within the hour.
Albus Dumbledore himself spoke to the world about this tragedy:
"He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named," he says, although he said the real name, "has done this solely to destroy our hope, our morale. We must not let Him win, at this battle or in the war. Mr. Potter's death must not be in vain; we must fight for revenge for his life, and for the lives of the countless others that He has ended. We are only as strong as we are united, we must not let Him weaken our resolve, and we must not be frightened over to His side. That is what He wants from this, and doing so will let Him win. We are strong, we can win, we will win! As long as we stay together, we will defeat him and the Dark side. We, the light, can still triumph!"
Dates for the memorial service for James Potter will appear when they are decided.
See What This Means for the Aurors, page two; James Potter: Noble Fighter, page five; He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named's Worst Acts, page six through nine.
Harry's hands were shaking as he rolled the paper back up. His whole body trembled, and he gripped the table to keep from falling. He had been trying to imagine what Voldemort could have done to get such a horrible reaction from everyone, but no thought had ever come close to this. This had to be the worst thing Voldemort had ever done. He had tortured him, tortured his father, and then hadn't even had the decency to just leave his body somewhere. Instead, he had placed him where even one could see him and become horrified. That is what he wanted, to have everyone terrified.
Harry never heard the footsteps as another walked into the room. He never even noticed his presence until he spoke, startling Harry.
"Figured you come down here sooner or later," the voice said. As Harry gasped, and whipped around to face the newcomer.
So, what do we think? Good? Bad? Well, review and give your opinion (although flames are not appreciated, and any sent will be used to roast me marshmallows). Many thanks to those who have already reviewed:
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Ash of Mine (This help answer your question?)
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Remus Is Mine (many thx for beta-ing)
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Chels (many thx for beta-ing, but naughty girl – u didn't review! Lol, jk – no worries if ur too busy.)
Remember, try to review after the chapter – it's quite nice to know who's reading the stories! I hope I got everybuddy – terribly sorry if I didn't, hotmail is a lil mussed (yes, I mean 'mussed' not 'messed' – 'muss' is quite a fun word) up. Anywayz, summer vacation starts in two weeks (yay!!!!) so hopefully I'll be able to posting more often!
Oh, now I must ask you – I saw Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (twice on June 4th!!!), and me and my friend noticed that Remus seemed to be speaking of Lily rather…fondly with romantic music playing in the background. Did Lily and Remus have a relationship we don't know about? And what about that picture on his bedside table – everybuddy says its Lily and James, but James has dark hair, not light brown. Its ponderable…
Anywayz, Talk to y'all next time!!!