Living A Legend
Book 1- A Clash of Wills
Chapter 22- Ends and Beginnings

Sirius waited rather impatiently until everything was in place. When the four prefects and the snack cart lady arrived, Sirius was already safely under James's cloak. James had gotten the cloak from his older brother, and it had the power to conceal whoever was wearing it. The truth was, James's cloak was an invisibility cloak, a very rare and valuable item.

It took a great deal of self control for Sirius to wait until the perfect moment, but he somehow did it. Just as the annoyed prefects were about to leave the compartment, Sirius leaped up and snagged some cauldron cakes off the food cart and pelted them at the retreating Prefects. Sirius was invisible, so naturally the sight of cakes flying through mid air was enough to frighten the woman with the cart a great deal.

But scaring the cart lady was not enough to summon Dumbledore. Sirius continued to pelt the surprised Prefects until Frank Longbottom, the head boy, came bursting in. Sirius hesitated, the Quidditch star was everyone's hero, but he knew that it was his duty to James to cause the biggest commotion he could.

With the invisibility cloak shielding him from prying eyes, Sirius stealthy snuck around to the opposite side of Frank, and smoothly pulled down his pants.

Frank darted around, "Which one of you did this!" he shouted with a red face at the quivering prefects, while readjusting his trousers.

As soon as Frank had pulled them back up, Sirius was there to pull them down again.

By this point, Frank was furious. But when Sirius pulled his cloak over his head, he looked ready to kill.

"What's going on?" one terrified prefect asked nervously.

Sirius smiled, he was just getting started.

After a bit more scaring the prefects, Sirius knew it was time to get serious. He picked up his wand and skillfully cast a spell which made all the glass window panes disappear. Instantly, the entire train was filled with a howling so loud that many students screamed, and within moments, the train actually stopped.

"And checkmate," Sirius said with a cocky smile, tossing James's invisibility cloak aside.

James felt disappointment flood his body as the smoke disappeared from the horizon. He had really hoped it had been the Hogwarts Train. He was tired, nearly exhausted and wanted to land more than anything. Sadly, James continued in the same direction, following his wand.

Suddenly he felt his wand aiming downwards, towards the forest below him. Clutching Lily's limp body tightly in his arms, he sighed and began to spiral downwards. He was in poor spirits at this point. Lily's breath was growing more and more erratic and he was beginning to doubt whether the spell he was using was actually locating Sirius.

Just as he was giving up hope, a glint of red caught his eye. Excitedly, James accelerated and a long red snake of a train began to unwind before him. It was stopped in it's tracks and James swirled downwards, almost not daring to hope that it was the Hogwarts express.

When he got lower, he saw that it was indeed the Hogwarts Express. He did not bother to wonder why it was stopped. James zoomed in and saw that the glass was absent from the windows.

James hovered for a moment and then judged the distance and squeezed through the window, Lily and all.

He was met with screams as he landed his broom. He laid Lily gently on a bunk and made the student's promise to watch her for a moment. James hurried off in search of Sirius.

He did not have to go very far. He walked into the next compartment and came face to face with three whimpering prefects, Sirius, Remus, Dora, Brittany, Peter, Jackie and Dumbledore himself.

James did not have to say a word. Dumbledore saw the blood on James's cloak and turned to follow him.

"I know this is not easy to talk about Lily, and you have been very brave," Dumbledore explained gravely. "But I need you to tell us one more time what exactly happened."

Lily sighed and sat up in her hospital bed and told the story again, in front of her parents, James's family, the minister of magic, and Dumbledore. Lily tried to leave James's bravery out as much as she could. She was horrified that James had saved her, as if she had truly needed saving. Finally, she told them names of death eaters whom she had recognized who had been present.

After she finished, Dumbledore and the Minister of Magic, Charles De'Leux stepped out of the room, leaving both Lily's parents and James's parents to gush over Lily.

"I'm perfectly fine," Lily defended haughtily with a glare towards James, "I hardly needed rescuing."

James rolled his eyes at this, "Yeah right, if it wasn't for me, you'd be dead."

"Oh, poor Lily!" James's mother crooned, still remembering the sting of her eldest son's demise.

Lily flinched away, angry at James for his interference.

"Are you sure you don't want anything dear?" Lily's father asked, pressing a hand to her forehead.

"No. I told you I am FINE. I want to leave now," she begged, attempting to sit up against the adult's protests.

Finally Dumbledore entered the room, unaccompanied by the Minister of Magic. "I am sorry, but Charles refuses to press charges against any of the boys you named. I personally am convinced of the truth of your story, but sadly the Minister of Magic feels differently. Unfortunately it is not my place to decide. But I can assure you that if another incident arises, which I feel it will, I will not let the matter lie."

"How can he not believe her?" Lily's mother sounded shocked.

"Rebecca, it is a matter of the word of two eleven year olds against the word of some of the most powerful and influential wizards of our time. I am sorry, but there is little that can be done logistically. However, I will be keeping a very close watch on the wizards in question," Dumbledore stated, with a hard gleam in his eyes which made Lily feel that he was a very good wizard to have on her side. She had never seen that side of Dumbledore but he looked as if he was not someone to cross.

Three days later, Lily was out of the hospital and on her way home. James and his family were just leaving as well. Lily ignored the boy with a vengeance as the families said their goodbye. Both James and Lily's parents had become very close over the time that their children were being questioned and cared for, and promised to keep in touch.

"Well I guess this is it, until next year," James mused.

Lily shot him a strange look. "You sound like a whiny little baby. I am glad I don't have to see you for three whole months."

"Well duh!" James rolled his eye. "Like I would want to see your ugly face."

The two sat in impatient silence for a few minutes, waiting for their parents to finally leave.

"You might as well take this," James blurted out suddenly, and then blushed.

He pulled a parcel out of his cloak and thrust it towards Lily, who flinched as if she expected it to explode. When after a few moments, the package showed no sign of exploding, Lily carefully tore off the brown paper.

Inside was a simple black picture frame, with the a picture of James and herself inside it. The picture was from the day that the two of them had worked with the Whomping Willow. Inadvertently, Lily smiled. In the picture both of them were filthy, covered in blood and grime. James had a gruesome black eye, and his nose was clearly spouting blood and Lily had a large cut on her forehead. Never-the-less, the two were smiling happily, and James had his arm around Lily's shoulder.

"I suppose that was one of the only moments the two of us got along this year," James said unexpectedly.

Lily nodded quietly. "It's been a very long year at that."

"So many things happened. We had a lot of fun. . .but at the same time. . .some horrible things happened," James spoke quietly, his head down.

"I'm so sorry about your brother. . .and about some of the things I said," Lily confessed.

James opened his mouth, but at that moment, the parents seemed to have finally made their goodbyes.

"James, let's go honey!" called one mother.

"Lily, we're leaving," called another.

And without a further glance, the two went their separate ways.

Here ends Book 1 of Living A Legend. Book 2, The Price of Glory Begins with the next chapter.