Chapter 5 Everything Comes Out
James turned to the others for reassurance. Though sadly he received none. He swallowed his guilt and pride and walked onto the spinning staircase. He was soon followed by the others- also wearing the same expression. Again he swallowed his pride and knocked on the door. No answer came, and little Peter happily looked around.
"Well, he's not here! So let's just go back. I'm sure Sirius will appear-" Just then the door swung open. Sad, Peter followed the others into the wondrous room.
The pre-headmasters and Headmistresses were pretending to be asleep. Though with some side effects such as leaving their eyes opened a crack, or pretending to be asleep and not breathing. Though a few were actually slumbering, drool was hanging from the corners of their mouths. Moony, Wormtail, Prongs, and Lily were looking around the room in awe.
"Please come in children," Professor Dumbledore said happily. With a wave of his hand, there appeared three more chairs. They all took a sea and were still looking at some of the portraits. Some had their eyes open again, then they would notice that they were being watched and would go back to "sleep" again.
"Now, you have come to me to know the whereabouts of young Sirius Black, eh? I am afraid to say that he is not in the school..." he was interrupted by a worried James.
"Are you saying that he's been expelled" he spilled out. Dumbledore patiently shook his head.
"No, my dear Mr. Potter. Mr. Black will come back to this school. What had happened were that Mrs. Black and Mr. Black passed away. So your friend went home to sell some items for galleons and some of the items he needed to pick up. Besides," Dumbledore smiles, "Kreacher was in the need of looking after," James smiled. Oh how clearly he remembered Kreacher and his wild antics. He was reminded of the time he and Sirius were "playing" around with the sour house-elf. If anything, that was the reason Kreacher despised both of them.
But Lily was still worried.
"If Sirius went back to his home, then how come he hasn't sent us an owl or anything?" She said furiously. Remus nodded at the thought, though he was not at all prepared for the answer.
"Because Voldemort's men are intercepting the letters now," Many shudders flew through the room, "he is working quickly to gain supporters, starting with graduates of this very school,"
Remus's eyes widened like the others, but his fear was quickly changed into deep thought. Lily and James were listening with all their might, as Peter was looking around the room, frightened. But Dumbledore continued his story.
"I don't want you four to go around snooping for answers, and when Sirius gets back, do not mention that I told you. Sirius should be able to tell you when necessary," They all looked disappointed. He smiled and continued, "The only reason I told you was so that you all would stop searching at night and loose more of your house points. I daresay you would like to win again this year, right?" They all nodded,"Good, then I think we covered everything you need to know. I will call you all in separate to talk about what you can do after school," Dumbledore grinned at them.
"But sir, when do you think Sirius will return?" Remus asked, coming out of his gaze.
"He will send me an owl when he is ready. So do not fret, by this time tomorrow, he will probably be back," he nodded and stood up. Walking over to the cabinet, he started rummaging around in it. Taking this as a time to leave, James and the others filed out. James sighed in relief and Lily smiled at him.
"I know how much your friendship with Sirius means to you. But hey, like Dumbledore said, but this time tomorrow, Sirius will return," James smiled ad nodded, his heart feeling lighter and lighter. Remus looked at the time and saw something interesting.
"Well, you'll be happy to know that you have Quidditch practice in ten minutes," James spun around to look at the clock. Kissing Lily on the cheek and waving bye to his friends, James ran off.
He made it to the dressing room just in time. The others were just beginning to change. He quickly pulled off his robes and put on his Quidditch gear. His mind was racing a hundred miles an hour.
Wood went through the plans, though James's vision was a bit blurred. He shook his head and he looked around. He couldn't help but wonder about what Dumbledore had said.
He could hear voices calling him from far away. His vision was still blurred. When he looked around, he began to rub his temples. One of the beaters was calling him.
"JAMES POTTER!" Joanna Johnson called right next to his ear. He jumped back and began to rub his ears this time, hoping to get rid of the ringing.
"You don't have to yell! Ouch!" he was hit over his head with his own comet two-sixty. "That's not funny Joanna!" he glared daggers at her. She scowled and pushed the broom into him and left. Confused, he suddenly realized that she had been trying to get his attention for over ten minutes. Guilty now, he walked out and went to apologize.
But he stopped short when he saw people in the stands. He made out four figures, and along his scanning process, four more. The four in the green stands he made out to be Malfoy, Crabbe, Goyle, and Snape. He looked over in the Gryffindor stands and saw Lily, Remus, Peter, and with some difficulty he made out the other... Sirius! James couldn't believe his eyes. He was so sure that he was going to be there tomorrow. And here he was! He flew over towards his friends in the stands. They happily waved him over and they all beamed brightly at him. Though James could tell that Sirius was a little paler than usual. Sadly, before James could reach them, Wood called him back.
He sighed and flew back down to the ground "You can talk to your friends later. Now we are going to do what we talked about earlier, remember? Let's go!" They all mounted their brooms again and flew up. James went instantly over to Joanna. "I'm sorry about earlier, I was just thinking about something else, you know," Joanna nodded solemnly.
"James! Look out!" She called. But unfortunately James didn't duck in time and was smacked in the head by a bludger. All he could hear was the screams of the girls around him. Then he could feel the ground now beneath his body.
He awoke in the hospital wing. Someone had removed his glasses he looked about the room. He could see outlines of his teammates and the Marauders. He heard the same ringing sound in his ears as he did earlier when Joanna had yelled in his ears. He reached out for his glasses.
"He's awake!" Someone called out. He couldn't make out the voice for the pan in his head was to great. He opened his eyes blurrily. The one who announced his awakening was Lily. He noticed that she was white as marble, making her red hair stand out even more. Remus was enthralled in his book about Medicare. Wood was yelling at Madam Promfrey to allow the muddy team to stay.
"Please! He's our best player!" at this he received many glares from us team, "Well it's true!" They continued to glare, "Madam Promfrey, you hate to-"
"I don't have to do anything for you, boy!"
"But-"
"But what?"
"I erm..."
"That's what I thought! You and your team can leave!"
"What about James?"
"If you can recall his third year, a few broken bones are nothing!"
At this Wood beckoned his team to leave. They all said bye to James and left. Only the Marauders remained.
"Oh James! Are you alright?" Lily wrapped her arms around his neck, squeezing until Sirius had to pull her off.
"Yeah, thanks for letting me breath," He smiled weakly. Sirius smiled happily, though he too was a bit pale.
"Anything wrong, you're still a bit pale, mate," James remarked, smirking a bit. "Yeah you fell three stories off your own broom, and just some other crap," James eyes him suspiciously. Sirius shrugged it off, tempted not to make it a big deal. He knew Sirius would tell him eventually... when he felt the time was right... he hoped. Lily still had tears in her eyes from his fall, and Peter began to munch on some of the gift the team had left him, including some other candies. He popped another Bertie Bott bean in his mouth. Only to have it spat out. "Yuck... sardines..." Everyone laughed. "Good ol' peter!" Muttered Sirius, slapping him on the back.
A week later, when it was nearly Halloween, James was up and about with all of the other Gryffindors. But something was troubling Sirius, and whenever they asked him; he would just turn them down. But today, Sirius pulled James aside.
"Prongs, I've got something bugging me that Dumbledore thinks you should know about. He says maybe you can help..." Sirius was anxious; watching his back as if he was being watched. "When I left, I went to see m mum because I heard something bad has happened to her. When I got back home, I found her, having a hard time breathing. So I tried to give her some comfort, really I did. But of course, she wouldn't take it. She said that I was a traitor for not wanting to go with Narcissa or something, and that I should stop hanging out with you guys. I told her I wouldn't do it, even though she was dying. But odd part about it was that the doorbell rang. So I went to got the door," He began to shake. James was worried now, he had never seen his best mate so shaken up, nor had he heard this part of the story. "It turned out to be a-a Death Eater. He pushed passed me, like I was nothing. I followed him up to my mother's room, asking what he was doing here. I tried to stop him...really I did.
"He didn't answer bit it was creepy enough. But the voice from under the mask said 'you have served us well, my dear. Rest in Peace.' Then there was a crazy maniacal laughter... after that he said something, I couldn't understand it though. Then, a flash of green light appeared. I ran over to my mum... She had a huge smiled plastered on her face. She was dead." That seemed to be the end of his story. He quickly glanced around again before he turned his back to James.
Well! There's chapter five! I was running out of names so I just added different names to the Quidditch players. Yeah... how original sarcastic anyways, I don't own anything, HP and everything belongs to J.K. Rowling, and Warner Bros.... hope you like!