Lex talionis

He made his way to his friends. As he reached the compartment door, he leaned against the wall to regain his breath. He seemed to have trouble breathing and keeping steady, especially when he thought about what had happened with Lily

When he managed to stable his breathing rate he placed a hand on the door handle, but before he pulled it to open, he heard something that made him stop

"- and then he just took off. He's been gone for about half an hour and no one has seen him" Lily's voice rang in his ears, from inside the compartment

He felt his heart quicken painfully

"Are you sure? Maybe he just went to the toilet?" Sirius' voice followed Lily's. James could tell that he was worried

"Don't be daft Padfoot. Lily don't worry, he just needs some time to be alone right now. He's been though a lot over the summer" James heard Remus say, always the reasonable one. He mentally thanked his werewolf friend

"Yea but we're all worried about him, Remus, and he wont talk to any of us. Something else happened that day but he plain out refuses to talk about it or to even mention it. I really want to know what the hell is wrong with him and I know I'm not the only one who does so neither of you give me that look. But the thing is, he's always been so damn stubborn to and so bloody proud to open up or even accept any sort of help from any of us. He keeps insisting on dealing with everything on his own, and I really cant stand that!" Sirius' voice became louder and louder as he approached the end of his rant

James could just imagine his friend fraying his hands everywhere trying to prove his point, and he would have smiled fondly at the sight if a sharp sting hadn't struck him across his abdomen. He had to bite hard on his lip to prevent him from screaming in pain. His hand gripped the handle of the compartment door even harder.

He roughly let go and staggered a few steps back clutching his aching stomach. He breathed in deeply for a few seconds and as soon as the throbbing pain had turned into a dull tingle, he turned around determinedly and strode in the opposite direction

Within a few moments he had reached the only part of the train that he really didn't like. The Slytherin End

As he passed the Slytherin packed compartments, he heard sneers and snide remarks about his parents, but he kept on ahead, trying to ignore the increasing sting in his abdomen, which was now beginning to move to the rest of his body

Finally he had reached the compartment that he was looking for and pushed it open harshly revealing the person he was looking for

" Snape" he hissed coldly

Snape looked at him, his eyes glinting with droning hatred and fear, as the other occupants of the compartment made their way out silently, surprised at the Gryffindor's presence

"Potter" he drawled, "I was wondering when you would be coming. I must admit though, it did take you less time to do so than I expected. Your feelings for that little redheaded mudblood might be stronger than you lead on then huh?" he smirked

James' eyes flashed dangerously and before Snape could blink, he was in front of him, holding him firmly against the wall by his forearm

"Don't-you-ever-call-her-that-again!" James breathed out each word, finding it difficult to conjure a sentence. Within a few seconds he felt a burning feeling, such as the feeling he felt when Lily had touched him, blaze his arm and he immediately let go

"Seems that you hate me as much as you love her, huh Potter?" Snape grumbled, massaging his neck.

"What -the -hell.." James gasped at the burning sensation. He found it unbearable to continue as he shut his eyes tight to try and block out the pain

"Did I do to you?" Snape finished with a leer. He approached him slowly and James too a few steps back and whispered harshly

"Well Potter, I'm just showing you my gratitude for saving my life last year. I really do owe you my life. I realize that neither of us are very happy about this.. situation, but I must admit that I don't particularly like to be in debt to a low life son of a bitch like yourself, so I found this nifty little spell. Asper altivolus it called. Sound familiar?" he mocked him

James seemed to think about it for some time before he looked back at him, a hint of fear and apprehension in his eyes. Snape's grin grew even more devious and sadistic

"Exactly" he almost shouted

"But that's too powerful Snape, even for you" James answered hoarsely

"What can I say; I have friends in high places" he said airily

"And how the hell is this supposed to help me?" James growled, his anger returning, along with the pain that began to accompany it. He gasped loudly

"Tut tut tut Potter. Temper, temper. You really should watch yourself with that. You never know when karma might strike back. You know what they say don't you? What goes around comes around" Snape said in a tone of mock wisdom

He grabbed James' arm and eyed the burns that had formed on his forearm and took out his wand and muttered 'Gelu' and a silvery light shot through and as it came in contact with his skin a soothing cold feeling brushed him like silk and he blinked several times

"Why?" he whispered slowly, his eyes now glued on Snape's

"I'm sick and tired of watching you act like you do. You have so many emotions inside you but you never seem to be able to express yourself. Think about how better life would be if you could just express yourself more freely. See Potter, the spell that I put on you controls your body's reactions to your feelings. When you feel hate, you feel pain. When you feel love, you feel pain. When you feel pain, the pain that will curse through you with seem stronger and deeper. It can help you with your.. shall I say relationships? That is if you are willing to accept their help, or even their support. But then again you never seemed to be the type of person to accept anything. So like your father. Now you get to suffer while you try to fix your little life up and I get to watch. An arrangement far better that what existed. Don't you think Potter?" he explained smoothly

"You are the most despicable person I have ever had the displeasure of meeting" James spat

"Remember what I said Potter, as you make your way back to your friends" Snape snapped back in return

"There has to be a counter curse right?" James asked, more to himself than to Snape. Snape heard and grinned evilly at him

"Oh did I forget to mention? There is no counter curse" his smile grew at the horror struck look on James' face

"You're lying!" he almost shouted. The look on Snape's face brought doubts to his mind and he back further out of the door "Fuck you Snape" he added as he turned around fast and strode down the train to where his friends were

Lily Evans wasn't in the carriage when he went back to the Marauders, but he did find his friend waiting for him, with determination shinning in their eyes and he immediately knew he was in trouble

"Where have you been?" Sirius began to rant. "Do you know how worried we are? We haven't seen you all summer and today we find out that you're Head Boy. Evans came in about 20 minutes ago asking what the fuck got into you and that you just ran off. And to top it all off Snape attacked you before and we didn't even see if you were ok. I mean sure-" he was cut off by Remus

"Padfoot I advise you to shut up because you seem to be putting him to sleep rather than in a mood to answer our questions" he told him playfully and then turned to James who was watching them with some amusement

"He's right though Prongs, we are worried about you. How come you didn't tell us you were Head Boy?" he added solemnly slowly making his way to him

"It slipped my mind?" James replied lamely

"Slipped your mind?!" Sirius snapped back outraged, "James, forgetting to wash up, that's slip your mind. Forgetting homework, that's slipped your mind. Forgetting to tell your friends that you became Head Boy, that is… I don't know what that is, but it sure as hell is not slipped your mind"

"Oh yea, and what is it?" James retorted in a low voice. He was beginning to get aggravated and he could feel a tingle of hurt appearing on his back

"James, relax, we're just worried about you and Sirius, please just don't" Remus stepped in between them, trying to stop a fight

"You don't have to be" James breathed as he sat down carefully and turning his gaze outside the window were it was still raining

Remus and Sirius watched him in surprise at the sudden attitude change. A few seconds ago, he appeared to be very angry, and although Sirius might not have seen it Remus saw a flash of pain cross his eyes. And now he was sitting next to the window, peering through it with a grim expression. Suddenly they both saw an unmistakable sign of a tears fall down his cheek

"James-" Sirius began cautiously, stepping closer to him

"I saw them die" he muttered against the window. His voice was broken. Sirius stopped while Remus approached

"What?" he asked slowly, risking a glance at Sirius who was looking at him with uncertainty

"I saw Voldemort murder my family" he clarified, his voice a bit stronger than before

For the second time that day, silence ruled the noisiest compartment of the train

Thank yous

Lady Masbolle thank you for your kind words they kind of made my day after my exam, thank you. That thing you told me about the guy's eyes sounds really cool, I'm going to experiment with that with a few guinea pigs that I've got in mind evil grin (heh). Japanese huh? I wanted to learn Japanese as well at one point in my life. I still do for that matter, but one thing at a time, I also want to learn Spanish and guitar and pass my exams so as I said one thing at a time. Good look with that

Niux Glad you liked it, I hope you enjoyed this one as well!

C I'm glad you enjoying it this far and I hope you like what's coming as well cos I have every intention in continuing this story and I really wish you like it. I hope this chapter clarifies Snape's spell, not just for you but for everyone that reads this fic

LimeJuiceTub Thanks. I know this isn't following the usual Lj stories at the point but I just had tis idea in mind and given the effect of no internet for two days, this was the result heh. Now the religious aspect that showed up in the previous chapter may have caused a few people to get confused, but think about it for a moment; Lily is a muggleborn and she had to have been accustomed to believing in God, I just made her a bit more religious. But I did this because as it is well known Sirius Black (sigh) is Harry's godfather, meaning that Harry was baptized. So even in the magic community I suspect they have a God. If ot the God that us Muggles believe in then one of their own. No? Anyway, religious stuff aside, I hope you enjoyed this chapter

GinnyPotter08 Soon enough for you? Heh. I hope you like it

Living In A Nightmare Oh those puppy dog eyes, get me all the time! Heh, I hope you liked this chapter. I hope to continue to show clearly how much the characters change through my story. Thanks for your good luck wishes, they really mean a lot to me, especially when I can use as much luck as I can get heh

Child-of-Scorpio You have violent friends as well? Am I glad to know that I'm not the only one! But then again maybe its my fault but then again they still shouldn't hit me. They should try to refrain from showing their true feelings toward some of my (very stupid) comments/actions/expressions. That was actually my favourate line in that chapter to tell you the truth. I was actually sleeping when I actually came up with it and it even gave me the chills writing it! I kept on re-reading it and I still got them, but I wouldn't go to the extent of being called a VERY good writer for doing so. If you still insist though yous hould really talk to my English teacher. Maybe she'll set you straight heh. Maybe. People actually chose to learn Greek? To get something cleared out I live in Cyprus. The newly established EU island thingy or something. And I have lived here all my life (all 17 years of it) and all I can say about the Greek language is that I wish it wasn't compulsory to take it to A' Level. Thank Merlin though that this is my last year of it! Eleven years of greek can give you that undying hatred for it. Oh well. Those are really cool subjects that you're taking (Sviences aside. I really suck at science) and I wish my bloody school would have them as well. The art thing about the coursework is so true, it really is a pest to have that coursework doe but its fun anyway, you don't even have to draw. You can just glue something on a piece of paper and its art! Believe it or not heh . yes Biology is my worst subject, but that could be due to the fact that I really don't like my teacher but hey! You don't have Drama!? Oh my God! (sorry bout that) that sounds like torture. But at least you have better Geography trips than us. Our school's idea of a geography trip is to go to a village for the day! Can you believe that? I know what you mean about the James scene. I was going to leave it where he left Lily but I thought better of it. Glad you liked it and I hope you enjoyed this chapter as well

A/N not one of my best chapters but I hope you still like it

Gelu cold

lex talionis the law of revenge