Chapter Six: Slow Beginnings and Quicker Ends

The corridor was filled with an unnatural fog that made it hard to see or even breathe. A soft wind whistled in James' ear and he shivered, pulling his wand out. He walked slowly beside Sirius and kept looking back over his shoulder, Dumbledore's mad voice looming in his head. A door rattled as they passed it, and Sirius jumped.

"Don't stop," James instructed. "Not unless you have to."

They made it to the staircase on the third floor before they were met with any problems. There, from out of nowhere, a shimmering horse galloped full speed towards James. He threw himself out of the way and glimpsed Sirius out of the corner of his eye doing the same.

He looked up just in time to see the horse's rider pull its head from its body and screech at him. Several more horses galloped up and their riders did the same. Swords slashed, glimmering through the air. James and Sirius scampered about on the floor, trying to avoid getting trampled or stabbed. James threw several basic spells, but none affected the riders in any way.

It took James nearly a full minute of cowering on the floor to realize that they must be ghostsseveral times a horse's hoof had gone through his leg, leaving behind only a cold feeling. He frowned, angry with himself for being fooled. He stood slowly and the riders looked at him with surprise. "The Headless Hunt, I presume?" he said coldly before walking around several of them to where Sirius was backed against a wall. He grasped Sirius by the forearm and hauled him to his feet.

"It took the others much longer," the first rider said, tucking his head beneath his arm. "I'm impressed."

Figuring he must be the leader, James addressed him. "It was a good show," he said with the barest hint of a smile.

The ghost smiled back at him. "It was, wasn't it? Well, we must go back and conceal ourselves to wait for our next victims. On with you then, men! You've earned your passage, and quite well, I must say." The group turned as one and galloped through the wall behind Sirius.

"That was…" Sirius swallowed hard.

"Interesting?" said a voice from behind them. They both turned.

"Evans?" James said. "What the bloody hell are you doing here?"

"Don't swear, James. I'm in the competition too remember?"

"You?" Sirius scoffed. "You don't actually think you'll win, do you?"

Lily's back stiffened. "I've got as much chance as you have, Black," she snapped. "And that isn't saying much."

"Well, don't expect our help," Sirius warned, "because we're in this to win it."

"As if I would need your help. Besides, from where I was standing a few moments ago, it looked to me like you were the one crawling all over the floor begging for help."

And so the two began squabbling like schoolchildren, tossing insults at each other. James remained quiet. Though he wouldn't say it to Sirius, he actually would've liked having Evans there with them. She was very good at all their classes. And she was a much better sight to stare at than Sirius. But, as Sirius had said, they were in this to win it.

The three walked together for a few more minutes until they came to a crossing passageway, at which Evans went right and James and Sirius went left. James spared her one last glance over his shoulder, watching as her outline disappeared into the dense fog. Sirius was muttering to himself about know-it-alls and annoyances.

"You know, we could've used her help, Sirius. She's brilliant in class," James pointed out.

"I'm not going to let her come along just because you fancy her," Sirius said.

James blushed. "I don't fancy her," he muttered.

"Oh, come off it, James. You've fancied her since you fell on her on the Hogwarts Express. We all know that you think about her all the time. You draw her initials on all your parchment with big hearts around them. If you could, you'd have a bloody poster made of her to hang above your bed! Go on. Admit it." James sullenly refused to answer. "We all see it," Sirius continued persistently. "Especially when you ditch us, your three best mates in the world, to flirt with her."
"I just thought that maybe"

"That maybe you'd catch a quick snog in a dark corner while no one's looking?"

James shoved Sirius playfully and they both laughed. The sound, however, was soon drowned out by an unearthly scream from the other direction. The boys stared at each other for a few moments, mouths agape.

"Evans," they breathed together. They bolted back down the hallway, Their footsteps fell heavily on the hard concrete, causing an echo that disappeared into the thick fog. It seemed to take forever to retrace their steps, and they both panted heavily from the exertion.

James stumbled to a halt when he spotted Evans. She was on the ground, kicking at what appeared to be ghouls of some sort. Their bodies glowed a sickening green and it seemed as though they were half rotten. One of her hands was reaching for her wand, which had skidded across the floor while the other barely held the ghoul at bay. It leered at her, cackling and snapping its few remaining teeth at her. Another of the ghouls loped over and grabbed her wand just as her fingertips reached it. It smirked down at her triumphantly.

James turned to Sirius, who was staring at the scene before him, obviously dumbstruck. "Well, don't just stand there!" he shouted. "We have to do something!"

"Bloody ghouls," he heard Sirius mutter.

James raised his wand and pointed at the ghoul who had Lily's wand. "Expelliarmus!" he roared, and watched as the ghoul's head snapped up at the sound of his voice and Lily's wand flew out of its hand. It looked mildly surprised before it let out an angry roar and began to slowly stalk James. "Get the other one!" he called to Sirius. The other ghoul, at the first sign of trouble, had begun to drag Lily down the hallway and away from her rescuers. She wouldn't go quietly, however. She kicked at the ghoul, who dodged her attacks, but barely.

James' situation was becoming worse by the moment. The ghoul that he'd disarmed was over twice his size and, if he wasn't much mistaken, very pissed off. James' only advantages were being smaller and quicker. His mind raced, but he couldn't think of a single spell that could help him in this situation. He ducked under the ghoul's outstretched arms for a third time and ran to the other side of the hallway. His arm bumped quite painfully against the suit of armor there and he shot it an annoyed glance.

It was then that he noticed the dagger that the suit of armor held. Granted, it would be dull, but it was the best idea he had.

He grasped the dagger and pulled. The suit of armor pulled back. James pulled again, but the suit of armor forcefully refused to relinquish its weapon.

"I only need to borrow it!" James insisted, pulling again at the dagger. It resisted for only a moment before pulling free. He brandished it at the ghoul, who eyed it warily and growled menacingly at him.

James thrust the dagger at the ghoul, which avoided it easily. After a few minutes of this useless maneuvering, James thought it safe to spare Sirius and Lily a glance. Sirius was prodding the first ghoul with his wand, making large, painful-looking boils appear. Lily was yelling at him, telling him what spells to use.

"Evans!" Sirius finally yelled, having had enough of Lily's shouting. "Will you shut the bloody hell up? You're not helping!"

Lily crossed her arms, sniffed haughtily, but said no more.

One quick glance, it turned out, was too much when dealing with a ghoul. Before James had a chance to react, the ghoul had all but wrestled him to the floor. Desperately, he lashed out with the dagger, and to his amazement, felt it connect solidly.

He pulled back in time to see the shock on the ghoul's face. He'd sliced the ghouls' arm; a semi-deep gash could be seen clearly and blood was beginning to gather rather quickly.

James stared in open-mouthed shock as the creature jerked away from him abruptly and retreated down the hallway. When it neared Sirius, Lily, and the other ghoul, it began screeching. The other ghoul looked up, obviously understanding, and screeched back before it turned and fled down the hallway, disappearing into the fog.

The ghoul that James had fought paused when it reached Lily and Sirius. It looked at them both in turn before it flashed its rotten teeth at Sirius in what could possibly pass for a smile, and scooped him easily off his feet.

He struggled, but the ghoul had grabbed him from behind and he couldn't get his wand around to defend himself.

"Get off me!" he bellowed. "Get off, you stinking, rotting excuse for a creature!" The ghoul ignored him and continued down the hallway the same direction the other ghoul had run.

James ran to Lily and helped her up off the floor. "You all right?" he asked, giving her a once-over.

"Yeah," she said, obviously shaken, "yeah, I'm fine. But Sirius!" They both turned to look down the hallway. The fog was still, giving the barest ripple when a slight breeze blew through the corridors.

"Dammit!" James roared angrily. "I can't believe it took Sirius!"

"Well, it wouldn't hurt him, working for Dumbledore right? It probably took him back to the Great Hall."

"Yeah, but we were supposed to win this together!" James stormed. "And now he's gone and got carried offand he has the map!"

"Map?"

"Yeah!" He ran a frustrated hand through his hair. "We made a whole bunch of blueprints of the castle so we wouldn't get lost. Sirius has them."

"Well," Lily said carefully, "that was a good idea, but James, we're only First Years. I'd bet almost anything that it's going to be a Fifth Year or older who wins this." James scowled at the floor, but said nothing. "Come on," Lily said. "We can at least finish, can't we?"

They walked along in silence for a few minutes. Both had their wands out.

"So," James ventured, clearing his throat, "you, er, into Quidditch at all, Evans?"

"Well," Lily said softly, keeping her eyes focused ahead of her, "being from a Muggle family, I don't know much about it."

"Really?" James said, a little too eagerly. "Well, you just happen to be walking next to an expert." So, to pass the time, he explained the rules of Quidditch and why, in his opinion, it was the best sport in the world.

Somewhere in the castle, a clock chimed. Going to the dungeons, James and Lily decided, hadn't been one of Sirius' best ideas. Then again, James mused, Lily didn't like any of Sirius' ideas. Mainly because she didn't like Sirius.

"So," he said conversationally, "what, uhwhat is it that you have against Sirius, anyway?" Using his peripheral vision, he saw her eyes narrow.

"He's arrogant, insensitive, has no respect for authority, picks on people he considers below him, doesn't care about his studies, and thinks it's funny to throw dungbombs in the girls' lavatory."

James flinched at this. "Well," he said carefully, "he's not all bad, you know. He has a brilliant sense of humor and he's really loyal. And he only picks on people who deserve it for one reason or another. He's smart, too. Very smart. Sure, he can be arrogant and insensitive, but that's just part of who he is. Accept the bad with the good, I always say."

"I don't know why you bother with him. The two of you are nothing alike." When he looked at her strangely, she continued. "You're not! For instance, on the train. He never would've let Peter in if it hadn't been for you. " She slanted him a look. "Why did you let Peter in?"

"Well, for you, I suppose," James said honestly.

"For me?"

"Well, yeah. There you were looking at me with these puppy dog eyes and your hair all mussed from where I'd fallen on you, all but begging for me to let Pete in. How can a bloke possibly say no to that?"

Lily blushed to the roots of her auburn hair.

"Did I embarrass you?" he asked, studying her. She shook her head.

"I suppose I'm flattered," she said, not looking him in the eye. He smiled to himself. Here he was, flirting with a beautiful girl, and he hadn't blushed or stuttered once!

"So why do you still hang out with Peter?" she asked suddenly. "It's not for me, I hope. That would be unfair to him."

James shook his head and smiled. "Nah. You're not that great," he teased. "Pete's not so bad, you know. He kind of tags along with Sirius and I, which is sort of a bother, but he's OK. He's loyal, which is important. He'd do anything for us. He's good comic relief sometimes, too. Like the other night! You should've been there, Evans." He told her all about the suit of armor incident, and after scolding him mildly for breaking the rules, she laughed right along with him.

"Yes, quite the humorous sight, wasn't it?" a surly voice intruded. "I would've found it much more amusing myself had the suit of armor managed to strangle Pettigrew. Imagine. Death by suit of armor."

The malicious voice belonged to none other than Severus Snape. He had stepped out of an empty classroom several feet ahead of them.

"Yes, well, many of us would find it humorous if your nose grew to twice the size of your head but—wait—it's already done that."

"James," Lily reprimanded softly.

"So it was you I saw creep around that corner," James realized suddenly. He'd nearly forgotten the shadow he'd seen, but now he remembered clearly.

Snape laughed, low and humorless. "I'm surprised to find you so observant. Yes, I'd seen you sneaking down the hallway, confident that you were smart enough not to get caught. Seems to me that you weren't so smart after all."

"What did you do to that suit of armor to get it to attack Peter?" James demanded angrily.

Snape's grin widened. "Brilliant, wasn't it? It was a combination of several potions and spells I learned from my father–how to make magically enchanted items obey. I simply instructed it to attack the next person to cross its path. Little did I know that that idiot Pettigrew would try and climb inside it!" Now Snape was laughing for real.

"You'd have felt like a right ass if we'd turned around before reaching it and someone else—Dumbledore or Filch—had walked by it."

Snape shook his head in disappointment. "Ah, but Potter, there was always a back-up plan. That was why I waited around that corner for one of you to get caught. I'd honestly hoped that it would've been you or Black, but I must admit Pettigrew was quite worth the effort. Besides, if you had walked away, I would have simply lifted the enchantment."

James was quiet for a moment. "You're going to pay for that, Snivellus," he promised quietly.

"Is that so?" Snape taunted.

"Leave it alone, James," Lily interjected. "We can tell McGonagall or Dumbledore and get him detention or something. I'm sure that knowingly endangering another student is"

But James' arm had already shot up and his wand was inches from Snape's face. He saw Snapes' smile falter, but only for a moment.

"Going to hex me, Potter?" he sneered.

Lily put her hands on James' wand arm. "James, stop," she pleaded. James' eyes ticked over to her face. Her beautiful green eyes were practically begging him. He slowly lowered his arm, glaring at Snape all the while, and allowed Lily to maneuver him away.

"Poor Petrified Potter," Snape hissed at his back.

And with that, James had had enough. He whipped around and raised his wand, but Snape was faster. The tip of Snape's wand was all but touching James' nose. "I wouldn't if I were you," Snape warned. "Unlike you, I don't have a Mudblood girlfriend to stop me. I will hex you." He tapped James on the nose with his wand. "Now run along, Potter. Before you or your Mudblood are humiliated any further."

"Call her that once more, Snivellus, and you'll regret that you were ever born nearly as much as the rest of us do," James snapped, his eyes narrowing. "Tell me, how does it feel to know that your parents think of you as nothing more than the bane of their existence?"

"James!" Lily said in a horrified whisper.

"Come on, Severus. We've all heard the stories," James persisted. Snape's breathing had become shallow and his nostrils flared furiously.

"You don't know what you're talking about, Potter," Snape spat, his wand arm shaking.

James had never been deliberately hurtful to anyone before, but the word 'Mudblood,' Slytherins, the Dark Arts, and especially any combination of the three made his blood boil. Throwing all caution to the wind, he dove at Snape, who let out a surprised 'Oof' as the wind was knocked out of him. They struggled on the floor, grappling with each other fiercely. Lily stood over them, wringing her hands and yelling at them to stop.

"Stupefy!" Snape yelled, and a jet of red light flew out of his wand and brushed past James' shoulder. James' fist connected with Snape's face just as he heard a loud 'THUMP' from behind him. Still holding a struggling Snape, he looked for the source. Lily lay, motionless on the floor. She'd been hit by Snape's stunner.

"Damn!" he yelled, throwing Snape away from him and kneeling over Lily. "Lily! Hey, Evans! Wake up! Shit." He looked up and saw Snape run around the corner in a flurry of robes.

A gong sounded throughout the castle, signaling that the winning competitor had finished. The competition was over, he had lost, Sirius had gotten carried away, and he had an unconscious witch on his hands. Not one of his best days.