Chapter 14 Back to school
The rest of the holidays went by pretty quickly. The were full of visits back and forth from St. Mungo's, plenty of laughs from the five friends, but no more late night talks between Lily and James. The holidays went by so fast that the group soon found themselves packing a few things the night before they were heading back to Hogwarts.
They were in James room sitting around talking.
"Oh, man, this holiday has been a blast." Sirius commented lazily.
"I don't want to go back to school." Emma pouted.
"I wouldn't mind. Going back means playing Quidditch again." Remus said lightly.
"Oh, and plenty of pranks on the Slytherins!" James added.
Lily 'tutted' James in disapproval.
"Ah, Lily, you have to admit, our jokes are funny!" Sirius exclaimed.
"James, what happening to your mum?" Emma asked timidly.
James shrugged. "I think she's coming out of the hospital next week. Right after she's going to gather up a search party and start looking for my dad. She said she'd owl me if they found any news."
"That's good. My parents home are going home in two days. Their going to have to stay with my aunt until they can buy a new house." Lily explained.
"Oh, did anyone finish that Charms Essay?" Emma asked.
"I did." Remus replied.
"Can I burrow it?"
"For what?"
"To copy!"
"Oh. No."
"What? Why?!"
"I'm kidding. Here, take it and go."
"That's not very nice."
"All is nice and fair in love and war." Remus replied.
"Are you implying something, Remus?" Lily asked jokingly.
Remus shook his head quickly while Emma looked confused.
James laughed at them and stared at the window, tracing his fingers over the pendant that he hid under his shirt. 'If my friends are in danger, how can I keep it a secret from them? How would they react?James Potter, the Heir of Gryffindor!'
James had been thinking about it non stop. He didn't want to put his friends in danger and even now, he wasn't sure what to do. Did this mean he was supposed to defeat Voldemort or something? 'Where are you, Dad?' James thought.
"Well, we have to get up early tomorrow if were going to get to King's Cross. I'm going to bed." Lily announced.
"Mind if I come with you?" Sirius asked coyly while raising his eyebrows. Lily grabbed a pillow and threw it at him.
"No!" Lily cried quickly.
"I was kidding!" Sirius said defensively.
"How are we getting to King's Cross?" Emma asked.
"Remember John? He rented a car and said he'd meet up here around ten- thirty tomorrow to take us to King's Cross. He said it's better to lay low since....um....we could get targeted next." Remus answered slowly.
Emma paled at this statement and Lily even stopped thwacking Sirius with her pillow.
"What?" James asked quickly, snapping out of his thoughts to stare at his friends.
"Well," Remus began slowly, "we did fight off Death Eaters on Christmas. Chances are, they aren't going to forget about us very quickly. Unless, James, you have another explanation as to why their targeting us? I mean, it is odd considering that were only sixteen year old wizards and witches."
Remus looked at James expectantly. After meeting his eyes, James knew Remus could tell something was up and he was hiding something. But James wasn't going to crack that easy.
"Of course not, Moony. I'm just as baffled as you." James said innocently. "but I reckon Lily's right, we should get to bed."
Remus and Sirius both gave him odd looks while Emma and Lily didn't seem to notice a thing. Emma and Lily were on their way out when Lily turned around and said, "I always wondered how you guys came up with those weird nicknames."
The Marauders grinned at each other when the girls walked out. Sirius looked like he was going to say something, but Remus elbowed him.
"Yes?" James asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Nothing, Prongs." Sirius said, hastily, "Night, Prongs."
Three said good night to each other and when Remus shut the door behind them, James fell on his bed. 'They already suspect something. How am I going to keep this a secret?' James wondered, before falling into a deep sleep full of Death Easters, his dad, friends, and Lily.
James woke up to the smell of pancakes and bacon. 'Must be Lily and Emma cooking again.'
James opened his eyes and looked around at his clock. It was around nine thirty and no one had even bothered to wake him up! James quickly got dressed and began hurling things into his trunk, not caring how messy it was. After getting everything cleaned, he took one last look around his room, grabbed his trunk and thunderbolt and made his way downstairs.
He placed his things in the living room and made his way to the kitchen to see Lily, Emma, Sirius, and Remus dressed in Muggle clothes.
"You woke up late." Lily commented.
"Way to state the obvious." He shot back. She only smiled at him. They would throw little insults at each other here and there, but never meant them.
The five began eating and afterwards, they were talking about going outside to fly on a broom before they left. Before they could, John apparated into their house. Lily and Emma shrieked in surprise.
"Don't do that!!" Emma cried.
"Sorry." John apologized, with a hint of amusement in his voice. "Come on. I'll grab your trunks and I'll see you five in the car."
The five made their way out there talking merrily to one another. When they all got seated, John started the car.
They ride there was completely uneventful, so before they knew it they were at King's Cross. They did the usual and slipped through the barrier nine and three quarters. A beautiful velvet train was there with steam coming out of the top. James took one glance at the clock. Ten minutes until eleven.
"We should probably go if we want to get a compartment to ourselves." Lily suggested.
"Heeey Sirius! Heeey James!" a group of giggling girls cried out as they passed, though they glared daggers at Emma and Lily.
"What-?" Emma started to ask, but Sirius put his arm around her and smiled at the group of girls. This only made them glare more at Emma. Lily giggled in amusement as James and Remus watched them quietly.
"Come on." Emma said, though was slightly pink now.
Remus, Lily, Sirius, and Emma made their way over to the train. Just as James was going to follow them, John grabbed his arm.
"James, I need you to promise me something." John said quietly. He sounded very serious that James could only nod.
John continued, "I need you to promise to stay out of trouble. Don't go in the Forbidden Forrest and don't do anything stupid."
"Like what?" James asked confused.
"Like going to look for you dad."
"But-!" James started to say furiously, but he was once again interrupted.
"James, listen to me. Your mother and I, along with a group of trained Aurors, will be searching for your dad. I also know about you being the Heir of Gryffindor. We can't afford to let anything bad happened to you. Promise me that you won't leave. And if anything happens to me before we find your dad, promise that you'll take care of your mum."
James looked at him furiously. "I can't just sit in school while my dad is out there being tortured! How will I know any news about him?"
"Your mother will owl you once we found any lead. I promise. But, James, I need you to promise me now. "
James opened his mouth furiously, but he heard the train whistle, indicating it was leaving.
"Promise me." John said, more firmly.
"James, come on!" Lily screamed through a window on the train. They had already found their own compartment.
"I-I-"James stuttered.
"Promise me."
"James, let's go!"
The train was almost out of sight-
"I have to go!" James yelled, and sprinted toward the train. Sirius opened the compartment door and pulled out his hand for James. James grabbed his hand and flung himself into the compartment before the train turned out of the station. James stuck his head out the window. He could almost see John-
"JOHN! I PROMISE!" James bellowed over all the noise. He saw John smile and knew he had heard him.
James sank into the seat and covered his face with his hands. "If anything happens to me before we find your dad, promise that you'll take care of you dad." John's voice rang through his head.
'What does that mean?' James thought. 'What on earth could happen to John? Does he expect himself to be caught?'
"Prongs, that was close!" Sirius said, clapping a hand on his friends shoulder.
"Are you okay?" Lily asked, noticing he looked a bit distressed.
"Fine." James muttered. The others shared a skeptical look. Just then, the compartment door opened and Peter came in, panting.
"Hey, Wormtail! How are you?" Sirius asked cheerfully, glad to lighten up the mood.
"Prongs...." Wormtail panted, "Snivellus...Prophet...your "
Peter sank into a seat next to Lily.
"What?" Lily and Sirius said quickly, both their heads looking at Peter. He was just about to open his mouth when Snape came in with Malfoy, the Daily Prophet in his hands.
"Well, well, well," Snape sneered, "Guess Potter's perfect life is starting to go down hill then?"
"Go away, Snivellus. I'm not in the mood." James muttered, face still in his hands and sounding very weary.
"Oh, I didn't expect you to be. Especially with your dad being captured by Death Easters. How does it feel to know you led your father to your death?" Snape asked menacingly.
James snapped. Without having time to get out his wand, James tackled Snape to the compartment floor, pinning him down. The force caused Snape to drop the Daily Prophet, making it fall onto Lily's lap.
James stared at it for a second. He knew there was more than what John had explained. But he knew he just couldn't tell everything to the Daily Prophet."James." Lily warned. James just ignored her.
"Don't ever, ever, talking about my dad Or things you don't understand about for that matter." James hissed, holding Snape's collar so tight he thought he would strangle him.
James expected too see fear in Snape's eyes, he always did when he had the upper hand. But no, Snape was only smirking, looking triumphant, though James couldn't understand why.
"My, my, such a temper. Just like a GRYFINDOR, if I must say." Snape drawled. His eyes traveled down to James chest. James quickly let go and put both hands over his shirt.
'He knows.' James thought in horror. Snape knew he had the pendant, knew where it was hiding....if his friends found out-
Rage such as James never felt took over. He was sick of Death Eaters, sick of Voldemort, sick of going to the hospital everyday to see his mum looking out he window, silently praying his dad would come back.
'And all for what? A stupid little pendant?' James thought angrily. He clenched his fists and punched Snape as fast as he could. The rest went by so quickly-
James saw Sirius and Remus get up- there was a flash of light, James fell on the floor, groaning in pain.
"EXPELLIARMUS!" Remus shouted, who had his wand out. Sirius ran over and threw someone out- James couldn't tell who it was. He closed his eyes for a minute. There was screaming, cursing, he thought he heard the sound of someone's bone breaking-
There was thump, someone shut the compartment door- then everything was quiet. James opened his eyes and blinked several times. Emma, Lily, Sirius, Remus, and Peter were by his side. "Prongs, are you okay?" Peter asked quietly.
James nodded. "What happened?"
Sirius sighed. He had a bloody lip and Remus was starting to have a bruise on his cheek.
Lily gasped and pointing to James arm. He looked at it and realized there was a huge gash on it-blood splattered his Muggle clothes.
"Bloody hell...." James cursed silently. He looked up at the others expectantly. "What happened?" he asked.
"After you hit Snape, Malfoy hit you with some spell. Blood splattered your robes. Sirius and I got up. I got Malfoy's wand away from him and flung it out the compartment. Sirius....uh-er-didn't really have time to get his wand." Remus explained, looking at Sirius.
Sirius picked up the story from there. "I got up and punched Snape as hard as I could. Same spot you hit him. I think we may have broken his jaw, I don't know. Remus and I threw both Malfoy and Snape out of the compartment." Sirius finished proudly.
James smiled at his friends. "Thanks."
"James, that really does look nasty." Lily replied, indicating his arm.
"Wait, how did Snape and Malfoy know about James dad?" Emma asked.
"Daily Prophet." Peter muttered.
Everyone stared at him.
"Oh, here. It fell on me after you tackled Snape." Lily said, and she handed James the paper, though a bit reluctantly. James began to read through it.
DEATH EATERS STRIKE POTTER FAMILY
As everyone knows, the Potter family are all very respected in the wizarding community. However, tragedy struck the Potter family on Christmas day. There was an attack on the Evans family(who only have one witch in the family and had a friend staying with them) by You-Know-Who's followers. Amanda and Justin Potter were called to the scene at once. Their son, James Potter, is friends with the young witches in the attack. When he found out about the attack, he and his friends, Sirius Black and Remus Lupin, set off to help their friends at
once.
Amanda and Justin Potter were the only Aurors who arrived at the scene at
first.They could have easily rounded up the Death Eaters, but decided not to make any sudden threats incase their son was hurt. A witness says that the teenagers escaped and made it to safety. Unfortunately, the parents weren't as lucky. A friend of the family, John
Kuttle, explains what happened when he arrived at the scence.
"I came in and saw James and his friends escape through the Floo
Network," he explains, "while his parents and I began fighting. Things
were okay for a moment, Amanda Potter was weak but still kept going. We were outnumbered though. A piece of the ceiling fell off and knocked Amanda Potter out. Justin was so hurt. We kept on fighting, trying to stall until more help came, but we couldn't hold on. A Death Eater yelled out a spell and there was a huge flash light. I remember opening my eyes and remember
seeing them grab Justin. They apparated with him."
Justin Kuttle wouldn't explain anymore and refused to let anyone speak to young James Potter. Meanwhile, Amada Potter is healing in St. Mungo's and will be out shortly to conduct a search for her husband who was kidnapped Christmas night. James Potter also remains at Hogwarts. Neither Amanda nor
James were available for comments.
'I'll owl John when I get back to Hogwarts.'ames decided.
"James, you know everyone is going to be talking about you, right?" Sirius asked slowly.
"And chances are, newspapers are going to want to interview you about what happened that night." Remus added.
"Us. Their going to want to talk to us." James corrected. Then he sighed. "Well, my parents are popular, I should've expected this."
Sirius put and arm around his friend while Remus and Peter did the same.
"No ones going to get to you without going through us first." Sirius stated firmly.
"Thanks." James whispered sincerely. He sighed as the Hogwarts Express stopped. He grabbed his trunk and opened the compartment door, readying himself for whatever the world had in store for him.
A/N. Wow! That took a long time to write. Anyways, don't forget to review! Please review. Can i get at least five reveiws before I start the next chapter?
Amour Lily