Disclaimer – as always I own absolutely nothing to do with Harry Potter, characters, places and such they all belong to JKR, the chapter extracts in the story belong to JKR, Harry Potter and the Prisoner and Azkaban along with every thing you recognize. Just so everybody knows and am not sued because I only own 44p and am quite fond of it!
A/N – ok my lovely chirpy readers we have a time lapse till October/November, am sorry to those that wanted to read about James and such but to keep up with the third book and not to make the story drag, the time lapse is needed.
Other Author Notes and Review Responses are at the end of the Chapter
'Italics' mean thoughts
Just italics mean flashback/dream
----------- Line means time lapse
A/N – I no am an awful author for not updating in so long, am really sorry also this might be the last for a couple of weeks my exams are in two weeks time and I haven't revised one bit, Thanks to my beta Mitchicul
Here's the chapter sorry it may be a bit crap I began it and got writers block, got over it and got writers block again, I worked as much as I could yesterday and today to get it done and hopefully its ok.
Chapter 7
James swept his wet hair from his eyes and looked down at the tatty piece of newspaper in his hand.
He stood under a street light in a muggle street, somewhere in the south of Cheshire. He had heard some news from some elderly wizard in the Leaky Cauldron that a muggle girl in Cheshire had sighted Sirius at the beginning of October and rang the hotline that had been set up.
He had set out the next day in hope of reaching Cheshire before Sirius moved on to his next destination. Having forgot to collect some money in his rush, he had to travel on foot or as Prongs, occasionally a muggle driver went past and taking pity on the walking man would offer him and lift (which was very rare), and he accepted gracefully.
With in the last week of October he had finally reached Cheshire, cold, wet, hungry and had no doubt in his mind that Sirius had moved on already.
Now he stood in the rain looking at the muggle newspaper to see if they had reported anything to do with his best friend. The ink on the page had begun to run and merge with other ink it finally became impossible for him to read.
Tossing it aside, he decided to try and find somewhere dry so he could spend the night. He had spent the past few weeks sleeping in various places on park benches, under bridges, on the side of motorways. Most of the time he slept as Prongs it was a lot less cold that way.
As he began to walk towards what he could figure was the estate park, he couldn't help but wish for the rain to stop. The summer had long turned into autumn and the weather had taken a turn for the worst and he was stuck in it.
Deciding it was probably be a lot easier if he slept as Prongs he found an alley to transform and slowly made his way down the muggle street. (1) He entered into the small park and found a small cluster of trees and settled down for the night.
(Flashback/Dream)
James sneaked a look across from where he was hidden to see if he could see one of the other Marauder's, it was about one in the morning when Sirius woke up the whole dormitory wanting to prank some one because he was bored and couldn't sleep.
Peter had jumped up straight away and began to find some clothes, he was always eager to follow the others into what ever they chose to do. Remus had threw his pillow at Sirius as he got out of bed and began to find his robes with a small smile on his face. James had stayed in bed and put his pillow over his head.
He had promised Lily when they had begun dating that he wouldn't pull any more pranks on anyone just because he was bored and now that he was head boy he couldn't do that anyway.
"James come on," whined Sirius
"Go away" he mumbled back from under his pillow
Sirius walked over to his bed and pulled back the curtains and pulled off his pillow, "James, the Marauder's are a team, we need all of the team before we can pull a prank" (A/n – Hint Hint Mitch!)
James sat up and squinted at Sirius rubbing the sleep from his eyes, "Can't it wait till morning?" he said falling back onto his bed.
"But am bore…d" he whined more than before
"Come on Prongs!" Peter squeaked up from somewhere in the room,
"Lily will never find out if that is what you are worried about", Remus said as he joined Sirius standing by his bed
"Or are you too scared to go out into the dark" Sirius teased and received a kick in the shin from James
"Fine, fine" he said exasperated, rolling out of bed to find his shoes.
Now he stood in a cold corridor waiting for the signal from Remus to set off the fireworks Sirius had got on their last Hogsmeade visit. Peter had been set as look out as Remus and Sirius had gone to perform a sticking charm down the charm corridor. James had been placed with setting the fireworks off to attract the attention of the new caretaker hoping that he would run down the aforementioned corridor and get stuck.
He was slowly beginning to fall asleep when he heard footsteps running down the corridor towards his hide out,
"Prongs! Run" he heard Sirius hiss as he ran past him quickly followed by Remus, without thinking what was happening he ran out and followed them. They ran into a concealed niche behind a tapestry and held it open for James.
"Where's Peter?" he asked in a hushed tone
Catching his breath back, "he was standing watch at the other end of the corridor when Filch spotted him, he turned and ran in the other direction" said Remus breathlessly
"Did he get caught?" Sirius asked as he peeked out of the tapestry
"I don't think so," replied Remus as he joined James and Sirius in the hallway. James was about to suggest they get back to the tower when they heard footsteps approach, turning towards they thinking it was Peter they came face to face with a very angry caretaker.
"Well, well, well what do we have here?" he asked with a smirk. "Students out of bed and the head boy no less! We are in trouble aren't we?"
James visibly gulped, Remus stared wide eyes at him and Sirius putting on his best sweet talking voice and walked towards the caretaker and led him up the corridor towards the charm trying to persuade him not to turn them in.
(End of Flashback/Dream) (2)
Hearing the birds chirp around him, Prongs opened his eyes and looked around. The park that he was in was quite big compared to the others he had seen, he quickly changed back into James as he heard a dog bark.
Jumping up he ran out of the cluster of trees, somewhere inside him hope had sprung up in chance that the dog was Sirius.
Upon seeing the dog he looked at it closely, it was big and black and did look like Padfoot when you stood far enough back but up close when James looked into its eyes, he knew it wasn't.
The feeling of defeat came upon him again and he lazily scratched the dog's ears as he glanced once again around the park.
Maybe he was searching in the wrong place.
Maybe Sirius had decided to go back into the wizarding world in disguise like himself.
Maybe he had decided to visit someone they trusted, someone that he had dismissed the idea of visiting before but the urge to know the truth about his best friend made it look appealing.
Maybe it was time to show himself to the world, 'or not' his subconscious countered.
Either way he would finally know the truth, patting the dog one last time on the head and nodding in greeting to its owner he turned and walked swiftly from the park and Cheshire.
Finally reaching his destination and it was still raining, the hat he wore from Mrs Mann was soaking wet yet he still wore it to hide his identity afraid that anyone would recognize him.
He had debated many nights since he made the haste decision that going to see Albus Dumbledore was the right thing to do, would the old headmaster believe it was he, James Potter not an imposter (3) and believe Sirius Black was innocent?
Merlin he hoped so, if not then he would just have to prove the truth to him, Sirius would never kill anyone and if he did there must of be and extremely good reason to do so.
After what seemed an age he began his track up the muddy slope that led up to his old school a place that held so many memories some good, some not so good but he missed the place.
Running around pranking Slytherins, many years of arguing with Lily only for them to get married in the end, going out every month with wolfy – Remus.
A sudden coldness made him stop in his tracks and in his mind wandering, looking upon he found himself at the gates to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
'We had to ask him if he minds he Azkaban guards stationing themselves around the entrances to the school grounds' the comment that the man in the parlour had made during the conversation in the Leaky Cauldron at the beginning of September came back to him.
He hadn't give much though to the Azkaban guards but now that he was here at Hogwarts the words rang in his mind, weren't the Azkaban guards Dementors?
As he suddenly realised the fact he abruptly became aware of the coldness that had swept over him during his musing, looking at the entrance he saw the figures of black that he knew where the Dementors.
His mind became a cage of terrible memories from the past and he squeezed his eyes shut in hope that they would vanish but they only became more aware, opening his eyes knowing he needed to get away fast he sprinted to the gates and slipped inside and continued running until the coldness had left him.
The memories also began to come less vivid and buried themselves back into his mind, he looked up at the castle and realised that he had ran far enough to see the entrance to the school and stepped towards it but a loud cheer halted him.
Spinning around on the spot he looked directly at the quidditch pitch, he could barely make out the blurs flying around and a sad smile found its way to his face. He missed quidditch surely going to see the game would be ok before he found Dumbledore and he made his way to the pitch the crowds cheers getting louder as he came closer.
As he reached the pitch he found a spot to watch the match and looked up at the scarlet team that had just mounted and rose into the air, settling down on the ground he watched the teams zoom around in the rain.
He watched as the yellow blur pelt up the pitch towards what he assumed was the snitch, the red blur that was Gryffindors seeker took a moment to realise this it seemed before going after him, the wind had calmed a bit for him to hear some of the commentary.
"Diggory is in the lead, heading towards the snitch, COME ON POTTER MOVE!"
The red blur had caught up with the yellow one, when James felt the coldness that swept over him before return but he didn't notice it his eyes focused on the blur that had now stopped and was beginning to fall sideways off his broomstick.
James wanted to get up and help the boy that had fell, he tried to stand up and move but couldn't he watched as Professors and students ran onto the pitch, the boy being floated up to the school.
He was frozen to the spot, the name 'Potter' ringing around his head. Then everything that he had seen and heard in the past few months clicked,
The boy with glasses and untidy black hair like his own,
The girl mistaken him for someone else,
The conversation in the Leaky Cauldron about a boy named Harry,
It was his Harry, his son Harry!
(1)– I don't know how much knowledge James had of the muggle world but am going to go with some but not a lot e.g. a stag walking down the street
(2) – Crap prank but am really no good at them
(3) – Am not sure if that is spelt right my word checker said 'Impostor' but my dictionary said 'Imposter' so I went with that
A/N – I know the time line in this is bit confusing but if anyone is confused tell me in a review or email me at and I'll post in my live journal or email you the idea it is meant to be.
Oh before I forget, some of you want to know why James didn't know it was Harry in the last chapter well I discussed this with my beta loads of times and we think that he doesn't think it is Harry because he thinks Harry is dead, yes there are loads of hints that it is Harry but to James his son is dead and doesn't make the connection till this chapter.
Review Responses –
Mitchicul – I think I resent that you think am obsessed with Oliver, he is just one of my favourite characters who happens to be played by a really nice actor :), I'll remember your birthday its four months after mine so no memory charm they will do nout. Thanx for review!
Barbossa'sApples – I take it you don't like school as well me? Thanks for your review
Kim Kotchanski – thanks and I didn't even know the chapter had suspense in it!
Amrawo – the same as above I didn't know, sorry for the long wait
Nooka – am very happy that you love the fic and am afraid you'll have to wait and see if he does bump into Sirius or Harry or not.
Linn-LovesPiperLeo – thank you, lol no, James isn't blind but like above in the A/N he thinks he is dead.
Suicidal Bunnies – if it wasn't my story and I didn't know what happens I think that James would figure it out as well but he doesn't like explained, lol I know it was a bit mean not to tell her but in his defence he was a bit speechless!
Sharivari – (did I spell your name right?) thank you as well, I know what you mean about the parent thing but as explained he doesn't think it is.
Marauder Kid – erm…nice review, made me laugh and receive some strange looks am liked you liked the chapter.
Marquerida – thank you and he went to Hogwarts!
Eric2 – I know he should figure it out he was head boy
ZebraFinch -:blushes: thank you very much, I hope you keep reading
Snapelet aka illusionist 2788 – u reviewed! Thanx Gemma if you want me to hold you at quill point I will.
Review please x x