Disclaimer: I don't own anything that you recognise. Characters, places, spells – anything from the Harry Potter books are not mine. I am simply a poor student who had an idea that begged to be written!

Okay, I feel majorly guilty for not updating for so long – I got a Saturday job in August and started college in September. Also, one of my relatives died in October.

Every time I feel like writing I ALWAYS realise that I have some college work I've got to do, like a history essay or a German speech, and after that I don't have any time or I just don't feel like writing anymore. Anyway, I'll quit rambling.

With many thanks (seriously) to child-of-scorpio, Slytherin Rogue, Eric2 (great guess! How predictable am I?!), Nicki101 and leiselmae (your review made me feel really guilty and inspired me to write this chapter!).

Enjoy!

James' Duel

Big City, Little Pub

James found himself jiggling with excitement as he stood on the platform at Portsmouth Harbour. Quite why, he knew not. It had been a long time since he'd travelled on a train – he knew that much because there hadn't been any trains on Rendakadavra. Although there were two ticket booths, James had easily worked out how to use the ticket machines and had found the right platform for the next train to his chosen destination, the time that the train would be leaving Portsmouth and the time that he'd reach Kings Cross.

The train pulled up and James climbed aboard. He found the food carriage and bought a pile of cakes and sweets before settling down in one of the first class carriages. The carriage was shabby – the small rectangular mirrors above each row of seats were cracked, 3 of the head covers were missing and two of the seats had rips in the material, with stuffing bursting out.

James lay back across one of the rows of seats and stared at the landscape flashing by the window. After a while it got boring so he counted the amount of paint pieces flaking off the ceiling. Of course, that eventually got dead boring too, so James sat up and scoffed most of his pile of food. Then he weighed up whether it was worth the effort to prank a random person – after deciding it wasn't, he sat back and fell asleep to the gentle bumps of the train.

"So, who shall we honour with the first Marauder prank of the year?" A short, mousy looking boy asked.

Sirius, whom James remembered from the previous memory, turned to him. "Any preference James?"

James stood for a few minutes, thoughts rushing through his head. "You guys go ahead, I've got to go and brief the Prefects."

Remus stood to follow James to the meeting. "Sorry Sirius, you two are on your own – I'm sure you'll think of something highly inventive and incredibly amusing"

James smirked and said "Not likely" as he exited the compartment.

Sirius shouted "I HEARD THAT" at his retreating back and James turned around and gave him the V sign.

At this point James blearily opened one eye and sighted a drunken tramp lying on a bench at a train station as the train sped past. He closed his eye and instantly went back to sleep, resurfacing in the memory slightly later on, after the meeting.
Remus turned to look at James as the pair exited the prefect briefing duty meeting.

"Do you think this was them or just some wannabe prankster?"

James quickly scanned the corridor. "Wannabe prankster, it's got to be. They aren't THIS crap without us are they?"

"Well," Remus replied, "let's face it, we are the brains behind the operations."

James gave a chuckle and burst out laughing as he turned the corner to see the prank that Sirius and Peter had done.

"Okay, I take it back." James managed to say between laughs. "You ARE good at pranks."

"I know Prongs, I know." Sirius replied with a smirk.

James awoke with a jolt and found that the train had stopped at his destination. He grabbed his bag, chucked his wrappers in the bin and clambered off the train, taking great delight in slamming the train door behind him – somehow it just felt good.

He scanned the underground maps to see if he recognised the names of any places, found that he didn't and decided to walk around and see if he recognised anywhere instead. He wandered around for hours without any luck and quickly ate a fast food meal before going to the toilet.

James paid the 20p, went to the toilet and washed his hands before surveying his tired face in the mirror. That's when something happened. James watched, bewildered, as his face started to lengthen and grow fur. He felt the rest of his body alter and soon found himself facing a full grown stag in the mirror.

James found himself in a forest, galloping along slowly, allowing a werewolf, a huge dog, and a rat to keep up with him. He looked up and saw his antlers; he looked down and saw his hooves.
James shook himself and was pleased to see a human face in the mirror this time. Surely that couldn't have been a memory. Since when was it possible for a human to morph into an animal?!

Luckily nobody else was in the toilets, James thought. He shook himself again. Why did it matter? It was only some sort of hallucination or a memory of a dream or something. He turned and walked towards the exit.

"I saw that." A voice from the very corner of the room uttered.

James turned to see a drunken old man crouched in the corner. "Saw what?" he asked.

"You know." The old drunkard replied.

"Actually," said James, "I don't"

The old man's eyes narrowed. "You morphed into a stag. Bloody great antlers an' all. Don't try and lie to me youngun, I've 'ad my fair share of hallucinations, and that was not one of 'em."

"I assure you it was, you bitter old git." James briskly walked away from the drunken fool.

James walked straight ahead, pushing through the crowds until he found himself outside on the main shopping street. He took a deep breath, pulled the hood of his coat up to prevent his hair getting completely rain-soaked and scanned the streets before spotting what he was looking for. James pulled out his wallet and headed for the nearest pub.

He stalked in, bought a beer at the bar (where the bartender gave him a strange look) and plonked himself down on a seat in one corner of the pub. The pub had a lot of customers, which seemed quite strange to James, as it was so small and shabby. He pretended not to notice some very un-human looking creatures talking in one corner.

James noticed people going through a door to one side and curiously stalked through the door to see what was there. A few moments later, he found himself tapping some bricks in a wall in some sort of sequence that he seemed to know. To his amazement, the wall started to move, revealing a shopping centre beyond. His feet took him through the archway and we wandered down the street in awe, staring at the strange shops that he had stumbled upon. Somehow the shops seemed familiar and James was sure that he'd been here before – he was going down the right path, inching ever closer to the truth.

James halted in front of a shop named Quality Quidditch Supplies and gazed in at a sleek broomstick in the window display. He felt an odd urge to ride it. Turning to the right, he saw a gangly boy with ginger hair, and a mousy looking girl with frizzy brown hair walking his way, waving at him as if they knew him.

As they approached, the boy gave him a strange look and then spoke.

"'Ere Harry, have you taken an ageing potion or something?"

James saw the baby in his arms again; James saw the Dark Mark, James saw Voldemort.

James collapsed.

You know what I'm going to say – please review! (It really does makes me write the next chapter more quickly!)

Tanya