Chapter 7

Give 'em hell, give 'em teeth

No holds barred in the ring so you'll fight me.

Give 'em hell, give 'em teeth, like you taught me.

Tireless mess, seeking thrills, getting bitey

When I'm in doubt.

Buttercup, Hippo Campus

The rest of the summer went both fast and quick at the same time. James usually loved the holidays in between school, but this time it was a lot more boring than usual. Instead of playing quidditch, or going exploring the woods behind James's house with his friends, or any form of physical activity,

James was kept to his bed for the most part.

His parents were eager to do all they could to ensure James's recovery was successful, as were James and his friends, but he wished he had a bit more freedom. He went on walks around the garden every morning and night as part of the recovery, either with one of his parents or his friends. He enjoyed these, as it was a nice way to ask about each other's day, but he was not allowed to go walking in the woods, for fear that the ground would be to uneven for his leg.

It kind of sucked, but James was determined not to complain too much. It was a done thing now, his injured leg, so he may as well try to get on with it. He went to physio twice a week in the hospital, and walked with his cane all the time.

"Will it effect Prongs, do you reckon?" Sirius asked, one night, as he, James and Remus were doing walking laps of the Potter's rather large garden.

"I don't know," James said, wonderingly. "I hadn't thought of that. I'm guessing it probably will though."

"Are you getting used to the cane?" Remus asked then.

"I am but I don't want to, if that makes sense. Like, I'm glad I have the cane, it really helps take the weight off my right leg. But I don't want to be reliant on it. If we get back to Hogwarts and I still have to use the cane, people will start asking questions."

"Why don't you just tell them what really happened?" Sirius asked, like it was obvious.

"At first, it was just because I don't want the hassle. Then, I don't know, I guess I don't want to be showing this weakness. Which I know is stupid," James added, flustered. "I know it's dumb, but I couldn't help it."

"And now?" Remus prompted.

"The Ministry is trying so hard to cover the attack up. Which is not the right way to go about it in my opinion, but I'm worried that if I do, you know, show back up to school with a cane, and people ask questions, and if I tell them what happened, that I'll get into trouble with the Ministry."

"Since when did you care about getting in trouble?" Sirius asked teasingly. James just gave him a look. "I'm joking. And I get what you mean," Sirius added. "All of it, even the 'weakness' part."

James smiled gratefully. "Are you settled in okay?" he asked.

"I mean, I was practically living here anyway. So it's not that much of a change," Sirius shrugged. "But it's official now."

The train whistle was loud when it blew to give people a five minute warning; James winced at the sound. After spending the last month stuck inside with only a few people for company, it was a stark contrast to Platform Nine and Three Quarters on the first of September. The cane had been packed into his trunk, stored at the bottom, and James was working hard to conceal his limp.

"Wormy!" Sirius called out from beside James. James turned, and sure enough, there was Peter, making his way towards them. James's face broke out into a grin. It had been a while since he had seen Peter, and he had missed his company.

"Hey, how was Italy?" James asked, once Peter had arrived in front of him.

"Oh it was great! We stayed in Verona, and there was this big Colosseum and it was really cool," Peter said excitedly.

"Lucky!" James groaned. "And you've gone and gotten a good tan."

Peter stuck out his arm rather proudly, rolling up his right jumper sleeve. "You're always tanned," Peter pointed out, comparing their arms.

"That's just my complexion," James replied, staring down at his left arm. "You actually got a tan."

"How was your summer?" Peter asked, glancing over to where Sirius was talking to Euphemia and Fleamont.

"It had it's ups and downs," James said, shrugging. "I'll tell you about it when we're on the train." The train whistle blew again, a final call to board, so James went back to his parents to say a last goodbye.

"Take care of yourself James," his mother said to him, and he found himself nodding.

"Use your cane if you need to," Fleamont chimed in. "And damn anybody who says anything."

James grinned. "Thank you, I will. I'll see you soon. Love you."

"Love you too," his parents smiled back.

James and Sirius picked up their trunks and boarded the train. They found a compartment easy enough, since they always sat in the same one. Remus and Peter joined them a minute later, so they put their trunks up high and got settled in.

"Did you hear about the thing in Diagon Alley?" Peter asked. "The Daily Prophet's saying nothing, but I think there was an attack." The other boys traded glances, which Peter caught. "What?" he asked.

"We were there," Remus said. "There was an attack."

"Oh." Peter's eyes had gone wide and his mouth formed a small 'o' shape. "Is that why you're limping?" he asked James.

"You noticed?" James winced.

"It wasn't super obvious, or anything," Peter replied, "but I did notice."

"You always notice," James smiled back. "But yeah, I did get injured. Some sort of curse that cut my leg three times and infected it with dark magic." He rolled up his pants leg, showing Peter the bottom two cuts. "There's another one here," he said, pointing to his thigh.

"Does it hurt a lot?" Peter wondered.

"Today especially, since I'm not using my cane."

"Cane? You need a cane?" James nodded. "What are you going to tell everyone?" Peter asked.

"I haven't figured that out," James admitted.

"What if we just tell everyone a different story every time they ask?" Sirius offered.

"We could make them more ridiculous every time," Remus agreed.

"That could work," James said, slow smile growing on his face. "It would be a good prank as well. We could be like 'oh, he's after injuring himself when he was thrown from a hippogriff', or 'he needs to focus on his future career in basket weaving'."

"Exactly," Remus said enthusiastically. "That way we-"

"You doing a strip tease for us Potter? I'm afraid we're going to have to refuse on the grounds that I don't want to lose my breakfast," a voice drawled from the carriage door.

James, who was in the middle of carefully rolling down his pants leg, shoved his pants leg down, trying to ignore the hiss of pain in his leg. "I was just showing Peter a particularly colourful bruise I got over the holidays," James lied easily.

Avery and Snape stood at the door of their carriage, which would be an unpleasant sight most days, but James was drained and in pain, and had been hoping to last at least a few days without running into or having an incident with one of that group.

"Heard you got kicked out," Snape said conversationally to Sirius, who stiffened. "What, your mother finally got sick of your ugly face and got some sense into her? It's a miracle you lasted so long in that house anyway, from what Regulus tells me," Snape said casually, while picking at his nails.

The mention of Regulus seemed to do it, because all of a sudden, Sirius was on his feet. "How about you shut your greasy face before I make you," he threatened.

"Sirius," Remus warned.

"'Sirius'," Avery mocked. "Listen to your pet, Black," he said.

While Remus didn't seem outwardly upset at this remark, Sirius's jaw tensed and James could tell something bad was going to happen. "Say that again," Sirius said, voice deathly quiet.

Snape and Avery laughed, either not seeming to sense the danger they were in, or not caring. "I said 'listen to your pet, Black'," Avery repeated, a small bit louder and slower.

James could see what was about to happen right before it did. Sirius's right arm pulled back and rushed forward to punch Avery right in the nose, knocking him out of the carriage. Instantly, Snape's wand was out and pointed at Sirius. A second later, both Avery and Sirius had their wands out, all three of them now out in the corridor. By now, people were sticking their heads out from various carriages, in order to see what was about to go down.

James sighed before hauling himself off his seat and out into the corridor. "Lads, can we calm down please?" he asked tiredly.

Snape laughed. "Too much for you Potter?" he mocked.

"We're not even back at the castle yet," James pointed out. "It's literally the first day back. Can we do this another day?"

"James," Sirius began arguing. "You heard what they said about Moony."

"Yes, and I don't agree with them," James replied. "But Moony doesn't seem to care and I don't want to deal with whatever is about to happen."

"You scared Potter?" Avery asked, sneering. "Know we're too good for you?" Avery's nose was bleeding heavily now.

James let out a laugh. "You wish. But I'm serious. Can we not do this on the first day?"

"I don't remember when you became the boss of us," Snape said. "You may control your friends like you're some captain, or whatever, but you're not in charge of us. You can't shove us about."

James flinched at the word 'captain', and for a second he wondered if Snape and Avery knew that he had been made Quidditch Captain, but quickly dismissed that thought. They only people he had told were Remus and Sirius, as well as his parents, and he gave up the badge only a few hours later.

The four boys stared at each other, neither side backing down. James didn't want a fight, but if he broke eye contact or faced away, there was a good chance one of them would hit him with a curse as soon as he turned his back. Besides, Sirius would not appreciate it, and Snape and Avery would probably hold it over his head for Merlin knows how long, just to humiliate.

Then, in a flash, Avery's wand moved and James reacted. "Protego!" he shouted, at the same time as Avery shouted "Crucio!"

Most Shield Charms were useless against the Crucio curse, unless the shield was particularly powerful, or the crucio curse particularly weak. James didn't know which one occured, nor did he really care. All he knew was that the curse never made it past James's Shield Charm, leaving James and Sirius uninjured. James staggered back as the curse hit his shield, landing awkwardly on his backside.

James didn't know what to do now. Now that the fight had started, he was an unwilling participant. He wanted to keep Sirius from doing too much damage, in case it got him into more trouble than he could handle. But he had to stop himself from getting hurt, especially with his recovering leg. James also knew that the fight wasn't going to end itself unless someone got seriously hurt, or a teacher came along.

With that thought in mind, James turned to the nearest head which was peaking out from the carriage on his right. It was a Hufflepuff girl, about two years younger than him, who was in a carriage with another Hufflepuff house member, as well as a Ravenclaw and a Slytherin, all girls.

"Get a Head Student," James said to her, concentrating on keeping his shield up for just a bit longer, "or a Prefect. Just get someone who can stop this. Please."

The Hufflepuff nodded, slipped out of the carriage and hurried off down the corridor behind James. Keeping his Shield Charm up, James turned back and faced towards the two Slytherin boys

who still had their wands up.