Upon awaking, James for a half of a second expected to find Lily lying next to him. Or to hear that little baby giggle from his son that he just loved to cause and hear. And yet he heard nothing. Not even the sound of the television (that he had incensed they buy after seeing one in Lily's parents house) could be heard. At this point it all came back to him. He sat up and tried to remember how he had gotten into this bed. The last thing he could remember was Sirius. As he sat in bed, that one thought continually ran through his mind. Sirius was alive. Voldemort hadn't gotten him. This made him want to yell with joy. But then, thoughts of all those who were lost came to the surface. His wife and son, being the freshest of them. It still hurt, and it would continue to hurt for a long time, but the fact that he had Sirius with him to help get him through it, dulled the pain slightly. The next thought of loss was that of Remus. Had he lived, surely he would have been here last night. Wherever here was anyway. If any of the others had lived, they would have been here as well. These thought brought back the pain that had been dulled in having Sirius still with him.
Looking around the room, James saw that it was very gloomy. Attempts at making it better were obvious; though it was just as obvious they were ineffective. When he looked to his left he saw that on the bedside table, there was a tray of food. For the first time, James took notice to how hungry he was. Eagerly, he took the tray from the table and placed it on his lap and began eating. The food was simple enough. A chocolate chip muffin (one of his favorite breakfast items), some porridge, and a stack of buttered toast were what the breakfast consisted of. He looked around the room he was in some more as he ate. As his scan of the room reached the door, he found himself wondering who had put it back on its hinges. That thought, led to the memory of who had been the one to blow the door off said hinges. And, who that person had a wand at the throat of. Piece of toast half way to his mouth, James froze as he remembered what he had done to Paige. If Sirius was really Sirius, then surely that had really been Paige.
James felt sick with himself. Putting aside the breakfast tray, fully intending to find where Paige had got to; James had only just started to pull the covers from him when the door opened. The opener was Sirius. He stopped once he saw that James was awake. For a moment, both seemed to be stuck. Sirius stuck, in his act of entering the room, and James in removing of the covers. Both snapped out of it though rather quickly.
"I… brought you some water. Forgot to bring it up to you before." Sirius said walking over to the bed and handing James a goblet. James took it from him gratefully. Once James had drained the goblets contents (which was just some water) James asked,
"Where's Paige? Is she alright?" almost sounding frightful of the answer.
"She is perfectly fine, but had to get back to work." Sirius answered him, walking away from the bed to get a chair that was on the other side of the room.
"Are you sure that she's alright though?" James asked again, concern very evident in his voice.
"Yes, I'm sure." Sirius said smiling slightly to reassure James as he brought the chair over to the bedside and sat down on it. They sat in silence for a while. The silence was absolutely killing one of the occupants of the room. There was so much that Sirius had to say to James. So much that James had to know. And yet, here he sat, in silence. Finally Sirius voiced one of the thoughts that were eating at him. "Are you alright? I mean, your… arms. Are, are they…alright?" Sirius asked fumbling over his words. Knowing of what Sirius was speaking of, James looked down at his arms. Only to find that they had been healed. Seeing this he turned his head back up to Sirius' with a small smile said,
"Well it would seem so." He said. Again they passed into silence. Silence between the two of them was not something that they had experienced much before. Thus, leading to make the situation very awkward for the both of them. Both desperately wanted to end it, yet both were finding it a very hard task to accomplice.
"I should have listened to you." Sirius said suddenly breaking the silence.
"What do you mean?" James asked perplexed.
"When you told me that you were you, I should have," Sirius started saying, but James cut him off.
"And I should have listened to you when you told me that you were you. At least you took out, what you thought were lies, on me. I took out the, what I thought were lies, on Paige." James said. This conversation was surreal. These conditions of conversation were surreal. Sirius was talking to his best friend who had been dead for the past fourteen years, and James was talking to a Sirius that was not the same one he had just recently spoke to. For James, it was only two days ago that he had last since Sirius. And the man sitting in front of him was anything but him. This mans eye's had a hunted look to them. His eye's had none of the playful, alive glint of those of his best friends. He was also a lot skinner. Sirius was always lean, but never skinny. Which this man most defiantly was. But the change in the eyes was the one that James could not get over. What had happened to cause the change?
"It doesn't matter," Sirius started again, only to be, yet again, stopped by James.
"Sirius. Stop. I'm fine. My arms are fine. Believe me, I've had worse. Which I'm sure that you are aware of. And if you still are going to be bugged about this, just think us even. You for this, and me for what I did to you in sixth year when I thought you had done something with Lily." James said in a firm voice. Sirius could only sigh in response. Silence over took the room again. Never in either one of their lives, could they remember feeling awkward around each other.
"Remus is coming later. He heard about you coming back last night, but couldn't get away from his, er, engagements till tonight." Sirius said. Once again acting as the breaking of the silence. He had gotten in contact with Remus this morning after getting some much needed sleep. It was true that Remus did have other engagements, order engagements in fact, but the real truth as to why he was coming later was because he was currently in a state of shock. And, he believed it better for Dumbledore to question James before he arrived. Because he was certain that if it was an imposter, he would kill him. At the mention of Remus, James head snapped up and he stared at Sirius, eyes wide.
"What do you mean?" James asked in a soft voice. Sirius didn't understand why James was acting this way. He had thought that James would love to see Remus. But this reaction had thrown him.
"Remus. He's gonna come by later to see you." Sirius said, watching James closely.
"You, you mean that…That Remus, Remus is still alive too?" James asked, disbelief evident in his voice.
"Yea, he's still alive." Sirius said confused. Then, it clicked. James thought that Voldemort was still in power; he must think that everyone is dead. Which is why he would think that Paige and himself were death eaters. 'Cause he thought that we were dead' Sirius thought. Sirius had to tell him that the first war was over. He had to tell him that for the past fourteen years, the wizarding world had been in peace. But he couldn't. Dumbledore said that James couldn't know anything major till after he talked to him. How the hell was that going to be kept a secret?
"How?" James asked. He could hardly believe it. Sirius and Remus were alive. His best friends had lived. They didn't die. If they didn't die, then maybe something happened and the light started to pull ahead in the war. Or at least make the fight more even footed.
"I can't tell you yet." Sirius said lamely. He knew that James wouldn't take this answer. And he hated not giving him the answers to whatever question James asked. How great would it be to tell him that the peace the wizarding world had had for the past fourteen years, had all been thanks to his wife and son?
"What do you mean you can't tell me?" James asked him. This floored him. Why couldn't Sirius tell him how him and Remus had lived this long?
"Dumbledore wants to talk to you before we give you any information." Sirius said dryly. "I know that your you, but he wants to question you all the same." James nodded his head. Fine. He would wait for Dumbledore. But as soon as Dumbledore was done, Sirius better have some good answers. There was something about this that didn't seem right. Something felt off.
Silence was threatening to over take the room again and as Sirius had been the one making the conversation before, James decided to ask one of the questions that were eating him.
"Where the hell are we?" He asked Sirius. Sirius let out his bark like laugh, which as he did so, made him look more like the man James had last spoken too.
"Not quite hell, but really, really close to it." Sirius said, some laughter still in his voice. Though there could also be some bitterness detected in his voice. "You always wondered what my house was like, right? Well tell me. What do you think of the Noble and Most Ancient House of Black?" He asked, saying the last part with the bitterness of his voice becoming very clear. James stared at him for a moment. He had to be joking. There was no force in this world that could bring Sirius back to, not even considering inside, the house of his childhood. Sirius had said those exact words to James when he ran away form home and ended up on the Potter's doorstep. He told James as they sat in the bathroom and James helped clean up his cuts and the blood that seemed to cover him. The fact that Sirius was here, inside, was going against every thing that James believed to be solid facts.
"Yea. I know what your thinking." Sirius said with a little chuckle as he saw the confusion on James face. " "No force in this world could bring me back there", yea well, as it turns out there are some forces. But anyway, welcome to the headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix." Sirius said holding his arms out wide, in a mock gesture of welcome. Once again, James just stared. The Order has a fixed location now? It never had one before, the location of meetings was always moved around. Hardly ever being in the same location twice. The fact that a building, no a house, was now the one meeting spot seemed so inconceivable. And this house of all.
"What?" was all the James could get out. Once again, Sirius gave a little chuckle to how lost and confused James was about this situation.
"My dear sweet mum died about ten years ago. So, with her and dad and Reg gone, it's mine. I offered it to Dumbledore to use as headquarters. Wish I hadn't now, but, at the time it seemed like a good idea." Sirius said. Not in the slightest sounding sad about the fact that his mother had died, thus leaving the house to him.
"Why though? I mean, the Order never use to have a headquarters. Is safe it have one now?" James asked.
"Yea it is. Last time we were scrambling to catch up, and there was the spy and everything thing, and well now," Sirius started to explain but James heard something that didn't tally up and interrupted him.
"Wait, wait, wait. What do you mean "last time"?" James asked. Sirius stared at James wide-eyed. He was silent of a moment then seemed to come to.
"No I didn't." Sirius said quickly. He knew that James wouldn't by it and for two reasons. One, Sirius sounded just like a five year old caught stealing a cookie before dinner by their mother and two, James could always tell when Sirius lied.
"Yes you did." James said back. "You said "last time we were scrambling to catch up" what do you mean by last time?" James asked. At first he thought that Sirius was talking about before he had "died" and that thought didn't even come to his mind until after he had voiced his question. But Sirius answer, or lack of, didn't work out.
"What I meant by it was that…" Sirius started trying desperately to think of something other then the truth to tell James. But thankfully, before the pause became to drawn out, the door of the room opened and Albus Dumbledore walked in. Sirius had to hold in the sigh of relief that he so wanted to give. Dumbledore gave him the escape route he needed to get out of the hole he had just dug himself into. "Well, I guess I'll just leave you two. I'll be back once he's gone." Sirius said while standing, adding the last part looking at James. James just nodded his head. Sirius gave a small nod to Dumbledore as he past the man on his way out of the room. He closed the door behind him.
Dumbledore examined James closely as he moved to the chair that Sirius had just vacated. The man certainly looked like James. There could be no polyjuice potion at work as Sirius and Paige had made sure that he was without drink for at least an hour. Then there was of course the fact that both Sirius and Paige believed him to be James. No, he didn't doubt that the man sitting in the bed before him was James Potter. What he was here for was to question James about was how he was here, alive.
"Hello James." Dumbledore said in the same voice he used when James was sent into his office from a class he was thrown out of. "I have some questions that I need to ask you. I hope that you understand." He continued. James nodded his head, signaling that Dumbledore could start his questioning. Maybe after he was done with his questions James could ask some of he's own.
"What happened on Halloween 1981?" was the first question asked. James took a deep breath before starting this story. This would be the first time he told it to someone. He wished now that Sirius hadn't left the room.
"Me and Lily were sitting in the living room. It was late. And then I heard a crash, and I told Lily to take Harry and run. That I would hold Voldemort off as long as I could, so that they would have time to get to the portkey and get out. Maybe even get help if I lasted long. After she made it out of the room, Voldemort came in. He made some crack about Lily and Harry. And then we started dueling. I wasn't doing that bad all things considered," James said with a dry laugh, though it was clear he could not find any humor in the topic. Taking a gulp, he continued, "Then he said something about Peter, and he caught he off my guard. He said how I would make a good death eater. And how this was my last chance to join him. I said that I would never join him. He said what about after he killed Lily and Harry." James had to stop here. The pain of their deaths rose to a lump in his throat, which prevented him from continuing. But he knew that he had to, so he did. "Then… then he said that they weren't all who I cared about. And that he would ask me after he killed everyone that I care about. Then he was thinking about what to do with me while, I guess, he was busy killing everyone close to me. And then, then he asked if I wanted to be his tester or something like that. Its kind of a blur to me what happened after this. I remember him shooting a white light at me. And, and then, I remember feeling like, sleepy or something. And, the rest is just a blur. I can't remember what happened next." James said, voice only shaking slightly during the end of his story. Dumbledore stroked his beard thoughtfully, not saying anything, just staring at James for few minutes. James hated being under his gaze like that. He always gave the feeling of looking right through you. Finally he asked another question.
"What is the next thing that you remember?" He asked in his calm voice.
"Next thing I knew, I woke up inside my tomb in my family mausoleum." James answered. Trying to block the picture of Lily's tomb from flashing it's self before his eyes.
"And then," Dumbledore prodded gently.
"When I saw Lily's tomb I realized what must have happened to her and Harry. And I lost it. I don't know for how long I just cried. But, later a muggle came in and I asked him some questions. Harry's tomb wasn't there, so I wanted to know where it was. But when I said I was seeing my wife, he freaked and said that the mausoleum hadn't been opened in fourteen years. Which freaked me cause, how did Lily's and mine's tombs get in there if it hadn't been opened? So, I threw him up against a wall cause he wasn't answering my questions. Next this Auror comes and I stun him cause I have to know what the hell was going on. Once the old man told me where I could find information about the people in the mausoleum, I left him and the Auror and headed to the main building." James stopped here and looked at his old Headmaster. What he had done to that muggle was horrible. What would Dumbledore think of him? Showing the scary ability of seemingly reading minds, Dumbledore said,
"I do not think any less of you James. You were in a state of such shock were you were unaware of the actions that were being committed." James just nodded his head and then continued on with the story.
"In the main building there was this kid sitting at a desk, I threw him against a wall too, and told him to find me the Potter records. Well the records were useless, so I asked him where I could get information on their deaths, and he said old town newspapers. Before I could leave though, two other Aurors were with the one from before. I stunned them all then apperated to Godric's Hollow. And that was when I saw that Voldemort had got through to the muggle world," As James told this part of the story he stared at the wall opposite from him, with eyes out of focus. Had he been looking at Dumbledore we would have seen, for only a half a second, a look of surprise cross his aged face before once again showing no other emotion other then curiosity. But he didn't. So he went on. "I went into the library, and nearly stunned this lady, but she got out of my way. I read what the muggles thought happened. And…and about how, how they never found Harry's body." Once again the pain cause James to take a moment to collect himself. "I'm not sure why, but I just found myself going to my house. I had to see it." James said, eyes burning slightly. "I went in though. And I saw…" He couldn't. He couldn't say anything more of the inside of the house because flashes of what it was, and what it had been kept appearing before his eyes. "After I left the house I saw Paige. And I thought that she was a death eater posing as Paige because I couldn't think of a way she could have lived this long. Then we dueled. She managed to stun me in the end. When I came to I heard people talking, so I acted like I was still stunned, but Sirius caught me. Once Paige left for Hogwarts, he tied me up and questioned me. They both questioned me when Paige came back, this time under veritaserum. She stunned me again after a while. But I came to quicker then last time, and I used her as a hostage and asked Sirius some questions." He stopped here; Dumbledore didn't know that Sirius was an Animagus. How was he going to explain how he believed Sirius?
"I am aware that Sirius is an Animagus, which, I'm going to assume was how he persuaded you to believe him." Dumbledore said calmly. James stared. How did he know? They had all swore that they would never tell anyone. Did Sirius, the one he had thought to make the promise, break it? "Now is not the best time to explain how I came to this information. I'm sure that Sirius will inform you when the time is right." Dumbledore said while pulling from within his robes a watch and checking the time. "Alas, I must leave. That is all the information that I required. I will be looking into James as much as I can, I promise you. I'll send Sirius up on my way out. Good day to you my boy." And before James could find his voice to ask some of his own questions, Dumbledore left the room.
A.N-I'm sorry it took me a while to get this chapter up. But here it is! And down there on the left is this button, and when you hit it, you cansend me a review. And I lovereviews! So please, please tell me what you think and give me lots of reviews. To answer some questions that I've been getting about Harry. He will be coming in more later. I know that he has just had little parts but, he will have chapters all devoted to him (or mostly devoted to him)soon. Ok, now heres a little teaser for next chapter...
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James picked up one of the yellowing newspapers that littered the floor and nearly dropped it when he saw a picture of himself of aboutfifteen looking backup at him. But, after taking a closer look,he saw that theboy wasn't him. This boy had a lightening blot scar on his forehead.Then he saw the title :The Triwizard Tournament and The Boy-Who-Lived, by Rita Skeeter.