Dreams and Desires By Troubled Tazzy

A/N - No I don't own these characters, Enjoy everyone :)

Chapter 23:

James woke in the darkness of the hospital wing, he lay perfectly still; looking up at the ceiling as memories of the lake, Snape, Sirius coming to the rescue and Lily lying motionless on the floor swept over him. When suddenly a throbbing pain broke through his thoughts, making him come back to reality, he looked down at his wrists realizing then that they were bandaged and so were his ankles. The throbbing was horrible, James squinted his eyes and rolled over uncomfortably, all he wanted to do was fall back into the darkness that had swallowed him up before, that same darkness that had taken him from this world of his, which had now turned upside down.

X X X X X

A small blue bird had flown to the opened window of the hospital wing. Landing on the windowsill pleasantly it looked in through the opened curtains curiously, head tilted slightly to one side as it watched the bodies that lay in the beds. It started twittering its pretty song, watching as it had only stirred one of them slightly.

X X X X X

James stirred slowly, grumbling also as his eyes flickered open. He stopped moving and listened carefully, a beautiful song was being played. He looked over to where it was coming from. He watched the small creature play its beautiful song for him. He smiled to himself as thoughts of Lily swept over his mind. Pictures of the years he had spent with her flowed through his head as the bird sang on. James frowned to himself as the picture of Lily and his first meeting came to his mind, a meeting he had long forgotten, but never again would he forget.

"James hurry up we need to go now so we don't hit the afternoon rush," yelled a small woman as she ran around the house collecting her things.

"Coming Mum," yelled James as he quickly finished writing on a piece of scroll, then attaching it to his owl's (Tamalith) leg.

"Take it to Sirius," James whispered to the bird before he let it fly out the window.

James quickly grabbed his backpack, and ran down the stairs to his waiting mother, who at the time was tapping her foot and looking at the clock.

"Come, come, quickly now," she said as she grabbed James by the hand and dragged him to the fireplace whilst also grabbing a small jar of floo powder. She took one big handful and hurriedly pushed James in and squeezed in after him, she grabbed his hand again and yelled "DIAGON ALLEY" then dropped the powder.

X X X X X

Lily wandered the streets of Diagon Alley alone, her 'parents' had been to busy to come with her, so she looked at her list as she passed the many stores.

"Why do they have to be busy all the time?" Lily asked herself as she looked up at the sign of Olivander's Wands.

"Why'd they bother even adopting me when they never spend any time with me?" Lily thought to herself, as she felt tears come into her eyes as a painful memory flashed before her.

Lily shook her head and walked into the shop. She looked at the counter, or what was left of the counter, for heaps of boxes were on it covering, it from head to toe.

"Um, hello," whispered Lily as she tried to look over the boxes.

No answer came only silence, until…

CRASH

"Great galloping goannas, and fiddlesticks," came a voice from the back of the store.

Lily giggled as she watched an elderly man come up to the front desk. She looked up at him and smiled.

"Are you ok Mr?" asked Lily as she watched him.

"Oh yes, yes I'm fine, just these bloody boxes and wands everywhere, I made quite a bit of mess up the back, but I shall clean it up later," he smiled as he looked over Lily.

"So you will be here for a wand I presume," winked the old man as he disappeared behind some shelves, looking at the small boxes then taking a few out looking at them, then putting them back again.

Lily watched with fascination, until Mr. Olivander came back out, with 3 boxes in his hand. Lily looked at them then looked at him with a wondering expression.

"They are just in case," replied Olivander as he answered her question.

"Here you go then," he grinned as he pulled the first wand from its box and placed it into Lily's hand.

Lily looked at it, it had smooth edges and a nice gripping end, she looked up at Mr Olivander curiously.

"Give it a wave," he replied as he watched.

Lily waved it at a picture, and watched as a huge fireball burst from the end, setting the picture alight. The picture had a small boy and sheep in it, they ran out of the picture and into the next one giving Lily death stares as they watched the picture burn into ashes.

Lily looked down at the wand horrified, she gave it back to Mr. Olivander quickly but carefully, the stepped away from him a couple of steps.

"Oh my, I quite liked that painting," Mr Olivander said quietly as he watched the last bit of flame go out.

"I must stop letting you kids practice in hear," he laughed as he handed Lily the second wand.

Lily took it with a lot of hesitation. She waved it at the door thinking nothing bad will happen there, until a huge spout of water came out of the wand. Lily watched the water gush out until she saw small fish coming out as well, she looked closer and realized they weren't just any fish they were PIRANHAS. But the worst was far from over as the water was hitting the door Lily hadn't realized that a boy with jet-black hair had just opened the door.

X X X X X

"Can you believe it James?" Sirius asked as he looked at James.

"We've both been chosen to go to Hogwarts ," Sirius yelled with excitement and punched James in the arm.

"Yeah, I know, what are the odds hey," laughed James as he hit Sirius back.

They both walked on down Diagon Alley with their lists in their pockets and a small bag full of coins.

"Where are we going first then?" asked Sirius as he whipped out his list and looked at the items shown on it.

"I think we should get our books first," replied James with an evil grin.

Sirius grinned as well as they made their way to Flourish and Blotts. They walked in casually looking at all the books on sale. One of them said "Tabitha's Book of Toe Jam removers".

Sirius looked at James with a raised eyebrow. James shuddered slightly as he looked at the book.

"Who writes this stuff?" laughed Sirius as he moved away and headed for the front desk.

"Tabitha I presume," James said seriously before laughing.

A tall skinny man was standing at the desk; he had long fingers and was tapping the desk as he read his book. He didn't look up, but continued tapping his fingers completely unaware of anything around him.

"HI YA JOE," yelled Sirius at the top of his lungs.

The man jumped so high he nearly touched the ceiling; he fell backwards into a chair behind him, flipped the chair upside down then collided into the floor. James and Sirius were laughing so hard they were crying. Joe looked up from the floor his face shaking with anger.

"You always find that funny don't you Mr. Black," Joe replied with anger in his voice; he stood up silently putting the chair upright, then dusting off his suit. As he finished he looked up at Sirius and James.

"Come on Joe it was only some fun," James blurted out as he tried to stop his laughing.

"Yes, ha ha, I find it funny already," Joe replied as he glared at the both of them with no humour on his face what so ever.

"Was that sarcasim?" asked Sirius as he looked up at Joe smiling.

"No, not at all," muttered Joe.

"Well Joe, you must have missed us?" asked James as he looked at Joe with his puppy dog eyes, and a quivering lip.

"Well you were here yesterday, annoying me as usual, yes I missed you dearly," he replied as he rolled his eyes and grabbed some books. He walked over to some shelves and started to put books on them. James and Sirius followed him closely.

"I think he told a funny James," laughed Sirius as he grabbed a book from Joe and flicked through it.

"Hey where is Captain Herb at Joe?" asked James.

"He is out, so I suggest you leave," replied Joe as he starred at them stiffly.

"Come on Joe, we're all mates here," laughed Sirius.

"I'd rather be mates with a Giant Squid then you two," replied Joe.

"He told another funny James, did you hear it," Sirius laughed as he slapped Joe on the back, making him fall and spill all the books he had placed onto the shelves onto the floor.

"Ok that's it GET OUT," Joe yelled as he pointed at the door.

"Come on Joe," laughed James

"OUT" yelled Joe.

"JAMES, SIRIUS, you two up to no good again," chuckled an old man who came into the store. The old man, had sharp blue eyes and was wearing ragged jeans and a big white top. He smiled at them showing all his rotted teeth.

"Captain Herb, how you going?" Sirius and James asked as they saluted him.

Captain Herb chuckled and saluted back.

"My, my, it's been awhile since I saw you two scaly wags," laughed Captain Herb as he came over and scruffled both their heads.

"Where have you been Captian Herb," asked James as he looked at the scar on his face.

"I've been on an adventure boys," he replied as he looked around and whispered for them to go to the back room.

"You can handle everything here can't you Joe?" asked Captain Herb as he pushed James and Sirius into the back room.

"You have been away for 6 months, so I'm sure I can handle it," replied Joe with a glare at the two boys he started piling books back onto the shelves.

"James he told another funny," laughed Sirius.

A/N – Well I hope you guys liked it, I've been trying to make it long, but you all want the next chapter real bad so I had to put it up, im really sorry it took so long, I've been slack I know but I have been doing homework I swear I have :). Anyways tell me what to think and please review I love to hear what you guys think :).

Love Always Troubled Tazzy