James apparated a few feets away from the Potter's Manor, he ran towards the door and knocked heavily, after a minute the house elf opened the door.
"Where are they?" asked James at once.
"In their room, Miss McKinnon is here too," replied the elf, James realized that the elf himself was looking very sad, but he will talk to him later, now something more important was waiting for him.
James' heartbeat increased, and the thought to meet his parents again after so long time, he has visited them in the hospital but wasn't able to meet them, just seeing them from afar, fuck contagious diseases.
Ever since receiving the invitation from the death eaters, he was worried about his parents and the four Evans, and then when he found out that his parents are injured his worries have been increased, each day in summer was hard for him, not being able to see his parents.
James ran up to his parent's room, he swung open the door and saw four people in the room, his eyes landed on his parents, and his heart sank, they were sitting on the bed next to each other, and their skins were pockmarked, there were purplish rashes on their greenish hue body, both of them looked very weak, their sunken eyes made him shiver.
They both turned to look at their son and a smile appeared on their faces, James smiled back too, he has thought a lot to talk to his parents, about staying with The Evans, about Lily, and to complain about Sirius getting his own flat and what not, but at this moment he couldn't speak, he just looked at them.
He felt a hand around his shoulder, he turned to look at Eugemia, who gave a sad smile to him. The look on her face told James the gravity of the situation.
James moved towards his parents and hugged both of them tightly, it took all of his strength to hold back the tears in his eyes, he can't let his parents see his weakness and make them worry about him. No, he can't do that.
"I missed you both," he told them pulling back and looking at them with a brave smile.
"We missed you too, my dear boy," said Euphemia running her hands through his son's face. "You can't imagine how much I wanted to see you."
"Hey! I wanted to see him as much as you wanted," complained Fleamont.
James grinned at his father, "Did mum bored you out?"
"You can't even imagine, she is not a fun company to have," grinned Fleamont as Euphemia rolled her eyes.
"What about you lecturing about potions all day?" asked Euphemia.
"That was some good stuff, new potions are being invented and the work on wolfsbane is rather impressive," defended Fleamont.
"For you, yes, but not for me," Euphemia shook her head, she looked at James, "Congratulations, dear on becoming the Head Boy, we both are so so proud of you, I hope you are doing your duty properly?"
James smiled, "Of course, mum, do you think Lily will let me breathe if I was not doing my duty properly?"
"Good for you, how is she, how was your stay at the Evans?"
"Lily is good, she helped me a lot with the head duties, and I really enjoyed staying with The Evans, they were very welcoming, it felt like home," James answered truthfully.
"We owe Rose and Richard," said Fleamont, "for taking care of our son."
"We sure do," said Euphemia.
James talked to his parents about their health and everything, he wanted to talk more but the fourth person who James recognized by her uniform that she was a nurse interrupted them saying it was time for them to take their meds and then rest.
"I should be going too, James," said Eugemia. "I will come back in the evening."
James nodded and watched as his parents fell asleep, the nurse applied lotions to their bodies.
"They need a lot of rest as they are weakened by the pox, so we should let them rest," she informed James.
James sat in his room, fidgeting, the condition of his parents was way worse than he has imagined, the pain was visible in their eyes, but they had hidden it from him just like he has done.
The door opened and Pardey entered with a plate of food, "Master, lunch."
"Thanks, Pardey. Put it on the table," James told the elf, and it was now that he looked closely at the elf, he was not cheerful as he used to be, he looked sad, and surely the ill health of his master and mistress has saddened him. "They will be fine, Pardey."
But instead of nodding, the house elf began sobbing, James jumped from his bed and kneeled beside the elf. "They will recover soon, don't worry." But the elf just continued sobbing.
James had a doubt that the elf knows something that he didn't, what was it that made the house elf cry? "Do you know something, Pardey?"
The house elf stiffened for a moment before shaking his head as he began sobbing again, and James' doubt was confirmed that the house elf did know something, he has known Pardey since his birth and knows enough about the elf to tell he was lying.
"What is it?" he asked.
"Pardey can't tell . . . Mrs. Mckinnon said not to . . . Pardey heard her talking to the nurse . . . .she was crying . . .I can't tell," the elf cried.
"Tell me Pardey," said James. "Please." But the elf sobbed and shook his head.
"Mrs. Mckinnon asked not to," cried the elf.
"I am your master, not Eugemia, I order you to tell me," said James loudly.
The elf flinched, "I . . .I heard Mrs. Mckinnon was told by the nurse that Master and Mistress' health is very very bad, they are not well," the elf sobbed harder. "They will only live for a few more months only, no more than six months." And then the elf began crying hard and ran away.
James stayed rooted at the spot, he has frozen there, six months at most, just six months more left in his parents' life, his mind stopped working, and it has become hard to breathe, all senses and feelings lost, except for pain, insufferable pain. Floods of tears started flowing down his cheeks.
He felt pain in his heart, at both of his wrists, he just sat there his head resting on his hands. He now only wanted all of these things to end, he wanted this pain and suffering to end, and all of this was suffocating him. He wanted to escape this miserable world.
No, he told himself, all of this is because of one man only, escaping reality will not help him, because it will not be real. He was a Gryffindor, where dwell the brave at heart, it was his responsibility to keep fighting, he was not weak, he is brave, he has to do this, he should not be selfish.
Death, he thought about it, was he afraid of it? No, he was not afraid of death, he was afraid to lose loved ones to death, but he told himself, there is something after death, where his loved ones are there waiting for him, but he has not had to rush there, he has to fulfill his duties here, use the strength they give him to fight the dark, to fight for them, fight for what's right, to continue the fight they were fighting and to end the war for one and all. He told himself that it will not help to mourn over the dead or over those who are about to meet death because he one day will have to meet death himself.
But is it worth dying now? No, it's not, that is selfish and coward, and James Potter was neither selfish nor coward.
Tom Riddle aka Voldemort, thinks that emotions weaken humans, and it does, but it gives strength too, it gives so much strength and power that all the weaknesses disappear. This is what Voldemort and his followers fail to see, they fail to see that emotions can give power too.
James wouldn't let these emotions weaken him, he will use these emotions as a fuel to the fire burning inside him, use it as a strength against the dark. Voldemort and his followers are killing whoever they want, they are killing people of all ages, children, kids, goblins, house elfs and all these killings needs to be stop. James will die fighting but will not rest until Voldemort is defeated.
He vowed that if he dies he will make sure to take as many death eaters with him as possible and if possible then even Voldemort too.
He needs to take actions, Thanatos needs to return, but it will be foolish to act rashly, he has to think and use brain to defeat them, the oppositions are in large number and strength alone can't defeat them.
James needs to expand the group, he needs a large number of people to get news of everything going on, he needs to recruit more people, he can't wait till next summer, he has to visit Diagon Alley, contact Adam, Ryan, and Tracey, and inform them about his plan, his owl can act as the messenger between him and them, he needs to visit places and recruit more. He will be disobeying Dumbledore's request but this is what seems wise, and it's not like he was directly jumping into the fight, he was just building his army, an army of messengers to be precise, and then act on that information.
All these thoughts did their work, James was no longer feeling the pain and thus was sitting like a loser but now he was standing, the pain has converted into strength, there was a fire burning inside him, which will only end with the fall of Voldemort or his own death.
The day was spent silently in the Potter's Manor, it felt like there was no one in the room, the nurse was in her room and would come and check on the two patients every hour, the said two patients lay asleep in their beds and their son sat on the chair beside the bed watching his parents sleep or would read his book, the house elf was in the kitchen, sitting curled up.
There was a knock on the front door, James got to his feet and was on his way to the front but Pardey beat him, Eugemia has returned and behind her, James could see the darkening sky, the elf closed the door. Eugemia made her way to James and handed him a box.
"It has chocolates, I thought you can do with some cheering," she smiled.
"Thanks," James said taking the box and hugging her.
"It will be alright dear, don't worry," she patted his back. "You are a brave boy just like your parents, so cheer up, enjoy your time here with them."
James knew that Eugemia will not tell him about the limited time his parents have and thus was suggesting that James utilize this time fully with his parents.
"I am going to ask Dumbledore to give me an extra week's break," James told her. "So, that I can spend more time here with them."
"That will be fantastic, I was going to suggest the same," she smiled at him.
After making sure that everyone was asleep, James transfigured his face, it was much easier this time as he knew what he was changing his face to, he sneaked out of the house and apparated to Diagon Alley.
After searching for half an hour he was able to gather his three friends.
"I don't have much time, so I will come directly to the point, I want you three to gather as many people as possible, make sure they are trustworthy, and then collect the message from them, I want you to spread the people from Ministry to Knockturn Alley, use the same tactic, those who have suffered from their hands will be more eager to help. We are going all out attack on them, they think we are scum but we will show them what we are," said Jack. He then put forward two pouches on the table. "It has nearly 750 galleons, use it wisely, I will try to get more gold."
"From where did you get this much money?" asked Ryan.
"Worked hard and borrowed some," Jack told them. "Now, take this parchment," he said giving them a parchment. "Whatever you will write on this will appear on my parchment, only you three can read it, and my owl will make regular rounds whenever possible."
"Brilliant!" exclaimed Adam taking the parchment.
"Do you have any news for today?" asked Jack, the three shook their heads. "Adam work on that plan if possible we will do it during Christmas or New Year or during Easter."
"On it," Adam mock saluted.
"Do you have any guy from Ministry, who will agree to help?" asked Jack.
"There's this short fat round bloke named Edith William, is a lower level worker at Ministry, cleans toilets, his entire family was killed during the attack at the ministry, he comes here to drink, he can be of help," Ryan informed.
"Where can I find him?" asked Jack.
"He lives near Yorkshire, in a small house, hut to be precise, he will be there now as it's nighttime," said Ryan.
"Can you take me to him, now?" asked Jack.
"Of course, but he will not agree to risk for us, I am not his friend, we just know each other and drink together," sighed Ryan.
"He will agree to help Thanatos," winked Jack.
The two of them apparated into a filthy alleyway, Thanatos could see a few people sleeping on the side of the alley.
"Where is his house?" he asked to Ryan, who pointed at the small house at the end of the alley.
"That one is his, come let's go," said Ryan.
"No, you return, it can be dangerous," warned Thanatos.
"I am not leaving you alone," hissed Ryan.
"I am Thanatos,"
"I know but still I am not leaving you,"
"Very well then I will make you invisible, don't make any move until it's necessary," said Thanatos placing a disillusionment charm on Ryan.
Thanatos made his way to the said house and knocked on it, he heard a groan, but no one answered.
"He is in deep sleep," whispered Ryan. Thanatos burst open the door and entered the small , one room house, Edith was sleeping on the couch, firewhisky bottles, and clothes were lying around all the over the floor.
"Whuu iz it?" asked Edith searching for his wand.
Thanatos found the wand before Edith and gave it too Edith, "Here take it."
"Whuu are u'?" asked Edith standing up.
"Nox," muttered Thanatos, and the room filled with light.
"Thanatos?" said Edith in a shaky voice.
"Yes, I want your help to remove death eaters from society,"
"How can I help? I have no skills in fighting or anything, and I don't want to die,"
"You don't have to fight and you will not die, you can help me in another way without risking your life,"
"Why will I help you?"
"Because you too have suffered loss at the hands of Voldemort," Edith jumped at the name. "Don't you want vengeance, don't you want to make them pay for the death of your family?"
"I want to, but I am not powerful, I have no skills, and I am useless."
"No, you are not, and no one will know that you are helping me, you just have to do your normal work but have to pay more attention to your surrounding."
"I don't understand."
"You have to spy for me, collect information regarding the death eaters or you-know-who, and send it to me,"
"Okay, I can do that, but how will I send it to you?"
"My owl will find you and you will be given information on how to pass messages,okay?" Edith nodded. "So can I count on you?"
"You can, I will do my best to help you."
"And if possible try to gather more allies, so we can gather more information,"
"I will try, but it will not endanger me, will it?"
"No, I protect those who help me," Thanatos informed him.
"Are you really Thanatos, the real one?"
"I am."
Lily entered the potions class and made her way to her seat, today she had to sit alone on her table today as her usual partner was absent. Sirius entered the class and sat next to her.
"Why are you sitting here?" asked Lily.
"You were sitting alone today, so I decided to help you," Sirius grinned at her.
"Don't you already have a partner?"
"James give me the duty to look after you," Sirius replied.
Lily scoffed, "He knows better than that, and he told me to look after the dog." Sirius laughed at this comment.
Sirius was not a great company to have in a potions lesson, he continued doing things that distracted and irritated Lily, he was continuously throwing paper pieces at the girl in front of him and was talking about his looks and pranks.
"James knows that I am his best partner in crime."
"Sirius Black are you Jealous of me?" Lily looked at him with narrowed eyes.
"Jealous of you, I am much hotter than you," Sirius defended himself.
"Believe what you want to but stop talking and let me focus on the potion," she hissed when she noticed that she was lagging behind.
"You talk to Prongs all the time in the class,"
"He helps me in the potion, and doesn't talk about his looks. So, now focus on your own cauldron."
"As you say Ms. Evans," muttered Sirius.
With Sirius silent, Lily was able to focus on her own cauldron, halfway through the class without knowing she began humming a lyric that came to her mind but she wasn't able to identify which song it was, she tried hard but it was of no avail. She turned to her side.
"Hey, you know what this song is? It has this lyrics I guess: I hear her voice in the mornin' she calls me," Lily said "And also something like West Virginia, come to mama."
"What are you talking about?" Sirius asked looking at her as though she was a lunatic.
"A song lyric is stuck in my mind but I can't able to recall the whole song, it goes like: I hear her voice in the mornin' she calls me," repeated Lily.
Sirius rolled his eyes, "I don't know about it."
Lily dropped her shoulder disappointed, and continued working on the potion while trying to recall the rest of the song, James was good at it, he would identify the song immediately.
After ten minutes Sirius let out a frustrated groan, "Stop that."
"What?" Lily asked looking at him with confusion.
"Stop doing that, humming and tapping your foot, it is disturbing me," Sirius pointed out.
"I am not disturbing you, it's your fault that you were not focusing earlier on your potion and now when it isn't progressing you are blaming me," said Lily as she continued her huming.
"I don't know how Prongs tolerates you," Sirius pointed out. "You are stubborn."
"He is much more mature than you, and if I were you, I would focus on the potion rather than a barely audible humming."
"Marls is a lot better and funnier than you."
"Then why did you break up with her?"
"It was she who broke up with me if you remember,"
"Only because you kissed some other girl and now you are dating another girl and that too Keeva of people."
"Keeva is a hot girl,"
Lily shook her head, "You are very immature, Sirius. Ask yourself, 'Do you really want to be with Keeva?' Act wisely and act fast or you will lose the opportunity."
"Dunno what you are talking about," muttered Sirius now pretending to be focused on his cauldron for the first time.
"Don't you?"
"I don't want to talk about it,"
"Don't fool yourself, James told me how much you are pinning after Marls,"
"He doesn't know," mumbled Sirius.
Slughorn warned the class to hurry up as the bell was about to ring.
Lily's rest of the way didn't went that well, she was bored half the time, several times she had a funny comment to make but then she realized that her usual partner was not there to listen to her comments. Lily went to bed and laid on her bed, she realized that though she missed her boyfriend, she missed her friend more, or to be precise her best best friend more.
Marls was her best friend but Lily realized that she didn't talk to Marls that freely the way she used to with James, and the time when Lily had pointed out a funny detail about Professor Flitwick to Marls, she has given her a disbelieving look accompanied by a look that said 'stop talking.'
When has this happened? Lily thought to herself and then began thinking about the time when she had become friends with James, it was during the championship and since then their friendship has gotten stronger and stronger, he understood her better, helped her after the fight with Snape, they had studied together for O.W.L.s and how even after she had shouted at him, he has come back to her, he has helped her during the summer break, then that day in Godric Hollow was amazing, then when they had returned to Hogwarts they had started breaking rules together and pulling small pranks, and then they had become a couple.
She was happy that they were best friends before they have gotten into a relationship, it has helped as they already knew much about each other before taking it to the next step.
Just one more day and then he will return, she told herself, then she will find out what is the song that has been stuck in her mind for the whole day.
The next day went just like the previous day, except for the fact that she had to write the Head report about detention herself and the fact that Sirius was more irritated by her when she offered to help him with Potion's homework and has in the way begun her point on how Dumbledore is like Gandalf, she has laughed at her own thought. Sirius and the rest two marauders were looking at her as if she has gone crazy, Marls, and Mary who were used to this just shrugged.
"Come on guys, Gandalf the grey," Lily said looking around at her friends hopefully but received disappointment only. "Has none of you read Lord Of The Rings?"
They all shook their heads.
"Great company you lot are," Lily mumbled.
Once Lily was gone, Peter asked the question which was in the minds of all five of them, "Is it just me or Lily becomes less bearable when James isn't around?"
"I feel that too, don't judge me, she is a nice and helpful girl but sometimes she becomes unbearable," said Sirius.
"Has she always been like this?" asked Peter.
"Yeah, but she would not talk about her books around us when she figured out Mary and I aren't interested in them," answered Marls.
"Yeah, that was the case with me too, she would bring up these topics during our rounds in fifth year but when she found out I have no idea what she was talking about, she never mentioned it again," said Remus flipping his notes.
"James has brought up this side of her again, so she has gotten into the habit to talk about the book characters again," pointed out Mary and the others agreed.
Lily woke up excited the next day, she got ready and went to the great hall filled with hope, James might have returned by now, or he will by the end of the day. She reached the great hall but he was not there and to be fair she hasn't expected him to be there.
But James didn't arrived during lunch, nor did he arrived in the evening, the day went slowly for Lily and she hated it so so much when you want time to be spent fast it slows down and when you want it to slow down it is fastened up, fuck time.
He will be there at dinner, he would have decided to come late, she thought as she along with Marls and Mary entered the great hall but she was disappointed to see that there were only three marauders, James hasn't arrived yet.
Lily was concerned about James now, he should have returned by now, what if he was in some danger, what if he was stuck up, or what if that idiot has gone to do his heroics again and was caught by the Death Eaters? Her train of thought was interrupted by Marls.
"Are you feeling okay? You haven't eaten anything," Marls pointed at Lily's untouched food.
"I am not hungry," said Lily. "I am feeling under the weather today, headache" she lied.
"OH!" said Marls. "Just eat something or else it will worsen."
Lily nodded and ate a few cookies, and then returned to her dorm before the rest of school, she debated whether she should write to him or not, and after half an hour of debate she decided she will wait till tomorrow, he might arrive early in the morning tomorrow for classes.
The next morning before going to the great hall she walked up to the boys' dorm, hoping to catch up with James, but when she opened the door she found that his bed was in the same condition he has left it, the other boys were still asleep, it was James who usually wakes them but since he was not here they were enjoying sleep, she instantly got an idea for a prank, but decided to wait till James arrive as it will be more fun with him here.
Lily sat sadly in the great hall, the worry of James was eating her from inside, soon the others arrived too and took their seats around her, none of them were concerned about James' absence and this made her angry. How are all of them so chilled, can't they notice that their best friend who should have arrived here yesterday was not here yet?
The posts arrived and Lily has to wait for Remus to finish reading the Daily Prophet so she could take the paper from him and see if there was any news about James or Thanatos in it. She missed that James was not here, she would shamelessly snatch his newspaper from him, several times they would bicker about who should read the paper first, and then they would settle to read it together so as to prevent the paper from getting torn in half.
Once Remus was done reading the paper she took it from him and began scanning it for any news regarding Thanatos as if it would have mentioned James, Remus would have pointed it out. To Lily's relief, there was no news about Thanatos or James.
She decided she has been patient enough and could no longer keep it to herself.
"Hey guys, do you know when James will arrive, he was supposed to be here by today," she said trying hard to hide her worries.
"OH! Yeah, actually he has decided to stay with his parents for more days, so he has taken ten days' leave, he will come next week," Sirius informed her.
"How did you know that?" Lily asked as she relaxed, he was safe and just wants to spend more time with his parents, but she couldn't help the disappointment and sadness that has formed inside her at the thought of no James Potter for the next ten days.
"Minnie told us the day before yesterday," said Sirius simply, as if it was no big deal.
Lily wanted to shout at Sirius and hit him with hexes for not telling her that, he was really stupid but the fact that neither Remus nor Peter has informed her made her angrier. She decided to wait and give the marauders punishment in a different way.
All her anger however disappeared as a blue owl landed in front of her and raised its leg to allow her to take the letter.
She opened the letter with lightning speed.
Dear Lily,
I know, I told you all that I would arrive in two days but once here I decided to stay here longer to make up for all the time I missed them.
Both of them are weak but nevertheless are joking around, it feels good to be back with them and talk to them. Dragon Pox is really really a worse disease.
Mum asked me to invite your parents as she wanted to thank them for looking after me, so I sent the letter to your parents and they agreed to the invitation, both of them arrived here yesterday for the dinner, Eugemia and Mr. Mckinnon were here too, it was a lovely gathering, though it was empty without your presence.
Mum and dad mostly stay in bed, the healers have made it clear that they are not allowed to do any physical activity that causes exertion as it can turn out to be fatal. So, now both of them have officially retired from Auror and have left the war too. I hope you were here.
Did you know that Petunia has fixed the wedding during the Christmas Holidays? If not then I got the news before you. Ha! Ha!
Pardey, our house elf hasn't been cheerful company, he has turned into a gloomy elf, I tried to cheer him up but to no avail.
I have a lot to talk to you about which I can't write in the letter, I was thinking to go on a few night adventures, what do you think?
Anyway, how are you and how is everyone there? Mum and dad say 'hi' to you and Padfoot. Do cover the notes for me.
Love,
James.
A smile appeared on her face on reading the letter but there were other things in it that needed attention, but for now, she neglected them.
"What does it say?" asked Sirius hopefully.
Lily was about to tell him but since he hasn't told her about James' extended holiday, so she decided she too will not tell him.
"I will not tell you," she replied pocketing the letter.