James, Remus and Peter strolled towards the dungeons for their Potions class. James, aware of Sirius' activities, was keeping the pace slow so that his best friend could catch up with them. James wished that Sirius was with him at this moment, simply because Wormtail would not leave him be.
''Oh James, can you tell me the answer to question six… James! Wouldn't it be such a great idea if we… James, will you be my partner in Potions today… Can we pair up on that assignment today James?''
''Moony please shut him up!'' and with the threat of Remus getting involved (frankly Peter was scared of the tall, quiet boy), Peter fell silent.
James sighed in relieved pleasure, relishing the peace. Suddenly he saw a flash of red hair at the end of the long, dim-lit dungeon corridor. Remus thought he saw Snape by her side, but James was gone already. ''Evans!'' he cried, aware that she wanted him to call her that, before sprinting headlong down the slippery hallway. He stepped in a puddle and slid to his knees, but was back up in a flash and tearing after her. Remus rolled his eyes and held out an arm to prevent Peter following James excitedly.
''Evans, Evans!'' James hollered as he rounded the corner and slammed into the petite redhead waiting behind it. Lily had been seething before, preparing what she would say to James, but now she was furious. Their books flew up into the air, papers cascading everywhere. An inkpot shattered on the stone flags and now deep blue tendrils were seeping between the tiles.
Both were up in a second, hot-headed Lily fuming immediately. ''Potter, I can't beli-'' she broke off and winced in pain. James, scrambling to his knees, saw the faint mark on her cheekbone, rapidly developing into a hot pink bruise. Before he could stop himself, he reached out and tenderly touched her hand where it cupped the side of her face. Two pairs of eyes, one chestnut, one green, darted up and met each other. For a fleeting moment they stayed there, knees touching as they knelt, eyes locked and both their hands on Lily's face.
Then her quill, a pale cream feather flecked with brown, fluttered down between them, breaking the eye contact for a millisecond. This was all Lily needed to come to her senses. Before James could even blink, she had her wand out. But Lily didn't get the chance to jinx James. Severus stepped between them and fired a vicious hex into James' face. James had just enough time to be repulsed at how he had cast it without speaking before his vision blurred and he toppled backwards, rigid like a falling tree, slamming with all his weight to the cold floor. Lily rubbed her cheek, gathered her things and stumbled to Potions, Severus by her side.
Meanwhile, Sirius had joined Remus and Peter and laughed when he heard how James was after Lily. Remus heard a thud through Peter's constant chatter and jogged to the place he had last seen James. Expecting to see a spitting row, Remus and Sirius were somewhat surprised to find James lying spread-eagled, twitching on his back amongst a sea of papers, books and spilt ink. Sighing, they picked their way over to James and lifted their friend up and away from the mess. Remus and Sirius recognised Severus' choice for James, but they of course thought that Lily had used it; scurrilis vitupero, a fairly difficult and very unpleasant spell. Remus scrunched up his eyes and remembered a textbook passage on it.
Spell: scurrilis vitupero
Difficulty: intermediate – difficult
About: this spell is not commonly used in a duel (as it is unreliable) but as a punishment for those 'inferior' to the caster. A great fan of this spell was Salazar Slytherin, who used it on muggle-born witches and wizards in particular. More recently it has become a favourite of students at wizarding school as it both demonstrates skill and disposes of enemies.
Effects: this spell is unusual in that the distance from which it is fired changes its effects. Fired from duelling distance, the spell induces headaches, blurred or hazy vision, flickering of the eyelids, twitching of the fingers and temporary memory loss. If fired from a distance greater than that used for duelling, the spell only causes momentary loss of muscle control. If fired at point blanc range, as it is most commonly used, the spell is at its most potent. From this distance, the victim will experience loss of muscle control, extreme headaches or migraines, very blurred vision, rapid flickering of the eyelids, whole body twitching and temporary memory loss of a longer period such as a day.
In extreme cases, this spell may cause muscle depletion (causing weaker muscles for a time), crippling pain in the head, temporary loss of vision, uncontrollable spinning of the eyeballs, whole body convulsing, dangerous arching of the back, extreme nausea and permanent memory loss of around five minutes before the spell was cast. In these cases the victim must be given medical care as soon as is possible.
Remus was not one to swear, but on this occasion he did. Peter simply looked on in utter horror. Sirius, knowing the spell but not its effects, looked at Remus urgently. Remus peeled back one of James' eyelids and saw his eyeball spinning sickeningly fast. By the second his twitching was becoming convulsing, and he was moaning in pain. Suddenly his torso lifted off the ground and his back arched massively. Remus heard the bones crunching together before James went momentarily limp. A heartbeat passed before the convulsions began again. He began to splutter and soon vomited all over the walls, the floor, Remus and himself. He was bleeding from the back of the head, from when his muscles collapsed and he hit the floor.
''Peter!'' Remus shouted, the loudest he had ever spoken in his life, ''Get Madam Pomfrey, NOW!'' To his credit, Peter ran his absolute fastest to James' only hope. ''Sirius, stay here and help me control him!'' Remus and Sirius sat by their dear friend, wiping the sweat from his brow and trying to hold him down as his back arched to new heights and he came closer to breaking his own back.
Madam Pomfrey came in minutes. James was steadily worsening.
''Oh my dear Lord!'' she screamed at the sight of James, and Sirius and Remus covered in his blood and vomit. ''Help me take him to the hospital wing!''
The three of them lifted James with their wands and rushed him away. Peter was told to stay behind and gather James' things before following them. Peter was squeamish and the others saved him the sight of his idol in such a terrible state.
They burst into the hospital wing and laid James straight onto a bed. Remus and Sirius again restrained him while Madam Pomfrey mixed a poultice and bandaged James head before touching him lightly on the forehead with her wand and whispering servo, a charm to prevent nausea, followed by caput servo, which ceased the convulsions.
''There's nothing I can do about the eyes or the memory loss,'' she sighed, ''I can mix a potion to restore his muscles though, and I'll bring that in a minute. You might want to stay with him in case he wakes up. Try to work around the gap in his memory.'' With that, she left to prepare the potion.
''Sirius, I can't believe that she would do this, even to James.''
''Yeah, little Lily Evans. Who knew she had it in her?''
''Sirius, I know that look. You mustn't touch Evans. James'll kill you!''
''Only because he can't remember what she did.''
''Listen, I thought I saw Snivellus with her, it might have been-''
''No, James wouldn't go after her if he was there.''
''He might, Sirius. He's stubborn enough to try…''
''I'm sure it was Evans, she's the only one we know was there for sure. And she's going to pay for what she's done to James. I'm going to get her alone and-''
Before Sirius could continue, Peter burst in with James' books. Sirius dropped his voice and finished:
''Remus, I'm not as smart as you, but I know an obvious culprit when I see one. Evans did this, but this is nothing compared to what I'll do to her.''