A/N: Sorry it took me awhile to update, but now I'm writing like crazy and hopefully will have a few more parts coming out soon. :) this one is a little shorter than the first, but the next part gets into the interviews and such :3 also, you'll start to notice that no one is strictly one character from THG. I expand more on that in future parts. enjoy!

Part 2

It was quiet by the lake. The November air had a clipped coolness to it that made the hair on James' arms stand up straight through his goosebumps. He took in a deep, cold breath, extended his arms slowly over his head, closed his eyes, and dove into the lake. The water stung every inch of his body, and he fought the urge to struggle against the water, the urge to take another breath. He was living in survival mode now more than ever.

Last night, he had volunteered to participate in a competition that would likely result in his, along with twenty-two of his classmates', death.

He woke that morning hoping that it had been a bad dream, that it would be the morning of the Reaping and he'd avoid that uncomfortably hot sweater and that somehow he and Sirius and Remus and Peter would somehow make it out of their last Reaping unscathed – that Lily Evans would survive the Reaping. But the look on Sirius' face when James drew back the curtains on his bed in the morning was proof that his life was now the stuff of nightmares. He pulled on clothes in silence. Sirius looked at James with a sadness James couldn't stand and Remus and Peter avoided looking at him all together. He knew the routine. They were detaching themselves from him before he died – at least this way, they'd get finality on their own terms.

He couldn't blame them. After all, hadn't he done the same to countless classmates before now? Wasn't he going to do the very same thing to Lily?

Submerged in the water, images of last night flashed like motion photography. The sounds were muffled and distant, leaving him with images and little else. The seventh year champions from the three other Houses slowly filed in, the last being the girl from Slytherin, followed closely by Voldemort. He explained the rules of the tournament and though James hadn't heard any of it, he didn't need to. He had witnessed enough House Cups to know the rules by heart. Instead, James watched Lily. Her eyes were narrowed, focused on Voldemort as he explained the rules, breaking focus only to occasionally lift a strand of dark red hair behind her ear. It was as if she thought that by focusing on the rules, despite already knowing them, she could find some secret bit of information that could make the entire tournament shift toward her favor.

The odds hadn't been in Lily's favor from the moment she was born and there was no secret rule that was going to change that.

James finally broke the surface of the water and a harsh, quick inhale burned in his lungs. He treaded water, remembering how last year the lake had been used as part of the arena, the giant squid taking out a fifth year named Dirk Creswell. James leveled himself horizontally and swam toward the shore. He had come out to the lake to train, but thinking of Dirk made him suddenly sea sick.

By the time he got back to Gryffindor's common room, it had mostly cleared out. Everyone else was heading off to their classes. James no longer had academic obligations. For years, he would have killed to lessen his academic load. He smirked to himself, taking in the sick joke that now he quite literally would be.

Surprisingly, his dormitory wasn't completely empty. Sirius sat on his bed, staring blankly out of the window at the former Quidditch pitch. It would soon be converted into the House Cup arena. He didn't acknowledge James.

"Aren't you going to be late for Potions?"

Sirius broke his stare and regarded James incredulously. "Potions? My concern is supposed to be about being late to Potions right now?"

"Don't be stupid, Padfoot. Since he can't throw you into the House Cup, Voldemort will come up with something particularly heinous to punish you if you screw up now."

"More heinous than killing twenty-two of my classmates?"

James crossed over to his bed and sat down across from Sirius. "You know what I mean."

"Yeah." He turned back to the window. "It'll probably be even worse for me, given that stunt you pulled. I reckon Voldie would have loved to see my brother and I go at it. You deprived him of some quality entertainment." Sirius paused for a moment. "What you did was really stupid, Prongs."

"Oh, come off it."

"I mean it. You had no right to–"

"–save you?" James interrupted. "Keep you from being killed by your own brother – or worse, having to kill your own brother?"

"I don't need you to be my hero, James. I'm already on Voldemort's list. All you've done is gotten yourself killed and condemned me to living the rest of my miserable life knowing that I should have been in your place."

"No. You don't get to do this. You can't check on out me. Not like when your uncle died." Sirius' face fell at James' stern tone. A few years ago, his uncle Alphard Black had been murdered by Death Eaters. Alphard had been one of the few family members Sirius was close to. His disdain for the Dark Arts in a family of blood-purists kept him at an arm's length from others. But Alphard had always supported and understood Sirius. James figured that he never really properly recovered from Alphard's death.

"I won't," Sirius replied, the guilt cracking in his voice.

"No, you can't. You're going to leave this place in a few months and someone needs to be looking out for Moony. We've done what we can to protect him here, but things are going to get a thousand times worse when you guys are out in the world. You have to keep it together." James' voice dropped. "If not for me, then for Remus."

"I will, Prongs."

"Promise me."

"I promise."

The silence filled the space between them. Despite the few inches Sirius had on James, he seemed so small.

"Maybe you can win," Sirius offered after a moment.

James nearly laughed at the idea. "Like I have half of a chance against any of those Slytherins. Your brother alone was cursing fully grown wizards from between the bars of his crib."

"You're a really talented wizard," Sirius said.

"Yeah, well, you're better." James said it quietly, an admission he had kept to himself for years.

"Then why in Merlin's name would you take my place?"

"Because—"

Because Sirius was the better person. Because he could watch out for Moony and Wormtail. Because Sirius still saw the good in people and still wanted to fight back and survive. And because if one of them should have a guaranteed pass for the next few months, it should be Sirius.

"Because you're better," James said. He was sure that Sirius was going to protest, but he met his friend's eyes and knew that Sirius had been keeping the idea to himself this whole time, too.

"You really should get to Potions."

"Yeah, yeah." Sirius rose from his bed and crossed to the doorway. He paused, then turned his head over his shoulder. "Prongs?"

"Yeah?"

Sirius licked his lips and pressed them together tightly before speaking again. "Promise me that you'll at least try to win."

James didn't have the heart to tell him how little fight was left inside of him. Instead, he lifted the corner of his lips and said, "I promise. I'll try."

Sirius nodded, looking back at James one last time before closing the door between them.