Lone Child
Chapter 31: The World Cup and Death Eaters
"So, you mean to tell us,"
"That you, James Cage,"
"Have tickets to,"
"The Quidditch World Cup and,"
"You are taking us to watch,"
"In your own top box," said Fred and George, staring at James in awe.
"You can thank Dragon for that, this is my early 14th birthday present," said James.
Triss rolled her eyes. "Are you planning to invite anyone but the people present?" she asked.
"I asked the rest of the crew, but they are either busy, or already have tickets," said James.
"Who already has tickets?" asked George.
"Dray and Gin are in the top box with ol' Fudge himself, thanks to Lucius. Same with Sirius, Mel, and Remus, it's part of Sirius's official pardon. Everyone else just said they were busy," said James.
"Who in their right mind would turn down tickets to the Quidditch World Cup? It's insane," said Fred.
"Kat. You know as well as I do that she could care less about Quidditch," said James.
"What about Bill and Charlie? Did you ask them?" George asked.
"They already have tickets. Didn't say how they got them, so it's just the four of us," said James.
"When is the game Shadow?" Triss asked.
"On my birthday, in two days," said James.
"Is Dragon coming? It's been a long time since we saw him," said Triss.
"He said he was, but you know him, he could drop out at any second," said James.
"Me? Miss your 14th birthday? Never," said a familiar voice from the doorway.
"Dragon?" asked James looking at the man standing in the doorway. Dragon didn't look anything like he had the last time James and Triss had seen him. His long salt and pepper hair had been cut and was now solid black, short and neat. His face no long resembled that of a fifty, plus, year old man either. He looked to be in his late thirties again.
"The one and only," said Dragon.
"I think getting away from us for a while did you some good Dragon," said Triss, giving the older man a hug.
"No, I just decided the old man look didn't work for me," said Dragon. "So, am I going to get a hug from birthday boy, or not?" asked Dragon turning to James.
James jumped into the older man's waiting arms. "It's good to have you back Dragon, we missed you," said James.
"I missed you as well. It's been what, two years since I last saw you two? You both grew up it seems," said Dragon, just noticing that James stood more than eye level with Dragon's 6'1" form.
"Yeah, we did. So you are going to the match with us?" asked Triss.
"I wouldn't miss it for the world. Who are they?" asked Dragon, pointing to the awe struck Fred and George.
"Fred and George Weasley. Some how they managed to talk their way into coming with us," said James.
"Sure, I'm sure you've been getting into lots of trouble with the infamous Weasley twins," said Dragon grinning.
"Of course. Having wild parties, lots of sex, drinking, you know, the stuff us horrible teenagers do," said Triss.
"And you wondered why I didn't like leaving you in the house alone. Party animals," said Dragon.
"You know it," said James.
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The next two days were very eventful. Dragon, much to his amusement, had is hair turned neon pink when the twins tried to pull a prank on James and Triss. After getting caught in the crossfire of two other pranks, Dragon started fighting back, turning James, Triss, Fred and George into raccoons. James and Triss had very little trouble returning to their human forms, but the twins had a little more trouble.
Not soon enough for the twins it was the day of the Quidditch Match. James had created a portkey to take everyone to a campground where they would wait till the time of the match. "James, do you have the muggle money and Galleons?" asked Dragon for what had to have been the thousandth time.
"Yes mother," said James sarcastically.
"Don't make me wash you mouth out with soap young man. Triss, do you have the tent?" Dragon asked.
"Yes, lets go already. We've been over that list a hundred times," said Triss.
"All right, but don't blame me when we end up missing something," said Dragon.
"We won't, but we're going to be late if we don't get a move on," said James.
"When ever you are ready then," said Dragon.
"Hold on to the portkey," said James producing an old teddy bear. Everyone grabbed a limb. "Go Ireland!" said James, and they were whisked away.
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"You know Ireland is going to loose, right?" asked Dragon.
"Sorry, can't say that I do. Ireland is the best," said James.
"Want to place a bet then?" asked Dragon.
"What's the wager?" asked James.
"The looser has to walk naked into that gay bar you are so fond of," said Dragon.
"Sounds fair. Anything else?" asked James.
"Nope," said Dragon shaking hands with James.
"This day just keeps getting better and better," said Triss.
The twins grinned wickedly at each other. "Hey Triss, how would you like to make a bet with us?" asked Fred.
Triss grinned back. "Sorry boys, I don't gamble," said Triss, running to catch up with James and Dragon.
Several minutes later the group of five was setting up their tent. There were several obvious wizards and witches running around making fools of themselves. James, Triss and the twins were having a real laugh at the people's antics. "Since you seem to be having such a laugh at everyone else's expense, why don't you go for a walk? I'll set up the tent," said Dragon.
"You sure Dragon? It won't be any trouble to help," said James.
"I'm sure. Go visit your school friends or something. I'll be fine," said Dragon.
"If your sure," said James, dropping the unset tent on the ground.
"So, how much longer till the game starts?" asked Fred.
"A few hours yet. Want to go look for Bill and Charlie?" asked James.
"Sure," said George.
After fifteen minute of walking the quartet still hadn't found the people they were looking for. "Do you think they're even here yet? Maybe we should go wait up by the income center," said Triss.
"Why not, it's worth a try," said James.
James, Triss, Fred, and George reached the portkey center just in time to see not just Bill and Charlie, but Ron and Arthur Weasley as well. "Bill! Charlie!" yelled Fred and George, waving to their brothers.
Bill chuckled at the sight of them. "Why am I not surprised to see you guys here?" he asked, running his hand through is flaming red hair.
"What are you doing here Cage? Aren't you Death Eaters supposed to be afraid of the sun?" Ron sneered.
"You best hold your tongue Weasley, unless you would like to loose it," said James, giving Ron the infamous Snape glare.
"You will not speak to my son that way Mr. Cage," Arthur started, only to be cut off.
"James will speak in an manner he wishes, especially when a pompous brat speaks to him in that manner," said Dragon, placing his hand on James's shoulder.
"And you are?" Arthur asked, glaring at Dragon.
"Dragonus Cage, Mr. Weasley. I am James's Uncle, and guardian. I hope your son will not cause us any problems in the future. Come James, Triss," said Dragon, walking away from the shell shocked Arthur Weasley.
"Uncle Dragon, that has no ring what so ever," said Triss.
"It was the only thing I could think of on such short notice. Was that the kid that nearly got you expelled?" Dragon asked, turning on James.
"Yep," said James.
"He's not worth your time or effort James Alexander! Letting your self get pulled into a fight with a kid like that," said Dragon, sounding slightly disappointed.
"It wasn't James's fault Dragon. Weasley jumped on him, and he acted how you trained him to act. Did I mention James hadn't provoked him either?" Triss asked, her tone angry. She wasn't going to let James get badgered for something he couldn't help.
"I also taught you restraint! You should know better than to flip someone in a controlled area!" said Dragon.
"Enough. I know what I did was wrong, but I reacted the way I was trained to act when under threat. If you have a problem with that, take it up with yourself, you trained me after all," said James, turning and walking away from the shocked older man.
"I think you should leave," said Triss, following James.
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"Your middle name is Alexander?" Fred asked, pulling James into a shaded area of the campground.
"James Alexander Shadow Cage," said James.
"We always thought Shadow was your middle name," said George.
"It is, I just have two of them. It's not uncommon," said James.
"What happened with Dragon back there?" George asked, slightly concerned.
"He was angry because I fought with your younger brother. He thinks I should have more restraint, and shouldn't flip people into walls," said James.
"You can't be blames for that! It's the brat own fault that he jumped on you, and then you turned around and saved his life! Ungrateful brat that he is," said Fred.
"Try telling that to the great task master," said Triss, walking into the clearing.
"What's up?" asked James.
"I told Dragon to leave. I swear, everyone seems to have something against you today," said Triss.
"I'll live," said James.
"Well, let's go walk around till the game starts," said George.
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Two hours later the quartet relaxing in their own, privet, top-box. "This is the life," said Fred, putting his feet up on the table.
"Feet, off," said Triss, smacking Fred's feet off the table.
"Mean," said Fred.
"Quiet, game's starting," said James, watching the field intently.
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A/N: Because I royally suck at writing Quidditch matches, I'm not going to. Just insert the game from the book, without James reacting to the Veela, ect. And now I continue with just after the match.
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"That was absolutely brilliant!" said George as they exited the top-box. He and Fred continued their very elaborate dialog of the game as Triss and James looked on in laughter.
"Not to mention Krum pulled the Wronski Feint on Lynch, twice!" said Fred.
"I've never seen a more gullible seeker. The same move, twice in one game. That's sad," said George.
Suddenly, as the group re-entered the forest James stopped in his tracks. "Triss, do you feel that?" James asked.
Triss stopped and closed her eyes. "Fear, a lot of it. There is magic intermingled with it too, dark magic," said Triss, opening her eyes and looking at James in alarm.
"Fred, George, fall back, go look for your brother and sister. Triss, come with me," said James, shifting into Shadow. Triss nodded and shifted into Tigress, following James as he took off towards the campground.
'What do you think is going on?' Triss asked.
'I think my dear Death Eater friends came out of hiding. No doubt Dad and Lucius are among them. Watch out for who you are shooting at, and change your appearance,' said James.
After another minute of running James and Triss finally broke through the foliage. What they saw shocked them both. Several of the muggle families that were camping among the wizards were either being spun around in mid air or being held under the Cruciatus curse. James saw red.
In his fury he changed into his almost normal form. The only difference was that instead of his hair being black and his eyes being green, he had taken on the Elven blond hair and blue eyes. Like all Elves when angry, his skin glowed, and his ears were now pointed. Triss seemed to have had the same idea, as her hair had taken on Elven blond, but her eyes didn't change. Like James, her ears were pointed and her skin shown in the darkness.
James waved his hand and all magic stopped. The families held in the air slowly floated to the ground and the Death Eaters turned to look at James. James could practically smell the fear coming off of the Death Eaters, and the relief from the muggles. "Hi boys. Did you miss me?" asked James, a malevolent smile on his face.
Several Death Eaters tried to apperate away, but James stopped them. "Not so fast, the fun has just begun," said James. At that second, several other wizards arrived at the scene. Among them were James and Lily Potter, Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, and Nymphadora Tonks. All of them stared at James, half in shock and fear, and the other half in slight recognition.
Then all hell broke loose. Muggles ran around screaming, trying to get away from the Death Eaters that were firing spells as fast as they could think of them, and the Light Wizards tried to help the muggles. One group of Death Eaters caught James's attention. They were gathered around in a circle, all preparing to fire spells. James ported into the middle of the circle to see a little girl, no older than 8 rolled up in a ball crying. The Death Eaters hadn't even noticed James's presents when the group of 10 or so wizards all fired the Cruciatus at the girl.
As the cruses made their way towards the girl James jumped in front of them, protecting the girl with his own body. While one Cruciatus curse was no big deal for James, 10 plus cruses was. James screamed in horrible pain as the curses connected with his body, but he refused to let them reach their intended target. His screaming, however, caught the attention of the Light Wizards that had just finished off the last Death Eaters. It drew Triss's attention as well.
The group of Light Wizards started firing spells at the last group of Death Eaters, and one by one they started disapperating. James nearly collapsed when he tried to stand up after the Death Eaters had left. The little girl was still crying, and whimpering for her mommy. Taking pity on the girl James picked her up from the ground and cradled her. "Shhh, it's alright. I won't let the bad men get you," James whispered in her ear.
"T-the bad m-m-men fired the green s-stuff at mommy, daddy and my brother. I-I-I c-couldn't make them wake u-up," the girl whimpered. James suppressed a sigh. Yet another child that had lost her family at the hands of Death Eaters.
"Shhh, what's you name, I'll help you find your family," said James.
"E-Elizabeth Dursley," said the girl, clutching James's slightly tattered shirt.
Evans, who had come to inspect and check on the strange man, froze at the name. "Lizzy?" Evans asked, nearly ripping the little girl out of James's grasp.
"Aunt Lily?" the little girl asked, wrapping her arms around Evan's neck.
"Can you guys handle it from here?" James asked, looking at Potter. Potter stared at him, trying to figure out where he had seen the boy before, but nodded. "Good," said James. James grabbed Triss, who was standing behind him, and they disappeared with a loud pop.
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"Where were you?" Fred and George asked, nearly tackling James and Triss as they entered the clearing. Also standing in the clearing was Gin, Ron, Dray, Mel, and surprisingly, Kat.
"We were looking for you two. Somehow you two managed to disappear on us. It's a good thing we found you. It sounded like all hell broke loose on the campgrounds," said James, giving the twins a subtle wink.
"You would know wouldn't you, you and your whole gang of junior Death Eaters," Ron sneered.
"Hey Weasley, member what James said about loosing your tongue? Consider it lost," said Triss, moving to jump on Weasley.
James caught Triss before she could even reach Weasley. "Chill Tigress. He's not worth our time or energy," said James. Triss nodded and James let her go. Suddenly there was a loud popping noise, and the group turned around to see a bright green spark flying into the air. The spark exploded, leaving the infamous Dark Mark ablaze in the sky.
(A/N: I am going to kill my e-mail service. For some reason it's not displaying all of my review e-mails. To all of you that have reviewed, but not gotten a response at the end of the chapter, forgive me, I am sorry about that. It seems most of the more prominent sites have some kind of virus problem, including Yahoo!, my e-mail host. As I said, if I did not respond to a review then I am truly sorry.)
MiakaChan5: As I said, I don't know yet, I could make them a couple as far as I know. O'well, I didn't want to drag out the chapters so I summarize.
Wytil: My cousin's school wanted him to go to Greece for Spring Break, but he didn't want to go. He, like me, wouldn't get on a plane if his life depended on it. I will go anywhere in the world that a person would want me too, I just won't get on a plane. I hate planes. I hated planes before 9/11, now I hate them even more. I swear, if someone dared hijack a plane I was on, I would snap his or her neck, and feel no guilt over it. Then, I would put all those flight lessons to use and land the plane myself. Did I say I hate planes?
Mr. Happy Java Man: Very, very interesting. I still think I can do better, especially if I haven't slept in over 3 days. The Blair Witch a.k.a. The Ugly Ass Yeti That Couldn't Get Laid is the result of watching the Blair Witch project in the middle of winter with my friends after drinking a case of coke. That same night we watched The Ring, and thus formed The Bitch From The Well. Periwinkle? You know you just insulted the color blue, right? Oh! I also fell into Wonder Land with Alice. After she left I wandered around a bit, and watched all the mad people run around. 10 years later Alice fell back into Wonder Land after having her parents killed in a fire. By then the Ugly Queen of Hearts From The Hell of Rose Red had taken over. I assisted Alice as she ran around killing people, in the form of the Cheshire cat. (See 'American McGee's Alice' for details') I know, I'm very strange, but one tends to go a little insane when they've been alive for . . . hold on a second . . . 1423 years. Damn, when did I get to be that old? And that was just may age in this universe. I feel really, really old now . . .
Iced Flame: What are you talking about? All of my characters are kick ass, well, not all of them but you get the idea.
Athenakitty: Yes, no and no.
TheAlphieParadox: Oops. My bad. Yeah, I meant snickers. Another thing to add to my log list of stuff to revise in this story.
Kagome's arrow: Thanks. James is the way he is because I REALLY can't stand those 'all powerful' Harry stories. No one is invincible, though James will eventually become damn close. I can only say one thing about Snape. He's a bastard. He's one of my favorite characters, but he is still a bastard. I think I'll just leave it at that.
Gaul 1: Kat saw James like a brother before Snape adopted her, so it didn't really change anything. As is Kat has nothing to do with Sara and Holly, and I don't think that will change.
Insanechildfanfic: I don't know yet. I may do a couple of different thinks. With in the next 10 to 12 chapters, it think, the whole thing about James's parentage will break right open. Other than that I'm more or less writing as I go.
Sinner & saint: Yeah, it may be a little unrealistic, but you have to take into account that James saw both of his foster parents murdered and Triss was abused. I can say that this would give them a higher mind set than most. Plus, James and Triss aren't human either. They were also taught not to act like children, because of the power they had. If they acted like children they would end up trying to show off and eventually hurting themselves or others. But, you do have a point.
SilverHuntress: Thanks.