Chapter 28: I Spill The Beans

(James)

I tapped my foot nervously against the floor. This was the second time I was in this stupid waiting room and it was driving me insane. If I hadn't been handcuffed to the table I would've gotten up and paced.

Finally after what seemed like hours- and very well could've been- someone opened the door.

"Am I free to go?" I demanded.

The guy pressed his lips together in a thin line. A girl burst in after him. "Free to go?!" she repeated incredulous. "Free to go?! You killed an innocent child?"

"She wasn't innocent!" I shouted for what must've been the millionth time. "Why do you think me and my brother were down there? Why so you think my cousin was gagged and tied to chair?!"

"We haven't figured that out yet," the guy said giving the girl a reprimanding look. "We don't know anything yet."

"Except that this kid is dangerous!" the girl argued. "What we know is that he used an unforgivable curse! Which in case you couldn't tell by the name is unforgivable!"

"Leave!" the boy barked at the girl. They glared at each other for a while, eventually she huffed and left the room slamming the door.

"I'm sorry about her," he said glancing at the door. "Now, how about-"

"How about you stop the whole good cop/bad cop act because I'm not falling for it."

"James, we would never-"

"Cut the bullshit. I like to take pride in calling myself a lie detector. There's signs. Like a lot of people shift there's eyes to the left. Or they don't make eye contact." Not until I said that did the Auror, or whatever he was, look straight at me. "People fidget. And there voice sometimes goes higher. Just slightly, but it's noticeable." The Auror cleared his throat. "Most of which you're doing." I leaned towards him, as far as the handcuffs would let me. "Don't try and trick the trickster."

The Auror lost all friendliness almost immediately. I admit he was slightly scary looking. He had a bald head, what seemed to be a permanent frown and cold blue eyes that sent a shiver own my spine. "Fine. We don't have to play Mr. Nice Guy. Tell me exactly what happened that night and I'll consider not arresting you."

"You've already arrested me," I pointed out gesturing to the handcuffs.

This guy seemed to have zero sense of humor. And zero patience. "I'll consider not sending you to Azkaban."

Perhaps that should've scared me- no, not perhaps, that should've definitely terrified me. It did terrify me the last time I was threatened with a sentence in Azkaban. Now it seemed like less of a big deal. I mean, after everything I'd done I deserved it. If I was there I couldn't hurt my family anymore.

"You're not going to believe me if I tell you the story," I muttered, trying to force back tears.

I wasn't sure if he saw the tears in my eyes or maybe he just heard the pathetic tone of my voice, but either way he softened, just slightly. "James, I'm trying to help you. Just tell me what happened."

And so I told him the story. Everything. I mean after all what did I have to hide anymore? What did I have to lose?

I told him about Code. How he blamed me for the death of his sister. How he'd been planning his revenge for years. Then I told him about Melissa and how she was actually Megan Carrow. I told him how she manipulated me, most likely using the Persuasive Potion. I told him about how Claire and Code had wanted the Elder Wand and since Hugo was master they'd planned to kill him. I told him how Albus and I had showed up instead. And how Claire mercilessly tried to kill me and I survived. I wasn't even sure how that "miracle" happened, but I wish it didn't. Then how she moved on and tried to kill my cousins. And how I knew she would've killed Albus next.

"Why'd you use the killing curse- or are you going to deny it?"

Even if I had wanted to lie I wouldn't have been able to. Nicholas Stonewell, the Minister himself, had heard the words and saw the jet of green light explode from my wand. However, I didn't want to anyway. For what might've been the first time in my life I didn't want to lie or twist the truth to get out of trouble. I just wanted to take my punishment. I deserved it.

"Because my family was in danger. Claire had a mission. She wanted to kill Hugo so her or her brother could be master of the Elder Wand. Yet, she tried to kill me and she killed Lucy and Frank for no reason at all. I knew my little brother would be next. I knew Hugo would come soon after that. And my sister too, probably from trying to protect him." I let out a long sigh. "What else could I have done?"

I don't know at what point he stopped believing my story. Maybe it was when I claimed that the twelve year old girl was a psychopath. Maybe it was when I said she had used the Elder Wand (apparently it wasn't common knowledge that muggles and squibs can use it too). Maybe it was when I claimed that said psychopath was dating a thirteen year old possible sociopath who lived alone and gave great advice and may or may not have had to anything to do with what happened. It didn't matter really. The look on his face clearly said that he didn't believe me and there was no way I'd be able to convince him.

He stood up silently, making to leave the room. I smiled a little. "I told you wouldn't believe me."

He gave me one hard look before shutting the door.

A little later they allowed a visitor. Either that or Alice snuck in herself. I didn't really care. She wiped away tears and ran to hug me once she entered the room. I would've hugged her back if my hands still weren't cuffed.

"Jamie," she half sobbed.

I tried to smile, but I'm not so sure it worked. "I'm okay."

She smacked my head although it was light and weak. "Don't you lie to me! You are far from okay."

I ignored her. "How's Frank?"

"Both him and Lucy are doing okay. They're going to be fine. But the question is are you going to be okay?"

I tried to gather the energy to brush off her question again but I couldn't muster it. I was so exhausted. So tired of pretending. It was just me and Alice here- and maybe some cameras- I really didn't have anything to hide anymore.

So maybe for the first time, out of the hundreds of times I'd answered this question, I shook my head and said, "No."

I never really understood how tears worked. Why did they come when you were only really sad or really happy? Why not when you were sort of sad or sort of happy? The only answer I could ever come up with was that there was just a point where your body had to let loose. When there was so much emotion bottled up in you that expressing it on your face or with gestures wasn't enough. You needed tears to express it.

But now I realised that wasn't the case at all. There was a point where you were just so sad you couldn't handle it anymore. Where you physically couldn't express it, not even with tears. Where you were so sad it just ate away at you. There was no way to explain it really, no way to even show it to the extent that you felt it.

That was how I felt right now. It was an awful, terrible helpless type of feeling. And there was no way to fix it.

"James, everyone's working on it. Your Aunts and Uncles, me and Fred," Alice insisted. "No one's going to let you go to Azkaban. I promise."

I smiled sadly. "That's the thing though Alice. I… I'm… I just can't. I can't do this anymore. I can't keep fighting anymore. It's killing me. It's eating away at my insides and there's no way to stop it! I might as well go to Azkaban so I don't let it affect you and Albus and Lily and everyone I care about."

"Don't talk like that Jamie." I think she meant it to come out sharp but it seemed more begging to me. "Please, Jamie, you can't say that. Albus needs you. Lily needs you. I need you."

I just nodded. "I need you too. I need you alive. And if that means I can't be with you than I'll just have to accept that. And so will you."

Alice opened her mouth to protest but then she closed it. She knew me so well it sort of shocked me. She gave me a knowing nod.

She didn't leave quite yet and I was glad. Though we spoke no more she stayed for another hour. We just sat together in silence. We leaned against each other, breathing softly. She enjoyed my company for the last time, while I enjoyed company in general for the last time. For all I knew I could be off to Azkaban today. But I didn't think of that. Don't regret the past, don't fear the future, live in the present. And I did just that.

(Albus)

"What kind of relationship do you have with your brother?" asked the Auror sitting in front of me.

I was scared. I was terrified actually. About five seconds after James cast the killing curse they hauled us all to the Ministry. They wanted to interview everyone in the family. It pained me that my immediate family only including Lily and James now. Mum and Dad would never be back. They wouldn't be able to vouch for James and say what a good kid he truly was.

Apparently while the kids were at Hogwarts a bunch of paper work had been done and now Grandma Weasley was the official guardian of me, Lily and Roxanne. Fred and James too, I guess, although since they were of age they didn't really need guardians. Somehow miraculously they managed to re-do the Burrow. Grandma Weasley had told me all this in a letter, but I hadn't gotten the chance to talk to her in person, yet.

No, instead of seeing my family I'd been dragged here to answer a bunch of stupid question about James. They were waiting for me to screw up. Waiting for me to say something that would send my brother to Azkaban. I was determined not to let them pick anything from my answers. I was trying to be a vague as possible.

"Albus," said the woman.

"Oh, uh, what was the question?"

"What kind of relationship do you have with James?" she repeated.

"Oh, a good one."

She waited a second for me to go on and when I didn't she added, "Could you elaborate?"

I knew what she was waiting for. I knew she wanted me to say something about how James and I fought a lot, about how he was a violent kid and then they'd ship him off to Azkaban.

"He's a good brother. We hang out quite a bit. Play Quidditch. Stuff like that."

"Does he ever get too violent when you play? Or otherwise?"

"He's not a bad person!" I shouted, standing up and punching my fit against the table. The tears welled up in my eyes. "He would never do anything to hurt someone who didn't deserve it! He doesn't deserve to go to Azkaban!"

The tears flowed for a minute or so. The girl waited awkwardly. She seemed to be thinking of trying to comfort me, but wasn't sure if it was a good idea. I wished she would just leave me alone.

I sniffled a little and wiped the tears off my face. This girl didn't need to see me cry. I shouldn't be crying anyway. I was almost fifteen.

"Albus, if your brother is dangerous-"

"He's not dangerous!" I shouted. "He just panicked! He did it to save me, okay? He did it to save me and Lils and Hugo and Frank and Lucy-"

"Okay, okay, okay," the girl was saying.

I ignored her. "You think he's some sort of monster? You think he'd just go around preforming unforgivable curses? It's not like that! It wasn't his fault!"

"Okay, I think that's enough," she said taking my hands in hers.

To mine and Lily's annoyance we were sent back to school. We were bombarded by questions of what happened and I was getting sick of it. Scorpius was acting like my body guard snapping at any kids who even came near me at meals or in class. Otherwise I just stayed in the dormitory.

I'm sure everything that happened would've made the Hogwarts News but Jace, Dylan and the Scamander twins had successfully proved Melissa to be the writer. She disappeared late that week. I wasn't sure if it was because she got expelled, or if she ran or if they brought her to the Ministry to question her. I hoped it was the latter though. But somehow with our luck I doubted it.

Exams happened. I knew these would be the worst set of exams in all my years at Hogwarts. I just wasn't able to focus on anything properly. Dark thoughts about Code and Claire and James and what he'd done clouded my thoughts.

I couldn't seem to formulate an opinion on my brother and what he did. I knew I didn't believe he belonged in Azkaban. I knew I still loved him. But that was about it.

He'd cast an unforgivable curse. He used an Unforgivable Curse where he easily could've used a body bind curse. Or no spell at all seeing as I had already stunned then. I kept trying to put myself in his shoes, but I was practically in his shoes. We were in the same situation. I had chosen to stun Claire and Code, no matter how much I wanted to kill them. James had chosen to end a life. A little girl's life.

What did that say about him? His first instinct was to kill. Why? Or was it not his first instinct, had he taken the time to think about it first? I wasn't sure which option disturbed me less.

These were the exact type of things I was thinking when Grandma Weasley picked us up in a Muggle car and informed us James was home. He got out on bail and was under house arrest until the trial, provided there was an Auror stationed at the house at all times.

I should've been happy for my brother, I suppose. Should've been happy he had two weeks before the trial to be free. But honestly I was just scared. Scared of who he was now. Scared I'd lost him.

And the more I thought about it the more I realised I'd failed when I'd tried to save everyone. They may not have died but I hadn't saved them. Lucy and Frank would be okay physically, but they would never be the same. They'd lost their childhood and there was no way I could get that back for them. And James… I wasn't sure if it was that night, or the night of the fire, or maybe long before that when he lost himself. But the old James was gone. My brother was replaced by… by a stranger. And I wasn't sure if I could face him.

The car ride went by all too quickly. We were home in what felt like a blink of the eye. Luckily it was Fred who barged into the room him and James shared at the Burrow and demanded to talk. And then it was Lily. In fact James didn't seem to want to talk to me at all. It was two days before my brother approached me.

There was a knock on my door. I knew that knock. I took a deep breath before saying, "Come in."

My brother appeared in the doorway. He looked different. In a voice so quiet and so… unconfident that there was no way it could belong to my brother he said, "Al, can I talk to you?"

I wasn't sure if said yes because I felt like I had to or because I wanted to talk to my brother. Either way I found myself nodding.

James came in and sat on the bed across from me. He didn't say anything for a minute. I took the time to marvel over the fact that he was here. James Potter. He killed someone, using an unforgivable curse, and wasn't in Azkaban. He still could go, but it was amazing that he had these two weeks. Only James Potter could talk himself out of a situation like that.

"I didn't," James muttered, and only then did I notice he was reading my mind. I blocked him out, only because I didn't want him seeing the thoughts I was thinking about him using the killing curse. "I didn't talk my way out. They had a trial because its protocol but it was decided anyway- I'm expelled from Hogwarts. They let me do my exams here though, so I've officially finished my sixth year."

Somehow I couldn't wrap my head around that. James not at Hogwarts next year. No pranks. No seeing him in the Common Room. No running into him in the halls. No Quidditch with James as the captain.

James smiled sadly. "Its okay, Al. Anyway… I guess all our Uncles and Aunts put their money together to pay my bail. The bail wasn't even that much because they didn't even have a body-"

"What do you mean didn't have a body?" I interrupted.

"No one told you? They never found Claire's body. Her and Ryan disappeared."

"So they can't charge you!" I exclaimed. If there was no body than James might not have murdered Claire. And if he might not of murdered Claire than I could focus on that. If there was no proof she was dead then maybe I could forget that nasty curse ever left my brother's mouth. "There's no proof you killed anyone!"

James put a hand on my shoulder. The fact that he had already accepted all this made me feel uneasy. "It doesn't matter. They heard me use an unforgivable curse. They saw the jet of green light." His voice dropped. "I'm going to Azkaban, Al."

"That not decided yet!" I argued.

"Yes, it is."

"Why are you giving up?" I demanded. "Who are you? The James I know would never say these things!"

"The James you know would never cast an unforgivable curse."

"The James I know would do anything to protect his family," I shot back. "And that's exactly what you did!" In my brain I couldn't stop blaming him. Perhaps that made me a hypocrite because I couldn't stand James saying the very things I was thinking out loud.

James shook his head. "You don't understand, Al. You'll never understand how much I meant it. How much I liked it."

I was rendered silent for a second before asking, "What does that mean?"

"Doesn't matter." James shook his head. "I only wanted to talk to you to let you know you did everything right. You managed to save Lucy and Frank- which I couldn't do. And if I hadn't interfered you might've even be able to catch the Codes."

I wanted to argue that James hadn't been completely useless, but I knew he wouldn't listen. I couldn't help but beam with pride as James complimented me. I didn't know the last time I felt like I did something right.

"You're a good kid, Al. You really are."

"Stop talking like your leaving me." I had meant it to come out as a yell, but it came out quiet. Begging.

James hugged me. And it wasn't a quick squeeze and let go. It was a long, never let go type of hug. We clung to each other for I don't know how long. I just knew I never wanted to let go because when I did that would be it. James would be gone. This, sadly, was the last brotherly moment we'd have together.

"Don't give up, James," I said quietly, unsure if my brother could even hear me.

And then, the old James came back, not for long, but for long enough to reassure me. "Oh, Al, when have you ever known me to give up?"

A/N: Well, that's all folks! End of the book. 142,241 words, 598 pages later and here we are!

1: If you have any questions at all please feel free to ask. Either in a review or a PM.

2: I want to give a big thanks first to J.K. Rowling for making this amazing series and these amazing characters. I mean, only Jacob, Code, Claire and Marlo are mine. The rest belongs to the Queen. I'd also like to thank the makers of Fanfiction. This site was a seriously awesome idea. I would also like to thank some of my loyal reviewers Sir Manayaz and Son of Whitebeard. Also a shout out to all reviewers, including the guests! You guys make me want to write! :) Most of all though I'd like to thank Colin Creevy. You've helped me so much with this series and have inspired me with yours. You're an awesome writer with awesome ideas and honestly I've learned a lot from you.

3: QotC: 1: Who are your top three-five favorite and top three-five least favorite now? I'm sure it's changed since the last time I asked. 2: What has been your favorite chapter or scene in this series? Also your favorite book so far?

4: Book five will be uploaded in October. Between October 1st- October 7th. If it's not, which I'm 85% sure it will be, I'll post an A/N saying when you can expect it.

"There is no innocent party in war," Vernard Eller, War and Peace.

What will become of James? Will he be sent to Azkaban? If he is how will the rest of the family hold up? What happened to Claire and Code? Is Claire really dead? What is Code up to? What are their plans? Will Albus be able to come to peace with James' use of the killing curse? Will James? Will their relationship ever be the same? Has James given up? Will he ever be the same?

-Monkeywoman14