Following the dramatic crash at Silverstone in the 2022 British Grand Prix, James "Jimmy" Potter needs to talk to someone... someone close to him.
A/N - This follows on from the events of the previous 3 chapters. As is usual for this series, I've changed some of the events of various races/F1 & F2 seasons...
"Max Verstappen already into Abbey, takes the lead. And Carlos Sainz… and at the back… that's George Russell out of this race!" David Croft announced to the TV audience. "Its not just George Russell, as we've got a red flag which is going to make racing redundant. It looks like the car that went upside down through the gravel is…
"I think it was Jimmy Potter who was also involved with this."
"We saw George Russell going across the gravel. Jimmy Potter involved, and also down there, Alex Albon in the Williams"
Sadness.
That's what James "Jimmy" Sirius Potter felt, his chances of being able to impress the fans at Silverstone having gone in tatters on the first turn when an accident caused him to get stuck between the fences.
Worry.
He had felt as he had been in his car, knowing the marshals and the extraction team were doing their best to get him out.
Relief.
When he finally managed to get out of the car. When his family had come to see him in the course medical facility. When Dr Ian Roberts, the chief medical officer, had declared that he was able to leave.
Fear.
Despite having had a couple of what in reality was minor bumps in his fledgling Formula 1 career, ones enough to retire the car (and make him need a clean pair of underwear, Al would say jokingly), he was scared.
Laying in his bedroom, he remembered how the Mercedes-Benz driver who he had had contact with, George Russell, had come to see him before he was released, how George had tried to apologise, and what he had said back.
"It was an accident. Pure and simple, there's no need to apologise. I'm alright"
But Jimmy Potter knew he wasn't alright. Not 100%.
He had seen the posts on social media, people sharing the television footage of the first lap incident, the contact from the Mercedes driver…
…the way he had ended up a passenger in his own car.
He knew that he had been scared about what had happened, about how the car had flipped upside down, about how it had got itself in the fence.
And he knew he needed to talk to someone.
Just like how Al had talked to someone after the accident that had ended his karting career. A drunk driver hitting his grandmother's car, the death of Emma Granger, how he had dislocated his shoulder, how he had a fear of being hit by another car.
It was lucky really that Al had only got away with only a shoulder injury which would plague him for the rest of his life, just like his dad had got away with only a scar in a similar accident.
Jimmy remembered how Al had sneaked down the stairs a few nights after that crash to talk to the one person he knew could relate to the situation.
And James knew he needed to do the same.
He had to talk to his dad. But he needed to do it when his siblings were asleep, knowing then that he would have his dad's full attention.
Nineteen years earlier…
Harry Potter was lying on the bed at his home in Brackley, Northamptonshire where he lived with his wife, Hermione, and his son, one year old James.
It had been a hectic weekend in Brazil, with Hermione having been unable to travel with him, ending up with the shock of the events of the two days ago playing on his mind. How, during a very dramatic race, he had crashed into the wreckage of his teammate's car, causing a red flag and the end of the race.
Despite having had an interesting first two seasons as part of the BAR team, he had found himself at the end of his second season without a race seat for the 2002 season.
With he and his wife, Hermione, not long having had their first child, he had found himself ending up as a test and reserve driver for the Milton Keynes based Jaguar team.
Fortunately, he had been in luck, as midway through the season, Eddie Irvine had announced that he was going to retire, and the team management had decided that they had wanted him to fill the seat for the next season. It would be a few weeks after signing the one-year contract that he found out who his teammate would be.
Minardi driver Mark Webber.
He had been tentative to take the seat at first because of having become a father a few months prior, but after talking to Hermione, and his parents, James and Lily Potter, he had agreed that he needed to take the chance.
And he had signed the contract, with his bosses at Jaguar knowing that it was a choice between Harry, who was willing to race for them and had proven himself in his first two seasons of his career, or Antônio Pizzonia, an International Formula 3000 driver who had eventually come eighth in the 2002 season, and was a relative unknown from their own Junior team.
His first two races of that season, teaming with Webber, had resulted in two retirements, but with Mark qualifying third and him joining Jos Verstappen, Heinz-Harold Frentzen and Ralph Firman by starting the race in the pit lane in Brazil, he had known that the race would be interesting.
But not for the reasons he had been expecting.
It had been raining all morning, and with the start of the race having had been delayed, it was only lap 53 of the Brazilian Grand Prix.
There had been a spate of retirements, and subsequent safety cars, mostly because of water on the Curva du Sol, a section of track where there was a slope onto it, causing the rainwater to cascade onto the track.
Harry had joined his fellow "Pit Lane Starters" in pitting not long after the start of the race, in order to not have to pit later on, whilst the safety car was out on the track. A couple of laps after he had made his pit stop, the safety car gone back into the pits.
By lap 14, Nick Heidfield had retired with a oil feed problem, Juan Pablo Montoya had lost tyre grip in one part of the track, and Harry had managed to managed to get to 15th, having passed Jos Verstappen a few laps previous.
Lap 20 approached, and Harry had made a second stop, taking advantage of the safety car, which had come out following a collision between Oliver Panis and Ralph Firman, leaving a large amount of debris across the track.
Fortunately, the rain that had been blighting the track had stopped, but that didn't help Justin Wilson, as he had spun out on the Curva du Sol, aquaplaning through the stream of water that was on that curve.
Lap 27, and a third outing for the safety car, as Montoya, Fernando Alonso and Michael Schumacher had all crashed out on the same section of track.
Harry remembered how he called out on the radio, calling out in shock that they should have red flagged the race, one car having gone into another, and then a third car only just missing the recovery efforts.
But at the time, he didn't realise that worse was yet to come in the race.
Turning over, he saw Hermione was awake next to him, those chestnut brown eyes looking into his. And he cried.
Present day…
Harry walked downstairs, having had a restless night. Watching the screens in the Alfa Romeo garage earlier that day, he saw Jimmy have a good start, then Pierre Gasly having contact with George Russell, causing Jimmy to get hit by Russell.
He had seen Al's face as his middle son had been on the team radio to Valtteri Bottas, the worry about his older brother, and knowing that he had a job to do. Al's boss, Frédéric Vasseur, had offered to let him go and be with his family, but Al wanted to do his job.
He remembered how Athena had come down from the commentary booth where she had been commentating with David Croft on the 'International Feed', and how she had told him that her boss had quietly pulled her away from the microphone, having seen the crash from out of the window of that faced Abbey.
"I knew something would happen at the start, it does every year, but I didn't expect what happened to Jimmy. I… I thought it'd be small bump, probably something like the couple he's had this year, a trip to the pits for some repairs, but not this." Athena had said, as the two Potters sat on the floor at the back of the garages, not long after the race had ended. "I bet Al was worried when it happened?"
"He was Athy." Harry said, hugging his younger sibling. "Rosie and Hugo wanted to stay in the garage and wait with their new friend for news, and Alison… well… the squirt has managed to calm her down by being declared as ok and saying that he loved her."
"I just hope they can stay the course, you know." Athena said, watching how busy the area outside was, "I have a feeling she's going to be his Hermione, sticking by him through thick and thin."
Quietly chuckling at the memory of how Athena had made him go red by mentioning Hermione, he looked at the photo on the wall above the fire. Him and Hermione, his mum and dad, Athena, Jimmy, Al, Rose, Hugo and his godfather, Sirius Black, taken at the 2005 British Grand Prix.
That weekend had been great, Harry remembered. He had had a bit of luck, getting on the podium, his first in ages, but not the winning step which had been occupied by his sister. He remembered how Martin Brundle, or "Marty" as he called the man who was his sister's godfather (He had to confess that because of that, the kids ended up calling him "Uncle Marty"), had said on the grid interview with him that he was hoping to see an interesting race between the two Potters.
"It's good even be able to race against my sister you know," he had replied, a smile on his face. "Athena is really talented, and I have a feeling that she's going to get the title this season. Although really, she only wants it because I got it last year!"
Both Harry and Martin had chuckled at that comment, with Hermione, who had been standing next to Harry, trying hard to keep a straight face. Jokingly smacking Harry, he reached for where she had tapped, acting as though she had caused him an injury.
"'Mione!" he exclaimed, "We are on telly you know!"
Martin had turned to the camera as Harry pretended to look hurt and smiled "It's always great to see Harry and his wife here on the grid at Silverstone, just like his parents were when James Potter was on the grid."
He then turned back to Harry and shook his gloved hand. "Thanks Harry for that chat, it's always a pleasure to talk to you."
"Thanks Marty."
Looking at the photo, he saw the same intensity in his eldest's eyes this season that he had in his own back then.
Thinking of Jimmy (Sometimes his dad, the elder James Potter, would laugh at how there were two James Potters in three generations!), he had opted to drive him home, whilst Hermione drove Al, Rose and Hugo back in Jimmy's car.
Driving home, he could see how depressed his son was, and it reminded him about how he had ended up in hospital after the crash in Brazil.
Heading in the kitchen, he went to the mug tree to grab his "Best Dad Ever" mug (complete with an addition in permanent marker where Jimmy had crossed the word best out, and replaced it with "Fastest" instead.)
Putting the kettle on to do a mug of hot chocolate, he heard the door of the kitchen open.
"Dad?"
Jimmy heard the creaking step at the bottom of the staircase as someone had gone down the stairs. Having waited for his siblings to go to sleep, he decided that whoever had gone down the stairs was probably having a bad night sleep.
Grabbing his dressing gown, he decided to head downstairs to see who it was, and, if it was his dad, have a chat with him.
Looking at the walls of his childhood bedroom, a room where he spent the break between the end of the Formula 2 and the start of the Formula One season, the room where he had spent many good times as a kid, he saw the posters of various drivers on his wall, ones from his childhood, posters with drivers his father and his Red Bull teammate, Mark Webber, his aunt, and her then McLaren teammate, Lewis Hamilton, posters of Jenson Button, Jacques Villeneuve, Max Verstappen, and one that he remembered Al had brought at the start of the season as a 'gag gift'.
A poster featuring him in his Alfa Romeo race suit with a poster of his teammate, Valtteri Bottas, placed right next to it.
He remembered how Hugo, being the cheekiest of the Potter siblings, had been asked by Al to get it signed by the two drivers and Valtteri's reaction.
"Your veli is very funny." Valtteri had said to Jimmy, as he was in the motorhome that Alfa Romeo was using for the preseason testing that weekend. Hugo had just tried to lay on an expression as if butter wouldn't melt, an expression that he had used several times over the years to what had been usually positive results, unlike the other Potter children.
"Please, Mr Bottas, can you sign my brother's poster? Pretty please?" Hugo had said, smiling. Turning to Jimmy, he showed the same expression. "Can you sign Mr Bottas's, Mr Potter? Pretty please with a cherry on top?"
"Just like your täti. She used to make us all laugh at times when she acted innocently around here, but as soon as she got on the track, she was like your isä, serious, focused, and that provided results." Valtteri had said as Jimmy clipped his brother's ear.
"You little squirt" Jimmy had said to Hugo, smiling, "You know I'd sign the poster Al brought for our bedroom. I swear sometimes that he puts you up to this!"
Seeing Al was asleep, he opened the door to head downstairs, creeping past the door of Rose's perfectly ordered room, and the door of his youngest sibling, Hugo, who he could see was hiding underneath the duvet, no doubt scribbling down some notes for college. 'The little pain in the backside never gets his homework done on time, yet gets straight As.'
Walking down the stairs, he saw all the photographs that were on the wall. Photos of his parents at the 2000 British Grand Prix, the weekend they had first met, photos of various stages of his dad's career at British American Racing, his mom receiving her Law diploma, photos of the Potter couple with his Aunt, There was even photos of Aunt Athena in a McLaren suit and his dad in a Red Bull suits (although Jimmy would never admit to his dad that he preferred the Woking team over the Red Bulls at the time)
Carrying on, he saw the photos of him as a baby, then the twins, and finally Hugo. He saw his school photos, the photos of Al and Rose at school, Hugo at school and even, to embarrass him, his first school disco, when he was in year 6. There were photos of him and Al in karts, racing, ones of them in their karting suits, and even one on the day of his school Prom.
Trying to quietly tiptoe down the stairs, he almost fell over when he put his foot on the cat, who had decided to lay on the stairs.
"Crookshanks," he whispered to the ginger cat who had jumped up when he had accidentally stepped on. "Calm down."
Crookshanks climbed the stairs to do what Jimmy used to, a few years ago, call a "pawtrol", making sure that Al, Rose and Hugo were in bed and asleep, meowing quietly.
Trying to avoid the sound of the creaky step, he had to sit down on the stairs and slide down gently, reaching the bottom of the stairs. Heading through the living room, he saw the trophy cabinets, trophies from his dad's Formula One days, trophies from his and Al's karting days, and his own Formula 3 and Formula 2 trophies.
Seeing that there was a light on in the kitchen, he opened the door to see the person he was looking for.
"Dad?"