Chappie 37- Back to
School
James sat bolt upright in bed, listening to the conversation outside his room. It was August 31, one day until they left on the Hogwarts Express. James was still in plenty of pain, and had not received a reply from Dumbledore to Sirius’ letter. James was getting very worried; if Dumbledore didn’t respond, how was he actually physically going to take the train? He was still extremely bruised, and in desperate need of a mediwitch. There were several people speaking about him outside his room…he recognized three of the five voices. One was Mrs. Black, another was Sirius, and the last was, of course, Lily. They other two…seemed far away. One was almost urgent, and sounded desperate to see James. The other was very frazzled and confused. James decided that sorting out the voices was taking a bit too much of his time, and called out, or attempted to, with the bandages in his mouth, “Come in!”
Lily poked her head in the door and asked, “Did we wake you, hon?”
“No,” he replied simply.
“Oh, okay…we’ll be in here in just a minute.” Lily turned back to the corridor, apparently telling the people outside to just come in, and that James was wide awake.
There was a loud scuffling of feet, and five people entered his room. James reached over and grabbed his glasses; he may be able to recognize Lily without them because of her flaming red hair, but he needed them to see just about anyone else. The five in his room were Madam Pomfrey, the new nurse, Albus Dumbledore himself, Sirius, Lily, and Mrs. Black.
“Oh, the poor dear! Lie back, we’ll get you all healed up!” the nurse cooed as the shushed a rather flustered James.
“James, I’m very sorry about all the tragedy you’ve gone through this summer,” Dumbledore began, walking to the boy’s bedside, “I hope that you want to join us back at Hogwarts, it would be very lonely without you.”
James just nodded, trying not to choke as Madam Pomfrey stuck a tongue depressor in his mouth to make him open. “Agh, gek ik ouk!” he choked.
Madam Pomfrey gave him a stern look, but took the depressor out, and went about healing his mouth’s many wounds.
The headmaster continued, “You have made the honor of prefect, and I have heard from young Mister Black here that you plan on upholding that honor in person. I will make sure you are physically healed, but what I ask of you is that you try to heal emotionally. That’s the hardest part, my boy, the wounds scarred on your soul. Getting rid of those takes time, effort, perseverance, but most of all, love. Do you understand what I mean?”
At this, James nodded, and found that thanks to Madam Pomfrey, he could speak again. There wasn’t a bloody taste in his mouth anymore…all the blood was gone…the scars…gone.
“Thanks, Madam Pomfrey,” he said with a small smile. She returned the gesture and began tending to the scratches and bruises on his head and neck.
Professor Dumbledore smiled down at James, the professor’s bright blue eyes dancing behind his half-moon spectacles. “I think you’ll be just fine, James. You’re strong, determined, and I think you’ll pull through just fine.”
At this, Dumbledore got up to leave, but turned once he reached the doorway. “Here’s your ticket, I’ll give it to Lily. I assume all of his school things are bought and taken care of,” he said, looking at Lily and Sirius, who both nodded.
“And James,” the headmaster added while standing in the doorway.
“Yes?” he asked from his bed.
“Guess who the new Gryffindor Quidditch captain is?”
James jaw dropped. “B-but, no…Charli’s a seventh year, shouldn’t she be the captain?!”
“Actually, no. Charli has wonderful flying skills, but I know no better leader than yourself,” and with that, Dumbledore swooped out of the room. Lily and Sirius beamed huge, proud smiles at James, who was laughing giddily while Madam Pomfrey mended the wounds on his back.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
The next day, September 1st, Lily awoke at about six in the morning, and thought she was up early. Well, she was, but not compared to James. Upon finding out that he was the new captain, and after all of his wounds had finally been mended, he became obsessive on designing new plays. He kept muttering to himself, “We’re going to win, we’re going to win.” It was rather annoying.
Lily went to check on James, and was not remotely surprised to discover that he had been up since 4:30 that morning, and had playbooks spread all over his room.
“James…honey…” Lily said, walking over to the bed. (B/A/N- that rhymed! Heehee! Sorry.)
“Hmm?” he asked, finally looking up from the play he was designing in crayon. (He couldn’t find his quill, and this room normally belonged to one of Sirius’ little sisters)
“It’s really early, why don’t you just pack the playbooks, and we’ll work on the plays together on the Express. Come on, you know you’ll win, the team is the best it’s ever been.”
“But we lost one of our Chasers this year, Clyde Jones, he graduated. I’m screwed! Not to mention Jacob Preston, our old captain and keeper. He’s irreplaceable! What am I supposed to do, Lil?”
Lily smiled, and replied, “Everything will work out, honey. Don’t worry about it. You’ll hold tryouts, and I know you’ll come out with an awesome team. You’ll pull out of this smelling like a rose, you always do.” Lily said the last part with a big smile, and gave James a hug. It was so nice to be able to hold her boyfriend again and not worry about crushing him!
“Tell ya what,” Lily said with a glint in her eye. “We’ll go down and make breakfast, have a nice, leisurely last morning of vacation, make sure everything’s packed, take showers, and then, only then, can you bring out the playbooks. Understand?”
James nodded with a smile and kissed Lily lightly. “Good morning, sunshine.”
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
James nervously paced the Blacks’
living room, it was
Twenty minutes later, one found broomstick
later (it was in the shower…don’t ask), and one car ride later, all three of
our favorite fifth years were at King’s Cross Station. It was exactly
Sirius, Lily could tell, still felt very guilty about breaking up with Emia in the first place. Lily was pretty sure that Sirius missed Emia; she could see it in his eyes. He regretted breaking up with the girl in the first place…but it was too late now. Lily knew full well that Emia would slap him into next week if he suggested another relationship. Yet, Lily had seen them at the ball…they had not taken their eyes off one another (thinking that nobody would notice because of their masks)…and Lily knew that they both secretly wanted to give it another go. But whether it was Emia’s resentment or Sirius’ pride that was keeping them apart, they would stay apart.
Lily hopped onto the Express, holding James’ hand gently. “James, honey, do you want to sit up with prefects?”
James shook his head no, he hadn’t seen Remus or Peter all summer and was dying to catch up a bit. “I’ll catch up with you later, Lily-kins. I have to catch up with Remus and Peter quickly…and I’m pretty sure we can’t all share a compartment because of the Emia and Sirius thing…” he said, his voice trailing off a bit at the end.
“Yes, you’re right. I’ll talk to you later, okay? I’ll go find Avia and Emia and see what they’re up to,” Lily said, before James leaned over to give her a quick kiss goodbye.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Lily found Avia reading in the same compartment as Peter and Remus, and figured Avia probably didn’t want to be bothered. Lily wondered, however, where James was, because he wasn’t here with Remus and Peter. “Oh well,” she said to herself. “I should probably report to the prefects’ compartment, if only for a little while.”
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
James had been walking down the Express, carefully checking compartments for Peter and Remus. “Where are they?” he asked himself.
He happened upon a compartment with Remus, Peter and Avia. “Hey guys,” he said, sitting down quietly.
“How ARE you?” Avia said, her bright blue eyes getting as round as saucers. She was holding Remus’ hand, and Remus seemed to squeeze her hand right then, as if warning her not to go any further.
“Fine,” James said shortly.
Peter looked over at James and said, “You don’t look fine, man…you look tired…bit bruised.”
“I’m FINE!” James yelled, standing up.
Remus looked at James meaningfully for about two seconds, and James visibly relaxed. “James, it’s okay. You know we’re not deliberately trying to hurt you…we just want to help.”
“Well, thanks, but I don’t need any help,” and with that, James swooped out of the compartment, presumably going up to the prefects’ compartment to talk to Lily.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Sirius, meanwhile, was not having as easy a time as Lily or James.
“So, Emie…how’s your summer been?” Sirius asked uncomfortably, shifting from foot to foot.
“Don’t play innocent and friendly with me, Sirius Oligoppo Black! Just because you didn’t miss ME at all during summer doesn’t mean I had an easy time, too!”
“But, I didn’t mean…”
“Yes, you did!”
“But-”
“BUT NO!”
“B-” Sirius began, desperate to get a bloody word in during Emia’s tyrannical rant.
“NO! You don’t get to talk! Understand?”
Sirius nodded meekly, and felt the train give a jolt. Emia had been lecturing him since she had cornered him ten minutes earlier on the Hogwarts Express, but now the train seemed to be…stopping.
“What’s wrong with the train?” Sirius asked quietly.
“I dunno. But that’s no excuse for your actions! Don’t think I won’t come back to this once we check out what’s wrong!” Emia yelled angrily. She was going to get Sirius Oligoppo Black out of her system once and for all. But first, she wanted to know why the bloody train had quit moving.
Emia jogged quickly to the Marauders’ compartment, Sirius on her tail, and discovered it was practically empty except for Remus, Peter and Avia.
“Lily! Where’s Lily?!” she asked her twin who was deeply absorbed in the new October 1974 issue of Teen Witch Monthly.
“I dunno. I’m not her keeper…but as far as I know, she and James are doing their prefect-ly duty of attending to frightened first years…maybe they’re in the prefect’s compartment or something. Or maybe they’re just using it as a cover for snogging,” Avia said sarcastically. Avia was exhausted, and at the moment, she didn’t really care how many people she was pissing off.
“Fine, I’ll go look, honestly, you’re no help at all.”
“Glad to be of so much service!” Avia retorted icily, going back to the article: “Magical Eye-shadow- Are You a Warm or Cool?”
Emia stomped up the train, straight to the prefects’ compartment. There were people swarming the corridors, everyone was curious to see what was causing the great commotion. Emia was really surprised that McGonagall hadn’t simply announced the problem over the train’s loudspeaker system.
“James! Lily! Where are you?!” Emia yelled angrily. She heard a muffled response on the other side of the compartment door. Emia swung open the door and was rather surprised at what she saw: James was tied and rolling around on the floor with a gag in his mouth, Lily was extremely scared, and backing against the wall of the compartment, while some…creature…maybe it was a person…was creeping up in front of her. Emia was extremely buggered off, she didn’t CARE if this creature was dangerous, she didn’t CARE if she would get hurt, and she just wanted to inflict extreme PAIN on something.
Emia stomped to the side of the compartment, and kicked the creature in the head. “Ten points!” Sirius yelled from the doorway.
“Make yourself useful, Siri! Untie James!” Emia managed in between kicks and punches at the creature. The creature was fighting back; it was white, flowy…and was pummeling Emia in the stomach. Sirius got extremely angry at seeing Emia treated this way, and joined in on beating up the creature. The now-untied James and a shocked Lily were just watching on the sidelines as their best friends beat this horrendous creature. The creature finally collapsed, falling to the floor with a rather dramatic “woosh!”. (B/A/N-Think Ganondorf after you kick his ass in Ocarina of Time)
“Let’s see what…or who…this is,” Lily said, obviously getting her bravery back. She walked up to the foul creature, and took off the sheet.
It was a Death Eater…Lily didn’t recognize exactly who he was, but whoever it was just had the beating of a lifetime. “Does anyone recognize him?” Lily asked simply, holding up his hood.
James shook his head, there really weren’t any family members of his left to be Death Eaters, he thought bitterly.
Sirius shook his head.
Emia fainted.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
B/A/N- Heheh. I’m evil. Now you have to wait
till next chapter to find out the password AND why Emia fainted! Woohoo! I’m so
MEAN!