A/N: Okay, all of you readers! I'll be curt : I don't have anything to say to you except that this is my try at a 'James was never really dead!' fanfic. Please bear with me as my updates can be really slow because of upcoming exams and correct me if my grammer was incorrect (I'm not English.) and most importantly: REVIIEEWW! It helps to know people actually read what you bust your butt writing!
Disclaimer: If you ask me what that is, I might strangle you through the computer. Just read!
Here's chapter one coming right up!
Chapter 1: The Devastating Attack
Number 14, Godric's Hollow
James Potter playfully nibbled on his baby Harry's left ear, rousing the sweet, innocent giggle he so loved to hear. The 1 year old baby turned his head around to plant a small, wet kiss on his Daddy's chin, an action Lily Potter, his Mummy, was proud to teach him at such an early age.
Right then, she was sitting on the sofa at the far end of the living room next to the small library, going through books and notebooks to be labeled and stacked neatly away, being the tidy, tidy person she was.
James roused another baby laugh from Harry, by imitating monster noises, and attacking him - with kisses. Harry's face reddened with laughter and he started to gasp.
"James! Easy on him! He'll get awful hiccups!" Lily said.
Sure enough, a hiccup escaped Harry's throat as soon as James stopped.
"Happy, now?" Lily said, rolling her eyes and standing up to take Harry away for a cup of water.
"Come on, baby..." she said softly as she pushed the cup gently to his lips and he drank. James had followed into the kitchen, in hopes of grabbing Harry for a little more before his bedtime - which had passed about 10 minutes ago.
"Harry." James sang from behind the baby.
"Daddy!" Harry squealed happily and turned around to stretch his arms for Daddy to carry him.
"Oh, no Harry." Lily took a step back, and Harry cooed at the suddenly huge distance between him and James "You have to go nap-nap now, and Daddy knows it."
James put on the pleading face he knew Lily's heart melted in front of "But..but Lils, he's a junior Marauder! Marauders don't have a bedtime! They do whatever they want, whenever they want. Right, Pronglet?" He asked, smiling cheekily at Lily.
"Mawuda!" Harry agreed enthusiastically.
"Not in this house, they don't." Lily said in a Don't-Mess-With-The-Queen tone that didn't give the required effect as she couldn't hide her dazzling, white-toothed smile.
"Come on, James; You can have him all day tomorrow as soon as he wakes up. After all, you haven't been doing anything except that ever since we moved in here...and before that." she finished with an exasperated look, then kissed Harry's head, unable to resist the baby scent, and went on "Maybe when he's asleep, you'll remember that you have a wife living with you in the very same house."
James laughed at her remark and kissed her forehead as she went by him out of the kitchen.
Harry, who seemed to know that there's no escaping the nap-nap, he held out his tiny arms again and said "Goonai, Dada."
Lily allowed James to take Harry from her arms and kiss his nose "Goodnight, baby..."
A loud cracking sound filled the air around them and they froze, even Harry. Some of the lights in the house started blinking on and off and an icy breeze brushed past them, creeping into their very bones. Harry moaned. A faint sound of movement and wind through robes outside the door could be barely heard.
"James!-" Lily whispered, horrified, and grabbed his arm.
"Stay right here!" James ordered and strode in quiet, graceful steps towards the window next to the front door. With trembling fingers, he opened the orange curtains an inch apart and peered through - to stare right into cold, blood-red snake eyes smiling back at him in a way that made his blood run cold.
James gasped and staggered away from the window as if it had scorched him, clutching Harry tightly to his chest. Lily had then turned as pale as a sheet, and her brilliant emerald eyes were twice their size with fear. James ran over to her, thrust Harry into her arms and ran back to face the door, pulling his wand out and shouted: "Lily, take Harry and go! It's him! Go ! Run! I'll hold him off-"
He cast a locking spell on the door, but the person outside uttered a cruel, high-pitched laugh and removed the hex, only for James to replace it again :" Go NOW!"
"James, don't be crazy! You can't face him alone! I'll help y-"
"NO! Go now! Save yourself - save Harry!" he shouted at her, panicking "Put him in the crib and get to Dumbledore! Go!"
Her heard her heavy, frightened breaths cease away as she scrambled out of the living room and ran up the stairs. Just as she disappeared from sight, the front door of the house was blasted off its hinges. James dodged it as it went crashing into the wall and turned around to look at the most hideous creature he could ever imagine. A tall, thin man in pitch-black robes with a hood stood facing him. His red, red eyes shone out eerily through the blackness of beneath his hood and his protruding, snake-like nostrils were dilating and shrinking rapidly with excitement, his lipless mouth curled up into a triumphant smile stripped off any mercy. This was the way everyone saw Lord Voldemort right before they said 'Goodnight, World.'
Voldemort took one look at James holding up his wand at the ready and laughed in an ugly, high-pitched voice :"Why, James Potter, is that how you treat a guest?"
"What the hell do you want from us?" James shouted, shaking with anger.
"Oh, come now James. I know you are much smarter than that." Voldemort replied silkily, twirling his wand once in his long, spider-like fingers "Well, you're not really, no. If you were intelligent enough, you would not act so foolishly and deliver yourself by your own hands to your own death, denying me your son like that."
"I'll never give you my son!" James hissed, blood pounding in his ears "Flamora!"
A vicious blast of bluish-white fire exploded from James's wand and tore towards Voldemort "Splotispia!" Voldemort said, and the flaming stream was extinguished by an opposing blast of water.
"Tortapiesez!" James roared, and flashes of white light sped across Voldemort's chest and body rapidly like a fast, razor-sharp sword.
Voldemort's eyes widened at the speed of his opponent, and he let out an small, involuntary gasp of pain as the curse slashed his chest, but in a second, his eyes were deadly and burning in his white, thin face and his lips were pulled back again into that chilling smile. He raised his wand and said:"Banishio!"
That sent James flying across the room, crashing into half the furniture on the way and slammed hard into the wall, his wand flying out of his hand. He slid down to the floor, dazed and disoriented from the nasty colloidal of his head with the concrete wall. Voldemort stepped up to him and yanked him back up on his feet by the collar of his robes. Before James could do anything, he was being paralyzed by a hex. He looked into the deadly, red eyes and knew it was time he said his last prayers.
Oh, please Lily..be gone with Harry..Get away..get away..
"Do you think it is such a clever plan trying to fight me while your precious Mudblood wife and the brat got away?" Voldemort whispered, poking James in the chest tauntingly with his wand "Well, I hate to ruin your dear wish for you , boy, but they are not going anywhere. That Portkey you are keeping has been brought disfunctioned to you, and I have reversed all the wards surrounding your house before I entered, so it delights me to tell you that your wife shall not have enough time to find a way across them before I come for her." Voldemort laughed - a delighted, victorious laugh "Trapped like three rats in the sewers, aren't you?"
The hateful look on James's face cracked to be replaced by hardly-hidden horror and confusion.
Peter?
"What did y-"
Voldemort's cold hand came up to James's throat and squeezed slightly :"I shall give you a very generous chance, boy. Something I hardly do with my servants, let alone those who oppose me. Give me your boy, and I just might spare your Mudblood darling, and give you the opportunity -again- to join me and be one of my most respected followers. You'll have everything you wish for and may even gain immortality if you please me enough..."
Never...never my son! Over my dead body!
James spat on him, and Voldemort grunted, releasing his throat to wipe his face. The Paralyzing hex effects were almost gone, and James let go of blast of wandless magic that sent Voldemort flying a few feet backwards and landing in a bundle of tangled robes. James ran over and grabbed his wand from where it lay on the floor only to hear Voldemort hiss the easiest spell:"Expelliarmus!"
James's wand flew out of his hand and landed in Voldemort's, who tossed it aside:"Immobioulus!"
To his horror, James found himself rooted firmly to the ground. His whole body felt too heavy to move. The Dark Lord stalked towards him and stood mere inches away from his face :"Yes..it is one of your many gifts that would make you such a splendid Death Eater, Potter. Powerful wandless magic along with all your other talents and agility. It is almost a shame to kill you..so I have a much better idea." His wand tip was now pointed at James's heart and a sickly, twisted grin formed fully on his lipless mouth:"As a young man - almost as young as you - I traveled all over the world to learn everything I could about magic.. its origins.. its causes.. everything. I met the strangest people, and saw the most unexpected of everything, but there was one spell that particularly caught my attention ; very rare, and you'll never find it in one of those books you so readily read. You want to know what it does?"
James didn't answer. His heart clenched at the low, frantic footsteps and gasped breaths he could hear sounding upstairs. Lily and Harry were still here. They were trapped.
"It removes your mind and soul from your body," Voldemort continued, looking quite excited "and sends your body into a sort of -let us say- frozen state. No one would ever doubt you being dead... you will look totally lifeless to even the most brilliant of healers and naturally, no one will expect that your soul is actually...still around. Does not sound fun, does it, Potter? Personally, I have never tried it before, but I see now as a pleasant opportunity..."his sickening smile widened and he took a step back from James to perform the curse. James frantically tried to move - to attack - but his magic for some reason wouldn't cooperate.
Let someone come! Let someone come save Lily and Harry! Oh, God let them get away!
"Let us see how well you think of my offer again when you see all your precious family and friends as corpses when I bring you back..." he hissed, raised his wand and thundered the curse.
James thought he heard himself scream. The pain was unbearable - worse than Cruciatus - worse than anything he had ever experienced. His brain was exploding, and his thoughts and memories were all clashing meaninglessly before his eyes. His very soul was in anguish. And suddenly, the pain subsided, and a light, floaty sensation overtook him. He was being sucked into a dark, endless hole, away from everything.
He'd failed. He'd tried to stop Voldemort from getting to his baby, and failed. He'd promised Harry he'd protect him, and failed. Through those repeated thoughts and before he was completely torn away from the world he was just in, he thought he heard a woman scream his name.
A/N: Finally! It took me hours to write this chapter and make it come out the way I want it. So..WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR? Review and tell me what you think, please. There! I said please! Now you've got no excuse not to.
Okay, another thing I have to say: I still don't know when I'm going to update. I started chapter 2 but as I said earlier, I'm really busy, so I suggest you don't come back here for two or three weeks. After that, you might come and find it. Well, gotta go! Byes!
Miss Zest