All in the Family

Chapter 185: The Deathly Hallows

James crashed into something so hard it might have made his hair go flat, he could have been bashed into another dozen stairs, but that wasn't why he froze in pain as he rolled onto his side clutching his skull in the freezing cold snow creeping through his clothes. His ears were ringing slightly, the pain was there, he could feel the new lump he should be able to tap himself to vanish...but he still couldn't see.

"Prongs!" Remus sounded quite distressed, he really should answer, but Merlin's beard this was bad-

"James?" Sirius sounded so concerned he sat up on instinct and reached out, he knew that was Padfoot who snatched him upright first because his hands were rough like leather, same as his from all the times spent outdoors on brooms. He still stumbled to feel the deep slush all around and shivered for himself as he smelt the fresh air, his hip knocked against whatever he'd landed against, but he had to whisper, "Evans around?"

"Yeah," the dread in Padfoot's voice made him want to draw his wand on instinct even as he knew it was for him. James pitched his voice higher, trying to sound as casual as could be, "oi! How long was that stuff supposed to take to kick in?"

Her touch was gentle on his shoulder, her nails blunt and well worn from constant use of peeling and crushing and cutting in her favorite class, she never took the time to do anything like spruce up her looks she was always so focused on her work. He jumped in surprise she'd been in arms reach. He went colder she didn't answer.

That was still Sirius who grabbed him roughly and began pulling him along, he went without complaint and asked in concern, "well come on then, tell me where we are now."

"Maybe a kindness you don't see that," Remus said quietly, he could have reached out and smacked him he was so close.

"Oh, enough," he sighed. He stumbled hard on a frozen patch of earth and Sirius's grip went bruising. "Sirius," he snapped in no uncertain terms.

Padfoot still sounded really messed up, he hoped he hadn't hurt his arm upon relanding. "You and Lily landed right on your- well, we're back in Godric's Hollow mate."

"Oh," he whispered in understanding. Guess they hadn't been abstained from the pleasure of finding their graves. This trip would truly find every way it could to wreck every part of their souls.

He heard the sounds of the other four approaching through the crunch of the frozen earth and Alice summoning the book. He bit back the smart ass remark if this would get him out of homework permanently when they got back, he didn't think even Sirius would laugh at that.

The chapter title disturbed him greatly, the Deathly Hallows. Was Harry going to find them then, were they real?

Harry certainly believed so, he made quite a few logical leaps and valid guesses what and where each of them could be and he listened in fascination to each.

Sirius started pacing, just a small little back and forth of agitation without releasing him when the idea of that Stone was mentioned again. He suspected he still wanted to be trying to talk to Remus at the oh so casual news from Ron he went back to Tonks. He could practically feel Moony cringing in disgust away from all of them, hear how his breaths went shallow, the look on his face burned into his mind for how much he loathed every part of this future. He'd never heard Sirius so quiet in his life before at any rate and hoped it wasn't worry for him and his grave in the distance keeping Sirius so uneasy in one spot. "Bet you I could find a wand of elder around here before you Pads," he suddenly teased as he pulled his arm free and took a tentative step away.

There was a frigid moment of silence as he felt attention turn to his stupid comment rather than Sirius's for once, but he took another step away and smirked when still nobody stopped him. "Fine, I'll have all the fun myself."

"Oh no you don't," Lily suddenly huffed, she even grabbed his hand! "I'm freezing just standing around here, let's go find a magically oxymoron wand."

He smirked in triumph and knew they didn't walk very far, but he stretched and stuck his tongue out to catch little flakes and breathed heavily to still daydream the puffs of smoke that would come out all the same, imagining the results fine even if he couldn't see them for himself as he sporadically ducked down and came up in triumph, pretending every twig he snapped under his feet was the famed stick of death.

Lily still wasn't really laughing along, but at least she wasn't calling him an arrogant arse as she held his hand carefully and occasionally pulled and steered him around from stumbling over anything too problematic. She was gentler in her grip than Sirius, but more forceful than him as she steered, he felt a bit like a show pony.

"I've got one of them on me you know," he just told her in the same airy way he would any of his mates, as if they hadn't known this for ages. She made a little clicking noise with her tongue of disbelief and he smiled grandly and couldn't quite stop the flourish of his wrist as he waved empirically at himself. "Harry's invisibility cloak, found it all the way back in his dorms. It'll stop us from dying I'm sure."

"Uhhu," she muttered, still unimpressed. She might have thought he was just joking, though he wasn't. He would have liked to pull it out and show her now, but he'd wait until they got back so he could all at once, though he had no reason to. He wouldn't get to see the looks of awe on their face anytime soon apparently.

If it even would block one from spells, it's not as if they were actively throwing curses at each other, and he couldn't imagine what it would protect them from. It had still felt just marginally safer occasionally to still have it on him. "Will it stop Sirius from murdering me?" She interrupted his train of thought with a quiet plea.

James fumbled to a stop in surprise. "Lily nobody blames you for this, least of all him," he almost laughed in surprise but held it back as he gestured to himself. "How could anyone be expected to make the perfect antidote without all the ingredients? It's not like we're able to do any better, we only learned the big stuff for Moony's sake."

He couldn't see her still, he sighed with longing she was still being so quiet, and he couldn't even see why. "Listen, I'm not freaking out about this because I'm positive Pomfrey can put me right when we get back. Until then," he shrugged, putting a lot more nonchalance into his voice than he really felt, but he would not start freaking out about this until they'd exhausted all other options. "I'll just let Sirius keep toting me around I guess. If he runs me into a wall, I can still smack him. It's all I need to get through this."

She finally laughed, just the smallest one on the edge of something else he couldn't tell, but he smiled back all the same.

There was a significant pause from Alice, the chapter must be almost done. He tipped his head back in the direction out of pure habit and opened his mouth to say something else, like worry for what was going to happen when Harry said Voldemort's name under the taboo like that and what it would summon, but then something fluttered, just on the corner of his vision. He twisted excitedly to get a better glimpse of the flaming red color and blinked excitedly to see.

It was wavering in and out like a bad, flickering connection, but Lily Evans was watching him. There was snow in her hair, the white flecks resting in the thick locks in a lovely pattern his hand automatically wanted to twitch and run through. She looked pale in the poor lighting as she stood shivering in place still in Alice's light and loose clothing, surrounded on all sides by the headstones of their final resting place. Where they'd landed was even still visible in the distance.

Her green eyes were only on him. His breath caught in his throat for how sad she looked. He'd thought he'd seen every expression under the sun on that freckled face, he'd still been internally cataloging all of them as he watched each new one play out fresh as he freely interacted with her like some part of him still thought was a weirdly elaborate dream. He got to watch now, in person as he gazed at her watching him and blink while he said dazedly, "well hi there."

Her breath caught, the mist of her warm exhale hanging between them for a sparse gust of wind before she threw her arms around him. He laughed in delight and automatically hugged her back, putting his arms carefully around her back like she was as fragile as an ice sculpture. "Guess it did take a few moments to kick in."

She laughed for him, and it was the best noise in the world.