The Darkness Within

The Darkness Within: Chapter 26: Not all bad?

This fanfic is not mine, I have just re-posted it to this site. It was written by Kurinoone on fanfiction.net. I also don't own Harry Potter as you can most likely guess.

Chapter Twenty Six

James sat next to Harry's sleeping form and watched Harry's chest rise and fall in rhythm with his breathing. James couldn't believe how badly injured Harry was. Madame Pomfrey had nearly ripped James' head off when she saw him rushing into the hospital wing with Harry's bloodied body in his arms. Harry had suffered a broken arm, bloodied wrists, a large bruise on the back of his head, and a very nasty bite on his shoulder. Not to mention the deep welts on his shoulder and back.

Damien, Ron, Hermione and Ginny had rushed through the explanations of what had happened. How they had gone into the Shrieking Shack, how they were attacked by Vampires, how Harry had found them and had risked his life to save them, how Harry had killed three Vampires and the fourth had ran away in fright. James listened to the recount of Harry's battle with the Vampires in awe. Harry had killed three Vampires! Hermione had told James about how Harry had wandlessly transfigured his wand into a sword and how he had used that to kill the Vampires. James was astounded. Harry really was very talented.

James felt a hand rest on his shoulder and looked up to see Lily. She handed him a cup of coffee and James took it gratefully. Lily sat down next to James and took Harry's hand, as she softly ran her thumb over his hand. She couldn't believe her son had been injured while he was under his parents care. What kind of parents were they? Both their sons could have died yesterday! She shook her head as she fought back the tears. Everything was okay now she told herself. Poppy had said that Harry was going to be fine. It was now the early hours of Sunday morning, but the two parents hadn't left Harry's side all night.

There was a gentle knock on the door and James and Lily looked around to see who was visiting the hospital wing, in the early hours of the day. The door opened and Professor Dumbledore came inside. James and Lily gave the Headmaster tired smiles. However their smiles vanished when they saw the second person that had entered the hospital wing. Alastor Moody came inside and stood awkwardly beside the Headmaster. James' hazel eyes flashed dangerously.

James had arrived at the Shrieking Shack and was in the process of running up the stairs when he saw Moody dragging a severely injured Harry down the stairs. Before James could reach them, he saw Moody and Harry lose their footing and James saw his son come crashing down the stairs. If that wasn't enough to enrage the father-of-two, James had seen the bonds holding Harry's arms behind him, rendering the poor boy defenceless. At this point James had lost his ability to stay calm and had crashed into Moody. All James wanted to do was to hurt the fellow Auror as much as he could.

James was still feeling this emotion and had to look away from the two men standing at the door, as the urge to rip out Moody's throat was becoming unbearable.

"James, Alastor has something he wishes to say." Dumbledore sounded like a teacher in a typical playground, making one student apologise to another after a fight.

James did a perfect imitation of his son, and ignored Dumbledore. Moody stepped forward and spoke to James, nonetheless.

"Look Potter, I'm…I'm really sorry. It was a misunderstanding. I came in and saw a wand in his hand and the blood on your young one and the other three children were huddled against the side of the roof and…and I just jumped to a conclusion. It was the wrong conclusion and I'm really sorry."

James still didn't turn around. He knew that for Moody to apologise was something really rare but James didn't particularly care right now. James had been told by Damien how he and the others had shouted and begged Moody to let Harry go. Damien told James that the Aurors and Moody didn't want to know that Harry was innocent. He told James how Moody had kept on hurting Harry, even though the four teens were shouting at Moody to stop. James had barely controlled himself at that point and if it hadn't been for Sirius and Lily, James would have killed Moody last night.