Sarah Potter and the Mauraders

Part 10

Sarah got to know Alice and Marlene. She overcame her first shock that this Alice here was going to be Neville's mother and end insane in St. Mungo's. Later at night she couldn't sleep. She tossed in her bed and thought how she could save people from their fate, mostly her parents. At two o'clock in the morning she decided to get up to the Common Room and distract herself. What she didn't expect is that her father James Potter already sat at the fireplace looking absently out of the window. He looked up at her as she went down the stairs. "Hey, why aren't you sleeping?", he whispered to her as she was sitting down next to him. "I could ask you the same question", Sarah answered lightly, "I couldn't sleep." "Yeah, I couldn't either." Both sat silently for a while next to the fireplace while looking out of the window. "You know, it sometimes helps to talk to another person about your worries ", Sarah remarked silently while James looked at her, "I know we have only known each other for a few hours but I can assure you that the words spoken here will also be kept here. But of course, I wouldn't hold it against you not to speak to me about them since I am a stranger to you and you to me. Hell, I don't even know if I would tell you all my worries..." With these words spoken Sarah turned her head looking straight into James' eyes and he could see her honesty in her eyes. "Would you tell me what bothers you?", he asked. After a while she answered what was close enough to the truth: "I had a nightmare about my parents and my friends." James understood immediately. "Listen, what Remus said tonight... He didn't mean to pry, he couldn't know that..." "I know", Sarah interrupted, "I was also a bit harsh on him. I guess it was because the day was overwhelming..." "Yeah", James said after an awkward moment. Then everything that worries him spurtled out of his mouth: "My parents have been ill since the end of summer. They were already older than the other couples as they got me. And now, they're even older and I am afraid that they won't overcome this illness. Ma and Pa are bedridden and I didn't actually want to go to school 'cause I wanted to stay with them and nurse them back to health. But they insisted on letting me attend school.
And as if it wasn't enough, of course I have to fall in love in thr person that detests me most. I can do what I want to but Lily just doesn't want to acknowledge me and starts insulting me and calling me arrogant whenever I try to make a conversation." James took a deep breath and there were tears in his eyes: "I just have a feeling that nothing goes as it should this year. And now you certainly think what an idiot I am crying over something so little...", he laughed bitterly, "while you lost your whole family."