The Marauders: Year Six Part 2 #Wattys2017

Something Wrong

Something Wrong

James lay face-down on the floor of the cell. His skin felt like it had been severely sunburned, all raw and sore. He hadn't moved from where Voldemort had left him hours before, like a toy abandoned by a child at play.

He was dreaming... dreaming of Lily Evans. He could see her red hair in the sun, shining... her bottle green eyes. In his dream, she was sitting beside him - they were in the common room at Hogwarts... she was reading a book. It was the book Sirius had brought to the hospital over summer. A Wrinkle in Time, and Lily was reading the part when Charles Wallace invites Mrs. Whatsit inside and Meg makes her a sandwich. James leaned over and moved her hair behind her ear, and he could smell Lily Evans and ---

Suddenly, he was nudged, his chin moved by the toe of a foot and he opened his eyes to see "Voldemort's feet and robes shuffled by slowly... James's eyes moved, but the rest of his body was far too tired to move.

Time for another round, he supposed.

"Nobody knows you're gone, Potter," Voldemort whispered. "I could do to you whatever I please."

James voice was muffled by the stone, "Do it then."

"Call for Mopsus. Call for him to save you, Potter."

"I don't know how," James murmured.

"Crucio!"

And as the curse struck him, he cried out the name of the only face he wanted to see...

"EVAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANS!!!!"

"JAMES?" Lily had awakened that morning to the sound of James Potter screaming her name in a dream.

She clutched her pillow, her heart beating so hard it felt like it might crack open her rib cage and walk right out of her chest.

Jasper Odair handed a peppermint stick ice cream to a little girl and smiled as her mother threw several sickles and a couple knuts onto the counter. "Happy Christmas love," he said, and he wiped his hands on the white apron he had tied about his waist and slid the coins off the counter and into the till beneath the counter with a flick of his wand. The door jangled open, and Jasper looked over, "Hullo! Welcome to Fortescue's!" he called, wiping the counter before he looked up. "We have a load of delicious new seasonal flavours, only available for the hoildays!"

"Just waiting for someone, thanks," said a voice.

Jasper looked up. He knew the voice, but not the tone, and it threw him off a moment so that he stared at the face. "Potter?" he asked, and when James looked at him, his grin widened, "James Potter! Happy bloody Christmas to you!" he ran over and pulled James into a hug.

"What are you doing?!" James exclaimed, "I thought - wait I thought you went to Azkaban? How did you - why are you here?"

Jasper pulled back, looking at James in surprise, "Your - your dad. He helped me." His eyebrows pinched together and he looked James over with confusion.

James's face paled. "Oh. Right. Yeah, I remember now..."

"Are you alright?" Jasper asked. "You don't look like yourself."

Severus Snape wondered if he'd somehow missed the hour. But he had not.

"Of course I look like me," James said, "Messy hair and thick glasses..."