"A lot of them went mad."
Sirius' previous words rang louder in James' mind more than ever before as he stood in front of Alcina, unable to process just how everything had managed to go to shit so quickly when they had been winning in the first place. With Renata and Adelmo being tortured to where James could only see Alice and Frank Longbottom before him facing the same torture only a couple of years ago, he knew what the results could be if they suffered any longer. Not to mention without their wands, he and Sirius were practically useless and stood a very good chance of getting themselves killed if they made any sudden movements.
However, as he was trying to come up with a different plan, he caught sight of Renata's body stiffening to the point where she wasn't squirming around on the ground to escape the pain. Instead, her back started to arch, her hands were curling and she was no longer crying out like Adelmo was, instead, she had fallen silent.
"Stop! Stop! You're killing her!" James called out, not caring if Alcina attacked him at the moment as he washed over to help Renata. As he reached her side, it seemed Alcina didn't care to stop him, only watching as she kept her wand pointed at Sirius, so that he didn't try anything. As James reached Renata's side, she was deathly pale and from what he could gather, she wasn't breathing.
He had gathered her body in his arms only to feel the tension give out as she went completely unconscious.
"Please stop! Stop!" James yelled at Alcina. "I'll take the vow! I'll do it, just stop! Release the curse!"
With Renata in his arms, the only way James could know that the spell had been lifted was by Adelmo falling somewhat still on the floor, attempting to catch his breath. He let out several coughs and as much as Sirius wanted to rush over and aid him, he couldn't as he was stuck in place with Alcina as she seemed to immobilise to the spot. Eventually, Adelmo rolled on his side and saw Renata completely still for several seconds as James kept trying to encourage her to breathe and suddenly, her eyes began fluttering as she looked around in confusion while taking several deep breaths.
Adelmo pushed himself up, still visibly shaken by what had been unleashed on him but made his way over to check her.
"She stopped breathing," James told him, " I couldn't even get a heartbeat or anything, she just got really tense and then flopped...what happened? Is that-"
"Sounds like it was a type of seizure," Adelmo said, glaring over in the direction of his mother, " a seizure brought on by the shock of pain. Don't lift her up anymore, just keep her resting on her side. She's reaching her limits, she can't handle being placed under the curse any longer. What exactly are you looking to accomplish here, Mamma? Killing your family for the sake of perfection? It's already imperfect if you had to result to such lengths, why can't you just let us be?"
"You all do not understand, do you?" Alcina growled as her fingers squeezed around her wand. "This is why society fails, this is why there is little progress because such potential simply goes to waste for the means of "happiness." It's selfish! Before I became the headmistress, I remember working as a professor for years, spending long hours educating the next generations that were supposed to be leaders and for what? Only to have students who graduated return and what did they do with their lives? Some of my brightest students, the ones who had the power to change the world for the better, they wasted it!"
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NEPENTHE ⟶ James Potter
FanfictionIt has been over a year since the murder of his wife, Lily, and James Potter wishes every day that it is simply a nightmare that he will wake up from. Unfortunately, it isn't and in the wake of her death, James finds himself as a single parent to th...