Prologue
25th December 1975
And I’ve been meaning to tell you
I think your house is haunted
Your dad is always mad and that must be why
James
James was alone for the first time all break and he absolutely hated it. He’d spent the entire time trying to keep busy with one thing or another to take his mind off of Sirius and what he must be going through at home. Everyone had tried to reassure James that Sirius was fine, if something were wrong he would come. That was the problem, what if he couldn’t come? He knew that Sirius’s parents were having their annual Christmas ball and Sirius wouldn’t be able to contact him until late, so he had long since decided to stay up by the fire until his best friend’s face appeared in the two-way mirror.
It was nearing midnight and James was debating how far he would get if he attempted to break into Grimmauld when suddenly the floo roared to life. James leapt to his feet instantly, not many people would come through the floo this late without sending word first and the green flames sent his heart to his stomach. Before he had a chance to do more than grab his wand, two figures came tumbling onto the stone floor.
“It’s okay now, we’re here, we’re here,” the boy on top was sobbing over the other one as he ran his hands worriedly over him, it wasn’t until he lifted his face and turned towards James that he saw who it was.
“Regulus?” He looked from one boy’s face to the other and fell to his knees. “What happened to him?”
“It’s the cruciatus, they wanted him to take the mark and he refused. Your mum, she’s a healer right? She can help him, can’t she?” Regulus had tears streaming down his face and his eyes were the deepest, blue-grey he had ever seen; he'd never seen someone look so broken.
“Yeah, she can help him. Are you okay?” James’s eyes ran over the younger boy and breathed a small sigh of relief that there weren’t any obvious tremors.
“I’m fine, but if I don’t get back soon I won’t be. Promise me she can help him?” Regulus reached out and desperately clung to James’s hand.
“Get back? What do you mean get back? How can you go back there after this?” James looked from Regulus to Sirius and back again as if to say that his point needed no explanation and Regulus was in fact the mad one.
“Someone has to play the part,” Regulus gave a small, almost bitter smile before blinking and wiping all emotion from his face, his eyes shifting to an empty grey. “Take care of him Potter, he deserves at least one brother that’s worth something. I’ll send Kreacher with his things as soon as I can.”
“Reg wait-” James was going to try and talk some sense into him but he didn’t get the chance before Regulus jumped up and threw himself back into the floo, calling out for Grimmauld and disappearing in a swirl of green flames.
James didn’t have time to dwell on everything that had just happened, not when his best friend was unconscious and twitching on the floor in front of him. “Mum,” he screamed, only realising when he finally used his voice that he had tears streaming down his face. “Mum,” he screamed louder this time, terrified she hadn’t heard him but unwilling to leave Sirius’s side.
“Merlin, James it’s the middle of the-” as soon as she walked into the room and saw James’s face followed by Sirius’s unconscious form the words died in her throat. “Monty! Monty, bring me my potions.” As she called for her husband she practically flew across the room and onto her knees next to the two boys and immediately started casting a flurry of spells he didn’t recognize. James had never heard his mother sound so distraught before in his life and he knew at once that he never wanted to again.
“Effie? Effie what-” James’s dad came barreling into the room next, his hair in complete disarray, glasses askew and a brown leather potions bag swinging wildly in his hand. He came to a stop next to them and dropped to his knees between James and Euphemia, tears spilling over his cheeks. “Oh my boy, what happened?”
“The cruciatus curse from the looks of him, I have half a mind to head over and give that Walburga a piece of my mind. I was in school with her father, you know, docked him quite a few points for misconduct when I was a prefect,” as she spoke her hands were a flurry of motion, casting spells and grabbing potions out of her bag left and right. “That Pollux was a nasty piece of work even back then, clearly his daughter takes after him.”
James watched silently as the tears fell from his face and onto where his and Sirius’s hands were joined. He couldn’t remember grabbing Sirius’s hand, and he wasn’t sure if his intention had been to comfort his unconscious friend or himself, but it settled him only slightly to have physical reassurance that he was safe. “Will he be okay?”
“Oh James, he’ll be fine love, this is just entirely inexcusable. That woman calls herself a mother! It’s just despicable.”
“James, will you get Remus here? I think it would be good for Sirius to have you boys here when he wakes up. I can go and get Peter first thing tomorrow,” his dad was refusing to take his eyes off the steady rise and fall of Sirius’s chest. James couldn’t move, he couldn’t imagine leaving Sirius’s side. “James, go now.”
The sternness of his father’s voice shocked him into motion and he immediately jumped up, running to the floo and grabbing a fistfull of powder. He managed to croak out the address for Remus’s floo as he threw the powder and disappeared in a swirl of green flames.
The second the Lupins’ floo parlour came into view James took off at a run, taking the familiar turns in the home to get to Remus’s room. When he reached his friend’s room he didn’t bother with knocking and the only announcement of his entrance was the door banging harshly against the wall.
“Remus, Remus get up!” He exclaimed as he began shaking the other boy’s shoulders. “Sirius is in trouble.”
“What?!” At Sirius’s mention Remus flew upright in bed, knocking his forehead against James’s but neither boy seemed to register the pain. Within seconds they were both slamming into the floo and calling for Potter Manor, leaving without so much as a note for Remus’s parents. When the room materialised and Sirius and his parents were gone, James immediately began to panic.
“Mum? Dad?” He yelled as loudly as he could, horrified at the idea that Walburga and Orion had come to take Sirius back with them.
“In the guest room!” At the sound of his father’s voice both boys took off at a run, taking the stairs two at a time the entire way. When they reached the doorway and saw Sirius lying unconscious on the bed Remus stopped dead in his tracks and a small pained noise ripped itself from his throat.
“What happened to him?” The horror in his voice and on his face was plain to see, and James was almost certain that his face had looked much the same as Remus’s.
“The cruciatus,” his mom’s voice was hoarse and he could tell that she’d continued crying when he’d left to get Remus.
“No,” he looked as though he’d been hit with a curse of his own. “He told me they’d stopped.” That last part was whispered to himself and James knew that he wasn’t meant to have heard it. He desperately wanted to ask what Remus was talking about, demand the answers from his friend, but he knew it wasn’t the time or place.
“I’ve done all I can for tonight. Are you boys going to sleep in here with him?”
“We probably won’t be doing much sleeping,” James answered as his parents moved towards the two boys near the door.
“Try and rest, he’ll wake sometime tomorrow and he’ll need all of you boys to be there for him. The cruciatus takes a lot out of someone both mentally and physically, there really isn’t any way to tell what state he’ll be in when he wakes up,” she made sure to level both boys with her most serious look.
“We’ll try,” Remus returned her hug when she pulled the much taller boy into her warm embrace.
“Dad, can we send for Pete tonight? I think Sirius would want him here when he woke up.”
“Of course, I’ll head over.” he replied with a reassuring smile. “You boys settle in, I’ll send Peter right in.”
His parents cleared out of the room pretty quickly after that, leaving the boys to climb onto the bed with Sirius. James climbed on one side of their friend while Remus climbed on the other, James took Sirius’s hand into his own and rested his head on his shoulder, Remus wrapped himself around Sirius’s midsection and held on tight. It wasn’t long before the door flew open and Peter’s splotchy, tear streaked face came into view.
“Oh, Padfoot,” his voice had the same hoarse quality everyone else’s had from the tears they were all shedding, but he didn’t say anything else or ask any questions, James assumed his dad had told Peter what had happened for which he was grateful. Peter climbed onto the bed as well, wrapping himself around Sirius’s legs loosely so he wouldn’t feel restrained if he woke up.
The boys spent the entire night in silence, none of them sleeping a wink, each of them hoping that when Sirius woke up everything would be okay. James’s mind spun and spiralled, he knew his best friend was safe now, but what about Regulus? He spent the hours until sunrise with black curly hair, ocean blue eyes that turned steel grey, and a small eleven-year-old boy going between rolling his eyes annoyedly and screaming and twitching in pain spinning through his thoughts.