Disclaimer:
Harry Potter and all of its characters belong to J.K. Rowling.
I own nothing but the original characters I make.
Formatting Key:
"Dialogue"
'Thoughts'
-Author notes-
Chapter 62: Potions and Letters
"Hey!" Sirius called for him as soon as he stepped out of the tower.
James looked up in time to see him descending on the broom he had borrowed from his house.
"Ugh…" He had to squint his eyes when the sun hit them. He had been working inside the tower for the past three days and had gotten accustomed to the dim light inside.
"You're finally out," Sirius said as he landed.
"Sorry for leaving you alone. I had an important project to complete," James answered, feeling a bit guilty that he had brought Sirius here and hadn't spent much time with him.
Though he was sure that Sirius was just happy to be out of that house. He could tell how stressed he'd been after only a few days with his family.
"I know. You've been doing potions nonstop. And I assume it's not for a prank."
"Do you want another rainbow soup incident?" James raised an eyebrow.
"I would be more careful next time!" Sirius looked offended. They hadn't spoken about pulling more pranks since that day. It was a miracle they hadn't ended up all in detention for the rest of the year.
Perhaps the Headmaster had found it amusing, and that's why they hadn't tried too hard to find the perpetrators.
"So, what were you working on?" Sirius looked genuinely curious. He rarely asked him what he was working on, since he had no interest in potions whatsoever.
"It's something for your grandfather," James responded.
Three days ago, he had received the ingredients he'd requested, along with all the equipment needed to make the tower laboratory functional. Since then, he had been working on the cure for the Withering Curse that Lord Pollux was suffering from.
"My grandfather?" Sirius hadn't missed that during James' visit to his house, he had gone to speak alone with the old man but never mentioned what they had spoken about. "He asked you to make a potion for him?"
Sirius found that hard to believe. He knew that James had become amazing at potions, but his grandfather was a renowned expert when it came to potion-making.
James could tell what his friend was thinking by his expression. "Even Masters don't know everything. And I happened to discover a potion that could help with his condition."
Sirius' eyes widened. "Wait… you mean… you can cure him?"
"There's a possibility." He didn't like giving too many assurances when it came to these things, even though he was very confident in his work.
"The potion is almost finished brewing. I just needed some fresh air. I'll deliver it once I'm done, and then we'll have to wait and see."
Sirius really wanted to know how James could have discovered a cure that his grandfather. One that all the healers he'd consulted had failed to find. But something told him not to ask. That he might lose something if he did.
James noticed that Sirius was holding some letters in his hand. "Are those…" he pointed at them.
"Ah, these are letters from Remus and Peter," Sirius handed them to him. "I already opened mine, so you should read them. I haven't answered yet because I was waiting for you to come out of there."
"There are three letters here…" James saw the name of the last sender and heard Sirius chuckle.
"That's right! You got a letter from Lily too." Sirius said with excitement, feeling happy for his friend's success.
"I see. That's nice," James nodded.
Sirius had expected James to react more strongly to this. "Oh come on! What happened to your passion for the redheaded girl?. She has never written you a letter before. This is a great step forward."
"My passion is just fine." Truthfully, he felt none of that.
Lily was great. Smart and beautiful, just like he'd heard from people who'd met her when he was little.
But aside from his bad experiences with redheads, his feelings for Lily weren't romantic. He had realized this from the moment he first saw her.
He would always care for her in some way, but it was more like how one would care for family or friends...nothing more.
James wasn't sure how to explain this to Sirius and his other friends. They would certainly question his change of heart, since the James they had known since first year had been obsessed with her to an unhealthy degree.
"Since you're talking about passion… did you remember to send something to your girlfriend Marlene for Christmas?"
Sirius' face flushed. "Of course I did! But I don't want to talk about that. We were talking about y—"
"Why don't we go inside the house?" James suggested. "It's cold out here." It was the end of December in the mountainous region of Scotland...saying that it was cold, was an understatement.
"Let's go to the library. I'll tell Dipsy to prepare us some hot tea and pastries. I'll read the letters, and we can write our responses together."
"That sounds great, but… weren't you in the middle of something?" Sirius looked back at the tower.
"I can only wait at this stage. I'll come back later after resting and finish up the potion." James said as he walked toward the house.
"By the way, have you remembered to say those chants at sunrise and sundown?" Sirius asked as they walked. He brought this up before they went inside, just in case anyone overheard.
"Of course I have," James replied. He hadn't forgotten about their Animagus ritual.
Every sunrise and sunset, they had to repeat the incantation: "Amato Animo Animato Animagus."
They would need to continue until an electrical storm occurred.
"You know, yesterday I had a strange dream," Sirius began.
James glanced at him. The book mentioned that before completing the ritual, practitioners might experience prophetic dreams about their future forms. "Were you soaring across the sky while breathing fire?" He mocked Sirius' earlier comment about wanting to become a dragon.
"No!" Sirius huffed. "Actually, it was really strange… I was running through London at night. My perspective was very close to the ground, and I kept sniffing everything… I think I was looking for someone important, but I don't know who."
"Oh?" James looked at his friend. "Maybe you should consider switching to Divination, because that sounded more like a premonition."
A.N: - Remember to comment, vote, and/or leave a review if you have the time. Those things help me a lot and I would really appreciate it.
You can Support me on P@treon if you like and get 20 advanced chapters. You can also find characters images to view for free in Collections/Invincible Stage Images
-patreon.com/Kriogenix
For donations and commissions, go to ko-fi.com/kriogenix