Chapter 55- A Visit To Azkaban
James sat in Professor Dumbledore's office, staring angrily at the portrait filled walls. He heaved in a breath of frustration and leaned back in his chair. Dumbledore was outside getting Cole's side of the story before he came in to talk to James.
After a few minutes, Professor Dumbledore entered and walked to his desk. He sat down in the chair and his mouth was thinned in disappointment. James saw the old man's stress lines on his forehead accentuate to his realistic age. It was hard to think of Dumbledore as old, but at times like these it was necessary.
"I just finished talking to Mr. Jacobs. He had a rather interesting tale to tell," Dumbledore said, in his usual manner. He was still looking right at James. James refused to look him in the eye, knowing he would see shame staring him boldly and righteously in the face.
"Did you by chance get the opportunity of chatting with Grace Adams?" James asked.
"Well, I met with her. She did not respond well. She says that she did not witness you punching Cole, but she did witness a fight," Dumbledore said.
"Did she happen to tell you the circumstances of the fight?" James requested.
"No, but what I can gather from Mr. Jacobs is that he was assigned to work with Miss Evans. I know of Miss Evans' and your relationship and I can understand the intense feeling of jealousy. That does not give you the right to hit someone, James," the professor said.
James looked at Dumbledore with shock. He couldn't believe what he was hearing.
"You've made a number of mistakes during your reign as Head Boy. I have asked you here today to confront you about this and to warn you that anymore incidents as such could cost you the badge," Dumbledore warned. A twinkle in his eye told James that Dumbledore was only saying this as procedure. He knew the man knew more.
Why wasn't he confronting him about that matter?
"I trust that you will deduce the right judgement and act as you see fit," he said. The gleam in his eye and the curve in his mouth told James that more was implied than stated.
He left the office, feeling somewhat cooled down, yet more and more confused.
"You had no right to hit him, James," Lily said, as they stood in the Heads Room discussing the matters that previously occurred that evening.
"Lily, you weren't there through it all. You didn't see enough of the situation," James protested.
"Oh, I saw enough," she chortled back, landing on the couch and crossing her arms in disgust.
"He was trying to hurt Grace," James explained.
"Grace? You mean the Adams girl you have to tutor? How does he know her?" Lily asked.
James was at a loss. Grace had never specified how they knew one another.
"Exactly. Why would he want to hurt her?" Lily inquired.
"He's evil," James muttered.
"You don't even know him," she shouted back.
"I know that he's in love with you," he declared, standing in front of her.
"That's ridiculous. We're just friends, if that. I'm his Charms tutor," Lily said.
"He doesn't seem to think so. He told me about how you 'confess' to him," James accused, pointing his finger in her face.
"Confess what?" she asked, angrily. She felt the heat rising in her cheeks as the argument went on.
"That you go to him complaining of my immaturity, as well as my non-stop childish antics. Where else would he get that information?" James asked.
Lily was lost for words. She had mentioned it casually, but was not in a frustrated manner when doing so.
"Looks to me as if the two of you are a little more than just friends," James said.
Lily shook her head, threw her hands in the air, and went to go sleep in her room, something she had not done in quite some time.
He stared at the door with longing and confusion. He loved Lily above all else. He always believed that the two of them
were strong and when combined their strength outnumbered anything. But now, their walls were weakening and their
relationship was crumbling. It was so easy for someone to come and intrude on their life. That one person, Cole Jacobs,
had no idea how much he was going to pay.
The weekend approached and James had felt nothing but a harsh cold shoulder coming from Lily's way. She had spent no time with him nor Cole. The latter was the only thing that brought him the tiniest ounce of relief.
He did hear some interesting information from his reliable source, Severus Snape. He paid Snape the money and was not disappointed. Luckily, Lily had never found out about this little tip off from Snape or else he would be in an entirely worst position.
Snape told him that Cole had been following Lily everywhere. The only time he spent his prying eyes elsewhere was when Lily was in the Gryffindor Common Room or Heads Room. He then would wander off to find Grace Adams.
It turned out that Cole had paid a little visit to Professor Dumbledore's office. He had requested the privilege to accompany Grace when she went to visit her mum in Azkaban. Dumbledore had been inclined to permit this without Grace's direct permission.
Sure enough, Grace had paid a visit to him an hour later and asked for Cole to escort her to the prison. She only had one day to see her mum and Cole Jacobs would be intruding on the time.
What James wanted to know was, why on Earth did Cole need to visit Venus Adams?
"Adams, Venus," a guard called.
The door to the prison opened and Grace looked at the wizard who was in charge of entrance. He stayed far away from the dementors, most likely in fear of losing his soul. The guard's eyes were empty, probably from his many years of seeing visitors come and go. Grace smiled slightly at him, knowing this was a career choice she would most definitely be crossing off of her list.
She felt Cole's protective grasp and sighed. She and him were never an item, yet he constantly persisted to come along to visit her mum. Something about Venus intrigued Cole. It was as though she were his mentor. Grace had the right mind to think something of the sort was going on. She had been threatened into her last two visits to have him accompany her. She couldn't say no to him.
She saw many eyes following them as they made their way to the back, in front of her mother's cell. The only eyes she felt were the dark, cold eyes of her mother. They stared into her daughter's identical pair.
Two simple chairs were placed in front of the cell for their visiting hour. Grace sat down, seeing her mother smoking a cigarette and blowing the smoke through the bars. Her black glasses rested perfectly on her nose, although her normally neat mousy hair was flying askew. They hadn't managed to take all the life out of her yet, but she looked drained. The color from her face was nearly gone and she was thin, far too thin. Prison did not agree with her.
"Grace, Cole," Venus said, in her wispy manner. "How lovely to see you both in such good health."
Grace saw right through her fake cheerfulness and wished her mother would be real. Neither of them wanted to see one another. Grace was only here on her Cole's behalf. It was that or face a week of torment from him.
"Venus, lovely to see you as well," Cole buttered up. "How is everything?"
"Can't complain. It's getting rather crowded in here. New prisoners come in every day. The Ministry must be catching more and more Death Eaters," Venus acknowledged.
"I believe the Aurors catch all the dark wizards. Weren't you an Auror at one point, Mum?" Grace asked, in mock curiosity. "Isn't that ironic that you're in prison now?"
Venus stared maliciously at her daughter.
"I'm not too popular here with the prisoners. They feel the need to curse me at night. Curse me for betraying the Dark Lord and feel the need to work independently," Venus spat.
"I'd imagine they would be rather pissed about that," Grace mused.
"Grace, dear, would it be too much to ask to have a minute alone with Cole? We have much to catch up on," Venus said.
"It's not like I'm the one who's your kid here," Grace shook off angrily, rolling her eyes and exiting the prison.
She looked outside across the ocean view. The island in which Azkaban was located was a horrible and deserted place.
Grace could think of no better place for a mother like Venus Adams to rot.
"So, is everything going according to plan?" Venus asked, taking a drag of her cigarette.
"It would seem so. Potter's reacted just as you said he would," Cole said.
"His emotions get in the way of everything. He is too predictable," Venus laughed, knowing all too well of the infamous Potter behavior.
"I have one slight problem," Cole whispered.
"What? You haven't screwed anything up, have you?" she demanded.
"No, no. I just-" he started to say.
"You just what?" she asked, her eyes intently focused on him. He couldn't make eye contact.
"I think I may be in love with Lily," he admitted quietly.
"You fool. You let your emotions get in the way," she hissed, shaking her head. "Do you not see where that has led me? I am behind bars."
"I know, I know. You warned me. It was hard not to fall for her. She's just too likeable," Cole explained.
"I would think she would be. Potter found the need to have her," Venus said. "What about Dumbledore? Does he still trust Potter?"
"Surprisingly, yes. He seems to have even more faith in him now than ever," Cole said.
"That's unimportant. We just need to crack one of them, then we crack them all. I remember how the school was when Douglas returned. They were all joyous and merry," she said, her voice clearly expressing intense disgust in the school.
"So how do you think we should go about cracking Potter?" Cole asked. "I've tried and tried but have found no proper conclusions. I don't wish to hurt Lily. Is there any way we can work around her?"
"Of course there is. That is why you're not ready to work alone on this. You must consult me through owl whenever possible," Venus said.
"The more I feel for Lily, the more hatred I feel towards Potter. I don't think I have completely screwed up by letting my emotions in. I now wish for his entire chariot of followers to crumble upon him. I hate him with intense loathing," Cole said, his features darkening.
"We can do this without hurting your precious Lily. As you said, Potter is nothing without his cronies. Friendship is everything. I learned this when I brought him to the forest. There is one person we must take and the whole school will disintegrate before our eyes," Venus said, a plot forming.
"Who do you suggest that person be?" Cole asked.
"I have the perfect candidate. I can burn all my bridges in one go. She meddled in stuff that should not have been meddled in. When I taught at the school she was nothing but a bother. She was the reason that Potter and his friends found out about me. She caused me great pain and I think I may loathe her more than Potter himself. Jones," Venus simply stated.
"Katy Jones?" Cole asked.
"Yes, you must kill Katy Jones," Venus said, a spark in her eye igniting.
"But, why her? Surely there are others that Potter places above her," Cole said.
"Oh, there is. Yet, Katy is caught in the middle. She is connected to everyone he loves," Venus said.
"How so? Why not Black or Lupin? They surely are more important?" Cole asked.
"You're not strong enough to take on Black or Lupin or even Potter by yourself. Jones is connected to them all. She's friends with Douglas and Evans and as you know, Douglas and Evans are connected to Potter and Black. She is also, more importantly, connected to Lupin. I saw this when I taught there. Lupin is an important asset and without him, Potter is weakened. Also, as I said, I have an intense disliking for the girl," Venus said.
"I thought you said we could do this without hurting Lily," Cole said.
"I meant physically hurting her," Venus said. "There is no way to kill Potter or Jones without hurting her."
"So, what is the plan?" Cole asked.
"The plan is, dangle Jones in front of them, luring them all to my little playground. The dogs should be hungry. I doubt that Dumbledore has gotten rid of them yet. Kill Jones and leave Potter to the dogs," Venus said, feeling more powerful than she had in months.
A/N: I know, I know. You can't decide whose more evil. I have such a drama filled fic. It keeps it somewhat interesting. Please review.