Unofficial Portkey Archive

In The Tower

Chapter Six: Potter; Hugs

Summary: I don't want to say it.

Disclaimer: Chapter one is just so close isn't it? Look there.

Author's Note: Listen up, this story needed some serious depth, and it needed something to haunt someone from their past. That's why there are so many characters that are stuck together like glue in this story, except for Lily and James. They are going to have to help each other fight personal battles from their past, and their future.

Remus in the last chapter was just a start of what to come, but it was the biggest hurdle, and the most challenging one. If there is going to be one like that, I'll let you know, and I'll make it vague as possible

Previously: He looked put out. "Oh. Well, if we know we're in a tower, than I don't know anything else."

"We are so going to die."

He looked around sheepishly, and spotted the food. "Oh boy, muffins!"

It's all about love… actually. Tagline, Love Actually

Lily groaned as she awoke, and heard… nothing at all. This had been going on for more than just one day, nothing at all. Well, of course, James was actually doing something, but she didn't really care. He needs to learn where exactly we are, and she'll get them out of here. Somehow…

"Lily! Good morning to you! Did you sleep well? I hope," James rambled. She got up slowly, and got a muffin.

She turned to her left and smiled deviously, looking at him. His hair was in more of disarray then usual, meaning he just got out of bed. His glasses really needed to be cleaned, but more than that, his mouth really needed to be closed. All the noise he was making was really bothering she. She looked at her right hand that held a cranberry muffin, a personal favorite, and then looked at James again.

Then back to the muffin. She scooted over closer to him, but he didn't realize it. "Lily, what are you…!" But he was cut off because I rammed the muffin into his mouth.

Silence, score one for Lily! "Now James," She said as politely and slowly as she could, "take that muffin as a warning that if you wake me up any earlier than ten am every morning, more cranberry will be rammed into your skull, and I will make you swallow it whole. Got it?" He nodded, and she could see his cheeks puffed out, trying to contain the muffin, not letting her see it. Which was polite in a way, but she wasn't looking for politeness right now. She was looking for a way out.

"Good." she stated smugly, and couldn't help but have to grin crookedly at him, he looked like a chipmunk. "Now, there is a bathroom, right there." She said, pointing in the general direction of ahead to the left. He just nodded. "You know where the bed is obviously, and the stairs to the tower are right next to the bathroom."

"Okay."

And those were the only words exchanged for over seven hours. He woke her up at ten, but he didn't say anything about, for the risk of a muffin jammed down his throat.

"Lily," He said very quietly, around five that night, when she set about trying to find a way to make something with the food that the house-elves left, without her bloody wand.

"Yes." She deadpanned, not paying him the least bit of attention.

"I didn't mean to make you mad," And as he started to walk away from her and up the tower stairs, something happened, something that wasn't supposed to happen at all. She should have never felt this feeling about James or any of the Marauders at all, but she felt it for James right now. It wasn't love, and it wasn't feeling anything close to that. It was guilt.

She felt the feeling twist and turn inside her stomach, making it ache with all the movement inside. And it was in her gut, making her know that she did something wrong, terribly wrong, but the problem was, she didn't know what. Instead, she took the problem up inside her head, listing out all the possibilities of why James would apologize, in a way, to her. Marauders never apologize. She ticked off all the things she had done to him while she had been here at Hogwarts, and each one she said had a more absurd reasoning than the next.

She left the halfway made chicken pot pie sitting on the table, and feeling queasy, went up the tower steps to find him. Each step on the stairs made her gut feeling go away, but it traveled up to her heart, making it war weary and uneasy. Something, obviously, wasn't right, and she had no clue what it was.

When Lily rounded the last steps of the tower, to see the sun setting like fire in the sky, with pink and red and purples and orange, another thing happened that she couldn't just explain. She was actually happy that at that moment she was sharing something that enchanting with James. To her surprise, she was just as happy to see him just sitting there, watching the fire that not minutes ago was glowing and a deep crimson red. And he was being something he had never shown her before. He was showing her he was human without even realizing it.

Seeing him like that, so naive and perfect, distraught and happy, just made her want to go and hug him. And to tell the truth and whoever so wishes to read her tale, she did. She hugged James Potter. And he hugged her back.

SIRIUS POV

Well now, since Remus so kindly removed himself from Sirius' and Peter's presence, they sat there, before they remembered they kind of had to get off the train, or else it was going to just disappear to Merlin knows where, taking two unsuspecting passengers with it. Oh yes, I'm sure that would be fun for Sirius, but Peter would be screaming and peeing his pants the whole time.

Now, just to find the Potters was probably one of the easiest tasks you can accomplish. They are extremely tall, and they both have black hair, which really makes them, stand out. Sirius joyfully collected his bags, said `tootles' to Peter, and skipped to see the Potters, who could certainly see him. He just happened to get off the train when all the little first years got off, meaning that he was at least two feet taller than the shortest one. Well… he's really not that tall! Blacks are not tall!

They saw him and waved happily, while he accidentally shoved a little first year into the ground. Sirius thought for a moment that he remembered seeing her in the halls once, a Ravenclaw. Anyway, he couldn't remember her name, so he hauled her to her feet and took off at a trot to see his only true family.

Ahem, as he was saying, when he reached his family, (cough POTTERS! cough) they embraced him warmly, both of them. "Sirius darling," Mrs. Potter calls him.

"Mrs. Potter," he said, bowing mock formally to her. She curtsied girlishly, and they waltzed around our little corner of the train station. Every once in a while some Slytherin would look at them like they were queer, and they didn't care. They were being themselves of course.

Now, who would have thought that Mrs. Potter was as weird as Sirius? Well, the first time he had met her, he knew almost instantly that she was as strange as he was. It was all very strange, the night that he met the Potter family for the first time.

FLASHBACK

Sirius fell hard onto his stomach as he jumped out his window onto the grassy hill in which the Black Manor lay, as it slowly willed itself to close itself off from its surroundings. As he fell again, he rolled away from the disappearing house; his trunk jumping heavily inside his pocket, yet it weighed no more than the feather they learned to lift in first year. A dark leather bag fell after him, and landed on top of his stomach as he stopped rolling. He groaned softly, and sat up straight, taking a look at his surroundings. He knew where he was as soon as he saw the trees looming ominously on his left side.

His motorcycle is not three even yards from where he sat at that moment and it looks to be in perfectly good condition. He heaved himself up from his sitting position and limped over to the chrome and midnight blue Harley. It's gleaming in what's left of the pale moonlight and he could see his reflection it in. He swept his hair away from his face suavely. He slung his leather bag over his shoulder and put on his helmet, looking very geeky. He put it on even though he didn't want to mess up his hair, because he would rather have his neck than cry about a ruffled hair do. He plopped down on his Harley and revved up the motor, and that's when the commotion comes from the house.

There's screaming from his mother and father and Regulus, his brother, screaming Sirius' name, searching for him. But he's not there. By the time they even think of looking where he had escaped every day during every summer, you can barley see the backlights of his motorcycle five blocks away. The air is bitterly cold, whipping at his face, but it feels brilliant. It's nothing like flying, but he felt the same freedom on his bike as he does on a broomstick.

James once told him in a letter that he was surprised to find that he lived not fifty miles from Sirius. He could use that to his advantage, if only he knew exactly where his house is. An owl is flying over head now, hooting softly down at him, before landing perfectly onto his shoulder, trying to give him a letter. This made him pull over on the side of the road, to see whoever wrote to him. Well, what do you know, it's James. Sirius read over the letter quickly and snorted as James wrote he was inviting Sirius to his parents' monthly ball.

Yes, you did read right, a monthly ball. Sirius didn't even know how James handles it all. Maybe he does because no one cares if he gets drunk, even if it's his father who is handing him the fire whiskey shot, or if he bangs the neighbor's wife, who should look twenty years older than him, but says she's only ten. Yeah, Sirius knew that's what James says, but you can't always believe everything James says.

"Talons," Sirius screamed to the owl on his shoulder over the roar of the engine as he started it back up again, "can you show me to the way to James' house?" He hoots softly, nips Sirius' ear playfully, and then takes off, leaving the shoulder of his shirt with lines going through it and some blood swelling and spilling across it from where the bird gripped him.

Talons sped off into the gathering dark, and Sirius urged the bike to go faster. It answered the call and sped off, leaving just an echo of what Sirius was before, a shadow that was steadily growing lighter, growing features, its own personality. It took him five years for him to gain his own personality and hinder a new Black. The more he sped off from his home to James's, the more he was a new person.

"Wow," He said to himself aloud, "That was deep." He looked up to try and see the stars, but Talons was retarding the view. A giant house was coming into view. Lights flickered in and out of sight, swaying with a breeze that was only contained within its own space. It was large, both wide and tall, and it had a very 1800's Era look to it. It had towers that jetted out of the deep black, by now, gloom, and it looked very menacing, but peaceful at the same time.

Soft dancing music was echoing toward him from the house, a slow waltz, the kind where all you do is stare into your partner's eyes and count in your head, `one, two, three, one, two, three'. He stopped his bike toward what seemed to be a stable, and rolled it into the main isle carelessly. A horse nicked to him softly, and tossed its regal head up and down. He walked over to his softly and whispered something stupid, "You smell," before giving it a final scratch on its velvety muzzle and skipped sullenly to the front door. The music had ended by then, and there was loud polite clapping.

He lifted his wand in front of him in the looks of starting a duel, but before he even touched the door to seek entrance, it was thrown open. Mrs. Potter was dressed in a crimson gown and the front of it sparkled with black diamonds, if that could be possible. Now, the Potters' are very handsome people, and she may be thirty-seven, but at the moment, she looked to be only about twenty-two. She was holding a glass of champagne in one hand, and with the other hand, she reached out, stumbled on her feet a bit, and pulled him in before slamming the door behind them.

"Mrs. Potter?" Was the first thing that came into his mind. James had shown Sirius many pictures of his parents, and seeing her, he recognized her immediately.

She put her champagne glass down on a side table close by and wobbled toward him.

"Dance with me," She grasped his sweaty right hand in her left, and placed his left on her waist, and hers around his neck. She twirled them around in drunken circles, but no one saw them or if they did spare them a thought, they were still in the front hall and wouldn't be seen. She was giggling like a Muggle schoolgirl, and he was grinning foolishly, leading the dance.

The music had stopped, but they still danced wildly from a soundless source, and the music would never end. And that was exactly how James found them.

They had danced for hours, and none of the guests noticed that their graceful hostess was gone from their presence. James was getting quite worried that Sirius hadn't written back. He was dancing a slow waltz with Katie Ah Bleu, the girl that Lily hated, and his fourteen year old next door neighbor. Her eyes were a mirror reflection of Lily's, and her long brown hair fell simply around her shoulders. A thought then suddenly came into his head. Mirrors! James and Sirius had both bought a pair of mirrors that they could speak to each other during their separate detentions. And it worked of course, for more things, but we won't go into that. As soon as the song was over, he kissed Katie on the cheek gentleman like, and she blushed, looking down at her feet demurely. He separated himself from the group of dancers on the floor, and walked up toward his room, which went past the front door.

Something moved in the corner of his eye as he walked up the stairs, and he slowly backed down and looked toward the door. Sirius and his mother were lying on their backs on the floor, their hands clasped and twirling in a slow lazy movement that was very much the movement to the old dances. They were giggling drunkenly and staring at the ceiling.

"Sirius? Mother!" He stated questionably. They looked at him, startled.

"Hello, James darling." They said to him at the same time. They giggled at their strangeness and ended up crying and nothing in particular. Funny that, Sirius didn't even touch a bit of the wine.

END FLASHBACK

"Sirius, we really must be going now." Mr. Potter said, interrupting the silent memories. They had been standing patiently by his side while her reminisced, and by the time he came back to the world of the living they were a tad peeved at the fact the memory went on so long.

"I'm sure Charlie and Katie are waiting for you." Mrs. Potter said to him slyly. He blushed only a bit and then lugged his bags through the platform and out of the station quickly, running to the car. They took their good time, and he was scowling as they finally went into the car and started driving.

"What took so long? As you said, Charlie and Katie are waiting!" He told them hotly, mockingly. Charlie is the horse he saw in the stable so long ago, and that horse loved him, and he had no real idea why. But he rides and treats him like the god of horses whenever he winds up back at the Potter estate. And of course, Katie switched her mind from James to Sirius. He was quite proud of the fact that he had held her attention so long, and he's only there during the summer. And they barley see each other while at school.

Currently they were hurtling along the dirt road that led past Katie's house and toward the Potters'. Her house is big, like the Potters', but it's more modern. Glimpses of her riding her horse, Clam Chowder, flash through the tinted windows. They're jumping a five foot jump, and Sirius doesn't breathe when it looks like Clam Chowder will refuse the jump, but he springs from his slow paced canter and launched himself into the air. They clear it easily, and Sirius breathes again.

Before long, the Potters' house comes into view. Each and every time he sees it, it takes his breathe away. He glances up at the Potters', and they're looking adoringly at their house. The stable comes into view next, and Sirius jumped out of the car before it even went down to ten miles an hour.

He tumbled out and landed safely in the grass before climbing to his feet and sprinting to the stable. Charlie knickers at Sirius, and he howls back at him, knowing that it's him. Sirius smiled. It seemed as if Mrs. Potter knew he would do this, and told the house elves, for Charlie comes trotting out of the stable with his English bridle and saddle are already on. Sirius scratched Charlie's neck before swinging onto his back, heading at a lazy pace toward Katie's house. Katie and Clam Chowder are seen easily in the distance, and he urged Charlie into a full out gallop.

She grinned at him and waited patiently for him and Charlie to show up.

"How'd you get home so fast?" He asked, patting Charlie's neck as they slow down and stop beside her.

"I didn't sit in my railway car for a full half hour before I decided to get out of my seat, like I know you did," she said primly as she jumped off Clam Chowder and let her eat. She looked back up at him for a moment. "You're different, Sirius."

"How?"

"I don't know…" she said thinking. "You seem… new."

He scowled good-naturedly at her and changed the subject. "Can I jump, you think?"

"I don't own the course, Sirius, so go for it,"

He smiled and gathered up his reins, squeezing Charlie's sides until he picked up a quick canter. He spotted the first jump, an oxer, and grinned, leaning over Charlie's withers as they gathered more speed, and flew. He reminisced the feeling as they landed and headed for the next jump, a minute version of London Bridge. It feels good to be in the air again, he thought not being able to hold back a grin as Katie cheered wildly for him on the sidelines.

Katie was right; he thought again, I am the new Black. I am a new Black.

-->