Frigus . Sirius Black (Mortem BOOK 2)

chapter eighty-one

a/n: again, if Peter becomes a Death Eater, it will be written in detail. stop stressing lol. 

December 10th, 1980 - Order Safe House 

Do you know the feeling, of going down the stairs and suddenly miss a step? The way your leg keeps going down, and down, further than you thought the ground was, and it feels like you're falling until your foot finally connects with the next step? 

Or, perhaps, for those of you lucky enough to grow up near the sea, have you ever jumped off a high cliff, not realizing the water was further away than you thought? Falling, and falling, and falling, until you finally make contact with the ocean beneath and you know you're safe. 

Now imagine, just imagine, that you never make contact with another surface. That your foot never makes contact with the next step, that no matter how long you've been falling for, you never find yourself submerged in the water. 

You just keep falling, down, down, down, you look around you, trying to gauge how far you've fallen but you're going too fast and the surroundings are all blurring into each other. You look up, but you can't see where you fell off anymore, and when you look down, you can't see the next step in the staircase, or the ocean, or any other surface that would let you know just how close you are to safety. 

It would almost feel as though you were levitating, if it weren't for the wind violently slapping you around, your heart having lodged itself into your throat, keeping you from taking in any oxygen, your stomach and guts twisting along each other and making you feel as though you want to throw up whatever little food you had in your stomach. 

James Potter had never felt that way, ever. He thought he knew horror, when Lily was a few minutes late coming back from work when she used to work at St. Mungo's, when he would snap awake at night, thinking he heard Harry crying out in fear, when Sirius had showed up, covered in blood and trembling, to his house back in fifth year, when he had seen Remus transform for the first time, when Peter would sometimes not answer his letters or calls through the bracelet, when he thought Nephera had died... James thought he knew horror, pure, uabridled terror, of the kind that grabs you tight and never lets go, or at least, he thought he did. 

"Mr. Potter?" asked Dumbledore in a soft tone, concerned 

But James did not hear him, James couldn't hear anyone, not Dumbledore, not Lily's soft cries, not Alice and Frank yelling at Dumbledore that he was wrong, not Sirius and Nephera shooting question after question at the old wizard, not Remus trying to draw him out of whatever spiral he was in, not Peter trying to get everyone to shut up, James could hear nothing. 

There is a prophecy, Harry or Neville in the centre of it- Harry in the centre of it. His son, his baby- Wanted, by Voldemort. 

"Dumbledore!" Nephera's voice managed to cut through the rest, "What the hell are you talking about, what the fuck could Riddle want with two babies? 

Dumbledore sighed, he didn't want the rest of them there, certainly not the young Winchester, he only wanted the two families in question. Alas, he should've realized that the rest of the entourage was indeed considered family to them, "Ms. Winchester, I told you, the prophecy-" 

"The Prophecy given to you by Trelawny? The mentally deranged one two years below us at school? That woman did more drugs than I did, how do we know it's not just crazy talk?" she took in a deep breath, realizing that this was going nowhere, "Whatever it is, you four and the kids will have to go into hiding until we figure it out," 

James finally spoke, his voice coming out croaked and trembly, "Where?" he asked, "Where the hell can we go that he won't find us?"

Frank and Alice looked at him, then at each other, "I- It's true," said Alice, "He wants to kill them, Headmaster, Neville and Harry, he wants to kill them, and if he thinks they're the ones to defeat him- How is that even possible, they're babies! How can they defeat him?"