Harry Potter and the Prince of Slytherin

Chapter 3: Jim Potter and the Beast of Shamballa (pt 1)

Somewhere, Sometime...

The little boy had been lost in the woods for longer than he could remember, and as the night got colder, he'd ended up huddled under a tree sobbing quietly and shivering both from the cold and from fear. For he knew that there was a monster after him, a great and terrible monster that would devour him whole if it caught him. Then, the boy gasped in terror as a demonic howl erupted from farther into the woods. It was some distance away, but closer than the last time he'd heard it just a few minutes before. The boy began to weep piteously. He was alone and cold and the monster would be here soon. Then, as that thought rippled through his terrified mind, the boy heard another sound much closer. He turned and saw that the bushes just a few feet away were rustling as some thing pushed its way through them. And the distant howl that had so frightened the boy was now replaced by a different animal sound. A low, hungry growl.

The bushes parted, and the boy screamed.

2 July 1993
The Patil Estate
Madras, India

Jim Potter awoke to warm tropical sunlight streaming through the open window of his room accompanied by the faint aroma of jasmine and coriander. He sat up in his canopied bed and for the first real time took a good solid look through the gauzy curtains at the guest room in which he'd been sleeping fitfully for the last day and a half. Like Ron (who was in the room across the hall), Jim had no prior experience with International Portkeys, let alone Portkeys designed for traveling to the literal opposite side of the globe. Accordingly, he and Ron had both been quite sick upon arrival and for most of the next day. Even his mother Lily had suffered a strong reaction, though the effect was far more pronounced on the two boys whose growing magical cores were more sensitive to the experience. Padma and Parvati, having made the trip many times, were smugly immune much to Jim and Ron's chagrin.

The Patil estate was located on a beautiful spot of coastline off the Bay of Bengal situated roughly twenty miles north of Madras, a major Muggle population center. The sands were golden, the waters were azure, and the weather was invariably perfect. The Patils and their guests would spend another day here recuperating from the journey before taking a local (and far less nauseating) Portkey to Delhi and then moving on to Shamballa. The Patil sisters were both somewhat cagey on exactly what "Shamballa" was, leaving Jim and Ron with the impression that it was the Indian equivalent of Diagon Alley, a thought which amused the twin girls for some unknown reason.

Jim inhaled deeply of the fragrances in the air that seemed so different from the familiar scents of the British Isles. As he did, he thought back over his summer so far. He'd been home from Hogwarts for barely a day when Harry and his solicitor unexpectedly came through the Floo to demand a private meeting with James. They'd spent thirty minutes together in James's private study, a conversation which eventually turned into a shouting match before Harry stormed out again and returned to Longbottom Manor without even acknowledging either his twin or their mother. Soon after, Jim had gotten the truth from James. Theo Nott – or rather Theo No-Name – had been cast out of his house under something called "the Ultimate Sanction" and would soon be an object of scorn and hatred from most of Wizarding Britain.

Somewhat ironically, he would not be an object of hatred as far as Jim was concerned. While most everyone associated with any of the Noble Houses would be affected by the Sanction, it would affect neither Hogwarts professors nor aurors ... nor their children. Nevertheless, James firmly encouraged Jim to avoid Theo No-Name, as Jim's reputation had only just recovered from the Heir of Slytherin business, and the family didn't need the controversy that would accompany any association with the outcast boy. Jim gave his father a look of deep disappointment and then left without saying anything more.