Harry Potter One Shots (Vol. I)

Waiting on the Sidelines (James Potter)

The answer to this one was James, who some of the fandom refer to as a 'typical jock' and whose parents passed away when he was only 19 years old.

The previous one shot, the Louis one, has been bugging me for a bit now. I'm so tempted to start the mini epilogue bit from scratch but I guess I'll have to wait until I edit the newer of my one shots to do that (unless it gets too annoying and I redo it anyway). But hopefully this one is more up to standard. Just a quick warning - it's long (and please don't hate Lily).

It wasn't odd for me to receive an owl from Sirius, claiming that I needed to abandon all of my work and apparate straight to the Potter familial home. But because I knew just how much of a drama queen Sirius was, I never left work half way through the day. Instead, I finished work for the day and then apparated straight to James' home. And each time I had been right - there was never any sort of emergency.

Well, apart from that one time the boys had tried their hands at cooking and had set the kitchen on fire. But luckily, Remus had been there to save the day.

That was the reason why I didn't bother rushing to leave work when I received yet another letter from Sirius, claiming that there was an emergency. Finishing up my work, I clocked out for the day and walked out of the ministry building, heading towards one of the apparition points. The wards to the Potter cottage shifted to allow me easy access to the home and I scanned the hallway, looking for the boys.

Shrugging out of my coat, I frowned when I didn't hear the usual sounds that occupied the house - James and Sirius weren't shouting excitedly. The house was too quiet. I tensed slightly, hand moving to grasp my wand by my side as I made my way slowly through the hall.

"Sirius?" I called out quietly, "I'm here."

There was movement on my left. I flinched, turning to face the person who had emerged from the room, wand drawn and pointed straight to their chest. Sirius' eyes widened in surprise and he raised his arms in surrender. Letting out a breath that I didn't realise I had been holding, I returned my wand to my side.

"Merlin woman," he exclaimed, lowering his hands, "Since when did you get so trigger happy?"

"We aren't exactly living in the safest of times," I remarked tersely, pocketing my wand. "So, what was this emergency then Sirius, you drama queen?"

"It's a real emergency this time," he insisted as I walked towards him.

"A real emergency?" I fell into step beside him as we walked up the stairs. "What exactly do you mean by that? A real emergency as in you ran out of cake, or as in you almost burned the house down? Again?"

"It's something much worse," he said grimly, coming to a stop in front of James' bedroom door.

I furrowed my eyebrows, growing rather concerned at the expression Sirius was currently wearing. He gestured for me to open the bedroom door and I did just that, recoiling instantly when I was assaulted by the heavy stench of alcohol.

"What the hell?" I glanced back at Sirius who ushered me into the room, "Pads?"

Taking the cue, I stepped into the room to find that the curtains were still drawn shut and I very much doubted that they had been open today at all. Muttering a small 'lumos' under my breath, I surveyed the room and felt my eyebrows rise at the sheer number of empty bottles of firewhisky scattered around the room. James had never been able to handle so much liquor. And whilst he wasn't the neatest person, certainly never kept his room in such a state - his sheets were scattered across the floor, shattered glass from now broken picture frames scattered beside the fireplace and a half empty, open closet. Lily's clothes were gone.