James Potter and the Half Blood Hallway

Ten

James woke up in the hospital wing, the angry face of Professor Jackson staring down at him.

"Are you crazy?" he said, sounding calmer than he looked.

"Huh?" was all James could muster up.

"You have no idea how dangerous that was! I thought I told you to go back to the common room! You're so lucky to even be alive right now! Which is kind of impressive. Only one other mortal that I know of has lived through that kind of power."

His expression changed drastically. He grinned. Suddenly it all came back.

"What was that?" James managed. Jackson turned serious.

"How much did you hear?"

"Well...all of it, but I don't...understand. " The young professor nodded.

"I did that too..." he muttered. "But trust me. You don't want to know what all that meant. I'll tell you sometime, but not now. It's only a matter of time now before they sense it."

At that James sat straight up. That tone in his voice. Like when Dad talked about Voldemort. What was it? Who?

"Who's they?" Asked James a little nervous now. Jackson glanced at the door.

"It's not who you think. They can sense...half bloods like me. They want to kill me." He pauses, as if thinking of how much he should tell him. James waited anxiously.

"Who are they?" whispered James tensely. Jackson shook his head and stood from his chair to leave.

"I shouldn't have said all that...seriously though something dangerous is about to happen and I'm playing satyr. I have to protect you. All of you."

"Protect us? From what? My dad's Harry Potter!! He can handle anything!!" Jackson hesitated, then looked away and mumbled seemingly to himself.

"I hope so..."

~***~ ~***~ ~***~

"Nothing, nothing's wrong," said Ginny hurriedly. "And we weren't shouting we were - er - just having a loud conversation?"

"Can we keep the doggie, Daddy?" asked Lily looking hopeful.

"What 'doggie'?" asked Hermione.

"Just a black dog," said Harry. "Ron thought it was the grim or something, but I don't know...it looked almost bigger, older."

"Red eyes," added Ron.

"It took you three days to deal with a dog?"said Malfoy. "I thought you were auorers! And Potter's the head nonetheless!"

"Shut up!" said Harry very unprofessionally. "It was a big dog from hell!"

"Harry!"

"Sorry, Hermione..."

"No! say that again!"

"What? Sorry?"

"No! before that!"

"A big dog from hell?"

"Yes! A dog from hell!" The house elves had gone deathly silent, seemingly holding their breaths. Hermione rushed over to the books at once, flipping through the pages

"Why're you so quiet?" Harry asked the House Elves.
"Can we keep it?" asked Lily again, sounding hurt that nobody had answered her.
"No!" said Teddy quickly. The girl stuck her toung out at him.
"Daddy?" she said, turning to Harry.
"We are not getting a dog!" said Ginny. "Now, what exactly happened?"

Everyone looked at Teddy.
"What?" he said. They looked at him still. "Oh! Right. Well, there was this bloke with a dog and another block with one eye and they came in and we fought and then Harry and Ron showed up. They fought and then I got hit with that spell."
"Great story telling skills," said Harry sarcastically. "Anyway, when we got there Kretcher was talking with the people, but it was like they were speaking another language." Harry glanced at the house elf. "One of the guys said something to the dog ; it pounced and attacked. Ron took on one of the men while I took on the other. They didn't fight with wands though, so I'm not sure how Teddy got hit by the spell at all, or where it came from, but they seemed to be able to doge all of our spells. They managed to disarm us and took off.
"While I was tending to Teddy and Kretcher Ron chased them down. When Kretcher came around he took over Teddy and I went to help Ron. By the time I had caught up with them they were on the docks of some lake that I hadn't any idea was there. The water didn't look normal though, it was like it was storming but it wasn't. We chased them for two more days and on the third day they just disappeared, so we went back to the house and Apparated here."

"Oi," said Ron. "Teddy, did you say one eyed man?"
"Actually I said block," said Teddy. "But yes. Didn't you see him?"
"No," admitted Ron.
"I did!" said Hugo, reaching a hand in the air, jumping up and down. "I saw him, Teddy! Before Kretcher showed up!"
"I saw him too!" said Lily, excitedly.
"That's it," muttered Ron. "Time to take them to St. Mungo's, Harry, they've lost it."
"Hold on," said Harry, confusedly. "Where did you see this one eyed block?"
"He was in the house," insisted Teddy. "You were fighting him!"  Harry shook his head.
"The man I was fighting had two eyes," said Harry.
"Same with me," said Ron.
"Are you sure he only had one eye?" asked Astoria, sounding a bit disturbed.
"Positive," said Teddy. "Right in the middle of his big ugly forehead."

Everyone exchanged looks before turning to Hermione who had been flipping through the books the whole time.
"How is it that Teddy, Hugo, and Lily saw one thing, but Ron and I saw another?" asked Harry. Hermione, without looking up from the book she was flipping through, pointed at another book by her side.

~***~            ~***~             ~***~

Scorpius and Albus were on their way to see James in the Hospital Wing (Rose had already been that day) when they saw something written on the wall. They stopped to examine it.
"What is it?"
"I don't know. Same language as the book, though."
"Really?"
"Yeah."
"Weird."
"Mhm.."
"Scorpius?"
"Yeah?"
"....nothing."
"No. Tell me."
"Well, it wasn't there before...was it?"
"No, I don't believe it was. Come on."

When they got to the Hospital Wing they passed Professor Jackson on his way out.
"What was that all about?" asked Albus taking a seat next to James's bed. Scorpius brought over another chair and sat down.
"I don't know," muttered James. "He was being weird."
"What do you mean?" asked Scorpius. James checked to see that Madam Pomfrey was no where in sight.
"He said they could sense it, meaning us. And that they want to kill 'half bloods like him'. He said he had to protect us from something."

"Who's they?" asked Al quietly.
"I dunno," said James. "Wouldn't say."
"We found something on the wall," said Scorpius. "On the way here." He took a piece of parchment and a quill from his pocket and scratched the symbols onto the parchment.
"Whoa," said Al. "How'd you remember?" Scorpius looked confused.
"I don't...I just did. I can remember small things like that. It's weird really."
"Photo graphic memory," said Madam Pomfrey, startling the boys.

"Is that bad?" asked Scorpius, sounding scared. Madam Pomfrey laughed.
"Heavens no! It's a good thing," she said. "My cousin had a photo graphic memory."
"Had?" said Scorpius. She hesitated.
"Well," said Madam Pomfrey. "He died. Disappeared and never came back."
"Oh."
"It was actually his pride that was his downfall," she added quickly.
"Oh," said Scorpius, looking and sounding relieved. Madam Pomfrey chuckled a little.
"Off you go now, James needs rest and you two have classes to attend to."
"Right!" said Al. "Of coarse. C'mon Scorp."