Trapped in the Consequence of Time

Craters and acquaintances - James' POV

Pain coursed through my body like fire, burning up any area that wasn't already an inferno and then layering itself to form an inch deep ocean of it. I was gasping for breath as my head throbbed, vaguely I could feel my wand in my hand, clutching it so tightly it was in danger of snapping, or possibly breaking my wrist. I could tell I was moving but every time I got close to figure out in which direction pain would flare up and I would be able to think of nothing else. It felt like eternity before I realised that I was actually on fire, engulfed in a massive ball that was hurtling somewhere, I didn't know where but I was pretty confident that hitting the ground wouldn't be much fun.

I was just anticipating where on a scale of one to ten the pain rate would be when all the air was sucked out of me, my pain rating immediately went up from about fifty to somewhere between one hundred and two and one hundred and seven, still on a scale of one to ten.

I lay still for a minute and tried to become aware of what hurt the most, which failed. So I tried to find what hurt the least, which also failed. I gave up and opened my eyes, to be dazzled by the sun. The sky was a deep blue and there wasn't a cloud to be seen, I was vaguely aware of the rustling of leaves and the shouts of people and could smell something burning. I groaned and sat up stiffly to be greeted by the biggest mess I've ever seen.

I was sitting in a crater about the size of my house, rubble was everywhere and I was covered in dust, there was a few splinted bits of wood littered around the place but my wand was perfectly intact in my hand and despite the pain I only had a few scratches and one long cut along my forearm, it wasn't deep so I left it, knowing it wasn't a top priority. I glanced along the ground and then turned around and gasped. Behind me lay several unmoving bodies; they were so covered in dust that I couldn't recognise any of them, until the one nearest to me groaned.

"Al." I said and scrambled over to him, he was clutching his head and his glasses were nowhere to be seen, but his wand was also perfectly intact in his hand.

"James." he murmured and then opened his eyes. "Where's Lilly?"

"Shit." I muttered and he smiled slightly. "I'll go find her are you okay?" He nodded. "Good. You find your glasses while I look for little sister." I glanced over at the over at the other bodies to see that they were starting to move, now that I knew who I was looking for I recognised Rose and Scorpius even covered in dust, Hugo was not too far away and behind him were three people I didn't recognise, two girls and a boy, the boy and one of the girl were sitting next to the other the same way I was next to Al. I shielded my eyes against the glare of the sun and swallowed down my panic, if anything happened to Lilly...

"James!" came a voice and I almost sobbed with relief, Lilly was trapped under a rock that was leaning against another to give just enough room for her small body without being crushed, I pointed my wand and they both rolled away. Lilly got up and hugged me.

"Hey. It's okay." I murmured. "You're fine." She nodded but didn't let go of me. I looked over at Rose and Scorpius to see that Al had joined them; Hugo was on his feet and staring around in wonder. My eyes reached the three other people and I saw that the girl who was sitting up had tear streaks down her face and the boy seemed to be having a panic attack. The girl turned and stared at us.

"HELP!" she yelled, Lilly looked up and we exchanged glances before sprinting over to them. The girl standing was about Lilly's age and had bright green eyes sort of like Al's and almost golden blond hair that glittered in the sun so her head looked like it had holes in, in the places covered in ash. The boy next to her was also blond but more like Scorpius's than the girl's and had dark grey eyes that looked at me desperately. I couldn't tell what age he was, he looked younger than me but held himself like he was Teddy's age.