Piece By Piece

Chapter Twelve: My Brother's Keeper

      Since Regulus had left, James spent several anxious days going about his new life with the joint forces. Harry had delivered on his promise to fill him and Lily in via a pensive; and with the help of Remus, Ron, and Hermione the past few days included further insights into Harry's past. 

      But most of what James saw in that pensive was, to put it mildly, appaling. Every year that his son was at Hogwarts he had to face evils that James couldn't even dream of. Though he had plenty of allies Harry's life seemed to be one traumatic series of events after another. James spent most of his time in the pensive looking on in pure shock; he, Lily, and Harry often held onto each other for support. And when the days came to a close James curled up in his bed with Lily and either silently cried himself to sleep or couldn't bear to close his eyes; because the traumas that his son had faced felt like fresh wounds on James' psyche. 

      Other than the pensive, James had spent the past week in his new job with Remus, Fred Weasely, and George Weasely in the Ammunition and Weapons Division. The three of them were tasked with taking old blueprints and design plans for harmless pranks and turning them into lethal and semi-lethal weapons and defense mechanisms. Though George, who James had come to learn was part of the twin-prankster-duo during Harry's years at Hogwarts, was initially in charge of the department he stepped down to spend more time on the hands-on work and with his recently returned twin. Thus, Remus was put in charge by a unanimous vote. He became the representative at meetings while James and the Twins spent more time working on their weaponry. And aside from the haunting images from the pensive, James was having a relatively good and peaceful time. 

      All of that changed the morning of September 1st.

      Breakfast had just ended and a Department Head meeting was about to begin. James, despite not being a department head, was in the meeting room; he was finishing up a conversation with Remus about supplies for their next batch of ammo. They had just finished talking when, out of the blue, Regulus burst into the room. It looked like he'd sprinted from the entrance all the way there. He was hyperventilating and distraught; James could see tears flowing down his face as he tried to speak, but no words came out. Instead he nearly collapsed from lack of air. 

      Harry rushed over to his side. "What the hell happened, Regulus?" He asked. "You're a week early what-" He moved Regulus to sit against a wall. By this time Dora had also rushed to his side and others, including James, gathered nearby. 

      Regulus continued to cough and sputter. Ron appeared at James' side, pushing his way through the crowd, with a water bottle and a trash can. "Looks like he could use these," he said to Harry, holding out the items. Harry thanked him and gave the items to Regulus; but he pushed them away and tried to speak.

      "NO-" He waved his arms frantically, as if he needed them to formulate his next words. "No! They've got him! They've- they're hurting him! We've- we- HELP!" He grabbed Harry's shirt by the collar. "Help him!"

      Harry, who clearly had dealt with people grabbing him by the collar of his shirt before, remained calm, yet confused. He took Regulus' hands off of him and held them. "Regulus," He said, "Whatever is going on is clearly very important; but I can't help you until you can talk clearly. So take your time; breathe, drink water, calm down. Whatever it is can wait another two minutes."

      Regulus, evidently, did not think so. "It can't!" He pleaded, his voice filled with anguish. "He can't wait! He needs- we have to- he needs help!"

      Harry took a deep breath. "Who is he, Regulus?"

      "SIRIUS!"

      James felt his heart stop and all of the blood drain from his face. Whatever Regulus said next was lost as James' brain distorted everything around him. His vision went blurry, words sounded like they were being heard from underwater. He didn't even notice that he'd started swaying until he felt Lily force him to sit down. At least he was pretty sure that was Lily. Whoever it was tried to get his attention; but he couldn't move a muscle.