Disclaimer:
Harry Potter and all of its characters belong to J.K. Rowling.
I own nothing but the original characters I make.
"Dialogue"
'Thoughts'
-Author notes-
Chapter 98: Don't Say A Word
"There, see?… It wasn't so bad," James said softly.
Rodolphus glared at him and realized he was no longer holding that black pill.
"What did you do to me?!" He only had some vague memories about what happened while he was under the influence of the Imperio curse.
"I gave you a capsule containing basilisk venom. And you ate it happily," James responded.
"You?! That's not true. You can't have something like that!" Rodolphus shouted.
"You'd be surprised by what I have. Now, don't worry. The venom is well-contained inside an indestructible capsule. There's no chance it will break… but it cannot be removed either. It's been meticulously enchanted to stay inside you until I want it to break, releasing the venom into your bloodstream and killing you instantly."
Rodolphus looked shocked. He was starting to believe James's words now, especially after seeing the curse he had used on him.
"You… you'll go to Azkaban for this! You used an Unforgivable!" Even if the whole thing about the venom was a lie, using that curse alone was enough to imprison a wizard for life.
Of course, Rodolphus ignored the fact that he had also used an Unforgivable just moments ago.
"How are you going to prove anything?" James waved the wand he was holding in front of Rodolphus. "Don't you recognize the wand I've been using?"
Rodolphus's eyes widened. "That's my brother's wand! When did you take it?!"
"Right after sending you tumbling down… When they find you and check your and your brother's wands, your father's going to have to pull a lot of strings to keep the two of you from being arrested," James said calmly.
"W-wait… let's talk, Potter. What do you want?" Rodolphus finally realized that threatening James wouldn't work. He was in no position to fight back.
"What do I want?" James stopped to think for a moment. If he was honest, he hadn't planned to attack these students. It just happened in the heat of the moment.
The only thing he could do now was improvise. The capsule he'd given Rodolphus had a few extra features.
Not only could it kill him from anywhere in the world, but it also served to track him.
Even if he went inside an unplottable location, James could track the general area he was in.
He figured that could come in handy. When he made those capsules, he'd planned to use them on proper adult Death Eaters, but this worked too.
"You want the bitch, don't you? You can have her."
James raised an eyebrow. "That's no way to speak of a lady… Does no one in your family have manners or is it just you? Also, she's not your property to give away, so that's kind of an empty offering."
"Then what is it that you want?" Rodolphus was growing more desperate.
James aimed his wand at Rodolphus's face. "Nothing you can give me… Obliviate."
Rodolphus's eyes went blank and he passed out.
James then went to the other five boys and did the same, removing all their memories from the past day.
He then cleaned the area of anything that could link him to the incident and proceeded to remove the silencing dome.
Finally, he used Rabastan's wand one last time. A flare of light emerged from the wand and flew into the sky.
'That should draw someone's attention.' James tossed the wand away and gave the Slytherin boys one last glance before casting an invisibility charm over himself and disappearing into the trees.
He couldn't return to the castle the normal way. It was already past curfew, and being caught coming in late and alone would to having a lot of questions asked.
He was already under the Headmaster's radar, so he would rather avoid getting in any sort of trouble.
So James used his flying broom to enter through one of the windows. He always carried it with a miniaturization charm on it...never knew when it might be needed.
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Once inside, he made his way back to the Gryffindor common room and found his friends waiting for him.
"James, pssst! Over here," Sirius called from one of the tables in the corner.
Remus, Peter, and Lily were sitting next to him, while Frank was resting on a nearby sofa with Alice at his side.
Alice noticed James glancing at Frank to assess his condition, since he'd been hurt the worst.
"He's much better, but still has some residual pain," she told him.
"We decided not to visit the healer...she would've asked how we got hurt, and well..." Remus whispered.
"The potion worked great, anyway." Sirius's cut had disappeared, though his robes were still damaged.
"Are you okay, James?" Lily was looking at him with a mix of concern and something else.
Truthfully, even with the potion, James was still feeling the aftereffects of the Cruciatus curse Rodolphus had hit him with, but it was nothing he couldn't handle.
"I'm fine," James said as he took an empty seat.
Peter stared at him. "What about… you know… them?"
"Alive. Someone should've found them by now," James said.
"Won't they come looking for us after they recover?" Peter asked worriedly. "They're going to kill us…"
"No, they won't. When they wake up, they won't even remember what day of the week it is...much less what happened to them," James responded.
Lily looked around to make sure no one was listening. She leaned forward and whispered, "Did you obliviate them?"
James nodded. "At least a day. But I'm not super accurate with that spell, so it could be more."
"But memory charms are illegal to use like that," Lily said. Other than the Ministry, regular witches and wizards could only use them to protect the Statute of Secrecy in emergencies.
James shrugged. That was probably the least illegal thing he'd done today, so it wasn't much of a concern.
"Now, what I'd like to know is… how did the fight start? Did they attack you for no reason?"
"Well… no." Peter made a troubled face.
"I kinda started that one," Sirius said.
"It wasn't just Sirius. We all did," Remus added.
"Yes. They were being… jerks," even Lily looked upset.
"Did I just hear Lily swear?" Alice glanced at her.
"Now I really want to hear this," James said.
"Snape and the others arrived about an hour after you left. They took the table closest to ours and began drinking and talking loudly about…" Remus began.
"They were bragging about how they destroyed your laboratory and laughing about it," Sirius huffed.
"I'm sure they took that table on purpose so we could hear them," Alice commented.
"Yes… they definitely wanted to pick a fight with us," Remus said.
"Yeah, they deserved a good beating," Sirius added.
"Lower your voice, Sirius." James looked pensive. "I understand now. Make sure you don't talk about this with anyone. If anyone asks, you left the Three Broomsticks and went straight to the castle."
James wondered whether this had just been a foolish attempt by some Slytherins to start a fight with a group of Gryffindors, or if there was something deeper going on.
He hoped it was the former, and this would be the end of it. But if someone was trying to do something more nefarious… he would find out soon enough.
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