The Marauders: Year Four

Somebody's

Somebody's

James Potter had been on the way to dinner when he'd heard the voice.

He'd been running along down the stairs, taking them two at a time, looking forward to roast and potatoes in the Great Hall, having worked up an appetite up in the astronomy tower with Maryrose - his lips were still swollen from all the snogging, his robes off kilter and his tie loose about his neck. "'Ello, Chang," he called, nodding to a fifth year Ravenclaw boy who glared as he tromped past, a disapproving glance at his wrinkled robes.

"'Lo Potter," Chang muttered, watching as the untucked Potter went on by, running down the stairs ahead of him.

James had nearly made it to dinner when he heard it.

Jaaaaaames...

Jaaaaames Potter...

He'd suddenly crouched there on the stairs, clutching his head for how terrible the voice sounded - like a sudden onset of a migraine, it seemed to split his brains right open. Before, he'd only ever had it happen as a dream, and suddenly he understood the madness in Peter and Remus's eyes when they'd described hearing it in their waking hours. Now there was a madness about him as James looked about, his fingers scraping the wallpaper. Nobody else in the stairwell seemed to have heard it. None of them reacted, at any rate, and they only passed by giving him funny looks for the way he was kneeling there on the stairs... He grit his teeth, so tight it hurt. He punched at the wall to be rid of some of the pressure coursing through him.

It was impossible. Impossible. Mopsus was dead, so why was his voice echoing in James's head now?

Jaaaaames Potter...

There was no mistaking it, though.

"Alright, Potter?" asked Pandora Jenkins, coming down the stair behind James, arm in arm with Xenophilius.

Xenophilius disengaged from her arm and hurried over, kneeling before James on the stairs in concern, staring up at his dark brown eyes with a sort of wild expression in his own eyes that was quite alarming, even through the fog of Mopsus's voice.. "Potter?"

James looked up, "Did you hear --? It?" James's eyes met Xenophilius's. If it had been anyone else before him, he never would've asked - but Xenophilius was a believer in the oddest things... If anyone would believe him, Xenophilius would.

"It?" Xenophilius asked.

"The voice," whispered James.

Xenophilius stared up at him and shook his head.

James whispered, "I heard someone calling my name. Just now. Someone... someone I thought dead."

Xenophilius considered this. "Well, if you've heard their voice... then they must be living. At least a bit, yeah?"

James stared at Xenophilius.

"Maybe you should ask them if they're living?" Xenophilius suggested. "I think I have linkstone in my trunk, shall I go and fetch it for you?"

"A linkstone?"

Xenophilius nodded, "It's a special stone... Attracts ghosts and other supernatural beings, you see. So you can communicate better... you know, with the other side."

James stared at Xenophilius. He shook his head, "No... No I'm all set. But thanks, Xeno, you've given me an idea." He pushed himself up from the stairs and Xenophilius smiled as he stood up, too.