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Never Can Tell What the Future Holds


“Every other patient that was infected with this strain of Dragon Pox has died already.”

James reached a hand out to hold his mum’s, their chairs facing the mediwizard, who seemed too young to have studied long enough to know the answers to these things. James was fairly certain he recognized the face from the group of seventh year students that had been at Hogwarts when he first started, even.

This bloke’s gotta be a Ravenclaw, he thought absently. Because thinking of that was easier than thinking of the things the mediwizard was saying.

“There were twelve others, beside Charlus; he was the first diagnosed, and the only one still living.” The mediwizard stared between Dora and James, took a deep breath, and said, “While that is obviously good news, it also means that we don’t have any research to help us in finding treatments or cure. What we have found thus far is that this particular strain of the disease is very resistant. None of our dousing potions have helped, the fumigation charm helped, but only for a short time.”

“There must be somebody - some specialist - cost is not a factor…” Dora murmured, thinking she would unload every last galleon in the Potter vault at Gringott’s to heal Charlus.

“Unfortunately, the only person to have ever worked with this strain of dragon pox happens to be the person who’s believed to have infected him - the witch Druella Black, who was sentenced to the Dementor’s Kiss last year. This strain was one of her specialties when she studied here, long ago. That’s part of how they identified her as the attacker.” The mediwizard looked apologetic.

James’s fist tightened ‘round the arm of the chair as his mum’s tightened ‘round his hand.

“What are you telling us, then?” Dora pleaded.

“There’s nothing more we can do for him, besides perform the fumigation charm and remove the scales. We’ll bump up his visits to monthly, rather than the every third-month we were doing and see how that goes. We may have to go to weekly, or even daily, eventually. But we’ll monitor the growth of the scales. We’ll need to make modifications to your home to accommodate for the new risks…

“Whatever it takes - cost is no factor…” Dora repeated. James nodded.

“Very well. I can put you in touch with a wizard who is very good at the dragon fire repelling spells - works for the Academy in Romania. He costs a pretty penny, but he can cast a repelling spell that will save your home from the danger of the dragon fire.”

“Thank you,” Dora whispered.

The mediwizard nodded, then said, “I recommend that you… enjoy your time as a family… while you can.”

James stared very hard at his knees.

Dora nodded. “May we see him?”

“Yes,” the mediwizard stood up. “Come, let’s go.”

They filed into the hall. The lights of St. Mungo’s seemed too bright suddenly. And James felt like every mediwizard and witch in the ward was looking at him. There was no mistaking which patient he was here to see - he looked like his father’s double. Some of them may even have been staring thinking he was his father, they looked that much alike. James pushed at his glasses with his fingers - they were the main difference between James and Charlus, those glases. HIs father wore round, wire ones, not the thick black frames that James preferred.

They stepped into the exam room, heard a light coughing from behind the curtain… and when they pulled it back, it was to find Charlus, asleep, and Sirius Black, dressed in a magenta mediwizard robe, kneeling there beside the bed.

“....Doctor - erm -...?” the mediwizard looked confused, thinking he should recognize Sirius as his colleague as Sirius looked up. He squeezed Charlus’s hand.

“James is here, Mr. P.. James and Mrs. P.” He moved to allow them access to the side of the bed, stepping back out of the way. Dora ran forward and took the place where Sirius had just been while James hovered back.

The mediwizard stared at Sirius, “i’m sorry - do you work here?”

Sirius shook his head.

“The - the robes --?”

Sirius had forgotten he’d put the lab jacket on. He looked down at it. “I think they’re rather punk rock,” he declared.




Lilly pushed her peas about her plate with her fork that night at dinner in the cottage by the sea. Vernon Dursley was on about drills again and how smart one was to put away finances for the future when they were young - his age - “never can tell when one might need it, never can tell,” he was saying. Petunia stared gooily up at him.

Mrs. Evans was silent. Lily was silent.

Lily stared at the seat where Sirius had been all week.

She wondered what had been wrong with James, who had simply said he had to go to Mungo’s immediately as he’d stumbled across the beach, followed by a frantic Sirius, who had shouted to Lily he was sorry, but he had to go with Prongs, that they’d see her soon, no time to explain, and had collected both his and James’s wand from the beach - where James had forgotten it.

She worried.

“Never can tell what the future holds,” Vernon Dursley was continuing.

Lily stared at the peas.




It was late that night when Sirius and James walked through the front door of the Potter house alone. Dora was spending the night at St. Mungo’s with Charlus, who was still under observation and would be for at least a week. Sirius waved his wand to fill the house with light, and James stumbled for the stairs.

“You haven’t eaten all day,” Sirius said, looking up from the foot of the stairs.

James murmured, “I’m not hungry,” and disappeared ‘round the bend at the top.

Sirius frowned. He went out to the kitchen and opened the refridgerator door and started putting together a sort of make-shift meal from what was there that he could work with. There wasn’t much. Sirius Black had never prepared a meal himself in his life and the result was sort of a mess on a plate - a mish-mosh of easy to prepare foods and leftovers from the fridge. He carried the plate upstairs to James’s room and found his mate laying on the bed, glasses off, staring at the ceiling.

Sirius went over and sat down, putting the plate on James’s legs, where his lap would be when he sat up. “Here.”

“I said I’m not hungry,” James mumbled.

“Eat, you’ll feel better,” Sirius said, echoing Remus. Speaking them made him miss Remus more than ever before and he cleared his throat. “Please, Prongs. Eat something.”

James struggled to sit up and put his glasses on his face and Sirius held the plate steady and the two of them sort of shared the mess of food in silence, each picking at the mish-mosh of sandwich and potatoes and greens and beans that sat upon the late.

“What did the mediwizard say?”

“He’ll die but they don’t know when,” James summarized. “He’s already lived longer than he should’ve, basically, so they don’t know how to help him. They’re just gonna fumigate his lungs and remove the scales and… and wait. Wait ‘til he dies.”

Sirius frowned.

They finished all they could stomach of the food and Sirius put the plate on James’s desk. Lily had sent their things to the Potter house with Bubo, and Sirius dug into his bag to find his pyjamas. He found Lily had put a little zippered pouch in the bag, and inside was a kohl pencil - brand new - with a sharpener and a note that said simply incase your eyeliner smudges. He smiled at the little note and slid the whole thing back into his bag. When he’d changed, he helped James change and get back into bed and James took his glasses off again and lay there blinking back tears.

Be strong for Prongs, be strong for Prongs, be strong for Prongs… he needs you, Sirius told himself. Mr. P needs you. Mrs. P needs you. They all need you. And you gotta be strong.

There was an icy cold whisper… a stirring in his chest and Sirius pursed his lips.

Intruder. Intruder on the family. Achlys.

They’re my family too. I belong here, I’m one of them.

No, you wish you were one of them.


No. Mr. P says I’m his son. Fuck off Achlys. I … I have to be strong for them.

So before he could be dragged down by her, Sirius transformed into Snuffles. Achlys had little effect on him as a dog. He jumped up onto the bed and snuggled down, warm and soft against James’s chest. It was easier for James, too, he knew, to accept the snuggling when it was a dog he was hugging close and not another boy. And James needed to snuggle as friends more than anything in the world. Sirius could feel the tension and the fear in James’s arms as the muscles and nerve endings vibrated against him.




The next day, Lily bought a pack of cigarettes and sat at the end of the pier, where they’d sat on the night of the full moon, and she lit one just to watch the orange tip burn. She held the cigarette and one of the Polaroids that Sirius had taken - one of her and James on the carousel. They’d been ahead of Sirius, on ponies that sat side-by-side, and in the photo, Lily was clinging to the gold mast that held the pony she rode, laughing as the pony lifted and fell (oh the magic of wizarding photos), and James was standing in the stirrups of his pony, shouting, waving an imaginary hat over his head, a wide smile upon his face as the background blurred and spun by.

Below, she could see Petunia and Vernon walking on the beach.

Suddenly there were footsteps on the pier behind her and Lily turned to look up and there was Jasper Odair.

She hurriedly put out the cigarette and put the Polaroid in her pocket, standing up. “Jasper. What’re you - what’re you doing here?”

“I thought that was you.” He smiled, quickly taking her hand to help her up. “My family came for the day… I spotted you from --” he pointed back the way he’d come. A younger boy stood there, watching, waiting, looking anxiously over his shoulder at the rides on the boardwalk. “That’s my brother,” Jasper said, “Mum didn’t want him wandering the boardwalk alone, so I’m taking him down to the ferris wheel. D’ya want to come with us?”

Lily looked back at the sea, then nodded and followed Jasper down the boardwalk toward the little boy, who was bouncing foot-to-foot.

Jasper smiled as she slid a hand over Lily’s shoulders, “I’m so glad you’re here… so glad I found you. What a coincidence, huh?”

“Yeah,” Lily nodded.

She tried very hard to push Sirius Black’s voice out of her head - Oh he FOUND you did he? Bleedin’ hell of course he did!

Jasper hugged her close, “You seem blue.”

“I’ll be alright.”

“I’ll see to it that you are,” Jasper said, smiling, and he kissed her temple. “Edgar,” he called to the little boy as they neared him, “This is my girlfriend, Lily Evans, the one I’ve told you about.”

“The Gryffindor?” Edgar asked eagerly, looking up at Lily with awe. “I wanna be a Gryffindor!” he told her.

Jasper laughed, “I told him the Odairs have been Hufflepuffs for generations but he doesn’t listen. He comes to Hogwarts with us this September. Just turned eleven this week.”

Lily said, “You can be any house you like. Tradition means nothing.” She was thinking of Sirius Black as she said it. She paused, then added, “Happy Birthday.”

Edgar Odair smiled. “Thanks.”

Lily’s hand kept absently going to the photo and the pack of cigarettes in her pocket, as though they were worry stones and as long as she was touching them, things would be okay for James Potter. For the time being, that was the best she could do to protect him.