Swear On My Life

Chapter 2: In the Moonlight

As the final rays of red, orange and yellow began to fade from the darkening sky and the moon began to show its face to the night, James Potter and Sirius Black finished their dinner and headed to their rooms to get changed. Tonight would be their first night, after two years of intense training, facing the Deatheaters and Lord Voldemort; Sirius Black, James Potter and their friend Tracy Williams made up the Order of the Phoenix. James remembered when Dumbledore had first approached them in their seventh year and told them what he knew about the legendary Order and how their special powers were not just unique but a part of history as well. Ever since then, James, Sirius and Tracy had all been training endlessly, developing and refining their powers. Sirius, the oldest, could freeze objects in air; James could deflect oncoming curses and spells; Tracy had the ability to move objects with her mind (telekinesis).

Though the three were very advanced and excelled as a team, something, well actually, someone, was missing: the fourth member. After years and years of searching, Dumbledore still couldn´t find the missing link of the Order; he had tested all his top students, but none of them ever showed any special abilities, and despite the fact that they were all strong, none of their talents could be compared to the much fantasized about strength and grace that the fourth, and youngest member was said to possess.

As James slipped into his long, black, hooded robes, he charmed his silver wire glasses to be black, that way, they couldn´t reflect any moonlight and blow his cover, though he couldn´t stop his dark blue-black eyes from twinkling with excitement. He ran the plan over in his head; the three would arrive together, then split up, each of them taking a different point (think triangle). Then, when the time was right, they would begin the surprise attack. After one last glance in the mirror, James grabbed his wand, called to Sirius, and prepared to face his nightmare: Voldemort.

As the three started to walk towards the wood and Voldemort, James started to say,

"Okay you guys, remember the plan okay? We can´t blow this, there´s too much at stake, just focus and wait until all the Deatheaters are kneeling at Voldemort´s feet to start all right? Good luck, if we do this right, we´ll be able to turn in at least a dozen of them tonight."

"Hey I thought I was the one who got to give the pep talk, I´m the oldest!" Sirius said.

Tracy just rolled her eyes and muttered,

"I can´t believe I´m the youngest, I´m the only mature one around here."

Suddenly, other robed figures began popping out of the darkness, all of them gathering around the Dark Lord´s robes. James thought to himself. Finally, when all of the Deatheaters were down, James was the first to react. Taking aim at the short, plump, robed figure nearest to Voldemort (::ahem:: short...plump...take a guess at what I´m implying ^_^), he screamed

"Stupefy!"

James stood, momentarily stunned, as all the Deatheaters immediately whipped around, without a minute´s hesitation, and began shooting spells at him. Blocking an oncoming jet of gold light with a wave of his hand, James yelled "Stupefy!" again, and again, countless times; the more of them he could catch, the better; at least this way he would be able to bring them back and lock them up in Azkaban for good.

He heard Sirius screaming "Expelliarmus!" and turned to see dozens of wands frozen in motion while the owners looked on in terror. At the angle to his right, he could see Tracy´s wand emit jets of light also, while her other hand rested on her temple, initiating her powers and he knew that somewhere in the sky, floated at least two Deatheaters. As the chaos continued, the Deatheaters had started to scatter, and James suddenly found himself facing something else. In front of him, maybe three feet away was a figure in a black robe, but this one had no hood. He was staring into the soulless red eyes of Lord Voldemort.

James started to panic . As he stood rooted to the spot, he could only imagine how stupid he must have looked. Still petrified with terror, he heard a shriek and started to shake, knowing that that was Tracy. Was she dead? Minutes later, a tortured scream shook the night, as James still frozen, listened to his best friend Sirius screaming for his life (Cruciatus Curse).

Finally snapping out of it, James raised his wand and prepared to do the Disarming Spell on Voldemort, when he heard the snake like voice say:

"So this is Dumbledore´s so called Order of the Phoenix? Nothing but three pathetic children that he wanted to be rid of no doubt. But first, why don´t we make you suffer a bit hmm?"

All of a sudden, a red light was shooting directly at James, and he raised his hand to deflect it. As the shrill voice began to laugh, James realized that he was already very weak and quickly getting weaker; he had already deflected so many strong spells and curses that his power and energy were draining; he felt like passing out. If Voldemort decided to hit him again with another curse, he wasn´t sure he could block it.

Slipping away from reality, James managed to open his eyes once more, he needed to try to do something to defend himself from Voldemort, he needed to stun him, if not to disarm him. Again the sound of screaming filled his ears and he couldn´t think, didn´t know what to think. Suddenly the laughter stopped, and James realized that there were more than two screams now, and that they were for the most part masculine sounding. Popping noises once again filled the air while a cold voice screamed

"You cowards! Abandon me and I will see to it that you pay!"

Fighting for life and attempting to focus his vision on the black figure approaching him, he realized it was Voldemort and heard a faint whisper. A wand began to move. James let his eyelids drop, he didn´t want to see the sickening green light, and he tried to block out the words that so many before him had already heard.

"Avada Kedavra"

Suddenly, another voice cut through the night. A female voice was screaming "No!!" while a brilliant, shimmering white light enveloped James and another figure on his close right.

James opened his eyes and realized that the light was forming a shield around the two of them, but he didn´t realize how, after all, the figure´s wand was pointed at Voldemort, not at James, how could the Shielding Charm (remember who´s good at charms??) work if it wasn´t pointed directly at him? Concentrating on the robed figure next to him, he saw that the person´s wand was emitting a jet of red light aimed at Voldemort. He heard Voldemort´s evil voice curse in surprise his wand was blasted away, and he was blown off his feet.

Confused, James looked at the person next to him again, and saw that the white light was coming from her outstretched, flexed hand. As pain took over his mind and body once more, James couldn´t fight it any longer and let his head fall to the soft forest ground once more.