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 186: The Aftermath

"Huff…" James exhaled and collected himself. Using a primordial flame was extremely taxing on the body, even if he didn't have to create the flames himself.

In reality, all alchemy flames already existed in different parts of the world. The alchemist merely called upon them and brought a fraction of their power into their location.

Creating something like that with just his magic would be impossible, even for someone as skilled as James.

"You still have some consciousness left?" His amber eyes were focused on the charred figure in front of him. He could feel some remnant of magic on her, despite her having been hit by his strongest magical attack.

"If that was not enough…" His hands moved to the deepest pockets of his robes and pulled a small black stone from it. It was none other than the Philosopher's Stone that had recently been created. James lifted it up and got it close to his mouth as if he were getting ready to consume the artifact.

But just then, he stopped.

The witch seemed to move, only for her body to fall into pieces of charred flesh and bones. These turned into dust as soon as they hit the ground and dispersed into the air.

James sighed and stored the stone back into his pocket. "That was close."

He was really glad for not having to use his last resort, had the witch survived the Primordial Flames. It would have been very costly otherwise.

"Mister Potter!" Professor Slughorn and Dumbledore walked over the burned ground to get to him.

James turned to them. "It's over. The witch is gone."

"Yes… we can see that." Dumbledore was watching the cinders of the witch being spread by the winds. "Can you tell us who that was? And why did she do this?"

"I'm sure I will have to answer that to the Aurors that you have certainly called already. You can be present when I give my explanation of the events if you wish to, Headmaster." James responded to the old wizard, being aware of how much he liked to know everything.

"I see… I suppose I will have to wait for a bit." Dumbledore said before pointing back. "In the meantime, if you still have the energy, I'm sure your friends will be glad to speak with you."

James nodded and began to walk away from them.

"Mister Potter, wait!" Professor Slughorn called for him.

"Yes?"

"What kind of alchemy flames did you use to cause… all of this?" the professor asked with pure curiosity.

"The oldest one," James answered. "Now if you excuse me." He left the burned area behind and walked to where his friends were waiting for him with anxious expressions on their faces.

Before he could get close enough to start speaking, he noticed that Bella was already running at him.

"What are y—" James had no time to finish as he had to grab the girl when she jumped into his arms.

"That was incredible!" Bella gushed with excitement before kissing him.

'Not this again…' James groaned while the rest of the onlookers stared at the bizarre display of affection.

"Did Bellatrix Black just do that?" Marleen asked while rubbing her eyes.

"Is that really my cousin?" Sirius looked at the others. "Did someone hit her head while I wasn't paying attention?"

"Wow, they are… together…" Remus muttered.

"I'm not sure we should be watching this now…" Lily looked away.

"What the…" Snape looked completely shocked.

"You go, Bella!" Andromeda cheered her on.

"Have some decorum…" Narcissa rolled her eyes.

"When did you two get here?!" Marleen got startled.

"We got here right before that giant fire. Did James really do that?" Andromeda commented.

"He did…" Remus responded, although he still had no idea what that was.

"I'm more interested in who that crazy witch was. Did you guys see how she punched the dragon?" Sirius said.

"She was a shopkeeper from Hogsmeade," Lily told him.

"I'm sure there was more to that," Sirius said. "I mean… can you imagine Madam Rosmerta doing something like that?"

"I didn't mean she was the average shopkeeper…" Lily huffed. "She called James a thief… she wanted something from him."

"Thief? Hmph! James may have little respect for rules and laws, but he is no thief," Sirius said.

"Yeah, I wouldn't really put that much trust in that witch. She didn't look very sane to me," Remus said.

"At least Potter killed her," Snape added. "First good thing he has done so far."

"Oh, there he comes." Marleen pointed at James. He was walking with Bella, clutching at his neck. "I have never seen Black smile so much… it's creeping me out."

"She does need to smile more," Andromeda nodded in agreement.

"Everyone okay here?" James asked as he arrived.

"We should be the ones asking that, don't you think?" Remus said.

"Did she hurt you?" Lily asked with concern.

James shook his head. "Not injured. Just a bit tired, that's all."

"Are Primum and the others going to be alright?" Bella glanced at his rings. She had never seen James push them so much.

"They just need some time to recover, but it shouldn't affect them in the future." James removed the white ring from his finger. "Here, why don't you hold onto Primum?"

"Okay!" Bella happily accepted the ring.

"Did you really make those creatures who were fighting before?" Peter asked.

James nodded. "I did."

"We knew you were good at potions but this…" Remus let the words hang.

They didn't need to be Albus Dumbledore to figure out that James had been hiding a lot of his skills, even from his best friends.

"I understand that you probably have a million questions," James said.

"Nah, maybe just a few hundred," Sirius added.

"Right, but we may have to leave that for later." James glanced back at the entrance of the village.

Several figures dressed in black cloaks began to appear.

"Who are those?" Marleen asked.

"Ministry agents… Aurors," James answered. "And I think they are here for me."

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