#he got tired after sneaking into the restricted section and…I feel like classes are kind of boring to him

[myokk]

[im-the-king-of-the-ocean]

Jim Lake Jr. and the Amulet of Daylight (Part 2)

Book 1 Part 1 Link (covers Jim becoming the Boy Who Lived, growing up, arrival to Hogwarts, and Sorting).

There’s going to be a Part 3, cause this got long before I reached the end of HP1.

After thinking about it some more, I’ve returned Miss Janeth to being the Matron of the Hospital Wing (she was briefly going to be the Charms Prof in a post I made about TH Hogwarts Teaching Staff).

Content Note: References to major character death (Barbara is Lily Potter so she died saving Jim in the past).

And here we go!

Jim, Toby, and Claire left the Vault as they found it, but afterwards Jim had a strange, prickly presence in the back of his mind, like something was calling to him.  Unsettled by it, he’d refuse to listen.  But Jim had a weird feeling he wasn’t done with the Amulet of Daylight.

Life returned to normal, with the noted change of Claire becoming Jim and Toby’s friend.  Though, the friendship between Jim and Claire happened a bit quicker than it did for Toby and Claire.

This may have been due to the fact Toby went home for the winter holidays, but neither Claire nor Jim did.  Claire, because her mother was the Minister of Magic and it was easier for her if Claire just remained at Hogwarts.  Jim, because his father had been caught by the muggle police for some minor crime or another-Jim had stopped keeping track of all of them ages ago-and would be in prison through the spring.

Thus, Jim and Claire found they had Hogwarts almost to themselves for a few weeks and used that time to explore and have adventures.

They got lost an entire day because the staircases kept changing.  After hours of roaming and chatting, they managed to find the perfect, most comfortable sitting room to rest in for a bit.  However, when they tried to find it again later, they got lost a second time as the room had apparently vanished.

After a heated discussion on the matter, Jim and Claire formulated a plan to sneak each other into their respective common rooms to compare which had the better view.  Claire argued Ravenclaw Tower, as it had a breathtaking view of the sky and the grounds.  Jim, Slytherin Dungeon, because everyone could see the sky, but not everyone got visited by a giant, bioluminescent squid regularly.  In the end, they agreed both common rooms were nice in their own ways.  It was much more fun trying not to get caught than to argue anyway.

They briefly considered daring each other to so see how close they’d get to the Whomping Willow, but neither could go through with it.  They had an epic snowball fight instead.

Kanjigar, the head of Gryffindor House who taught Defense Against the Dark Arts, was Jim’s least favorite professor (due to the fact that Kanjigar always seemed to pick on Jim in class, asking him tough questions he clearly couldn’t know the answers to and such).  He also happened to be one of the professors who stayed on the grounds during the break.  During Jim and Claire’s snowball fight, he may have been walking by and Jim may or may not have “accidentally” thrown snowballs in his direction.  Five times.

Jim got in trouble for this, but decided it was still worth it.

A bit of work came in the form of Claire insisting they research the Amulet of Daylight in the library after Jim told her about the persistent, weird presence in the back of his mind.  Though they spend hours reading books, they came up with no explanations as to why it was happening.

For the first time in his life, Jim received holiday gifts that weren’t whatever odd item his father had easy access to and could shove in his general direction.  A big package full of cookies, fudge, candies, odd and unique stones Toby thought he’d like, and a warm sweater knitted by Toby’s Nana arrived for him from the Domzalski house.  Claire gave him a book of new recipes he’d never heard of before.

Jim’s gifts to his friends subsequently were to make (and send, in the case of Toby) them which dessert treat he thought they’d like best.

One quiet morning, Jim took a plate of fresh muffins he’d baked the night before down to the Hospital Wing and asked Miss Janeth for stories about his mother.  They’d spend the next few hours talking.

Jim learned his mother had been the first hat-stall in over a decade.  The Sorting Hat had debated back and forth between Gryffindor and Hufflepuff for her.  Gryffindor, because it sensed great fierceness and stubbornness in Barbara.  Hufflepuff, because it saw in her a deep kindness and desire to improve the lives of others.  Barbara had gotten tired of its contemplations and told it to decide already.  There were others waiting.  The Sorting Hat took this into consideration and declared her Gryffindor.

Jim didn’t know how to feel about this, being a Slytherin himself, but he wouldn’t admit that to Miss Janeth.

One of Miss Janeth’s favorite memories about Barbara, as she told Jim, was Barbara’s aspirations of combining muggle and wizard medicine.  Upon finding out that wizards used none of the muggle world’s advancements, Barbara had set about trying to change that.  If, she’d reasoned, both worlds could help so many people, think of what they could do if they worked together.

After telling Jim that, Miss Janeth went silent.  She walked back to her office, remained there for a few minutes, and then came back with a few of Barbara’s old notebooks and journals she’d managed to keep.

Jim didn’t understand pretty much anything scribbled in those books.  Both because the concepts were far too advanced for him and because his mother’s handwriting was as horrible as his own.  But he loved being able to hold something she’d once held and run his fingers over her chicken-scratch notes and doodles.

When he returned to his dormitory, Jim found the final gift he would receive.  A delicate parcel he found by his bedside.  On a small card attached to it, written in shimmering green ink, were the words:

To Jim Lake Jr.

To protect you as it did your mother and I on our wanderings of the castle

May you have just as many adventures

There was no name signed anywhere on the card, but it did smell strongly of the Potions classroom (though this only occurred to Jim some time later, when classes started again). Jim unwrapped the parcel to discover a fine Invisibility Cloak.  His first use of it was to play a prank on Claire.

Then, one night, Jim woke in a panic and rushed from his dormitory.  Something was wrong, something with the Amulet of Daylight (he wasn’t sure how he knew that).  He threw the cloak over himself to traverse the castle undetected until he reached the Vault.  Outside it, unseen, he witnessed a standoff between Kanjigar and a figure concealed in shadow.  He couldn’t catch most of what they were saying before they left, but he knew what was happening.

Kanjigar was trying to steal the Amulet.  Jim was sure of it.  And he had to be stopped.

The next night, Jim used the Invisibility Cloak to sneak into the Restricted Section of the library, looking for clues on the Amulet of Daylight (and how to keep it safe).  Alone, because, if he got in trouble, he didn’t want to get Claire in trouble with him.

Jim opened one book, which screamed at him.  Jim ran.

Panicked, Jim didn’t look where he was going and end up in a room he’d never been in before.  One with a strange mirror.

The mirror called to Jim in, drawing him in close.

Rather than see his own reflection, Jim saw a young woman, one a few years older than the 7th years, in the mirror.

At first, Jim didn’t recognize her.  He’d never actually seen the woman before in his life.  He found the way she smiled at him a little bit unnerving.  But then he’d look at her eyes and know.

All his life, Jim had been told he had his mother’s eyes.  He’d never really understood why.  Sure, his eyes were blue, but lots of people had blue eyes.  They weren’t that special.  Except that they were.  His mother had had blue eyes, like him, but the shade of blue they were was deeper and a bit more indigo that what was usual.  They stood out in such a way that people noticed, and, more importantly, remembered.  Jim had inherited those same eyes.  He’d just never thought them unusual before because they were his.  But looking at them on someone else, he began to understand.

“Mom?”  Jim whispered.  The woman in the Mirror of Erised, Barbara Lake, nodded.

Tentatively, Jim walked to the mirror.  His gaze never left Barbara, who watched him in return.

“umm…hi?”  He offered her in greeting.  Jim bit his lip and adverted his gaze.  What did you say to the mother you never knew?  When that mother also happened to be in a mirror?  “You…you aren’t real, are you?  You’re just a magic mirror.”  His voice choked up.

Barbara knelt down so she was at Jim’s level.  She smiled at him in the way he always thought a mother would smile, but said nothing like Jim so desperately wanted.

He didn’t know what he wanted her to say exactly.  Something motherly.  Something…once, while in Diagon Alley buying groceries, Jim had witnessed a boy his own age being fitted for new robes.  The boy had stepped off the fitting stool and his mother had hugged him.  Jim stared at Barbara, knowing it was impossible.  He flattened his hand against the mirror’s cold surface.  

On the other side, Barbara’s hand met his own.

Jim’s vision swam before his eyes.  Tears trickled down his face.

“I just want to know you.”  He sobbed.  But there was no reply.  The mirror only showed desires.  It did not grant them.