The Marauders - Order of the Phoenix - Part Two

I Hope You Feel OWL Better Soon

"CAN YOU FEEL HIM YET, EVANS?" James shouted. He was running so fast, his feet were struggling to stay beneath him, especially as the beach sand gave way under them and his torso plunged forward without pause. He looked over his shoulder, Lily was closer to keeping up than Snape was. Severus was trying, though, James had to give credit where it was due - even if he was shocked to see it was due to Severus Snape.

The beach stretched away, grey-looking and hazy. To the north, the islands of the Hebrides were black shapes on the horizon over the water. The Jenkins had moved, the old house where they'd lived before was empty and sad-looking, the beach dull and empty. There were loads of shells and driftwood, washed up and cluttering the shore that had once been thriving with life. It was more akin to how James always remembered it now, cold and joyless, tainted by bad memories.

This, he prayed, would not be another one added on.

"CAN YOU FEEL HIM YET, EVANS?" he shouted again.

"NO!" Lily yelled back, and she stumbled in the sand so that James stopped and wheeled about, returning to pick her up and steady her. He waited for Severus to catch them up.

Severus's face was screwed up in concentration.

"Anything?" James asked, hoping that Severus's legilimency worked the way picking up a radio signal does.

"No," Severus said, and though he knew better, he sort of hoped his legilimency would work the same way, and he was pushing himself to feel, to reach, to find... but there was nothing. Of course, Regulus likely had his walls up, Severus realized, which would neutralize anything he might have heard anyway.

Lily was shivering. James shrugged off his coat and put it around her shoulders, rubbing her arms.

Severus rubbed his temples, trying not to watch as James touched her. "Potter... What do you usually do in your dreams before you find the watch?" Severus asked, his jaw tight.

James's eyes turned and his hands dropped away from Lily's. "I search for it..." he said and he went tearing off toward the shore, where the water was lapping the beach and he traipsed right into it up to his ankles, splashing around, looking down, his eyes searching the sand.

"James!" Lily cried, hurrying after him, buttoning his coat around her. The sleeves were longer than her arms so her hands were tucked up inside. It was still warm from him, but she still felt cold. Especially watching him kicking up water and sand, knowing the ice-cold sea was soaking through his Gryffindor trainers, and splashing up to his waist in the water. "Come out of there, you'll freeze!"

James was getting more and more frantic.

Severus came to a stop beside Lily, "Potter! Think perhaps that searching for the watch in the water might be a metaphor?"

"JAMES!" Lily yelled at her husband.

Severus sighed, hating the feeling of the panic rising up in Lily, and he waded into the water after the other boy, grabbing hold of James's shoulders and pushing him back to the shore. "You... are scaring... Lily." He pushed James out of the water as he struggled to climb out himself, the give of the sand making it hard, and the tide itself drawing roughly back.

Lily caught James before he fell forward.

She stared into his face, "James. Calm down. Please. I'm scared, too, but --"

"It's my fault."

"What? How? It's not your fault, James - how could this --"

"I should've known the watch was his, I should've seen this coming --"

"James, you can't see everything coming."

"I SHOULD HAVE SEEN THIS! I've been having this dream about the clocks and the watch, and before that, I've had nightmares for years about this -- this damned beach --" He waved his hand around the beach around them, "This place - this place has HAUNTED ME, Evans. How did I not KNOW --"