Shallow Sleep

Chapter 1- To live or not to live?

"Woooooo! Two weeks and we got ourselves Easter break... then only a month and a half till graduation. Oh, man, Jamie, you need to see my flat! It is the ultimate shag pad," Sirius Black said to his best mate James Potter; who at the time was snuggled up next to his lady, Lily Evans (soon to be Potter). The two had gotten engaged right before they started their seventh year. Everyone, except for their friends, thought it was too soon. James' opinion on the subject was 'hey man, I finally got her, I'm not gonna let her go." Lily was quoted to have said "when it feels so right, why wait?"

"Yeah I do. Has Remus seen it yet?"

"Yeah I have," Remus said, trying to hide the blush that was creeping up his cheeks.

James cocked an eyebrow but decided against saying anything. James had been suspicious of his two best friends since the first week of school. Usually when you hear moaning coming from your best mate's bed you can assume he's shagging. When you hear him scream in ecstacy 'OH! Remus... HARDER!', you can assume who it's with. It was all just a waiting game for the two to be out with it. But it was Lily that choose to probe further.

"So, was it as shaggadelic as Siri says it is?"

Both Sirius and Remus opened their mouths to retort, but were silenced by Hagrid bursting through the doors of the great hall with a large bundle in his arms. The only thing that was visible were two feet and an arm hanging out of the cloak the boy was wrapped in.

"Headmaster Dumbledore, Sir! I found a young man at the edge of the forest! I brought him to the infirmary but everyone was here already, Sir."

Dumbledore stood, panic and worry etched across his wrinkly face. With a wave of his hand he cleared off the head table and the table cloth became a black blanket.

"Place him here Hagrid." The old wizard's fears were coming true. Voldemort had struck again. There was a recent wave of attacks on muggle villages. Worse case scenario, old Voldie had sent a human message.

"From the distance that I spotten 'im at, I thought it to be young Potter, Sir. But when I got closer I saw that it wasn't 'im," Hagrid said as he placed the boy on the table. The boy wasn't stiff... good sign.... he wasn't dead... yet.

Dumbledore pulled the cloak that Hagrid had wrapped around the boy back to get a good look at him. The members of the staff gasped. Unruly black hair, strong jaw line, slender nose, small yet shapely lips, high cheek bones.

"Dear Merlin, Headmaster, I would swear that was Potter if I didn't know that he was sat at my table this very moment," McGonagoll said, placing her hand on the boy's forehead. It was burning hot.

The boy's look was ragged. He was wearing black dress slacks and a white button up shirt, which was ripped open. He was bleeding from every orifice of his body, and had bruises around his eyes and mouth. A large scar could be seen starting just below his left nipple and traveling down to his hip.

As the staff huddled around the boy on the table, the gossip began. Who was the boy? From what people could see, no one was missing. What house did he belong to? Was he even a student? Maybe he was a boy from the town, already graduated?

"James, I thought I heard them say your name," Sirius said, trying to get a look over Professor Octavian's shoulder. "Blasted Octavian, too tall for my own good."

"No way, why? What can you see?"

"Dunno, and not much. Black hair.... white shirt....ermm... that's it."

"Bugger."

At the Slytherin table, the conversations were pretty much the same. The people at the front were trying to see over a professor so they could pass on the word to the other members of the house.

"Who do you suppose it is?" A young Lucius Malfoy asked his best friend.

"Dunno, but by the looks of his trousers, he's a student," stated Constantine Zabini, but if you called him Constantine to his face you would be harmed in a very unpleasant way. ("It's C.Z. - call me that again and I swear you will be sent to the seventh circle of hell.")

Back at the head table Professor Octavian summoned a few things from his office to check on the young lad. Dumbledore came to the conclusion that all of the blood on the boy was not his, and that the blood could conclude who the attacker was. Octavian took a swab of the blood around the boy's mouth and placed it in a vile, shook it, then taped it with his wand. He stared at the results for a moment then spoke.

"It's veela blood. I need to do another test." He placed his wand over the boy's stomach and chanted a few worlds. His stomach began to glow blue, then the blue light began to spread up his arms and down his legs. The light came back up his arms and circled around his heart. "It's in his body. This is bad. When you wake him up it will kill him."

At the Slytherin Table, Lucius spit out his pumpkin juice. Did he just hear the head of his house say what he thought he said? Veela blood? Lucius felt distressed. The boy would die. Something inside of him didn't want him to die. He couldn't.

"Professor, Sir! You can't. There's no way he'll survive it!"

"Mr. Malfoy, we know what will happen. But you can't expect us to just let him sleep." Professor Octavian could sense his top student's stress. He walked to the boy and placed a hand on his shoulder. "There's nothing we can do. I'm sorry."

The rest of the school was far too confused. Why was Malfoy worried about some kid he had never met? Maybe the boy was an ex-slytherin... better yet, 'maybe they were lovers' a few of the girls at the Hufflepuff table were over heard saying.

"Okay, guys this is weird. I know Malfoy isn't a bad guy, but usually he stays out of stuff that doesn't involve him. Do you think he knows him?"

"Hmm maybe, James. And I think that Octavian knows something we don't," Remus said, eyeing Malfoy.

"Should we move him to the infirmary?" Madame Pomfrey said while buttoning the boys shirt to keep him warm.

"No."

"But Sir, I don't think the students should see one of their own go through this."

"I have faith in this young man, I think he may survive it. Something tells me that he has survived worse," Dumbledore said, eyeing a nasty scar on the boy's forehead.

Octavian stood in front of the school and cleared his throat. He was the most liked teacher in the school, even the Gryffindors had no beef with him, which was shocking considering he was the potions professor and head of Slytherin house.

"Attention students. You are about to see something... well to say the least... horrible. So if you have a weak stomach I would request leaving now. And those of you who stay, brace yourselves."

No one budged. Dumbledore waved his hand over the boy's face and he began to stir. His eyes fluttered open and they landed unfocused on Dumbledore's face. He began to smile but his face fell quickly, his eyes widened and he began to shake. The students didn't see this of course. The next thing they heard after Octavian's announcement was a bone-chilling scream come from the head table. Lily buried her face in James' chest, and began to cry. He wrapped his arms around her to comfort her but it was no use. He wanted to cry as well. Why though? 'I don't know the guy.... but... I can't watch this.' He buried his face in his fiancee's hair trying to hold back the tears.

"Stop! That's inhuman, man!" Sirius yelled jumping from his seat, but the boy on the table continued to scream. "C'mon.... no one deserves that!"

Remus jumped up and joined Sirius in the protesting. While doing so he looked over to see Malfoy, ghostly white, grabbing onto C.Z's shoulder for support. He looked to have tears in his eyes, and was clutching his chest breathing heavily. He almost seemed to be in pain too. Remus was snapped out of his thought when the boy on the table rolled off and hit the ground. Some of the professors ran to the boy to pick him up but were stopped by the headmaster.

Once he hit the ground he stopped screaming and got onto his hands and knees. Madame Pomfrey did manage to get the blanket over him, which he clutched with one of his hands. He was shaking so uncontrollably that he almost lost his balance. After a few minutes, the shaking stopped and he hit the ground. Everyone went silent. Octavian moved slowly towards the young man on the ground and kneeled in front of him. He lifted the blanket with his wand and place his hand on the boy's neck.

"He's alive. But just. No wait.... his pulse is getting stronger. His body is regenerating itself. It worked," Octavian said in complete shock. No one had ever survived this before. Many had tried to become veela, but all ended up six feet under. A normal human body can't take the kind of magic veela DNA possesses. Even a veela would have trouble taking in that much blood. A veela's body is born with certain aspects, strengths, and bone and muscle build. Even the changes that they go through during puberty happen at a regulated speed to not cause any damage. Adding an unhealthy amount of veela blood into a normal human body causes the DNA structure to change, which causes the physical aspects to change as well. All of those changes happen at once. The body goes into shock and shuts down. But this one worked. The boy stirred. Then moaned. Then tried to get up. Octavian pulled the blanket off of him and helped the boy up. The other professors ran to their sides for more support.

Lucius had stopped breathing. 'It worked' was all he could think.

"Damn Octavian, he's still in the way," C.Z said, balancing on one knee with a hand on the head of the boy in front of him, trying to get a better look.

Finally when it was agreed to take the boy to the infirmary, Octavian moved out of the way and the whole school gasped. There stood a very pretty James Potter. Shoulder length soft black hair, porcelain skin, glowing emerald green eyes. As the professors helped the young man walk, he looked at a very stunned group of Marauders. As he passed them he looked at James and Lily, who were still huddled together and smiled. It was a pained smile, but a smile none the less. When he walked through the Hall doors the gossiping began. Sirius looked at James, then the boy's retreating back, then back to James, then at Lily, then the boy, flashback of the boy's eye color then back to Lily.

"NO WAY!!!!! I CAN'T BELIEVE IT... SOMEHOW I THINK I KNOW THAT GUY! THIS IS AWESOME!!"