Raindrops On The {J} Window Pane

[James Sirius Potter]

James watched Zane as he was thinking and nodded when he heard his advice. Yeah that's logical. That way I can still be with her without blowing it and then if I'm still sure by the end of the year I can do it. Plus it gives me time to warn mum and dad and get a ring. He looked down at the last crumpet and took out his wand and cut it in half taking half for himself and offering the second half to Zane. "Thanks for the advice. I think I will do that, it's the most practical." he said smiling. He suddenly thought of something and said "Completly off topic, but how are we gonna get Keaton to stop going after Lily?"

[Zane Lestrange]

Zane smiled as James offered him half of the last crumpet. He took a bite out of it whilst thinking about what James was saying, whilst nodding in the appropriate places. When he heard Keaton's name, he quickly finished the crumpet and refocused his mind back on task. "Well, I've been thinking about that. It would help if Lily stopped wandering off on her own, especially to the Forbiden Forest and the Shrieking Shack." He paused for thought, trying not to think about how close Keaton had actually come to killing his girlfriend. "The one thing we can't do is go after him. I know that's what you want to do and so do I, but it will simply provoke him and possibly act as a catalyst to his plans."

[James Sirius Potter]

James nodded as Zane said his ideas, but frowned "I made her promise not to wander off on her own and she didn't listen. Do you think she'll listen to us?" He flinched at how close Keaton had been to getting rid of another Potter. He listened to Zane and frowned shaking his head "I can't just sit here and let him live and get away with murder and attempted murder." he said knowing that this would probably end in an arguement. "If it's the catalyst I wouldn't care as long as he didn't kill anyone else."

[Zane Lestrange]

"James, the only way we can protect her, even more than we are doing, is to step infront of that curse for her," he sighed as he said this, "it's physically impossible to keep an eye on her and Keaton all the time." He listened to James' words carefully, nodding but then shaking his head. "We're not going to just sit here, but we're not going to go after him either," to anyone other than James Potter and Lily Potter, this would have been a very confusing statement. But of course, this meant that Zane had a plan, hopefully better than one of Lily's own.

[James Sirius Potter]

James nodded frowning wishing there was some way to watch the both of them and then suddenly smirked "It's not impossible," he said and took out the map and tapped it muttering "I sollumly swear that I am up to no good." and it opened. "We can keep an eye on them on this and then if they get too close we know." he smiled. He listened to what he said and at first frowned, but then smirked "Do I sense that Mr Lestrange has a plan in mind to get rid of the threat of Brendon Keaton?" he asked "Do tell."

[Zane Lestrange]

Zane smiled as James took out the map, finally James had it in the right place at the right time, instead of being locked away up here when they needed it the most. He didn't say anything for a few moments, having become almost hypnotised watching the small figures labelled with every name in the castle, wander about. He laughed to himself as he saw two figures labelled James Potter and Zane Lestrange, stationary in the Gryffindor Common Room. He raised his eyebrows slightly as he spotted another two figures, stationary in the charms classroom, Kianthra and Rowen Hemingway. He suddenly looked up and realised he had been staring at the map for quite a while now. "I might do James, but I really don't think I should tell you, seeing as though it breaks the golden rule that I have been enforcing all this time. But desperate times, call for desperate measures, don't you think?"

[James Sirius Potter]

James watched Lily's dot, she was in the library, though what she was doing there he had no idea. He smiled and looked at Lilah's dot and saw her in the hufflepuff common room. He then searched for Keaton's dot and finally located in the Slytherin common room with Xavier. He saw Zane raise his eyebrows and looked to where he was looking and spotted Rowan and Kia and frowned. Why did he have to pick her? He looked over at Zane and listened to what he said and smirked "I agree, desperate times call for desperate measures. I mean, if we don't stop him then both hers and my life are at stake." He watched Zane and added "Don't worry, we all value your golden rule, but in some cases you have to fight fire with fire. So what's the plan?"

[Zane Lestrange]

"The plan?" he said quietly, wanting to keep James in suspense for as long as possible. He checked over his shoulder, the common room was deserted, it seemed as though everyone had got the message that the two seventh years needed peace and quiet. "Well you're central to the plan James. I think the only way to stop Keaton, without killing him, would be to place a curse on him. It would only be a temporary measure, you must understand that. But, I think you should try and control his actions with the imperious curse. It won't be long before some DE member notices, but it will give you and Lily, some more time, which is what we are in need of at the moment." He paused, waiting for James' reaction, unsure of how he would act.

[James Sirius Potter]

James frowned waiting to hear the plan annoyed that Zane was keeping him in suspense. He listened to the plan and nodded "So what, I make Brendon meet me somewhere, he'll think I wanna duel, but I put him under that curse and get him to stop trying to kill me and Lily." he said wanting to get the plan straight, "At least for a bit. How long do you think we could keep controlling him for without them getting suspicious?" He secretly wanted to kill Keaton for killing Al and trying to kill Lils but he knew that that was never an option. "But then once we stop this curse and he gets back to normal isn't he gonna want my blood more?" He thought for a moment and shrugged "Well if he does at least he stops going after Lily and he's not a brilliant duellist, I could hold my own easily."

[Zane Lestrange]

Yes there were flaws in the plan, several in fact, but Zane couldn't think of anything better at that current moment in time. There was always the option of casting a memory charm on Keaton, but he had been known to break memory charms within a day, so that had to be a last resort. "A week at tops, but James, he don't want to get over confident, because there's every chance he could still go for Lily in order to get to you. I think we should help Lily, give her some private lessons or something like that..." he said quietly, knowing it would be tough to convince Lily that she needed lessons in duelling.

[James Sirius Potter]

James frowned and nodded "Ok so we put the curse on him and watch closely to make sure people don't realise then when we remove it we can think of another plan." he said slowly making sure he had the right plan. It crossed his mind that they could modify his memory and stop him from killing, but remembered the rumour that someone had done that a year ago and he broke through the charm in an hour. He turned to the other problem which was his sister's stubborness. "You do know Lily will never be convinced that she needs lessons?" he asked. He paused suddenly thinking of something. "Unless..." he paused thinking it through, "Unless we pretend its training for the second task?" he said smirking.

[Zane Lestrange]

Zane nodded, smiling as a fifth year screwed up a piece of parchment and threw it half way across the room to land on the fire. Zane made a mental note to ask for his name, seeing as though there were now a few more free spaces in the Quidditch team. He turned his attention back to James, just in time to respond to what he had just said. "I think you've cracked it, there's just one problem...how are we going to convince Lily to train when the task is two months away?"

[James Sirius Potter]

James watched the 5th yeaer throw the piece of parchment half way across the room and spotted Zane watching impressed. He frowned and said "Well maybe we could say that you want us to practice as much as possible and it's never to early to start?" he smirked that sounded like Zane. He looked round and said "I heard about Rosie, do you have any idea who you're gonna put as second in command now?"

[Zane Lestrange]

"You sounded just like me then, I've obviously said that too many times at Quidditch training..." he smiled as he said this remembering the time when the team had all said his pep-talk in unison before he had even spoken. Good times... "You know what James? I have absolutely no idea," he lied, the tell tale sign being that he tried to keep a straight face and failed miserably. It was common knowledge that Zane wasn't a good liar. In fact he was possibly the worst liar in the seventh year. The laughter always gave it away. One of the reasons why he had decided to always tell the truth to his New Order members.

[James Sirius Potter]

James laughed and nodded "Yep. And Lils will expect it anyway. Don't forget we all know your pep talk by heart." he smirked remembering when they had all said it in unison and ended up all in fits of laughter. He listened to the next thing he said and raised an eyebrow as he knew he was lying "Zane Cade Lestrange you will never be able to get a lie past anyone, but I can tell you want to keep it a secret so I'll let it pass." he said punching his shoulder playfully.