Chapter Text
- P A R T 1 -
'Hold, hold on, hold onto me
'Cause I'm a little unsteady
A little unsteady’
Unsteady by Ambassador X
J A M E S
James Potter did not do well in confined spaces, which was ironic having grown up aboard the Elder which was nothing but confined spaces. In short, the cell was his version of hell.
He paced it often. He exercised. He sat with his face pressed up to the tiny window, catching glimpses of earth below them every time the ship turned the right way. Most of all, he waited until his birthday.
He hadn’t been locked up that long in the grand scheme of things. Only six months and he only had one more month before he would turn eighteen and finally be released from the ship to float in endless space alongside his father.
He was torn from his morose thoughts by the sound of the alarm blaring.
It was odd because James was fairly sure he had never heard an alarm like that. He still had several hours before the guards were due to bring in his next meal, and he hadn’t been allowed to leave the cell once since he had been unceremoniously shoved into it.
He sighed heavily and scrambled off of the little ledge he had settled on beside the window. But before he could even get his footing on the ground, the door was barged open and two guards hurried in, followed very quickly by his mother.
Euphemia Potter was a force to be reckoned with and she always had been. Even when James had been a very young child, he had always known this. People listened when she spoke, she commanded the kind of attention and respect that very few knew how to wield. But she knew how to wield it with a precision and certainty that left James in awe.
“Mum?” His jaw felt like it had gone completely slack at the sight of her. The guards stopped on either side of the door and watched Euphemia closely as she hurried over to take James in her arms.
“Hi sweetie,” she said as she clutched him tightly to her chest. The warm embrace made James feel like he was about to start crying. He hadn’t been certain that he would ever hug his mother again, or that he would even see her before it was his time to be floated out into the stars. But here she was, very real and right in front of him.
“Mum, what’s happening?” James demanded into her shoulder. It was a slightly awkward hug based solely on the fact that James had outgrown his mother by age 15 and now stood at least a foot taller than her. He was crouched slightly to allow himself into her embrace, but he didn’t really care about how strange it would look to anyone else.
“It’s happening,” was all Euphemia said, before pulling away and placing a hand on each of James’ shoulders and looking him straight in the eye.
“What?” James almost bellowed. Distantly he became aware of the sound of many people moving through the corridors of the lockup. It sounded like some people were struggling and shouting. A horrible truth dawned on James and his eyes widened with horror.
For all of his waiting and wondering, he had thought that he would have one more month of nothing before he would die.
“They’re killing us all aren’t they?” James blinked quickly in an attempt to keep the rapidly forming tears from falling down his face. He had to stay strong for his mother, who had only recently lost her husband. He was okay with this, he had come to terms with dying already. He felt far less okay with it under his mother’s eyes. In fact he felt like he was five years old again all of a sudden. He gulped. “They’re reducing the population to give more time for the rest of you. How many of us are there? 50? 100? That won’t buy enough time and you know it-”
“James, stop,” Euphemia said. “They’re not killing you.”
“What?” James blinked rapidly, confusion overtaking him.
“They’re not killing you,” Euphemia said again. “They’re sending you to the ground.”
The ground.
Oh .
“But it’s not supposed to be habitable for another four generations,” James said.
“Things have changed,” Euphemia replied. “Stretch out your arm for me.”
James did as she asked and offered her his wrist. With careful, practised hands, from years of performing surgeries too complicated for James to wrap his mind around, Euphemia placed a metal bracelet around James’ wrist and closed it. It hurt a bit, but James didn’t wince. He just continued looking at his mother’s face for any answers he could get.
“Listen to me carefully James, this is important,” Euphemia said. “They’re sending all 100 of the juveniles currently in lockup to the ground to see if it’s survivable-”
“So we’re being sent to a radiation-infested planet just to die?” James scoffed. “They may as well float us.”
“I’ve seen the readings. We think it’s survivable,” Euphemia said. “We’ve lived in space for years James, our bodies have adapted to higher levels of radiation. But don’t interrupt me. When you get down there, you’ll be dropped off near an old nuclear bunker. There will be supplies there, you get them, you stay safe, you stay alive and you wait for the rest of us to follow.”
“You’re coming too?” James asked. “I don’t understand.”
“The readings from these bracelets will prove to Crouch that the ground is survivable,” Euphemia said, tapping the bracelet on James’ wrist lightly. “That’s all I’ll need. But you need to promise me to be safe.”
“I promise,” James said immediately, without even a second thought.
“No James.” Euphemia shook her head, “I need you to promise to look out for yourself first, before anything. I know you, you’re good. I know you, but please for once, put yourself first.”
“I’ll try,” James said weakly.
Euphemia gave him a pained smile. “I’ve put as many medical supplies as I was allowed into the shuttle. There is a few days' worth of food in there too. But get to Mount Hallow and get those supplies.”
James swallowed, finding his mouth far dryer than he remembered it being just moments earlier. “Mum I-”
“No goodbyes thank you,” Euphemia said stoically. “I will see you again. On the ground James. This is the chance your father dreamed of.”
James nodded. He reached under his glasses and scrubbed at his eyes, determined to clear them of tears.
“Mum, I love you,” James forced out.
Euphemia smiled again. “I love you too darling. Now, it’s time for you to go before Abbott and Selwyn here are forced to drag you out of the room.”
James drew his mother into a hug again, resting his chin on top of her head, just in time to see a boy with familiar dark curls and green eyes being escorted past his room by two of his own guards. Their eyes locked briefly and James saw nothing but panic in them.
“Sirius,” James choked out. All of a sudden realising what all of the juvenile prisoners on the ship being sent to the ground would mean for his best friend. “Mum, please tell him that I’ll look out for-”
“He knows James,” Euphemia patted his back and spoke into his chest. James wondered if she was using the momentary concealment to pull herself together and be the strong leader she always had to be on the Elder. He never knew how she did it. He could never be as good at keeping his pain to himself as she was.
“Make sure-”
“I’ll keep him from doing anything stupid.”
“Thank you.”
“Now it’s time to go, James,” Euphemia patted him on the back again and he finally released her.
“Okay,” James nodded and heaved a heavy breath. “Okay fine, but I’ll see you soon, yeah?”
“Of course darling,” Euphemia smiled a warm comforting smile. James only saw the worry in her eyes because he knew his mother so well. That was the last thing he said to his mother before he was being escorted from the room. I’ll see you soon. He wasn’t certain that he really believed his own words.
It seemed that he was one of the last ones to leave, all of the cells stood open and empty now. Some showed signs of struggle. Torn bed sheets, scattered papers. But there was no longer any sign of the 100 juveniles who were always kept locked up here. It felt slightly eerie to James, despite not having left his room in the six months since he had been placed there, there were always the sounds of other inmates around. Now it was silent apart from the squeak of his own shoes and the noise of the guards walking either side of him.
He walked silently, with his head down until they reached a part of the Elder that James had never been allowed to enter before. He was marched through some doors and was hit by a wall of sound and confusion.
They were in a shuttle. The walls were lined with seats, which had heavy seatbelts on them. Every seat was occupied by someone, and a few guards remained, buckling people in and checking that everyone was behaving. James’ stomach dropped slightly at the thought of the guards leaving. Surely there had to have been a better plan than sending 100 juvenile delinquents to the ground? Apparently not.
“Take your seat, son,” said one of the guards who had escorted him- Selywn - James thought. The man gestured to an empty seat and James froze seeing who was already buckled into the seat next to it.
“James!” Peter tried to rise from his seat, but he was already securely strapped in so didn’t manage much more than a pathetic flop.
“Oh fuck no,” James snarled. “What the hell are you doing here?”
“I came for you James!” Peter’s eyes were wide and glassy, almost begging. James couldn’t stand the sight of it.
“Mr Potter, you have ten seconds to take your seat before we will be forced to make you,” said Selwyn.
“You can try,” James replied curtly. “I’m not sitting with him.”
“What are you? Four?” The girl strapped to a seat beside Peter chuckled. James recognised her immediately. Marlene McKinnon who had lived in the room across the hall from him until she was arrested. “Don’t want to sit next to old Petey here? Thought you two were mates.”
“Stay out of it, McKinnon,” James snarled. “It’s none of your fucking business.”
“5 seconds,” said Abbott, pulling his taser out of its holster. “Your mother said you’d go quietly Potter. We really don’t want to have to manhandle you.”
“Well too bad, she didn’t mention that I’d have to sit next to - argh.”
James had hardly started his complaints before the taser was in his ribs and he was being violently shoved into the chair and having the buckles done up for him. By the time his body stopped violently twitching and he could breathe properly again, the guards were gone and the doors which he had come through were shut.
“Smooth Potter,” Marlene grinned at him over Peter. “Real fucking smooth.”
“Oh piss off would you,” James stared pointedly ahead, refusing to look at Peter.
“I’ve been dying to know what got you shoved into solitary,” Marlene asked. “Perfect Potter-”
The words were stolen from her lips as the engines of the shuttle engaged and the ship detached from the Elder with ease, throwing all of their heads back against the seats and stealing the breath momentarily from their lungs. The screens all around the ship flickered on.
“Prisoners of the Elder.” The image of Bartemius Crouch flickered onto the screens. He was standing in front of a bland wall that could’ve been anywhere inside the Elder, but was likely his own office. “You’re being given a second chance. As your Minister, it is my hope that you see this not just as a chance for you, but a chance for all of us. For mankind itself. You are going to earth. To discover if it is habitable. We have no idea what is waiting for you down there. If the odds of your survival were better, we would’ve sent others. Frankly, we are sending you because your crimes have made you expendable-”
“Your dad’s a fucking dick Crouch,” someone yelled across the shuttle and James felt his eyes torn from the screen to see a grinning Barty Crouch Junior sitting across from him.
“Don’t I know it!” Barty replied. The gravity in the shuttle shifted and James found that he was no longer pressed back against his seat, but he was rather weightless instead.
On the screen, the Minister continued to deliver his speech. “-your crimes will be forgiven, records wiped clean. This is your chance to make something of yourselves. The shuttle will land at a carefully chosen location not far from Mount Hallow. It was a military base built within a mountain. It was stocked with enough non-perishables to sustain three hundred people for up to two years. That is your only chance of survival-”
“James, look at me please?” Peter pleaded beside him.
“I don’t want to,” James gritted out, pointedly keeping his eyes staring straight ahead.
“Just hear me out okay?” Peter said. “I didn’t think they’d float him! I thought someone would be able to speak some sense into him before he-”
“You didn’t think they’d float him?” James tore his eyes away from the screen to glare at Peter. “That’s what they do Peter.”
“But I didn’t realise-”
“Hey Potter,” James turned back to face forwards only to see a grinning Barty Crouch floating upside down in front of him. “So what’d you do then? How’d you land yourself here with us despicable criminals? Never pegged you for one.”
“There’s a lot about me you don’t know Crouch,” James pulled in another heavy breath, trying to still his rage. “You should get back to your seat before the parachutes deploy and flatten you against the ceiling like a pancake.”
“Well, you know me, can’t resist a good space walk can I?”
“You wasted a month of O2 on an illegal space walk Barty,” James blinked at him. “For what? The shits and gigs?”
“Something like that,” Barty’s lips quirked up into a grin. The grin was gone from his face the moment the parachutes deployed and his body was thrown upwards, just as James had predicted, smashing into a mess of wires and pipes, sending smoke and sparks billowing.
“Barty, are you okay?” James demanded as Barty’s prone form was thrown back to the ground. Barty threw a thumbs up as he grabbed onto the straps of his own seat and pulled himself into it. Barty Crouch must’ve had the best luck in the whole world because that should certainly have broken his back.
“That was fucking brilliant!” Barty yelled over the sound of chaos. There were screams and shouts everywhere. Somewhere a computer was beeping loudly. Debris were being thrown around the cabin, James watched as a bit of pipe struck a girl on the other side of the shuttle. Blood began to gush down the girl’s face.
“James!” Peter yelled as the shuttle seemed to spin out of control. “I don’t want you to die hating me!” James glanced over at Peter, whose eyes were wide with fear now. He clung to the straps keeping him in his seat. “I didn’t mean to get your father arrested- I just-”
“They didn’t arrest my father, Peter, they executed him!” James bellowed over the engine noise. “I do hate you!”
As if prompted by James’ yell, the cabin went completely dark. James leaned his head back into the seat and squeezed his eyes closed.
If this is how I die, at least my body will make it to earth, James thought vaguely.
Then, all of a sudden, with an almighty shudder. It was over. The lights flickered back on and James opened his eyes, suddenly aware that he had never heard quiet before in his life because there was nothing. No low hum of engines and generators. Nothing but the sound of people breathing.
With shaking hands, James quickly undid the buckles and was out of his seat before Peter could get the chance to say anything else.
“Is anyone hurt?” James asked quickly, eyes scanning over everyone.
“The door’s down here!” Someone shouted from below. For a second, no one moved. Then there was a sudden scramble all at once to undo the buckles and head to the ladder.
“Get it open!” Someone else below shouted.
“Wait!” James hurried down the ladder first, dropping down into a very similar-looking room, with the only difference being that there was a large empty panel of the room which was clearly a door.
“Stay back!” Someone was saying in an authoritative tone. “Give me a second yeah?”
“Wait!” James said again. It was crowded down here, everyone was already out of their seats and were thronging towards the door. James unceremoniously began pushing his way through the crowd. “The air could be toxic!”
“If the air is toxic we’re already dead!” Someone else in the crowd replied.
“Open the door!” Someone else yelled. This was met with a chorus of cheers.
James felt his heart speed up as he finally made it to the front of the crowd and -
“Sirius?” he demanded, blinking his eyes rapidly in case the figure in front of him was a strange dream brought forth from his months of solitude (James wasn’t entirely certain that this wasn’t all a dream yet, but he hadn’t really had an awful lot of time to think about it).
It wasn’t possible that he was here. Sirius was eighteen already, if he’d committed a crime he would’ve been floated without a second thought. But here he was, standing there, hand on the lever to open the door, wearing a guard uniform with a gun strapped to his hip and a slightly manic glint in his eyes that James knew meant nothing good.
“Why are you in a guard’s uniform?” Was the only thing James could think to say.
Sirius barked a laugh. “It’s good to see you too James.”
“Yeah, that of course,” James blinked again, still trying to convince his brain to believe what his eyes were seeing. “What the hell are you doing here?”
“Didn’t think I’d let you have all the fun?” Sirius grinned a wicked grin.
“Open the door!” Someone yelled again. Muttering flew through the crowd, which only continued to grow larger as more people piled down from upstairs.
“Sirius?” Someone had materialised like a ghost beside James and he jolted slightly as Sirius’ eyes flew away from James and to his little brother.
“Hey Reggie,” Sirius grinned, “You’ve grown.”
James found himself looking now too. Beside him stood Regulus Black. James had only seen him twice before. Once earlier that day as he was escorted to the shuttle past his room, and once two years earlier when Regulus was pulled out of his parents’ room, kicking and screaming.
Regulus was older now, stood taller, and held his head higher.
“You haven’t,” Regulus offered.
“Open the fucking door already!” Someone yelled again. More cheers.
“Do you mind?” Sirius snapped at the crowd. “I’ve not seen my little brother in two years.”
Regulus took a few steps forward until he was right in front of Sirius. James couldn’t help but notice that both of them were coiled so tightly it was as if they were about to start punching each other.
James had never pretended to understand what existed between Sirius and his little brother. Perhaps no one else would be able to understand it, because no one else on the Elder had any siblings. It was an old law, designed to stop population growth and help conserve the limited O2 that the ship had access to. Each couple could only have one child.
The Blacks had broken that rule. They had been floated for it.
Sirius never seemed to spare his parents a second thought. The only thing James had heard about them after they died was ‘Good riddance’. Regulus, however… James knew that Sirius loved his little brother more than anything. Sirius had given up most of his life to protect Regulus. First from being discovered by The Elder, then from his parents.
James knew that the Blacks were not kind to their children. James had spent enough time patching Sirius up. Offering him a refuge and an ice pack whenever he needed it. But Sirius had always gone back. Then one day, two years ago Sirius had shown up at James’ doorstep with blood on his face, tears in his eyes and only one phrase on his lips. “I did something bad.”
James hadn’t understood until they had gotten to the Black’s quarters and found the guards already there, pulling Sirius’ parents from the room. Sirius had given his parents up to the guards. He had told James later through tears as James helped him clean his wounds.
“I just wanted him away from them!” Sirius had sobbed as James cleaned his knuckles. “I didn’t realise they’d lock him up.”
“I know mate,” James had replied. He had finally understood then why Sirius had always gone back to his parents no matter what they did.
“Do you think they’ll let me see him?” Sirius had asked. “I need to explain- we’re better without them!”
Sirius had not been allowed to see Regulus once and his parents had been floated for their crime. Sirius knew it was his fault. James hadn’t really understood Sirius’ pain until he had gotten his own father killed. He understood it now.
Regulus and Sirius had a silent stand-off for a moment before Regulus drew his fist back and punched Sirius directly in the jaw.
“Owch- what the fuck!” Sirius complained, cupping his jaw and looking at Regulus with accusing eyes.
“You deserved that,” Regulus said blandly, still glaring at Sirius, his eyes narrowed.
“Yeah I did,” Sirius grumbled.
“What the fuck are you doing here Sirius?” Regulus demanded, his words were surprisingly sharp. Not at all the quiet and shy boy Sirius had always described.
“Not happy to see me then?” Sirius asked, still holding his jaw.
“No,” Regulus replied flatly.
“Yeah, fair enough,” said Sirius.
“A guard’s uniform?” Regulus cocked an eyebrow.
“I borrowed it to get on the shuttle,” Sirius said.
“Why?” Regulus demanded.
“To look out for you,” Sirius said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.
Regulus seemed to be holding himself back from punching Sirius again. He rolled his eyes instead.
“Open the fucking door!” Someone shouted again.
“Alright- alright!” Sirius sighed heavily and pulled the lever. Blinding them all in sunlight as the door slowly opened.
James sucked in a sharp breath. He wasn’t sure what he was expecting from the ground. But it certainly wasn’t this . The door had dropped down to create a little ramp from the shuttle down to the mud below. The sunlight was dazzling and it took James a few moments to get his bearings. When he could see again he saw an awful lot more green than he had ever seen in his life.
There were luscious green plants everywhere, brown trees stretching up to the sky, James felt like he might fall over from the sheer blueness of the sky. It was overwhelming in the most wonderful way possible.
It smelt amazing too. Everything on the Elder always smelt like disinfectant and stale air. The air that poured in through the open door now felt… well fresh. James was suddenly struck by the fact that this was the first time in his life that he breathed real air that hadn’t been run through O2 scrubbers several hundred times already.
Someone stepped down the ramp, very slowly, tentatively almost. James would never have used that word to describe Barty Crouch Junior before then, but the way he moved could only be described as that. He stepped slowly and confidently until he was at the end of the ramp, then jumped down onto the ground.
He grinned a slightly manic grin as he turned back to face the group.
“Oh, we’re so back bitches!”
Chaos ensued. James supposed he should’ve seen it coming, the crowd had been growing more and more restless every second that Sirius had delayed opening the door. Suddenly, everyone was in motion all at once, charging out into the potentially radioactive forest ahead of them, whooping and cheering as they did.
James saw Regulus cast a hesitant look at Sirius before charging off after the crowd. Sirius made to follow him, but James strode over and placed a hand on his best friend’s shoulder.
“Give him a minute maybe?” James suggested.
Sirius sighed heavily and drew his hand through his long hair. “Yeah maybe.”
“It’s good to see you mate,” James patted Sirius on the shoulder. “But respectfully, how the fuck are you here?”
“Later?” Sirius suggested. He glanced back over his shoulder into the shuttle. “They might need some help mate.”
James turned to see the girl who had been struck with the pipe earlier clambering down the ladder with one hand to her face to stop the blood from a gash in her head. There was another boy out cold, still strapped to his seat, leaning forward precariously as if he would slump the second the straps were released.
Years of helping his mother in the infirmary had not prepared him all that well for this, but James supposed he was probably the closest thing to a medic that they were going to get down on the ground.
“Come here,” James sighed heavily, gesturing to the bleeding girl. “Sirius, check if that kid’s alive and see if there’s a medical kit anywhere.”