Title: Interrupted
Pairing: James/Severus
Rating R
Notes: Character death or rather, the character is already dead. The occasional lyric that springs up is from Stephen King's 'Kingdom Hospital' theme song called 'Worry About You' by Ivy. It's actually a rather surreal tune in itself. It can be downloaded from about four places I know of if someone wants to give it a listen. I got my copy from http://www.stephenkingshortmovies.com/ . Go to Sounds on the side panel, and it shows three graphics. Click the first one with the 'Kingdom Hospital' logo on it. The song as well as lyrics are below.



It was a witch who read it.

"We of the Wizengamot do find the accused, James Christopher Potter, guilty of the murder of one Severus Tiberius Snape."

Light from some unseen source glinted on her hair as she lifted her head. Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot, Albus Dumbledore, turned towards the others. His voice was subdued thunder when he spoke. "I now ask the jury, to raise their hands if they believe , as I strongly do, that this crime deserves a life sentence in Azkaban."

Even if they hadn't, chances were that Dumbledore held more than enough power to sway people to his side. A sea of hands arose from the right of the room. The crowd was subdued except for those of Slytherin House, past and present, who rose and began to clap and cheer viciously. The old man's eyes were cold when they turned back to James Potter.

"Take him," he said more than the Dementors standing by than James.

At the age of eighteen, two months shy of his nineteenth, James Potter was consigned to Azkaban for life.

Bye bye baby.
Don't be long.
I'll worry about you while you're gone.

The Daily Prophet - Special Edition
1 June 1980
All the News of the Wizarding World

JAMES POTTER SENTENCED TO AZKABAN FOR MURDER!

Auror James Potter was sentenced to life in Azkaban today for the murder of Severus Snape, an employee of Slug & Jiggers Apothecary in Diagon Alley. Although the body has not been recovered, more than ten Aurors and Hit Wizards arrived on the scene when hearing pained sounding screams as well as agonized howls and saw Mr Potter carrying the bloodied corpse of the deceased before Apparating. It was said by one that the dead man's head had nearly been severed completely, blood still dripping down to the cobblestones although it was clear that Snape had been dead for sometime by the waxy pallor of his skin as well as glazed eyes. The rest of the body was hidden in the folds of Mr Potter's Auror robes as he walked past the group. Two hours later when Mr Potter was arrested, his clothing had still been soaked through with blood and littered with bits of bone. When asked why none of them acted to stop Potter, it was universally answered that they had been too shocked to even consider doing such. The Ministry as well as the Department of Magical Law Enforcement has found all ten of them, including Potter's long-time friend Sirius Black, innocent. Anyone in their position would have been stunned to inaction as well according to Amelia Bones. Until now, James Potter had been considered by his associates and co-workers to be one of the best Aurors out there, perhaps someday to be appointed Head Auror.

It is unclear what motivated the attack and subsequent murder or where Potter hid Snape's body.

James Potter was married just a little under a year ago to Miss Lily Evans. The couple is expecting their first child next month. Inquires to the family and friends of Mr Potter were returned unanswered.

There was one tense moment at the trial where Albus Dumbledore, Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot and the now-revealed guardian of Severus Snape, stopped Mr Potter just as the Dementors were leading him away to Azkaban and asked him where he had placed the deceased's body so that it could be properly interred. It was at this point that Potter showed the only emotion since the trial began. His eyes turned away briefly, a wetness to them as if he had been about to shed tears before his entire face tightened and he turned away from Albus Dumbledore as if not seeing the man at all. Potter said nothing, merely waiting until Dumbledore told the Dementors to take him on to Azkaban.

Albus Dumbledore has hired the best finders in the world to recover the body of his surrogate son with no success yet.

I'll think of you in my dreams.
You'll never know just what you mean to me.....
....to me.

It was well into his third month at Azkaban when James realized that he could no longer remember what Severus' hair felt like when it slipped through his fingers.
At the end of the fourth month in the second year, he could no longer remember what Severus smelled like.
When the fifth month of the second year began, James began to record what memories he did have of Severus on the walls of his cell with the only ink he had... his own blood. Not all of them were recorded there. The first red and then rust coloured writings never spoke of what had happened that night or where the still unrecovered body laid. When Albus Dumbledore was called there to see them, he blasted the writings off the walls in anger before anyone could stop him. James Potter glanced up at the now empty walls, dug his ragged quill into a fingertip to wet it and began again. He never answered any of the questions or pleas that Dumbledore put to him, ignoring him as if he existed not here in Azkaban but in his own world of memory. It was the same when they had told him that Lily had applied for and been granted a divorce or when Remus and Sirius visited once a month. Instead, he wrote out a life with Severus Snape that no one had ever suspected across the walls of his prison.

Bye bye baby.
Don't be long.
I'll worry about you while you're gone.

We knew it was dangerous, him being with the Dark Lord and me being with the Order as well as the Ministry. We don't get to pick who we fall in love with, merely pick up the cards we are dealt and play them the best we can. I wanted to love Lily. I really did. It was empty compared to those times. I never have figured out if it was just that Severus and I knew each other well enough to know what acids to stir up or that the line between love and hate truly is that thin. I remember the first day after graduation that I had been going about the busywork that I had been given at the Academy when I whirled around at a noise behind me with the word 'Snivellus' already on my lips. It died away there when I realized that it was just an aide down the hall shuffling a few papers. It was a surreal moment when I knew then that I might never see him again, someone who had been there unerringly for nearly everyday of my life except for summer for the past seven years. I thought I still hated him then, but it was as if in realizing that, I had lost some part of myself that left only a hollowness behind. Nothing could touch that empty place. I found him one night in Diagon just as he was leaving work, and warmth came to that cold place again even as the first insult tripped off my tongue.

I'll think of you night and day.
I'll never know just what you meant to say....
....to say.

Long years had gone by since Dumbledore's last visit, the old man nearly begging to please tell where Severus' body was hidden. He stayed as silent then as he always had.

"Because you had to," a soft voice whispered against his ear, warm fingers beginning to card through his hair.

His glasses had been broken within the first month by an overeager Auror. He didn't have to turn over to see who it was, to know the owner of that smoke and velvet voice. James drew in a deep breath, smelling licorice, juniper, and a hint of green woodchips smoldering. That was what Severus smelled like. He remembered now. Slowly, he tried to get his body awake, too thin fingers reaching for his beraggled quill, one of the many that Moony kept bringing him after all these years. Those had their own ink in them, but James always dumped it out and used his blood instead. Maybe then, Severus could read it or know that he meant it. A hand that was warm and unmarked reached out to take his own, holding it gently before drawing it back without the quill. The last time he had seen that hand, the imprint of heel had been driven through it, shattering the fine bones. The fingers had been cruelly crushed, stomped on given the marks. The nails had been peeled off. James' breath hitched in his throat, a hot sting of tears infecting his eyes. Careful arms moved about him, drawing him back against a source of heat, wrapping him in robes that smelled of woodsmoke.

"I had to," he croaked, voice gone rusty and broken with ten years of not being used.

He could feel the face resting against his shoulder nod in agreement. "They told you when they tossed my still-breathing body to you that you could go ahead and bury me wherever you wanted, but that they would dig me up and bring me back. Bring me back as a shambling corpse for them to torture and kill over and over again."

James sobbed, head hanging down with his now too long hair dangling down to his thighs. He didn't want to turn around. He was too afraid to see the thing that Severus had become. They must have found where he'd been buried all these years. He didn't want to see that broken nose, jaw, and cheekbone with that ugly rupture at the back of his skull. It had been in that same swell of Severus' skull that he used to cup when they kissed. He didn't want to see the splintered ribs that had poked out of his lover's shirt like small spikes or that shattered bones of his legs and the crushed pelvis. Severus had still been alive when Walden had dropped him at James feet. James' first thought had been how someone could live in that sort of agony. He had lifted his lover, mindless of the Death Eaters grouping about and laughing at his pain. The blood on Severus' lips had been shockingly red against the paper-white of his face, moving as his eyes locked on James although no sound came out. After telling him what they would do, James had begun screaming, howling like a maddened werewolf as his lover shuddered and died, leaving him to hold that shattered body within his arms. In had been in a daze that he had taken Severus away then, petting his face and whispering to him how everything would be all right, that he was here now. Taken him away and hidden him where not even the great Albus Dumbledore had been able to find him. Years ago, Albus had covered for James and his friends when a practical joke had gone so terribly wrong, but there had been no mercy in him when James had robbed him of his only child, surrogate or no.

"Please..." he whispered.

That undamaged hand touched gently on James' chin, forcing the other man to look at him with the care that a mother would have used to turn a child about. James choked on his breath, his own too thin arms reaching for the somehow unblemished Severus. Instead of the bloody pulp that had been cast at his feet, Severus was the same way he had been when James had seen him in their shared flat. He was even wearing one of James' old shirts, one that had a snitch embroidered at the cuffs. When he kissed James, it wasn't a cold touching but a warm one, alive and sweet.

"It's time to go, James," he said quietly, drawing him up to his feet slowly. "I've been waiting."

If he had finally gone truly insane, James didn't care. He felt stronger than ever as he held Severus' hand tightly and followed.

Bye bye baby.
Don't be long.
I'll worry about you while you're gone.

The Daily Prophet
9 Feb 1991
All the News of the Wizarding World

Today at Azkaban Wizarding Prison, Aurors reported that James Potter had died in his sleep. Our readers may remember James Potter as the Auror turned murderer who killed Severus Snape on the 28th of May, 1980 and was sentenced to life in Azkaban for his crime. The body of Severus Snape has never been found. Sources inside the Ministry had to say...