Chapter Text
There was a sharp sting, and a flash of light. That’s the last thing James remembers.
Next thing he knows he’s opening his eyes in a very white room. He inhales sharply. He remains still for a moment; he has no way of knowing if he’s been captured by Death Eaters yet. His next movements could make or break his escape. Without moving his head he scans the room above him for any sort of clue as to his whereabouts. All he can see is a white ceiling with softly glowing white tiles scattered throughout. Those look unlike any lighting he’s seen in places he’s been, so he could either be somewhere very far away from home or somewhere very muggle. He doesn’t let his guard down at this however, his captors could be holding him somewhere unfamiliar on purpose.
As slowly and carefully as he can he moves his head to the right. Now he can see a door on the far right wall. He can’t see any windows and there doesn’t seem to be any daylight entering the room. That could mean its night, he thinks to himself, the last thing he remembers was walking alone at night so maybe not much time had passed. The door is ajar and beyond it he can see a brightly lit white hallway. Near the door is a series of white cabinets and countertops with various unfamiliar instruments sitting atop. Between him and the right wall is a tightly made bed on wheels, there is a curtain between where he lays and this bed but it has been pulled to the side. There is no sign of anyone on this side of the room.
James takes a deep breath and slowly turns his head to the other side of the room, again moving as little as possible. On the left side of the room are two more beds, the one at the end has the curtain pulled around it and he can see the silhouette of a person standing over the bed. James’ eyes widen, he is not alone in here as he had hoped. There are no other doors on the left side of the room so the one on the right is his only route of escape.
James watches the figure on the other side of the curtain for a moment, they are moving but from what he can see it seems like they are doing something to a person on the bed. Perhaps the person in the bed is hurt and the mystery person is a healer? That thought may be too hopeful considering the entirely alien environment he’s woken up in. He’s been to St. Mungo’s and the hospital wing in Hogwarts and those look nothing like this other than the beds with curtains around them. The mystery person seems to be taking their time so James should make a break for it while he has the chance.
As carefully as he can he lifts his head to look down at himself. He finds that he is tucked into a bed identical to the ones on either side of him and he is wearing a light blue tunic. He frowns and glances to either side, maybe his wand and cloak are nearby? He sees nothing and resigns to the reality that he will have to make his escape with no wand and no cloak.
James holds his breath as he pulls back the sheets. He hears a clatter from across the room and his head shoots to the curtain, still drawn around the bed at the end. He hears a soft curse from the mystery person as they bend over to retrieve something from the floor. James takes the moment to sit up all the way. When no reaction comes from the mystery person he carefully gets his feet to the floor on the right side of the bed and begins to stand up.
Then it all went sideways, literally.
The moment James put weight on his feet his legs gave out and he tumbled to the floor. The mystery person shrieked at the noise and James heard the curtain being swiftly pulled back. James had fallen onto his side facing the right wall and when he heard the curtain pull back he attempted to crawl to the door and escape. The mystery person ran across the room and crouched in front of him. She spoke, slightly out of breath, “Oh goodness, good morning sir, I’m so sorry you must be so confused. Why don’t you let me help you up and I’ll explain everything?”
James paused and gave a wary stare to the woman. He could now see she was a stern looking woman in her mid-thirties, with her brown hair pulled tightly back into a bun, and she wore a light blue uniform with a name tag clipped to her right shirt pocket. The name tag read ‘Nurse: Alice Jones.’
She reached out her hand to help James up off the floor. He accepted with brief hesitation, this woman looked fairly harmless, but he supposed not everyone was as they seemed. Once he was seated on the bed Alice scurried over to the cabinets on the right side of the room and pulled out an array of items. She returned to James’ side with a thick black cord with a circle at the end draped around her neck, a sack with a tube sticking out of it in her left hand, and a notepad in her left. She set down the weird looking sack and got a pen from her pocket.
“So,” she began, “I haven’t had to do this bit of my job in a while so please excuse me if I’m out of practice.”
James nodded, confused but no longer quite so afraid. Alice didn’t even have a wand on her. She might be a muggle.
“You have been in a coma since the 31st of October 1981. You were found near Kings Cross at ten in the evening by a stranger who called the authorities. You had no identification on you at the time and we have been unable to identify you since. No one has come to identify you either. Please state your name and date of birth so I can put it on the records.”
After her short speech, Alice looked up at him expectantly. James thought he must have paused for too long after her last question. “I- er- my name is James Potter, I was born 27th of March 1960. And I’m sorry but what day is today?”
Alice had been jotting down his answers and looked back up in surprise, “Oh I suppose I forgot that bit, it’s December 4th, 1993.”
James froze. He had no idea what to do. He had been here for twelve years? Surely he heard her wrong surely, she made a mistake. “What?” He asked, feeling somewhat frantic now.
Alice set down her notepad of a small bedside table he hadn’t yet noticed. She gave him a sad look and nodded solemnly. “I’m sorry sir, but you’ve been here, asleep, for over twelve years.”
Alice began to set up the weird tool with the bag, “I just need to run some tests on you, all routine as nothing seems to be physically wrong with you- “
James interrupted her by standing abruptly. “I need to leave, where are my clothes?”
Alice looked startled but tried to ease him back onto the bed. “They’re just in this cabinet but before you can leave I need to run some tests to…”
James stopped listening and instead opened up the cabinet she gestured to underneath the bedside table. Inside he found his clothes neatly folded with his wand on top. Thank merlin the muggles hadn’t discarded it thinking it was just a stick. He began getting dressed right where he stood, not caring that Alice was still standing next to him, spluttering to try and get his attention for her tests.
Once he was finished dressing and had thrown his robe over his shoulders he tucked his wand into his pocket. No need to break the Statute of Secrecy to escape this harmless muggle woman. James excused himself as politely as he could while also rushing out of the room without giving Alice a second glance. Once in the hallway he looked in either direction, and went in the direction where he heard the most noise, hoping that was the lobby.
He eventually made it out of the muggle hospital and once he was on the pavement he took a deep breath and looked around. It was either very early morning or late at night, the sun was not up and it was biting cold. He pulled his cloak tighter around himself. Where was he supposed to go? No one had found him in twelve years in that room, surely someone had come looking for him? The fact that no one had, told James that something terrible had happened after he had been attacked. Because yes, he was sure he had been attacked. That’s what the sting and the flash of light were. He never saw his attacker; they came at him from behind. But he was certain whoever it was cast some sort of curse on him that left him asleep for twelve years.
James considered his first course of action. Should he go straight to the Order of the Phoenix? Straight to Dumbledore? Surely the wise wizard would know what to do and what had happened in all this time.
No. He needed to find Lily and Harry first. He hoped they still lived in Godric’s hollow, though it was unlikely. But with no other leads or a place to start, James turned on the spot and apparated home.