Disclaimer: I own nothing that you recognize, that would all belong to Ms. Rowling. Sad, but true.
Prophecy 587: 27-March-1914: C.T. to P.N.B.
In a time of war, she will come and give up family, comfort, and all that she knows, to save a world she knows not of; a world she will be born into, yet not believe to be real. Her time will be short, and nothing will be certain. But to succeed she must save her brother and friends from a horrible fate that awaits them on the other side of the lake, else a terrible fate shall come to take place.
She was watching two children watch the sun set. To her, they looked about five or so, and they appeared to be brother and sister by the way they had no patience with one another. There was a pathway behind them, leading to a small cottage. The girl kept turning back to look at the home, a small frown gracing her face.
"What's the matter?" The boy asked.
The girl sighed, and looked put out. "I just hate that Jamie is sick, Remmy. It isn't fair! We were supposed to get to spend the whole summer together before we leave, and then he had to get sick! I don't even want to move."
Remmy put his arm around her, half-hugging her. "I know, but we'll all be friends. For forever! I promise!"
The girl looked up at him with big green eyes. "Do you really promise, Remmy? No matter what, you'll never forget about us? 'Cause I know we won't ever forget you. You're our best friend!"
Remmy smiled. "I promise that I'll never forget you, Lila. You or Jamie. Not even if a zillion years go by!"
Lila smiled at him as the moon began to rise. "Come on, Remmy, let's go tell Jamie about the sunset! I'll race you back to the porch!"
With that, they were off, neither noticing the shadowed figure following them. The boy grabbed at the girl's hand, trying to find her when, suddenly, she wasn't there. "Lila?" he called out."Remmy! Help!" She screamed in a frightened voice. He ran toward her voice, when he saw it: some big, bony creature howling at the moon. Turning pale, the boy froze. The man holding Lila laughed as she was forced to watch one of her best friends get charged at and bitten by a werewolf. Then, she fell into darkness as the last words out of her mouth were "Remmy, run!"
She shot out of bed, panting heavily, as if she had been running. Quietly, she turned on a lamp, put on her glasses, and looked at her clock. Rolling her eyes at the red numbers that said 5:30, she rolled out of bed and put on her glasses.
Well, I'm already up. Might as well let Aeriy out to use the bathroom, she thought as she turned on the lights in the hallway. Whistling quietly, she heard the tell-tale signs of the Great Pyrenees puppy walking towards her.
"Morning, Aeriy. Don't suppose you want to go outside, do you?"
Outside seemed to be the magic word. The big, fluffy pup ran to the door, sliding on the hardwood floors before a loud thump was heard. Lila giggled as she shook her head. It seemed as if Aeriy would never learn to not run on the new floors—her paws were just too fluffy for her pads and nails to grip the floor.
Shutting the door as Aeriy pounced out, Lila went to her room to change into sweatpants and a comfy shirt. As she made her way to the back door to let Aeriy in, Lila saw her dart toward the woods.
Does she have to make a break for the swamp every time I let her out in the mornings? Lila thought as she crammed her feet into her shoes. Is it really so much to ask for a puppy that will just stay in the yard? It's not like she can fit through the fence slats anymore, so how does she keep escaping?! Grabbing the leash from the back porch and a flashlight, Lila made her way to the back gate of the fence that bordered the trees. Hmm…the wind must have blown it open last night. I hate hurricanes. All they do is bring rain and nothing to do for days. Making a mental note to tell her dad to find a fix for the gate, Lila ran into the woods toward the swamp, listening for sounds coming from the four-month old pup.
Her first clue that something was wrong was the whining noise. Aeriy only ever cried if she was hurt. Making a low whistle noise, Lila heard Aeriy bark off to her left. Shining her flashlight that way, she saw the puppy caught in brambles.
"See Aeriy, this is why you shouldn't run back to the swamp. You'll end up getting yourself hurt." Shaking her head, Lila sat down on the forest floor, slowly clipping the leash onto Aeriy's collar. "This might hurt a bit, sweetie. Just try to stay still." Grabbing her paw, Lila slowly began pushing the thorns back away from puppy. Aeriy buried her head against Lila's leg, whimpering as the girl pulled some of the thorns out of her back leg. Once Aeriy was clear, Lila gently led her back onto the path. Kneeling down to brush the leaves off of her belly and crest, Lila's hand brushed over Aeriy's collar as she scratched the puppy's ear. Darkness overtook them both as a pulling sensation occurred in their stomachs, and the two knew no more.
Lila woke up with a horrible headache. Her bed was unusually soft, and her pillows had imprints of her head on them. Taking her glasses from the bedside table, she looked around-and freaked out.
Instead of being lavender, the walls were bright yellow and the bedding was blue. The floor was carpet, not the wood floor with bright rugs that it should have been. The door was a dark, cherry wood, not a mellowed, yellow oak color. There was no clock in the room, but the sun shining through the window meant it had to be at least after eleven in the morning.
She took a breath, trying to remember what had happened. Her morning adventure in the woods with Aeriy came rushing back to her, but the pup was nowhere to be seen.
Shaking, the girl got up, and walked over to the closed door. Taking a deep breath she opened it. Looking down the hall she saw four boys surrounding a fluffy, white mass. Whistling quietly, the bark told her that it was Aeriy and she was safe.
"Umm...excuse me?" Her voice was so soft that all four boys jumped. She smiled slightly, pleased that she had surprised them a little. The pup got up, and trotted over, tail wagging happily as she saw that Lila was fine.
The boy with messy black hair came over. "Is there something you'd like? Do you need anything? How do you feel?" His voice was warm and somewhat familiar, but she couldn't for the life of her remember where he had heard it from.
"Some food would be nice. I'm ok, I think, but I have a bit of a headache. How did I get here?"
The other boys had come over as well; the shaggy, black-haired boy leaned down to pet Aeriy, who was more than happy to bask in the attention. The smaller boy who didn't seem to fit in with the others smiled shyly at Lila.
"We were walking by the lake-"
"-were just lying there-"
"-no idea where you came from-"
Finally sighing, the one boy who had remained silent interrupted. He'd been standing against the wall, arms folded across his chest. "If you three are done making fools of yourself, I think one of us should tell her the full story. Unless you want to make yourselves look even more ridiculous?"
The messy haired boy rolled his eyes. "Fine, Moony, we'll stop. Just tell her, alright?"
Shaking his head, he stood up straight before offering a hand. "My name is Remus Lupin. The boy who was just talking is James Potter, Sirius Black is the one with the shaggier hair, and Peter Pettigrew is the one standing next to him. This house belongs to James' parents, we're all staying here until the summer holidays are over and we have to go back to school. Why don't we head down to the kitchen, and we'll explain what we know?"
Storing the data away for later reflection, Lila nodded, following Remus and James, as Aeriy came up to walk next to her. The walk was quick and mostly quiet, except for the slight panting coming from the forty-five pound dog. Sitting down at the table, James and Sirius grabbed already prepared sandwiches and a jug of lemon water from the refrigerator. After seeing the boys dig in, Lila nibbled lightly on her sandwich. Aeriy curled up next to her chair after drinking from her designated bowl, put there earlier by Sirius.
"So, this is your parent's house, James?" Lila asked quietly.
James nodded. "Yeah, but they're both at work right now. Things have been pretty busy in their office, so we really only see them on weekends, some night if we're lucky. Mom will be coming home early today though; she wants to check on you again."
Lila looked quizzical. "How long have I been here? Was I asleep for very long?"
James shifted before looking over at Sirius, who answered, "You've been here since yesterday morning. We had gone out to walk by the pond when we found you and your pup just lying there. We'd been walking the night before, but none of us had seen you. You kind of just appeared. There were no footprints or anything—mum and dad both checked."
"Oh, do your parents live close by?" Her big green eyes cut through him.
Shoulders stiffened around the table as Sirius spit out, "No."
Catching her confused look, Remus added, "We all used to call James' mum and dad "Mama Potter" and "Papa Potter", but we've shortened it to mum and dad over the past five years."
Lila nodded, that made perfect since with as close as they seemed. Still, it didn't explain the tension that came from her question, but she figured she could always ask about it later—preferably when Sirius wasn't around.
"So, I just randomly appeared down by your pond? You all do realize that's impossible, right? You can't just magically appear somewhere!" Lila didn't understand—surely two adults would realize this. Where were the police? Shouldn't they have been contacted when she just "appeared" out of nowhere?
James looked at her, frowning. "What do you mean it's impossible? People do it all the time, that's part of what we can do, Lila."
She just stared at him as slight anxiety sat in. "No, people don't. And what do you mean by "part of what we can do"? Sure, magicians do illusions, but that's just a trick. Nobody can actually disappear in one place and reappear miles and miles away in the matter of a few seconds. It's impossible, everybody knows that. Could I borrow your phone, I should really call my parents to let them know that I'm alright."
All four boys looked at her, shock and confusion written on their faces. James was the first to recover. "We don't have a phone. But I'll go ahead and let my parents know that they're needed as soon as possible, and to bring the healer with them again—you must have hit your head pretty hard." He got up, Sirius and Peter following him out of the room.
Remus was looking at the girl, eyebrows pushed together. "Where are you from? I just realized—you have a strange accent."
Offended, Lila glared. "I'm from South Carolina, and I'll thank you to remember that I don't have a strange accent, you all do!" Crossing her arms, she continued to glare slightly before huffing and turning away to pet Aeriy.
Remus looked down, clenching and unclenching his hands. It had been a while since a girl had been angry with him—usually Sirius and James had that area covered. "I didn't mean to offend you. And I didn't mean it was bad; it's rather nice to listen to. It's just different from our accents. By the way, we're England, between York and Driffield. Next week we'll be going to the Potter's house near Stonehaven, in Scotland, for the rest of our summer holiday." Seeing how wide her eyes got, he decided to stop talking before she had a panic attack.
Lila shook her head, trying to clear it. "That isn't possible. What is today's date? There's no way Aeriy and I were home yesterday and managed to cross the Atlantic Ocean to appear here less than six hours later. It just isn't possible."
Remus spoke slowly, trying to let her process. "Today is Friday, July 25th, 1976. Yesterday was Thursday, the 24th."
Lila stared at him, wide eyed, as a loud noise came from the room above.
"C'mon. Mum and dad just got home, hopefully with the healer. They'll be able to explain a bit more." Grabbing her hand, Remus dragged her up a flight of stairs, with a happy Aeriy trailing behind.
A/N: So, I've been doing a lot of thinking, and I realized I was very unhappy with this story, as well as with my other one. I think they both have a wonderful base, but the flesh of the story just wasn't there. Therefore I've deleted the other parts of this story, and will be starting again. Hopefully the idea will draw in some new readers, and I'll actually be proud of what I write. This story is kind of AU, but it will follow (some) canon couples. I welcome constructive criticism, but if you're going to flame I ask that you don't bother and go do something constructive—leaving a flame is nothing more than a form of bullying and shouldn't occur. If anyone has ideas they'd like to see as the story continues, please feel free to PM me or leave a review. That being said, if you want me to reply, please send me a PM—it's more direct and I'll get to that faster that a review, depending on how many reviews I end up getting. Hopefully I'll get some reviews, but if not, no biggie! Hope you enjoy my fic!