Chapter 2

"Linda!?" John called up the stairs, "Are you coming down or what?"

"I'll just be a minute!" John heard the disembodied voice of his wife from the top of the stairs. She always took hours to do anything, be it wash the dishes or get ready for an evening out. It was the height of summer, and the sun was just about to set over the rolling hills around the village of Ottery St. Catchpole. John heard Linda's footfalls coming down the stairs.

"Finally!" he said exasperatedly, looking at his wife, who was wearing a pretty green summer dress which matched her eyes.

"I'm sorry," Linda huffed, "Sirius is still worried since those hairs were ripped from his head yesterday. Has no idea how it happened, but now he has a bald patch on his head."

John chuckled, "Classic, something the Marauders might have done!"

"What did you say?" Linda asked shocked, "The Marauders, who are they?"

"I have absolutely no idea, sweetheart," said John, checking his watch, "Come one, we're late enough as it is, we should get going."

"Yes, alright," said Linda, pulling on her green cardigan, and picking up her bag, "Bye Sirius! Be good!"

They had always been worried about their son staying alone in the house with only a baby-sitter, he had a tendency to wreak havoc everywhere he went, be it breaking light bulbs by looking at them, or making his teacher's hair turn blue. John called it 'special', Linda called it a 'coincidence'.

They closed the door carefully, and set off out of their neat front garden. The sun was still setting, casting an orange light which reflected off of John's glasses, making it look as though his eyes were on fire. Linda and John were going to an open air concert, about half a mile's walk outside the village, where there was nothing but open fields and rolling hills, simply ideal in the Peters' minds.

When they got to the field where the concert was being held, it was almost dark, and the music had started. John set out a picnic blanket, and he and Linda sat on it in each other's arms, listening to the soft music in the background.

Fifteen minutes into the concert, there was a large bang, and suddenly the cries of what sounded like hundreds of people could be heard. There was a series of loud 'pop's somewhere not all that far away, and the music halted.

"I'm afraid, Ladies and Gentlemen, that this evening's concert will have to finish early due to an unrecognised disturbance, I'm terribly sorry for the inconvenience."

"Whats happened?" Linda asked John, panicking, her hands gripped tightly around him.

"I have no idea," he replied, "but I think it would be safer if we just went home."

And so they did, the couple ran the entire half-mile back to their house, where they found Sirius fast asleep upstairs. Linda paid the baby-sitter, and went into the kitchen to get herself a glass of wine.

"What in the name of Merlin was that about?" said Linda, as she and John sat on the sofa to watch the evening news. It was dark outside now, but a faint orange glow, like a fire, could be seen near to where they had been sitting at the concert an hour ago.

"Merlin?" John asked, "Since when have you said Merlin?"

"Don't know," Linda replied, "Since when have you said Marauders?"

"Touché," said John, flicking on the TV.

"…has been reported in the Surrey today, Steven Williams reports." said the news reader.

"Yes, thank-you David, as you can see I'm at the house of the Dursley family, who live here at number 4, Privet Drive. One night last week, a large group of people were seen leaving the house, and the Dursley family have not been seen since." said the man, who was standing outside of a suburban house, with an unusually tidy front lawn.

"Third disappearance in a month," Linda whispered to John over the TV, "Maybe that has something to do with the commotion today?"

"Shh," said John, pointing to the TV, where a boy of around 17 was talking.

"…Dudley Dursley was one of my best-friends. He would have said if he was leaving, we used to hang out after school. One day last week, their house was empty. No one in Little Whinging knows where they've gone." said the boy, who had horrible greasy hair.

"Thank you, Piers. As another day ends here in Privet Drive, Petunia, Vernon and Dudley Dursley remain missing. We have to ask ourselves, How long can these disappearances go on? Stephen Williams, BBC news. Back to David in the studio."

"Thank-you, Steven, and if you have any ideas as to the whereabouts of the Dursley family, or any of our other missing families, please call your local police station… and finally, the single mother, who…"

John flicked the TV off again, "Well that was depressing. Hearing about all these missing people, makes you feel like we could be next, you know?"

"I do know, honey," said Linda, snuggling into her husband.

John had always wondered what caused dreams. Why you couldn't feel pain in them, how they happened, so complex, within your mind. This was why he dwelled on a certain dreams he had so often, and why he wrote about them. Why were his dreams so like a real life? Why were Linda's not the same? John had always thought he was the only one with strange dreams, but little did he know, Linda had had the same dream as he had three years ago. The one with the graveyard.

John had never liked the dream about the graveyard, it had scared him. The child in the dream had seemed so lost, yet when he had seen John he looked so found. As if seeing John and Linda had given him strength, and the ability to fight. John dwelled on this dream far less than he had on any other, purely from the pain it had caused him to see the look on the boys face.

"You've been so brave," Linda said proudly, and John nodded slowly along with her.

"You are nearly there," said John, he didn't know why he said it, but it seemed to fit, "Very close. We are… so proud of you."

The boy looked at a man next to John, who he hadn't previously noticed, it was Sirius! Not his son Sirius, but the Sirius from the memory, "Does it hurt?"

"Dying? Not at all," said Sirius. "Quicker and easier than falling asleep."

Dying? But John and Linda weren't dead! They were alive, just asleep. Maybe Sirius and the man next to him were dead, or maybe they were just asleep too.

And he will want it to be quick. He wants it over," said the man next to Sirius.

"I didn't want you to die," the boy said. "Any of you. I'm sorry right after you'd had your son . . . Remus, I'm sorry ---"

Remus? The name sounded familiar to John, Remus must have been the man by Sirius. He recognised him too.

"I am sorry too," said Remus. "Sorry I will never know him . . . but he will know why I died and I hope he will understand. I was trying to make a world in which he could live a happier life."

A chilly breeze that seemed to emanate from the heart of the forest lifted the hair at John's brow, even in his dream. The boy, whose name he still didn't know, looked like he was having an internal conflict.

"You'll stay with me?" he asked the four of them.

"Until the very end," John said comfortingly, he didn't know what 'the end' was, but he felt it was coming soon.

"They won't be able to see you?" asked Harry.

"We are part of you," said Sirius. "Invisible to anyone else."

The boy looked at Linda, as if seeking comfort, "Stay close to me," he said quietly.

And they set off, deeper into the forest, to some pre-designated space, which John had no idea of. There were several cloaked figures, which smelled of death, but the sight of them did not affect him, he was in a dream. The forest became thicker and thicker, the trees became closer together, until they opened into a clearing. There were men in the clearing, talking to each other, they passed by the five of them, as if the boy were invisible. They continued into the clearing, and the boy pulled off a cloak-like thing, and John disappeared, never to see the scene again.

what did you think of chapter 2? sorry for such a long update.... but i'll update soon i promise!!! next chapter will feature Sirius Peter's birthday!! xxx

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