Crying Out

By GoddessGirl16328

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A/N: Heyy everyone, more reviews peoples! I luv 2 c them!

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A lazy summer afternoon such as this one would have normally have been full of reading and adventurous fun, but this one was different. Remus sat in a leather chair in the Library, thinking of a certain some one. Ebony Fate still amazed him to no end. Her mysterious ways, her reaction to him calling her by her name that was given to her by the village, and now this strange language. He had certainly never heard of it before, and he had even looked through several books to see if he could match any sounds to any of the many languages. Though he didn't find anything, that wasn't about to dampen his spirits. Remus stood and walked over to the closest rows of books, running his finger across their spines.

'I've looked everywhere…' Remus murmured to himself. 'Every book…every journal…every place…'

'REMUS!' Remus looked up from his books and watched as James came flying into the room. 'Something's wrong with Lily!' James quickly pulled out a crumpled up note from his pocket.

'It's from Lily, read it.' Remus did as he was told and quickly read the short letter.

'If she's in America, then how did she reply so fast…?'

'That's not all that's strange.' James grimaced as he looked at his friend in worry. 'Look at the back.' Remus flipped over the paper and then took a sharp intake of breath. A red smudged streak lay on the back of Lily's letter.

'Is that…?' Remus asked.

'Blood.' James confirmed. 'It's blood. Something's really wrong.' Remus turned the paper over again and reread the letter.

'Remus?' James asked in an unusually small and fearful voice, causing Remus to look up. 'Do you think…Do you think Lily's in danger? Do you think she's ok?' Remus sighed and looked away.

'I don't know James. I just don't know.'

'Then we must go find out!' James shouted in frustration. 'We must go off and-and help her! She obviously needs it!' Remus looked up at James.

'James, we might know that she's not in America, but we don't know where she is! She could be anywhere!'

'She has to be somewhere close.' James pointed out. 'That letter came too fast. She has to be some where near this village.' Remus leaned against the highly polished bookcase and thought deeply. Suddenly, his head shot up.

'Nicole.'

'What?'

'Nicole, she can tell us where Lily is!' Remus stated as if it was obvious, which it was. 'You see how terrible she does under pressure. We could get it out of her pretty quickly.'

'I'll go get Padfoot.' James said with an air of determination, turning and pushing back the solid oak doors to the Entrance Hall.

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'NICOLE!' James roared as he hammered his fist against the door. The three friends had come dashing to the store, and had seen Nicole close and lock her door before scrambling up the stairs and away from them

'WE KNOW YOU'RE BLOODY UP THERE!' Sirius shouted.

'YOU BETTER TELL US WHERE LILY REALLY IS!' Remus yelled.

'Go away!' came a shout above the Marauders, causing them to look straight up. Nicole stood by the window looking down on them. 'I told you already she's in America!'

'No she's not!' James called back. 'And we have proof! Look, Lily's hurt! She needs help! Just tell us where she is!' Nicole looked around before slamming the shutters closed on the window. Sirius let out a growl of annoyance as the three turned their backs to the door.

'What now?' Remus asked. Suddenly, they heard a click of a lock being opened.

'What do you know?' Nicole asked as she opened the door carefully.

'Lily's not in America, she's hurt, and obviously is protecting a very big secret.' James said to Nicole who had opened the door to allow them to come in.

'Yes, she isn't in America. Yes she's hurt. And yes, she is protecting a very big secret.' Nicole muttered as she sat on her stool behind the counter.

'Where is she?' James asked coldly, though his voice was tinged with obvious worry.

'I can't say.' Nicole said nervously, squirming in her seat.

'Nicole, she's hurt, you have to tell us! We can help her!' Remus told Nicole who shook her head.

'No, you can't help her. John won't let you get close to her…I was lucky to be able to reach her. I highly doubt you will be so lucky.' Nicole murmured.

'Who's John?' Sirius asked firmly crossing his arms.

'Why don't you ask her?' Nicole asked exasperated.

'She told us she was her mum's friend from America. I don't think she's about to tell us who he really is.' James said darkly.

'Look, I'm not answering your questions. Go ask Lily yourself!' With that, Nicole turned on her stool, her back now facing the Marauders. Remus took James arm and slowly pulled him out of the store, knowing full well that Nicole wasn't going to answer any of their questions. Surprisingly, though, Sirius stayed behind.

'Why?' Sirius asked quietly.

'Why what?' Came Nicole's sharp reply.

'Why won't you tell us?'

'I respect my friend's privacy.'

'Your friend is out there, hurt, maybe even dying, making up lies to hide a secret that is obviously very important and you are respecting her privacy?' Sirius yelled in anger. 'You doing that could be the death of her!'

'She's not dying…' Nicole said quietly, afraid to turn around and face Sirius.

'Well, she's in trouble that much is clear.' Sirius shouted. 'Don't you want to help your friend?'

'She told me not to tell anyone!' Nicole cried out, still refusing to look at him.

'Why must you be so stubborn?' Sirius bellowed in frustration.

'I'm not being stubborn!' Nicole cried, twisting around and revealing her tear stained face. 'I'm being faithful!' The room was quiet for a few minutes as Sirius calmed down and Nicole cried.

'And…and I'm afraid.' Nicole whispered. 'Maybe even more afraid then Lily is.'

'Why are you afraid, Nicole?' Sirius asked in a calmer tone as he walked up to Nicole.

'B-because,' Nicole hiccupped. 'Lily's all I have now. She's the thing that keeps me here.'

'You have us,' Sirius told her. 'You have me.'

'I've known you,' Nicole said with a shaky laugh. 'For no more than 5 days and you tell me that you're here form me?' Sirius slowly wrapped his arms around her.

'But I am.' He whispered as she let out a small sob and began to cry into his shoulder. They stood there for a few minutes, supporting each other and reassuring each other. When Nicole's sobs had lessoned to small hiccups, Sirius continued.

'Why would you say that Lily's all you have left?' Nicole looked up at Sirius and then slowly sank to the ground with a sigh, leaning her back against the counter.

'It was a cold night, and it had been raining for hours.' Nicole began looking at the floor rather than Sirius' face. 'The rain had frozen on the ground and made the roads really slippery. My parents and I had gone to London for the day to visit my Grandmother in the hospital. She died later that day, and I was really upset so they decided to drive back home even with the roads in such bad conditions.' Nicole sighed and looked up.

'We were almost home when it happened.' Nicole closed her eyes and remembered. The car had swerved when they had been rounding a sharp corner around one of the mountains. She remembered the sharp pain in her leg as her seatbelt had broken and she had fallen out the window and onto the prickly dry grass outside. She also remembered watching her car zooming through the safety guard, hearing the scream of her mother as it toppled over the side of the high cliff. She also remembered, the look on her parents faces as their eyes met one last time, all three of theirs filled with worry for each other.

'Every night I think about it.' Nicole whispered. 'I think about what would have happened if I hadn't convinced my parents to let us go home. Maybe then, they'd still be alive…' She slowly reach down and began to pull back her pants leg, revealing a long thin scar. 'That's where the glass on the car window cut me. That's the thing that reminds me the most of what happened….'

'That's why Lily's all I have left.' Nicole concluded as she looked up at Sirius who wasn't sure what to say after hearing her story. 'I have no relatives. No other friends…'

'Like I said before, Nicole,' Sirius said as he wrapped his arms around her again. 'You have me now.' Nicole nodded against his shoulder.

'Sirius,' Nicole said after a few moments with a short sniffle.

'Hm?'

'Lily's at her house in the woods…' Sirius shot up and looked down at Nicole.

'Can you help us find her?' Sirius asked her anxiously.

'That's all I can say, Sirius…Like I said before, I'm not being stubborn. I'm being faithful to my friend's wishes…' Nicole mumbled. Sirius nodded in understanding and sat back down again next to the scared sad girl.

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'Why won't she just bloody tell us where Lily is?!' James asked angrily as he kicked at the dirt road that lead up to his house.

'I'm not sure, James.' Remus muttered as they past Fate's Bookshop.

'Damn, it's that Ebony girl again.' James said pointing her out in the back of the store. 'All she does is stare at us as if she's watching our lives…gives me the creeps.'

'When I spoke to her for the first time she knew my name…' Remus told James. 'I don't know where she would have heard it before, I'm not famous or anything.'

'Maybe she reads minds.' James suggested with a shrug, only half listening to what his friend was saying. He was still focused on Lily and her safety and well being.

'And then she can speak this strange language, I can't find anything similar to it.'

'What's one of the words she said?' James asked curiously.

'Uh, one I really remember was Sied cülle.' Remus stated thinking hard. 'That's the last thing she said to me. But I also remember the words vüpa eph jüqui.'

'Doesn't sound like any language I've ever heard of.' James said thinking. 'Though you might want to try looking that up in an old and forgotten languages book or something. It might be from like some 4,000 year old city that died out and everyone forgot about.' James shrugged as he pushed open the door to his house.

'I'll go try looking that up…' Remus said as he turned and headed into the Library. James stood in the Entrance Hall, unsure what to do. When he was around his friends he could control his emotions better. Now, helplessness was taking over and he was sure that he was going to start crying soon. Such a stupid thing for guy like himself, but James couldn't help but feel like so much was happening and there was nothing that he could do to stop it. Shaking, James climbed the huge velvet-carpet stairs and then slowly walked down the hall in the direction of his bedroom.