NOTE: This chapter was going to be a little long so I have had to split in two or three I haven't decided.

A Holiday that none of them were going to forget.

Part 1.

Her heart was pounding in time with each footfall; she was physically and mentally exhausted. Her tired being had made her steps heavy and loud, she couldn't help it as she ran all day and most of the night, but with them so close behind her she never had enough time to find somewhere to hide and restore her strength. She had been on the run for at least a week, her tailgaters never too far behind. About a week into the holidays she had decided to spend a couple of days in a muggle's backyard, concealed in a collection of bushes, once discovered she ran around London; sewers, roofs and alley-ways for her streets. A few days into the chase, she was forced to face it off, two of them had appeared at either end of an alley, one way exit was back to the street, the other towards the country, it was the middle of the day and there were no ladders or any easy way to take to the roofs without alerting the muggles to her and her kind's existence. She dug in her pocket for her blade and drew out a seven inch dagger and tossed it from hand to hand, readying herself. Vivvian had used up all her temporary places in London and was going to have to take to the country. She stared down the body in her way, she could already tell it was a novice, a rookie to the self defense that gave Vivvian the best chance of escape. She went at him dagger in front of her face and lunged at him she could hear his partner ordering him to not let her escape. He brought up a sword a lot quicker then Vivvian had anticipated and nicked her shoulder but she had managed to catch his throat with the blade enabling her temporary freedom. Ever since then, Vivvian had had barely enough time to stop at a stream to drink, clean the blood from her blade and sticthed up her coat before she heard the sounds of her pursuers bringing up the rear, but it had been another day since had been able to stop at that stream and she was starting to stumble on her feet. She knew if she didn't find somewhere to rest she would be caught but then she remembered something James had mentioned, his parents place charms and spells on their house and property for protection, defenses against unwanted people, and only those who have been told the location where able to even see the property. It was perfect; she could rest up in the vicinity of the house then take off before anyone knew.

It had taken all day to reach the town where she thought James' house was to be, and only knew this because of the moon that shone brightly in the sky lighting up the small town sign. During the day Vivvian had managed to gain at least 3 hours on them by her count, but only by pushing her body to the brink. She was now stumbling over every bump in the road and her eyes were becoming blurry from starvation and thirst. Her body wasn't repairing it's self so her wound had collected dirt, sweat and other grime, making it hot and painful and was obviously infected. She had to hike up a steep driveway and through a thicket of forest and bush land to reach a clearing. There was nothing there, a clearing among trees and nothing more. She stumbled around the clearing searching for something other than grass only to end up where she started with no more information then she had before. Vivvian was starting to doubt herself, she quickly checked her coat for the parchment and found it crumbled and torn in the bottom of a pocket. It said she was in the right place. The days sprint had making her coat an oven which she had to cool so to lessen the heat she pulled off her hood to feel the breeze. The cooling air felt good running through her hair. Being in the country did have some benefits and this was one of them. She thought about what to do her mind flicking on the parchment and her failure to find James'house. She would have to face her chasers; she was too tired to do anything else, she started to head back, her foot touched the threshold of the clearing and the ground shook, the earth appeared to be tearing itself apart, allowing something to come. through, Everything started to shimmer and an illusion a house appeared before her. No it wasn't a house, more a mansion three stories high and a lake off to the side and was constructed of worn gray brick with a mould covered roof. All the windows surrounding the mansion had wooden shutters keeping in the heat from the fires; she knew this because several chimneys were billowing smoke into the air. Two great oak doors opened up and out ran four boys. Vivvian was almost able to see who it was when she noticed her hood was down and she returned it to its position. It was Sirius, James, Peter and Remus waved hands above their heads shouting greetings. For a second she forgot how tired she was and enjoyed the company of her friends, it didn't take long for them to reach her and when they did, they fired rapid questions to her face.

"How'd you get here? . . You said you had plans? . . How have you been? . ."The next question snapped her back to reality; she had been smiling until her weariness caught up with her. "Your a mess, are you alright? You look like you were struggling to walk around the property." Remus had asked this one when he caught sight of her left arm (where the guy had nicked it.) Remus went to touch the wound but she pulled away.

"It's nothing, just cut myself going through the trees over there." Remus didn't believe her and she wondered how he knew she was cut, the cut on her coat she had patched up. Vivvian was invited to go up to the mansion for dinner which they had just commenced, and on their way to the house they told their terrifying story of the mystery intruder; which turned out to be Vivvian anyway. So it appeared that they had all been sitting by a fire watching this stranger patrol their properties border. It was Remus who had tweaked it was her when she turned to face the middle of the ground again, she thanked him for that and told them she had been about to leave.

Back at the mansions doors, James started boasting about his family's riches; much to the others boredom, and as he approached the doors swung open before him. The main hall was pure marble from the tiles to the gold laced roof. It shone brightly from the four fires places that sat two on each side; between the fires, doors led off into other rooms, fancy paintings hung on the walls all moving talking, whispering to what Vivvian heard as disapproving comments towards her and towards her scruffy appearance and fashion sense. James said to ignore them; they were just nothing more then old relatives and grumpy aunts and uncles. They proceeded to the end of the hall to a grand marble staircase that wound its way upwards then disappearing from view; they climbed up a flight to another oak door and went inside. It was the grandest dining room imaginable, golden statues sat on pillars that almost touched the roof and a huge fire place that could've had all five of them inside and still fit more burned ferociously cutting off Vivvian's chills. Two people were already seated at the end of the wooden dining table decorated in fancy patterns of silver and gold.

"Who is it James?" It had to be his mother.

"Oh just the other friend I was talking about." His mother stood up and approached Vivvian, a sway to her step, she wore a gown that matched her decor, it was elegant, fancy, fashionable and showy, but not so much that it wasn't beautiful, she wore it well and knew how to walk around in high heels and a dress.

"It's always good when kids interact with the opposite sex," James' face went red but his mother paid no attention. "Yes but dear me, aren't we a little dirty, and you look like you haven't eaten in a month. "Vivvian smiled at Mrs. Potter for the fact that she was so close to the truth, maybe a week or two off. "I'll show you to the bathtub after dinner and we'll clean you up." She smiled and it was warm, genuine not fake or false but warm, it made Vivvian feel secure as she did for those few short years with her mother. It was the only thing she remembered was the warmth of her mother. "Now come on lets go sit down." Vivvian happily followed Mrs. Potter and sat next to her and Remus.

After dinner the boys headed off to James' room while Mrs. Potter led Vivvian to the bathroom. It was no different from the rest of the house with gold and silver decor on a marble or wooden surface. The bathtub had been filled with hot water by the maid and this had the room in a mist.

"Now lets remove that hood and coat." Vivvian's hands lurched and clung tight to her hood, but the only problem was, her left arm had stopped working she could barely move it at all, she knew it was the infection from the blade's cut and her exhaustion had stopped her body from repairing it, but it still shocked her. Vivvian attempted to move it a few times when Mrs. Potter and stepped back at Vivvian's defensive move. "Why won't you let me take your hood off, and what's wrong with your arm?" She started forward but Vivvian stepped back almost falling into the bathtub. "Alright, I won't touch the hood but can I please just remove the coat from your arms so I can have a look?" Vivvian reluctantly agreed and slowly and carefulyremoved her arms from the coat takin care to keep one hand on her hood preventing it from falling off. "Oh dear lord." Vivvian looked at her arm for the first time in good light. The area surrounding the cut was red, inflammed and pus covered, the dirt had mixed with blood and other fluids to create a gunk that oozed when she moved. It was painful, smelt rotten plus she was unable to move her arm properly. "I have to tend to this right away." She started to busy herself with the cupboard behind her, pulling out all sorts of odd shaped bottles.

"Don't worry about it, it'll be fine in a day or two, just let me have a bath to clean up and some rest." Vivvian sat on the edge of the bathtub her right hand back on her hood so as to keep it in place.

"No I can't let you sit in the bath to clean that, you'll dirty the water with that infected wound, I'll have to clean it in the sink first." So Vivvian leant over the sink while Mrs. Potter attended her arm, she first rinsed off as much of the infected material as possible, leaving the skin clean. It was a simple gash, but because it hadn't been attended to the infection had eaten away the flesh to her muscle. Mrs. Potter said that's why she couldn't move her arm but she said she could try toreapair as much as possible. She was a nurse at Saint Mungos and she could take Vivvian there for tending. Though when Vivvian would have none of it Mrs. Potter agreed to do what she could after her bath. She left Vivvian in the room alone and only when she had locked the door did she lower her coat all the way so it hit the floor with a soft sound that echoed in the room. The next thing she did was clean the sheath and blade of the blood, she had only been allowed a basic clean as the stream and hadn't able to remove all the liquid. Once clean she left the dagger and sheath on the bench to fully dry out, then undressed and slipped into the warm water, her arm pained her when the wound hit the water, but only for a second before she looked out of the bathroom window, she stared into the forest to where her tailgaters would surely be tracking her scent as she cleaned up.

Please Review it helps me improve it. Constructive criticism is advised.