A/N: Yes, I know it has been forever since I've updated. I know I probably deserve a flogging or something to that effect, but let me explain before you begin any bodily harm. First, back in April my computer broke down for two weeks. So there I lost anytime to post. Then, I was supposed to go away for about 5 days, but then our car broke down and it turned into a week. Then when I got home, I was struck with writers block. Couldn't for the life of me type what I wanted to convey. And now it's the end of the year, and I've been having loads of work before finals. So there is my excuse. It's not great, but that's the truth. And this chapter is kind of short, because I needed to stop it there. It was just the right spot. My muse Tim says hello, and will still enforce the review thing, though it doesn't really matter, as chapter six still needs to be reviewed, changed, typed and then edited before I can post. But never fear. I will work hard. School is all but finished. I hope you haven't lost faith in me, and if you have time, please review for Great Times There. It only got 2 reviews for my latest chapter there.
Disclaimer: See first chapter cuz nothing's changed since then. I still don't own the HP universe. *makes wish*
Coming Together
By Lady Lupin
Chapter Six: An Interesting Spell
Anya woke up the next morning with the remains of another dream. The sun was streaking in through the windows, lighting the entire room. It was a cheerful sight, and it did not match Anya's mood at all. Cheerful was the last word to describe her at the moment.
"If these visions are going to be an every night occurrence I may rethink my happiness in my gift," She said stomping down the hall to her mother's—no parents—bedroom. She stopped outside the door and listened for a second to see if they were awake.
"It was so awful Len, like a morbid domino effect. First word came that Lily and James had died. Then Dumbledore showed up at our house saying that Sirius had been taken to Azkaban for killing twelve muggles and Peter. He had only just left to then come right back and tell me that you and Nyah and Anya had died. There was just so much pain, losing you all within a day. Especially you and Anya; she's my little girl, and I never got to see her as one, now she is a beautiful young woman. And it's all my fault, that stupid charm…" Her father's hurt voice floated through the door. It sounded like he was crying softly, and her mother was comforting him. She backed away from the door. Realizing how much people she hardly knew loved her, she smiled and wiped a single tear off her cheek, her anger forgotten. Then she walked slowly down the hall to her brother's room. She peeked in the half open door to see him still asleep. She sighed and rolled her eyes. He was peaceful when he slept, and she really didn't want to wake him earlier than usual, but it couldn't be helped. Walking in she saw Romulus was still in his clothes from the night before. She chuckled and shook him awake.
"Pass me the quaffle!" He said stupidly. Anya snorted with laughter.
"Wake up you prat. We need to talk." She said snapping her fingers. He looked at for a second and then nodded and rubbed the sleep out of his eyes.
"Are we going to the Dungeon?" He asked. She nodded. He grinned and jumped out of bed. "Good, I need to check something anyway." Anya rolled her eyes and left the room, Romulus followed after grabbing his wand and sticking it in his pocket. They went to the door at the end of the hall, Anya took out her own wand and tapped it the doorknob. The door swung open to reveal stairs. They ran down them to come to a huge underground room, which connected both houses. As children, Anya, Rom and 'Rion had dubbed it the Dungeon, because of its location. Everyone had his or her own little area. There was a mini library for Anya, a place to develop pictures for Rom, an art station for 'Rion, and work places for Lenora and Nyah. Around the whole room were books on anything and everything. They were used when lessons were taught. Orion was already down there, working on one of his paintings.
"Oh good, you're here. I thought I was going to have to go get you," Anya smiled.
"I couldn't sleep. I was going to talk to mum, but she and dad were still in bed." Orion said, looking like he wanted to add a little more to the sentence. He didn't though. (A/N: *evil grin*)
"Right, now, Anya, we are down here, awake, and you have our full attention. Spill it." Romulus said, flopping into his favorite chair.
"Alright. Well I'm pretty sure I had another vision. And it was of us. But we weren't alone. And we weren't here. We were in a big room, decorated in scarlet and gold and it was very inviting. There were five other people there with us. Three of them looked like the people from my earlier vision. There was the boy with the messy black hair, and green eyes, Harry. Also the girl with the bushy brown hair, and the boy with the flaming red were there. But there were also two other girls. Both of them had red hair, but the shades of red were quite different. One resembled the red headed boy, but the other girl had darker red hair, and she seemed, I don't know, I can't describe it, but it was odd. We all seemed to be really good friends and we were arguing about something important, and it was four against four. I guess that's about it." Anya told them, pacing.
"That is strange, I'll grant you, but why tell only us?" Orion asked, puzzled.
"I think there is a spell that can take a memory or dream and put it on canvas. But I need an actual canvas. Which means I need you dear cousin." She told him sweetly, batting her eyelashes. Orion rolled his eyes.
"Fine by me, just don't use my best one," He said shrugging.
"Great. Now can you two help me look for the spell?" She asked hesitantly. The two boys burst out laughing.
"Yeah, we will sis," Rom said, patting her on the back infuriatingly. It took about an hour before Orion managed to find it.
"Here, it's in this book, Spells and Enchantments for the Artistic Mind. Well I suppose that makes sense. Let's see, The Dream Cast Spell. It says you need to have two people. The person with the dream has to hold the canvas and then someone else must cast the spell. Well I guess we can do that." He said, reading it over.
"Here, let me see it," Romulus grabbed the book. "You guys, this is pretty advanced. Are you sure you want to try it?" Anya looked at Orion questionably. He nodded.
"Yes, let's start," She said resolutely. Orion went to his work area and brought over a canvas.
"Alright, Anya it says you hold the canvas and concentrate on your dream as hard as you can." Orion instructed, giving her the canvas and taking out his wand. "Placento Sensorum!" Orion said with a swish and a flick.
Anya and the canvas began to glow, then suddenly the glow was sucked into the canvas, but as it went it pulled Anya's coloring off as well. She slumped down onto her knees, dropped the canvas, and was gray for a moment. Then a bright light flared out of the canvas and struck Anya. The boys had to cover their eyes from the glare, and when they looked back, Anya was in color again. She was gasping for air as she sat up.
"Anya!," Romulus yelled, running over to her. "Are you alright?" He looked extremely worried. She nodded and looked about for the dropped canvas.
"Look," She said hoarsely, "It worked," She showed them the canvas, which now held the image of her vision.
"Wow, that was intense." Orion whistled. "Are you sure you're alright? " She looked slightly pale.
"Yes, I'm fine. That was just a bit weird. Right now some food sounds good. Let's go back upstairs," She said, standing up. She looked at Orion, "Want to come with us 'Rion?" He nodded. She started upstairs. The boys looked at each other, shrugged, and followed her. If she said she was fine, then they had no reason not to believe her.
~~~~~~~~~~
Remus and Lenora, after having a long conversation in the bedroom, got up to prepare breakfast.
"What do you want to eat Remus?" Lenora asked, tapping her wand on the table.
"Well what do you have?" He asked.
"Well what do you want?" She returned.
"Well what do you have?" He said, chuckling. She sent him a withering look and threw a towel at him.
"You can be just as impossible as Sirius, if not more," She said, pouring pancake mix out of her wand, and into the frying pan. He kissed her cheek in apology.
"No he can't, believe me, he can't," Nyah said, Apparating into the kitchen with Sirius. Remus and Sirius grinned at each other.
"I suppose you're right," Lenora agreed, looking at her brother and rolling her eyes. He walked over and put his head on her shoulder.
"Aww, come on Lab, you know you love me," He said. She sighed and pushed his head off.
"Only because I have to, brother dear." She said, as she set up seven glasses and filled them with pumpkin juice. He grinned again.
"Not true, remember Lily's sister? She definitely didn't love her sister just because she had to. She didn't love her at all," Sirius pointed out. Remus and Nyah grinned at Lenora's pained expression.
"Alright, so you're amusing. Happy now?" She asked.
"Of course!" He said grinning like a mad idiot, which he is from time to time.
"Lenora, do you know if the kids are here? 'Rion's not at home, and we took a glance in the Dungeon, and he wasn't there either." Nyah asked.
"I guess they could be here now, though no one was around when we came in here." Lenora said, shrugging. "Or they might have gone for an early Quidditch game."
"Uh, the Dungeon?" Remus asked. He and Sirius looked a little confused. The women laughed.
"It's just the basement. It's where we do most everything. They just nicknamed it." Lenora said, smirking.
"Oh," Sirius said, looking slightly embarrassed. Nyah laughed and kissed his cheek.
"Why don't you two go find the kids while Lenora and I finish breakfast." Nyah suggested.
"Alright," Remus said, pulling Sirius out of the room.
"This is nice don't you think Moony? We haven't done anything like this in over fourteen years. It's amazing that we can just jump right back in and continue, exactly as we were before." Sirius asked, sounding for once, quite serious. Which made sense as he had to have lost at least some of his humor while spending twelve years in a prison, especially when he hadn't deserved those years. Remus turned to look at him, a smile playing on his face.
"Well isn't someone feeling thoughtful. Yes it is wonderful. Almost as great as it was back then." Remus said, and continued to walk down the hall. They headed towards the Dungeon in companionable silence. It was the kind of silence that they had enjoyed before their world had been shattered. They kind that let them forget they had lost twelve years. They reached what they assumed was the right door, and tried to open it. All that was there was a linen closet.
"Nyah had to tap her wand on the door knob to open the one at the other house. Maybe you should try that." Sirius suggested. Remus did so. Nothing happened. Remus and Sirius glanced at each other.
"So what do we do now?" Remus asked, looking puzzled.
"They must have forgotten to tell us something. Or else we are just so hopeless that we can't even remember things from five minutes ago." Sirius decided. Remus rolled his eyes. He obviously hadn't lost all of his humor. He'd had much too much humor to begin with in the first place.
"Let's go ask them." Remus decided, turning to go back down the hall. Sirius turned as well but just then the door swung open quite hard. It didn't bang into the wall like it usually did however. Instead it knocked into Sirius and sent him sprawling into Remus, causing them to both land in a heap on the floor. The sound of laughter erupted from the doorway.
"Dad! Sirius?" Anya asked, trying to cover her giggles. She and her brother and cousin were standing in the doorframe. Romulus and Orion had wide smiles on their faces, and seemed to be trying vainly to keep them straight.
"Sirius?" Remus said.
"Yes Moony?" Sirius asked, winking at Anya, who grinned, though she looked a bit pale. Her already light skin stood out intensely against her long black hair.
"Get off!" Remus exclaimed.
"Now, Moony, really, don't be so rash, we don't want anyone to get hur--" Sirius began, but was interrupted. Remus stood up, pushing Sirius roughly to the floor. Anya, Romulus and Orion burst into laughter. Sirius rubbed his backside.
"You were saying Padfoot?" Remus asked, smiling. Sirius glared.
"Damn werewolf strength," He mumbled. Remus grinned and patted him on the back.
"There, there, don't feel bad." He said. He turned to the three teens. "Are you three hungry?" They nodded. "Well then come on," He sniffed the air. "The pancakes are almost ready."
"Show off." Sirius said, shoving him towards the kitchen. Remus just laughed and they all started walking down the hall, passing the bedrooms and then coming into the living room. Remus turned to say something to Romulus when he noticed the canvas in Anya's hand.
"Hey, what is that?" He asked her. She glanced at her brother and cousin quickly before opening her mouth to respond. The answer to Remus' question wasn't answered though, because Anya promptly fainted onto the floor. Remus let out a yell and ran toward her side and knelt next to her. She was a pasty white now and clammy. Her breathing was shallow, and she had yet to wake up. That in itself was worrying, fainting spells shouldn't last long. Remus sat next to her, shaking her shoulders gently, looking lost.
"Romulus, Orion, go get Lenora and Nyah. Worn Len about what happened." Sirius instructed firmly, not giving the two boys time to process the event. He turned to his fellow Marauder. "Remus come on, you've got to get her off the floor, she'll be fine." Remus shook his head, as if to clear it, and stood up.
"You're right of course. Can't have her on the floor catching cold." He said, more to himself than to his best friend. Sirius glanced at him worriedly. Remus seemed quite shaken. He was almost detached. Detached was usually a word that was never associated with Remus Lupin. It just showed that family could transform even the strongest of men. The werewolf standing before him was unfamiliar to Sirius. He wondered if he would be the same, had Orion been the one to fall suddenly and inexplicably ill.
"Mobilicorpus!" Sirius intoned, when Remus seemed to be unable to act. He floated his niece over to the couch and set her down on it, releasing the spell. It was taking longer than expected for the boys to bring in his sister and fiancée. He sat down in a chair across from the couch. Remus said next to him in the other chair. There was silence, and it seemed ominous to Sirius. But he was content to sit and wait for his sister, the healer, to arrive and tend to the teenager. She seemed in less danger than her father, who was unresponsive. Sirius kept a close eye on both father and daughter as he waited for the rest of his family to arrive.
A/N: There you are. Short, but intriguing, I think. I had to read a part of this for Creative Writing. My teacher liked it. I hope you do. Please review either way!!!!
