I was stained, with a role, in a day not my own

But as you walked into my life you showed what needed to be shown

And I always knew, what was right I just didn't know that I might

Peel away and choose to see with such a different sight

-Vanessa Carlton, "Twilight"

"And So the Tale Began With Us..."

Ch. 1 - "Messenger"

(Author's Note: For all those who read the 5th book already, please note that my fic is a kind of sidestory to it. For those who haven't... slight spoilers? Harry Potter and all of its characters, contents, etc. etc. is copyrighted by J.K. Rowling *please don't sue me* Don't worry.. No major spoilers! As of yet, anyways...)

Remus Lupin looked out the window of Number 12, Grimmauld Place after the infamous Harry Potter and the rest of the guardians arrived safely and soundly under the cover of night. The tears of Heaven had begun to scatter the ground and soon, the droplets had begun to drop mercilessly as if the skies had launched an attack on the Earth. Lupin shook his shaggy head and pulled the drapes over the now moist window.

"Looks like you all just missed the rain," Lupin noted as he turned to his late best friend's son, smiling. "Even your father's luck is with you." He chuckled at his remark and sat with the rest of the weary visitors who were eating some late supper.

Harry returned Lupin's casual smile with an apprehensive one and continued eating.

Moody, who had stopped eating to listen to the continuous pounding of the rain, observed, "Looks like we'll be getting some visits from some cats an' dogs tonite, eh?" As if on cue, a knocking came as an unexpected visitor to the ears of all those at the table.

Sirius, who was seated next to Lupin, wiped his mouth with a napkin and sat up with a raised eyebrow. "I wonder who that can be..." He got up to answer the door, but Lupin held up a hand and motioned him to sit down.

"I'll get it," he said. "It wouldn't hurt if you weren't noticed either, Padfoot." Sirius received the hint and excused himself from the table. Lupin walked slowly and steadily to the door and pulled out his trusty wand.

'Just in case,' he thought to himself. With a somewhat shaking hand, he opened the creaking door and found himself face-to-face with someone he thought he would never see again.

A young lady was at the door, her eyes the hue of dandelions and her hair of burgandy. Wet burgandy really, for she was soaked through and through from head to foot and clutching a now wet piece of paper. She smiled heartily at the surprised Lupin.

"Hello, Remus," the young lady said, her sweet voice slightly shaken by the cold atmosphere and the nervous feeling in her heart. Lupin couldn't even bring himself to breathe, more less speak. He looked at the drenched young woman with wide eyes like saucers.

"K..Krys..." he managed to say. "How...? What...?" The lady named Krys smiled again.

"I'm sorry to give you such a fright," she apologized, shuddering from the cold. She noticed that he was staring at the piece of damp parchment in her hand and handed it to him. "It's a letter from Dumbledore. And Remus?"

"Oh, y-yes?" Krys showed him her sweet smile again.

"Mind letting me in? It's raining cats and dogs out here." Lupin apolgized hastily and let the shivering girl in. She turned her head this way and that to have a good look at the place, while everyone else, with the exception of Harry and his friends and Lupin, who was reading the wet parchment, looked at the lovely wet nymph in shock. Harry looked towards a big, black dog in back and saw that he too was looking at Krys with wide, yellow eyes. He looked back towards her.

'I've seen her before... but where?' He attempted to pry his memories open to obtain the information, but alas, it was a hopeless case.

"I'm sorry, Krys, but I don't exactly understand what's written here," Lupin remarked as he broke the stiffned air.

"What are you confused about?" Krys questioned.

"Everything," Lupin replied. "I can't read a thing because the ink is smudged."

"What?" Krys took the parchment from Lupin and skimmed it over. Indeed, all that could be seen were wet lines of black and a somewhat unclear word here and there. She sighed and shook her damp head.

"Well, what it was supposed to say was that I had come here, bearing a message, and that he was hoping that you would welcome me nicely." Krys crumpled the brown paper into a ball with her pale hands and muttered, "You'd think with wizards being so smart that they'd invent waterproof ink... I swear..." She stuffed the little ball in her robes and turned towards Harry, who was staring at her, eyes filled with curiosity. She returned his curious look with a smile and a wink. Harry widened his eyes a little more and turned a slight shade of pink.

"A message?" Lupin questioned with raised eyebrows. "All this way for a message? An owl would've done fine," he remarked with an icy tone. Krys, taken aback by his sudden harshness, took a small step backwards.

"It was a personal message that I had to deliver with words... well not really.. but Lupin, you'll see."

"And when you go back to Dumbledore, please apologize for my rude welcome."

"Go back?" Krys narrowed her eyes in slight annoyance. "Who ever said I was going back? I didn't come all this way through this death storm just to be turned away!" Lupin shook his head and sighed.

"I'm sorry, but I can't believe your story, Krys." Krys cocked an eyebrow.

"And why not?" She placed a hand on her hip, attitude mixed in with her stance.

"Because you died fifteen years ago." Now the arguing pair had everyone's attention, their eyes glued to the scene. Krys shook her head in annoyance and shot a pleading look towards Lupin.

"Look, I can't explain how I am what I am today or give you some ruddy explanation for my "death"-" she emphasized death with her fingers in quotation marks, "but I only have a limited time here and I NEED to do this!" Lupin continued to stare at her, a look of disbelief plastered on his face.

"Give me a good reason why."

"For James and Lily!" Silence once again rang out throughout the room. "And I need Sirius to help me!"

"Sirius?" Lupin asked suspiciously. "What's he got to do with this?" Krys stared at the ground and shifted the weight of her feet in response.

"Couldn't I just... see him?" she asked quietly.

"He's not even here," Lupin lied. "And how am I supposed to know you're really this "Angel" sent from the dead? For all I know, you could be some Death Eater who wants to blow us up. And furthermore-"

"No Death Eater knows about this place, you stupid git," she whispered dangerously in annoyance. She stared defiantly at him, her golden eyes almost burning with rage. "And if you want to know if I'm really her, then ask me anything. Anything at all. Anything that only Krys Julia Whethington would know. Go on, go on!" Lupin leaned against the door, his hand rested on the side of his face in thought.

"Alright, I got one," he said finally. "Where were James and Lily married?"

"In the Great Hall at Hogwarts," Krys replied with a cold air. Lupin remained silent for a while, indicating that Krys had struck it right.

"Fine," Lupin said with an icy tone. "Let's try something harder..." And for the next fifteen minutes, Lupin thought of the most difficult questions that he could muster, and Krys answered each and every one of them correct, surprising both the observers and Lupin himself. Finally, after a question about the color of Lily's dress robes at their ball in their seventh year, Lupin sighed and stared at Krys in absolute disbelief.

"I'm sorry, Krys, I just can't bring myself to believe that you really have come with a message from Lily and James... It's just.. not plausible. It's not that I don't want to believe you, really I do. It's just that..." He stopped as he noticed Krys staring at the floor, her entire body shaking.

"CAN WE JUST STOP WITH THE NONSENSE?!" she screamed in frustration. In a quick motion, she raised her shaking left hand towards Lupin and pointed towards a golden band on her ring finger.

"May.. I.. PLEASE... see..." she began with tears building in her eyes, "the.. man... who.. gave.. me.. this.. ring?" Choking back a sob she continued. "The man who took me out for a walk in Hogsmeade and took me to a lovely cafe and slipped this very ring on this very finger? The man I never got to marry because of a stopper in life that is called DEATH? May. I. PLEASE. see. him?" she questioned again, a tear running down her pink cheeks. "Cuz I swear Remus, if I have to put up with any more of this bull, then I'm going to knock your thick head into the wall..." Lupin stared wide-eyed at the girl and shook his shaggy head again in reluctant defeat.

"Fine, but only if you can tell me where Sirius is." Krys choked back another sob and smiled sadly.

"'Not here' my ass," she mocked as she began, "He's that big black dog staring at me as if I was some sort of screaming banshee," she finished affectionately. She turned slowly towards the black dog, who had now begun to wag its tail. She smiled, tears still gathering in her eyes, and mouthed, "Hello, Sirius." As if it had received an order, the dog of night ran towards the smiling girl and leaped up into her arms, covering her face and neck with generous licks. Krys laughed heartily and allowed Sirius to calm down as he returned to his normal form. She smiled sadly at the long-haired man who seemed to not be able to stop grinning at the girl. Sirius pulled her into a sweet embrace and stroked her still-damp hair.

"Next time Lupin pulls something like that, I'll hex him," Sirius whispered softly as he stared icily at Lupin, who seemed to not notice. Harry, Hermione, and Ron, and pretty much everyone else in the room sat there, absolutely stupified.

"Does anyone get what's happening?" Ron asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Nope," chorused the rest of the sitters at the table.