Disclaimer: I give up, if u haven't figured it out by now, then, as Roxie Hart would say, "Good luck to ya".
Mentions that are Honorable because I say so!!!
Fairy D. Jamie L. Amelia B.~ I know, it is sad, isn't it? well, I promise it will get better REALLY soon!! (I can't stand to write anything this sad anymore!)
lacy~ wow!! Thanx, I can't believe you think this is one of the best fics you've read!!
Alya1989262~ thanx for reviewing!!
Sita~ wow, I don't think I've eva had some one say that much in just one review!! Lol, thanx for the review!!!
snowflake~ haha, I do have quite a few cliff-hangers in this fic, don't i? I think I'll get to the point soon, if u hang around. Haha!!
Izabell~ here you go!!
Cay~ still talking in riddles, huh? Jkjk, thanx, glad to know u think my story is "hella" good!!
sweetpea~ your name doesn't happen to be associated with the scent, is it? lol, thanx for reviewing!!
silent-wishes~ wolves do look freaky in car lights, don't they?? Thanx for being an ever-faithful reader!!!
badangel00013~ here's the next chappie! Keep up R&Ring!!
Céline~ wow, glad to here you like it so much!! thanx for all of the compliments!! I've never felt so loved and appreciated!! Haha!!! oh, and James&co. are 11 like Lily, well around that, u know, in the same grade. Have fun with the next chappie!!
starborn~ i think you'll find this chapter very informative, lol!! thanx for being another ever-faithful reviewer!!
Sugargirl~ here you go, glad you like it!!
I just want to apologize to all of you readers who have been waiting for this update!! It took forever for me to post it, but to help make up for it, I've made this chappie extra long!! So enjoy!!!
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"What was that?" asked James. He was hovering about 30 ft. (a/n approx. 9 m) off the ground, in the back of his family's mansion. Although it was hours past sundown, he could see perfectly because of an illuminating spell his father had cast on the yard. He had been playing quidditch with his best friends Remus and Sirius when he thought he faintly heard a scream coming from woods in the back of them.
"Huh?" asked Sirius as he flew up next to him.
"What was what?" added Remus as he joined them.
"That noise, it sounded like someone was…" he paused, "Wait. Listen! There it is again!"
"I hear it!!" exclaimed Sirius, very proud of himself.
"Didn't it sound like someone was…"
"Screaming!" supplied Sirius happily, even more proud of himself.
"I thought no one lived around here for miles, James?" questioned Remus.
"They don't." He answered distractedly. "The ministry made sure of that, you know, because of the werewolves. Although, I think I remember my dad mentioning something about a small muggle road about a mile west from here…"
"You don't think…" pushed Remus, concern evident in his voice.
"Think what?" asked Sirius, always one step behind everyone as a result of taking constant trips to his own little world, filled with pink fluffy bunnies and flowers.
"James, are your parents home?" Remus continued, ignoring Sirius's question.
"I think so." Replied James, as he began to descend, hopping off his broom and continuing at a run with Remus right behind him.
Sirius remained in the air, puzzled by his friends' sudden actions. After few moments of deep reflective thought, he shrugged his shoulders and followed suite.
James ran through the kitchen door, glancing around for his mother, who was usually finishing up breakfast preparations at about this time. Despite the large amount of servants who were employed at the Potter Mansion, Mrs. Potter refused to allow anyone but herself cook the family meals. Not seeing her, he ran out of the kitchen, and into the study, hoping to find his father. James was surprised to discover that he was missing as well.
Remus caught up with James, and together they began to search the rest of the enormous house.
Meanwhile, Sirius strolled into the house. Noticing that his friends were nowhere to be found (not that he looked very hard), he decided to make himself at home and have some dessert.
Sirius spent a few moments arguing with himself about whether he should have chocolate or vanilla ice cream. Finally, unable to choose between the two, he decided to have both. Digging through the fridge, Padfoot uncovered the Potters' supply of dessert toppings. Putting everything in one huge bowl, he plopped himself in a bar stool, and dug in.
Being Sirius, he managed to slop half of the sundae over the edge of the bowl, and onto the counter, getting some on a sheet of paper that had been resting there.
He clumsily cleaned the note off. Reading it quickly as he wiped some chocolate syrup from face with the side of his hand, he walked into the enormous front hall of the Potter mansion.
Putting his hands along the side of his mouth, he called in an exaggeratedly loud voice, "Hey Prongsie! There's a note for you!" Listening with satisfaction as his voice resounded throughout the numerous rooms and halls, Sirius waited, tapping his foot.
A few moments later, Remus' and James' heads appeared over the railing at the top of the grand balcony. Gasping for breath, their faces flushed from their tiresome, not to mention, fruitless search of the grand estate, they stared at Sirius expectantly, waiting for him to continue.
"Well, you don't expect me to climb all the up there to personally deliver it to you?" Sirius asked, with a look of true irritation on his face.
"Just read it out loud!" called James and Remus in unison.
"Lazy today, aren't we?" Padfoot attempted to mutter, but his voice still echoed through the hall.
The two boys just shook their heads.
"Dear James," read Sirius. "Your father and I had to pay a sudden visit to the Ministry. We most likely won't be home until 11:30 or so. Take care, and be sure to be in bed by 10:00. All my love, Mom."
"It sure would have been nice to have known that before we spent ten minutes searching the whole house." commented James.
"Well, what do we do now?" asked Remus. "We can't just forget about that person out in the woods, they're obviously in trouble."
"I don't know." Answered James, shaking his head, "I don't know."
"Why don't we just fly out there and help them?" asked Sirius, finally understanding what they were talking about. "Your mom said they won't be home until 11:30, and it's only 10."
"I dunno, my mom said she wanted us in bed by now."
"Oh come on Jamsie! Someone obviously needs help! Why else would they be screaming? You can't just ignore them." Persisted Remus.
"Yeah, you're right. Come on, let's go!"
And with that, James took off down the stairs, with Remus right behind him.
The boys charged out of the house, jumped onto their broomsticks, and kicked off the ground, soaring into the air.
They had only to wait for a few moments before another scream emitted from the depths of the forest. Following the sound, they set off above the woods.
James peered down through the thick foliage of the forest, trying to make something of the darkness the engulfed the world beneath the bows.
The screams had ended now, and the boys were having trouble recalling where they had been coming from. They flew blindly ahead, looking for some sort of sign, an indication that someone was in trouble.
Suddenly, the trees parted, revealing the muggle road the James' father had told him about.
Peering down, he noticed one of those muggle contraption, a whachyamacallit, oh yeah, car. Looking closely, he saw two people lying on the ground; one near the car, the other in the dirt on the side of the road. They were each laying in a pool of something that glimmered in the moonlight. James gulped. Blood.
He turned in his seat, motioning for Remus and Sirius to land.
Landing softly on the ground, James ran to the man on the side of the road. He was about a yard away from him, when he froze in his tracks.
"What is it James?" asked Remus as he caught up with him, not noticing the body. James said nothing, just stood there, staring, with a look of terror contorting the features of his face.
Following his gaze, he saw the body for the first time.
"Oh my God…" he whispered, his voice fading. Before him lay what must have once been the body of a man. Its flesh was mauled, revealing the white glimmer of bone in some places. One of his arms had been wrenched clean from its socket, and now lay at his side, barely recognizable. The man's face had not been graced with the peaceful look granted to most when they meet their demise. Instead, it was frozen for the rest of eternity with an expression of pure horror, combined with intense, indescribable pain. Remus could barely look at it. The eyes stood wide, filled with fear. The few points on the body where the flesh hadn't been ripped and transformed into a ragged, bloody mass had turned paler than the moonlight reflected in the blood that formed a lake around him.
Remus turned from the sight, unable to look any longer.
Sirius finally ran over to join them (he had been delayed by a rather embarrassing event, including a broomstick and a large tree branch that he swore, even in the years after he left Hogwarts, just jumped right out in front of him).
Unlike Remus, Sirius noticed the corpse right away, which wasn't necessarily a good thing. Having a rather severe case of hematophobia (a/n fear of blood), he mumbled groggily (sounding surprisingly similar to Donkey, from Shrek), "Is…that……….blood?" before falling flat on his face, completely unconscious.
James turned and emptied his stomach, until there was nothing left. Then he fell to his knees on the pavement, exhausted.
Remus bent down next to the body, trying to block the ghastly images of how this possibly could have happened, from his mind. Bending over the man's head, he used two to fingers, and gently closed the man's endlessly staring eyes.
Then Remus walked over to the woman who lay next to the car. She wasn't nearly as mauled as the man, but Remus was sure that she was dead with one glance. Her head stuck out at an angle that could only be possible if her neck was snapped. She had been granted a look of peace, however, and her features lay as if she were merely in a gentle sleep.
Turning back to James, he noticed he appeared to be feeling slightly better now. With his help, they managed to revive Sirius, who only managed to faint all over again when he glanced over at the body of the woman.
Giving up, the two boys left Sirius propped up against a tree. Finding another tree nearby with a broad trunk, they plopped down next to each other.
"How do you think this could have happened?" asked Remus, staring, with a dazed look in his eyes, in the direction of the bodies.
"I don't know." Muttered James. "I wish my dad was here."
"What do we do now?"
"Go back to my house I guess. We can put Sirius on the back of your broom if he doesn't wake up in a minute. I'll carry his broom."
It was silent as the boys sat there for a moment, lost in their own thoughts.
Both were suddenly brought back to this world, however, when a scream suddenly pierced the night.
"There must be another muggle!" exclaimed James. "Quick, put Sirius on your broom. It's coming from the woods on the opposite side of the street. If we hurry, maybe we can stop whatever happened to those two" he glanced over at the bodies, "from happening to him."
"Or her, that scream sounded like a girl." Added Remus.
"Wait, what about Sirius?" asked James, as they mounted their brooms.
"Let's not bring him with us, it'll be difficult enough trying to fly through that forest, let alone balance him on the front of a broom."
"Yeah, good idea. Wait, what should we do with him then?"
"How about sticking him in a tree?"
"Okay."
They perched him up in a tree, tucked his broom under his arm, and then the two conscious boys took to the air.
They flew slowly after entering the forest, flying slowly so that they would see the muggle that was in trouble and get off their broomsticks before they startled her, and to avoid crashing headlong into a tree branch like some one else they knew.
They had a little trouble finding the girl at first, but Remus' sharp eyes soon noticed some movement in one particular tall maple.
He nudged James to get his attention, then pointed and mouthed the words "she's over there".
James nodded in response, and the two flew off in that direction.
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Lily was in hysterics. While she had been grieving over everything that had occurred that night, the half-wolf had somehow found a way up the tree, and was slowly climbing up after its prey.
It had moved a rotting log that had laid a few yards away, under the branch Lily had originally used to climb into the tree.
Suddenly, Lily saw something move to her right. For a split-second, she had the notion that there were two of those half-wolf monsters. Lily quickly realized that she was wrong, however she was just as startled by what had really appeared.
There, in front of her, were two boys. Floating.
"James!?!" Lily screeched. This was just too much for her.
"Lily?" said James, just as confused.
Lily stared at James, dumbfounded. "You-you're floa-floa-floating!"
"You know her?!" asked Remus, ignoring Lily's stuttering.
"She's that muggle from the airport!" he replied.
"On-a, on-a……BROOM!!!"
"She is?? How the heck did she get here???"
"How should I know?!? Let's just get out of here before that thing gets up here!"
Suddenly the monster's ugly head reared over the edge of the branch.
Lily screamed.
James took a swing at the half-wolf with the end of his broomstick. The monster lost its balance, but made a wild grab at Remus to steady himself. Its teeth hooked onto the bottom of his jeans. The creature's momentum was too great, however, and instead it pulled both of them down. Using its cat-like reflexes, the half-wolf landed on its feet, but still stumbled and fell onto its side from the force of its fall.
James tried to catch hold of Remus' hand, but grasped only air. "Remus!" he cried.
Remus fell, arms flailing, trying to catch hold of anything that would stop his fall. As he came to the last branch before a sickening impact, his hand finally caught hold of something.
Clinging to the branch for dear life, Remus looked down. He was only six feet above the ground now. He took a deep breath and let it out slowly, trying to shake the fear that numbed his mind.
"Remus, look out!"
Suddenly, the branch Remus was clinging to snapped. He fell, landing on his back, on the hard ground, the dry, dead leaves barely cushioning his fall.
He lay there for a moment, stunned.
All of a sudden, he heard a rustle in the bushes to his side. Looking over, he watched as the monster came hurtling towards him.
Scrambling to his feet, he tried to move out of the way, but the half-wolf dug its teeth deep into his lower arm.
Remus gasped in pain as the creature dug its fangs deeper into his flesh.
"Remus!" Suddenly James was at his side. He used his broomstick, feet, and fists to drive the monster away. It wouldn't release its steel-like grip, however, and just hung there stubbornly until James landed him a lucky punch, right in the eye.
The creature howled in agony as it released Remus, before running off through the undergrowth.
(a/n well, there you go. I know, I know, it took me forever to up-date, but this chappie's extra long, so be thankful!! Haha, well, don't forget to R&R!!)
