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A/N:  Okay, pay attention:  It's going to get a bit icky soon.  You may have noticed (may have. . .  ha ha ha) the depressing undertones here.  I didn't mean to, but the story has recently stood up and rubbed my face in a proverbial banana cream pie so I can tell you this:  there's an incoming climax in our depression level.  Okay?  You are now warned.  Also, if you're in the mood to take on a beta job, let me know in a review.  I've only caught a few mistakes that I intend to rectify, but another pair of eyes would be wonderful.  Also, there's a brief "mist" scene in here, so the four lines SHOULD go like this: bold, underlined, bold, underlined.  I don't know if they'll load correctly.

Thanks to:

Brooke Kenobi (Welcome aboard!  As I said in a review for you, I'm of the opinion that we've both lost our minds anyway, but that's okay!)

DMG7 (Hope you don't mind my abbreviating your name. . .  Actually I believe it's yet to be a week- The update date never changed. . . .  I'm not really certain why.  Anyway, I totally understand how summer can be, although *party* I've only been participating for about 2 weeks now.)


Recap:

The group trudged up toward the castle, and Heather waited to drift away.  The vision could have ended about 10 times already, but it had not.  Certainly it ought to now.  Why on earth wouldn't it?  What else could possibly occur?  She stood, alone on the grounds.  Nothing important could possibly be happening.  Then she realized it:  She wasn't being pulled.  Immensely confused, Heather made her way towards the castle, wondering where she wanted to go.

Chapter 17: Waiting

Heather was back in the Marauders' lair, sitting next to James as he and the others discussed recent events.  Tempers had been high and there had been a good deal of anger towards Sirius, who had been given detention for the rest of the year and had lost an unspeakable number of house points.  By now, however, they had forgiven him.  Remus was looking rather ill, his recovery from the full moon still incomplete these many days later, having been hampered by questions from the headmaster in the days, Lily's occasional incoherent screaming in the nights, his own personal distress (which always made transformations worse), the fact that his friends had not been with him and he had therefore been more violent than ever once James left, all of the wolf's energy pent up inside itself, and the constant nagging of Snape.  Heather felt very sorry for him- she had become rather attached to Remus, Sirius, James, and Peter in her visions.  She doubted she would ever meet any of them except Remus.  Well, she would certainly never meet James.  She was still getting used to the idea that Sirius, the man she'd come to think of as a great friend (despite that fact that he was unaware of her existence in his past or present), had tried to kill his friend's son not too long after.  Perhaps she would understand that later.  Did Harry know?  She needed to talk to him.  To be honest, she needed to get out of this never-ending vision.  Admittedly, however, she didn't really want to go, not completely.  She turned her mind back to the Marauders, avoiding thinking about it, as she had been doing for some time now.

It was clear they were getting bored once they had forgiven one another, and Remus and James soon took a game of chess to the corner.  Heather wondered why she was here.  Nothing was going on that seemed to matter at all.  Her mind began to drift, and she realized that she was tired.  She was actually dozing off, in the middle of a vision.  Remus looked exhausted, and almost collapsed in the third game of chess.  He and James were the only players worth taking on, as Sirius played kamikaze chess and Peter was no strategist.  It seemed to Heather that he had little foresight, and his lack of that was only exceeded by his lack of skill in almost all branches of magic.  Apparently, he could handle larger spells better than small ones, for whatever odd reason.  He was an accomplished animagus, that much she knew, (she had been in this vision for how long now, and was reeling from the revelations it had yielded thus far,) and yet there he sat, desperately trying to accomplish some transfiguration spell, but to no avail at all, despite Sirius's grudging help. 

Suddenly James jumped up, grasping his left hand tightly.  Remus and Sirius looked at him, puzzled, and Peter glanced up as well.  James's face was drained of all color, and was even paler than Remus's. 

"Lily" he breathed.  That one word got Sirius and Remus (despite his weakened condition) chasing James down the staircase, just a pace behind.  Peter made his way down more slowly, but with urgency all the same.

James grabbed a passing girl by the shoulders.  "Lily.  Have you seen Lily."  It was not a question; it was a demand.  He was desperate to know.  The girl shook her head mutely, and he shot like a bullet out of the portrait hole.

"Oi!  James!  How do you know something's wrong?"  Sirius was panting, but running all the same.  Heather had been thinking along the same lines.  He had known before that Lily needed Sirius right away, and he knew she was in trouble now.   And both times, he had grasped his left hand.  She was somewhat. . ., okay, immensely, confused.

"A surveillance spell!  Nothing detailed, just so I know if she's upset!"

"I should have thought of that. . . ." muttered Sirius.  Heather smiled, matching Remus, who had apparently heard as well.

They ran so fast they nearly flew, James leading the way.  It was clear he had no idea where he was going, but he ran with all speed to get there all the same.  He rounded a corner, leading three other winded boys and a less-than-ghost presence, and stopped so abruptly Heather wondered if he'd been stunned.  Lily sat on the floor, sobbing.

Sirius came forward and wrapped his arms around her, and purple mist surrounded them faintly.  Nothing they said could be heard.  Sirius looked up at James, and their eyes locked.  Heather wanted desperately to know what that look said, what the unspoken words were.  And to her surprise, purple mist flowed in between them, as well.  Heather stepped into it.

She needs to talk to you about this.

Will she?

Can you accept this?  Are you ready for whatever it may be?

Anything for Lily.

Heather got the sense that the words were altered.  This was not what they were.  But boiled down to their essence, the silent conversation between the two boys could be worded somewhat like that.  The mist that had immediately blinded her dissipated.  All the sudden, she felt hot jets propelled into her side.  She fell to her proverbial knees.  She was being dragged up, away from her vision… why wasn't she drifting on her own, like always in the past?

A/N: Next one nest Thursday or before!  Betas leave me a message!!

R/R, Please!! Flames are welcome, though constructive criticisms are preferred. Anonymous reviews are accepted.