Once Lily, James, Alaura, Sirius, Remus and Liandra had all dropped through the opening in the Seal, and followed the stairs down and down and down, they came across a crystal pathway.
"Do you know what we're looking for?" James asked Lily quietly. Lily shook her head quickly before taking a good look around at her surroundings. She was in familiar surroundings. The meadow was as green as she had always remembered it, the tree she had sat under countless times, while making her crown of flowers and when she had talked to David the last time about Tanith. And there was Tanith, lying lifeless on the top of the hill with Lily's picked bouquet of daisies lying on her chest as fresh as if she had picked them yesterday. Lily, without thought, ran to Tanith's side. She wasn't breathing.
"No," Lily whispered. "You can't be dead." Tears were flowing unbidden down her cheeks in rivers leaving trails behind them. The one thing Lily had hoped for the most was lost and her hope had deserted her.
"I can bring her back," a deep male voice said. There was a hint of a hiss in his voice and Lily stiffened.
"You can?"
"I can reunite her with you and her sister." Now Lily was suspicious. This time he didn't say her could bring her back. He said he could reunite Tanith with Alaura and herself. Lily pulled out her wand and turned quickly pointing it at the offender.
"Get away. You're not supposed to be here."
"And you are?"
"We're supposed to be here. You are not allowed to be in here. This is a dream world, my dream world, and you're not in it." The man, dressed in a black robe, his head down, looked her in the eye and Lily gasped. The eyes were slits of red. Voldemort.
"You are definitely not supposed to be here," she said quietly almost dangerously. Her wand was up her robe sleeves ready to be used with a flick of her wrist.
"I don't want to be reunited with her. If she's dead, she's dead and I'll see her when its time for me to see her and not before. You cannot choose my time to meet with Tanith again," Lily said sharply. Voldemort was taken aback. He hadn't gambled on such a head-strong girl opening the Angel's Seal for him. He pointed his wand at her heart.
"You can't kill me here," she whispered, "it's impossible. Because it's my dream world it is impossible for you to do drastic damage to me or any of my friends." Voldemort took a step back at Lily's statement. It was true, and Voldemort knew it. In a dream world, the person who's dream world it is, is the only one able to change it, in this case Lily. If she didn't want him in her world, he could easily erase him out of her world.
"But I can kill you. We both know that will affect both here and on earth if I wish it." She was still using that quiet voice, that voice that was more convincing than any honest tone that Lily would ever be able to muster. Without another word, Voldemort removed himself from Lily's dream world. Lily breathed out a sigh of relief. She wasn't completely sure if that would really work.
"Lily! You just ran off on us!" Alaura exclaimed. James, Sirius, Remus, Alaura and Liandra had debated with each other on whether or not they would leave the crystal path.
"We got worried about…" Liandra trailed off seeing Tanith behind Lily. "No."
"I don't think she's dead," Sirius said though there was an unmistakable not of hopefulness in his voice.
"She's not breathing," Lily whispered in reply.
"There is no way she can be dead," Alaura whispered brokenly.
"She's not." The smoky eyed angel was back, David behind her. "But it will take a lot to bring her back."
"What do we have to do?" Alaura asked without hesitation.
"Follow the crystal pathway."
"What?"
"The crystal pathway you saw when you entered through the Seal. It's a long and dangerous road but at the end is a crystal rose. That rose will be the ancient power that will bring Tanith back."
"We'll do it… how do we get back?" Sirius asked, noting the 'I'll-do-whatever-it-takes-to-make-sure-my-sister's-okay' look on Alaura's face.
"The crystal pathway."
"No, how do we get back to the crystal pathway?"
"Like this," David said and with a snap of his fingers, Lily, James, Alaura, Sirius, Liandra and Remus were standing on the glossy, hard surface.
Lily was tired and her feet hurt. The group had been walking for what felt like hours, though in reality it had only been a few minutes.
"Can we stop and rest?" Lily heard Sirius ask from behind her.
"No." James had answered Sirius' question. Not herself, or Alaura, or Liandra.
"Can we stop, please?" Lily asked quietly. Alaura spun to face her.
"With Tanice in the position she is! You want to rest!" Alaura exclaimed. Lily drew back; it wasn't like Alaura to yell at Lily. She never yelled at Lily, even when they were fighting.
"I want Tanice to live as much as you do Alaura, and so does Lily, but we're no use if we're tired and sore," Liandra reasoned.
"You too! James is the only one on my side! My best friend's boyfriend is the only one who understands…"
"I understand, 'Laura, but Lia has a point. We're no use to Tanice all tired," Lily said, her voice even quieter than before.
"Lily?" James was worried, and it not only showed in his face but every one could hear it in his voice. Lily's eyelids drooped.
"Alaura, we have to stop. Something's wrong with Lily," Sirius said coming to stand beside his best friend.
"Who cares, she doesn't want to save Tanice," Alaura snapped back.
"Alaura, you know as well as the rest of us that we can't do this without Lily and… oh no." Liandra, Sirius and Remus didn't like the sound of that 'oh no'.
"What?" Liandra asked carefully.
"We can't let Lily fall asleep. Remember that angel said that the road was dangerous. There are probably forces at work here that don't want Lily to help us through this. Because this is Lily's dream world, she probably knows everything in it inside out and backwards. Without her, we can't change what's happening. Without her, we could all die." This caught Alaura's attention. Tanice was depending on them. Her eyes softened.
"I'm sorry," she whispered before walking over to a half conscious Lily who was wrapped in James' arms. Liandra followed.
"Lily, you can't go to sleep. Tanice needs you and you know it. Shake it off and get up girlie, 'cause I can't do this without you." Then realization dawned on Alaura's face. "We… teamwork. With me yelling at Lily I broke up the team. You guys know the phrase, united we stand, divided we fall, right?"
"We got divided when Alaura yelled at Lily and that made Lily more vulnerable," Remus concluded.
"Both a good thing and a bad thing." Sirius was right. It was a good thing that they had figured this out, and yet a bad thing because they didn't have a clue about how to wake up Lily. They also didn't know who was behind it all.
"Lily, wake up, please?" James' voice was concerned and Lily could hear it through her haze filled mind. Something was keeping her from getting back to her friends and helping the poor first year above.
Come on Lily, think of something! You're useless asleep and it's your dream world. So wish, I wish I wasn't asleep. I wish I could help my friends. Nothing happened. Lily screamed mentally. Something was blocking her and when Lily got out of her own mind, that something wasn't going to live long.
How can they know our weaknesses? Alaura's the only one that knows that when she yells at me, I get really upset. What can figure out our weaknesses so quickly and in such a way that it doesn't even have to enter our minds? She could feel herself being shaken and Alaura's pleading voice. Lily heard something being withdrawn from a bag. She guessed Liandra had an idea and sure enough, Lily smelt something quite foul a couple of seconds later.
James blew out a huge sigh of relief when Lily coughed. Liandra removed the smelling salts from under the redhead's nose and Lily's eyes fluttered open.
"Eww," she said weakly.
"Sorry. We couldn't think of another way to wake you up," Liandra replied quickly. Lily smiled.
"It was a good idea. I'm guessing you guys found out about the policy?"
"Policy?"
"United we stand, divided we fall," Lily replied smiling slightly.
"You knew?" Sirius asked offended.
"It is my dream world," Lily responded.
"And you didn't tell us because…?" Alaura was getting mad again.
"Again, irrelevant information until a second ago," Lily responded, shrugging.
"Ah, and when we came down here you didn't think that we'd have issues like this?" Alaura asked again, forcibly keeping her voice calm.
"When we came down here I didn't think we'd be following this lovely crystal path," Lily answered.
"Girls…" James started.
"Butt out James Potter," they both replied in unison. Looking at each other, stunned they burst out laughing.