Loss
By BlackPotterGrl
Chapter XVI- mute comfort
Harry awoke to another horrible nightmare at what he could only guess was early morning. He was shivering from what he assumed was the repercussions from the dream, or maybe it was the flu, but it could also have been because he was not wearing a shirt, and his godfather had every removable fabric on the bed wrapped around him. Sirius was curled up in his animagus form to his right. He pulled the comforter away from the dog, and wrapped it around his cold, small frame.
The dog curled up tighter, and Harry buried his head in the fur of the dog. The dog didn't respond to this, except for his left ear twitching in a doggish way. Harry drew warmth from Sirius's fur. He liked the feeling of comfort he got from the dog, similar to the feeling of comfort he got from Sirius normally, but it wasn't the same. He felt oddly more at ease around Padfoot.
Harry wiped the tears off his face. He cursed his imagination for the bad things it managed to come up with. His dreams contained all of the gruesome ways Voldemort may have killed Ron. With the combination of the flu, and the overwhelming amount of intolerable nightmares, the past few days had been a blur to him. The gory images in his dreams haunted him incessantly, even while awake to the point where he couldn't stand closing his eyes in fear of seeing them. These dreams were worse then any pervious, because anyone of these things could really be happening at this very moment.
He squeezed his eyes closed, willing the images away, but they stayed with him. Why did it have to be Ron? There were very few people in his life that really meant something to him; he could count on one hand how many. Ron was the one who had introduced him to the wizard world. He saw him as more then just a scar. He had shared his family with him, and he became his brother, as well as best friend, because Harry really did see Ron as his brother.
God! What he wouldn't give to get him back. What would Ron do if the roles had been switched? Maybe he would be praying, comforting Hermione, trying not to cry, and failing miserably.
He wondered how Hermione was handling the situation. If he didn't have the flu, and it wasn't too dangerous for him to be around her, he would probably be comforting her. How was she reacting to all this? Ron was who knows where, he was missing, and Ginny had gone home for a few days. She really had no one to turn to at this point. He really wished he could do something for her.
'But whatever is happening to Hermione right now can't be worse then the torture Ron's going through… if he's still alive." He gave silent sob, and tears rolled down his face.
He really wished at this point that Sirius wasn't keeping such a sharp eye on him. He knew he would never get away with cutting at this point. Sirius would know. Oddly, Harry would feel a bit disappointed if Sirius didn't figure it out. If his godfather paid that little attention to him not to notice, then that was sad. Not like he had the strength to stand up anyway, let alone cut himself.
'I won't cry. I won't cry!' he resolved to himself. He wasn't going to do this anymore. He wasn't going to show how much Voldemort had hurt him. How devastated he was. Tears leaked out of Harry's eyes despite his resolution, and silent sobs wracked his body. He hated himself for it, but his determination was already broken. He buried his head in the pillow. Except… it wasn't a pillow. It was Padfoot. He was always looking to Sirius for emotional support. He had devolved a close enough relationship with his godfather that he didn't mind waking Sirius up. But in the back of his mind, he didn't want him to wake up. After all, Sirius had looked exhausted when he went to bed that night, and he didn't want to be the cause of him being tired. He was too indulged in his misery to really pay too much mind of it.
Harry let himself cry for a while into Sirius's fur. He was so scared for Ron, but he knew he was being a bit selfish. That made it worse. Ron had told him that he wanted to die. He wanted to! To end the pain. What if Ron was suffering somewhere now. Did he really want his friend to go on living if he was in that much pain? Should he be feeling remorseful for thinking that, or maybe he should feel bad for wanting him to keep living in spite of Ron's wishes.
He could feel the dog stir from under his head. He realized that Sirius must have transformed when he no longer felt support for his head on fur, but on his godfathers chest. Harry didn't offer any explanation, and Sirius didn't ask for one. Sirius pulled Harry close against him, and Harry shifted himself so that he was crying into his side. He hid his face in his godfather's shirt, and let Sirius rock him back and forth. He tried to contain himself in Sirius's presence, though he didn't know why he bothered. Sirius was whispering things to him to reassure him of Ron's well-being, but he wasn't telling him to stop crying, so Harry didn't. He found himself falling back into another nightmare from his illness-induced fatigue, and clutched Sirius as tightly as he could, as if holding on would stop the nightmares.
In return, Sirius held him tightly to his chest as if Harry was an oversized teddy bear. Slowly, Harry fell back to sleep, and back to the horrible dreams, but also with the knowledge that Sirius would be there for him when he woke up.
________
Harry awoke the next day – or at least he assumed that it was the next day, all he knew was that it was light out – to find that his head was still buried in Sirius's shirt, though it was considerably damper then when he has gone to sleep.
Surprisingly, Sirius hadn't stolen all of the covers on the bed from him, though he did find quite a few more over Sirius. Sirius had his arms wrapped around him protectively… and tightly. Very tightly in fact. Though Harry could still breath quite freely, he found that his arms were pinned at his sides. Though he thought it probably had less to do with the fact that Sirius had a tight hold on him, and more that he was incredibly weak from the flu.
He tried futilely to pull himself from the suffocating embrace, but it was no use. Not that he minded much. His godfather subconsciously nestled him in closer. "comfortable?" a voice asked him. He didn't need to look up to know it was Remus. He couldn't shrug in reply due to Sirius, but he gave Remus a smirk.
"Do you want me to pry you out of there? I can wake him up if you want me to." Remus asked him.
Harry tried to say no, but all that came out was a hoarse whisper. Remus gave him a concerned look.
"Can you talk Harry?" Harry shook his head "Let me have a look at your throat." He took out his wand, and lit it, looking in his opened mouth. "Merlin! You could enrage a bull with a yawn."
Harry made an odd noise, which he assumed was what happened when someone with laryngitis tried to snigger. His throat stung with the effort.
"Does it hurt really bad?" Remus didn't wait for an answer. He turned at picked up a bottle of red fluid that looked a lot less thick then the cough syrup from the previous day, though that didn't make it any more appeasing. Harry shook his head fervently, making his head pound. He stopped, trying to reach up and massage his temples, but Sirius prohibited him from doing that.
"Here. I went back to the drug store and bought some of that other muggle headache stuff. It is supposed to be safe to use on influenza." Remus told him.
Harry shot him a 'You shouldn't have gone to so much trouble' look, but Remus shook his head. "He'll have to let go of you before you can take it though."
Harry gave him a look and mouthed, "Good luck" to him.
"He has to get up now anyway. Time for classes. I don't know what he's going to do when he doesn't have anyone here to wake him up." Remus said. But Harry knew he would be up by now if Harry hadn't kept him awake for the past two nights. He would probably get up on time if he had gotten a full nights sleep.
"Sirius. Sirius get up!" Sirius's eye poked open. He looked at his watch and rolled over deciding he would sleep in. Well, he tried to roll over, but the fact that Harry was lying next to him just caused him to crush Harry, who made a sort of squeaking sound, not being able to protest.
"Get up you lazy git, before I show Harry the picture of that Halloween when you dressed up like a- ." Sirius sprung off of Harry, and out of bed within thirty seconds, and Harry could hear the shower running within five minutes.
"You didn't want to see it anyway. It might scar you." Remus told him after he got a disappointed look from Harry. Remus felt Harry's forehead just to make sure his fever hadn't gone any higher.
"Well, you still have a fever, but I would say you're down to 100 degrees." He got him a glass of water, and two capsules of Tylenol. He picked up the red liquid stuff, and Harry edged toward the other end of the bed. He was extremely slow in getting there, and by the time Remus was done reading the directions, he was still within arms reach of him. "Aw, come on Harry, it's not going to be that bad. But Harry missed that as he fell off the other side of the bed in his attempt to escape the horrible medicine.
He lay there for a moment, his dignity smarting more than his backside. Finally, he slowly sat up, knowing the look he was going to get from Remus. He didn't make eye contact with him while Remus helped him up and back into bed. He grimaced, but didn't protest when Remus sprayed some nasty tasting… something into his mouth. He was informed that it would numb his throat, but Harry wished it would numb his taste buds because the taste stuck with him, and it was worse then the pea soup. Well, almost.
Sirius emerged from the bathroom a few minutes later, and Harry was sad to see him go. He threw Harry one of his typical gray tee shirts which Harry put on without protest. Sirius wasn't very big on vibrant colors… or any colors if it could be helped. He was feeling a bit awkward with the inconspicuous looks Remus had shot at Harry's arms when he thought Harry hadn't noticed.
"Do you need anything before I go?" Sirius asked him, looking equally sad to have to leave Harry while he was sick.
Harry nodded, though he didn't know how to tell him what.
Remus told Sirius about his temporary muteness, and Sirius nodded uncertainly.
He made a writing motion, and Remus was quick to point out that he could use a pad of paper. He quickly wrote out ask Hermione to collect my homework for me in a shaky hand.
Sirius looked amazed. "You want to do homework? Come on! You're sick, you don't have to do homework!"
Remus looked like he wanted to throttle his friend. "Padfoot! You're a teacher now! You can't go around telling students to try and get out of homework!" Remus told him in a hiss.
"Moony, it's not a student, it's Harry!" Sirius said as if that made up for everything. "Besides, Hermione hasn't been in classes anyway."
Harry eyes widened, and his mouth dropped open. WHAT? Hermione? His best friend Hermione? Oh God, it was a sign from above that the end of the world was coming. "I guess she's upset about Ron. If you really want to do homework then I'll ask the teachers for your assignments. Personally, I'm not giving homework until next week, but knowing Snape… you're getting in way over your head. Don't say I didn't warn you though."
Harry spitefully wrote, how would I do that? Out to him. Sirius ruffled his hair, and left him alone with Remus… and the evil medicine from doom. Harry tried to suppress a coughing fit, as he knew how it would kill his throat, but he couldn't help it, and Remus had to get a cup of tea to sooth his cough. Harry was glad that the cough medicine didn't make a reappearance.
"While I was at the drug store, they had these things on the shelf called cough drops, so I thought you could try those instead of the cough medicine you seem to hate so much. The cough drops where red, and Harry looked at them with a doubtful look. He was getting really sick of pseudo cherry wannabe flavoring. Surprisingly, it tasted almost like cherry candy, and Harry kind of liked them.
"Are you hungry?" Remus asked him. Remus hadn't been thrown up on yet, so he hadn't learned the repercussions of asking that question. Harry shook his head, despite his (thankfully) silently growling stomach.
"Come on, Har. You have to eat at some point. You're way to skinny for your own good." Remus told him. Harry's eyebrows furrowed. This was skinny? He had gained plenty of weight over the summer. He just naturally had a fast metabolism.
Harry nodded in reluctance, seeing as he was trying to argue with someone while mute.
"I'll get you some soup. How about pea?" Remus suggested while Harry shot him a nasty glare. "You like chicken noodle soup? I don't suggest anything creamy, because milk isn't suppose to be good for you while you have the flu. Or so I've heard."
The question had been growing in the back of his mind for some time by then. He scrawled out his question on the pad of paper. How do you know so much about the muggle flu?
"I don't really know all that much about it. I did a bit of research on it for a muggle studies class once, and the whole thing sort of intrigued me, so a little while ago I went to a course on muggle illnesses and first aid and all that stuff. It's kind of interesting. I would have become a healer, but my condition prohibits me from that. Plus a job like that… well, people wouldn't let a werewolf do something like that. Not many people would feel very safe in the capable hands of a dark creature." Harry scowled at that, but Remus looked completely calm, if not a bit uncomfortable. Harry assumed that living with the fact his entire life made him come to accept the fact that he would have to get second rate jobs. Harry, however, found it completely revolting.
Remus rung the bell for his soup, and Harry managed to get himself into a sitting position, and feed himself, to his relief. He didn't want to subject Remus, or himself, to having to be fed his soup. He had given up any schedule for meals. He ate his broth in silence, not that he could have talked any way.
After having his first content stomach in a while, he felt a bit drowsy, and after a bit of positive influence from Remus, he took a nap, happy just to sleep his flu out. Of course, being left to his own sleep meant that it would never last long, and not more then two or three hours later, he awoke from another dream involving Ron's state of being at this point.
He was lucky that he didn't awake with tears in his eyes, as that could cause another awkward, though polite attempt from Remus to get him to talk about it, when Harry wouldn't even talk to Sirius about it. He was pretty sure Remus knew he stood no chance, but he would probably have tried just to make sure Harry knew he was available to talk to. He was grateful for it though. It was nice to know Remus cared.
Even if Remus had tried, it wasn't like he could talk anyway though.
In fact… Remus wasn't even there. He couldn't expect the man just sit at his bedside to make sure he was still breathing of course, so he lay in bed, not seeing anything to do as there wasn't really anything entertaining to preoccupy him with. He couldn't call out for anyone's attention, as he couldn't speak, but after waiting for fifteen minutes for any sign of someone, he sat up in bed and pulled himself to his feet.
It was a wonder that he could stand on his wobbly legs, and he had to grab out for the chair to balance himself. He took an uncertain step towards the table, and managed to make his way over to the table, walking like someone taking their first steps.
He grabbed tightly to the table, and looked at the long distance he would have to make unaided with anything. If his arms where stronger, he could have dragged a chair with him to keep his balance, but he was surprised he had managed to lift himself out of bed. He took one step, then another. His arm left the chair, and he slowly inched his way to the door. Miracle upon miracles, he managed to get to the door without any support.
By the time he had gotten there, he panting from the excursion. He shook his head at the disgrace of it all. He couldn't make it to the door without breaking a sweat. Even Dudley could have done that. He peeked his head out the door, and saw that what he could see of the living room was empty. He had to crawl along the wall with his sweaty hands gripping it to keep him upright. Not like Sirius would mind. The site of Sirius's room was scary. He had only been here for two and a half days. How did it get that messy? At least he was giving a few bugs a good home.
"What are you doing out of bed Harry? You should be resting." Remus said when he had finally gotten to his destination. He noticed that Remus was looking at a few photos on the wall of his and Sirius, and some that he had hadn't even known Sirius had of his parents. He hadn't noticed them before. Now that he saw them he was quite Interested.
He wobbled over to the wall to see them more closely. There was one of him on Sirius's motorcycle that he hadn't realized Sirius had taken. He briefly remembered the time Sirius had woken him up by flashing a camera in his eyes, but he hadn't thought Sirius would keep that one. He watched in slight embarrassment as his eyes popped open and his pupils dilated to pinpricks at the bright light from the flash. The picture became covered though, as he smacked the camera – and Sirius's face – with his pillow. The picture became blurry mess as Sirius had hit him back and they slowly got into a brawl with the pillows.
He also found another one with him and Sirius… but him as a baby. It seemed that his father had caught Sirius while he had been playing some silly little game with himself and a large collection of his stuffed animals. The scene ended when Sirius discovered James's presence and threw a teddy bear at the camera.
Remus noticed him smirking at the picture and decided to narrate for him. "Sirius always was keen on playing with your stuffed animals. Even when you weren't. He loved your gray wolf. Almost took it home with him but James stopped him. You liked it almost as much as he did." Harry smiled. It seemed very characteristic of his godfather to do something like that.
The next picture he was on his godfathers shoulders, and they were at the London Zoo. They were standing outside of a big Gorilla cage, and Sirius was imitating the big ape. He was clapping his hands in amusement, and Sirius took him off his shoulders and held his wrist so that he was waving to the camera. Sirius was making kissy faces. Suddenly the camera changed angles and behind him you could see three women in their twenties cooing over how cute the two looked together. When the camera turned back to Sirius, he wasn't looking at the camera anymore, but he was doing his little routine in the girl's direction. "This was when we – me and Sirius – kidnapped you, and took you to he Zoo without letting Lily or James know. Lets just say that it never happened again after what your mother did to us. On the bright side, Sirius got a girlfriend. Well, he did until she told him to take you with him on their date. That was the end of that."
Harry didn't bother himself with feeling used. He knew his godfather loved him. The last picture on the wall was of the marauders out on the Quidditch pitch with James, Peter, and Remus all clad in Quidditch robes, while Sirius – dressed in black robes – was sitting on Remus and James shoulders. Peter standing in front of Sirius with Sirius resting his hands on top of his head. Both James and Remus looked like they were going to keel over from the strain, and Peter was swaying on the spot. Suddenly Peter dropped to his knees, and Sirius lost his balance, grabbing onto Remus and James's shoulders as he fell forward, causing the three of them to fall on top of Peter.
"I'll let this one speak for itself. This was right after we won the cup. Trust me when I say that it took almost five minutes to get Sirius up there long enough to pose for the picture, but it took Sirius even longer to persuade us to let him get up on our shoulders. That was a mistake. It made for a pretty good picture though, until the falling and breaking one of Peter's ribs. Wait… never mind. It was a great idea." Remus told him. Harry smirked at him in return.
That was probably the reason Sirius allowed a picture with Peter in it to grace his walls.
"All right Harry. You get back in bed. This is the kind of situation that Sirius is going walking into, and use against me." Remus told him. Harry must have looked funny groaning with no sound coming out of his mouth. He shook his head with a pleading look on his face. It had taken him almost ten minutes to make his way out here, he didn't want to go back right away.
Remus watched his mute pleads, and Harry could almost feel his resolve slipping away. "All right. You can stay out here. But you have to lay on the couch. Jeez Harry. You are the only person I know who can persuade without speaking a word.
Harry smiled in gratitude, and made his way slowly – with Remus's help – to the couch, where he sat down. When he broke out in a coughing fit, Remus insisted on feeding him another cough drop, which Harry wasn't so unhappy about. It was better then that other stuff. He wouldn't even torture Snape with that- … okay, yeah he would.
Sirius came through the door looking utterly exhausted, and trying to hide it. "Why are you two out here? Remus? Why did you let him leave the room?" Sirius looked suspiciously at Remus.
"He gave you the look right?" Sirius asked him.
Remus nodded. "He couldn't very well talk his way into it, now could he? You better watch out Sirius. He's going to empty your bank account when Christmas time comes around." Remus said jokingly. Sirius dumped his bag, and Harry's homework on the coffee table, and ruffled Harry's hair.
"Yeah, he has the power to, but I got lucky. Harry knows to only use his cute pleading look for good purposes. Not for suckering me into buying out Diagon Ally."
Harry faked an evil grin. "Oh, I can see the devil horns growing all ready." Sirius groaned.
"If you're tired Sirius, you can go to bed. I can feed Harry and put him back to bed." Remus reassured him. Harry glared. Remus sounded like he was taking care of a two-year-old.
"That's okay." Sirius tried to make it less obvious that he was stifling a yawn. Remus shrugged and stood up, said his goodbyes, and left through the fire.
"What do you say we eat out here tonight?" Sirius asked him. "I am starving. Completely famished." Sirius said. He disappeared and came back a few minutes later with a plate full to the brim with chicken, and pasta, and roast beef, and a bowl of soup for him. He ate his vegetable soup without looking at what he was putting in his mouth, as Sirius inhaled his meal, finishing it before he was done. Harry stared at him with a raised eyebrow.
"It's not like you could have eaten any of it anyway without spitting it all up. You should stick to soup. Harry looked sullen, knowing he was right. Sirius carried him back to his room, insisting that he was going to germ his couch up, and that sick people should stay in bed. That night, Harry was left alone in bed, and he didn't mind that. Sirius looked downright shattered, and he didn't want to go waking him up with any of his stupid nightmares.
End Chapter XVI- Mute Comfort (I am so sorry about the title! I swear.)
End notes: I am really really really sorry about the wait. I am sooo sorry. Really! I could tell you about the horrible amounts of school work I had to do, and my mom breathing down by neck about it all, and pressures of the school commitments that I made, but I'm not going to bore you to death with a bunch of excuses, (Not to mention lies!) so the outright truth: I was lazy, had no inspiration to write, and just didn't feel like it, and didn't know what to write. That could explain why it was such a bad chapter with absolutely nothing interesting going on in it. Next chapter I will wrap up with the whole 'sick' thing.
I know nothing happened. I am very sorry. Next chapter for sure we will meet Professor Murphy, the History of Magic professor, and Sirius's girlfriend. I hope. I really really hope. Bear with me.
Responses: Doggy Style (Sirius told me to put that! I swear!)
Thank yous out to everyone who reviewed last chapter, but didn't have much to say cept great fic, update soon. We appreciate them. Blueberrie, Trance3, Elessar, marauders4ever, Ni-Chan, Kim 13, Black Penther, Cierra, rika-chan.
Mella deRanged: Gee, you wish Ron were dead? You're right, it would kill Harry. I think that's why Katie's doing this, despite her blame that I made her do it. *Swears as BlackPotterGrl steps on his foot* Uh hem. Haha. Just kidding.
Ara Sea: Thanks a lot for that support. That irks us too. Hate it when the authors don't even have the courtesy to post a message. *Shakes head*
Sailoranime: No no! Don't stop reading. We need somebody to like this story! Katie just found it ironic. Yeah, throw up can be cute and funny to some, while hopelessly disgusting in all situations to others. Just your personality. Gee, thanks for that. Think I like being thrown up on? Eventually, Katie will probably change the temperature to something lower. Katie started watching A.I., but she never finished it. It kind of lagged on and on. But that part when the mother just drops the kid off in the woods after she got her son back was disgusting.
No, the person I was talking to in the last chapter was the nurse. I know it was confusing, but they were discussing the situation about what to do with Harry. The whole hallucination scene was horrible, but we couldn't resist. I hope this makes up for it with some nice good angst/depression. And I loved the VMAs. Just love that Chris Rock.
LizhowHP:
Katie: That's kind of odd. I did that same thing to my mom as a baby. I think that's where I got the inspiration to write that. She was dangling me above her head, and I threw up. And as for your other question: Yes. Evil Brunette will. That is mostly the major plot line. Harry coping with the lack of attention he's receiving from his godfather, and watching it being refocused toward his girlfriend. I am not a 'Sirius gets a girlfriend' fan. Can you tell?
Senshichan: Wow. That's what I call adding insult to injury. I am wounded! How was I supposed to know? That should put that kind of thing bigger up on the label. Don't listen to Katie. She's just mad because I happen to have a life outside giving her a good kick in the arse when she gets lazy. She can't get lottery tickets, but I can. *grins* No, Harry's not going to be calling me Dad from now on. Well… Never mind. Let me just say on Katie's behalf, that if you kill the author, you're not going to get any more Loss. But I get to watch while you verbally kick her arse! *Gets out popcorn* Haha!
Lady Arwen of Rivendell: Wow! I'm flattered.
Trapper's Girl: We're going to change that part at some point. I know it's a bit high. Yes *Sullenly* I am, aren't I?
SarahPeach: Ha, that's funny. Katie loves sick Harry too. It's a conspiracy against my Godson.
Katie: He's just mad because he got thrown up on twice. Ron will be… well, you'll see. I forgive you for not reviewing. However, I'm ticked that you aren't writing All For You. Oh well. College? Ah, what are you going to do? Work hard and graduate so you can get back to fanfiction. Jk. Of course I care about it. I have to care, since you'll be reading about my excuses as to why my fic's not being updated. Just playing around. I'll update soon. You try to as well.
A.Dee: You wanted a long review, so Katie will respond to your email in here.
Katie: Wow. You got some lousy nicknames. Well, I can't talk. Mine is Child. If you don't like 80, I won't call you it, but I think it's cool. Well whatever. I would hope I don't look like a Ruben look-a-like. He's bald, and fat, and while I'm nowhere near skinny… he looks nothing like me. Actually, I'm white, so it would be pretty darn hard to look like him even if I wanted to. I told you, Matt is just weird. We were talking about him, and I said, 'How do you think he got stuck with the name 'Velvet Teddy Bear' and he just randomly said Silk Beaver. The name just stuck. No need for it now though. The cat's out of the bag. Tonight was open house, and my teacher told her. She didn't react quite as badly as I thought she would. Actually, I have no punishment. Someone up there was listening to me while I was praying. Go figure!
The trouble with pig Latin is everyone knows the rule to it, so they can break the code. Well, Anglophile is very unique. I don't think anyone else has used it. I don't think anyone would jump to that conclusion without looking the term up first. I would hope not. SP? OH! Secret Pleasures. I thought you were referring to Sarah Peach. I was going to say… she doesn't write slash. I am reading Pack Issues, even though I am squeamish, and I've got my pointer on the x just in case things get a bit… yeah. But it is a good fic. I want to read the rest on the Hogwarts Letters site, but my Mom put the parental control back on, and I can get to it.
I mostly stay away from Snape/Harry, but I can go as far as on friendly speaking terms. I read Never Alone, Never Again. Somehow, I don't see Harry ever considering Snape his father. I mean, really. And that whole Severitus thing is kind of weird. I mean, even if Snape was his real father, why would Harry grow attached to Snape after he raped his mother?
I have read a few Remus/Harry fics, but there are few that are written good, and I don't see Harry keen on replacing Sirius so soon after his death, if at all. By this point, I think Harry will probably be afraid to get too close to any adults, after all the bad experiences.
Congrats on doing well on the quiz, and good luck with the grades for the test.
Notes: Thanks for reading folks! Drop me a line, tell me how you like my fic. Constructive Criticism would be greatly appreciated, as well as encouragements. Heck, flames me if you feel the need.