Disclaimer: Same as before! Also, this chapter features lyrics from the song "Everybody's Fool" by Evanescence; I just thought they sort of fit the situation.

Oh, and by the way, Tawny's last name is pronounced WHY-LAND (as if you were saying ISLAND, not DISNEYLAND).

Diagon Alley- Just Before Tawny's 5th Year

"I think that's all the books we need," Lily Evans said as she took one last look at her book list, "Yep, come on, lets go pay for these."

She and Tawny Weiland hauled all of their books up to the front of Flourish and Blotts, the bookstore in Diagon alley, where they paid the cashier. They then headed out the store into the warm, bright sunlight outside. It truly was a beautiful day.

"All right, so what else are we going to need?" Tawny asked, looking at her best friend. She and Lily had been friends since they were six years old. They lived in the same muggle neighborhood; Lily lived with her muggle parents and sister petunia, and Tawny (who was an only child) lived with her muggle father and witch mother. The truth was, however, Lily and Tawny looked more like sisters than Lily and Petunia did. They were both redheads, though Lily's hair was a more vibrant shade of red, than Tawny's whose hair was somewhere between copper and strawberry blonde. They were opposites as well. Lily was a sweet girl who liked to dress up and, when she was younger, play with dolls. Tawny, on the other hand, was a tomboy who liked to play basketball, and was never seen wearing skirt outside of school. "Do you need new robes? Mine still fit me."

"Mine still fit too; I tried them on last night to make sure. I think we're pretty much done," Lily replied. ""Do you want to see if we can fin Kate and Erin? They should be around here somewhere..."

"Oh no!" Tawny groaned, shielding her face with her left arm, and turning away slowly, "Don't look now, your lover-boy is over there...I don't think he's spotted us yet..."

Lily ducked her head when she saw who Tawny was talking about too, and said, "That must mean you're boyfriend is around here somewhere too, come on, let's get out of here..."

"Sirius is NOT my boyfriend!" Tawny growled at Lily as they quickly fought their ways down the crowded street.

"Yeah, well James is not my lover-boy either, so shut up, you started it," Lily retorted, playfully nudging Tawny with her elbow.

"Fair enough, but I bet you anything you will date James before I date Sirius!" Tawny grinned at Lily devilishly.

"A bet, huh?" Lily smiled, her emerald eyes lighting up, "Okay, loser buys the winner a butterbeer!"

"That's all your willing to bet?" Tawny asked stopping and turning to Lily, her grin broadened, "A butterbeer? What, are you afraid you might lose?"

"No!" Lily snapped, folding her arms defensively across her chest, "fine, you think of something!"

"Hmmm..." Tawny said thoughtfully and then yet another grin spread across her face. She turned to Lily and said, "The loser has to read a love letter written by the winner out loud in the Great Hall to her boyfriend. So if you lose, I get to write a letter that you HAVE to read to James, and if I lose you get to write a letter that I have to Sirius. And we CAN'T reveal who the true author of the letter is; we HAVE to pretend that we wrote it ourselves. And we MUST read the entire thing no matter how sappy, mushy, or graphic it is."

Lily raised her eyebrows as she watched Tawny who was standing smugly across from her. She then held out her hand and said, "Deal!"

Tawny and Lily shook hands and continued down the street looking for their friends, not knowing at the time that their words had been overheard by James and Sirius, hiding beneath an invisibility cloak.

But dreams like this must die...

Present Tense

Tawny sat slumped up against the wall of her living room. She wasn't sure how long she had been sitting there, but it felt like hours. One of her arms was propped up against her knee, her hand hiding her face, and in the other hand there was a crumpled up piece of parchment, that had smudged words scrawled all over it. She re-opened it and read the words she had written:

Without the mask where will you hide?
Can't find yourself lost in your lie

I know the truth now
I know who you are
And I don't love you anymore

It never was and never will be
You don't know how you've betrayed me
And somehow you've got everybody fooled

Tawny looked over at the clock on her wall, which said it was already five o'clock in the morning. She hadn't realized it actually HAD been hours since she had spoken to Remus in the fire. Since that time she had decimated her kitchen, and written these words, words about Peter.

She got to her feet, feeling restless. She needed to talk to somebody...anybody. Immediately she thought of Kate and Erin, bit they were probably mad at her for skipping out on the party. Kate and Tawny got into arguments enough as it was, the party situation would not help matters. Tawny was NOT in the mood for an argument.

The only other person Tawny could think of was Remus, but her left her saying, "Duty calls." Tawny assumed her was doing something for the order and had no idea when he'd be back.

Tawny stood up and paced around the room a few times, coming to the conclusion that this had to be the longest night of her life.

Five hours later Tawny was still awake, though she had changed into some muggle clothes: her favorite pair of ripped jeans, black boots, and a sleeveless black shirt.

She heard cracking noise in the kitchen followed by a, "What in the..."

"Hi, Remus," Tawny said walking into the kitchen. The floor was covered in shatter dishes, glass, broken chairs, and the like. The kitchen, needless to say, was a mess.

"What happened here?" Remus asked, looking around the room, alarmed, "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," Tawny lied, "I just had a fit is all."

"Tawny..."

"Okay, okay!" Tawny raised her hands defensively, "I'll tell you everything. After I talked to you in the fire place I started thinking about...things. I got myself upset and took it out on my kitchen."

"What kind of things?" Remus asked. Tawny starred at him for a moment as he watched her. Remus had a habit of looking at a person when they were talking as if what the person was saying was the most important thing in the world to him. Even after years of knowing Remus it always caught her off guard.

"Just," Tawny continued, "Lily and James."

"Do you want to talk about it?" Remus asked looking very concerned.

"Um, maybe later," Why don't we go to headquarters first? I really want to get out of this house."

"Didn't you just get here last night?" Remus asked surprised that Tawny had already got sick of being at home again.

Tawny nodded and said, "Yeah, but that's not the point. Where are we going?" "This," Remus pulled a piece of paper out of his robes and held it up before Tawny, "is from Dumbledore; he's the secret-keeper for the Order."

Tawny took the piece of paper out of Remus's hand, unfolded it, and read:

The headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix may be found at number twelve, Grimmauld Place, London.

Tawny reread the message twice to make sure she had read it correctly, and then looked up at Remus, her eyes narrowed.

"Gee, Remus, exactly who in the Order had access to this house?" She took a step toward him, and he stepped back, away from her, smiling innocently, "I think you failed to mention someone last night when I asked you who was in the Order."

"I'm sorry!" Remus apologized, "I just, well, I wasn't sure you'd come or not if you knew he was there!"

"Oh, why not?!" Tawny snarled at Remus, looking rather possessed at the moment, "He's only me ex-fiancé! You know, the one who totally forgot about me after I thought about him every fucking day since he was imprisoned!" Tawny then let out a loud maniacal laugh that caused Remus to jump, "I damn near lost my mind missing him so much!"

"Tawny, he hasn't forgotten about you!" Remus insisted, "He's asked me about you a lot! I'm sorry I didn't tell you, I was just hoping he'd contact you himself!"

Tawny turned her back on Remus, scowling, folding her arms across her chest, muttering "I was the ONLY ONE who knew he was innocent all along. I was the ONLY ONE who believed in him!"

After a moment of silence Remus asked, "You don't want to come anymore, do you?"

Tawny sighed, and thought to herself 'Don't take this out on Remus, he's your friend!' Tawny hadn't been the greatest friend to Remus the past thirteen or so years, and she wanted to change that. He had always been there for her when she needed him, even though she was never really there when he needed her. Now was the time to change that.

"Yes, Remus," Tawny's voice had softened, "I do As I said before, I want to get out of this house, and, well, if he doesn't want to see me that's too damn bad."

Tawny turned back to face Remus and gave him a hug, "Sorry I lost my temper. I, uh, just feel emotional now is all."

"You call that losing your temper?" Remus laughed as he hugged her back, "I'm just glad you didn't do to me what you did to your kitchen!"

Tawny pulled away from him, glaring at him playfully, and said, "Oh, shut up!"

Remus looked around the kitchen one last time asking, "Are you sure you don't want me to help you clean up before we leave?"

"No, let's get going," Tawny said, desperately wanting to get out of her own home. 'I'm just tired of being alone,' she thought as she rushed back into her living room, opened a closet door, pulling out a dark green robe. She threw it over her shoulders and shoved her wand into her pocket, and dashed back into the kitchen.

"Ready?" Remus asked who had been waiting patiently.

Tawny nodded, letting out a nervous sigh and said, "As ready as I'll ever be."

Please Review! It makes me happy!