Chapter 4

Written by: Shroomipoo

Edited by: Ahtnamas

Severus was still in a bad mood by the time everyone gathered outside of the temple, "Besaid Temple," as they called it.

Everyone's gaze was focused on the weird bi-colored eyed freakish girl, or "Yuna" as they called her, so Severus shifted his gaze at her too. Not that he cared, since he didn't care much about anything other than getting back at Potter at the moment, but because everyone else was.

A silence fell over the crowd as Yuna raised her staff, twirled it once, and posed regally. The wizards watched in awe as orbs of light appeared out of nowhere and circled her. The ground started to vibrate and a strange purplish pattern appeared on it as four beams of light shot up into the air into a thickening cloud. Everyone followed her gaze as the clouds split and a large shadow shot out from the sky. Lily screamed, as did many other women and Peter.

A strange creature dived down and swooped down to a rough landing, sending a cloud of dust into the air. Yuna rushed over to welcome it, stroking its head. It crooned in delight.

James finally got a good look at it. The creature had a metalloid beak and head with glowing yellow eyes. It stretched out its leathery red and yellow reptilian wings and its red feathery braid blew in the wind. A golden chain swayed on one of the talons on its wing.

Peter looked at it suspiciously, wondering if the bird-like creature ate mice.

Everyone, said the smiling Yuna, "This is Valefor."

"Hey Snivellus," James hollered, "Meet your girlfriend!"

Severus cursed at James vehemently, but it was drowned out by the sudden outburst of clapping. Severus whirled around to see why everyone was clapping at James's absolutely stupid joke, but instead they were applauding Yuna, who gave a humble bow as Valefor retreated back into the sky.

The night's festivities were not as formal as the ones at Hogwarts, but it was loud and joyous nevertheless. A bright bonfire was lit in the middle of the village square (well this one was shaped like a circle though) and everyone was laughing and talking or dancing. A few little children were playing tag.

Lily looked around merrily. To be truthful, even though she was stuck with the stupid James and his gang and Severus who dissed her every single time she stood up for him, this actually was a pretty nice excursion from the pressure of the upcoming N.E.W.T.s.

"Hello!" said a kind voice from behind her, startling Lily.

It was Yuna, smiling benignly at her with those mismatched eyes, green and blue.

"Hey," replied Lily, returning the smile. Somehow she felt that this would be someone she'd like.

"You must be the Lily from another world, right?" asked Yuna.

"Yes, and I saw the thing—aeon thing—you called today. It was pretty cool."

"Really?" Yuna seemed slightly surprised. "Every single woman in the village screamed at the sight of it."

Lily chuckled lightly. "Are you really going on a pilgrimage across the whole of this Spira?" she asked.

Yuna nodded. "So, where do you come from anyways?"

Morning.

"Yo, mate, wake up!"

James slowly opened one eye and then the other. Sirius was standing over him.

"Ugh…where am I?"

"In Spira," said Remus, coming up from behind Sirius. "We got sucked in by an unfamiliar force so called Sin and we're going to be leaving in an hour."

James scratched his head. Oh yeah. They were going to go to some other island and see if they could get home or something. Wakka mentioned it sometime last night. Right now they were bunking in the Crusader's Lodge in what was it, Besaid?

"We're going with Yuna and Tidus to see if we can meet up with Sin again and get home."

"Yeah," added Sirius, not helping much.

James hopped up out of his cot and straightened some creases off of his Hogwarts robes.

"Yeah, you better hurry up Prongs. Snivellus was by your bedside last night trying to hex you before Moony came and chased him off."

"For all you know he might be right outside casting a curse…"

"Wow, that's amazing!" exclaimed Yuna, watching a scroll float into Lily's hands from the summoning spell. The two had practically become best friends over the night.

"It's nothing," said Lily modestly, scratching her head. She quickly noticed that that was something James always did and quickly stopped, mentally slapping herself. He must be influencing her with his annoying perversion…

"Well, we better start making our way to the docks," said Yuna, standing up and straightening her skirt. "It's a long walk to the beach."

She picked up her staff, a long, slender pole with an intricately designed head somewhat like a blossom. Then, seeing Lily's gaze, she walked over to a cabinet and extracted another long spear, almost just like Yuna's staff except with a pointed head, and handed it to Lily. "Here, Lily. You're going to need it; there're fiends on the road today."

"Fiends?" The word didn't appeal to Lily very much.

"I hope we won't meet any, but you'll need to protect yourself in case we get ambushed by any."

Lily took the staff gingerly. It was pretty cool to be wielding a weapon, but the description of fiends was slightly unnerving…

James emerged from the hut and saw Lily strolling out of the village with Yuna, Wakka, Lulu, Tidus, and the blue lion—Kimahri, or whatever.

Wakka stopped and hollered at the wizards, "Hey, come here for a sec, ya?"

James quickly hurried with his friends and Severus to Wakka, who escorted them into some other hut.

"You guys are going to need to gear up, ya?"

"Huh?"

"Just come with me…"

"Whoa…" The view was spectacular. Up on the ledge above the village, one could see the true beauty of Spira. Tropical green edged up over reddish-brown ruins, and the sun-bleached huts of the village surrounded the stone temple. Beyond was ocean as far as the eye could see.

Everyone else was on their knees praying before a squarish stone sculpture.

"This is where everyone leaving the island prays for a safe passage at sea," explained Yuna.

"Well," said Lily, "Won't you miss Besaid?"

Yuna looked down. Her merry voice was suddenly full of sadness. "Of course I will."

Lily patted her new best friend on the shoulder. "It's all right."

Just then there was a clatter from the village and Lily noticed with disgust that it was James and his crew. James was carrying what looked like some sort of Japanese sword, Sirius was wielding a long rapier, Lupin had some smaller version of Sirius's weapon, Severus held what seemed like a spear like hers, and Peter had a small dagger. Well, his build didn't seem to allow him much more than that, the poor guy.

"It's about time to go, ya?" asked Wakka, hastily. He turned to the five wizards and the witch. "Watch out for fiends, guys," he said quietly.

"What's a fiend?" asked Peter.

"You'll see," said Wakka darkly. "Well," he said, raising his voice again, "let's go, ya?"

The path led down the hillside and seemed to go into the rainforest before leading to the beach.

There was a sudden bark and what looked like a mutant dingo with red eyes ran in front of them, blocking their way. Along with it came what looked like a headless bird with an arrow-like beak protruding from a round body, which could have been a feathery puff if there weren't two stubby wings and dangerously sharp-looking claws protruding out of it.

"What's that?!" yelled Peter, terrified, jumping behind Remus.

"It's a fiend!" announced Wakka. "Get ready for battle!"

"Hey, Moony, why don't you get a bite out of em?" asked Sirius jokingly.

Remus rolled his eyes and ignored the comment.

Everyone drew their weapons and ran forward. Tidus sliced the dingo thing expertly and it evaporated into iridescent streams. The five wizards watched, gaping.

"That's right," said Wakka, "slice 'em up nice and good!"

The bird dived at Lily, who gave a small scream and jumped out of the way just in time, and as the bird revved back to stab at her again when James hopped forward and made a slice at the bird, who evaded easily.

"Leave the flyers to me," said Wakka, throwing a blue and white ball at the bird, hitting it out of the air, and it evaporated just like the dog.

"Whoa, what was that?" squeaked Peter, peeking out from behind Remus.

"Fiends," said Yuna. "Watch out for them."

Peter took that explanation as enough.

The group continued on. James nudged Lily flirtatiously. "So, will you go out with me now?"

Lily pushed him away. "NO I WILL NOT."

"I just saved your life there, Evans," he said meaningfully.

Lily stomped away angrily, fighting the impulse to slap him. He did save her life there.

Not that she'd ever admit it.

The beach was stunningly beautiful as the morning sunshine shone brightly over the sand. A large boat was sitting moored at the dock. Peter ran to catch up with his friends, who were already boarding the ship.

"I wonder if we'll ever get home again," mused Peter as he slowed to a stop next to Remus.

"Of course we will," intervened James. "All we have to do is find Sin again and get swallowed up again and then we're back at Hogwarts. Then Evans will go out with me."

Peter sighed. Geez, confident.

Tidus hopped from the gangplank, waving the binoculars like a trophy. Behind him the angry sailor he had stolen it from yelled all sorts of curses. Tidus focused the scope toward northwest, where they were headed. He spotted a small green island. That must be Killika. The dirty blonde teen averted his gaze for no reason and found himself focused on Yuna, who was walking along the lower deck with Kimahri. Yuna stopped suddenly and, to Tidus's surprise, smiled and waved at him.

His cheeks began to burn. Giving her a casual smile, he casually tossed the binoculars over his shoulder. The sailor behind him was not too pleased.

"Hey, Prongs, I don't know how to break it to you, but I really don't think Evans will ever end up liking you."

James scowled at his best friend. "What makes you think she won't? When two are destined to be together, they'll end up together no matter what."

Sirius rolled his eyes. James had taken a liking to quoting anything that had to do with romance.

"OW!!!" screamed Peter randomly.

"Peter!" yelled Sirius and James at the same time. Then realizing that Peter just said 'ow' and didn't do anything, they apologized quickly. "Sorry, Wormtail," they said sheepishly.

Peter rubbed his head and picked up the binoculars that had just hit him on the head.

"Are binoculars supposed to fly?"

Remus rolled his eyes and Sirius snapped, "No, really,"

James snatched the instrument out of Peter's hands and immediately started staring through it at someone across the deck intently.

"You know, I am feeling very sorry for Evans," said Remus, rolling his eyes again and looking down at James irately.

"Whadya mean?" snapped James.

Remus gave a huge fake sigh. "It must be really irksome to have a stubborn child chasing after her…"

"What's that supposed to mean?!?!"

Peter wondered if it was an artery or a vein that popped on James's forehead.

Lily sat in the shade of the umbrellas on the upper deck and watched as Yuna and Tidus conversed on the bowsprit. She was pretty sure that she wasn't imagining it—there was a glitter in the two's eyes—they definitely adored each other, if not more than that.

For a moment she wondered how it'd feel like to be in love and have them love you back—not like the way that arrogant toe rag Potter fell for her out of the blue—but to truly like someone…

Not that it was ever going to happen to her. Not anytime soon.

Deciding that it was rude to spy on the two, Lily moved about the upper deck, looking for something to do. Other than Yuna and her guardians, Potter and his friends, Snape, the Aurochs, and the sailors, there was no one else on the yacht. This was going to be one boring trip.

Suddenly a huge wave crashed into the boat, knocking Lily off her feet. Recovering from the shock, she realized that the smooth ocean had suddenly broken into tsunami-sized breakers. Another wave slammed itself onto the boat, and Lily grabbed onto the railing as the ship threatened to capsize. Lily began to panic. She barely knew how to swim.

Another giant tide smashed into the boat, completely soaking everyone on it. Lily clenched her now white knuckles on the railings. Another wave of water sloshed over her from the other side, and shaking the salty fluid out of her eyes, she opened them just in time to see a giant blue fin erupt from the water, sending white spray out into the ship again.

Lily gasped at the familiar grotesque texture on its leathery skin.

A yell from a panicked sailor made certain of her guess.

"SIN!"

Cliffhanger! Review or else I shall hunt you down and slit your throat.

Las: uh...Gorn, are you feeling alright?

Rond: Course she's not! She's drunk!

(a little bit of background: Gorn has a bad habit of going crazy when she sees apple cider and dunks about 3 or 4 bottles down at once so she's always identified as a drunkard by her friends)

So anyways, review orwewon't update! :P