Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters except Cota, Oweiry, Derek, Kira, and a few others. J.K. Rowling owns all the others and I am just messing around with plot. I am not profiting off this. If you want to sue me...please do not bother, I have NO money. I am going to end up living in a cardboard box as it is, so unless you want a penny...sue someone else. (If I spelt any names wrong I'm very, very, very, very, very, very, very sorry. So...umm, hi from the cardboard box...and on with the fic.)

"They'll be here any moment!" Lilly cried out to James. Her worry was growing by the minute and she'd tried on five different outfits and still wasn't sure that she'd picked the right one.

"Relax. Kira is dressed in the outfit you made; she looks beautiful by the way. Every thing will be fine," James reassured her, he was getting used to the mood swings and almost thought of writing a book on how to deal with women as he'd finally seemed to have figured out how to act.

"I just can't help but be worried. Kira hasn't met anyone outside that family. What if she gets scared?" Lilly argued, suddenly going from distressed to irritated.

"Of my friends?" James protested.

"I know they'd never hurt her and YOU know they'd never hurt her, but Kira doesn't!" Lilly's tone was hard to read as it was both angry and desperate.

"Kira is a smart girl. Don't worry about her," James replied simply and tried hard not to look at her in any way that might convey as critical.

It was late March and time for a very special reunion. Kira was wearing a pink dress that went down to her heels. It had a big red ribbon across the waist and tied in the back to make a bow; the shoulders went down to an inch above her elbows. Her shoes were also pink with little stars on them, she had pink arm covers that started a little bit after her elbows and went down to her wrists to cover up the electronic device.

Her light blonde hair had a single, big, pink bow on the top of her head and she had on a silver charm bracelet with a Ruby embedded in a silver ova; when someone looked into the center of the stone they could faintly see a white rearing up stag. (James gave it to her) The dress was simple and looked a little like a longer version of a summer dress.

Cota was wearing a more formal version of what he always wore, which was black boots, pants, belt, shirt, over shirt or cloak. Now he was wearing new, black boots, dark blue pants, a white shirt, with a dark blue cloak that didn't button in the front, and a blue tie with the Riders crest on it. James had on basically the same thing only his cloak and outfit was Maroon and gold.

Lilly had been getting ready all morning, she had on a lavender dress that went down to her heels, the dress had no sleeves and she had on a purple dress cloak over it. Her cloak only touched at the waist where it fastened in front with a silver gryphon pin in an effort to hide the bulge of her stomach. She had on black strap up high heels, and her hair was tied up and has a silver gryphon clip on the side.

James had given up with his hair, but returned to his room to get a brown belt with a silver gryphon on it. When everyone is ready Lilly finally relaxed and took a few deep breaths. James went to check on Kira, who was in the front yard sitting on the swing and watching Gyriph. James never had to worry about Kira; if he put her somewhere, she could sit there for hours just thinking or marveling at whatever was in front of her.

She had grown up on a military base for a year with the intelligence of a four year old, but wasn't ever allowed outside. She was a four year old who had spent the first year of her life in a lab, then had awoken only to spend the next five month in a room that she wasn't allowed to leave. She was amazed at the size of everything and the colors seemed to bewilder her. She had never imagined the world to be anything but metal walls and tile floors. Now, however, she hated to be inside. She felt trapped, but James had made it so the door was easy enough for her to open, then she didn't have to feel trapped.

"Are you ready Kira?" James asked as he stood in the doorway. This was also his chance to prove to his friends and Albus, that Kira was a normal little girl.

Kira nodded her head and ran over to James. He carried her inside and set her down when he saw that Lilly was chewing on her lip and looked to be on the verge of panic. Cota was sitting asleep on the couch; he had on sunglasses and was acting like he was awake as Lilly panicked about her hair not looking right. Kira hopped up onto the couch and stared curiously at him.

"Dear, you look radiant. You're beautiful, you're glowing; the hair and the outfit just add to your wonderful style," James stated, arms out as if marveling at a famous sculpture.

"How do you always know exactly what to say?" She asked him with a smile.

"Love" He answers simply.

Cota woke up and looked over at James, with a 'what Soap opera did you jump into' look. James gave him an 'I've had a lot of practice about what to say in these situations' look. Cota nodded, accepting the explanation. He went back to sleep, having had class almost all night of 'how to see effectively in the dark' training. Kira took a book down off the bookshelf that James always let her read.

Lilly stopped wringing out her hands and sat down in a chair. James doesn't bother to sit as he knows she'd be up again soon anyway. He stared over at Cota and grinned, remembering night training and kicking himself for not having better advice other than 'no matter what you do, do not follow the beams of light, that's the professor messing with your head and trying to make you cheat.' The better advice might have been 'it's obstacle course made of metal, kick the sides and listen. If all else fails, give up before you look too stupid.'

Lilly nodded to herself a few times. Trying to convince herself that everything would be okay and that she is not fat. She gave an odd look to Cota, he hadn't moved since she sat down. Then she looked over at Kira, who was looking at a book on the floor and seemed to be in her own little world. James left to go make sure all the doors were locked and alarms were set and in his absence, Lilly got up to make sure she hadn't forgotten anything. Kira looked up from her book to see that her mommy and daddy were gone. She hopped up onto the couch, next to Cota and sat with her legs folded under herself.

She read for a few minutes, and then noticed someone coming down the path. They stumbled and kicked down the piece of overturned path and then recasted the spell that was supposed to make the path light up when a visitor came. Kira waited only a few seconds before switching into full alert, she began tapping Cota and then jabbing him when the tapping proved ineffective.

"Cota?" She cried when he didn't move.

"What's wrong?" Cota questioned, opening his eyes. He'd been able to ignore the jabs, but hearing a scared plea made him give up any idea of sleep.

"There is someone coming," Kira whispered, successfully hiding behind the book.

Cota looked out the window to see who it was and smiled at the sight of Remus. Kira didn't know any of James's friends. Cota was like a big brother to her as James and him were always trying to teach her cool little things and Cota always had her back. James liked teaching Kira to Hoverblade and she was getting pretty good.

"James, Remus is here," Cota called, and then he remembered that he was supposed to send a letter to Owiery before they left. He bowed to James as he entered the room and then headed up the stairs towards his room.

"Remus! Good to see you again," James greeted upon swinging open the door.

"You as well," Remus replied merely. "You should bring your fastest broom incase those Slytherins decide to challenge a Quidditch match," he added in a lower voice.

"I already thought of that... and I think we should do at least one big prank...you know, for old times sake," James replied; glancing from side to side as he did.

"You'll want to speak to Sirius about that," Remus chuckled.

Kira watched from behind her book, trying very hard to be out of the way and invisible. James was finally brought back to earth and looked over at her. He strode over, shutting the door behind Remus, and stood next to his daughter.

"And this is who I wrote you about," James explained, resting his hand on Kira's shoulder.

Remus kneeled in front of Kira, so that he was looking at her eye to eye. He'd heard what she'd been through and was making a grand effort not to come off as intimidating. It was a strong sign that she'd been praying for a family, otherwise she'd never have adapted so fast, but he knew that she would still have a lot of traits from the base.

"Hello, Kira," Remus greeted with the kindest smile he could. Kira looked over at James who gave her a reassuring smile and then left to go help Lilly. Kira stared after him like an abandoned puppy.

"You don't need to be afraid of me. I grew up with your Fa... James," Remus explained, unsure of exactly what James was to Kira.

Kira nodded, unsure of what else to do but remembering that Cota usually replied with a nod when James told him to do something. Well, that or a comment that she thought was funny, and James usually had a comeback for. The only people that had ever come to the house as far as Kira knew were Oweiry and Derek. Kira usually his from them because Derek was hyper and loud and Oweiry liked to glare at people, and watch them squirm. Most of the time she didn't think that he even realized he was glaring. She had never heard Cota ask Oweiry what he was staring at; Cota always asked what he was glaring at. This new person seemed nice, but she wasn't sure.

"Tonight we are going to Hogwarts for a reunion" Remus explained, finding himself babbling. "I want to show you some of our old secret passage ways. That way when you go to Hogwarts..." He stopped. He didn't know if Kira COULD go to Hogwarts. He gave her a nervous look and then looked down at the book she was 'reading.'

"How a star forms and other information about our galaxy!?" Remus gasped. "James, you d...Kira is already learning science!?"

"Nah, she just likes the pictures. They're bright and color full and they help explain something," James informed Remus as he walked back into the room in time to watch Kira scamper out of view, scared by the yelling.

"There is no way that she understands it," Remus protested.

"Kira? ...There you are. How do people tell what element a star is made up from?" James asked smugly.

"They use rainbow light and weird looking glasses that you see in a machine," Kira answered, not moving from her hiding spot.

"You see, that a basic description of spectra lines." James grinned and retreated back into the kitchen with Remus following close behind.

Left alone, Kira crawled out from her hiding spot and heard a knock at the door. She waited a few seconds and another knock soon followed. Shakily, she stood up and walked over to the door, clenching her hands together and walking slightly sideways. She grabbed the door knob and pulled. The door swung open to reveal two more people she didn't know. One of them, a tall man with wild hair, stepped forward- expecting someone taller to open the door.

Sirius peered around, not thinking to look down. Kira quickly jumped behind the door to hid as Sirius entered the house. He pushed the door open the rest of the way, trapping Kira behind it.

"h'lo?" Sirius called

"James, Lilly...Cota...Anyone?" Peter asked as he followed Sirius into the house. James came in from the kitchen and stared at Sirius and Peter.

"Thanks for knocking" James said sarcastically and went to greet them.

"The door opened after we knocked," Sirius explained, leaning casually against the door.

"Hmm, anyway, how are you both?" James asked.

"Well, I personally can't wait to see everyone again. I mean our old teachers...you don't think that we'll get detention for any pranks that they have recently discovered we did, do you?" Peter asked.

"Yes, I was worried about that too. It seems like the perfect set up," Sirius laughed, still leaning against the door. Remus entered the room and they all begging talking. Lilly came out of the kitchen and Cota, out of the living room.

"Everyone ready to go?" Lilly asked, distractedly looking through her purse.

"I think so," James answered, casting a final look around the room. Sirius and Peter nod and exit out of the house.

"Wait...where's Kira?" Cota asked, stopping in the doorway.

"I'm right here," a soft, almost unheard, voice called out from behind the door.

Lilly and Remus were already outside and James was halfway out the door, he soon realized that he'd forgotten his daughter and panicked. Cota moved the door and saw Kira.

"Oh, you should have said something earlier, I'm sorry," Cota apologized.

James also apologized and picked Kira up. Cota ran up to her room and grabbed her back pack; her book and her little toy raccoon were in it. Cota also grabbed a present for her. They all walk down the street and James waved to his neighbor. His neighbor is a Muggle, all of them are. James figured it would be easier to be a rider if you lived around people that didn't know what a rider was. The neighbor waved and gave James a smile as he saw James's outfit. He had always just assumed James had unique taste; and was actually starting to like it himself. He found himself shopping on frequent occasions, for cloaks. They took a cab to the train station as Kira couldn't ride a horse all the way to Hogwarts and Patrick was throwing a tantrum because he'd been kicked by another horse at the academy and was 'grounded' until his leg healed. They all paused in front of platform nine and three-fourths, Sirius, Remus, Peter, James and Lilly are all overwhelmed with emotion.

They were going back to Hogwarts.

Lilly met two of her friends from Hogwarts and went to sit with them inside a compartment on the right. James, Sirius, Remus, and Peter took a compartment on the left and Cota and Kira are left standing in the corridor.

"Well, I feel all forgotten, how about you?" Cota asked. Kira nods sadly and he extended his hand. "Come on little Kira."

Together they go to the last compartment on the right. Cota put Kira up on the seat, and then he took the seat next to her. Half an hour passed and the train director was still waiting to see if more people show up, but usually everyone took the second train and this was the first. Cota uses this time to show Kira the present he had got her.

"Kira?" Cota asked, drawing her attention away from the window.

"Yes?" Kira answered; her head turned, and her beautiful gray eyes stared at him with curiosity.

"I got you a present," Cota announced with a smile only he could pull off. A smile that made everyone smile no matter what mood they were in. The only person able to ignore it seemed to be Owiery,

"Preh...sint?" Kira asked, not understanding the word.

"Yes, a present is like a gift," Cota explained, settling in for a lot of questions.

"Gift?"

"Um, well, who gave you that cute little raccoon toy?"

"Irving," Kira answers; there was a slight look of remorse in her eyes when she said that name.

"Well, that raccoon is a gift from Irving," Cota explained.

"Oh," Kira answered, though she still looked confused.

"Yeah, you give a gift or present to someone that you like, someone you care about," Cota smiled a different smile, one that told to pride and hope.

'Someone you care about? Cota cares about me?' Kira held the present in her hands, she did not know what to say or do. Cota leaned over and helped her unwrap it; it was a sketchpad.

"Because you like to draw," Cota explained, a twinkle radiating from his amazingly blue eyes and seeming to wash over Kira, making her blush.

She held the sketchbook and looked down at it, then smiled and looked up at Cota. Her eyes were shining and she looked so incredibly happy, even if she was just slightly smiling, her eyes shone and sparkled, they looked like diamonds.

"Thank you," Kira said, her voice flowing with emotion. Cota felt like he'd just given her the greatest gift in the world and found that –for once- he was downplaying his role as a leader and was happy only because she was enveloped in what appeared to be pure ecstasy.

Kira had never had someone be this nice to her. Irving had been the only person who had ever cared, though he was also harsh on her at times so that she would understand. James was always nice, but seemed a bit nervous around her. He was a good father, just busy a lot. Cota had bought her the sketchbook because she loved to draw. She would sit for hours at a time, just drawing. She had been able to draw stick figures...but they were always being killed.

They were in poses of great pain and were purposely deformed and mutilated. They were always tortured looking things and she could also draw animals...but they were all demons. Cota understood, as did James, she drew those images because that is what she had been exposed to for the first five months of her life. James stored all Kira's drawings in a file cabinet in his office, they were disturbing to look at, but he wanted to show Kira that they were important and wonderful to him.

James burst into the room suddenly, breathing hard. He had been running all over the train looking for them. Cota folded his arms turned towards James, he knew that they were on 'vacation' and proper niceties would not be necessary. James wouldn't call him on it, he wasn't pompous enough to enforce every rule, even over vacation.

"What's wrong James? Forget something?" Cota asked, blocking Kira from view. James eyes were wide, he was looking for Kira, and Cota knew it. James nodded his head while he caught his breath. Cota leaned back and James saw Kira.

"Oh, thank God. I'm so sorry I forgot you. I was just...there is no excuse for it. I'm sorry," James apologized to Kira. "Do you forgive me?" he asked.

Cota leaned over and whispered into Kira's ear.

"Forgiveness cost a price," She answered and Cota held in a laugh. James corked an eyebrow, he couldn't really argue, he had forgotten her twice already and would have done anything to make amends.

"How's a chocolate frog sound?" James asked.

Cota whispered to Kira again.

"No," Kira answered.

"Two?" James asked.

"Wait for him to throw in a balloon," Cota instructed under his breath, just barely loud enough for James to hear.

"No," Kira answered

"Okay, final offer: two chocolate frogs and a box of Bertie bott's Every Flavored beans," James offered.

"Balloon," Cota coughed. Kira absolutely LOVED balloons. James looked at Cota with a 'no helping her' look on his face.

"And a balloon," James added.

"... I'll take it," Kira smiled, hugging her new sketchbook.

James said alright and got up. He saw the sketchbook and went to find his wife. He knew Lilly had Kira's crayon because she had grabbed it and put it in her purse; she'd been worried that Kira would get bored and knew she liked to draw with crayons.

(Magical crayons come out smoother and the color of the crayon changes when the user names a different color, it's a way to teach kids colors. Example, the crayon starts out clear, you say blue, you now have a blue crayon, and you color with it then say red, poof, and a red crayon. That way the parents don't have to worry about buying the 200-color set only to have some of the colors get lost. You could just buy five color- changing ones and replace them as needed. They are called CrystalWriters. Because the first one looks like a crystal and if you hold it up to the light, you can reflect hundreds of colors)

When James returned he gave Kira the CrystalWriter and then left to go help Sirius get the smoke bombs better hidden so they could use them later. Kira's mind raced on what to draw. She wasn't dumb, she saw the slight twitch James gave whenever he saw her drawings. She also knew he was worried about her drawing something that might make people think that there was something wrong with her. She looked down at the sketchbook.

"Cota?" She asked. "I don't know how to draw..."

"Sure you do. You draw those stick figures all the time," Cota replied, trying to smile as realistically as he could.

"No, I don't wanna draw those in this," Kira admitted. She found nothing wrong with the stick figures; she liked drawing them as much as any other kid enjoyed drawing happy stick figures. She thought it was natural for scientists to experiment on people; she didn't know that hurting people was wrong. Kira just knew that she wanted to do something special in this book.

"Well, what do you want to draw?" Cota asked.

"I... I don't know," Kira answered and looked down sadly.

"Well, drawing is like dreaming. You can draw anything you can dream. Dreaming is setting a goal, this is a world of magic, and anything is possible. If you dream you can fly, then never stop trying until you can. You want to draw something, but you don't know what? Well, draw your self in the future, draw a good dream you had, draw something that reminds you of someone special," Cota instructed.

Kira thought for a moment, she didn't have any plans for the future, she was happy now. She hadn't had very good dreams... something special.

"Something special..." Kira said aloud; she was trying to think.

Cota smiled, he waited a few seconds then reached in her bag and pulled out the toy raccoon. Kira looked at it and then smiled. That was something special, her gift from Irving.

"I want to draw that...but I don't know how," Kira said, her voice was soft.

"I'll teach you," Cota announced.

"I want it to be special... and colorful," Kira smiled.

"Well... oh, I've got an idea. What are your favorite colors?" Cota asked and took the sketchbook.

"Um... I like... Pink, and blue...and green, and purple, and yellow," Kira answered.

"Okay," Cota smiled. "Let's start with Pink" he said and the crayon turned pink. Cota made two lines about half an inch apart in the center, horizontally. "Now blue" Cota said and the crayon turned blue. Cota put a blue line half an inch above the pink one. "Now violet," the pattern continued until the entire paper was separated into lines. Cota then handed the sketchbook back to Kira. "Color in the lines to their matching color," he instructed.

"I can't color in the lines, I'll mess up," Kira protested.

"That's okay," Cota explained.

Kira went to work, trying extremely hard to stay in the lines. Fifteen minutes went by and Cota left to go get food off the cart, he promised to try to avoid Lily because she'd tell him not to let Kira have too many sweets. Cota was always so nice, he made Kira feel safe. Irving had given her the greatest gift of all. He gave her James. And James, had given her a life, a family, love. James= Joy. Lilly= Love. Their baby would have to have a happy name because they were always joyful, loving, and happy.

It was the strangest thing to Kira, but she was finally beginning to understand what had happened to her. The only problem was that it hurt to understand why she'd been created. It hurt a lot more to think of what would have happened if James hadn't come.