Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or the Harry Potter Universe. These literary works belong to J.K. Rowling. I do, however, own the story and my original characters.

Chapter 36: Beginning

When Harry told his friends of the incident the next day, they were horrified.

"You lived it?" Ron asked, his voice hushed, "When they...when they..." He gave up trying to finish the sentence.

Harry took pity on him. "Yeah, I felt it when they died."

"That's terrible!" Hermione said, her complexion as pale as milk. "What did it...feel like?" She asked with a certain tentative curiosity.

"For a moment..." Harry said very quietly after a second's thought, shuddering, "I felt sick, then cold, then...empty...but it all happened really quickly and I came back to myself very fast."

The three of them were sitting in the Gryffindor common room near the fire. Their sober faces and hunched postures as they whispered warned all the curious away. Harry would have welcomed Ginny, but she made no moves towards them, sitting at one of the tables and discussing a homework problem with Colin Creevy.

"Do you know who it was?" Hermione asked as though dreading the answer.

"I'm pretty sure Colum was Scarecrow..." Harry began. And Hermione gave a cry that she quickly stifled with her hand. "I don't know about the two that answered; they sounded like a man and a woman. But I'm guessing that Lion and Soda were Harvan and Dresca. We knew that the three of them were traveling together."

"Yes, Colum told us..." Hermione trailed off, gulping several times. "...At Halloween." Ron reached over and took her hand. "I just can't believe it...they were so..."

"Alive." Harry finished softly. The conversation ended.

Right before they parted from Hermione, Harry pulled her aside. "Meow, I...would you tell Ginny? She needs to know, and she's not talking to me."

"What did you do?"

Harry shook his head tiredly, too wiped out to even become defensive. "Will you?"

"I will, Harry." She sniffed, and produced a handkerchief from one of her pockets. "I'll...try, at least."

Ron gave Harry a glance; then he looked at Hermione. He seemed to be fighting some interior battle.

"Ron," Harry whispered, pausing as he walked past him, "I think you should stay with Hermione for a while."

"What about you?" Ron whispered back.

"I'm okay. She needs you." Harry replied. Ron's face turned red, but he nodded and caught up to Hermione just before she reached the stairs to the girl's dormitory.

Harry didn't stay to watch, instead climbing the stairs and finding his bed with a grateful sigh.

He didn't even consider trying to dream that night, and poured all his memories into the Receiver. Then, cuddling Durry close to his cheek, he fell into darkness. The voice of the young man about to die, the words of those who had arrived too late to save him, and Texi's desperate pleas had echoed in his mind through the whole time since he had first heard them, but when he poured all his thoughts into the Receiver they finally faded away. As he slept, his dreams were dark and quiet.

The week ended and the Christmas Holidays began with a somewhat pleasing surprise for Harry. The morning everyone was to leave, he received a letter, his first in a long while.

He was just finishing his breakfast, a somewhat small one as his appetite had been flagging lately, Hedwig fluttered out from the rafters and landed in his half-eaten bowl of oatmeal. With a disdainful hoot she hopped out, dropping a letter into Harry's lap. He stroked her head as she helped herself to the oatmeal she had landed in.

The handwriting on the letter was easily recognizable as belonging to Remus, and he tore open the letter, not really knowing what to expect as to the contents.

'Dear Harry,

I apologize for the lateness of my letter, and hope that it arrives in time. If not, Texi or one of the others should be letting you know today...'

"What's that, Harry?" Ron asked from across the table. He had been involved in a quidditch discussion with Seamus, concerning the prospects of Ireland in the World Cup that year.

"It's from Remus." Harry told him, twitching the letter in his direction.

Ron's face fell slightly, and Harry knew what he was thinking about. He watched his friend as he left off his conversation with Seamus, who didn't really mind as he had other people to argue with, and moved to the other side of the table.

"Shove over, mate." He said to Harry as he took a seat on the bench next to him, and they read together.

'It's been a bad week for us, as you already know, and I would like to talk to you about that.' The letter continued, and Harry gulped.

'If you would like, I'm extending an invitation to you, Hermione, Ron, and Ginny to join Tala and I for the Holidays this year. I daresay it will be quite a change for both of us. Let Tainn or Texi know, and they will be happy to escort you to the Knight Bus this evening.

Happy Holidays,

Remus and Tala.'

"What do you say, Harry?" Ron asked. The four of them had signed on to stay for the Holidays, but Harry figured that Professor McGonagall wouldn't mind if they chose to go. They would be surrounded by members of the Order, after all.

"It sounds good to me," Harry said, summoning up a grin, "It sounds great, really. Would you talk to Hermione and Ginny about it? I'll talk to Texi."

Ron gave him a concerned look, which Harry thought really was unearned. But he nodded and went to find Hermione and his little sister.

When he had gone, Harry carefully folded up the note and put it in his pocket, then he stood to go to the head table, which most of the teachers had abandoned in the quest to keep the students from tearing the place down in fits of holiday spirit. He sighed as he caught sight of a head of brilliant red hair among the throngs, but it vanished quickly.

Texi was just standing up as Harry reached the table, and she nodded at him, then at the door leading out into the hall. He nodded in return and walked out. She appeared a moment later, and joined him where he was watching a first-year boy try to pry a Santa hat off of his head; the hat was putting up quite a battle. It was a humorous spectacle, but Harry found that neither of them were smiling as they watched.

"So, Harry," Texi said, finally, catching his eye, "about Christmas...I was going to talk to you about it at our last lesson, but..."

"It's alright." Harry replied. "It's understandable." There was an awkward silence. "Ron's talking to Ginny and Hermione now, but I would say it's pretty definite that we'll be accepting."

That out of the way, they turned their discussion to the additional security measures that Remus had imposed upon his cottage and the grounds. Harry, having learned something about them in Defense Against the Dark arts, found the discussion fascinating.

They were just talking about the process of rendering something Unplottable when Ron came up, looking out of breath. "They're game." He told them. He stared at Texi, and she looked uncomfortable.

"You told your friends, of course." She commented to Harry.

"Yes, they...had a right to know, I thought." He replied, a tad defiantly.

"I understand perfectly. Thank you for taking the duty of explaining upon yourself." She nodded at him. "Ron, Harry, we will be going down to Hogsmeade at around six o'clock, and will be taking the Knight Bus at eight. We'll be met on the bus by some other Order members." She smiled faintly, "And I need to do some shopping."

She gave them a wave goodbye and disappeared among the students filling the halls.

Harry rummaged through his trunk, selecting out his least shabby muggle clothes and his traveling robes. He was rummaging in the bottom for his extra pair of gloves - he had mislaid his new ones somewhere - when his hand struck something sharp.

"Ow!" He yelped, withdrawing the hand quickly, and finding a slice across the back, through the faded remnant of Umbridge's 'lessons', coincidentally. Harry wrapped an old pair of socks around his hand and carefully began removing more items, until at last he came to the shattered remnants of Sirius' two-way mirror.

He couldn't say how long he had been hunched over the trunk for he found that he could not take his eyes off of the glittering fragments of glass, now stained with his blood. He had forgotten about it, again, and now with the sight there came back with full force the memory of when he had tried to use it. He was just about to throw a nasty old jumper that had belonged to Dudley on top of it, when he thought he caught a refracted glimmer of movement in one of the pieces.

The jumper hung, a pile of woolen puce, in his hands as he froze. Could it have been? The flicker did not appear again, but Harry was sure that he had seen it. What he wasn't sure of; was what it was. His heart told him it was Sirius, his head told him that that could not be true. After some internal argument, the head won the discussion, and Harry went to throw the jumper in again.

A flash of blue, a flash of gold, seemed to illuminate the inside of his trunk, throwing into sharp detail the interior, and the contents, some old candy wrappers, a quill he had forgotten about in his second year, and various other objects. But he had eyes only for the mirror.

He took out his wand. "Reparo." He whispered. He wasn't sure if such a simple spell would work on a magical item, but he didn't know any better ones. Absently he made note of that, and so noted to look up some new spells on it for the DA.

The mirror gleamed sullenly, but the pieces of glass slowly refitted themselves into the frame, and it made itself whole. Harry discarded the jumper, he decided he should throw it out anyways, and picked the mirror up carefully, unmindful of the fact that the blood from the cut had nearly soaked through the socks he had wrapped around it.

"Who's there?" He asked. The mirror flashed to mirror brightness, then became cloudy and smoky gray. "Sirius!?" The grayness faded, and Harry found himself looking at someone who was very not Sirius.

His first impression was of bright blue eyes and a veritable cloud of curly golden hair, his second was of the shock and surprise on the other person's face, the third was that he KNEW this woman.

"Who are you?" He demanded, "Why do you have my godfather's mirror?"

The woman just stared at him, her heart shaped face very pale. Dark smudges under her eyes bespoke of little sleep, little food, and much worrying. But she did not answer.

"Who ARE you? Tell me!" He yelled.

"You look just like him." She finally said in a light, sweet, though pain-filled voice, "Just like your father. But your eyes...those are Lily's eyes. It's like looking at her again. You don't remember me, of course."

"You're not answering me," He said with a cold fury that quickly dissolved, "How do I know you REALLY knew them? I want your NAME! I want to know who YOU REALLY ARE!"

She looked at him sadly, and said not a word more. The glass grew smoky again, and her face faded from his view. Finally, only his own reflection remained.

"Come BACK, damn it!"

"Harry?"

"WHAT?" He snapped, looking around.

Ron stood behind him, the sports bag that Remus had given him slung over his shoulder, and he had been watching his friend yell at his trunk with much concern. "Er...something wrong, mate?" He asked, hitching his winter cloak tighter around himself.

"Everything. Everything's wrong." Harry told his friend bitterly, shoving the mirror and his extra set of gloves on top of the rest of the items in his own sports bag.

He swung on his cloak and fastened it, avoiding Ron's confused eyes. "Ready?" He asked, picking up his own bag and scooping Durry up from the bed to place him on his shoulder.

Harry noted with a rather helpless feeling that Ginny walked on the other side of Ron and Hermione as they made their way down to Hogsmeade village past McGonagall, who nodded at them.

It was Hermione who noticed his hand. And her noticing made it sting terribly. They paused on the path, and she unwrapped the socks, wrinkling her nose at them. "Oh, Harry!" She gasped. "This looks terrible."

Harry agreed that it did look worse now, but that may have been because of the bits of sock lint that were stuck in the congealing blood. He picked up a handful of snow from the drifts along the path and scrubbed at it while the others watched. Hermione looked at it closely, then rummaged in one of her pockets.

"You carry a first aid kit around with you?" Ron asked incredulously when she located what she was seeking.

"I was a Girl Guide in Primary school." She answered, not looking up from where she was swabbing at the back of Harry's hand with a bit of cotton. "Although we never had healing potion, which makes this a lot easier." She carefully uncorked a small blue bottle and used a glass dropper to let three drops fall on the cut on Harry's hand.

They all watched, Harry noticed Ginny even came closer to observe, as the cut vanished as though it had never been there. Harry noted that even the words Umbridge had forced him to etch into the back of his hand had faded somewhat.

"What's a Girl Guide?" Ron asked while Hermione was closing up the small kit and replacing it in her coat pocket. They walked on while Hermione explained the whole concept to their two wizard-raised friends.

Harry watched Ginny as they walked, though he tried to appear not to do so. Her Christmas gift, along with the ones for Ron and Hermione, lay in the bottom of his bag. He figured maybe if she liked it, she would talk to him again. He had managed to convince Cord to remain in the castle for the duration of the holidays. The snake seemed to like it when Harry stressed the responsibility of observing the goings-on while he was away. So with Cord a safe distance away, perhaps he could close the distance that had emerged between himself and the red-headed girl.

It wasn't long before they spied Tainn, Texi and Sarven standing at the end of the path. Texi and Sarven were huddled in thick cloaks, obviously not used to the cold weather, while Tainn, Harry noted with some shock and wonder, still stood barefoot in the snow.

"Good morning, everyone." Texi said cheerfully. "We're all ready?" There were general statements of agreement, so Texi stepped to the snow-covered curb and raised her wand. It lit, even though she didn't say any spell they could hear. A few moments later, during which the four students backed up several feet, the Knight Bus shot into view with a bang.

The conductor was still Stan Shunpike, though he had less spots, Harry noted, but when he stepped down his manner was entirely different. "Come on, then, we need to hurry." He said quickly, his eyes scanning the street.

They all clambered on board, and he nearly shut the door on Tainn's heels, which made him jump forward about a foot forwards. He also hardly waited until they all were seated before saying, "Take 'er away, Ern."

The bus took off with a bang, and Texi's chair fell over, dumping her onto Sarven's feet.

"Had to wangle this close," Stan said, more like himself now that they were under way. "There's a lot o' travel this time o' year, and it's going to be trouble when we go back to the ones we skipped, ain't that right, Ern."

Ern grunted in agreement, swinging the wheel to avoid a group of carolers. The chairs that Ginny and Hermione were sitting in skidded across the floor and slammed into Ron and Harry's knees, causing both the boys to howl in pain. Durry took flight and hung on one of the luggage racks, chittering angrily.

"But Dumbledore asked us to make this stop 'specially, did'n' 'e Ern." He didn't even wait for Ern's answer as leaned forward conspiratorially. "Special Order business, 'e said it was." With a self-important smile, he looked at his watch. "Won' be long now."

Finally he looked around, "Hello, there, Neville." He greeted Harry, who felt too ill to open his mouth so he just waved in response. Stan moved his gaze around the buses' passengers, but he couldn't seem to recall the names of any of the others. Harry guessed that he was only recognized as a consequence of their first meeting.

Then, Stan noticed Sarven, upon whose lap Texi had taken up residence rather than chancing being toppled again. He stood up so quickly that he bumped Ern, and an entire strip of buildings in a business district curved to avoid them.

"They're doing the wave," Texi noted lightly.

Stan was pointing a shaking finger at Sarven, his mouth working but nothing emerging.

"Yes?" Sarven asked with stressed politeness.

"Y-y-y-y-you!"

Sarven sighed and dropped his head onto Texi's shoulder. She patted his head in sympathy.

"Y-y-y-y-you!"

"I don't think I am who you think I am." Sarven turned a bleak blue gaze at Stan and he seemed to shrink away, bumping Ern again, and sending him careening off the road and into a partially frozen river with a great splash. In a moment the purple monstrosity had sunk to the bottom.

Ern let out a string of curses that made Hermione gasp. Stan suddenly seemed to realize that they had stopped. "Ern?"

Ern turned in his seat and fixed Stan with a stern gaze through his coke-bottle glasses. "We're in water."

"We're in water?" Stan asked, goggle-eyed. "What do we do when we're in water?"

"Get out, I assume." Sarven said bleakly as Texi and he stood. The dark young wizard walked to the front of the bus, performed a bubble-head charm, another that Harry couldn't make out, opened the door, and walked out.

"Does he mean we have to walk...er...swim?" Ron asked, as he watched a fish swim by the window.

"No." Tainn shrugged from where he was relaxing in one of the chairs. "He's going to get us out."

"By himself? Shouldn't we help?" Ginny asked, and Harry found he had missed the sound of her voice.

"He'll be fine." Tainn said with a yawn.

Just then, something rocked the entire bus where it sat at the bottom of the river.

"What in the bloody hell was that?" Ron shrilled.

"Sarven." Tainn replied as they slowly emerged from the water. "He's quite exceptional at Charms."

Harry looked out his window when it cleared the surface, and he saw a lone dark figure standing on the shore, his wand pointed at the bus. It seemed to Harry that he saw a line of white magical energy connecting the bus to the wand as it rolled along the surface, then came to a stop on the banks of the river.

Stan and Ern got off immediately, and lifted the hood of the engine, muttering over what they found there. Harry noted that Stan gave Sarven a rather wild look as the young wizard climbed back aboard, dripping from head to toe. Tainn conjured up a towel and tossed it at him. The wizard got hit in the face with fluffy white terrycloth, and shot Tainn a venomous look while he stripped the water from his hair and robes. It streamed off in large quantities and Sarven was very quickly dry.

Without a word he took his seat again and Texi plopped herself down on his lap, kissing the side of his forehead.

"Are you all right?" Harry asked.

"It was difficult." Sarven admitted, "But not unmanageable. I could have used help," He noted with another venomous look at Tainn, which the animagus ignored, "But all's well that ends well."

Ern and Stan returned from their engine maintenance, and in a few short moments they were underway again.

"So..." Stan asked tentatively, "Who ARE you if you're not who I think you are?"

"I am Sarven of Stepenwolv." He said.

"Did you know you look...?"

"Don't. Say. It." Sarven enunciated very coldly, and Texi patted his hand while Stan looked frightened.

Finally the bus screeched to a halt in front of Remus' cottage.

"He-here's your stop." Stan said shakily, "Thank you for riding the Knight Bus." The moment they were off - Harry had to coax Durry down from the luggage rack - the bus took off again with a bang.

Texi turned to Sarven as they walked the path up to the cottage, which sat warm and comfortable looking under its mantle of snow. "Are you sure that was wise?"

"What was wise?" He asked.

"Scaring him."

"I didn't mean to..."

"Uh-uh-uh..." She shook her finger at him. "Yes, you did."

He shook his head. "I'm tired, love. I'm just tired." He took her hand in his own. "And you're right, I should've been nicer about it."

"As long as you know I'm right." She agreed as they reached the door, she rapped on it once; then walked in.

"Boots and cloaks in the entry, please!" Came a voice from the kitchen, and as they complied, Tala emerged, a dishtowel in her hands. "It's good to see you all." She smiled, though Harry thought her eyes were too bright.

Her hugs were warm and natural, imparting a sense of comfort, and she held Texi a while longer than she did the others. Texi sagged against her aunt's shoulder Tala looked around at the rest of them. "We're glad to have you. Why don't you go into the sitting room and make yourself comfortable, we have a fire going, but you'll notice a lack of tree. We thought it would be nice to go pick one out tomorrow."

"That sounds great, Aunt Tally." Tainn grinned at her as he ushered everyone except Sarven and Texi away.

The sitting room was as comfortable as Harry remembered, the furniture warm and welcoming to their jolted bones. There was a phonograph playing soft music in one of the dim corners, and Harry found it all quite soothing and homey. He was just relaxing into the couch when he saw something that made all those good feelings vanish.

There, on the sideboard, was Harvan's violin.

...

Please, please, please review. I 'd love to have all your support as I continue and finish this piece of fiction, particularly when I have to write things like what's happened in recent chapters. Because I really AM fond of my O.C.s and don't LIKE to do things like this to them....really.

Much luv, Kyokki.