Author: I updated rather quickly heh, to make up for the loss. Remus' girl shall

appear in the next the chapter, that's a promise!

A few famous last words:

Hey look a light at the end of the tunnel.

"It's a dud! It's a dud! It's a du..."

"Don't touch the red button!"

Pull the pin and count to what?

So, you're a cannibal.

I wonder where the mother bear is.

look ma! no hands!

Oops.

MUCHO GLOSSIAS TO BLUERAINE627 AND SHADOW929 THE ONLY TWO WHO REVIWED MY LAST

CHAPTER! Thanks a lot girls! gives you two cookies

Chapter nine: Breakdown

Lynn curled into a ball, growling at herself, trying to force the tears to

stop from spilling forth. She didn't want to cry, she wouldn't cry, she

couldn't! Oh, but she could. Tears streamed down her cheeks, creating two

shiny ribbons. She buried her face in her pillow, taking deep, shuddering

breaths as uncontrollable sobs wracked her body. She was on, what you would

call, the verge of a mental breakdown. All the years of built up emotions were

starting to surface, flooding out. It almost made her want to pick up the

knife again. Almost, but not quite.

Suddenly there was a knock on the door. She looked straight up, trying to wipe

off her face. The knob turned but the door didn't open because she had locked

it. Whoever was behind it started jiggling it. She heard a spell being

muttered, but she quickly grabbed her wand and put a temporary seal charm on

it. It'd only last a few minutes and she had a feeling Lily was behind the

door and knew the counter-curse. She looked around for an escape as she heard

her name being called.

She cursed and ran to the window and looked down. It was quite high but there

were no people. She never flew this high without being under the full-moon

spell, but she would have to risk it. She just didn't want to talk. If they

did force her to talk, she'd end up killing someone, she just knew it. She

closed her eyes, concentrating on the feeling of being lifted, having

feathers, imagining stretching her wings and sure enough, they came to her.

They were 11 feet in diameter, twice her height (exactly, she's 5'6) and were

glossy black, dark violet and different shades of gray. She enfolded them

around her so she could fit through the window and jumped, dive-bombing.

As the ground rose up to meet her, she spread them wide and immediately

something went wrong. She started to spin in a inevitable nose-dive. She tried

to steady herself on the capricious winds, wincing as feathers were ripped

from her. Just before she hit the ground and broke every bone in her body, she

luckily caught a drift of steady warm air and started to spiral upwards, then

shot out towards the forest once she was high enough, panting.

She descended carefully into the mass of trees, perching on a branch and

leaning against the tree heavily, closing her eyes as sweat poured from her

forehead. Flying always took a lot out of her because it worked every muscle

in her body, her chest muscles above all, and she didn't have superhuman

strength or anything. She hardly was even in shape! One beat of those wings

was enough to make her sore for a while. She wrapped them around her, closing

her eyes and snuggling against the feathers exhaustedly. She had physically

and mentally exhausted herself beyond her limits today, and needed sleep

badly. Soon, she was in slumber, which was the only place she ever had peace,

unaware of the thing that watched her.

Lily pounded her Lynn's door anxiously, angry that her friend was ignoring

her. "Lynn! Open up!" she shouted.

Peter arrived with Brooke, out of breath. "When did you run like a

track-star!" Peter said in between pants.

"Since my friend might do something else that might hurt her further," she

growled, jiggling the knob. Finally she realized that Lynn had placed a spell

on it and pulled out her wand, muttering the counter-curse. She tried the knob

again and burst into the room and gasped. Lynn's bed was empty, as were the

others. Not even the curtains were drawn to make it look like someone was

there.

"Lynn?" Brooke called anxiously, looking around.

Peter looked under the bed and when the girls gave him an annoyed glare, he

shrugged. "That's where I would've hid," he explained.

"Right…Lynn's nothing like you," Brooke said, rolling her eyes and going to

the bathroom. No one there either.

"Oh no…." she heard Lily gasp. She turned to see her staring out over the open

window.

"Did she jump!" she asked fearfully, hurrying beside her, Peter doing the

same. She looked below and found to her relief that the ground was body-less.

Lily shook her head. 'She must…..have flown…' she thought to herself. Lynn

told her how hard it was on her. She could be anywhere by now, or hurt for all

she knew from exhaustion! "Where is she…." she said quietly.

Brooke sighed. "I…don't know…but we'll find out… does she have a diary or

something that'd help us figure out where she might go?"

Lily nodded and took out the diary from the hiding place she had told Lynn

about. She glared at Peter. "Do you mind? Only females should be reading

this!"

He pouted. "Aw…puh-lease?"

"Hey wait…how'd you get here in the first place? Guys aren't allowed up our

stairs! Is there something you didn't tell us?" Brooke asked suspiciously,

looking him over carefully.

He laughed nervously. "Um…I er…the others showed me a passageway how to get

here…"

Lily groaned. "Figures." She shuddered at the thought of James sneaking up and

spying on her. "Fine…you can stay… you act like a female anyway."

"Hey!"

"Well it's true, you gossip more than Brooke does."

"Doesn't mean I'm a girl."

"True…just saying," she said, opening the book. She knew there'd be nothing

about her being a Sphinx since she had advised her not to put it in there

because people would read her diary one way or another. "Oh dear…." she said

quietly, scanning one of the more recent entries.

"Read it aloud!" Peter said eagerly, trying to read but having trouble doing

so because Lily brushed him off her shoulder.

"If you want… but it's…er…" she sighed and began reading.

"Dear Diary,

I don't know what to do at all. I wish…I wish…that death would hurry

up and claim me dammit! It seems I'm always being tortured. This is

worse than the muggle school I had to go to before Hogwarts. It's

just…I'm too much of a coward to actually take the knife to my heart.

So many regrets… so many wishes… so many pains…wounds inflicted on my

heart. Why live? Why exist? He doesn't love me. I know he doesn't.

Why do I keep fooling myself that there's a hint that me might? He's

a shallow bastard who looks only skin deep. But why do I love him

still? It doesn't make sense. Normally I hate assholes like that. How

many of them have I flipped off or pulverized? So many… does that

mean I'm shallow too? A sexy smile, a nice body, cool hair… is that

all I see in him? I hope not. I think I'm attracted towards his cool

personality and sexy demeanor… his humor doesn't hurt either. Oh…what

am I going to do! I just keep whining and whining; I deserve death.

I'm such a pathetic excuse

of a human. And I'm not even pure. Well, here's a poem I wrote today, since it's

all I can do right…even if they suck:

Confusion

Bleeding violently

Lights dancing around

My eyes inflicted

All I can see is shadows

I try to remember

But my head…

It hurts

I feel a light

On my face

A simple gesture

Of a hand

It all comes back

I had finally lost myself

To the hate

The knife…

The blood

I had done it

It was all over

I don't feel anything

Not anymore

I find this darkness soothing

I lay myself

In its gentle caress

The last thing I hear is

BEEEEEEEEEEEEP-

Well…it's time for dinner. It's always nice talking to you D, since you don't judge

me with piercing eyes…like everyone else. Thanks for listening to this pathetic

being," she finished, her voice a whisper.

"Wow…" Brooke said quietly.

"I never knew she felt that way." Peter said, blinking.

"I know what you mean… she's always so… well not happy, but she never acts

depressed. She always acts cool and calm about everything, using humor to

spice it all up," she said, sighing and leaning against the bedpost. "She

always smiles… but I never realized till now…it was always broken… or fake…"

Brooke nodded in agreement. "Yeah…I noted earlier there was something weird

about her eyes. No matter how brilliantly she was smiling or how hard she was

laughing, they always would remain sad, depressed, as if wishing someone would

notice her sadness yet…" she sighed. The others nodded and Lily kept flipping

through the diary to see if she had a secret spot or something.

Remus ran his fingers through his hair, which was getting pretty long. James

was beside him, leaning against the castle wall, sighing. "Great…where'd he

go?" he growled exasperatedly. They had searched all of his favorite hiding

spots when they ditched classes and his favorite snogging spots. Not to

mention every hidden room they knew of in the castle.

Remus sighed and shrugged. "We haven't looked in the Forbidden Forest."

"You're right…" he said thoughtfully. "But he wouldn't be that stupid…would he?"

"You never know with Sirius in a bad mood."

"Yeah…let's go then…" he said reluctantly, starting for the forest.

Sirius sighed, curling up against a tree in his dog form in the forest. His

thoughts kept drifting to Lynn, for obvious reasons, but also he was starting

to see her in a new light. She was pretty…in a pale and twisted way. Once you

got over her dark clothes and quirky personality, she wasn't too bad. She

wasn't the type he normally went for, slender, hourglass figure, preppy

clothes, cute smile, scantily clad, well, you get the idea. But she did have

intelligence unlike the others and her breasts were considerably larger.

Probably because she had a large frame, not that she was fat, just big bones.

(I've heard that as an excuse too often, though it is true, German girls are

heavier than Philippino girls because they have different bone structures,

though that isn't always a good excuse, tsk tsk Lynn, get in shape… not that I

should be talking, I need to too v-v)

After much thought, he knew he'd have to talk to her. He had to. The emotions

were building up and he had to let them out. He got up, yawning a little.

With that yawn he got a whiff of something. He realized it was Lynn, but there

was... blood! He quickly jumped to his feet and ran in the direction. He found

her near the heart of the forest, whimpering as a manticora (sp?) advanced on

her, goat head breathing fire, lion head bearing fangs as it tore at her.

She yelped as it bit into her shoulder, trying to use her claws to slash at

it, bearing her fangs and biting its paw. It growled and aimed for her throat.

Instantly Sirius charged it in his human form, knocking it off its feet. Lynn

whimpered and curled into a ball, shivering violently.

The animal hissed angrily, snake-tail snapping its jaw. He took out his wand

and fired a stunning spell on it, causing it to growl and back off, running

away. He hurried over to her worriedly. "Lynn?" he asked cautiously.

Her harsh breathing slowly slowed to normal as he wrapped her in his arms,

sitting down and putting her in his lap, stroking her hair. "It'll be

alright…it's gone now…" he said soothingly.

She looked up at him, face shimmering with shed tears, though her eyes were

quite clear. "Sirius…." she said softly, almost unbelievingly.

"I'm…sorry…" he said, forcing the hideous word from between his teeth. He

hated apologizing.

"You're….sorry…" she said in the same distrustful tone.

He leaned down and kissed away the salty tears, moving down and kissing her

fully. "Yes, I'm sorry."

She pulled away from him, staring into his eyes. She seemed to like what she

saw because she pulled him down to her and kissed him back. "For once…you're

being truthful," she said quietly.

He blinked. "Eh?"

"You always would act coy and cold, ruthlessly doing what you wanted to get

what you want. For once… you're doing something to help someone else…"

He chuckled and pulled her up into a sitting position, holding her close. "I'm

that bad, huh?"

"Oh….you can be worse." she smiled a little, snuggling close.

"Does this mean you forgive me?"

"How could I not? You saved my life from that…thing."

He pouted. "Aw, is that the only reason?"

She chuckled. "No, but some of them I don't want to tell you…yet."

He smirked. "Really now? I'll just have to be more persuading from now on,

won't I?"

She blinked. "Wait… does…that…mean…?"

"Yes, I'm asking you out." He kissed her again "Do you accept?".

She smiled and kissed him back, deepening it and snuggling close. He broke

away from her finally from lack of air. "Yes Siri," she said finally. "I'm

defiantly accepting."

He smiled and picked her up in his arms, snuggling close and starting out of

the forest. Halfway there, he blinked. "Lynn, what's that in your hair?"

"Huh?" She ran her fingers through her hair and out slipped a glossy black and

gray feather. "Uhm…."

He set her down to inspect it. "Wow, it's beautiful. Prettier than any feather

I've ever seen," he said softly.

She smiled a little to herself. "Yeah it is."

He tucked it behind her ear. "It suits you," he said, kissing her cheek and

drawing her into his arms again. She snuggled against him, enjoying the lift

as her sore body ached from the bruises on her body from the manticora.

As they came out of the forest they were greeted by the rest of the Marauders,

Lily and Brooke who all looked surprise at seeing them together, especially

this intimate. Brooke's jaw nearly fell to the floor! "Y-You're…together…?"

she sputtered in surprise.

Lynn smiled. "No Brooke, he's holding me because I had a nightmare."

Brooke laughed as Sirius kissed Lynn deeply, causing her to blushing brightly.

She pulled away and forced him to set her down. "We're going to have to lay

down a few rules." She whispered into his ear.

He pouted. "Aw, that's so cruel."

She chuckled and flicked his bangs. "It won't be too harsh."

He smirked and drew her up into his arms. "I know, I won't let them be."

"Do you two mind?" James said, rolling his eyes.

Sirius grinned. "Aw, don't be such a sore-sport. You and Lily will have your

chance."

Lily growled. "Don't be giving him any ideas."

James grinned back and slid an arm around her pulling her close. "Aw Lily,

don't be sour, we can start right now if you want."

She growled and slapped him off. "Get away from me James before I remove

something of yours that you will defiantly miss."

"In other words, your left testical," Lynn said, laughing.

James backed away. "Geeze Lils, I didn't think you would be so touchy. Must be

PMS." The others roared with laughter at the statement, causing Lily to glower

with embarrassment.

"Shut up James, that's none of your business." She snarled, stalking off.

"I believe that's a yes," Brooke said, giggling.

Remus, still chuckling, smiled. "We should leave now. We still have potions

homework." He reminded them.

Peter groaned. "Great." The others moaned and started back towards the castle,

Lynn and Sirius clinging to each other.

Author: I didn't make it as long as I meant to. I ONLY GOT 2 REVIEWS! I feel so

unloved….