AN: its been ten days...right on schedule. I'm so proud, aren't you:) Anways, real quick, this chapter is dedicated to 3 people. 1) Cirlce, to celebrate her brithday (which was actually week...) 2) Foble, because today is actually her brithday...lol. and 3) Whalen, for being a bloody genius and getting me out of a rut in which James sat in the kitchen for thre rest of eternity. lol

reviewer responses:
emurez and katie: you two were my only reviewers for the last chap. thank you, yur reviews mean a lot to me. you two get virtual chocolate for always reviewing :)

disclaimer: I am mortally afraid of lawyers (even tho my dad is one). In particular, Jo Rowling's lawyers. I do not own anything Potter related, unfortunately, might I add. All I own is jared and the plot.

The next morning, James slowly fadedinto consciousness. He made no effort to get out of bed for several moments, but simply lay there with his eyes close, taking in the familiar sounds and smells of his home. To say that it felt nice to be home was most definitely an understatement. He was convinced that now everything would be okay; he'd be with Lily and they would find a way to get Sirius back to the living world, despite how much they both liked his company. Everything would go back to normal, or at least as normal as he liked them. With his eyes still closed, he rolled over to tell Lily how he was convinced that things were going to be back to normal, only to find her gone.

Instantly, his eyes flew open to find his room deserted. Lily was nowhere in sight. Desperately, he tried to tell himself to be calm, but haunting memories of disputes between him and Lily kept creeping up from the back of his mind. He was half-terrified that he had perhaps dreamed up last night with Lily. James stumbled out of bed, grabbing his glasses from his bedside table as he did so. He walked out into the hall, still seeing no sign that his wife had been around. "Lily?" he called out tentatively.

There was no reply.

"Lily?" he asked, slightly louder. Still receiving no reply, he called again, louder still, "Lily, love, are you around?"

He rounded the corner to head down stairs right as Lily did. He was taken back a bit. He hadn't suspected her to be right there.

"What is it James?" she asked when he didn't say anything.

James didn't answer her question but wrapped his arms around her. "I thought I had lost you for a moment," he murmured softly into her hair, not expecting Lily to actually hear what he said. Lily, however, did hear him. Sorrow, followed by a small surge of anger pulled at her heart. She hated, absolutely detested the effect that Azkaban had on James. More particularly, she hated Actaeon for sending James there on multiple occasions. I'm going to kill that son of mother one day, she thought as she wrapped her own arms around James, holding him tight. After waiting a beat, she pulled away.

"Come on," she said, smiling lovingly up at James. "Jared got here about ten minutes ago and has been dying to see how you are."

James followed Lily down into the kitchen were Jared was sitting over a bowl of cereal, reading something that he had obviously picked up from somewhere else in the house. James smiled slightly at the sight, which was a very familiar one to him. James couldn't count how many times he had awaken during the school holidays to see his older brother sitting at the table eating and reading at the same time.

Jared looked up as he heard people enter the room. His face lit up when he saw his little brother enter the room with Lily. "James!" he cried exuberantly.

"Jared!" James said, trying to match his brother's enthusiasm but not quite making it.

Jared stood up and walked around the table to embrace his brother. He probably would have vaulted over the table to get there quicker, if he hadn't thought that he would probably break something in the process. Jared wrapped his arms around his thin brother and patted him heartily on the back. James returned the embrace briefly, before pushing his brother away.

"I've had enough hugs for the time being, thanks," he said in explanation.

Jared smiled and sat back down. James and Lily did the same. "So, how're you feeling?" Jared asked. James opened his mouth, about to reply, when Jared said, "Don't answer that. It was a rather stupid question."

"Very stupid," James replied.

Every time he came home from a term in Azkaban, he had this same conversation with Jared. It was more of habit to say what he did more than what he actually felt. Jared seemed to know as much, but never bothered to make James tell him. Jared knew very well that James was the type of person who would come to you when they needed anything; you couldn't force them into it. He knew not to push James into talking about Azkaban, because he knew James wouldn't appreciate it.

Neither Jared nor James were all to sure of what to say next and they lapsed into a companionable silence. Lily had left the room, and had headed back upstairs. Her excuse was that she was going to go shower, but James was left with the impression that she wanted him and Jared to 'talk'. That, however, didn't seem like it was going to happen anytime soon. James got up and fixed himself some breakfast. It wasn't a big meal, simply because he didn't have all that much of an appetite. He sat back down and started eating. Still more silence.

James was watching Jared as his eyes went wide. He could tell that he was scanning the page very quickly, and, more than likely, multiple times. Jared's eyes, if possible, went even wider, and he started banging his hand on the table. James was sure he was trying to say something, but, seeing as how Jared's mouth was still full of food, he was quite unable to. James thought it was rather amusing to watch, and started to say fitting things like, "What is it, boy? Come on, spit it out!" in obnoxious tones.

Jared finally managed to swallow his food, which was made difficult as he started to choke on it for a moment. He coughed and then managed to gasp out, "Oh! My Lard!"

James blinked. "Did you just say 'Oh my lard?'" he asked, with an amused look on his face.

"No," he replied defensively.

"I think you did," he said.

Jared rolled his eyes. "Ok. I said lard," he said impatiently, caving in to his brother's madness. "That's not the point."

"Well, what is the point?"

"I'd get to it if you'd quit interrupting me!" he snapped. "Anyway, as I was trying to say–"

"You were trying to say something? I thought you were just slapping the table for the heck of it," James with amusement.

Jared glared at him. "This book!" he said enthusiastically. "There's a reference."

James looked at him to elaborate. "A reference on what?"

"On the Veil. It says something about using the Veil as a, I don't know, a method of communicating and transporting, I think. This isn't written in the best of English," he muttered. "I think this might be what we need!"

James grabbed the book and pulled it over to him. He quickly scanned the passage Jared had been talking about. Instantly, he recognized it. He had read this book months before Sirius had shown up. He had been convinced that this might be the key to finding a way to somehow communicate with the Living world. He found out weeks later that it was only the key to the key. In fact, it was this book that led him to learning about the scrolls in the Department of Mysteries. That reminded him. The scrolls...

James shook his head at Jared. "I read this ages ago. It doesn't work. But I really think those scrolls might. This book and several others mention the use of scrolls, and I'm pretty sure those are the ones they're referencing to."

Jared nodded. He had completely forgotten about the scrolls. After discovering that they were in some form of ancient Latin (or at least he assumed it was Latin) and that he was unable to read them, he had pushed them far from his mind, letting things that he could actually read occupy his mind. "Have you read those scrolls yet?" he asked.

James shook his head with a small smile. "I was going to last night," he replied. "But Lily made me go to bed. She mothers me."

Jared grinned at his brother. He honestly doubted if, after all the times James had been sent to Azkaban before, he had ever handled it better than he was now. He knew that James would, in fact, still be feeling the effects deep within himself, but he was putting on a pleasant face for the rest of the world. Jared wasn't sure what had brought this about, but was grateful for it, nonetheless. "You need to be mothered," Jared said. "For all the scrapes you manage to fall into. I mean, honestly, how do you manage to get yourself arrested so often? I swear, it must be some sort of record," he teased.

James, having eaten his last bite of breakfast, stood up haughtily. "If you're going to mock me," he said in a serious tone, "then I'm going to leave, you lousy ingrate." James turned on his heel and walked out of the room in a mock-arrogant manner.

Jared chuckled and shook his head. Typical of James, he thought. He goes through Hell for two months, and still finds something to joke about. It was an admirable quality, one that Jared didn't share with his brother. He looked to the door that James had just left, half expecting a pillow to come hurtling through it to hit his face (James had been fond of throwing pillows at his brother when he was younger). Jared shook his head again. James obviously had better things to do then throw things at him. No doubt he was in his study right now, pouring over the scrolls. Jared expected that James would come out shortly, to ask him about something, or to run a theory past him, as he often did. But little did the older Potter know, James would not come out of his study for several more hours.

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James, it was apparent by the afternoon, had no intention of coming out of his study until he had figured out was in those scrolls. Neither Lily, Jared, nor Sirius (when he finally woke up) saw any sign of him in the house for hours. Lily and Jared seemed to be rather concerned about his behavior, but Sirius wrote it off as typical James behavior.

"You two weren't around when we were on the verge of finally figuring out how to become Animagi," he explained. "He spent all of his time in the library, pouring of numerous books. And, if you tried to talk to him, more than likely he would hex you. Trust me, just don't go in his study."

Lily did take Sirius's word, having had her own experiences with James when he was trying to figure something out. Jared, however, did not. He, against the warnings both Sirius and Lily, tried to have a conversation with James. He came out of James's study not a minute later with his hair a vibrant shade lime green. Sirius spent a good five minutes laughing at him, telling him that he should have listened. Lily went into the study around lunch and left him some food to eat. She said that she doubted if he even realized she was in there at the time, he was so immersed in the scrolls.

It wasn't until an hour after sunset when James finally came out. And, just as Sirius had predicted, he came out after having finished translating the scrolls and formed some fort of idea.

James came sliding into the kitchen across the wood floor. In his arms he had one of the two scrolls and a roll of parchment that probably had notes scrawled on them. His eyes were wide and he looked thoroughly excited. "I," he said dramatically, swinging his left arm in front of him as he skidded to a halt in the kitchen, "have had an epiphany to top all epiphanies!"

"You're also making an arse out of yourself," Jared said snidely, still mad that his hair was bright green. James paid him no attention.

"I don't think what you've had is an epiphany, mate," Sirius said, smiling. "Seeing as how you just read something. You didn't really come up with any groundbreaking idea; someone came up with it for you."

"Shut up, Sirius," James said. "Anyway, if certain people in this room will stop making themselves look stupid," he stared pointedly at his brother and best friend, "I will continue."

"Go ahead, James," Lily said. "Tell us all about this alleged epiphany."

"Alright," James said, putting the scroll and his notes down on the table. "According to this, there is most definitely a way to get items, or people, in our case, to the other side of the Veil. Of course, scrolls like this are much to cryptic to just bluntly state how to do it, so I had to cross reference a bunch of stuff that took way to long. From what I can tell, though, is that things from the Living world can be sent back through the use of a rather complex spell."

A smile broke out across Sirius's face again. He, if James wasn't pulling his leg, was going back home. He was going to go back were he belonged. "Are you serious?" he asked. "What's the spell? How do you do it?"

"Uh, well, that's where we hit a small problem," James said, looking down at his notes. "Everything that I've read indicates that at least part, if not all, of the spell has to be cast from the Living world. See, here," he pointed down at the scroll to a certain passage. "It says 'And from the Shadowed Veil there holds a path of which the Living may use. And if the Living shall fall and wander with the Dead, there is yet hope for salvation, for it is not yet their time. Through the use of Great Powers may the Living be brought back, only if it is the desire of others amongst the Living to receive them again.' And in some other text that I read ages and ages ago, its says something along the lines of," he looked down at his notes again, " 'Those who wander among the Dead may find a path back home if the Living's need of them is stronger than the Dead's' or something like that."

"So all we need to do is find a way to get a hold of someone who's still alive and have them set up this spell, or whatever, and I'll be home again?" Sirius asked.

"Pretty much, yeah," James said nodding.

"Well, doesn't that kind of take us back to square one?" Sirius questioned. "We don't have any clue on how to communicate with the Living, do we?"

"Erm, yes," James said, somewhat dejectedly. "But, I'm convinced we can find a way to get it done."

Sirius, Lily, and Jared all nodded in agreement, but each of them were silently taking figuring the odds that they would find a working method to let someone in the Living world know what was going on. The odds weren't good. None of them, however, wanted to crush James's stubborn determination just yet. Instead of bringing James back to reality, they all agreed to help him search for the proper method of communication.

That is how they spent their next week. Searching through an assortment of ancient books, and even more ancient scrolls. Sirius and James in particularly worked endlessly searching through the texts in hope that they might find something. They never did, however, and as the days wore on, the prospects were looking less and less likely. Neither of them were going to admit how grim the situation was beginning to look. Sirius had confided in James during the long hours of searching through texts in the study that he was still having dreams about not being where he was supposed to be. The dreams had worsened in severity since the last time he had talked to James about them, but at the time he had been more preoccupied with James's arrest to actually think about what the dreams meant. It was evident to both of them that Sirius needed to go back as soon as they could possibly manage.

Despite everything, though, their luck took a sudden, and very welcome, turn at the end of the week. Both James and Sirius were sitting in the living room with a large number of books scattered around them. They had been searching for the last three or four hours, after having taken a break for dinner, and were considering calling it a night.

With a heavy sigh, Sirius picked up one last book. He was sure that he had probably already looked through it before, but didn't seem to really care. One more time couldn't really hurt, could it? He placed the spine of the book on his knee and let it fall open to a random page. He skimmed the page, but found nothing that even hinted at being useful. He was about to turn the page when he decided he needed a change of pace, and turned the page backwards. Whether fate had led him to it, or if it had been sheer dumb luck, Sirius did not know, but he had, in fact, turned to the one page in every single book he had looked at that actually had useful information on it.

"Oh my giddy aunt," he breathed as he read the page. Of everything lucky that had ever happened to him, he was convinced, at this very moment, this was the luckiest.

James, who had heard Sirius's comment, looked up. "What? What did you fine?" he asked.

"Read this, mate," Sirius said, handing James the book and pointing to the particular passage. The passage told of a spell that would allow a simple object, a piece of parchment or a small trinket, to move across planes of existence. In other words, it would allow a note with information from certain ancient scrolls on it to cross from the Realm of the Waiting to the Living world. It was exactly what they needed.

"Sirius, if we could pull this off, it would be the most brilliant thing we have ever done," James said, looking up as he finished reading the passage. "This has to be the most complex, not to mention bizarre, spell I have ever heard of."

"What?" Sirius said with a slight air of teasing. "Are you not up to it? Is it too much for the great James Potter to handle?"

"Not at all," James replied. "I was just making sure an old man like you would be able to manage it."

James and Sirius both grinned at each other. This was the type of thing they loved best. Trying the virtually impossible, just to prove, in fact, that it was possible. It almost felt as if they were back at Hogwarts again, planning some great, unheard of prank, just to prove to themselves that they could do it.

"One problem," Sirius said, as he started to think about how they were going to go about this spell. "How're we going to convince Lily to let us do this?"

"Oh," James said. "That is a problem. But, I think, if we try the spell together, it would take less energy on both our parts, so she might be willing to go along with it."

Sirius nodded. He and James stood up and headed into the kitchen where Lily was reading a book. When they entered the room, she immediately knew that they were up to something; something she wasn't going to like very much, either. She looked up at the two of them and waited patiently for the to explain what they were about to attempt to accomplish. When they were done, she had to admit, it was the most absurd thing she had ever heard. The spell they were talking about doing, under her own roof, no less, was immensely complex and would, more than likely, drain the wizard casting it of their energy for days. There was no way she going to let them try this.

"There is no way I am going to let you try this," she said stubbornly. "This is the stupidest thing you two have ever suggested doing! You don't even know if it will work!"

"Lily, calm down," James said calmly and rationally. "This might be our only chance to get this information over to the Living world."

"I don't care," Lily snapped. "Even if you two cast the spell together, it will drain you both for days, at least! And who knows what else might happen! This is serious magic you're trying to mess with, here."

"I know," Sirius said. "We both do. But, Lily, listen to me. We have been searching through those books for nearly a week now, and this is the only thing we've found. If there was any other way, I swear, we'd do that instead. But there isn't. This is the only way."

"Only way, my arse!" she snapped again, causing both James and Sirius to take a step back. Lily was not a person to cross when she was riled, and both men knew it. "I will safely bet my child's life that there is some other way to communicate, Sirius Black, and do not try and tell me otherwise."

James waited a moment, planning carefully what he was going to say. "Lils," he said quietly. "We could be betting our child's life on this. The main reason Sirius and I have been trying to find a way back for him is so he can be there for Harry. He needs to be there so our son, Lily, our only son has someone to look after him. If Sirius is here, who knows what could happen to Harry?"

Lily looked at James with a thoughtful and contemplating look on her face. "Fine," she finally said. "I'll let you two do this, but it's to benefit Harry. Not so you can prove to yourselves that you can do this."

"Ah, Lily," James said, leaning in and giving Lily a hug. "I love you. You're the best."

Lily pushed James away gently. "I'm not happy about this, you know," she said. "Now hurry up and do this before I change my mind."

Immediately, James and Sirius set to work. James copied the needed information onto a spare piece of parchment, and Sirius started to ready the room to cast the spell. The spell was an ancient one, and it involved a good deal more than waving a wand and muttering an incantation. There were several steps that had to be taken before the spell could even be attempted. He and James would both have to be in certain spots in the room, and go through the steps in proper order to even hope that the spell might work. Lily watched from the side of the room as James and Sirius prepared.

"I can't believe I'm letting you do this," she muttered under her breath as both Sirius and James were finishing up. "In my own kitchen, no less. I must have truly lost my mind."

"You about ready?" Sirius asked, as James set the parchment down in a spot that would be directly in between the two of them.

James nodded, and stepped back into the place Sirius had indicated where he should stand. He took a deep breath and looked from Lily to Sirius. "Well, here goes nothing," he said. He then started to chant a long-winded incantation that the book had specified. He wasn't even quite sure what he was saying, but made sure that he said it correctly. After a minute or so of chanting, Sirius took over, finishing up the first half of the incantation. The second half of the incantation, they had already decided, they would both say. The second half was, in fact, shorter, but involved several flourishing wand movements and involved most of the power for the spell to work. Taking a deep breath at the same time, they started to chant the second half. Lily watched from the side of the room. The scene was almost breath taking. She could actually feel the power that James and Sirius were bringing into the room in order to dispel a simple piece of parchment. She watched as both men performed the wand movement in perfect synchronization.

Then, they both stopped chanting. There was a blinding flash of white light and an excruciatingly loud bang. When the light cleared, Lily looked to see if James and Sirius were okay. They were both still standing, at the moment, though they were swaying on their feet, looking thoroughly exhausted and drained. Lily then looked to see what had become of the parchment. To her disappointment, she saw it floating down from the ceiling back towards the floor where James had placed it. Sirius and James had both noticed it as well. They watched as it slowly fell towards the floor. A moment or two after the parchment finally landed, Lily watched as both James and Sirius collapsed backwards into a dead faint.

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It had been two days since their attempt at communicating with the Living world, and Sirius and James were still utterly exhausted. They had really hoped that the spell would work, but it just backfired on them, not only leaving them drained and tired, but also back to where they started from: How to communicate with the Living.

James and Sirius were sitting in the study, bouncing ideas off of one another on where to go from where they were. Neither of them had any great ideas, and they were starting to feel that they might never really get Sirius back, though neither of them admitted it out loud. James was leaning back in his chair, staring at the ceiling as though it were about to give him some brilliant idea. He hadn't moved in about ten minutes, whereas Sirius couldn't seem to sit still for ten seconds. He needed to move around (not that he had energy to do so) to get his mind to start working. With a sigh, he settled back into his chair across from James's desk, propped his feet up on the desk, and shoved his hands in his pockets.

His right hand grasped on to something hard deep within his pocket. Curiosity overcame him when he couldn't quite figure out what it was, so he took it out. It was one of the two-way mirrors; he had one, and he had given Harry the other at Christmas. He must have had the mirror in his pocket when he fell through the Veil. He smiled reminiscently as he thought of all the times he and James had used the mirrors.

"Hey, James," he said, breaking the silence they had been sitting in. "Look what I found in my pocket."

James looked down from the ceiling, half expecting Sirius to be holding a little bit of fluff. His eyes widened, however, when he saw what was in his hand. The mirror! Sirius had one, so the other must be somewhere in the Living world! "Sirius," James gasped. "You are a bloody genius!"

final an: alright, for the next update. It might not happen with in ten days for two reasons. One, next week is final exams week at my school, so I think I should study. I will be writing when I get the chance, however. Two, in then days from now, I will be out of town, away from my beloved computer and unable to update. So, I will either update early, or when i get back into town. But, just so I don't throw this schedule off, the chap after this next chap will be posted in 20 days.

alright, as always, please forgive my typos, and please review

Delano