Sirius and James waited tensely for their classmates to return, and when they did, Callie returned to the Gryffindor Common room with Adam and Jacob, but devoid of Elizabeth or Bruce.
James and Sirius both leapt to their feet upon seeing Callie come in.
"Where's Liz?" James asked hurriedly." And Bruce?"
Callie shook her head sadly.
"They're not coming back."

Sirius was staggered. He lowered himself in to a chair by the fire, staring at the happily dancing flames within. Callie sat down in front of him, while Jacob and Adam trudged up to their dorm.
"People are threatening them. People that Mr. Wayne knew were no good. Death, kidnapping, they're defenseless without their parents."
"Then why wont they come back to school. Muggles can't get them here." Sirius cut in.
"Because one of the men that attacked them wasn't a muggle. Do you remember Liz talking about some dark wizard who was starting to get a lot of followers?"
James nodded.
Whoever attacked them worked for this guy, he's the on threatening them. They're terrified, and they wont even leave Wayne Manor anymore. That house has a lot of spells on it. It's the safest place for them to be now. -"
Remus came in. He looked just as grave as Callie.
"They're not coming back, are they?"

Sirius felt almost surreal as he walked back up to the common room, not hungry for any lunch at the moment. He sat down and pulled out a piece of parchment. He had to at least try to convince her to come back. She would be just as safe at Hogwarts. The American Wizards who were after her and Bruce would never find them here.

He went through several pieces of parchment before he decided on one to send. By this time, the sun had long since gone down. A cold draft swept through the window.
He sealed an addressed the envelope and walked down the stairs. The group was sitting around the fireplace with Jacob and Adam. They were discussing what to do about the Orchestra; they no longer had anyone to lead.
James jumped up when Sirius walked through the doors.
"Where have you been? Are you okay?"
"I was writing a letter."
"We thought we'd leave you alone. You and Liz were kinda close." Callie said quietly, shifting her eye's from the fireplace to Sirius' face.
Sirius nodded and continued out the door.

He had nearly forgotten where the Owlery was; it had been so long since he'd been there.
He found a barn owl the looked up to a long flight. He gave the Owl the letter and turned to carry it to the window. He stopped dead when he saw a tall slender girl with long dark hair standing by the window. Her long hair blew in a breeze Sirius couldn't feel. She had her arms wrapped around her.

Sirius didn't want to disturb her, so he walked around to another window and let the owl go. When he turned back, he saw that the girl was crying. There were tears rolling down her cheek while she stared blankly out the window.
"Why did you leave me?" She whispered to herself.
"Pardon?" Sirius asked. She took no notice of him.
"Why couldn't you take me with you?"
"Excuse me?" Sirius said, stepping toward her.
She reached up and put her hand on the window ledge and stepped into the window, staring out at the grounds. The wind blew cold and bitter through the Owlery. Sirius himself was very cold and if the girl wasn't careful, she might loose her footing. She was dressed very oddly. She wore cowboy boots, but was dressed in all black. She wore gloves that had a small metal plate that covered the tops of her wrists.

"Please don't leave me alone in the dark..." Her voice trailed off, but Sirius was suddenly distracted by someone running through the door. The girl spun around, yanking something off her neck as she turned. Sirius was quite startled to see the Clow Staff in her hand. She only got half way around before the boy who had run in shoved her out the window. Sirius ran to the window, pulling off his own Clow Key.

She fell through the dark, and then disappeared into the darkness.
Sirius turned to look at the boy, he backed into shadow, an evil grin o his face, and then he to vanished. These were no ghosts of Hogwarts.

"So Remus, why is it that you only go home to see your mother once a month?" James said.
"I can't miss much school."
"Bologna" Callie said, with as much of a grin as she could pull at a time like this.
Remus looked troubled.
"It's because I-" Sirius came bursting into the Common Room, his face white.
"What on Earth is wrong?" James said, jumping from his chair. Sirius pulled out his wand and ran straight to the balcony, taking no heed to his friend's inquiries. He threw open both doors and ran outside, the cold gusts sweeping through the room.
"Sirius what are you doing its freezing out there!" Callie said, staring forward, only to be stopped by the force of the wind.
"Lumos!" Sirius commanded. His wand lit up and he searched the ground as best he could, but didn't see the girl anywhere.
He stepped up onto the balcony, looking more. A gust of wind caught him in he chest, but James and Remus yanked him off he balcony and back into the Common Room while Callie and Peter relatched the doors.

"What the hell were you doing?" James said, looking on the verge of punching Sirius.
"A girl fell out the window in the Owlery, but she's not there anymore." Sirius explained.
James looked from Sirius, to Callie, to Lupin, to Peter. They all exchanged concerned looks.
"What did she look like?" Callie whispered.
"She was tall, and thin, and she had long hair." Sirius started. He didn't even realize that he was basically explaining what Elizabeth looked like.
"Right, I think you should go to bed now." Remus said standing up and taking Sirius by the arm.
"No, I'm fine."
"Yeah, I think you should go to bed." James said also taking him by the arm.
"Me too. I think we all should." Callie mumbled, tossing a concerned look at Remus.
"Hear." Peter whispered.
Much to Sirius' struggles, Remus and James finally managed to pull him up the stairs and throw him in bed before they dressed to go to bed. Sirius did the same, but lay in bed for a long while after, thinking about what he had seen. He knew that he had really seen it, but who was it, and why did she have the Clow staff?

Sirius waited anxiously for Elizabeth's reply, but he was almost relieved when the term began, he didn't have much time to think about her, but also didn't have much time to think about how to make her come back. He waited anxiously every morning for a letter, but Callie pointed out that an owl would have a long distance to cover and get back.

"Relax, she'll write back, it'll just take some time to get here." She said calmly. "She always replies letter, and I doubt she has much else to do right now." she added glumly. He nodded, but her words did little to help his anxiety.
Her reply came a few weeks into the term on a Saturday. She wrote that she was very happy to get his letter, and that she missed them all and was glad that he liked his present. But, no, she would not come back to school.

He read and reread the letter, then folded it up and put it in his pocket. There had to be another way. Callie also had received a letter and read it with utter fury.
"What's wrong?" James said with alarm. Sirius snapped back to reality and looked up at Callie.
Her hands shook with anger and her face was turning red.
"They- they're.. They're horrible." She managed to mutter.
"Who?" Remus said. James read over her shoulder, and soon his face resembled Callie's very closely.
"What is it?"
James got up, pulling Callie and Peter up with him. Sirius and Remus followed closely after them up to the Common Room. James threw the doors open to the balcony and Remus closed them behind he and Sirius.
"THOSE FOUL LITTLE COWARDS!" James shouted.
"What's wrong?" Sirius restated.
"The ministry isn't investigating Dr. and Mrs. Wayne's murders. They're ruling it a robbery gone bad and leaving it at that."
"Which means" Peter squeaked. Callie turned around suddenly.
"Which means that they wont help Liz and Bruce, they have to fend for themselves against whoever is threatening them. The ministry wont protect them."
Sirius couldn't explain what he did next, but he knew it hurt like no pain he'd ever felt before when he put his fist straight through the French Doors behind him.

After Callie and Peter rushed Sirius down to the hospital wing, James and Remus wrote letters to their parents and to the American Ministry telling them that it was no robbery gone bad and someone had to help Liz and Bruce. Their owls were just leaving when Sirius came in behind them, his hand bandaged up with a letter to send.
"You shouldn't be writing."
"I don't care," he said giving the letter to an owl and carrying it to the window. He stopped suddenly.
"Sirius?" James began, but Sirius but him short.
Remus and James walked towards him and looked in the direction he was looking.
"That's her."
They saw her too; she was looking out the window. She was in a different place than before, but it was her. The same hair, the same height.
"Why is it that I feel normal when I'm alone now?" She asked. She moved closer to the window and saw on the ledge staring out into the sunset. She moved her head back onto the side of the window frame, her hair sweeping out of her face.
James and Remus gasped. She looked almost exactly like Liz. But almost as quickly as they'd seen her, she vanished in the blink of an eye. Sirius calmly sent the owl off and turned to leave, James and Remus walking numbly behind him, lost for words.

Though Callie and Peter asked what happened, it seemed James and Remus were too shocked, and Sirius preferred not to talk about it, he simply waited for Elizabeth's reply.
It came two days later. Again, she expressed her happiness over receiving his letter, but no, she still would not come back to school. Sirius found himself writing letters daily asking her to come back to school. He would keep writing them until she came back.

Almost four months later, at the beginning of April, Callie spoke up about Sirius' actions.
"Why do you keep asking her about it?" She asked him over breakfast.

"Because she's miserable and she doesn't need to be where she is. She needs to be back here with us, where she's safe."
Callie looked as if she had no more questions, but another question popped into Sirius' head while she read a letter from Elizabeth.
"Why do her letters get here faster now? It took a week the first time."
"Well she couldn't think of how to respond. It took her a week to get it right the way she liked it. She didn't send me mail either because she didn't want you to get angry. I think she wrote some to Jacob and Adam."
"Your making it up." he said in disbelief. Callie shook her head.

"No, actually I asked her the same question. She wrote it in a letter somewhere. I'll see if I can find it."
But you said that-"

"I was making up excuses so you'd stay calm. I can see it worked." Callie added with a not of finality. Sirius let it go and didn't talk about it for the rest of the day, and he had completely forgotten about it after James had transfigured a spare quill into a banana peel and set it in front of Malfoy on the Staircase. Malfoy ended up in the hospital wing.
Callie came down from her dormitory the next day, a Saturday with a letter in her hand.

"It's right here, she said she couldn't think of anything to say." She held the note out for him, but all he had read was "I went through several drafts but I couldn't come up with one that seemed okay to send" before Callie snatched it back up.
"Cant I read it?"
"No, some of that is not for you to read."
"Can I?" James asked in a would - be innocent voice.
"Sure," she said, handing him the letter.
"That's not fair!" Sirius said starting to get up.
"Well some of it concerns you and it's none of your business." Callie said, taking the letter when James finished, a small grin on his face.
Callie grabbed James by his sleeve and pulled him outside and shut he door. They came back just seconds later. Callie excused herself to continue with her artwork.
James sat down next to Sirius.
"So what did she say?" he asked. James looked at him, trying to be serious, but failing miserably.
"In the honor of dear Orion, I an obligated and obliged not to say anything."
"Orion, who's that?"
James gave him a sly grin.
"LIZ?"
James hushed him quickly.
"Why do you call her that if I may be so bold?"
James looked at Remus for help.
"Because her head is always in the clouds, and... her eyes..." Remus trailed off, evidently running out of lies.
"Her eye's look like... the night sky!" James said, looking satisfied with Remus' work.

"Uh.. Huh" Sirius said slowly, not even close to satisfied with the load of horse manure he had just been handed. He got up to go write his daily letter to "Orion" and see what kind of replies he might have gotten so far.

Once he'd finished, he came back downstairs and started once again for the Owlery. To his surprise, James and Remus both held up letters for him to send as well. HE sighed and took their letters but just before he made it to the door, Callie came running down with a letter as well. Sirius rolled his eyes at their laziness.

"Fine then, I'll come too." Callie snapped.
They walked in silence. An awkward silence. It made Sirius uncomfortable, but he couldn't think of any thing to say.
"So, you and Liz talk too?"
"Yeah, Orion is my best friend."
Again there was an awkward silence.
"So what did she say about me?"
"I told you, it's none of your business."
"Well was it good or bad?"
"All things considered? I'd say it was good."
Sirius smiled. At least she still thought well of him even though he'd been pestering her for the last two months.

Sirius woke up early the day he was going to Diagon Alley with the Potters. Third Year was starting in a week or so, and he needed school supplies. He was going to the Potters at Gringotts.
He stepped out of the Fireplace and headed down the street toward Gringotts.

I probably need to get some more parchment, I'm almost out. He had nearly used it all up writing to Orion, as they now called her regularly. He wasn't paying any attention to where he was going when he clipped a girl walking in the opposite direction.
"Sorry." she said clearly, turning her head to make herself heard.

"It's okay I-" Sirius found the girl he had bumped into. She looked oddly familiar, but he didn't know who she was. He didn't even realize that he had stopped walking before a hand grabbed his shoulder. Sirius spun around to face James, who'd grown much taller since Sirius had last seen him.

They spent the day shopping for new things they needed, and James made sure to pick up some ingredients they needed for their Animagus positions, even though he knew they were brewing extra, just in case.

They sat down to lunch late that afternoon, as Sirius was staying with the Potters until they left for school. This was a relief to Sirius, as his brother was driving him up the wall.

"So have you heard from Orion lately?" James asked, expecting the question to be rhetorical.
"Of course, she says the threats are getting worse, but she's doing very well."
"Did I tell you she sent me a picture of her and her dog that Bruce took?"
"No, I didn't know you kept in touch."
"Fairly, I think I have it with me." James reached in his pockets. " Just came this morning." He handed the picture to Sirius.
Sirius smiled to see her so happy. She was playing with her Black Lab, Ace. When he first looked at it, he couldn't see her face, just that she was smiling and laughing, but then she shifted and looked at the camera. Sirius almost dropped the photo.
"Something wrong?" James said, drinking his tea.
"This is Orion?"
"Yeah why?"
"I just saw this girl this morning."
"You're such a liar! Why would she be here?"

"This girl right here, this girl in the picture is Orion."

"Yes of course.
"Im telling you, I bumped into her this morning."