Sirius spent the next day staring at the fireplace. James tried to talk to him, but gave up around noon. Peter wandered off to the library, but Remus and James sat with Sirius, silent, letting him lose himself in his thoughts. He tried to think about what he had to do, how he was going to do it. But his thoughts kept drifting to her. She had been there, she had seen him. He had seen her. He knew she was there and he knew he had to get her out. How she'd changed...
"-Sirius, do you want some lunch?"
"What?"
"Lunch. Lunch is almost over, do you want some?"
"No.."
"Sirius," James said getting up. "You haven't eaten in almost a day, come get something to eat."
"I'm not hungry."
"Fine, but I'm bringing you something back."
"Fine, but I'm not eating it."
James kicked a table over. "KILLING YOURSELF WON'T BRING HER BACK!"
Sirius looked up, surprised.
"James," Remus started.
"NO, LETTING HIMSELF WASTE AWAY WONT HELP HER ANY, AND SHE WOULD BE ASHAMED OF HERSELF THAT HE'S DOING THIS BECAUSE OF HER. IF SHE COULD SHE WOULD CAME BACK HERE AND KNOCK SOME SENSE INTO YOU!"
Sirius was shocked. He stood up.
"Lets go get something to eat." He followed Remus out of the common room. James took a deep breath and counted to ten. HE too followed them from the room.
Sirius came back from lunch feeling better after eating. He took his place by the fire and resumed staring into space. Everything he thought of had a snag, and he just couldn't sort it out.

No one talked to Sirius until very late that evening. The sudden snap of the fire jerked him out of his deep thoughts. At least he thought is was the fire. The fire had long since gone out, and a single candle had been lit in the table next to him, probably by a house elf, he thought. He felt a sudden hand on his shoulder that nearly scared him half out of his skin. He turned and saw the same woman, but this time, she was much younger than before. Not any older than 20, he long brown hair was only midway down her back, and fleecy. Her deep blue eyes delved deep into his own. He felt as if she knew his every secret, his deepest fears.

She smiled, and all his thoughts about what she knew faded away. It was okay, she was no harm. What harm could she do?
"Its time to go." she whispered. He nodded. He didn't bother going upstairs, he didn't know if he would make noise while he slept. He steeled himself deep into his chair, the most comfortable one in the common room, and closed his eyes. He reached into his pocket for the card and pulled his Clow key out of his pocket.
"Dream," he mumbled to himself. Hefelt his head loll onto the die of the chair. The young girl's face blurred and finally disappeared.

When the darkness finally disappeared, he was standing in the dark, but in a beam of light, he looked up and saw the hole high overhead. He pulled out his a card and summoned The Fire. He held his staff over his head, trying to see around him. A cold breeze flitted past his face, bringing with it the sweet smell of roses. He spun around and peered into the darkness.


He stepped in the direction of the breeze and looked around him. All around him small specs of white drifted to the ground. It wasn't cold, but all the same, he could both smell, see, and fell it. It was snowing. He kept walking, but the farther he walked, he colder it grew.


He was just beginning to wonder how long he would walk when he heard someone nearby, it sounded distant, as thought through a radio that was losing a signal, but he heard it. It was Callie. He could hear her talking to Orion, the things she said secrets that only Orion was meant to hear. He tried to tune it out and kept walking. After a while, he heard Callie start to get up.


"I'm going to miss you. I'm sorry it had to end like this for you. I've tried to keep an eye on Sirius for you. I know you wish you could be there to do it yourself, but I think he'll be okay after a while. He misses you. He won't admit it, but I know he does. He wants to save you so badly." Sirius stopped. He heard someone laugh. It wasn't Callie, it was someone nearby. It sounded tired, worn out, but he heard it.


"Take care." Callie said.
Sirius ran toward the sound and skidded through the snow when he saw a figure, curled up on the ground, their long brown hair draped partly over their face, and over their shoulder. Her breath came in small clouds. He knelt next to her and rolled her over, but almost dropped her at the sight of her face. Orion lay in the snow, her body limp and tired.

The Fire flickered and went out. He tossed the Staff aside and turned back to Orion. Sirius brushed the hair out of her face. Her hands and face were freezing cold. He gently tapped the side of her face.
"Orion, wake up. Orion?"
Her deep blue eyes opened ever so slightly.
"It's Sirius, I'm here to take you home."
She jerked away and rolled off into the snow, sitting up, her back to him. She drew her breath in short gasps.
"You're not real. You just like all the others."
"Orion I promise -"
"Get away from me."
"Orion I promise I'm real."
She laughed, it was a weak laugh, unsure.
"That's what all of them said. None of them were real. I've seen you every day since I've been here. Every time you promised you'd take me home, but you never did. You left." She bowed her head in silence.

Sirius stood up and walked over to her. She had her hand pressed against her face, trying to stop the tears that streamed around her fingers and down her cheeks.

"If just once you could have been real. Just once I would have been happy. I wouldn't have been so lonely." Her voice cut off and her shoulder shook in time with her crying.

Sirius searched himself to try and think of what to say. He stepped in front of her and bent close to her face.
"Elizabeth,"
Her shoulders stopped shaking and she moved her hand enough for her peer at him.
"I promise I'm here to take you home, and if I'm not real, you can kill me when you get home." He held out his hand. She stared at him for a moment, then at his outstretched hand. She took her hand away from her face.
It took Sirius' breath away. He had almost forgotten what she looked like.

She never took her eyes off Sirius' face, but slowly, she put her hand in his. He closed his hand around her own and pulled her into a tight hug. Her head lolled onto his shoulder and he felt her smile.
He held her out and looked her over.
"Ready to go home?"
For a moment, her face was expressionless, but then she smiled and nodded. He pulled her to her feet. For a second her reveled in the fact that she was now shorted than him. TAll enough for him to rest his chin upon the top of her head.
Sirius looked for the hole. It seemed only a small spec now. He turned and picked up the Staff out of the snow.
"Fire," the Fire flared to life once more. Orion shielded eyes.

"Oh, sorry." he said quickly, moving the Fire away from her face.
"Oh no, its alright, its just a little bright." she said with a smile. Sirius looked at her now illuminated face. The snow that fell didn't melt, but rested upon her wavy auburn hair.

Sirius fumbled in his pocket for The Fly. He heard a sudden click, distant, like he had heard Callie's voice. Orion heard it too, but neither of them thought anything of it.

Sirius pulled out The Fly and summed the large bird. He gave Orion a leg up and she pulled him up behind her.
The Fly took off wit ha mighty beat of its wings. Sirius steered the enormous bird towards the hole high above them.
Suddenly Sirius saw it; he was standing in Orion's room.

It was raining outside, lightning flashing brightly, and the thunder rolling. Her wide window was swung open and a hooded man stood by her bad where she lay.

Sirius suddenly realized that he had been hearing what was happening. This man had broken into her room!
He picked up a pillow off the ledge below her window and held it over her face.
Sirius tightening his grip around Orion and urged the fly forward.
The man pressed the pillow against her face, suffocating her.
Orion coughed.
"No! Hang on!" Sirius shouted above the roar of the wind.

Downstairs, Callie dropped the cup of coffee she had been drinking with a crash onto the floor. Ace, who was lying on the rug at the foot of the stairs began barking and growling, his teeth bared up the stairs. Bruce, Alfred, Adam, and Jacob, looked up, startled.

"Its Liz!" Callie shouted. Ace started up the stairs, everyone behind him, pulling out wands and hurriedly swallowing the biscuits that's Alfred had made as a late night snack before Callie, Adam, and Jacob left to go back to school. Bruce ran up next to Adam, who thought fast and shoved Bruce into his bedroom and shut the door. He seized a chair and pushed it up under the doorknob, locking him inside.

Orion began to slump over, unable to breathe. Sirius pulled her up, close to him.
Sirius looked around the room. The long slender knife he had seen her try to defend herself with before lay on the bedside table.
"Orion, you have to listen." He shouted. She gasped for air unsuccessfully.
"Orion, there's a knife on your bedside table, to your right. As soon as you wake up, grab it!"
Orion tried to nod, but she slumped over again. Sirius pulled The Fly to a halt right under the hole.

Orion's assailant turned and heard Alfred, Callie, Adam, and Jacob thundering down the hall, no thanks to Ace who was barking. He pulled out his wand and locked the door. Jacob slammed into the door, trying to kick it open.

Sirius helped Orion pull herself up through the hole. With a final leg up, she was through. He grabbed her hand. she turned and looked at him.
"You not alone anymore." He said with a smile. She smiled too, then turned back to the light.
Sirius thought about Orion's room and the blackness around him disappeared and her stepped down onto Orion's chilly hard wood floor.

Her eyes snapped open while the man was still looking towards the door. Like a flash, she seized the knife on the table and drove it straight into the mans arm.


With a yell he jerked back and she pulled the knife out of his arm. Throwing back her covers she got out of bed and advanced on the man. His wand fell to the floor. He dove for it, and she stepped on top of it, snapping it in half. Jacob and Adam kicked at the door and broke it apart. Orion threw aside the knife and seized a chair sitting by her desk. Orion lifted the chair and smashed it across the man's face.


The man lashed out at her and hit her across the face, she reeled back and Adam burst in and caught her while Jacob jumped forward and hit the man in return. The stranger hit at Jacob who ducked by. Orion started towards him again, her eyes chillingly cold with hate.


"GET OUT OF MY HOUSE!" She shouted. She seized him by his robes and threw him towards the window, he missed the open window and smashed through the pane glass and fell to the ground.


Jacob, Callie and Adam grabbed Orion and pulled her into a strangling hug. After they let go, Orion rushed to Alfred and threw her arms around her neck. She suddenly let go.
"Where's Bruce?"
"He's still in his room!" Jacob said with a laugh.
Orion didn't waste a second but was out the door in a flash, her now very long hair streaming out behind her. Sirius throught about Bruce and was suddenly standing in his room. Bruce pounded on the door, yelling furiously for someone to let him out. He stopped suddenly, hearing a voice callign down the hall for him. He looked at the shadow of feet that stopped at his door, fumbling with the chair. He backed away, not sure of who was on the other side. Quietly he slipped around the corner to his bathroom, listening to who it might be.
Orion flung the door open and stepped inside.
"Bruce?"
Bruce was caught somewhere between joy and disbelief. He flug himself from his hiding place and his sister rushed at him and threw her arms around him. He held his sister tight, vowing he'd never let anyone hurt her again.

Sirius smiled and whispered to himself, recalling all his cards and drifted off to sleep in his chair, safely tucked away in the Gryffindor Tower.

James gently shook Sirius awake. Sirius opened his eyes, a smile dawning upon his face. the looks on the faces of his friends were not the same. Sirius looked around. The fire was going, but it was still dark.
"We couldn't sleep anymore. Do you want to come get some breakfast?"
Sirius nodded and got up, stretching as he went.

He sat down and pulled a pot of coffee close, also reaching for some biscuits, which the house elves had failed to stop serving since Orion and Bruce had left, and some bacon. He grinned when the sun started to glimmer through the windows. His friends sat in silence, eating the food without speaking to each other. Sirius waited, on edge for the Owl Post to arrive.

Finally as the sun began to shine through the windows, a few owls fluttered into the Great Hall. One owl came in for landing and touched down right in front of James and Sirius who sat across from him. He took the letter and tossed it aside. the Owl looked offended and flew off.

"You should open that. Who knows what kind of news it's got."
"If you're so interested, then you open it." James spat. Sirius picked up the letter and opened it. He pulled the paper out, hastily written on muggle notebook paper and grinned at Callie's handwriting.
"I think you should read this." Sirius said, holding the paper out in front of James. James looked confused at the paper and took it. He sipped some coffee while he read. Sirius bit his lips, knowing what was about to happen. James coughed and almost dropped hot coffee all over himself.