Disclaimer: All is fair in love and war. Naught is fair when it comes to the Harry Potter rights which I don't have.
Author's Note: I really like the way that this fanfic is going! I have to say, my main problem has been the Remus/Hermione tension and trying to find their own personal loopholes as to why they can't be with each other…it is really proving problematic. I am sure I can fix that with this chapter though. Shout out to Kate, one of my best friends. If you have suggestions, anyone, please click the submit review button. I can't fix it if you don't bring it to my attention!
Co-Author's Note: Hello, faithful readers. I have a request for you loving readers. I REALLY want you guys to review, okay? PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE help us get our review count up! I know I look at how many reviews a story has when I get to the HP main page. It draws people in, and factors into how people perceive a story. So please, guys, even if it's only one sentence, give us a review.
Hermione felt very nervous getting off of the train at platform 9 ¾. She immediately recognized Remus' parents, who were waving him over. Mr. Lupin was the spitting image of Hermione's Professor Lupin in later years. Mrs. Lupin was had a slight figure, and her light brown hair was scattered with flecks of grey.
"Mom, this is Hermione Granger. She's a transfer student from Beuxbaton." Remus said blushing almost abashedly.
Hermione shook hands with Mrs. Lupin and Mr. Lupin, thanking them for letting her stay for the summer.
"So, this is the girl we've heard so much about?" said Mr. Lupin chuckling. "Remus owls us about you all the time." Remus had now turned five shades of red and was carefully avoiding Hermione's eyes.
"Now, dear." scolded Mrs. Lupin. "Don't embarrass him! It's so nice to meet you, dear." She said, turning to Hermione. "Come on, let's catch a cab. It's getting late, and we have a nice dinner planned!" Mr. Lupin grabbed the bags, and they all headed out to the front of the station.
Oh my God, oh my God. He TALKS about ME to his PARENTS! Hermione had a grin on her face the rest of the night from that thought.
Settling into the somewhat cramped yellow taxi, they all began to chat as it carried them out of the bustling center of muggle London.
"So, where do you all live?" Hermione asked politely.
"We live in the country, on a small remodeled farm. It's not very fancy, but we've fixed it up pretty nicely, and it has a spectacular view. Where is your house in France?" Mr. Lupin replied.
"Paris," Hermione said, thankful that she'd actually been there, "It's lovely there, although I like England as well."
They made small talk until the taxi pulled up to the front of a large farmhouse. She smiled, remembering the Weasley's old farmhouse with lots of chickens running around and the disgruntled garden gnomes.
"Remus, show Hermione to her room. Then we'll have some supper; it's getting quite late," Mrs. Lupin said, ushering them through the door.
"Here, let me get your trunk, and we'll take it up to your room." Remus said, dragging along Hermione's trunk. He led her up to a room with a heavy oak door. The furnishings were sparse, but it felt very much like home. Hermione was surprised to see a small television in her room. She had always assumed Remus was a pureblood, as he talked often of his upbringing in the wizarding world.
They headed down to the kitchen to find Mrs. Lupin serving up large bowls of onion soup. Dinner was absolutely delicious, and dessert was a fabulous lemon torte. After diner, they remained sitting at the cozy table while Mr. Lupin talked merrily about his job at St. Mungo's on the psych ward while sipping a gin and tonic and smoking a fat cigar.
"What exactly do you do there, Mr. Lupin?" Hermione asked over some tea.
"Well, basically my job is to evaluate and analyze patients whose brains have been addled by magic, or who have a psychological disorder, and decide which method of treatment would be best. Occasionally, I get patients of my own. Just today I was able to release a person from my care who I was treating for whitzophrenia. It's a really interesting job. St. Mungo's is a great place to work. They're so understaffed that they provide basic first aid and advanced first aid training at a smaller cost than most of the other wizarding hospitals in Europe."
After several more hours of small talk, Remus and Hermione were sent to bed.
Remus snuck into Hermione's room later that night, armed with an arsenal of junk food and butterbeer.
Hermione was sitting on her bed, flipping through the channels on the TV.
"Anything good on?" Remus asked. Hermione jumped and then, with a relieved sigh that it wasn't a horrible monster or boogeyman, replied "Not really".
"Why do your parents have a television anyway?" Hermione asked as Remus set the food down on the bed next to her.
"We have some muggle relatives, since Mum is muggleborn, and they appreciate having a TV while they're here. I believe we might have a movie or two," replied Remus, pulling out a couple of tapes.
"Hmm, why don't you pick." Said Hermione, picking up a small thermos filled with butterbeer.
Remus picked out a horror flick. It was all Hermione could barely contain her laughter as they both pointed out zippers on backs of monster suits and how obvious it was that the buildings were made out of cardboard. The movie was obviously very old.
After they were done with the movie, they sat and chatted.
"Hermione…if you could, would you go back to your own time?" Remus inquired hesitantly after a while.
Hermione didn't quite know the answer…she missed Harry and Ron and a lot of other people and things in the future, but she had made such good friends here. She was still reluctant to think about it, and she tended to avoid it in conversation with the Marauders.
"I don't know. I miss my friends in the future, but I have such good friends here. If the opportunity presented itself, I might. But only if I knew that nothing bad would happen to you and that I'd be able to see you all in the future. And have you remember me, of course." Hermione said, as much to herself as Remus.
Hermione had not thought about what would happen if she did go back to the future and Remus remembered her. What if that really happened? What would he think of her?
Which is PRECISELY why you are NOT getting romantically involved with ANYONE while you're here in the past! One half of her brain told the other firmly.
They conversed for a couple more hours, before Remus got up and said that he was going to sleep, promising that they'd have some fun tomorrow.
Hermione loved the Lupins. Time passed quickly there. Mrs. Lupin needed help with her garden, and Hermione was always glad to tend to the amazing magical plants that resided there. Mr. Lupin and Hermione spent hours discussing all things that were muggle, for he, like Mr. Weasley in the future, was very passionate about how muggles lived their everyday lives. Hermione laughed when Mr.Lupin exclaimed things like "Without magic!" and "How do they survive?"
Remus was lots of fun too. On days when Hermione didn't help Mrs. Lupin in her garden, they went down to the river to skip rocks and swim, occasionally wandering into the town near where they lived. She was almost sad to leave when the week they were going to spend at Godric's Hollow came.
"Make sure you all behave yourselves, and if you need me I'm only a fireplace away!" Mrs. Lupin said with a worried expression."
"Don't worry, Mrs. Lupin, I'll keep the boys in check," said Hermione with a smile and a wink.
They flooed to Godric's Hollow, where Hermione and Remus were greeted by a worried, almost frantic looking James.
"What's wrong?" asked Remus as James paced back and forth haphazardly in curvy lines.
"Sirius isn't here yet. He was supposed to be here yesterday. I can't find where he lives; his house is unplottable, and my parents aren't here to help me. They're away at a resort. I have no idea what happened to him. I just hope he's okay," said James with a very concerned expression marring his handsome face.
They persuaded James to sit down on the armchair in front of the fireplace, got him a cup of tea (in which Remus put a small amount of Firewhiskey to help calm James down), and waited.
After several hours, Peter showed up. Once he'd been filled in on the predicament, he sat waiting with the rest of the Marauders.
At around 6:00 am, they heard a very weak knock at the door. James immediately jumped up to get it.
"REMUS! HERMIONE! PETER! COME QUICKLY AND HELP ME; HE'S HURT!" James screamed at the top of his lungs. He looked a disaster, with his hair ruffled and his face flushed, but he was nothing compared to Sirius.
An unconscious frame was sprawled on the doorstep, legs bent at strange angles. Only the silky black mop of hair identified this person to be Sirius. Bruises were scattered across his limp figure, the most prominent of which being a huge black eye. An assortment of wounds oozed onto his robes, covering them with blood. His ragged and noisy breaths were the only sign that he was alive.
The grisly sight was too horrific for words. No, explicatives or explanations were useless. Action, however, was necessary. Remus, James, and Hermione picked the still unconscious Sirius up and laid him down on a couch that was in the living room. James and Peter went to James' parents' medicine cabinet to get various healing potions while Remus and Hermione began to tend to the cuts and bruises that Sirius had mysteriously acquired.
"Ennervate," breathed Remus as he pointed his wand at Sirius' chest. Sirius' eyes opened. He moaned in agony, his chest moving erratically up and down.
"Sirius, what happened?" asked Hermione gently, pressing a cool cloth to his head.
"Pain…Cruciatus…Parents…" he said weakly.
Remus and Hermione were pleased when James and Peter finally came out of James' parents' room, holding several colorful bottles of potion.
They administered some potion to take away the bruises and cuts, one to fix the broken rib that Hermione noticed was about to poke through his skin, and one to help him with the pain. They also gave him a shot of Firewhiskey to help him relax.
"Sirius, please tell us what happened."
"Well, it all started one lovely, joyous, fantabulous April afternoon…I was dancing and prancing around gaily, playing with the kittens that came up to me, meowing…" even half dead, Sirius had an (odd) sense of humor. His grin was quickly replaced by a grimace. Breathing was obviously painful, and most of his wounds hadn't healed.
"Sirius, I'm begging you, just tell us what happened," pleaded Hermione.
"Well, my parents and I got in a fight," said Sirius, looking down as though he were ashamed.
"I figured," said James, dryly.
"Mother started off on one of her 'you shouldn't be hanging around with mudbloods and blood traitors' rants. She started screaming about how ungrateful I was, and what a disgrace it was to the so-called 'noble' black family name to be even seen with a muggleborn. I started yelling at her, telling her what a brilliant witch Hermione is, and half the people at our school are. Father leg-locked me and told me that 'I was no son of his'," said Sirius, his eyes darkening.
"But that doesn't explain the cuts and bruises." Said Remus
"Or the broken rib," added Hermione.
"What did you say next?" said Peter very quietly.
"I told him I'd rather be a muggle born than any son of his."
They all gasped.
"Oh, what did he do to you?" squeaked Hermione.
"The usual. They gave me the Cruciatus curse, and then afterwards kicked me around a bit while mother called me a blood traitor." said Sirius, his eyes shining with the memory.
"THE USUAL! Goddammit Padfoot, you have got to tell us these things! You can't live there anymore! You shouldn't have been living there in the first place!" exclaimed James.
"Sirius, I had no idea that your life at home was like that! I thought you said they never laid a wand on you!" cried Remus in a mixture of pity and revulsion.
"I couldn't have you guys worrying, I'm fine," said Sirius with a heartbreaking look in his eyes.
"Sirius. You had a broken rib. You were…no, ARE completely covered in cuts and bruises. You are not fine. You have deluded yourself into thinking that you're fine." Said James flatly.
"I said I'm fine" Sirius hissed with an angry look in his eye.
"Sirius," Hermione said softly, "You can't live there anymore. Your parents are hurting you. Sirius, it is likely if you hadn't gotten help you would have died from a loss of blood. You probably have several very large internal injuries that we should get checked out, and the Cruciatus curse has drained your strength to a dangerous level."
"You live here from now on, Sirius. I'm not letting you ever go back," said James fiercely.
Sirius said nothing, but nodded silently.
"May we take a quick look at that rib to make sure it didn't heal in an odd position?" asked Hermione kindly.
Sirius nodded, and Hermione pulled up his shirt, gasping audibly. Not only was his stomach and chest covered with scars, but his stomach was turning into a large area of bluish-purple bruises.
"Sirius, your rib is fine, but it is obvious that you do have serious internal injuries. Can you see your stomach?" said Hermione in shocked tones.
"I'll floo my mum and dad. They should be able to help us," said Remus as he tossed the glittering powder into James' fireplace.
When Mr. and Mrs. Lupin got there, they were astounded at the horrid state of Sirius' body. A lot of the bruises remained (including the large ones on his stomach) and most of the cuts hadn't disappeared despite the potion he'd been given. They asked him to walk, but when he stood upright he immediately fell to the ground and threw up. They laid him down, cleaned up the vomit, and Mr. Lupin made an unofficial diagnosis.
"You have lost a lot of blood, hence the inability to walk and the cuts and bruises not healing with the potions James gave you. Possibly fractures in the legs, too. Given the location of the bruising I'd say you are bleeding from several organs, possibly the liver and spleen, maybe from the lower intestine. This probably isn't going to heal by itself anytime soon because of the Cruciatus curse that was put on you (which has taken away most of your strength)…not to mention the seriousness of the injuries. Now either I can try to heal you, or I can send you to St. Mungo's. Which do you prefer?"
"Will you please heal me? I don't want to explain this to anyone else," said Sirius, avoiding Mr. Lupin's eyes.
Mr. Lupin first set up a small cauldron on the floor where he made a dreamless sleep potion, along with several others of which James, Sirius, Remus, and Hermione did not know the names of. He gave Sirius the potion for dreamless sleep first, explaining that it would be easier to heal while he wasn't awake and thinking.
After Sirius was asleep, Mr. Lupin explained that one of the potions he had made was actually a salve, and enlisted Hermione's assistance in getting all of the bruises, nix the large ones on his stomach. That was only the beginning of the painfully slow process of completely healing Sirius.
After seven hours they were done. The healing procedures were fairly quick, but it had taken a long time to prepare the different potions that needed brewed.
"He should wake up in about ten minutes if I timed his dose of dreamless sleep potion right. When he wakes up he'll be as healthy as a horse. I'll stay here to do a post-op physical, if that's alright." Mr. Lupin said, standing up and maneuvering his way to the kitchen to wash his hands.
Sure enough, Sirius woke up fifteen minutes later. Mr. Lupin checked his pulse and breathing, and although he was shaky on his legs he could walk. They thanked Mr. Lupin for all of his help over and over, and waved goodbye to him as he spun away through the fireplace.
"So, feeling better?" asked Peter, hovering over Sirius.
"Yeah, loads. I'm seriously grateful that your dad helped me, Remus. I might owl him sometime…" said Sirius with a very thankful expression on his face.
"It took a really long time to heal you. You had a broken arm and about six stab wounds that we had to deal with, along with the internal injuries and small cuts and bruises. You didn't tell us your father stabbed you. You are definitely living here from now on, Sirius, they'd kill you if you stayed there any longer," said James with a serious expression on his face.
"I know…I know…I don't really want to go back. But six stab wounds! Good God, I only felt three!" he said with a look of amazement on his face. The rest of the Marauders didn't seem so amazed, however. The rest of the Marauders were positively revolted at Sirius' words.
"Right…That's beside the point. Thank you for letting me live here, James. Are you sure your parent's will have me?" he asked, that hopeful, innocent-puppy look on his face.
"I'm positive. They wouldn't mind, we have plenty of space! And they would love to have you; they think you're really great!"
Sirius smiled. "What time is it?" He asked.
"Around 6:00pm. You were out for a while. We started at around 11:00am."
"Wow… you know, it's happy hour. We should drink!"
"Sirius…you just got out of a seven hour healing. We had to do what St. Mungo's would've done, without all of the St. Mungo's equipment. The actual healing processes didn't take to long, but the preparation was exhausting, for all of us. You are not going to drink tonight. We can party tomorrow," said Hermione, with a very stern look on her face.
"Promise?" asked Sirius, putting on his best begging puppy eyes.
The Marauders nodded, reassuring Sirius that there would be a nice big party tomorrow to make up for the lost time.
They stayed up and caught up on each others summers. Remus and Hermione received a lot of flak for sharing a house for such a long time without James', Sirius', and Peter's careful supervision.
"FOR THE LAST BLOODY TIME WE ARE NOT DATING!" roared Remus and Hermione simultaneously.
They all laughed and went up to their rooms.
James' parents were greeted early in the morning by James, Remus, and Hermione. Sirius was still asleep.
"Hello Remus, Hermione. James, what are you and your friends doing up, it's 4:00 am?" asked Mrs. Potter, pouring herself a cup of tea.
"Sirius came home a day late. We found him hurt on our doorstep. Seriously hurt. Mr. Lupin came by, and it took seven hours to heal him," started Remus
"What happened to him? Was it…it wasn't," understanding dawned on Mr. Potter's face, "his parent's?"
They nodded simultaneously.
"Oh, poor dear! What did they do to him?" asked Mrs. Potter with a horrified look on her face.
"Well…Sirius and his parents got into an argument. A really, REALLY big argument. His parents…" Hermione's voice died as a sick feeling swept over her stomach at all the disgusting wounds she, Remus, and James had treated.
"His parents gave him the Cruciatus curse," an audible gasp was heard from the Potters at Remus' words, "stabbed him several times," more gasping, "kicked him around for a bit, and I guess he crawled to our house."
Mrs. Potter had tears glistening in her eyes. Mr. Potter looked like he was ready to kill… something.
"We must write to Mr. Lupin, thanking him," said Mrs. Potter, bustling about with her teapot.
"He is NOT going back to those monsters," snarled Mr. Potter, "that is HORRIBLE!" He seemed utterly furious.
"Thank you. He has nowhere else to go. Mr. and Mrs. Lupin couldn't take him, and we're pretty sure Hermione and Peter's parents wouldn't have been able to take him in."
Mr. Potter began pacing and muttering, "it's horrific…his own parents…supposed to protect him…supposed to take care of him."
Hermione looked over at James, looking for an explanation for his father's odd behavior.
"He went through that too, when he was fourteen he left to live with my mother's family," murmured James in her ear. Hermione simply nodded, understanding how hard it must be for Mr. Potter to see this happen to someone else.
"I'm going to go check on the poor darling," said Mrs. Potter, who was followed up the stairs by, Remus, James, Hermione, and Mr. Potter.
They quietly crept into Sirius' room, where Sirius appeared to be fast asleep. Mrs. Potter listened intently as Hermione pointed out the assorted cuts (which had turned into scars) that they had treated. Hermione pulled up Sirius' shirt to show where the ribs had been broken, pointing out how scar covered Sirius' chest was. A tear glistened on Mrs. Potter's cheek as she stroked Sirius' face gently, murmuring, "Oh dear, oh dear".
Sirius looked up blearily, a tear glistening on his cheek too.
"It's alright, Mrs. Potter, I'm fine." Sirius said softly
Mrs. Potter shook her head.
Hermione, Remus, and James felt very awkward, and they crept out of the room. They felt sorry for Sirius, but the moment that Mrs. Potter and Sirius were sharing - a true mother/son moment - was entirely too emotional for the fellow Marauders to intrude on.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sirius woke up early the next morning, which annoyed everyone.
"Sirius, it is 7:00 in the morning. What the hell is wrong with you?" grumbled the Marauders blearily.
Sirius protested that they were lazy bums and that they should've been up hours ago.
"Sirius, it is rather disturbing that you are a morning person," complained Hermione as Sirius poured her some coffee and orange juice.
"So, what do you guys wanna do today?" asked Sirius, blatantly ignoring the griping of the others.
"Why not head down to the pond? We could take food and stuff," said James after a few cups of coffee.
"Yea, verily" said Sirius with a bow of his head and his hands together, palms inward. This bizarre display earned him odd looks from James and Remus.
They packed their bags and a small basket with food and Firewhiskey and headed out to the beach by the pond on James' parents land.
"Your place is huge, James! I mean, your house is big, you have to have at least twenty acres of land, and you have a pond!" exclaimed Hermione.
James simply nodded, feeling slightly awkward at Hermione's comments.
They arrived at the pond several minutes later. Hermione lay out on the beach tanning while the boys splashed around in the water.
"C'mon Hermione, join us, we're playing chicken!" Said Sirius with a bark-like laugh.
Hermione smiled and went down to the water.
"Peter is our judge, he doesn't really like playing chicken. We'll call teams. I wanna be with James!" explained Sirius as he threw James up onto his shoulder.
Remus gently picked up Hermione and placed her delicately on his shoulders. The teams stepped forward. James immediately grabbed Hermione's shoulders. Hermione grabbed him by the waist and jerked him forward. James lost his balance, and plunged into the water, Hermione and Remus laughing. She did the same to Sirius, and even Peter who'd decided to join in and see if he could beat 'The Great and All Powerful Hermione' as James had christened her.
Next team was Hermione and Sirius against Remus and James. Hermione was on Sirius' shoulders. Remus already knew the fatal move which knocked James off his high horse and evaded it. Hermione would have to try something different.
Remus grabbed her shoulder's as James as done. Hermione grabbed his waist just as she'd done before. But this time, she didn't pull him forward, she leaned closer…and closer until their faces were inches apart.
And then she kissed him on the forehead.
He fell off on his own.
Sirius, Peter, and James began laughing as Remus sat up in the water, blushing furiously.
"Sorry, Remus, but you'll understand…Still my friend, right?" said Hermione, sitting on James' shoulders with a slightly arrogant smirk on her face.
Remus simply muttered under his breath, still blushing. The Marauders poked fun at this for several more minutes before Sirius suggested a break for lunch, shouting that they needed to save the alcohol for later.
After several rousing games of 'Marco-Polo' the sun began to slowly set. Remus slyly pulled out a cabernet (AN: a really good red wine for those of you who don't know. Try it with some cheese, bleu on crackers if possible. It's good on it's own too (-: ) and five glasses, saying he'd taken it from his parents wine cupboard.
"Mom loves wine. She is a wine connoisseur. She collects a lot, so I figure she won't miss this bottle. She has six of these anyway," Remus said as he poured each of the Marauders a glass. "Besides, what's a good wine if you can't enjoy it?" They each took one and sat down on the beach.
"To the Marauders," Said Sirius while raising his glass, "That we may always have slightly more than what we need, that we may laugh slightly too loud, that we may drink slightly too much, and that our friendship will always last,"
Their glasses clinked and they drank.
"I have two questions," said Hermione after she had a sip, savoring the lovely flavor of the wine, "one: why do we always have unlimited amounts of alcohol and two: Sirius, since when are you so…deep?"
"Well, I'm a bloody lush," replied Sirius, who had just drunk deeply from his glass, "and I am capable of being serious."
They sat in quiet contemplation for several minutes. Peter suggested that they start a fire if they were planning on staying. Hermione was extremely grateful that wizarding law was different in this time then in the future. They were legally allowed to perform magic as long as no muggles were around within 4 miles, and since James house's property was a good 5 miles big and the pond was in the center, they had a fire going in seconds. After finishing of the wine, Sirius cracked open a bottle of Firewhiskey and pulled out shot glasses for everyone.
"Let's play a game!" squeaked Peter.
"I never! That's the perfect game!" barked Sirius.
"James starts!" said Peter, filling his shot glass to the brim.
"I never…kissed a boy," said James craftily. Sirius and Hermione each took a shot.
"I never watched a muggle television," said Sirius, watching everyone take a shot.
As usual, the game spiraled out of control until everyone but Remus was completely smashed. Remus, being the intelligent one, sobered them all up magically, and death-marched them back up to the house.
At noon the next day, the Marauders got the results of their OWLs. No one was disappointed. Hermione got straight O's, as did everyone but Peter, who got A's and E's in everything except History of Magic in which he got a T. After they were all fed and watered with a good breakfast, they went school shopping in Diagon Alley. As none of them could fly, and floo powder was scarce at the Potter's, the Knight Bus was their method of transportation.
They hopped on the Knight Bus, and grabbed a squashy armchair in the back. "Best way to avoid vomit flying at the back of your head," explained Sirius with a knowing look on his face, as he threw his large bag of school supplies on James' lap, much to James' dismay.
"Ministry of Magic, please," said Mr. Potter. The Marauders looked at him in a confused manner.
"James, Sirius, everybody for that matter. We have an announcement to make. We're going down to the ministry to legally adopt Sirius," Mr. Potter announced proudly.
Sirius' eyes became large as dish plates as he gave the puppy-eye look to Mr. and Mrs. Potter.
"Wha-what?" he said in a small voice, "is this some kind of cruel trick?"
"Of course not!" said Mrs. Potter, "that would be malicious to the point of ridiculousness! We want you to be our son. You deserve a life so much better than the one you were forced to live with your abusive parents."
The bus stopped suddenly, propelling Hermione and Remus out of their seats and on top of James, Peter, and the Potters. They muddled out of the bus, tipping the driver, and crawled into the phone booth, explaining to the cool voice that they wanted to go to the adoption agency.
They submitted their wands for check, and moved to the third floor to the adoption center.
They filled out all the forms, and in a mere hour Sirius was officially the son of Mr. and Mrs. Potter and James' brother. Normally, the birth parents would have to be there. In this case, he was adopted without permission of the Blacks, for the Potters cited abuse and neglect as one of their reasons to adopt.
Mr. Potter suggested that they go out to dinner, as a celebration of their new son and as a last meal before the Marauders started school again. Sirius made the surprising choice of a nice Italian place. After several hours of eating and drinking, Mr. and Mrs. Potter had to insist that they leave, as they had a train to catch in the morning.
Authors Note: This chapter took me five days. FIVE WHOLE DAYS! My SOUL went into this. I revised and re-revised till I thought it was PERFECT! I am starting to get obsessive-compulsive about this story...It's almost frightening. This chapter is awhole helluva lot longer than all the others...I hope you enjoy it.
Co-Authors Note: Seriously, this chapter took FOREVER to edit. My sister has a mortal fear of the shift key. I believe it's called, "shiftamonophobophobia". Believe it. Or not.