Going to stand in front of the nearest pillar she pulled her sleeve up over her hand and wiped away the thin layer of ice crystals. An eerie shiver ran down her spine as she looked into the eyes of a woman. As clearly as if the ice weren't there Saffron could see the figure of a young woman encased within the pillar. Her hair was a pale gold and her skin as white as snow. Taking a step back Saffron saw that the dress she wore, a soft shade of blue looked medieval and stopped at the knees which gave it a rather odd appearance. The familiar glitter of the crescent moon pendant around the woman's neck was testament to the fact that she too had once been a Moonlit One. Her eyes, blueish green like the water in a fountain, looked peaceful though, Saffron thought, as she walked to look at the others, feeling a kind of morbid interest.
She soon found that not all of the people looked as serene as the first, but all were young women wearing silver pendants. Several looked terrified and their mouths stood open in silent screams, arms half raised as if in defence. She couldn't bare to look at these for more than a few seconds and soon lost her interest for the room. All the same, as she hurried out of the exit, she couldn't shake the feeling that the room she had left wasn't evil, it was…almost peaceful. A scared place.
The next corridor didn't last long and finished just in front of a chasm, just too wide for a person to jump. On the other side something gold glittered tantalisingly and Saffron knew in an instant that this was what she had came for. The only problem was how to get it.
She spent the next fifteen minutes running her hands over the walls at either side of the chasm, testing to see whether if might be possible to use outcroppings of rock as hand and foot holds and climb across to the other side.
It was as she tested a particularly dodgy looking piece of ice and it crumbled beneath her hands that she noticed something. Where the dust had fallen over the chasm it hung in the air, as if there wasn't really a gaping hole there, but just a fine sheet of glass that she couldn't see.
"You've got to be kidding me," Saffron stated flatly, shaking her head. She knew with a horrible certainty exactly how she was going to cross. She was going to have to walk.
Saffron paced nervously a few steps back from the edge trying to convince herself to walk across. The only problem was that every time she walked to the edge her eyes looked down into the gaping hole of nothingness and her heart quailed within her and she jumped back.
Once or twice she had thought about just turning round and going back the way she had come. Straightening, she looked back down the tunnel littered with her own silver footprints. Once she'd explained the whole thing to Arabella, surely the witch wouldn't be angry at her, she'd understand how unreasonable the demands had been of her. But before she had taken a single step towards the pillared room a small voice inside her said,
But you know, it's not Arabella that you would have to explain this too is it? It's Lily that needs that bridle, and if you don't go and get it you could ruin everything!
Saffron covered her eyes and said very loudly, "Oh, scrud buckets."
Then, before she'd had time to think it though and discard the idea hurriedly she span round on her heel and ran in the opposite direction, eyes screwed tightly shut.
She collided with the wall and bounced back, landing solidly on her behind. Opening her eyes with a start she could help but start to laugh at herself, looking back and seeing that she'd crossed the chasm. As she laughed she felt all her nerves and tension drain away and she found she couldn't stop laughing. She'd never been so terrified in her life, but she'd done it!
Gasping and wiping a tear from her eye she got up and reached out to pick up the bridle, a glimmering, golden thing of beauty, the straps so thin as to look like a necklace chain. The shimmering seemed to be doing something to the way she could see it and no matter how much she squinted and rubbed her eyes, Saffron just could not tell exactly what shape it was, or what animal it was for.
"Oh well, it's not mine anyway," Saffron shrugged, grasping the bridle in both hands. She had the fleeting sensation that she was holding water before the world dissolved around her.
Lily woke with a start.
Instantly awake she turned to look for Saffron on the bed opposite and felt cold in the pit of her stomach when she found it empty, the morning sun streaming in through open curtains across the room falling onto the empty, unmade bed, the window open, curtains flapping gently against the wall.
Calm down, she told herself, maybe she's just gone down for breakfast early.
But of course she hadn't.
And she hadn't gone to practice piano or go visit the boys. They were sat outside, enjoying the sun. Neither had the gardener seen her go out for a walk. And when Mrs Potter asked if Saffron was up yet Lily bit her lip and frowned.
"I…I don't know…"
Mrs Potter looked up.
"I mean, when I woke up her bed was empty," Lily added hastily, praying that Mrs Potter was going to tell her that Saffron had just popped out on an errand for her.
Mrs Potter turned and lifted her flour dusted hands from the bowl she had been using, wiping them on a teatowel as she called for their house elf, Kerri.
"Yes ma'am?" The house elf appeared almost immediately, hurrying in holding a duster in her hand. Clothed in a dark red pillowcase with a golden rope for a belt she reminded Lily of a child dressed up in Roman costume.
"Have you seen Saffron this morning, Kerri?"
"Sorry, ma'am, I haven't," the elf replied with a little bob.
Catching Lily's anxious look, Mrs Potter smiled and laid a gentle hand on her shoulder. "I wouldn't worry, love, she's probably off on her own somewhere. There are hundreds of places she could go where neither I, nor my husband, could find her. She used to run off and hide when we had scolded her as a child, or when she'd had a fight with James." She smiled, "In fact, if you go ask him, he would be much more of a help finding her than me. He always did know a lot more of her hidey-holes than he let on."
Nodding, Lily headed out the kitchen door, which stood ajar, a wide shaft of sunshine spilling across the threshold from outside. Beyond this lay a kind of herb garden, obviously well tended, with an interesting array of statues and figures scattered around in between clumps of parsley and thyme. Ahead the ground sloped gently downwards to a large aviary built in the shape of a miniature palace. Brightly coloured birds flitted between elegant structures wrought from a pale green metal twisted to look like trees. Tiny leaves rustled softly in a gentle breeze, the sound like the pealing of crystal bells.
Lily knew from James that it was his mother who made these trees. She was an artist of sorts, but she neither painted nor drew. Some day Lily wanted to watch her as she worked, using a mixture of live and inanimate components and weaving them together to make something that was a mixture of both. It wasn't only trees that she made, the statues in the herb garden were hers too. Some were early trials, remnants of experiments that started when she was still a girl at Hogwarts.
Once, over dinner, she had told Lily the story of how one night one such experiment had gone wrong. The small bonsai tree that she had smuggled out from the Greenhouses one lesson seeming to swallow the pilfered cutlery rather than incorporating it, she had jumped up and knocked over her bag, which had contained other "borrowed" items from the potions cupboard, and these had in turn fallen on the tree…the result had been a very noisy explosion of leaves, metal and green fire. The Gryffindor common room, where she had set up the experiment had been ruined. None of this had gone down well with her head of house, who had given her detention for two months, or the few, rudely awakened students who had remained for the holidays. But it had sparked the interest of a certain prefect, who had watched her chastisement from the stairway, an amused smile hidden behind his hand.
Crossing the path that led to the aviary, Lily headed to where she could see James and Sirius playing a game of exploding snap in the part of the garden that the two Potter children were responsible for. It was a rather amusing hotchpotch of trees and flowers with a large central wooden gazebo which was unevenly painted roughly half purple and half yellow, a remnant of a certain disagreement between Saffron and James when they were younger. Scattered around were leaping jets of water that often arched over walkways like a liquid tunnel.
"Lily, over here!"
James sat up from where he had been lying on his front and waved her over.
"Have either of you seen Saffron this morning?" Lily asked as she approached.
They shook their heads.
"Oh, well…shall we go look for her?"
James shrugged, "If you want. Although she's probably off for a wander somewhere, she does that when she can't sleep sometimes."
"We'd better go find her," Sirius said, getting to his feet and stretching, arching his back as he stifled a yawn, "It's probably almost breakfast time anyway."
"I should have known your body-clock's attuned to meal times," Lily said with a shake of her head.
He shrugged unrepentantly. The three of them spread out, wandering through the grounds of the Potter's house; Lily heading back off with James to search the aviary and the maze behind, while Sirius took the path that lead into the patch of wilderness behind the gazebo area.
Time to go home, young Amazon.
…The sensation of memories being ciphered through like a hand rummaging through a jewellery box…
Ahh, there it is.
...the hand closed…
Sirius hadn't been searching long before he heard a kind of muffled thud as if someone had fallen out of a tree onto a pile of leaves. He turned and almost tripped over Saffron who lay curled up on the ground behind him. Well not exactly behind him, a short, stumpy little bush sheltered her face from the sun.
He crouched next to her, starting and almost falling backwards when he saw the sprinkling of frosted snowflakes and frozen tears on her face. Her skin was almost blue. Scared, he grasped her shoulders and shook her,
"Saffron!"
Flecks of snow tumbled from her hair as her head lolled back where he lifted her. Roughly he let her go and put two fingers to her pulse. It beat strongly but slowly as if she were sleeping. Feeling a slight sense of relief he shook her again more gently,
"Saffron, wake up!"
Again nothing. He drew his wand and cast a warming charm on her until the ice melted and she looked a more normal colour. Just as he was wondering what to do she gave a small yawn and opened her eyes, looking about her dreamily.
She started in surprise as he seized her and hugged her tightly.
"Why do you have to make it a habit to scare me so often?" he said gruffly, clearing his throat as he got to his feet hastily, avoiding her curious gaze. "Come on, Lily's looking for you."
Accepting his hand she pulled herself up and looked around, "Whatever am I doing here?" she asked in surprise.
"I certainly don't know!" Sirius replied irritably.
Surprised by his unaccountable bad temper they walked back together in silence.
A/N: I know, I know, I said it'd only be a short while- and honest, I really meant it. I was headed back to uni and someone, someone was supposed to have already organised the internet! Grrr! Yeah, so basically, blame my housemate for the slowness of this update, although I hope you thought it was worth the wait. Actually I quite like this chapter, especially the short bit about Mr and Mrs Potter when they were younger. Maybe I'll do a ficlet if I find the time.
Anyway, thanks for being so patient, internet's not completely sorted, but we've got dail-up until our broadband arrives. Sorry chapters aren't coming as quickly as they did at the start, but I had rather a lot of reserve chapters then and I'm only just ahead of my updates. It's my final year now, so I might be a little more pushed for time, but I'll try not to make it longer than a month between updates. No promises though, I'm about as fed up of apologising for delayed updates as you are of hearing them! ;)
Ok, I'm done rambling, please take time to review, I really appreciate all your comments and support!
xxx