Author's notes: Well...Long chapter. Felt bad about not updating the past few weeks. I've been mostly without internet access. And yes...its a monday. Either way, uber long chapter. And poor Arty-Regulus cries so much (crybaby. :P) Eh. S/he'll get over it soon enough.

Disclaimer: JKRowling, Shiny's, Brian's, Nats', and Mynx's characters in use. I'm only borrowing for them for tea...and playtime.


"It's rather close to the full moon," one of the made-up characters grated. "I mean…won't Remus and them be coming out here soon…"

"That's the point!" Jools growled.

Regulus stared out the window, murmuring softly to herself. Fingers stroked claw marks in the soft wood, fingertips dancing along the rough edges. The song had no particular tune, or words, or order, but it was just about the only thing that had left his mouth the last few days.

"Maybe," Rayann had mentioned earlier, "She drove herself crazy…you know, just thinking about the possibly dying. Maybe we aren't following any plot at all."

Jools wondered about that now, staring solemnly at the figure outlined by the moon. "Arty?" she asked quietly, walking over to her. One of the floorboards sagged as she stepped on it, and immediately she started to regret taking the meeting of the H.P.R.P. (the name they'd chosen for themselves) to the Shrieking Shack.

Arty didn't respond, continuing to sing her mindless song.

The other girl sighed, putting a hand on Regulus' shoulder. "I wish you'd come back to us."

Regulus made a soft sound, like stifling a sob and a laugh in the same moment. Glassy eyes turned to look up at Jools. Talaywa backed down, shaking her head slightly. All of this was starting to mess with their heads. Arty hadn't been the only one to be affected badly. Some of the other characters refused to believe that they were role players anymore, saying all of that had been some sort of collected dream.

Voices drifted into the ramshackle old house from the outside. Sirius, Remus and James. The administrator was Sirius. All of this could be settled, finally. Maybe Arty would even return to her original state. Jools perked up, causing Lily to smile, Juliet to sigh a bit of relief and Talaywa to grip Regulus' shoulder tighter.

The three boys suddenly entered the dilapidated, each making a considerable amount of noise, save Remus, who had noticed the small crowd with horror written all over his face.

"What in the name of Merlin-?" Remus yelped, when enough sense had fallen back into his mind to say something.

Sirius stared at everyone, slightly confused.

James offered a nod of acknowledgement to Talaywa. She smiled and stepped forward, "I think there needs to be some explanations passed around."

"While your at it, where's the alcohol?" a voice sounded from somewhere in the room.


Everyone in the room had gathered into a circle, eyes darting this way and that. Confusion was written all over two of the three boys faces.

"You are what?" Remus asked quietly.

"Role players. From a completely different universe. Your world is fake to us in our world. We read about it and decided to play with the idea. We played the characters, the people, you see here,"Shiny explained from Talaywa's lips.

Sirius blinked a few times. "That's so weird. And a guy named Admin played me? So why aren't I him?"

"Because, because, because…because of the wonderful things he does!" Regulus giggled from his position on the broken couch. He sat upside down in a mound of fluff that had previously been the innards of the cushions.

"Because I don't think he was on enough, playing as you to have become you," Brian reasoned. He sat next to Talaywa, a thoughtful thumb being chewed in a way that made it seem painful.

"You!" Sirius yelped, jumping up and pointing at James. "You knew! You are one of them!"

James nodded, blushing lightly. "I'm sorry. I wasn't sure how to spill the beans. And I was…I was just having so much fun…you know, being James. I could do whatever I wanted, and people didn't care. They liked it!"

Remus stood slowly. "What's wrong with Regulus?" He'd started moving in the boy's general direction.

"We have a few theories…"Shiny murmured.

Regulus shifted suddenly, making Remus jump. The boy rolled over on his side, glazed eyes staring wildly at Remus. The lycanthrope's eyes darted nervously around, never pausing for too long on the other boy.

"One is that Arty is following her own storyline: she had plans to make Regulus go crazy. Figured it would be natural for someone like Regulus, with all the pressures and teasings and whatnot he has in his life. Our second theory is that she drove herself insane…in a matter of hours. In our world, there's a storyline. The storyline has her character die, as far as we know…Arty's afraid of dying. I think above most everything else…" Talaywa's voice faded into a whisper.

"I might be able to help…" Remus said softly. "I've-I've read about similar conditions in muggle texts and in some of the books on healing arts." He paused, watching Regulus watching him. "It won't be easy, but I think we may be able to change things in your storyline."


It had been well past three o'clock when the group had returned to Hogwarts. Regulus had to be sneaked into his own dorm with a silencing spell on his lips. It was Sirius who had escorted him all the way, however, much to the surprise of everyone.

Up in the dorms, Sirius changed his little brother into his nightshirt, just like he had so many years ago. Regulus was rather obliging, and had settled down considerably, enough that Sirius took the silencing spell off him.

Tucking him in was a bit of a chore, the cat kept getting in the way, staring with one eye at Sirius, something that was beginning to be rather creepy.

"Switch…" Regulus muttered, in a hissing tone. Sirius drew back, slightly frightened by the tone. "Switch!" he growled again, a strange bouncing tone whispering off his lips.

Sirius leaned forward, pressing his hand to the boy's mouth, while hugging him down to the bed. Just what he'd need. Regulus waking up the other Slytherin boys to find a Gryffindor, and not just any Gryffindor, Sirius Black the blood-traitor, in their dorm.

"Mmomber?" Regulus questioned from under Sirius' hand. The elder sibling pulled his hand away from the younger's lips. "Brother?" Regulus queried again.

"Yeah…Listen, Reg, just keep quiet…I don't want anyone to wake up…" Sirius' eyes darted nervously around the dorm.

To his surprise, Regulus nodded and pulled Sirius onto the bed fully. Closing the curtains, he tapped them with his wand, whispering, "Silencio." Suddenly, the noise from outside the curtains was gone. "We can talk now, and no one will hear."

Sirius blinked, poking the fabric, and earning a smack across the knuckles with his brother's wand. "Ooow…" the elder growled.

"Don't mess around with the spell. I'm not sure how strong it is. I really haven't had much time to test it, except earlier this morning…" A thoughtful look crossed his eyes, "Technically, yesterday morning…"

"What's going on? I thought you were…Aren't you crazy, a girl, and mostly unresponsive?"

"I've been trying to contact home. I didn't realize how empty it left Regulus when I wasn't completely paying attention. Sorry." Two circles of red flowed into his cheeks, though quickly left.

"Contact home?" Sirius felt stupid.

"You aren't the admin, right?" With Sirius' nod, Regulus continued, "Well…I realized, I'm not entirely Arty. Or Regulus. Maybe it wasn't how much you were on that determined whether you were character or not, but rather how much you were on that determined how much of you was in the character."

"Makes sense…but wouldn't that mean that Admin is somewhere in me?"

Regulus-Arty nodded. "Yeah. What it also means, is that somewhere, I think we, the role players, still exist." He sighed softly. "I've been trying for days to contact myself, but all I've succeeded in doing is grabbing the attention of one of my cats and scaring the hell out of myself."

"One of your cats?"

"I have three. But he said he'd help. He's trying, right now, to calm me down. Apparently, I've been avoiding my computer like the plague…"

"W-w-whoa…Wait. First off, 'he said he'd help'? Your cat?" Sirius had reached out to stop her from talking, holding her wrist gently.

She wiggled her wrist free. "Don't do that. And yes. Cats are surprisingly conscious of what's going on."

"And…com…com…" he struggled with the word.

"Computer. It's a muggle machine, one that all the role players have been using to keep in contact. Just think about it, you'll remember what it is."

Sirius wanted to deny that, but thinking really hard about what a computer was brought up a cream colored box with a glowing glass window and a rectangular device with lettered and numbered squares.

"Anyway…I don't think, I don't think we're going home anytime soon…" she trailed off quietly. "Because I don't think we really belong there."


Sirius had agreed to keep quiet about Regulus' theory until she was entirely certain that was what was happening. Or rather had happened. He was also to keep quiet about her sanity being fully intact. Some of the characters without players had noticed her slight insanity, and were talking of things that Arty had an idea would be useful, figuring Regulus was too lost in his own mind to understand.

Currently, it was Lucius and Narcissa. Regulus stared blandly at the fire, rocking slightly as if to help her image.

"Another meeting?" Narcissa was whispering, in tone of voice that made her almost seem worried. "They're getting closer and closer…"

"War is on the horizon," Lucius whispered in return. "The Dark Lord is coming and he needs our support."

Regulus began to hum, a song she knew from home. Flogging Molly, such a good band. She didn't like war. Maybe, just maybe, she could convert those over to the winning side…Make this more of a one-sided war. Maybe things would turn out better…for all the characters. "His eyes, they closed…And his last breath spoke: he had seen all to be seen…"

"Poor boy," Narcissa crooned over her cousin, kneeling beside him and wrapping her arms around his stiff shoulders. "You see what those mudbloods have done to him? They poisoned his brother's mind and left little Reggie nothing more than a shell."

'No…no…,' Arty sobbed, internally, keeping a straight face outwardly. She'd seen Narcissa's soft side and it pained her to know how cold she was going to become. 'You don't understand…' So Regulus kept singing softly, "A life once full, now an empty slate, and his blossoms on an early grave. 'Walk away, me boy, walk away, me boys, by morning you'll be free…Wipe that golden tear from your mother dear, and raise what's left of the flag for me…" Maybe this wasn't the right song to be singing.

Regulus turned slowly, as Narcissa started singing softly, almost a whisper of a song, "Hush my little child, sweet star-shine...There's a mama watching over you, saying 'Ain't nobody gonna hurt any child of mine'…sweet little star-shine…"

Lucius rolled his eyes, an action Regulus caught out of the corner of his eye. Leaning back into the cushions, Lucius spread out, sighing softly in exasperation.

Arty turned her attention back to Narcissa, 'She will be a wonderful mother…Maybe.' Regulus finally returned the embrace, nuzzling into Narcissa's shoulder, to her obvious surprise.

"Lucius!" she exclaimed gleefully. "He's coming around!" She clung to the boy in her arms tighter. "Look! He's even hugging me!"

'Don't leave, Narcissa…Don't become one of them…' Arty plead. Softly, Regulus whispered, "I didn't raise my boy to be a soldier; I brought him up to be my pride and joy; Who dares to put a musket on his shoulder, to shoot some other mother's darling boy?"

Narcissa jerked hearing the words, pulling away to see a teary eyed Regulus gaze up at her. He looked so innocent, so scared. "We have to protect them," she said firmly. "Mudbloods can't be allowed to poison the minds of our youth!" With that she stood and walked to Lucius, poking him in the chest as she pointed at him. "You'll take me to the next meeting. I want to help."

Lucius smiled. Regulus stifled a sob, his face falling to cupped hands, tears falling into the creases of his fingers.


"You tried to…to make Narcissa…good?" Sirius questioned softly.

Regulus nodded miserably. "But sh-she just became worse. I think I've done something very bad, Siri."

Sirius sighed, and pulled his brother into a hug. The younger boy sobbed softly into his shirt, whispering apologies. "Come on now, you didn't know it would turn out like that…It's not your fault…" Sirius murmured, doing his best to be reassuring, and feeling as if he was doing horribly.

It was this brotherly moment that Remus and Professor Dumbledore walked in on that made Remus fidget and Dumbledore cough softly. The sound of feet scuffling the floor brought Sirius to attention, and he sat up straight. Regulus peered over his brother's arm, staring at the two intruders.

"Sirius?" He knew about the role players, but it still was awkward to see his best friend hugging the brother he once hated with such a passion.

"Regulus was having a bad day," Sirius stated softly. Regulus nodded slightly, wiping his eyes with the back of his hand.

Dumbledore smiled softly. "If it isn't a problem, I would like to speak with you…Both of you," he directed this at the brothers, who exchanged a confused look. The lycanthrope threw a questioning glance at Dumbledore, who nodded, "You may come too, Remus."


Regulus gasped softly walking into Dumbledore's office. Arty hadn't been sure if he was the headmaster yet or not: apparently so. The office was so much more than what the movies portrayed, or even her own imagination.

Mouth gaping, and eyes wide, she sought to take up every little bit of the wondrous things into her mind as she could. The portraits were making comments on her open astonishment, but she couldn't force herself to care about their mocking words.

"Simply amazing…" she murmured softly.

"I'm glad you approve," Dumbledore chuckled.

Regulus blushed and lowered her eyes to Dumbledore. "Sorry, sir."

"Not at all. Sit, please, all of you." He made a motion with his arm and three seats moved forward to seat the boys. "Now then, I believe you are privy to some rather…odd happenings at Hogwarts of late. And especially you, Regulus."

Regulus nodded. "I believe my universe and yours had a bit of an accident."

"The universes have little room for folly. I must beg to differ with your wording. Perhaps this accident was not an accident at all. Perhaps it was a spell of some sort that was cast in one of our universes," Dumbledore started.

Regulus shook his head. "No. Not in my universe. The only magic is…fake in my universe. Well…I mean, there's the magic of a child and of love and family…" Arty broke off into stifled sniffle. Hands moved quickly to rub tears away from her eyes, as she slouched, turning away ever so slightly.

"You miss your family," Remus stated softly, standing and moving around to put a hand on the boy's shoulder.

"I miss my mama, and my brother and my kitties…And I miss my friends. Especially my best friend," she whimpered, rubbing at her eyes fiercely. What a way to make an impression.

"Is that…Is that what had you acting so strangely the other night?" Remus asked. He really did want to try and comfort the boy, but he was slightly confused.

A shake of the head, "No. I was trying to contact home. I think I found a way, but I found out some rather…disturbing news about home."

"Perhaps, if you share it, we may be able to help," Dumbledore offered softly.

"We don't belong there anymore…" Regulus started, glancing up at Dumbledore. "I'm not…I'm not who I was there. I think I'm supposed to be here, but…I'm scared. I know what happens to my character in the future, many of the players do. There is war on the horizon, and I have a horrible feeling we're supposed to do something about it."

Dumbledore nodded gravely, folding his hands in front of his beard. "There are definitely dark days ahead."

Sirius leaned closer to his brother, who was not at all, stroking the younger boy's hair. With a shaking voice, Sirius asked Dumbledore, "So what are we going to do?"

"I want a list of all the students who were affected by our universes brushing up against one another as they did. Even the students who were not as affected as Regulus must be included," Dumbledore started. Inwardly, he wasn't sure where to go from there, though several options came to mind.

"We've half put together a list…But, some of the players are refusing to acknowledge they were anything other than what they are now. And the only person who might know of any others, well…" Regulus cast a nervous glance in Sirius' direction. "He's not entirely with us. We've figured out that the amount of time we spent on the site, playing our characters is how much of ourselves is reflected here. Because I played often, I'm nearly entirely conscious here. The same seems to be true for Talaywa. However, the made-up characters…um…the ones who aren't from the original story seem to be slightly more conscious too. Even if they weren't played often." Blushing lightly, she apologized for talking so much, "Sorry…" in a soft whisper. Arty always felt strange after talking for a long time. Uncomfortable, perhaps because of the amount of attention suddenly directed at her.

"Who did the one, who might've been able to help, play?" Remus asked.

"Sirius," Regulus murmured with a sigh.

Remus shot a glance at his friend. Sirius shook his head, "I barely remember anything different…Well, I know what a computer is, but beyond that…" He shrugged lightly.

Remus sighed. That didn't get them anywhere. "Who else did you say was mostly conscious?"

"Talaywa seems very conscious, um…Bianca…Alison, Rayann," Regulus started counting off his fingers. "James and Brian…They seemed like the most conscious. But um…I think I'm the most aware." Arty laughed without humor, "I'm the one without much of a life. No social life outside the computer…"