-1: The Second Day of the Flashbacks

"Excuse me?"

"What?"

"You're kidding, right? This is all a cruel joke, a cruel joke, or a dream, and I'll wake up drenched in sweat, right?" This last comment was from Sirius.

"No, Mr. Black, I assure you that you are wide awake. You are hearing things correctly. We will be having muggle classes this year. Mandatory muggle classes. And yes, in one of them, you will be learning how to dance."

"NOOOOOOOOO!" James moaned, falling out of his chair.

"Yes, Mr. Potter," McGonagall said, a small smile playing about her lips.

"She must really enjoy other's pain, if she's actually smiling," Remus commented.

"I can't see," James moaned, as his glasses had fallen off as he rolled around on the floor.

"What are the other classes, Ma'am?" Remus asked above the din.

"Everybody quiet! The classes are: dancing, singing, creative writing, reading, math, geography, history, and French and Spanish."

Mika raised her hand. "Professor," she began, "I'm already fluent in Spanish and French."

"So am I," Remus said.

"Well, I suppose you could speak to the language professor and she'll set something up for you," McGonagall said.

Mika nodded and Remus shrugged.

"You need to pick out your reading books. You can't pick any random book; there are some that are mandatory and some that are optional. I've got the list… here," she said, producing about ten lists from the pocket of her robes.

"Thank you," Lily and Jade said in unison as they each took one.

Remus quickly eyed over the list. One thing stood out to him.

"Professor, I've read all these books," he said.

"You have? Oh well, no harm done, you'll just read them again," McGonagall said. Lupin, in her opinion, was a step ahead of the rest when it came to muggle classes.

5 DAYS LATER

Remus, James, Sirius, Peter, Lily, Jade, and Mika walked briskly to their first muggle class: foreign languages. They took seats in the very front of the room. To their surprise, other years were there as well.

"Dumbledore thought it would be fun if you were all together, for a change," explained a very pretty lady from the front of the room.

"I am Professor Valvorez, and Spanish is my native language, but I am also fluent in English, French, and many other tongues. Stand up if you are fluent in at least two languages."

Remus heard Serene snigger as they stood up. This Valvorez woman didn't know what she was getting into.

"I'm assuming that all standing speak either Spanish or French, because those are very common," she said. "Now, stand if you are fluent in at least three."

Mika, Remus, Serene, and Curt were the only ones standing.

"Four?" Mika sat down, leaving Remus, Serene, and Curt standing.

"What languages do you speak?" the teacher asked, interested.

"English, Spanish, French…"

"Portuguese, Mandarin Chinese, Swahili…"

"Dutch, German, Japanese…"

"Norwegian, Goblinese, and Mermese," Serene finished.

"And troll," Curt reminded.

"And troll," Serene added.

"Wow, more than me," Valvorez said, clearly amazed.

"We travel," Curt explained. "It used to be, every year, we'd travel to another country. Nowadays, it's all France or America."

"Can you speak like an American?" Valvorez asked.

"Sure. It's not really hard," Serene said.

"That's cool. Guess you four don't need this class, then. What will I do with you?"

"We could skip," Serene suggested hopefully.

"Or we could help you," Curt said, looking at Serene and making his weird face again.

"You could help me. I have some papers written in English that I want translated into Spanish and French. Will you?" Valvorez said after thinking a minute.

"Si si!" Serene said enthusiastically, taking a paper.

"Merci!" Valvorez replied, equally enthusiastic.

Remus stared at his paper and began to translate as he heard Valvorez drill everybody else in simple, beginning Spanish and French words.

"Wicked," James said as they walked to lunch.

"Valvorez is hot," Sirius said in the same tone of voice. Serene stopped dead and then went into hysterics, which earned a lot of funny looks and five points from Gryffindor.

Remus was sitting in an armchair by the fire in the common room, doing his charms homework, when someone tapped him on the shoulder.

"Remus, come on! Are you ready?" Mika asked.

Remus nodded, gathering up his books in his arms. When he got to the dorm, finding his bed occupied, he put them on Peter's bed.

"Hey," Peter said lackadaisically, not making an effort to stop Remus.

"So, who will start?" Lily asked.

"I will," Serene volunteered.

"Okay," Jade said, flipping to a clean sheet in her notebook.

"It was during Easter holiday, which is only a few days and not really worth going home for, but we went home anyway…"

FLASHBACK

London is awesome. Every day, bright and early, we caught a train into London and explored all day. One day, we were walking by one of those parking garage things, and a car - with no driver - came up out of nowhere. Curt pulled Remus back, hard. He broke his wrist at the fall. I tried to pull Rikki back, but she was completely paralyzed. So I did what any brave, reckless Gryffindor would do. I threw myself in front of her. The car kind of swerved at the last minute, so I was more on her side, but whatever. When it hit us, I could practically feel my ribs shatter. I thought I was going to die. It was so scary.

FLASHBACK

Silence followed, broken only by Jade's small sniffle.

"Curt?"

"Okay. As Serene said, we were exploring London…"

FLASHBACK

When I pulled Remus back and saw Serene couldn't do the same with Rikki, I was so scared. Falling back had knocked all the wind out of me, and I just lay there, trying to get it back. Remus was trying to go back, the idiot, so I also had to restrain him, which wasn't easy. I saw the car hit the girls; saw them crumple under its weight. They disappeared under it, reappearing a second later as the car rolled on by. A woman ran up to us and goes, "What's your mother's phone number?" I shook my head and took out my phone. I called and waited for her to answer. When she did, I told her, and then I heard her start to cry. I asked if she wanted to speak to Remus, and she said yes. When he was talking to her, I took the opportunity to talk to the guy who seemed to be in charge. When I asked, he replied: "The small one's dead. The big one has a slim chance of surviving the trip to the hospital. I reckon she's hurt real bad." I told Remus a to tell Mum that Rikki was dead, and he and I were both going to cry, I could tell, and then, at the last possible second, we remembered Lukah's last words. I guess that kept us going. Later, they found a slip in Rikki's pocket. It read: If I am dead: Curt, Serene, Remus, Mum, Dad, however I died, it is not your fault. Hear me? One more thing: Mum, Dad, Curt, Serene, Remus, I love you. Please get on with your lives, and remember I am not alone. I'm with Lukah. I hope none of you join us too soon. Only come when your time is up. I love you. Love, Rikki

FLASHBACK

The silence this time was broken by Remus crossing the room, and fishing out of his dresser drawer a worn slip of paper. It was Rikki's note. Lily let out a small sob as she read it.

"Remus?"

"Well, Curt and Serene told all there is to tell about the actual thing, so can I tell about the aftermath?"

"Sure. Go ahead."

"Okay. They took Serene to a muggle hospital, cause we were too miserable to care…

FLASHBACK

At the hospital, we had to stay out of the room while they ran numerous tests on Serene. When we next saw her, she was still asleep, and she had tubes sticking out of her nose, wrists, and snaking into her shirt. They said she'd be out for about a month! Curt was upset because he didn't want to miss a month of school so near exam time, but he did not want to leave Serene. We compromised. He stayed at the hospital for two weeks and then went back to school. After those two weeks were up, I was so bored. When Serene woke up a few weeks after that, I was overjoyed. Mum gave me a letter to give to Professor Dumbledore and he asked me to ask him if Curt could be let out of school for the remainder of the day. I got to Hogwarts and went into the Great Hall. A lot of people stared at me cause I was only nine and in jeans and a t-shirt instead of the Hogwarts uniform. I did what mum said and Dumbledore excused Curt. We rushed to St. Mungo's. The next day, they left for Hogwarts again. I was so bored. It was weird being alone. Before, I was never alone. Rikki was always right there, and suddenly… she wasn't there anymore.

FLASHBACK

"Not as sad," Mika cried quietly.

"Can I say something quick?" Serene asked.

"Sure. Go ahead."

"Thanks. So, when I walked in the Great Hall the next day with Curt, everybody stared. They stared at the tubes in me, but mostly they just stared at me. Suddenly someone started clapping and everybody else joined in. It was wonderful. I'm not being selfish or anything, but it was one of the best feelings in the world, to do something brave, suffer for it, realize people still would have died if you hadn't done it, and people recognize what you did and applaud you on it. It made life's colors a little brighter, if you know what I mean."

"I know what you mean," Sirius said softly.

"How so?" Serene asked.

"When I got sorted into Gryffindor, I got a letter from my mum and dad. It was awful. I tore it up in little tiny pieces andburnt it. And then my cousin Andy congratulated me on getting Gryffindor and said she almost did before being made a Ravenclaw."

"I see," Serene said.

Remus sneaked a peek at the notebook Mika was still writing in. She closed it abruptly.

"Bad boy," she scolded lightly.

The rest of the evening was taken up by a very memorable pillow fight.

Need… reviews! Not enough reviews! Come on, 200 reads and like fourteen reviews? Not fair! Then again, looking at the chapter, I'd say that was one of the fairer things of life… Ah, well. I'm a sucker for writing emotion.

One big reason to explain why this took so long: I wrote rough draft 1. I lost rough draft 1. I wrote rough draft 2. I lost rough draft 2. I found rough draft 1. I found rough draft 2. I couldn't decide. I lost rough draft 1. I lost rough draft 2. I almost wrote rough draft 3. I found rough draft 2. I added tons on to rough draft 2. I just posted rough draft 2 (except it's not a rough draft anymore, it's now a final copy)

Lib