Title: Saishū Yume
Author: Ex-Professor Remus Lupin
Rating: R
Genre: Action/Adventure/Alternate Universe/Romance
Era: None
Pairing(s): Remus/Sirius, Severus/Harry
Summary: It starts, as a simple kidnapping. It will become an adventure unlike any other as a group of mismatched heroes find themselves drawn into a war for not only their lives, but also their very souls.
Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.
Author's Note: I must apologize for the month without an update. bows I hope this makes up for it. If not...again...I'm so very sorry for being so late with an update.
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Chapter Nineteen
The Talk
-
It was sometime after midnight when they reached a fork in the mountain pass. Harry, despite having nearly been choked to death, was extremely chipper, humming to himself while Severus glared daggers at his back. Sirius had given up on talking to the mage or to Harry and he had no urges to talk to Remus.

The prince had been angry and when Sirius had attempted to speak with him earlier, he had simply ignored him. Therefore, Sirius walked behind him, wondering what he'd done wrong and what he'd have to do to make Remus talk to him again. Because, it there was thing he didn't like, it was having people upset with him, especially if that person was Remus.

Harry took the left fork and Remus, having stopped walking, stared at the massive black shape hovering far beyond the right fork. Sirius nearly walked into him and with a mumbled, "Sorry," he looked to see what Remus had found so fascinating.

"What is that?" the prince asked. Harry turned, green eyes flickering to the tree and then back to the prince.

"The Whomping Willow," he answered, walking back toward the beginning of the fork, brushing past Severus. The mage said nothing, his black eyes on the tree far off to the distance.

"It's bigger than the Burrow," Sirius said.

"No one goes there, its holy ground," Harry whispered, grabbing Remus' arm and pulling him gently toward the left fork. "My village is this way."

Reluctantly Remus looked away from the tree, and he saw a massive shape lumbering toward them. Severus had already seen the monster and had cast a Firaga spell on it, forcing it to stumble back.

It was a troll.

Sirius stepped between Remus and the troll as it swung its club toward the mage, knocking him to the ground. Clutching a broken rib, he stumbled to his feet.

"Cura," Harry said, closing his eyes. White light flared around Severus' upper body and he straightened up, his hands tightening onto his staff as he readied himself for another spell.

"I was fine," Severus growled.

"You had a broken rib," Harry explained simply as he ducked a swing from the trolls club. He stumbled back half a step and into the mage's shoulder, nearly knocking them both over.

"Perhaps you should sit this one out?" he drawled.

"At least I haven't broken anything yet," the white mage said with a smirk as he stepped forward again.

Sirius was busy trying to distract the troll from going after Remus while the prince lost himself in prayer. Eyes closed, head bowed forward, and hands clasped at his chest, and he stood stock still on the edge of the battle, hoping for some sort of help from the gods. He was preparing to give up when he felt it, a heavy weight in his mind.

He had found an Eidolon wandering about this place searching for a master. They wandered the earth, but he had no expected to find one this far from his home. He caught the name only as the Eidolon asked for him to call it into the battle. Ramuh. With a quick prayer to the gods, the prince called upon Ramuh for aid.

There was a crack of thunder. Harry, working side by side with Severus turned green eyes to Remus, a look of satisfaction on his face. The sky split and a bolt of lightning, colored gold with energy, struck the earth at Remus' feet. Sirius yelled and made to step toward Remus, but Harry grabbed his arm.

"Don't," the white mage said quietly.

The gold energy twisted in the air a suddenly standing before them was a green robed figure holding a golden staff. White hair flowed down back and front and lighting crackled viciously around them. The Eidolon of Lightning, Ramuh, had been called forth.

"Holy shit," Sirius gasped, stepping away from the prince and bumping into Harry, now lost in concentration, hands clasped and head bowed forward.

"Another one," Severus breathed. The troll took a large step toward the distracted white mage, club raised for a killing blow.

With a curse, Severus put himself between the two, and he crumbled to the ground, unconscious. Remus, no longer distracted by calling upon his Eidolon, cast a revive spell and then ordered Ramuh to attack the troll. Just as Severus was stumbling to his feet, a white fox-like creature appeared, a ruby embedded into its forehead.

There was a flash of red light and barrier appeared between the four and the troll. The lightning crackled across the red wall as Ramuh unleashed a wave of it at the troll. Sirius covered his eyes against the bright light and Remus gazed at the white fox creature, now standing at Harry's side, in surprise. It was almost impossibly adorable, its body radiating white light, but it had called up a powerful Reflect spell that had bounced the stray magic from Ramuh's spell right back onto the troll.

"An Eidolon," he said quietly. "Harry's a summoner."

-

They arrived at the village a few hours later. Remus had taken to silence contemplation and Sirius, not wanting to irritate him further, had stayed silent as well, watching in amusement as Harry prattled on about the flora and fauna of this new continent while Severus attempted to keep from killing him. By the time they had reached the village, the mage had all but given up on getting the younger man to shut the hell up and had turned to muttering spells under his breath including several variants of the death spell.

"This is my home, Godric's Hallow," Harry announced, running ahead of the group and partway down the empty street.

There was no one to greet them as they entered, taking in the abandoned and destroyed buildings. A pile of rubble lay to one side of the street, clearly a collapsed home. It was clear from the dusty smell of the air that this destruction that had happened recently, which made Harry's reason for staying here all the more puzzling.

"This?" Sirius muttered, "But it's a pile of rubble."

"What happened here?" Remus asked, more to himself than to Harry.

Already the other summoner had run ahead to greet a strange green skinned creature with large round eyes and bat-like ears. Kneeling down to the creature's level, Harry spoke briefly to it for a moment. The creature nodded enthusiastically and disappeared with a crack of magic.

"Apparation," Severus said, as if it weren't already obvious.

"Follow me," Harry said as he stood, bangs falling into his eyes before he brushed them away.

They followed him down the destroyed street and beneath a crumbling archway into a small area with a fountain. To the left a half-collapsed building had been situated on the edge of a cliff over looking the ocean. To the right, the road twisted on until it disappeared behind a standing wall. Harry turned to them finally, opening his mouth to speak when the creature appeared again.

"We is wondering how many people we must be cooking for?" the creature asked, green eyes staring opening at Sirius and the other two he had come with.

"Four," Harry answered. The creature nodded and disappeared with another crack.

"What was that?" Sirius asked, not bothering to pretend he wasn't curious.

"A house-elf, don't you have those where you're from?" Harry answered, turning the question back onto the thief.

"No," Remus answered. Harry nodded, tapping his chin thoughtfully, finally he clapped his hands together, green eyes lighting up.

"I have to help the house elves with dinner, so you guys will have to entertain yourselves for a little while, is that okay?" he asked, looking between them. Sirius and Remus both nodded. They were eager for a chance to digest this new information about this strange place. Severus managed to growl his agreement as he leaned against the wall of a partially collapsed house.

With a wave, Harry ran off toward the standing building, which was obviously his home, leaving Remus and Sirius by the fountain. Sirius sat down on a pile of smoothed rubble, bending his leg into a more comfortable position and waiting expectantly for 'the talk'. Instead, the prince sat down on the fountain's edge and started talking, more perhaps to himself, then to Sirius. Severus, standing nearby, said nothing, though it was clear that he was taking in every word.

"I read about this place before," he said, voice soft in his explanation. "Godric's Hallow was the home of the summoners. It was originally called Madain Hallow but the name changed after the war against Isis."

Sirius listened, closing his eyes and letting the prince's soothing tone drift over him, he was exhausted from the night's walk.

"The eidolons seem to be concentrated here in this place. When I lost them, I felt," Remus trailed off into silence and Sirius opened his eyes.

"What?"

"Lost," he admitted, running his fingers across the surface of the fountain, sending diamonds of water through the air. "As if some piece of myself had been ripped from me, even now, with an eidolon joined to me, I feel lost. Perhaps it's the location. This place is...familiar."

"Master Harry has requested that I take you to the Eidolon Wall," Sirius jumped as a creature, different from the one that Harry had spoken with earlier, appeared with a crack between him and the prince.

"The what?" Sirius demanded, irritated at the creature. Was every private moment between him and Remus going to be interrupted? Had the gods decided to torture him?

"The Eidolon Wall, sir," the creature, a house-elf Sirius remembered, said. "It is a collection of paintings, painted long ago by the summoner tribe."

Remus had already stood and was following the elf down the street. Sirius, not one to be left behind, followed. He turned, half-expecting the mage to be following him, but Severus hadn't moved, his arms crossed defensively over his chest and head bowed so that his dark hair curtained his face. Sirius decided it was best if he left him there.

-

"These Eidolons all exist?" Remus pressed his fingers to a painting of a woman, seemingly made of ice, her hair held back from her face in thick sections, her groin and breasts covered by curves of black, paint or even metal perhaps.

"Yes," the elf answered, clearly pleased to be listened to for one. "This is a holy place for the summoner tribe. Harry comes every day to leave incense and pray to his ancestors."

"I recognize some of these," Remus said, tracing the outline of the dragon, Bahamut and then another that lay curled nearby of Leviathan.

Sirius walked behind him, gazing at the details paintings along the tiled wall of the massive circular room, the ceiling gone. On the other hand, the thief thought as he looked up at the sky, it hadn't been there to begin with.

"We should get back?" he suggested finally.

"I want to look at the murals some more," the prince murmured.

"Okay."

-

In the end, Severus was left to his own devices outside of Harry's home. This wasn't necessarily a bad thing, though even he was starting to get bored now. Did it really take twenty minutes to look at a bunch of pictures? Deciding that he really didn't feel up to staying in one spot of the rest of the day, he straightened, fully intending on following Sirius and seeing this Eidolon Wall for himself.

Instead, he found his way blocked by one very cheerful looking young man with bright green eyes. Harry looked up at him imploringly, bouncing on his toes as a child would. Severus stepped back before he could run into him and wondered briefly how Harry had managed to get outside to blocking him.

"What do you want?" he growled, his foul mood not being lightened by the presence of the one that had caused it.

"I need your help," Harry said simply. Resisting the urge to finish what he had started; Severus clenched his hands into fists and looked expectantly at Harry. When Harry didn't say anything, just smirking at him childishly, he lost his temper.

"What?" he demanded. Instead of the wounded look he received from most people or the shocked one from others, Harry laughed.

"You really don't like me, do you," he pointed out almost cheerfully.

"Obviously," Harry shrugged, ignoring the answer as he pressed on, fully intending to get what he wanted.

"I need a fire," he stated simply.

"What?"

"A fire," he repeated. "Are you deaf?"

"No," Severus pinched the bridge of his nose, trying to come up with a good excuse, beyond Sirius and Remus would be upset with him, for not killing the kid. "Why do you feel that you have to tell me that you need a fire?"

"Because you're a black mage," Harry said simply. "Dobby, Winky, and Kreacher don't know how to keep the fire going and I'm a summoner, so...I figured you could help."

"Why would I help you? I hate you," green eyes lit up with amusement, as if he had just made some sort of joke.

"I'm sorry about what I did early," Harry said, voice softening, "but, I am asking simply as a favor," his voice returned to its normal lever of cheerfulness. "If you do this for me, then I'll owe you a favor, 'kay."

"Fine," Severus answered dejectedly.

-

Breakfast was served shortly after Remus and Sirius returned from the Eidolon Wall, Remus particularly quiet as he picked at the variety of strange vegetables on his plate. Sirius seemed distracted, and he kept looking from his plate to the prince, worry line creasing his forehead. After a few moments, Remus looked up from his plate and to Harry. The summoner was busying himself with trying to coax Severus, who was still glaring at him, to eat more a glass of water.

"Where are the other summoners?" Remus asked. "Are they underground?"

Harry dropped a piece of the fish the Dobby had caught onto Severus' plate and laughed hollowly.

"That's exactly where they are," he answered, "sleeping the eternal sleep."

"What?" Sirius asked, looking away from Remus to Harry.

"I am the last survivors of my tribe. My father disappeared two years ago and I've been alone ever since."

"I'm sorry," Remus said sadly.

Harry waved off the sympathy, his smile seemed false, but it was a smile nonetheless.

"Don't worry about me, I have the elves to keep me company," he looked over at Severus who was still ignoring his plate and shook his head. "Ten years ago a hurricane struck the village. My mother was killed, so I ended up with my father. The other survivors...most of them died because of the plague, the rest just disappeared."

Severus made a sound of surprise and everyone turned to look at him as he removed a small blue insect from amongst the items that Harry had put onto his plate.

"Why in the world is there a billywig in this food?" he asked, looking slightly disturbed.

"Billywig is a delicacy on Durmstrang," Harry said lightly.

"Let's just eat the fish," Sirius said cheerfully, looking worriedly at the vegetables at the middle of the table as if he expected a bug to come crawling out.

-

"Thank you for the meal, Harry," Remus said, browsing the bookcase lining the back wall of the dining room of Harry's home. Surprisingly, the house was mostly intact; only the upper level of the house had been destroyed leaving the first floor.

"Yeah, it was really good," helping Harry with the clean up, Sirius carried the plates into the kitchen as Harry supervised Dobby and another house elf as they cleaned.

"I'm glad," Harry said cheerfully as he accepted the dishes from Sirius and gave them to another house elf, this one dressed in a simple frock and obviously female. When he caught Sirius staring at said house elf, he laughed. "This is Winky."

"A pleasure," Sirius said uncertainly to the house elf as she looked up at him with wide green eyes.

"No, sir, it is a pleasure," Winky said, bowing her head. Then, before Sirius could respond, she walked over to the sink, built specifically to her height, and dumped the dishes into the hot bubbly water.

"Dobby you've already met and this is Kreacher he's...a special case," Harry said looking at the other house elf that was throwing scraps out of the window overlooking the water below.

"Why?" Sirius asked, looking curiously at Kreacher.

"He doesn't talk," Harry replied. "After his master died, he stopped talking, but he came with me and has been working in the house since. Of course, the most these guys do is the cooking. I don't feel right asking them to do everything for me. My father never had a problem ordering Dobby and Winky around, but I just like having them around."

"Must be lonely by yourself?"

"Sometimes, but you get used it," Harry said with a smile as he set about drying the dishes that Winky had finished washing.

"Hey," Sirius figured now the best time to ask. "Do you know anything about the Whomping Willow?"

"What about it?" Harry asked, his voice loosing its cheerfulness and becoming suddenly cold and suspicious.

"Just, what is it exactly; I'm sort of curious about it. You see, we're trying to find that fourth stone, you've got the Slytherin stone, though I still don't know how you got it."

"It's not there, if that's what you wanted to know. The Whomping Willow is the home of an Eidolon that has not found a master; or rather, it has become the home for the Eidolon. Her spirit recently invaded the tree in the last few days, but I've been having trouble connecting with her. I think perhaps she had a master before but lost them."

"Remus," Sirius breathed.

"What?"

"Remus' Eidolons were taken, by a mage named Regulus," Harry's eyed him as he leaned against the counter.

"His Eidolon's were taken," he breathed. "But, that's impossible, unless a summoner says the Words of Leaving."

"I don't know exactly what happened, but they were taken and given to his father, he used them to destroy the elven home and parts of my own city," Sirius explained looking a bit angry at being questioned. Harry bit his lip, looking confused by this turn of events.

"The Imperius," both Harry and Sirius looked up to find Severus standing in the doorway, scowling at them.

"The what?" Sirius asked.

"The Imperius spell," Severus repeated, looking harassed. "It is a control spell; you can use it to make a person do anything that you want them to do. I could make someone leap out of window if I had the strength of mind and power to make them want to do it."

"So Regulus made Remus say these Words or whatever?" Sirius asked.

"It would seem so," Severus said.

"What if he never lifted the spell?" Sirius asked, eyes widening.

"You mean, Remus might be – under this Regulus person's control," Harry said looking worriedly over the mage's shoulder into the dining room where Remus was had taken down a book and was examining it with interest.

"It's doubtful," Severus explained. "No matter how powerful the mage, when we sleep, spells of that nature are undone. I sincerely doubt this man doesn't sleep."

"Don't scare me like that!" Sirius hissed, moving past the mage and into the dining room. Remus looked up as he approached and smiled warmly at him.

"Harry has books on magic," the prince explained. "It's all rather fascinating, perhaps Severus could learn some spells from these."

"I thought you were mad at me," Sirius said as he stepped closer to Remus, looking at the spell book curiously.

"I am," the prince said smoothly, "but Harry and Severus are in the other room. It would be rude."

"I think you just can't resist my charm," Sirius said, hoping that a joke would lighten the mood and make what seemed to be the talk a little less painful.

"Do not think that you can get out of this by making a joke," Remus said lightly, turning a page in the book and reading about a higher-level healing spell that appeared to heal poisons in the body.

"Well, you wanted to talk, so talk before Severus gets pissed off at Harry again and comes out here," Sirius mumbled, leaning close to the prince so that their arms brushed.

"Doubtful, Severus isn't going to admit it, but Harry is infectious and he is the type who when we wants something he will not stop until he has it," Remus said with a small smile.

"How so?"

"What, you don't see it?" the prince looked at him in amazement.

"See what?"

"Harry likes Severus," Remus explained, looking at him from behind a curtain of honey colored hair that had fallen into his face. Sirius resisted the urge to push it back in favor of looking shocked. How had he missed that when clearly the prince, who seemed to be the least likely to know anything about relationship, had seen it?

"You've got to be kidding?" he said.

"I'm not, and Harry's not going to let Severus leave that kitchen until he wants him to, but we are not talking about them right now," the prince brushed his hair from his face, tucking it back behind his ear. "You kissed me."

Sirius stared at him for a moment, not sure if he had heard right. When Remus finally frowned at him, he shook his head.

"You know, that was a long time ago and I said I wouldn't do it again," he said.

"I'm not talking about Ravenclaw," Sirius ducked his head, figures he was going to be cursed by that idiotic display of stupidity. "I mean back in Gryffindor."

"Look, I can explain about that okay."

"I don't want an excuse, it was a violation. You didn't have my permission to do that," oh, he was playing this game, fine; he knew how to play too.

"You were a bit unconscious, I couldn't exactly ask you," he pointed out, temper flaring.

"That's not the point," Remus said, unwilling to concede that it was the point. "You shouldn't have done it without my permission."

"Oh, so if I'd just ask, you'll let me kiss you then?"

"No."

"Then why bother asking when the answer is going to be no?"

"You shouldn't do it in the first place."

"Am I that bad of a kisser?"

"No, of course not...I just..."

"What? Don't want to admit that you kissed me back in Ravenclaw so you can't say you didn't want it. You're just in denial about your feelings."

"It is far better than forcing my feeling onto someone."

"How am I forcing anything on you? I haven't tried to seduce you, nor have I taken advantage of you. You're weaker than me, if I wanted to, I could just take you."

"That's reassuring."

Silence.

"Why won't you let me kiss you?"

"Because, I don't want you to."

"Why?"

"Don't make me answer that."

"Why?"

"It isn't proper."

"Because I'm a man or because I'm not some noble or some prince. Would you rather have Severus kiss you?"

"No!"

"Then why?"

"You're not going to let me leave until I answer are you?"

"No, I'm not and if you don't answer me, I'll kiss you again and we know how much you hate that."

"This isn't the time for this. There is a man taking over the continent. I haven't the time to be..."

"What?"

"I just can't."

"Why?"

"Let me go."

"Would it make you happy if I left, I could always go back to Ravenclaw?"

"No."

"Okay," Sirius stepped closer, backing the prince into the wall and forcing him to look up at him. "So you don't hate me than."

"I can't hate you," Remus said, looking away. "But I can't do this."

"I still want to know why, but fine," he stepped back, dropping Remus' wrist in the process and stretched. "So, Harry says there's an Eidolon over by the Whomping Willow, want to check it out tomorrow?"

The prince looked at him for a moment, gold eyes suspicious. It seemed that the subject had been dropped.

"If Severus and Harry will agree to come, then yes," he answered trying to put the conversation behind him, act as if it hadn't happened.

"Okay!" the thief grinned, lingering for a moment, as if something else was on his mind, before finally, he turned away. "I'll go talk to the lovebirds."

-
Author's Note: Ha! I said six page...I made seven...fuck yeah! dances Once again, reviews are appreciated and you have no idea how happy I am that I broke through the Writer's Block.