Disclaimer - I do not own Harry Potter nor do I own the song 'I'm on my Way'
"Four years today," Remus says as he serves scrambled eggs onto the plates Lily has already put buttered toast on.
"Yes, I know. Seems like a lifetime ago we were back in Hogwarts. Well, with other people around, I mean," Lily tells him with an amused smile.
He wraps his arms around her waist, resting his chin on her shoulder. "I spent my life so worried for the future, for finding a job, for not being killed. I never thought I'd be twenty-one and still in this castle."
"Well, I hardly think this is something you could have planned for, Babe," Lily tells him.
He chuckles and nods, "Touché," He concedes, "Still, things could be worse," He muses placing a hand on her distended stomach. "Any day now," He says quietly, reverently.
"Don't I know it," Lily says with a groan, "I love this kid, but I will be glad when it is no longer kicking the crap out of my kidneys." Remus chuckles, kissing her neck lightly in support. "Rem…"
"Yes, my beautiful Lily-Flower?"
Lily frowns, looking down at her hands. "I don't want our kid to grow up here. Not like this."
Remus lifts his head, coming around to be beside her so that they can face each other. "What do you mean?"
"We'll die one day, Rem, just like Salazar did. Then she'll be alone here."
Remus sighs, nodding. "Lil…I agree with you. But it's been four years, there's no way out of here. Not without letting that thing out too."
"We can't give up Remus, please. Let's look again. We understand more of other languages now, maybe we can find something in books we've already read."
He frowns, then nods, "Then, after breakfast, I'll go to the library. I don't want you to stress about it though. It's not good for the baby."
Lily rolls her eyes, "I'm pregnant, not an invalid."
"If something goes wrong, we've got no healer, Lils. Please, take it easy," He tells her, walking out of the room to go hunt through the library again.
Lily nods, "Yep, that's a real stress-reducing thought, thanks for that Babe," She mutters to herself, rubbing her stomach lightly.
"What are we going to name her?" Lily asks, holding their child in her arms.
Remus looks at the child, eyes filling with tears as he's overwhelmed with the love he feels. "I've no idea. How do you put a name to something so perfect?"
"What about Hope? Your mother is a symbol of how to love a child no matter what challenges arise."
Remus smiles at that, nodding as the tears in his eyes fall, "Hope as the middle name. What about Evana Hope Lupin? After the family that loved you when they didn't have to, and the Mother who loved me despite having every reason not to."
Lily nods, crying now from sadness as she misses her family, and also happiness from the daughter asleep in her arms. "Evana," She says, then she grins, "We can call her Evie."
Remus smiles lovingly, stroking the infants head. "Evie."
"Five days," Sirius complains, ditching the book he is reading across the room, "It's been five days and we've found nothing!"
"You're the one who said it might take a while, Mon Amor," Marlene reminds her now-boyfriend gently.
"Yes, I also said there's a time dilation in effect. Who knows how long it's been for them now! It could have been months!"
"Throwing a fit about it won't save them," James tells him sternly.
"They're in a version of Hogwarts," Mary states, suddenly closing the book she had been reading and looking down at it pensively.
"Yes? And?" James asks.
"They've got the library in there. They've got the books. And they've potentially had months to look through it."
Everyone looks at each other as they realise what Mary is hinting at.
"If there were something to find here…" Peter begins.
"They'd have found it already," Frank finishes.
Sirius suddenly looks up, then he grins. "Then let's ask them." Everyone looks at him in surprise. "I've got an idea."
Evana slides down the bannister of one of the non-moving staircases in the castle she calls home, jumps off the end, and skips down the hallway towards the kitchen.
"Tell everybody I'm on my way
New friends and new places to see
With blue skies ahead yes
I'm on my way
And there's nowhere else
that I'd rather be
Tell everybody I'm on my way
And I'm loving every step I take
With the sun beating down yes
I'm on my way
And I can't keep this smile off my face
'Cause there's nothing like seeing
each other again
No matter what the distance between
And the stories that we tell
will make you smile
Oh it really lifts my heart," She sings as she skips (Her Da loves this song, he sings it a lot. She always wonders what a son is and why it beats down on people though), wondering what her parents have made for lunch. Suddenly there's a bright light and she instinctually ducks behind a wall in case it's the…thing. After a moment, Evana pops her head around the corner, eyes fearfully wide. She sees nothing for a moment, then she spots an object on the ground. "Hello?" She calls out, but there is no answer. Evana cautiously walks over to the object, bending down and picking it up. Looking at it, she realises it's a handheld mirror. She tilts her head to the side in puzzlement before shrugging, tucking it into the sash of her dress, and continuing on her way. "So tell 'em all I'm on my way
New friends and new places to see
And to sleep under the stars
Who could ask for more
With the moon keeping watch over me
Not the snow, not the rain
Can change my mind
The sun will come out, wait and see
And the feeling of the wind in your face
Can lift your heart
Oh there's nowhere I would rather be
'Cause I'm on my way now-
well and truly
I'm on my way now."
"There you are, Gumdrop," Remus greets with a smile.
"Da, I found a mirror," The six-year-old informs her Father. "Look!" She says, thrusting it to him.
Remus drops the plate he had been holding, rushing over and taking it from her.
"Babe? What is it?" Lily asks from across the kitchen at the dining room table they transfigured a chair into years ago after the Great Hall was destroyed by the creature. Evana had nearly died that day, they've been very careful about windows since. They won't ever forgive themselves for being careless about it to start with.
"Sirius," Remus says to the mirror. Sirius comes into view. "Padfoot?!" Remus calls desperately, but there is no reply and Sirius does not seem to be moving.
"Remus, what's going on?" Lily asks, walking over. She gasps as she sees the face in the mirror.
"It's not working, why isn't it working?!" Remus demands, shaking the mirror.
"Who's that?" Evana asks her parents.
"A friend of mine," Remus replies off-handedly.
"But you're so old. Why isn't he?"
"I am not old, I'm twenty-seven!" Remus complains, looking away from the mirror.
"She makes a good point though, why is he so young?" Lily asks.
"And why isn't he moving?!" Remus asks frustratedly.
"Maybe he can't."
"What are you talking about, Lily?"
Lily takes the mirror from her husband (They'd had a ceremony between the two of them using an old ritual Remus found in Salazar's memories that binded them together for eternity), "He's young, we're old. We're moving, he's not. This has only just arrived, we've been here for ten years."
"Your point?" Remus asks in confusion.
"It's been ten years for us," Lily states.
"Yes, I know that. I've been here too," He says.
Lily rolls her eyes, "What if it hasn't been that long for them? I'm assuming this is some kind of communication device?" Remus nods. "Why would it have taken a decade for Black to think to use it? And why would he look as old as he was when we left? What if that's the reason no one's come after us?"
"You think time in here is moving more quickly than out there?" Remus asks, Lily nods. Then Remus' eyes widen. "Oh…oh…Lily, I read that in a book!" Remus goes sprinting out of the room, Lily about to follow when her daughter's voice pipes up.
"Mummy, can we have lunch now? I'm hungry."
Lily looks at the doorway before turning around and smiling tightly at her daughter, "Of course, Evie. Come on, I made pasta."
"Shell pasta?" The little girl asks, eyes wide with hope.
Lily nods, smiling more genuinely, "Of course. I'd never serve you subpar pasta."
Evana giggles as she and her mother sit down to eat.
"So, this castle isn't all there is out there?" Eleven-year-old Evana asks her parents.
"No, Evie, there's a whole world out there," Remus tells her.
"A world?" She asks in confusion.
"Erm, a lot of space. A lot more than in here."
"Oh. Are we going to go there?"
"Well, that's complicated," Lily explains, "See, we want to but…well we haven't quite worked out how yet."
"So…we're trapped in here?" Evana asks, her parents nod. "Oh."·
"Tell everybody I'm on my way
And I just can't wait to be there
With blue skies ahead yes
I'm on my way
And nothing but good times to share
So tell everybody I'm on my way
And I just can't wait to be home
With the sun beating down yes
I'm on my way
And nothing but good times to show
I'm on my way," Evie sings as she looks out a window. Her parents don't know she's doing so, obviously. They'd flip if they knew. But she had to see, to try and spot this world they'd spoken about through the fog surround their castle. Evie sighs, thinking of the friends her parents left behind, "We're on our way," She promises.
"I can't believe it didn't work," Sirius says, looking at the mirror disheartenedly.
"Well, it sort of did," James tells him, looking at the very quickly moving shapes that seem like blurs and absolutely nothing distinguishable. "It proved we can get things in there. Then they'll know we haven't forgotten about them."
"You can see how fast this is moving, can't you?" Sirius asks, "It's been ages for them. How long would you make it alone in there before you gave up?"
Marlene walks into the room, catching that sentence as she does, "I don't think they're alone in there."
James and Sirius look up in unison, "What?!"
"I worked out what the Orb is," Marlene explains as the rest of the group walks in, she having called them all together.
"What is it?" Mary questions as she takes a seat on Remus' bed, everyone else on their own though Peter is joined sitting on his by Bob while Marlene stands before them all.
"A prison," She replies, "A prison to hold something that the founders locked away a long time ago."
"How did you find this out?" Bob asks.
Marlene winces, "Your family isn't the only one with a collection of books on the Dark Arts." Everyone looks to her in surprise. "The McKinnons may not use what they learn, but we're strong believers that to know is to be prepared to fight against. Anyway, I had my brother look through them and he sent me this this morning," She explains, holding up a book. She opens it and begins to read aloud, "'Though not much is known of the Orb, writings from Helga Hufflepuff show that this Orb was created by the four Great Founders of Hogwarts in a hope to lock away the greatest of all evils. The name has been lost to centuries, but the face of true evil remains carved on the Orb's base for all of eternity.'"
"W-What does this mean?" Peter asks nervously.
"It means we need to get them out," James replies, "Soon."
It's been twenty years for Remus and Lily. It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. They hide from the outside, trying to avoid this creature they were inadvertently chosen to guard. They raise their daughter as best they can in isolation.
"Is that a Philosopher's Stone?" Evana asks as she looks closer at a picture in a book, "It is."
"You sound like a character from an old cartoon," Lily tells her sixteen-year-old daughter. She then sticks her tongue out of her mouth, "Is that the Philosopher's stone? It is," She says, it comes out warped because of her tongue.
"Cartoons are those moving stories you watch on the telly, right?" Lily nods. "I'm suddenly not so sad I've missed out on that," Evana says, laughing when her mother jokingly swats her arm. "Mum…" She suddenly says, standing upright. Lily looks over questioningly, "Mum I think I found something."
"Found what?" Lily questions.
Evana looks at her Mother with wide eyes, "A way out."
"Remus!" Lily calls as she and Evana run through the halls. A sudden scream has Lily grabbing her Daughter by the back of her shirt and yanking her behind the cover of the way. The windows in this corridor have been smashed since early on after Remus and Lily got here, it being practically the only corridor that has windows, so it's the wall behind the windows that crumble a little.
"Come on, we'll go the long way," Evana tells her mother. Lily seems about to dash across and risk it when Evie grabs her arm. "Mum," She says, waiting until Lily looks at her, "It's not worth it. Let's go around."
Lily hesitates a moment longer, then nods.
"Da," Evana calls as she and her Mother run into the Gryffindor Common Room.
"Evie?" Remus asks in concern.
"We found it, Remus," Lily tells him, "We found a way home."
Remus frowns, "Evie, would you give your Mum and I a minute?" Evana furrows her brows in confusion but nods and heads up to her room, which is really just a converted Dorm room, but it's been hers for most of her life.
"Why aren't you happy?" Lily asks her husband.
"Because I stopped looking a long time ago, when I realised that if we ever found out how to get out Evana wouldn't be able to come with us."
"What are you talking about?" Lily snaps.
Remus pinches the bridge of his nose, feeling every day of the thirty-seven years he's now been alive weighing heavily on him. "There's a field surrounding the Orb. That thing grows stronger the longer it is alive. So, as a last line of defence in case it escaped, a spell was put on the Orb to make anything that leaves revert to the state it was in when it entered."
"And Evana didn't exist back then," Lily says, looking down.
"Exactly. Besides…there has to be a sentry, or the creature is unleashed. One of us would have had to stay behind anyway."
Lily blinks away tears before she shakes her head, "No. No, I'm not giving up. We'll find a way around it."
"Li-"
"No, Remus! We'll find a way."
Remus sighs, then nods. "Of course, we will, Lily-Flower. I'll keep looking."
"We all will," Evana says from the staircase she had hidden on.
"You're grounded," Her parents say at once.
"What are you gonna do? Prevent me from going outside?" Evana challenges.
"No cupcakes for a week, Cupcake," Remus tells her sternly.
She sighs but nods.
"I've never been so tired in my entire life," Marlene says with a yawn from where she is cuddling with Sirius on his bed, her head on his chest and his arm around her waist, "I've barely been able to sleep all week."
"Same," Sirius admits with a frown, "Why don't you try and take a nap now? I'll be with you the whole time and I'll wake you up if something happens."
Marlene tilts her head up to smile at him, "Thank you, Sirius," She tells him before snuggling further into his side.
Sirius wishes Remus were here to be proud of him for being so sweet and successfully maintaining a relationship for days now. He can't believe it's been a full week since he and Lily disappeared. He wonders how long it's been for them. "Sleep well," he whispers, stroking Marlene's hair lightly.
It's a year for the three in the Orb before Remus walks into the kitchen, late for dinner, and puts a book on the counter. "I've got it. I know how to prevent the field from effecting Evie," He tells them.
"Brilliant!" Lily says with a grin, it dies as she sees the complicated look on Remus' face. "One of us still has to stay behind, don't we." It's not really a question and he doesn't bother to nod.
"It should be me," Evana says, "I've got no life out there, I don't even exist."
"Out of the question," Lily tells her.
"It'll be me," Remus says, "I'm not letting either of you stay behind."
"What do you think is going to happen to me when we get out there? It's not like they'll leave me in your care, and imagination the way we'd be seen. How old were you two when you were pulled in here?"
Lily and Remus exchange looks. "A few months older than you," Lily replies.
"If I can't be raised in the care of my parents then I-"
"You are not staying behind. But you're right, we can't let you just be taken away," Remus says, sitting at the table and dropping his head into his hands.
"Then there's only one option," Lily states, nodding to herself, "Evana Lupin does not exist out there," She says, "So you'll have to take the place of someone who does. And since one of us has to stay behind, it'll be my place you take."
"No, Li-" Remus begins objecting but Lily interrupts.
"We'll make a Polyjuice potion. I can charm some of my hair to keep growing after it's been detached, you only need a tiny bit. You'll be able to keep making it for the rest of your life."
"Mu-"
"No, this is the last hurdle. You both see that, don't you? Once we make this potion, you two will be able to leave. To live actual lives."
"Lily even if we were to use a Polyjuice potion, your hair will make her look like you do now, not like you did then," Remus points out.
"Which is why you'll carry it and allow it to be affected by the barrier around the orb. It will return to how it was, you will then place the charm on it. Evie will be covered by a glamour charm. That should hold up until you can duck out of the room to take the potion."
"Lily, it should be me that stays. I'm safe in here, out there I'm a mon-"
"You are not a monster, Remus," Lily tells him sharply, "It has to be me. There's no way Evana can imitate your voice. She already sounds a lot like me, she sounds just like I did when I was young." Remus looks pained. Lily takes his hand, leaning over to press their foreheads together. "I've lived a good and happy life before we got trapped, and here with you, with both of you," She says, looking over at her daughter. "It's Evie's turn to live a full life now. She can't do that here, and this is the only way." Lily leans their foreheads together again. "Please, Remus. Do it for our daughter."
Remus' face screws up in anguish, tears falling. He nods, "Okay…okay," He says, moving to hug his wife close to him. "Okay," He says again. Evana comes over and joins the hug.
One month later, the potion is complete.
"This is it," Lily says, handing the potion to her daughter, who has been charmed to look like seventeen-year-old Lily, so that it would not be affected by the field. She hands the hair she'd cut off and put in a freezer bag to her husband. "Remus, promise me something."
"Anything, Lily-Flower," Remus tells her, a hand on her cheek.
She leans into the hand, "Go on with your life. Don't spend it pining after me."
Remus frowns, looking down before he pulls away and grabs her wrist, holding it next to his. "Bound for eternity, my Flower," He reminds her, drawing her attention to marks on their wrists from the ritual that, when their wrists are put together like this, make an infinity symbol. "I can't make that promise. Really, could you?"
Lily smiles sadly, "I suppose not."
"Mum?" Evana asks tearfully. Lily pulls away from Remus, opening her arms to her daughter who runs into them. "Mummy, I don't want to leave you."
"You'll be okay, Sweetheart. You and your Da, you'll stick together, and you'll be okay." Lily hugs her daughter for another minute before she pulls back, smiling at them both and nodding. "It's time."
Evana steps away from her mother to stand beside her Father, careful not to touch him.
"Rem," Lily says, "Tell Wren…" She frowns, then she smiles sadly, "Tell him the Pied Piper has a dangerous creature to control so I can't leave. But don't tell him any more than that or he'll break me out regardless of any warnings given."
Remus nods, "I will. I promise."
"And be brave, Cupcake," Lily tells her daughter who nods.
"I will, Mum."
"I love you both."
Evana and Remus both reply, "We love you too," At the same time.
Then Remus takes a deep breath and pulls out his wand, "Nos dimittere."
"And then I think we can switch this topic," Dumbledore is saying to McGonagall, "To be covered in Transfiguration. I don't think it really fits in with the Charms curriculum."
"I-" McGonagall begins saying when a flash of blinding white lift fills the room, and suddenly two teenagers are on the floor of Dumbledore's office.
Remus groans, pushing himself upright and immediately checking on his daughter.
Evie sits up as well, "It worked then?" She asks.
Remus looks up and sees his old Head of House. He smiles and nods, "Yeah. It worked."