Eighteen-year-old Evirah considered herself quite the rebel; after all, most Heartians never really left the Heart. It was almost forbidden, though it wasn't a written rule of any sort. But here she was, wandering the dark woods at least a mile from her home.

It was nice to get away, she figured. Sometimes her parents and peers were so overbearing. No one else was out here, though. It was nice and peaceful and quiet-

Then she heard it. A sniffle. It was barely audible, but Evirah heard it. How could she not, with the deafening silence of the forest? Turning and rounding a particularly large tree, she nearly stumbled on a child who could be no older than two sitting on the ground.

And not any child, she realised with a start. A human child.

Now, Evirah had heard of humans. She'd see pictures in books. But she'd never seen a real, live human, let alone a human child. But she was very sure this was one.

She knelt down beside it; it was crying quietly. She figured it was likely lost. Poor thing.

"Hello, little one," she said quietly. It started and looked up at her in surprise with bright grey eyes. It was a he, she realised quickly, for he looked very much like a he. "Are you alright?"

He didn't seem to understand her, and she remembered humans didn't speak Heartian, so she switched to the limited English she knew.

"Hello, little one," she repeated.

"Hewwo," he said quietly.

"What's your name, little one?" Evirah asked.

"Siwus," he said. "Wike the stawr."

It took her a long moment to decipher this, since the humans had different star names then the Heartians did. But finally she remembered a star that sounded similar: Sirius, the dog star.

"Are you lost, little one?" she asked. He nodded hesitantly. "Where are your parents?"

"Don't know," he replied.

Frowning, Evirah bent down and picked the small boy up. She didn't know much about human children, but she thought this one was much too small. She had no idea how to find his parents, so she decided she'd just take him back to the Heart.

"We're going to my home, okay?" Evirah said. "My mother can help you find your parents."

"Okay," Sirius said softly.

Despite the long walk back, Sirius did not speak up once. Evirah found this very strange. No child she'd ever seen in the Heart had been so quiet. Were human children naturally so quiet?

When she made it back, she was quickly confronted by her mother. Vrani was a healer and quite overprotective, so it was quite unsurprising that she was immediately being checked over for any injuries.

"Where have you been?" she demanded. "This is the fourth time this week! You- is that a human?"

"A human child," Evirah was sure to clarify.

"Where did you find it?" Vrani asked, now inspecting the child who'd fallen asleep in Evirah's arms. She had an unusual look on her face, one Evirah recognised to mean she was contemplating something particularly unpleasant.

"He was lost in the forest," Evirah replied, confused. "Why? What's the matter?"

Vrani nodded slowly, taking the child and cradling him in her arms. Evirah recognized by her expression that she was checking the child for injuries.

"Were his parents nearby?" she asked after a moment. Evirah shook her head. "I see… come; we must take him to the healers' hut. He is ill."

"He is?" Evirah asked, blinking in surprised. "He seemed alright. Rather lightweight and quiet, but I just thought that might be normal for human kids."

"Nay," said Vrani. "Human children are very much like Heartian children. I am troubled that you found him alone."

"He was lost," said Evirah very quietly.

"Or, perhaps, abandoned," said Vrani darkly. Evirah gasped. That was almost incomprehensible.

"But no parent would abandon their child!" she insisted.

"Humans are quite different from us," said Vrani sadly. "I've heard stories of them casting out the weak; if a child is sickly, they often do not keep it."

"That's awful!" exclaimed Evirah in horror. She glanced again at the little boy, feeling a burst of anger at his parents (whoever they were). "We can keep him, right, Mother?"

"After we heal him," said Vrani decisively, "we will look for his parents. Should we not find them, he will live here."

"Woah, wait!" I exclaimed, cutting into the story. "This is when he went missing, isn't it?"

"What?" asked Lily. Evirah, too, looked confused.

Reddening slightly, I elaborated: "Sirius was telling me the other day how he disappeared when he was little and came back healed."

"Healed?" asked Lily; my explanation seemed to have only served to confuse her further. "Never mind. Must be the cold or whatever he had that Evirah was talking about."

"It was no cold," said Evirah gravely. "I believe it was something much worse. To this day, none of our healers know what was wrong."

"But your healers helped him!" I beamed; finally, it was all starting to click. But then Evirah shook her head.

"Hardly," she said, somewhat bitterly. "The healers here were convinced they could do nothing."

And now it all clicked out of place.

"Then how-"

I was cut off by the sound of the door slamming open, quickly followed by Sirius's voice yelling something in Heartian. Evirah chuckled and called back, and Sirius's footsteps followed. He appeared in the doorway, looking very relieved to see us, and also somewhat cross.

"Thank goodness!" he exclaimed. "I thought you'd been kidnapped or something! I mean, Lily missing classes? That's unheard of!"

"Why didn't you-"

I sent Lily a quick glance, telling her to be quiet. Sirius didn't need to know we were here talking about him; he probably didn't even remember. He hadn't recognized Evirah, after all.

Sirius didn't hear her question. He had started pacing now. "You left no note! So, of course, I went straight to Dad, who flooed Mum and then told Dumbledore, and now I find out you've been here the whole bloody time!?"

"Calm down, Sirius," I said, standing up and holding out my hands to placate him, hoping he wouldn't start glowing again. "We left pretty late last night and got lost in the Forest. By the time we got here, we were so tired Evirah made us take a nap."

"Why didn't you leave a note?" Sirius demanded. "Or wake me up? I could've gotten you here and back before sunrise."

"Erm…" I said, glancing at Lily for help.

"We didn't want to bother you," said Lily, trying to sound convincing. "We forgot the note, too."

Sirius huffed and subconsciously grabbed a brownie for himself. "Why'd you need to come here in the middle of the night, anyway?"

We exchanged glances; how could we explain this one?

"We were just getting to that when you burst in," said Evirah, sounding slightly cross and completely unashamed at her white lie.

Sirius looked slightly apologetic. "Well, we really should get back to Hogwarts before Dad and Dumbledore bring the Ministry into this."

"That's alright," said Evirah. "These two can just come back on the weekend, and we'll continue our talk."

In other words: we wouldn't get the rest of the story until the weekend, so we'd best not run off again. Lily stood, smiling to Evirah.

"Thank you for the meal, Evirah," she said.

I nodded. "Yes, thanks! It was delicious!"

Evirah smiled. "Thank you, friends. Now go on back to your school- your poor mother is probably close to a panic attack, James."

I rubbed my neck, and waved. "Bye, Evirah."

"Goodbye," she said as we left. Sirius led us out of the Heart, waving to all the Heartians who waved first to him; at least one thing made sense. People acted like they knew him because a lot of them did.

The trip back to Hogwarts passed in silence, except for that one moment where I tripped on a root and tested my new Heartian vocabulary ("Arvec av illa!") and got a really weird look from Sirius.

We went straight to Dad's office upon arriving. Sirius knocked hesitantly on the door.

"Come in!" called Dad.

We walked in, and the group in there (Mum, Dad, Dumbledore) stared at us.

"Where were you!?" Mum burst out, rushing over to hug both Lily and I. "We were so worried!"

"We were with Evirah," I said sheepishly. "We forgot to leave a note. Sorry."

"You are so grounded, James Potter!" Mum said crossly. I blinked in surprised. "Now, it wouldn't be so shocking if it were Sirius or Regulus, but I expected better of you!"

"You can't ground me, I'm an adult!" I spluttered.

Mum looked quite unimpressed by this argument. "As long as you live under my roof, you'll do as I say, do you hear me?"

I deflated, pouting slightly. "Yes, ma'am."

Mum nodded approvingly. "Now you three get to class."

We nodded, and left the room. Sirius patted me on the shoulder. "Tough luck, mate."

"Next time, we leave a note," Lily decided.

I nodded. "Or we wait 'till morning."

"You never answered my question," Sirius said. "What was so important you had to run off in the middle of the night?"

"Nothing," I said quickly.

Sirius crossed his arms. "Why are you keeping secrets again? I thought you quit all that after all of us found out."

"Really, Sirius, it's no big deal," Lily said reassuringly. "We just had to ask Evirah something."

"About me?"

Lily and I exchanged awkward glances.

"Yeah," said Sirius, shoving his hands into his jean pockets. "I thought as much."

"Sirius-"

"I get it, really," he said, avoiding eye contact. "You were probably trying to find out why I'm not normal… all that stuff."

"Padfoot, come on," I said. "We'd've asked you that, wouldn't we?"

"I know about as much as you," he said, staring straight ahead as we walked.

"Sirius," said Lily softly. "We should have woke you and told you where we were off to. I'm sorry. And it wasn't all about you, promise. We discussed several topics. You just happened to come up."

"Right," said Sirius dully.

I clenched my fists. "Why are you in such a bad mood, anyway?"

"I'm not," he said.

"Sirius-"

"You scared me, okay?" he snapped. "I thought you'd gone and gotten yourselves kidnapped or worse! I thought maybe that stupid dream-"

He cut himself off with a sharp breath, and started walking at a more brisk pace.

"You had a dream too?" I asked, running to catch up to him, Lily close behind. "I mean, of course you dreamt last night, but what about? Is it the same one we had?"

Sirius stopped. "What dream did you have?"

"You first," I said stubbornly.

"Hogsmeade," he said shortly. "We were in Hogsmeade and there were Death Eaters. That battle you're worrying about. Just… this time around."

I frowned deeply. "Oh. Man, that doesn't sound good at all."

"Not the same dream, then?" Sirius asked smartly. Lily shook her head.

"Our dream was more of a flashback," said Lily. "We went to ask Evirah about it… since she was in it."

"Oh," said Sirius.

"Sirius, what all happened in your dream?" I asked.

Sirius didn't respond for a long time. "Don't remember."

I didn't believe him in the slightest, but I wouldn't press him. Instead, I put a hand on his shoulder. "Listen, Sirius. Whatever it was, it was just a dream. Don't worry too much."

"I hope you're right," he muttered.

We all stood there in silence. This wouldn't be the first time Sirius had had an omen (of a sort) in the form of a dream. Judging by his demeanour, it must've been bad.

"Sirius?" I asked softly after a few moments. He glanced at me for a split second, to show he was listening. I hesitated, before pressing onwards. "We didn't all survive in your dream, did we?"

He was quiet for a few moments.

"No."

A/N: HAHA! I'm done with this chapter! What do you guys think? Backstory, angry Mrs. Potter, and ominous dreams! Mwahaha! Anyway, enough of that. Big thanks to Imaginer.012, N. E. Person, Queen of Wit, jeremiah123, and Prophet-Mosey! Want some brownies? Thanks!

I don't own HP.

Be on the lookout for my horror story, to be posted on Halloween! :D