AN: Uh, hi, it's been almost a year. Oops? Looking at how long ago I started this story, a lot has changed for me. Finished my undergraduate degree, and my Master's degree, and am now a full-time slave of the 9-5 work life, with a husband and a puppy at home. What has not changed since I started this story: I STILL don't own Harry Potter! Gosh darn it…I'm starting to give up hope that it will ever magically happen…

Year I, part II: A Dark Spring

Sirius ended up staying most of the winter holidays with the Potter family. After a few days he went home, but most days he would come back and spend at least half of each day with the family. Diara began to feel like she had a second annoying older brother. Although James minded the family rule, of being kind to siblings and keeping fights and unkind pranking to a minimum, Sirius was (mostly) free of that rule. Harald Potter had pulled the boy aside after a prank on Diara and Fiend, which had turned the cat green for two days, and informed that boy that, as an honorary Potter, he was expected to keep pranks to a minimum of damage.

Although she would never confess it, Diara had welcomed the pranking. It had kept her mind off of other things. Since the last week of break she'd been having awful visions in the moments where she first woke up. For Diara, as a child many of her visions had come during the day as small things she knew-a sudden certainty that James would be bitten by a dog, the realization that dad was on his way home, knowing when dinner was done…but it had changed over the years. Now, many of her visions came if she focused or meditated and in the forms of dreams—often the last dream of the night. Currently, she was having repeated visions of a cemetery. No matter how much Diara tried to meditate on it, tried to recall the vision with more clarity—she couldn't find out why she was having that vision. It left her in an anxious foul mood.

What use was knowing that someone was going to die, if you didn't know who?

Despite these worries, spring term continued on and crept into March. Her worries had not been allowed to disturb her grades. She continued to do slightly above average in Herbology with Professor Greene, she continued to fall asleep in Astromony and barely scrape a pass, Defense Against the Dark Arts continued to be a class she did well in under Professor Stine, and Professors Flitwick and McGonagall praised her skills in Charms and Transfigurations, though she was only an Exceeds Expectations in Transfigurations. Potions had improved and she was maintaining an Acceptable but had to spend a lot of time on her homework.

Diara felt awful about it, but there was a small part of her that hoped it was Professor Stine who was going to die. He was a nice professor and all, but…she wasn't close to him. And he had mysteriously lost an arm over the Christmas holidays. The arm was just gone, from the elbow down. The school was buzzing with rumors.

A couple muggle-born suggested maybe he had lost it in a car accident. James and his friends were insisting he had been in a duel with dark wizards and barely come out alive. The third year Gryffindors kept saying he must have been helping Professor Kettleburn with Care of Magical Creatures. Some seventh years had even proposed it was the curse on the Defense position. It was them who had started Diara hoping that maybe it Professor Stine who would pass. This thought, of course, led the girl to feeling guilty for even thinking that for a moment. She knew it was natural to hope it's someone not close to you but…it was a horrible thought.

It was a Saturday in March, with Easter the following weekend, and Diara was sitting eating breakfast in the Great Hall with her Gryffindor friends, when an owl fluttered down to her and dropped a letter. Diara went to open the seal when she noted it stated it was for both her and James. Her father's handwriting on the outside of the envelope caught her attention. Normally Diara's mother wrote the letters.

Unable to catch James' attention, as there was a Quidditch game that morning, Diara shoved the letter into her pocket, to read later. The game was between Ravenclaw and Slytherin. If Slytherin won the game by more than 200 points, Gryffindor would be out of the running for the Quidditch cup.

Diara sat with her friends in the stands and cheered for Ravenclaw. A boy in the row of seats in front of her her, whom she knew vaguely from classes as Samuel Chang kept giving the girl and her friends dirty looks. Diara had no idea what she had done to the boy to earn his annoyance, but shrugged it off and continued to enjoy the game. Eventually, Slytherin managed to win the match 240-70. Gryffindor still had a shot to try to win the cup.

It was hours later, after the evening celebrations had begun to die that Diara found the Marauders in their dorm, heads together and clearly plotting something. She casually plopped down next to them. After listening to their plans for just a moment (the boys had long given up trying to hide their pranks for her), Diara shook her head.

"Benches are overdone. Why not try charming a doorway, or getting into the laundry?" The boys looked at her with wide eyes. It had never occurred to them to try the laundry. As Marauders, of course they knew where it was located, but they didn't know much about the laundry schedule. So long as their clothes weren't smelly the boys didn't mind—well, Sirius minded if they weren't perfect, and Wormtail didn't care if they were a bit ripe…but overall, the boys didn't give much thought to the laundry. "Now excuse me, James, we have mail."

James groaned at being dragged away from his friends, but obediently sat on his bed as Diara pulled the letter out of her pocket. The two read together, in growing silence.

Diara, James,

Please know that I have debated about sending you this post as you will be home so soon. In the end, I did not want to surprise you with the sudden news. Your mother is very ill. Her lumbago has continued to progress, as you know, and her immune system is very weak and her body resistant to healing magic and potions. A month ago your mother came down with a nasty case of the Stygian Flu and she has never fully recovered. She now has pneumonia.

I hope this finds you both well. Your mother and I look forward to visiting with you over the Easter holidays. Look after each other.

Love,

Harald

James and Diara sat quietly for a moment, before the older brother pulled Diara into a one-armed hug. The Marauders glanced curiously at the siblings but held their tongues (if only because Remus made them).

The next week passed in a blur for Diara. One moment it had felt like she was on James' bed, reading the letter, and the next she was sitting on the Hogwarts Express on the way back to London. Diara found herself sitting in a compartment with Merry and Gawain, Courtney and Grimelda, and even her Hufflepuff friend Sierra. Her friends were talking and playing Exploding Snap, and looking at Diara curiously.

The feeling of dread in Diara's stomach lightened as she realized that her friend's had been worried for her. She offered them a smile and joined in on the game. "I've been a bit preoccupied by thinking about the trip home," she quietly explained. "I feel like this week didn't exist. What did I miss?"

Courtney happily filled in Diara on numerous pranks by the Marauders. She had a dreamy smile on her face anytime she mentioned Sirius. Merry and Gawain gagged behind her back. Apparently the Marauders had been very active during the last week. School ties had been charmed to flash between all of the house colors, and Severus Snape's robes had even turned bright pink midway through breakfast one day. A doorway had been enchanted to rain on anyone who walked through, and the DADA classroom was assaulted by empty suits of armor only yesterday. James, apparently, had a very different coping style to Diara.

Soon enough, the train ride ended and James and Diara quickly separated from their friends and met with their father. Seeing her father, Diara couldn't help but see him as a stranger. There stood an elderly man, with grey hair and a lined face. His broad shoulders were stooped and his usually neatly pressed clothes were wrinkled, as if he had napped in them. Diara had never seen her father look so old.

Diara wrapped her arms around him in a hug, to which James joined in. "How's mom," James asked, in lieu of greeting his father.

Harald's eyes closed for a moment, before looking at his children evenly. He saw James, thin and on the short side, with long limbs—clearly near a growth spurt, his hair messy and going in every direction, and his bespectacled hazel eyes serious. His robes had been removed, leaving him in jeans and a plaid button down. Diara stood next to him, petite with her wild black hair completely out of control, her green-hazel eyes stood out against her pale skin. The girl was in a black skirt and stockings still, with her school shoes, and a warm green sweater, as if she had just pulled off her robes. Many of the older generation wore just robes and undergarments, but the younger generation preferred trousers or skirts under robes. Some robes could even be worn open, though Hogwarts had not adopted the new style of robe for their uniform. Looking at his children, at how young they were, Harald felt that they were too young still.

"Your mother's pneumonia has gotten worse. I'm taking you to see her at St. Mungos."

An hour later found Diara sitting alone with her mother. The whole family had met together at first, but her father had been called out and James had gone to get something to drink.

Charisse gently held her daughter's hand and looked at Diara's face with eyes bright with unshed tears. "Don't worry dear. Some things are meant to be," the older woman said quietly.

Diara shook her head. "But you're going to d-"

Charisse tiredly smiled at her daughter. "I know, sweetie."

Charisse passed away the next day, with her family in her room. It was peaceful, but Diara cried. Before the Easter holiday's ended, a funeral was held and Charisse was buried in the church cemetary in Godric's Hollow. Many of Diara and James' friends attended the funeral.

School was different for Diara. She wasn't sure what had been said to James, but he was worrying over her. He had lectured her when he found out that she sometimes partnered with Rufio, a Slytherin, in potions. James was always looking over her shoulder. He would prank the school with his friends, but if Diara wasn't where he wanted her to be, or was late to breakfast, the older boy worried after her.

Diara herself was angry. A week into term she yelled at her brother in the middle of the common room, to the shock of all of the occupants of Gryffindor tower. James stared at her, as if she had grown fangs and a temper as poor as her pet cat. James backed off from his sister, but Diara avoided him.

It was two weeks later that a first year came running to get James, on a Friday afternoon after classes. James was in the courtyard with the Marauders, playing a round of gobstones. It was late April and the snow had cleared from the ground, spring beginning. Most of the students were out on the grounds, enjoying the weather. For a moment, James didn't recognize the first year, but then he realized that it was Gawain, a friend of Diara's.

The boy panted, as if he had just run a ways. "Potter…Diara…Whomping Willow." For a moment James was confused, and then he took off running.

When he got to the Whomping Willow, he found Diara staring at the tree, with a determined look on her face. James knew that look: nothing could stop her now, short of a Stupefy. Two first years he recognized as ones that Diara had complained about (and pointed out for pranking) stood looking on with smirks on their face, with a crowd behind them. James thought they were named Barb and Isora, or something like that. Even as he neared the tree, it was too late.

Diara ran headfirst into the reach of the tree's branches. James' heart caught in his chest as he watched her twist and duck. It was like she was dancing with the tree, somehow aware of its movements. She had almost reached the tree trunk, her fingers just about to graze it, when a branch caught her left shoulder and she stumbled to the ground. Diara crawled forward and touched the tree trunk and then turned around, stood up, and tried to scramble back. She got hit once more, across the back, just as she was about to get out of the reach of the tree.

James chased after her, and grabbed her. "You idiot," he howled at his sister. "Were you trying to get yourself killed?!"

Diara turned angry eyes at James and pulled out of his grasp, and held her left arm carefully. "No, I knew what I was doing!"

"No, you didn't! You got hit! And we both know that your gift doesn't work like that! You don't see every detail!"

"How do you know how my gift works," Diara challenged. "You're not the one stuck with this curse!" The first-year turned on her heel and stormed away from the tree, leaving James behind. He went to chase after her, but Sirius stopped him.

"Let her cool down, James."

Diara suffered a break in her left arm, near the shoulder, and deep bruising across her back. Two weeks of radio silence between Diara and her brother later and it came to a head.

Since Diara had been challenged by Barbie and Isadora to touch the Whomping Willow and had managed to do so, it had become a popular challenge across the school. Then, a boy named Davy Gudgeon tried and had to go to St. Mungo's Hospital for treatment of his right eye. The eye had been heavily damaged. When Diara heard, she felt like she'd been hit with one of the branches again. It was her fault. She had touched the trunk and given everyone with a touch of insanity hope that they could do so.

That night, Diara sat quietly in the Common Room, staring out at the stars, long past midnight. Eventually, noise at the door caught her attention. The Fat Lady's portal swung open..and nobody stepped inside.

"James," Diara said into the empty room.

A moment later, a silvery cloak appeared as it was pulled off by her brother. The boy stood quietly, unsure.

"I'm sorry. You were right. I was being reckless," Diara said quietly. Her brother came and sat next to her.

"What's wrong with you, D? I know with mom…but you've never called being a seer a curse before."

Diara turned to her brother. "I knew someone was going to die. I didn't know who…and then, when the letter came. I knew it was mom. And…there was nothing I could do," Diara began to cry silently, tears tracking down her cheeks. "I hate it! I hate seeing the future and not being able to do anything, not being able to save mom!"

"Oh, Diara," James sighed. "Mom and dad knew too, and they couldn' tdo anything. It's just…life. Don't beat yourself up over it." The two sat together, long into the night, until Diara fell asleep. Unable to carry his little sister up the stairs into the girls' dormitory, James carried her up onto his own bed, and curled up with her.

Two days later, Diara cornered Remus. Walking up to him, as he sat in the library studying for his Charms final (which was still 3 weeks away), Diara sat down and tugged the book out of his hands. Remus looked up at her, eyes a bit red-rimmed.

"Apparently, I'm not allowed to beat myself up over Davy, so you can't either," the girl said with a grimace. "And that is more my fault than yours, Moony. You aren't responsible for him getting his eye poked, just because the tree was planted for you. I'm the one who made it a popular game."

Remus just gaped at her for a moment. Eventually he spluttered, "You knew?"

Diara nodded. "Before James even. Don't worry, I can keep a secret," the girl smiled.

As Diara's first year drew to a close, the girl began to return to her normal self. James and she had repaired their fight, Remus looked at the girl with a new bit of respect, and Diara began to groan even more. Now both of her female Gryffindor friends on crushes on the Marauders: Courtney on Sirius and Grimelda on Remus. Diara knew she would never be able to survive if Sierra developed a crush on her brother or Peter. Maybe she needed to spend more time with Merry and Gawain this summer…at least they wouldn't drool over her older brother's friends!