Disclaimer: I have no rights except the right the whirl things about in my own brain, which I certainly don't make any money off of.

Prologue

Remus had written her a letter, and she found she could not answer.

This was by no means surprising, given the content of the letter:

I find I am struggling, almost daily, in fact, with whether I should tell Dumbledore that Sirius is an Animagus. Do you think that could be how he is getting into the castle? It seems so absurdly simple. Everyone is looking for a madman with Dark Magic. Should they instead be looking for a dog?

And then, the thing that has really been bothering me all along: Why now? Why escape now? Why go after Harry now? And why is no one else asking this question?

He tried to break in on Halloween, and slashed up the portrait of the Fat Lady pretty badly, I'm afraid.

I don't know how much Harry knows. Not much, officially, and I'm not sure I agree with that decision.

I have had some opportunity to talk to him, and he reminds me of both of his parents. But, to be honest, something about him reminds me of Sirius as well. At least the person we thought Sirius was.

Write me when you can. I know you well enough to know you are ignoring my absence by working extra hours and pretending you don't care that you might not see your best friend until the summer.

Love,

Remus

P.S. Dumbledore has kindly told me I can invite you to Hogwarts for Christmas. It'll be full moon, but at least we can pull a few crackers in front of the fire together. Please come.

Kara made several attempts at writing what she wanted to say, along the lines of, "Yes, you git, tell Dumbledore at once!" and "Yes, I think those are exactly the questions you should be asking," but each time her hand wrote something different entirely.

The spell that had been on Kara for seventeen years, the one that prevented her from answering her dearest friend's letter, from telling the truth about a man she had loved since almost before she met him, from telling anyone her real name, or that she came from another world, and that had, tragically, prevented her from warning a friend she held as close as a brother, and his wife, of the traitor among them, and what was about to happen, that spell was seizing control again, after its long dormancy as nothing of import happened in Kara's world. It had woken with a vengeance when Sirius had broken out of Azkaban.

With a sigh, and a twinge, and an ache that had been in her since she first came to this place, which she suspected would one day overpower her, Kara threw her first, false draft of the letter lying chipperly to Remus to ignore his fears, into the fire, and started a new one. It was short and to the only point she could honestly make:

Remus,

Of course I'll come for Christmas. You are very much missed.

Love,

Kara

AN: I have received several critical reviews from people who wish Kara had been more proactive and tried to break her own curse. While I do not apologize for "The Reader" in its original form, I have found the question intriguing. There are so many "turn back here moments" in the Harry Potter series that could easily overlap with Kara's struggles as well. An endless number of possibilities. Especially if someone other than Rowlingdore were to take the helm.

I have thought through a number of scenarios before getting to this point.

To that end, I am writing an AU of my story, "The Reader", but I do not know which of the many roads it could take is my favorite. So, I would like to leave it up to you, anyone who is reading this, to choose.

Would you like:

1) A largely fluffy piece, in which several characters make different choices that result in extremely different outcomes.

2) An angsty and dark story, set in OOTP, largely from Sirius' POV, that culminates in the usual showdown, but with greater consequences than the saving (or not saving) of one beloved character's life?

3) A story in which Remus and Kara take action on their own, and their friendship and determination drive much of the plot?

4) A story that goes entirely off the rails, involves a crossover (which I promise you makes sense in my head), a lot of happy endings, and inter-character drama all-around?

Regardless, you can expect the following:

1) This story will be rated M, and for all the right reasons.

2) In two of the options above, James and Lily will make a reappearance.

3) The first half of the story will be leading up to the major action of the piece, the second half will be fallout.