Raylynx's POV

There was only a little over a week before I was required to go back to Hogwarts. Professor McGonagall had insisted that I accept Lily's invitation to stay with her the week before school started.

"Accept the invitation, Raylynx. I'm far too busy to take you shopping for school and I'd prefer you stay out of the way for staff meetings this year," she said tartly.

"This year?" I said skeptically. "Is there something going on at Hogwarts this year?"

McGonagall's lips thinned into a straight line and I thought it best to hasten out of the room to write an affirmative reply to Lily.

But on August 12th, Professor McGonagall came to see me in my room.

"I came to see if you needed any assistance with your packing," she said rather stiffly.

"Oh, no, I'm all right. Thank you, though," I replied.

Professor McGonagall seemed to hesitate and I did as well, for any form of hesitation in this stern, but incredibly strong and kind-hearted woman was rather rare.

"Perhaps… it is not my place to give this to you. However, it is your half-birthday and I believed it might be appropriate, given you are already of age…", and she presented to me a small metal box. I took it from her with both hands and opened it to see…"Professor", I whispered, my voice catching in my throat, "This- this is… I can't accept this."

It was a coming-of-age watch, traditionally a family heirloom. It was a shining gold with stars circling around the face instead of hands and in the center seemed to be a white sapphire.

"If your parents knew about the tradition, I am sure they would have done it for you. And though I can never replace them, in standing for them, I hoped to at least give you something of a home in your life. Because you know, a home is not so much a place as it is a person and seeing as you are without parents and I, without child…"

Without thinking twice about it, I turned and hugged her. She seemed quite stunned but after a moment, she embraced me quite warmly, if not a little hesitantly.

And for that moment, I was home again. A feeling I'd forgotten for far too long.


Marlene's POV

This is not home, I thought angrily before I opened the squeaky door with a hard shove. The doorknob rattled when I shut it behind me. I coughed, the air in here was musty.

I walked into the living room and there he was, like he promised he wouldn't be every single day, lying on the dirty old couch with bottles of alcohol surrounding him. He was an alcoholic and a constant runaway, even though after Thomas was born he'd promised us that he wouldn't do this anymore. But day after day, year after year, since I could remember, really, the same story played itself out again over and over.

I furiously shoved aside the curtains and when the rusty glass window refused to budge, I lost my patience and pulled out my wand. "Aperio!" The window slid open. He stirred on the couch as the sunlight splashed across his face.

"Dad, get up," I said shortly. "You're a mess."

"Aren't I always?" my father said, half-smiling as he got up.

"Here, I brought you breakfast," I said, and tossed a box of food at him. I worked at a food vendor over the summer and when my shift ended, they usually allowed me to take some food back.

My father caught it and stared down at it.

Minutes passed as I vanished all the bottles with a few sweeps of my wand. He hadn't yet opened the box of food.

"Well?" I said, letting irritation color my voice. "Aren't you going to eat?"

He didn't look up as he said my name quietly, "Marlene."

"What?" I shot at him meanly, beginning to clean off all the dust settling on every surface with my wand.

"You can just leave me behind."

I stopped short. The all-too-bitter and far-too-familiar waves of anger and sorrow crashed over me. "You stupid shitty old man! Stop saying the same thing every day! You shitty old man! You know you have a baby son to take care of now!? Mom's still waiting for you, so you've got to stop saying shit like that now!"

"Marlene..." my father said softly.

"What is it!"

"…Marlene."

"Stop wasting my name!"


Sirius' POV

I had been wanting to have a proper opportunity to speak to Regulus for a long time, but coming face-to-face to him in the midst of the mayhem at the Quidditch World Cup, while he was robbed in black amidst his fellow Death Eaters was not what I had had in mind. I had fought my way to him, whether to embrace him or curse him, I'm not sure, but Mr. Potter and James had held me back.

"Padfoot, mate, you don't have to move out. We all like having you here," James said to me. We were in my room, well really, Mrs. Potter's old room (and for a little while, Raylynx Kingsley's).

"Nah, Prongs, I appreciate that, but I'm good with having my own flat," I said. "I've already purchased it already, with the money Uncle left for me."

"I didn't realize anybody in your family liked you," James teased, grinning.

I shrugged. "Dromeda likes me plenty." But my thoughts immediately flew to Regulus. Did he really see me like the rest of those maniacal blood purists did?

"Nice shirt, you wear it a lot," James commented a moment later.

"What?" I said, confused. I looked down at the plaid button-up.

"Yeah, I guess," I muttered. "It's pretty comfortable."

"It's a bit boring without her, isn't it? Ray?" James asked me, sounding slightly tentative.

"A bit," I answered. "But she wasn't exactly the life of the party, either.

"You're not friends with her?" James asked me.

I'd never really thought about it before. I'd certainly spent quite a bit of time with her, and if I'd spent that much time with anyone else, maybe I would consider us friends. But Raylynx was... I didn't know how to describe it. To put it in simple terms, she was too awkward. She was insecure. That's wasn't difficult to see. And it was difficult to be around someone who was so deeply ashamed of who she was. I didn't have the patience for it.

"Acquaintance is probably closer," I said honestly.

"Oh."

"Hey, mate, what's that?" James asked suddenly.

"What's what, Prongs?"

James pointed towards something poking out from under my bed. I peered down at it. It was something wooden. I reached down and pulled it out. It was a broomstick, a fairly new one and in fantastic shape.

"Bloody hell, did you buy yourself a new broomstick on top of everything else?" James said wonderingly, referencing not only the new flat I'd bought myself, but also the new tattoo I'd gotten and my new Muggle motorcycle.

"What? No, that's not mine," I said, not feeling the least bit of guilt about all the money I'd spent. Uncle would want me to be happy. Or at least, he must've known the sort of things I'd spend it on.

"Then who's?" James inquired.

"Well, it's either mine, your mum's, or Kingsley's. It's not mine and I don't recall your mum stashing a broomstick under my bed, so, process of elimination, and it's Kingsley's."

"How could she had forgotten? This is a fantastic broom," James said, running his hand along the wood.

Suddenly, Mrs. Potter appeared at our doorway, bearing two Hogwarts-crested envelopes.

"Let me know when you two want to make a trip to Diagon Alley," she told us, handing us each our envelopes.

I ripped mine open and scanned the list of required items and then said in utter confusion. "Dress robes?"

I looked up at James to see his mouth wide-open, presumably for the same reason as mine.

But then Mrs. Potter shrieked and I found it rather odd that even Mrs. Potter would be so horrified at the idea of dress robes.

Instead, James slowly held up a badge in his hand.

"You're Head Boy!?"


Raylynx's POV

The glimpse I had of Lily's life was so strange. It was very nearly the direct opposite of mine. I had loved my parents dearly, and they had so loved me, but whatever understanding and protection I had from my family resided very much in the bond I had had with my siblings.

In Lily's case, I could see from the very first moment how much her parents loved, admired, cherished, supported, and protected her. They glowed with pride whenever they saw or so much as mentioned their youngest daughter and I could easily relate to Petunia's jealously about the unintentionally, but obviously, disproportionate amount of attention they gave to each daughter.

But it was sad and plain wrong for Petunia to act out on it by punishing Lily. And it was Lily who was constantly apologizing to me for Petunia's blatant prejudice towards me, trying to smooth things out whenever I had half a mind to give Petunia a good curse.

One morning, Lily came into her bedroom, which we shared, and closing the door, leaned back on it and groaned.

"What is it?" I asked her.

"Walrus is coming," she said, grimacing without reserve.

"Walrus?" I repeated incredulously. "Is your sister some sort-of evil zoologist-?"

"No, walrus is her boyfriend. I mean, her boyfriend is 'walrus'... I mean... that's what I call him," she clarified, flopping onto her bed. The letter that had been on her sheets jumped a little when she made impact and her Head Girl badge flopped off the bed.

I walked over and picked it up before I also fell onto the bed besides her.

"Well, we could just stay up here until he's gone," I suggested, trying to cheer her up.

"No, Mummy and Daddy want me to watch them while they're gone," Lily sighed and turned her head towards me. "Although why Petunia would want to even touch a boy like that is beyond my imagination…"

"Well, you have pretty high standards, Lily, seeing as you aren't even remotely moved by the most attractive boys our year," I teased her. I reached out and gently tugged a lock of her gorgeous ginger hair. "Not even the famous James Potter."

She wrinkled her nose but couldn't help smiling a little. "You know I'm dating Edmund," she reminded me.

"Yeah, but from the way I hear it, it won't be for long," I responded. "He doesn't deserve you, Lily." I had just found out this week that Lily had actually started a relationship with Edmund Dantes, the boy who had asked her to dance at the Halloween dance. But from the letters I saw written between them and the general impression I got from Lily, I knew he wasn't treating her like she deserved. And after having James harass her, Petunia betray her, Snape abandon her, and my ignoring her for the entire end of last year, Lily deserved someone who truly and sincerely appreciated her.

Suddenly, there was a sharp rap on the door and without waiting another second, Petunia's bossy voice came from the other side of the door, "Vernon's coming over and I expect your friend to not do anything abnormal while he's here."

I furiously sat up, but Lily grabbed my arm and pleaded silently, shaking her head slowly and looking at me with wide eyes.

Petunia babbled on, "Mum says it's okay if she wants to join us, though I disagree-"

I pulled away from Lily, strode across the room, and wrenched the door open. Petunia faltered mid-sentence when our eyes met.

"Great," I said. "I agree with your disagreement. I have absolutely no desire to join you. I'll step outside and you can come and get me when he's gone."

Without another word, I sidled past her, down the stairs, and out the door into the hot August sun.

I made my way down the neighborhood street into some sort-of park area.

I found the best shade, cool but spotted with patches of red-gold sun, underneath a weeping willow tree besides a good-sized pond.

Exhaling, I stretched out underneath the shade.

But I had only relaxed for a few seconds when I heard a rush of footsteps and desperate breathing coming up behind me.

Startled, I jerked up onto my feet and warily put my hand on my wand in the back of my jeans…

"You!?"

"You!?"

He gaped at me. "Kingsley?"

I gaped back. "Snape?"

We looked like two baboons, standing there, gaping at each other.

At the same time we said accusingly, "What are you doing here?"

There was a pause before he stuttered an incoherent reply, "I-I thought I saw- red hair-" His mumble died away and we both gazed at each other, dumbfounded.

The scattered pattern of light and shadow under the tree made things very dream-like and I was fully certain that this was nothing but that, a dream.

Lily's POV

I turned away from the dull conversation Petunia was having with her unattractive walrus of a boyfriend, Vernon Dursley in the living room to stare out of the window at the tips of the weeping willow tree that I could just make out from here.

No, I caught myself for the thousandth time that summer, stop it. It's a horrid habit.

And it was. I knew I would never permit myself to lie under the willow tree with Severus again, dreaming of a future that would always involve each other, so why was I pretending like I could? Like I even wanted to?

Because I didn't, I absolutely didn't. At least not with this new Severus. But I must admit I did miss the old Sev… But life doesn't stop for anybody. We both made our own choices and we've got to live it out.

But still, I wondered what would happen if I did forgive him. Would things slip back to the way it would have?

Would Severus feel less tempted to join the Death Eaters, if he hadn't already? If I were to go to the willow tree right now, would he come find me?

No, I said firmly, you kept pretending as though you could change Sev's life, but you aren't that important to him, Lily. So stop pretending like you can.

I firmly turned my thoughts away from Severus and onto my boyfriend, Edmund. Yes, Edmund Dantes, recently graduated Head Boy and Ravenclaw, now working on a high level in the Ministry of Magic as Undersecretary to the Minister himself. He had asked me out three months before the end of the year, to which I had been so startled that someone like him had taken an interest in me, that without a second thought I had said yes.

Looking back on it, I wasn't entirely sure I had said the right thing. He was undeniably attractive and intelligent, but he was also quite… idealistic. Which is to say he sometimes seemed to be more preoccupied with doing the right thing because it was labeled as the right thing instead of genuinely reasoning it out for himself.

I hadn't told any of the girls about him until Raylynx came over this week and spotted a letter he'd written to me on my desk. I hadn't told them partially because I wasn't so sure of it myself, and partially because it just didn't seem to be important, what with everything Ray had been going through.

Ray… She seemed a little better now. She seemed alive again, but she was not even remotely the same girl that she had been before. After all, when the very essence that makes your life worth living has been thrown against the floor and shattered, how can you ever be whole again? But Raylynx was strong and it seemed she had found something worth building her life all over for again.

Still, having seen how real it could all become so quickly, I was starting to feel more and more that the insults Petunia hurled at me ("freak!" and "dangerous!") were all too true.

I was pulled out of my inner thoughts when Petunia brightly kissed Vernon good-bye before turning to me with a scowl on her face. "You don't have to sit there like a lump and watch us, you know. Just because you're jealous that I have Vernon when you can't even have that nasty little Snape boy."

"You think I like having to be around you and that walrus?" I retorted, feeling my temper rise when she mentioned that 'Snape boy', "I'm only here because Mum asked me to since she doesn't trust you!"

"Don't call him a walrus!" Tuney said, offended.

I bit back my retort- What? Can't a girl call a boy by his name? and instead headed outdoors to find Raylynx, slamming the front door behind me.

Raylynx's POV

"I-I thought I saw- red hair-"

"You came for Lily?" I said, my voice bordering on disbelief.

Snape scowled and turned his head away from me, unintentionally revealing a long line of bruises down the left side of his face and neck.

I hesitated and then, still in a somewhat dream-like state, what with all this dozy heat and patterned illumination of pure sunshine and the gentle rustling sound of softly swaying branches, said, "What happened to you?"

He immediately knew what I was referring to. His hand came up to the side of his neck and he jerked his head back at me.

"It's none of your business," he said coldly.

Then, a clear, melodic voice shouted across to us, barely making its way through the heavy mass of weeping willow branches swaying gently in the summer breeze. "Raylynx! Ray, where are you?"

And suddenly, like being struck with a bolt of lighting, I saw the opportunity.

"You'll protect her, won't you?" I whispered desperately.

Snape suddenly looked utterly tormented and his unappealing face screwed up in anguish.

"Raylynx!" Her voice was far more impatient this time, and far closer. Our heads both turned for a moment in the direction of her voice, but then we looked back intensely at each other again.

"Snape," I said, unsure of whether I was threatening, begging, or… trying to see him for whom he really was.

Because maybe, just maybe Regulus wasn't one-of-a-kind. Maybe it wasn't too much to ask for two-of-a-kind…

"Raylynx!" Lily's voice was sharp. She was starting to get mad.

Snape's head whipped back and forwards furiously as he looked at me and then towards Lily. He was terrified to meet her, yet I could plainly see he wanted nothing so desperately as to see her again.

"Snape…" I whisper-yelled, more urgently this time.

Say you'll protect her.

"I don't know," Snape whispered in agony. "I don't know what to do anymore."

The rustling of leaves could be heard- Lily was nearby.

Snape panicked, and rapidly backed away, then dashed out of the tree, out of sight, out of the dream world this tree cast its net over.

"Raylynx!" Her voice pierced the dream like a shard of glass, a shard of cold, sharp reality.

I turned towards her with a face like glass.

"Lily, hey. Has he left?"

"Yes," she said crossly. "I've been looking for you for some time now."

"Sorry, got lost in my thoughts," I said numbly, staring out at the water.

She joined me for a moment. "It's so pretty, isn't it? The way the sunlight flickers on the water... Everything here is so warm," she said softly, her irritation being slowly dissolved into stillness like the ripples in the pond.

Yes, it was warm here. Only, I always, always felt slightly cold, as though no physical warmth could fill that gaping hole left by the absence of my parents and of the Jamie and Sola I knew… Jamie was yet asleep and the Healers had warned me that hope was steadily slipping away that he would ever wake again…

A stronger breeze picked up all around us, but it was true that in here, under this weeping willow, we were untouched.

I nodded slowly. "It makes you feel safe. Safe from the world."

So this, this was where Lily and Snape must have spent their summers together. Protected from the rest of the world that was harsh and cold and changing so quickly, you instinctively changed to match it before you gave yourself permission to, until you suddenly found yourself being a person you never meant to be.

But this enchanted world could only last so long, and reality was fast approaching us. It was better to prepare yourself, I decided, than to try to hold onto the beauty of dreams, of childhood, of innocent warmth.

I abruptly turned away from the water and shook myself out of my trance-like state.

"Come on," I said to Lily and held out my hand. "Let's go back."

Lily smiled and took my hand. "Yes. Let's go home."


I looked fondly at the scarlet train. Seventh year, already. And yet, how much had changed since I had first stood here, clutching Jamie's hand in terror as we burst through the red wall…

"That's her, her whole family was slaughtered last year…"

I glanced briefly at the two fifth-years pointing fingers at me before turning away and disappearing into the crowd to find my friends.

"Rayly!"

"Raylynx!"

"Ray!"

I turned to see Marlene, Dorcas, and Alice just a little ways away. I ran towards them and we all embraced messily, stubbing fingers and laughing too loudly.

"I suppose Lily's in the Head Girl compartment already?" Dorcas guessed with an amused glint in her eye.

I laughed. "You know our Lily. Can't wait to impose her leadership over the whole of Hogwarts."

I pulled Dorcas into another hug and as I did so, I whispered to her. "You up for a challenge this year?"

"Most definitely," Dorcas said and I could hear her grin in her answer.

"Speaking of Heads, I'll pay for somebody's ten extra Pumpkin Pasties if you can guess who the Head Boy is," Marlene offered.

"Zayne Finnigan," I said, without thinking anything other than he'd make a good Head Boy.

"William Darcy?" Alice guessed.

Marlene grinned slyly. "I'll give you a hint. Lily is probably already very busy with Head Girl duties- if by Head Girl duties you mean she's busy screaming at the Head Boy."

Alice and I looked at each other, confused.

"Come on, Dorky, you think like Dumbledore. You can guess correctly." Marlene jostled Dorcas with her elbow.

Dorcas shook her head. "I don't-" Then her face relaxed into a smile, "Oh, right. Of course. Who else but James Potter?"

"No way!" Alice said, her eyes going wide.

"Merlin," I muttered in disbelief.

"Yup," Marlene sniggered. "Just saw him get on the train. Siri- the others were giving him shit."

"Lily's going to love that," I deadpanned.

Behind me, Alice gave a nervous laugh.

I had managed to keep it off my mind all summer, but when I followed Marlene, Dorcas, and Alice through the train compartments and saw no glimpse of Regulus, the worry started to overtake my defenses.

He has to be back. He has to. After all, he promised.

I tried to disguise my worry by pretending to enthusiastically join a game of Exploding Snap with the others but it was becoming difficult to concentrate.

What if he got hurt? What if he's-?

"Ray, duck!"

Boom!

The smoke cleared and Marlene pointed at me and burst into laughter. "No eyebrows. That's a nice, mature look for your seventh year."

But a momentary distraction came just a few moments after we had stumbled off the train and towards the carriages. The distraction came in the form of a ghost-like horse.

My mouth dropped open.

"What are they?"

"What are what?" Marlene asked me bluntly. "What are you talking about?"

It was some type of horse; that much was clear. But there was some strange reptilian aspect to it: its skin glistened. And it was winged. It had heavy, leathery wings.

"They're threstrals."

I turned to see Remus Lupin standing beside me.

"Lupin."

"Raylynx," he returned quietly.

"So I haven't… I haven't gone mad?" I asked, a bit nervously.

"No more than me," Remus said wryly.

"Why did Dumbledore decide to use them? The carriages worked just fine on their own before, " I said.

"Oh no, they've always been there. You see, they can only be seen by people- those who have seen death and… acknowledge it."

I spoke without thinking. "So you've- No, never mind."

Remus looked at me with a raised eyebrow, but didn't say anything further.

"Oy, Moony! You coming or what?"

I turned to see the rest of the James, Peter, and with a jolt- Sirius.

But the jolt was different this time- Of course, there was that feeling of seeing someone I liked, but first and foremost, I was reminded again of how worried I was about Regulus.

"See you at the castle. Don't be afraid of the threstrals. They're gentle creatures," Remus murmured to me before turning away.

So are you, I wanted to say, but a second later, I was unceremoniously shoved into a carriage by Dorcas and Marlene. Without any further ado, the strange 'thestral' gave a sudden lurch and took us to Hogwarts.


Lily joined us just before the Sorting began, her face blushing as furiously as her gorgeous red hair.

We watched as the Sorting commenced and I stole a glance towards the Slytherin table as Hogwarts welcomed twenty-two new Ravenclaws, nineteen new Slytherins, thirty new Hufflepuffs, and twenty new Gryffindors. Among the Gryffindors was Dorcas' younger brother. We all cheered for him as he joined us, beaming, but I could feel my worry mounting to panic.

I nearly ran over to Sirius, but how could I justify why I was asking him when was the last time he'd seen his younger brother?

Professor Dumbledore rose at the Headmaster's Podium and spread his arms wide as though meaning to embrace us all. "Welcome to our newest students and to our returning students, I welcome you back!"

"Mr. Filch had added eight items on his list of four hundred and seventeen items, which, if wished, can be viewed just outside his office. As always, please remember that the Forbidden Forest is off-limits to our students."

My eyes searched for the Marauders and I found them grouped down the table a ways and sure enough, all four of them were smirking at each other.

"Furthermore, please join me in welcoming a new addition to our staff, Professor Collins, who will be teaching Astronomy as Professor Sinastra travels abroad for the year. Meanwhile, please welcome Professor Woolf, who will be teaching Ancient Runes as our long-time Ancient Runes Professor will be taking the post of Defense Against the Dark Arts."

Everyone exchanged looks of shock as it was announced that Maudrick would be teaching Defense Against the Dark Arts. We applauded loudly, though I wondered fleetingly what had happened to Professor Seymour, as he had not mentioned relieving his post at the end of last year, at least, not to me. Dorcas frowned as well and I could see the gears in her mind turning.

It was only when the applause had died down when Professor Dumbledore began to speak again and the next words out of his mouth were as extraordinary as things can get in a magical place. "And finally, I must say to you that the Inter-House Quidditch Cup will not be taking place this year."

Hushed whispers, both confused and angry broke out amongst the audience. Again, I looked down at the table to see Sirius gaping at Dumbledore. Besides him, James was wordlessly mouthing. It looked like he was soundlessly protesting. "But… but… but…"

Dumbledore continued on, smiling slightly. "The reasoning takes the form of a legendary event that will be taking place beginning in October. It is my greatest pleasure to announce that this year Hogwarts will be playing host to the Tri-Wizard Tournament."

Shocked silence.

And then-

"What?!"

"Huh? The… what?"

"No way!"

"Awesome!"

"The Tri-Wizard Tournament," Dumbledore explained over the ruckus of the awed and bewildered students, "is a tournament established some six or seven hundred years ago as a friendly competition between nine schools of magic. This year, the schools are the following: Hogwarts, Letra Damien, and Academie des Talonxs. A champion is selected to represent each school, and the three champions compete in three extremely dangerous magical tasks. The tournament is competed for the prize, which is a thousand Galleons, the Triwizard Trophy, and of course, the honor one would bring to one's school. The Tournament was supported due to the excellent opportunities it presented in establishing international ties between young witches and wizards. However, the tournament was cancelled due to the high death toll resulting from the incredibly dangerous tasks."

I exchanged an incredulous look with Alice.

"But I am pleased to announce that the Ministry of Magic has deemed it the right time to try once more, and we have all worked hard to bring you an equally exciting, but far safer, Triwizard Tournament. Therefore, in order to ensure said safety, the heads of the participating schools and myself have agreed to put an age restriction on volunteers. Only students of age will be able to put forward their names for consideration. This, we feel, is a necessary precaution due to the challenging and dangerous nature of these tasks. I will personally be ensuring that no underage student hoodwinks our impartial judge… and I therefore beg you not to waste your time submitting yourself if you are not of age."

Of age? I was of age, which meant that I could apply if I really wanted to. I snorted at myself. As if you would stand a chance.

"The delegations from Letra Damien and Academie des Talonxs will be arriving in October and I know that you will all extend every courtesy to our guests. Now, it is late and you have lessons waiting for you tomorrow morning. Bedtime!"

The conversation became tumultuous as students pushed back their benches and headed to their respective common rooms, talking excitedly about the Tournament. I, however, tried to peer over everyone's heads as I watched the Slytherins leaving their table.

"Ray, what are you doing? Come on," Dorcas said, gently shoving me forward.

Desperation overwhelmed me as I sank down onto my feet and began to move forward as the crowd pushed me out of the entrance hall.

Suddenly, just before I made my way to the left to the staircases that led to Gryffindor Tower, I felt a warm hand grasp mine tightly for the briefest moment, and then it disappeared. I tried to look behind me, but all I could see was a mass of students all moving out of the Great Hall.

I looked back down at my hand, wondering if I had only imagined it. But there was a tiny slip of paper there. As I climbed the stairs behind the other girls, I secretively opened the paper. There, scrawled in incredibly neat and regal calligraphy were the words, "Sorry I'm late."