The Land of the Lost

Those very words replayed in Sirius’ head as he popped out of his animagi form and back into Sirius Black. Still pale and shaky from the events that had just happened, Sirius rang the doorbell to Remus Lupin’s house. As the ding-ding-dong echoed through the empty stillness of the night, Sirius replayed the events of that night silently in his head. So much had happened in one night, it was just nerve-racking. The smell of fresh brewed Mandrake billowed from the windows of the old cottage, giving the area a homey feeling like you get around Christmas (even though it was June!). A faint light glowed from a few windows on the side facing the moss covered cobblestone path that Sirius had just journeyed across. Sirius was particularly jumpy tonight, so it was no surprise when a large mosquito landed on Sirius’ arm, that he jumped back in alarm. Just like the old days, everything happened at once. No one was ever sure what really happened, unless they were directly related to it. Guess that proves that there really is no such thing as a victimless crime. Sirius’ thoughts came back to the present, as a man came to the door, lines of worry sketched his young face that was mostly hidden in the shadows of the early sunrise. For a minute the two men just stared at each other. Both taking in the others new appearances, which made their features look very different indeed. Remus looked over his friend who he had known since his first year of Hogwarts. No longer was Sirius pale from Azkaban, yet he wasn’t back to his normal tan color. His hair was shorter and tidier than it had been in a long time, and Sirius’ eyes, even though they still had a haunted look about them, had a healthier shine. Even though Sirius’ appearance in general looked healthier, Remus could tell something was very wrong. Remus’ face was sketched with worry that had made everlasting lines. His slate gray eyes shimmered with surprise at the site of Sirius. The silence ended as Remus admitted his old friend inside with a silent smile. Not a happy smile, but the smile of worry that Sirius hoped he would never see Remus use again, the smile that was caused from great tiredness and worry.

"Remus, I have some bad news," Sirius grimaced, the only news these days seemed to be bad news. "It seems that Voldemort has risen again, he took Amos Diggory’s son’s life in the process. Pettigrew (He spat the name like it was acid,) helped Voldemort rise. Kidnapped Harry by turning the Tri-Wizard Trophy into a Portkey. Fudge is also giving us some problems-you know all too well about his involvement in the Death Eaters." Remus nodded going even paler, "Well, he has refused to inform the public about Voldemort’s new rein of terror." Sirius paused again to let the information sink in with Remus, "Dumbledore is having Hagrid and Madame Maxine, you know, the Headmistress at Beauxbatons, go and try to convince the giants not to go over to Voldemort," Sirius paused again to let this information sink in again, hoping that he would not have to break the news to Remus, that he would catch on to his mission. Lupin did catch on to the situation and what he was going to have to do. Sirius could tell by how his eyes glanced downward, and then back up to meet Sirius in the eye.

"He wants me to go and contact some of my people, doesn’t he?" Remus said this with out any feeling or tone, glanced outside his window to the English moor that seemed to go on for miles. He seemed to become very interested on the sunrise and the wind that was blowing the leaves of the only tree in sight, and the fresh green grass that covered the field making it look like a green grassy sea.

"Yes, he does."

Those were the only words Sirius could find to say. There was nothing more to say in a moment like this. Dark times were coming again, and now they knew what to expect, but that didn’t help a lot. Mostly it brought misery, woe, and panic. Dumbledore was going to have some job trying to stop Voldemort from rising higher than ever. Dumbledore could try all he wants, but if Voldemort had really risen again, then dark times would engulf them soon.

"How long do I have, before I have to- have to leave?" Lupin still had a distant look in his eyes, as though he was remembering something very painful that happened long ago.

"Dumbledore wants you to leave as soon as possible. He wants to take action immediately. Wants to tell as many people the truth as possible, in the shortest amount of time, wants to unite everyone he can. Albus wants you to do the same thing you tried to do before…." Sirius stopped to notice that Remus wasn’t listening anymore; he was in his own world for the moment. Slowly Remus looked back to Sirius with a tired but determined look on his face. Eyes now blazing with a fire that looked as though it might never go out.

"Who do I need to contact?" Remus’ voice was still soft, but had a demanding edge to it now. As if someone had lit a fire and it was starting to burn a little swifter. Sirius just hopped that Remus didn’t burn himself out to quickly.

"He said something about, a er-," Sirius had forgotten the name of the man, "Er- Something Fletcher, erm…Fletcher… Fletcher something…" Sirius could not remember the name of that man for his life. Trying to remember to name as if it were his own. Sirius racked his brain, but came up with nothing, until… "Mundungus! That’s his name-Mundungus Fletcher. Wasn’t he your neighbor after you graduated from Hogwarts…" Sirius trailed off as he noticed that Remus was again lost in his own little world. "Mundungus… Fletcher. Can’t believe he is still alive. Poor old chap, probably still living in that town. Poor man…" Remus continued to mutter in this same sort of fashion, until he realized that Sirius was giving him anxious looks.

After spending a month of his summer vacation at the Dursley’s, Harry was glad when he got Ron’s letter saying that he could come and stay with the Weasleys. He was almost free from Uncle Vernon, Aunt Petunia and Dudley. He couldn’t wait, one of his favorite places was the Weasleys (aside from Hogwarts), and was glad to here that Dumbledore finally approved that he could go to their house. (The Burrow) Harry smiled to himself at the memories of how Ron and his family had rescued him from his horrible guardians, time and time again. Harry’s thoughts then drifted to last week when Sirius had shown up to notify Mrs. Figg, of Voldemort return, but had ‘accidentally’ gotten the addresses mixed up and scared Uncle Vernon half to death, by warning him not to mistreat Harry, because he would be in the neighborhood, literally. To bad he didn’t turn him into a frog, or something like that. Still lost in his thoughts as he walked down the stairs and into the kitchen, where Aunt Petunia was fixing breakfast, after daydreaming out of the window for a minute, Harry snapped to when he heard his Aunt high-pitched voice telling him to get the bacon before it burned. Rushing over to the stove to grab the bacon, Harry heard a knock on the door, the sound of the door opening and Dudley’s low growl of a scream.

Remus had been traveling for days, when he finally approached the outskirts of the city. There were two paths that you could take; one path continued on with the familiar moss covered cobblestone that Remus had been following for the last day and a half. The next path was covered with grass and had large wooden wagon, which would have been pulled by horses, filled to the top with big roles of hay blocking the way. Making that path look as if it was a driveway of some sort or another. Many people would have continued their journey on down the cobblestone road, and some would have not even noticed the little path of worn down grass. But Remus did. Setting down his carpet-traveling bag, and taking of his glasses to clean them on his dust-covered robe, and putting his glasses back on, Remus looked around to see if anyone was coming down the path, then once in the air (for broomstick riders), he picked his carpet bag back up and walked to where the cobblestone stopped and the grass path began. Searching the ground for about a minute, Lupin finally found what he was looking for: a series of cobblestone shaped as an "L". (with darker cobblestone) The last stone in the series of the "L" was scraped clean with hardly any moss at all anywhere near it. Dropping his bag once again, Lupin focused on the stone and kicked it three times with his shoe. Remus watched as the stone lowered and then rose back up, giving him permission the cross over to the wagon. (if he didn’t he the grass path would have just lead back to the cobblestone trail.) Stopping at the wagon where you would have had the horses, which was now staked in the grounds with a humongous wooden stake, instead of kicking the stake, Lupin brought out his wand, and tapped the stake 2 times, and watched another path appear to the side of the path he was already on. He continued down that trail, until he reached a sign.

"Timothy!" Called Timothy’s father Mundungus from the stairs of their home, "You have a letter here."

A very groggy Timothy Fletcher walked down the Pinewood stairs and into his family’s small breakfast room and sat down at a roughly made hardwood table. Letting the room swim into focus (Timothy wasn’t a morning person.) he took in the new daylight. It was a sunny day, puffy clouds in the sky that was a crystal blue.

"What kind of letter did I get?" Timothy ask, realizing that that was what his father had woken him up about.

"Well, son you have been accepted to Hogwarts." The pride in Mundungus was giving off a powerful heat. Clapping his son on the shoulder, Fletcher handed Timothy the letter.

"Really! I mean I thought that because of, well you know… I got in to Hogwarts! Yes!" Timothy was ecstatic about making it into Hogwarts, they accepted him even though he was different! Timothy was interrupted from his joyous thoughts of school, when there was a knock on the door and a tired weary man made his way into the house.

"Mundungus, how good to see you again." Remus was sitting in a small little living room on a small couch, talking to the man who he had been waiting to talk to ever since Sirius told him his job.

"Remus, we have never been real close friends, neighbors, but never close enough friends to walk for days just to see each other. Why are you here?" Fletcher said as he drank his morning tea in small swallows eyeing Lupin, as if he could read his mind. Lupin sighed, seeing that there was no way to beat around the bush and no use trying to make this mountain of a problem into a molehill. Taking a sip of his tea Remus cleared his throat, trying to get rid of his hoarse voice, pushed his hair out of his face, and began.

"Mundungus, Voldemort has risen again. Dumbledore needs you to meet him, and take measures to make sure that he doesn’t get any more followers than he already has. I am going to have to stay here, and..." Remus would have continued if Fletcher would have let him, but Fletcher rose his had in a gesture for Remus to stop talking. Shooting Mundungus a look of great irritation Lupin sighed and let Fletcher speak.

"The people of this town are not easily swayed from their beliefs," Fletcher paused while Remus rolled his eyes, "You know that I don’t want You-Know-Who to rise again, but most people of this town do. You know about the rings don’t you?" Remus sighed, seeing that this conference was nowhere fast, he stood up and headed toward the door.

"I know a lot about the rings," Remus paused. He took off his glasses, cleaned them on his robes, and then put them back on his face. " I just hope Voldemort doesn’t bribe too many people into his little cult with those. Seeing as people of this town are easily persuaded if they get what they want in the end." As Remus opened the door, Fletcher called out behind him.

"You would want one, wouldn’t you? You know that everyone in this town would kill for one of those rings, and they do. You just need to find a way to get them away from him." Lupin was beginning to be irritated by Fletcher’s calmness to the seriousness of this situation. Mentally counting to ten, Lupin turned around to say one last thing.

"Dumbledore still wants to talk to you." Remus said that in a very stained voice, as Remus was trying not to yell. Turning swiftly on his heal, and letting his robes flourish behind him, Lupin shut the door and walked down the street to find a hotel.

After arriving at the Burrow, Harry finally felt the guilt from Cedric’s death starting to ease off. Harry was still feeling guilty, but being around a friendly atmosphere made him feel better. Maybe because it made him forget, or maybe it was something in the food, but whatever it was, Harry wasn’t quite sure. Snapping out of his thoughts at the sound of Mrs. Wesley’s voice, Harry pulled on some clothes and went down for breakfast. Opening the door, Harry was thrown back with a blue-green billowing cloud of smoke. Harry stood up, silently cursing himself for falling for the new pranks Fred and George invented with new materials they had bought, Harry walked down the stairs. Once down stairs, an unusual site met Harry’s eyes. Three unusual men were sitting in the sitting room of the Weasleys. They had dirty tuffs of brown-black hair in a tangled mess around their faces, and their robes were soiled and patched. Their skin was a pinkish color, scratched and hairy. Long pointy ears extended from their heads that were also covered in fur. There was also a dangerous aura around them, as two of them pointed their wands at the captive Weasley family. Out of all of that, the thing that Harry noticed the most was the unusual rings that they wore on their thumbs. The rings were a glowing gold with green emeralds that glowed a burning fury like a mad cat’s eye, and were shaped as snakes around the owners finger. Harry didn’t have much time to think about anything else as the third man raised his wand, and black rushed over Harry’s vision.

Timothy was still excited about his luck, as the strange man left his house. Timmy hadn’t really paid attention to what the conversation had been about, nor did he care. He couldn’t wait until his trip to Diagon Alley. It would be his first time out of his village. Lupusvill may have been a village that was big enough to support most peoples needs, but it didn’t have the schoolbooks and such that Diagon Alley had. Timmy’s father also wanted him to see other places before he went to Hogwarts, too. But ever since Timmy’s mother died, Mundungus hadn’t wanted to go back into the thick of the wizarding world. "Bad memories" Fletcher said. None of this mattered to Timmy anymore, because he enjoying himself in his own little world Timmy daydreaming about Hogwarts, he never noticed three ruffled looking men and a body go into his next-door neighbors house.