Dreaming Of You

Dreaming of You

Part 8 - Turning Point

Chapter 15

Past the point of no return

No backward glances -

Our games of make believe are at an end.

Past all thought of "if" or "when"

No use resisting

Abandon thought and let the dream descend.

"Things like this do not happen. They do not." Erin glared at the piece of paper on the table in front of her. "I refuse to believe this is happening."

"You still haven't explained just what it is you don't believe," Autumn said, with more than a touch of impatience. "Can you hurry? Three-way calling can get expensive, you know."

"Some things are more important than your phone bill!" Erin snapped. "Like our sanity, for example."

"Yes, but the key point here is that I won't be grounded for a month if our sanity skyrockets," Autumn countered.

"Besides, there won't be much of our sanity left if you keep worrying us this way," Hazel pointed out. "Erin, what is it?"

Erin sighed. "Well... you know this letters I've been getting?"

"From the guy who says he's Remus? What's he got to do with Li?" Autumn demanded.

"He was talking about her in his letters." Erin paused. "I think it was her. A girl named 'Lianne,' anyway. He says," she found her most recent letter, "'I can't explain anything that's been going on, but I have a friend who might be able to. She's had some rather odd experiences herself. I'll ask Lianne the next time I see her.'"

"Coincidence," Autumn said promptly. But not with quite as much confidence as she might have done a week ago. "Unless - you don't think Lianne's working with that guy?"

"How do you explain her disappearing?" Hazel reminded her. "She might've been able to manage the letters, if she had someone really professional helping - though I really don't think she actually would - but the disappearance is a little too elaborate for some joke."

"Yeah, Lianne's not that organized," Autumn agreed. "So back to what I said at first - it's a coincidence. Lianne isn't a particularly uncommon name. Maybe he picked it at random. Or maybe he knows you're one of Lianne's friends, and he's trying to confuse you. There're all sorts of logical explanations."

"Yeah..." Erin picked up another letter. "There's more, though. Listen. 'I don't think I know anyone named Erin, or Autumn or Hazel, for that matter. I do know a Li, but I rather doubt it's the same one.' That's the first letter I ever got. I thought it was a reference to Lily Evans at the time."

"You know what Lianne would say right now, don't you?" Hazel said, a smile in her voice. "She'd say that everything is exactly what it looks like." She sighed. "Wouldn't that be nice? If her dreams all really did come true?"

"You do know - " Autumn began.

"Oh, yes, I suppose," Hazel said quickly. "But - well, it's the only explanation I can come up with. And... I do wish it were true."

"Well, it's not," Erin said flatly, suddenly irritated with the turns the conversation was taking. "And it's never going to be. We don't have a magical land of fairies and unicorns and happily-ever-afters. We have a friend who's disappeared with no explanation, and not even any record that she ever existed. What we don't have is a clue what to do now!"

"The police?" Hazel suggested.

"Oh, sure," Autumn sneered. "I can just see this. 'Hello, officer, how are you? Our friend just disappeared the other day, and now everyone says she was never real in the first place.' And then he throws us out on our ear, or, if we're not so lucky, arrests us for being high on something. No, thank you, I think not."

"Then what do you think we should do?" Hazel wanted to know. "The only way we can prove that Lianne isn't just a figment of our extremely overactive imaginations is with those letters Erin has!"

"That's not proof," Autumn said derisively. "It's only proof if he says it's our Lianne, and it probably isn't."

"Probably," Erin repeated. "You say probably. I still think what I thought in the first place - it is Li. He got that letter into a room that was locked, with me inside the room the entire time. Why couldn't it be Lianne?"

"I suppose only he knows for sure," Hazel said.

"Well, then do the obvious." Autumn paused, but no one came in with, 'oh, of course, how silly of us.' "Ask him."

"He might lie," Erin pointed out.

"Then we're no worse off than we were," Autumn retorted. "And at least it's doing something."

"Right." Erin pulled a blank sheet of paper from her notebook. "Dear Remus - "

"What are you doing?" Autumn interrupted.

"Writing a letter," Erin told her. "You're the one who wanted me to."

"You're going to write it now?"

"I think that's a good idea," Hazel said. "We can all write it. Maybe if he really does know something, seeing that we're really worried about her will make him want to tell us."

"I want to know why we're addressing it 'Dear Remus,'" Autumn said. "I mean, it isn't Remus. Not really. Just some wacko trying to mess with Erin's mind."

"How else am I supposed to start?" Erin asked, annoyed. "'To whom it may concern?' Or maybe, 'Dear sir or madam?'"

"Just start it like you always do," Hazel said quickly. "The opening isn't the issue here."

"Fine," Autumn agreed.

"'Dear Remus,' then," Erin said. "My friends and I have a question for you..."

~*~

"Absolutely, totally, and completely nuts," Autumn muttered, hanging up the phone. "I'm starting to wish all I had to worry about was my next Pre-Calc test."

The phone rang again. She sighed. "Hello - "

"What do you want?"

Autumn glowered at the receiver. "Oh, not you again." An idiot Draco-wanna-be was the last person she felt like dealing with. "Can't you please just leave me alone for a while?"

"Aw, is the Muggle under stress?"

"You," Autumn said coldly, "have no idea."

"Oh, believe me, I know all about stress." His voice sounded almost tired, just for an instant.

"I suppose your friends disappear all the time?" she snapped. "I suppose seeing someone's existence wiped from the face of the earth is normal for you?"

"I don't have the faintest idea what you're talking about," the boy said impatiently, "and I don't think you do, either. You're just being stupid to annoy me."

"I am not!" Autumn shouted. "I will have you know that my friend Lianne is missing, and no one believes me! You're just some idiotic brainless prank-caller, how dare you call me stupid?"

There was silence on the other end of the line. Autumn was beginning to think he'd hung up, when -

"Missing? How can people disbelieve it if someone's missing? Pretty obvious, isn't it?"

"That - that's none of your business," Autumn said hastily.

"Of course. That's why you were screaming at me about it," he drawled, sounding rather uninterested in the whole business.

"You provoked me!"

"I'm a Slytherin. We excel at provoking people."

Autumn's eyes narrowed. "You aren't."

"Yes, we do, actually. And you ought to say 'you don't,' though American grammar - "

"You aren't a Slytherin, and don't you dare start insulting my grammar!" Autumn's knuckles were white around the phone. "I am sick of you calling me like this, and never saying anything friendly, or even remotely sympathetic, not even when my friend has gone missing! You don't know what this feels like, you don't know what Erin and Hazel and I are going through, and you have no right to call me and pretend to be Draco Malfoy and try to make me cry when I'm already closer to it than I've been in ages!"

He didn't shout back at her. That startled her. And she hadn't heard him hang up, either. What was he doing, listening to her breathe?

"I suppose you think you're being clever," she snarled, furious at his silence. "Let's not talk and see how angry we can make Autumn. Let's see how far we can push her before she breaks. Let's see what happens when we drive her over the edge!" He still didn't comment. "Well? Aren't you going to talk? Don't you have some stupid smart remark to make? Aren't you going to sneer and insult me and be nasty and evil? Well?"

He took a deep breath. "I was going to say," he said quietly, "that I do know what it feels like, to see people disappear." He hung the phone up with a soft click.

Autumn stared at the receiver, anger abruptly draining out of her. She had the strangest feeling that she'd just done something really cruel.

~*~

Hazel sat curled up on the stone floor of the Hogwarts classroom, tucking her feet under her. She just wasn't in the mood to sit up straight and proper in one of the desks. "I told you, Harry, you don't need to worry about it."

"How can I not worry?" he demanded. "I can't help it, not when you're this upset."

She shook her head. "You wouldn't understand."

"I happen to understand quite a bit," Harry said indignantly.

"That isn't what I meant." Hazel sighed. "I don't understand. It's really complicated."

"Hazel, please." Harry sat beside her. "Talking about it will make you feel better. And knowing what's making you so worried will make me feel better."

She smiled a little. "I suppose... Well, if you're sure. I have this friend, named Lianne. And she's disappeared."

"What - like kidnapped?" Harry asked, eyes widening in alarm.

"I don't know," Hazel told him. "That's what's so horrible about it. Erin, Autumn, and I are the only ones who know. We've tried telling people, but they just insist she never existed in the first place."

"Huh." Harry bit his lip thoughtfully. "Sounds almost like some sort of Memory Charm."

Hazel smiled. "I doubt it. If we bring up magic, people will think we're even crazier than they already do."

"What - " Harry stared at her. "Are you a Muggle?"

"Well - yes, I suppose I am." Admitting it made her feel sadder than she had already. "I'd much rather be a witch, of course, but so would any Muggle."

A shadow crossed Harry's face. "Not some." He shook his head. "Anyway, that definitely sounds like magic, with your friend. I'm not sure what it could be, but I'll ask my friend Hermione - oh - " He stopped.

"What?" Hazel frowned. "Is something wrong?"

"Well... asking Hermione things right now probably isn't a good idea." Harry sighed. "She's not too happy with me at the moment."

"I'm sorry," Hazel told him. "I'd help if I could."

"I know." Harry grinned. "Though your presence would probably only make things worse." Hazel blinked. "Never mind. Anyway, I'll see if I can come up with anything on my own. What's her name again?"

"Lianne," Hazel told him. "Lianne Treyvan."

"Treyvan?" Harry frowned. "You mean like - like the illustrator?"

"What illustrator?" Hazel asked, confused.

"There's... an illustrator for wizard books - oh, of course, you wouldn't have heard of her," Harry realized. "Anyway, her name's L. R. Treyvan. She did the pictures for some series about unicorns and phoenixes. I think she painted one of the pictures in the school a few years ago. They like to get any artists that used to be Hogwarts student to do pictures for the school."

"Ah." Hazel nodded. "That's pretty weird. Li always wanted to be an illustrator. She'd've done anything to illustrate wizard books." She sighed. "I miss her."

"I'm sorry." Harry rested a hand gently on her arm.

"I just wish we had some idea what to do," Hazel said in frustration. "I mean, we don't even have a clue what happened, and now a lot of people think we're mental cases! And right now, I don't have any reason to doubt that!"

"You're not crazy," Harry told her firmly.

"Oh, sure, a dream tells me I'm not going loony?" Hazel laughed a little. "I've got to be losing it. It's the stress. I told my mother I shouldn't take the IB program."

"IB?" Harry frowned at her.

"Muggle thing," she told him. "School stuff. It drives a lot of people crazy. Me included."

"Didn't I just say you aren't crazy?" Harry demanded. "Don't say that about yourself, Hazel!"

"Why shouldn't I?" Hazel's eyes snapped angrily. "I'm talking to an imaginary character from a book! How can that not be insane? What kind of person talks to book characters? What kind of person dreams about them? What kind of person falls in lo-"

She stopped sharply, but Harry caught it anyway. "Love? Were you about to say love?"

"No. Don't be silly," Hazel said abruptly. "I - "

"Hazel." He silenced her with a look. "Please, just answer. I - I have to know."

She met his eyes, which was the biggest mistake she could have made. Even behind the twin walls of glass, his eyes were pools of green so deep she almost believed she could just fall forward and drown in them forever. Why had she dreamed of such eyes, so vividly, intensely green?

"Hazel?" He tilted his head, looking at her as his hair fell across his forehead. Why was he asking her this? Why did he want to know? Couldn't he just leave it be? "Please?"

"I - " Hazel bit her lip. "I - " She closed her eyes. "It doesn't matter. It's just a dream, anyway."

"Yeah." Harry's hand fell away from her arm. "Sorry. I shouldn't have pressured you like that. We all say things we don't mean. Believe me, I understand."

"Yeah." Hazel nodded. "I guess you would."

Chapter 16

Past the point of no return

The final threshold

What warm unspoken secrets will we learn

Beyond the point of no return?

"And I don't know how I'm getting these letters, or what she's talking about, or anything," Remus finished, frustrated. "Do you have any ideas?" He realized Lianne's face had gone white. "Li?"

"This girl..." Lianne said distantly. "Her name is Erin Conner, isn't it?"

Remus stared. "How in the world did you know that?"

She didn't say anything, just kept gazing beyond the wall at something the rest of the world couldn't see. Remus was struck by a sudden memory, from years and years ago - Sirius, when he'd thought he'd never see Lianne again. He'd sat and stared past the wall, lost in another time and place.

"Lianne? Are you all right?" he asked again, getting worried. Comparing Li to Sirius at that point in his life was not reassuring.

"I'm thinking, that's all." Her eyes focused on him again. "Can I see one of her letters?"

Remus silently passed one over. Not the first, but an early one, where Erin was ranting at him, thinking him to be her fiancé. Lianne scanned it, then set it gently on the table.

"How long has this been going on?" she asked, her voice trembling a little.

"Oh - a month?" Remus shrugged. "Around there. Why?"

"You're sure it hasn't been years and years, and you just didn't realize how the time was flying by?"

"Lianne, what is it?" Remus frowned in exasperated bewilderment. "You're reacting more strongly than I am!"

"Well... I guess I am. But it's just such a shock." Lianne shook her head. "Not that you could get these letters, but - well, that it's Erin."

"You know her?" Remus's eyes lit up.

"Well... I did." Lianne's face was set in a troubled grimace. "Before I met any of you."

"Didn't you like her?" Remus asked, dismayed.

"Oh, I did when I knew her," Lianne said dismissively. "That's not the point."

"And may I ask what is?"

"Remus," Lianne looked up at him, "Erin wrote these letters back when I still knew her. I saw some of them. She nearly had a heart attack the first time she got one."

Remus grasped her point almost immediately. "But that was years ago. I've only just been getting these now."

"I know." She looked at the letter again. "But it is Erin's letter. I'd recognize it anywhere, even after twenty years."

"You don't think it's someone pretending?" Remus asked.

"I don't see how it could be," Lianne replied slowly. "I never told anyone about this. And what would the point be, anyway? You didn't even know who Erin was until I told you just now."

"True." Remus refrained from drumming his fingers on the table. He'd thought Lianne would have more answers for him, not more questions. But she didn't even have a clue. Asking her hadn't done any good.

He had other things he wanted to ask her, too, questions she'd probably be able and willing to answer - but he didn't quite dare ask. First and foremost in his mind was Erin herself. What was she like? Was she the way her letters seemed? And - the question Remus dreaded most - what about her fiancé?

"What?" Lianne looked up.

Remus blushed, realizing he'd spoken that last part aloud. "Nothing. Never mind."

"Ok." Lianne shrugged, her mind clearly elsewhere. "Remus?"

"Yes?"

"Just out of curiosity... what made you bring Erin up right now?"

Remus frowned. "What do you mean?"

"When I was talking about there being someone special in your life," Lianne explained. She looked at him searchingly. "Are you... in love with her?"

Remus froze. "Where would you get that idea?"

"Just wondering." Li kept her eyes on him. "Remus? I know I'm being horribly nosy, but I do have a reason for asking. See... I think she's in love with you."

"No." Remus shook his head firmly. "No. You're not thinking straight, Li. She said herself she's engaged - "

"She what?" Li looked down at the letter in front of her. "You don't mean you believed her?" She shook her head slowly. "I'm really confused now."

"You're confused?" Remus asked incredulously.

"Yup." Lianne sighed. "We thought these letters were just someone playing a nasty joke on Erin. She made stuff up to make him feel guilty. Now you're telling me it wasn't a joke at all? It was all real?"

"I guess," Remus said doubtfully. "I'm not really telling you anything. I don't know myself."

"Yeah, I noticed." Lianne shook her head again. "I really wish Erin and the others had answered my letters."

"What?" Remus blinked.

"Oh, I wrote to them for the first few months I was at Hogwarts," Lianne said with a shrug. "Sirius knows about it. They never answered, I was hurt, I gave up, I got over it. I tried to find them once I got back to America, but I never could. It was kind of depressing, really. Like my old world just got totally cut off when I left for Hogwarts."

"Oh." Remus winced inwardly. He was really making some stellar conversation today, wasn't he? But he didn't know what else he could say. He'd never wondered about Lianne's life before he'd met her. It had never occurred to him that she would have had other friends. He'd known that something had happened to her family, of course, but he still didn't know exactly what. It made him feel a little guilty. Why hadn't he ever asked her about this before?

"But that's off topic," Lianne added. "The point is, I don't know what Erin's like now. But when she wrote those letters, she was very much in love with you."

"She did say something like that," Remus admitted. "In her first letter - the one that was - that I thought was to her fiancé."

"Yeah." Lianne nodded. "You weren't meant to see it."

"I could guess," he replied dryly. "How could she love me? She didn't even know me?"

"I loved Sirius before I knew him," Lianne pointed out.

"She had nutty dreams about me?" Remus asked warily.

"Um... something along those lines." He had the distinct impression she was avoiding the question, but she hurried along. "So what about you?"

"What about me what?" Remus asked.

"Do you love her?" Li gave him a look, as though it should have been obvious.

"It's a little soon to be able to tell that, isn't it?" Remus pointed out. "And shouldn't she be the one I tell?"

"Are you going to tell her? When you write to her?" Lianne asked hopefully.

"Oh, of course, I suppose in my place you would - " Remus stopped. "You probably would, wouldn't you? No, I'm not going to say anything of the sort to her."

"Oh." Lianne sighed in disappointment. "Well, tell her I said hello. See what she says to that."

"Why don't you tell her yourself?" Remus suggested. "I have a letter I wrote to her earlier, you can add a note to it. I'll go get it." He got up. "I'll be right back."

~*~

Lianne watched Remus go, an odd expression on her face. "And here I thought my life couldn't get any stranger." She shook her head.

A loud whistling attracted her attention, and she noticed the forgotten teakettle was boiling. She looked at the stove it was sitting on, decided she didn't want to risk trying to guess the spell to shut it off, and tried to pick the kettle up with Remus's potholder. After some scorched fingers and a moment's cursing at idiot wizards who thought crocheted potholders would be a clever idea, she got the thing off the stove.

What's taking Remus so long? Li wondered, finding two mugs in a cupboard. At least Remus was more organized than most men. His cups were actually in cupboards, rather than in the sink waiting to be washed.

Unfortunately, what Remus did not have in his cupboard was tea bags. And, having neither grown up British, nor taken Divination, Lianne hadn't the faintest idea how to brew tea leaves. She was about to try crumbling part of one into one of the mugs to see what happened when Remus came back in, looking unsettled. Li immediately lost interest in the tea leaves.

"What's wrong?" she asked, concerned.

"I - I'm afraid I don't have that letter I mentioned, anymore," Remus said, sounding rather stunned. "I've gotten a reply."

"Oh." Lianne frowned. "That's good, right?"

"I guess." Remus glanced down at the letter he held. "Sort of. Li, I don't think your friends forgot you, after all."

"Really?" Lianne raised her eyebrows. "Erin mentions me?"

"Not just mentions." Remus offered her the letter. "It's all about you."

"What?" Lianne frowned at him, then took the letter. Dear Remus, it began, just like the others.

Dear Remus,

In some of your previous letters, you've mentioned a girl named Lianne. I have a friend named Lianne, too... but she disappeared a few days ago.

I think the Lianne you know might be the same one my other friends, Hazel and Autumn, and I are looking for. Crazy as it may sound, I do have my reasons. Her full name is Lianne Treyvan, if that helps identify her.

Please, if this really is the same Lianne, write back and tell me. Then have her call me, or something. Autumn, Hazel, and I are very worried.

Sincerely,

Erin, Hazel, and Autumn

Lianne took a deep, if somewhat shaky, breath. "Well. At least they noticed I'm not there anymore."

Chapter 17

Past the point of no return

The final threshold

The bridge is crossed so stand and watch it burn.

We've passed the point of no return.

"What do you mean, you need my car?" Erin stared at her mother indignantly. "How am I supposed to get to school?"

"You'll just have to take the bus," Mrs. Conner said, unperturbed. "The school board pays for public school transportation, you can take advantage of it."

"And how am I going to get to the bus stop?" Erin demanded.

"Walk." Her mother smiled sweetly. "I'd get going, dear. The bus will leave without you."

Erin scowled, but she plunked her car keys on the counter in front of her mother. It isn't even as though she paid for the car, she thought angrily, grabbing her backpack from beside the door on her way out. I bought it myself. All right, Grandma helped a little, but it's still my car. It's not my fault Mom ran into someone's mailbox.

At least she knew where the bus stop was. She'd had to ride the school bus last year, before she'd gotten her own car. It was within walking distance, though she'd have to hurry, considering the late start she'd gotten.

She was in a particular hurry to get to school today, so didn't it figure she'd have to ride the excruciatingly long bus route? She wanted to tell Hazel and Autumn that their letter to Remus was gone. She hadn't gotten a reply yet, though, which was a little odd. Usually her letters were immediately replaced by his. It was kind of disappointing, really. She'd gotten almost used to this mysterious penpal of hers.

Erin was so deep in her thoughts as she walked that she didn't even notice when she took a wrong turn. It only hit her when she reached where she'd thought the bus stop was... and realized it wasn't. She groaned. Curse it, now I am going to miss the bus. Maybe if she hurried back home, she'd catch her mom in time to get a ride.

Erin started back the way she'd come, but it only took her a few steps to realize that she had absolutely no idea where she was. She stared around her, bemused. Just where did I walk to? she wondered. I didn't think I went that far.

The nearby street sign wasn't any help. She was on the corner of Mayberry and Brandybuck. How nice that was for her. She sighed. Maybe I'll see someone I can ask for directions.

She tried her best to trace her steps, in the hopes of seeing something she recognized, or at least a friendly early-morning jogger who'd be willing to help her out. Unfortunately, everyone appeared to be asleep, except for the occasional car whizzing by. And no matter how far she walked, she didn't come across anything at all familiar.

Erin was starting to get worried. She wouldn't have believed it was possible to get lost this close to her own neighborhood, but apparently it was. Don't panic, she cautioned herself. If all else fails, I can ring someone's doorbell and ask where I am. She wasn't quite that desperate yet, but it was comforting to know she had a last resort.

She was about to turn to it in despair when she finally spotted an older woman jogging along the other side of the street. Erin started to cross over - and jumped back with a curse. "Where did that bloody car come from?" she gasped, staring after it as it sped away, horn blaring.

"You all right, dear?" the woman on the other side of the street called. She crossed over, somewhat more cautiously than Erin had. "Close call you had there. I've complained to the neighborhood organizational committee about those awful drivers, but they just won't listen."

"He was driving on the left side of the road!" Erin said indignantly. "I hope he gets pulled over!"

The woman blinked, then nodded in realization. "Ah, I see. You're American. Here on holidays?"

"Excuse me?" Erin stared at the woman blankly. Her British accent explained why she made a point of calling Erin an American... but not the part about holidays.

"Sometimes people here have family visit," the woman said cheerfully. "Don't worry about it, the street side changing confuses all of you at first. And the speed some people drive at doesn't help things, either."

"Ah." Erin blinked, then gave a mental shrug. "Well, I think I've gotten a bit lost, ma'am. Could you tell me where I am, please?"

"Oh, certainly." She smiled at Erin. "You're on the corner of Brandybuck - "

"And Mayberry, I know," Erin interrupted. "I'm just not sure where that is."

"In the Poplar Coves," the woman replied. "That's the neighborhood, dear," she added, when Erin didn't immediately understand. "My, but you are lost. Where were you trying to get to?"

"My bus stop," Erin said slowly. "Which isn't more than ten minutes' walk from my house. And I know there isn't a Poplar Coves neighborhood anywhere near me."

"What - " The woman stopped. "Oh, I see. You're only just eighteen, aren't you? Just gotten your license?"

"Well... yes..." Erin didn't see what that had to do with anything.

"Oh, you poor thing!" She looked quite a lot more sympathetic now. "You think you're still in America, don't you?"

"Yes?" Erin had the feeling she was going to hear something really insane in a moment or so.

"You've missed," the woman told her. "By quite a lot. You've hopped the ocean, in fact, which not many girls your age can manage. Most of them get dropped on a beach somewhere." She smiled reminiscently. "I remember my first try at Apparating. I ended up on a boat on its way across the Channel to France. Scared the daylights out of me - I wasn't even aiming for the coast!"

Erin stared. "Apparating...?"

"Of course, dear," the woman said. "Even old witches like me still like to zip about. Tell you what," she continued, "why don't you call up the Knight Bus, instead of trying to get back to America by yourself. Ask them to take you to the Apparation Department at the Ministry building. We've got people on call there all the time for people who've gotten themselves lost."

By this time, Erin had decided she was talking to a lunatic. A lunatic who'd read the Harry Potter books, perhaps, but still a madwoman. "Thanks," she said, trying not to sound nervous. "I'll do that."

"Good." The woman hung about, not taking the hint. "Well, go on, dear."

Erin hesitated, not sure what she was expected to - no, that wasn't right, she knew what the woman wanted her to do, she just didn't know how to do it. She didn't even have anything on her that looked like a wand, so she couldn't fake calling the Bus. Maybe if I wait long enough, she'll get bored and go away.

"Dear?" The woman gave her a puzzled glance. "Is something wrong?"

Erin sighed. "I can't call the Knight Bus - "

She was about to explain that the Knight Bus was not real when the woman interrupted. "Don't you know how?" she asked in astonishment. "Those Americans! Imagine, a girl your age not being able to call the Knight Bus!" She pulled a stick out of her pocket. "Don't worry, dear, I'll do it."

Erin rolled her eyes. This woman was worse than Lianne ever was. At least Li didn't pester complete strangers about the Potter world. Well... that was how she'd met Autumn...

Her train of thought was rudely derailed as an enormous bus of the most outrageous purple imaginably screeched to a halt in front of them. Erin froze. "Oh, my Lord," she said softly. "The Knight Bus. The actual Knight Bus."

A girl of about Erin's age hopped out, dressed in a uniform of the same horrendous violet as the bus. "Hello, and welcome to the Knight Bus," she chirped. "I'm Stacey Shunpike, I'll be your conductor this morning. Just stick out your wand hand, and climb on board, we can take you anywhere you want to go!"

"I'll let you get settled, then," the woman said kindly. "Take care, and good luck with your Apparating!" She jogged off again.

"Thanks!" Erin called after her. She looked back at Stacey. "Um... I'm Erin Conner..."

"Hello!" She smiled brightly. "Were you trying to Apparate somewhere? You're so lucky, I haven't even passed my test yet. Wasn't it difficult?"

"Uh... yeah." Erin blinked. "Am I really in England?" She felt like an idiot for asking, but... well... if this was the Knight Bus, who was to say she wasn't in England?

"Sure are!" Stacey said. "Aren't you English? You don't sound English. Are you Spanish?"

Erin paused, waiting for a laugh, but the girl appeared to be entirely in earnest. "No, I'm American," she replied at last. "And - I'm haven't got an wizard money - "

"Oh, that's fine, no Americans do," Stacey interrupted. "They simply refuse to switch to the Galleon over there, can you believe it? I think it's just the silliest thing I've ever heard. Imagine using Muggle money!"

"Right..." Erin nodded slowly. "Anyway... so you can take me anywhere?"

"That's what I said!" Stacey paused, apparently having to shut down all other brain functions to remember her professional speech. "The Knight Bus is available to witches and wizards all across the world, stopping at any place on land that you desire. Just tell us where you want to go, and you'll be there!"

"Thanks." Erin hesitated, then went ahead and climbed on. She was lost anyway, and... well... she just knew she had to follow this through. She couldn't spend the rest of her life wondering what might have happened if she hadn't. Maybe getting on a strange bus that an even stranger woman had called out of an empty street was a stupid thing to do... but she didn't really have a choice. Not if she wanted to be able to live with herself afterwards. "Do I have to decide where I want to go now?"

"Nope!" Stacey told her. "Just let me know when you've picked a place, and I'll tell the driver. If you want hot chocolate, it's three extra Sickles - oh - " She stopped. "Well, I'll have to find someone who can switch Galleons into American money, but it costs more."

"I'm fine like this," Erin assured her. Stacey shrugged and showed her to a bed halfway down the bus. Erin sat gingerly on it while the girl went back to the front of the bus. Taking off her backpack, she looked around, trying not to stare. It was just like in the book... exactly like the book.

How did I get here? she wondered in amazement. This doesn't happen. It can't happen. People don't get scooped up by magic buses unless they're TV characters with nutcase teachers. She almost expected to see that woman with the red hair - what was her name? Ms. Frizzy? - come walking by any minute.

No. No, she was just being silly. This was a group of weird SCA people who were - who were obsessed with the Potter world. Yes, that was it. And that woman had been... a scout? No, that didn't make sense, maybe she thought Erin was one of theirs. Yes, that had to be it. And they were going to some sort of medieval fair, or something.

Or something. The bus stopped with a BANG!

"Dublin, for Ms. Rachel O'Floren!" Stacey shouted. An elderly woman hurried to climb off the bus.

Erin watched the woman leave through her window - and she disappeared in a blur. They were going incredibly fast, much faster than they'd been a moment ago, jouncing along. And the old woman was nowhere in sight. Oh, Lord. Erin felt sick. Mostly because of the driving, but partly from nerves, as well. This really is the Knight Bus, isn't it? She swallowed hard. So much for the SCA.

How can the Knight Bus be real, though? Erin wondered. And... if this is real... what else is? On an impulse, she rummaged around in her backpack till she found her private notebook. She pulled Remus's letters from it. What if? She was almost afraid to think it. But... what if...

"Hi!" Stacey bounced down on the bed beside Erin, startling her out of her thoughts. "Decided where you want to go yet?"

"Not yet." Erin bit her lip. She supposed she ought to go back home... but she'd never be able to look Lianne in the face again if they found her - no, when. When they found her.

"Aren't you silly!" Stacey laughed. Then she spotted Erin's letters. "Ooh, are those from a secret admirer?"

"I guess." Erin wasn't quite sure how to explain who they were from... and anyway, she wasn't going to tell Stacey.

"Oh, wow!" Stacey squealed. "I always wanted a secret admirer! Are you going to visit him?"

Erin shook her head. "No," she said shortly. She definitely didn't want to talk to an airhead bus conductor about Remus.

She didn't take the hint. "Why not?" Her eyes widened. "Have you met him already? Are you two in love?"

"No," Erin snapped. How dense was this girl, anyway?

"Then why don't you want to see him?" Stacey pouted. Erin stared at her in disbelief, partly out of exasperation that anyone could be so thick, and partly because she'd never believed people actually pouted.

"I don't know where he lives," Erin admitted. Maybe that would make Stacey leave her alone.

"Well, that's easy!" Stacey exclaimed. She pointed her wand at one of the letters. "Concedes originem!"

Erin started to snatch the letter away, when words, glowing a rosy pink, wrote themselves in the air above Stacey's wand: 1812 Leaf Fall Circle North, Wales, Great Britain, Europe, Earth, Milky Way -

"Oops!" Stacey pulled her wand away with a giggle. "Left it too long." She turned to Erin. "So are you going to see him now?"

"Um..." Erin still hesitated. "How much would it cost?"

"Um... twelve Sickles," Stacey said, after some thought. "I don't know how much American money that is. But there's a nice young wizard up there," she pointed to the front, "who works for Gringotts. I'll bet he'd be glad to tell me!"

He probably would, Erin thought, a little sourly.

"So is that where you want to go?" Stacey looked at her with the big puppy dog eyes she'd probably go use on the young man at the front when she was through with Erin. "Just think how happy he'll be!"

"I'll think about it," Erin said at last.

"Right." Stacey nodded. "I'll tell the driver." She practically skipped up to the front. The bus's jouncing didn't seem to bother her at all.

Erin pulled her legs under her, staring at her letters. She could meet Re- the person who'd written them. Did she want to? Really?

There's no reason to go assuming it's Remus, she cautioned herself. Just because there's this bus... and magic... and witches and wizards... that's no reason to think Remus is the one writing to me.

It was still just a story. New York existed, but it didn't follow that a portal to the Nine Fairy Tale Kingdoms did. So it didn't follow that, just because she'd gotten picked up by this weird bus, Remus was the one writing to her. It was still much more likely that her letters were being written by some practical joker who did some research on his or her victims.

Which explained why she'd gotten one of her letters in a locked drawer.

Erin put her head in her hands. I'm not going to think about this, she decided. It doesn't make sense. At all. I'll just sit here quietly, and see what happens. Who knows... she smiled crookedly, maybe I'll even wake up.

~*~

"Leaf Circle North, Wales, for Erin Conner!" Stacey called.

Erin went still. "Already?" she asked, swallowing. Some of the nearby passengers gave her suspicious looks. She stood, picking up her backpack, and made her way up to the front, where Stacey was.

"Yep!" Stacey beamed. "House 1812, right there." She pointed. "And that nice wizard who got off last stop told me how much you're supposed to pay in - what are they called? Dollars?"

"Yeah." Erin pulled her wallet out of her backpack and paid, not really paying too much attention beyond the fact that she was now, except for about forty-three cents, completely broke. "Thanks... I guess..."

"I hope you and your boyfriend live happily ever after!" Stacey chirped as Erin left the bus. But as Erin turned, the bus - BANG! - was gone.

Erin stared at the house in front of her. For the first time that morning, it really hit her just how stupid coming here had been. For all she knew, that bus had just taken her to some random place and thrown her out after taking all her money. She was certainly just as lost as she had been before. And she was missing her quarter exam in biology. That thought actually made her a little more cheerful than she'd been.

Still, she didn't really want to walk up to that house, ring the bell, and have to explain what she was doing there. "Hi, I'm an American teenager who's supposed to be taking her quarter exams, but this girl on the Knight Bus said you were sending me mysterious letters, so I just thought I'd stop by and ask." Right. That would get a great reception. Maybe he'd even give her a choice in the mental wards he called.

But if you're not going to ask, another part of Erin's mind argued, what did you come here for?

I was lost, the rational, sensible part of her brain replied.

And you couldn't have insisted on going back home to America? the other part scoffed. Come on, don't you want to know?

No. Definitely not. The reasonable part of her mind was quite firm about that. What if it isn't him? What will I do then? Or worse - what if it is? Suppose - just for the sake of argument - that it really is Remus in there. What happens then? I don't know him - I could hate him, for all I know!

The other part seemed to smile gently. I could never hate Remus. No matter what he was like. Nor could you. Besides... what are you going to do if you walk away? How are you going to explain being an American in Wales with no passport, no money, nothing but a bag of school books?

I haven't figured that out yet...

Erin sighed and shook her head. Wonderful. Now she was hearing voices. Soon she'd start arguing out loud with herself in the middle of the street.

But that little mental war she'd been having had made one thing clear. She couldn't just stand here forever. She had to choose. And walking away now simply wasn't an option. Sometimes, when things get to a certain point, there's only one direction you can take. Walk away? She could more easily have taken flight.

She let the house draw her forward, as a magnet draws iron. There was a faint ringing in her ears, a mistiness to her mind, but all of it seemed to make the whole world clearer than it had ever been before. There was more to what she was doing than she understood... but she didn't need to understand. She knew, deep in the slumbering part of her mind that shaped her dreams, that she was changing something, crossing some bridge... or perhaps burning it. But even that thought couldn't stop her from doing so.

Every detail of the short walk - was it only short? - felt burned into her mind. She didn't have a photographic memory, but later, she could remember everything, from how many steps it had taken her - twenty-six - to the flowers in the walkway - dark pink roses, and gold lantana, which had to be enchanted, because it never grew this far north.

The almost dream-like state she was walking in ended when she pressed the doorbell. Erin winced, wishing she'd waited a moment to think up a reason for being there. Well, she'd just have to be creative, and hope.

As it turned out, she didn't need a reason. When the door opened, it wasn't Remus at all - at least, Erin really hoped not. An oddly familiar woman stood there, green eyes wide.

"Oh, my stars," she said softly. "Erin?"