Lana had never been a fan of Bertha Jorkins, but still, the woman's death had made her sorry. If, for no other reason, that she didn't prevent it. In fact, in an odd sort of convoluted way, she might even have well...caused it. But, still, she tried to stop it.

Although, a distant part of her admitted, that she didn't try as hard as she probably could have. I mean, this was the woman who spread some very nasty and untrue rumors about her. Still, Lana knew that didn't mean she deserved to die. But, then again, that's why she did try to save her...at least a little bit.

But, let's go back to recap what lead Lana to wanting to rescue one of her least favorite people.

Peter, after escaping capture at Hogwarts, grew paranoid, especially with what Sirius had told him about Voldemort's followers. They would learn he was alive. They thought that HE had somehow betrayed the Dark Lord. Now that Sirius was free, no one powerful and good would help him and he was on the run, truly now, from many of the Dark ones. He wouldn't make it on his own.

Peter had given up his life for Voldemort, quite literally. He'd betrayed his school friends, he'd faked his death, and he'd lived as a rat for twelve years. Now, Sirius Black was free from Azkaban and there wasn't a doubt in Peter's mind that if they ever crossed paths again, that he would die. So, he had to flee and go far.

His situation had become desperate, no where to go, no one to turn to, and like so many years ago, he saw but one solution. Voldemort. He had nothing else, no one else, in his life. He'd thrown it all away to serve his Master, and now, he had to see his choice through to the end.

Firstly though, he had to go to his old home where he'd stashed a special artifact long ago. However, traveling undetected meant staying in rat form, which as always, made him more susceptible to Lana. Not that she needed it. More and more he'd seen her when in human form. She was getting stronger...or he was getting weaker, closer to death. But he didn't want to think about that.

He scurried through the streets of London, fleeing that voice, but Lana was furious. Sirius had been sentenced to THE DEMENTORS' KISS because of him.

"Run all you want, Little Peter," Lana called after him. "You can't outrun me. You won't. Especially not now."

He squeaked fearfully and tried to move faster, eliciting a dark laugh that shouldn't have belonged to anyone who appeared so young and innocent. Desperate but relieved, he made it to his old house, entering it through a rat hole and into the basement.

Seeing where he was headed she blinked and was suddenly in front of him, sitting on the very chest he came for.

"Getting HIS wand, are you? Think its power will protect you? Sorry, Peter," she smiled, a wicked smile all teeth, and he noticed her eyes had become pure black. "Nothing can protect you from me Peter. Nothing."

In a sudden flutter, so clumsy in nerves he landed on his bum, Peter transfigured back to a man. This time, however, the transformation did nothing to change his eyesight.

Lana was still there, and when her eyes met his, he felt the jolting terror take hold of him. His only comfort had been not seeing her all the time. The ability to escape her had been something to anticipate, like sleep after a long day or a drink after a trek in the desert. To have that bit of salvation gone drove him that much closer to madness.

"Told you so," she laughed as she often had over a prank she, James, Remus, Peter, and Sirius had pulled. "You will never escape me Peter. Traitors can't hide from their deeds. Murderers can't hide from their victims."

"Leave me alone!" Peter screamed, desperately putting his hands over his ears and squeezing his eyes shut. "LEAVE ME ALONE!"

Distantly, Lana might have felt guilty. She remembered that often scared often anxious boy who she'd talk through some of the more dangerous assignments and Maurader pranks. She might have had pity on him even, but then she remembered Lily and James lying dead on the floor, she remembered Sirius driven to insanity in Azkaban, and all sympathy disappeared from her soul.

Grasping out with his hand, eyes still closed so he didn't witness his hand going right through her torso he gripped tightly onto the chest, and pulled it back to him, cradling it protectively.

"I will bring him back," Peter whispered. "I'll bring my master back to full power and then he will get rid of you for good!"

Lana rolled her eyes. "Even you can't be that stupid. Your master is nothing but a coward! As big a coward as you are! I represent all that he fears! Death Peter. Death follows everyone even the man once known as Tom Riddle."

He had no response for that, merely turned around and scurried away like the rat he was. With an exasperated sigh, Lana followed him through the streets of London to the train station.

"Surely you can sneak around better than this," she said abruptly, causing him to jump with a loud yelp. This earned him annoyed glares from no less than a dozen muggles, causing Lana to let out a laugh. "Way to go Pettigrew. I might not even have to try to kill you in the end. You'll get yourself killed easily with all the attention you are attracting."

Noticing that she was right, he quickly made his way to a side alley and pulled out a cloak which he quickly put on, hands fumbling with nerves as he tried to tie it up. She followed as he sulked around, face hidden under the dark fabric. Just to keep him on his toes she'd channel her energy every so often and she'd grab his cloak and pull, knocking him off balanace and sending him to the floor, much to her childish amusement.

Eventually, Peter had made it to his intended destination. He'd snuck on a train to the continent, fleeing the country. Hours on the train whittled away at his nerves though. Once he'd boarded the car Lana had stopped her tormenting. Waiting. Just waiting. She knew that the waiting is what made it worse for him.

He could feel Lana's black eyes on him. He knew she was there but she hadn't made herself known since he got on the train. He hated when she did that and she knew he hated it.

"Leave!" He snapped after an hour of silence, desperately trying to make her go away. He was curled up in an empty cargo car, cloak over his face, concealing him from the casual observer but not from Lana. Never from Lana.

"No," she laughed, appearing again. "I really marvel at your acting skills, Little Pettigrew. I never would have guessed that you were lying when we were in the Order. But then again, I have to give you more credit than that. You somehow managed to master occlumency. That's the only way Dumbledore would have been unable to immediately see you for what you are. A traitor. A cowardly traitor."

As if he couldn't help himself, he answered her previous statement, the barest hint of pride in his tone.

"Natural skills. Didn't even have to practice all that much."

Lana scoffed loudly, "Of course not. Working at something was always beyond you, Pettigrew. So many wasted hours trying to help you pass Transfiguration. You might have transfigured with us, but that's about it. The only reason you even succeeded at that was because of James. James refused to leave you behind."

At the sound of his name, Peter winced, which Lana saw and laughed again. The laughter had no mirth, only pain and she let it loose, causing it to darkly echo in the mostly empty space. It reverberated the car, causing it to vibrate and shake beyond the small rattles of the wheels over the tracks and forcing Peter to cover his ears. But still the sound was so loud he would swear his ears were bleeding.

"Can't hear his name?" She continued to laugh, making  squirm deeper into his cloak. This made her happier. It had been too long since she'd truly tormented Peter and it was overdue. Rising from her sitting position across the empty boxcar, Lana practically skipped over to the trembling mass of flesh and began to circle him. Laughing with an unnatural joy, a joy that she'd never have had in life, she skipped around Peter and began chanting.

"JAMES POTTER! JAMES POTTER! JAMES FLEAMONT POTTER!"

He jumped at the sudden screeching and whimpered, which made a very distant feeling of guilt nudge at the back of her heart, but she was too far gone for that. He'd pushed her too far away. He'd killed the girl who'd pitied him and left a spirit of bitter vengeance.

"JAMES POTTER! JAMES! JAIME! PRONGS! JAMES LILY-EVANS-SMELLS-LIKE-HONEY-AND-SPICE POTTER!" She laughed louder and louder, tears almost beginning to clog her throat as she was assaulted by the face of her dear brother in her memories.

Always laughing, James Potter had made everything better. There were few people who could do that and the world was a darker place for his absence. The fact that Harry had never known how bright the world was, because James Potter simply existed, was something Lana had trouble stomaching.

"JAMES QUIDDITCH CAPTAIN POTTER! HEAD BOY! ORDER MEMBER! BEST FRIEND! LOYAL FRIEND! HUSBAND! FATHER! BROTHER! JAMES FLEAMONT POTTER IS DEAD!"

Then she stopped, panting as if she were gasping for air, but she didn't need air. She needed James. She NEEDED James Potter.

"James Potter," her voice was low now, void of the previous hysteria, "is dead because he loved you, Peter Pettigrew."

She stared at him silently before letting out one final giggle, such an unnatural sound in the barren atmosphere.

"James died because he loved you Peter," she let out a sigh. "And I died because I didn't."

Before she left, to check on Harry, Remus, and Sirius, Lana thought she might have heard crying.

Lana was crying too, but not for that pathetic excuse for a rat. Never again for him.

When Lana visited him again, days later, Peter was off the train and sleeping in a cave in the middle of Albania. She should have known that Peter would have found a way to circumvent her hauntings. The idiot had placed a temporary deafening charm on his ears at night to sleep.

On one hand, this was frustrating because he was easier to torment when he was sleep deprived. On the other, it gave her some sense of satisfaction to know that the only way he could sleep was by deafening himself. She chuckled in spite of her self.

He slept in the cave during the days and at nights he would search the dark forests and nearby villages for whispers and rumors of darkness. He did this in rat form, seeking information from the most base of lifeforms. He was on a quest for whatever remained of Voldemort.

Unfortunately for Lana, he found it. The rats told Peter tales or a part of the forest where animals refused to go. For there was a parasite that attached itself to a creature before devouring it.

It was, the rats said, a most unnatural kind of evil.

That night, he turned into his human form and went hunting for what was left of his Master. That night, he found him.

He wasn't human, no. What remained of Tom Riddle was a skeletal, baby shaped monster wrapped in dirty cloth. Still, the sight of him unsettled Lana's very core. Peter Pettigrew was going to finish what he'd started and he was going to raise Voldemort back to what he'd been thirteen years ago.

And like thirteen years ago, she could do nothing but watch it happen.

Lana kept a mild distance from Peter after that, not wanting her presence to be felt again, for she didn't want to find out if Voldemort knew of a way to destroy her spirit permanently. She didn't want to find out.

Still, she kept close enough, scaring Peter on the nights he'd turn human and go into town on his master's orders.

That's when he found Bertha Jorkins and that's where he was recognized.

Then, they'd killed her. As she'd said before, Lana hadn't particularly liked the woman, but that didn't mean that she wanted her dead. So, she left. She left because if Voldemort was coming back, Harry was in danger. Sirius and Remus were in danger. Peter could wait.

Well, that, and the fact that Bertha Jorkins was just as annoying in death as she was in life.

Lana hadn't been particularly fond of the girl in school. She was a notorious gossip, and had enjoyed spreading rumors about her and Sirius before anything had happened, but still Peter had lead her to what remained of Voldemort and he'd killed her to make Nagini a horcrux. It was a bad death even for the worst of people.

She hadn't deserved to go out that way, even if she had tried to steal Lana's fiance the last time she'd seen her in life.

"THAT RAT!" Bertha exclaimed looking at Peter with disgust after she'd been killed. Unlike Lana, she didn't seem phased at her dead body on the ground. "That no good rat!"

"Tell me about it," Lana said from behind her, startling the woman.

"Oh," Bertha, who was in her late thirties now, turned to peer at Lana, her curly brown hair in her signature updo still in death. And, as they had in life, her green eyes took her in with mild surprise and a hint of disdain. "He the one that killed you then? I thought it was your perfect boyfriend that did you in, in the end."

Lana felt like grinding her teeth, "In case you hadn't noticed, Peter was the traitor. Sirius was an innocent man sent to Azkaban."

"Now that's a shame!" She exclaimed. "He was so attractive. I could have made my move then. What rotten luck?"

She'd just died to keep Voldemort alive and all she could think about was a missed flirting opportunity? To Lana's Sirius? Really? Lana briefly wondered if, as a ghost, she could hit a ghost. Instead, she looked around for darkness or light. Nothing. Nothing at all.

"I figured you'd have moved on by now," she told the woman instead.

"Hardly," Bertha scoffed. "I expected bright lights and endless glasses of wine. Instead I'm stuck here with the pathetic man who killed me, the monster baby thing who wants to destroy the world, and a girl I couldn't stand in school."

"Believe me, the feelings mutual," Lana muttered. "As it is, I suggest bothering Peter. He's been sleeping too soundly lately."

"Has he now?" The older woman asked with an evil glint in her eye, and for a moment Lana thought that Bertha might not be so bad after all.

"I'll leave you to it then." She left before Bertha would force her to test her question.

Lana spent the remaining summer months with Sirius.

She'd sit with Sirius on the sand, listen to him talk to Buckbeak and sometimes he even spoke to her. Not that he knew she was there, but he always spoke to her. It was fascinating really, how much he still knew her after all this time.

"I was thinking about how much you'd like it here, Lana," he began wistfully, looking out at the waves. Buckbeak was contentedly nuzzling at some nearby trees, exploring the foreign vegetation.

"I always said I wanted to look at the ocean," Lana sat beside him, her hand down an inch from his. She wanted to touch him so badly, but she didn't dare try again. The agony of being unable to feel each other was too much every time she'd tried and gone right through him.

"You always wanted to see the ocean," he continued. "But when I took you to the shores you yelled at me saying that it wasn't the same-"

"Because beaches are meant to be foreign and tropical." They finished together.

"Yeah," Sirius murmured to the waves. "This is everything you wanted. You know...this is where I was going to take you on our honeymoon. I was going to have a beautiful villa or even just a glorified hut built here."

"It would have been perfect, My Star."

"This island. My Uncle Alphard bought it and gave it to me. Never told a soul about it. I worried...I thought that if the war got any worse, as if it weren't hell watching our friends die, but if something happened and we couldn't fight anymore and we really needed to go into hiding, we would come here. I offered it to James but....he and Lily didn't want to be so far away."

"Sounds just like James."

"Of course, James would have said something like that. Always so sure of the world and that in the end everything it would all be okay. With his faith...it was so hard to argue, that I could do nothing else but agree with him." Sirius Black remembered this trait both fondly and angrily. For it was both wonderful and ultimately the downfall of his dearest friend, his brother.

"But...but then you died Lana. You died and since that moment it has felt as if nothing will ever be okay again. But James was there and I thought that if the world had someone who loved me as much as James did, then I could stay in it. James and Lily and Harry, three people that we both loved and who you had died for. Two people who I would have died for and now one who I will do anything to protect. No less," he sighed, "I can do no less than you would have done."

"Oh, Sirius," Lana looked at him and couldn't help but remember the teenage boy she'd fallen in love with. He, as much as any of them, had been filled with such a surety of the future, such hope.

They were the best of friends. They were family. Inseparable by anything but death, which, at the tender age of fifteen felt like a lifetime away. That was the real tragedy, Lana thought. It wasn't that they'd died. Everyone died. But they had all died before they'd gotten the chance to truly live.

"But it will be okay and for now," Sirius told Lana, "I'm going to clear my name so I can take care of little Prongslet. That will make the world just a little bit lighter. Then...then I will join you and Lily and Prongs and the world will be more than okay."

"I hope so, My Star," Lana said gently yearning for that time, but also wanting more for the man she loved more than herself. "I hope so. Just don't do anything so reckless that you join us too soon."

"Of course, it'll be hard, but I'll try not to be too reckless for you."

"You always did know what I was going to say," she smiled sadly over at him. After seeing Bertha, she'd had time to think and had come to a decision. "But...I don't think you would even guess what I think right now. First, be safe. Be safe in this war. I want so many things for you before you join me. I want you to clear your name. I want you to clear it and I want you to live. Buy a flat with sunlight and play your records as loud as you want to. Sing and dance again. Laugh without the grief and bitterness. And...as painful as it would be for me to watch, find love again. Because, if anyone deserved to be loved, it's you, Sirius Black."

"Merlin. I miss you, Lana."

"I'm right here," she said softly, "but I don't think I've ever missed you more."

Lana was convinced that Harry Potter was the single most unlucky boy in all of history. She'd visited the boy sporadically that summer, but had decided to stick with him for the most part that next school year. After the attack on the Quidditch Cup, Harry had gone off to Hogwarts only to be taught by a Death Eater in disguise. She had to do what little she could to protect him.

Lana had watched Barty Crouch Jr. closely and the best she'd managed to do was to make it harder for him to brew Polyjuice Potion. She was rather dissapointed in those efforts, but for some reason the only person she'd been able to show herself to, in order to haunt, was Peter.

So, Lana had to sit through the excitement of Harry fighting Dragons, asking girls to dances, and almost drowning in the Black Lake. The year had sped up and ultimately, it had lead to this.

Lana had visited Peter and his Master a few times, never daring to get too close because the weak parasite never let Pettigrew out of his sight because he was dependent upon the rat. The only comfort she had was that Peter was still so scared of Voldemort that he practically tortured himself.

She'd looked for Bertha but hadn't seen her, so she supposed that the woman may have moved on after bothering Peter for awhile. That or she'd made herself known and Voldemort had vanished her spirit. Lana liked to think it was the former.

So, months passed and then, there it was. The final task of the Tri-Wizard Tournament and Lana felt as useless as she had on Halloween 1981.

In the end, it was always Peter's fault.

Lana was furious and hopeless at the same time! She'd helplessly watched as Cedric Diggory was murdered before her eyes and she could do nothing when Peter raised Voldemort and surrounded Harry with Death Eaters.

Harry and the risen Lord faced each other in the center of the crowd, the portkey that was the Tri-Wizard cup was too far away for him to get to. This...this could be the end and at first, all Lana could do was stand at Harry's side.

"Avada Kadavra!" Voldemort shouted raising his wand in a killing blow, but as inexperienced as he was, Harry was ready.

"Expelliarmus!" Harry called.

Their wands met with a beam of light and when the wands crossed a golden circle surrounded them, almost isolating the two off from the rest of the death eaters that anxiously circled, seeking a way through the shining light. A song of the Phoenix echoed through the air, signaling that more was going on than a mere meeting of wills.

No, ancient magic had awoken when these two matching cores came together.

"Don't break the connection," Lana repeated the words that seemed to come from the Phoenix song, her voice unheard but still anxious hoping Harry heard what she did. "Don't break the connection."

They began to emerge then, the spirits of the fallen, first it was Cedric Diggory.

"Hold on, Harry!" he encouraged.

Then it was the old caretaker that Nagini and Wormtail had killed when they were in hiding. Frank Bryce, the muggle from Harry's dream and from the newspaper. The man who had come to investigate intruders on his property, and had been murdered for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. An innocent muggle caught in the middle of a war.

"He was a real wizard then?" Frank stared at Voldemort. "Killed me, that one did... you fight him boy..."

Then came Bertha Jorkins. Lana was thankful that her spirit seemed as it had been the last time she'd seen her. Maybe she had just moved on.

"Don't let go, now! Don't let him get you, Harry! Don't let go!" Bertha called and they all began to pace around the beam of light that had formed. They helped enforce the barrier between Harry and the other Death Eaters, keeping the fight fair.

Then there was Lily. Beautiful Lily who looked at her son with those compassionate eyes of hers.

"Your father's coming..." she told Harry quietly. "Hold on for your father... Hold on for him and one other. It will be all right...Hold on..."

Then came James, and his messy hair and tall frame. James who looked exactly like his son and who looked upon the boy with an indescribable love.

"One left now," James said to his son. "We are waiting for one more person. Hold on, Harry."

That was when Lana felt herself become drawn into the circle. She had no idea how it happened but one moment she was helpless, watching from the outside, and the next she was drawn into the circle with all of Voldemort's other victims ready to stand between him and Harry.

At the sight of them all, Voldemort's face became marked in fear. Lana, still unsure of what was going on, looked to James for guidance and he nodded at her with a smile.

It was as if no time had passed. She'd follow his lead wherever he lead.

"When the connection is broken," he said softly to her and Harry, "we will linger for only moments, but we will give you time...you must get to the Portkey, it will return you to Hogwarts. Do you understand, Harry?"

"Yes," the boy gasped over the struggle to keep hold of his wand.

"Harry, take my body back, will you?" Cedric Diggory asked him. "Take my body back to my parents."

"I will," he promised.

"I'll lead the way, Prongs," Lana stepped up to glare at Voldemort.

"You are here again?" Harry forgot himself for a moment and stared at the woman. The woman that he had a picture of, who he had never thought to ask more about. A woman who had already stood with him in one fight between him and Voldemort. (At least that he was aware of.) A woman he was fairly certain to be Lana Bowers if his skills of deduction were right, but he could be wrong because he was fairly oblivious sometimes. Just ask Hermione. But still, he thought, this womwn was Lana, who Sirius had loved. Lana, who had died to protect her friends.

She was as his memory recalled her and as she'd appeared in photos, short and petite with steady brown eyes and golden brown hair. Her nose was a bit too big for her face and she had a stubborn chin. Her coloring, her stature were both unremarkable and plain, but the way she carried herself, the way she put herself not only in front of him, but ahead of all of the other...ghosts he was looking at, made her something extraordinary.

"My Handsome Little Dreamer, I was there when you were born and I'm so proud to stand by you now," she smiled sadly at him. "Tell Our Star you've seen me and I've always been with him, when I wasn't haunting the rat. Then say that we were wrong. We didn't get a lifetime. We have eternity."

Harry nodded and then turned back to his parents who continued to glance back at him with reassuring smiles that held just a bit of yearning that he knew was reflected in his own face.

Then, it was time.

"Do it now," James Potter urgently directed, forcing Harry to look straight at him. "Be ready to run...do it...Now!"

"Now!" Harry yelled, and for just a moment he watched as their wands lowered and like that, Voldemort's victims descended upon him, Lana Bowers, leading them all. Together, they shielded Harry from Voldemort's sight. They shielded him from all of them. So Harry ran.

"Stand aside! I will kill him! He is mine!"

"Never!" Lana shouted, glowing blue and knocking Voldemort and all of the death eaters back for one single moment. "NEVER!"

And for a moment, long enough for Harry to grab Cedric's body and take the portkey back to Hogwarts, James, Lily, and Lana along with Bertha Jorkins and Frank Bryce held off Voldemort and his followers. For a single moment, Voldemort was afraid.

The war may have just started, but it wasn't going to begin the way that a certain Dark Lord had intended.

After all, he should have been more careful in selecting his victims. Even in death, they would fight back.