Time can be a funny thing. Remus had been thinking on this idea for the better part of the afternoon. The topic was fascinating and complex; when he believed he had one concept of it figured out, another thought shattered the solution into oblivion.
He never quite understood it. Although he had calculated mathematically for years how to travel to the future, it all really came down to magic and a good portion of will power. He had wanted to go to the future, and in the magical world, if you want something badly enough, chances are your magic is going to let it happen.
Everything had worked out, in the end. The whole purpose of the time travel concluded in success: Mirri was home. He couldn't help the grin that stretched across his face at the memory. He and Mirri were married not three months after her return. A small wedding, with just a few old friends ecstatic to see her again, occurred at the chapel of Godric's Hollow. The new couple spent two weeks thereafter on their honeymoon in Italy. His grin became impish. Not as much sight-seeing happened as they had originally planned. But neither of them would ever complain.
When they had returned, both Mirri and Remus received job invitations for the Department of Mysteries, which they readily accepted. And now a year had passed since their union and Mirri was at an appointment with Dumbledore—the results of, he was to find out when she came home.
It was beneficial anyway; he had needed her out of the house. He surveyed his work with a final critical eye. Satisfied that everything for their anniversary dinner was perfect, Remus went inside to wait.
He traveled slowly throughout the house, looking with an objective perspective on the differences in the atmosphere since he had lived here alone. Those were extremely dark times. Brighter in color and her personality strewn with artistic flair in each room, Mirri had thrown herself into making this little house their own. The pictures carefully collected and framed of their years at Hogwarts (mostly of the Marauders and Lily), books searched for, found, and stacked lovingly in every space, and the overall love flowing from every surface made Remus swell with overwhelming pride. This was home.
A set of cool hands slipped over his eyes a moment later, "Guess who," the person breathed in his ear.
His heart sped up as he turned, his eyes lighting up when they saw her face, her brown curls swept to one side in a clip to spill over her shoulder, her lips full and smiling, and her brown eyes piercing into him like they always have. He kissed her enthusiastically.
"Welcome home," he said when they broke apart, "How's Dumbledore?"
"As amazing as ever," Mirri replied, tossing her purse onto the kitchen counter, "and more than willing to help me with my sanity."
"You've always been lucid, love," Remus shook his head, "What did he do?"
She turned back to him and leapt in his arms, wrapping her legs around his waist and kissing him soundly. Remus automatically held her up and responded eagerly. "He made my nightmares go away, Remus," she sighed happily when she released him. He placed her back on her feet, his eyes wide.
The nightmares started shortly after their return from their honeymoon. Mirri's knowledge from the books she had read about the magical world had been causing her to slowly slip from the true happiness she had been wanting. She wouldn't share any of it and almost every night since then, Mirri would wake up screaming, crying and clutching at Remus in horror. Neither had had a quiet night in a very long time. Begging for her to get help, Mirri always refused, claiming that this was something no one could truly help her with. Dumbledore had stepped in, by that time. With appointments ongoing for six months, she and Dumbledore had continuously worked on ways to erase parts of her memory. With many trials and errors.
"For good?" he couldn't help but wonder aloud.
Mirri smiled, "For good. This last session with Dumbledore really made a breakthrough. His finite memory spells have worked, Remus! I can honestly say that I have no recollection about anything that I ever read about the magical world's future. No memory of the reasons for the dreams. We can finally sleep peacefully again!"
She was so sincere in her happiness that Remus couldn't help but believe her and he immediately crushed her to him, taking her breath away and nearly making him forget the whole reason why he had needed her out of the house.
"Happy anniversary," he gasped, pulling them apart and guiding her outside. "Now that I have you to myself, and no worries at all to think about, allow me to treat the love of my life to dinner."
Her smile grew sweeter as her eyes lit on the table on the back porch. The sun was just setting, throwing the backyard in reddish relief, the floating candles around the table (modeled after the Hogwarts candles) illuminated tantalizing smelling Italian cuisine and expensive wine.
"Oh, Remus," she murmured, touched.
He kissed her temple, "Have a seat."
Dinner tasted wonderful, if he did say so himself, as did everything that came with it (his wife being at the top of the list—both having taken several opportunities to partake in the tastes of the other).
"I have to say, Remus," she said a little later, his head in her lap and a half-filled wine glass in her hand, "dinner was exquisite."
"And there's dessert, as well," he responded slyly, quickly standing up and pulling her to her feet.
"I would guess, but I'd rather you just tell me," she replied, taking his hand and following him inside the house.
Remus waved his wand, and the table outside cleared itself. "Well," he said, looking at her mischievously out of the corner of his eye and taking her upstairs, "I had in mind buying chocolate, but I know your abhorrence to the stuff. So I thought more along the lines of honey and whipped cream…"
Her eyes glinted hungrily as he pushed open their bedroom door. She gasped at the sight. The gentle glow from candles showed the bed covered in thousands of rose petals, more wine and a bottle of honey sitting on the table next to the bed along with the tub of whipped cream.
Her arm gripped his waist tightly. "You know my tastes so well," she groaned.
And his lips were on hers pushing her towards the bed; she fell on top of it, pulling him with her. "You should be imprisoned," he said when he bent back to get air, gently taking her chin in his hands.
"Why's that?"
"It should be illegal for a woman to be so alluring," he quipped, capturing her lips again and slipped her robes from her shoulders.
And then Voldemort was rising in power. Shortly after their anniversary, Remus and Mirri went into hiding along with the Potters. Mirri's erased memories of the future were too valuable for Voldemort to get a hold of. The Order of the Phoenix was working around the clock to protect the hidden families.
As each event unfolded, Mirri's headaches became worse as memories she was not supposed to have struggled to reach the surface. "My mind's trying to remember what was meant to be forgotten," she told Remus one day after seeing a medi-wizard. "Every time we see James, Lily, and little Harry I feel like a light bulb explodes in my brain. I don't know why; the memories are gone."
Remus was never able to respond to this but his concern grew as the baby in her belly grew. "You make me the happiest man in the world," he said, "and I feel so guilty for not being able to help you."
Mirri kissed him gently before pushing him towards the fireplace. "It would help me if you would contact Sirius to get a medi-wizard."
He looked at her.
"The baby's coming."
That night, all hell broke loose. The calm before the storm was over. Happiness and despair clashed.
James and Lily were dead.
Voldemort disappeared.
Harry was alive.
And Evelyn Jean Lupin joined the world.
Several months later, Remus and Mirri sat in Dumbledore's office, Evelyn resting in his arms, her two little fists gripping his beard.
"It's a sad irony," Dumbledore said humorlessly.
"I tried to be angry with her," Remus stated sadly.
"You understand more the burden she carried, Remus," the professor replied.
The loss of their best friends was a hard blow. Mirri and finally shared her knowledge of the future with them now that she remembered. The shock of learning James and Lily had been murdered pulled her memories out of the abyss. The only thing she didn't share was Dumbledore's death. The look in his eyes as he gently smiled at her gave her the impression that he already knew. The ending was the only mystery to everyone; the seventh and final installment of the books series had yet to be released when Mirri left. No one knew, and Mirri was scared but thrilled to be in the dark about it.
"Well, Sirius has yet to be caught for the selling out he never did," Dumbledore continued, "Have you both spoken with him?"
"He came to the house last week," Remus replied, rubbing his thumb over the back of his wife's hand. "Mirri explained to him what was going to happen and to run for as long as he could. Then she put a spell on him."
Dumbledore raised an eyebrow at Mirri.
"A form of communication," Mirri explained. "I used the spell on a web cam back home for my parents so that I could talk with them while I was here. I just followed the same principle with a human. He can talk with us through my computer at the house. It's my fault that I didn't try to stop this. Sirius thinks this is his fault and is going to try and kill Peter. He'll get caught! We can't do anything! I'm hoping this will ease the pain a little bit."
"It was brilliant," Remus praised.
"Mirri," Dumbledore said, making her look at him, "this is the way it has to be."
Her eyes hardened. "I know. But I don't have to like it."
"Of course not," Dumbledore chuckled, "You wouldn't be human if you did. Besides," he continued, a twinkle in his eye as he gave Evelyn to Remus, "the future is not set in complete stone. Only a rough outline sets the path. It's our choices that fill in the final pieces. Lily and James were a part of the outline, but you have a large say.
"You could not have stopped this from happening, Mirri," he went on, "Lily and James are responsible for the things that occurred with them. Remember them and give Sirius your voices to be his light in the darkness. And above all, stay true to each other. You'll need each other as much as Evvy needs you.
"And who knows," he smiled as he finished, "the future may turn out a little bit brighter than originally thought."
It would later turn out that the future is a little more lax than assumed. Sirius never died in the veil, but was discovered suspended in time by Remus using the communication spell Mirri had tapped into his head all those years ago. Nymphadora Tonks never came romantically into the picture and the boy she and Remus supposedly had was Mirri's third child. Jonathan "Teddy" Theodore was named after Remus and Tonks' fathers, Theodore Tonks being a very influential man on the Lupin family. Her eight year old son, Devan James, had been in hiding with his parents during the uprising of the Dark Lord while Evelyn had been safest at school.
The final battle came and went, many of the casualties hard to bear. Tonks was gone, Dumbledore had been gone for a year, Fred Weasley, Severus Snape…
That night Mirri and Remus lay in bed, her head on his chest and arms firmly locked around each other. Devan and Teddy were in bed, Evvy still at school.
"So," Mirri whispered, resting her chin on his chest in order to look at his face, "it's finally over."
Remus gently kissed her nose, "Harry did a fantastic job. And I'm proud of you, love," he smiled at her confusion, "you did a great job screwing up the future."
His deep laugh reverberated through her body.
"How did I screw up the future?" she asked, allowing her fingers to sweep his bangs out of his face. "It seems everything happened according to the books."
"That is where you are wrong, darling," he replied. "It's true that James and Lily died. It's true that I lost my job at Hogwarts. It's true that Sirius escaped and fell through the veil. And it's also true that Dumbledore is dead. Yes, many things have happened according to those books, but the final story never made it to the shelves, Mirri! You played the biggest role behind the scenes. Sirius is alive because of you. I'm alive because of you!
"Because you came into the wizarding world, the story has taken a turn for the better. You've brought three beautiful children to the world and proved that I am not a monster. Harry gets to live with Sirius," he chuckled lightly, "you screwed up time to fall into a more natural flow and I'm proud of you for that."
Mirri blinked away her emotional tears, "I love you," she choked.
He rolled them over, hovering over her, "I love you more than life itself," he whispered, kissing her softly, "as I have since we met. I thank God for dropping you at Hogwarts that day twenty years ago."
She raised a brow at him, "That was really corny."
He feigned hurt. "Corny?"
She linked her arms around his neck and pulled him down to rest his weight over her, "You're lucky I like corny."
Gold eyes met brown in a deep, intimate gaze unchanged by nearly eighteen years of marriage.
"It must be the animal magnetism," Mirri murmured, reiterating the statement from their first night together at her parents' home.
"Or it could be that you are just unbelievable sexy," Remus grinned back, rolling on his back and bringing Mirri to rest in her original position on his chest.
They didn't need to have sex to be intimate. Lying with each other was enough for now. Besides, their sons were in the next room (though the sound could easily be taken care of by Remus' silencing charm). But they were heading to Sirius and Harry's place early in the morning and a good night's sleep would do a world of good since this was the first peaceful night in many years. And in any case, there would be plenty of time for that later.
And so time flows
A/N: And I'm done. For good this time. Here ends the final journey of Mirri and Remus Lupin. I refused to let Remus (or Sirius, for that matter) die and had to rewrite it. So sue me. I want to cry and I can't. My life has been revolving around these stories for four years and now…it's done. Dammit, what do I do now?
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