Disclaimer: Harry Potter and related characters are property of J.K. Rowling; I am merely a humble writer borrowing them for my own selfish purposes. All plots and unrecognizable places, people or events are my own.
Pairings: Remus Lupin/Nymphadora Tonks, James Potter/Lily Evans
Author's Note: I'd like to thank the reviewers from last chapter. I love getting reviews! Please do review; it really makes me happy. :) For anyone who's confused on the timeline, feel free to PM or leave the message in a review. And now, without further ado...
There's a light at each end of this tunnel,
You shout 'cause you're just as far in as you'll ever be out
And these mistakes you've made, you'll just make them again
If you only try turning around.
--Breathe (2 AM), Anna Nalick
-XX-XX-XX-XX-XX
Monday, July 23, 1991
Same day
"CONSTANT VIGILANCE!"
The shout came from out of nowhere, and 1st year AIT (Auror-in-Training) Shawn Trattle looked around in confusion, searching for the source of the noise. He inched towards the nearest cover: a flimsy wooden wall that bore the distinctive scorch marks of previous attacks. Trattle dropped like a stone seconds later, falling to his knees without a sound.
His partner, a wary witch named Tristana Moody (niece to Alastor), immediately put up a shield, the blazing blue wall making her an obvious target. Her eyes darted everywhere, missing her attacker's hiding place by a mile.
Sirius Black lifted his Disillusionment Charm and stepped out of the shadows from where he had hidden himself, completely camouflaged. He smirked, remembering how Alastor Moody had pulled the exact same stunt on him when he was training.
Works every time.
Tristana's blue eyes widened and sent a poorly aimed Impediment Curse whizzing over his head. He didn't even bother to duck.
"Watch your surroundings, Moody," Sirius said casually, as though they were in class, instead of the middle of a virtual battlefield. "Distractions will cost you."
"Expelliarmus!"
Sirius blocked the spell with a Protego and resumed his lecturing tone. "It's better to use nonverbal spells." He ducked a Burning Hex, deflected a Jelly-Legs Jinx, chuckling a bit. "Catches your enemy off guard and disorientates them."
He flicked his wrist and the hapless AIT crumpled to the ground in the same manner as her colleague. He stepped around her unconscious form with his wand out, ready to greet any more attackers.
The corridor was empty.
Confidently, Sirius strode down the dark hallway, holding his wand out in an offensive position, always watching and waiting. There were two openings cut into the walls near the end, one to the left, and the other to the right.
Sirius detected heavy breathing and quietly muttered, "Homenum revelio."
There was a shimmer in the left niche, and he moved quickly. "Stupefy!"
A red jet shot from his wand, only to be met midair with a corresponding purple light.
The resulting explosion was massive.
"That's interesting," said Sirius casually, shielding his eyes with the back of his hand. He didn't bother to make another attack; instead, he sheathed his wand. "I've never seen that happen before."
The shimmer dissipated and Frank Longbottom's scarred face emerged, smiling. "First time for everything, I suppose."
He stood up rather unsteadily, his legs cramped from crouching so long. "How'd you know it was me instead of an AIT?"
"No kid out of Hogwarts could have done a sleeping spell like that one," said Sirius with a grin. "Besides, I know your spellwork from a mile away."
He looked around. "Alice here somewhere?"
Frank shook his head. "She chased what's-his-name around the corner about 20 minutes ago."
"Kallegen?"
"That's the one."
Sirius snickered. "I was wondering who screamed."
"Gods," said Frank fervently. "I don't know how these kids are going to last in real combat."
"Give 'em a break, mate. This is only their first month."
"They should have learned all this in their Defense N.E.W.T.S. What's Remus doing?"
Sirius looked insulted. "Don't blame him."
Frank scratched his head with the tip of his wand. "I'm not blaming him. I'm just saying that these AITs don't know anything. There's a lot of shoddy spellwork going on. I had one bloke miss me completely."
"You get that every year."
"Think we got them all?"
Sirius shrugged. "What does the chart say?"
Frank pulled out a piece of parchment and tapped it twice.
An accurate map of the maze appeared, spiraling out in black ink, written in Frank's distinctive blocky handwriting. The chart was James and Sirius' brainchild, an exciting continuation of their work on the Marauder's Map during their Hogwarts years.
It kept track of the AIT's progress during practical lessons, as well as the location of both instructor and inscructee. All of the 6 full Auror Instructors were listed as active, meaning that they had not either gotten hit—or at least not seriously enough to list them as unconscious, or "inactive".
Of the twenty-five AITs who had gone into the maze, twenty-one were inactive.
Four were not.
Nymphadora Tonks. Philip Nasser. Ormond Sylvain. Tori Flann.
Sirius grinned wickedly. "Let's go hunt some AITs."
"I think—"
"Is this the part where you tell me we should stop and ask for directions?" asked Philip Nasser sarcastically.
The violet eyes of Nymphadora Tonks gleamed with a hint of a smile.
"Well…"
"Oh, god, I knew it," her partner moaned almost immediately. He groaned fatalistically, sounding more like a Muggle soap opera actor than the pureblood he really was. "We're lost."
"It's not my fault you're failing Land Nav," said Tonks, almost mischievously.
He squinted at her with accusing brown eyes.
"It's so easy to get lost in this fucking place," Nasser whined.
Her mouth tightened. Tonks had enough.
She hated whiners.
"That's why they call it a maze, Nasser," she said witheringly. "We're not lost. I know exactly where we're going."
"Why didn't you say so?" he demanded, striding in front of her, temper tantrum forgotten. "Get behind me."
"What?"
"I said get behind me, Tonks."
They had only been working together for a few weeks, and already, Nasser was starting to get on her nerves. He was an asshole—that much was clear. But the thing that bothered her most about him was that he was a chauvinistic idiot, who didn't think that a witch could curse anything, let alone be an Auror.
Tonks had spent her whole life working against prejudices: from the insane fanatics that her mother called family to the snobbish purebloods who had made it very clear that this was their world, and she just happened to be living in it.
Tonks had kept her mouth shut when Nasser had made a snide comment about her hair.
She had said nothing when he had steered them wrong way.
But she was not about to let this go.
She didn't need anyone to "protect" her.
Tonks glared at Nasser angrily.
"Why? So you can defend me? Not in this lifetime, mate. I'm the one who saved you from that Severing Jinx. If anything, you should be getting behind me."
"No." Nasser met her gaze; just as stubborn as she was.
"Fine. Suit yourself." Tonks swept past him. "We'll go together."
He eyed her suspiciously, but grudgingly allowed her to fall into step beside him.
A second later, she was flat on her face, having tripped over her own feet.
"For Merlin's sake—" Nasser groaned.
But Tonks did not get to hear the rest of his sentence.
Blue fire streaked through the air, and he collapsed against the wall, unconscious.
A dark figure sauntered languidly down the hallway, acting as though he was on a picnic.
There was only one instructor who walked like that.
Sirius.
Still on the ground, she held her breath and took aim for his eyes, keeping her wand steadily.
"Conjunctivito!"
The curse hit straight on.
"Incarcerous!"
Tonks had not anticipated a second opponent; and her attempt to roll out of the way was futile. Frank's quick response was effectively crippling. She could only groan—a hard thing to do when one is gagged—and wait for the instructors to come and rescue her.
They took their time.
Frank fixed Sirius' eyes with a wave of his wand, and they lazily ambled toward Tonks' prone figure.
"I should've known that you'd be the last one standing," said Sirius almost proudly. He paused, looking down thoughtfully. "On second thought, maybe 'standing' isn't the best choice of words."
He knelt down in front of her, his gray eyes still red and inflamed.
Sirius grinned impudently. "Need a hand?"
She grimaced and pushed off the ground.
"No, thank you."
Tonks held herself stiffly, her once pristine black robes white with dirt. "Am I really the last one?"
"Well…we still haven't found Kallegen." A smirk played over Sirius' lips. "Conceivably, he could be conscious somewhere in the maze."
"But highly unlikely," added Frank.
He conjured a floating stretcher for Nasser, and they began to walk in the direction of the entrance.
"Will he be okay?" Tonks asked, surprised at their nonchalance.
"Oh, yeah." Sirius waved his hand. "Don't worry about it, Nymphadora."
Tonks gritted her teeth and resisted the urge to hex him into the next century.
He was really asking for it.
"Tonks. My name is Tonks."
"Sure it is…Nymphadora."
Colchester was oppressively hot.
Remus could feel the sweat trickling down his back, staining the crisp blue dress shirt as it rolled across his shoulder blades and spine. The color, previously respectable and appropriately formal, was undone with one sweep of his hand. The absence of tension was relieving, and the choked, stifled feeling ebbed away as his pale, shiny skin became exposed to the cool, fresh heat.
Lily, cool in a cream-colored summer dress, walked sedately next to him, seemingly unaffected by the heat. Her thick, long, red hair was pulled up into a ponytail, and it swung from sided to side as they walked down the sidewalk in the humid July heat.
If he hadn't known any better, Remus would've pegged her age as 20, instead of 31.
Her freckles had multiplied in the summer sun, making up for all the time that she spent cooped up in the depths of Hogwarts. As if aware of his scrutiny, Lily ducked her head to the side, and the ponytail draped to the side, partially obscuring her face.
"I think we've only got the Granger's left to go," Lily said cheerfully, crossing the previous name off with a flourish. She brought her head up and pointed to the modest white Victorian to their left.
"That's it, right there."
Remus nodded in approval and he swung open the white picket fence with ease. A green garden hose writhed on the driveway in front of him, and he quickly leapt over it to avoid getting wet.
Lily was not so fortunate.
She got sprayed full on in the face, before running the rest of the driveway to the dry porch where Remus waited.
He grinned. "You look a little wet."
"Bite me, Remus."
Normally, such a trivial thing would not be a problem. She would've whipped out her wand and fixed the matter with a simple Drying Charm. However, the secrecy issue made this impossible and so, Lily would have to suffer.
The front door opened and a tall woman with short curly brown hair answered the door.
She smiled placidly for a second, but this was quickly replaced by a look of guilt and embarrassment.
"Oh, dear. I'm terrible sorry that you got wet."
"Don't worry about it," Lily said, smiling easily.
"My daughter must have left it on. Anne Granger."
"Professors Lily Potter and Remus Lupin."
"Well, it's a pleasure, professors." She beamed at them.
They followed her into the living room, where she offered them refreshments. Both politely declined.
"Give me a minute, please. Hermione, darling, come down here," Anne called.
The girl thundered down the stairs, prompting a chiding, "Don't run in the house, sweetheart."
She stepped into the foyer, and the two professors got their first glance of Hermione Granger.
Without her mother's prompting she stuck out her hand to Remus and Lily in a particularly precocious manner, no doubt mimicking her parent's actions in similar situations.
"Hello, my name is Hermione."
"Good afternoon. I'm Professor Potter, this is Professor Lupin."
"It's a pleasure to meet you," said Hermione solemnly.
"Be a dear and turn off the hose, will you?" Anne said, before she turned to Remus and Lily. "Now, which school did you say you were from?"
"Hogwarts."
Anne frowned. "Hogwarts, Hogwarts. I don't believe I've heard of that one."
She stood and began to fuss around the living room, rifling through papers noisily.
"Hermione has gotten so many invitations that it's hard to keep track," said Anne with pride in her voice. "Oh, here we are."
She snatched up the torn envelope and laughed a little. "Now I remember. Hogwarts. That magic school. My husband and I thought it was a bit of a joke."
Anne looked at them with an expectant eye, hoping for him to concur that it was indeed a joke.
"Well, no, Mrs. Granger," said Remus apologetically. "Hogwarts is a real school of witchcraft and wizardry. Your daughter is a witch and we are professors there."
She looked a little dazed.
"Are you all right, ma'am?" asked Lily, concerned.
Mrs. Granger laughed. "I'm perfectly fine, professor. I don't believe you for one minute, though. Magic, indeed. How ridiculous."
"Might I suggest that Hermione be here to hear this?" suggested Lily tentatively.
Mrs. Granger sniffed. "I don't expose my daughter to raving lunatics. Thank you kindly for your…information, but Hermione will not be attending this Hogwarts."
Lily exchanged a dubious glance with Remus.
That was not a good sign.
Remus decided to make one last ditch effort.
"Has Hermione done something that you can't explain?"
"Perhaps things that are…metaphysically impossible?" added Lily, recalling the words that McGonagall had used to try to relate to her own Muggle parents.
"Well, she has always been different than children her own age. She doesn't relate very well, I'm afraid. They don't seem to understand one another. They call her a freak."
"What did she do?" asked Remus gently.
For the first time, Anne Granger looked slightly unnerved.
"Well," she started, plucking at the bottom of her shirt. "There are little things. Strange things—"
The slamming of a car door cut her off and she shut her mouth quickly, seeming glad of the distraction.
"Dad!" Hermione exclaimed joyfully, her thin high voice easily penetrating the walls.
Mr. Granger rumbled back and Anne stood to open the door, admitting her husband and daughter, who was excitedly chattering about her day.
Mr. Granger raised a blonde eyebrow at the sight of Remus and Lily sitting on the couch.
"I didn't know we were expecting company." He held out his hand, which both visitors shook. "Howard Granger."
"Remus Lupin."
"Lily Potter."
"They're professors at Hogwarts," said Anne lowly. She quickly glanced at Hermione, who had begun to read quietly in the corner, oblivious. "You know—that magic school."
Howard chuckled. "Coming to teach us how to fly a broomstick, are you? Excellent joke, my dear. Really, what school do you represent? Riverwell?"
"Hogwarts, sir," said Remus, watching Hermione's head lift up a little. "I realize that you believe that this is all an elaborately contrived prank, but it's not. Your daughter is a witch and we would like her to attend our school."
Hermione completely abandoned the pretense of reading.
Howard's good temper vanished. "Really, now, sir, the joke's gone on long enough. You don't really expect us to believe magic's real?"
Remus smiled slightly. "Not without a demonstration."
He pulled out his wand, and the adults drew back in instinctive fear. "Don't worry, I just want to show you a spell, to show you that magic's real."
And he proceeded to conjure an armchair out of thin air.
Hermione's eyes widened, and she gazed up at him in wordless wonder.
"I want to learn how to do that."