Cara stared at the amber liquid before her, sitting innocently enough in the old crystal glass courtesy of the Black family.

Looking up at the man beside her, she watched Remus sip periodically at his own glass of Firewhiskey. Raising a sceptical eyebrow at him, she only received an encouraging nod in response. Seeing no harm in one drink, Cara delicately raised the glass to her lips and took a small sip, sighing at the small burn she felt sliding down her throat. It wasn't bad.

"It's not too strong for you is it?"

"No, it's fine. I just haven't had it in a while," Cara said, sipping again at her drink. "So... what did you want to talk about?"

"Nothing in particular, I just thought it would be nice to get to know you a little better. You seem to have gained Sirius' friendship, and any friend of his is a friend of mine." Remus grinned at her, "I hope you realise that Sirius will pester you for the rest of your life now that you're his friend."

Cara chuckled a little at his comment, nodding to herself as she imagined the old dog following her around even as his hair grew grey. Or hers. "I figured as much."

"Yes, take it from someone who knows." Remus took another sip of his drink, and Cara took the time to look around her at the library they were sat in. There were so many books, Cara was reminded of her time in Hogwarts again, where she spent many a day amongst the books. There were some stereotypes that seemed to stick with being a Ravenclaw. "Do you like books?"

"Oh yes, very much," Cara said. And that launched a long talk between the two on books, pranks, Hogwarts, and other random things, which lasted several drinks long. Only interrupted when a big, black, shaggy dog ran into the otherwise peaceful library and leapt onto Cara, knocking her backwards in her chair. "Sirius! Get off of me!"

"Padfoot-"

Lupin ran into the room, red-faced, panting and out of breath. "Sirius, when you said race to Gernet, I didn't think you meant literally to her."

"Lupin, Remus, one of you, get him off me!" Cara said, trying to avoid the saliva dripping from Sirius' grinning face above her. Lupin hurried to her side and heaved Sirius off of her, handing him to Remus before helping Cara to her feet. "Bloody hell Lupin, a race? Why don't you act your age and not your shoe-size for a change?"

Lupin rolled his eyes at her, but shared a smirk with his father when she started to scold Sirius. After all, it wasn't everyday you saw a girl scold a dog almost as big as she was.

"-And further more you bloody dog, you made me spill my Firewhiskey! And it was a good one too."

Remus cleared his throat, "Cara, I have more Firewhiskey if you want."

"That's not the point, it's the principles I'm talking about." She spotted Lupin rolling his eyes at her words. "Don't roll your eyes at me, Lupin. Just because I have a high regard for principle-"

"You mean you only have a regard for principle-"

"I do not!"

Remus and Sirius slowly backed out of the room and the inevitable word battle beginning already. Remus patted Padfoot on the head, smiling a little at the doggy grin he received. "Do they remind you of Prongs and Lily just before they started dating? Because I'm just getting a little déjà vu here, Padfoot."

CRASH!

"Gernet!" Lupin shouted with a surprised look on his face. More often than not their arguments would end with them, wands aimed at each other and scowls on their faces, but it had been years since they had last actually hexed each other. He was now sat amongst the remains of one of the bookcases, splintered wood and books surrounding him. Still, he looked more shocked than hurt.

"Oh shut up, Lupin, I didn't mean to hex you," Cara said, pocketing her wand and walking to him. She stretched out a hand to help him up, but all Lupin did was pull her down into the pile of books with him. Cara managed to suppress the yelp she had bubbling in her chest, and sat up glaring at Lupin whilst rubbing her arm where it had landed on the corner of a particularly hard hardback book. "Oh, very mature."

"It's called payback."

"I didn't mean to hit you, I was just thinking about it," Cara said.

"Well, you must have been thinking about it very hard then."

"I'm sorry, alright?"

Lupin raised an eyebrow at this now, before a smirk slowly made its way across his face. "Can this be true? The great Caroline Gernet finally yields defeat and apologises?" He got to his feet quickly, clasping at his chest. "I shall cherish this moment forever. But it seems almost too much for only me to have. I must go and share this momentous news with everyone!"

Cara glared at him, whipping out her wand and locking the door the moment he made his way towards it. And when Lupin pulled out his wand to unlock the door, Cara simply Summoned his wand, tucking it into her belt and smirking at his pouting face. "Not so fast, Lupin, I have a reputation and I'm not about to let you go and ruin it."

"Give me my wand back, Gernet."

Cara grinned, "No."

Lupin dove for her, Cara just managing to dodge and roll away.

Scrambling to her feet she ran to find cover behind another bookcase, Lupin's fast approaching footsteps making her run faster. She enchanted several books around her to fly back and distract Lupin, laughing when she heard him cursing the books. This was one thing she had missed especially about her days in Hogwarts. However much she seemed to dislike Lupin, she openly loved the rivalry of theirs. Everyday there was the chances of being pranked or humiliated by him or the chances of pranking him herself.

The risk was thrilling. And she was addicted to the excitement she felt when they had particularly fiery arguments.

Cara loved that she seemed to be the only one to ever rile the usually cool, calm, collected and perfect Teddy Remus Lupin. No one else ever seemed to piss him off like she did. Shaking herself from her thoughts, Cara slowed to a stop as she noticed she could no longer hear footsteps behind her.

"Lupin?" she called out. "Give up already?"

Looking around, it began to unnerve her, the silence that was now present. Sensing that it was Lupin's doing, Cara kept her eyes alert all around her.

A plan began to form in her mind, and she quickly set about heading to the door. If I can get to the library door unnoticed, I can lock Lupin in by himself, Cara thought, see how long he likes being stuck in here. Ever alert, Cara began to make her way back to the door, her wand never leaving her hand. Once the door was in sight, Cara grinned and made a mad dash for the door, hoping to avoid any ambush Lupin had planned.

Not three feet from the door the sound of hurried footsteps behind Cara made her spin around, wand ready to hex, only for her to be shoved backwards into the wall.

Groaning from the stinging in her back, Cara opened her eyes ready to scold Lupin for running straight into her only to stop short at what she saw. Not two inches from her face was Lupin, grinning down at the girl he had pinned against the wall with his body. His grin slowly fell though as tense and awkward atmosphere fell over them, once they realised how close they actually were.

Every breath Lupin let out, Cara felt blow against her cheek and his chest press into hers. He had her pinned to the wall with his body, her wrists and wand trapped by his hands. Cara had been close to Lupin before, but not like this. Usually when the two were this close it was because one had tackled the other in anger, or they were shouting insults to each other or other similar situations. Cara didn't know what to do right now, and hoped to Merlin that she wasn't blushing.

For a moment all Cara saw was the blue colour of Lupin's eyes, and she didn't notice that she was slowly being drawn towards the source of the colour.

Lupin abruptly let go of her, stepping back slightly. Cara didn't dare move, watching him in a daze and missing the contact slightly.

Reaching out with one hand, he waved it over the doorknob, unlocking and opening the door. Wandless magic, why didn't he do that before? He stepped fully away from Cara now as he reached for her side and plucked his wand from her belt. Without a word, Lupin left the library and Cara in it, the tense atmosphere never leaving either of them.

Cara placed a hand to her chest, desperately hoping that her heart would stop beating so fast.

Just outside the room, having witnessed everything, Remus turned to Padfoot and nodded his head. "I guess you were right for once, it does look like a bigger job than expected."


Three weeks later...

"Come on, where's your courage?"

"I'm not the Gryffindor, Lupin. Remember? Me brains, and my brains are saying this is a really stupid idea-"

"Shh!" Cara's voice was cut off by a warning bark from Snuffles. Lupin slapped a hand over her mouth, pulling her to him as he pressed himself against a wall, hidden in the shadows. They remained silent, Snuffles pawing at the ground by their feet as they watched a group of people pass within inches off them. "Do you want us to get caught?"

Cara glared at Lupin, and when he didn't pull his hand away she bit him, delighting in his pained face. "Lupin, this was a bad idea from the start. We are risking too much here."

"We risk our lives every day as Aurors-"

"It's not just about our lives, Lupin! We are risking the trust we have only just gained from the Order, we are risking exposing the Order, and if anything particularly awful happens to us we are risking our very important mission!"

Lupin held his hands up, ignoring the wand currently aimed straight at his face. "Alright, calm down."

Cara growled at him, but pocketed her wand again, running a hand through her dark hair in frustration. "What even made me agree with this? Dumbledore specifically told us not to leave the house because he got word that Voldemort was suspicious about us since Nagini saw me in the Hall of Prophecies. Being in Knockturn Alley is practically begging for trouble!"

"I know, I know... but we never really planned what we'd do for the mission. I just thought that since we were here earlier than expected, we could try and nip the problem before it became a bigger problem," Lupin said, aware that Snuffles was watching and listening with great interest about their secret mission.

"Practical, but not logical." Cara said, "What, were you planning on finding a Death eater meeting, bursting in and capturing them all?"

"..."

"Unbelieveable-"

"Alright, I know it was a bad idea. I just... I wanted to do something, it's so frustrating just sitting indoors." Snuffles nodded his head. "See? Sir- Snuffles agrees with me."

"Boredom is not an excuse for potentially deadly situations." Cara then glared at Snuffles. "And you should not have come with us especially."

"Cool it, Gernet," Lupin said as he draped an arm around her shoulders. "We can head back now and still have plenty of time before anyone even comes back and notices we're not there."

"Interesting!" Teddy, Cara and Snuffles froze at the voice, a chill running down their spines at the cackle that followed it. "So you wouldn't be missed for a while then, would you?"

Turning slowly, the three were met by the sight of Bellatrix Lestrange, her husband and brother-in-laws, Fenrir Greyback along with a few other familiar Deatheaters' faces. All were watching the small group with malicious amusement, Bellatrix with her wand out already.

"Out alone too now, are we?"

Cara nudged Lupin with her elbow, whispering to him. "What now?"

"You're the brains remember, you tell me!"

Cara quickly considered their options. Lupin and she were skilled duellers, but they were outnumbered quite a bit, and with Sirius with them she didn't wish to expose him. She especially didn't want Sirius to get killed, otherwise she would not only lose someone she was particularly fond of, but the whole point – or 33% – of their mission would have been ruined already.

Bellatrix stepped closer to the three, gaze alternating between Cara and Sirius in particular, pausing on Cara. "You are of great interest to my master. And what my master wants, he shall get."

Keeping her eyes on the Deatheaters, Cara uttered one word in reply to Lupin. "Run."

Lupin hurled a Bombarda at the Deatheaters, before grabbing Cara's wrist and leading the three of them out of the small alley. Cara periodically threw back a few spells at the Deatheaters, as well as trying to maintain a Protego on their backs. Ducking for cover in a shop doorway, Cara defended their position as Lupin turned to Sirius, an apologetic expression on his face.

"Sorry Snuffles, but believe me when I say that your life is too important to risk. Get help while you're there." He snapped on a collar around Sirius' neck. "Portus." In a second before Sirius could protest, he had vanished, back to the safety of Order Headquarters where Lupin had set the Portkey to go to.

"Is Snuffles safe?"

"Yeah, he's gone," Lupin said, moving to help Cara. "What's the plan now?"

"Hold our position until help gets here. Don't let the Deatheaters escape. Defeat and capture the Deatheaters if possible."

Lupin raised an eyebrow at her, "That sounds an awful lot to do."

"I'm aware."

"And if we can't take them?"

"Then we get the hell out of here. We have more important work to do."

"Got it."

The two steadily made their way back towards the Deatheaters, helping passer-bys get safely away as they went.

Through combined attacks, they managed to knock out and bind four of the Deatheaters when they heard the first 'POP!' of others Apparating behind them. Turning, they saw Order members appearing in the area in bursts of white, a human Sirius among them. A sense of relief flooded through the pair at the sight, and Lupin couldn't help sending a quick grin back to Cara, only for his eyes to widen in shock.

He jumped over Cara's crouched form, uttering a Protego only a split-second too slow as he took a Crucio meant for Cara from Rodolphus Lestrange.

Lupin instantly fell to the ground, convulsing in pain and only barely able to keep a hold of his wand.

Cara flicked her wand at Rodolphus, "Stupefy!" grinning vaguely at the fallen form of the Deatheaters, before hurrying to Lupin's side. Grabbing one arm she hauled the still pained Lupin up into a sitting position, his arm looped around her neck and preparing herself to stand them both up, only for a shadow to fall over them. Cara looked up to see the sneering face of Fenrir looming above. Cara raising her wand, only for Fenrir to backhand her hard.

She fell back onto the ground – and Lupin with her – and a foot was smashed into her wrist, making her drop her wand from the sudden pain.

Before she even had time to recover, a thick hand wrapped around her neck, and Cara felt herself lifted from the ground completely, making it harder and harder to breathe. She was face-to-face with the terrifyingly gleeful face of Fenrir. Lupin staggered up to help her, but found a wand pointed at his face by a very disgruntled Rodolphus. Cara's last glimpse of the Order was Sirius hurrying towards her, before black smoke surrounded them and she felt the familiar squeeze of Apparation.

What the bloody hell do we do now?!


Edited 17/12/15