Note: And here we are at the final curtain...I've stayed up late to finish writing this. I hope it hasn't suffered from my lack of sleep!
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.
21: Sacrifice
As she lay flat upon the floor, cheek pressed against the floorboards, Carrie Winters stared anxiously at Teddy Lupin's feet as he crept carefully out of the bedroom and around the corner towards the room next door.
I'll be back before you can count to ten, the wizard had whispered as he had pushed the trunk back from the door a moment earlier.
As soon as his feet had disappeared from sight, Carrie started counting.
One...
Two...
Three...
Time ticked on, and as Carrie began to near double figures she could feel her heart racing in her chest.
When she got to seven, she began to wonder what would happen if Teddy was wrong. What would she do if she got to ten and he hadn't come back? What if...
Hoooo!
At the sudden sound, Carrie jumped so much that she nearly cracked her head upon the bed above her, just in time for Teddy's voice to hiss:
"Shhhh! Stupid bird!"
And with that, the metamorphmagus stepped back into the room, accompanied by a feathery companion who appeared intent on pecking one of his ears off.
As Teddy gave his arm an irritated shake, leaving the owl to flutter off to perch atop Remus' wardrobe, eying the wizard with bright orange, indignent eyes, Carrie let out a sigh of relief.
"Can I com out now?" she asked as he shut the door firmly behind him and replaced the trunk again.
"We need paper and ink." Teddy announced, and with that he made for the writing desk in the corner and began searching hurriedly through the drawers.
Carrie climbed back out from under the bed and was just getting to her feet when Teddy finally snatched up a clean scrap of parchment, as he reached to unscrew the bottle of the ink pot, Carrie hurried over, stooping to retrieve a discarded quill pen. Teddy immediately snatched it off of her and hastily began to scribble a message:
Death Eater Attack!
Tea Break's over!
Once they had coaxed the owl back down from the wardrobe, Carrie found herself put in charge of the mischievous creature.
"You've got the owl, and I've got the wand." Teddy had announced as he once again pushed back their feeble barricade. "We'll go for the spare bedroom window, it's at the side of the house and we're less likely to be seen."
As they set off across the landing a moment later, Carrie did her best to ignore the loud crashes and smashes of the world outside, for they only made her heart pound faster. By the time they reached the spare room, the muggle was considering starting to hum.
They had entered the next room and were just approaching the window when an especially loud crash finally tipped Carrie over the edge.
The muggle couldn't seem to help herself. She ran full pelt across the room, barely aware of the owl's startled fidgeting, and without so much as a glance outside, reached to fling the window wide open until it struck the outside wall with a clang. And with that, she thrust her arm forward, practically catapulting the bird out into the sky. As Teddy skidded to a halt just behind her and they both watched the owl soar off into the distance, Carrie felt a sudden surge of hope, and she barely managed to resist the urge to shout after the creature: Fly faster! Fly faster!
But then, just as she was letting out a loud sigh of relief, a bright jet of blue light streaked through the grassy area below, and both Carrie and Teddy paused in their small triumph to look down.
A black-robed figure was practically dancing across the grass, dodging incoming spells as she went, leaping from side to side as she swiped her wand somewhat lazily around, blocking attacks and occasionally sending back a streaking green curse of her own. As the Death Eater let out a high pitched cackle, twirling manically upon the spot, Carrie couldn't help but think that she had to be entirely insane.
"Four for me! Four for me!" the Death Eater half-sang as she spun, only to come to an abrupt halt, sending a blinding purple hex shooting off towards the road, and Carrie gasped to hear a distinct shout of pain.
"Three for me! Three for me!" the Death Eater shrieked, twirling once again, deflecting another attack upon her with a vague swipe of her wand. The hood of her cloak was thrown back from the twirling...
And then quite abruptly, the Death Eater paused.
She looked up.
And so it was that Carrie Winters locked gazes with the wildly cold-eyed Bellatrix Lestrange.
The muggle's blood ran cold...
"Run!" Teddy's voice hissed urgently in her ear, and with that the two children turned on their heels and fled back out of the room.
"W...where?" Carrie cried as Teddy seized her by the hand and they ran back towards Remus' room.
"Out of this house!" Teddy muttered as they dashed through the doorway. "We can't stay here...she'll...she'll come and get us..."
"But...but how? If we go downstairs..."
"We're not going downstairs!"
"What?"
Carrie stumbled to a confused halt as she watched Teddy hurry to look out of the window, lips pursed in consideration.
"Come here!" he demanded after a moment, holding out his hand to her, but Carrie didn't move.
"Why?" she asked, eying the window worriedly. "You're not thinking...? Not...not what your dad and his friends did...!"
"That's exactly what I'm thinking, now hurry up!"
Carrie's stomach gave a jolt.
"I'm not...jumping out of a first floor window!" she cried as Teddy reached to pull the window open wide.
He turned to stare at her disbelievingly.
"Carrie," he hissed, eyes wide in urgency. "That spell's pretty modern, Dad probably only read about it in theory in a book! But I learned to cast it in third year Charms! Now do you trust me or would you rather we sit around up here and wait for Bellatrix Lestrange to show up?"
Carrie attempted to swallow the nervous lump in the back of her throat...
CRASH!
The floorboards seemed to shudder under their feet and Carrie let out a small shriek, hurriedly reaching to clamp a hand over her mouth.
"She's here." Teddy muttered, just in case the commotion below them wasn't evidence enough, and Carrie's mind was instantly made up.
They struggled their way out up onto the window frame, and Carrie was forced to screw her eyes shut at the dizzying sight of the ground below, lit up by the ongoing battle.
"Ready?" she heard Teddy shout from beside her as he gripped her firmly around the middle, and Carrie had barely opened her mouth to admit that she wasn't ready at all when the young wizard cried: "Jump!"
And with that, they were falling, plummeting down towards the ground. The ground so solid that Carrie couldn't help but let out a high pitched scream as it got closer, closer...
Her feet slammed down upon the ground and her eyes snapped open as she felt the earth seemingly sink underneath her, as if it were a giant trampolene, and before Carrie could so much as gasp it rose back up again until it were flat and solid.
With a sharp exhaled breath of relief, Carrie at last looked up from her feet...
Just in time to spot a dark robed figure popping up from behind the ramshackle wall, wand pointing directly at the two teenagers as a deep voice cried:
"Stupefy!"
A jet of blinding red light shot towards them, and at the sight of it, Carrie felt herself become completely paralyzed by fear...
"PROTEGO!" Teddy bellowed, thrusting his wand forward with such force that he very nearly sent it flying off through the air, and Carrie flinched at the incoming spell, only for it to rebound off an invisible barrier just in front of them. As the Death Eater ducked to avoid the spell before raising his wand again, Carrie shrunk back to hide behind Teddy.
"Run!" Teddy told her as he pulled his hand free from her desperate grasp, but Carrie couldn't think to move, and before she could rediscover full use of her legs, the Death Eater had sent another spell shooting their way. Carrie stumbled sideways as Teddy hastily shoved her out of the way of the incoming spell, and as she tripped and fell towards the ground, Carrie watched the spell miss her best friend's shoulder by mere inches. Teddy hastily regained his balance just in time to take aim again.
"Expeli..." he began determinedly, only for the Death Eater to beat him to it. Carrie watched in horror as a bright flash of light struck Teddy in the arm, and before she could let out a horrified shout the young wizard's wand was soaring through the air, disappearing into the mass of greenery that was growing in a nearby cottage garden.
Carrie felt terror wash over her as the Death Eater once again raised his wand...
Only for a sudden flash of blue light to seemingly appear out of nowhere, striking the Death Eater so forcefully in the side that he was thrown off his feet and slammed into a cottage wall, head colliding with the brickwork with an ugly crunch that made Carrie's stomach jolt.
"Bloody little idiots!" a gruff voice declared furiously to the muggle's right, and as Teddy hastily reached to drag her back onto her feet, Carrie turned to see Mad-Eye Moody stomping towards them. "Thought you'd try and play hero, did you boy? Thought it'd be a little adventure, did you? BLOODY FOOLISH!"
"I...I didn't mean..." Teddy began uncertainly as the grizzled old Auror stalked towards them, scarred features contorted in disapproval.
"THESE PSYCHOPATHS EAT STUPID LITTLE KNOW-IT-ALLS LIKE YOU FOR BREAKFAST!" Moody bellowed, his magical eye swiveling somewhat manically around in it's socket. "You heard Lupin, didn't you? Now did he, or did he not, tell you to GET OUT OF HERE?"
"Well yes but..."
"Think you know better than him, do you?"
"No, but..."
"I know all about morons like you! We get them all the time at the Ministry...they're the ones who die first!"
"There's no floo powder left!" Teddy shouted, quite boldly Carrie thought, and yet this didn't seem to make a whole lot of difference to Moody's manner.
"Well then," he grunted, "you best find somewhere to lie low, hadn't you? Rather than standing around in the middle of the bloody road!" Abruptly, the Auror's arm shot up to take aim at a ground floor window of the blazing cottage behind him, a spell shot from his wand through the window and Carrie heard a distinct yelp of pain, followed by a telling crash. "What are you waiting for then?" he snapped as if he had not been interrupted. "GET OUT OF HERE!"
Teddy hastily grabbed hold of Teddy by the hand again and they set off at a run, only to skid to a halt when there came the distinct sound of smashing glass, and the sitting room window of the cottage they were passing shattered as a rag doll-like body came crashing through it, landing upon the road in front of them with an audible bump.
It was one of the brothers that Carrie had seen irritating Moody just prior to the Death Eaters' arrival, a steady stream of crimson immediately leaking out and staining his ginger-blonde hair.
He didn't appear to be moving.
"Oh Merlin!" Carrie squeaked, queasy at the sight of him. "Is...is he...you don't think he's..."
"He's not dead!" Teddy announced, and before Carrie could give the unconcious Order another glance she found herself being dragged back in the opposite direction as Teddy looked frantically around for somewhere to hide.
"How...how'd you know he's not...?" Carrie asked, not daring to glance back over her shoulder.
"I don't know..." Teddy muttered. "But he can't be...Fabian can't be dead...not yet...it's not his time..."
"Oh Merlin...what if? What if...! We should go back and help him!"
"Not likely Carrie..."
"Why not?"
"Because where there's an unconscious Order member there's probably a conscious Death Eater! We need to hide, don't worry I'm sure somebody will find him...here! Round this corner!"
They skidded around the corner beside the Lupins' house where only a short while earlier they had first spied Bellatrix, and were about to make a dash for the trees when they narrowly avoided tripping over somebody's leg.
There, huddled up against the side of the Lupins' house in a vain attempt to stay out of sight, were three familiar figures all gathered around a fourth who was lying sprawled upon the ground, whimpering for all he was worth.
Abruptly, the two teenagers found a wand pointing directly in their faces, only for the holder to lower it and exclaim:
"What the bloody hell are you doing here?"
As Sirius Black gawped at the two of them in surprise, both Carrie and Teddy looked past him to observe the other Marauders with deep concern.
Peter was lying upon the grass, head propped up upon Remus' lap as he stared up at the werewolf with wide, petrified eyes.
"You're alright mate," James was murmuring reassuringly as he pressed what appeared to be a bloodied navy blue wizard's cloak against his friend's stomach. At the pressure, a loud, choking moan escaped the injured Marauder's lips, the sound sent a shiver down Carrie's spine.
"Shhh!" Remus hissed, only for James to increase the pressure even more, causing Peter to let out a agonized scream.
"Moony shut him up!" James demanded, and Remus immediately reached to clamp a hand down across Peter's mouth.
"Peter you have to be quiet!" the werewolf insisted as Peter's face contorted in pain. "Somebody will hear you!"
"Yeah, SHE might hear you! Crazy bitch..." Sirius muttered, and Remus glanced up at him to reply, only for his eyes to come to rest upon Carrie and Teddy.
"What the bloody hell are you doing here?" he asked, eyes wide in surprise, and Sirius said:
"That's what I just said..."
Remus ignored him.
"I told you to use the floo!" he cried, grip upon Peter tightening anxiously, causing the other Marauder to let out a muffled groan of protest.
"We ran out of floo powder." Teddy explained, before hastily adding: "You're mum's alright, though! There was only enough for one..."
For a brief moment, the werewolf looked relieved, but then his expression darkened and he observed:
"This is bad. If...if Voldemort were to get hold of you..." he trailed off, seemingly unable to comprehend such badness, and Sirius asked:
"D'you think you might like to explain what's going on now? You know, with these two...?"
"Shut up Padfoot." James muttered, frowning deeply as he continued to try and halt Peter's bleeding. "That's business between Moony and Dumbledore. Besides, you're supposed to be keeping watch for Death Eaters!"
"I am!" Sirius hissed indignently. "How do you suppose I spotted these two?"
"You spotted them because they practically bumped into you!" Remus told him irritably. "You're going to get us all killed!"
"Yeah, well," Teddy said, voice light-hearted in an attempt to stop the growing friction. "Better Cleo and I end up dead than Voldemort get hold of us, eh?"
Remus gave a soft snort of what might have been amusement. If it was, Carrie couldn't say that she shared it.
"Know something that important, do you?" Sirius asked curiously, and Remus immediately glared at him.
"Yes they do. Under no circumstances at all is Voldemort to get his hands on them. If he does...well, we'll lose the War." he announced, and James paused in his efforts to look up at him with wide eyes.
"Lose the War?" he cried, as Sirius sobered, expression grim at the notion.
"That's what I said." the werewolf murmured, at last daring to remove his hand from Peter's mouth, and Sirius was about to comment when he spied movement out of the corner of his eye. The estranged Black spun on his heel, wand raised expectantly, only for his aim to waver as he cried:
"Shit!"
"Little help?" Carrie heard a voice inquire dryly, and Carrie turned to spot Gideon staggering towards them, one arm slung around the unconscious Fabian's middle as he dragged his brother towards them.
Teddy hastily hurried over to help, and as they neared the others, Gideon grinned broadly.
"This our make-shift St. Mungo's, then?" he asked, eying the whimpering Peter with a grim frown. "You can't just sit around with him here, you know. He needs a healer." Glancing sideways at his brother, he amended: "They both need a healer. Gimme him here, I'll get them both out of here."
As James and Sirius each reached for an arm with which to heave Peter up onto his feet, Remus told Gideon:
"You can take Cleo and Joshua with you."
"Alright then," Gideon agreed, offering the two time travelers a friendly smile that Carrie couldn't help feel was inappropriate at a time like this. "You'll have to grab hold of my cloak or something, I'll have my arms full!"
Sirius and James were just leading a staggering Peter over for Gideon to throw his free arm around him to hold him upright, when from out of nowhere a high pitched voice shrieked:
"AVADA KEDAVRA!"
The Killing Curse came soaring towards them from the first floor window that Teddy and Carrie had spied Bellatrix Lestrange from, and Carrie flinched in renewed terror as it shot past Sirius' ear, missing him by mere inches. Gideon instantly disapparated with a pop, taking Peter and Fabian with him. At the sight of him disappearing, Carrie's sense of hope disappeared too.
Sirius looked up at the house, eyes coming to rest upon the crazed Death Eater who had attacked him, and to Carrie's shock he had the audacity to wave.
"Alright there cousin?" he shouted, causing Bellatrix's eyes to narrow to furious slits. "Not the best shot ever, are you?"
"For the love of Merlin Padfoot...!" James muttered, and before he could finish a continuous burst of spells began to rain down upon the group, eliciting a shriek of terror from Carrie, who instantly felt herself go rigid with fear.
James and Sirius managed to deflect a few of spells as Remus scrambled to his feet. Snatching his wand out from his pocket, the werewolf fired a quick succession of spells back at Voldemort's Number One follower, only to have them rebound back at him, forcing him to dive sideways to avoid getting hit.
"Run!" James shouted as a couple of other Death Eaters rounded the side of the cottage, ready to add their spells to the mix. And with that, Carrie felt Sirius' hand reach to grab hold of her elbow and she felt the abrupt pulling sensationof apparation.
They apparated into the middle of the road where just a short while earlier Teddy and Carrie had come into contact with Moody. The grizzled Auror was nowhere to be seen, indeed the area had become disturbingly empty. A series of loud crashes indicated that the primary battle was now taking place inside one of the cottages, but Carrie had little chance to glance in it's direction for she instantly found herself and Teddy being shunted back a few steps until they were stood just behind Sirius. The three Marauders formed a ring around the two time travelers, their eyes darting keenly around, wands raised ready...
"They're dead keen on us today." Sirius commented casually, as if they were speaking of a group of girls at a party.
"They're dead keen on Remus." James muttered. "Your darling cousin has been chasing him all over the place."
"Maybe she fancies you, Moony mate." Sirius suggested thoughtfully, and as he eyed the doorway of his house opposite them, Remus muttered:
"Shut up Padfoot."
"I'm just saying, Prongs is right, she wants to get you something rotten!"
"Yes, well," Remus mumbled, gaze darting towards the side of the house. "This isn't some random Death Eath Eater attack...I didn't have time to explain..."
"Go on, then." Sirius suggested, and Remus chanced a sideways glance at him, frowning deeply.
"You think I have time now?"
"Well...no, but..." Sirius offered the werewolf a brief raised eyebrow.
"Voldemort wants to get hold of that nutcase Anya and I ran into that day in the woods." Remus murmured hurriedly, pausing when James made a sudden movement at a creaking noise coming from one of the houses. After a moment, once no Death Eater appeared, the werewolf went on. "She's not a Death Eater, so Voldemort is curious about her...and she came looking for me so...so he's curious about me too..."
"Merlin..." James muttered darkly. "How did you figure that out?"
There was a distinctly reluctant silence before Remus admitted:
"Anya. She's...a Death Eater..."
Sirius' concentration was instantly shattered, he turned to stare at Remus with wide eyes.
"YOU SHAGGED A DEATH EATER?"
"I didn't bloody shag her!" Remus protested, turning to offer Sirius a revolted look. "I've told you a million times..."
"It's alright, Moony! Lily isn't here, so you don't have to pretend..."
"I DIDN'T BLOODY SHAG HER!"
"Well if that wasn't what you were doing that time in the woods...what the bloody hell WERE the two of you doing? I swear, I could hear funny noi..."
"FOR THE LOVE OF MERLIN SHUT UP!" James demanded. "We're in the middle of something here!"
And as abruptly as the distraction had started, it ended. Sirius and Remus exchanged one last scowl before turning their attention back to the matter at hand.
Seemingly this was just in time because there came the sudden there came a series of loud pops and Carrie failed to suppress a gasp of terror at the sight of five Death Eaters apparating in front of them, their wands all raised.
"Shit..." Sirius muttered.
As she watched Bellatrix Lestrange advance upon them, her steps mockingly slow and exaggerated, Carrie wondered where the other Order members had gotten to. She dared not glance over towards the commotion inside the cottage, all she could do was hope with all her might that help would emerge from the front door.
Now.
Right now.
But as Bellarix advanced, dark eyes glinting menacingly, nobody appeared.
It was just the three Marauders. Just three teenaged boys standing between Carrie and...and she didn't want to imagine what...
The muggle reached to grasp Teddy by the hand as she stared at Bellatrix, heart hammering faster and faster with each of the Death Eater's steps.
It was funny, the muggle found herself musing despite her terror, what came to mind when one looked into the eyes of the person who was no doubt about to kill you.
If one were to look past the wild, unhinged glint, those eyes could have been Dora's. It was a startling and deeply disturbing observation. Carrie wondered if, should she by some miracle make it out of this situation alive, Dora might consent to morphing the similarity away...
And then Bellatrix came to a sudden halt.
She smiled. A twisted, stretched expression upon her pale, pointed face, and Carrie found herself hunching her shoulders.
"We've just popped over to collect young Remus here." the Death Eater announced, voice dripping with false sweetness that made Carrie's stomach clench uncomfortably.
James offered the lunatic an apologetic smile.
"Well I'm afraid you can't have him." the Marauder announced, wand trained carefully upon the Death Eater's face.
"Yours, is he?" Bellatrix asked, thin nose wrinkling in disgust. "Popular pets aren't they? Dogs..."
BANG!
A jet of red light erupted out of the end of Sirius' wand, and instantly the air became a mass of spells whizzing back and forth. As she watched James deflect a stunning spell hurled at him by one of the hooded figures, Carrie felt Teddy dragging her backwards, and the two of them immediately turned and fled towards the cover of the ramshackle wall. Vaulting over it, the two time travelers concealed themselves behind it, and there they watched in agonizing fear as Remus, James and Sirius fought a dizzingly fast battle against the five Death Eaters.
When Sirius managed to strike one Death Eater with a stunning spell, sending the hooded man flying off his feet and into a nearby garden wall, Carrie felt a sudden urge to cheer out loud.
Maybe, just maybe, three teenaged boys could do it...
Maybe they weren't all going to die after all...
But then Bellatrix's latest curse struck Sirius square in the chest, and he collapsed, stiff as a board with a yelp of pain.
And just a short while after, James was hit by a rebounding stunning spell, and quite suddenly Carrie didn't feel hopeful.
Not hopeful at all...
The muggle watched in horror as Remus began to stumble back, the sheer number of spells being directed at him becoming almost too much to bear. Alone, he found himself with little to do besides attempt in vain to shield himself from the attacks, and as his attempts grew more and more desperate, Carrie found her view of his struggle blurred by warm tears prickling at her eyes.
"Teddy...!" she whimpered, breath suddenly reduced to a horrified sob as at last one of the Death Eaters' spells got past the werewolf's defenses, knocking his off his feet and causing him to drop his wand.
"Come on Dad!" Teddy whispered miserably as Remus hastily rolled onto his side, desperately reaching for his discarded wand, only for a second spell to strike him in the side, leaving him to fall flat upon his face with a groan...
"STUPEFY!" A familiar voice bellowed from the nearby trees, and at the sound of it Bellatrix spun around just in time to see an enormous jet of red light streak across the road.
Carrie watched in amazement as it struck one Death Eater square in the face, launching her backwards and into a second, they both crashed to the floor with a shout.
CRACK!
And as Bellatrix spun back around at the sound of somebody apparating, she and the remaining Death Eater found themselves confronted by a new enemy.
Carrie had to clamp a hand over her mouth to stop herself from giving a relieved shout.
And so it was that Dora Lupin planted herself between the Death Eaters and her husband's younger self, her wand pointing steadily at her aunt's chest.
"You!" Bellatrix hissed, eyes widening in glee at the sight of the very person that she had been sent to seek out.
Carrie wondered if Dora felt at all unnerved by Bellatrix's apparent recognition of her, but the Auror merely planted her feet more firmly upon the ground and agreed:
"Yes. Me."
"This is terribly convinient." the Death Eater grinned as her remaining companion stepped up beside her. "The Dark Lord shall be very pleased indeed..."
Dora raised an eyebrow.
"Oh I seriously doubt that." she said, and no sooner had the sentence left her lips, she gave her wand a deft flick and sent a stunning spell whizzing through the air towards the Death Eaters. As a furious duel ensued, Carrie dared a glance at Remus, who had paused in his struggle to regain his wand to stare at Dora in a mixture of relief and bemusement...
Only for a sudden rustling noise to draw the werewolf's attention and as he struggled to turn and look over his shoulder towards the trees beside his house.
Carrie followed his gaze, and gasped at the sight that met her eyes.
Anya had come round from Remus' stunning spell. She was stumbling forward onto the road, her steps slow and shaky, face red and damp with tears. As Carrie reached to tap Teddy urgently upon the shoulder, drawing the boy's attention away from his mother's determined struggle, the young Death Eater came to a sudden halt as she laid eyes upon the scene before her.
"What's she doing?" Carrie hissed worriedly as she and Teddy watched Anya's eyes come to rest upon Remus, who was staring straight back at her.
"I...I don't know..." Teddy muttered as the Death Eater began to stumble forward once again.
Carrie glanced back at Dora, and was just considering whether or not to shout some sort of warning to her that she was being flanked, when Bellatrix suddenly let out a triumphant shriek...
As she watched the wand fly from Dora's hand in a flash of white light, Carrie felt as if she had just been kicked in the stomach.
"NO!" the muggle shrieked before she could help herself, and Teddy jumped to his feet, eyes wide in terror as he shouted:
"MUM!"
Dora's wand clattered to the floor some short distance away, and for the briefest of moments all eyes were upon it.
And suddenly, everything happened at once.
Dora made a desperate run for her wand, hand outstretched determinedly as Bellatrix took fresh aim.
And just as Dora broke into a sprint, Anya began to run towards the wand too...
"Oh Merlin!" Carrie cried as she watched the Death Eater get closer and closer to the fallen object, and Teddy reached to clamp a horrified hand over his mouth.
Anya's pace was slower than Dora's, stumbling and clumsy, and yet she was closer...much closer...
She's going to take Dora's wand! She's actually going to take Dora's wand...
Dora was going to be defenseless...
She'd die, Carrie was sure...
Carrie was utterly stunned and horrified. Despite everything that Anya had don, the muggle had never really felt that she entirely deserved the way that Remus had treated her. After all she wasn't evil, she wasn't another Bellatrix, she was just frightened...
Or so Carrie had thought.
How could she have been so very, very wrong? How could she not have known? She ought know evil when she saw it...
Because Anya was evil, and Dora...any second now there would be a big flash of green light and BAM! Life would never be the same again, it was inconceivable what it would be like. The situation was ruined, hopeless, utterly dismal and as the seconds ticked on it got closer and closer...
Anya had reached Dora's wand...
But she kept on running.
"What the..." Carrie breathed, as Teddy's held breath wavered somewhat uncertainly.
"AVADA KEDAVRA!" Bellatrix screeched, and Dora's pace slowed suddenly as she turned to watch the Killing Curse speeding towards her. There was a horrible sense of resignation in that small turn of the head, and it shook Carrie to the very core.
"NO!" the muggle shrieked again, reaching to grab fistfuls of hair in horror, and she was about to screw her eyes shut against the sign of Dora's demise when something unexpected happened.
Anya threw herself forward towards the doomed Auror...
Straight into the path of the Killng Curse.
The young Death Eater's body gave a sickening jolt as the life was blasted from her body in a flash of green light. As she fell to the ground, utterly lifeless, both Bellatrix and Dora paused to stare in surprise...
It was at that very moment that Remus finally snatched up his wand.
"STUPEFY!" he croaked, and Bellatrix caught sight of the spell just in time to disapparate with a pop, her shriek of frustration ringing in Carrie's ears. The stunning spell struck the remaining Death Eater in the shoulder, sending him spinning sideways until he tripped and tumbled to the ground.
Silence descended around them and as she stared in shock at Anya's lifeless form at Dora's feet, Carrie wondered when the rest of the fighting had stopped, or indeed where the victors, whoever they were, had gotten to.
"Mum!" Teddy cried, and he was about to vault over the wall and run to her when Dora hastily held up a hand.
"Don't move!" the Auror demanded, much to Carrie's surprise. "It isn't safe yet!"
Carrie felt somewhat awed at Dora's ability to remain in even a remotely clear state of mind. The muggle's own head was buzzing with questions and confusion and...
"You're his...his MOTHER...?" Remus attempted to clarify as he stared up at his future wife in complete and utter incomprehension.
Dora gave a stiff chuckle.
"Nah, of course I'm not." she muttered as she went to stoop and retrieve her wand, and without warning she rounded on the werewolf, wand raised and declared: "Obliviate!"
Carrie watched somewhat numbly as Remus slumped back upon the grass, apparently out cold.
"Is...is he supposed to do that?" the muggle wondered aloud, but at that very moment Dora spun around to face the cottage where the Order and Death Eaters had just recently stopped their fighting.
The door to the cottage was thrown back on it's hinges and Carrie found herself holding her breath anxiously to see who would emerge...
The remaining members of the Order of the Phoenix filed out of the door, all eying their surroundings searchingly before coming to an abrupt halt. At the front of the group, Moody eyed Dora suspiciously with both normal and magical eyes.
"Who've we got here, then?" he demanded to know, his wand pointing threateningly at the metamorphmagus' face.
"Alright, Mad-Eye?" Dora greeted, seemingly forgetting herself for a second, and Moody was about to make some sort of retort when a voice shrieked:
"JAMES!"
Despite Moody's demand that she stay where she was, Lily pushed her way to the front of the group and ran to drop down beside her boyfriend, eyes wide in panic.
"Is he okay?" she cried, looking up at Dora for some sort of confirmation, much to Moody's fury.
"He was like that when I got here." Dora admitted, "But I think he's just been stunned or some..." she was cut off by the wand being yanked from her hand, soaring over until it landed at Moody's feet. Lily immediately glanced around at the old Auror to protest:
"It's alright, she's with us!"
"Is she now?" Moody grunted disbelievingly, magical eye swiveling in it's socket.
"Of course I am," Dora agreed briskly, turning to beckon to Carrie and Teddy with a wave of her hand. "Keep up, Mad-Eye..."
"Who ARE you?" Frank Longbottom asked from just behind Moody, and as she climbed over the wall, Carrie couldn't help but think he sounded disgruntled.
"Who am I? Well...that's a bit tricky to be honest..." Dora began uncertainly, and Moody raised his wand again.
"Sounds like Death Eater nonsense to me!" he accused, only for Lily to cry:
"She's Remus' wife!"
The Order members exchanged a series of bemused glances, except for Moody who did no so much as blink.
"Bit bloody old isn't she?" he muttered, and Dora paused in her disapproving look at Lily to smile and muse:
"Well it makes a change for somebody to say that..."
"Well obviously they aren't married NOW!" Lily went on, one hand reaching to smooth James' hair absentmindedly. "She's going to marry him! When he's thirty eight..."
"Thirty seven." Dora corrected automatically, though her expression was becoming increasingly disapproving by the second.
"By which time she'll be what? Seventy odd...?"
"THEY'RE TIME TRAVELERS!" Lily exclaimed in frustration, pointing at the trio as Carrie and Teddy came to a halt at Dora's side. "That...that boy...THAT'S REMUS' SON!"
Dora gave a resigned sigh and reached into her pocket to retrieve the time turner. There was a long moment as the Order members stared at both the spindly object and the trio before Moody observed:
"Got guts then, have you? Marrying a werewolf. BACKBONE! We could use somebody like you with the Aurors, you know..."
"You will do." Dora told him, apparently distracted from her annoyance again as she reached to retrieve her Auror identification to wave around for them to see.
"You meet three people from the future and all you can say is...is THAT?" Alice Longbotton said, turning to stare at Moody with disbelieving eyes. "You're OBSESSED, Alastor!"
As Moody grunted irritably, Lily got to her feet, expression apologetic.
"I'm sorry Dora," she said, expression somewhat nervous. "It's just...well...escaping Frank and Alice is one thing...but...escaping all of us...! And it'll be fine, we'll let you Obliviate us..."
"What?" Moody barked, face contorting at the very idea, only for the witch behind him to reason:
"It'll be for the best, Alastor, we can't possible know something like this..."
"You can trust me." Dora agreed, grinning broadly. "I had a very good teacher...you might have heard of him actually...goes by the name of Alastor Moody..."
"You're one of my students?"
"Of course. Where else do you think I learned to be so insolent?"
As the Order began to murmur to one another, Dora finally glanced around at Carrie and Teddy, just in time for her son to reach to throw his arms around her.
"Mum! You...you were going to...to..."
"S'alright, Teddy love. It's all over now." Dora murmured, and she turned to look down at Anya's body with a deeply saddened look. "Poor girl..." the Auror whispered.
Carrie shuffled forward, relief finally beginning to sink in as she reachd to throw her arms around both Lupins, burying her face in Dora's shoulder.
Teddy was right, to think that Dora had come so close to...
No. She simply couldn't think of it...
There they stood for what seemed like forever, and before long the Order dispersed and set about gathering up the wounded, and Carrie was relieved to hear Frank announce that as far as they could tell, no Order members had died.
Carrie couldn't seem to help but glance over at Anya every so often, and each time the sight of the girl's deathly pale face made the muggle shudder and bury her face deeper into Dora's robes.
"D...Dora?" the muggle whispered after her third glance, and she felt tears seeping from her eyes as Dora reached to smooth the girl's disheveled hair.
"What is it, Carrie love?"
"Why...why d'you think she...why would she have done...what she did?"
Dora was thoughtful for a long moment, watching as Frank and Alice set about lifting the three Marauders up onto conjured stretchers.
"Love, perhaps." the Auror mused sadly, eyes drifting closed with a sigh. "For Remus. I was the only thing standing between him and Bellatrix...perhaps that made me worth saving."
Carrie dared another watery glance at the Death Eater's body. The still face looked...peaceful...
"I think she felt guilty." Teddy murmured into his mother's shoulder. "I think she was ashamed. Dad was ashamed of her, she was ashamed of herself...I think she wanted to...feel better."
"Poor girl..." Dora mumbled again, and though she wasn't entirely sure why, Carrie could not help but burst into tears.
Come the time for the Order members to line up, ready for (in all cases beside Moody's) voluntary Obliviation, Carrie had cried her eyes dry, and she and Teddy went to sit upon the ramshackle wall, their backs to the proceedings for the whole process gave the muggle the creeps.
"Well..." Teddy observed slowly as he stared up at the sky. "This is it."
"Mm..." Carrie mumbled, sighing heavily and leaning until she could rest her head upon his shoulder. "This is it."
"We're going home."
"Yes..." Carrie pursed her lips together for a moment before admitting: "I won't miss it."
"Me neither." Teddy agreed.
There were no fond farewells when Dora finally came to loop the long chain of the time turner around their necks, for the Order members were in a state of confused disarray. It was probably best, Dora had explained, that they just slip away nice and quietly...
It didn't feel like home until they had apparated back to the Lupins' house, and even as she was settling down at the kitchen table, watching Dora stick the kettle on with an exclamation of I think we all deserve a cup of tea, Carrie couldn't help but feel that it was all a bit of an anti-climax.
Quite frankly the normality was unnerving...
Until the muggle realised that really, it wasn't all that normal. Because Teddy didn't usually stare off into space with such a blank expression upon his face, and Dora's hands did not usually tremble as she added boiling water into the teapot...
"I think," Dora mused as she shuffled over to the fridge to retrieve the milk, "that this is the time that I launch into a big long angry lecture about how reckless and stupid the pair of you have been." she cast a rather grim glance over her shoulder at the two silent teenagers before adding solemnly: "But then again some things just speak for themselves."
And at that moment, Carrie felt more ashamed and foolish of the mess that she had gotten into than any length of angry speech could have possibly have ever made her feel.
Never again, she told herself firmly. Never again would she be so silly, so foolish...
And this wasn't like all the other times when she'd told herself to grow up. This was the last time. There wouldn't ever need to be another. Never. Ever.
It was frustrating and troubling to think that she could be wrong, like last time and the time before, but Carrie Winters was going to try her best to ignore this fact. She would do it this time, she'd grow up. After all, she'd been through more than enough now to warrant full blown maturity.
And in that respect, Carrie was glad that she had gone back in time, that she had met people who had helped shape her view on life.
At that precise moment there came the sound of a lock clicking, and Carrie, Teddy and Dora all looked round, down the hallway to see the front door opening.
At the sight of her husband stepping carefully over the threshold, reaching to push the door shut behind him as he wiped his shoes upon the doormat, Dora instantly abandoned her tea making and practically bolted down the hallway.
"Remus!"
As his wife flung her arms around his neck with such force that he stumbled back into the door, narrowly avoiding cracking his head, Remus frowned deeply.
"Hi...?" he mumbled uncertainly, gingerly consenting to putting his arms around her, only for the witch to complain:
"I...I almost lost you!"
Carrie pursed her lips tightly together in an odd mixture of amusement and shame as she watched the werewolf's grip upon the witch tighten and he leant to press a kiss atop her head.
"What in Merlin's name are you talking about?" the muggle heard him murmur. "I DID say I was coming home, didn't I? You didn't honestly think I was going to...leave?"
He looked more confused than ever when Dora merely let out a relieved squeak and, reaching to cup his face in her hands so that she could stare up at him, victorious before muttering:
"Oh shut up!" And with that, she rose up upon her tiptoes to kiss him so enthusiastically that he at last lost his battle with the door, hitting his head with an audible crack.
Yes, Carrie thought as she and Teddy both sniggered, as foolish as it had been, travelling back in time had been above all an education. Indeed, she would forever value those summer days in 1979 when she and Teddy had met the Marauders.
Finish.
Note: I will be posting the first chapter of the next story, Meet the Order of the Phoenix, directly after this one! I hope that you have all enjoyed this story as much as I have enjoyed writing it! Thank you so much to those of you who have left such encouraging reviews and spurred me on to update on a regular basis! Your kind comments really do make me smile! It would be wonderful to hear from you all again now, tell me which characters you like best, what scenes etc! I'll do my best to incoperate more of your favourite things into the next story too!
Once again, thank you for reading!