Note: I'm actually too sleepy and tired to write a note...! So I'll just say I hope you enjoy this chapter! I think I have just two more to write...or maybe just the one...not sure yet...I'm too sleepy to decide! =)
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.
21: Trial and Error
"I know what you're probably thinking." Jasmine said as she led the way down yet another corridor. "Isaac's a lunatic."
"I...don't think that." Carrie lied, feeling herself blush under the invisibility cloak, but Jasmine waved a dismissive hand, narrowly avoiding hitting the muggle in the face.
"Sure you do, everybody does." the Auror muttered, booted steps somewhat stomping. "But he can't help it, you know. He's ill."
"He is?"
"Mm. He got captured, you see. During the War by the Death Eaters. They tortured him...messed with his head."
Carrie shuddered at the mere thought.
"Like...like the Longbottoms?" she found herself wondering, though she rather wished she hadn't asked because the question made her shudder again.
"The Longbottoms?" Jasmine mused, frowning a little in consideration. "A little, perhaps...but then again perhaps not..." She gave a small shrug before telling the muggle: "The point is whatever's going on in his head sometimes, Isaac has a heart of gold. He's fiercely loyal to Harry, Tonks and the Auror Department. If I tell him to pretend I'm somewhere I'm not for a few hours it won't matter what Kraft or any of those other Dousers bastards tell him, he won't tell on me, no matter what. The Death Eaters didn't get any information out of him, after all. If Kraft can be more persuasive than them I'll eat my Auror badge."
Carrie found herself nodding at this explanation until she remembered that Jasmine couldn't see her.
"At first," she recalled, a small frown creasing her brow, "when I first saw him...he reminded me of Remus."
Jasmine let out a soft snort of amusement.
"Yeah," she said, glancing towards the muggle and offering the empty space an alarmingly suggestive raised eyebrow. "Me too!"
Carrie chuckled rather awkwardly, gaze upon her shoes.
"I expect that's why Tonks has such a soft spot for him." Jasmine went on, the mischievous expression gone as soon as it had appeared. "Kept him on to do paperwork and organise raids, that sort of thing. Plus he makes a decent cup of tea should she ever fancy one."
"How long have you and him been...together?" Carrie asked, and the Auror frowned deeply.
"I have no idea." she admitted, sniggering at her own uncertainty. "I've known Isaac for ten years, that's when I entered the Auror training scheme you see, when I was eighteen. The first time I saw him was when he came to help Tonks and Ron with some demonstrations. One of the other Auror cadets got a little over enthusiastic when it was his turn to hit Ron with a stinging jinx...managed to smash him through a window, practically split his skull open, and he took the rest of the afternoon off sick! Tonks had to drag him off to see a healer, so Isaac got left in charge of us. He taught us a thing or two about shielding charms. That was when I first noticed him...but of course I didn't speak to him all that much, not for several years. Then there was that incident in Tonks' office...we don't really talk about that..."
"What happened?" Carrie wondered, though she didn't expect much of an answer, but Jasmine consented to explain:
"Harry gave Tonks the pleasure of informing Isaac that he was being officially moved to a permanent desk job...which...upset him, obviously...it's sort of embarrassing, you know, when an Auror gets taken off of active service before they're nearing retirement. And Isaac...well he was utterly gutted. Harry had been burying him under paperwork for months and never assigned him to take part in raids, but of course they had to make it official eventually. For every Auror they have out in the field the department has to pay out a shed load of galleons for complimentary life insurance, what with us having a habit of getting ourselves killed on a regular basis. It wasn't fair for Isaac to benefit from that if he wasn't out in the thick of it, so Tonks had to break the news to him that he was being made an official pen-pusher. Isaac begged her to talk to Harry, try and change his mind, but she said it would be a waste of time...and then...well...Isaac forgot to count to ten..." Jasmine trailed off, sighing heavily and shaking her head. "We all heard it, of course," she recalled reaching to rake a hand through her hair. "I expect half the bloody Ministry did..."
"Heard what?" Carrie asked, feeling a little apprehensive as the two of them rounded a corner and came to an abrupt halt outside of an office door.
"Tonks' desk exploding." Jasmine explained casually, as if desks had a habit of exploding on a daily basis in the Auror Department.
"Exploding...?" Carrie echoed uncertainly, and Jasmine sighed rather impatiently and observed:
"You don't know a whole lot about accidental magical outbursts, do you? Because it WAS an accident...that part was, anyway. Of course half the department flooded into the office to see what the hell was going on and that made Isaac panic even more than he was already. He snapped, thought he was about to get himself stunned or bundled or something...so he drew his wand...which didn't go down well will the others because they all drew THEIR wands..." Again, the Auror trailed off, puffing her cheeks in exasperation at the memory as she slumped sideways to lean against a highly polished tiled wall, hand reaching to rub wearily at her eyes. "Obviously Tonks realised Isaac was having one of his episodes, so she jumped in front of him, shouted at everybody to lower their wands...except Isaac got startled...and...well...that's how Isaac first landed himself in front of the Wizengamot charged with assault on a Ministry Deputy and damage to Ministry property. It's a miracle he didn't get sacked, actually."
"Didn't Dora speak up for him?" Carrie asked with a frown, and Jasmine gave a shrug.
"Well they did send somebody over to Mungo's to talk to her, only Remus told them to leave because she wasn't in any fit state to give a statement. Harry went to the trial, though, managed to persuade the judge not to send Isaac to Azkaban or have him removed from the department. They made him pay an enormous fine, though, because he had to tell them he did it all on purpose because Tonks had pissed him off. Harry said it was better that way, if they'd known it was because he was unstable he would've been out of his job within the blink of an eye." At long last, the grin reappeared on Jasmine's face. "Anyway, I went to visit Tonks in hospital and she suggested I take Isaac out for a drink or something, cheer him up...and...well...we got on pretty well after that...one thing led to another, you know..." Jasmine straightened up, reaching into her pocket to draw out Isaac's wand, and with that she turned and pushed the office door open. A small sigh upon the dark wood read: Security.
The room inside, Carrie discovered as she shuffled along behind the red haired Auror, was not much bigger than a cupboard. It was a dim, cramped space occupied by a mismatched assortment of chairs, in which were sat a small group of extremely bored looking witches and wizards.
"Kraft rope you in too, Jasmine?" a black woman in her mid-thirties asked dully from the chair directly to their left, and Jasmine looked rather smug to tell her:
"Nope, if he tried I'd tell him where to jump!"
"Liar." a familiar voice grunted from the far corner, making Carrie jump. "You like that badge of yours too much, if he told you to jump you'd ask him how high."
Jasmine's eyes instantly narrowed as she turned to look at the Douser who was lounging in a moth-eaten armchair.
"Actually," the Auror said, nose wrinkling at the sight of him, "I think you'll find you're wrong. Because unlike you, Cain, I happen to have what's called a backbone." She turned again to face the slumped figure sat to her right, holding out the wand for him to take.
Isaac looked up from his inspection of his boots, his face pale and his expression sagging, depressed.
"Alright, love?" Jasmine greeted, voice the model of cheer as if the incident back at Auror Headquarters had never occurred. "Won't be a whole lot of use to our Lord and Master Ambrose without this now, will you?"
The black witch by the door attempted to stifle a snigger, ducking her head when Cain glanced over at her.
Isaac stared blankly at the wand for a long moment, before rising slowly to his feet, reaching to take hold of Jasmine by the elbow so that he could steer her back towards the door. Once in the doorway he peered at her, eyes scrutinizing.
"Are you alright?" he murmured once they had their back to the others, and as she looked up at him Carrie couldn't help but feel that though pale he looked a lot more relaxed than he had done just a short while beforehand.
"Peachy, you?" Jasmine said, smiling reassuringly, only for his grip upon her elbow to tighten as he whispered:
"I didn't...you're not...well..."
"You didn't hurt me." Jasmine assured him nonchalantly, lips twitching towards another grin as she added: "After all you wouldn't dare would you?"
"Merlin no," he agreed, lips twitching towards a smile of his own. "Like you always say, you'd kick my arse."
"Exactly!" the witch sniggered, and they shared a careful chuckle before his expression was serious again, free hand brushing rather longingly against her fingers before he mumbled:
"I didn't mean to...to push you or...or anything I...I wouldn't...wouldn't ever...you know I wouldn't ever..."
"Shut up, Isaac." Jasmine instructed cheerfully, chancing a brief glance over his shoulder, probably, Carrie suspected, to make sure Cain was watching, before leaning to plant a firm kiss to his lips. "Now take your wand for Merlin's sake, I want to bugger off before Kraft shows up and makes a spectacle of himself again."
"Is he still asking you for coffee?" Isaac asked, looking mildly disgusted by the notion, only for their cosy little discussion to be rudely interrupted by Cain calling loudly:
"Break it up, will you? You're making people feel queasy."
Carrie pursed her lips together in apprehension as Jasmine drew breath to retort, only for Isaac to turn sharply to face the Douser, folding his arms firmly across his chest.
"Maybe we are," the Auror said, expression utterly poisonous. "But not nearly as much as you, eh Cain? At least I don't head over to Azkaban to get my thrills."
A deathly silence descended upon the gathered witches and wizards, everybody suddenly seemed very interested in their shoes and Cain's face visibly drained of colour.
Isaac turned his attention back to Jasmine and took the offered wand.
"Thank you." he murmured as he deposited it into a deep pocket of his Auror robes, and Jasmine mumbled:
"You're welcome."
"Get going, then." he told her, reaching to give her a gentle push towards the corridor outside. "Before Kraft gets here."
"Right..."
"Keep your head down, Sweetheart."
"I'll think about it." Jasmine smirked, but Isaac was seemingly unamused for he turned his back on her and went to slump back down into his seat.
Carrie and Jasmine had barely made it down the corridor and round the corner before Jasmine made a sudden dive for a door to their left, yanking it open an disappearing into what Carrie glimpsed to be a storage cupboard before the door was pushed shut again, and the muggle was about to whisper something suitably bemused after the Auror when she heard footsteps. Carrie turned to see none other than Ambrose Kraft stalking his way along the corridor towards her, walking stick thumping repeatedly against the floor as he walked, and at the sight of him the muggle leapt backwards until her back was pressed to the wall, heart instantly hammering in her chest.
Kraft's face appeared to be contorted into a furious scowl and as he stomped along, at what Carrie was sure was a much brisker pace than he had managed just a few days previously, his dark blue robes billowed out behind him in a suitably dramatic manner for one looking so sour. The Head Douser was muttering furiously under his breath, grip upon his walking stick so tight that the colour had drained from his knuckles until they were a chalky white.
Some distance behind him, another wizard dressed in Douser robes, who Carrie recognised as one of the men she had seen inside Kraft's cottage back in Queenswood, was hurrying along, hands grasped together in front of him in a distinctly nervous manner.
"Ambrose," he called after Kraft rather uncertainly, reluctantly as if he'd much rather not speak at all. "Really, it can't be what it looks like...it...it can't be! I mean...it's impossible!"
"He LAUGHED at me!" Kraft spat, coming to an abrupt halt and turning to glower at the Douser as if it were all his fault, causing the other wizard to hunch his shoulders rather timidly. "The wretched bastard LAUGHED IN MY FACE!"
"I...I don't think he was laughing at you..." the other Douser began half-heartedly, but this only seemed to infuriate Kraft more than ever.
"I have BROKEN him!" he half-shrieked, sounding so deranged that it made Carrie flinch. "I have RUINED him! I've locked him up! I have his family scattered! He doesn't know where his son is! His wife is at MY mercy! AND HE HAS THE AUDACITY...THE IMPUDENCE TO MOCK ME!"
The other wizard opened his mouth to say something, but seemingly thought better of it, and Carrie didn't blame him. Kraft was visibly trembling in fury, face flushed red and teeth gritted so hard that the muggle wouldn't have been surprised if he were to chip a tooth or two. For a long moment he simply stood, ragged breaths reduced to an odd snarling noise, and then to Carrie's horror he hissed:
"Fetch her to me."
There was a sizable pause as his fellow Douser merely stared at him in bewilderment.
"What...?" the other wizard mumbled after a moment, and Kraft gave his stick an impatient bang against the marble floor.
"I said fetch her to me!" he snapped, spittle spraying from his mouth as he glowered accusingly at the man again.
"Fetch...her...?"
"Yes, Roderick! Fetch Tonks from her cell and bring her to me! NOW! I'll teach him to bloody mock me..."
Roderick Mortell gave a rather nervous chuckle.
"You can't be serious..." he began, only for Kraft to shriek:
"I AM BEING DEADLY SERIOUS!"
"But...but there's no chance they'll release her into our care now...especially not mine..."
Kraft let out a furious growling noise from the back of his throat before he snapped:
"Well perhaps you should have bloody done her when you had the chance! He'd not be bloody laughing at us then, would he?"
"It wasn't my fault, Cain was stalling..."
"Rubbish!" Kraft gave a snort, suddenly smirking. "You were probably too busy squabbling over who got to have her first!" He paused to straighten his robes as Mortell gave a snigger, before instructing: "Find somebody those idiots at Azkaban will trust. Get her to me." And with that he turned on his heel and continued to stomp along the corridor, as Mortell murmured rather uncertainly:
"Yes boss..."
It was not for some minutes, once Kraft had disappeared round the corner and into the Security room and Mortell had retreated back into the lift and there had been a long enough pause for the lift to move to another floor that Jasmine finally dared slip back out into the corridor, pushing the cupboard door firmly shut behind her.
"Shit..." Carrie heard the Auror mutter, reaching to tug rather anxiously at her hair as she gazed down the corridor after Kraft, but then she gave herself a little shake and glanced around searchingly with a whispered: "Carrie...?"
"I'm here." Carrie supplied from just behind her, and the witch gave a little jump.
"Shit!" she muttered again as she spun around towards the sound of the muggle's voice. "Don't do that!"
"Sorry..." Carrie mumbled, only to jump back a little when Jasmine waved a dismissive hand, narrowly avoiding slapping her round the face.
"No, no...it's fine...it's just...well...!" Jasmine gave herself another little shake before turning to lead the way up the corridor, instead settling on: "Forget it, let's go."
They walked briskly up the corridor until the came to a halt before the lift doors, the Auror reaching to jab impatiently at the button on the wall. As they both waited, straining to hear the hum of the approaching lift, Carrie observed:
"It's Dora isn't it? You're worried."
Jasmine frowned deeply, reaching to dust a lingering cobweb from the cupboard off of her sleeve.
"Nah...they'll never get hold of her. Not...not outside of Azkaban, anyway." she decided, voice full of confidence that Carrie couldn't help but feel sounded rather forced.
"But they can get hold of her inside of Azkaban." The muggle pointed out, stomach twisting into knots at the mere thought. "Like...like they did before." It wasn't a subject that Carrie really wished to discuss, she'd rather have blocked her ears and hummed loudly, ignored Kraft and Mortell's exchange entirely. But she hadn't. She couldn't have, not even if she had wanted to. That could have been the end of it, she supposed, but she felt compelled to question Jasmine because the Auror seemed both frank and, when it came to Ambrose Kraft, optimistic about his inadequacy as a true force to be reckoned with.
In all honesty, Carrie was hoping for good news. Some sort of dismissive, reassuringly blunt retort.
But Jasmine merely sighed despairingly and murmured:
"Yes...yes they can."
"D'you...think they will?" Carrie asked, offering one last chance of optimism, only for the Auror to admit:
"There's no doubt." The frown upon the witch's brow deepened considerably as she added: "Especially if Remus has seen fit to provoke them. Merlin...laughing at Ambrose Kraft...really! What's he been thinking? It's bloody mental!"
"Remus wouldn't provoke them on purpose." Carrie insisted, almost offended, only for Jasmine to snort disbelievingly as the doors to the lift finally clicked open. There was a long pause as they both noted that there was nobody in the lift to overhear them, before Jasmine led the way inside and pointed out:
"Remus has been provoking them since Day One, Carrie!"
"Yes but...but he wouldn't anymore, not now! Not when they've got Dora."
"He's in an impossible situation, Carrie. Say too much and it'll piss them off, say too little and it'll really piss them off, say not quite the right thing, say nothing at all, say things in the wrong bloody order and they'll get riled! Quite frankly he might as well laugh at them, for all the difference it'll make in the end." There was a rather long and depressed silence at this observation before Jasmine reached to press another button upon the panel beside the door, expression suddenly hardening. "Still," she murmured, folding her arms across her chest and leaning back against the nearest wall in the same vaguely intimidating manner she had done when Carrie had first happened across her that morning. "We'll all be laughing some time soon. Once we know what they're hiding behind that door."
When they arrived in the long, torch-lined corridor that led into the Department of Mysteries, Carrie found herself feeling far less apprehensive than she had the last time she had ventured down there.
"This place gives me the creeps." Jasmine muttered as she paused to draw her wand, gripping it purposefully in her hand, but nevertheless she set off down the corridor at a brisk pace, the torches upon the walls flaring into life as she passed, casting an eerie blue glow upon the Auror as Carrie hurried along behind her. They made their way to the door at the end of the corridor, and Jasmine reached to cautiously push the door open, peering inside searchingly before pulling it wide open and leading the way inside. Carrie had barely hurried through after her into the circular room when she had reached to close the door firmly behind them, giving her wand a vague wave at the handle. Carrie heard the sound of a lock clicking.
"You might as well take that cloak off." Jasmine suggested, and with another wave and a mutter a large cross of glowing orange materialized upon the door. No sooner had the marker appeared, the walls and doors began to spin, and Carrie paused midway through pulling the invisibility cloak from her shoulders to screw her eyes shut at the nauseating movement.
Jasmine seemed entirely unfazed by it all, for she turned around to offer Carrie a grin, reaching to push the sleeves of her robes up to her elbows in a distinctly business-like manner.
"Doesn't look like any of them are covered in blood." she observed, having cast a critical look about them at each of the doors. "Somebody must've cleaned it up. Looks like a bit of trial and error is called for." she said, and with that the two of them set about testing each handle to find that which was locked, the witch marking each unsuccessful attempt with a glowing cross.
As they worked their way around the room, pausing once in a while as the wall gave another spin, it occurred to Carrie that for every handle they reached for, for every fresh cross emblazoned upon a door, she was getting steadily closer to her goal, steadily closer to discovering the Dousers' secret...
At first she felt something akin to excitement bubbling up inside of her, ready to burst forth in victorious triumph when the moment finally came for her to throw open the door to reveal the truth. But then the muggle began to consider what she might find behind the door.
What was Ambrose Kraft truly up to?
Judging from all of the activities that he was privy to that he didn't feel the need to keep secret, Carrie couldn't help but feel that whatever it was, she wasn't going to like it. Indeed, the mere thought of discovering the truth made her stomach twist uncomfortably and she found herself feeling rather sick.
What if she were to open the door and find something truly disturbing like a dead body, or something truly terrifying; perhaps a fierce monster of some kind that might leap out and attack her...
But of course, Carrie told herself as she managed to open another door, hastily pulling it shut without so much as a glance to see what lay behind it, that was just silly, downright childish, she ought not be thinking such stupid things now that she was focused on such an important mission. Now was no time to revert to old and infantile habits.
And besides, the muggle told herself sternly, only to pause to jump backwards a little when a spell shot over her shoulder and struck the door, marking it with yet another large cross, if there truly was something threatening behind the locked door, at least she had Jasmine around to protect her. That had to be at least a little comforting...
Carrie had seemingly acquired herself a new guardian angel, a new fearless wonder, and she very nearly smiled at the thought because there was no doubt about it, Jasmine Wickes was, as Cleo Clancy would once again put it: Bloody fearless!
And yet Jasmine lacked some of the essential and most valuable qualities of Carrie's most trusted guardians.
She hadn't mastered Legimency, for one thing.
That probably wasn't an entirely fair criticism, Carrie supposed as Jasmine reached for another door, only to whip her hand back again when the walls began to move, because if one were going to talk technicalities, which was only reasonable, neither Remus or Dora had ever gone as far as to read Carrie's mind. Indeed, as far as she was aware neither of them were even capable...
At least that was the muggle's assumption...
For a rather happy moment, Carrie allowed her mind to wander as she contemplated the possibility that the two Lupins might possess such awe-inspiring abilities and she felt rather as though she were eleven years old again, marveling at levitated objects and disappearing wizards...
Until she concluded that, judging from what she knew about Legimency, which wasn't actually a whole lot, it seemed rather unlikely that mind reading was truly part of either Remus or Dora's forte.
Which was fine by Carrie, in all honesty, because their ability to simply guess what was going through her mind was a more than adequate substitute, not to mention that this way it was nice to know she might have a private thought or two once in a while at the very least.
Carrie sorely missed having somebody there who understood her, who knew what she was likely to be thinking, because without such a person there was nobody to try and reassure her or calm her nerves...unless she counted herself, which seemed somewhat pointless because she wasn't terribly good at reasoning with herself at the best of times.
And this definitely wasn't the best of times.
Absolutely not.
Another wondrous quality that Jasmine lacked was the right kind of confidence. That was to say, she was definitely confident...she just didn't quite go about being confident in quite the right way.
She was very business-like and professional, very efficient, and though Carrie would admit these to all be good things, they simply weren't quite good enough.
She missed Remus' almost bizarre casualness. She missed his lazy wand movements and perfectly neutral and composed expressions, made entirely plausible and comfortable by calculating and considering eyes darting carefully about his surroundings. She missed his mild interest at the possibility of peril, his unshakable reasoning in the face of danger.
She missed Dora's blasé nature that was just enough removed from Jasmine's downright recklessness so as not to make Carrie nervous. She missed the inappropriate jokes that would surface at times only marginally sensible, the comments that Carrie knew it was safe to giggle at because underneath it all she knew that Dora was one hundred and ten percent dependable.
It wasn't that Carrie didn't think Jasmine was in any way unreliable...
Except it was. Because Jasmine wasn't Dora. Carrie hadn't known her for years, she'd known her for less than a couple of hours, she didn't know her habits, her precise nature, she couldn't be entirely confident about predicting her...
And that was rather troubling. Especially when at times Jasmine and Dora were so very alike that for a brief second Carrie would forget which Auror she was speaking to and then she would be forced to give herself a little shake and remind herself to concentrate, think, try and understand her.
Understand Jasmine. Not Dora.
Thinking of all she missed about Remus and Dora, Carrie supposed she might as well go as far as to admit she simply missed them. She missed the sound of their voices, she missed their smiles, she missed talking to them, laughing with them, laughing at them, crying into their shoulders, being reassured by them, comforted by them...Merlin she even missed spying on them from time to time!
She missed Dora calling her love as if they were family, she missed Remus calling her Sweetheart as if she truly were his daughter, which was in actual fact rather ludicrous because as far as she could recall the werewolf had only ever once referred to her in such a way – when her parents had been Obliviated – and at all other times Sweetheart had referred to Dora and Dora alone. And yet Carrie didn't feel she was being ludicrous at all...
She wanted them back. Desperately.
The full force of this desperation was rather like a dagger to her heart, and Carrie found herself speeding up, slamming a few doors shut in frustration when she found them to be unlocked.
Not long now, she assured herself as Jasmine marked another door. Only a few left...
Carrie stepped up to another door, only to pause before it, staring at the handle in apprehension.
What if, she thought despairingly, she were to open the door and find...nothing?
What if she didn't find anything useful, what if it wasn't the big breakthrough the Order seemed to think it was, what if it didn't make a difference?
The muggle found herself thinking back to Kraft and Mortell in the corridor upstairs, of the scattered Order of the Phoenix, of Jasmine and Isaac's grim talk of Dora in Azkaban, of the Auror Department in disarray and of Harry and Kingsley still missing without a trace...
What if she opened the door and nothing changed? Nothing was better?
So much hope was pinned on this one little mission. Carrie wasn't sure she could stand it if it were to all come to nothing.
As she bit down apprehensively upon her lip, Carrie felt Jasmine step up next to her.
"Any luck?" the Auror asked, apparently entirely oblivious to Carrie's sudden panic, and with that she reached forward to grasp hold of the door handle and pulled it down...
Only to find it locked tightly shut.
Carrie's heart gave a lurch at the realisation that they had finally found the right door, and Jasmine grinned broadly.
"Ah-ha!" the Auror declared triumphantly, only for there to come a sudden hissing noise leaving her to yank her hand away from the handle with a cry of: "OUCH!"
And before Carrie could open her mouth to say a word they both gave a startled jump at the sudden sound of an alarm bells blaring, the sound so shrill that it made Carrie's ears ring, her heart hammering in her chest in panic as Jasmine shrieked:
"SHIT! SECURITY!"
Carrie felt herself tense up in fear, only for Jasmine to seize her by the wrist, yanking her arm forward and raising her wand.
"Why...what...what set it off?" Carrie finally managed to shout above the relentless sound, and the Auror shook her head dismissively.
"Merlin knows why, maybe the door has a thing for witches!" she shouted. "Now hold still for Merlin's sake!"
Before Carrie could open her mouth to ask why there was a bright flash of light and she felt a sudden pain in the palm of her hand that very nearly made her shriek in surprise. Before she could quite fathom what had happened, she found herself being pushed towards the door.
"Go on, quickly!" Jasmine demanded, as they both jumped to hear the sound of somebody attempting to wrench open the door Jasmine had sealed shut behind them. "They'll be in here any second!"
And Carrie glanced down to see a deep gash upon her palm, crimson blood already leaking steadily from the wound, staining her pale skin an ugly red.
"HURRY!" Jasmine cried, and without much thought, Carrie lunged forward to grasp hold of the door handle with her bloody hand, pulling it down just as Jasmine had done a moment earlier.
The door clicked open and without so much as a glance inside, Carrie dived through the doorway, stumbling over the threshold until she over balanced and fell to her knees. The door swung itself firmly closed behind her, just as an almighty crash sounded from the circular room outside. Heart still pounding, Carrie scrambled back onto her feet, ignoring the searing pain in her hand so that she could turn and stoop, holding her breath in anticipation as she squinted back through the keyhole...
Just in time to see Ambrose Kraft, flanked by an assortment of witches and wizards whom Carrie couldn't quite make out, stride through the remains of the door that he had just blasted open, his along with half a dozen other wands pointed directly at Jasmine's chest as she spun around to face them.
Jasmine Wickes froze.
Ambrose Kraft's mood appeared to have improved considerably since Carrie had last glimpsed him, for he was positively beaming with triumph.
"Well, well, well, Wickes!" the head Douser drawled mockingly as he swaggered further into the room. "Fancy seeing you here!"
Carrie was just about to swallow the horrified lump in her throat when she heard movement in the room behind her, and she was just about to spin around with a gasp of panic when a hoarse, rather weak and yet stunningly familiar voice called from the darkness:
"Carrie? Is...is that you...?"