Chapter Fifty-Four
By the End of It


September 2nd, 1976

"Morning, Lils," Mia said with a bright smile as she reached the Gryffindor table for breakfast.

The start-of-term feast for her second sixth year had been the same as it had every year that preceded it, save for a short speech on safety from Dumbledore who mentioned that there had been Death Eater attacks throughout the summer in Britain. After everything that happened the previous year with Professor Higgs and Fenrir Greyback, the wards surrounding Hogwarts had been strengthened greatly. Work was also being done to communicate with the centaur herd in the Forbidden Forest in order to keep students, wizards, and creatures of all kinds safe in the face of the growing threat of Voldemort, or as the Daily Prophet had taken to calling him: You-Know-Who.

Yes, Mia knew who very well.

"Has McGonagall brought over the timetables yet?"

She began filling a plate with various items, pouring pumpkin juice into a tall glass, and then automatically pushing the meal across the table to the seat opposite her, all without breaking eye contact with Lily.

"Not yet," Lily said with an excited smile. "How did you do on your O.W.L.s? I got Outstandings on all nine. I was so worried. The Arithmancy exam was a lot harder than I'd expected. I still want to know how you convinced Professor Vector to let you sit for the exam when you didn't even take the class."

"I convinced Professor McGonagall to put in a good word for me. Actually, I ended up taking an O.W.L. for every available class. Wanted to see if I could do it," Mia said, trying to hold back the smug grin that had spread across her face.

"I thought you were messing about when you said you were going to try that!" Lily gaped at her in amusement. "So, did you get your results?"

"I did very well," Mia answered, refusing to give away any more information.

"She's being modest. It's not a good look for her." Remus chuckled as he sat down opposite Mia, grinning at the plate of food already waiting for him. He gave a nod of hello to Lily—completely missing the way her face flushed bright red at the sight of him—before he began fixing a cup of tea for Mia. "She got Outstandings on everything—even Muggle Studies and Divination."

"You've always said that Divination is rubbish!" Lily scolded her friend.

"It is, and I've basically just proved it." Mia shrugged, smiling gratefully as Remus handed her the cup of tea. "I didn't even take the ridiculous class, faked my way through the exam, and still ended up with an Outstanding."

"How'd you do, Lily?" Remus asked. He raised his brow looking concerned when Lily refused to make eye contact with him. "Everything all right?"

"Calm down," Mia mumbled as she elbowed her friend, having realised that Lily was reliving the conversation they'd had on the train where Mia had confessed details of her sexual exploits with Sirius and Remus.

"I'm fine," Lily lied quickly, forcing herself to look Remus in the face, but immediately, she let out a nervous laugh and averted her gaze once more.

Remus turned his attention to Mia, who shrugged and shook her head, mouthing "girl stuff" before reaching for the bowl of porridge he had served her.

"I umm . . . I got nine Outstandings," Lily said, looking a bit like the wind had been taken out of her sails. "My parents were really excited. It would have been a record if someone," she muttered, eyeing Mia, "hadn't decided to be a show-off."

Mia laughed in reply.

"Actually, it would have tied for a record," Remus said. "Sirius got nine Outstandings too."

Lily paled, her mouth falling open as she stammered, searching for words. Then, when the colour returned to her face, she screeched, "What? How is that even possible? He never revises! Does Sirius Black even know where the library is?"

"Sure I do," Sirius said in a sultry voice from behind Lily as he moved over, taking a seat directly on Mia's other side. "It's that place where you can shag up against bookshelves, right?"

Mia stared accusingly at him while Lily turned beet red at the words, making a small squeaking noise.

"All right there, Evans?" Sirius asked with a raised brow and a self-satisfied smirk on his face.

"Leave her alone. She's annoyed that you both received the same number of O.W.L.s." Mia tried to excuse Lily's red face as fury instead of embarrassment. "Speaking of which, what N.E.W.T.-level classes are all of you taking?"

"All available to me," Lily admitted before giving her undivided attention to her breakfast, likely refusing to look at anyone until her flushed cheeks turned back to a normal colour.

"I got all Outstandings in everything," Remus said. He growled a little under his breath, bitterly amending, "Except Potions. So I won't be taking that as a N.E.W.T. course. Going to drop Herbology and Astrology too and put most of my efforts on Defence and Ancient Runes."

"I'm surprised you don't excel at Potions," Lily spoke up again, though she still would not make eye contact with either of the boys. She whispered, "Doesn't your . . . sense of smell help when brewing?"

"Opposite." Remus sighed a bit, looking down at his breakfast defeatedly. "If I were constantly on my own it might be easier, but in a classroom with ten to twenty cauldrons going at the same time—often with different potions and draughts being brewed—it's overwhelming and hard to focus."

Sirius rolled his eyes. "You were never meant to be a Potions Master anyway, Moony. If you were, then you and Mia would have turned the A.D. into a brewing club instead of Defence." He grinned when Remus smiled up at him in thanks. "I, on the other hand, will be joining you lovely ladies in Advanced Potions."

Lily gaped at him. "You're taking Advanced Potions?"

"Need it if I'm going to be an Auror."

"You were an—" Caught so completely off guard by Sirius's declaration, Mia blurted out her first slip-up in years. She cleared her throat. "I mean—You want to be an Auror? You've never said anything about that before."

"Decided recently," Sirius replied with a careless attitude that Mia recognised as one of the many walls he used to hide his vulnerabilities. "Also, besides it being a requirement for Auror training, I'm determined to figure out how to brew Veritaserum before I graduate."

She narrowed her eyes a little as she remembered Remus's birthday the year before. "You and Veritaserum have a bad history."

"I've a bad history with Death Eaters, but I'm still taking Defence."

Mia and Remus both winced at the casual reference to his attack only months earlier.

"Oh, come on." Sirius rolled his eyes again, this time with an added bit of melodrama that came in the form of his arms slumping down at his sides as though he had a lead weight in each hand. "I want things to go back to normal. A normal year, a normal morning where Evans tells me I'm an annoying child, Moony and Mia exchange breakfasts like the nutters they are, and I pull a morning prank on Prongs."

"What did you do?" Lily, Remus, and Mia all asked accusingly at the same time.

Sirius barked a laugh in response and straightened his posture in amusement. "Wow, I haven't gotten all three of you to sync like that since third year when I replaced all the Slytherin Quidditch brooms with Muggle ones." He grinned excitedly. "'You're going to get detention, Sirius,'" he mimicked his friends in a mocking tone. "I'll have you all know, I did very little. Honestly, it was the easiest hex I've ever used."

Just then, a bleary-eyed James walked into the Great Hall, adjusting his glasses as he made his way over to the Gryffindor table to join his friends. Yawning, he reached for a scone and took a large bite of it before turning to look at the shocked and silent faces of his entire House and half of the Great Hall.

"Whaappened?" he mumbled around a mouthful.

Remus and Mia gaped at Lily, who looked like she was struggling not to laugh, but Sirius was beside himself with glee.

To avoid James entirely—especially considering she was trying not to condone Sirius's behavior—Lily stood and left the table.

"What's wrong with you?" Mia hissed, smacking Sirius's arm. "How did you get him to partially shift?"

James blinked, raising one eyebrow in confusion as he swallowed his bite. "Shift?"

"It's not a shift. I will admit, that's what gave me the idea. Just a hex. I, personally, think his hair looks much better like this," Sirius said with a beaming grin.

At the mention of his hair, James dropped his scone and tried to investigate by touch, only to find two large antlers sticking out of the top of his head. "Padfoot!" He launched forward, knocking Sirius from his seat and onto the floor. The two boys began wrestling, Sirius laughing as James threw random punches.

Mia sighed, watching with disapproval as they grappeled on the floor. "Jamie, how did you not even notice those?"

"Because his head is so big that he's used to the extra weight?" Remus offered in amusement.

"Mr Black!"

Everyone turned to see an annoyed-looking Professor McGonagall standing over the boys, who finally stopped rolling around on the floor, with James pinned beneath Sirius.

Her voice was sharp when she went on, "You should have transfigured Mr Potter into a mop, since the pair of you seem so intent on using him to clean the floors."

Sirius winked at her. "Well, if I wanted to do that, I wouldn't have to transfigure anything. You've seen his hair."

Her only reaction was to narrow her eyes further. "Considering your O.W.L. scores in Transfiguration, Mr Black, I would have expected more from you than a simple Anteoculatia Hex." She sighed with disappointment and waved her wand at James's head, silently casting the counter-spell and shrinking away the large antlers. Tucking her wand away, she pulled timetables from her robes and began handing them out. "I hope you'll put more effort into my class this year than you've shown this morning."

"Minnie," Sirius called after the professor as she walked away from the table, "I think you're flirting with me! You know how I love it when a pretty witch gets mad and scolds me." He tucked his timetable into his pockets while ignoring the fact that James was still struggling to get out from under him. "Love that old bird. If she were forty years younger—"

"Padfoot, if you get hard for McGonagall—or anyone—while sitting on me, I will show you just how sharp my real antlers are the next moon," James snarled.

Sirius chuckled, looking down at his friend. "Now who's flirting?"


With James recovered from the mild hex, and Sirius covered in a few bruises of retaliation, the group made their way to the Defence Against the Dark Arts classroom. There they speculated on their new professor, who had not been announced the night before. All of the Gryffindors were hoping that Professor Prewett would make a return, but the rumoured curse on the position prevented any one professor from teaching for more than a single year. They had barely taken their seats when a tall man with a slight limp made his way down the centre of the classroom, his head of shaggy, tawny hair flowing behind him.

Mia groaned at the sight and laid her forehead on the desk in front of her, silently cursing fate as she wondered just how small the Wizarding world really was.

Sirius and James were audibly intrigued by the new professor after spotting the glint of an Auror badge the man had pompously attached to his professor robes.

Remus patted Mia's shoulder and whispered, "Are you all right?" to which she quietly groaned again, shaking her head as the new professor wrote his name on the blackboard with a flick of his wand: Professor Scrimgeour.

"I've been informed that, while your class has been properly taught in the theory of Defence Against the Dark Arts, you've had poor education in the ways of practical application. The notes left behind by Professor Higgs say that at least half of you are lazy when it comes to duelling."

"I bet I know which half," Sirius mumbled under his breath.

Scrimgeour narrowed his yellowish eyes at the whole classroom. "Since the man was arrested in connection with the Dark Arts, I won't be taking his opinions into account. You all begin this year with blank slates. That means that until you prove otherwise, you're nothing but children who are incapable of protecting themselves in any situation, thus putting the lives of others at risk.

"As this is your sixth year, we will begin instructing you on how to use non-verbal spells. It is a poor wizard who needs to speak a charm in order for it to work properly. Pair up."

In the earlier years of Defence, the pairs had been friendly. As the Slytherins and Gryffindors grew older, though, the animosity intensified, and soon the classroom was split down the middle with red and gold on one side, silver and green on the other.

While Professor Higgs had always paired James and Sirius together, Professor Scrimgeour did not know better. James stood across the room from Severus Snape, a grin on his face, while Sirius was all too eager to take a crack at Amycus Carrow. Mia stood to the right of Sirius, glaring across the way at Elora Zabini, and beside her, Remus was staring at Alecto Carrow.

"Now, Gryffindors will attempt to jinx their partner while the Slytherins will attempt to protect themselves. Not a word is to be spoken," Scrimgeour said fiercely. "On the count of three. One, two, three!"

All at once, Amycus, Elora, and Alecto flew backward into the wall behind them, stunned to the ground. Sirius, Mia, and Remus shared a proud grin over their non-verbal spells.

James stared intensely across the room as he and Snape faced off in a non-verbal duel. Snape had erected a shield in time, of course, but instead of a simple stunning spell, James was trying to silently penetrate the Slytherin's shield, forcing it back on him. Everyone stopped to watch closely as hazel eyes met black and the two boys glared at one another viciously.

"Stop!" Professor Scrimgeour yelled minutes later, and both Snape and James released, nearly collapsing to the ground after forcing their magics to press so hard against one another. "While showing impressive strength, Mr Potter should have used additional attacks, layering spells instead of forcing one that was not working. Mr Snape, you should learn to hold a shield and fire hexes simultaneously. It could mean your very life when faced off against a Dark wizard."

Sirius clenched his fists and scathingly muttered, "Except that he is a Dark wizard."


"He's intense," James declared, grinning as they left the classroom an hour later. "I still can't believe that Rufus Scrimgeour is teaching Defence this year. He trained under Alastor Moody, you know." He said the name with a reverence that made Mia laugh until he turned and narrowed his eyes at her.

"I think it's ridiculous. You know why he's here, don't you?" she asked the four boys, who all looked confused. "Do any of you read the Prophet for anything other than Quidditch scores?"

"Of course!" James retorted with indignation. "I was just telling you how awesome Auror Scrimgeour is. He's been all over the Prophet this summer. The Department of Magical Law Enforcement's been catching Death Eaters."

"No," Mia argued, "they've been chasing Death Eaters; so far, no one they've caught has actually had the Mark of Vo—The Mark of You-Know-Who. They've been arresting Imperiused bystanders. We're at war, and our new professor isn't just here to teach us; he's here to recruit."

"Then sign me up," Sirius said proudly.

Mia growled, rolling her eyes at his brashness. "You don't know what you're saying. Besides, he's not here recruiting you. He's here for Dumbledore." When none of them spoke, looking at her in silent confusion, she sighed. "Isn't it obvious? The Ministry can't get ahead of the Death Eater attacks. It's not just Muggle-borns anymore. A whole family of goblins was slaughtered last week, and there are rumours that You-Know-Who is seeking out giants. Who better to have at the beck and call of the Ministry in a war than Albus Dumbledore?"

"Well, then he should join," Sirius insisted. "Put a quick end to it."

"There will not be a quick end to this war," Mia lamented, turning her gaze down and huffing. "Besides, Dumbledore won't join them. He does things in his own way, and in his own time, which I suppose is fine."

"Why wouldn't Dumbledore join the Ministry? Don't they have the same goal?" Peter asked.

Mia forced herself not to snap at him as it was only the first day of classes and the other boys had started to get a bit defensive of Peter when it came to her attitude toward him. Normally, she could blame the stress of revising for exams.

"The Ministry can't be trusted. No one can be trusted." She looked at Remus, Sirius, and James. "As a matter of fact, right now, there are currently only four people in the world that I trust with my life, and that's you three and Lily."

Peter frowned. "Not me?"

Mia took in a deep breath, watching as Sirius patted Peter on the shoulder, looking at him as though he were embarrassed for his friend. While she was not exactly openly hostile to Peter, unlike the way that Mary was, everyone knew that Mia did not get on well with him.

"It's nothing personal, Peter," she lied. "Jamie's my brother, Remus is my best friend, and Sirius is... family now. They're . . ." She looked at the other three Marauders, trying to find a word to explain it. When she glanced over at Remus, she found it. "They're Pack."

"It's 'cause I didn't go into the Forbidden Forest, isn't it?" Peter turned his eyes down bitterly. "Evans wasn't there; she's not a part of your whole weird pack thing."

"Not yet," Mia muttered, scoffing when James glanced up at her with bright eyes. "Calm down. Don't you have class?"

"No, I've got a free period. Need to get the Quidditch tryouts scheduled. Want to come help?" James asked with a crooked grin, knowing that while she did not enjoy flying or listening to Quidditch, she had a knack for organising; James was not too proud to abuse his family connection to the bright witch.

"No, I have to . . ." She thought for a moment. "I have to talk to Dumbledore about something." When three of the four boys reacted with looks of concern, Mia sighed. "I'm just going to talk to him about my Divination exam. Honestly, I faked my way to an Outstanding. The class shouldn't be an option at Hogwarts, and he needs to know it. Even if he takes away that extra O.W.L. Go and deal with your team."

She smiled at James and then leant forward, granting each boy—save for Peter—a quick kiss on the cheek before walking off toward Dumbledore's office.

"Chocolate Frogs," Mia said to the gargoyle guarding Dumbledore's office. When the stone did not budge, she exhaled irritably and began rattling off various candies. "Acid Pops, Candy Floss, Ice Mice—Ah." She smiled as the gargoyle moved, granting her access.

"Miss Potter, what a pleasant surprise. Is your sixth year at Hogwarts living up to the original?" Dumbledore asked, blue eyes twinkling from behind his desk. He chuckled softly, an action that, for some reason, unnerved her. He proffered a small bowl filled to the brim with little sweets.

Mia shook her head politely. "Rufus Scrimgeour. He's here because of the war, isn't he? Because of the Death Eater raids and Voldemort?"

"While I have, from time to time, sought your opinion on certain matters, mostly relating to your small circle of friends, I believe we have discussed in the past, Miss Potter, that the subject of Voldemort is off the table when it comes to you and me," Dumbledore said in a firm tone, though the smile never left his face.

"But I know how to kill him!" Mia cried in frustration. "I know what he's doing, and who he's after, and I know that there are students in this very school who are being recruited, and—"

"We won the war in your timeline?" Dumbledore asked, interrupting her.

"Yes." It had been a conversation that happened repeatedly throughout the years, though the longer she had been in the 1970's, the more emotional she had become about her need to try and fix the future. "Yes, we won. He's destroyed completely where I'm from."

"Then I will not risk losing that final future battle."

You won't even make it to the final battle, Mia thought.

She ground her teeth together hard, trying to force a little physical pain in order to prevent herself from crying. "We could save so many lives. I've seen the Daily Prophet. They're killing so many, and my knowledge could stop that from happening."

Dumbledore sighed sadly. "Or it could make things worse. Voldemort could discover your knowledge and use it against you. Or, as we've spoken about before, nothing would change except you would personally be harmed and innocents would die regardless. I must insist that you keep to my rules and not tell anyone anything about the future. I've already risked too much in the past by asking questions. You have told me that in the future we have a certain victory, and I am not willing to risk that certainty for anything, Miss Potter, even if it means my own life."

It will.

"In the end, it's all for the Greater—"

"Don't finish that sentence, sir." Mia raised a finger to stop him from continuing. Hermione Granger would have been horrified to know that in some world she would have the nerve to hush Albus Dumbledore, especially while still a student at Hogwarts, but Mia Potter could not find it in her to care. "Do you still have my Time-Turner?"

"No, I do not," Dumbledore said softly. "As promised, it's being looked over by an expert in time magic. I have been assured that I will be notified should anything new be discovered in regards to the device."

"Thank you, sir."

Mia headed back down the spiral staircase, cursing under her breath with each and every step. She knew she could not do anything. She had seen first hand what happened when she tried to make changes—she ended up being the cause of those events—but it still felt wrong to sit idly by and watch as the world descended into chaos around her.

Every action we take is the causation of destiny, time travel won't change anything.

Live your life. Enjoy your life.

The words from her letter—her guide—repeated in her head like a quiet mantra, and she could feel the bitterness bubble under her skin. "Shut up, Future Remus."


Sirius stormed through the door of the dorm he shared with his three best friends, an angry expression on his face as he flipped open his trunk and began digging through his things, muttering, "Fucking Filch," over and over again.

"Problem, Pads?"

Sirius looked up to see James sitting on his bed, looking over the Quidditch Tryout sign-up sheet. He edited a few words with a quill in hand, adding Only Bitches Don't Play Quidditch before cringing, eyes wide, and erasing it from the parchment.

"Filch accused me of setting off dungbombs on the third floor. I actually didn't do it this time, but he made me turn out my pockets and took my pack of cigarettes. Now, I'm so pissed off that I need one," Sirius muttered as he returned to his trunk and reached into the small pouch where he kept his extra packs. Flipping the pouch open, he growled when he noticed that it was unexpectedly half empty. "Prongs, did you steal my cigarettes?"

"No," James said quietly, a facade of innocence transforming his features. "What makes you think that?"

Sirius glared suspiciously at his friend and took a careful step forward, sniffing the air. "I can smell it on you."

James's mask of innocence was replaced by one of guilt and growing fear. They'd had a few rows over the years; when it was about something genuinely important, James Potter was a force to be reckoned with, but Merlin help the wizard who stole Sirius Black's cigarettes.

When Sirius advanced, James leapt from his bed and pointed across the room. "Moony took one first!"

Remus looked at James, mouth agape. "You suck, Prongs. I just wanted to try it," he explained to Sirius. "James has been stealing your fags since the middle of last year. Don't let him pass the blame on me 'cause he's too cheap to buy his own vices."

"I'm cheap?" James's brows rose into his hairline. "This coming from the guy who hoards sweets like a niffler?"

"I wouldn't hoard them, if you'd all stop nicking them from me," Remus growled, his gaze turning to Sirius in mild accusation.

Sirius rolled his eyes and folded his arms across his chest. "I took one bar one time."

"You took two bars last night," Peter chimed in. "You also took his extra pumpkin pasties yesterday on the train. You gave me half of one to keep me from telling Remus."

"And now you owe me those pumpkin pasties back, you little rat!" Sirius snarled.

"No, you owe me the pumpkin pasties back and, apparently, two chocolate bars!" Remus snapped.

"No, you owe me cigarettes!" Sirius growled at Remus, stalking forward.

"I'm not the one stealing your fags. Prongs is!"

"Hey!" James yelled at Remus, and the other three boys turned, waiting for him to defend himself. After nearly half a minute of tense silence, James clearly had nothing, so he did the next best thing . . . offered distraction. "Yeah, well, Remus is the one who dumped that nasty cologne in your trunk!"

Sirius's eyes widened, and he turned, enraged as he recalled how badly his robes smelled for weeks following the event. The cologne had been a gift from his father, and he hated it, which was exactly why he had been so angry that the bottle had been broken and soaked through everything he owned. Not even the best Cleaning Charms had been able to get the overpowering stench out.

"That was an accident!" Remus defended, standing up and putting both hands in front of himself as if pleading with Sirius for mercy.

He looked a bit ridiculous. Sirius knew that Remus could best him in a fight if he had to; hell, he still stood inches above the rest of them—but Remus likely wished to avoid the carnage that usually followed these arguments when they inevitably occurred about once a year.

Asking four growing boys to room together for seven years without at least one or two fights was like asking a group of teenagers to all live in a private tower and not eventually have sex with each other. Sirius and Remus were clearly proof that both scenarios were just unavoidable.

"I was looking for the map!" Remus asserted when everyone focused on him instead of one another. "If you just kept it where it's supposed to be—"

"I would keep it in Prongs's trunk, but it looks like rats live in it," Sirius explained, still miffed about the spilt cologne.

"Hey!" Peter shouted.

The other three boys all turned on him and yelled, "Shut up, Wormtail!"

"Well, don't bring me into this," Peter pouted, gesturing to them with a flick of his hand. "I didn't bloody well do anything."

"You didn't do anything?" Remus scoffed incredulously, crossing his arms. "I saw you sneaking drinks out of Padfoot's private firewhisky stash all last year."

"You did what?!" Sirius's temper reached its peak. It was one thing to steal his cigarettes, but to drink his firewhisky? His precious, beautiful firewhisky that took every effort to acquire, considering the trunks were often checked randomly by Filch. He was not of age yet to even purchase it; he had always been able to steal from his parents' vast collection, but since moving in with the Potters, his stash had been running out quickly.

Sirius glanced at Peter, and both Remus and James looked mildly smug that they had officially put an end to the argument, especially since it had started because they had been outed stealing his cigarettes.

"You rotten little . . ." Sirius growled as he stalked toward Peter.

"SIRIUS AND REMUS HAD SEX WITH MIA!" Peter blurted out, covering his face defensively as Sirius came closer.

The room fell immediately silent; the only sound was Peter's laboured breathing. Sirius glared down at the boy, his expression making a promise of absolute pain to be delivered once he had somehow fixed this amazing cock-up.

His heart was in his throat as he slowly turned, watching as Remus did the same to look at James, who was no longer sitting on his bed. The Quidditch sign-up parchment was clenched tightly into his fist, and his face was quickly turning red as he stared at them.

"WHAT?!"

Sirius took a leap. "Peter took your wand to scratch his arse with it once."

Remus sighed and cursed under his breath. "Nice try, Pads, but this argument reached its peak about ten seconds ago. Look, Prongs," he said, using his calm and collected tone of voice, glancing briefly at Sirius, who was desperately hoping he did not do anything to make matters worse. "Let's be adults about this, yeah?"

"Or we could have denied it," Sirius said with a groan.

Before either had a chance to properly explain the unbelievably complicated and interlaced relationships they each had with his twin sister, James shifted on the spot. A very real and angry Prongs stood in his place, huffing hot air through his nostrils, black eyes narrowed and head bowed forward.

Sirius's eyes widened in genuine fear. "Fuck."

From the corner of his eye, he saw Peter shift into his rat form and scurry through a small hole in the stone wall.

"James . . ." Remus said, taking a slow step back.

Prongs pawed at the floor with his hooves in an aggressive threat.

"Well, shit." Sirius quickly shifted into Padfoot, knowing that at least he would have size as an advantage in the oncoming and inevitable onslaught.

"Not fair! Not fair!" Remus yelled. "I can't shift at will!"

They both stared into the face of the angry stag just as it charged forward.