The last morning Jeanie Prewett spent in 1981 she was woken with the slightest hangover and a pillow thrown at her face.
"Oi!" She pushes it off her head and sits up from her mattress while shoving the mess of hair away from her eyes to better look the way of the offender who would be getting a hex to the face the second she pulls her wand from where she has it stuffed under her own pillow.
The offender in question was leaned against the doorway of her room in the Burrow and laughing heartily at her. Likely to do with her hungover state, the fact she likely slept in (again), or even just the horrendous mess of red bedhead that she was sporting. Either way Jeanie narrows her eyes into a wicked glare and throws the pillow back so it hits Fabian in the face as well.
"I was sleeping you git."
"We've got things to do today Jeanie," He informs her, laughter still tinting his tone. "Plus you'll miss breakfast if yeh sleep any longer, and then you'll be even more of a bitch today."
She scowls deeply and finally pulls her wand sending a jinx his way that he artfully dodges by heading back into the hall towards the stairs. "Molly! She tried to hex me!" He shouts and Jeanie winced both at the throb it gave her head but also the following scolding Molly was sending up her way.
"Jeanette Prewett don't you be casting destructive spells in my house!"
"He started it." Jeanie replies though only as grumble while she forces herself from bed, getting dressed as quickly as her hangover allowed and detangling her hair best she could without bothering with magic. Before she leaves the room she grabs the time turner from the table by the door, slipping it over her head and hiding it under her shirt.
She doesn't need Gideon telling her not to mess about with experimental magic, and she doesn't need him telling her they should turn the thing over to the Order.
She found it, so she keeps it.
Or at least that's her logic of it.
The breakfast table is cluttered with food when she gets down and takes her seat across from Fabian who is already piling his own plate full up. She leans forward and snatches a handful of sausage off his plate, "Oi!" he shouts but she just smirks and sits back, letting her stolen goods fall onto her own plate before piling the rest of the breakfast goodies upon it while Fabian starts whining. "Molls, I'm gonna insist me and Gideon stop coming round for breakfast if our thief of a younger sister doesn't stop stealing my breakfast."
"Oh like you didn't eat several pieces before coming to wake me up." Jeanie retorts, taking a bite of her breakfast. "Sides if you stopped coming round for breakfast then Molls'd be able to have a nice little break from cooking for an army the way you eat."
"'M a growing boy." Fabian pouts, though it disappears when Molly floats another plate of sausage down onto the table with a shake of her head, and then immediately the pout returns when Gideon comes through the kitchen and snatches the very first piece Fabian had procured from his hand and takes a bite before sitting.
"'S a shame Hogwarts doesn't allow first years to play quidditch," Gideon says, not paying any mind to Fabian's whinging as he piles his own plate with food. "Billy'd be a star at it when he goes in a year, Charlie too when he gets the chance."
"Hogwarts has these rules for a reason," Molly states, glancing down the table for any other tasks needing to be done before she joins them for breakfast. "No eleven-year-old needs to have bludgers flying at their head when they should be getting adjusted to school."
"Ah Molls," Fabian smiles, "ain't no harm in a few bludgers to the head, Jeanie and I both've taken a few and turned out just as well."
"Debatable in regards to you," Jeanie teases, earning a piece of toast thrown her way.
"No throwing food you two!" Molly scolds, but Jeanie can hear the slight warm twinge to her tone that leant to her own entertainment at the actions. "Merlin, the pair of you are near as bad as the twins with that and they're only three!"
"Sorry Molls," Jeanie and Fabian droned out to Mollys own roll of her eyes before she settled fully into her seat and starts with her own breakfast.
Several minutes of peace pass, mostly with Molly and Gideon talking as the four of them made their way through breakfast. Arthur apparently had had to leave early for work at the ministry, and the kids had eaten before the boys had arrived while Jeanie had been sleeping. Bill and Charlie were outside in the garden playing with Percy and the twins. Little Ron, apparently, was napping after his own breakfast.
"Think this one'll finally be a girl?" Jeanie asks when Molly proclaims her tiredness with the pregnancy the last few weeks. She was only near two months out, due in August if Jeanie remembers correctly which it would be hard for her not to as Molly never fails to mention it especially as they grow nearer and nearer.
"For Molls's sake we better all hope so," Fabian says, "lest she has to try again."
"This is the last one," Molly griped, "whether she's a girl or not."
"But you think it's a girl?" Gideon asks, taking a sip of his drink.
Molly smiles and nods, "I have a strong feeling about it this time."
"You did say that about little Ronnikins too," Jeanie mused, though it earned her a glare from Molly, and Gideon, that she sighed and decided it better to just smile apologetically for rather than get scolded fully. "But hey," she shrugs, "seventh times the charm."
"That's the spirit, Jean!" Fabian smiles brightly.
She rolls her eyes at Fabian before reaching for her now empty mug of coffee, "any more Molls?" she asks, just the slightest bit of begging to her tone. Her headache had withered away some, but she'd still be much happier with at least one (but more likely two) cups of coffee before they set off on their day.
"The amount you drink," Molly shakes her head, "I have a mind to cut you off some days. Especially when it's your own fault for not getting enough sleep, how late did you even come in last night?"
"Don't be mean to our poor baby sister," Fabian says, though his tone is far too mirthful to be genuine, "she's in need, might've had a rough night tumbling about the dangerous sheets—- I mean streets."
Jeanie does not refrain from kicking hard under the table at Fabian's shins, earning a sharp yelp from her brother followed by a scowl pointed her way that she met in full before turning to Molly, who is thankfully tired enough both from pregnancy and mothering to have thought too deep on their brothers yammering. "I got in about midnight Molls," or actually more like one or two but Molly had been asleep by then and didn't need to know that, "and Marlene and I were busy looking over some stuff for the Order."
"Bet you were," Fabian mumbles, but at least he's smart enough to be quiet about it so Molly doesn't hear it.
"Still," Molly barrels on with just the smallest of yawns to her own voice, "you need to get yourself a more reasonable sleep schedule. If you're not well rested your magic may pay the price." Jeanie frowns and slumps in her seat, not particularly wishing to be lectured by Molly as her sister had tended towards since she'd moved into the Burrow her last year of Hogwarts.
"I get plenty sleep and my magic is more than plenty good," she remarks, "and I'm an adult Molls, I don't need you mothering me and giving me curfews."
"You're living in my home," Molly starts.
"I can always move out," Jeanie mutters, and beside each other Fabian and Gideon both share a glance before Gideon stands up giving a wide smile towards Molly.
"Three of us better head off," he cuts in, as he often does as the unsaid mediator of their family. He moves about the table and leans in, giving Molly a kiss on the cheek. "Thanks for the breakfast Molls."
"You're welcome, dear," Molly smiles warmly, her hands settling on her rounded stomach as Fabian follows Gideons suit in saying goodbye.
Jeanie meanwhile ducks into the kitchen and grabs a quick second mug of coffee that she chugs down despite the slight scald of heat before heading back out. "Bye Molls!" she calls as she heads for the door with her brothers.
"Dinner will be ready at seven, Jeanie." Molly informs her as she reaches the door.
"I'll try not to be late." Jeanie waves over her shoulder, not bothering to glance back before heading outside and rushing to catch up with her brothers.
The moment she's close enough she elbows Fabian hard in the side, Gideon thankfully a bit off over at the garden bidding the kids goodbye and thus out of earshot when Jeanie hisses, "thanks for all that."
"All what?" Fabian says rubbing his side but looking no less privy to what exactly she means.
"You're lucky I'm nice" Fabian scoffs loud earning another elbow. "And that I don't want Molly digging into my relationship yet or else I'd get you back."
"And you kicking my shins and bruising my side with that pointy elbow of yours isn't getting me back?"
"No getting you back would be bringing up your Easter kiss in front of Molls," she replies vindictively earning a frown with just the right amount of cautionary fear from Fabian.
"You've been with Marlene for almost 2 years, bloody hell you told me she asked if you'd like to move into her flat!" He responds, "it ought to be time to spill it for Molls."
"She'd blow it way out of proportion and you know it," Jeanie gripes. "I mean you saw how she acted with me and James before he'd gotten with Lily. Practically planned our wedding even though we one, weren't even out of Hogwarts yet, and two, have never thought of each other that way in the first place. Not to mention that this whole pregnancy she's been going on and on about how it's about my turn to give her a niece or nephew."
"Doesn't mean she'd not be supportive, and 'sides she says that to Gideon and me just as much."
"Then why haven't you told her?"
"I'm not seeing anyone."
"No?" she asks, "you told me that was quite the kiss…"
Fabian rolls his eyes, but the slight bit of red to his face let her know she'd hit on the mark. But lucky for him Gideon's reached the end of the drive and has turned towards them with the bit of impatience he's got.
"You two done chattering about whatever you're on about?" he calls, "I'd like to not be late for once."
"Yeah yeah," Jeanie and Fabian both call back, meeting up with him and after a second they all disapparate with a pop.
The Order of the Phoenix had a few safe houses scattered about Britain, usually each under a Fidelius Charm with their own secret keeper respectively. But the most commonly frequented one was just on the outskirts of London in a flat above an old muggle pub.
It's a bit funny at times to Jeanie, that the pub owner below doesn't even remember that he leased a flat above him. She can't help but wonder if he thinks he's got ghosts, even with the muffling charms put on the place she can imagine perhaps a few creaks come through when they get to the point when the charms are needing replacing.
Thankfully they don't have to go through the pub to get to the flat, as she imagines even a Fidelius Charm wouldn't keep a muggle from questioning a swath of strange folk in robes coming through from time to time. No, the entrance sits around back, up a flight of old iron stairs. Gideon heads up first and Jeanie and Fabian knock each other's shoulders trying to follow up second.
Jeanie manages to dodge and duck under him and laughs a bit up the stairs as Fabian curses her just a bit as he follows along behind.
When Jeanie got inside she couldn't help the surprised smile that creeped to her face at the sight of James and Lily where they stood speaking quietly off with Dumbledore and Sirius.
"Is that a Potter I see?" She calls, Gideon heading off towards one of the offshoot rooms and Fabian wandering away from the Potter-Prewett reunion that was coming. James's head turns and a smile likely resembling her own creeps on as he quickly says something to Dumbledore before getting a nod of dismissal and he starts heading her way. "Merlin," Jeanie laughs when he scoops her into a hug, "you're getting pudgy in hiding."
"I am not," he defends though a smile still lights his face.
Jeanie smiles further and pokes his stomach, "definitely pudgy." She leans to look over his shoulder, "what are you feeding this poor bloke, Lily?
Lily, always good at teasing James, comes up beside him and smirks, "he steals some of Harry's teething biscuits when he thinks I'm not looking." She then steps forward and now Jeanies the one squeezing and lifting a friend in a hug.
"I resent that accusation." James pouts, "and if I hypothetically did steal any of the biscuits it's because they're delicious."
"Speaking of the actual baby," Jeanie says, "where is he now?"
"With a neighbor," Lily says, "Dumbledore called us in today, and we figured it might be safer to leave him hidden than bring him here."
Jeanie nods a small bit solemnly, "I'd have loved to see him, still haven't seen him since the christening."
Lily gets a sad look herself and reaches out to squeeze Jeanie's arm, "hopefully this will all be over before too much longer and you'll get to spend more time with him"
"Do I not get a hug?" Sirius Blacks voice creeps in as he joins the trio of them with his seemingly permanent smirk ever present on his lips, "If not I'll be offended."
Jeanie smiles a tad bit devilishly herself and starts forward as though to give him a hug before she pops his shoulder with her fist with a laugh. "As if Black," she teases, "I see you're bloody face all the time sadly."
"Pshh," he rolls his eyes, "you hardly look at me during meetings anymore, too busy giving girlfriend heart eyes."
That earns him another, slightly harder, punch to the shoulder that he holds gingerly with an over exaggerated look of betrayal upon his face. "I take this whole thing very seriously, even if my girlfriend is hot enough to qualify as a worthy distraction."
"You know what Moody'd say," James chimes in.
"CONSTANT VIGILANCE!" Jeanie, James, and Sirius all cheer to Lily's snickering.
The four catch up further until Dumbledore calls all the members together and the meeting starts in full. Jeanie sits between Sirius and Remus, a buffer point now as it seems the two friends had been on more strained terms since Dumbledore started having Remus running on private missions that Jeanie knew very little about beyond the fact that it made her dear friend look more tired and worn than she was used to seeing him look like.
Jeanie listens, as much as she ever does at least. Hears the news passed around about the Dark Lord, the Death Eaters, recent attacks and deaths and all sorts of dark war stuff. She fiddles for a bit with the chain her time turner resides on, but stops when Gideon glances her way with a curious concern. She deflects easily by raising her brow and glancing to Dorcas sat close beside him.
She relishes just a bit the slight flush that tints his neck and ears before he shakes his head and gives her a pointed look as though telling her to pay attention.
Marlene stumbles in late, but is quiet enough about it that she only gets a stern look from Moody rather than a full lecture. Jeanie raises a brow her way as she goes to sit and Marlene shakes her head with a smile that says her tardiness was definitely to do with a similar hangover situation that Jeanie had suffered through this morning herself, and Marlene didn't have an annoying older brother to wake her.
The rest of the meeting passes fairly calmly. And eventually tasks are given out and Moody gives his ritualistic lecture about safety and vigilance.
Jeanie only heckles him a little, earning a sharp look and threat of violence when she snickers beneath her hand and Sirius chimes in taking over for her insolence.
Moody'd probably be glad to send the two of them on far away missions if it meant he didn't have to deal with their commentary for a few months.
Jeanie is more than ready to get on with the day, especially as it had her with her brothers for a good portion of it, that she nearly leaps from her seat when the meeting is adjourned. But her readiness is halted when in a bit of rare sentimentality it seemed Moody called for them all to gather up.
"One of the few damned meetings we've had all the members here for," he ushers them around to the largest expanse of wall and starts rearranging them all about. "Prewett, Black, separate I'll not have either of you two ruining the picture with your antics."
Jeanie ended up next to her brothers, with Marlene next to her just a step in front because of her height. As Moody got the camera charmed and ready Jeanie slipped forward just a bit and reached down to take Marlenes hand, smiling when the other girl glanced up over her shoulder.
Marlene returned the look and as Moody took his own place in the line up the sound of the camera went off with a sharp puff of smoke and Jeanie took the opportunity to smile and stick her tongue out at Marlene getting the other girl to laugh in return, though she did it more hidden.
They'd barely started to disperse from the line up when she felt Moody's wand whack against her shoulder. She glanced at him with exaggerated hurt and held her shoulder with a pout. "No antics on your task today, Prewett." He orders, harsh and strict as she had come to expect and in a way love. "You and your brothers are heading through to pick up some important packages, I don't want to hear that you got distracted by the first shiny object on your path."
"I hardly get dist—"
"No distractions, no antics," He points his wand threateningly at her, "no funny business. You're a member of the order and when this is done I could see you as a bloody good auror if you get it together."
She sighs, a slight roll of her eyes that earns her another whack of the wand on her shoulder. She yelps, but smiles then and stands straight at attention, "all right, understood." She says exaggeratedly, lifting her hand in salute and turning to walk stiffly away before bursting into laughter when Moody starts grumbling under his breath about insolent children.
"He's going to get sick of you someday," Marlene says as she steps up beside Jeanie, the two girls walking towards the door together.
"Nah," Jeanie waves a hand dismissively, "you heard him, he thinks I got potential. That means he likes me."
Marlene laughs lowly and shakes her head. "I don't know how you stand up to it, walking in late I felt like he was going to stun me in my spot the second he looked at me with that disapproving glare."
"Wheres your Gryffindor bravery Marlene," Jeanie asks with a smile, "he's just Moody."
"Evidently it's been sucked out by the hangover I woke up with," Marlene rubs her temple with a pout to her lips and Jeanie smiles turning the two of them into a small hallway and reaching up to rub it instead. She lets a little magic reach her fingertips to help and Marlene sighs, "we should not have drank that much last night."
"It was fun though," Jeanie says, moving her hand down through Marlenes hair until she reaches her arms, continuing further and pulling the other girl towards her so they were close together.
"As it usually is with you," Marlene smiles, leaning up just the smidge of difference they have in height and brushing her lips against Jeanie's. "Still coming round tonight?"
Jeanie smiles, and leans further to press her lips harder and more earnestly against Marlene. She pulls the girl further towards her and enjoys the little laugh that escapes Marlene against her lips, Marlenes arms wrapping around Jeanie and when they part they hold each other tightly with only the barest of spaces between them.
"I'll come by after I finish dinner with Molls." Jeanie tells her. "Don't you worry about that."
"Promise?" Marlene asks, a light and playful smile to her lips while her eyes were filled with a deeper emotion that sent Jeanie's stomach to butterflies.
"That I'll never break," Jeanie responds before leaning down and kissing her even deeper.
Jeanie smiled as they walked the street, it was a relatively quiet part of the city and the sun was shining down upon them. She'd convinced her brothers to stop in at a fish and chips shop a few blocks from where they were headed for the order and the three of them had enjoyed a nice lunch together where they all came out the shop with bellies full and smiles upon their faces.
Good spirits, to say the least.
Too good for what was to come.
Gideon noticed them first, expected considering he was the most skilled and experienced of the three Prewetts. His gait didn't change but his face had shifted from a smile to a serious look, his eyes glancing towards every bit of reflective surface they passed as they continued down the street.
Fabian noticed second, simply because he noticed the shift in his brother. He didn't loose his smile, instead he just started whistling like it was still a sunny good day where the biggest struggle was getting whatever song stuck in his head out.
Jeanie noticed then, between her two brothers shifts in behavior she took Gideons cue and looked in the window of a parked car they passed and saw what he had. A man with a pale and twisted face in black robes walked about sixty yards back from them. His hand tucked away right where one might keep a wand in a pocket.
Ahead Jeanie noticed another, stood around a corner across the street, a watch in his hand and his head shifting with the occasional glance up and down as he watched for them. "Gideon." She says low and quiet. He nods, and shifts his step and the three enter a wide alleyway near them. Jeanie grips her wand tight, and looks about the space while remembering all the lessons her brother and Moody had told her.
"If you smell an ambush try to gather any advantage you can," Moody told her, eyes scrutinizing like she measured far too short. But something deeper in them, and his tone, saying he was certain she'd grow to fit. "Choose where they get you, find your best place of defense, and defend it till either they or you are dead."
The first spell comes from the man who'd been following them. Gideon's shield just stops it from hitting him. Jeanie leans around her brother and sends out a blasting curse towards the man. She hears Fabian swear and the sound of another spell deflecting off a shield behind her, and whirls herself around to spot another two robed men with death eater masks dropped into the end of the alleyway. She fires off a bombarda spell on the brick behind them and they stagger away to avoid the debris.
When she looks forward Gideon is dealing with the two that she'd seen out on the street and a third apparates in.
They're cornered, trapped.
"Don't let yourself be cornered in somewhere," Moody had told her, a bit of a sting to her shoulder where he'd whacked her with his wand when she'd failed the drill he'd set her and a few of the others up to. "And if you are, find a way out."
A spell hits startlingly close before she pulls up a shield, and she focuses. Five on three, they could do this. Gideon was brilliant, Fabian was brilliant, she was brilliant.
They could do this.
One of the Death Eaters sends a spell and it hits Fabian, sending her brother staggering back and into her, knocking her own spell over course and hitting a bit of brick on the building. She glances to her brother and sees him wincing as he forces himself back up, his wand hand lifting and throwing out a curse with a shake to it.
Gideon knocks one of the Death eaters in the entrance down and turns to send a spell over his shoulder to the ones at the end when the death eater that had trailed them sends a curse of his own. Gideon falters down to a knee and grunts out in pain.
Jeanie sends a curse his way and it hits a shield.
"Get up," she wills to Gideon, her brother sweaty and with a bit of blood seeping through the shirt on his chest did as he was bid though he did it with labored breath before his teeth gritted and he sent another curse down towards the entrance.
Jeanie lifted a shield in front of Fabian and her when another curse came from the two at the end. Fabian shouted as he sent a harsh curse their way that hit one of the death eaters square in the chest and sent him crashing hard against the brick wall. He slid and coughed as the other sent faster curses their way until Jeanie's shield faltered and she had to move her body to dodge the magic.
A curse hit her then from behind, staggering her down, her hands catching the pavement and her breath leaving from her lungs before it returns after near thirty seconds of strangled breathing. "Get up," Gideon says to her just the same as she had but he says it with more desperation, more fear.
They're cornered, and they might not get out of it.
She breathes in deep breaths, trying to center herself they way she would on the quidditch pitch at Hogwarts. She shuts her eyes for a second and when she opens them, looking down at the pavement she sees a flare of sunlight off of gold swinging down between her arms.
She forces herself up, and the time turner falls to rest on her chest
It was busted, but she'd fixed it she thinks, enough at least. It could work.
Turn it back, and she could have an advantage. Gather any advantage you can.
Theoretically it might not work. But perhaps it could, it wasn't a run of the mill ministry issued time turner from what she'd found.
It was a risk.
But what was life without a little risk?
And in this moment, as Gideon is hit with another curse after his shield falters, and Fabian is breathing with harsh labored breaths while trying to hold his wand arm steady with his free hand, if she doesn't take the risk her life and her brothers lifes will be over.
She grits her teeth, and grabs the time turner tight.
And she feels a surge of magic pop out from it as her brothers shout.
Thank you so much for reading! Please feel free to let me know your thoughts, I always love hearing responses to my writing.