Disclaimer: Not mine
Updated: Sunday 5th June 2005
Chapter Eighty Five: Unforgettable YuletideThe thought of sending an unwitting student such as Severus Snape into the direct path of an uncontrollable werewolf wasn't even a good idea when he'd first come up with it. In hindsight Sirius didn't have any idea what he was thinking – all he knew as that he had made a foolish, terrible mistake in the heat of the moment and it had come close to both maiming someone close to him and condemning his trusted friend to horrible fate.
'How could I have been so stupid?' He kicked himself forcefully as he watched over the peacefully sleeping form of the girl he had just rescued from a terrible fate – thanks to the time turner she had leant him. Sirius had no choice but to stupefy the determined girl in his efforts to deter her from going to the Shrieking Shack. She had missed on seeing James' time turner-assisted intervention with the lanky Slytherin and was still under the distinct belief that Severus Snape was in mortal peril.
It was a little after dawn. With the moon already risen, Sirius had carried Aries to Hagrid's Hut (incidentally the half-giant was out of the country trying to rally up support for Dumbledore from his giant cousins). James had seen to Severus' wellbeing before meeting up with Moony and Wormtail in the forest for their monthly jaunt, while Sirius kept vigil over his stunned charge. Now, she was stirring, and Sirius braced himself for her wrath.
"SIRIUS!" The girl shrieked, sitting bolt up right from where she had been lying on the oversized, overstuffed couch in the draughty hut to pummel Sirius mercilessly in the chest as he sat by her. "WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO THAT FOR? SEVERUS IS IN DANGER!"
The frantic expressions on the disorientated girl's face began to shift and change as she realised it was daytime.
"Oh my God! We're too late! We're too late!" Estella was screaming, her hands clawing at her body, searching for her time turner.
Firmly grabbing the small hands of his incoherent classmate in his own to prevent her from unwittingly hurting herself, Sirius struggled to placate the distraught girl. "Hey! It's all right! Everyone is fine. You are fine. No one got hurt last night!" Sirius whispered his urgent reassurances into the girl's ear as he physically tried to prevent the girl from leaving.
Once she had calmed down and stilled, Sirius reached into his pocket and pulled out the time turner. "I suppose you were looking for this?" He asked, handing it back to her.
"Wait. How did you get this? What did you change?" Estella's eyes widened. The only way she would have given the time turner to Sirius to go back and change events of the night before would have been if she were dead or bitten.
"I got bitten, didn't I?" She pressed him for information. "Killed?"
"The first one." Sirius choked, nodding softly. "After you awoke… the first time… you gave me your time turner. We… James and I… went back and stopped you and Severus from going in the tunnel."
"James saved Severus?" Estella asked, her eyes widening. Sirius nodded.
James had always been the one who saved Severus. If he had only been able to do that with assistance of a time turner, a time turner that she provided, then that meant she was always meant to come back in time.
"Sirius," She asked shakily. "If I had never come to this school, if I hadn't leant you my time turner… would James have still been able to stop Severus?"
"No." Sirius shook his head, a haunted look on his face. "You're the one who stopped him. You had distracted Moony long enough for Snape to get away, and by the time James and I got there you were already unconscious."
"Oh." Estella gaped. She was always supposed to come back.
"Why are you looking at me like that?" Remus asked James for the umpteenth time that morning as they stealthily made their way towards Hagrid's Hut to rendezvous with Sirius and Estella before sneaking back to the castle for breakfast. "You're looking at me as though I devoured half of Hogsmeade last night!"
"You don't remember anything?" James asked his friend warily. "Anything at all?"
"Prongs, what has gotten into you? You know I don't remember what the wolf does while I am in that form! I am not of mind." Remus shook his head in indignation. What was going on here?
"What about when you woke up this morning?" James asked. "Do you remember anything that didn't happen?"
"James, you're not making any sense, mate." Peter cut in, his chubby, short legs struggling to keep up, the short Gryffindor having met up with the stag and werewolf the night before on the outskirts of the forest. "How can you remember something if it didn't happen?"
"Unless you had a time turner and lived the night twice." Remus concluded, rounding on James sharply. "Alright, spill."
"What are you talking about, Moony, I… I… I don't have a time turner, you know that." James tried to convince his friend. "Why if we had a time turner, think of all the extra stuff we could pull!"
Remus was not convinced, but he chose to say nothing more.
"So, not a word to Remus, alright?" Sirius pleaded with Aries. "He doesn't remember what the wolf does anyway, but just the idea of waking up to the knowledge that he'd turned someone would be enough to drive him to ruin."
"It's alright, Sirius." Estella assured him. "I wouldn't want to put him through that."
"Thank you." Sirius said gratefully, as he held the door open for her; letting her walk out into the front yard of the gamekeeper's hut first.
"No, thank you." Estella threw back. "For going back and changing things."
"Aries, it was the least I could do, for both you and Remus." Sirius said, that haunted look returning to his eyes.
"Yes, but that's something you'll always have with you now." Estella looked at him sadly. "Only you and James."
"James, I regret, but I deserve to live with this." Sirius said depreciatingly. "It will remind me never to do something as stupid again. For what it's worth though, I am sorry."
"What if it had been Severus who was bitten? Would you have learnt your lesson then? Would you have even cared? Or would you have just been upset for what it would have meant to Remus?" Estella asked him pointedly.
In response, Sirius had the good graces to look sheepish. "I don't deny that I would have taken for granted what effect it would have had on Snape's life." He lowered his head in shame. "But seeing it happen like it did, I'll never think to even pretend to place anyone in that position again. Please believe me when I say I never intended for anyone to get hurt! Not even Snape!"
"Right. It was just meant to be a joke." Estella sneered, looking all together too much like a Snape at that moment. "Just like accidentally causing me to fall like that was a harmless hex that Severus was supposed to take as a joke too. I want you to apologise to him."
Before Sirius could respond, the pair was interrupted by the arrival of James, Remus and Peter. James, who was looking increasingly worse for wear after having been awake now for the equivalent of 36 hours, sighed in relief when he saw Estella intact.
"Hey guys." He feigned casually at them, though his eyes were seeking silent answers from them both. "Some night, huh?"
"Some night." Estella replied tersely. "One I don't particularly want to live through twice."
Catching on, James and Sirius shared a look; the unspoken revelation being that the girl they had worked to save knew her alternate fate.
"What is going on with you three?" Remus asked suspiciously, only to be interrupted by the resonating growl of tummies and a mutual desire to seek out breakfast.
Sirius made the trip back to Hogwarts under cover of darkness. Both he and Remus had been summoned to meet with the headmaster, but on account of the approaching full moon, only Sirius was able to accept the invitation.
"Albus, you wanted to see me?" A cleaner, better fed Sirius Black entered the headmaster's office. Although the man was still a fugitive, and the strain of his daughter's unknown whereabouts belied itself in the man's fathomless grey eyes, life on the outside being assisted and watched after by the most trusted Members of Dumbledore's disbanded Order – was doing the previously gaunt and emaciated convict a world of good. No one could be sure if Estella Black would return to her own time unscathed, but it was important to those who held her dear that her wrongly convicted father was treated well. If Estella were to return from the past to find not only James and Lily gone, but her father too, there was no predicting how she would adjust.
"Ah yes, Sirius. How lovely to see you looking so well. Do take a seat." Albus rose to greet the most notorious of his alumni and gestured for him to take a seat in the chair he had grown so accustomed to over the several few months. "I'll get straight to the point. I received, quite by chance, the most interesting delivery from a Mr Benson Ollerton this afternoon. I trust I needn't explain the relevance?"
Sirius' throat went dry. "The real Aries Ollerton's father." He croaked, his voice hoarse.
Nodding, Albus continued. "A mysterious box of personal effects was discovered in a storeroom in the Ollerton family's summer home. After Estella disappeared from the past, I confided in Benson her true identity."
Sirius gasped in alarm.
"I didn't say who her parents were, only that she was a child out of her time and that we'd likely see her again in twenty years. It seems he never forgot, and delivered Estella's things to me. I'd overlooked that the house elves had them packed up and sent to the family after she left since only I knew at the time who she truly was. Where she truly had gone."
A lump formed in Sirius' throat. "Estella's belongings? From her time in the past?" He choked out, a dull ache gripping his heart. "Where are they?"
"In her trunk." Albus nodded towards an overlooked corner of his office where, sure enough, the familiar, but disturbingly aged trunk sat. "It has been disturbed as little as possible. It seems right that you should take it home for her. Ready her room, perhaps?"
"What about her Uncle?" Sirius said almost bitterly. "I am a fugitive. Severus is her guardian."
"Oh I am sure when the time comes Severus will be cooperative. If my memories serve me correctly, I daresay Estella would want to see you." Albus smiled. "Besides, it is my understanding that young Severus was not privy to the company of Aries Ollerton. I suspect, therefore, that her personal effects would not hold as much significance to him."
"Does he know that they are here?" Sirius asked, eying the trunk as though he was waiting for Estella to leap from inside it and announce it was all just an elaborate joke. "Knowing Severus, he would want to take it away from me just because he could."
"Ah, Sirius. You do not give your brother in law enough credit." Albus frowned slightly. "Notably, I have not informed him of this latest development."
"Are you sure you weren't sorted into Slytherin?" Sirius asked quizzically as he rose from his chair to go to the trunk, its pull too much to resist. It was almost as though he feared Severus would barge in at any moment and take away what little he had left of his daughter.
Albus chuckled slightly. "First and foremost, you are Estella's father." He acknowledged. "Deep down, Severus knows this. I can only hope that for the child's sake you will be able to put aside the past transgressions and work together."
"He let me rot in Azkaban." Sirius growled bitterly. "I was a stranger to my child because of him."
"Severus did not fight for you, that much is true." Albus admitted. "Though I must say I don't think it would have done much difference if he had. The man has little credibility in the eyes of the Ministry. No, the fact remains the same: without Peter there were… are not a lot of options for you."
"I know. I know." Sirius grumbled begrudgingly into the trunk, his lean body crouching over it, one hand caressing the fine wood grain reverently. "I just wish things could have worked out differently."
"So do we all, my dear boy." Albus nodded sadly. "Now why don't you take that trunk home with you? I can tell you must be itching to uncover its treasures."
Sirius nodded numbly, his capable hands lifting the trunk with ease. "Just in time for Christmas." He whispered sadly, the moisture in his eyes threatening to spill over. Straightening his back and bidding his farewell to the headmaster, he continued, his voice a little stronger. "Thank you, Albus."
"Merry Christmas, dear boy." Albus said, tossing the Floo Powder in the fire for the young man, who had his hands full. With one reassuring squeeze to the younger wizard's shoulder, Albus bid the childless father well and returned to his desk, the tell tale whoosh of the fireplace behind him letting him know he was alone in his office once more.
Settling in his chair heavily, the aged old wizard sighed. Reflecting on his earliest conversations with the time-lost student of his, he could not help but feel a tinge of regret for all he had put her family through. He should have heard the young Ravenclaw out… if not to save the Potters, but to spare Sirius of the life he had been dealt. The poor boy didn't deserve to spend all that time in Azkaban. If only he had interpreted her cryptic clues more carefully. Of course he had paid attention to what little she had told him about the future – her affirmation that an innocent man had been sent to Azkaban was his driving motivation in fighting to have Severus freed. Only he had known of the young Slytherin's spying activities and he had assumed from Estella's story that getting him out of prison was what she had intended to prevent. It didn't occur to him at the time that it was Sirius who she was talking about. Sirius had been known for thinking rashly and doing foolish things; and the fallible headmaster had actually thought, at the time, that he was equally capable of fooling them all and betraying his friends. That he had doubted the loyal Gryffindor so quickly was something Albus was ashamed to admit… and despite his remorse and his desire to make things up to his former student as he lived his life on the run, he knew it was something he couldn't admit to.
Sure enough, it was like Christmas had come early for the mismatched pair of wizards. It took every ounce of Sirius' self control to hold back from opening the trunk until after Remus had recovered from his transformation, but he had managed it. The faithful Godfather deserved to be present the same, if not more, than Sirius himself.
Opening the trunk without Estella there was perhaps the hardest thing they could ever do, but it was something they couldn't hold off on doing. Reacquainting themselves with actual objects that solidified their loved one's visit to the past made the fleetingly returning memories all the more concrete and substantial in their minds. When Estella had disappeared that day, all those years previously, teachers had taken her things away and, not realising the significance of the girl's relationship with them, the Marauders had been a little foolhardy in discarding the memories. They had, after all, only known her for a comparatively short period of time. Dumbledore had told the school that Aurors had rescued her and taken her to the Ministry for debriefing, and from there her parents took her straight home. She was not expected to return. Sure, they tried to send her mail via the headmaster for a while, but they didn't receive a reply; and with war that was only then breaking out, their minds quickly moved onto other things.
Photographs that belonged to all of them found their way into that trunk. Carefully preserved, candid moments, that until that moment the two men had not been able to appreciate just why 'Aries' was so insistent upon collecting them. To their surprise, all of the snapshots showed Estella in her true form. They could only assume that Estella had somehow spelled the photographs to reveal her true form to those who knew it. As painful as it was to see the cheerful, animated memories – forever captured in time on the magical paper – neither men could deny how precious it was to see a picture of Estella with her mother; the woman who had made the ultimate sacrifice for her child.
"Hey Sirius, look at this." Remus narrowed his eyes at a photograph he was holding in her hand. "Look at how she was looking at Peter. I'd hate to think how hard it would have been for her to not hex him."
Accepting the picture from his mild mannered friend, Sirius took in the image of Estella and Peter playing a game of chess. Recognising the work as the makings of his deceased wife, it was easy to pick that the photo's subjects were not aware of the photo being taken. Both occupants were concentrating predominantly on the game of Chess they were competing in; the image replaying a sequence of moves over and over.
"There!" Remus said, pointing over Sirius shoulder the instance where Estella's eyes would indiscernibly flick to her opponent. "Look at her eyes, Padfoot! She's not just thinking about a Chess game, I'd bet my life on it."
Frowning, Sirius peered at the photograph more closely, his eyes watching every move his depicted daughter made. It was moments like this; however, that the escaped convict had to acknowledge the comparative unfamiliarity he had with his daughter. Compared to how well Remus knew her, he was virtually a stranger to her library of looks and mannerisms.
"I don't know, Moony." Sirius admitted. "You knew her better than I did."
"Don't talk in past tense, Sirius." Remus snapped, snatching the photo back. "It doesn't do either of us any good."
"Wait a minute! Give me that back!" Sirius said suddenly, his hand grabbing the telling photo back from his friend to peer at the other occupant of the photo. Unlike his daughter, however, he was infinitely better acquainted with the fifth year rat.
"I don't believe it!" He spluttered, his fingers gripping the edge of the photo in rage. "I'll kill the traitorous little shite!"
He was at a loss. The attack was scheduled for the next Hogsmeade visit – the one immediately before Christmas when everyone who was able would not pass up the opportunity to attend. Aries and the Marauders would all be going. Those in line for initiation – well those in contention who could be trusted with the information - had been forewarned of the attack; probably as some kind of test of loyalty. If news travelled to the school that such an attack was planned, Christmas would be very bleak for half the Slytherin population – as well as for a few misplaced students of other houses. At the same time, though, it would not gel well for him to disappear from his friends just before the attack. If they survived they would suss him out… but if he stayed with them…
The four Marauders and their female acquaintances were huddled in a secluded booth in the Three Broomsticks, talking excitedly about the upcoming Christmas break and Yule Ball. Glancing at his watch nervously every few moments, Peter was fighting a losing battle with a cold sweat. Save for finding some excuse to lure them all out of the crowded social hotpot and out of pending harm's way within the next few minutes, he was all out of options.
"So what do you say, Aries, we go shopping for some dress robes after lunch?" Lily suggested. "Go back and look at that dress we saw this morning?"
"I don't know." Estella said quietly. "I don't really have any money. My, er, parents have been quite generous in putting some pocket money in my student account, but I am reluctant to draw from it except when absolutely necessary. Besides, my, er, mother packed me a set of robes for the occasion just like the supply list requested."
"But you didn't pick them yourself!" Selina said, shaking her head. "You said so yourself! They fit all wrong! And the colour… ugh!"
"Wait on," Estella said, her mouth full of her spinach roll as she waved her fork in the air. "I never even said I was going to go to the Yule Ball!"
"You're going." Sirius stated firmly in a tone so authoritative that the girls broke into another round of conspiratorial giggles as Sirius stabbed his fork in her direction.
"Be careful what you wish for…" Estella mumbled good naturedly, stabbing her carrot with her fork; ignoring the quizzical look Sirius then gave her.
"Well I want to go check out the latest broomsticks." James said, pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose almost subconsciously as the finished up his meal. "You guys coming with?"
"James Potter!" Lily shrieked. "It's the last Hogsmeade visit before Christmas, do you mean to tell me you've completed your Christmas shopping?"
"No." James shrugged. "You know me, I'm not as organised as you."
"You better not buy gifts from that broom closest!" If Lily were standing she would have stamped her foot. "Your friends don't all share the same interests as you!"
"Oh ye of little faith!" James pouted, holding his hand over his heart in mockery. "Aries, did I not place enough thought in your get well gift?"
"I loved it, James." Estella assured him.
"See! Someone has faith!" James saluted and tousled his hair, a lopsided grin on his face.
"James Potter get that smug look off your face, you know you had help!" Lily admonished him, kicking him under the table, causing him to jerk to attention. "Now, shall we discuss our plans for the Yule Ball?"
"Sure." Sirius said flippantly. "You and me. Prongs and Lily, Moony and Ollie. Wormtail and that Hufflepuff chick that eyes him off in class, what's her name, Skeeter."
"Excuse me, Sirius, but just because I am Selina's best friend and she is your girlfriend it doesn't then mean that, by extension, I am at all suited for your best friend." Lily admonished. "Besides, what if I already have a date?"
"You… you have a date?" James looked at her like a deer caught in the path of a bludger. "Oh."
"What? Were you planning on actually asking me, James?" Lily looked at him squarely. "Or did you just assume as Sirius did?"
"Um…" James mumbled, his cheeks flushing. "Well, um… who'd you get to go with you?"
"I can't see how that is of any relevance!" Lily shook her head. "For someone who has made his attraction more than apparent, you seem to take for granted that anyone else may see me in the same light."
"But that's… that's… impossible." James spluttered.
"Why, because you have threatened to neuter any interested party that may have presented me with an alternative to enduring your company?" Lily raised a brow at James. "Oh yes, Potter, don't think I have been oblivious to your attempts to intimidate your competition."
"But Lily, we belong together!" James professed. "When will you see that?"
"When you stop being such an arrogant prat who thinks he can just get what he wants, when he wants, that's what!" Lily glared at her future spouse.
"Well alright then." James leant back in his seat with a stony look. "Please do disclose to us who you have selected to accompany you to the ball so I can give my blessing."
"Why do I want to seek your blessing, Potter?" asked Lily. "See this is exactly what I am talking about!"
"Look, Lily, are you going to tell us who you're going with, or not?" Sirius asked exasperatedly.
"We're all curious." Selina added, looking slightly affronted by the suggestion that her best friend had kept something like this from her. "I told you the instance Sirius asked me."
"Well fine, I will tell the girls only." Lily nodded before whispering in Selina and Estella's ears in turn.
Whilst Estella simply widened her eyes in surprise and caught the eye of Remus, who she knew from experience would have been able to overhear Lily's whispering, Selina all out had a fit.
"Oh my god! I can't believe he is actually being social!" Selina grinned maniacally. "That's brilliant!"
Of course, her happiness at the disclosure of Lily's date was exaggerated for the benefit of their clueless male audience, but it served its purpose.
"So when did he ask you? How did it happen?" Selina gawked at her friend, firing her questions at a mile a minute.
"Well…" Lily said, playing along with the theatrics and acting all dreamy. "We were in the library…"
"And?" Estella threw in for good measure.
"He was stalking around being his usual charming self." Lily continued, knowing full well that the boys would misinterpret her emphasis on 'charming'.
Estella started to snigger at Lily's purely Slytherin display of misdirection.
"He made some comment about your choice of date…" She let the sentence hang, while her cohorts examined the possibilities. Across from them, the boys were looking about ready to hex someone.
"And then what happened? How did he ask you?" Selina asked eagerly.
"He didn't." Lily shrugged. "I asked him!"
"You what?" James spluttered.
"How did you get him to agree to go with you?" Estella asked her future Godmother, her lips beginning to twitch.
The grin that broke out on Lily's face was positively demonic in origin. "I told him it would piss James Potter off." She said, looking directly at James so she could savour the look on his face. "It truly did surprise me how eager Severus was after that!"
"No! No frigging way!" James said loudly. "Am I really that bad?"
"Are you out of your mind?" Sirius added. "Selina, I know he's your brother, but come on!"
"You're joking." Remus said finally, a knowing look on his face as he touched his nose. "I heard you!"
"Yes, of course I was joking." Lily shook her head. "But it was worth the look on your faces!"
"Priceless." Selina smirked. "Positively Slytherin, Lily! How'd we do?"
"Pretty good Selina. I'd say we did pretty well for the spur of the moment performance." Said Estella. Acknowledging the looks on James and Sirius' face, she smirked. "Oh, so you are the only ones allowed to have a prank?"
"You do realise that you've started a war, don't you?" James said, sending the girls a malevolent looks.
"You know what would be really fun?" Sirius suggested, a glint in his eyes as he fought to get his best friend off the hook by changing the subject. "If Aries uses her time turner to attend the ball both with and without a glamour. She can take both Moony and Wormtail that way and everyone will be wondering where the new girl came from and it will be like a massive prank. Aries, what do you say? I've always wondered what you'd look like with blonde hair…"
Casting his suspicious amber eyes at his 'arranged' consort, Remus spoke up. "What do you mean, Aries has a time turner?" He asked, his unanswered questions from the previous full moon floating back to the surface.
Opposite him, Sirius recoiled suddenly as though kicked. Next to him, James was glaring at him, looking positively murderous.
"I take it Sirius just choked on his own foot." Lily said cautiously, casting a questioning look in Estella's direction. "You have a time turner?"
"It's not supposed to be public knowledge." Estella shrugged, still blanching at the thought of her father pranking her to have blonde hair as well as feeling extremely uncomfortable under her Godfather's intense gaze. 'Thanks Padfoot, nice one!' She glared at said animagus covertly. "I don't use it or anything. Family heirloom."
In an unnoticed corner of the booth, Peter looked positively thrilled at both suggestions. It would make explaining her company to his peers so much easier if he could truthfully say he was obliged to take her… never mind that it would save him having to actually ask her himself and risk her rejection. All eyes now watched the squirming girl uncomfortably.
Suddenly, the girl's hands flew to the pendant she wore around her neck. "Ow!" She said suddenly, her voice signalling cause for alarm. "It's burning hot!"
"Let me see." Selina leaned over and touched the pendant, her finger recoiling when she felt its warmth. She gave Estella a shocked, questioning look. "Aries, who gave you this?"
"My mother." Estella said absently, her fingers fumbling for the clasp.
"Lily, what do you think?" Selina looked at her friend worriedly. "Looks like a protective charm at work to me."
"A protective charm?" Estella scowled, unable to get the pendant off. "It's hurting."
"That's not a protective charm." Remus shook his head, his eyes widening. "It's an alarm."
"Warning you that danger just apparated into Hogsmeade." James said insightfully, his jaw set in a firm line as he threw down his goblet and leapt to his feet. Outside the window, in the distance, tell tale signs of panic and hysteria could be seen.
"I think we better get back to the school, pronto!" Sirius was up in a flash, pulling Estella and Selina to their feet.
Outside, the festive crowds of locals and students were just beginning to acknowledge the sudden arrival of Death Eaters. Screams pierced the air as the masked figures began their surprise attack; the noise filtering in over the din of the busy pub, raising the alarm a moment too late. To leave via the front door was only to walk straight into the heart of the evil wizard's brazen daylight attack. Sadly, many people were unaware of the threat that Voldemort posed – Death Eaters were not a recognised force yet – and so they actually filtered out into the street to see what the commotion was. Only a wise few – those that knew an Auror, for instance and were instinctively vigilant, could sense the danger, pushing and scrambling their way towards the Floo in a horrible scene of mass hysteria.
Huddling in a corner trying to avoid the stampede while they considered their options, fear began to grip at their hearts. Trembling in the arms of their respective future husbands, the girls were manic. Estella decided to take action.
"We can't lose our heads!" She urged them forcefully. "Don't cry, Lily! Selina! I'm not suggesting we become complacent, but I can tell you we all survive this! Trust me!"
"You don't know we're safe!" James said gloomily, his knuckles going white as they tightened around his wand.
"Where's Peter?" Sirius asked suddenly, his voice highly pitched.
'He's probably gone to meet his friends' Estella wanted to say. "I think I saw him transform. He's probably run up some place high to stay out of reach… that or we'll get home to find him in the pocket of one of our cloaks."
"He should be so lucky to have such a small form." Sirius sighed.
"Padfoot may come in handy just yet." James said hurriedly. "I can't say the same for Prongs, unfortunately, but any shit-eating scum looking to ambush people out back would hardly look at a dog foraging through the garbage."
"The back way then?" Selina asked, feeling sufficiently empowered by her fellow Ravenclaw's level headedness.
Sirius nodded. "Honeydukes is in the next street over, close to directly behind this pub. If the alleys are clear we should have a clear shot to get into the cellar and get to the passageway."
"No." Estella contravened her father. "Too risky. They would have undoubtedly placed lookouts in the alleyways behind the stores before they started their frontal attack. It's an effective tactical advantage. Maximises the casualties."
"We'll have better chances in the alley than going out the front door!" Remus argued, choosing at that time not to question the girl's intimate knowledge of enemy tactics. "They'll be in here before everyone can Floo out. That's not including if they disconnect the connection first."
"Where do you suggest we go?" James asked, pushing his glasses up, his grave face belying a surprising maturity.
"The attic." Estella said, discarding her own useless glasses in frustration as the moisture on her nose caused them to slip irritably. "If Honeydukes is behind us on the same terrace then the attics will be all interconnected. In any event it will bring us closer to the store without drawing attention to ourselves."
"Knew there was a reason we sat right near the stairs." Sirius exclaimed in approval, leading the way up the deserted staircase.
The entry point into the communal attic-space was nothing more than the size of a small manhole. Sirius, James and Remus were lucky for their lanky teenaged forms as they barely managed to squeeze through. There was no way a fully-grown dark wizard in full ceremonial garb was going to be able to fit in the tiny hole. All they had to do was not be heard… and get out of harms way before the attacking forces started doing something drastic, like trying to burn the buildings down.
Sirius had, without prompting, transformed into his animagus form and taken the lead. Even as Padfoot he had to crawl with the rest of them, but at least he had his canine senses of smell and hearing to warn them of approaching danger. Estella's pendant, on the other hand, was thrumming at a consistently low burn – not quite as severe as the initial warning had been, but indicative that they were not out of the woods yet.
They kept tabs on where they were by the store numbers that were embossed on the manholes they passed. Unfortunately for them, however, Honeydukes was in the next line of terraces, and they would not be able to descend directly into the store itself. They would have to go into the alley that separated the two blocks of buildings.
"Damn!" James muttered.
"It's alright." Remus sighed. "We at least appear to have passed the epicentre of the attack. Hopefully they have already moved on from here."
"Yeah. It's quiet as death down below." Sirius said, changing back. "And it's not like we're not intimately familiar with this particular alley. Thank Merlin Honeydukes has a cellar door directly into the alley, we won't have to go out into the street or go near the backdoor; which is more likely to be watched."
"It's just getting out of this building." Selina grumbled, anxious to stretch her legs, which were beginning to cramp. Crawling through such a small channel in single file with drawn wands was slow and tedious work. They weren't in an attic so much as they were in a shared ventilation shaft.
The building they were in was the post office. Strategically placed between Honeydukes and the apothecary, with Zonko's a little way up across the road, it was a prime location for people who wished to buy gifts then send them away. Mercifully, those of the post owls that were not out seeing to Christmas deliveries had fled the attic Owlery that they had tumbled into. Such was the open layout of the post office, that the fleeing teens were extremely lucky the building was empty of prying eyes. They would have surely been seen otherwise.
Creeping their way to the back of the store and tiptoeing down a hidden employee's staircase, the group made it safely to the ground floor. Now to make it through the alley unseen and into the Honeyduke's cellar; and they would be home free.
Walking into the rear storeroom to exit through the refuse flap that would give them advantageous cover behind the trashcans in the alley, lining them up directly across from the trapdoor into Honeyduke's Cellar and hopefully out of sight of any lingering forces watching the backdoors; the mere students happened upon a horrific sight: Mr and Mrs Deliverance, the owners of the Port Office, clearly dead; killed in the most unimaginable way possible. They were lucky, then, for James' Quidditch reflexes as he heard his girlfriend's sharp intake of breath, the intuitive young man able to smother the shocked girl's scream with his hand before any telling sound could escape.
"Guess they've moved on." Sirius said sadly, in reference to the direction in which the Death Eaters were systematically attacking the peaceful Wizarding village. None of the teens had any clue on what help had arrived from the Ministry. For all they knew they were all alone against them.
Estella took in the mangled, pained forms of the old Postmaster and his wife and shivered. A revealing memory came to mind only too late.
"Don't look at them." Sirius said worriedly, pulling his distracted friend away from the carnage. "You'll have nightmares."
"Too late for that." Estella said simply, not just referring to the recent atrocity she had just witnessed. Particularly, she was thinking about their son. He ran the Post Office in her time… his parents known to have died early in the war. Growing up with stories of how people died and then suddenly being confronted with the immediacy of it, Estella couldn't help but feel a feeling of helplessness. Surely there was something she could have done to prevent this?
"Don't." Selina said, pulling her away. "Don't even think of using it. Some things are meant to happen."
Estella nodded. It was hardly the time or place to pick apart one's decisions, though it did slightly unnerve her that in all her time going to school in the village she had never heard about this attack. She'd heard about people who had died in the war, but never were they led to believe that the said war was on their doorstep! To think if they had marked this date in history and studied it in class she may have been able to warn the Headmaster.
"Aries!" James added, watching on in horror as the girl reached for her pocket. "No!"
Estella sighed and nodded. Perhaps she should have taken the time turner to Dumbledore straight away after all and accepted the fate he had in store for her.
"Aries?" Sirius urged, all but pushing her unresponsive body through the flap and into the alleyway. "Stay down!"
Complying numbly, Estella could only watch as the group congregated on the other side of the wall and plotted their next move: the 4-metre dash to the cellar door. One by one they made it across the alley unseen; but as fate would have it, their run of luck was soon to run out.
People were hiding in the cellar… and they had locked the trapdoor.
"Please! Let us in!" They began pounding frantically. "We're Hogwarts Students!"
"How can we believe you?" An unidentified voice wavered from the other side of the wood. "No one but us got past them."
"Please! My name is Lily Evans, I am a Muggleborn student. Fifth year Gryffindor!" Lily pleaded, trying to negotiate levelly. "Is there a teacher with you? They will surely be able to verify our identity!"
There was a slight scuffle below them, and then a weakened, pained voice called out to them.
"I am a Hogwarts Professor! Identify yourselves." The familiar voice of Henry Potter was gruff and meant business.
"Professor Potter!" Lily cried, closely echoed by four equally relieved exclamations of "Harry!" and one lone "Dad! Get us out of here!"
Below them, Henry Potter's voice was panicked. "James, son? Is everyone with you? Stand back, and take cover, it will take a few moments to lower the wards… damn it!" The authoritative Auror paused to instruct people to help him lower the wards. "I'm coming kiddo. Hold on."
The kids hid beside the trapdoor, slightly less frightened than they were a few moments ago now that the end was in sight.
"He's hurt." James whispered worriedly to no one in particular. "I can hear it in his voice."
"He could just be worried sick about us, mate." Sirius tried to reassure his friend.
"We haven't seen any of those Dark Wizards." Lily assured him. "They've already canvassed this area. We'll be home before you know it."
"I wouldn't count on that if I were you." A talk fearsome Death Eater Estella immediately recognised as Lucius Malfoy leered at them malevolently, having just apparated into the alley with two gorilla like men flanking him.
'Beavis and Butthead Senior' Estella would have smirked if she wasn't in such strife. At least she knew from their children's example that Malfoy was the most threatening one to watch for.
"My Lord will be so interested to hear how six mere students managed to escape our sweeps." He continued, levelling his wand.
Rising to her full height. Estella looked the Death Eater head on. "Lucius Malfoy." She stated, taking a defensive stance in front of her friends – her family. Then, echoing Lucius' own words from his future, she smirked. "That ugly mask really does not do justice to the imposing Malfoy gait, has anyone ever told you that?"
"You must be the transfer student." Lucius drawled. "I see my reputation precedes me. Stupefy!"
Estella quickly cast the strongest shield she knew, trying to wonder why she had been so surprised that Peter had sold them out.
"Get back!" Sirius tugged at her, trying to shield her with his own body and array of defensive spells.
Looking behind her, she could see Remus, Lily and Selina working at disabling the wards on the trapdoor from the outside while James covered them; though Estella doubted it would be of much help now, bar a miracle. Remaining defiantly at her father's side she managed to shout to him between curses.
"Concentrate on watching your own arse, you overly chivalrous git." She hissed, referring back to their first DADA lesson together and Professor Potter's insistence that men and women were equal in battle. Thankfully he got the point and she didn't need to elaborate.
The door now un-warded, Remus leapt into he fray, working seamlessly with Estella as his influence over her teachings began to manifest themselves, complimenting the future Defence Teacher's developing form with great effect. Between they, James, Sirius, and the decisive intervention of a extremely ticked off redhead and Snape (a lethal combination in itself when crossed, as the Marauders had come to realise over the years), the group of mismatched fifth years were about to come out victorious in their very first, proper duel.
"Thank Merlin!" Henry Potter crawled out of the cellar, wrapping his son into a fierce hug. His leg was bleeding and bent at an odd angle, and his face was ashen. "I could hear the curses! Let's get you kids out of here before their friends come looking. Everyone else has already gone through the tunnel."
Selina and Lily didn't need telling twice – they were already down the hatch as soon as their teacher had come out.
"Ferula!" Estella pointed her wand at the injured leg of her teacher. "Honestly, you call yourself a Professor! It would have taken, what, two seconds to stabilise your injuries? You're no good to us broken!"
No one needed to be told she was supplementing the title of 'Professor' for his true title of 'Auror' – her first lesson in his class leaving an impression in her mind.
"You should have heard yourself, Daddio!" James smirked. "'I am a Hogwarts Professor!'… One for the pensieve…"
"Shut up, brat. We're not safe yet." Henry scolded the increasingly complacent teens. "At least your women have the right idea."
"You next, sir." Estella insisted, grabbing the man under one arm and nodding to Sirius, who had taken the hint and followed suit. "You can't get down unaided. Remus, do me a favour and duck down before Harry here and help him?"
Recognising the tone he had so habitually come to associate as not being one to argue with, Remus complied instantaneously.
"James, you next." She half shoved the younger Potter down the hole after his father. Predictably, James resisted; and Sirius grabbed her arm.
"We don't have time for blasted male chivalry!" She shook them off.
The chilling sound of someone clapping behind them sent shivers down their spines.
"Quite right, quite right." A bemused male's voice applauded her selflessness. "How quaint. The girl placing a boy's life before her own… and the boy letting her."
"Rack off, Tom." Estella said, spinning around to face the human visage of the Dark Lord – Voldemort, at the peak of his power, the girl all too familiar with who the Dark Lord used to be, courtesy of Harry having told her about his trip into the Chamber.
Her false sense of bravado was enough to distract him; enough to end any arguments she had with James and Sirius and slam the trapdoor shut behind them.
"Damn it!" Sirius cried, trying to reopen the trapdoor, but to no avail. Similar to the kind of intrinsic, self-preserving accidental magic that Estella had tapped into each time her life had been in danger, Estella had impenetrably sealed the trapdoor without a spoken word. To risk her father's life at this time would be jeopardising her own existence. "We have to help her! Do you know who's out there? No one has gone one on one with him and lived to kiss and tell!"
Henry and the girls had already made a head start down through the tunnel. It was just James, Remus and Sirius in the room.
"She knows what she's doing, Pads." James tried to soothe his friend. "Believe me, I want nothing more than to go and help the kid… but the door is sealed pretty firmly. She'll probably use the time turner and get away anyway."
"James is right." Remus admitted. "She'll go back two hours, go back to the castle and come out of that tunnel any moment to take us back."
Two sets of eyes joined their friend's in looking at the unassuming tunnel entrance hopefully, just waiting for the trapdoor to open and reunite them with the welcome face of their friend, who was, at that moment, still stuck in a one on one confrontation with the most feared Dark Wizard in the last century.
"WHAT, did you call me?" Voldemort hissed.
"Tom." Estella shrugged. "It is your name, is it not?"
"I am Lord Voldemort, you foolish child." Voldemort corrected the child who, for all intensive purposes, had his curiosity piqued. "I find it rude that a child should want to be on such familiar terms with me when I do not know who you are… Mudblood."
"Sticks and stones may break my bones…" Estella taunted, her candour belying her fear.
Voldemort was incensed. "Crucio!" He roared, sending a violent red spark of light shooting from his wand. To his surprise, the lithe young girl rolled and dodged the spell.
Under normal circumstances, Estella would be scared out of her brain, wallowing in her own involuntary excrement; but this was different. She had a purpose: to ensure that those who had yet to give her life got away; and despite knowing she could never hope to hold her own against such a dark force, she felt at home in a duelling scenario. Years of training slipped her mind into automatic drive, and, clearing her mind and using her sharp tongue as a weapon, she sought to destabilise her foe. After all, an angered foe would be more likely to make a mistake… and she knew that was the only way she'd have a chance.
Her whole life seems to have been building up to that moment. Now was the time she could finally put all of her Uncle and Godfather's dedicatedly imparted efforts to good use.
"So, the little nymph knows how to last." Voldemort admitted bemusedly, underestimating the strange girl's prowess. "We could be powerful allies."
"Oh right. One minute I'm a filthy Mudblood, the next I'm worthy to be your ally." Estella retorted, wincing as a stabbing hex glanced her arm. "For all you know I could be a filthy Mudblood who just happens to have had a very good teacher."
"If your blood was dirty you would not be so practiced." Voldemort noted.
"Is that a compliment, Tom? Flattered. Truly, I am." Estella mocked. "Though that's the pot calling the cauldron black, Riddle. How's your father?"
"Don't call me that." Voldemort spat. "I am tiring of your games."
"What do you want, then?" Estella asked gasping in more pain as she endured the bludgeoning hex that glanced her right shoulder after the wry old man anticipated her block. "This is really not how I had envisioned spending my afternoon! I'm never going to get my shopping done now!"
"Enough!" Voldemort roared, sending her flying into some dustbins on the other side of the alley with a well-aimed hex. "Join me! Don't make me destroy you!"
Tired and broken, Estella groaned from her place on the stack of garbage and struggled to haul herself up again.
'No way am I going to go down in history as the girl who was found dead on a pile of rubbish!' She convinced herself as her hand fumbled in her pocket for her time turner. The inspiration to go back two hours hitting her full force.
Two hours and she'd be able to warn people of the attack. One and a half turns – that's all it would take, tops.
"'Don't make me destroy you!'" Estella mocked flippantly, trying to buy herself time while she struggled to wind the time turner one handed as her hand fumbled in her pocket. "Merlin Tom, all you need is a respirator and a light sabre and you could be Darth Vader."
Below them, watching from a tiny porthole in the cellar door, James, Remus and Sirius waited with baited breath.
"Come on, use the bloody thing!" James crossed his fingers.
"Don't push your luck!" Sirius groaned.
Given the nature of the unique ward keeping them safe, the most inseparable contingent of the Marauders could hear most everything that was being said in the alley above them. Every curse, every hit, every miss… every step of the battle raging ahead without them would travel down into their safe cocoon in a myriad of sounds and colour.
As afraid as he was for her, however, the boys could not help but be impressed. She was pushing all of the evil git's buttons, and lasting exceptionally well. Merlin knows what they'd tell the girls if anything happened to her, but they could only cross that bridge when the time came.
"She's going for her time turner!" Remus nudged him excitedly. "She's got her hand in her pocket!"
"She's pulling it out of her pocket!" James concurred. "Yep, definitely got it sitting in her hand. We should go."
"No, we should wait." Sirius said, his throat parched in nerves.
"AVADA KEDAVRA!" The Dark Lord screamed, catching on to what the illusive child was trying to do.
The alley was flooded with green light, sending blinding beams of the offending hue filtering through the cracks that the boys were watching from. By the time their eyes had adjusted to the sudden onset of light, however, it was too late to see what had transpired.
The Dark Lord was walking away, and that could only mean one thing.
End Chapter: Unforgettable Yuletide