CW: Negative thoughts

The two little girls were just standing there, as if in a trance. The imperious curse.

"Call an ambulance!" David cried.

"That's the ones who drive and take you to the hospital, right?" I cried out, and David nodded. "Don't call them, then."

"What!?"

"SCOTT!"

"Take it out," Scott muttered, tears pouring down his face. "Please take it out…"

"Don't take it out!" I cried. "You'll die of blood loss I can help you!"

"Call the ambulance!" David cried, and Paul nodded, picking the phone up again.

"Don't call the ambulance!" I cried back. I had to heal him with magic, it would be easier. And if they were to call the ambulance, they wouldn't be too pleased if Scott was healed by the time they got here.

"Please take it out!" Scott wailed, coughing violently.

"It's going to be OK…" I said, trying as hard as I could to keep a cool head. Scott was screaming, a few of his friends were screaming his name, and David was screaming out to call the ambulance.

"Don't let him take the knife out," I said to Terry, then walked out to the doorway, where James was standing over an unconscious Bellatrix. "D'you want me to take over?"

"What are you going to do if she gets up? Punch her with your suddenly dominant left hand?" James asked.

"Given the fact that someone's just been stabbed, I don't think punching with a broken arm would hurt that much," I said.

"Just leave it to me, Remus," said James. "But… take her wand and try to help Scott and undo the curse. You can't get expelled for that, surely…"

I nodded and bent over, grabbing Bellatrix's wand and taking it back out to where everyone else was.

"Remus…" said Paul, "Scott's not responding…"

I took in a deep breath and pointed Bellatrix's wand at him and began to perform a healing spell on him.

It wasn't a cursed wound, so it worked quite well, and I could even take the knife out of Scott once the spell was complete.

"I'm sorry, but what the fuck was that!?" David cried, staring at me, his eyes wide. The others were all staring as well, and I ignored them, pointing the wand at Scott's sisters.

"Finite Incantatum," I muttered, and the two girls were suddenly out of their trance-like state.

"What the hell!?" Scott cried, managing to stand up. "What did you just do!?"

"Remus!" James's strained voice came from the doorway. I ran out to where he was to see Bellatrix pushing him against the wall, hand around his throat.

"Petrificus Totalus!" I cried, pointing the wand at her. The full body binding curse worked and her limbs snapped against her body and she fell to the floor.

James gripped her by the hair and dragged her into the kitchen where seven muggles stared at both of us.

"Give me the wand, Remus," said James.

"Wand?" Terry repeated. "What is going on? Care to explain!?"

"It'll be OK," said James as I handed him the wand. "Everything will go back to normal. Just stay still."

James raised the wand towards all of them.

"Oh, hell no," said Paul, "not you and your magical wand thing…"

"Obliviate!" James cried, but Scott took his sisters' hands and led everyone out the back door and the spell hit the wall. "Shit…"

James and I followed them out to see them all climbing the fence.

"Guys!" I cried out. "Please, this is just to calm you all down!"

"You psychos!" Scott shouted, but he was looking down at us. "What is it? I'm not letting you do anymore psycho stuff on us until you explain to us what it is!"

"OK," I said. "Come back inside and we'll explain everything to you."

They all exchanged a look, then Scott nodded.

"Well, Remus did just save my life…" he said, and the group followed us back into Scott's house and we all went into the living room. The muggles sat on the sofa and James and I stood in front of them.

"What's your plan?" James whispered.

"Tell the truth, then obliviate them," I whispered back. "Also… now we've already done underage magic, can you please fix my arm?"

"Yeah, of course," said James, then he addressed the group. "This is magic. Episkey."

I felt the bone in my arm pop and winced slightly from the pain.

"We're not five, we know magic's not real," said David, crossing his arms.

"How is Scott healed then?" I asked. "How is Bellatrix… like that?"

"Trick of lighting?" David suggested.

"I think it's magic!" said one of the small girls, looking at the wand in awe. "Can I have a go?"

"Uh, no…" said James. "We're really not meant to be doing this right now, we're already going to be in a shit tonne of trouble, but if you could all just let us do one spell on you, that would be greatly appreciated."

"What spell?" Adam asked.

"It's to help you get over the shock of what just happened," said James. "Please just trust us."

They all exchanged looks, then nodded. James pointed the wand at them all.

"Obliviate."

While the spell was taking effect, James grabbed Bellatrix's hair again, and we left Scott's house and got out of the muggle down and back down to Godric's Hollow.

"God, that was intense, but… Bellatrix Lestrange… caught by two fourteen-year-olds?" said James, grinning. "Who would have thought?"

"What are we going to do with her?" I asked.

"Well, your dad works at the ministry, doesn't he?" James asked. "He can take her to work and then she'll go to Azkaban."

"My dad works in the area of magical creatures, but OK," I said.

"Well, he can give her to the Aurors, right?"

"Yeah. And maybe we shouldn't say this with her around… she can still hear us, I'm pretty sure," I said.

"Yeah, OK," said James.

"We need to tell the others about this, though," I said as we approached James's front door.

"Oh, yeah, of course," said James, opening the door.

"James Fleamont Potter!"

"Remus John Lupin!"

"Letter from the ministry!"

"Underage magic!"

"Why the heck is Bellatrix Lestrange here!?"

"Why did you break the law!?"

"Let us explain!" James cried, and explained everything to his parents and my parents. "And Lyall, you could bring Bellatrix to the ministry and get her into Azkaban!"

"OK, OK," said Dad. "But you two will need to come with me to get your names cleared of expulsion. You were in a life-threatening situation which, by the law, gives you the right to perform underage magic. And you did obliviate the muggles, yes?"

"Yes."

"And no one died, so all is OK. Follow me, then, boys, and bring Mrs. Lestrange…"

He led us out, and we dragged Bellatrix along with us once more, and then we all side-on apparated into a bathroom somewhere far from the Potter's house, where we went through a toilet floo powder system and arrived at the ministry.

'This boy is a werewolf! He killed this young girl!'

I gripped onto my dad's arm harder than I intended to, trying not to lose balance as I thought about the last time I'd come through that fireplace.

"Auror! I need an Auror!" my dad cried out, and someone approached him. "I've got a death eater…"

"I… Bellatrix Lestrange? Wow, OK… good job, thank you so much…" the Auror took Bellatrix and dragged her away.

Dad then led us into another room, where an old woman was writing a letter, sitting on a high table, and barely looked at us when she heard us enter.

"Yes, Lupin?"

"I have two children here, both charged with underage magic, however, they and the muggles they were near were in life-threatening situations, and they did obliviate the muggles, so, by law, you must clear this from their record," said Dad.

"Names?" the old woman grunted, still not looking up from her letter.

"James Potter and Remus Lupin."

The woman finally looked up from her letter. "Lupin? So, this is your son?"

"Yes." Dad stiffened, looking uncomfortable.

"The werewolf?"

"Yes."

"The one who killed that girl two years ago?"

"That's not what we're here to discuss, Mrs. Rosemary," said Dad. "If you'd please clear their names."

"Potter's is cleared," said Mrs. Rosemary, with one wave of her wand.

"And my son's?"

"Do you have any evidence to provide me with, Lupin?" Mrs. Rosemary's mouth twisted into a wicked smile. "We both know we can't trust that."

I felt a pang in my stomach and looked at my dad. He was glaring at Mrs. Rosemary.

"And you still owe me two hundred out of the two thousand galleons you promised me for letting him off when he killed that girl." Mrs. Rosemary was now leaning down towards my dad. "Would you like to owe me another two thousand or shall we just put it down?"

"I'm getting the two hundred to you," said Dad. "I'll try and have it by the new year…"

"Try?" Mrs. Rosemary repeated. "Try to have it, or will you have it? Because you always say you'll try to have it and you never have it. You wanted to buy a house? Well, too bad, you're going to have to get two thousand and two hundred galleons to me before the end of 1974, or I will take that threat to society, and I will put it down. Do you understand me, Lupin?"

"Y-yes."

"What was that?"

"Yes. I understand."

"And I'll clear it's name for underage magic, for god's sake, I don't care for that," said Mrs. Rosemary, waving her wand again.

Dad led us out of the room and then back through the fireplace and to the bathroom, then took us out and we apparated back to Godric's hollow then walked back into the Potters' house.

"Hope?" my dad called out, his voice strained. "Hope, please, I need to speak to you!"

My mum came rushing down the stairs to see what was going on.

"We need to talk. Right now. Alone." My dad took my mum's hand, and they walked up the stairs together.

I sat on the sofa. I needed to scream, cry, or punch something, but I sat still. I needed to move, but I couldn't.

"Remus…" James sat next to me. "It's going to be OK. You need to trust me on this, everything's going to be OK. Here, come with me."

My legs felt like jelly, but I followed him up the stairs and to his bedroom, where he walked to his desk and grabbed a small bag that was jiggling with coins.

"James, no," I said.

"It's only forty-two galleons, but I have more at Gringotts. Give this to your dad, OK?"

"No," I said. "I'm not taking that. It's yours."

"Remus, get it through your thick skull," said James, "I'm a really lucky person. I've never had to worry about the sort of things you worry about. Ninety percent of the time I'm happy. I've got family who's got a lot of money. So, I'm going to help you whether you like it or not. And I help Sirius whether he likes it or not. And if Peter had a big problem, I'd help him whether he liked it or not. OK?"

"I… I'll pay you back," I said. "Every knut."

James opened his mouth to protest, then closed it and nodded. "OK. If you take the money now. We're not going to lose you, OK? We're not the Marauders without you."

"OK, OK," I said. I took the money and brought it upstairs to the guest room my parents practically lived in, and just before I knocked on the door, I heard my mum crying from in the room.

"We don't… have… a choice, Lyall."

"But there must be another option, where can we suddenly get two thousand galleons from?"

"Lyall."

"OK… OK, fine…"

I knocked on the door. "Mum? Dad? It's me."

"Come in, honey," came my mum's voice. I opened the door. My mum's face was red, and my dad appeared to have just stopped pacing the room.

"James gave some money," I said.

My dad took the money, basically crying with joy. "We'll pay him back. Give him our thanks."

"OK." I turned to leave the room.

"And Remus?" I turned back around at my dad's call.

"Please don't give up. We're going to get this money, and even if we can't, we're going to keep you safe."

"OK."

I walked out of the room and leant my head against the wall. I obviously didn't want them to put me down, but there was this small voice in my head that was saying otherwise.

You do deserve it, that small voice would say, you are a threat and a monster. You have killed and could easily kill again.

It's not like anyone would care, it would say.

I didn't think anyone would care if I died. And to be honest, I didn't care either.