Note: Here we have the Grand Finale! There will be just one chapter after this one, and it will probably be rather short, just to wrap things up!

Thanks to my lovely reviewers, you are all very kind!

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, nor am I making any profit from this piece of writing.

22: The Swap

As she watched the three Lupins cluster around their kitchen table in the pitch black dark, Cleo Clancy wished somebody had thought to turn the lights on. It all looked far too ominous.

"Right!" Mrs. Lupin declared, hands slapping loudly against the tabletop as she leant forwards, making the muggle girl stood in the doorway jump. "I have a Brilliant Plan!"

"Do I get to help?" Teddy immediately butted in, and Mr. Lupin instantly said:

"No. Absolutely not."

"Yes, Ted." Mrs. Lupin corrected, to her husband's clear horror, "You certainly do get to help! We can't possibly manage without you!"

"I think we could if we tried..."

"Shut up, Remus."

"The most helpful thing that Ted can do is to go back to bed."

"No, the most helpful thing that Ted can do is to make Cleo a nice cup of hot chocolate. Okay, Teddy?"

"That's not helping!"

"Of course it is, have you got any idea how cold it is outside? She rode here in her PAJAMAS!"

"It's not PROPER helping! It's just a silly cup of hot chocolate..."

"Then you can sit with her until we get home. So go on, there's plenty of milk in the fridge..."

"M-um!"

"I think there might even be some marshmallows in the cupboard..."

"But...!"

"Stop bickering and get on with it!" Mr. Lupin interrupted, and at that moment Cleo couldn't help but wonder if Carrie's insistence that these people were her only possible saviours was wildly misguided.

Once Teddy had shuffled over to the fridge, however, the two adults bent lower over the table and began to murmur to one another in hushed, serious tones and Cleo felt her confidence renewed a little. She tried to catch snippets of what they were saying, but their voices were much too soft, instead she concentrated on squinting through the darkness at their expression, stomach twisting every time Mr. Lupin frowned. At last he sat back in his chair, reaching to run a hand through his hair.

"I'm not sure..." Cleo heard him sigh, "What if it goes wrong?"

Mrs. Lupin gave a small shrug.

"What's wrong with me getting a little extra sick leave?" she asked, rising to her feet and attempting to straighten her hastily adorned jumper.

"What's wrong with you falling and breaking your neck, you mean? Well...a number of things, I imagine...and anyway we need a back up plan. In case it goes wrong."

"We've already got one." Mrs. Lupin announced, waving a dismissive hand at him.

"We do?"

"Yeah."

As Mr. Lupin followed his wife's lead and got to his feet, he asked:

"Care to let me know what it is, then?"

As she strode past him towards their son, Mrs. Lupin reached to tap her husband upon the head.

"If it goes wrong, you have to do some very quick thinking!" she said, and Mr. Lupin stared somewhat blankly after her as she went to give Teddy a brief hug.

"That's our back up plan? Think quickly...?"

"Yep! I'm sure you'll come up with something! Now be good, Ted, Dad and I will be back within the hour." As the woman pressed a kiss to the boy's head, Cleo could have sworn she heard her mutter: "Keep an eye on her."

Cleo watched the two adults file out of the doorway and stride down the hallway, snatching up a coat each from the hooks by the door as Mrs. Lupin brightly suggested:

"Well if you can't think of anything you can always drop your pants or something. That's sure to buy you at least thirty seconds..."

And with that, the door closed behind them, and Cleo found herself alone with Teddy with nothing else to do but wait.

For some reason she couldn't quite put her finger on, Cleo couldn't help but feel rather sure that Carrie was doomed.

She should have just phoned the police...

Two minutes later, two figures appeared out of nowhere outside of the Goyle residence, one bolted for the side of the house, and the other calmly approached the front door and reached for the shiny brass knocker.

And it was mere moments later when the front door in question was blasted off of its hinges in a dramatic burst of smoke.

The first thing that Carrie felt when she heard Mr. Lupin's bizarrely polite greeting through the smoky doorway was relief flooding over her, assurance that the nightmare was nearly over...

The second thing she felt was the tip of Mr. Goyle's wand poking her sharply in the throat. Suddenly the nightmare didn't seem nearly over in the slightest...

And yet Mr. Lupin strode into the Goyles' house with an air of complete and utter calm. Carrie watched, surprised despite herself as he observed the wrecked door under his feet with pursed lips before looking up at the trio huddled before the kitchen door and observing:

"Goodness, I've made quite a mess here, haven't I?" he took another few steps forward, seemingly oblivious to Mr. and Mrs. Goyle's astonished stares. "Still, what with our window the other day, I suppose we're rather equal now, aren't we Mr. Goyle?" Apparently he did not expect Mr. Goyle to reply, for instead he stepped off of the splintered wood, down onto the carpet and explained pleasantly: "I've just come to take Carrie home. It really is far past her bedtime."

Carrie bit her lip in an attempt to stifle a gasp as she felt Mr. Goyle pull her back a step towards the kitchen door.

"Get out of my house!" the man growled furiously as his wife simply stared at the werewolf with wide, panicked eyes.

Mr. Lupin smiled.

"Certainly," he said, wand tapping absentmindedly against his leg as he gestured to Carrie with his free hand. "Just hand Carrie over and I'll be perfectly happy to leave."

"You can't have her!" Mrs. Goyle announced, voice shrill as she glanced nervously between her husband and the unwelcome guest. Mr. Goyle shot her a furious look and she shuffled back until she was stood behind him.

"I see..." Mr. Lupin frowned deeply, and Carrie felt instantly worried when he stopped tapping his wand and gripped hold of it instead. "In which case I can see that we might have a problem..."

A furious snarling noise escaped Mr. Goyle's throat, just as there came the sound of a door being opened upstairs, causing Mrs. Goyle to reach and grab hold of her husband's arm.

"Be careful," Carrie heard her whisper into his ear. "The children..."

But at that precise moment, Carrie felt the wand being drawn back from her throat and in one swift movement, Mr. Goyle thrust his arm forward, there was a loud bang and a bright flash of light shot forwards, straight at Mr. Lupin's face. Before Carrie could let out a gasp, Mr. Lupin had raised his own wand and the light bounced backwards down the hallway. Carrie attempted to flinch away from the light, only to feel Mr. Goyle give her a firm shove forwards, straight into the speeding light's pathway...

And upon impact, the child's entire body seemed to go numb, weak, her legs were collapsing underneath her and she was falling to the floor with a gasp of horror, screwing her eyes shut at the sudden explosion of spells that lit up the hallway like a Christmas tree. Carrie buried her face in the carpet, heart thudding furiously in sheer panic at the commotion, fearful at the realization that when she attempted to reach and shield her head with her arms the limbs in question seemed completely incapable of moving.

What's happening to me? Her breathing hitched in panic and she strained to lift her head just a fraction experimentally...her neck felt weak, as if her head had suddenly doubled in weight.

Somewhere above her, Mr. Goyle swore furiously and Carrie dared to open her eyes a fraction when she felt something brush against her hand. The battle appeared to have come to an abrupt halt, and Carrie strained to look round, just in time to see Mr. Goyle making a dive towards her, hand outstretched...

Reaching for the magic wand that lay at Carrie's fingertips.

Gritting her teeth and silently begging her limbs to cooperate, Carrie reached to grab hold of the wand, clenching hold of it with all her might.

"No!" she cried desperately as the man attempted to wrench the thin wooden object from her hand, her fingers throbbing in protest as he attempted to prise them open. "No...you can't have it...you can't...!"

BANG!

As Carrie's grip upon the wand finally slackened, she let out a small shriek as Mr. Goyle was thrown abruptly backwards, the wand flying off into a corner as the man slammed into the closed kitchen door with a crash.

As her husband crumpled to the floor with a moan of pain, Mrs. Goyle was finally snapped out of her petrified state, and Carrie watched her plant herself firmly between Mr. Goyle and Mr. Lupin, and with a horrible, ear piercing screech a bolt of light shot down the hallway. Carrie barely had time to turn back to Mr. Lupin when the spell struck him in the shoulder.

Teddy's father stumbled, and Carrie was about to let out a shout of alarm when his arm seemingly gave a violent spasm, causing him to drop his wand to the floor, when a loud voice suddenly announced:

"That's quite enough violence for one night, thanks!"

Carrie struggled to turn and look for the source of the noise, when she heard slow, thudding footsteps coming down the staircase.

As Mr. Goyle reached to grasp hold of the kitchen door frame, dragging himself back onto his feet, Mrs. Goyle froze, wand still raised.

And down the staircase marched Mrs. Lupin, a positively petrified looking Amanda Goyle just in front of her.

"I'm going to make this very simple for you." the Auror announced as she and Amanda reached the bottom of the stairs. "You give us our kid, and we'll give you yours."

Carrie squinted over at them, and it was then that she noticed that Mrs. Lupin had hold of Amanda firmly by the arm with one hand, and her wand pressed to the girl's throat with the other. For some bizarre reason, Carrie felt the urge to smile. The tables appeared to be turning...

Mrs. Goyle's sudden burst of ferocity was over as quickly as it had begun, her wand arm trembled in horror as she stared at her helpless daughter with wide, astonished eyes.

"You...you wouldn't..." she cried, voice almost a whine. "You can't...the...the Ministry would...would sack you!"

Mrs. Lupin's shrug in response sent a shiver down Carrie's spine. It was difficult to imagine the bright, bubbly witch acting so coldly.

"Yeah, that's probably true." she said as Mr. Lupin came to stand beside her, wand, Carrie noticed, now held in his left hand, right arm limp at his side. "But what about the nasty big werewolf? Wouldn't put it past his type, would you? Nasty, vicious creatures..."

If she had not been preoccupied with her lack of functioning limbs, Carrie would have sniggered at the sarcasm, only to feel an odd mixture of amusement and disgust when Mrs. Goyle let out a loud, hysterical sob and Amanda dissolved into tears.

"Get the door, will you love?" Mrs. Lupin asked her husband cheerily, and he went to pull the front door open. "Right, this is what we're going to do. You're going to help Carrie up, and I'm going to bring Amanda over there and we are going to swap kids. Your husband is going to stand there and point his wand threateningly at me, and my husband is going to stand by the door and point his wand threateningly at you, if anybody tries anything funny they're going to get cursed. We're going to leave the house and you're going to stay exactly where you are and nobody has to get hurt. Got it?"

Mrs. Goyle gave a stiff nod.

The atmosphere was thick with tension as the two witches slowly approached one another, and Carrie felt Mrs. Goyle's hands grasping her around the middle as she heaved Carrie up onto her feet. The muggle attempted to stand, but the muscles in her legs seemed incapable of holding her weight. She found herself being dragged awkwardly up the hallway.

When they finally reached one another, the two witches stood, staring unblinking at one another for a long moment, before with a small nod to one another, Mrs. Goyle pushed Carrie forwards and Mrs. Lupin finally released Amanda, who immediately leapt forwards to throw her arms around her mother.

Carrie fell into her saviour's arms, burying her face in the front of Mrs. Lupin's coat, relieved at the familiar flowery scent that engulfed her nostrils. She felt herself being dragged towards the front door as Mrs. Lupin back away again.

Carrie felt relief begin to wash over her as they passed Mr. Lupin and stepped out into the frosty night air.

And all of a sudden everything seemed to happen at once.

"CRUCIO!" Mr. Goyle's voice bellowed, and Carrie hurriedly turned with a gasp to see a spell shooting towards them...

Only to be deflected with a swipe of Mr. Lupin's wand, and it rebounded back down the hallway, narrowly missing the cowering figures of Mrs. Goyle and Amanda in the corner.

As Mr. Lupin bolted out of the door after them, Carrie's head whipped back round at the sound of an vaguely familiar voice outside calling:

"Tonks...?"

"GO GO GO!" Mrs. Lupin shouted, and Carrie felt disorientated as a group of scarlet figures dashed past them. She had barely heard a series of shouts of:

"AUROR DEPARTMENT! DROP THE WAND!" before she felt the sickeningly familiar sensation of apparation.

And with that the nightmare was suddenly over.