Note: Well, this was a rather dull chapter since it involved a lot of dialogue, so I decided to add some humour into it and poke fun at this series in general! I hope you all like it! Sorry for the length again, I wanted to post before my work placement tomorrow.

Thanks to everybody who took the time to review! It was lovely to hear from you!

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.

15: The Maiden's String

"The Imperius Curse?"

"That was a joke, Remus."

"I know, but the symptoms are in many ways similar."

"It's not the Imperius Curse. I know the Imperius Curse, it's not that, she's too...too aware. She knows there's something wrong with her. The Imperius Curse is much too strong for that...it must be something...something less powerful or..."

"Something more primitive."

"Exactly. An older spell, maybe...something used before the Imperius Curse became so well known."

"Then we're talking Medieval...or..."

"Older than that!"

"Positively ancient magic, then."

"Exactly..." Dora Lupin paused in her pacing to sigh heavily, stretching her arms out before her with a frown before she asked her husband: "How's your knowledge of positively ancient dark magic these days, Sweetheart?"

From his position sprawled upon the sofa, fingers tapping upon the arm of the chair in consideration, Remus admitted:

"A little rusty if truth be told."

"Same here." the Auror admitted, sounding rather irritated with herself at such an admittance. "I've not considered such old magic since the War! Dark wizards these days, they're all so modern and predictable...it's pathetic! Cruciatus Curse here, the odd Killing Curse there..."

"How unimaginative."

"Precisely! You'd have thought Voldemort had taught them a thing or two, but no! They're all crap at being original or unusual! And d'you know what crap Dark Wizards give us?"

"More annual leave for you?" Remus guessed, gaze drifting up towards the ceiling and, despite the situation at hand, a smile began to tug at his lips.

"Apart from that!"

"Permission to sleep soundly in bed at night?"

"Crap, unimaginative Dark Wizards give us crap, unimaginative Aurors!" Dora exclaimed, eyes widening quite madly at the notion, and Remus was forced to admit:

"You're sounding frighteningly like Alastor."

"D'you know what they should do, these pathetic, modern evil geniuses?" the Auror went on, resuming her pacing. "They should try reading a book every now and again! Come up with something impressive!"

"I think we're drifting off topic."

For a long moment the couple were silent in thought, before Dora recalled:

"It's not spell based. It's chemical. It's that drink Kit gave us that made me sick."

"It's like no love potion I've ever heard of before." Remus murmured, toying thoughtfully with the hem of his jumper. "It's...slow. Most love potions take instant effect."

"Most love potions work on whoever happens to drink them."

"But it didn't work on you."

"No...no, it didn't..."

"In which case it's either made specifically for Carrie, or there's something about you that stopped it taking effect. Which begs the question: What makes you so very different from her?"

"I'm a witch?" Dora suggested, at long last tiring of pacing and dropping back down to sit upon the sofa.

"So was Sable." Remus pointed out, and the Auror puffed her cheeks in consideration before trying:

"I can morph?"

"Perhaps..."

"I'm older?"

"Maybe..."

"I'm not bloody suicidal?"

"Indeed."

Dora sighed heavily, reaching to run a weary hand across her eyes.

"We should've been keeping an eye on her." she murmured guiltily. "We should've...we should've listened to Edwin more!"

"We should have left her at home." Remus said, taking his own turn at sighing. "But we didn't. We brought her with us, we've done our level best to keep ourselves to ourselves and we liked to think we knew better than Edwin did."

"And now look," Dora said, gesturing over to the bedroom door with a wave of her hand. "Carrie's paying for it."

"We'll think of something." Remus insisted, reaching to take hold of her hands in his. "We will, we just need to keep thinking...there must be other clues..."

"It started off with dreams. She had dreams about Kit...inappropriate ones, she thought."

"Then it definitely is a gradual process. And we still have time, I don't think anything drastic shall happen today. If we'd nearly lost her she wouldn't have chased after Ted like she did earlier. If she were entirely under somebody's control she wouldn't have cared about Teddy's feeling at all. I still think it's an old magic, potion based or not. Everything here is old, this is an ancient place, the people have traditions that go back generations..."

"Like protecting their daughters from the wicked soul in the woods by sending them to Hogwarts?"

"Exactly..." Remus trailed off into silence, staring intently at the witch sat beside him, thinking furiously until suddenly, something clicked. His grip upon his wife's hands instantly tightened.

"Spit it out." Dora whispered, leaning eagerly towards him, and the werewolf drew in a deep breath to whisper back:

"I know what makes you so very different from Carrie. I know why you were protected from Kit's magic when she was not."

"Oh?"

"You're no virgin maid, darling. And the Carter family have always had a poor reputation when it comes to those."

Dora's eyes widened in realisation and she pulled one hand free of his grasp so that she could press a hand to her mouth.

"Of course!" she exclaimed, "That makes perfect sense! Alaric Carter wanted to kill his wife's five sisters to control the valley, but he only killed the youngest, the eve before her wedding!"

"Matthias Carter ensnared Tabitha Layne and kept her locked up in Carter cottage because he was in love with her, she threw herself at a rampaging dragon to escape him. She would have been a virgin too if she had yet to marry."

"The spell must have failed..."

"Or simply not have been complete."

"And Sable. Sable was Kit's girlfriend, she was a teenager, she'd have been thought pure too." Dora's hand fell back to her lap as she frowned deeply and wondered: "Why on earth would you kill the girl you loved, though? Alaric Carter meant to all along, he didn't love his wife's sister, and Matthias Carter's girl effectively committed suicide...but Sable...why would Kit kill Sable if he were in love with her?"

"Perhaps he didn't. Perhaps she committed suicide too."

Dora gave a shudder.

"Poor girl..." she murmured, only for Remus to get to his feet and pull her up after him.

"Well that's not going to be Carrie." the wizard insisted resolutely. "Come on, we have some research to do."

Snatching up a cloak each, they met Neve and a still-drunk Samuel at the door, and left the house with murmured assurances that they would return by the end of the day. Then they slipped through the crowds and along the road until the reached the edge of the village.

"We've either the Ministry's library in London or a trip further north." Remus decided as they strode purposefully up the hill away from the valley, and as she reached to slip her hand through the crook of his arm, Dora admitted:

"I'm not sure alerting the Ministry right now is such a good idea. You know what they're like, they'll go barging in there with all sorts of threats, wands blazing. No, we ought keep this calm and quiet, for Carrie's sake at least."

"Well," Remus said, one hand fumbling in the pocket of his robes to extract his wand. "Hogwarts it is, then." And with that, he gave his wand a purposefully swipe through the air, emitting a burst of silvery light, and a silvery figure streaked off through the trees, out of sight within the blink of an eye.

And up and down the country the everyday activities of the former members of the Order of the Phoenix were interrupted by the appearance of a familiar looking shining figure. They paused in their baking in their kitchens, their carefully writing of reports at work, their listening to the wireless, their tidying up of their offsprings' bedrooms, to regard the apparition as it informed them all:

This is a call to arms. To all those members of the Order who can, please assemble at the gates of Hogwarts as soon as possible. Our enemy is ignorance, our battlefield is the school library and our struggle is one of an academic nature. Dora and I have found ourselves faced with a conundrum that desperately needs an answer. Please help us, all of you who can.

Then, as an apparent afterthought, the voice added:

It's Carrie, by the way. She's done it again.

And with that, the patronus disappeared.

Molly Weasley set down the wooden spoon in the mixing bowl upon the table before her, dusting the flour from her hands upon her apron as she called:

"Arthur, dear? Did you hear that? It's Remus! He says Carrie's done it again!"

And in the next room, Arthur Weasley turned off the wireless with a sharp tap with his wand.

"Well Molly," he called back as he heaved himself up and out of his chair. "It was bound to happen again sooner rather than later!"

And as the patronus disappeared from his office in a flash of silvery light, Head of Aurors Harry Potter dropped his quill down upon his desk with a distinctly resigned sigh. To his left the large fireplace burst into life, and amid the crackling green flames his wife's head appeared, promptly asking:

"Harry! Did you see it? Remus' patronus, I mean..."

"Of course I did, Gin." Harry muttered despairingly. "I've been practically waiting for it ever since Tonks told me they were taking Carrie with them!"

"What in Merlin's name was Tonks thinking?" Ginny Potter wondered, bordering on amused, and her husband shook his head in incomprehension as he admitted:

"I have no idea..."

Whilst the Potters discussed their friends' apparent bout of insanity, Hermione Weasley was busily ordering her two children to get their shoes on. Once satisfied that young Hugo's laces were entirely knot-free, the witch swept impatiently into the living room of her house in order to demand:

"Wake UP, Ronald!" She hastily snatched up the nearest cushion from a chair and flung it in the direction of her husband, who was lounging around upon the sofa, dosing. It hit him square in the face, waking him with a start.

"Bloody hell, Hermione!" Ron complained, reaching to bury his face in his hands with a groan. "I was asleep!"

"This isn't the time to be sleeping, Ron." Hermione informed him briskly. "There's an emergency!"

Ron groaned again, nevertheless heaving himself up into a sitting position.

"Why, what's happened?" he asked, grinning as he joked: "Has Carrie done it again?"

There was a sizeable pause as Hermione pursed her lips firmly together, keen not to laugh, and at the sight of her Ron promptly collapsed back down upon the sofa with a muttered:

"Oh bloody hell! She has, hasn't she?"

Meanwhile, in a small room labeled "Enter at Own Risk", located off the side of the Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes stockroom, George Weasley watched the patronus disappear and turned to cheerily inform his eldest brother sat beside him:

"Well then, Bill, you know what this means, don't you?"

"It means I get to skip being your test subject for the afternoon?" Bill suggested, sounding rather relieved, only for his face to fall when George held out a hand to him and corrected:

"No, it means you've lost and owe me five galleons. You said she wouldn't get herself into trouble for at least another six months!"

Whilst Bill was busy counting out the coins from his wallet, at the Ministry of Magic Minister's Secretary Mandy Brocklehurst looked up from filing her nails in time to see the door to her right open. As Minister for Magic Kingsley Shacklebolt strode out into the hallway, she offered him a bright smile and announced:

"I've postponed your meeting with MLE so that you can have dinner with Mr. and Mrs. Gudgen as planned."

"Excellent." the Minister murmured as he strode briskly past her desk. "Now you couldn't do just one more thing for me, could you?"

"What's that, Minister?" the witch inquired, and as he disappeared on up the corridor, he told her:

"Cancel dinner with Mr. and Mrs. Gudgen."

"Minister...?"

"It's Miss Winters, Mandy. She's done it again."

And so it was that by the time Hogwarts Headmistress Minerva McGonnogal had fetched herself a cloak to hug around her shoulders and had made her way down several flights of stairs, along a number of corridors, out into the school grounds and down to the school gates, a small crowd of Order members were there waiting for her. Few words were exchanged until she had opened the gates and led the way back up towards the school. As they strode up the vast gravel drive, Molly Weasley finally inquired:

"Nice holiday, Tonks dear?"

"Lovely, Molly." Dora told her cheerily, only to frown a little when a muttered: "While it lasted."

Despite the apparent crisis, talk amongst the gathered witches and wizards was surprisingly mundane. George began to tell Ron and their father all about his latest plans for his shop, Ginny spent a good few minutes admiring Dora's new cloak and Kingsley expressed to those around him that the weather in the Scottish Highlands was, today, rather gloriously sunny.

They filed through the castle doors into the Entrance Hall and continued to chatter as they mounted the marble staircase. Eventually they arrived in the library, in which they located a suitably large gap in the bookcases filled with desks and chairs, a blackboard set against the wall beside a window. Without instruction, everybody took a seat, and as Remus walked to stand before them all silence at last fell.

"Can't help but feel like we've been here before." Ron admitted with a grin as Remus drew his wand and a stump of chalk lifted itself from its ledge in order to scrawl words upon the blackboard.

"I'd shut up if I were you," Dora whispered non-too quietly, "else he might put you in detention..."

"Alright then, class." Remus consented to calling, offering them a raised eyebrow that caused a few of his former students to snigger. "Carrie's in a spot of bother..."

"Again!" Dora added, and at her interruption her husband instructed:

"No calling out! Ten points from Hufflepuff. Now, here's what we know so far..."

Within half an hour they began to plunder the vast bookshelves for clues, trailing along the dim aisles of tomes searchingly until one caught their eye, before adding it to the increasingly vast mountain of books back upon the desks. They soon strayed into the darkest corners of the Restricted Section, passing shelf upon shelf of grizzly titled texts and selecting a few every once in a while. Back at their desks they set about examining their hoard, skimming through pages and running figures down contents pages, feet tapping impatiently and lips pursed in concentration.

"It's like Flamel all over again." Ron muttered wearily as he dumped another stack of books down upon one desk, and as Remus closed the book he was looking at, Hermione abandoned her own book in order to pass him yet another one.

"Anything?" the witch asked as the werewolf accepted the book, and with a sigh he was forced to admit:

"No, not yet. You?"

"No."

"What about you, Dora?"

From where she sat upon the floor, surrounded by such a mess of discarded volumes that the sight would make Madam Pince faint in horror, Dora turned a page with a vague grunt.

"You'll know if she finds something." Kingsley teased as he passed, several more books tucked under one arm. "She'll positively squeal with glee!" He was forced to hop sideways when in retaliation he metamorphmagus promptly stuck out a foot to trip him.

"We'll find something." Harry insisted from his seat beside the window, and as she tossed one book inside and snatched up another, Dora muttered:

"I hope so for all your sakes. Because nobody's leaving until we do."

The hours wore on until the sky outside grew burnt orange and pink, and they searched and searched until their eyes grew tired and the books felt heavy in their hands. As the sun set they were forced to light lamps and squint at the texts in the dark, and a couple of members had just began to dose off, their heads upon their desks when Hermione rose abruptly from her chair, book clutched in her hands as she drew in a gasped breath to exclaim:

"I've found it!"

The others instantly abandoned their own books in order to gather around the desk, and Hermione placed the book carefully down so that they could all eye it keenly.

"Wow..." George muttered as he gazed down at a rather elaborate illustration that had been printed upon the left hand page, and Professor McGonnogal wrinkled her nose distastefully and murmured:

"Indeed!"

As she eyed the image of the trio of naked maidens draping themselves provocatively around a man dressed in early Medieval-style wizard robes, Dora felt rather compelling to look elsewhere.

"What in Merlin's name is a book like that doing in a school?" she wondered, and Hermione told her:

"It's from the Restricted Section."

"Oh well then!" Ron sniggered. "That's just fine..."

His wife shot him a withering look before reaching to turn a page, upon which appeared to be a primitive sketch of a stick-like figure surrounded by numerous annotations.

"First recorded in Gilmore's Chronicles of Celtic Enchantments, copies of which first circulated Wizarding Britain in the early Medieval period, this enchantment is known as the Maiden's String. Thus named because it allows one to control those who are pure...as a puppet is controlled by its strings." Turning back a page again, Hermione tapped a finger upon one paragraph as she explained: "Like many ancient dark magic, it relies upon gaining control of a person by owning a piece of them, such as a hair..."

"Nice..."

"The magical process requires first a potion to be brewed. It sounds awfully complex, but the key ingredient is a thick handful of reeds. They are soaked in the potion overnight before being removed. The reeds are then fashioned into a mannequin, here..." Turning back to the diagram, she pointed again and Dora reached to rake a hand through her hair with a despairing groan. "This is a representation of the victim, who then drinks the potion, and the hair or other piece of them is then attached to the mannequin, creating a connection between the two..."

"Oh Merlin..." Remus mumbled, squeezing his eyes shut at the notion as Dora asked:

"How do you break it?"

And Hermione stared down at the book despairingly as she admitted:

"I have absolutely no idea."