Note: And here we are at the final curtain! :-)
I hope you have all enjoyed reading this story, thank you very much to everybody who has taken the time to review! It is always wonderful to hear from you. I know I say that all the time, but it really is true, you all make me smile and feel very loved! :-)
To anybody who is interested, I will be posting the first chapter of the next story in this series straight after this! So...I hope you all enjoy that too, should you decide to read it!
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.
18: Woodland Duel
It was a funny thing, running.
Because it was one of the few movements that Dora Lupin could achieve without managing to be dreadfully clumsy about it. In an odd way she rather preferred it to flying. Magic was such a lazy affair, what with summoning spells and apparation, sometimes it felt good to get some air in her lungs and make her heart race, the steady thump of her boots upon the ground was somewhat satisfying...
They ran every Monday at the Ministry without fail, back and forward across a gloomy little gymnasium just up the corridor from Auror Headquarters, reaching one wall before the sparks burst from the designated instructor's wand. Then they would dash back in the opposite direction, knowing that the sparks would come steadily sooner and there would be shame on anybody who didn't reach the next wall fast enough. Steadily, once they had successfully run the required distance to pass this weekly test, people would slowly begin to drop out, leaving those who remained to resort to sprinting...
Dora rarely made it to the end, these days. Or even close. Indeed, her required distance was being reduced for a third time soon enough on account of her age. It felt quite shameful, getting older. If she didn't watch out she'd always been the one hiding in the bushes, waiting for the younger Aurors to do all the hard work flushing out the enemy...
Merlin help her when she got old enough to retire. She'd refuse, of course, she and Remus didn't have the savings for her to retire on time. They'd stick her behind a desk and leave her there. It was going to be awful.
But for now, she was still running. Sprinting. And the prospect of what she was sprinting towards was by far more urgent than a simple blast of sparks...
She could see smoke ahead, drifting steadily up into the sky, and though the sight of it made her want to run even faster she forced herself to begin to slow down, grip upon her wand tightening.
A tree had caught fire, she saw as she finally came to a halt, the bark smouldering and as a branch snapped off and fell to the ground the Auror's gaze darted around searchingly for signs of a duel...
It didn't take her long to spot it, a fast and furious flash of spells just beyond the burning tree. The Auror instantly made a beeline for the chaos...
Through the smoke and smouldering wood she spied Teddy, staggering back against the weight of spells being flung at him, one arm limp at his side, his shirt torn and bloody at his shoulder. And there was Alucard Carter, stooped and staggering himself but apparently fiercely determined to finish the younger wizard off.
Dora immediately took aim, squinting rather uncertainly through the smoke, before sending a jinx shooting forward. It missed the old man by mere inches, but took him entirely by surprise, causing him to stumble backwards, gaze darting around in search of his second opponent, and he had barely spotted her before Teddy had sent another hex tearing through the air towards him. With a sharp flick of the wrist, Alucard sent the spell ricocheting sideways, and Dora found herself blinking a moment too late as it struck her in the arm. Cursing under her breath as she felt her wand slip from her fingers. The witch dropped flat to the ground, hastily groping around for the fallen object, only for a second stray curse from Alucard to get deflected back and forth between Teddy and he, until Teddy's final shield was cast clumsily, causing the curse to bounce sideways, striking the burning tree with such force that it snapped a hefty branch clean off the trunk, flinging it through the air...
Dora felt a dull sense of resignation as she flung her arms up to shield her head, and she felt the sudden weight of the wayward branch upon her back, she tried with all her might to ignore the cracking of bone, the piercing pain in her spine, thinking desperately:
Aresto momentum!
The branch came to an abrupt halt, just short of no doubt crushing her spine into smithereens, and Dora dared fling an arm out, at last managing to snatch up her wand, and with that she hurled the branch in Alucard's direction, before promptly flopping back down upon the leafy ground, grimacing in pain.
The branch struck Alucard in the ankles, and as he staggered, struggling to keep his balance Teddy took definite aim and declared:
"Stupefy!"
The curse hit the old man square in the chest, throwing him to the ground, instantly out cold and there was a long pause as both Teddy and Dora simply froze, both sucking in deep, calming breaths before the young wizard dashed over to his mother's side, dropping to the ground beside him.
"Mum!"
"Good job, Teddy love." Dora breathed, struggling to peer up at her son, grinning despite her injury.
"Are you alright?" Teddy asked breathlessly. "I thought he had you, I really did..."
"Cracked some ribs, I bet that's all. And never mind me, what about you? I spent bloody ages getting the grass stains out of that shirt! Now look at it!"
Teddy glanced down at the bloody mess at his shoulder, as if he had quite forgotten it was there.
"He's not as old and feeble as he looks, Alucard Carter." he muttered, and his mother let out a snort of disdain.
"Yeah? Well you're not as young and clueless as you look, love. You don't mess with my boy, I can tell you that. I taught him far too well!" She managed a weak chuckle before informing him: "Dad's got Kit and Carrie. We should head for the village."
"What about him?" Teddy wondered, gesturing over at the limp form of Alucard lying motionless and still. Dora frowned deeply before asking:
"How'd you fancy shooting up some more red sparks? They're dead pretty..."
Left with Neve back at the cottage, having watched Remus drag a whimpering Kit back through the woods and deposit him in one of the bedrooms, the windows and door locked securely behind him before the werewolf disappeared back off into the woods, Carrie was left feeling somewhat guilty.
"Don't talk to him." Remus has instructed firmly as he had left, and the muggle had spent a long while sat obediently on the sofa, staring over at the bedroom door.
She felt wretched.
She felt tempted to ignore Remus' instructions entirely, creep over to the door and knock upon it, call to Kit through the wood...
Not that she had a clue what she ought say to him. But she felt she probably ought say something. After all, Kit had protected her, in an odd sense of the word, and she felt as though she had blackmailed him into doing so, as if she had promised they might be together...
Which they certainly were not. The notion was laughable, but it probably wasn't to Kit.
She wanted to apologise, to try and explain. Perhaps she'd tell him they could still be friends of some sort, if that would make him feel better, if he didn't want her gone entirely. Perhaps they could write letters...
There wouldn't be any harm in that, would there? Writing letters? She could ask Dora to pass them on at the Ministry whilst he was held there, have her find out an address for wherever he ended up afterwards, be it back here or in Azkaban...
She wouldn't tell Teddy. He wouldn't understand. He wouldn't like it...
But would Dora understand either? Would she think it would do more harm than good?
It made Carrie recall an odd conversation she had overheard at the dinner table one day. Dora had flung her fork down upon her plate and slumped back in her chair with a snigger, having stared at Remus across the table for some long minutes.
"Friends!" she'd sniggered, causing everybody else at the table to look up at her as if she were very strange indeed. "Can you imagine it now, Remus? If we were just friends?"
Remus had chewed thoughtfully upon his dinner for a moment before admitting:
"Maybe. That was the plan, after all."
"Well it was never my plan!" his wife had retorted, sounding bordering on offended, and he'd raised an eyebrow and pointed out:
"Yes it was. You don't believe in that love at first sight rubbish."
And the witch had rolled her eyes, sighing impatiently.
"But what if...what if we'd gone to Dumbledore's funeral as just friends? What then? Can you imagine it?"
"We probably wouldn't be friends now, I don't think."
"I don't think we would, either. We probably wouldn't have been friends back then, even. It would have had to have been all or nothing."
"Exactly."
"Ask me to marry you or sod off and let me curl up and die..."
No, Dora probably wouldn't approve. Or think it even remotely sensible.
But Carrie would ask, she decided. Just in case.
Carrie watched some long while later the reappearance of her three guardian angels and their prisoner.
She spotted Alucard first, and the sight of him made the muggle shiver. He was drifting along through the air, body limp as if invisible strings were holding him up by the shoulders, his feet dragging along the ground. Carrie was just thinking how disturbing the sight was when the unconscious old man veered wildly sideways into a tree, only for a voice to snap:
"Ted! Stop it!"
And there was Teddy, a large bloody gash upon his shoulder as he strode along, wand pointing at the captive, his expression distinctly cheery despite his injury.
Finally, some way behind him, came Remus and Edwin, Dora propped carefully up between them, their progression slow and cautious, yet they appeared to be smiling.
Carrie ran to them, dodging Alucard's creepy figure in order to fling her arms around Teddy, and as he threw his arms around her in return Alucard again veered off sideways until his feet upset a stray water bucket set beside a nearby cottage, causing Dora to snap:
"Teddy!"
"Are you alright?" Carrie cried as both she and Teddy ignored the shout of protest. "I've been so worried!"
"Everybody's fine, Sweetheart." Teddy assured her with a grin. "They've sent word to the Ministry, somebody'll be here any minute now to take Alucard and Kit into custody for questioning. It's all over...except, well..."
"Well?" Carrie asked, stomach giving a jolt when the grin faded a little from his face.
"It's Mum and Dad." Teddy admitted quietly, and Carrie instantly looked over at the adults worriedly. "They um...well, they know something..."
She had been certain that it would be dreadfully awkward.
Which was precisely why she had been avoiding them for the past four days.
Of course it ought have been awkward whilst they packed their suitcases, said goodbye to Edwin and his family and set off for home. But it hadn't. It had been entirely normal. Downright cheery, as a matter of fact.
Once home and in the privacy of her cramped little bedroom at Aunt Susan's flat, Carrie concluded that Remus and Dora had simply felt very relieved indeed. Much too relieved to bother with the awkwardness that came with the less than wanted knowledge that they knew precisely what it was that their son and his girlfriend had gotten up to recently during their time alone. Carrie reasoned with herself that there was no other way that they ought react, that they had probably been expecting it at some time or another, and yet when she finally popped round to visit she found butterflies whizzing around her stomach at an alarming rate.
She never was entirely sure what she had been expecting. But like usual with the Lupins it was nothing like she imagined.
She had let herself into the house and had called a greeting, only to receive none in return. Wandering down the hallway in search of life, she came across the two of them in the dimly lit study, both still as statues as they sat across from one another, leaning forward and staring at one another in silence, unblinking as if it were some sort of competition.
It was, Carrie mused as she paused in the doorway, leaning against the doorframe with a slight frown, rather odd.
"Hi..." the muggle greeted rather uncertainly, only for Dora to hiss:
"Shhhh!"
"Right..." Carrie mumbled, frown deepening. "Sorry..."
She waited patiently for them to...finish staring at one another she supposed, but after a few minutes they had barely moved a muscle, save for the ones that were making Remus' face contort into an increasingly frustrated expression. Eventually Carrie straightened up and took a step forward, unable to resist asking:
"What are you doing?"
For a moment neither witch nor wizard responded, and Carrie wondered if they had even heard her until Dora consented to informing her:
"We're practicing."
"For what?" Carrie asked, feeling tempted to snigger, only for Remus to shift in his chair in a distinctly irritated fashion that made the muggle suppose that sniggering was in some way inappropriate.
"Remus has a job interview tomorrow." Dora elaborated, and Carrie was torn between sudden elation and complete and utter bemusement.
"Wow..." she concluded, flinching when the mixture of feelings left her sounding somewhat sarcastic. "What...what sort of job is it?"
"An impossible one." Remus muttered, only for Dora to snap:
"Concentrate!"
"I am."
"You're not, you're talking to Carrie!"
"I doubt it makes any difference." Remus leant back in his chair, at long last breaking eye contact so that he could stare up towards the ceiling. "I can't do it."
"Well don't give up yet!" Dora insisted. "People don't learn Legilimency over night you know!"
"And yet," the werewolf observed dryly. "Here we are..."
"Well if Snape could do it, I don't see why you can't."
"Let's not bring Snape into it, for Merlin's sake. I don't know what you were thinking, putting my name down like that."
"It's the perfect job, Remus. It's only once a week so they won't get funny about you being ill and they pay a shedload of money to anybody half decent because they're desperately short staffed and it's highly skilled. And it's a Ministry job, so they give you a pension..."
"I know, it's perfect. Perfectly stupid...how long have you been practicing Legilimency, Mr. Lupin? Oh I'd say about...twenty four hours! I'm not dusting off my best suit to go over to London and make myself look like a complete and utter fool just to keep you happy. I won't do it."
Carrie shuffled back a little until she could lean against the doorframe again, sensing the beginnings of an argument.
"You can't tell them you've only been doing it for twenty four hours." Dora said, entirely ignoring everything else that her husband had said. "It's been illegal to learn Legilimency outside of an approved Ministry accredited centre for at least a decade...you'll have to tell them you learnt it years ago, that you've not done it since the laws have changed..."
"Dora..."
"...that'll account for you being a bit rusty."
"A bit rusty? Dora, I can't even tell you what you ate this morning and I washed up after breakfast!"
"You just need to be able to be able to spot a liar when you see one, that's all!" Dora rose to her feet, apparently entirely undeterred. "Tell you what, I'll go and stick the kettle on, make a cup of tea, and you can practice on Carrie."
"What?" Carrie said, not entirely pleased to have herself volunteered, only for Dora to wave an insistent arm at the now vacated chair and demand:
"Sit down here, Carrie love, there's nothing to it. Anyway, you're probably even easier practice than I am. I might be his wife, but you're a muggle..."
"What's that supposed to mean?" Carrie murmured warily as she consented to shuffling forwards towards the chair, and she offered the witch a scowl when she was informed:
"It means mentally you're a pushover. D'you fancy a biscuit, Remus love? I bought chocolate digestives on the way home yesterday."
"Please." the werewolf consented to mumbling wearily, and as she made for the kitchen Dora called:
"And stop trying to be so clever! Use a bloody wand for Merlin's sake! Who d'you think you are, Voldemort or something?"
As Remus obediently reached to pick up his wand from the desk, Carrie gave an apprehensive laugh and muttered:
"For my sake I sincerely hope not."
"I shouldn't worry." Remus told her, aiming the tip of the wand disconcertingly close to her eyes. "I've not managed anything impressive yet."
"How long have you been trying?"
"About...three...four hours. It's utterly hopeless, of course. I don't know precisely what I'm doing..."
"That doesn't make me feel better, to be honest."
"No, I don't suppose it would."
"If it's hopeless why are you trying?"
"Because my failure is amusing."
"Is it?"
"To Dora it is, naturally."
"Didn't she just say it's illegal to teach yourself Legilimency?"
"Yes. That probably makes it infinitely more entertaining to her." Despite his apparent irritation at his prolonged failings, Remus offered the muggle a grin. "She knows I won't get the job just as well as I do. She just thinks this is...fun."
"I wouldn't if I were her." Carrie admitted, frowning deeply as he adjusted his grip upon his wand. "I'd hate somebody to be able to know what I was thinking!"
"Would you truly?" the wizard wondered, giving the wand a vague, experimental wave, and Carrie offered him a raised eyebrow.
"Wouldn't you?"
"That would wholly depend on who the person was and what I was thinking at the time." Remus gave the wand such a sharp flick that it very nearly flew from his hand, the movement made Carrie jump. "Take you and I, for example. Wouldn't you have been glad if I had known exactly what you were thinking, back in the Vale?"
Carrie's gaze dropped to the shiny surface of the desk before her and as she gazed down at her reflection in the polished wood she admitted:
"How could you have made any sense of it, if I hadn't myself?"
"That's the beauty of thoughts, Carrie. We all structure them differently. Who knows what I would make of what's in your head or what you would think of what's in mine? Of course Legilimency isn't the answer. Talking is. It's far less probing for everyday life, not to mention far more legal..." Remus trailed off into silence, frowning deeply for a moment before he set the wand carefully down onto the table and folded his hands together instead. After a while he cleared his throat meaningfully before admitting: "But of course talking is only ever any good when there is somebody who is prepared to listen."
Carrie looked up at him to find that his expression had grown distinctly guilty.
"Dora and I..." he confessed, pausing to sigh rather heavily, "Well, we've not really been listening, this past week or so."
Carrie swallowed the lump that had promptly formed in her throat.
"You've been on holiday." she reminded him in an attempt to brush off his observation, but the werewolf shook his head.
"There are some things in life, Carrie, that we don't get a holiday from. Being responsible adults is one of them."
Despite the serious expression on his face, Carrie sniggered.
"I'm pretty sure you've never been an irresponsible adult in all the years I've known you, Remus. Dora, perhaps...but not you..."
"You've been our responsibility, Carrie. Judging from your recent state of affairs I'd say we'd been grossly irresponsible. You can make excuses for us or dress it up any which way you like, but that is the fact of the matter."
"I'm pretty sure I'm old enough to be my own responsibility by now." Carrie reasoned, only for a voice from behind her to observe:
"Is that so? Well I'll tell you now then, Carrie love, you're doomed!"
"Shut up, Dora!" Carrie retorted as the Auror sauntered back into the room, grinning broadly at the look of mock-indignation that the muggle shot in her direction. "You're one to talk! If Remus hadn't been around at that party Merlin only knows what you would have wound up doing..."
"I think you find that if Remus hadn't been around I'd have wound up staying remarkably sober." the witch reasoned as she came to a halt behind her husband's chair, reaching to drape her arms around his neck. "Isn't that right, Sweetheart? You're a terrible influence!"
"Oh, the worst!" Remus agreed, leaning back until her chin came to rest atop his head as footsteps sounded back out in the hallway. "In fact I'd say with the two of us around, Carrie doesn't stand a chance in life at all."
"Good thing she's got me, then." Teddy observed as he came to stand in the doorway, offering Carrie a wide smile when she turned to look at him. When he held out a hand to her, Carrie rose from her seat, only to find Remus' gaze upon his son somewhat disapproving.
"Enjoy your staring competition." the muggle offered as she headed to join her boyfriend in the hallway, and the werewolf's lips twitched towards a smile before he murmured:
"Carrie?"
"Hm?" When Carrie looked round again, she found both Remus and Dora eying her intently.
"We're sorry." Remus said, and Dora's grip upon him tightened as she seconded:
"Very sorry."
"You've nothing to be sorry for..." Carrie began to tell them, only for Teddy's hand to enclose around her elbow and he told her:
"Yes they have."
"And so have you." Remus added, gaze upon the young wizard piercing, and Teddy swallowed a large lump from his throat and mumbled:
"Yes...I have."
Dora leant forward until she could bury her face in her husband's hair, and when Remus's eyes dropped to his hands Carrie felt rather as if she were missing something terribly important.
"What've you got to be sorry about, Ted?" she asked, feeling rather disconcerted when Remus' gaze immediately snapped back up to look at her, and Teddy mumbled:
"I um...well..."
"Perhaps you might go and pour the tea." Remus suggested, and Carrie found herself dragged towards the kitchen so suddenly that she thought they might very well have apparated there.
The muggle went to perch upon the countertop beside the kettle as she observed Teddy pouring the tea. The young wizard was frowning furiously as if the task required immense concentration.
"So...what's going on?" she asked after a minute when he had finally set the teapot back down upon the countertop. "You and your dad...well...something's going on, isn't it?"
Teddy sucked in a deep breath, his cheeks tinged pink.
"Dad has...pointed out to me that...well...well he didn't just point it out, actually, he...well he was rather furious...ashamed, even..."
"What? What's he got to be ashamed of?"
"Me, apparently. He's...he's rather ashamed of me. How I've...well..."
"Spit it out, Ted." Carrie insisted, feeling increasingly apprehensive, and Teddy was forced to suck in another deep breath before explaining:
"He strongly disapproves of us...of us sleeping together...the...the other day..."
"He does?"
"Very much so. Not...not because we're too young or not married or anything like that. It's not like that, not at all, it's...well..."
"Well?"
Teddy was staring down at the steaming cups of tea so intently that Carrie felt as if the intensity of his gaze might cause them to implode.
"Don't sleep with drunk girls. That's what Mum says. It's...it's taking advantage and it's not right..."
Carrie very nearly bit through her tongue in indignation.
"I wasn't drunk!"
"Yes but...but you were enchanted...which...which is the same thing or worse, Dad says. He said if you weren't enchanted you...if you had been in your right mind you might not have wanted to do it, that I can't have known for sure..."
Carrie attempted to fight away the sheer embarrassment that was flooding her face with colour in order to give her head a toss and insist:
"Well I know for sure that I would have!"
Teddy gave a snort, nodding over towards the kitchen door.
"D'you want to go and tell Dad that?"
"Merlin, no!" Carrie exclaimed, very nearly slipping from her perch in alarm at the mere notion, and the wizard sniggered despairingly and muttered:
"I thought not." He turned to look up at her rather shyly as he admitted: "Still, Dad has a point...as usual. So, I'm sorry."
"I'm not!" Carrie retorted, refusing to take the subject entirely seriously because quite frankly it was much too mortifying. "If we hadn't have done it I'd still be...well...Merlin knows!" When he barely smiled she offered: "I'll go and tell him that if you like!"
Teddy smirked.
"Feel free to, Sweetheart." he said, holding an arm out towards the door.
Carrie didn't move.
"I thought not." Teddy said again.
Finish.