Because I am too obsessed with AUs.
...
To clarify, it is 2008.
Lily Luna's birthday is in 2008, we'll say after May(which would mark the 10th anniversary of the battle).
"Break the wands." Amycus said. Alecto fished four wands from her pockets, handing one to Amycus. Harry recognised his own wand, and felt like he had been punched in the chest when the wand was snapped neatly in two. It felt like he had lost a friend, an extension of himself. He watched as Tonks' wand was snapped. And then Dean's, and Seamus'.
Each snap of the wands made Harry feel a little more hopeless. Tonks had told him he could back out of the mission to be home with Ginny, who was due to give birth in less than two weeks- and Harry had said "no, we'll be home in time". And here they were. Possibly minutes from dying. What would Ginny do once his body was found? What about their children? And what would Remus, Teddy and Lyall do without Tonks? And Luna- her and Seamus had only been married three years. And Dean's family, they had already almost lost him once.
To Harry's surprise, none of them were going to die just yet. The Death Eaters left with the broken wands, to "owl them to their families". While that would be unfortunate for their families, it was going to buy them a few precious minutes.
"Harry, you shouldn't have done that." Tonks said, as soon as they were all alone.
"Done what? The transfiguration was wearing off anyway-"
"Harry, they're going to kill you!" Tonks said.
"They were about to kill you, Tonks-"
"Then you let them!" Tonks snapped.
"I couldn't do that, Tonks, you know that." Harry said.
She sighed deeply. "Uh- do any of you have a knife?" She asked, trying to shift her arms reach the pockets of her own robes.
"They searched us." Dean said. "Took everything out of our pockets."
Harry managed to shift his hands enough, thankful the bonds were just loose enough for him to do so. He managed to get his hand into his pocket, hoping desperately that he'd feel his penknife. He had gotten one as soon as the war ended, because of all of the times he could have used one during the war.
"Shit, they took mine." Tonks said. "I've had that bloody knife for nearly twenty years- arseholes."
"I've got one!" Harry said, his hand closing around his knife. He managed to extract it, but opening the blade was even more difficult. He nearly dropped the knife, but managed to get it open, and began sawing at the ropes, accidentally inflicting a few cuts on his arms as he did so. When the ropes fell away, they simply disappeared, and he was once again thankful for the fact that the penknife could work through magic.
He jumped up, rushing to cut the bonds of his fellow Aurors. In his rush, he inflicted a particularly deep cut on Seamus' arm, who swore loudly.
"Shit, I'm sorry!" Harry said as Seamus stood, pressing a hand over the cut.
Tonks was pacing, flexing her still shaking hands. She was looking for something, surveying the room.
"We need a way out, we can't just go up the stairs." She said.
Dean was examining one wall, pressing his hands over one slightly discoloured board. "Harry, your knife?"
Harry walked over, handing it to Dean, who studied the extensions carefully before selecting one. He pried it between the boards, and with a click, a hidden door swung open as he stepped back.
"Oh, Dean, bloody brilliant!" Tonks said. "We don't know where it leads, though-"
"Has to be better then here, yeah?" Seamus asked, staring down the dirt tunnel.
"We won't be able to see where we're going." Tonks said. "And that might be more dangerous than staying here."
"Remus could do that ball of flame without a wand, couldn't he?" Harry asked. He had seen it on many occasions, and did assume at first Remus had his wand, but after he saw Remus conjure the blue flame in his hand for the amusement of a very young Teddy while his wand was on the sofa next to him, he realised it had been wandless magic.
"I can't do wandless magic." Tonks said quickly. "It's not a requirement for Aurors."
"Seamus? Dean?" Harry asked, but both shook their heads. He looked back at Tonks. "Tonks, you are Head Auror, so it is your decision on if we stay or retreat."
There was a noise from above them, and Tonks' eyes flickered upwards and then back at the group. "We go." She said. "We close the panel as we leave, perhaps they don't know about it."
It was darker than they expected it to be, but not for long. The tunnel inclined steeply, leading to a hidden door in the floor of what appeared to be an old shed. As the tallest, Dean was able to climb up easier. He pulled Harry up, and the two pulled Tonks and Seamus up.
"What do we do if there are Death Eaters waiting right outside for us?" Seamus asked, his hand on the door of the shed.
"We hope that there's not." Dean said, pushing the door open.
The four stepped outside, and froze. Mountains. They were surrounded by mountains.
"We weren't anywhere near mountains when we tracked them. I don't understand." Harry said.
"We can't stand here." Tonks said, looking back towards the dark house some distance away. "They'll notice any second."
"Where do we go?" Dean asked. "Which way?"
"Trees, for cover." Tonks said, walking off at a brisk pace. The others followed, and they only stopped once they were in the thickness of the trees. "We need to find somewhere to go. We can't Apparate without wands, but if we can find- even a Muggle's house. Harry and I both have phones at home. Someone will be there-"
"And we still don't know where we are." Dean said.
"We might be able to find our answers in someone's house." Seamus said. "Get some other Aurors out here. They'll notice, anyway-"
Harry glanced at his watch, which was still set to London's time. "We're five hours late for our fourth day's checkpoint." He said. "They've probably already noticed they haven't gotten any message from us."
Tonks reached into her pocket, pulling out her wedding ring, and slipping Harry's from her finger. "So they know we're still alive." She said to Harry, as they slipped their rings back on.
Curses flew passed their shoulders, colliding into trees with explosive force. Their luck had run out- they had been found again.
There was always an upside to being a wizard and right now, Remus was seeking comfort in one of the many upsides. Enchanted wedding rings had quickly replaced their regular counterparts after the war, and allowed couples to know their other halves were still alive- with a very simple enchantment. The ring remained a slightly-warmer-than-body-temperature as long as the matching ring was on the hand of someone alive. The ring would turn ice cold if the heart of the other stopped beating, and Remus was grateful his ring was still warm. She was alive. It had gone cold for a few hours, and he almost felt his heart stop.
Ginny had arrived, saying hers was cold. It had gone cold at the same moment Remus' had.
Remus waited, hoping the warmth returned. But it didn't. For hours, their rings remained cold.
And then he felt it. The warmth returned, and he nearly cried, Ginny did cry. She was alive. Part of him wanted to wonder if someone else had her ring now, perhaps that was why it was warm- but he knew the charms were sealed to only work with the two owners- and he hated his mind would even betray him with a thought like that.
With no word from the Ministry, all he could do was seek comfort in the fact his ring was warm. For now, she was still alive.
So any scenes with Remus/Ginny/the crew back at home will obviously be a few days after what the Aurors are dealing with(unless otherwise implied) Chapter one was obviously split between a couple of days.
The second portion, with Remus' ring, was obviously from Day One when she removed her ring to take Harry's, and then matches up with this chapter when she returns Harry's ring and puts hers back on.