Callie opened her eyes.
She blinked. Once, Twice.
Fog covered her head but she knew where she was.
But that couldn't be...
Even with her head spinning, Callie raised her head and looked about. And it was either her eyes were tricking her or she really woke up in their house, in her room, on her bed. Scratch that. They actually woke up in her room.
She saw the Marauders and Regulus minus Peter when she looked around. They were all over her room as tired as she was. Maybe even more.
She got up, matching their groans as they woke up too.
"What happened?" James asked while massaging the back of his head that luckily hit on her study table—sarcasm intended.
That was the very right question to ask. What happened? One moment, they were about to die under the Killing Curse. The next, they woke up in a strange room with a wall full of books and things that resembled the Wizarding World one way or another. The question shouldn't be what but how did that happen?
Callie sat up, trying to think straight in exchange for a slight pound in her head.
"Where are we?" Remus looked around the small room. They somehow looked like a muggle's room but, there were weird things like that swivel chair that didn't look like it belong to the 70s.
"In my room."
"What?"
Regulus saw his brother and helped Sirius sit up. The Drink of Despair and Cruciatus Curse weren't the best combinations—he'd take note of that. But a brother's help sure did make things feel better—he'd also take note of that.
"Oh, god, Sirius!" She ran to and knelt to them. Her hand were frantic over the oldest Black brother as he leaned on the wall of her room. "How do you feel? Do you need more water?"
"I'm fine," he dismissed quickly. "Just tired."
Callie nodded. They all were tired.
With the Cruciatus Curse and other torture they underwent, of course, they'd be defeated physically. Especially James and Remus who both hadn't experienced such pain of a curse in their life. Sirius with the potion. And her, Callie with the wound in her forearm Bellatrix inflicted.
She looked down at it. Only then did it hurt again. It looked hideous. It made her want to throw up and cry. It wasn't just a spell that could be countered, it was a wound that would scar when it healed. She would be forever reminded of that one faithful day she chose to defy the worst witch.
But if that was the price she had to pray to keep these boys alive no matter where they were, then so be it. She walked to her drawer and grabbed a plastic box, her first aid kit. She put it on her bed as Remus and James got up and walked around.
She took the cotton and antiseptics, poured the liquid onto the cotton, and cleaned her wounds. With Bellatrix's deep handwriting, Callie gasped every time the cotton would hit her skin. Her wand penetrated deep layers of her skin.
The boys heard it, of course. And they wanted nothing more but to go back in time and stop Bellatrix from doing such a thing she considered art.
Regulus wanted to get up and help her. But he was also attending to Sirius. And Sirius saw he was conflicted. He pat his brother's back and tilted his head in Callie's direction, telling him he should help her instead. Hesitating, Regulus got up with one last nod from his brother. Remus and James sat in his place.
"Hey," Regulus' hushed voice called.
Callie looked up and followed him as he sat beside her. He took the cotton in her hand and gently held her injured forearm so that he wouldn't hurt her.
"May I?"
She nodded.
If he was taking care of her wounds under different circumstances, she'd be frantic about it, flushing red, and dying inside. Because her favourite character was cleaning her wounds! But she couldn't be happy with the wound. And besides, he wasn't just her favourite fictional character anymore. He was now her boyfriend. Wow... That felt weird to even think about.
"I don't know how, but I'm so glad we're alive," he said.
Callie nodded. "Me too."
They had no idea how it happened. Because again, they were just kneeling in front of Voldemort. He even cast the Killing Curse already. But why didn't they die?
Don't get Callie wrong. Of course, she didn't want them to die. But wasn't dying the natural outcome of the Killing Curse? What did they do to instead get transported into her world?
"Avada..." "Mischief..."
"Managed!" "Kedavra!"
Closing the Marauders Map was the only thing she did at the same time Voldemort cast the curse.
Wait...
Callie looked around her bed. And there it sat, the Marauders Map, a gold chain dangling out of it.
No. It couldn't be the Time Turner. She had to turn it around for it to work. She wasn't able to do that.
But the map...
The map...
It was there the first time she got to the Wizarding World. She was holding it. She was just playing around her room, cast the spell to open the map, fell unconscious, then she woke up in the Gryffindor Common Room with Remus pointing her wand at her.
And then back at the Manor. She was holding it. She wanted to close her book the same way she opened it, by casting the spell to close the map. And she did. Then they woke up in her room. All of them. Because she made sure she was touching them.
Oh my god.
"It's done."
Callie immediately took a bandage from the box and wrapped her forearm with it. But Regulus took it midway and helped her.
"Do you have your wand?" She turned to Regulus.
"They took it."
That was fine. If Callie got back to her world without a wand, she might be able to go back to the Wizarding World without one too.
She took the map and the Time Turner. Should she use the Time Turner now? She could go back in time and stop Peter from spilling their secrets to Voldemort. But she had no idea when did that happen. That would make her journey too dangerous. But the map... She should at least try the map.
Callie cleared her throat. "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good."
Nothing happened. She shook her head and cleared her throat again. "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good," she chanted louder.
But again nothing happened.
"What are you doing?" James asked.
Regulus was just done wrapping her forearm when she looked at all of them.
"Remember my map? The one you thought was yours when I got to your World?" She held it up and showed them. The three boys nodded, remembering the first encounter. "This is what brought me there."
"But how's that possible? Your map would need strong magic to be able to reap between realities and go back and forth. But you said it was a gift from a friend."
"A gift from a friend, that's it!" She stood up, the pain and fog in her head dissipating. "I'm going to see if anyone's home.
She walked out of her room and went downstairs straight. She didn't even hear the boys' request not to leave them there.
"Mum? Dad? Bria? I'm home!"
But there was no one in the living room or dining room when she got down. But a screech from upstairs made her skin crawl.
Callie knew the voice fairly well. "Bria."
She raced upstairs, skipping levels just to get to where the noise came from. She saw a girl with long chestnut hair in front of her room, ready to run inside and attack the boys huddled in a group with her hand.
"Bria!" Callie called even before her sister could give the boys a pink handprint on their faces.
Cambria Sinclair looked back to see her sister.
"Callie!" She forgot about the boys and ran to her sister, hugging her tight.
And that hug told Callie she was gone from her world. She had no idea if it was as long as she had been in the Wizarding World or if there were time differences.
Bria broke the hug and slapped her sister. The boys gasped and Callie had her eyes and mouth wide open like an o.
"What was that for?!"
"I had to make sure you're real!" Okay, that was fair. "And because you've been gone for more than a month, Callie!" That's fair too. "Where have you been?! Mum and Dad are worried sick about you! No one knows where you were! The police are investigating your disappearance! Some even thought you're... you're dead. And then you showed up with these men in your room? Look at you, you're so dirty! And those are not your clothes! Why do you have a bandage on you? Explain, Callie."
God, do all younger sisters like Bria? Must be a pain in the neck.
"I know, I know! But I can't explain right now. It's a long story. Very long. And we have very little time." With what Bria said, she was long gone in her world at the same time she had been in the Wizarding World.
"What? I can't understand." Why would her sister have little time to explain whatever it is she would explain? Wasn't it easy to tell her where she went and why she wouldn't answer her phone?
"I'm not expecting you to. Not yet, at least."
Callie opened the door beside her, her parents'. Bria followed. She snatched a few of her dad's clothes, just shirts.
"What are you doing?"
"Borrowing dad's clothes." She threw a shirt on the bed. "Those boys couldn't wander around in those dirty shirts."
"Where are you going?"
"We will just finish our business and then I'll come back again. And I promise, after that, I'll explain everything. To you, and to mum, to dad, to everyone. For now, we have to go."
"Go? But you just got here." Bria wouldn't lie if asked whether she wanted her sister to stay. Callie disappeared for so long, their parents and she were crying every night, missing her. And now she was back she had to go again?
Callie knew that just by listening to her voice. "I know. I'm really sorry, Bria. But we can't stay for too long."
If they disappeared in the Wizarding World and Voldemort didn't see dead bodies, he might search for them and hurt others in the process. She couldn't let that happen.
But on the other hand, she was relieved her family never forgot her. As selfish as that might sound.
Bria stopped the tears to fall. She didn't let them even when her cheeks puffed. Bria was never the one to cry. Though Callie knew she cried every time she was alone. She knew her little sister didn't want to be seen as weak by crying.
So she smiled and took matters into her own hand. Callie put down the shirt she just got on the bed and walked to her sister. She wrapped Bria around with her arms, not minding if her wound hurt.
Bria hugged back as tight as she did earlier. "I don't know what you're doing and I have a bad feeling about it. But please, be safe. Or else I'll destroy all your Harry Potter things."
Callie chuckled. Her sister wasn't a fan of Harry Potter. Callie was fine with it of course. Bria was more into Eastern pop culture. And they like bickering about destroying each other's wall of fan or the side of their room where they keep their merchandise.
"Just say my I love you to Mum and Dad."
"You tell that to them yourself."
They broke the hug. Callie took her father's clothes and they went back to her room. Bria had no idea why she was following her sister. But she had this feeling that she didn't want to pull away from her for a while. She stayed by the door, not wanting to get near the boys she had no idea who.
Although that guy with brown hair kind of looked like someone she knew. Spider-Man?
"Change in these." She gave each one of them her dad's shirts. "They're dad's but they should fit you. We'll go after everyone feels better." She walked to her sister.
"Go where?" Regulus asked.
"Bria, can you get us water and any food we can have on hand?" Bria nodded and left. "Thanks." She turned to the boys and walked to her closet. She smelled and she didn't like it. "I have a hunch on how are we going to get back." She scoured her wardrobe. Oh, how she missed these clothes of hers. "I'm not entirely sure of it but it's worth a shot." All Callie knew everything was worth a shot.
"Okay."
"You lot go get rest."
Callie headed to her parents' room. She changed her clothes there and scrubbed herself a little bit of her mum's deodorant. She didn't really like its too floral odour. She tried it once as a kid but regretted it later on for its smell. Ever since then, she never tried it on.
While inside, she found her dad's collection of sunglasses. An idea immediately popped into her head and took four of them and two of her dad's caps.
She went back in her room seeing the boys wandering around in her dad's clothes, Sirius sitting on her bed. It didn't fit Regulus and Remus right. Only then she realized most, if not all, of her things, were about Harry Potter.
"Yeah," she said, walking in and watching the wall of fan with the boys. "Weird, isn't it?"
"Let's just say, it's nothing we get to see every day," Remus saved her. Or that was his other words for saying, "Yeah, it's weird."
But at least, she didn't have to explain herself even more. Or so she thought.
"Why is Moony wearing this weird red... whatever is this?" James asked, trying not to laugh while pointing at Callie's poster of Andrew Garfield as Spider-Man.
"Don't laugh! That's a movie where an actor that looks like Remus starred in!"
"Looks like? No, that's Moony," Sirius managed to joke despite his energy just starting to get back.
"That's not me," Remus sided with her.
"Yeah," Callie agreed. "That's Andrew Garfield. And that's why, you'll need these." She showed them the caps and sunglasses in her hands. "Remus isn't the only one who looks so much like a celebrity in my world. All of you do." She handed them the sunglasses, and James and Remus the cap.
"Really?" James asked putting on the cap and changing his eyeglasses with what Callie gave. "I can't see in these." He gave up on the sunglasses and gave them back to Callie.
"Right." She took her dad's sunglasses back and wore them on top of her head instead. Callie looked at each and one of them. "No, Reg, you still look like Timmy." She walked to her closet and said a bucket hat.
"Who's Timmy?" Regulus asked.
She put it on him and smiled. "A great actor. That's better." Callie walked to her drawer and took her cash, a shoulder bag, the map, and the Time Turner. "You guys need these disguises. I can't afford people thinking you're those popular actors. Can you all go down with me now?" She stuffed the things she needed in her bag.
James nodded. "I feel better now." He looked at the rest for answers.
"Me, too," Remus looked at the brothers.
Regulus turned his head to his brother. All he needed was an answer from him and whatever it was, he'd go with it.
"I'm fine. I can walk," said Sirius. "Let's go."
"Are you sure?" asked Regulus.
"Yes, little brother, I am. I'm not liking this new caring side of you. It's weird."
"Shut it."
Callie chuckled. "Well then, let's go."
Callie led them downstairs. She headed to the kitchen where Bria was pouring water on the last of the unfilled glasses, a plate of biscuits beside.
"Help yourselves." They hadn't eaten ever since Bellatrix and the Death Eaters destroyed their camp, and eventually their food source.
The boys did not hesitate to take as many as they liked. The thought of looking appropriate never crossed their mind, just the hunger and the sweet, delicious smell of the biscuit tempting them.
Callie took one and finished a hand size in one go. "I need to borrow your phone," she told to Bria, "I left mine."
"Left it? Where?"
"Too hard to explain."
"Seriously? Even losing your phone is that hard to explain?"
"I know I'm being unfair, Bria, I do. But really, I can't explain it yet."
Bria sighed. She was disappointed in her sister. Gone for more than a month then not even bothering to explain a single thing? Unacceptable. But she found herself giving her phone to Callie.
Callie reached for it but Bria pulled it back.
"Under one condition."
"What is it?"
"Call Mum and Dad. Tell them you're safe."
Callie nodded. "Okay, I will."
Bria finally gave her the phone. "Do you have enough cash with you?"
"I suppose what I have should be enough." Hopefully.
Bria pulled something out of her back pocket and gave her sister the folded cash. "Maybe these'll help."
"You don't have to-"
"Take that because you have to give them back to me one way or another. I saved that for my fave's concert next next month. And I will go there. If you did not I will seriously destroy every piece of your Harry Potter stuff."
"Remind me not to get in trouble with you sister," James whispered, chewing his third biscuit.
But Callie just smiled at her sister. "Thank you."
Bria stopped herself until she could no more. She closed the gap between her and her sister and wrapped her arms around her. Callie returned the embrace and hoped that wouldn't be the last.