"Alright Potter, Evans you take ground floor. Black, McKinnon, second floor. Lupin, MacDonald basement. Pettigrew you're with me. Jones and Alice are taking the grounds. We all set?"
"Yup!" Sirius said practically bouncing on his heels.
The Carrow estate was huge, the grounds were expansive and rather creepy in the pitch black of night. The weather was not on their side, it was pouring rain with cracks of thunder every few minutes. Frank however said this was a help, that it would help cover any noise we made.
Supposedly there was to be a Deatheater gathering somewhere else tonight so there shouldn't be many people in the house. None if we were lucky.
Mary grasped my arm tightly as we crept into the grand manor and Frank silently pointed us in the direction of the basement entrance. Everyone else split off in various directions to scour the house in search of Teddy.
"this is so creepy." Mary whispered shakily, grasping her wand in one hand and my arm in the other.
"shh." I snapped quietly, pointing to the light glowing ahead of us. Mary's breath hitched as we approached the door and I slid my arm out of her hold to stand Infront of her. I held out my wand and cast a charm to unlock the door. I took a breath before pushing it open.
There was an old lamp glowing at the top of the stone steps down to the basement but no guards. I could hear the sound of muffled voices however, low grumbling voices, distinctly male. Then I heard it, the most hideous sound I'd ever heard. A shriek, a wail, a cry.
Teddy.
I sprinted down the steps, wand raised and teeth gritted.
"BOMBARDA!" I yelled, shattering the barred door at the end of the stairs. Bright sparks flew wildly the second I entered the dank, ice cold basement. Three shadowy figures shot curses in the dark and I tried my best to fire back. This was, of course, incredibly difficult considering I could neither see my opponents nor manage to get a shot in between my defensive spells. Mary had also seemed to disappear.
"MAC!" I called but she was nowhere to be found.
"CRUCIO!" Someone yelled and I tried my best to counter it but the spell hit my arm sending firey pain shooting up my arm and spreading throughout my body.
"PETRIFICUS TOTALUS!" I screamed and managed to hit one of them, I heard them thud to the ground. In my moment of relief another curse flew at me, hitting my leg this time. More burning pain filled my body but I tried to ignore it. I had to stop them, I had to save her.
Sparks flew across the shadowy basement, until finally my charm hit one of them and they dropped to floor. Now one on one I moved closer towards my opponent, my heart racing and anger coursing in my veins.
"AVADAK-"
"STUPEFY!" I managed to throw my curse before he could and he flew back against the wall.
"TEDDY? TEDDY WHERE ARE YOU?!"
"REMUS REMUS, OVER HERE!" Mary called and I illuminated my wand to try and find where her voice was coming from. I spun around to find Mary kneeling down in a corner beside what appeared to be a lifeless corpse, practically a skeleton.
"That- that's not-"
"Remus..." Mary's voice cracked and she looked at me tearily.
"No."
"She's breathing."
"Fuck." I hurry over to them, hobbling on my aching leg and letting my bleeding arm hang limp at my side.
"Remus? Mary?!" James called, sprinting down the stairs two at a time.
"What the hell happened?"
I simply pointed in the direction of the three unconscious deatheaters as explanation and knelt beside Teddy.
"Ted-teddy, darling come on. Please just open your eyes."
Looking back I wish she never had. The second she layed eyes on me she let out the most ear-splitting, blood curdling scream I'd ever heard. She looked utterly terrified and clawed at Mary for some morsel of comfort.
"Hey, hey it's okay it's me." I touched her arm softly and she flinched away like I'd burned her.
"please, please no more, please I can't- I can't just kill me, Kill me KILL ME!"
"Teddy, teddy please."
There was no point reasoning with her.
Mary wrapped her arms around Teddy's skeletal form and they struggled to their feet. James took her from Mary and carried her up the stairs as I hobbled behind them, leaning on Mary for support.
Outside Alice was waving us over manically, pointing to figures approaching from the other side of the grounds. She took Teddy from James and apparated away with a crack. James ran back inside to grab Lily and the others and Mary and I followed Alice's lead, apparating to St.Mungos.
"What the fuck was that. What did they do to her?"
"Remus she's alive okay, that's all that matters, she's alive and she's going to be alright."
"Alright? Alright?! Mary did you see her? She's so covered in bruises and blood she's practically purple. She's more home than flesh and she fucking terrified of me!"
"Just calm down Remus, they're going to fix her up. She'll be okay, she just needs time."
"Maybe...yeah...you're right, I just- I thought that if I found her, if I saved her, everything would be alright. We'd go back to normal and spend Christmas together at home and she'd take me back and everything would be okay again."
"It will be okay again." Mary said sadly "you'll get all of that Remus, maybe not by Christmas but eventually."
"Thanks Mac." I gave her a tight lipped smile and sat in one of the waiting room chairs.
"Mr Lupin!" Dumbledore swept into the waiting room.
"Dumbledore." I grunted, offering him a curt nod.
"I was glad to hear Theodora was found, and impressed to hear it was you alone who faught off the three deatheaters guarding her."
"They weren't guarding her sir, I can tell you that much."
"Oh? What were they doing then?"
"Fucking torturing her...sir."
"I see, well thank you Mr.Lupin. You may return to Hogwarts now."
"But sir I- I need to see her. I need to know if she's okay!"
"I will keep you informed Remus, I think for now it's best that you return to your dorm and get some rest. I have instructed your other classmates to do the same."
"I'd really rather-"
"Remus return to Hogwarts immediately, understood?"
"Yes Professor."
I struggled to my feet and began hobbling towards the doors.
"Have Madame Pomfrey look at that leg Mr Lupin!" Dumbledore called after me and I tried not to roll my eyes. As if he doesn't know what I go through every month, this is nothing.
Hogwarts was silent when I returned. The halls were empty, even the portraits were sleeping. I hobbled back to Gryffindor tower and up the stairs. I could see the lights were on in our dorm as a soft glow flooded from the crack under the door.
"NO FUCKING WAY!" Sirius yelled and I edged the door open.
Marlene was stretched out on the floor with her head in Lily's lap. Sirius was standing, hands on hips looking pissed off and James was cackling.
"Hi Moony!" Peter grinned when I entered.
"Eh, hi? What's goin on?"
"Poker." Lily rolled her eyes playfully, "I never should've taught you all how to play."
"JAMES IS CHEATING!"
"AM NOT!"
"ARE TOO!"
"Shhhh I'm sleeping." Marlene groaned in an attempt to shut up pads and prongs, an impossible feat.
"Where's Mac?" Lily asked with a tone of concern.
"Probably on her way back, Dumbledore sent us home."
"How's Teddy?" James asked, more calm now and gathering the cards to shuffle them.
"No clue, Dumbledore wouldn't tell me anything."
"I'm sure she'll be okay."
"To Teddy!" Sirius raised a half-empty bottle of firewhiskey to the air before taking a swig.
"You want in Remus?" James asked gesturing to the cards he was about to deal. I shrugged and sat down in the circle on the floor.
"Sure."
We spent the night getting bladdered and playing an inordinate amount of poker, until that got boring and Sirius decided to perform a Queen medley for us, doing his best Freddie Mercury impression with James accompanying him on air guitar.
I'd forgotten what it was like to just exist with my friends, to take part in their chaos and just have a laugh. No worrying about consequences or Teddy or the war, just fun. I felt lighter by the end of the night, like everything really would be alright. Although, in hindsight that may have been the firewhiskey talking.
In the morning Madame Pomfrey bandaged up my arm and cast a few charms to help with my leg. She also provided me with enough pepper up potion to cure mine and all my friends' intense hangovers. Lily and I spent a few hours in the library and I actually managed to study for the first time weeks. I took a walk around the grounds with Mary and Marlene, just chatting about life and Dorcas and who was dating who, like old times. It was only when Dumbledore summoned us to his office that evening that reality seemed to settle back in.
"Thank you all for your efforts last night, for your first mission it was very successful. Now I'm sure you're all wondering about Theodora. I'm afraid she's not doing very well. It seems that the torture she underwent has affected her severely. We believe that they have been removing and altering her memories to turn her against our side. It would seem they were training her up to be some sort of mole for Voldemort."
"What do you mean altering her memories" I asked.
"Well it seems they removed her memories and altered them to seem like you all had been the ones hurting her. In particular you, Mr.Lupin and you Mr.Black. They then implanted these altered memories in her mind, thus explaining her violent reaction to seeing you in the basement Mr.Lupin."
"What the fuck?!"
"Stay Calm Remus, I have been pondering some solutions. I believe if we could pinpoint the memories they altered and replace the altered ones with your memories then perhaps that would help her remember. You see her memories still exist somewhere in her brain they've simply been buried beneath so many horrible ones it's difficult for her to tell what's real and what's not."
"So in order to save her you have to take my memories?"
"Yes."
"So I wouldn't remember?"
"Well, if we could get her to use a pensive then we would be able to return your memories to you. If not however, yes. You would lose your memories."
"Right...so get her to use the pensive. It shouldn't be too hard right? Once she's a little better just- just get her to use it."
"I think you may be underestimating the extent of her mental illness Mr.Lupin. We can hardly get to her to let anyone come near her nevermind use a pensive."
"So-so...so wait. Just wait until she's better."
"She may not get better until her memories are returned."
I thought for a moment. I can't lose Teddy but to lose my memories of her? All of our beautiful memories from when we were kids right up to now. Maybe I could just give away a few. The important ones, when we met and when we'd read together, some of our pranks, our moon nights, when I told her I loved her...when I asked her to marry me....
"If it will bring her back, take them."
"Are you sure?"
"Yes."
"On one condition. I want to be there when you give them to her."
"Mr. Lupin that may not be a good idea."
"That's my only offer."
"Very well then, I will discuss it with her healers."
"Thank you."