Turning Time

Chapter 6

"The Evanescent Charm..." Callie thought. She had never used it before. She hadn't had it for more than five months, and she was one of the few worthy of possessing one. So she had been told. That's why it had been given to her, wasn't it? She had been told it could turn her traits into magic, but she didn't know what those traits were. She'd never been able to describe herself as anything good, as she was always afraid of emphasizing her traits to make her seem high-and-mighty, which she knew that she unfortunately wasn't.

She was never as famous as Harry, who she was hardly even friends with, or even popular, for that matter. She wasn't as brave as many people she knew, either. The only things she knew she could credit herself for were courtesy and kindness. She began to wonder whether she should ever have been put into Gryffindor. Her father had always told her she possessed enormous amounts of bravery and always was able to withhold her fears. He said she was very resourceful and talented as well, but she wondered if he was only trying to be supportive.

She wasn't able to decide on her traits, so she didn't know how it could be of use. What could it do? She began to wonder if she had any qualities besides helplessness, fear, and curiosity...

"Curiosity?" said a voice in her head.

"Yes..." she thought. "Curiosity."

The voice didn't sound taunting or menacing, so she didn't think it was Darkness rather than her conscience. Or was Darkness her conscience?

"Are you curious about what it would be to give up and surrender?" the voice said. Indeed, it was Darkness.

"No," Callie replied to the voice, rather calmly and boldly. "I know. It would be awful."

"Hmph," the voice said. "Just you wait. There are only three ways to go: surrender, keep fighting me and unconsciously let me overcome you in the end, or to banish me completely, possibly dying if you don't have the power."

"Or you could surrender," Callie said.

Darkness laughed terribly and coldly in her head. "You're so brave and bold... You should go to fight The Dark Lord himself and die. Then you'd never have to worry about me again. Do you honestly think that I would surrender?"

The word "brave" sounded particularly emphasized to Callie, but she knew it was probably only because she was trying to figure out one of her traits.

"Do you think a pure heart can honestly exist?" Darkness said. "Sweet little Miss Lupin," she said. "Never lying to a teacher and never breaking a promise." Callie didn't like the way Darkness made her sound so pure. "Always letting people rag on her because she's so sweet."

This started to go to Callie's head. "Just because I'm kind and can put up with insults, it's no reason for you to try to make me think I need to change at all."

Callie felt brave. She began to believe she was. She was actually standing up to the one thing she feared above all else--the voice in her head that had existed since her third year at Hogwarts.

"Thank you," she added.

"For what?"

"Reminding me that I've got enough wit to say that you have the personality of a Quick-Quotes-Quill--especially Rita Skeeter's," Callie replied.

"Why?"

"You can't stop writing stories in my head, but that doesn't mean I'll believe you."

***

Remus closed the door to the compartment.

"So, what was it?" James asked.

"Callista Lupin is a name you may hear in your future for a famous violinist," he replied.

It took James a while to perceive this, as he was growing tired. "What? Oh, that was her?" he replied.

"Wow, I never thought any of Remus's children would have any talent for the arts," Sirius said. "I mean, look at him!"

"Am I really that awful at drawing diagrams for practical joke plans?" Remus asked.

"He's got a point," Sirius said, suddenly looking rather blank.

"What happened in there?" James said, raising his eyebrows mischievously.

"I don't know what you're suggesting, but I have a pretty good idea, and it's disgusting."

James smiled slyly.

"She's my daughter, James."

"She doesn't know," James said in a hushed voice. "We won't tell." He smiled rather sheepishly.

"She seemed pretty guilty about the fact that someone found out she could play violin. She thought she was awful, supposedly. Probably just trying to get me to go away."

The others laughed at this.

"What is so funny about it?" he said. "I mean, she did act rather modest about it, but I don't know how she can say she hasn't got any talent and have so much of it."

"She's your daughter, Remus. Of course you're going to stand up for her." James smiled as if he contained a very funny secret that he wasn't going to be able to explain without laughing. "Maybe she did want you to go away. Maybe she's figured out the werewolf thing already."

Sirius snorted. "Prongs, you can be pretty stupid sometimes."

"Oh, really?"

"Yeah, really," he replied. "Why would she make him go away because he's a werewolf? I mean, she's half. There's no other way she could not be--" he stopped. "Well, yeah, she can be if she's half... But there's no other way she could be not-a-werewolf. To have avoided it. But whether she is or isn't, I doubt she's afraid of her own father."

"Well, maybe she's always been a bit uncomfortable with it either way. I mean, Remus isn't too comfortable with it, so she has the right not to be," James said, making up for his lack of sense. He usually was cleverer than he was acting at the time. "Let me rest a bit, okay?"

"No," Sirius said. "I'll yodel loudly and wake you up if you do."

"Okay, then." James's face seemed to have become stone with drowsiness. His eyebrows seemed that they wouldn't move from their relaxed position, his jaw hung slightly, and his eyes were half-open. "Stupidity for sale. Who wants it?" The second sentence was meant to be a question, but he kept everything he said at one tone.

"Anyway, what were we talking about while Remus was gone?" Sirius asked, ignoring James.

"Stupidity for sale."

Sirius looked at James. "We don't want any." He turned and looked at Peter. "Wormtail, what were we talking about?"

Peter looked at Sirius and shrugged. He was usually afraid he'd spit up something stupid that was completely far from what they were talking about before Remus had returned. He always tended to give out spare pieces of information that his friends didn't seem to be very interested in or say the wrong thing, and Remus, the intellectual one of the four, would correct him. But even though Remus didn't have the capability to correct him this time, he could be easily proven wrong by Sirius. "Seem to have forgotten," he said.

Remus realized he was still standing up near the entrance. He found the spot where he had been sitting before, and he was about to pull a book out of his pocket when James said drearily, as twice before, "Stupidity for sale."

"Would you please stop that, James?" Remus asked. "You can rest. Sirius isn't going to yodel like he said." Instead of pulling his book out of his pocket, he pulled out a prefect's badge halfway, raising his eyebrows at Sirius so that he would notice.

"Right. Thanks, Moony," James said, almost immediately nodding his head off to sleep.

Remus and Peter watched Sirius for a few moments, but he only shrugged, bearing an expression that spoke for itself. "Why are they looking at me like that?" Remus finally pulled his book out of his pocket, and Peter glanced out of the window observantly.

Then, Sirius yodeled very loudly and irritatingly.

James sprang awake. He turned to Remus melodramatically, pretending he was about to cry. "You said he wouldn't yodel, but you lied to me, Remus. You lied to me!"

Remus rolled his eyes. "Seer-ee-uuuuuss." He turned on Sirius with a stern expression.

James stuck his tongue out at Sirius like a little boy would to someone who had just caught him trying to sneak a cookie from the kitchen.

Peter looked out the window, hoping no one would see his face if they assumed he was acting ridiculous when he said, "I had the feeling he would," partly in hopes that they would think he had a bit of intelligence.

He always felt like he was simply tagging along behind them, like a small child that one of their parents had wanted them to look after for the past six years. Unfortunately, they didn't always have the same reactions as they would to a young child as they did when he gave responses that were rather out of the ordinary. However, they weren't girls, who gushed over small children uncontrollably. Boys didn't seem quite as attached to the smallest children.

"It was very predictable," Remus said.

Peter gave a sigh of relief, looking forward again, realizing that Remus had turned to look at him inquisitively. "He will never learn," Peter improvised.

James had fallen asleep again. This was indicated by snores, which were not usual for James.

It got on Remus's nerves. "What are you waiting for, Sirius?"

***

A yodeling sound came from the other end of the car. "The second time..." Callie said. "What is going on down there?" She wasn't about to leave her compartment. She had grown tired, and she tended to cling to wherever she had let herself completely relax. She was sitting with her back against the side of the car beside the window, her legs across a seat.

"SEAR--" she heard from the other end of the train.

"NO!" she heard a combination of voices say.

"Fine..." she could hear faintly by listening intently. "Don't wake me up again."

She tuned them out, confused. How in the world would the word 'sear' be relevant to anything?

***

Remus stared at James, whom he was sitting beside, very sternly. "James, do you realize what you just. almost. did?"

"What?" he asked, very blankly.

"Callie is just at the other end of the car, and you are loud. If she'd heard you say Sirius's name, she might have found out who we are. That might cause trouble in its own way."

"Oh... Alright."

"Be careful next time you're going to yell at us. Meet Sam," Remus said, as if just introducing 'Jon' to Sirius's alias.

***

Callie tucked the Evanescent Charm back into her shirt.

"I need a name... Just in case someone finds out who I am..." she thought. "Evelyn...No. I like that name too much. It'd be obvious. Robyn? No, that's too close to Robert. Marianne?" she thought about the name. "Yes...That's good. Very good. Marianne..." She tried to think of a surname. "Swanson. Marianne Swanson."

She tried to think of a nice middle name for herself, just to be creative but realized that a middle name wouldn't be necessary for a secret identity. For creativity's sake, she tried to continue, but it wasn't long before her eyelids closed on their own and she found herself asleep.

***

The other three asleep, Remus having woken up a few moments before, he looked out of the window, realizing they were very close to King's Cross station. He decided to awake them so that they could change out of their robes.

"Mum, just wait a moment, will you?" James muttered unwillingly when Remus tapped him. James had turned around for a moment, but then banged his head into its proper place against the window again with a loud thud. Remus gave James a good shove. "Alright, alright, I'm up!" James responded.

"Hello, James," Remus said. "I'm your new adoptive mother."

"Oh..." James said, with an expression of shocked guilt. "I'm not at home?"

Remus shook his head. "No. You are in the future, twenty years ahead of your time."

"Oh, yes." There is a certain drowsiness that tends to remain upon people even once they have awaken, only wearing off after a fair amount of time. This may have been the explanation to James's vacant attitude. "We must only have gotten five hours of sleep. Now why'd you wake me?"

"We're almost there."

"How'd you know?" James asked him.

"Staked out landmarks in the surrounding area on how to tell when we're almost at or almost back from Hogwarts."

"Oh."

"Get Sirius. He can yell at you, but no one's yelling at me," Remus said. "I'll get Peter." He poked Peter, who woke with a start, giving a squeak before staring around timidly.

***

Callie awoke after heard a clunk from the other end of the car, which sounded a lot like something hitting a window. "Do they honestly have to be so loud?" she asked herself. "Boys," she muttered.

She looked out the window, realizing they were coming near a lit area that looked a lot like London. "Oh! I should change!" she said, pulling a knee-length, black skirt and a loose-fitting shirt out of her trunk, which she had changed back from the book bag. She never wore anything too flashy. She had, however, inherited all of her mother's clothing, but these weren't her mother's. She was glad they weren't. It hurt to think of her mother, but yet she knew that the only way her mother could truly die was if everyone completely forgot about Daine Connors-Lupin.

Which hurt more? Letting her mother die? Or accepting the fact that she was part of the reason her mother died and remembering her as a beautiful person? The past hurt, but letting something worse than what she'd already done happen and erasing all of it could be much worse.

***

Ten minutes later, the train came to a sudden halt, and Callie exited her compartment with her trunk, now a book bag again, and her violin case. She slung both over her left shoulder.

She heard the other four come out of their compartment shortly after. She turned to look for a second and then continued to squeeze her way through the aisle without banging her violin case and bag into the walls to the compartments.

She was being so careful that Remus had a chance to catch up with her. "Hello, again," he said.

"Hi," she responded. "You four were really loud down there," she said, turning to look around Remus and down the aisle.

Remus turned around as well, glaring at Sirius, who was coming out of the compartment with James and Peter, rather seriously, who glanced back confusedly.

"Really, I don't know how the word 'sear' would begin a sentence..." she said.

Remus gagged in shock. He knew that Callie could have heard it, but he was grateful she hadn't heard the whole thing.

"What were you talking about?" she asked.

"Well," he began, "Jon wanted to come up with something we want to do to..." He searched for a phrase. "His brother. He doesn't like his brother very much. And so he decided he'd scorch him in some way."

Callie was aware that 'sear' meant 'scorch.' But she didn't understand why Jon, who didn't look like he'd use such a wide vocabulary, would say even 'scorch' instead of 'burn,' whereas 'sear' sounded either very formal or very poetic.

"I see," she said, completely oblivious to what was really going on in their compartment, not even clear she understood with Remus's excuse. "Who was yodeling?"

"Sam," he said, rolling his eyes, only she couldn't see, still intent on working around the compartments with her luggage.

***

After leaving Platform 9 ¾, Callie and the four boys were confronted by a rather tall, lanky man who asked, in a voice that sounded like a mouse's, "What're five children like you doing out at a time like this?"

Callie hadn't checked her watch. It was one o' clock in the morning. She had a right to be tired. She looked back up at him before coming up with a proper response.

"We're not children," Sirius said out of the blue, which shocked Callie. She turned to look at him.

"Begging your pardon for that," the man said. "Where'd you come from, anyhow? No trains have arrived around this time."

None of the five could come up with anything proper to say.

He leaned close to Remus, who was now alongside Callie, and whispered, "You lot wouldn't have happened to come from Platform 9 ¾, would you?"

"How'd you know?" Callie asked.

"No," Callie said, hoping to cover for herself in case he was in any way connected with the Death Eaters.

"Oh?" he said, changing the subject suddenly. "I've never seen them four before... I vaguely recall them, though. Now who're you?"

"I'm Marianne Swanson," she said. "I'm in my seventh year at Hogwarts." She only said that so that at least one of them would appear to be of age.

"Never heard of you before," he said. "Catching a late train home for an early holiday?"

"Yes," Callie replied, realizing his glance fell upon Remus. "You two look a bit similar," he said, moving a finger between Remus and Callie.

"Cousin," Remus said. "She's my cousin--on my mother's side."

"And you are?"

"Robert Lewis," he said.

The man obviously knew nothing about the nonexistent Lewis and Swanson families, so he couldn't contradict whether they were cousins.

"Never heard of either of your families before," he said. "I don't expect I'll have heard of them?" He pointed to the other three.

"Piper, Parker, and Bauer," James stated.

"Wow, he remembered his own last name..." Sirius muttered in a falsely amazed voice to Peter. He seemed to find this very amusing, but Peter didn't quite understand what was supposed to be so funny.

"Piper.... Piper, maybe. I might have heard of your family. I can't say for sure, though."

"Well, we'd better be going," said Remus.

"Yes," said Callie awkwardly. "Good evening, Sir..." She remembered her watch. "Or morning..." She looked at her watch again.

"If you five need any help at all--"

"No, thank you, I believe we'll be alright," Callie responded. "No, but thanks."

She grabbed the sleeve of Remus's sweater and pulled him along with her, being cautious not to hold on to his hand.

***

Once the five were far enough out of earshot of the man, Remus said, "You seemed awfully intent on staying as far away from that man as possible. He seemed really kind."

"He's suspicious," Callie said. "It's not like a stranger to come up and automatically know that we may need some sort of help, and I've never seen him on the platform before. I don't know how he could have seen me with my father," she said. "I think he may be connected with the Death Eaters. Even if he did see me with my father, he probably wouldn't have known my family name."

"Well, he just did see you with your father," Remus said quietly after Callie had walked a short ways ahead of him.

"So true!" Sirius said all of a sudden, and rather loudly.

"Sam, please," Callie turned around and said in a hushed voice, just loudly enough for him to hear.

The five found their way to the roadside, and Callie grabbed her wand and held her arm out over the road.