Who: Caradoc Dearborn & Emmeline Vance
When: November 1, 1981 [3 AM]
What: finding out You-Know-Who's gone
Running, she was running as fast as she could, as hard as she could, down the street from the apparation point toward---him! Toward Caradoc! She had to get inside of her house, she had to---it didn’t matter that it was two in the morning and he was probably asleep---or more likely that he wasn’t asleep and was instead just lurking around the house, but---but!
Voldemort was gone. The Potters had---Harry had---whatever that little boy had done, Emmeline would thank him for the rest of her life because this meant--it meant so many things, it meant----everything. No more war. The death eaters were sure to be mad for a bit, but now that their leader was gone, who would dare to rise up and try to take his place? The Ministry was stronger than ever, the Order had managed to stay alive even though they were in shambles, it----they’d won, they’d won, they’d won.
Finally.
Emmeline pushed through the back gate of her old family home, where Caradoc had been hiding out these past few months, and unlocked the door quickly and swiftly. She nearly hurdled through the house and she knocked down a lamp that was probably a century old, but she didn’t care.
“Caradoc!” she shouted, knowing she shouldn’t be shouting his name like this, but not really caring to wonder if the sound muffling spells were still in place on the house. Emmeline crashed into the side of a bookcase and sent some books tumbling to the floor. She rubbed her shoulder as she continued down the hallway, nearly hollering, “Caradoc Evan Dearborn where the hell are you!”
That did not sound normal. Caradoc jumped from his glazed-over state on the floor of the library, pushing aside whatever it was that had been previously occupying his hands. Time in England appeared to be much slower than ever, so he usually found himself doing something mundane to help subdue his subconscious and prevent it from going insane. One could only handle be locked in one house after the other for so long before feeling the need to itch the skin off of your body. Caradoc simply blinked at that thought, pushing it out of his mind for the time being. Whatever was going on downstairs had a lot more potential to be displeasing than getting cabin fever.
After his hands and legs were free, Caradoc reached for his wand in his sweater pocket as he tread out of the room silently. He recognized Emmeline’s voice screaming downstairs, but that did not settle him. She never appeared like this, and certainly not when she was supposed to be on patrol until the early morning. Something must have happened--- and since nothing positive ever happened, it was only natural that Caradoc, with all he had experienced, assumed the worst. But that left an extremely distasteful feeling in his mouth, not to mention a sinking stomach, so he simply assumed the standard.
Holding his wand loosely, Caradoc carefully sneaked until he appeared in the doorway to her left. Impassive, and wanting to believe it was actually her, he kept still with eyes racing behind her to look for anyone else that might be present in the house. She looked relatively untouched-- no bleeding, limping or bruises, so what exactly was happening here he still didn’t know.
“Prove yourself,” he spoke calmly, watching Emmeline’s movements carefully. It would be very hard for an impersonator to accomplish that perfectly.
“There you are!” she let out, breathing heavily, “Where were you? What were you doing----oh!” Emmeline ran a hand through her hair, her eyes wide with the excitement and madness of the night. He didn’t know. He couldn’t have known! The Order had just found out, she’d just found out five minutes ago, it couldn’t have possibly leaked to the news yet, to the Ministry, Dumbledore said he was going to take care of all of that---Emmeline took in a big gulp of breath to think, “Our first kiss was at Hogwarts in front of the Ravenclaw dormitory, and Gideon Prewett interrupted us.”
Emmeline’s eyebrows rose, silently asking ‘is that enough?’ before her hands went up (wand free, so to not cause her anxious boyfriend to send a spell her way) to elaborate her story. “You’re not going to believe---”
She put her hand to her chest to catch her breath, and as she managed to calm down her smile grew wider and wider as she took in Caradoc. Of course, he had his wand at the ready to attack her, in case he decided that she was not Emmeline and in fact an impersonator, but---looking at Caradoc right now, in the dimly lit hallway, caused her to fully realize how much they had just gained by the Potters’ deaths, by Harry’s miraculous survival.
He wouldn’t have to hide anymore. Well--she didn’t know how Caradoc could reenter society, but the fear of death eaters attacking him, that Voldemort would come after him----they could live, they could have a life, she could make him so happy and----”He’s gone, Caradoc----Voldemort----he’s dead, he’s gone, Dumbledore said----the Potters did it, Harry---” She couldn’t get the words out fast enough, and her shoulders scrunched in excitement, “The war’s over, he’s gone.”
At first, Caradoc felt he could relax. The statement about their first kiss no one had known about--- so his concerns about this person actually being Emmeline were calmed. But once she had opened her mouth again to speak, he automatically tensed back up to reveal a disbelieving face.
That... was... impossible. The Dark Lord--- dead? She was mistaken. Nothing could have brought him down, except for maybe Dumbeldore himself, but the old man had made it very clear to Caradoc that he was wrapped up in other things for the time being, making Emmeline’s statement virtually impossible. There was no way that the Potters had found a way to-- end the war. Especially after all these years-- it was all most of them had ever known, normal life, so it couldn't have ended this way, so unceremoniously, so without warning.
“That’s impossible,” Caradoc replied flatly, lowering his hand to put his wand back into its pocket. Emmeline’s excitement was infectious however; he felt his heart begin to pick up and his limbs begin to tingle awake. But no, he could not let himself believe this for a second, no matter how much Emmeline seemed to. There was just no way, he couldn’t wrap his mind around the concept of freedom after all these years of constraint. Unless---
“Did you see it?” It was foolish to get his hopes up, with such a small chance, but he could at least amuse her. Caradoc leaned closer to Emmeline, watching her keenly.
“Nooo, no,” she began, rubbing her shoulder because bloody hell she’d rammed into it hard. Caradoc did not seem as excited about the news as she was, and Emmeline supposed that it was a rather random thing to shout about so late at night. She couldn’t form intelligent sentences, however, no matter how much she tried, “Dumbledore had---some charm on the Potter house and----and when it was broken, Sirius actually-----when Voldemort broke through the spells Dumbledore knew and---Hagrid was already there, he saw and----Harry’s gone, Dumbledore sent him somewhere and----it was some ancient magic that did it---!”
Emmeline put her hand to her chest to try and calm her breaths. She couldn’t, she couldn’t! This was the moment she’d been waiting for since her sixth year at Hogwarts, this was what she’d been dreaming about since she found out Caradoc was a death eater, this was the night she had risked her life for over and over again and she had no idea how to truly accept it. Being happy over the last few years had always been a temporary thing. Any time Emmeline had found something to smile about, it was shattered irrevocably. Caradoc’s return had been such a gift, but at the same time they had to tread so very carefully, it was as if he wasn’t really there, but in this fantasy world she had living in her childhood home. Now---now she didn’t know how long it would take, but with Voldemort gone, they stood a chance---
“We should go on a holiday,” she blurted, stepping toward him quickly. Emmeline’s eyes were as wide as quaffles as the enormity of the situation began to overwhelm her, and she gripped his hands, “We should---let’s go to Spain. Or Egypt! Take a cruise, I could miss work, I could quit my job! We could go---anywhere we could----for a week, we could just go---two! Let’s go for two, or---leave! We could leave England and---we could go to lunch, just---we could---you could live, Caradoc!”
She’d never been happier, she’d never been so grateful for anything in her life besides Caradoc returning to her, this---they could finally have a life.
But she hadn’t seen it. She hadn’t--- he hadn’t seen what had happened. How did they know... how did they know this wasn’t a trick? A ploy created by the Dark Lord to give him time and anonymity to fulfill an even larger, horrible scheme to cement his power over all of England? It just didn’t seem--- possible. Caradoc wanted to believe Emmeline, he did. Nothing would make him happier to know that he could finally be free of these cursed walls and walk without hesitation outside as himself.
But---
Something within him simply wouldn’t let it go. Not yet, at least. Caradoc believed that Emmeline was telling the truth, but how-- how--- after all he had gone through because of this war, everything he had sacrificed, he just could not believe her. And he probably wouldn’t for a long time, regardless of the truth.
So Caradoc’s eyes went wide as soon as Emmeline’s did, but not for the same reasons. He saw the near-wild look in her eyes, which made him hesitate to respond immediately. She would be upset if he further denied believing what she was saying to him. She looked so happy--- instead, Caradoc formed the weakest of smiles as his hands rose to grasp her sides.
“One step at a time,” he spoke in a low tone, smothering his personal thoughts down quickly. There would be time for investigation and contemplation tomorrow about this. No doubt everyone would be talking, and he would only need to spy on a few to get the answers he was looking for. “Maybe we should stay for a little bit before going off. Won’t you want to be around everyone else?”
Overwhelming, she was being overwhelming again. Emmeline smiled up at Caradoc in that way that she knew still made him squirm uncomfortably. She nodded along with his words, knowing that it would be silly to just run off now, but the thought brought so much life into her, more life than she’d ever had in her twenty plus years on this earth. She could finally think about the future without worrying about the next death eater attack, or if the ministry was actually going to fall. She could plan things, she could get a real, steady job, she could be with Caradoc for as long as he wished to be with her and oh. The idea of a future had never been so clear, it was nearly blinding to Emmeline.
Everyone else around her, even if they had the struggles of the Order plaguing them, she felt as if they’d been able to do something with their lives and she’d been frozen to her seat watching them pass.
Emmeline pressed her face to his chest and shut her eyes, taking in deep breaths as the weight of this new freedom settled upon her shoulders. She’d never been free. Never, in her entire life, had she had the time to do whatever she wished, with whomever she wished. Emmeline didn’t know what to do with this new freedom, but her hands slunk around Caradoc and she took some shuddering breaths. Honestly, she’d promised herself she was not going to cry, but she could finally breathe again.
She let out a nervous laugh, “I’m all out of words,” she admitted, not lifting her head from his chest. Her ridiculous energy was gone and spent, and now all Emmeline could do was stand still.
