Carina Black: Life After Azkaban

An Unexpected Meeting

It was the day after Carina got her new job, and Carina was excited to start. She woke up bright and early at exactly six in the morning so that she could get herself ready for the day. She wasn't supposed to be at the shop until nine and it was easy to get there, but she wanted to be completely ready for her first day on the job.

After exactly two hours and forty five minutes of preparing herself, she headed over to the shop. She was greeted with a warm smile and firm handshake from the manager.

"Okay, so what I am going to ask you to do is restock these books. There should be one of each still in stock, so you won't have that much trouble finding their proper place," the manager explained. Then, he turned around and opened the door to a storage room. In the room were piles and piles of books. There were towers of books that reached up all the way to the tall ceiling that wobbled precariously as the manager passed.

The manager picked up one of the smaller piles and handed it to Carina, saying, "I will start you off with these for now. Once you finish with those, just go back into the storage room and get another pile. I have a shipment to deal with. Good day, Carina!"

The books were heavy, despite their small size. They weighed Carina down like an anchor and she had trouble picking up her feet.

"Blast it. Who knew small books could be this heavy?" Carina muttered to herself as she went around stocking the shelves.

When she'd finished stocking the pile that the manager had given her, she went back into the storage room for another. She did this all day, stocking pile after pile until her arms felt like logs hanging useless at her sides. She had one more stack left to stock, and she wanted to get it done quickly. With great effort, she picked up the stack and proceeded to walk down each isle, stacking the books.

She'd only gotten through three of the twelve books in her stack, when she lost her balance and tripped head on into an unsuspecting shopper.

"Oh, sorry. Didn't see you there," apologized the shopper. That voice sounded familiar... "It's been a while, Carina."

"Remus! It's you! Great to see you again, Moony!" Carina dropped the books she'd been picking up and hugged Remus. He tensed up and pulled away.

"Why'd you do it, Carina?" Remus asked, suddenly sounding very hurt.

"Wha- oh. You don't honestly believe Sirius and I would do something like that, do you?" Carina replied, sounding equally hurt.

"He was the secret keeper. I never did ask why you went after Peter that day. It was because he tried to save them, wasn't it? Weak little Peter, standing up against you two. I should've done more to save him. You killed an innocent man. You killed him!" Remus whispered, a single tear running down his cheek.

"Remus, we would never. Sirius transferred his secret keeper duties to Peter before... you know. We went after him because he was the one who betrayed them. Then, he lured us out into the street and made it look like we were trying to kill him. He blew up the street. Cut off his own finger to make it look like it was us. He's the real monster," Carina explained solemnly. She felt tears welling up in her own eyes as well.

Remus stood there for a good thirty seconds, just staring into Carina's eyes, looking for a sign that she was lying. Suddenly, he lunged over and hugged her fiercely.

"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry I wasn't there with you. I could've done more to stop you. I know it wasn't you," Remus sobbed.

"It's okay. It's not your fault. It's not anyone's fault but Voldemort's," Carina replied. They let go of each other and stepped back.

"I've got to go. I have business to attend to. Come visit me sometime," Remus wavered, reaching down to pick up Carina's dropped books for her. She took them from him and waved goodbye with her other hand. She was glad she'd cleared things up with Remus. Now she wasn't alone.