She couldn't go to sleep.

Each time she closed her eyes, the dreadful events from her past would play on repeat and she would be unable to rest for even a second. She had been through far too much in her life for it to constantly plague her in the form of nightmares.

So struggling against herself for a while, she finally gave up, leaving her bed to go out for some fresh air.

As she stepped out of her room, she saw she wasn't the only one awake at that hour. Someone was sitting on the steps and as she stepped closer, she recognized the sandy brown hair of Remus Lupin.

Perhaps he hadn't gone to sleep either as he was tasked to keep watch on her. Thin wisps of white smoke hung about him and she saw that he held a cigarette between his fingers.

She hadn't known he smoked as she had never seen him do so back at Hogwarts. But then she didn't know the Marauders that well. Even with Sirius whom she interacted most, she had no idea about his personal life and habits.

"Couldn't sleep?" His voice shook her out of her thoughts and she saw him crush out the cigarette.

"It's okay, I don't mind if you want to carry on," she remarked, sitting beside him on the steps.

"Want one?"

She shook her head but he didn't light up another cigarette for himself either. They sat for a while in silence, both not knowing how to initiate the conversation.

He must have a lot of questions to ask her, she thought, but perhaps he wasn't doing so as he didn't want to make her uncomfortable.

Remus was considering the same but when she didn't leave either, he spoke up, "so you time traveled?"

"Yes."

"When exactly?"

"After the war ended," she replied, a shudder passing through her upon remembering all that destruction.

He could understand that in that case she probably knew a lot about the war that was upon them because in her past she had seen it all happen firsthand. But there was no certainty whether things would turn out the same after her time travel because even a single ripple in time could create drastic changes.

"If you don't mind me asking, how long did you stay in the past?" He was slightly uncertain of her reaction as he voiced out the question but she didn't tell him off for it, feeling that she could trust him.

Remus had that effect on people. He was gentle and kind-hearted and he made people feel that he trusted them and would do his best to help. So even with Eleanor, that was the first impression she had of him and it made her less dubious in telling him about her past.

"I don't really know how long passed," she replied, "because I got stuck in a time loop, reliving it over and over again."

He had read about very few similar cases to hers in which the traveler got stuck into a paradox as a result of altering something very crucial in the past. "And... I apologize if I'm overstepping my boundaries but what exactly did you do that started the time loop?"

She took in a deep breath, looking down at her hands that were clenched tightly together.

"I killed Tom Riddle," she replied at last, "I had intended to get rid of him before he would become the Dark Lord... In my mind, it was the most logical solution to stop the war and all the destruction caused as a result. But it didn't work out the way I wanted it to. And here we are again, facing everything as if nothing changed."

Her words were resentful and Remus felt bad for her. It was no wonder that suffering that time loop and trying to break it but still not succeeding in her final outcome must have traumatized her.

And while he felt awful that she had to go through so much, at the same time, he felt awed by her courage and determination that she was still there, trying to help eliminate Voldemort alongside them.

"Miss Troy, I truly respect your bravery," he spoke up, taking her by surprise, "and you don't have to feel like you're standing alone here. My friends and I are standing right beside you. We always will be."

His words touched her deeply and she felt tears prick at the corners of her eyes, "thank you so much. I really appreciate this."

***

Eleanor stayed with the Order from then onwards and proved to be of much help to them. Not only was she able to provide information about some of the incidents that were yet to occur, she was also an excellent duellist, helping the Aurors out in their battles against the dark forces.

Slowly but surely, she was starting to get accepted by the rest of the members too although Dumbledore and the Marauders were the very few people who had trusted her from the beginning.

It was one such battle against the Death Eaters in which Eleanor, the Marauders and a few other members of the Order were taking part.

They thought it was just an attack and they had to defeat those Death Eaters but in fact, it was a trap to lure Eleanor out and trap her.

Tom Riddle had gotten tired of waiting for her to turn up so he decided to take matters into his own hands. He sent those Death Eaters to capture her and bring her to his hideout.

So while they were battling against the Death Eaters that were too many for them to handle, around six of the Dark wizards cornered Eleanor.

Sirius noticed that she was having trouble fighting them off and he tried to disarm the masked Death Eater that he was dueling so that he could go to Eleanor's help.

But it was too late. The six of those Death Eaters rounded up on Eleanor and managed to overpower her, injuring her enough for her not to be able to defend herself.

"Ellie, watch out!" Sirius threw a curse at the gang surrounding her but got hit by a hex himself.

Before he could come to her aid, a dark smoke engulfed the place, making them suffocate.

When that darkness cleared up at last, the Death Eaters were gone but the worrisome fact was that they had taken Eleanor with them.

"Miss Troy!" Remus called out as they searched, the smoke still lingering as they managed to light up their wands to see clearly.

But there was no trace of the masked Death Eaters nor of the ferocious woman who they had started to consider a friend by then.

She was taken by them and that meant she would be in extreme danger. The Marauders had to return to the headquarters and inform Dumbledore about it so that they could figure out a way to rescue her before it got too late.

***