Note: This is an attempt to banish writer's block for my other stories. It isn't a one shot, but it won't be as long as other Meet the... stories, either. Carrie will make an appearance...eventually.

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.

1: No Neighbours

He'd been born in the spare bedroom of his grandmother's house and had remained living there with his parents and grandmother for several months. Several important months, in fact, that had been as bleak and dark as any there had ever been to begin with, but had ended full of joy and optimism.

It was probably that optimism, fuelled by the end of the war, that had led to Teddy Lupin coming to live in a second house, the first that his parents had bought as a family home.

They'd had lots of family homes since then. Or just a lot of houses. They didn't spend enough time in most of them for Teddy to feel truly at home.

That first family home had lasted a good couple of years and Teddy had vague memories of it.

They hadn't had any neighbours.

It had been a secluded cottage atop a steep hill from which one could see for miles around. When his parents had first reminded him of this fact many years later Teddy had supposed it sounded like a bit of a fortress. It had been large in comparison to the houses that would come after it, indeed his mother said they had been lucky to find such a house with a modest budget like theirs.

They never should have bought it, his father always said. It had been stupid. Hopelessly optimistic. Like everything else just after the war.

Why did you, then? Teddy had asked, and Remus had smiled rather wistfully and recalled:

It was safe.

Teddy's single clear memory of that house never made it seem particularly safe, if truth be told. He had been around two years old, he supposed, though he didn't know for certain. He was sure his parents would have been able to tell him his precise age, but he didn't like to admit to remembering the incident at all. It had been winter, the weather outside dull and misty, and he had been sat upon his mother's lap in the sitting room, fiddling with the shiny beaded necklace that had been hanging around her neck. And then there had been a loud knock upon the door. He'd been swept up into his mother's arms as she had gone to answer the door, and Teddy's overriding memory had been the figure stood upon the doorstep when the door had been pulled open.

The visitor had been a tall, broad, bear-like man with small, squinting eyes and he had been clutching a bundle of papers in one hand, his wand in the other. His voice had been gruff and rather too loud and Teddy had hidden his face in the front of his mother's robes.

He didn't remember the conversation that had happened then first-hand, but he had pieced it together over the years and had concluded that he was quite glad to have been too small to understand a word of it at the time.

"Is he 'ere?"

"Excuse me?"

"I said is he 'ere?"

"I don't know, is he? A name might be helpful."

"I'm lookin' for a Mr...R J Lupin. Is he 'ere?"

"And...your name is...?"

"Flint. I'm 'ere on behalf of Gringott's."

"I see. No, he isn't here."

"Well that's bloody convenient for 'im, isn't it?"

"I expect it is, yes."

"When will 'e be back?"

"He's away on business."

"Oh really? What sort of business do werewolves get up to these days, I wonder?"

"If that's all, Mr. Flint, it's my son's nap time."

"What a nice little lad you've got yourself there, Mrs. Lupin. Tell 'em to leave 'is cradle when they come for the rest, shall I? In case he's 'aving a sleep..."

"Are you threatening me, Mr. Flint?"

"Of course not. I'm just sayin', you best 'ave a word with that 'usband of yours..."

"I'm sure I will. Now, may I suggest you turn around and crawl back into whichever filthy hole you came from? The weather's dull enough to darken my doorstep without your added input, thank you very much."

Teddy assumed that this was roughly the moment when his mother had slammed the door in Mr Flint's face.

Things in that house hadn't been the same after that. His father had been dreadfully changed. Dull, lifeless, pale and not at all cooperative in playing two-year old Teddy's energetic games. Hide and seek was replaced by the half-hearted reading of storybooks. The characters lost their various voices that had always made Teddy giggle and Remus' smiles grew as convincing as those that his son forced onto his face by pushing little fingers at the sides of his mouth.

"You deserve a different Daddy." the werewolf had informed the toddler one afternoon whilst they sat at the kitchen table, stacking brightly coloured bricks up into a precariously tall tower, and over by the sink Dora had snapped:

"Don't say that for Merlin's sake!"

"Don't be over-sensitive. He doesn't understand."

Dora had flung her wand down upon the kitchen countertop and come to crouch before the little boy, reaching to fix him with a serious look.

"Teddy Sweetheart," she'd said, voice the model of seriousness. "How should you like to come away with Mummy to a nice new house, and we'll leave Daddy behind, forget all about him and find you a new daddy to stack bricks with you instead? How does that sound?"

When Teddy simply stared at her, hand reaching back to grasp hold of a fistful of his father's jumper, she grinned at him and admitted:

"Now that wouldn't be very nice, would it? No, it wouldn't be very nice at all!" As she straightened up she offered her husband a scowl as she mused: "I can't think why though, can you Remus? I can't imagine why he'd rather have you than some other random man who isn't his actual father! Some other person who doesn't love him half as much! I'm sure he'd prefer a dad who doesn't protect him by disappearing into his bedroom before bedtime each evening to have a very loud and over-dramatic battle with the bogeyman who apparently lives in his wardrobe! I'm sure he'd like a dad who gets bored of reading the same storybook repeatedly every afternoon, or somebody who disappears off to work all day long just like Mummy does leaving him with his grandmother who spends most of her time telling him not to touch things in case he breaks them! It's completely beyond me, Remus, it really is! But there you have it, he seems rather attached to you!"

There had been a sizeable pause as Teddy had gathered up another good fistful of jumper in his hands, only for Remus to prise his hands open and reach to set him down upon the kitchen floor.

"We need to move." the werewolf had announced as he rose to his feet. "This is ridiculous. We never should have bought this place to begin with, we can't afford it."

And his wife had leant back against the kitchen cupboard, lips pursed together before she quietly agreed:

"Well, we'd better start looking then."

Which was how just a few weeks later Teddy came to be living in a new house. One that was vastly different to the quiet, secluded place that he had been used to...