Note: This brief one shot is set shortly after Meet the Muggles, the day after Carrie Winters' 12th birthday to be precise! (Which is in actual fact not at all precise because I have never put a date on her birthday, other than it is at some point during the Summer.) I've written this instead of finishing another one shot (which is the one I've promised to write set after Meet the Order of the Phoenix) because I've been assaulted by various plot bunnies and had to try and get rid of at least one of them! So, here goes...

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.

Meet the Witch

Contorting her face in disgust as she licked the back of the final stamp, before pressing it firmly down onto the envelope, Carrie Winters rose triumphantly to her feet, scooping up the small pile of letters in her hands before announcing proudly:

"I've finished, Mum!"

From where she stood at the kitchen sink, scrubbing the remnants of breakfast from a frying pan, Mrs. Winters paused to look round at her daughter with a bright smile.

"Goodness, that was quick!" she exclaimed. "Did you write one for Mrs. Gladstone?"

"Yes."

"And Lottie's family? They sent you a lovely card..."

"Yes, Mum. I've remembered everyone, I've ticked them all off the list."

"Brilliant, love! Go and pop them in the postbox, then. Honestly, why can't the twins be more like you? It took me over a month to persuade them to write their thank you letters!"

Carrie made a beeline for the door, pulling on the nearest pair of shoes before reaching to pull open the front door.

"Back soon!" she shouted over her shoulder, and her mother called:

"Alright, Sweetheart! Mind the road!"

Carrie hopped out onto the front step, reaching to pull the door firmly shut behind her, and had just turned to make her way down the gravel driveway when a familiar voice to her right called:

"Well would you look at that!"

Carrie turned in surprise to find Dora Lupin sat upon the doorstep of the house next door, her hair today an icy shade of pale pink framing her face in short, choppy strands as she gazed up at the muggle, dark eyes twinkling.

"Look at what?" Carrie wondered, turning to wander over towards the witch.

Dora grinned.

"You're a whole year older!" she observed, arching an eyebrow.

"Oh, yes!"

"Did you have a good birthday?"

"It was lovely!"

"I suspected it might have been. Teddy tells me it involved an awful lot of cake."

As she came to a halt before the Auror, Carrie gave a snigger before inquiring:

"What're you doing sitting down there?"

"I was waiting." Dora told her, reaching to push herself back up onto her feet.

"What for?"

Once standing the witch took a moment to dust off the back of her jeans, before arching another eyebrow.

"You, obviously." she said, leaning back against the front door, folding her arms across her chest.

"Oh! Why were you waiting for me?" Carrie asked, fidgeting a little in excitement for she could not remember Teddy's mother ever seeking her out in such a way before.

Dora eyed the muggle in a distinctly thoughtful fashion for a long moment and Carrie very nearly thought she had not heard the question.

"Well," the witch said at last, reaching to twirl a strand of pale pink hair around her index finger as she continued to look the girl up and down, "Remus and I...we had a little chat this morning..." she trailed off, frowning a little before finishing: "...about what precisely we ought to give a certain muggle for her twelfth birthday."

Carrie felt her heart give an excited lurch in her chest and she found herself drawing in a deep breath in anticipation only for the witch to confess:

"And I must admit, Carrie, you've got the pair of us stumped."
"Oh..." Carrie said before she could stop herself, and the girl promptly flinched at just how disappointed she sounded. How rude, she silently scolded as she found herself shuffling back a step in embarrassment at herself, to be so expectant.

"What do you give to a girl like Carrie?" Dora mused aloud, reaching to drum her fingers against the woodwork behind her, and Carrie felt her cheeks grow a little pink before the witch leant forward a little, gaze searching as she asked: "What d'you think, hm? If you could have anything for your birthday...anything in the entire world...anything out of this world! What would it be?"

"Magic." Carrie said without a moment of hesitation, and no sooner had the word left her lips her gaze dropped towards the gravel under her feet.

It had been just three weeks since that dreadful evening. Since the gravel had been stained scarlet, since the street's silence had been shattered by shrieks...

Since Carrie Winters' deepest desire for magic had left her neighbours to pay the price.

And Carrie had wept and sobbed herself to sleep night after night in shame...

But despite it all the desire hadn't died. Carrie Winters longed for magic. It was a deep, desperate desire that the muggle was convinced would never go away.

Dora gave a somewhat pained chuckle, reaching slide her hands across her stomach until she could lace her fingers together. The movement made Carrie flinch.

"Yes...we thought you might say that." the witch murmured, frowning down at her hands, and there was a sizeable pause as she pursed her lips together in thought before looking up again, a small smile tugging at her lips as she straightened up. "Alright then," she said, mind apparently made up. "How's this for a birthday present?" Drawing herself up to her full height the Auror reached to straighten her jacket before suggesting: "How would you like me to make you a witch for the day?"

"Make me a...a witch?"

"Yes."

"For...for the whole day?"

"Well...let's say an hour or two! How does that sound?"

Carrie simply stared in slightly baffled disbelief.

"That's not possible." she pointed out when the witch simply stared at her expectantly. "Witches are born, not made."

Dora gave a soft huff and rolled her eyes.

"Well yes of course...if you're going to get picky about it..." she muttered rather impatiently. "Well? What d'you say?"

"Um..."

"No?"
"No! I mean yes! Yes! Y...yes please..." Carrie trailed off, her stomach assaulted by an odd mixture of excitement and bemusement and the witch merely turned to open the front door behind her, suggesting: "Go and post those letters, then!"

And with that she disappeared inside and shut the door firmly behind her.

For a long minute Carrie simply stood, staring at the door in utter confusion.

Had she heard Dora correctly?

She couldn't have.

Witches were born. They weren't made. Dora couldn't make her a witch for a single second, let alone a couple of hours...

Utterly bemused by the encounter, Carrie turned to wander off down the road towards the post box, attempting to replay the conversation back in her head to make some shred of sense from it all. By the time she had reached the post box and slipped her thank-you letters inside she still felt none the wiser, so as she turned to walk back home again she started from the beginning, recalling the conversation again...

It definitely made no sense.

It was...some sort of joke, she supposed. And it wasn't a terribly funny one, not after all that had been happening recently.

To think Dora of all people would think this a laughing matter...surely not?

She arrived back at the bottom of her driveway to spot Dora stood upon her front doorstep talking to Mrs. Winters who had come to answer the door. As Carrie wandered up the driveway the crunching gravel under her feet drew the adults' attention and as Dora turned to offer the muggle a grin, Mrs. Winters called:

"There you are, love! You're just in time!"

"In time for what, Mum?" Carrie wondered, suspicious of Dora's expression and her mother told her:

"You'll do Mrs. Lupin a favour, won't you dear? She's got an awful lot of shopping to do and only two hands to carry it in! You'll pop over to the shops with her, won't you? Help her bring it all home?"

"Okay..." Carrie consented a little uncertainly, and Dora shot her a positively glowing smile before turning to Mrs. Winters to exclaim:

"I knew she would! She's such a helpful girl, your daughter! If only I had a..." she trailed off a little before managing to finish: "...a girl like her..."

Mrs. Winters' expression grew instantly sorrowful and as Dora visibly swallowed a lump in her throat Carrie hastily bounded up the last few meters of the drive to come to a skidding halt beside her.

"You've got me, Dora!" she insisted rather fiercely, and both adults smiled a little, the witch reaching to throw a brief arm around the girl, giving her shoulder a squeeze.

"I do, don't I?" Dora agreed, brightening a little, and Mrs. Winters gave a slight chuckle and agreed:

"You certainly do! She's at your house more often than she is at home, I think!"

"Well we're very glad to have her. I dread to think what my son would get up to if Carrie wasn't around to keep an eye on him!"

"Boys...!"

"Awful, aren't they?"

"They're a lot worse in pairs, believe me Mrs. Lupin!"

"I should imagine they are! Hats off to you, mind you, your twins are lovely boys. They always wish me a good morning when I bump into them on their way to school in the mornings."

"Well I'm glad to think they can stop squabbling long enough to do so!"

The witch and muggle shared a laugh as Dora turned to retreat back towards her own door, deciding:

"We'd better grab those shopping bags then, hadn't we?"

As she bid her mother a hasty goodbye and set off after the witch, Carrie felt her curiosity begin to rocket and she struggled to keep quiet just long enough to slip through the door into the Lupins' hallway, and no sooner had Dora pushed the door shut behind them the muggle spun around to face her.

"What's going on?!" she asked, failing to resist the urge to bounce up and down upon the balls of her feet excitedly, and Dora gave an infuriating shrug as she headed for the stairs.

"We're going shopping, Carrie. Like your mum just said..."

"We are?"

"Yep."

"But...why? What..."

"Come up here a minute, I need to fetch something."

Carrie let out a somewhat impatient sigh and hurried after the Auror, taking the steps two at a time.

"How can you make somebody a witch for a few hours?!" she demanded to know as Dora led the way into the master bedroom, and the witch let out a laugh and exclaimed:

"Well there's a question!"

"Are you going to answer it?" Carrie asked, still fidgeting with excitement as she watched Dora reach to pull open the bottom drawer of the chest of drawers beside the wardrobe, pushing aside the different garments searchingly. "Because...because Remus says it's impossible!"

"Hmm..." the Auror mumbled evasively, and Carrie was forced to bite her tongue against further exclamations, only for Dora to reach to snatch some up out of the drawer and, with just a brief glance over her shoulder, threw the garment in question in Carrie's direction.

"Do me a favour and put that on." the witch said as Carrie managed to catch it, and with that she pushed the drawer shut and stood up, muttering: "Now where's that purse of mine gone..."

Carrie looked down at the carefully folded garment in her arms. It was made of a sleek, shimmery material the mottled colours of which Carrie found difficult to put her finger on, and as the muggle unfolded it she found it to be a long, silky cloak.

"I can't wear a cloak to the shops, Dora..." Carrie pointed out rather uncertainly, but the witch waved a dismissive hand over her shoulder as she set about searching the dressing table across the room for signs of her purse.

"Just put in on, Carrie."

Carrie obediently reached to throw the cloak about her shoulders, and as she pulled it around her Dora paused in her searching to look round, a broad grin spreading across her face as she observed:

"Sweet Merlin, who'd have thought it?! I don't know about you, Carrie, but that looks rather like magic to me!"

In bemusement Carrie glanced searchingly down at herself...

Herself had disappeared.

Carrie screamed.

She leapt backwards, letting the invisibility cloak slip from her shoulders and narrowly avoided tripping over the hem, and she had barely gasped in a breath in an attempt to calm herself to see her body reappear when a voice from downstairs called:

"DORA...?!"

"It's alright, love!" Dora called back, sounding on the verge of hysterical laughter. "It's only Carrie!"

"Is she alright?!" her husband's voice called back, sounding rather alarmed, and Dora took a moment to look the startled muggle up and down before deciding:

"Yeah, she's fine! But I'm not...I might die laughing!" She reached to clamp a hand down across her mouth in an attempt to stifle her amusement before managing to half-choke: "Try again, Carrie. Can't have you freaking out like that in front of all the locals. They're not at all used to girls randomly appearing out of thin air like that!"

Face blossoming with colour Carrie reached to retrieve the cloak from the floor before carefully pulling it back around her shoulders.

"Come here, then." Dora suggested, striding over to pull open the wardrobe, revealing a full length mirror on the inside of the door, and Carrie took a few hesitant steps forward with feet she could no longer see until she was stood in front of the mirror.

She stared, wide-eyed at her head hovering in mid air, her body entirely invisible, and after a long moment she felt a broad grin tugging at her lips.

"Wow!" she cried, bending her knees to see her head bob downwards before she gave an experimental twirl, the light silky material moving almost silently about her. She finally dragged her gaze away from her strange reflection or indeed lack of it to look at Dora, who was watching her, still very much sniggering.

"And...and I'm going to get to the shops...like this?!"

"Not like that, no." the witch said, raising an eyebrow. "You'll have to put it right over your head. Wander along with just your head showing and you'll get me in trouble!"

As Dora turned to snatch up the purse she had spotted upon the bedside table, Carrie found herself wondering:

"Is this going to be...legal?"

"Is this going to be legal?!" Dora repeated as she shoved the purse into her pocket, sounding somewhat stunned. "I lend you Mad-Eye's finest invisibility cloak and you watch yourself disappear...and the first thing you want to know is: Is this going to be legal?!"

"Yes but...is it?" Carrie pressed, but the witch merely gave a huff and muttered:

"Muggles, honestly!" And with that she made for the landing, calling: "Come on then, let's go!"

"It's going to be illegal, isn't it?" Carrie decided as they made their way down the stairs, Carrie trying her best not to trip over the hem of the cloak, and as she reached the bottom of the stairs Dora suggested:

"You're twelve years old, Carrie, not one hundred and twelve. Try and act like it, eh? Don't be so ridiculously sensible...Remus?! We're going out!"

Remus appeared in the doorway to the study, and as Carrie reached the bottom of the stairs and turned to look at him she mused that Eddington's resident werewolf looked remarkably unsurprised to see the muggle's head floating through the air, seemingly void of a body to accompany it.

"Dora's taking me to the shops." the muggle's head informed the wizard as Dora went to stand beside the door. "Is that illegal?"

"Don't answer her!" Dora demanded before Remus could even draw breath to speak, and the werewolf instead suggested:

"Pull it up over your head, Carrie. Before Dora opens the door."

And with that, Carrie Winters pulled the cloak up over her head and disappeared entirely. She walked carefully through the front door once Dora had pulled it open and before she knew it she and Dora were walking down the street towards the centre of town...

One of them visible, and one of them not.

But both of them, Carrie felt for just a little while, utterly magical.

"You can't see me, can you?"

"Nope."
"Not at all?"

"Nope."

"You really can't?!"

"Not at all. So keep your voice down, if anybody hears you they'll think I'm talking to myself...or giggling to myself!"

"Can we go...can we go to the sweet shop..."

"We can go anywhere you like. It's your birthday present...shh! Somebody's coming."

As they watched the elderly man walking towards them Carrie found herself holding her breath in anticipation and as he passed he met Dora's gaze. The pair exchanged a murmured good morning and he walked on past them entirely oblivious to the girl at Dora's side.

"Wow!"
"Shh!"

"Sorry..."

They passed several more people on their way into town and each time Carrie revelled in their unawareness, failed to keep entirely silent and giggled at the countless odd looks that were directed at Dora who no doubt appeared quite mad to anybody who saw her, muttering and hushing to apparently nobody in particular. They slipped into the sweet shop where Dora instructed nobody in particular to stay close to her and Carrie enjoyed wandering around the little shop, seeing how close she dare stand to the man examining the chocolate selection and drawing unwanted attention Dora's way by muttering strange sentences when people were in earshot. Before long Dora grew wary of the countless stares and, having bought a packet of wine gums for the walk home, the witch insisted that both she and her invisible companion made a swift exit. Initially Carrie felt somewhat disappointed...

That was until she spotted two familiar figures stood outside of the pet shop across the road.

"It's ADORABLE!" Bowie Clancy was exclaiming as she pressed her nose to the glass window, behind which, sitting snugly in his cage was a fluffy ball of fur that, having crept up for a closer look, Carrie identified as a hamster.

"Michelle at school says her brother has a pet snake." Cleo Clancy informed her sister from where she stood peering through the window too. "And one time she had a hamster called Fudge and the snake ate him alive!"

"Oh shut up, squirt!" Bowie snapped, face contorting in horror at the notion. "That's horrible!"

"I'd love to have a pet snake." Cleo mused as Carrie snuck up behind her, ignoring Dora's rather uncertain calls from back across the street. "I'd get one of those really big ones and it could sit around my neck..."

"It would probably strangle you to death." Bowie informed her bluntly as the younger sister reached into her pocket to retrieve a tube of Smarties, only to accidentally lose her grip upon them, dropping them to the floor. And as Cleo let out a small huff of irritation, bending down to retrieve them, Carrie simply couldn't help herself.

She carefully slid an invisible foot forward and gave the tube of sweet a gentle nudge, leaving them to roll just out of Cleo's reach.

Cleo's face contorted a little in annoyance as she took a step forward, stooping again, only to mutter in bemusement when the sweets were seemingly swept along a little further by a gust of wind...

She tried to snatch them up again...and again...

"What are you doing?" Bowie asked with a snigger, and Cleo ignored her, choosing instead to make one last lunge for the packet...only for it to roll just a little further, mere millimetres from her fingertips, leaving the girl to land sprawled upon her stomach.

"What the bloody hell..." Cleo began irately as she scrambled up onto her hands and knees, and the packet moved yet again only for a shadow to suddenly loom over the proceedings and a hand reached down to snatch the packet up before it could move again.

"Goodness me, you really have to work for your sweets these days, don't you?" a voice observed cheerfully, and as Cleo looked up she rather regretted her swearing as she uttered:

"Hello Mrs. Lupin!"

"Morning, Cleo." Dora greeted, causing Carrie to leap back from the scene a good few steps, sure that Dora knew precisely what she had been up to.

Cleo hastily scrambled back onto her feet, dusting the dirt from her knees as she explained:

"My sister and I were just looking in the pet shop window. They're selling hamsters, you see."

"Hamsters?" Dora said, offering the girl her sweets back.

"Yes, Bowie wants one for her birthday. But I was just saying that I would rather have something else like a snake."

Dora puffed her cheeks in consideration as Cleo reached to shove the sweets back into her pocket.

"Oh I don't know about snakes...slippery, tricky creatures...hard to keep hold of..." Dora mused, frowning a little, only to offer the girl a raised eyebrow as she mused: "Rather like packets of Smarties, actually!"

"Cleo!" Bowie's voice called from back over by the window. "Come on, let's go inside!"

The wannabe witch shot the true witch a grateful smile as she turned to hurry after her sister, only to call back:

"Bye, Mrs. Lupin!"

"Bye Cleo!" Dora called, offering the girl a slight wave, and as she turned to head back towards home the witch mused loud:

"D'you know what else snakes are like? Wayward muggle girls under invisibility cloaks..."

And as the witch strode purposefully off down the street, an invisible Carrie hurrying along after her, the girl informed the witch:

"No they're not."

"Oh really?" Dora sniggered, sounding very disbelieving as a passerby shot her a rather odd look at her conversation with somebody who wasn't there.

And the person who wasn't there informed her:

"Yes, really. Snakes are not like wayward muggle girls under invisibility cloaks. Snakes are like wayward witches under invisibility cloaks. You said you've made me a witch for an hour or two!"

"I did, didn't I?" Dora agreed, reaching to press a hand across her mouth to cover her speech. And with that the witch gave a sigh of disbelief and wondered: "What in Merlin's name possessed me to do something as downright reckless as that?"

And as they rounded the corner leading off of the high street, even Dora's fellow witch was forced to admit:

"I have absolutely no idea."

Finish.