Note: Again, thank you to my kind reviewers! I'm not too happy with this chapter, but I hope somebody enjoys it...

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, nor am I making any profit form this piece of writing.

10: Nasty Little Buggers

Head down and hand fumbling searchingly for her front door key in the inside pocket of her blazer, Carrie Winters stumbled hurriedly up the driveway of her house, heart still hammering in her ears.

She had to get inside. Right now...

"Wotcher, Carrie!"

Carrie ignored the greeting that was called to her, so focused was she upon her search that she barely registered that the voice was familiar. She had to get inside, sort herself out before her mother got home...what on earth were her parents going to say if they saw the state of her? And where was that stupid key? She started to check her other pockets...

"How was school? Did you have a good day?"

Not in that one...or that one...where was it?

"Carrie...? Are you okay, love?"

Finding all of her pockets void of keys of any sort, Carrie could only conclude that she had left them inside of the house. She aimed a frustrated, yet feeble kick at the front door, before slumping forward, forehead coming to rest against the wood with a sob.

Quick footsteps sounded from somewhere to her left and she felt a hand upon her shoulder.

"Carrie...?"

Carrie slowly straightened up and turned to regard her best friend's mother through despairing, watery eyes.

There was a long silence as Mrs. Lupin simply stared at her, eyes slowly widening in surprise before she finally muttered:

"Sweet Merlin..."

"Dora?"

Carrie gave a little jump at the hoarse, croaky voice that sounded from within the Lupins' house and Mrs. Lupin stared in shock at the child for another long moment before turning to shout over her shoulder:

"What?"

"You're going to be late for work!"

Mrs. Lupin frowned deeply as she turned back to Carrie, before reaching to put an arm around the child.

"Bugger work, Remus!"

"...What?"

"I said BUGGER WORK! I'm BUSY!" The witch offered Carrie a smile as she began to lead her across the driveways and towards the Lupins' front door. "C'mon Carrie, we'll sort you out, don't worry..."

Carrie found herself led into the house and up the hallway until they reached the doorway of the living room and through her tears the muggle was struck by an odd sense of de javu.

"You sit yourself down, love," Mrs. Lupin told her kindly, "and I'll be right with you. Don't worry about him, it's not contagious."

As the witch disappeared off up the hallway towards the kitchen, Carrie shuffled into the room, eying the wizard swathed in blankets who was once again lying upon the sofa, complexion that of the living dead. Her tears slowly beginning to subside as a sense of relief and calm began to still her nerves, Carrie drew in a shaky breath and managed:

"Hello Mr. Lupin."

Teddy's father's eyes opened sluggishly, just as they had the day Teddy had presented him with the steaming mug of tea, and it seemed to take a moment for his eyes to focus upon the girl stood in the middle of the room.

He blinked. And then he blinked again. Apparently satisfied that he wasn't seeing things, he threw the blankets from around him and sat bold upright in his seat, eyes widening just as his wife's had done outside a few minutes beforehand.

"What in Merlin's name..."

"Sit down then, Carrie." Mrs. Lupin's voice interrupted briskly from the hallway, and Carrie turned to find that the pink haired woman already striding into the room, a large green plastic container held under one arm. As Carrie obediently took a seat in an armchair, Mr. Lupin reached down to pick up a small corked bottle from the floor beside the sofa, one hand holding his forehead as he attempted to push the stopper free with his thumb. The cork came loose with a soft pop and the wizard was about to lift the bottle to his lips when he found it snatched from his grasp.

"Gimme that."

As Mrs. Lupin claimed the bottle and turned her back on him, coming to kneel before Carrie's chair, the wizard stared after her somewhat thickly.

"You can't give her that..." he protested halfheartedly, and Mrs. Lupin rolled her eyes.

"Shut up, Remus."

"But..."

"Remind me, love, who got an Outstanding in NEWT Level Potions?"

"You did..."

"And who got a Troll in their Potions OWL?"

"I didn't..."

"Liar. Go and put the kettle on, will you? If I'm going to be late for work I'm going to do it properly and squeeze in another cup of tea."

As Mr. Lupin heaved himself up onto his feet and began his stumbling course towards the kitchen, his wife reached to open the box, which appeared to be some sort of first aid kit. She rummaged around until she produced a small plastic measuring cup and Carrie watched in silence as she measured out a small dose of the potion from the bottle, before pressing it into Carrie's hand.

"You drink that and I'll see what we can do about that nose of yours."

Carrie eyed the cloudy liquid worriedly as Mrs. Lupin went back to rummaging through the box.

"What is it?"

"Triple strength solution of willow bark and dullroot. It's a pain killer...pain brutal murderer, actually...REMUS?"

"Yes?" Mr. Lupin's reply was faint and croaky.

"You do realize this is TRIPLE strength potion you've bought, don't you?"

"I'm not a complete moron, Dora."

Mrs. Lupin rolled her eyes.

"You could have fooled me!" she announced, and for the first time since the school bell had rang some half an hour earlier, Carrie smiled. The smile faded instantly when Mrs. Lupin scrutinized her bloodied nose and observed:

"That looks pretty broken to me."

Carrie could feel tears gathering in her eyes again as she watched Mrs. Lupin reach into a pocket and pull out her wand.

"Hey, don't worry!" the witch assured her confidently. "I can fix it, it'll be good as new! This is exciting, don't you think? Nobody's ever done magic on you before, have they? Are you ready?"

Carrie could not quite decide which she felt more: sudden excitement at this landmark occasion or total panic. Not waiting to decide which, she gave her head a small nod. As Mrs. Lupin raised the wand, Carrie failed to suppress the urge to close her eyes and, after a mumbled word, her nose suddenly seemed to feel very hot. Yet as soon as she had snapped her eyes open again, Carrie felt the sensation begin to dull and she reached with a hesitant hand to prod experimentally at her nose.

"Pretty as ever, I promise." Mrs. Lupin told her, reaching into the box to grab a handful of tissues before setting about dabbing the remainder of the blood from the girl's face. "Which is a lucky thing, face like that you were giving Remus a run for his money just then."

"Mr. Lupin doesn't look like he went twelve rounds with Mike Tyson." Carrie mumbled miserably, and she felt little amusement when Mrs. Lupin frowned in confusion and said:

"I dunno, he looks pretty hung over to me!"

As the witch set about packing things back into the box, Carrie tried to think of something to say, before Teddy's mother could ask her the dreaded question: What happened?

"Teddy says Mr. Lupin gets ill a lot." she mumbled, and the smallest of frowns creased Mrs. Lupin's brow as she agreed:

"Teddy's right, he does rather."

"How long has he been...getting ill for?" Carrie asked, and her heart sank when she was told:

"Remus has been the same since he was a child."

"That's dreadful..."

"That's life, Carrie love."

"What's wrong with him?" The question had left Carrie's lips before she could quite stop herself, and she immediately reached to put a hand to her mouth.

Mrs. Lupin rose to her feet, box in hand as she offered the girl a rather weak smile. Before she could give an answer, or indeed before Carrie could mumble an apology for sticking her nose in, Mr. Lupin appeared in the doorway, a trio of mugs levitating along before him. Each of the adults plucked one out of the air and the third came to hover just above Carrie's lap. She reached forward and carefully and wrapped her hands around it. The child was glad to have something to clasp hold of, for Teddy's parents both sat down upon the sofa and, as they both eyed her curiously, Mrs. Lupin said:

"So, do you want to tell us what happened at school today?"

Carrie supposed that this was the sort of conversation that she was supposed to have with her own parents, rather than somebody else's, but if she were honest she could not bear the thought of telling her mother and father about the bullies at school, and it seemed much easier to tell the Lupins instead. It was perhaps because over the last few weeks she had begun to view them as a second family of sorts, and yet they were different enough from real relations that she didn't feel a desire to shield them from her trouble.

"I fell over...a few times." she mumbled, finding that as soon as she opened her mouth she was suddenly a little less eager.

"Who pushed you?" Mrs. Lupin asked, and when Carrie simply stared at her in surprise she gave a small shrug. "I know all about falling," she explained, pausing to shoot her husband a challenging look as if daring him to say something. "I do it all the time."

Eyes fixed upon her shoes, Carrie told them all about her two encounters with the bullies that day and once she had finished she reached to dab at her eyes with the sleeve of her blazer, peering over at the two adults worriedly.

Mr. Lupin sighed heavily as he stared thoughtfully down into his teacup, and Mrs. Lupin pursed her lips tightly together for a moment before muttering:

"Nasty little sh..."

"Dora!" Mr. Lupin interrupted swiftly, his hand coming to rest upon her elbow, and her face contorted indigently.

"I'm right though, aren't I, Remus? It's a fact of life! Children are bloody horrible!"

"There's a generalization if ever I heard one..."

"You can talk!" Mrs. Lupin cried, reaching to point an accusing finger in his face, narrowly avoiding jabbing him in the eyes. "This one here, Carrie, when he was at school he upturned a potful of compost over some other kid's head! And that's only the start of it! The things his mates got up to...nasty like sods, the lot of them!"

"That wasn't me, it was Sirius..."

"Don't try and pin it on a dead man, Remus, just admit it! If Teddy gets up to half of what you did when you were at school you would be utterly ashamed of him! And then there was me, wasn't there? Merlin, if I had been my mother I would have packed me off to one of those muggle covens..."

"It's a convent, Dora..."

"Exactly! Obnoxious little thing I was, waltzing around Hogwarts, using every lunch hour to plot some little scheme against Charlie Weasley...he was a nasty little bugger too, you know Carrie, I caught him trying to look up my skirt in sixth year when I was at Quidditch tryouts!"

Mr. Lupin's eyes drifted closed and he reached to rub his eyes with one hand.

"That's a joke, isn't it?" he murmured hopefully, and his wife turned to look at him with wide, fuming eyes.

"No, it's not!" she cried, and Carrie watched him sink further down into his chair, brow creasing at this news. "And now you've got to sit across from him at the dinner table tomorrow night and make polite conversation with him knowing that he's seen my knickers! See? Nasty little bugger!"

Carrie couldn't help it, she giggled.

"Don't you worry, Carrie," Mrs. Lupin assured her with a grin as Mr. Lupin continued to frown into the backs of his eyelids. "They'll grow out of it, most of them do. And I'm sure you can keep out of their way, can't you? I've seen that school, it's a pretty big place. And I'm sure your brothers could walk you home, if you asked them. You weren't prepared today, that's all."

Carrie felt only slightly at ease, but she allowed herself to be drawn into other conversation to take her mind off her problem. She told them about Cleo Clancy, her obsessions and wholly false assumptions about magic and her mushy pea concoction, which they seemed to find very amusing indeed. She told them about her different lessons and even presented them with her homework planner so that they could discuss which days had the best combinations of lessons and which were going to be less enjoyable. As Carrie and Mrs. Lupin began to speculate about what else was hidden within the dark confines of Cleo's pockets, Mr. Lupin sat flicking absentmindedly through the homework planner, until he came across a page that seemed to have him captivated. When he failed to answer a question that was directed at him, Mrs. Lupin turned to see what he was staring at. Carrie too squinted over at the open pages of the planner.

He was staring at a small printed map of the school building.

"I have an idea." he announced when they both stared at him questioningly, tapping his fingers thoughtfully upon the open pages.

"Oh?" Mrs. Lupin asked, raising an eyebrow. She stared down at the map for a long moment, and before Carrie could figure out what on earth they were talking about a wide smile began to spread across her face.

"Are you planning to do what I think you're planning to do?" she asked, much to Carrie confusion.

"I think so." he said slowly, a small smile of his own playing upon his lips. "It was your talk of our times at Hogwarts that got me thinking..."

"You do realize it would be illegal, don't you love?"

Mr. Lupin offered his wife a raised eyebrow.

"Are you going to arrest me?" he asked, pressing his wrists together and offering him his hands in mock surrender.

"Oh shut up!" Mrs. Lupin reached to slap his hands away. "I think it's a brilliant idea!" she announced, flinging her arm around him and leaning to press a light kiss to his cheek. "Which is, quite frankly Remus, shocking given how much of that potion you've downed today. You've been taking double doses, it's a wonder you're even constructing coherent sent..."

"Can I borrow this?" Mr. Lupin asked Carrie rather loudly, drowning out her complaint before she could finish speaking.

Carrie paused before answering, one last attempt to try and figure out exactly what on earth was going on, before she told him:

"Well...I suppose...but...but I need it for school in the morning..."

"Excellent!" Mr. Lupin beamed at her as he heaved himself to his feet and made for the door, his stumbling steps somewhat purposeful. "I'll post it through your letterbox after dinner."

"Right then," Mrs. Lupin had also risen to her feet, a far more free and easy movement than his had been. "Let's get you home then, Carrie, I'll unlock the front door for you..." she gave her wand a vague explanatory wave as she passed the child, who got up to follow her. "Oh and here, take this," she produced a small tube of cream from her pocket and held it out to the muggle. As Carrie accepted and examined the little tube of Graze-Away, the witch assured her: "It's way more effective than mushy peas! You're head will look totally fine by the morning!"

Carrie had to agree that it certainly sounded more promising than Cleo's "secret concoction".

When she closed her front door behind her some minutes later, Carrie was still feeling somewhat confused by the final conversation that she had witnessed between Teddy's parents. But as she mounted the stairs towards her bedroom, the tube of cream tucked safely away in her pocket, she couldn't help but feel that the Lupins were going to be helpful to her in more ways than they first seemed.