Note: I'm sorry I've taken a while to update, I was busy writing The Dark Creatures' Child!

Thank you to everybody who has left me a review, it's always great to hear when you enjoy the story...spurs me on to write some more!

Oh and...take THIS Kuroida! *Waves arms around in a poor imitation of kung-fu!*

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, nor am I making any profit from this piece of writing. I do, however, own Caroline "Carrie" Winters.

11: Cousin Roxie

Carrie became so distracted that evening telling her parents about all of her lessons and her rather eccentric new friend, whilst the twins babbled incoherently about their first day, interrupting one another midway through sentences and arguing about insignificant details, that before she knew it, Carrie found herself being sent to bed. It was not until she was dashing down the stairs the following morning, ready to guzzle some orange juice and grab a couple of slices of toast before the twins left for school without her, that she spotted her homework planner set neatly atop her school bag by the front door. She had not spent any time looking at it, however, for she had already wasted far too long standing before the mirror in her bedroom in her pajamas, marveling over the disappearance of her graze and bruises from the day before.

And it wasn't until she had settled down at her desk in first period English class that she got a chance to examine her planner properly. Flicking through the pages until she reached the school map, Carrie drew in a deep breath in anticipation...

...and promptly bit her tongue in a desperate effort not to let out a shriek of combined excitement and surprise.

"It worked, then?" said a familiar voice to her right, and as the chair next to her was drawn back from the desk, Carrie promptly slammed her planner shut and hastily set it down to her left, her Teddy-hair pencil case placed purposefully on top.

"What?" she mumbled hurriedly as she turned to see Cleo drop into the chair beside her, head bent low as she squinted into the deep and mystifying depths of her bag, searching for her own pencil case and planner.

"My secret concoction!" Cleo clarified, glancing up from her search to roll her eyes at Carrie as if it were obvious. "Even the graze has disappeared! I told you so, didn't I?"

"Oh..." Carrie forced an enthusiastic smile onto her lips. "Yeah, it worked great! Thanks, Cleo..." She was relieved that she was spared from more conversation about Cleo's wondrous healing abilities, for it was at that moment that the teacher, Miss Fisher called the class to order. As two boys from the front were each handed a stack of exercise books to hand out, Miss Fisher set about writing her name in large red letters upon the white board with a squeaking marker pen.

"Well then everybody," she said as she turned back to the class, offering them a wide, shiny pink lipstick smile, chubby fingers reaching to straighten her matching pink cardigan. "Welcome to Year Seven English!" She paused, as if waiting for some sort of response, but the children merely stared back at her, a few smiling faintly. "My name is Miss Fisher, and I'm sure I'll get to remember all of your names soon enough! So, let's get down to business, shall we? Today we are going to begin looking at story writing. What do we need to make a story? What makes a good story? Now, I'm going to take the register, and whilst I do that I want everybody to write a little paragraph for me. I want to know what your favorite story book is, what's good about it, why do you like it more than the other books you've read? Does anybody have any questions?" When the only response was the rustling of paper and the zipping open of pencil cases, the teacher retreated to her desk and began to call out names; starting with Georgina Andrews.

As Carrie set about writing her name upon her new exercise book, she half wished that she had not glimpsed the inside of her homework planner until break time because concentrating on anything else was now sure to be near impossible.

Especially when she was dying to reach over and take another peak, just to be sure she hadn't been imagining things. To see if there really were countless moving dots magically making their way across the page of the school map...

Something was jabbing her in the shoulder.

"Hello? Earth to Carrie!"

Carrie blinked herself out of her thoughts and turned back to Cleo.

"What?"

Cleo gave a sigh of exasperation as she scribbled a title atop the first page of her own book.

"What, what, what? Honestly, you'd think somebody had fed you muddle water."

"What?" Carrie said again, utterly bemused. "I mean...what's...muddle water?"

Cleo grinned, leaning towards Carrie conspiratorially as she explained:

"It's a magic potion that makes people confused!"

"What's in it?"

"Crushed earthworms and Coca-Cola."

"Coca-Cola...?"

"Yep. I read about it on the Internet. It's handy, Coco-Cola. Before they made it, witches used to have to gather the ingredients all on their own. The guy who invented it, John Pemberton, he was secretly a warlock."

"Does it cover up the taste of the worms?"

Cleo's face contorted irritably and she offered Carrie a scowl.

"You know," she said as Carrie turned her attention back to her exercise book in an attempt to keep a straight face. "For somebody who says they believe in magic, you don't know very much about it, do you?"

At break time, Carrie retreated into a cubicle of the girls' bathroom to look at her homework planner in peace. Alone, she allowed herself a gasp of excitement when she opened the map page and marveled at the array of little dots slowly moving around the page, like a swarm of tiny insects. As she peered closer, Carrie could make out tiny lettering beside each dot...

Nathan Rider, Hannah Lucas, Tamara Lemon, Joshua Stokes...

And a small, unmoving dot in the first floor girls' toilets labeled Caroline Winters...

"Wow..." Carrie breathed, holding the book right under her nose as she got to her feet, slid back the lock and opened the cubicle door. She began to pace up and down before the row of sinks.

And upon the map, the dot labeled Caroline Winters moved back and forth within the confines of the printed walls of the girls' bathroom.
Carrie came to a halt, heart hammering with excitement in her chest.

When I go home, she decided as she continued to stare at her map, I'm going to knock on the Lupins' front door. And when Teddy's dad opens the door I'm going to give him the biggest hug EVER...

It was then that she noticed the loose papers that had been tucked into the back of the planner, and she retreated back into her cubicle to look at them. The first, she discovered, was a single piece of paper upon which was written a note, and the second was a small envelope that appeared to have already been opened.

Carrie

Under no circumstances is anybody other than yourself to lay eyes upon the map. Unlike it's Hogwarts counterpart, which my friends and I created whilst at school, the marks upon it cannot be magically hidden. More specifically, you cannot perform the magic which would do so. Keep this in mind and be very careful.

More importantly, make sure you have lots of fun with it! You can call it an early Christmas present from Dora and I, if you like.

Teddy wrote to us yesterday and enclosed a letter for you, too. It completely slipped our minds yesterday afternoon, so I have enclosed it here.

Take care,

Remus

Dear Carrie

I'm a GRYFFINDOR!

The Sorting Hat took a while to decide, it was a very close thing, but it finally sorted me into my dad's house.

Carrie felt oddly disappointed at this news. She had rather been hoping that Teddy would end up in Hufflepuff. She had liked the idea of him being in the house for those who were loyal, it had reassured her that her best friend would remain exactly that, no matter what wonders there were to distract him at Hogwarts, no matter how much more boring the muggle world would start to seem.

Hogwarts is quite possibly the coolest place I've ever seen, and I can't wait for lessons to start today. They are going to be amazing, I'll write and tell you all about them! I've woken up extra early so that I can write home before breakfast. Breakfast, Carrie! I can't even wait for breakfast! The food here is amazing! I wish you could have seen the welcome feast, there was so much food I didn't know what to try first! I'm sharing my dormitory with some other boys in my year, we didn't get much sleep last night because we were talking so much. The boy in the bed next to mine kept making jokes when we were trying to sleep, we kept on laughing and it kept us awake. His name is Joshua Henderson, he says he is a muggle born, that means his parents are muggles like you. We had a chat about the Interweb. I think the others thought we were a bit crazy.

There is a notice on the board in the common room about Dueling Club, I think I might join but only once I've learned some spells in Defense Against the Dark Arts. That's the subject my dad used to teach, did I ever tell you that?

What is it like at Oakhurst Manor? Have you made any nice friends? I hope you write and tell me all about it, I promise I'll write back!

Lots of love,

Teddy

Glad as she was that Teddy was happy at Hogwarts, Carrie could not help but feel rather jealous of his wonderful first day, so much more enjoyable than her own, and news of Joshua Henderson made her feel even worse.

How come he got lucky?

Carrie folded the letters up and tucked them into the pocket of her blazer, hugging her arms around herself.

She didn't really stand a chance as a best friend, she mused dully, with somebody like Joshua Henderson to contend with. Who would she want as a friend? The boring muggle girl or the boy who had the best of both worlds? It wasn't much of a competition, she was sure...

Carrie was glad to hear the bell ringing for the start of third period and he hurriedly stored her planner in her bag and hurried off in search of her science classroom.

Carrie's second day at secondary school was, like the first, full of highs and lows. Her discovery of her magical map was by far the highlight of her day, whilst she was not entirely sure which category to place Teddy's letter into. She was also delighted at lunchtime when, through a mouthful of salt and vinegar crisps, Cleo had asked if she would like to go back to her house for dinner after school the next day.

Carrie's biggest low that day came when the final bell rang for the end of school and she headed down the steps towards the gates, looking around searchingly for her brothers.

"Carrie!"

She barely heard the sound of Thomas shouting her name above the chatter and noise of the rest of the students around her, and it took a long moment for her to catch sight of the twins, who were waving their arms wildly in the air trying to get her attention. She had barely raised her arm to wave back when Thomas shouted:

"We're going to play football with Mark and Jordan! We'll see you at home, yeah?"

Dread descended over her within seconds as Carrie made a dash after the two boys, who had already turned and were running off towards the gates.

"WAIT!" she yelled after them, but her voice was lost amongst the crowd. She came to a defeated halt, staring miserably as she watched her brothers run out of the gates...

...past the group of girls who were stood waiting just as they had been the day before.

Carrie wondered how long they would stay there for, if she could just wait for them to leave, but her mother would be at home today, she would get worried if Carrie didn't get home on time.

Adjusting the bag upon her shoulder, Carrie sucked in a deep, steadying breath.

I can do this, she told herself firmly, I can, I just have to walk, keep an eye on my feet...

Walk. Just walk...

And so it was that Carrie Winters approached the school gates, gaze fixed on her shoes. Just like last time, the bullies seemed to be ignoring her...

They were ignoring her! She was past them, nobody had tried to trip her, one step, two steps, three, four...

So preoccupied with staring at her feet was she, that when Carrie felt somebody's hands upon her shoulders she was so surprised that she could not think to react. She found herself shoved violently forwards, her feet stumbling, tripping...

Only for another hand to catch hold of her by the arm, just in time to stop her from toppling flat on her face.

Carrie looked up to find herself face to face with her savior, only to take a small step backwards at the sight of her. Before her stood a tall girl of what Carrie would estimate to be about eighteen years of age. She had short, cropped, bleached blonde hair, the spiky tips tinged green as if the bleaching had somehow gone badly wrong. Her face was adorned with piercings, from a dark metal ring through one nostril to a hefty looking bolt sticking out just under her lower lip. Carrie watched her turn her thickly eyeliner-ed dark eyes upon the bullies, and Carrie couldn't help but think that she was extremely grateful not to be in their shoes at that moment in time.

The intimidating teenager took a few steps forward, and Carrie turned to watch the bullies stare back in silent mortification at each heavy booted step. They were eyed accusingly for another long moment as the fierce teen chewed rather noisily upon a wad of chewing gum before she glanced back to look at Carrie. When she resumed her silent glowering at the bullies, she reached to fiddle with the line of thick metal rings upon her fingers.

"What's she done to you?" she asked the girls at last, but Carrie couldn't really see the point, they seemed far too petrified to give an answer. "Well? Anybody?" When the bullies merely shuffled back a little as the teen took another step forward, they were offered a smirk. "Yeah...I thought as much." the teen muttered darkly, nails blobbed with chipped acid green nail varnish tapping menacingly upon her rings.

Carrie too shuffled back a few steps and as she did she began to notice a crowd gathering around the gates. The students of Oakhurst Manor School looked on as the fierce girl look another step forward, face mere inches from that of Fish Lips who Carrie had run into on her first morning.

"I'm watching you." the girl hissed, causing Fish Lips' eyes to widen in panic, and with that the girl turned on her heel and swaggered off up the road, pausing to spit her gum out into the grass verge.

There was a long silence as the students watched her go, and Carrie was torn between staring after her and looking at the horror-stricken looks upon the bullies' faces.

"Who the bloody hell was that?" one of the bullies finally squeaked, and Fish Lips swallowed hard, still staring off up the street.

"I have no idea..." she breathed at last, and it was then that an idea struck Carrie, she took a bold step forward and announced:

"That's my cousin!"

The bullies turned to gawp at her, and, not wanting to hang around, Carrie turned and fled after the punk girl, picking a name out of thin air:

"Hey, Roxie!" she shouted, ignoring the fact that the girl appeared to have disappeared from view. "Wait up!"