Note: Back from holiday and nursing my wounds...

Here is a shiny new chapter for you! I am sorry that it has taken me a while, you can blame the reviewers of Without a Trace! I left them on a couple of deadly cliffhangers and felt compelled to update before they came after me with burning torches and pitchforks. Thank you very much for those of you who reviewed this story, I'm so glad to hear that you liked the first chapter, it is so different from my other fics that I wasn't sure people would bother to read it! So...thank you! =)

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 and her family.

2: Mr and Mrs Lupin

The next morning Carrie sat upon the rug in her new bedroom, one of many cardboard boxes before her as she looked through her belongings. Her mother had suggested she fill up the bookcase, cupboard and draws with her things, stick her pictures and posters upon the walls. It would feel more like home. As it was, Carrie had only managed to remove things from their boxes and set them down upon the floor beside her, she was too lost in thought to put them somewhere neat and tidy.

At that precise moment in time she had just come across a box of snapshots that she and her friends had taken just before she had moved away from her old house. As soon as her parents had announced that they would be leaving, Carrie and her friends had religiously packed a camera on every one of their outings. They had taken countless photographs of one another so that Carrie would have plenty of photos to stick on her wall. Looking through the frozen memories, glossy laughter and vivid smiles in ink, Carrie found herself wondering if these new friends that her mother kept assuring her she would find would ever make such an effort to cheer her too. She thought of Teddy Lupin and their strange conversation the day beforehand, and yet again wished that she had not questioned his choice of hat. She supposed it unlikely that he would turn out to be one of these new friends, not after what she had said to him.

When Carrie had told her mother about Teddy Lupin, Mrs. Winters had paused in her sorting through a box in the living room, put her hand to her mouth and said:

"That poor, poor boy!"

When Carrie had asked why Teddy Lupin was a poor, poor boy her mother had not appeared to be listening.

"And you asked him why he was wearing a hat! Oh Carrie, how could you?"

"But it was a wooly hat, Mum. And it's the summer! I thought it was strange, so I just asked him why he was wearing it..."

"Oh how awful! He must have been so embarrassed, the poor soul! It must be terrible enough for him without people asking questions!"

Carrie had felt rather irritated then, because she still didn't understand what on earth her mother was talking about.

"Well he didn't seem upset or anything!" she protested, but her mother merely shook her head and said again:

"That poor boy!"

But then her father had poked his head around the door and asked who they were talking about.

"The neighbors' son," Mrs. Winters had told him solemnly. She lowered her voice a little as if somebody was going to overhear her. "Poor boy must have some form of cancer! Carrie says he was wearing a wooly hat, you know, to cover up his head."

And then Mr. Winters had looked terribly sad too and had said:

"How awful!"

Carrie had sat rigidly upon the sofa whilst her mother had explained to her about cancer and exactly what chemotherapy was, and by the end of the explanation the girl felt so utterly wretched for poking her nose into other people's business that she had felt as though she was going to burst into tears.

"I'll tell you what, love," her mother had told her eventually, seemingly oblivious to how mortified Carrie was by the whole business, "I'll bake him some cookies tomorrow, then you can take them next door and apologize to him."

If she were entirely honest, Carrie had to admit that she was not entirely keen on the idea of going to apologize to Teddy Lupin. In fact Carrie was not sure that she was comfortable saying anything at all to him, she felt much too embarrassed, in fact she felt downright awkward. Not to mention that she didn't really know the Lupin family at all. What if she went round there and they turned out to be horrible? What if they were really upset with her for what she had said to Teddy? What if Teddy didn't like chocolate chip cookies?

But of course, Carrie realized as she heard her mother beckoning to her from downstairs, she didn't really have a choice in the matter. Her mother had just finished baking the cookies. Besides, even if

the Lupins turned out to be the worst kind of people imaginable, at least Carrie would know that she had tried her best to be kind.

And so Carrie abandoned her box of photographs and headed towards the stairs, pausing in front of the mirror upon her wardrobe to straighten her floral summer dress and smooth her long, russet brown hair that fell in waves down her back. Deeming herself presentable she hurried downstairs to find her mother waiting for her in the hallway, a big plateful of cookies held carefully in both hands.

"Make sure you don't drop them!" Mrs. Winters said as Carrie slipped on her shoes and reached to open the door. Then, armed with the plateful of cookies, the girl made her way carefully across the small patch of grass that separated the two driveways and walked slowly up to the Lupins' front door. For a long moment she simply stood, staring at the shiny green door, fighting back her nerves, before finally taking a deep breath and reaching for the big brass door knocker. She gave three rather feeble taps and took a step back off of the front step, adjusting her grip upon the cookies as if they were some sort of shield.

Hello, my name is Caroline Winters, she recited nervously in her head, I live next door. I've got some cookies for Teddy, I am very sorry that he is sick...no...I'm sorry that he is ill...no, just...I'm sorry about my conversation with your son yesterday afternoon, it was very rude...yes...it was none of my business and I'm very, very sorry...I'm nice really, I just...no...wait...

At that moment, there came the sound of footsteps from within and Carrie took another little step backwards. She was just considering abandoning the cookies upon the doorstep and fleeing back to her own house when the door opened and she found herself staring up at a woman who looked nothing like anything that Carrie had expected. The first thing that struck Carrie was the woman's hair. It was an alarmingly bright shade of bubblegum pink, framing her heart-shaped face in an array of short, spiky strands. She had dark, twinkling eyes and was dressed in a pair of black jeans and a vest top that striped in various shades of pink. Carrie noted the wedding ring upon her finger and, straightening up a little asked:

"Mrs Lupin?"

The woman leaned casually against the door frame and, smiling brightly, told her visitor:

"Yep, that would be me."

Carrie found herself musing upon her own mother's wardrobe full of sensible blouses and the way she tied her hair back in a rather boring and yet very practical ponytail. She had thought that all mothers were like that, indeed her friends' mothers back home had all been similar. It appeared that Mrs. Lupin was the exception to the rule, possibly in every conceivable way. Mrs. Winters never answered the door in such a casual fashion, that was for sure, especially not to strangers. He

It was then that Carrie noticed that Mrs Lupin appeared to be staring at her rather expectantly, and so she hurriedly launched into her little speech.

"Mrs Lupin, my name is Carrie...Caroline Winters, I just moved into the house next door with my family." she explained, feeling relieved when Mrs Lupin offered her a bright smile. "And I've brought some cookies, they're for Teddy..." Carrie trailed off into silence, not quite sure what she was going to say next, only to be surprised when Mrs Lupin positively grinned and exclaimed:
"Cool! Teddy will be dead pleased, we don't do a lot of baking, I'm totally useless and it isn't really Remus' thing..." she paused to glance over her shoulder towards the staircase in the hallway and bellowed: "Teddy! Come down here, will you?"

"In a minute!" Teddy's muffled voice called from somewhere upstairs.

Mrs Lupin turned back to smile at Carrie, who smiled a little nervously back at her.

"So how come Teddy gets cookies?" the pink haired woman asked, leaning against the door frame again. "He never mentioned that he'd met anyone new, let alone managed to put in a baking order."

The smile instantly faded from Carrie's face and she glanced worriedly down at her shoes.

"Well...well they're...an apology." she mumbled, attempting to look up and speak clearly. "My mum says I shouldn't have commented on Teddy wearing his hat yesterday, when we spoke over the fence in the garden. She said it probably made him feel embarrassed because of his cancer."

There was a sizable pause and the girl looked up to find Mrs Lupin staring at her rather quizzically.

"His...cancer?" Teddy's mother said at last, a deep frown creasing her brow and Carrie felt colour blooming upon her cheeks. She looked back down at her feet again.

"Yes, Mrs Lupin. My mum said that it was bad enough that he was sick without me making him feel silly for wearing a wooly hat."

"Teddy was wearing a wooly hat?"

"Yes Mrs Lupin."

Again, there was a long pause. When Carrie looked up again she found that Mrs Lupin had reached to scratch the back of her neck, her expression a little awkward. After a while the woman straightened up and offered the girl an apologetic look.

"Actually, Carrie, Teddy doesn't have cancer." she explained, much to Carrie's astonishment.

"Oh..." Carrie found herself blushing more furiously than ever. "Oh...I'm sorry...it's just he said he has to wear a hat when he is ill...and...and well we sort of assumed..."

"That's okay. I'm afraid Teddy was being a bit of a drama queen! The doctor says he has extra sensitive skin, he's prone to allergic reactions. It was suggested that if his scalp gets itchy he should wear a hat, otherwise the sun irritates it and it gets worse."

"Oh!" Carrie gave a rather embarrassed half chuckle. "Well...well that's good. I mean...better than cancer, at least."

It was at that moment there came the sound of gravel crunching underfoot and Mrs Lupin glanced past Carrie down the driveway. Carrie turned to see a man dressed in a long sleeved cream shirt and smart brown trousers making his way up the drive, his light brown hair flecked with grey being ruffled by the morning breeze.

"You're late." Mrs Lupin called to him, folding her arms firmly across her chest, and the man paused, eying Carrie for a long moment before announcing:

"The bus broke down."

Mrs Lupin appeared to find this excuse amusing, funny even and she sniggered as the man continued on up the path. For the life of her, Carrie could not imagine what was so funny about a broken down bus.

"Well," Mrs Lupin said as the man came to a halt at Carrie's side and offered her a smile in silent greeting, "since you've finally managed to drag yourself away from Molly's teapot and biscuit barrel, you may be interested to hear that your son has taken to wearing wooly hats out in bright, blazing sunlight."

"Really?" Mr Lupin looked back at his wife, expression one of only mild surprise. "Looks like he's going to take after you after all, Dora – a trend setter!" he turned back to Carrie and lowered his voice somewhat conspiratorially. "Not that the trend is going to catch on, of course. But then that's just another way in which he takes after his mother..."

"Quit being such a git and go and stick the kettle on, Remus." his wife interrupted meaningfully, stepping aside to let him inside. "I think I might just die if I don't have a cuppa before I head off to work. Harry says the office is in total chaos." As he stepped through the door, Remus Lupin paused to press a brief kiss to his wife's cheek.

"This is Carrie, by the way." Dora Lupin told him, and he turned back to look at their visitor again. "Her family just moved in next door. Teddy had them convinced he has cancer, they've even baked him cookies."

"Not the best of first impressions, then." Mr Lupin observed, looking down at Carrie as she clutched hold of the plate of cookies. "Well for what it's worth, Carrie, it was very kind of you to think of him. They look like very good cookies."

Carrie wasn't quite sure what to say, she was too busy musing that the Lupin family really did seem to be out of the ordinary. It was, she decided, the little things; the unusual appearances and the sense of humour...the brief, flickering expressions...

"I'll see to that kettle, shall I?" Remus suggested, turning his back on the door.

"You might like to go pop your head round Ted's door whilst you're at it." Dora said as he made for the kitchen. "I called him down but he's taking his time about it. Not to mention we need to have a little talk."

Carrie watched husband and wife exchange a rather meaningful look before he disappeared into the kitchen and she turned back to face Carrie. The girl held out the plate that she was holding with a rather shy smile.

"Well...my mum says we eat too many cookies as it is." she said, taking a step forwards. "And I still shouldn't have said anything about Teddy's hat, so...these are still for him."

Dora accepted the plate with another grin.

"That's really nice of you, Carrie." she said warmly, before glancing over her shoulder at the stairs. "I'm sure Teddy will be delighted, I have no idea what's taking him so long, but I'm sure he'll be down at any moment."

Carrie took a step back again, her hands clasped together before her.

"It's okay," she said, eyes flickering over to her own porch rather longingly. They seemed a friendly family, that she would admit, but Carrie rather wanted to get back to her house, to sit and have a think about all the strange little things that she had been noticing ever since Mrs. Lupin had opened the door. "I should probably be getting back anyway...my lunch will be ready."

"Right," Dora said as Remus came out of the kitchen and headed for the stairs. "Well I'm sure he'll see you to thank you at some point..."

"Theodore?" Remus was calling from halfway up the staircase, and Dora turned to listen to the muffled, rather hesitant reply.

"Yes Dad...?"

"Your mother and I need to have a word with you."

There was silence.

"Come downstairs please."

More silence.

"Did you hear me?" Remus called, and at last there came the sound of stomping footsteps and Teddy appeared at the top of the stairs, today, Carrie saw, sporting a bright red baseball cap.

"This is bad, isn't it?" the boy grumbled as he began a rather noisy descent of the stairs. "I know it is. You only call me that name when you're angry with me."

"I'll just be going then." Carrie decided, and Dora looked back at her, expression a little apologetic.

"Right, well thanks again, Carrie, these look brilliant." she said, and Remus offered a little wave as he reached the bottom of the stairs.

"I'm glad you like them. If you want, my mum can always make some more. She likes baking."

"That sounds lovely."

"Goodbye, Mrs Lupin."

"Bye Carrie!"

So Carrie headed back to her house, wondering what exactly Teddy had done wrong, and when she sat down for lunch some five minutes later she still could not decide what was so funny about a broken down bus.