Note: This is a rather short chapter, I'm sorry about that! To think I was determined to make these longer than chapters in my previous stories, too...! Not sure this turned out how I wanted...but ah well! =)

Besides, I had to update quickly, since Kuroida updated THREE times in the space of two days. If I'm not careful she will make me look slow...! =) (By the way, go and read her new fic, it will make you giggle!)

Thank you so much to everybody who was patient enough to wait for me to update, and of course to my reviewers, thank you very much indeed!

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

4: An Unwelcome Guest

Both hands wrapped around a steaming mug of hot chocolate, Carrie Winters sat upon the lawn, watching the world go by.

Meanwhile, sat cross legged beside her, a mug of his own clutched in one hand, Teddy Lupin watched Carrie Winters.

He had been staring at her for some minutes, Carrie was perfectly aware, but she was resisting the urge to ask him why because his expression was one of extreme thoughtfulness. Carrie did not want to disturb him.

Besides, Carrie herself had quite a lot to think about. Like her glimpse of the somewhat Dickensian looking study as she had followed Teddy through the hallway towards the kitchen. The books filling the bookcases inside had looked positively ancient and where the Winters' study next door had a computer set upon the desk, the Lupins appeared to have favoured a candle, quill pen and inkwell. It was rather charming, Carrie supposed, if a little on eccentric side. Not the sort of eccentricity that went with pink hair or brightly coloured hats, however. She suspected that Mr. Lupin was responsible in some way, it was probably more his thing.

But if that was the case, Carrie mused as she watched the clouds drifting along above the rooftops, was it not also odd that two people such as Teddy's parents were...well, exactly that? They were not the most likely of married couples, Carrie could not imagine them having a terribly great deal in common with one another. She was unsure of their ages, too. Whilst she would guess that Mrs. Lupin was certainly a good few years younger than Mrs. Winters' thirty-five years, Mr. Lupin's age was somewhat of a mystery to the child. Whilst observing his stirring of their drinks in the kitchen, as Teddy chatted to him about their plans to visit the Potters (who, from what Carrie could gather were friends of the family), Mr. Lupin had appeared to be not much older than Carrie's own father. The many lines upon his face seemed to disappear when he laughed to hear of Teddy's plans to eat extra helpings of Ginny's trifle until he was fit to burst, leading to Carrie suspecting that he was perhaps far younger than he first appeared.

But certainly no as young as his wife, of that Carrie was sure.

Another thing that Carrie was sure of was the fact that, when it came to the Lupin family, there were very few things that one could be absolutely sure about.

After five minutes Teddy drained his mug and reached to wipe away the remnants of hot chocolate from his mouth with the back of his hands in a somewhat determined manner, as if he had finally made his mind up about...whatever he had been thinking.

"I'm sorry about earlier." he said quietly, glancing towards the house, where Carrie could just about make out Mr. Lupin through the kitchen window, busy making their lunch. "I must have made you feel awkward, I'm sorry about that, it's just...well it makes me sad."

Carrie wanted to ask what was so sad about a stack of papers, but instead found herself automatically assuring him:

"That's okay." After all, it was the polite thing to say, but Teddy shook his head vigorously.

"No, it's not okay. It's not okay at all..." His voice seemed suddenly higher than usual and Carrie looked sideways at him to find that his expression had become oddly tense, as if he were resisting the urge to cry.

Why on earth would he want to cry? Of course he was right to a degree, the little incident had made Carrie feel awkward, but it was over now, it hadn't been too bad, surely not bad enough to cry over...

Carrie returned to staring at the fluffy white clouds in the sky and pretended not to notice. It was the easiest way to deal with the situation, she supposed, at least until she could decide why what seemed to have been such a minor incident to her was a decidedly major incident to Teddy.

"I hope Dad doesn't tell Mum what I said." Teddy went on, still gazing at his father through the window. "She'll be dead angry with me if he does. We're not supposed to sulk about it, you see. That's the Golden Rule."

Carrie wasn't sure that she did see at all, but she simply nodded her head in a suitably vague manner.

"You have no idea what I'm talking about." Teddy observed, reaching to pick at the grass with distinctly sad smile. "I'm just babbling...I don't even know why...why I'm telling you. It's just...it makes me sad..."

Unable to grasp any real meaning from his mumblings, Carrie finally turned to fix him with a questioning look.

"What makes you sad, Teddy?" she asked him kindly, though she was not entirely sure she wanted to know the answer. After all, this did rather sound like the sort of conversation one was supposed to have with a best friend, or a sibling, somebody you had known for a long, long time. The sort of person who knew all your secrets.

Not the boy next door who you barely knew at all.

Apparently Teddy didn't seem bothered about the length of their acquaintance, for he sighed heavily and admitted:

"Dad. He makes me sad."

Carrie had absolutely no idea what to say to this revelation, so she joined him in his absentminded assault on the blades of grass by their feet.

"Oh." she mumbled uncertainly, and Teddy hurriedly said:

"Well not Dad exactly...more...people's attitude towards Dad. He lost his job, you see, that stupid boss gave him the sack and he's not gotten work since. It's been the same for almost a year. Every single day, he just...just sits there with those bloody application forms and I just think...what's the point? He sends them off and all he gets back are those bloody rejection letters...I've read some, they're dead rude to him about it, too! I told him to give up the other day, it's a total waste of time! Mum got angry with me then, she said I shouldn't be so negative and that it wasn't anything to do with me anyway."

Carrie looked over at the window again, frowning deeply.

"That's terrible!" she exclaimed as Teddy reached to grab a fistful of grass and yank at it angrily. "I can't imagine why anybody wouldn't want to give your dad a job!"

"Nobody would ever want to give him a job."
"Why on earth not?"

Teddy paused to wipe his hands upon the front of his jeans, staring over at the window thoughtfully.

"He's...disabled." he decided, nodding in self approval at his explanation.

Carrie lifted her mug to her lips in an attempt to hide her surprise. Indeed, Mr. Lupin did not look disabled in the slightest, though she supposed there was often more to people than met the eye.

"There are laws against that sort of thing, you know." she announced, attempting to push aside her curiosity. She would not, absolutely would not, ask Teddy in what way was his father disabled. She could practically hear her mother's voice in her head: you asked what? "That's discrimination, it's not allowed..."

Teddy gave a surprisingly grim laugh.

"You try telling the Ministry that."

Carrie pursed her lips together and stared down at her cup. She had no idea what Teddy meant by the Ministry, but found that she had no real desire to ask. It was as though the temperature in the garden had dropped a few degrees.

"Can I use your bathroom?" she asked, because she really had no idea what to say, and a moment to himself might just drag Teddy out of his sudden mood. She barely waited for Teddy to respond, scrambling to her feet and heading for the back door, making an effort not to run.

Some minutes Carrie had finished in the bathroom and was just beginning her descent of the stairs, when the front door to the hallway below was flung open, making the girl jump, hurriedly grasping hold of the bannister to stop herself from taking a tumble.

"I'm home!" Teddy's mother announced loudly to the house at large, as she practically skipped in a distinctly unorthodox manner across the threshold, throwing her jacket in the direction of the coat stand and hurrying down the hallway towards the kitchen. "And guess what, Remus, you're never going to believe this..."

Carrie hurried down the stairs and peered around the bannister to see Mrs. Lupin come to an abrupt halt in the kitchen doorway.

"...What in Merlin's name happened here? Honestly, love, it looks like somebody let a horde of pixies loose in..."

"Shhh, Dora!" Mr. Lupin hurried across the kitchen and, coming to a stop in front of his wife, reaching to put his hands upon her shoulders, his expression making her sober.

"What's wrong?"

"No pixies!" Mr. Lupin instructed, voice dropping to a murmur that Carrie could only just hear. "No pixies, no Merlin, nothing like that!"

"Oh, right..." Mrs. Lupin mumbled, glancing around her husband somewhat searchingly. "Why..."

"Teddy invited the neighbors' daughter round for lunch..."

"He didn't!"

"She's gone to use the bathroom..."

"You let him?"

"She'll be down any moment now..."

"Oh Merlin..."

"Dora!"

"I mean...oh...god...?"

"Yes. Oh god."

"Oh god. Oh god, oh god..."

"Calm down Dora, it's fine."

"Is it?"

"Yes."

"Yes, you're right. I'm sure it'll be fine." Mrs. Lupin slumped forward, her face buried in her husband's shoulder as he put his arms around her. Her apparent panic seemed to have subsided, there was a long pause, until the pink haired woman muttered through clenched teeth:

"I'm going to kill him."

Mr. Lupin chuckled quietly under his breath, one hand reaching to smooth her disheveled hair. He immediately ceased his amusement when his wife hissed:

"This is not even the slightest bit funny, Remus! I mean it! If something were to go wrong...! I like it here! I'm not bloody moving again! I'm sick of it..." she trailed off into silence, sighing heavily as Mr. Lupin's arms fell to his sides. "I'm sorry love," she mumbled as he turned to head back towards the kitchen table. "I don't mean...well...it's not your fault. I just figured it would be different here, that we wouldn't have to worry..."

"You're overreacting." Mr. Lupin said as he began to set plates down upon the table. "It's not a problem. Let Teddy make a new friend if he wants to. He's not stupid, he'll be sensible. So, what were you saying before? What won't I believe?"

Carrie hurriedly backed up the stairs a little, before heading back down them again, footsteps bordering on stomps to announce her arrival, forcing a smile upon her face as she walked through the kitchen, smiling in greeting at Teddy's mother. As she escaped into the garden she felt somewhat unsettled by the bright, cheery reception the two adults had given her, especially when she was clearly not as welcome as she had first believed.

As Teddy ran towards her from the other end of the garden, a rather oddly shaped red ball in his hands, Carrie struggled to mirror his enthusiasm for a game of catch.

This isn't right, the girl thought to herself miserably. I want to go home...