Note: On the occasion of my mother's birthday, because surprisingly enough she has read this fic.

And also on the occasion of Kuroida kicking my metaphorical behind when it comes to speedy updates. Here is my feeble retaliation! =)

I would like to take this moment to point out that I am aware of what paganism is. I am also aware of what it isn't. As a matter of fact one of my best friends is a pagan. Also, I have nothing against punks, in fact we've been known to get on well! Any misconceptions are simply the assumptions of a fictional ten year old child. Indeed, Carrie being wrong about them is very much part of the plot!

Thank you to my lovely reviewers! I had no idea that this fic would be so popular! So thank you for your kind words, I hope you continue to enjoy it!

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, nor am I making any profit from this piece of writing. I also don't own James Bond or The Simpsons.

5: Smugglers and MI6

Some week after having lunch at her neighbors' house, Carrie Winters was skipping up the driveway of her house, a bundle of envelopes tucked under her arm, when out of the corner of her eye she spotted Teddy Lupin sat upon his doorstep, a broad smile upon his face as he waved at her in greeting. For a brief moment, Carrie considered turning a blind eye to his presence, keep on skipping until she reached the pavement where she could turn her back on him entirely and head for the postbox at the end of the street. However, having resorted to this sort of strategy on three occasions already in the past seven days, Carrie supposed that a fourth occurrence might seem more than a little rude. There were only so many times that one could fail to spot a person, especially one who had a habit of waving and calling out your name. And after all, she didn't want to upset Teddy at all, she simply wanted to avoid him.

The evening of the day that she had visited the Lupins, Carrie had sat down in her bedroom with notebook and pen and made a long list of exactly what she thought was strange about them. At first she had wondered why she was doing it, for what did it really matter? Some people were not normal, that was just the way things were, who was she to stick her nose into their business and wonder why?

But then again it did matter. It mattered a lot. Carrie liked them, she needed to understand them, just in case liking them turned out to be a really bad idea. What if they turned out to be connected to some sort of secret criminal organization, or an extreme religious group? She didn't want to get drawn into anything dodgy like that, or risk being brainwashed over dinner one evening.

She had a whole host of different theories, from MI6 to animal smuggling, but Carrie soon decided that her first two ideas were the most likely. She had drawn lines under the noted words Merlin and Pixies and, after some consideration, decided that they could fit in to both scenarios. They could be code words, she had mused, because surely secret organizations had such things. How else could they remain totally secret? Or perhaps they had been used more literally...maybe they believed in the existence of pixies and other such make-believe and magic. Maybe Merlin was a religious figure, a bit like Jesus. Some religions believed in that sort of thing, didn't they? Maybe they were pagans, who stood around in forest clearings and made potions, hugged trees and pretended to cast magic spells, Carrie had seen them on The Simpsons.

Teddy had said that his mother was in the police...that would be good cover for a criminal, wouldn't it? Somebody on the inside, like that double agent in that Bond film...and maybe Mr. Lupin wasn't looking for a job at all, maybe those papers had been something else entirely! No wonder Teddy complained, maybe they didn't want him to get involved, maybe all their secrecy was starting to get to him. Carrie had thought from the start that Mrs. Lupin hadn't looked like the average parent, and she was reminded of Kirsty Clarke's mother whom she had often seen in the playground back when she had been at primary school. Mrs. Clarke had had unconventional hair too, it had been acid green in some parts, and shaven off completely in others. She'd had a nose ring and, according to the playground gossipers, had only appeared in the playground halfway through term because she had spent the previous weeks in prison for some form of theft.

And yet, for some reason, religion seemed far more plausible. It could explain the lack of technology, some religions were against such things after all. And they could be reclusive, against outsiders. Perhaps Mr. Lupin had felt he had no choice but to be welcoming, after all Christians were supposed to love thy neighbor, surely most religions preached the same in some form or another...

Mrs. Lupin had said she was sick of having to move. What if that was about religion, too? Like the Jews the man on the History Channel had been talking about when Mr. Winters had been watching television that evening a few nights back.

Carrie had gone to ask her parents about the persecution of the Pagans, but Mrs. Winters had been busy chatting to her sister on the telephone and Mr. Winters had simply snorted into his mug of coffee and told her that these days there was no such thing.

Despite this, Carrie was convinced that paganism, or something similar, was her best guess at figuring out what was going on next door. She simply had no idea what she was supposed to find out next, or indeed how she should go about finding it. After all, Carrie knew next to nothing about paganism. She had decided it best to avoid the neighbors for the time being, until she could make some sort of decision about whether or not she should still like them.

Until, that was, the morning when Mrs. Winters sent Carrie up the road to post a bundle of letters to inform friends and relatives of their change of address.

At the sound of Teddy calling her name, Carrie came to an abrupt halt and slowly turned to face him, wondering exactly what she was going to say as he scrambled to his feet and ran across the strip of grass separating their driveways.

To her surprise, however, the words left her lips before she could really register that she had said them.

"You're not wearing a hat!"

"Why should I be wearing a hat?" Teddy asked as he came to a halt in front of her, eying the stack of stamped envelopes curiously.

"Well...I don't know...your allergies, I suppose..."

Teddy's mop of pale brown hair shook as he let out a shout of laughter. Carrie was surprised that his hair was so long, she had never noticed it sticking out the bottom of his hats, she had assumed his hair to be much shorter.

"Allergies? That's a new one!" the boy laughed, causing Carrie to frown deeply.

"I don't know what you mean." she informed him somewhat indigently, no longer content to simply sweep her confusion under the carpet. "Your mum told me the doctor told you to wear hats because you have allergies!"

"Well she was lying, obviously." Teddy told her, but she didn't really see what was so obvious.

"Why would she do that?" she asked, adjusting her hold upon the letters and fixing him with a searching look.

"Because," Teddy said, reaching to pull the letters from her grasp before setting off up the pavement, causing Carrie to hurry after him, "people like you aren't supposed to know all about people like us."

"And what kind of people are you?" Carrie asked, resorting to jogging to keep up with his bounding steps.

"Mum and Dad say I'm not allowed to tell you."

"Why not?"

"Because you might tell people about us, and that would be bad."

"Why?"

"Because it's against the rules, Mum might get in trouble at work and we'll have to move house again."

"The rules? Like...like the law...?"

"Yeah."

"What law?"

"I'm not allowed to tell you."

As they came to a halt in front of the post box and Teddy began to carefully post each envelope through the hole, Carrie stared at him, struggling to draw any conclusions.

"Are you a Pagan?" she asked at last, because she didn't know what else she could say.

Teddy glanced sideways at her with a quizzical look.

"A what?"

"A Pagan."

"No...I don't think so."

"What about your Mum? Or your Dad?"

Teddy frowned in consideration.

"I don't know if they're a pagon..."

"Pagans."

"...pagans. I could ask them, I suppose."

"You don't know what a pagan is, do you?"

"Nope." Teddy admitted distractedly as he pushed the last envelope through the hole and glanced back down the street towards their houses. "Quick," he whispered suddenly, reaching to grab hold of her elbow and setting off around the corner at a run, "let's go this way!"

"Where are we going?" Carrie asked, stumbling after him as they ran a few yards up their neighboring street and, after the smallest of pauses to check the coast was clear, across the road and onto a grassy area where there stood a large oak tree. Teddy pointed at a makeshift swing that had been attached to one of the branches.

"I'll push you." he offered as he let go of her arm and ran around the back of the swing, reaching to hold it steady for her.

Carrie sat down upon the swing and reached to hold tightly onto the two lengths of rope at either side.

"You know," Teddy told her as he pulled her backwards a few steps before giving her a firm push forwards again, "before you moved in there was an old couple living in the house next to mine. They didn't have any children, I used to think I was the only person my age on the whole street."

"I saw some bikes outside one of the houses across the road yesterday." Carrie told him, swinging her legs back and forth as she swung.

"I know," Teddy replied as he gave her another firm push. "That's Mr. and Mrs. Norman's house. They've got four sons, but they're all older than us." He paused then, as if wondering if to go on, before telling her: "I never made friends with anyone in the old houses. We didn't stay long enough half the time, and then I'd just think...what's the point of making friends? We'll only end up moving again. But now...now you're here..." He stopped pushing and after a while Carrie felt the swing begin to lose momentum. "Carrie?" he mumbled eventually, and Carrie barely heard him. "I want to tell you the secret."

Carrie put her feet down, scuffing her shoes against the grass until she came to a halt. She shifted until she was sat sideways upon the little wooden seat so that she could look up at him.

"But I can't." he went on, expression deadly serious. "Not...not on purpose, at least."

"But you could tell me...by accident?" Carrie asked slowly, though she wasn't sure exactly how one could say something like that by accident.

"Yes," Teddy mumbled. "By accident on purpose."

"Okay..."

"The truth is, Carrie, I have to wear hats to hide my hair."

"Oh?"

"Yeah...because when I have a cold, or hay fever that makes me sneeze...something happens that people like you aren't meant to see."

"Right..." Carrie attempted to keep a straight face. Clearly, she thought as he stared down at her, expression still serious, this boy was stir crazy.

"And now I've stopped sneezing Mum said I could take the hats off. But...if I were to sneeze...well, you'd find out the truth, or at least a bit of it. And it wouldn't be my fault. I can't help it if I have to sneeze."

"Right..." Carrie said again, nodding her head slowly as if she understood him.

"You think that's silly don't you?" Teddy observed, cheeks reddening a little. "I suppose it is a bit...but...well I can't just tell you. For one thing you wouldn't believe me, and I don't want to lie to my parents about it later."

"Accidentally on purpose is the same as on purpose, Teddy." she pointed out, for this was the only part of the conversation that she truly understood.

"No it isn't." Teddy insisted rather hurriedly, glancing around them as if he were worried that somebody might see them.

"It is, because..."

"You're wrong, it isn't."

Carrie stared at him for a long moment, a deep frown creasing her brow.

He knows I'm right, she thought to herself as he stared back at her in a somewhat challenging manner. He just wants to pretend. That's Teddy for you, always pretending...

Just agree with him, then he'll...well...do something...

"Okay then," she finally agreed. "It isn't."

There was a long pause as Teddy scrunched up his face a little, twitching his nose in an attempt to make himself sneeze.

"You get hay fever?" Carrie asked at last, and he gave a small nod, face still scrunched up in effort. One hand grasping the swing to steady herself, Carrie leant down to grasp a handful of grass, giving it a firm yank until it came free in her hand. She proceeded to throw the grass at Teddy's face.

For a moment he froze, nose still twitching...

And then it happened.

Teddy Lupin sneezed.

And at that moment, within a blink, his hair turned a dazzling shade of turquoise, right before Carrie Winters' eyes.