Note: Thank you to those who managed to review despite my silly mistake...I'm sure the readers of The Dark Creature's Child were suitably baffled! Sorry about that everybody, I really shouldn't update my fics when I'm half asleep...

It's my parents birthday today, but I am determined to still update. After all, Kuroida is on the warpath...

I hope this chapter is okay...I'm not sure whether it turned out well or not! Here goes nothing...

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

6: The Unbelievable Truth

Thud!

Ouch! Carrie Winters thought to herself as the back of her head collided with the ground, her legs askew in the air as she slipped backwards off the swing in shock.

"Carrie! Are you okay?" Teddy Lupin's voice called, and quite suddenly his face appeared above her, framed by the bright blue sky.

His face and his bright turquoise hair...

That's...that's impossible, Carrie thought, mind swimming as a dull ache blossomed throughout her head. When Teddy offered her a hand to help her up again, she ignored it.

"You...you...how did...how did you do that?"

"It's magic." Teddy told her, rolling his eyes as if it were obvious.

Carrie wanted to shake her head and tell him that there was no such thing as magic, but her head felt much too sore to move and before she could say a word a voice called from over the road:

"Teddy!"

Teddy reached to grab hold of Carrie by the shoulder and helped her to sit up, before looking over towards the source of the call.

"Yes?" Carrie heard him shout back, and the girl slowly turned her head to see Mrs. Lupin striding across the road towards them. Today, Carrie noted, her hair was blonde.

"I need you to come inside, love." Teddy's mother announced, offering Carrie a brief glance and smile.

"You just said I was too noisy and you wanted me out the house..."

"I need to pop out and fetch some...stuff for Dad, so I need you to go inside and keep an eye on him, make him a cup of tea. Okay?"

"Oh, okay then."

"I'll only be half an hour, if that. Give Molly a shout if you need help, won't you?"

"Yes Mum."

"Great. Remember, put lots of sugar in his tea."

As Mrs. Lupin turned back and began to head back away again, Teddy reached to pull Carrie onto her feet.

"C'mon, you can help me." Teddy announced, setting off back towards his house, dragging a dazed Carrie after him. The girl glanced back at Mrs. Lupin's retreating back before asking:

"Does she...does she...you know..."

"Of course she does. That's where I get it from."

"Right...and...and your dad...?"

"No, he's different."

"So he's...normal?"

Teddy laughed as they rounded the corner onto their street.

"Oh no, definitely not. None of us are normal, not even for people like us."

"People like you...who...who do magic...that means you're what? Witches?"

"Mum's a witch, yeah. Only girls are witches."

There was a pause as Carrie's senses began to come back, she began to block out the fact that she had just seen his hair change colour, there was no such thing as magic, there had to be some sort of reasonable explanation. At last she sniggered.

"Does she ride around on a broomstick and turn people into frogs?" she asked with a chuckle, only to laugh even more when Teddy asked:

"Why would she turn people into frogs? That would be horrible!"

"She doesn't look like a witch." Carrie told him, wondering just how long this trick of his was going to last.

"Why not?"

"Witches are ugly, they have horrible warts all over their faces and yellowy teeth and they smell of cabbage."

Teddy gave a shrug.

"Well I suppose Mum could be like that if she wanted."

"What are you and your dad then?"

"We're wizards."

"Like Gandalf?"

"Who?"

"Never mind. Teddy?"

"What?"

"This is ridiculous."

Teddy came to a halt and turned to face her with a questioning look.

"Why would you think it's ridiculous?" he asked, sounding bordering on hurt. "How can you not believe me? I just turned my hair turquoise!"

Carrie eyed the offending hair disbelievingly.

"Well you...you did something to it, yes. But it wasn't magic, it can't be..."

Teddy gave an indigent snort and folded his arms moodily across his chest.

"You're such a muggle!" he cried, turning back and stomping his way up the pavement. For a long moment Carrie simply stared after him as he turned and began to make his way up his driveway.

"What's a muggle?" she shouted after him, resisting the urge to laugh again.

"You're all the same!" Teddy accused as he pushed open the front door, giving it a frustrated kick. "You won't even believe what you see with your own two eyes!" He turned in the doorway to look back at her, expression still sour. "Well?" he called impatiently. "Are you coming or not?"

Carrie stared at the turquoise haired boy in silence, her mind once again racing.

Witches and wizards? Magic? No, surely not...

But then again, Carrie mused as she looked the Lupin house up and down searchingly. Why not? Why shouldn't there be witches flying around on broomsticks and wizards casting magic spells? Why shouldn't there be strange little boys who could turn their hair bright turquoise?

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

Yes, why not? It would fit just as well as her other theories, better, in fact...

It was still utterly ridiculous, of course, utterly barmy, crazy, mental...

Wonderful, exciting, mind boggling...

And so it was that Carrie Winters ran up the driveway of her new neighbors' house and, after the smallest pause, stepped across the threshold and into the Wizarding World.

"Dad?" Teddy called loudly as he kicked off his shoes and padded to the bottom of the stairs. "Where are you?" When there was no response he went to glance into the living room. "There you are." he said, voice dropping to a whisper, and with that he headed for the kitchen.

Carrie removed her shoes and carefully placed them up against the wall. She followed Teddy up the hallway, pausing to glance into the living room, eyes widening at the sight that met her eyes.

Mr. Lupin was lying upon the sofa, head cushioned by a mound of pillows, a blanket tucked around him as he slept, eyes hidden beneath heavy, dark lids.

Carrie fled up the hallway and into the kitchen, where Teddy was setting a heavy old fashioned kettle upon the stove.

"Your dad looks really sick!" she exclaimed worriedly, bemused when Teddy merely gave a shrug.

"He's fine."

"He doesn't look fine, he looks like...like he belongs in the hospital or something! What's wrong with him?"

Teddy reached to open a cupboard and grabbed a large mug from a it's bottom shelf.

"He'll be fine by tomorrow, it's nothing really."

Carrie watched him as he made the tea for another long moment before guessing:

"Is it to do with him being disabled?"

"Yeah...it is."

"How is he disabled?" When Teddy did not reply she wondered: "Is it a wizard thing?"

Teddy gave a snort and his expression darkened as it had done the day they had drunk hot chocolate in the back garden.

"Not really, no." he muttered as he began to shovel heaped teaspoons of sugar into the mug of tea, digging down into the sugar bowl with far more force than was necessary. He gave the tea a half hearted stir and paused, staring down at the steaming mug thoughtfully. "I'm going to tell him what happened." he decided, nodding to himself as he abandoned the tea spoon upon the counter top and picked up the mug. "Before Mum gets home and totally freaks out about it."

"You don't think he'll be mad too?" Carrie asked nervously, following him out into the hallway.

"Of course he'll be mad too," Teddy said, seemingly unconcerned. "But don't worry, he's not going to lose his temper."

"He won't?"

"I doubt it...I mean, if I were him I don't think I'd have the energy, would you? Dad!" He raised his voice as they entered the living room, striding over to the sofa and reaching to give his father's shoulder a firm shake. Carrie paused just inside the doorway, hands clasped together nervously before her, lips pursed together worriedly.

What were Teddy's parents going to say, she wondered, when they found out he had broken the rules? Teddy had described them as laws earlier...was it like shoplifting? Or something like that?

Carrie could not even imagine what her parents would say if she were ever to break the law, they would be utterly appalled, unimaginably furious...

Carrie held her breath.

"Wake up, Dad, I've made you a cup of tea!" Teddy announced loudly as Mr. Lupin's eyes opened sluggishly. "Mum's gone shopping or something." the boy explained, voice suddenly much quieter now that he had his father's attention.

Mr. Lupin's eyes drifted shut again and for a moment Carrie thought that he'd fallen back asleep.

"Carrie's here, Dad."

At this news, Mr. Lupin was quick to open his eyes again and heave himself up into a sitting position. He accepted the mug of tea with a mumble that Carrie could not decipher. Despite being preoccupied with her nerves, she was more than slightly surprised to watch him down the scalding hot liquid in a few huge gulps. He proceeded to flop back down onto the sofa with a heavy sigh.

"Put the kettle on again, Ted." Carrie heard him murmur hoarsely, and Teddy prized the mug from his hands and said:

"Sure, Dad."

"You're a good boy."

Teddy gave a small smile before admitted:

"No I'm not."

It seemed to Carrie that it took a long moment for Mr. Lupin to process these three simple words, before he mumbled:

"Why, what have you done?"

Teddy drew in a deep breath and announced with shocking confidence:

"Carrie saw my hair change colour when I sneezed. She knows what we are."

There was a long, painful silence. Mr. Lupin's eyes remained tightly closed, expression unmoving. Carrie wished he would say or do something, anything, for the uncertainty was killing her.

"It's okay though, Dad, she won't tell on us or...or anything...you won't...you won't make us move again, will you?" At his father's lack of response, Teddy's confidence seemingly evaporated and he reached to put a hand upon his father's arm. "You won't, will you Dad?"

Mr. Lupin finally opened his eyes and once again pulled himself up into a sitting position.

"Run upstairs and fetch my cloak." he instructed Teddy, expression still unreadable. As he swung his feet down to the floor and made to stand, Teddy's grip upon his arm tightened.

"Why..."

"Hurry up."

Carrie took a small step backwards towards the hallway as Mr. Lupin stood up and reached to snatch up a long, thin wooden object from the coffee table...

Was that a magic wand?

"Where are you going?" Teddy asked worriedly, hurrying after his father towards the door. Carrie was quick to back up against the hallway wall. Mr. Lupin strode past her and set about pulling on a pair of brown leather shoes.

"I'm going to go to the Ministry," he muttered, and at last Carrie thought he sounded angry, "before the Ministry comes to us. See if I can get hold of Kingsley or Harry or somebody...they might stop the Obliviators knocking on our door..."

Part of Carrie wanted to ask what an Obliviator was, but whatever it was it sounded scary, she wasn't sure she truly wanted to know. Besides, she was rather glad to be ignored for now, the constant us of names and things that made no sense that she had been listening to ever since she had stepped out of her front door that morning was beginning to be overwhelming. She simply listened and tried not to wonder too much about anything. It would surely give her a headache if she did.

"...if they get involved they'll probably tell us to sell up. They've already warned your mother about us living around muggles once, they don't do second warnings..."

"That's not fair!" Teddy complained as Mr. Lupin set about straightening his disheveled clothes. "If we can't live around muggles because the Ministry doesn't like it, and we can't live around wizards 'cause they don't like it...where are we supposed to live?"

"My point precisely." Mr. Lupin muttered and, sigh impatiently, he drew out the strange wooden stick from his pocket and gave it a little flick.

There was a ruffling sound and then, to Carrie complete and utter shock, something came flying down the stairs, across the hallway and into Mr. Lupin's waiting hand.

The muggle watched numbly as the wizard pocketed the magic wand and threw the cloak around his shoulders.

"I think you should wait until Mum gets home." Teddy said hurriedly as Mr. Lupin reached to pull open the front door. "She'll freak out if you manage to splinch yourself trying to apparate to London. You're not looking so healthy, you know Dad."

Mr. Lupin stepped out onto the doorstep, glancing around his surroundings which were deserted, save for a cat that was sitting upon the wall two houses up.

"This is the Ministry we're talking about, Teddy." he reminded his son flatly. "They don't do waiting."

And then, as Carrie took a few steps towards the front door, peering over Teddy's shoulder at Mr. Lupin, mind still consumed by the fact that she had just watched a man make a cloak fly down a staircase, there came a loud cracking noise, causing Carrie to give a small shriek of alarm, heart hammering in her chest...

It was only as she drew a deep breath to try to calm herself that Carrie Winters realized that Mr. Lupin seemed to have disappeared.