Note: Thank you to everybody who has waited patiently for me to update this story, and a extra big thank you to those of you who left such kind messages regarding my grandfather. As it stands, he is still in hospital and how well he is seems to change on a daily basis. He does, however, appear to be out of immediate danger, so I should be updating a little more often!

I hope you all enjoy this chapter!

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

8: Those Summer Days

The last few weeks of the summer before she started secondary school were some of the most fantastic and exciting weeks of Carrie Winters' life. Every day without fail she would rush to finish her breakfast before hurriedly pulling on her shoes by the front door and escaping outside. And every day without fail, she would find Teddy Lupin sat waiting for her upon the front step of his house. Most days Teddy would ask his father if Carrie could stay for lunch, and come the end of the first week the two children arrived in the Lupins' kitchen to pose the question yet again, only to discover that Mr. Lupin had already set an extra place at the table. Finding herself completely immersed in the family life of wizards, Carrie soon gave up on asking constant questions about the countless magical occurrences or words that she did not understand; she was sure that if she bothered to open her mouth every time something astonished her Teddy would soon become quite irritated by her relentless questioning. Instead she simply let strange events and bizarre conversations simply pass her by as if they were ordinary, puzzling things out as they came or waiting for some sort of explanation to present itself. She never did quite figure out what a boggart was; though she suspected it was some form of pet, and she had no idea who or what a Mad-Eyed Moody was, only that Mrs. Lupin seemed to find quoting he/she/it positively hilarious, especially given its usefulness in startling her husband whilst he attempted to read the newspaper, often causing him to slop tea or coffee into his lap.

The pictures in the newspaper moved. Carrie had been delighted to notice this quite early on. She had soon discovered that when it came to most things in the Lupin household nothing stayed silent or immobile for very long. Figures in framed pictures upon the walls and sideboards all seemed as alive as the people they represented, waving, dancing and laughing as Carrie stared at them. She'd stepped into the kitchen one afternoon to fetch herself a glass of water, only to discover dishes washing themselves in the sink, a mop slopping soapy water over the tiles and a steaming cup of coffee upon the table that was stirring itself with a spoon. It took her a long while to get used to random objects whizzing down the stairs or across rooms into people's hands, and she was pretty sure that she would never get used to faces or indeed entire people appearing in bursts of emerald flame in the living room's fireplace. The first time she had seen Mrs. Lupin's head appear in the...floo...Carrie had let out a shriek of alarm and had leapt backwards to hide behind Mr. Lupin's chair, much to Teddy's amusement.

Then there were the things that Teddy went out of his way to show her, from wizard chess and gobstones to wizard sweets and a gruesome cupboard full of various things that he claimed were ingredients for potions. Carrie had asked to see Mrs. Lupin's broomstick, more as a joke than anything else, only for Teddy to disappear upstairs and return a few minutes later with none other than the true article, a wide grin upon his face at her slightly speechless gaze upon it. It had taken a long moment for Carrie to force herself to give a careless shrug.

"Well that could be any old broomstick!" she had pointed out, hands upon her hips. "How do I know it's a proper magical one?"

Teddy had expressed disbelief that, after seeing so much magic, she could not simply take his word for it, but he nevertheless headed for the back door, broomstick clutched purposefully in both hands.

"I'll show you!" he'd announced somewhat smugly, only to be halted in his tracks by a voice calling from in the living room.

"Theodore?"

Teddy's face had immediately fallen and Carrie had followed him back down the hallway, his feet scuffing the carpet as they went.

"Yes, Dad?" he mumbled begrudgingly when they had come to a halt in the living room doorway.

Mr. Lupin did not bother to look up from the papers that he was examining.

"You weren't considering flying your mother's broom out in the garden in broad daylight in front of all the neighbors, were you?" he asked as he set aside one lot of papers in favour of another. Teddy had shuffled his feet with a small scowl, but had claimed:

"No, Dad."

"I'm glad to hear it." Mr. Lupin had told them brightly, his smile causing Teddy to look yet more sour still. A long moment of silence silently told the children that they were free to go, but Teddy had only taken a couple of steps towards the back door again, broom still clutched purposefully in his hands, before they were stopped again.

"Theodore?"

Teddy had given an exasperated sigh before calling:

"Yes Dad?"

"You wouldn't dream of lying to me, would you?"

There was a long pause.

"I never lie to you, Dad." Teddy had called hurriedly, offering Carrie a raised eyebrow.

"I'm glad to hear it." his father had said again.

They were just about to make a run for the garden when they were halted yet again.

"Theodore?"

Teddy stomped back to the doorway.

"YES, Dad?"

From his seat upon the sofa, Mr. Lupin had held out his hand expectantly.

"Hand it over."

And so it was that Carrie failed to see Teddy whizzing around the garden on a broomstick, but she did gain a fair idea of what it would be like from the large poster that was stuck upon his bedroom wall. She allowed Teddy to talk her through the basic rules of Quidditch, which seemed to her to be a rather dangerous and yet wonderfully exciting sport. She was delighted when he promised to take her to a professional match one day, just as long as she promised to cheer on his favorite team.

It was not long before it occurred to Carrie that she was not the only one who was seeing lots of new, weird and wonderful things. On many occasions they went to Carrie's house and she was amused to see Teddy become enthralled by the large television in the living room. He had attempted to play upon her brothers' games console (with not much success, Carrie had beaten him five games to one), and he had spent an entire lunchtime babbling incoherently to his parents about the wonders of the Internet. Carrie had known the conversation to be futile from the moment Mrs. Lupin had frowned down at her plateful of sandwiches and remarked:

"I don't know, Ted, all these...cursors moving about all over the place...sounds a bit dodgy if you ask me."

Luckily Carrie hadn't had to hide her laughter too much, because Mr. Lupin, seemingly equally as amused, had chosen that precise moment to choke on his orange juice.

Whilst Mr. Lupin attempted to recover from his spluttering, Mrs. Lupin had revealed a very interesting fact.

"You know," she'd said, pausing to lean over and give her husband a firm smack upon the back, seemingly achieving nothing besides yet more discomfort, "Your Great Grandma Tonks was a muggle, Teddy."

"Really?" Teddy had asked as Mr. Lupin got abruptly to his feet and, escaping his wife's reach, went to pour himself a glass of water.

"Yeah," Mrs. Lupin had confirmed through a mouthful of cheese and chutney sandwich. "She was completely batty..."

"You can't call her batty," Mr. Lupin had interrupted, having finally manged to halt his coughing. "You hardly even knew her."

"I visited her all the time...at Christmas...birthdays...sometimes..."

As his mother had trailed off rather uncertainly, Teddy had asked:

"Why was she batty?"

Carrie hadn't really been interested to hear why Great Grandma Tonks had been "batty", she had been much more focused on the fact that she had been a muggle. It had gotten Carrie wondering the one question that had never left her mind for the rest of the summer holidays:

How did one go about becoming a witch?

This had not been a question that Carrie had been willing to pose to any of the Lupins, she was not entirely sure why.

Or rather she was entirely sure, she just didn't want to think about it.

Carrie Winters could think of nothing more brilliant or exciting or utterly fantastic as becoming a witch. But she didn't want to ask how one did it, just in case she got an answer that she didn't want to hear. What if they told her it was impossible for a muggle to learn magic? What if it couldn't be done?

Carrie could not comprehend the disappointment, so she simply chose not to ask.

She didn't ask Teddy how one went about getting a place at a wizarding boarding school, either, but that did not stop her asking Teddy all sorts of questions about Hogwarts. Quite frankly she was not quite sure what to make of Britain's school of magic, she only knew one thing: Teddy was the luckiest boy in the world, and she wished she could go there with him.

In the final week of the holidays, Carrie had found herself less concerned with magic, and more concerned with her own lack of it. She had tried not to become preoccupied on this divide between herself and her new best friend, she told herself that it didn't matter, that it was that very divide that made being friends with Teddy so very fun. But on the day when she stepped out into her front garden one morning and found that Teddy was not waiting for her as usual, Carrie was to find herself feeling lonely for the first time in weeks.

At first Carrie assumed that Teddy had simply not finished his breakfast yet, and so she sat down upon her step and passed a long few minutes watching cars drive by and waving at the people who lived over the road as they got into their car to drive to work. But eventually she grew bored of waiting and decided to go and knock upon the Lupins' front door.

It was opened by the strange looking man with the messy black hair who had brought Mr. Lupin home the day Carrie had found out about the existence of magic. Behind him in the hallway, a couple of small boys, both with dark hair, appeared to be having some sort of wrestling match, both shouting at one another at the top of their lungs.

Carrie had felt quite taken aback at the noisy strangers, Teddy was nowhere to be seen, nor were either or his parents.

"Hi Carrie," the man greeted, and the muggle girl felt quite alarmed that he knew her name, though on second thought she supposed he probably would do. She tried her best not to mumble as she replied

"Hi..." Henry? Harold? Harry? She couldn't remember his name...

"Do you want to come in?" the man...Harry, it was Harry, she was sure of it...said, stepping aside to let her pass. "Teddy's in the garden with some of the others."

Carrie eyed the chaos within apprehensively. The boy with black hair had just extracted what appeared to be a magic wand from the pocket of his jeans and seemed about to poke the other boy in the eye with it.

"James Sirius Potter!" a voice cried from the living room, and a red haired woman appeared in the doorway, her expression so utterly furious that both boys froze, eyes wide in alarm. "Give me that wand!" the woman demanded, reaching to snatch the offending object the the older boy's hand. "How many times do I have to tell you, this isn't a toy! And the noise you two are making...! It's a miracle your Grandad Arthur's eardrums haven't burst!"

The older boy, James, gave an exaggerated pout as the other, who Carrie would guess was his younger brother squirmed to get free from him. Both boys scrambled to their feet.

"Can we play Quidditch?" James asked, and the woman raised a disbelieving eyebrow.

"I think Al's more than a bit too little to be whizzing around your aunt and uncle's garden on a broom, James..."

"He can be the referee!"

As Harry let out a soft snort of amusement, the woman shot him a disproving look.

"I don't think so, James..."

"I know the rules, Mummy." the smaller boy, Al, informed the woman, his voice the model of seriousness and pride, causing James to bounce up and down upon his feet excitedly.

"Besides," their mother continued, "I don't think Quidditch is such a good idea round here, what with all the muggles. I suppose you'll have to ask your Uncle Remus, but the number of muggle repelling wards and spells we would have to..."

"UNCLE REMUS!" the two boys bellowed simultaneously as they turned and thundered off down the hallway towards the kitchen, leaving their mother to stare somewhat wearily after them.

Carrie had definitely heard the words muggle repelling wards and spells, however.

It was not for a long moment that she realized that Harry was staring at her somewhat expectantly.

The muggle felt her face tinge an awkward pink and for the first time in weeks she felt as if she really didn't belong amongst witches and wizards.

"I um...I..." Carrie tried to ignore the sudden urge she felt to burst into tears. "Tell Teddy..." she decided, shuffling backwards a few steps. "Tell him...I said hi. And um...I'll see him...another time."

And then, without waiting for a response, the muggle turned and fled back to her own house.

Carrie had retreated to her bedroom and gone to peer out of the window overlooking her back garden. The Lupins' garden had looked surprisingly empty, in fact Carrie could not see Teddy or any of the "others" out there as Harry had indicated. She stood, nose pressed to the glass for several long minutes, wondering where on earth all the witches and wizards had gone, before she began to notice a dull aching of her eyes and she turned her back on the window, reaching to rub her eyes...

The aching stopped.

Bemused, Carrie turned back to look towards the Lupins' garden. After a short while she felt her eyes began to ache again, yet it faded as soon as she turned away.

Muggle repelling wards and spells, she thought to herself dejectedly, shuffling over to sit upon her bed with a sigh. Both of her brothers had gone into town with Mr. Winters just after breakfast, and Mrs. Winters had shut herself up in the study to do something on the computer. The house was perfectly still and silent. Carrie wished the twins would come home and begin a noisy game of football in the garden, or that her mother would turn on the radio in the kitchen, or the television in the sitting room. She could not stand the silence, not when she knew that next door a large group of witches and wizards were having what seemed to be some sort of party, and maybe even flying around the back garden on broomsticks playing Quidditch. The very thought made Carrie feel completely isolated and lonely. Again she wondered if she would ever fit into Teddy's world. At that moment she strongly suspected not.

Carrie's eyes came to rest upon the photographs that she had tacked to the wall of her bedroom, countless pictures of her friends back in Tillbury; still faces all crammed together to fit into the frame, laughter upon the roundabout at the park and striking poses as they modeled Mrs. Winters' high heeled shoes and red lipstick. Such silliness had all seemed like such good fun, Carrie recalled, and yet she could not help but think that Teddy's fun and games were more exciting by far. She had stuck a photograph of her and Teddy on the edge of the collage, just above her pillow. Once Mrs. Lupin had snapped the picture of the two children sat under the tree in Teddy's garden, the bright red Quidditch ball upon Carrie's lap, Teddy had asked his mother if she could make the picture move.

As it was, the picture was as still as all the others, because Mrs. Lupin had refused her son's request on the basis that Carrie could not possibly stick a magically moving photograph on her bedroom wall. But Carrie didn't care, as far as she was concerned the picture could look as ordinary as it liked, it was still crammed full of magic. The ball, for one thing, and Teddy's hair...

Gosh, the girl mused as she stared at their grinning faces, I'd give anything to be a witch.

Carrie did not see Teddy until the following afternoon, when she spotted all three Lupins returning from a shopping trip of some sort. Teddy was doing an odd, waddling walk as he attempted not to drop any of the countless bags that he held in his hands, whilst Mr. and Mrs. Lupin were just behind him, a large trunk carried between them, a couple of boxes balanced on top that looked slightly more secure upon their precarious perch than Carrie thought entirely natural.

Carrie herself had been waiting beside her father's car for the rest of her family, and when Teddy had attempted to wave at her, sending a number of bags flying out of his hand, spilling a number of books and a quill pens out over the Lupins' driveway, the muggle had not held back her laughter.

Mr. Lupin had paused to reach into the pocket of his jacket, drawing out his wand, and at that moment Carrie heard footsteps coming from the hallway of her house.

Mr. Lupin raised the wand...

Just as the twins bounded out of the front door and into the driveway, their parents just behind them.

Carrie drew in a deep, panicked breath, ready to shout a warning to the wizard, only when she looked back at him the wand had seemingly disappeared from his hand.

And the dropped bags were sat by Teddy's feet, their contents back where it was supposed to be.

"Good morning!" Mrs. Winters had called politely to her neighbors, and Carrie had watched a little numbly as both of Teddy's parents had turned and offered bright smiles and wished her a good morning in return.

It was a long moment before Carrie finally snapped out of a daze and called to them:

"We're going to buy our things for school!" She glanced over her shoulder at her two brothers who were squabbling over seat belts, heart sinking at the sight of them. "D'you want to come?" she asked Teddy somewhat pleadingly.

Teddy wasted no time in dumping his bags before his front door and, with only a brief glance at his parents, bounding over towards the car.

"Can Teddy come with us, Mum?" Carrie asked, having quite forgotten to ask.

"Of course he can," Mrs. Winters said, and with that she stuck her head into the car and began to attempt to persuade the twins to stop arguing and make room for one more.

It amazed Carrie just how excited Teddy could become about things as simple as school bags and pencil cases, especially when they weren't even for him. The two children had had great fun picking out matching stationary and Carrie had been amused by her friend's bemusement with the scientific calculator that she was required to buy for Maths class. Carrie had selected a fluffy turquoise pencil case because Teddy had commented that it looked rather like his hair, and then he had sat patiently outside of the changing rooms whilst Mrs. Winters set about buying each of her children their new school uniform. Carrie rather liked her new uniform, she thought the maroon blazer along with the black jumper and matching striped tie looked rather smart, and the tartan skirt was much prettier than the boring old grey that she had worn at primary school.

"What does your school's uniform look like?" she'd asked Teddy whilst they waited outside of the shop for Mrs. Winters to finish paying.

"That depends, really." Teddy told her, swinging the bagful of stationary that he was holding back and forth absentmindedly. "Everybody wears black school robes, but then your ties and crests depend on what House you are in."

"What House are you going to be in?" Carrie asked him, and Teddy frowned deeply.

"I'm not sure yet, you don't find out until you get there. There's a Sorting Ceremony, you have to put the Sorting Hat on and it decides what kind of person you are and puts you in the right House. I'd like to be in Gryffindor, though, like my Dad."

"What's so great about Gryffindor?"

"Everything." Teddy announced, and when Carrie did not seem enlightened he explained: "Gryffindors are supposed to be the brave ones. I think that would be good, you know, being brave."

"Did your Mum go to Hogwarts? What House was she in?"

"Mum's a Hufflepuff. People take the mickey out of Hufflepuffs, they say they're the thick ones. But that's a load of rubbish, really, I mean my Mum's clever enough to be an Auror. She was the youngest one to qualify in years, you know."

"What are Hufflepuffs like?"

"They're loyal. That's why Mum's one, Dad says there's nobody who was ever as loyal as Mum."

Carrie smiled, just as Mrs. Winters appeared and silently began to lead the way back up the street.

"I think I'd like to be a Hufflepuff." the girl decided, and Teddy nodded his agreement.

"I'd not mind being in Ravenclaw either," he said as they dropped back a few steps until Carrie's mother was out of earshot. "Ravenclaws are the ones with all the brains. The only one I don't think I'd like much would be Slytherin."

"Why not?"

Teddy's features darkened.

"All the Dark wizards and witches come from Slytherin." he told Carrie in an undertone, and she wondered if he were trying to sound ominous in order to unnerve her. "Slytherins are cunning, and most of the pure bloods end up there. They're not all bad, mind you, Mum says my gran was one and Dad says he'd be proud of me if I ended up there...which is weird really. Gryffindor and Slytherin have been massive rivals ever since the school was founded, they hardly ever get on. Uncle Ron – he's a Gryffindor too – he says if any of his kids end up in Slytherin he's going to disown them." the boy gave a laugh, only to halt abruptly at the horrified look on Carrie's face. "He's only kidding!" he cried, much to her relief. "I think...anyway, the Slytherins sleep down in the dungeons, I'd much rather Gryffindor or Ravenclaw Tower!"

Not for the first time, Carrie found herself falling in love with the idea of going to school in a castle. An actual castle, with dungeons and turrets! She wondered if Hogwarts had a moat, too...

Gosh, she thought as they climbed into the back of her mother's car, I'd give more than anything to be a witch!

It was evening before Teddy left for Hogwarts that Carrie found herself finally posing the dreaded question to one of the Lupins. They had just finished eating their dinner, to which Carrie had been invited, and the two children were busy polishing off the last of the chocolate cake whilst the adults were engrossed in what was becoming a increasingly heated debate.

"No way!" Mrs. Lupin cried, voice bordering on a shout as she dumped the dinner plates into the sink and rounded on her husband with what Carrie thought was a deeply offended expression. "We've been over this, Remus! He's going to be in Hufflepuff, like me!"

"He's a Gryffindor!" Mr. Lupin half sang in a purposefully infuriating manner. "It's obvious, Dora, when he was born his hair was bright red, that's clearly a sign..."

"Rubbish!"

"And when he was little he used to run about the garden making roaring noises like a lion..."

"That was supposed to be a DRAGON! Besides, only smug gits like you end up in Gryffindor, Remus..."

"I'm not a smug git...not yet, anyway. I might be, though, when he writes home telling us he's in MY House..."

Mrs. Lupin snatched up a damp cloth and flung it across the room at him, only for it to hit the wall behind with with a wet slap. Mr. Lupin retreated to his seat at the table and Mrs. Lupin exclaimed:

"Oh bugger this! I'm going to run a bath!" And then she stalked out of the room, her family's laughter ringing in her ears, which seemed to signal the end of the argument.

Whilst Teddy had gone to stack the last of the plates in the sink and put the kettle on for a cup of tea, Carrie had fiddled apprehensively with her hair for a few minutes before finally deciding to ask her question.

"Mr. Lupin...?"

Teddy's father was just summoning cups from one of the cupboards, but Carrie was by no means as impressed by this little show of magic than she usually was.

"Carrie?"

The muggle drew in a deep breath.

"How...how do you...become a witch or wizard?"

Over by the kettle, Teddy's head bowed and Mr. Lupin set his wand carefully down upon the table and folded his hands in his lap.

"Nobody becomes a witch or wizard, Carrie." the wizard admitted gently. "They have to be born that way."

Carrie's heart began to sink.

"How do you know? I mean...if you're born with magic? Could I be...?"

Mr. Lupin had already begun to shake his head halfway through her question, and Carrie trailed off into a disappointed silence.

"You're muggle through and through, I'm afraid." he told her, and she began a sudden fight to stop tears seeping from her eyes. "All wizarding children in Britain are offered places at Hogwarts via letter, that's the confirmation, you see, if you're magical."

"I'm glad you're a muggle, Carrie." Teddy had announced, hurrying over to pat her comfortingly on the shoulder. "You'd not be half as interesting if you weren't one! I like you just the way you are!"

Carrie had held back her tears when her friend had made this kind and somewhat strange assurance, because she had suddenly become preoccupied with wondering how on earth being a boring old muggle could be deemed as interesting, by a wizard, no less.

But the following morning, when she had stood at her living room window and watched Teddy and his parents leave the house, the adults once again carrying Teddy's trunk between them, the tears had come before Carrie could even notice they were there. They streamed continuously down her cheeks and, despite attempting to remind herself that she would see Teddy again at Christmas, and that he had promised to write to her all the time (by owl, which would be exciting!), the Lupins had barely reached the end of their driveway before Carrie had begun to sob into the sleeves of her cardigan.

And when Teddy had disappeared around the corner and off up the street, Carrie had been sure that he had taken all of her happiness with him.