Note: I apologise for the lack of updates – I spent a while updating The Dark Creature's Child and have been busy with University this week. However I have a few days spare...so...here goes...

I will also take this moment to apologise for any low updates in the near future. I imagine that the situation will get worse rather than better once my lectures begin! Changes are I will end up writing little one shots more often so that I don't distract myself with chapter fic dwelling plot bunnies!

We are in actual fact nearing the end of this story...probably! I have yet to come up with a sequel, but there WILL be one! So, I invite you all to suggest a title for the sequel, beginning as this one did with "Meet the..."

So come on, let's hear the suggestions! You never know, you might have me inspired!

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

18: How to Bring Evil Dark Wizards to Justice

Carrie Winters stood upon the doorstep, plastic bag clasped firmly in her hand as she reached to knock upon the door. As she waited for the door to be opened, the muggle weighed up her chances that her preferred Lupin would open the door.

She certainly didn't want it to be Teddy. He would probably slam the door in her face, or worse ask her what she wanted just as he had done that morning on the driveway. The coldness of his eyes were painful.

Mrs. Lupin wasn't a much better option, since Carrie felt far too embarrassed to meet her eye, let alone have a full blown conversation with her. With any luck she would be at work.

There was the small hope that Mr. Lupin was unaware of Carrie's disgrace, and therefore Carrie hoped with all her might that he would be the one to open the door.

When a moment later her wish was granted, she was very relieved indeed.

"Good Afternoon Mr. Lupin." she greeted when Teddy's father appeared from behind the door.

"Hello Carrie," the werewolf smiled at her in such a way that she felt foolish for thinking that he knew a single bad thing about her. "Are you here to see Teddy?"

Carrie shook her head, grip upon the bag tightening purposefully.

"Actually..." she mumbled, scuffing her shoes upon the step. "I came to talk to you." At his questioning look she admitted: "It's about the Goyles."

Mr. Lupin sighed heavily, but nevertheless stepped aside to let her in. As she took off her shoes and followed him towards the living room, she couldn't help but ask:

"Where is Ted?"

"He's gone to Joshua's house, he's going to stay for tea."

"And Mrs. Lupin...?"

"Was due back from work fifteen minutes ago. She said she was going to be popping to the shops before she came back."

"Oh..." As she dropped down onto the sofa and watched Mr. Lupin take a seat in the armchair, Carrie silently found herself hoping that whatever was keeping Mrs. Lupin would keep her a little while longer. Once they were both settled in their chairs, Carrie drew a deep breath and admitted:

"It's all my fault."

As he leaned back in his chair, the wizard raised an eyebrow.

"It all meaning...?"

"The Goyles. The...the things they've been doing. It's all my fault."

"Why?"

Carrie fixed her socks with a despairing stare.

"Because I told Cleo where you lived...and...and then Cleo told Mr. Goyle."

"Ah."

Carrie looked up to find Mr. Lupin's gaze upon the ceiling, his fingers tapping thoughtfully upon the arms of his chair.

"Have you considered, Carrie," he asked, "that, using logic such as that, we are pretty much all to blame? It's Teddy's fault for befriending you in the first place, it's my fault for stopping the Obliviators, it's Dora's fault for deciding not to obliviate you on the spot, it's your parents' fault because you were born in the first place...the fact of the matter is, Carrie, the only people to blame here are the Goyles."

Carrie felt her cheeks warming, and she felt rather silly, but Mr. Lupin didn't seem to notice, he was too busy pulling a pocket watch from his pocket and observing the time with a frown.

"Twenty minutes late." he muttered, and Carrie said:

"My dad comes home late all the time. Sometimes hours late."

Mr. Lupin closed the watch with a click and put it back in his pocket.

"Dora's timing is always very precise. It's important she isn't late." He rose to his feet and walked to the front window, pulling the curtain aside to peer outside.

"Why?"

"Because there are a great number of reasons why an Auror might be late home from work. Lots of them aren't very nice."

Carrie shuddered at the thought.

"Of course there are plenty of far more pleasant reasons. I expect she's been delayed at the shops."

Carrie couldn't help but think that for the Lupins, even the local shops were not the safest of places.

"I'm going to put the kettle on." Mr. Lupin announced, and Carrie stood up and trailed after him into the kitchen, still clutching hold of her bag. As she watched the werewolf set the kettle down upon the stove, she reached into the bag and drew out the chocolate that she had bought at the Christmas Fair.

"Mr. Lupin...?" When he had turned to face her, the muggle felt a little silly with her plan to give him his Christmas present early. She had felt compelled to do so out of guilt, a sorry I've ruined your life sort of apology, but since he had dismissed her guilt as illogical she wasn't quite sure why she was still going ahead with her plan. She just...wanted to...

"Merry Christmas!" she declared nevertheless holding out the gift for him to take. "It's early...I know...but...well..." Struck by sudden inspiration she recalled: "You already gave me a present early too!"

She waited for the surprise to slowly fade from his face, replaced by a warm smile, and as he accepted the chocolate Carrie positively beamed.

"How wonderful!" he enthused as he examined the shiny blue foil as if it were made of pure sapphire. "You're very kind, Carrie."

"I've something for Mrs. Lupin too." Carrie told him, feeling very pleased with herself indeed as she withdrew the fudge from the bag. She was about to suggest that he pass the gift on to his wife when he offered:

"Well you can wait for her if you like, she'll only be a moment I'm sure."

And then there came a loud thudding noise from down the end of the hallway.

Carrie turned to look towards the front door, and just as Mr. Lupin made a beeline for the door, the girl found herself shuffling over to the kitchen doorway, peering cautiously into the hallway as Mr. Lupin reached to open the door...

Mrs. Lupin seemingly fell across the threshold, and Carrie wondered if, had it not been for Mr. Lupin throwing his arms around her, she would have fallen flat on her face.

"Sorry I'm late." the witch announced as Mr. Lupin tightened his grip upon her, seemingly hold her upright.

"Sweet Merlin, what happened to you?" the wizard cried, shuffling back a few steps, dragging his wife inside and reaching with an awkward hand to shut the door.

"Don't ask." came the reply, muffled by his jumper. "Just...just don't even ask."

Mr. Lupin shuffled them both round until he was facing down the hallway and began an awkward walk towards the living room door.

"I'm getting to old for this." Carrie heard him mutter, and Mrs. Lupin's reply was lost in his jumper again.

Carrie waited for them to disappear into the living room before slowly walking down the hall to investigate, heart hammering in her chest.

Teddy's mother certainly hadn't looked injured at all, and yet Carrie felt apprehensive to say the least.

"...straight through the shop window, I swear Remus, the man's a bloody maniac!"

Mr. Lupin was easing the witch down upon the sofa, and as she slumped down onto the cushions, she offered him a weak smile and concluded:

"So, I figured I'd let you patch me up."

"You didn't think of going to see...what's her name?"

"Claudia?"

"Mm."

"She's off sick. And before you say it, no, I wouldn't go to Sloane if you PAID me. I'd much rather you did it."

As he reached to unbutton her scarlet robes, Mr. Lupin frowned.

"Well I think you're foolish. He's a professional."

"A professional what, Remus? Professional pervert, maybe, you should have seen him when Jasmine came back from that raid in Manchester..."

"It's better than going to Mungo's."

"I don't need to go to Mungo's, I'm not dying for Merlin's sake...OUCH!"

Mr. Lupin hastily withdrew his hand from it's probing inspection of her stomach.

"I won't ask where it hurts then." Carrie heard him mumble, and the muggle took a few steps forward to get a better look as he reached to grasp the hem of the witch's jumper and carefully peel it back to reveal...

Carrie's stomach clenched at the sight of unnaturally neat bruising that adorned Mrs. Lupin's torso, a deep purple trail that lead from one set of ribs down one side of her stomach, disappearing under the waistline of her jeans.

"Looks like you've really outdone yourself." Mr. Lupin observed with a deep frown. "I'll see Carrie out and find the Bruise Away...if it'll do any good..."

When she climbed the stairs to her bedroom a few minutes later, Carrie felt panicked. Her imagination was running away with her, the snippet of conversation that she had heard about the shop window had her worried.

What if Mrs. Lupin hadn't gotten hurt at work?

What if it had happened whilst she was at the shops?

What if the Goyles had something to do with it?

Recalling the silent confrontation on the way home from the Christmas fair, remembering how cold and menacing Mr. Goyle's gaze had been, Carrie was not entirely sure that she wouldn't put it past him to do something as horrible as this. By the time she had curled up on her bed, teddy bear clutched comfortingly to her chest, Carrie Winters was pretty sure that yes, whatever had happened to Mrs. Lupin had everything to do with the Goyles. They were evil people, she was sure of it. Teddy had said there had been Death Eaters called Goyle, even if Mr. Lupin had said they weren't connected. What if they were? How many families called Goyle who were magical could there be? And if one branch of the family was evil enough to be Death Eaters...why not the rest, too?

At such a conclusion, Carrie Winters felt frightened to say the least.

It was getting worse, she thought miserably. And what if it got even worse still? Something needed to be done. Somebody needed to stop the Goyles.

And, Carrie decided as she stared up at the photograph of her and Teddy sitting in his back garden, that somebody was going to be her.

How one went about bringing evil dark wizards to justice, however, was not a subject in which Carrie was particularly knowledgeable. She supposed it worked the same way as catching muggle criminals did, except it was probably much more tricky.

What I need, the girl decided as she stared thoughtfully up at the ceiling of her bedroom, is evidence. Proper, unquestionable evidence.
Surely that was why nothing had been done up until now, the Lupins had no proof that the Goyles were behind the vandalism, the attacks. Surely if they could go to the Ministry with concrete evidence something would finally be done about it.

Carrie thought about all the police shows she had seen on television over the years, searching for some method that might help her...

And then an idea hit her, and she made a run for the nearest telephone.

There was a very long silence on the other end of the phone, before Cleo Clancy told Carrie Winters:

"I still don't understand why you want me to do it."

Carrie sighed impatiently, giving her foot a stamp as she sat in the swivel chair of the family study.

"BECAUSE!" she cried, eyes widening irritably as she gripped hold of the telephone tighter than ever. "It's TOP SECRET! Honestly Cleo, haven't you ever seen James Bond?"

"Well yeah..." her friend mumbled uncertainly. "But...James Bond's not real, Carrie. I'm not going to sit up all night long just for pretend..."

"It's not pretend, it's SERIOUS!" Carrie exclaimed, infuriated that her friend could take her silly notions of magic so seriously and yet fail to see a true emergency when shown one...

Even if it was an emergency she couldn't know the truth about.

"What's so serious about the Goyles being at home or not? Besides...where are they going to go? It'll be the middle of the night! Who goes out in the middle of the night?"

"The Goyles do, that's who!"

"But...so what?"

Carrie bit her tongue in an attempt to stop herself shouting and drew in a deep, calming breath.

"Look," she said, legs swinging back and forward under the desk. "I didn't want to tell you the truth in case I get in trouble." Her gaze drifted towards the ceiling as she decided: "The truth is, Cleo...and you can't tell ANYBODY about this because then I might get put in jail or something...the truth is...I've put a curse on them!"

Predictably, Cleo was suddenly very interested.

"COOL! What sort of curse?"

"A...sleep walking curse. That's why I need you to keep watch for me. I want to know if it's worked or not."

"And then you want me to phone you as soon as I see them?"

"Yes. So...will you do it?"

"Sure!"

Carrie grinned at the sudden change in tone.

"Great!" she exclaimed, and then she hurriedly said goodbye and bounded into the hallway and over to the cupboard under the stairs. There she put phase two of her plan into action, reaching past the hoover and broom to squint at the assortment of objects upon the shelves at the back of the cupboard.

"Looking for something, love?" her mother called from the kitchen, and, when she finally spotted what she was looking for, Carrie smiled to herself as she called back:

"Nothing much."

Carrie placed her father's video camera upon the living room window sill. She placed the spare phone handset under her pillow. And then she waited for bedtime.

She had a very long wait. But once it came she did not have to wait very long to wish that she had never decided to poke her nose into the affairs of wizards and werewolves.