Note: Hmm...this chapter has turned out a bit on the short side! Sorry about that, but it seemed like a nice place to end! I hope you all enjoy it anyway! :-)
Thank you to my kind reviewers, it was lovely to hear from you all! I'm glad that you are enjoying this new story!
It seems unlikely that I will be able to update again before I go away on holiday on Monday, but I shall endeavour to post soon after I return!
The Alternative name for this chapter, as proposed by Sam, is: "Remus and the unfortunate incident with the Dust Bunny."
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, nor am I making any profit from this piece of writing.
2: Trust, Dust and Dares You Must
It was not until the following afternoon that Carrie, having spent most of the night and morning moping around in her bedroom feeling wretched, finally decided to do the right thing and go and apologise to Remus for her snooping. The walk across town from her aunt's flat seemed to take far longer than usual, she dragged her feet upon the pavement and allowed herself to get distracted by shop windows as she passed, which she supposed was proof of her reluctance because really there were very few shops of interest in Eddington, it was as places went a rather boring town, far more uninteresting than the city that Carrie would visit just up the road from her University. Indeed, if the Lupins hadn't happened to have been in Eddington, Carrie might very well have chosen not to stay there at all.
This thought only made Carrie feel worse than ever because it reminded her that during the holidays when she was back from University, the Lupins truly were her world, she seemed unable to help but gravitate towards them until her life revolved around visiting them, going places with Teddy and spending every spare moment she could revelling in the magical world.
And yet despite their importance, she still managed to stir up trouble.
When she finally reached the house, she did not allow herself to hesitate when knocking at the door for fear that she might lose her nerve. When there was not an immediate response she leant forward until her lips were practically pressed against the woodwork and announced:
"It's me. It's Carrie."
And with that, she heard a lock click and the door swung open of it's own accord. Smiling a little to herself at this enchantment that had been in place for over a year now, she stepped over the threshold and reached to close the door carefully behind her.
"Hello...?" she called, kicking off her shoes and wandering further into the house, and she was just about to peer into the sitting room when a voice from the study called:
"Stick the kettle on, Carrie love!"
Obediently, Carrie shuffled down the hallway and into the deserted kitchen. As she filled the kettle with water, she wondered what Dora was doing at home and where Remus and Teddy were. They certainly didn't appear to be home, judging from how eerily quiet the house was. At this conclusion she selected just a couple of mugs and set about splashing milk into the bottom of them. She wondered if Remus had told Dora all about what had happened and if he had whether or not she owed Dora an apology too. The muggle sighed heavily and set about dropping a couple of teabags into the teapot, just in time for the kettle to begin whistling shrilly.
I suppose, she thought dully as she finished making the tea, I'm just going to have to come out with it, admit everything and apologise...
And so it was that Carrie marched into the study, cups of tea in hand, and announced to the witch sat behind the paper-strewn desk:
"I've done something stupid."
And without so much as a glance up from the parchment that she was busy scribbling notes upon, a small frown of concentration upon her brow, Dora Lupin agreed:
"Yes, Carrie. You have."
Carrie stood for a moment, chewing her lip rather apprehensively before letting out a determined breath, reaching to set Dora's tea down upon the desk in front of her.
"It was an accident..." she began to explain, gripping hold of her own cup and struggling not to babble, only for Dora to reach to dip her quill into a pot of ink and tell her:
"It was anything but an accident, Carrie. Letters don't just read themselves you know..." she paused, quill hovering over the parchment and frown deepening thoughtfully as she mused: "Except for Howlers, I suppose..."
"What I meant," Carrie protested, voice raised a little because she was rather worried the witch wasn't listening quite as intently as she ought be, "was that I didn't mean any harm! I just...well..."
"Are there any biscuits out there?" Dora interrupted, finishing scrawling an elaborate and loopy signature at the bottom of the page and finally consenting to look up at her visitor, and Carrie was forced to bite her tongue against a huff or irritation.
She wasn't usually this irritable, she realised as she turned and shuffled back into the kitchen in search of biscuits. She was simply feeling terribly guilty and all together rather nervous...
Because after all, one glance at the mounds of papers upon the desk told the muggle that Dora had chosen to spend the afternoon doing paperwork at home.
And it was a well known fact that doing paperwork was one of Dora Lupin's most hated tasks. Left to drown under the weight of parchment and ink for too long, the Deputy Head of Aurors had a habit of losing her sense of humour.
Which, Carrie thought, was a mighty shame because she could do with a bit of good humour round about now.
She managed to locate a few stray chocolate digestives at the bottom of the biscuit barrel by the bread bin and for a moment simply stood in the kitchen, staring down at the meagre offering and taking a few deep breaths. She decided to pretend that she hadn't managed to make such a mess of her first attempt to explain herself and returned to the study with the biscuit barrel, ready to start again.
"There's only a couple of chocolate digestives." she announced as she set the barrel down upon the table, and Dora puffed her cheeks in exasperation as she closed the pale blue paper file that she had been examining, muttering:
"Well they'll have to do, won't they?"
Carrie was just thinking to herself that really this seemed to be a far more promising start to the conversation when the witch settled back in her chair, legs spread out under the desk in front of her before observing:
"I reckon we should have a chat, you and me."
Carrie pretended to find the steam rising from her mug of tea utterly fascinating.
"Um..." she swallowed the lump in her throat. "Where're Ted and Remus?"
Dora busied herself with selecting a biscuit for a long moment, before taking a generous bite and informing the muggle through a mouthful of crumbs:
"Ted's gone to watch Quidditch with his mate Josh, and Remus...is out."
Carrie flinched.
"Alright, I get it..." she mumbled, colour rising on her cheeks. "Don't be nosy. It's none of my business where Remus is..."
Dora shrugged, reaching to dust crumbs from her jeans.
"Actually," she admitted. "I say Remus is out because quite frankly I don't know where he went. He left about two hours ago and didn't bother to say where he was going. He tends to stay out of my way if I'm doing paperwork."
"Oh..." Carrie felt more embarrassed than ever and as Dora reached to shove the remainder of the biscuit unceremoniously into her mouth, the muggle reached to fiddle nervously with the hem of her t shirt.
"But you make a fair point." Dora said a moment later once she had finished her mouthful. "It might well be none of your business." she sat, scrutinizing the muggle for a long moment. Carrie failed to resist the urge to squirm, and she was quite relieved when the witch added: "But then again you don't do any harm by just asking now, do you?"
There was a long silence as Carrie attempted to decide whether or not this was a rhetorical question. She found it rather difficult to decide, and at long last concluded that she would at least pretend that it was because she couldn't seem to find her voice to reply.
"Ask us, Carrie love!" Dora exclaimed at last, leaning forward until she could rest her elbows upon the table. "Talk to us for Merlin's sake! Ask us questions! If you want to know what's inside a bloody envelope in our bedroom, just come out and ask!"
"But...if it's none of my business..."
"Then we'll tell you! You can ask us anything you like, we don't give a toss! Just as long as you give us the chance to choose not to give you an answer!" The Auror reached to rake a rather frustrated hand through her hair, which was today a mass of short strands of midnight blue. Sighing heavily she admitted: "Let's be honest, Carrie love. This is getting..." she trailed off, apparently struggling to identify an appropriate word. Carrie supposed it was indeed tricky to find vocabulary suitably damning and yet not too hurtful. The muggle's gaze dropped to her shoes and she found herself feeling suddenly quite tearful.
"I...I can't help it..." she found herself mumbling. "I...I know it's wrong of me, I know that but I...sometimes I can't help it...it's like...like I have to...I have to know..."
Dora let out a strained huff of disbelief.
"Don't be daft, Carrie love. You don't need to know what Remus has planned for our anniversary or...or how much gold we have left in our vault at the end of each month..."
Carrie's eyes grew wide in horror and she immediately looked up.
"I...I have never read anything you've been sent from Gringott's! Never! I wouldn't!"
Dora merely waved a dismissive hand at the muggle's little outburst.
"Of course you haven't." she said, halting Carrie's horror as swiftly as it had come, only to renew it afresh when she explained: "That was just an example. Obviously there are...other things."
Carrie reached to fiddle with a loose strand of her hair, twirling it around her index finger as she dreaded to think what these other things were, what precisely Remus and Dora thought she had been up to...
Dora appeared to be entirely unaware or perhaps simply unconcerned by the muggle's troubled thoughts, for she continued:
"As I was saying, you don't need to know everything, Carrie. If it's important you know something, obviously we'd tell you..."
"Would you?" Almost as soon as the two words had left her mouth, Carrie winced at how challenging they sounded. Dora's brow creased a little in bemusement.
"Of course we would, love." she said, reaching for her tea. She took a sip, smiling assuringly as she told the muggle: "We don't do unnecessary secrets in this house. You know that."
"Yes but sometimes you don't have the same definition of unnecessary that I do!" Carrie complained, and to her frustration the witch merely chuckled. As a knock upon the front door drew her attention and she rose from her chair, the Auror offered the muggle a raised eyebrow.
"That doesn't matter, Carrie." she announced with a knowing smile as she stepped out from behind the desk and headed for the hallway. "All you have to remember is that our copy of the dictionary is far more accurate than yours."
Carrie let out a heavy sigh, biting her lip in frustration as she listened to the witch's footsteps heading up the hallway. She heard the door being pulled open and was instantly distracted from her misery by Dora's exclamation of:
"What the bloody hell are you doing with all of this junk?"
"Junk?" Remus' voice echoed, sounding utterly outraged. "What sort of Auror are you? Here, grab this..." he instructed, and Carrie shuffled to peer out down the hallway just in time to see the werewolf deposit a large wooden box into his wife's arms. As Dora stumbled backwards a little under the sudden weight, an enormous metal trunk seemingly covered on all sides by padlocks and chains came hovering through the front door, coming to rest at the bottom of the stairs with a loud thud.
"Where's Carrie?" Remus asked, pocketing his wand and shrugging the cloak from his shoulders, and as she dumped the box she was holding down upon the floor beside the trunk, Dora muttered:
"Never mind Carrie! What've you gone and dragged all of this rubbish out of the vault for?"
"It's not all rubbish, you know. Some of it's very useful." the werewolf insisted as he turned to hang his cloak up beside the door, pausing to gesture with a foot to the muggle's discarded shoes. "Where's Carrie?"
"We can't have all of this just lying around in the house, Remus! You know we can't, you know what it's like! It's...annoying!"
Quite foolishly, Carrie thought judging from the expression upon the Auror's face, Remus laughed.
"Have you been doing paperwork again?" he asked, arching an eyebrow, and Dora's hair brightened to a rather threatening shade of scarlet.
"I DON'T WANT THEM HERE!" the witch snapped, voice suddenly shrill, and the humour instantly faded from her husband's face. He took a moment to glance down at the trunk, before looking up to study her face intently.
"You don't really care if they're irritating, do you?" he asked quietly, and Carrie wondered what on earth they were, especially when Dora's face grew horribly pained and she admitted:
"No...not really."
Remus took a few steps forward, fingers reaching to brush against the Auror's arm.
"Did you ever...look inside?" he asked, voice not much more than a whisper, and Dora gave a rather startled shake of the head.
"No...no I couldn't. I...I just...I had Charlie take them to Gringott's for me...not looked since..."
Remus visibly paled.
"Then I'll take them back!" he said, immediately stooping to pick up the wooden box. "Right now..."
"No, no..." Dora mumbled, sighing heavily as she looked down at the trunk. "Keep them here...just...keep them out of the study, eh? You can take them back later." Shoulders hunched, she shuffled back down the hallway towards the study, hair fading back to a slightly greyer shade of blue than it had been earlier.
"Dora..." Remus began hesitantly, reaching to pass a wary hand through his hair, but she merely informed him:
"Carrie's in here."
"I didn't think you'd..." Remus mumbled, only to trail off into silence with a heavy sigh.
Carrie took a rather hesitant step out into the hallway, and she felt relieved that Remus appeared sufficiently distracted from their hapless conversation the evening beforehand. She couldn't help but suppose this was rather selfish of her, given the distinctly dismayed expression upon Remus' face as he dragged his gaze away from the study doorway to look at her.
"We better get this over with then, hadn't we?" he murmured, and with that he drew his wand again and sent both the trunk and box skidding across the floor and into the sitting room. Carrie watched in silence as he headed into the room behind them, pausing in the doorway to glance over his shoulder at her. "Come along, then." he said, and the muggle shuffled reluctantly down the hall after him.
The muggle settled herself upon the edge of the arm chair and watched in silence as the werewolf reached to heave the trunk into the middle of the room. As he straightened up, she consented to asking:
"What's in the trunk?"
"It belonged to Alastor Moody." Remus told her, gazing down at the mass of chains thoughtfully. "He left it and all it's contents to Dora in his will. As for what's inside..." He stooped, squinting down at the countless locks upon the front of the trunk. "Well, she's never opened it."
"Why not?" Carrie wondered, and there was a long pause as Remus reached to prod the central keyhole with his wand. The trunk rattled.
"Painful memories..." the werewolf murmured. "She misses him, even now..."
"Why would you want to open it?" Carrie asked, shifting rather uneasily in her chair as he straightened up, wand pointing at the trunk, and a small, sad smile graced his lips as he told her:
"Because I have a hunch I know precisely what Mad-Eye Moody would leave to his protegee."
And with that he gave his wand a sharp flick and Carrie leant forward in her chair as the chains snaked their way free from the trunk, the countless locks clicking open...
WHOOSH!
Carrie very nearly jumped out of her skin, throwing herself back in her chair as the lid was thrown violently open and an enormous gush of dust appeared to burst forth from the dark confides of the trunk. As it swirled and shifted in the air before him, Remus took a sizeable step backwards.
"Oh..." the wizard began, sounding unnervingly worried, only for the swirling to intensify and a gruff yet ghostly disembodied voice to send a shiver up Carrie's spine.
Nymphadora...
A figure was materialising in the dust and Carrie scrambled further back in her seat, eyes wide in terror as she reached to hug her knees to her chest.
"Oh Merlin..." Remus mumbled half a second later as a fully formed, dusty apparition of Alastor Moody began to advance upon him with frightening speed. "He's done it again...DORA? DORA, HE'S...HE'S DONE IT AG..." But before he could finish his alarmed shout he was engulfed in the cloud of dust, the particles coating his throat and making him choke...
Nymphadora...
...you DARE...
As Remus fell back upon the sofa, arms clamped hopelessly over his face, coughing violently, Carrie stared with wide, petrified eyes as Moody's figure leaned down towards him...
The muggle screamed.
You dare, Nymphadora...
Somewhere out in the hallway Carrie heard a door being flung back on its hinges and Dora appeared in the sitting room doorway so suddenly that the muggle could have sworn she had apparated.
The witch stood, face pale as she stared in shock at the chaotic scene before her, the swirling dust and the ghastly figure bearing down upon her husband who had resorted to burying his face in the nearest cushion. For a split second she looked positively alarmed, only to draw in a determined breath and call:
"Wotcher, Mad-Eye!"
Instantly, the dusty figure swirled around to face her, floating up towards the ceiling so that she was forced to look up at it.
Nymphadora...
Dora stared up at the vision of her dead mentor, and her face grew so very grave and white that Carrie felt a stab of panic that she might lose her nerve, or even burst into tears. But as the figure drifted towards her, the Auror squared her shoulders, chin jutting out defiantly as she demanded:
"DON'T call me Nymphadora, Mad-Eye!"
The dusty apparition paused and as Remus slowly dared to sit up upon the sofa, there was a long, almost calm pause, before the ghostly voice growled:
YOU DARE!
Dora reached carefully into her pocket for her wand.
"I dare what?" she asked as the figure slowly advanced upon her...
Whoosh!
Carrie let out another shriek of alarm as the figure threw out its arms, a furious burst of dust erupting into the air, and as Remus threw himself back down upon the sofa, Dora flinched.
"I dare what?" she shouted, taking a step back and raising an arm to shield her face form the sudden dust storm. "What do I dare?"
Nymphadora...
Carrie screwed her eyes shut as the dust swirled menacingly forward, and she heard Dora let out a spluttering cough as she dropped to the floor, arms clamped over her head. The whooshing sound grew and grew and Carrie felt rather as though she were in the middle of a hurricane, the hair being thrown back from her face and her heart hammering in her chest. And then, quite suddenly a loud voice inquired:
"So...are you wearing the spotted boxers today or what?"
And with that, the room fell eerily silent.
Carrie only dared to open her eyes a long moment later when she heard Remus asked:
"What did you just say?"
Carrie opened her eyes just in time to see Dora take a few hesitant steps forward into the room, her feet leaving prints in the deep layer of dust that had settled upon the floor.
"That's what I used to say every morning." the witch mumbled, gazing down at the open trunk, expression once again sombre. "Each morning when I showed up at training...I was the only one who would dare to say it: are you wearing the spotted boxers today or what?" She reached to trail hesitant fingers along the edge of the trunk, the dust clinging to her fingertips, gathering under her nails.
As Remus heaved himself somewhat unsteadily back onto his feet, his expression was a strange mix of curiosity and utter revulsion.
"And...you would know Alastor owned a pair of spotted boxer shorts because...?" he wondered almost reluctantly, but Dora turned abruptly away from the trunk, reaching to swipe a hasty hand across her eyes with a mumbled:
"Fetch you a duster or two, shall I?" And with that, she disappeared out of the door.
Remus gazed after for a long moment, before giving himself a little shake.
"It's alright," he murmured. "I'm pretty sure I don't really want to know..."
Carrie watched him walk over to crouch down before the trunk, and as he began to search through the contents, removing an array of bizarre and strange looking objects and setting them down upon the dusty carpet beside him. Carrie slowly shifted her feet back down to the floor, leaning forward to peer curiously at the display.
"What are all of those?" she asked, frowning deeply as a long metal object that looked rather like a metal detector was extracted and set down beside what appeared to be some sort of mirror, it's surface foggy as if somebody had breathed upon it.
"They're Dark Detectors." Remus announced, leaning forward to squint into the trunk, and Carrie slid down out of her chair and onto the floor behind her, quite oblivious to the dust upon her knees as she leant to examine the mirror. The fog seemed to swirl quite suddenly and the muggle jumped.
"What's this?" she asked, daring to lean forward again, and as she peered into the mirror a shape seemed to be moving amongst the fog.
"That's a foe glass." Remus explained with a brief sideways glance. "It's used to keep an eye on the user's enemies, the closer they get the clearer you can see them."
At this notion, Carrie jumped again, and hastily turned her attention to the long stick-like contraption.
"And...this?"
"A secrecy sensor." the wizard supplied, rummaging around in the bottom of the trunk, pulling out what appeared to be a bent golden antenna followed by a large silver hip flask. "Probity probe...half a dozen pocket foe glasses and...ah..." Setting down the two objects, Remus reached into the trunk to retrieve a third, turning to hold it out for Carrie's inspection.
It appeared to be a bronze spinning top.
Carrie stared at it blankly.
"Take it." Remus told her, and as she reached out a hand to do just that, he added: "Call it yours."
Hand hovering uncertainly over this strange gift, the muggle wondered:
"Are you...sure?"
"Of course." Remus smiled, pushing it into her hand. "There are at least five more in the trunk and Dora already has her own. Alastor bought it for her for Christmas one year, I believe."
"Oh..." Carrie mumbled rather uncertainly as she held the object up for examination. "Thanks...what is it?"
"That," Remus informed her, rising back to his feet and reaching to pat the dust from the front of his trousers, "is a pocket Sneakoscope."
"Cool..." Carrie said, eying the present keenly, only to look up at the werewolf and ask: "What's that?"
Remus crossed the room to the sofa, sat down and leant forward, gaze upon her somewhat piercing.
"If somebody does something untrustworthy nearby," he said as Carrie gazed back at him, "it will spin and whistle."
At this particularly meaningful explanation, Carrie felt her cheeks tinge pink.
"Oh..." she mumbled, hurriedly looking back down at the sneakoscope. "Great..."
"It is, isn't it?" Remus agreed, leaning back in his chair. His gaze drifted up towards the ceiling as he observed: "Because that's what this is all about, isn't it Carrie? It's all about trust."
Carrie was beginning to think that she had never felt more embarrassed by anything in her whole entire life.
Say sorry, a small voice inside her head demanded. For goodness sake, say sorry...
But the words didn't seem to be able to form on her tongue, or even coherently in her mind. She simply couldn't quite get past how embarrassing the whole situation was, how he'd seemed to have gone to some lengths to land her in it in the first place...
It'll do you good, she told herself as she stared down at the sneakoscope. Because after all you deserve it, perhaps it might change you...
Besides, he wouldn't be sitting you here in the first place if you hadn't been so utterly disrespectful in the first place...
So change. Say: I'm sorry...
And yet when she opened her mouth to speak, she found herself chuckling awkwardly and mumbling:
"Shouldn't you be the one to have the sneakoscope, then?"
She was surprised when he chuckled too, gaze dropping from the ceiling with a smile.
"Of course not." he said, as if it were all terribly obvious. "I trust you entirely, Carrie. Or at least I will do, once you trust me."
Carrie simply gawped at him.
"I...I trust you!" she protested, feeling rather pained as she had done back in the study when she had spoken to Dora. "I trust you and Dora! Of...of course I do!"
"Of course you don't." Remus corrected, still smiling faintly. "You might think you trust us, but deep down you certainly don't. If you did truly trust us you wouldn't feel the need to eavesdrop on us."
"That's ridiculous!" Carrie protested indigently. "I've always trusted you! I...I've trusted you with my life on more than one occasion, I...it's...it's stupid!"
"Of course it's stupid." Remus agreed, eyebrow raised. "But whoever said stupid things couldn't be true?"
"It's not true!" Carrie snapped, voice rising in volume at the suggestion. The certainty in his smile was beginning to truly bother her.
"It's perfectly true, Carrie. You've been eavesdropping on us whenever you can for years." Remus explained calmly. "You used to do it because you were a child, and children are naturally inquisitive and we were interesting to you. But you're not a little girl anymore and we're far less of a novelty these days. Now you eavesdrop on us because you're worried we might be hiding things from you, or not telling you the whole truth. And you can't stand to be in the dark because we spend half our lives telling you that you are one of us, and you think you can't be one of us if you don't know everything. Which is why you need the sneakoscope, so you can realise that we aren't hiding anything from you. Once you realise that, you can trust us. And once you trust us, Dora and I can trust you."
And with that, Carrie watched numbly a the werewolf rose to his feet, looking undoubtably pleased by his deductions about her character, and as he strode across the room and towards the hallway in search of the elusive dusters that Dora had supposedly gone to look for, Carrie felt completely and utterly exposed.
Dropping the sneakoscope down into her lap, the muggle felt compelled to attempt to defend herself in some way.
"I...I don't ever mean to eavesdrop!" she mumbled feebly at the werewolf's retreating back, only to give a startled jump as a high pitched whistling sound pierced her ears and in her lap the sneakoscope vibrated in it's attempts to spin in her lap. Above the sudden disturbance, the muggle could have sworn that she could hear Remus' laughter.
"Bugger..." she muttered, clamping a hand down upon the sneakoscope in an attempt to stifle the noise.