Note: LONGEST. CHAPTER. EVER!
That's about all I have to say, really.
Except for I am back at University tomorrow, so I'm afraid I will not be updating as often as usual. To quote Lockhart (as I did to you earlier, Sam,): No one regrets more than I!
Oh, and there are lots of attempts at (poor) humour in this chapter! So...consider yourselves warned!
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.
3: The Bird and the Bees
"So..." Carrie Winters mumbled into the collar of her boyfriend's shirt, shifting under the duvet to get more comfortable. "When your mum says this work experience you're going to do is dangerous...how dangerous is dangerous?"
Teddy Lupin reached to pull the duvet further over them, frowning up at the ceiling.
"Well...people have been known to die." he informed the muggle gravely, causing her to squirm. "In fact, there was a case just last year...blood and guts everywhere...!"
"Oh stop it!" Carrie complained, reaching to thump him admonishingly upon the arm, and the young wizard let out a mock-cackle, throwing his arms around her and hugging her tightly until she was forced to squirm more than ever.
"You're wicked!" Carrie informed him indignantly, attempting to sound serious, but she knew that this was a futile endeavour, what with the shower of kisses that he was raining down upon her head, and she chose to forgo bickering in favour of leaning her head back to capture his lips against her own.
Carrie and Teddy's first foray under the duvet in Teddy's bedroom had been the previous Christmas Eve, when they had slipped upstairs to exchange Christmas presents and had resorted to huddling together under the covers for warmth, since Teddy had left his window open in anticipation of the owl was due to arrive that evening. It had been an entirely innocent scene and yet Carrie had found herself failing to resist the urge to glance at the door every minute or so, out of fear that they might be caught out. Even now, with numerous and rather less innocent trips under the duvet, Carrie had yet to shake off her paranoia that Remus or Dora might choose to burst through the door at any moment and scare the life out of her. The sort of conversation that would no doubt follow simply didn't bear thinking about...
And yet the muggle knew full well that she had nothing to worry about. For one thing, Remus and Dora never ventured into their son's bedroom without knocking, except for those occasions when Dora was on the warpath for some reason or other, but that didn't really matter because her stomping footsteps could be heard from a mile away or more, which gave the two teenagers more than ample time to look suitably innocent.
Not that they had all that much to look guilty about, that was. There tended to be an awful lot of kissing and the messing up of hair, and after a while there was often quite a bit of heavy petting, but not usually much else.
Indeed, should anybody choose to fling the door open unexpectedly there wouldn't be any sort of mad scramble for discarded items of clothing or rush to do up buttons or zips...
Carrie's discarded t-shirt a couple of weeks earlier didn't really count, since that had been under the duvet in her room back at University and if any of her fellow students had walked in on them it probably wouldn't have been all that bad. After all, judging from the few astonishing sounds that had a habit of drifting through the wall from the bedroom next door, Carrie could only assume that at least two of those living on her floor were Doing It at least every other night.
That discarded t-shirt had been the closest that Carrie and Teddy had actually come to Doing It so far. Carrie supposed she ought not call it Doing It, since that was probably childish. And yet she couldn't seem to help it. She liked the ambiguousness of the phrase, it lent itself well to a lack of expectation.
Sex had a proper definition, everybody old enough to consider having sex knew what it involved, Carrie knew it...
Teddy knew it.
And that was what Carrie hated about it so much. It wasn't that she was in any way prude, she wasn't really childish, she was simply frightened by all the expectations that went with it.
I might not be any good at it, she'd mumbled that night back at University, having panicked at far too much exposed flesh and the realisation that she had no idea how one ought act when only semi-clothed, before scrambling to pull the t-shirt back on. I might not know what to do...
That won't matter, Teddy had told her, gazing rather politely up at the ceiling so that she might panic in private. I won't know if you're no good and you won't know if I'm rubbish either. We've nobody to compare one another with, for one thing. And anyway, that doesn't matter. It would be special, no matter what happened. Because it would be you and me.
Despite her shyness, Carrie was not entirely free from the desires that stirred amongst hot blood and hormones, indeed it startled her to think of just how carried away she was capable of becoming. Consequently she was quite glad when Teddy paused in his deliberate toying with the hem of her vest top, fingers trailing across exposed skin and leaving her to burn and shiver all at once, in order to tell her:
"Don't worry, I'm sure it won't be too dangerous. They're hardly going to throw me to the erklings on my first day, after all!"
Carrie managed to drag her mind away from the vaguely intoxicated state that his kisses and wandering hands had left her in.
"What's an erkling?" she mumbled, rolling onto her back so that she could stare up at the ceiling and silent curse the sunshine streaming in through the window, revealing to him her flushed complexion in all it's glory.
"It eats children." Teddy told her casually, as though this were something of very little consequence, and Carrie's brow furrowed deeply.
"Eats children...?"
"Yep." The wizard grinned as if this was an amusing past time for the creature, leaning to press a kiss to the tip of the muggle's nose. "Mum says they have to keep them out in the forest, away from the village. You know, so they don't eat anybody. I probably won't see them, Dad says they'll probably have me shovelling dung half a week at least."
"Well I still think it sounds wonderful." Carrie told him, shifting to rest her head against his shoulder, her racing heart at last beginning to slow to a more reasonable speed. "All those magical creatures! I'd give anything for a job like that...or...or any magical job! Anything but a boring muggle one!"
"You never know," Teddy mused, "You could end up with one."
"I'm a muggle." Carrie reminded him, leaning back to look up at him so that she could pull a face at his idiocy, but he ignored her.
"That doesn't matter. There are loads of jobs out there in the magical world that muggles could do!"
"Like what?" she asked disbelievingly, bordering on irritated that he saw fit to raise her hopes for what she was sure was nothing.
"I don't know...Mum could pull strings..."
"A MUGGLE AUROR? Really, Ted...!"
"Well no, but..."
"That's the most stupid thing I've ever heard!"
"Not really, Sweetheart. You're awfully good at kneeing dark wizards in the groin, after all. Not even Mum's done something quite that brilliant!" At this reminder of what Carrie considered in a odd way to be one of the proudest moments of her life, the two of them sniggered, his face buried in her hair for a moment before he said: "Obviously not a muggle Auror, silly! Mum does know people outside of the Auror Department, you know! I'll ask her, if you like. You know, see what she reckons." He halted the conversation abruptly by making a sudden grab for the duvet, yanking it up over their heads and shrouding them in darkness, eliciting a small squeak of surprise from the muggle who had thought their daring quite done with for one afternoon.
"Teddy..." she attempted to protest as he slipped his arms tightly around her and pulled her closer until she was pressed firmly against his side, "Your Mum's going to be calling us for lunch, and..."
"Shhh!"
"But..."
"Quick! Gimme a kiss!"
"I can't see!"
"Up here...up a bit...no, that's my ear..."
"Oops..."
"Stop giggling and give me a proper kiss!"
"I can't help it..."
"Don't make me tickle you!"
"I...No! Teddy don't! I'm tickli...ARGH!"
Above Carrie's shriek of protest and the pair of them giggling and sniggering and fumbling around under the duvet, she attempting to avoid his hands and he seeking out her ribs so that he could tickle her mercilessly, neither heard the footsteps on the stairs, nor the soft knock upon the bedroom door. Carrie had just let out a fresh squeal of protest when the knocking came again, louder this time, and Carrie very nearly bit through her tongue in an attempt to stifle herself mid-squeak.
She and Teddy instantly froze.
"Teddy...?" Dora's voice called from the other side of the door, tone distinctly wary, and Teddy instantly reached to fling the duvet off of them as Carrie felt her already flushed cheeks burn in embarrassment.
"Hmm?" the young wizard called back reluctantly.
"Soup's on the table, love." his mother called, and as he reached to attempt to flatten his wayward turquoise hair, Teddy mumbled:
"That's great, thanks Mum. We'll be down in a bit."
"I think you ought come down now, Ted." Dora suggested, though Carrie didn't think it sounded like much of a suggestion at all. "It's getting cold."
"Right..." Teddy agreed, and with that the two teenagers hurriedly scrambled up off of the bed.
As it was, it took Teddy some five minutes to persuade Carrie away from straightening her hair in the mirror and downstairs into the kitchen. She only dared bolt downstairs when he pointed out that the longer it took for them to appear at the table the more suspicious they would look. They arrived in the kitchen to find Remus and Dora engrossed in what Carrie suspected was a deeply serious talk of some sort, they were leant towards one another across the table, their voices hushed and their own bowls of soup apparently forgotten. As she took her seat at Dora's side, Carrie caught sight of a rather amused smirk upon the witch's lips as she leant back in her chair and reached for a spoon.
"That's settled, then." the Auror decided, crossing her legs under the table, and across from her Remus too leant back in his chair and agreed:
"Yes, it is." He promptly turned to his son, who was just busy blowing upon his first spoonful of soup in an attempt to cool it down, and told him: "We've got a thing or two to talk about with you both, Teddy." When Teddy merely offered him a raised eyebrow, invitation to continue, he added: "After lunch, that is."
Carrie attempted to shake off the feeling that this was not going to be a conversation she should look forward to, and was glad when Teddy seemed entirely unconcerned. Shovelling his spoon into his mouth, the youngest Lupin winced a little as the soup burnt his throat. He promptly abandoned his spoon and reached to busy himself with a slice of bread instead.
"Mum," he said, gaze flickering over in Dora's direction as the witch poured herself a glassful of orange juice. "Carrie and I were thinking...what kind of job could she get after University? As a muggle in the wizarding world, I mean."
Dora frowned into her glass as she took a thoughtful sip of juice.
"Not much of one, I imagine." she mused as she set the glass back down upon the table. "Most halfway decent jobs require OWLs and NEWTs, for one thing...and magic for another..."
"But what about Squibs?" Teddy insisted as Carrie failed to resist the urge to slump in her chair somewhat. "What do they do?"
"They get muggle jobs." Dora admitted frankly, only to look rather regretful when she cast a sideways glance at Carrie, amending: "Well...not all of them...I mean look at Filch..."
"There are plenty of jobs for Squibs and muggles in the magical world." Remus reasoned, offering Carrie a reassuring smile that faltered somewhat when Teddy asked:
"Really? Like what?"
Remus and Dora exchanged a look.
"Well..." Dora began slowly, toying with her spoon, "Obviously there aren't plenty of jobs...what Dad means is that there are...several options...probably."
"We've never really thought about it." Remus explained, pausing to reach to steal the remainder of his wife's orange juice, before setting the empty glass down and commenting: "It's an interesting question, though."
"I reckon if half the pen-pushers at the Ministry were squibs nobody would really notice." Dora said, once she was finished offering her husband a suitably exasperated look at his theft. "But those aren't exactly interesting, you might as well go and work in a muggle office."
"They'd value muggles at the Muggle Liaison Office." Remus suggested, and Dora nodded enthusiastically through a mouthful of soup.
"I've met those supposed Muggle Experts or whatever they call themselves! Idiots the lot of them, I probably know half as much again about muggles than that office does put together."
"That's hardly surprising, Mum." Teddy pointed out, offering Carrie a raised eyebrow, causing her to snigger, but Dora merely ignored him.
"If you got a job there, Carrie," the witch grinned, "I reckon you'd be promoted so fast you'd be the office Head within a month!"
"Don't be daft." Remus told her, rolling his eyes a little at her exaggeration. "Besides, you think anybody who isn't with the Aurors is an idiot."
Dora's eyes widened in mock-offense, but he had already turned his attention back to his soup, musing:
"It is a wonder they haven't employed muggles and squibs before now, though."
Determined to get her own back for his teasing, Dora reached to pat him comfortingly upon the arm and announced:
"That's not true, Sweetheart. Just because you're not with the Aurors and I think you're an idiot, doesn't mean I want to tarnish ever other non-Auror with the same brush."
As Carrie sniggered into her apple juice, the werewolf made an immensely sarcastic show of laughing. Grinning broadly, Dora assured Carrie:
"There are probably all sorts of jobs out there, Carrie. You've just got to keep an eye out for them. Perhaps they might not be the most well paid jobs in the world, but there's a whole lot more to life than money."
"I don't know..." Carrie admitted, suddenly rather glum. "Most jobs get down faster with magic, and why would you want to employ somebody who'll be terribly slow?"
"Not everything gets done better the magical way." Remus reasoned, and Carrie eyed him disbelievingly and asked:
"Like what?"
Again, Remus and Dora exchanged a rather uncertain look.
"Exactly." Carrie mumbled, eying her bowl rather accusingly.
"We'll get Remus on it, Carrie love." Dora insisted brightly, reaching to nudge her encouragingly with an elbow. "He's bound to come up with something, aren't you Sweetheart?"
"Of course," Remus agreed, frowning thoughtfully. "After all, you'll still be at University for two years yet. You've got ages to think about what you want to do."
"Plus Dad's dead good at job hunting." Teddy pointed out, ignoring the instant glare that his mother shot in his direction. "Before he got lumbered tutoring Harry's little monsters, looking for a job was his job..."
"You'll find something, Carrie." Remus interrupted, only to wince when Dora aimed a hefty kick at Teddy's shins under the table, only to miss and hit her husband's ankle instead.
"Maybe." Carrie mumbled, still gazing down into her bowl. She felt quite deflated despite their reassurances and once talk turned to the Auror Department and Harry Potter's repeated scolding of Jasmine Wickes and Isaac Graham for leaving the office unattended the day of the blessing, the muggle was only paying vague attention.
"...and then Jasmine said if he was going to lose his temper he ought call Robert in to his office and yell at him too, since he left the office without permission as well..."
"Oh dear..."
"Yeah...Harry was unimpressed. He said it was round about time she stopped blaming her own mistakes on others, and then he told Isaac that being the sensible one he should have known better. Apparently there were four reported sightings of that bastard Burke that Harry's been after and nobody responded to any of them because the office was empty. He's utterly furious. And then Jasmine made it worse...she wasn't taking it seriously, so she said he ought shout at me too, since I technically hadn't requested a day off either..."
"Ha!"
"So Harry told her to get the hell out of his office. And then he ranted at Isaac for another ten minutes until Robert popped his head round the door to ask if he wanted a cup of coffee..."
"Ah..."
"Of course he had a go at Robert, too, and I thought it might be good if he stopped for breath because he looked fit to burst, so I told him Robert had already suffered enough, so Harry could stop yelling. But of course Harry asked me if I meant I'd put him on disciplinary measures, which I obviously haven't. So I decided to copy Jasmine. I told him Robert had spent the afternoon watching his ex-girlfriend marry another man and wasn't that punishment enough?"
"For Merlin's sake, Dora..."
"Obviously Harry told me to get the hell out of his office too. He said I wasn't on bloody holiday yet, so I might try and take my job at least vaguely seriously for a few more days at the very least. And then he took Robert's coffee he'd been drinking and told him and Isaac to sod off too."
"I don't entirely blame him."
"Well no, me neither, they've all been utterly ridiculous! Robert wanted me to ask you to postpone our trip, for the safety of the office. He says if I leave him and the others at Harry's mercy and disappear off on holiday, chances are they'll have all been either cursed into oblivion or sacked by the time I get back." As she dumped the last bowl and spoon into the washing up bowl and set a sponge to begin scrubbing it clean, Dora turned to regard the others sat at the table, all amusement suddenly gone from her face. "Right..." she said, dusting non-existent dirt from the front of her blouse. "Right...shall we, then?"
"Yes...let's..." Remus agreed, rising to his feet, and Carrie suddenly recalled the vaguely ominous announcement when she had Teddy had first sat down to eat.
"Sitting room?" Dora suggested, and Remus puffed his cheeks rather reluctantly and agreed:
"Yes...the sitting room."
As she headed for the door, the witch visibly sniggered, and the werewolf shot her a revolted look before announcing:
"Right then you two, into the sitting room!"
Carrie and Teddy sat down upon the sofa and Carrie drew her feet up, hugging her knees to her chest as she watched Remus take a seat in the armchair, Dora half-perched herself upon one of the arms, gripping the back of the chair to keep her balance. For a long minute the two adults stared at Teddy and Carrie.
Teddy and Carrie stared back.
After what seemed like an age, Teddy seemingly couldn't quite cope with the silence anymore, for he sat straighter in his chair and asked:
"Well? What is it?"
Remus reached to scratch his chin with a frown and Dora pursed her lips together tightly for a moment, before leaning to nudge her husband in the leg with a foot. The look he shot her was unnaturally bad-tempered, apparently he had no intention of being rushed.
Dora sniggered, only to stop abruptly when she found a firm hand reaching to clamp down upon her knee, very nearly unbalancing her.
Remus leaned forward a little in his chair and cleared his throat meaningfully.
"Theodore," he began in his very best Parent-To-Child voice, instantly causing Teddy to find the blue and black stripes upon his socks utterly fascinating. "Your mother and I have been talking, and we think now would be a good time for us to all sit down and...and have a little chat about..."
He was cut off by his son's loud groan of horror.
"Oh for the love of Merlin...!" the youngest Lupin moaned, reaching to bury his face in his hands. "Dad...please...DON'T DO IT!"
Remus opened his mouth to speak again, only to pause when Dora failed to suppress a rather loud snigger.
"Why don't you go and put the kettle on?" he suggested meaningfully, but the witch merely smirked at him.
"Not a chance, Remus love!" she announced with a grin. "I wouldn't miss this one for the world..."
"M-UM!" Teddy complained into the palms of his hands as Carrie attempted to decide quite what part of the room she ought choose to stare at.
Please, she thought desperately, don't let it be one of those conversations...
"The fact of the matter is, Ted," Remus went on, his grip upon his wife's knee tightening to the point that Carrie thought it looked rather painful, "You're at an age now...both of you are at an age now..."
Oh Merlin, Carrie thought in horror as she felt her cheeks burning in embarrassment.
"...that, as adults, you have a responsibility to yourselves and to one another to act in...in a sensible manner...Dora stop smiling!"
"Nothing wrong with looking cheerful, love..."
"Dad's right, Mum." Teddy muttered. "Stop grinning like that, it's disturbing."
"As I was saying..."
"Dad we don't have to have a little chat about anything, we already did the birds and the bees thing years ago!" For a brief moment Teddy dared to look up at his parents, expression hopeful. "Unless we're not talking about the birds and the bees, that is...?"
"What Dad's trying to explain," Dora said, voice suddenly the model of seriousness. "Is how one goes about not getting stung by the bees."
There was a long pause as both Teddy and Carrie attempted to grasp the meaning of this explanation, and as comprehension dawned their faces contorted apprehensively.
Dora promptly burst out laughing, only to halt abruptly again when Remus very nearly pushed her straight off the arm of the chair.
"For Merlin's sake, go and put the kettle on!" he hissed, and she stumbled to her feet, lips pursed firmly together in an attempt to halt her amusement.
"If you say so, love..." the witch agreed, fluttering her eyelids at him in a less than innocent fashion, and he reached to give her a firm nudge in the direction of the door.
Despite Teddy practically curling up into a ball upon the sofa beside her, Carrie straightened up in her chair, letting her feet slide back down onto the floor and swallowing the lump in her throat.
"I already know about how contraception works." she informed her boyfriend's father, doing her very best not to blush. "We had a class at school. They handed out condoms and carrots and made us follow a demonstration..." she frowned deeply at the memory as she recalled: "Cleo ate her carrot and used the condom as a water balloon the following lunchtime..."
Whilst Teddy very nearly choked with laughter, Remus merely raised an eyebrow.
"Well," he said, sounding vaguely relieved that Carrie was contributing to the conversation at the very least. "Hogwarts doesn't have any classes like that. It's all left up to the parents. My father taught me about contraceptive spells, and he was taught by my grandfather, who in turn was taught by his father, who was taught by his father..."
"I get the point, Dad..."
"Consequently, Theodore, you and I will sit down and have this conversation in sensible and grown-up fashion, because if every other generation of fathers and sons up until now managed it, I'll be damned if we won't."
Teddy sighed heavily just as Dora reappeared from the hallway, apparently she had no desire to stand around in the kitchen and wait for the kettle to actually boil.
"Isn't there...some other way we can do this?" Teddy wondered pleadingly as his mother settled herself back down upon her perch. "Like...isn't there...a book of...of those sorts of spells or...or something?"
"There is..." Remus began rather reluctantly, only for Dora to interrupt:
"But you can't read it."
"And we don't own a copy." Remus decided, and Dora nodded her head vigorously...
At that precise moment all four of them jumped at the sound of a high pitched whistling sound, and Carrie hastily shoved a hand into her pocket in order to draw the sneakoscope out of her pocket. As it attempted to spin wildly around in her palm, Teddy folded his arms firmly across his chest, expression revolted.
"That's a lie." the youngest Lupin pointed out unnecessarily. "And I could read it if I wanted to, because it's in the bottom of your wardrobe, underneath the stack of shoe boxes."
There was a sizeable pause as Remus let out a resigned sigh, and Dora took a moment to digest this information before demanding to know:
"How in Merlin's name did you find that out?"
Teddy gave an impatient shrug.
"It was years ago," he muttered. "I was searching for my Christmas presents."
Dora looked mildly outraged and it wasn't for a long minute that she managed to find her voice.
"Yeah...well..." she began hesitantly, causing Remus to sink back in his chair with another sigh. "There's nothing wrong with that, Teddy. We might not have it out on a bookcase for everybody to look at, but I think you'll find at least ninety nine point nine percent of married witches and wizards own a copy."
"What...like Grandad Arthur and Grandma Molly?" Teddy asked, face contorting at the mere thought, and he groaned in horror when Dora insisted:
"There's no doubt."
"It was a rhetorical question!" the young wizard muttered, only for Carrie to reach to slap him rebukingly upon the arm. Taking this as a cue to begin a different line of protest, Teddy turned to scowl at his father, announcing:
"Well there's not much point in you trying to explain it to me, is there?" he complained. "I mean first you had me...by accident, then you were going to have Rae...by accident! I'm not entirely sure you have even the faintest idea what you're talking about..."
"Would you rather I floo Grandad Arthur and asked him to pop over?" Remus asked, offering his son a raised eyebrow as Dora simply stared, aghast that her son would say such a thing.
Teddy's eyes widened quite madly.
"Are you INSANE?" he cried, throwing his hands up in exasperation. "Grandad Arthur has had SEVEN children! He's clearly even more crap at those sorts of spells than you are!"
Carrie couldn't help but dissolve into giggles, but Dora's hysterical laughter drowned her out.
Remus' expression remained impressively unchanged.
"Alright then," he said, folding his arms firmly across his chest. "You can benefit by learning from my mistakes. The first thing you should know about contraceptive spells is that you should never, under any circumstances, attempt to perform them whilst drunk."
"Is that why I'm here, then?"
"No...the other thing you should know is that no matter how magical they sound, wedding vows are in no way shape or form a type of contraceptive spell."
"Again, that was a rhetorical question..."
Carrie leant back in her chair and attempted to fix a suitably serious expression onto her face. She had a feeling that it was going to be a long afternoon.
Teddy had escaped the room at the very first opportunity that presented itself, and Carrie had been keen to follow his lead, only for Dora to halt her midway to the door.
"I was thinking, Carrie love," the witch said, reaching to slide an arm around Remus' neck in order to steady herself upon the arm of the chair, "about earlier, when you said you wanted a job in the magical world. And I think I have an idea."
Carrie felt excitement instantly begin to bubble up inside of her, and she failed not to grin broadly.
"I've already told Teddy there can't possibly be such a thing as a muggle Auror." she said, and Dora grinned too.
"Mm...you're right, that wasn't really what I was going for." the witch admitted, fingers tangling absentmindedly in her husband's hair as she asked: "How're you with animals?"
Remus' head snapped round to look round at her so suddenly that she very nearly tore out a fistful of his hair.
"Are you about to say what I think you're about to say?" he asked, wincing a little, and Dora looked incredibly pleased with herself.
"Probably." she said, eying Carrie intently. "I was wondering, Carrie love, how would you like to tag along with us when we go away, and go with Ted and ask Edwin and the others if they've any work that you could help with?"
Carrie felt instantly stunned.
She couldn't quite believe her ears, indeed this was quite possibly the last thing that she had expected to be asked. She had thought after the incident on the day of the blessing that they would be looking forward to being rid of her for a while, glad to have time to themselves...
Time to themselves on a second honeymoon, no less!
"Really?" she found herself half-squeaking. "Do...do you mean it?"
Apparently her shock had served to dispel Remus' own surprise, for he leant back in his chair, a broad smile spreading across his face, only to falter a little when Dora muttered:
"No, not really, I thought I'd get your hopes up and then crush them into smithereens, just for giggles...yes! Of course I bloody mean it!"
Carrie instantly launched herself across the room and threw her arms around the two of them, failing to suppress a small shriek of excitement. She wasn't entirely sure why she felt compelled to include Remus in the crushingly tight hug, since he hadn't technically agreed to the plan and if anybody was going to disagree with it, he would. But she crushed his face into her stooped shoulder nevertheless and thanked him along with Dora profusely until they both saw fit to attempt to prise themselves free from her.
"Well, go and tell Ted and you can pop home and ask your aunt." Dora suggested brightly, and Carrie barely resisted the urge to throw her arms around her for a second time, instead choosing to half-skip out of the room in a fashion that she suspected looked very childish indeed, but she honestly couldn't have cared less quite what she looked like. As she skidded to a brief halt in the hallway, glancing down towards the kitchen in an attempt to decipher Teddy's whereabouts, she heard Remus murmur:
"Are you sure this is a good idea?"
"Of course it's a good idea, Remus." Dora announced. "After all, I was the one to come up with it! Anyway, there will be plenty of people around to keep an eye on things. What's there to worry about?"
As she made for the stairs, Carrie could have sworn she heard Remus mutter:
"Famous last words, darling. Famous last words..."
Carrie had barely managed to contain her excitement over the follow few days, and when the morning of the holiday dawned, warm but overcast, she had already been awake for several hours, packing and re-packing her suitcase, making a mental list of all of the magical creatures she had ever heard mention of, feeling more and more excited at the recollection of each one. She was even excited about child-eating erkling and wondered if she would actually be lucky enough to catch a glimpse of it. As it neared half past six in the morning, she began to wonder just how early she could show up at the Lupins' house without waking them up...
She only made it to seven o'clock, when her Aunt Susan had stumbled sleepily out of her room in her dressing gown and slippers to discover a fully-dressed Carrie stood in the narrow hallway, suitcase at her feet, eying the clock accusingly.
"Off this morning then, love?" Aunt Susan had asked, failing not to snigger, and Carrie had felt momentarily silly before realising that the large hand upon the clock had finally reached twelve precisely.
"Yep...right now, actually!" she'd announced, reaching to grab hold of her suitcase.
"This time of morning?"
"Yes...we've a train to catch!"
"Ah...yes, I suppose it's quite a long ride over to Wales."
"Yes."
"Well, then! Don't you have a quick kiss for your auntie, or can't you spare the half-second?"
Carrie had dropped the suitcase and consented to hurrying down the hallway and throwing her arms rather clumsily around her aunt, planting a rushed kiss upon her cheek, mumbling:
"Bye, then!"
"Have a lovely time, love."
"I will!"
And she would have a good time, Carrie thought as she escaped out of the door. She would have the most wonderful and marvellous time ever. Indeed, the muggle would go as far as to wager that she was going to have the time of her life! As she walked across town, a spring in her step despite her heavy suitcase, she wondered if she had packed the right sort of clothing and just how many different animals she was going to see. By the time she had let herself into the Lupins' hallway she had devised countless questions to bombard Remus with about their destination, and she was just drawing breath to announce her arrival to the house at large, when she realised that the house was dim from drawn curtains and disappointingly silent...
They're still asleep, Carrie realised dully, abandoning her suitcase and reaching to close the door carefully behind her. She was yet more disappointed than ever when soft footsteps sounded on the stairs and she turned to spot Dora creeping down the steps towards her...
...dressed for work in freshly pressed scarlet Auror robes and sturdy black laced boots.
Carrie couldn't help but look a little mortified.
"Morning, Carrie love." the witch murmured, offering her a bright smile, and Carrie simply eyed her attire accusingly.
"Are you going to work?" she asked incredulously, and as she reached the bottom of the stairs, Dora chuckled, reaching to pat the muggle upon the arm.
"The department's having some sort of minor crisis," she grinned. "Apparently Harry's not back from last night's raid and somebody with a shred of authority needs to go and kick Jasmine's arse for whatever it is she's done this time."
Despite her disappointment, Carrie sniggered.
"What're you going to do with her?" she asked, following the Deputy Head of Aurors up the hallway to the study.
"Merlin knows..." Dora sighed, reaching to gather up the papers upon the desk. "Probably throw her to the Wizengamot."
Carrie's eyes widened and as she took a step backwards to let the witch pass her again she wondered:
"She won't get given the sack, will she?"
As she headed towards the front door to snatch up a pale leather satchel that had been abandoned amongst the shoes, reaching to open it and stuff the papers inside, Dora puffed her cheeks thoughtfully.
"They'll probably suspend her without pay. They do that to her quite a lot." As she headed for the fireplace in the sitting room, the witch assured the muggle: "I reckon she could withstand at least two more suspensions before they finally think about sacking her. Jasmine has one of the best arrest records in the department. She might be a loose canon but she's bloody fearless and sharp as a basilisk fang. Her only problem, Kingsley says, is that she's too much like her Deputy!" She gave a vaguely indigent snort before telling Carrie: "I don't want to lose her, Harry won't want to lose her and Kingsley won't want to either. We'll keep her safe between us." Reaching to snatch up a handful of floo powder, Dora glanced over her shoulder to offer the muggle another bright smile. "I'll be back in an hour at most!" she announced, and with that she stepped carefully into the grate and disappeared in a burst of emerald flames.
Carrie went to sit upon the sofa.
She waited.
And waited.
And waited.
Remus appeared downstairs around half an hour later, hair damp and plastered to his head having showered, and another half an hour had passed by the time Teddy had joined them in the kitchen for scrambled eggs on toast.
Half hours turned into hours and they ticked by, with no sign of Dora at all. And Carrie waited...
And waited.
And waited.
The clock read well past noon by the time Dora finally reappeared to find Carrie sat upon the sofa as if she hadn't moved a muscle all morning. As she dusted soot from her robes, the Deputy Head of Aurors cast a dark look in Carrie's direction.
"I take it back." she muttered, giving up on her dusting and shrugging the robes off instead, tossing them in the direction of the armchair. "I hope they bloody sack her." And with that, she plastered a far more cheery expression onto her face and shouted: "ALRIGHT, REMUS LOVE? I'M BACK!"
They'd left almost as soon as Dora had changed out of her work clothes.
Carrie had felt so excited that she had barely dreaded apparating, which she had long felt to be one of her least favourite ways to travel. Indeed she had hardly felt sick when she had felt concrete give way to grass under her feet because when she had dared open her eyes she had felt quite stunned by the sight that greeted her.
They were stood atop a tall, steep hill that sloped sharply downwards, the long grass upon it's surface disturbed by craggy grey rocks and, to their right, a ramshackle dirt path that led down into the valley below. The valley itself was heavily wooded, the dark trees sprawling out, up the hillsides opposite them and Carrie found herself wondering just how many different animals were concealed under the treetops. A light mist hung over the valley, casting a serene sense of mystery about the place and as they set off down the path, feet squelching a little in the mud left by recent rainfall, Carrie couldn't help but think it glittered unnaturally.
Their progress was slow down the steep incline, and as the path began to snake it's way towards the valley floor they reached the edge of the forest. As they stepped under the cover of the trees, Carrie failed to suppress a small gasp of wonder. Lanterns had been hung upon the tree branches ahead of them, lighting up the widened dirt track with flickering blue light. Carrie was just opening her mouth to whisper to Teddy just how stunning a sight it was when a voice from above very nearly made her jump out of her skin.
"'Lo! Who goes there?"
The four of them looked up searchingly, and Carrie caught sight of a young man sat stretched out upon a sturdy tree branch, dressed in a faded pair of corded trousers tucked into a sturdy pair of boots, the sleeves of his dishevelled shirt rolled up to his elbows. Carrie watched as he leant forward upon his precarious perch, bright eyes squinting down at them for a moment before a broad grin spread across his face and he reached to grab hold of another branch, swinging himself down from the tree and landing with a soft thump in front of them.
"Alrigh', Mr. Lupin?" he greeted, offering Remus his hand to shake, whilst reaching with his other to attempt to straighten his shock of yellow-blonde hair. "I thought it would be you! I'm to take you straight to Pa, he says, so he can settle you in before he sees to the Granian herd."
"Thank you, Samuel." Remus said, and as the pair shook hands Dora took a small step backwards in surprise.
"No!" she cried, eyes widening. "You're never little Sammy who used to wake me up at six each morning to see the pig-snout morph!"
The young man gave a vaguely embarrassed chuckle.
"It's just Samuel now, Mrs. Lupin." he told her, glancing over her shoulder at Teddy and Carrie. "An' you're Ted." he observed, looking the youngest Lupin up and down before deciding: "Which is a relief because we're always short of hands this time of year!"
"Is there really that much dung to shift?" Dora asked, causing Teddy to roll his eyes at the back of her head, and Samuel stepped past her to shake Teddy's hand too.
"Well there's always some, Mrs. Lupin." he said. "But it's the pixies that cause the most trouble, they breed like rabbits and trash the forest if we aren't careful with 'em." His gaze came to rest upon Carrie and though he clearly had no idea what she was doing there he offered her an equally bright smile, teeth surprisingly white given the rest of his slightly grubby appearance.
"This is Carrie." Remus supplied as the muggle gazed up at the tall young man, feeling rather self-conscious. "She's another pair of hands." \
"Hello..." Carrie mumbled, doing her very best to smile.
"Oh!" Samuel positively beamed. "You wait till I tell Pa, he'll be dead pleased! Speaking of which, we should probably get going, d'you remember the way?"
"I do." Remus said, and he and Dora began to lead the way down the path, leaving Samuel to talk to Carrie and Teddy.
"Did you do Care of Magical Creatures at school?" Samuel asked the muggle, and Carrie felt her cheeks redden, her gaze dropping to her shoes, watching the mud squelch underfoot.
"Actually," Teddy explained, offering his girlfriend a reassuring smile. "Carrie didn't go to Hogwarts. She's a muggle."
For a moment, Samuel looked quite stunned and Carrie found herself informing him quite defensively:
"But I do know how to use a shovel."
Samuel let out a shout of laughter.
"Well," he said, grinning once again. "That's summat, ain't it?"
Before long the trees gave way to a large clearing that was dotted with small, rounded hut-like buildings of wood and wattle, smoke drifting up from little chimneys in the centres of their roofs. Though small, the village was busy and bustling and as they went about their daily business the witches and wizards of the Six Sisters Vale stared at the newcomers quite curiously. Carrie couldn't help but feel that it ought be her staring at them, after all from the look of things she felt rather as though she had been transported back in time to the Middle Ages.
Samuel led them to a house on the edge of the village where the door had been left ajar and no sooner had Samuel bellowed for his father, a tall, broad shouldered man with Samuel's blonde hair and a slightly gingery beard stepped out into the cool afternoon air.
"Ah!" the burly man exclaimed, swatting his son sideways so that he could get a better look at his visitors. "And there was me thinkin' the beasts 'ad gotcha!"
"Sorry we're so late, Edwin." Remus said as the man reached to grasp him by the arm in greeting. "Escaping the Ministry on time is never easy."
"Think nothing of it, Remus." Edwin insisted, only to drop Remus' arm at the sight of the witch stood beside him, throwing his arms out towards her as he cried: "And 'ere she is! The lady 'erself!"
"Long time no see!" Dora greeted, and Carrie was quite astonished when Edwin took a large step forward, throwing his arms around the Auror and lifting her right off her feet.
"Married!" he cried, voice low and booming. "You two! Twenty years later and I still get stunned at the thought of it!" And then he gave a loud, barking laugh that entirely drowned out Dora's own chuckle.
"I must confess I hadn't imagined it last time we were both here." Remus said, and as he finally consented to setting Dora back down onto her feet, Edwin shook his head in disbelief.
"I thought that Luna Lovegood had well and truly lost it when she showed up that time and mentioned it over lunch! I thought of that odd pair who had stayed with me that time, spent half the time bickering about all sorts of nonsense and the other half hiding up trees and in bushes! Did I hear wedding bells? Merlin, no! Come, come inside all of you..."
The doorway of the house was low enough that Edwin had to duck, and as he followed suit Carrie heard Remus ask:
"Did you get my owl?"
"Oh yes!" Edwin exclaimed as he led the way into the a dimly lit sitting room, the wooden floor littered with mismatched rugs and armchairs set around an open fire that was crackling merrily, smoke drifting up towards a conveniently placed chimney above. "A muggle! The others are all very excited!" As Carrie shuffled across the threshold behind Samuel, she felt nerves clench at her stomach again when Edwin turned to look at her keenly. She felt a little better, however, when he smiled reassuringly and told her: "We've not had a muggle in our valley since the dawn o' time, I reckon! But there's plenty of work for muggles to do round 'ere, Miss, if you're that way inclined! We'd be glad of it, too!"
Along one wall of the room was a modest little kitchen and a number of doors led off of the main room, bedrooms Carrie supposed. A short, petite looking woman with a shock of frizzy, pale blonde hair tied in a messy knot at the back of her head appeared in a doorway, and Edwin introduced her as his wife, Neve.
"All ready in there, is it?" he asked the silent witch, who gave a rather stiff nod. "Good! When we heard you were bringing an extra one, I had Neve make up another bed."
As they levitated the suitcases into the appropriate bedrooms, Carrie found herself directed into the room that Neve had just left by Samuel.
"Ted's to share with me and you're to have Sable's room." the young man explained as the muggle shuffled into the little bedroom, which had little furniture save a large trunk in one corner, a multi-coloured stripy rug upon the floor and a bed that looked like no bed that Carrie had ever seen before. It was barely raised up from the ground, it's mattress so thin it seemed a waste, and in place of a duvet were blankets and...furs...
"It turns bitterly cold after dark." Samuel told her as she eyed the soft, rich throw, barely resisting the urge to run and throw herself down atop it.
By the time she had arranged her suitcase neatly between the trunk and the bed, before wandering back out into the living room, Carrie found that Edwin was already midway through whisking Remus and Dora off to see The Others. Seemingly half of the village was expecting them to pop in for a visit, and Carrie wondered quite what the couple had gotten up to last time they had been there to befriend such an enormous group of people. Apparently, judging from the frequent sideways glances at one another as they wandered back towards the front door, neither Remus nor Dora appeared to recognise a single name in the long list that Edwin was in the middle of reciting, but they smiled and nodded and feigned remarkable enthusiasm nevertheless. Edwin paused in the doorway to glance over his shoulder at Samuel, Teddy and Carrie and suggested:
"Why don't you take Ted over to the herd, Sam? I'll join you soon enough, and I expect Neve might find you a cup of tea, Carrie. I'll have a chat with someone in the morning, see if we can't find some work for you, but until then you best stay out of trouble. Have a walk about the village, if you like."
"We won't be long, Carrie love. You'll be alright, won't you?" Dora asked as she reached to tuck her hand into the crook of Remus' arm, and once Carrie had swallowed the lump in her throat with a nod, Teddy had leant to press a kiss to the muggle's cheek with a grin before following the others out of the door.
And so it was that Carrie was left alone with Neve, who sat her down and offered her a cup of tea and a large slab of fruit cake. Edwin's wife was a very quietly spoken witch and Carrie found her quite a relief after Edwin's booming tones. Neve had never met a muggle before, she said, and she seemed to find Carrie utterly fascinating for she set about asking countless questions about the Muggle World. For a time Carrie was entirely happy to answer them, it was nice to have something of interest to say to this stranger who was lending her a bed for a week. But after a time she began to wish that the others would return, or that she might at least escape the questions because highlighting the differences between muggles and wizards was doing very little for her nerves, nor her self confidence. Once she had finished her cake and Neve had set about tidying away their plates, cups and saucers, Carrie excused herself from the house and went for a wander out in the village.
She walked along the outskirts, not keen to draw attention to herself, and stood for a while by a tree, watching a witch peg out an assortment of rugs that looked much like those in Edwin's house out to dry upon a washing line. Despite feeling shy of the people around her, Carrie had to admit that the only place that she had thought more delightful and magical than this valley was Hogwarts Castle. Despite the hustle and bustle of the villagers going about their business, she could clearly hear birdsong, a vast variety of different chirps and whistles, and if she listened carefully she could even hear the trickling of running water.
Carrie turned to gaze searchingly towards the source of the sound, her back to the village as she squinted through the trees. The forest was misty, mysteriously inviting and she could not see a great distance, and for a while she stood, chewing her lip in consideration.
She could venture into the forest, she decided, if she was careful. If she didn't go far, if she kept the village in sight...
She crept forward through the grass, as if she might disturb the trees around her, glancing back over her shoulder at the village every few steps, as if it might disappear into thin air if she kept her back turned. It was better to be safe than sorry, she thought to herself, because after all, stranger things had happened...
Sudden movement in a tree she was passing caused the muggle to freeze, and she looked up just in time to see a small bird swoop down out of the branches. It dipped so low in the air that it very nearly brushed the top of her head, and she failed to let out a little gasp of surprise. The bird fluttered off through the trees towards the sound of the water, and Carrie set off after it, watching as it flitted from tree to tree, twittering cheerfully as it went. So focused on watching it's progression was she that Carrie completely forgot to keep an eye upon the village behind her, and she wandered forward, still following the bird for several minutes until at long last she found the source of the running water. A stream was winding it's way through the trees ahead of her, and as she found herself smiling at her little discovery, Carrie watched the bird swoop down to land upon the opposite bank, hopping carefully along the water's edge, pecking at the stony ground.
Carrie found herself holding her breath a little so as not to startle the creature, and as she crept up to the waters' edge, dropping down into a crouch upon the ground, she got her first clear look at the bird.
It was a robin. She had been hoping for something perhaps a little more magical, but nevertheless Carrie thought it an awfully pretty little thing, and as she leant forward, careful not to lose her balance, the muggle wet her lips and let out a little whistle in greeting. She expected the animal to take flight in alarm, but to her surprise it turned to stare directly at her and, after a moment, let out a little whistle of it's own.
Carrie simply stared in surprise.
The robin stared right back at her, and so she drew in another careful breath and let out another whistle.
The bird whistled back.
Smiling to herself, Carrie leant forward, squinting at the bird again.
Perhaps it was magical, she thought to herself. After all she had never seen a bird act quite like it. She whistled again, just to be sure, and sure enough the bird drew back it's little head, puffing out it's bright orange chest, and let out an enthusiastic little warble of it's own.
Leaning even further forward, Carrie drew breath to whistle again, only for it to turn into an abrupt little shriek of horror as she felt the rocky soil beneath her crumbling away into the water. Arms flailing in a vain attempt to find something to grab hold of, the muggle caught the briefest glance of the robin fluttering off into the air before icy cold engulfed her with a splash as she went face-first into the water.
The urge to gasp in panic was overwhelming and as she screwed her eyes tightly shut at the choking water shooting down her throat, Carrie tried with all her might not to panic.
She could swim. She could swim quite well, she had gotten all of her badges for swimming at primary school, and it wasn't a deep stream, it wasn't that deep...
And yet...sweet Merlin, the current!
Carrie strained against the fast flow of water, desperately trying to reach the surface, but it seemed to her that the more she struggled the further away the fresh air above seemed to be. Water weeds were tangling about her increasingly feeble kicking legs, her lungs were burning in protest and had she had a terrible, drawn out second to think of it, Carrie would have thought that she had never felt more painfully cold in her whole entire life. The icy water was holding her prisoner, shooting up her nostrils, making the muscles in her limbs feel stiff...useless...
And it was useless, Carrie thought as she felt sharp pebbles scratching at her arms as she tried in vain to push herself away from the murky bottom of the stream. It was completely useless...
And she was alone. Entirely alone. Even the bird had flown away and there was nobody to help her, nobody to save her...
And it was at that precise moment, as she jerked her head sideways away from the water weeds, only to feel pain blossom on her forehead as she struck it upon a craggy rock jutting out from the bank, that Carrie Winters could help but think:
This is the most beautiful place that I've ever seen.
And I'm going to die in it.