Note: This chapter contains scenes of an adult nature! Consider yourselves warned! (Not only because they are adult, but because I've never made much of an attempt at an adult scene like this before now! Don't flame me, I know it's bad...! :-) ).
Apologies for the lack of updates, I'm stupidly busy. In fact I should be asleep, I have lectures to go to tomorrow...in fact technically that's now TODAY...
Thanks for my lovely reviewers. You make me smile!
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.
10: Sweet Dreams
She could hear Teddy's hurried footfalls behind her, could hear him calling her name over and over, but by the time he finally caught up with her and caught hold of her somewhat roughly by the elbow it was much too late. Carrie had stomped her way up the muddy pathway to Carter Cottage and hammered a furious fist upon the door.
"Carrie, what in Merlin's name are you doing?" Teddy hissed, yanking her back a few steps though the movement was futile, and Carrie pulled herself free from him so that she could turn to stare up at him with wide eyes.
"HE DID IT!" the muggle cried, pointing a trembling finger at the door. "HE DID IT, TED, HE POISONED HER, HE...HE TRIED TO KILL HER!"
"What?" Teddy reached to push her arm back down to her side. "Stop shouting, for Merlin's sake! I don't know what you're talking about..."
"Kit Carter!" Carrie exclaimed, not bothering to lower her voice in the slightest. "He...he poisoned your mum! He gave us a drink...a...a potion, it was disgusting...why are you looking at me like that?"
Teddy reached to lay his hands upon her shoulders, infuriatingly non-plussed by her revelation.
"Sweetheart," he began slowly, "I know you're upset, you've had a nasty shock, but you can't just come storming over here throwing accusations this way and that..."
"What's wrong with you?" Carrie shrieked, eyes wide in frustration, and she was about to shout at him even more only for footsteps to sound behind the door, causing her to spin back round to face it instead.
"Carrie," Teddy hissed, reaching forward to press a firm hand to her elbow. "I mean it, don't..."
The door was pulled open just a little and through the gloom within Carrie could make out Kit Carter pressing his face to the gap, peering out at them rather shyly.
Carrie couldn't help but think he looked awfully guilty.
"Oh..." the animagus breathed, seemingly sighing a little in relief. "It's just you..."
"Hi Kit!" Teddy greeted, grip upon Carrie's elbow tightening, and the muggle reluctantly mumbled a polite:
"Hello."
"I...I heard raised voices." Kit explained, daring to pull the door open a little further. "Is...is everything alright?"
"Not really, not." Carrie informed him icily, making Teddy behind her flinch.
"It's my mum." the metamorphmagus announced before his girlfriend could utter anything damning. "She's been taken ill, I'm afraid."
"She has?" Kit's face visibly paled, and Carrie failed to suppress a snort at his concern. "Goodness, it's nothing serious, is it?"
"She collapsed." Carrie said, folding her arms firmly across her chest. "In the woods. After she drank your weird berry juice!" Feeling quite satisfied at the mounting horror upon Kit's face, Carrie ignored the painful grip that Teddy was bestowing upon her arm in order to demand to know: "What did you put in it?"
Kit took a small step backwards, expression pained.
"You...you think I...you think that I've...poisoned her or...or something...?"
"No, that's not what we think at all..." Teddy insisted hurriedly, only to flinch again when Carrie announced:
"That's exactly what I think!"
There was a long silence as Teddy's gaze dropped despairingly to his shoes and Kit simply stared at the muggle, stunned.
"Oh..." the animagus murmured, and he too dropped his gaze to his feet for a moment, the accusation making him sag miserably before he looked back up at the fuming girl stood behind him to quietly observe: "Well that's not possible, is it? You drank more than Mrs. Lupin did, and you look more than fine to me."
Carrie felt as if he had punched her in the gut, the fury inside her was instantly snuffed out to be replaced with complete and utter shame. She immediately hung her head, the hurt on Kit's face far too much for her to look at.
"You...you think I'm...you think I'm bad, don't you?" Kit whispered, eyes widening in agitation, and for a horrible moment Carrie thought he might even start to cry. "I...I was wrong about you, you...you believe them, don't you? You...you believe Samuel and...and his parents..."
"It's not like that!" Teddy insisted hurriedly, stepping forward and shooting the side of Carrie's head a revolted look before turning back to gaze at the despairing young man evenly. "Carrie didn't mean to suggest that you tried to poison anyone on purpose! What she meant was...well, that perhaps my mum had...had some sort of...some sort of allergic reaction, perhaps she has an allergy to...to some of the berries that you used. Right, Carrie?"
Carrie slowly uncrossed her arms before reluctantly making herself look up again.
"That's right." she agreed, fixing a suitably apologetic expression upon her face. "I didn't mean to shout, it's just I...well we're all rather worried, that's all."
"Of course you are, yes..." Kit breathed, sounding very relieved indeed, and quite suddenly he stepped over the threshold, raising a timid hand. "You um...there's a..." He reached carefully forward to pluck something out of Carrie's hair, lips twitching shyly towards a smile as he finished: "...a twig in your hair." For a moment he held the offending piece of woodland debris out for her inspection before hurriedly dropping his hand back down to his side.
Carrie gazed at him for a moment, his eyes upon her making her shift rather uneasily. For some reason she found herself musing that his eyes really were oddly mesmerizing, dark, almost black, rather like Teddy's. Yet where Teddy had inherited his mother's eyes that glittered, Kit Carter's were vast, sorrowful pools that almost made Carrie feel as if she were falling into them. She felt utterly wretched for upsetting him, indeed she had the sudden urge to reach to throw her arms around him and hug him tightly in remorse. Instead, the muggle uttered a rather awkward:
"Thanks..."
"We were just wondering," Teddy said, reaching to slide an arm around the muggle's shoulders, "if you had any of that drink left. Maybe we could...could figure out what made Mum sick."
Kit shuffled backwards so that he could lean against the doorframe.
"I'm afraid we've run out." he told the metamorphmagus regrettably, "I gave Carrie the last of it..."
It was then that there came a muffled call from inside and Kit glanced back over his shoulder to call: "It's Carrie, Uncle! She says Mrs. Lupin's been taken ill! I'll be there in just a moment!"
"We won't keep you." Teddy said as soon as Kit made to turn back to his visitors. "In fact we'd better be getting back."
"I'm sorry I couldn't help." Kit told him, though his gaze seemed to be fixed on Carrie instead. The muggle wondered if he were still upset with her accusations, despite Teddy's attempts to cover them up. "I do hope she recovers quickly."
"I'm sure she will." Teddy murmured as he and Carrie turned to head back down the pathway. "Goodbye, Kit."
"Goodbye Ted...goodbye Carrie!"
As Teddy led her swiftly back down the path, Carrie looked over her shoulder to see him offer her a small smile.
"Bye, Kit." she called, and with that he disappeared back into the gloom and the door swung shut.
"He really is very odd." Teddy mumbled a minute later as they strode back through the trees, and before Carrie could say a word he had pulled her to a sudden halt and turned to gaze down at her, face deadly serious. Carrie rather expected some lecture about her dreadful behaviour towards the poor boy she had accused, but instead Teddy reached to take hold of her hands in his and, staring at her intently asked:
"Would you do something for me?"
"Anything." Carrie told him, managing a smile. It faded in surprise when, after a long pause in which he shuffled a little self-consciously, Teddy murmured:
"Stay away from him."
"Stay away from Kit?" Carrie said, frowning ever so slightly. It wasn't that she was at all displeased with this request, indeed she was pretty sure that she'd avoid Kit Carter as much as she possibly could from then on, it was more the fact that Teddy felt compelled to ask her in the first place.
"Why?" she asked, because despite the fact it didn't matter to her, she wanted to know out of curiosity, and Teddy's cheeks tinged pink as he looked down at his shoes.
"Does...does it matter?" he mumbled, dropping one of her hands so that he could tug at the hem of his jumper.
"Not really, no. But I'd like to know all the same."
Teddy's brow creased into a deep frown and for a while he said nothing, instead preoccupying himself with more fiddling with his jumper.
"I...I don't like it..." he mumbled, apparently deeply embarrassed. "How...how he looks at you."
"Oh?" Carrie reached to take hold of his hands and he let out a rather strained chuckle.
"I'm not...I'm not saying I think he's in love with you or anything..." he mumbled, and Carrie felt quite bemused when he chuckled again and muttered: "I wish he was."
"What?"
"I mean, that would be...better. Maybe he is, I don't know, but he...he looks at you so strangely, like...like he's obsessed. Infatuated. And...and that's a whole lot different than...than love, it's...it's not very nice, you know, staring at you like...like he's eying up something tasty in a shop window..."
Carrie failed to suppress an uncomfortable little laugh, only to bite her tongue when the sound made Teddy flinch.
"Well then," she said, swallowing the lump that had formed in her throat so that she could smile up at him reassuringly, "I'll stay well clear of him, if that's what you want."
He gave a non-too relieved little sigh, and Carrie reached to throw her arms around him.
Teddy Lupin was not, and indeed never had been, prone to jealousy and nor was he a particularly possessive boyfriend. He had a wonderful, quiet confidence that appeared to leave him entirely unthreatened by any other boy who had ever set eyes upon his girlfriend and it was a trait that Carrie was certain he had inherited in part from his father.
For one who could be so utterly damning of himself should the mood take him, and for one who after twenty years still believed himself in someway unworthy of his wife, Remus Lupin was surprisingly confident about his marriage. Carrie found herself recalling one evening many months previously when she had joined the Lupins for dinner, only to find them clustered in the sitting room along with a trio of people who the muggle had recognised as colleagues of Dora's from the Auror Department.
It's yet another office party, Dora had informed Carrie as she sat upon the sofa, wriggling her feet into a pair of heels, we've decided to go in pairs.
It's tradition, Jasmine Wickes had explained from her position stood clinging onto Isaac Graham's arm, makes us all look civilised, or so they say!
Well they say wrong, don't they Jas? Robert, the third of Dora's colleagues and rumour had it her ex-boyfriend, had observed. We're worse in pairs, we encourage one another! And then, to Carrie bemusement he had turned to offer Dora his hand, inquiring: Is my partner in crime ready, then?
Just about, Dora had announced brightly, leaning sideways to press a kiss to her husband's cheek with a murmured: don't wait up, Sweetheart.
And Carrie had watched the four of them disappear into the floo in pairs, each arm in arm. She'd just about caught Robert's observation of: you're looking rather stunning, you know, before he and Dora had vanished, and when she'd turned to see what Remus made of this comment the werewolf had merely raised an eyebrow and disappeared behind a copy of the Evening Prophet.
Don't you feel weird, Carrie had wondered when she went to drop down into Dora's vacated seat beside him, your wife going to a party with her ex-boyfriend or whatever he is?
No, had been the distinctly disinterested response, and Carrie had frowned and reminded him:
But he said she looks stunning!
Remus had simply turned a page of his newspaper and murmured:
Yes. That's because she does.
From Dora, Teddy had been taught the golden rule of relationships: equality. Carrie recalled one summer when she and Teddy had been thirteen years old, sat upon the stairs in the Lupins' hallway, the young wizard distinctly sulky as they watched his mother shuffle through the front door, fresh home from work.
What a handsome face! Dora had exclaimed when she had finished hanging up her cloak, turning to catch sight of the scowl upon Teddy's face.
It's not fair, her son had informer her moodily, giving his foot a juvenile little stamp, and Dora had merely agreed:
It never is, Teddy love.
Aren't you going to ask me what isn't fair? Teddy had asked, irritated that his tantrum was not going quite the way that he had planned, and Carrie had wanted to snigger when the witch had graciously leant against the wall and asked:
What's not fair, Ted?
And Teddy had informed his mother:
Dad won't take us to watch Quidditch on Wednesday!
Well, Dora had reminded him patiently, that's because Dad doesn't like Quidditch.
Mu-um! Teddy had complained, giving his foot yet another little stamp. Tell him!
Tell him what, love? Dora had asked, raising an infuriating eyebrow. That he doesn't like Quidditch?
N-o! Teddy had half-shouted. Tell him to take us on Wednesday!
And Dora had merely laughed and told her son:
Don't be stupid, Sweetheart. I don't tell Dad to do anything.
Teddy had spent a good few minutes grumbling that this wasn't in the least bit true and that Dora told Remus to do things all the time, and visa versa. But when Carrie thought about it conversations between Remus and Dora had a habit of being structured in a very specific way.
It was never: Pop to the shops and fetch some milk, love.
Instead it was: How would you like to pop to the shops for me, love?
They never said: Stop off at Harry's before you come back, darling.
It would be: Could you stop off at Harry's on your way home darling, only if it's not much trouble?
Dora never simply announced: I've asked Mum and she's coming for dinner later, love.
She'd more likely tell her husband: I was thinking of asking Mum over for dinner, love. D'you think we could do that some time next week?
Questions. It was always questions, never statements of fact. Nobody was in charge, they made decisions together.
You didn't tell your loved one what to do, that was what Teddy had always learnt. You didn't stop them from making their own decisions...
No wonder, Carrie thought as she buried her face in the front of his shirt, Teddy felt so awkward and bordering on ashamed. He didn't like to attempt to tell her what to do, and she felt compelled to say something, for in truth Teddy's version of controlling was ridiculously feeble and Carrie didn't think it shameful in the slightest.
"It's what I want too." she told him, drawing back so that she could gaze up at him. "I'm glad you said something, because...well...I wondered if I were imagining it...how strange Kit is."
"No, he's very strange." Teddy sighed, sounding rather pained, and Carrie very nearly shuddered at the thought of Kit stood back in the doorway, staring at her, reaching to pull the twig from her hair. She promptly buried her fact in Teddy's chest again, sighing heavily.
"Good thing I've got you here, isn't it?" she murmured, trying not to feel too spooked. Instead she tried to focus on Teddy, how endearing his bout of nerves had been, how wonderful she thought he was. "In fact, it's a good thing I've got you everywhere. It's better than good, it's amazing...no, better than that it's...it's perfect. You're perfect..." she gave a slightly abashed chuckle at her ramblings, they made her feel a little silly, only for him to reach to wriggle a finger under her chin so that he could prise her face back up to look at him. For a moment they simply smiled at one another. Carrie could feel her cheeks warming, his dark, twinkling eyes upon her making her feel suddenly warm inside. She wondered why she had ended up babbling at him like some sort of nervous schoolgirl, surely they were past that, surely what Dora had said earlier was true, it was time to stop trying too hard...
"I'm not very good at romance." she informed him frankly. "I don't say the words right."
"I think you say them beautifully." Teddy told her, and Carrie rolled her eyes.
"No, I don't." she insisted, causing him to frown deeply. "But there are a few I can say without mumbling, if you like. I love you. I adore you. I think you're perfect. See...I can say things like that."
"You say those beautifully too. Because you mean them. They're all beautiful, if you mean them."
Carrie felt rather as if a weight had lifted from her chest, as if the two of them were finally beginning to see the light.
She didn't need to worry about elaborate declarations, she realised as she smiled broadly up at him, because they didn't matter. What mattered, what made them beautiful, was the meaning behind them.
And Teddy knew what she meant. He knew she loved him, he'd just said as much. And if they loved one another, what was there to be worried about? What was there to be nervous of? Why be shy of one another...
Carrie leant to press a firm, rather triumphant kiss to his lips, before giving herself a little shake to bring herself out of her thoughts.
"Come on," she murmured, "let's go and see how your mum's doing."
They arrived back at the cottage to find Neve fussing over a bubbling cauldron upon the kitchen table whilst Edwin stood at the sink, staring somewhat darkly out of the window. The two teenagers headed wordlessly for Remus and Dora's bedroom door, which had been left ajar, and when they entered the two occupants didn't appear to notice them in the slightest.
"...too much cream." Remus was murmuring from his position perch upon the edge of the bed, one arm hooked carefully about his wife's waist as he dabbed a damp cloth against the graze upon her forehead.
"'S no such thing." his patient mumbled thickly, shoulders hunched as she sat, clutching a large plastic mixing bowl in her lap, a deep frown creasing her brow as the werewolf continued to carefully mop up her wounds.
"Oh I think you'll find there is." Remus whispered into her ear, coaxing a vague smile onto her lips, and the pale-faced Auror leant backwards to lean heavily against his side.
"Never." she insisted, eyes fluttering closed as he dropped the cloth into his lap and leant to press a kiss to her forehead instead.
"Whatever it was, you scared the life out of me."
"You seem lively enough to m...uh!"
Carrie flinched and hurriedly looked at her shoes as Dora lurched abruptly forward, grasping hold of the mixing bowl as she promptly vomited into the basin.
"Better out than in." Teddy murmured as Remus hastily scraped the mousy hair back from Dora's face with one hand, the other rubbing soothing circles upon her back.
"Thank you, Ted." the werewolf muttered disapprovingly, but any further comment was drowned out by Dora's violent retching. Finally spent a few minutes later, the witch slumped backwards against Remus' side again. Despite her apparent exhaustion, she turned carefully to stare over towards the doorway, a vague smile tugging at her swollen lip.
"Here's our heroine!" she exclaimed weakly, and when Remus too offered Carrie a smile, the muggle felt rather embarrassed by their praise. After storming over to Carter Cottage she didn't feel as if she deserved it. She felt a sudden desire to tell them so, to admit to her mistake, and yet she forced herself to simply smile back at them. They didn't need to have their sparkling opinion of her tarnished quite yet, besides they had more important things on their minds.
"How're you feeling?" Carrie asked instead, taking a few steps forward. It was a rather silly question, if truth be told, but she didn't quite know what else to say.
"Been better." Dora admitted, eyes drifting closed again. "You, Carrie love?"
"I'm fine. Barely a bruise." Carrie assured her, and the Auror gave a surprisingly contented sigh and mumbled:
"That's our girl."
"She did wonderfully." Remus agreed, reaching to prise the bowl from his wife's frail grasp, and as he set it down upon the bedside table he offered Carrie another bright smile before the concern creeped back into his features, creasing his brow as he turned his attention fully back to Dora.
"Why don't you have a sleep, Sweetheart?" Carrie heard him suggest, easing the witch from his side and down onto the pillows behind them.
"Mm..." Dora murmured, apparently very near sleep already. As Remus set about adjusting the pillows under her head the witch let out a sigh. "'S so warm in here." she mumbled, reaching to tug feebly at the blankets and furs about her waist. Remus paused, about to pull them snugly up to her chin, to press a hand to her forehead.
"You're getting hot." he observed, and despite her sleepiness the witch gave an abrupt snigger and mumbled:
"'S what you said last ni..."
"Try and sleep." Remus interrupted meaningfully, lips pursed together against a snigger as he glanced over at his son apologetically.
Dora let out a soft snort of amusement, reaching to pull his hand from her forehead so that she could press it to her cheek instead.
"I'll be right here when you wake up." Remus assured her, only for her to abruptly push his hand away and insist:
"No, bugger off and have some lunch. Please."
"I'm really not hungry..."
"Then pretend."
"I'd rather not."
"Do it, Remus. Just do it, for Merlin's sake. I refuse to let this...to let this ruin things..."
Carrie had flinched at these words, for though the stubborn resolve to carry on as usual was so very like Dora, the weariness that had become etched into her voice was somewhat painful, so despondent that had Carrie not been stood staring at her, the muggle might not have believed it were Dora speaking at all.
Consequently she was quite glad to retreat with Teddy out into the sitting room, where they sat down at the kitchen table and ate a simple selection of bread, cheese and generous spread of chutney, a lunch hastily cobbled together by Neve in between her potion brewing. Whatever was bubbling away in the cauldron smelt vile enough that Carrie found herself with very little appetite anyway, but she tried her best to eat enough to look polite and drank a cup of tea for good measure. Despite his wife's insistence, Remus failed to appear at the table, which only made Carrie feel worse; firstly at the thought that Dora hadn't the energy to successfully plead with him, and secondly at the thought that Remus seemingly couldn't bear to leave the Auror on her own.
It reminded her once again of the previous year, of scars and damage never to heal, and Carrie struggled not to fall into a despairing mood herself. Once they had sat at the table long enough to be deemed polite, she and Teddy murmured thanks to their hostess, who didn't seem to be paying them all that much attention as she carefully measured out some sort of powder onto a pair of brass scales, and with that Carrie and Teddy both fetched a couple of cloaks and headed back outside.
They walked somewhat aimlessly through the village and back up the path that they had first used upon their arrival. Carrie had not ventured back this way since then, yet Teddy appeared to know where he was going. He led her by the hand off the path and through the trees and after a while, as they picked their way over the tree roots as the woods grew thicker and less tame, Carrie felt compelled to ask:
"D'you really think she'll be alright?"
"Who, Mum?" Teddy asked, slowing until they came to a stop, and as he turned to face her questioningly, Carrie gave a nod.
"Yes...she'll be alright, won't she? She looks so...so sickly and...and she's so...well..." the muggle trailed off into silence with a heavy sigh, and Teddy reached to slip his arms around her, expression soothingly calm.
"You know," he said, pausing to brush the hair from her eyes as she peered up at him anxiously, "there are a whole lot of magical plants that can kill a person stone dead as soon touch their lips. And then there're ones that can make you throw up all over the place, or even mess around with your mind, we used to learn about them in Herbology and Potions..."
"Is this supposed to be making me feel better?" Carrie inquired, face contorting indigently, and the wizard gave a light chuckle, leaning to press a kiss to the tip of her nose.
"I'm just saying," he murmured, smiling brightly, "on the grand scale of things, she's not that sick."
"She didn't seem herself at all to me. Joking one second...almost crying the next..."
"She's sick, Carrie. Sick and tired and weak. But she'll cope, she is coping. She always does...she did last time..." At mention of last time, Teddy took a turn at trailing off with a sigh, and Carrie offered him a half-hearted smile.
"All this sighing!" she observed, "We could use some cheer, don't you think?"
"What do you have in mind?" Teddy wondered, and there was a long pause as Carrie tried to think of something innovative or witty to say. When nothing came to mind, she rose up onto the balls of her feet to kiss him instead. Apparently the young wizard thought this as good an idea as any, and it was not long before Carrie found herself being nudged gently backwards a few steps until her back met the rough bark of a tree trunk.
Kissing Teddy was indeed a fine distraction from the morning's events. And Carrie craved the distraction, craved his lips against her own, craved his caressing hands and his warmth in the afternoon breeze. She soon found herself admitting to herself that whether it was a distraction or not, she simply craved Teddy above all else in the world, and she found herself utterly fixated with his movements, his hand snagging at stray knots in her hair, fingers fiddling longingly with the buttons of her coat...
It was a dull yet thrilling ache within her that seemed to do something rather rash and wonderful to her brain, and Carrie wasn't sure she could stop it, even if she had wanted to.
It didn't quite stop her from jolting in surprise a few minutes later when she suddenly felt Teddy's hands slipping under the warm confides of her coat. His fingertips, tracing along the waistband of her jeans, faltered somewhat and he hastily drew back from kissing her to drop his forehead against her shoulder. There was a sizeable pause before he murmured:
"Are you okay?"
Carrie tried to ignore the warmth flushing in her cheeks to swallow the lump in her throat.
"Was um...was that me?" she wondered, voice not much more than a squeak.
"Was what you, Sweetheart?"
"Did I...did I do that? My coat, I mean..."
She felt warm air puncturing the thick shoulder of her coat as he stifled a huff of amusement into the material.
"Did you undo your coat buttons, you mean?" he attempted to clarify, sounding remarkably serious despite his apparent amusement.
"Mm..." Carrie managed, glancing down at the buttons in question and feeling quite puzzled.
"Yes, that was you." Teddy explained patiently, and for a moment the muggle's mind simply boggled.
"Oh..." she said at last, because she still couldn't quite fathom how she had managed such a thing without really noticing. It seemed wildly out of character, if truth be told...
"Are you okay?" Teddy asked again, and Carrie frowned in consideration.
Was it really out of character, the muggle wondered to herself, to edge closer towards intimacy? Or was it simply a part of her character she was only just discovering? Was it like Dora said, was she beginning to realise that she didn't need to act?
In truth, Carrie wasn't entirely sure. Nor was she sure whether this made her "okay" or not. So instead of answering she decided to simply continue to stumble onwards into the unknown, because regardless of whether or not it was okay the warm longing feeling was beginning to dull from her insides and she didn't want it to go just yet.
"You've cheated." she informed Teddy, his face still buried in her shoulder, and as she reached to slip her arms around his waist, fingers toying with the hem of his jumper, he asked:
"How?"
"You've not got any buttons, you're wearing a cloak." And with that, the muggle sniggered, only for the sound to die in her throat as he turned his head sideways to press his lips to the side of her neck. She slumped back against the tree trunk, his lips upon her skin sending a sudden wave of longing sweeping over her, and she felt such relief at having not lost her nerve that she clung to him, eyes drifting closed with a beaming smile. She felt as if she could do or say anything, that it was forever be fine, forever be perfect with Teddy. Her Teddy. Because she loved him and he loved her. There was no need for nerves, no need for shyness...
She found herself gloriously trapped, her arms kept at her sides by the coat he had pulled halfway down her arms, and the cool breeze upon her bare shoulder was not cool at all, but thrillingly chilled, his warm lips puncturing the ice as he worked his way steadily downwards, tugging her cardigan carefully off her shoulder as he went.
And Carrie simply stood, smiling into the blacks of her eyelids, held prisoner by her adjusted clothing and entirely glad to be so, revelling in his slow, careful progression down from her shoulder, his lips tracing the line of her collarbone. When she felt his hand leave her arm to pull hesitantly at the neckline of her t-shirt she felt herself suck in a deep, gasped breath, her hand groping blindly sideways until she found his other hand upon her waist. For a moment she concentrated on lacing her fingers through his, something normal, something they did all the time without much thought, trying to ignore the sudden constricting in her chest. And yet she didn't want to ignore it, didn't want to ignore him as, after a long enough pause to establish that she wasn't about to panic, he reached to tug at the neckline of her top, fingers snagging carefully upon her bra underneath, she felt the sudden sting of cool air against newly exposed skin only fleetingly before his head dipped and warm lips upon previously unchartered territory sent shockwaves of warmth through her body. For the life of her, Carrie could not recall or even imagine anything more intoxicating or wonderful than the feeling she had at that moment, and she gasped another lungful of air into her lungs in a failed attempt to suppress a shudder. She felt Teddy pull his hand free from her suddenly vice-like grasp and as the back of her t-shirt tugged against the back of her neck as he pulled at it even more, Carrie allowed her eyes to flutter open, too curious and heady to resist. The sight of his hands carefully caressing her exposed breast, his eyes just as shut as hers had been a moment earlier as he pressed kiss after kiss to her skin seemed to become burned in glorious detail in her memory from that moment on. Carrie was certain that she would never forget it, nor the fierce, longing ache in the pit of her stomach. A moment later he had paused in his kissing to simply press his smiling lips against her skin, as if to revel in this sudden new development between the two of them,
"I love you." Carrie told him, because the headiness was beginning to wear off and she felt compelled to do or say something, and he hastily straightened up and set about pulling her clothes back into place.
"And I love you." he told her once he had finished buttoning up her coat, and they had both smiled in a rather awed fashion at one another before setting off on their walk again, the world slowly returning to them as a bird perched in the tree above them let out a soft tweet.
Their little interlude against the tree in the woods was pretty much all that Carrie could think of that night when she went to bed, she lay under the blankets and furs, recalling how serene and wonderful it had all been and how utterly glorious it had felt and how when she had finally dared open her eyes Teddy had seemed so utterly lost in what he was doing that at that moment in time she hadn't felt even a little embarrassed at just how exposed she had been. Indeed, Carrie had felt stunning. Wondrously beautiful.
She'd dream of it, she was sure, the whole night long! There would be no stopping it, she'd dream of that moment over and over again and wake feeling heady and fuzzy and warm inside...
And yet, when Carrie Winters did finally fall asleep some hour or so after climbing into bed, she did not dream of Teddy Lupin's kisses and caresses, nor of his love for her at all.
Instead she dreamt of mysterious and handsome young man with beautifully haunting eyes and dark, attractively ruffled hair who smiled warmly down at her from his perch upon a low hanging branch of a tall tree, his feet just out of her grasp when she attempted to reach him.
Yes, that night Carrie Winters did not dream of her boyfriend at all.
Because she was far too busy dreaming of Kit Carter.