Note: So I've finally written a full plan for this 'fic! When I have some more spare time I ought be able to update nice and quickly. For anybody who is interested, I have 2 more Meet the... 'fics planned after this one, though only one of them will star Carrie as the protagonist! So, I hope you'll enjoy those once I get around to writing them (or finishing them because I've technically started one of them!) I estimate about 4 or 5 more chapters here...maybe. I'm not sure...

I'm sorry this chapter is so short. I'm still very busy, even though I've already handed some work in already there is still about 4 more lots due in this/next week! Thanks to my reviewers, you make this ridiculous work load bearable, as well as make me feel less regretful about shunning work in favour of writing (it's a awful habit that I really should shake off if I'm going to get a half decent degree!)

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter

12: A Well Rehearsed Game

The cool breeze left hundreds of tiny goosebumps upon her skin as she crept forward through the trees, her breath catching in her throat at every crunching leaf, every snapping twig, and she crept closer and closer, waiting for her movements to finally bring him to a halt, for him to realise that she was there.

Perhaps, she thought as she paused to press herself against a tree trunk, peering round it towards him and biting her lip in consideration, he had already heard her. Perhaps he knew she was there and this was just some game they were playing, a careful game of cat and mouse.

And she wanted desperately to be caught.

Gaze fixed upon his retreating back, she slipped out from behind the tree, silent as as ghost, only for him to suddenly spin round to face her. She gave a small jump backwards, back colliding with the tree trunk, and she knew then that he had known all along that she had been following him.

He regarded her for a long moment with his dark, sorrowful eyes and she found herself silently willing him to move closer so that she could stare into their depths and lose herself entirely, bask in the pools of emotion until the rest of the world was far away and insignificant.

And it was insignificant, it all was. Everything. Every tiny little thing except those eyes and that smile, the one slowly gracing his lips as he gazed at her, the smile that made her knees weak at the sight of it.

It was devastatingly beautiful. He was devastatingly beautiful and sad and gentle and just simply magical...

There never had been, nor ever could be, anybody quite as wondrously magical as him. Compared to him the rest of the world was dull, shallow...

"You've been following me." he observed softly as he took a few steps forward towards her, and though she dared not move herself she recalled:

"You've been staring through my window."

Though his expression grew abashed, his cheeks flushing with colour, there was something gloriously unashamed about the way he wandered closer until their shoes were very nearly touching, and he said:

"I suppose that makes us equal, then."

She could feel his warm breath upon her face, it sent a shiver down her spine and she felt a little daft when his smile broadened at the sight of her...

And then she felt his hands reaching to rest against her hips and she gasped in a breath as he leant towards her, her head swam as his lips brushed against her jaw...

Bang!

As she was jolted awake, Carrie gasped in such a startled breath that the air caught in her throat and she promptly let out a spluttering cough, eyes screwed shut for a moment before she dared open them again, just in time for a flurry of coloured material to be deposited upon the bed, making her jump again.

"What...what's going on?" the muggle asked a little groggily, attempting to blink the sleep from her eyes to focus upon the figure stood at the foot of her bed.

"Dresses, Carrie love!" Dora announced in a bewilderingly wide-awake fashion, and as she gazed at the witch in confusion, Carrie wondered how late in the morning it was.

"What?" she mumbled, still entirely clueless, and the Auror elaborated:

"Party dresses, Carrie. There's going to be a party this afternoon, the whole village is invited."

"What?" Carrie asked again, eying the assortment of clothes before her with a deep frown, and the witch sighed heavily and muttered:

"Merlin, give me strength...!" Dropping down onto the edge of the bed, she guessed: "I don't suppose you've brought a fancy dress with you at all, have you?"

"Um...no..."

"Of course you didn't. So, Neve says you can pick one of these, they used to belong to Sable, and she'll spend the morning altering it if it's much too big, alright?"

"Oh..." Carrie shifted until she was sitting a little more upright. "Alright, then..."

"Are you alright, love?" Dora asked as she set about rearranging the assortment of clothing on offer so that the muggle could get a better look at them. "You look all...flustered..."
"I'm fine." Carrie lied, reaching to swipe a hand across her lips and giving herself a little shake.

That was probably the right answer, she told herself, and anyway, she was fine, only...

What a dream. What a wonderfully dreadful and perfectly wrong dream...

"You're smiling." Dora observed, one eyebrow creeping up towards her fringe, which was today a very pale shade of blonde.

"No I'm not." Carrie muttered, wiping the smile in question from her face almost as soon as the witch had noticed it.

Dora gave a soft snort of amusement.

"I won't even ask." she murmured as she reached to pick up the last dress, a pale garment with far too many frills, and Carrie asked:

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"It probably means I'm going to change the subject. What d'you think of this one?"

"It's hideous..."

"Good. What about this one?"

"What did you mean you're not going to ask? Aren't I allowed to smile..."

"Do you want me to ask?"

"Well...no..."

"Well then, do you like this one or not? We don't have all day if Neve's going to alter it in time."

Bemused and a little unnerved at Dora's complete disinterest, Carrie picked out a white dress with lacy sleeves. She had tried it on and concluded that the hem was several inches too long, and with that Dora disappeared back out into the sitting room, pausing in the doorway to inform the muggle:

"You do know it's almost noon, don't you?"

Carrie had scrambled to find some clothes and hurriedly got dressed. When she wandered out into the main room she discovered Neve sat in a chair by the fire, apparently already hard at work with needle, wand and thread. Dora was stood at the window, nibbling rather half-heartedly at a sparingly buttered piece of toast.

"He shouldn't be helping," Neve was saying as Carrie crossed the room to stand at Dora's side and peer out of the window too. "Neither of them should, you're guests..."

"Don't be silly, Neve." Dora told the other witch as Carrie felt a sudden swell of excitement at the sight of the assortment of chairs and tables set outside, all dwarfed by an enormous awning that a large crowd of villagers appeared to be midway through levitating into place. "Remus and Ted like helping..." she trailed off, leaning forward until her breath could steam up the window pane, a sudden glint in her eye as she observed: "Well, he's just asking for it, he is..."

"Who's asking for what?" Carrie asked, peering curiously outside, and she had just spotted Remus stood amongst the crowd, gaze skyward in concentration, wand pointed at the awning, when Dora turned and bolted outside, without even bothering to snatch up a cloak as she went. The muggle watched in vague bemusement as the witch half-sprinted down the garden path, before making a beeline for the unsuspecting werewolf...

Carrie's jaw dropped in surprise as the Auror came to a skidding halt at her husband's back, and promptly threw her arms around his middle, fingers digging into his stomach with a triumphant shout of:

"GOTCHA!"

Remus gave such a jump that Carrie was pretty sure that his feet left the ground, and up in the sky the awning gave an abrupt jolt of it's own, veering sideways into a nearby tree, before falling towards the ground. Shrieks of surprise pierced the air as the heavy material promptly landed atop a group of unsuspecting witches who had been busy arranging plastic cups upon one of the countless tables. As she dissolved into giggles, Carrie dashed outside after the witch to survey the damage, and arrived amidst the chaos just in time to hear Dora exclaim:

"Oh Merlin, Remus! Look what you've done!"

As a few of the villagers hurried over to help untangle the witches from the awning, the rest of the gathered crowd positively roared with laughter.

"Sorry about that!" Remus told them, turning to poke a finger at Dora's ribs in retaliation, but she dodged out the the way and agreed:

"Yeah, sorry about that everybody! I hadn't realised my husband was such a wimp!" the metamorphmagus grinned, reaching to grab hold of the werewolf by the hands when he made to grab her again.

"Hex her!" Teddy called from where he stood some meters away, and beside him Samuel agreed:

"Yeah! Teach her a lesson!"

"I don't think so." Carrie heard Dora murmur, eyes twinkling as she pulled her husband a few more steps away from the crowd. "Snog her senseless more like, when you see what I've got in my pocket!"

"Oh?" Remus murmured back, reaching to slide his arms around her waist, eyebrow raised as he reached to grope searching in the pocket of her robes. "Why, what's in your pocket?"

"The other one."

"Ah..."

"No, the other other one."

Carrie watched curiously as the wizard gave up his searching of the pockets at her sides and instead let go of her in order to slip a hand inside her robes, extracting a neatly folded piece of parchment from a hidden pocket at her breast, ignoring exaggerated smirk she offered him as she hissed:

"Remus, really! At least wait until we get inside...!"

"Ha." he muttered, offering her the briefest of glances before he reached to unfold the paper, expression suddenly growing deadly serious. As the villagers returned to the task at hand, the werewolf's eyes darted from side to side as he read the letter in his hands, before his arm dropped to his side and he stared at his wife, who was grinning so widely that Carrie thought she might split her face.

"Is that good, or is that good?" Dora breathed at last, rising up onto her toes rather excitedly, only for Remus to turn abruptly away from her.
"I think I need to read it again." he said, though a smile was already tugging at his lips, and as he did precisely that the witch stood behind him, fidgeting rather impatiently. After a moment he spun back round to face her so suddenly that it made Carrie jump, and with that he threw his arms around his wife, lifting her right off her feet with an exclamation of:

"You diamond, you did it!"

"We did it!" Dora corrected sharply, arms acquiring a strangle-like grip around his neck. "I knew we'd do it this year, I told you we would, didn't I?"

"Yes you did..."

"You didn't believe me!"

"I didn't think we'd do it by the summer, no. By Christmas, maybe...ha!"

"No more bloody goblins!"

"No, no more goblins..."

"Do you have any idea how smug I'm going to look next time I walk into Gringott's? Knowing I don't owe them a single knut!"

"If we keep this up with the rest your retirement's going to be a breeze...Merlin...I've...I've owed them for twenty seven years...!"

"Well not anymore you don't! Where're my kisses, then?"

As she observed their enthusiastic triumph, Carrie couldn't help but feel that today was going to be a very good one indeed.

She certainly wasn't wrong.

For one thing, Neve did a rather brilliant job on the dress, which Teddy proclaimed to look downright stunning on her in the bright afternoon sunshine. The party had been in full swing by the time Carrie had gotten dressed, dusted some colour into her cheeks and given her hair a good brush. There had been a faintly ridiculous amount of food set upon the tables under the awning, the smell of which had made the muggle's mouth water almost as soon as she had stepped outside, and a steady flow of drink to match. The rest of the village clearing had been cleared of carts, sacks and other everyday things to make room for a large makeshift dance floor, and music blared loudly out of a large set of oddly modern looking speakers set down on a crateful of animal feed. For some reason, Carrie had been expecting some old fashioned music and a waltz or two, but instead she had found herself faced with a horde of teenaged witches and wizards dancing wildly to the latest track by the Weird Sisters, joined by a few brave adults who had grown restless simply watching from the sidelines.

"Come on, then!" Teddy grinned as he stepped out of the cottage behind her, and with that he grabbed hold of the muggle by the hand and made a beeline for the swarming dance floor. The two of them danced for a song or two quite happily, though Carrie had to admit that it was more a case of her dancing and Teddy circling around her in an attempt to stop the raucous dancers around them barging into her too often. It was strange, the muggle mused, that the village teenagers came across as such a rowdy bunch, for she barely caught wind of them at all most of the time, they always seemed very serious and subdued. Once the latest song had ended in a booming crescendo and a cheer from the crowd, Carrie reached to grab hold of Teddy by the elbow, gesturing towards the edge of the crowd. They made a dash for the drinks table as another song began to play, both grinning widely at one another.

"Merlin...what're they all on?" Carrie asked as Teddy glanced back over his shoulder at the dancers with a snigger.

"I have no idea," the youngest Lupin admitted, "but I might quite like some myself! D'you want a drink, Sweetheart?"

Carrie eyed the selection of drinks in consideration, gaze coming to rest upon a large pitcher full of an alarming acid green concoction.

"You don't want that." Teddy told her as he reached to pick up a bottle of butterbeer. "It'll knock you out as soon as hit the back of your throat!"

"Your mum drinks it." Carrie recalled, reaching to pick up the pitcher and give it an experimental sniff, the strong stench of alcohol burning at her nostrils. "She had some at the Phoenix Day Parade that day."

"More fool her, then." Teddy grinned, uncapping his bottle with a sharp tap of his wand. "Kills brain cells with every drop, that's what Dad says."

"Your Uncle Charlie got pretty sozzled on it."

"Mm...that's because he's a lightweight."

"And your mum isn't?"

"She's a Black. Bunch of crazed alcoholics, the lot of them, they don't bat an eyelid at poison like that!"

As she set the pitched back down, Carrie gave a giggle.

"What about your dad?" she wondered, and the metamorphmagus smirked.

"He drinks a lot of lemonade."

As she reached for a plastic cup, Carrie stifled her amusement into a hand, only for Teddy to give a shrug.

"Dad says Mum can drink him under the table if she fancied, which is why he sticks to the odd Fire Whiskey and a bit of wine on special occasions. That way he's never left entirely at her mercy and he'll never wake up with a hangover to discover she's locked him out in the back garden in his underwear and a pair of her flip flops."

"She WOULDN'T!" Carrie cried, slapping a hand down upon the table in amusement, and Teddy's expression grew distinctly disturbed as he mumbled:

"I think she already did, years and years ago...Dad just won't admit to it."

"Your parents are mental." Carrie pointed out as he poured her some butterbeer before taking a swig from the remnants left in the bottle.

"I know."

"I think it's wonderful."

"You would do. They're not your parents."

As they wandered along in search of a suitable space to stand together, Carrie leant her head against Teddy's shoulder, frowning deeply.

"Don't you think it's good? They way they are, I mean. Don't you think it would be good, if you were older and you were married, to be like them? Fun and...and not boring..."

Despite giving his eyes an exaggerated roll, the wizard consented to admitting:

"Well nobody wants to end up boring, do they? But at the same time I'm obliged to disapprove of them. They're my parents."

It was not long before the parents in question appeared to usher Teddy away towards a slightly less noisy corner for a quiet word or two. Staring after them, Carrie wondered quite what they had to talk about, before somebody sidled up next to her and observed:

"Well you look lonely now, stood there all on your own."

Carrie turned to offer Samuel a slightly awkward smile. Quite frankly she was surprised to see him go out of his way to speak to her. She was pretty sure that after her dealings with the Carters she was by no means his favourite person. She was, then, more surprised still when he asked:

"D'you fancy a dance, then?"

"Oh..." Carrie mumbled, glancing down at the half-empty cup in her hands. "I um...well..."

"C'mon," the wizard instructed briskly, grinning widely as he reached to prise the cup from her hand, setting it down on a crate that had been stacked just behind her. "Don't be a spoil sport, will you? It's a party, for Merlin's sake!"

It quickly occurred to Carrie, as she rather reluctantly allowed him to drag her back into the thronging crowd of dancers, that Samuel's sudden decision to be friends might well have something to do with his current state of mind, which was without a doubt from a glance at his stumbling walk, rather on the inebriated side to say the least. It was faintly alarming, the muggle mused as she consented to swaying from side to side in time to the music, wincing ever so slightly when he seized hold of her hand and set about swinging their arms back and forth. The party hadn't started all that long ago and he was already very drunk indeed. In fact he was so drunk that he didn't seem to notice that he was holding onto her at all, or that if he kept on the way he was he might pull her arm right out of its socket...

And it was then, a couple of songs later, still being jostled around by the crowd, her shoulder throbbing from Samuel's drunken enthusiasm for dancing, that Carrie saw him.

Stood at the very edge of the clearing, leant against a tree.

And despite the crowds of people between them, Carrie Winters managed to pause in her dancing to stare at Kit Carter, and Kit Carter stared right back.

Carrie felt suddenly as if the world around her was somehow distant, disconnected, and she stopped dead, entirely unaware of her arm still being swung back and forth.

Kit Carter smiled. The sight made the muggle feel instantly giddy, and she felt a swell of panic at the thought that she felt as if she were dreaming, as if this were another forbidden thought that seemed to be slowly taking over her mind over the past few days, until here she was, wide awake and utterly enchanted by the sight of him.

Which was, of course, entirely wrong. Wrong, unacceptable, utterly unreasonable...

And yet, what about attraction or infatuation was entirely reasonable?

And what about love? Love wasn't reasonable, it was roaring, overwhelming fire that paid no attention to the notion of reason...

Love. Had she really just thought that? Love...!

He was getting closer. Or perhaps she was the one who was moving, Carrie wasn't entirely sure...

She pushed her way through the crowds in her hurry to reach him, though she wasn't entirely sure why, and as soon as she had broken free from the dancers her stomach clenched at the sight of movement, he turned and disappeared off into the trees.

Carrie hurried after him, slipping into the shade of the trees and creeping across the woodland floor, sucking in a deep breath and holding it. And as she followed him through the woods, it suddenly occurred to her that she had dreamt this before.

She knew this game.

She knew how it ended, too...

Her heart stopped dead in her chest when many minutes later he turned round to face her, and her mouth went dry at the realisation that in the flesh he truly was more devastatingly beautiful and sombre than she ever could have dreamed.

"You've been following me." Kit Carter observed, and Carrie reached with a trembling hand to feel the tree trunk at her back, right where it had been before in her dreams...

And yet this wasn't a dream. It was real, it was dreadfully real.

Dreadfully better.

Say it, she told herself eagerly, go on and say it, you know what to say when he says that...

"You've been staring through my window."

As he always did, Kit Carter looked abashed at her reply, and yet his cheeks were flushed with such vivid, real colour that Carrie felt a sudden urge to walk forwards until she could reach to press her hand to his cheek, to feel the warmth of them, an extension of the burning blood that she could feel pulsing through her veins. She didn't hear his reply, so preoccupied was she by the anticipation of it, but it didn't matter, she knew what it would be, she knew where this was going...

And this wasn't a dream. There wasn't anybody about to wake her up...

She watched him walk slowly towards her, that wonderfully sad smile upon his lips. It was a real smile, real leaves crushed beneath his feet, her real heartbeat thundering in her chest...

Which made it far from harmless, Carrie suddenly realised as he came to a halt just in front of her, and quite suddenly she was seized with sheer panic.

How in Merlin's name did I get here? What's going on, what am I doing...

But Teddy...

"It's alright." she heard the animagus whisper, still smiling as he reached to brush the hair from her eyes. The movement made the muggle shudder.

And...it was alright.

It was all alright.

It was better than alright. It was wonderful. It was magnificent. Glorious...

Carrie Winters was sure that despite her hazy mind she could have thought of a thousand or more other words to describe just how serene and perfect everything was at that precise moment in time, but half a second later she felt too overcome by sensation of Kit Carter's lips against her own.