Note: And here we are, poised ready for the grand finale...almost. That's right everybody, we are in actual fact nearing the end of this story! Don't worry, though, there's already a brand new and shiny one in the works, if anybody fancies reading it! (Good grief, I really am dragging this series out for a millennia, aren't I? It's a miracle you aren't all bored to death by now...) :-)

For anybody itching for the conversation between Carrie and Teddy thanks to her blunder – don't worry, I'm not skipping over it, it'll be visited in due course. (Don't flame me for messing around with time, pretty please. I just feel that scene would make more sense after the things that are revealed in this chapter/the next one! Or more to the point I'm not a genius and this makes it easier to write.) For now, though, we're going to do something radical and have a change in perspective! SHOCK! It's another tricky chapter...I hope SOMEBODY likes it because it didn't turn out as I planned.

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.

14: A Witch Can Only Dream

There was, Dora Lupin realised as she dragged her lips reluctantly away from her husband's jaw in order to bury her face in his shoulder, absolutely no doubt about it at all: After twenty years of married life, Remus' infuriating tendency to be downright sensible had well and truly rubbed off on her.

"I'm drunk." she informed the werewolf frankly as his chin came to rest atop her head. "Stop taking advantage of me and start searching for one of those miracle potions we used to give Sirius each morning..."

Remus gave an exaggerated sigh, his shoulders slumping.

"Well," he grumbled, loosening his grip upon her waist, "if you insist...is there one in here?"

As she felt a hand slip searchingly into the pocket of her robes, Dora gritted her teeth against a snigger.

"Nope." she admitted, and promptly failed not to giggle when his other hand reached to search in the pocket on her other side.

"What about in here?"

"No...not in there...I know Aurors are supposed to always be prepared and everything, but I'm pretty sure I don't just wander around with Sober Up potions jingling around in my..." she cut off her sentence abruptly with a gasp that sounded at least ten times louder than she had intended as she felt his hands slip into the back pockets of her jeans.

"Here, perhaps?" he wondered, smothering a grin into her hair, and she was forced to admit:

"No, not there either..."

"Sweet Merlin," he breathed in mock-surprise, his eyes wide as he towed her away from him by the backs of her trousers so as to offer her a raised eyebrow. "You don't hide them in your underwear, do you?"

"Wouldn't you like to know?" she shot back before she could quite stop herself, and at his snigger she promptly reached to slap her hands rebukingly and yet feebly against his chest. "I mean it, Remus, I'll have a bloody awful head in the morning..."

"Alright, alright..." he sighed again, sliding his hands reluctantly out of her pockets and reaching to take hold of her by the hand instead. "Let's go and ransack Neve's cupboards, she's bound to have something."

They wandered back to the cottage, where she promptly collapsed down upon the sofa and frowned up at the ceiling, listening to him search through the kitchen cupboards. They had only been there a matter of minutes when the front door was flung back on its hinges and Teddy bolted across the room, his face like thunder and his steps stomping so loudly that the sound made Dora wince. The witch was just opening her mouth to mutter something suitably irritable, when Carrie came stumbling somewhat breathlessly after Teddy, entirely oblivious to the two adults staring at her as she exclaimed:

"That's not what I meant! I...I didn't mean...it's just...Teddy! Ted, wait!"

As she watched her son disappear into his designated bedroom, slamming the door shut behind him, Dora sucked in a deep breath in anticipation of a collision when Carrie was forced to skid to a halt. For a long moment, the muggle simply stood, shoulders slumped dejectedly as she contemplated the closed door before her, and then, slowly, she turned around to regard the two spectators with wide eyes. She looked from Dora to Remus, and then back to Dora again, and before either adult could utter a word, the girl let out a choked sob and fled into her own room, slamming the door shut behind her.

Yet again, Dora winced.

There was a sizeable pause before the Auror finally murmured:

"Wow."

Remus took this as his cue to finally put down the jar that he had been holding just a few millimetres above the kitchen countertop, though he did not resume his search of the cupboards. Instead he leant back against the surface, palms flat upon the counter as he agreed:

"Indeed."

Husband and wife continued to eye the two closed doors for another long moment, before she dragged herself up into a sitting position and wondered:

"D'you think perhaps we should..."

"No." Remus decided, turning purposefully back to the cupboard. "I don't think so."

"No, I thought not." Dora agreed, nodding her head a little. "I'm sure they'll...you know..."

"Yes. I expect they will. It's probably just..."

"Nothing."

"Yes."

Dora puffed her cheeks, frowning deeply as Remus pushed aside a few more bottles and vials and extracted a promising looking little bottleful of pale blue liquid.

"It's just I don't think I ever remember them...well, having an argument before, can you?" Dora mused, and when he came to perch upon the sofa beside her she turned to gaze at him rather curiously.

"Not like that, no."

As Remus uncorked the little bottle and held it out for her to take, Dora recalled:

"Well if I think about it there was that time last year, wasn't there? Ted said something daft about Cleo and Carrie wouldn't let him apparate her home, you had to do it because she said they weren't talking."

"She came for breakfast the next day."

"Exactly. It's probably a big fuss over nothing."

And with that, Dora accepted the bottle and, wrinkling her nose a little at the smell, downed the sickeningly syrup=like substance in one gulp.

"Ah," she sighed, leaning to set the empty little bottle down upon the coffee table, before settling back upon the sofa, head resting against the werewolf's shoulder. "That's better..."

A door creaked slowly open and as the two of them turned again to look towards the doors.

"Mum...?"

The notion of things being better promptly evaporated from Dora's mind along with the fuzziness of alcohol at the sight of an ashen-faced Teddy shuffling across the room towards them, and she hastily shuffled closer to Remus, reaching to pat the empty space beside her.

"Having fun and games, Sweetheart?" she asked as the dull-haired boy flopped down beside her, and he promptly leant to bury his face in her shoulder with a rather worrying sniff.

"It's not fair, Mum." he whispered miserably as she reached to put an arm around him. "It's just...it's just not fair, not right! It's...it's all wrong!"

"What's wrong, love?" Dora asked, hand smoothing his hair soothingly, but his face merely contorted in agitation.

"Everything!" he cried, slumping further against her. "Everything's wrong! I...I wish...I wish we never came here! I want to go home!"

"Come on, Sweetheart, I'm sure it's not as bad as you think..."

"Yes it is! It is, Mum, it's...it's awful!"

Dora cast a sideways glance at Remus, and the werewolf offered her a raised eyebrow. Pausing to stifle a yawn into her sleeve, the witch tightened her grip upon her son as she observed:

"It seems to me, love, that you and Carrie are having a bad afternoon, am I right?"

"She's supposed to love me!" Teddy complained dejectedly, apparently not entirely listening to his mother's observation at all. Nevertheless, the witch carried on regardless.

"She's said something silly, or you've said something silly, maybe the pair of you have said a whole raft of silly things! But never you mind, eh? Give it half an hour or so, the pair of you can calm down, you can both apologise and that'll be that."

"It's not that simple, Mum."

"Isn't it? You'd be surprised how far saying sorry can get you, you know."

As he drew back from her shoulder so that he could fix his mother with a bordering on accusing look at her apparent lack of understanding, Teddy appeared entirely oblivious to the front door opening and Edwin and Neve stepping inside.

"It would be alright to tell Dad you're in love with somebody else then, would it? Just as long as you tell him you're sorry?"

There was a sizeable pause as Dora processed the words that were flung at her before she finally managed to wonder:

"Carrie said what?"

"Sounds like a big misunderstanding, if you ask me." Remus put in rather unhelpfully, seemingly incapable of comprehending such a tale, and his son promptly shot him a scowl, only to collapse back against Dora's shoulder.

As Edwin and Neve crept over towards the kettle in an attempt not to intrude on the unexpected family drama, Dora frowned up at the ceiling for a moment, fingers toying with Teddy's hair again until she sucked in a deep, reluctant breath to ask:

"So...who's the unfortunate young man, then? Fetch me a quill and parchment and I'll set Jasmine on him..."

"M-um!"

"Alright, alright! Spit it out then, love! Who, what, where and how?"

"I...I don't know how." Teddy sniffed, voice muffled by Dora's shoulder. "It...it doesn't make any...any sense, she...she doesn't even...she didn't even like h...him...and she's known him all of a few days! I...I don't understand...she...she's known me forever...how...how can she suddenly think she loves HIM?"

"Who, Sweetheart?" Dora asked softly, still entirely bemused by the whole situation. One glance at Remus suggested he too could make little sense of the situation, and the werewolf's eyebrows shot up towards his hairline when Teddy replied:

"Kit Carter!"

The kettle that Edwin had been midway through filling was promptly slammed down upon the countertop as both he and his wife spun around to stare at the trio upon the sofa.

Dora let out a rather awkward chuckle.

"Don't be daft, Teddy love." she said, "Why on earth would Carrie say something as daft as that? Like you just said, she barely knows him! Isn't that right, Remus?"

"It doesn't sound like the sort of thing Carrie would say at all." Remus agreed, only for Teddy to mumble something so woefully that his mother was forced to ask:

"What's that, Sweetheart?"

"She kissed him!" Teddy admitted, sounding rather as if he had been punched in the stomach, and Dora promptly turned back to Remus to ask:

"Love, are you sure I'm not still drunk?"

"I don't believe a word of that." Remus insisted, ignoring his wife entirely. "It sounds like utter nonsense..."

"But that's what she said!" Teddy moaned, a few stray tears beginning to gather in a damp patch upon Dora's shoulder. "Why...why would she say it if...if it were a lie?"

"Merlin knows," Remus mumbled, frowning deeply. "Who knows what's going on in her head today? She's not been herself this afternoon."

"She's not been herself the past few days." Dora corrected, recalling their late night little chat the previous night.

"What d'you mean by that?" Edwin asked sharply, and when she glanced over at him Dora saw Neve reach to press an unease hand to her mouth. The Auror gave a rather uncertain shrug.

"I don't know," she murmured, looking to Remus for some sort of help, "she's just...different, don't you think? She doesn't usually act so...well..."

"So what?" Edwin probed, taking an anxious step forwards.

"Well Carrie's not the sort of girl who'd think she was in love with somebody she barely knew, for one thing." Dora mused, giving Teddy's shoulder a reassuring squeeze. "She's far too sensible for rubbish like that, and even if she wasn't I'd have laughed the notion out of her by now!"

"She's not in the habit of drinking much, either." Remus recalled, and Teddy mumbled:

"She's only had one butterbeer."

"Yeah...'course she has." Dora muttered disbelievingly. "You should've seen her, Edwin..."
"Eyes as big as snitches, were they?" Edwin asked bluntly, and all three Lupins turned to stare at him.

"That's right." Remus admitted as Teddy sat up straight, utterly bemused.

"And you told 'er she was drunk, didn't you?" Edwin accused, folding his arms firmly across his chest, and Dora felt an uncertain sense of dread begin to settle in her stomach to see Neve reach back to grip hold of the kitchen countertop rather as if her life depended upon it.

Remus opened his mouth to say something, only to promptly close it again.

"Only she's not drunk, is she? Not with dilation as extreme as that! I know it! And you bloody know it too if you could be bothered to think about it, don't you? Both of you!"

"Edwin..." Dora began, not entirely sure what it was that she planned on saying, finding Teddy's increasingly worried stare searing into the side of her head, but Edwin ignored her.

"I knew it back then, too!" he cried, face fast turning a bright shade of red. "I knew it the day my Sable came back from visiting that wicked boy in that filthy little hovel! I knew something wasn't right! I knew something was afoot! But I went and accused 'er of drinking herself silly, didn't I? Just like you bloody have! Because I didn't want to know! I wanted a quiet life! And where was she the next bloody day, eh? Lying lifeless out there in the woods! Gone forever! DEAD!"

Neve promptly burst into tears, but nobody seemed to notice, Remus was too busy gazing bleakly at his shoes and Teddy had risen abruptly from his seat, his misery replaced by sheer panic.

Dora's hands twisted together into a tight knot in her lap, the guilt and dread seeping over her until her shoulders tensed worriedly and she muttered a distinctly guilty:

"Oh crap..."

"What have you done?" Teddy demanded, staring at his parents anxiously, and Dora promptly reached to bury her face in her hands, muttering a few more expletives for good measure.

"Listen, Ted..." Remus began rather reluctantly. "I'm sure there's nothing to panic about...of course Edwin's right and we were being daft. Carrie isn't drunk...obviously there's...something else wrong with her. But...well...she's in her bedroom, isn't she? She's perfectly safe here with all of us..."

"So was Sable, I bet!" Teddy snapped, hands balling into fists. "There's something awful going on and you bloody knew it!"

"I don't know precisely..."

"You bloody noticed something was wrong with her and you've...you've bloody ignored it! How can you be just...just SITTING THERE WHEN YOU KNOW?"

"I have no idea what's wrong with her, Teddy..."

"What's wrong with you? That Kit Carter's up to something wicked! Why don't you get off your bloody backsides and bloody start doing something about it?"

Dora's hands fell back to her lap with a slap, face contorting rather furiously as she snapped:

"Because this is our holiday! For us! Just the two of us! It's our time to spent together, having a nice time and not having anything to worry about! We've been at a party! We've had a bit to drink, we've had some good news, we've been happy and celebrating! And it's been wonderful! And we wanted it to stay that way! Are you going to blame us, Ted? Are you going to blame us for wanting a stress-free, quiet, nice and normal holiday?"

There was a sizeable pause at this outburst, and Teddy took a turn at gazing at his feet when his mother promptly turned to bury her face in her husband's shoulder with a heavy sigh.

"Your mother's right, Ted." Remus murmured, reaching to put an arm around the crumpled witch. "It might be wrong of us, but it's easy to convince yourself of something if you want to believe it badly enough."

"Carrie could...could die or something, Dad!" Teddy cried, reaching to tug anxiously at fistfuls of mousy brown hair. "If...if Kit Carter's up to something and whatever happened to Sable is happening to Carrie then...then...!"

"Calm down." Remus interrupted, reaching to sweep Dora's hair back soothingly. "We don't know what's wrong with her, so jumping to conclusions isn't going to help. We mustn't panic, we need to think clearly if we're to have any chance of figuring out what's going on."

"I say we go round to that stinking lair of theirs and get some bloody answers!" Edwin growled, making his wife visibly shudder at such a notion, only for Remus to insist:

"That would be foolish. We don't know what we're dealing with. No, we need to find some answers ourselves...then we can come up with a plan. Somebody ought go and sit with Carrie, make sure she doesn't wander off anywhere or do anything dangerous...she's good at that..."

At the beginnings of a serious course of action, Dora abruptly sat upright again, so utterly livid at the whole business that she felt quite fit to burst.

"This was supposed to be a relaxing getaway!" she shrieked furiously. "Which MORON thought it was a good idea to bring HER with us?"

"Well Sweetheart," Remus mumbled warily at the risk of being hexed, "That would have been you..."

"Shut up!" the Auror cried, barely resisting the urge to land a firm slap upon his arm. "Just shut up!"

"Dora." Remus reached to lay a firm hand upon her arm and for a moment the couple gazed at one another, a silent plea for sanity, and Dora was forced to draw in a deep breath, squashing the fury until it left little but bleak disappointment weighing heavily upon her shoulders, making them slump.

"I just wanted...just for once...!" she began to mumble wearily, and despite the disappointment, Remus found himself smiling.

"It's Carrie." he pointed out, one eyebrow raised, and his wife sighed heavily and muttered:

"A witch can only dream, it seems." And with that, she gave her head a resolute little toss and rose to her feet, dusting invisible dirt from the front of her clothes. At Teddy's expectant gaze she told her son: "Well, you heard your dad, Teddy! Somebody needs to keep an eye on Little Miss Trouble in there, so go on! Don't take your eyes off her for a second, d'you hear? And act natural! We don't want to give ourselves away!"

Evidently relieved at his mother barking out instructions, Teddy's expression relaxed a little, only for him to frown deeply and mumble:

"But I've just had a massive row with her...how is me going and sitting with her in any way natural?""

"I don't give a toss!" Dora insisted impatiently as she began to pace briskly back and forwards before the sofa. "Just do it! Keep your wand nearby and if anything dodgy happens...stun her. Or him."

"Him?"

"Or her. Or it. Or whoever's got it in for Carrie...let's stick with him, shall we? It doesn't take a Seer to figure that one out."

"You think Kit Carter's going to show up here or...something?" Teddy wondered, already drawing the wand from his pocket, and Edwin instantly grunted:

"I'll be off to Azkaban for murder if he bloody does!"

"I have no idea what Kit plans on doing." Dora said, coming to an abrupt halt in front of Teddy so that she could fix him with a slightly unnerving stare, leaning until there were precious few inches between mother and son. "So," the Auror whispered, dark eyes piercing, "you best keep your wits about you!"

"Neve'll go and fetch Samuel!" Edwin announced, giving his still snivelling wife a firm push towards the door. "Ted can sit with Carrie, Sam can keep watch with his mother in 'ere, I'll keep an eye on the lane. There's still a crowd out there, that slippery Carter devil's easily missed!"

"Which just leaves you and me, Sweetheart." Dora concluded, turning to offer Remus a rather grim smile, and the werewolf's gaze drifted over to stare thoughtfully at the door to Carrie's bedroom as he murmured:

"We've got some thinking to do."