Note: Hello there! This is Meet the Muggles, which is the second story in the Meet the... 'ficverse, the first being Meet the Lupins! Yes, Carrie and Teddy are back! XD

I said I was going to finish The Dark Creature's Child before I started a new fic...but...well...I lied! I couldn't really help myself, especially after all the lovely reviews for Meet the Lupins. I will be finishing the other story, however, so don't worry those of you who are reading it.

This story can stand alone if you haven't read the first one and can't be bothered. All you need to know is that Caroline "Carrie" Winters is a muggle who moved in next door to the Lupins, befriended Teddy and found out about the Wizarding World! This is an AU 'ficverse and Remus and Tonks are alive.

This story is dedicated to the readers of Meet the Lupins, because I had no idea that story was going to be so popular. Thank you for your wonderful reviews!

Well, enough note writing, let us get on with this brand new, shiny story!

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, nor am I making any profit from this piece of writing. However, Caroline "Carrie" Winters, Cleopatra "Cleo" Clancy and their families are my own creations.

1: The Final Straw

It was the last day of school before the summer holidays, and Caroline Winters sat upon the dull brown plastic chair, shoulders hunched and arms folded firmly across her chest. For the most part, she kept her eyes upon her shoes, but she could not seem to help but glance up at the door to her right every so often, biting her lip at the sign of the highly polished plaque that read "Headmistress".

It was not the first time that Carrie had found herself sat outside of Mrs. Basilton's office. Indeed it was not first time that she had found herself sat outside waiting for her parents to finish their meeting with the headmistress, either. Carrie had been summoned to see the head of Oakhurst Manor School some five times over the course of her first year there, and this was the second time that her parents had been asked to attend.

It wasn't that Carrie was a badly behaved child. She wasn't disruptive in class, she was impeccably polite to her teachers and she always completed her homework on time. She had never received detention for being late, her uniform was always neat, she never forgot her homework planner and she always made sure that it was signed by her mother at the end of every week.

The problem with Carrie was that she was a daydreamer. She spent most of her time at school off in her own little world, staring out of the window, or doodling in the margins of her exercise book. If it wasn't for her friend Cleo giving her a nudge every now and again, Carrie supposed she would probably fail to write down her homework assignments, and she would forget to feign interest when a teacher asked her a question. Her quality of work, though always completed on time, was mediocre in the extreme...on a good day. Most of the time it was just plain poor.

I don't know, Miss. I'm not sure, Sir. Carrie didn't say much else to her teachers, and every time they would sigh and tell her: That's because you're not listening, Caroline!

She knew that school was important and she knew she needed to try her best to pay attention, but Carrie just couldn't seem to help herself. For over the past year she had developed an obsession of sorts, a preoccupation, a distraction that just never went away.

Carrie Winters was obsessed with her neighbors

She did not like to think of it as an obsession really, that made her sound a bit creepy, but if she were entirely honest that was probably what it was. She would spend her time in class wondering where they were, what they were doing, and if she might catch sight of them on her way home. There were three primary reasons for Carrie's constant wondering. Firstly, the neighbors' son Teddy Lupin was Carrie's best friend, and during term time she missed him terribly because he would be away at boarding school. The second reason was that Carrie was equally as fond of his parents, Remus and Dora, and it made her happy to think of herself as part of the family.

The third reason why Carrie was obsessed with her neighbors..well, she supposed it ought be the first reason actually, because it was by far the biggest and most exciting reason, was this:

The Lupins were magical.

Not magical in the sentimental, fluffy sort of way that simply meant she thought they were amazing, nor magical in the sense that they liked to pull rabbits out of hats in their spare time.

No, the Lupins were magical as in proper, real magic. Yes, Carrie lived next door to a couple of wizards and a witch. A werewolf and a pair of shape shifters. And she loved it.

But of course, she mused dully as at long last the door to the office opened and she heard her parents' murmured thanks and farewells to Mrs. Basilton, nobody could know the truth about the Lupins, she had been sworn to secrecy, and so she had little to say to her parents when the door swung shut behind them a moment later and they stood, staring down at her despairingly.

Carrie stared up at them, lip caught between her teeth.

Mr. Winters sighed heavily, arms folded across his chest as he eyed his youngest child and only daughter with a frown.

"Carrie, Carrie, Carrie," he mumbled, shaking his head sadly. "What are we going to do with you?"

"We're going home." Mrs. Winters announced, and with that she led the way down the deserted school corridor, her high heeled shoes tapping furiously as she went.

Carrie got reluctantly to her feet and trailed after her mother, her father's hand coming to rest upon her shoulder as he walked beside her.

"What's been going on this year, hm?" Mr. Winters asked softly as they rounded a corner and began to make their way down a flight of stairs. "It's not like you, Carrie, you weren't like this at primary school..."

"It's that Cleopatra Clancy, isn't it?" Mrs. Winters accused furiously, pausing at the bottom of the steps to shoot her daughter a glare. "That child is away with the fairies and Caroline is copying her!"

Carrie fixed her gaze upon her shoes. There was a degree of truth to her mother's accusations, for there was no doubt about it; her friend Cleo was definitely away with the fairies.

Or the witches, or the warlocks and the wizards perhaps.

Carrie had met Cleo on her first day at Oakhurst Manor the previous September, not long after she had discovered the truth about the Lupins. Carrie found Cleo amusing, for she too believed in the existence of magic, in fact Cleo was a self proclaimed witch. Everything that Cleo knew, or at least thought she knew, about magic was completely misguided, she spent hours reading things off of the Internet, reading silly books and watching the Wizard of Oz. In truth sometimes Cleo's silliness got on Carrie's nerves, but most of the time she had a good giggle about her, especially when she wrote to Teddy to tell him all about Cleo's wildly inaccurate theories.

Cleo may well have had an obsession comparable to Carrie's own, but the wannabe witch had one advantage that meant that she had never wound up being summoned to see the Headmistress.

Cleo seemed to have an off switch. She could concentrate at school without letting her mind wander.

Carrie wished she had an off switch too.

The short car journey back home was made in icy silence for a while as Carrie contemplated what her fate was going to be, what privileges her parents might revoke. They might ban her from watching television for a while, she mused, or stop giving her pocket money. She didn't particularly care about those sorts of things, not now that the summer had started and Teddy would be coming home from wizard school. What was the point of television when you could be playing exploding snap or chess with pieces that moved themselves? And who cared if you had any pocket money when your best friend would gladly buy you some sweets with his own?

But when her mother finally broke the silence, Carrie was utterly mortified to hear of her punishment.

"This is it, Caroline, it really is!" Mrs. Winters announced as they finally pulled into their driveway. "I just don't know what else to do with you, I thought after last time the school called us you would start trying harder, but no! No, you just aren't trying! Well this is it! This is the final straw! You're going to have to go to summer school!"

As the car came to a halt and Mr. Winters reached to pull the keys from the ignition, Carrie's mouth dropped wide open in horror.

"Summer school? But...but Mum, I can't...!"

"It's the only way you're going to catch up." Mrs. Winters insisted as she reached to throw open the car door. "Mrs. Basilton thinks it's a good idea, she says there will be classes starting next week..."

"But Teddy's coming home! Daddy, tell Mum...!"

As Mrs. Winters clambered out of the car and shut the door firmly behind her, Mr. Winters turned to offer his daughter another sad look.

"It won't be so bad, Carrie." he assured her as he pocketed the car keys. "And besides, school is very important."

Carrie slumped back in her seat miserably, clenching her teeth against a tantrum, only to rush to climb out of the car at the sound of her mother's voice outside calling:

"Good afternoon! Goodness, you haven't been waiting long, have you?"

"Not at all," a familiar voice replied, and as she slammed the car door shut Carrie turned to see Teddy's father stood upon her doorstep, a polite smile upon his lips. As Carrie hurried towards him, Remus Lupin caught sight of her and he offered her a little wave. Turning back to Mrs. Winters, he explained: "We're just off to pick Ted up from the station, I wondered if Carrie might like to come with us."

Despite her misery about her ruined summer holiday, Carrie's heart gave an excited leap and she bounded up the driveway towards the adults. For a moment she had quite forgotten that school was finally over and Teddy was due home within the hour.

"Yes please!" she cried as she came to a skidding halt at her neighbors side, grinning widely up at him, only for him to raise an eyebrow at her.

"Would you mind terribly?" he asked Carrie's mother, and the girl turned to look at her imploringly. "We should only be gone a short while."

Carrie wondered if, since she was so furious, Mrs. Winters might deny the request, but to her relief her mother was doing the same thing she always did when she spoke to her neighbors: she was being unnaturally cheery and polite.

"Of course she can go, dinner won't be until late, the twins are at football practice."

"Can't I have dinner at Teddy's?" Carrie asked before she could think better of it, and Mrs. Winters eyes widened, no doubt a little embarrassed at her daughter inviting herself round for dinner. Luckily for Carrie they were distracted by the sound of a door being pulled shut and somebody called:

"Remus? Harry's just called, he says we're all set for tonight!"

As Dora Lupin crunched her way across the gravel towards them, Carrie turned to wave at her and she greeted: "Wotcher, Carrie love. Are you coming with us?"

The witch came to a halt beside her husband, slipping a hand through the crook of his arm as she wished Carrie's parents a good afternoon. As usual, a tiny frown creased Mrs. Winters brow as she observed Dora's hair, today a deep shade of purple, before she smiled and returned the greeting.

"I suppose you better come tonight, Carrie." Remus told the child. "If you aren't at his welcome home party, Teddy won't think it much of a party at all."

"You're having a party?" Carrie asked excitedly as Mr. Winters murmured something about coffee and excused himself inside, and Dora proudly announced:

"Yep, I've even made a cake!"

"It was supposed to be a cake, at least..." Remus trailed off with poorly suppressed amusement as his wife slapped him rebukingly upon the arm.

"Shut up." she hissed, a little abashed and no doubt glad when Mrs. Winters changed the subject.

"I'm sure Carrie can come over for a few hours. It'll be nice to have a bit of fun before summer school starts, won't it Carrie?"

The excitement died on Carrie's face and she gave a half hearted nod.

"Summer school?" Upon seeing the look upon Carrie's face, Dora turned on her heel and hastily announced: "Well we best be going, we don't want to miss the train pulling in, do we?"

Once both Lupins had wished Mrs. Winters good afternoon once again, Carrie said a mumbled goodbye and hurried after them down the driveway and up the road.

"What's wrong with my cake?" Dora demanded as soon as they had rounded a corner, pulling her arm free from her husband with an accusing stare.

"Nothing."

"Liar."

"I mean...nothing if you don't mind a few egg shells..."

"You're a git, you know!"

"So you always tell me."

Despite their disagreement, Dora reached to slip her hand into his as they turned into the little alleyway that served as their designated Apparation point, free from the prying eyes of the local muggles.

"I'm sure Teddy's going to love it." Remus mused uncertainly, and at the mention

of her best friend again, Carrie couldn't help but smile.

At least we'll have the weekends, she thought as they came to a halt at the end of the alley. And there was nothing Carrie loved more than a party at the Lupins' house.