Though she was a prefect, though she was even Head Girl, and though these honours entitled her to the top bathrooms in the castle proper, whenever the day was bright and clear, she was always to be found in the Quidditch pitch showers: the natural lighting and the serene and solitary atmosphere were much more to her liking.
Of course, Remus knew all this.
Minerva was suprised, but not shocked, to feel his hand over hers on the glass. She opened her eyes slowly to see him blurrily standing in front of her and smiled weakly.
'What are you doing here?' she asked a bit dissapprovingly, but still with that smile on her face.
'I suppose that would depend on what you're doing here. Bathing?' She nodded slowly, her smile widening. 'Sounds excellent-'
He had started to move his right hand off hers to grab the washcloth, but she pulled him closer to her, up to the wall, softly kissing his jaw and making him drop the cloth.
When she reached his ear, she stopped short. The water's noise was very noticeable. 'Remus,' she half-whispered, looking out the semi-transparent magical ceiling of the locker room.
He surveyed her eyes deeply, searching for the source of her discontent. He should have known that he wouldn't need to do so; he was an alarmingly intuitive young man.
She began tracing some of his many scars, familiar and new at the same time to her: a slash above his left bicep, two jagged cuts along the right side of his abdomen, a faint white line on his hip which he said he didn't remember getting... and she was crying into his shoulder.
Remus suddenly didn't want to live. He sighed slowly and, after a few moments, closed his eyes. 'I never wanted to hurt you.'
Minerva looked up, her emotions now under tighter control. 'This is not your fault, love. It's my decision to make.'
'It was a great suprise, when Dumbledore just upped and gave you that offer,' Remus said, remembering with a grin the whoops of the Gryffindors and even some Ravenclaws after the announcement of the retirement of Professor Diverner.
'It was that,' she remarked quietly.
He kissed her, fingering the long tendrils of hair down her back and feeling the soft skin below, yet keeping his eyes open. He broke off and moved along her cheek, neck, and collar bone, licking the bend in her neck, nipping her earlobe. She kept moving her fingers down his back like rain drops down a cobweb, dancing lightly and darting and quivering in the light and warmth. He cupped her breast thoughtfully, holding her in his arm and brushing her nipple just barely. She shivered despite the heat of the water.
'I love you, Minerva. Nothing will change that.'
He was desperately sad, and she couldn't stand to think she had made him so. Despite the high emotions of the moment, he was also quite hard, she noticed.
'I know that, Remus,' she cried in despration. 'But do you honestly think that ethically--' her voice lost control as he moved his hand to her upper thigh-- 'ethically, I could carry on a relationship with a student, even if I were in love with him?'
She couldn't resist arching up to him, and as her abdomen hit his cock, a strangled whine issued from him. 'Oh, hang it all, Minerva--' and he was inside her, both gasping and sliding and rocketing towards heaven.
Afterwards, when they were clean and dry and calm, when they had both thought about their situations, when they were sitting up in Gryffindor Tower, they came to decisions.
'Minerva--'
'I'm going to turn down the job.'
'D'you want to get engaged?'