Disclaimer: do not own Remus Lupin, no matter how many times his name appeared on my Christmas wish list. I do, however, own Charlotte; she is from my own imagination.
Chapter one:
Remus Lupin, James Potter and Sirius Black were at the home front of the war on Voldemort. It was tough times, you didn't know who to trust, whom to believe, and you never got a moment to yourself. It was all, take this message to Dumbledore and he's got another mission for you, it was infuriating. And while Remus enjoyed helping in the effort to bring Voldemort down, he liked his free time, and the only free time he had nowadays was when he was eating. So when Saturday afternoons came, he was in heaven. You see, Saturday afternoon was the only time that he was impervious to Dumbledore's orders and pleas for help from anyone, it was his day off. Or, afternoon off, as the case may be.
Remus Lupin was a library man. He loved walking in, sitting at one of those quaint circular tables and picking up one of his favorite classics. So, as one may guess, he spent his Saturday afternoons at the local library. He'd gone there for quite some time now and he was well known by all the female librarians. Most of them were old and saggy, like a librarian should be. But then there was Charlotte Watson.
Charlotte was petite, with light brown hair that was usually up in a twist. Unless she had straightened it and it was cascading down her back. Her eyes were a peculiar shade of green that was sometimes almost blue and she wore the most alluring outfits. Alluring, yet modest. But, of course, Remus didn't like to stare. Not too much anyway.
Remus walked through the library doors one very sunny but cold winter afternoon, around 11:30, all set to read one of his absolute favorite classics, "Pride and Prejudice". He thought that November was a good month to read Jane Austen, it gave the right mood. So, he strode up to the front desk, expecting to see Gertrude or Muriel and who was there? Charlotte. He blushed.
"Yes, Mr. Lupin?" she asked, pushing up her small silver spectacles with long, delicate fingers, the nails enameled with a deep pink.
"Um, I called this morning and reserved a copy of Pride and Prejudice, do you have it?"
"Of course we do." She walked over to a shelf behind her desk and bent over to the bottom shelf. Remus tried not to look; he was a gentleman after all. "Here it is." She said, bringing the book back. It was one of those old, dusty versions. Remus loved them dusty, the dustier the better.
"Well thank you." Remus replied politely and he walked back to the adult fiction section, way in the corner where there was one lone table, just for him. He was such a regular that they had taken to setting it up especially for him. He set his cloak on the back of the small chair and settled himself for an afternoon of reading.
Later in the afternoon, two things happened in quick succession. He became rather hungry and Charlotte walked past re-shelving books. He began to think of a crazy thing, something reckless for someone like him, so reserved and polite. He thought about asking Charlotte Watson to lunch. The more he thought about it, the more it seemed probable. So, around 1:30, he picked himself and his cloak up off the chair and set out to find the girl.
She was in the aisle sectioned off for the performing arts, standing on one of those plastic footstools, reaching to stick a book on the topmost shelf. As she reached, her blouse hiked up and Remus got a view of some smooth peach skin. He nearly choked at the sight but instead cleared his throat. This sound startled Charlotte and she stumbled on her stool. Remus rushed forward to catch her, his hands carefully wedged under her arms so she wouldn't tumble to the library floor.
Charlotte slowly turned to see her savior. "Oh, hello there Mr. Lupin! Thank you so much for catching me. Do you think you could help me with this book?" she held out, A History of Motion Picture.
Remus gladly took it; he was so tall he didn't even need the stool positioned at the foot of the shelf. He reached up and placed the book in its proper place. When he looked over at Charlotte with a smile on his face, she was so close he could smell her shampoo.
He swallowed. "Um, I was wondering, Charlotte, do you have plans for lunch?"
Her pretty face fell. "Oh, Mr. Lupin, I'm so sorry," she looked genuinely sad at the thought. "I'm going out with the girls here. It's every Saturday, you see, I can't break the date."
"Oh, I understand, don't worry about it." He began backing out of the aisle.
"Um, how do you feel about dinner?" she called.
"I'm crazy about it." She smirked at his answer.
"I meant would you like to have dinner instead?" she asked, her hands on her hips.
"Certainly." He replied. "What time?"
"How about 6:00?"
"See you then!" Remus was so happy he almost tripped over his cloak as he left.
000
Charlotte returned to the back room, smiling all the way. When she entered, Muriel, Gertrude and Ethel turned to look.
"Why are you so bubbly?" Gertrude inquired.
"Oh, no reason…" Charlotte replied.
"Did you finally get that Lupin character to ask you for a date?" Muriel asked.
"Maybe."
"Oh, don't be coy!" Ethel exclaimed.
"Fine." Charlotte said, giving in to the inquisition. "He asked me for lunch and I told him we were already going out. He looked so disappointed that I…asked him for dinner instead." She shrugged as though this were nothing to her. As though she had done him a favor.
"Ha ha!" Gertrude let out a laugh. "Don't be ridiculous, you've come back to this room every Saturday afternoon for as long as you've been here and announce to us he had come!" The other girls laughed as well now.
"All right, so maybe I wanted him to take me out." Her fellow librarians looked at her shrewdly. "Ok, I couldn't wait for him to ask me!"
"Come on girls, let's go to lunch and talk over this mysterious character that's taking out little Charlotte!" chimed in Ethel. And off they went to the corner café, Charlotte feeling the happiest she'd been in a while.
tbcA/N: Well, there it is, the beginning of a beautiful story. Well, is it beautiful? Please review and let me know what you think! I'm planning on doing reviewer responses on my LiveJournal, I'll let you know when they're up and there will be a link in my profile. Please review!