This particular day; the fuzzy feeling day; was in early January this year, so five months ago. Becky and I had been pestered by Peeves on our way to Charms; he blocked the path and started asking riddles. When we finally got past him, we rushed, thinking we were late and as we burst into the classroom I tripped over the step and fell flat on my face.

Professor Flitwick was not yet there but our dramatic entrance had caused everyone to stop and stare. As I pulled myself to my feet, seeing my already-embarrassing position and a ready audience, Sirius thought it'd be hilarious to make my bag strap snap.

Before I knew what was happening, my possessions were all over the floor and soaked in green ink. The classroom erupted with laughter and Sirius, leaning back arrogantly with his chair on two legs, smirked at me and sniggered. Remus was the only person besides Becky and Lily who came over to help me clear up the contents of my bag.

Just as I was on the verge of tears at my double-humiliation, he looked up at me, put his hand to my cheek and smiled conspiratorially before turning round, pointing his wand and Vanishing the chair from below Sirius…

You could almost see the smirk slide off Sirius' face as he landed on his backside and everybody's laughter – now hysterical – was directed at him. I smiled gratefully at Remus, my cheek still inexplicably tingling from where he had touched it.

Before I could open my mouth to thank him however, Professor Flitwick entered the room enquiring as to why Mr Black found the floor preferable to a chair, and Remus was back in his seat laughing with James.

Later that night I returned to the Gryffindor common room with Lily and Becky at about eleven o'clock. We had spent a pleasant evening sitting in the Room of Requirement, which always gave us a warm fire, a big fluffy rug and huge squishy cushions whenever we met up every Wednesday evening to have a laugh or a gossip with a couple if Ravenclaw friends.

That particular night the topic of discussion was my embarrassment in Charms that afternoon and Remus' knight-in-shining-armour moment. At this point I was still trying to shrug off the growing attraction I could feel towards Remus. There was no way I'd have a chance with him even if I did want him anyway. With his quiet, intelligent good looks and wicked sense of humour he could have almost any girl he wanted and I wasn't (and am not) the kind of girl that stood out over others. Pretty maybe, but definitely not beautiful; short with blue eyes and dark brown hair that is cropped in layers to just above my shoulders with a long slightly messy fringe. I'm clumsy and inelegant; I have a screeching laugh that even annoys me, I smile too much and am completely uncoordinated.

Even so, when Serena pointed out that Remus wouldn't embarrass one of his best mates for just anybody and Lily, Becky and Violet all agreed, I felt a blush creep up my face and I found myself hoping desperately that maybe there was the slightest, midgiest, baby-Niffler-sized chance they were right…

Anyway, we returned at elevenish, climbing through the portrait hole to see the room empty except for two figures still sat by the fire huddled over a wizards' chess board. Remus and James.

They looked up and smiled when the three of us entered, and I saw James flash a teasing look at Remus who glared at him before turning back to us. A brief thought struck me – had they been talking about the same as us? No, of course not, it wasn't even that big a deal; still, I should try and find a moment to actually thank him…

"Right girls, I'm off to bed, I'll see you at breakfast" said Lily, smiling at us and giving us a little wave as she turned towards our dormitory.

"Need tucking in, Evans?" drawled James, flashing her a flirtatious grin, which was greeted by one of Lily's trademark Withering Glances and an extremely unladylike hand gesture before she whirled around and began to climb the steps.

James looked momentarily disappointed before shrugging it off.

"Is that all? She must be tired… usually I'd be levitating upside down by now…" He turned his attention back to the game, where his white queen was hurling abuse at him for taking so long to make a decision.

Becky yawned loudly. "I'm going to bed too, um, cya tomorrow guys".

Remus smiled at her and said "Night".

James muttered the same, his attention still firmly on the chessboard.

"Are you coming too Zara?" asked Becky.

"Um, yeah in a bit, I'll… I'll catch you up in a minute", I said, deciding now was as good a time as any to thank Remus.

I heard Becky's footsteps disappearing up the stairs and then it was just me, Remus and James left. I could feel a tension between myself and Remus that had never been there before; I'd always been really comfortable around him…I sat down on the one armchair that was in between them and turned to him.

"So…", began Remus, but my nerves made me jumpy and I blurted out stupidly loud:

"Thanks-thankyou-for-Sirius-chair-disappeary-thing-spell-I-I-mean-you-didn't-have-to-and-you-did-which-was-cool-and-nice-and-you're-really-um-cool-and-errr-nice-but-I-don't-really-don't-mean-well-no-I-do-you-are-very-more-than-nice-I'v-got-eyes-well-um-but no-I-just-wanted-to-thankyou-and-now-I-have-thanked-you-um-yeaahh".

I had been focusing on a point on the arm of my chair where the seam of the fabric had split and was picking at it so the stuffing was coming out. I now looked up to see two amused faces looking at me. James looked at me in disbelief, but Remus smiled kindly and looked faintly embarrassed at the (incoherent) praise I had given him.

"Bloody hell Zara did you bang your head when you tripped over the doorstep?" asked James, "Or did Moony's heroics just make you tongue-tied?"

For the third time that day I blushed furiously and for the second time Remus came to my rescue.

"Thank you James, now go sob over the picture of Lily you keep under your pillow".

James looked daggers at him but could not respond. The defensive look that crossed James' face implied that Remus had not just been joking about the picture of Lily. Interesting…

In a split second though, James looked at me, the old grin quickly back on his face.

"Ah, Zara knows I'm just kidding". He made a move on the chessboard. "Checkmate".

Remus looked thunderstruck. James lay back in his chair.

"That was my first victory over Remus here in at least a year. One mention of you Zara and his strategy went to pot". An evil grin spread across his face… "Clearly you both have the same bewildering effect on each other".

Looking satisfied at both his victories, James said in an exaggeratedly jolly tone of voice; "Hmm, now I think it's time for me to turn in and leave you two to enjoy this awkward silence all to yourselves".

He grinned and turned to leave; "Night guys".

Awkward silence indeed. We both stared into the fire for at least a whole minute.

"Im sorr-" I began…

"No, I'm so-"

"No, I'm sorry, really". I finally cut across him. "I succeeded in embarrassing both of us with my stupid outburst. It just kind of happened… all I wanted to say was thankyou. I mean I made such a spectacle of myself no wonder you were distracted from the game…".

I looked up at Remus and we both smiled, nervously at first, and then broke randomly into laughter. His whole face lit up when he laughed and his long hair fell into his eyes in a way that made me want to reach out and stroke it back. The laughter eventually died down and I felt much more relaxed.

"It was a pretty spectacular thankyou", said Remus shooting me a teasing glance, "but I…I… thought it was cute". He looked down at his hands and I let my mouth fall open unattractively before snapping it shut and smiling nervously at him until he looked at me again.

"Well, um, I should go to bed, it's late", he said, standing up and shoving his hands in his pockets.

"Yeah me too". I suddenly realised how tired I was. "I'll cya tomorrow then?"

"Yeah, sure".

He fixed me with one last piercing glance during which I noticed how the firelight emphasised the shape of his face; how it sloped gently inwards from his defined cheekbones towards his perfect, slightly pointed chin.

With a quick smile that snapped me out of my reverie, he turned and sped off up the stairs to the boys' dorm.

A/N: Well there's chapter 2! Thankyou to those who took time to review chapter 1. Any ideas or criticisms are most welcome as this fanfiction business is still quite alien to me! Hope you enjoyed this :)