A/N: I'm not going to be that person that asks for reviews, but I will ask just this once. Not so you guys can stroke my ego or anything like that, but I'm a little nervous about posting this and if anyone had any thoughts, I'd love to hear them. :)
After lunch, Sally trudged up to the third floor. The library was somewhat empty, though that was to be expected because most of the school was on their way out of the Great Hall. Sally had snuck out while people emptied their plates of Treacle Tart. Remus had strolled passed the Hufflepuff table a while before and out of into the Entrance Hall. Sally had noticed him go passed and her friends had noticed her notice him.
Once she had shaken them off on her way up the stairs, she had headed straight for the library. At first, it seemed like the only person who was in there was Madam Pince, who gave Sally a look that made her feel like maybe she had something on her face. Sally just diverted her gaze to her feet and navigated her way to plenty of shelves of books between her and the older woman. Luckily, that seemed to lead her right to Remus. He was sitting at a desk, his head down and looking at a book and papers that were strewn all over the desktop.
"Remus?" whispered Sally, inching closer to him. He looked up and smiled.
"I wasn't expecting you so soon," he told her. "I had hoped to be done with mine by the time you got here." She shrugged, taking a half step away from him.
"I can come back?" she offered. He shook his head and gave a good natured chuckle.
"It's quite alright," he replied, "Let me just make some room for you." He began to pile papers up on top of each other and moved his backpack off of the chair closest to him and looked up at her expectantly. Sally shrugged her own bag off of her shoulder and sat in the recently cleared seat.
"So, how much do you have done so far?" Sally took the parchment dedicated to the assignment and placed it in between the two of them. Scribbled on it was her name and an introduction and then a half-paragraph that was crossed out.
"Not very far," concluded Remus. "Luckily, I'm almost done."
The two sat there for at least three hours. Remus finished his own assignment and then began to help Sally rewrite her own. He didn't flat out do the assignment for her (he wouldn't even do that for James, Sirius or Peter) but he walked her through the information she needed. He had even pointed out other useful information that she didn't need for her assignment but should she ever attempt Human Transfiguration, she'd be able to do a better job of it. Even after they had finished the assignment, the two sat in their little corner of the library, talking. The ancient librarian would swoop in to investigate the source of happy noises. Every time she began to glare at them with her beady eyes, they'd suddenly become extremely interested in their finished assignments.
Remus, to Sally, was much more interesting when his group of friends were far, far away. It wasn't that he was a different person, or that there was even a different side to him, but without the loud, bold personalities of James Potter and Sirius Black, it was much easier to see the endearing, charming young man that was Remus Lupin.
"Remus! There you are!" a voice hissed. The two looked up from the Transfiguration book sitting on the desk between them (and there was a lot less space between them than before), assuming the footsteps they were hearing was Madam Pince yet again. However, they were the footsteps of Peter Pettigrew.
"Peter? What's going on?" Remus asked, clearing his throat afterwards and shifting his chair away from Sally.
"Sirius told me to come find you," squeaked Peter. "We need your…" he paused, "Help with something." Remus nodded, looking from the other boy to Sally and back.
"Right," he said, "That thing. I did promise to help," he stated. He began putting all his stuff together and stooped down for his back. "Tell them I'll be along in a minute, Peter." Peter nodded and headed back the way he came.
"I didn't mean to waste so much of your time," stated Sally as she glanced at her watch. He chuckled, shoving a stack of papers into the bag in front of him.
"You didn't waste my time, Sally. Trust me," he reassured. "I'll…I'll see you in class?" Sally nodded, giving him a smile that he reciprocated.
"I'll be there," she told him. He gave her a small wave before departing from the table. She smiled absentmindedly as he went, giggling quietly once he was out of sight. Never once had Sally thought about Remus as anything more than a friend, but the fact of the matter was that he was really, really lovely and smart and she had to admit, though she hadn't on her way in, she was going to leave the library fancying Remus Lupin.