Remus the Hero

"So how does Keely know about your furry little problem, Moony?" asked Sirius.

The marauders and Keira sat in the common room, waiting for Keely and Lily to come back from Professor Dumbledore's office.

"She was there when I got bitten," said Remus softly.

"Come now Remus tell them the whole story," said Keely as she entered through the portrait hole, "you should let your friends know exactly how much of a hero you are."

"What is she going on about Moony?" asked James as Remus turned bright red.

"I'll just show Keely where she'll be sleeping and then we'll come back down and talk, I'd love to hear this story." said Lily.

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"Oh my God, I've got to change, I've got my chance to finally impress Evans" said a panic stricken James.

"Prongs, sit down, all you have to do to impress Lily is to not act like a jerk, or ask stupid questions!" said Remus impatiently.

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"Let's change into our pyjamas, we'll be more comfortable than in your gorgeous dress and these robes" suggested Lily.

"Good idea" and with that Keely waved her wand and she was in her pyjamas. They were red silk trousers with a matching vest top.

"You can't go down in that!" exclaimed Lily.

"Why ever not, they're my pyjamas," said Keely.

"Because you'll give the guys heart attacks, or they'll certainly have a problem focusing on what you are saying. Sirius will especially, I bet"

"What on earth do you mean?" asked Keely blushing slightly; she wished she would stop doing that every time someone mentioned his name.

"Well did you see the way that Sirius was looking at you, he certainly wants to see more of you, if you catch my drift." said Lily as she raised her eyebrows suggestively.

"Oh don't be ridiculous, he would never be interested in me. Now I'm not changing, as the only other ones I have are brown ones with penguins on that Uncle Alby bought me." The two girls giggled over Professor Dumbledore's nickname as they went back down the stairs.

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"I wonder if Keely's hair is that colour all over." Sirius wondered without apparently realising he had said aloud.

"Yes it is," said a voice from behind him.

Sirius turned round to see Keely & Lily standing there with amused looks on their faces.

A mortified and very red-faced Sirius whispered "nooooo".

"I'll prove it if you like Sirius, but it really is the same colour, I promise." said Keely now laughing at the gasps this comment had drawn.

"Um...no……its……..sorry.......I.......umm.......I.......that's okay" muttered Sirius.

To save Sirius any more embarrassment Keely made him budge up on the sofa he and Remus were sharing so that she could squeeze in between them.

"Right so you want to know how I know all about Remus?" Keely checked.

No one answered her; they were all too busy staring at her.

"See" said Lily smugly.

"Oh shut it Evans!"

"Don't you tell my Lily to shut up you cow!" raged James.

"I AM NOT YOUR LILY, POTTER"

Just as Remus yelled "DUCK" Sirius grabbed Keely's head and shoved it out of harm's way as Lily started to cast hexes at James who sat in front of the sofa. When James had apologised to Lily several hundred times, the others all realised it was safe to stick their heads back up. It was at this point that Sirius realised that in pushing Keely's head out of harm's way, he had pushed it into his lap. He immediately got very embarrassed, and tried to think of a way out of this situation and still look like something of a gentleman. Keely shifted slightly so that her neck was not at such an odd angle. It took Sirius a while to realise that he was not dreaming, as Keely had placed her head in his lap, and had her feet on Remus' lap. Sirius stole a glance at Remus, who had accepted her legs without so much as a second thought, and had gently placed his hands on her leg. Sirius must have gone rigid, as Keely looked up at him and said, "I'm sorry I can move if you like" to which Sirius replied, "uh, no that's fine you can stay there". Keely smiled at him, and Sirius thought he would melt as he looked into those smiling eyes; she gently placed her head in Sirius' lap again. She moved his left hand onto her shoulder as it was rather stuck in mid air. Sirius thought that he would faint she had such soft skin. How he would like to kiss her shoulder, or just stroke it. "Well where to start" said Keely, jogging Sirius out of his daydream.

"Remus and I were friends since we were born as we lived next door to each other. We would always be playing and messing about you know how kids are. Well this one particular afternoon, I had convinced Remus ("you were always good at that," muttered Remus) that we should stay out just a little bit longer. Our curfew to be back had gone, but I convinced him that we wouldn't get into trouble. We were playing near the forest not far from our homes. All of a sudden, a great werewolf came at me from nowhere. Remy shoved me out of the way and told me to run and get his parents. I did, and when we...when we came back...I'm sorry I can't do this" At this Keely started sobbing quietly. Remus stroked her legs (Sirius threw him a jealous look, but Remus didn't notice) and carried on for his friend "when Keely and my parents got back, they found Greyback on top of me and he had bitten me, but wasn't through with me. He doesn't use magic much so my parents managed to scare him away. My Dad took me to St Mungo's and Mum took Keely home and briefly explained to her parents what had happened."

Remus looked over at Keely, who was still sobbing although he could now hear her muttering some words. He looked at Sirius and mouthed, "What's she saying?" Sirius lent a bit closer to hear what she was saying and suddenly shouted at her "NO it wasn't, don't you dare say that!" "But it is; it is my fault entirely! It should have been me that got bitten, not Remy." Keely cried.

Remus gently took Keely from Sirius, much to the latter's chagrin, and held her in his lap as he explained. "Keely, I'm surprised Professor Dumbledore never explained. If you had stayed, yes, you would have been bitten, but it would have been as well as me, not instead of. The reason Greyback bit me was to get back at my father. My father wouldn't do something for Lord Voldemort and so he set Greyback on me, as punishment. So it wasn't your fault, it would have happened to me anyway."

Keely looked at Remus through her tears as he finished and smiled at him, God how Sirius wished that she would smile at him like that. "Really Remy? You promise?" she asked quietly. "I promise have you spent all these years thinking it was your fault? Keely nodded. "Oh you poor thing" said Remus as he kissed her forehead. Keely let go of the vice like grip she had on Remus and laid her head back down on Sirius' lap. He put his hand on her shoulder again, and felt butterflies in his stomach. "So what do you guys do on a Sunday when you have no homework to do?" Keely asked in reference to the next day.

The group all chatted animatedly about maybe playing quidditch, girls vs. boys in the morning after breakfast. James and Lily had another argument, but no hexes were thrown this time. At about 11.30pm Lily and Keira said that they were going to bed and they all bid the two of them goodnight. The marauders carried on chatting with Keely, at half past midnight the marauders decided that they should go to bed, as they were tired now. When Sirius didn't get a response from Keely, James looked at her face and saw that she was fast asleep.

"Padfoot mate, I don't think you're going anywhere tonight, she's asleep. Lucky you having Keely asleep on your lap, why will Lily never go to sleep on my lap" James said pouting a little.

"Because Prongs, she hates you, and I'm obviously more comfortable than you." quipped Sirius.

"Sirius do you want to move her over a bit? I'll stay here with her until she wakes up if you like." said Remus.

"No its okay Moony, she's less likely to wake up if you slip out than me. I'll stay here; I don't want to wake her as she got quite upset, and it must have been difficult starting a new school and telling everyone why like that," replied Sirius.

"When did you get so sensitive?" snorted Peter.

"Since forever, I just keep it well hidden Wormtail! Go to bed" snapped Sirius, although quietly so as not to wake Keely.

James held her legs up lightly so that Remus could slip out from under her.

"See you in the morning Padfoot" said the three marauders.

Sirius could not believe his luck, not only had he met the most beautiful girl in the world, she had lain down in his lap and gone to sleep. He used his wand to bring a blanket from the dorm down so that she would not get cold. He then wriggled a little bit so as to get himself comfortable. He was so warm and cosy that he promptly fell asleep.

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The sun was streaming through the window when Keely opened her eyes, not realising for a moment why she could not move her arm. Then as she woke up a bit more she realised it was because there was an arm resting on hers. "Whose arm is that?" she thought, and then she had another thought "why am I not in bed?" She gasped lightly as she remembered that she must have fallen asleep on Sirius' lap last night, and that is where she still was. "Oh how embarrassing!" she thought to herself. "Perhaps I can move and not disturb him". However, the tiniest movement she made seemed to make him mumble a little. As she relaxed, somewhat content to just wait until he woke up, she realised that she could feel something rather hard pressing into her. She could see it wasn't Sirius' wand as he had placed that on the arm of the sofa. As she thought about it and she realised what the hard thing was, she went bright red. "Oh no, Oh no, what do I do!" she said quietly to herself.

"I don't know, what do you do about what?" said a quiet voice from the entrance to the stairs to the boy's dormitories.

"Oh Remus, morning" she replied sheepishly.

"Morning to you too sleepy head. What do you do about what? Remus asked again.

"Nothing, nothing" Keely replied hastily, a little too hastily as Remus could see something was up. He looked more closely at the pair of his friends, and noticed that Keely was a very deep shade of red. He considered what Sirius could possibly have done whilst still asleep to make Keely that red in the face. Then it occurred to him exactly what the problem was. "Ah I see," he said as he sat down in front of Keely, so that they could whisper without waking Sirius. "You see what" said Keely crossly. "I see what the problem is." answered Remus. "Now if I move the blanket off you both, and then Sirius' arm, you can go straight up to your dorm room to get dressed etc. and I'll wake up sleeping beauty here, and he can go and have a cold shower" Remus said with a smirk. "Alright clever clogs" Keely hissed at him "You do that, and I'll meet you down here for breakfast in an hour, okay?" she said with a smile as she realised how much Remus was helping her out of being embarrassed in front of Sirius.

"Sure, but answer a question for me first, please" Remus asked.

"Okay" Keely said warily.

"Do you like Sirius?"

"Of course I do he's a great laugh" Keely replied with a sigh of relief.

"No, I mean do you fancy him?" Remus said in a moment of astuteness.

"Ummm.........I'm not sure, he's certainly attractive, and very fit, and is funny but I don't know if I actually fancy him. I mean I feel like my tummy is doing somersaults at the moment." Keely said with a slow smile spreading across her lips. "Anyway I want to go and get dressed, I'm going to need feeding up if I'm going to beat you boys at quidditch this morning"

"Alright, get ready, I'll move his arm." said Remus. With that Remus removed the blanket and Sirius' arm and Keely deftly got up and lightly ran up the stairs to the room she shared with Lily & Keira.

"Okay Padfoot, how much of that did you hear?" asked Remus with a grin.

"Enough, Moony old friend, enough" replied Sirius with a massive grin spreading across his face as he stood up and stretched.

"Well may I suggest you take my advice and go and have a cold shower? Or three" he added after a pause.

Surprisingly Sirius didn't rebuke Remus for this comment at all, he just smiled again and nodded.

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"What time did you come to bed last night? I didn't hear you come in," asked Lily when Keely had got out of the shower.

"Umm..I fell asleep on the sofa," she said softly.

"What on Sirius' lap?" Lily asked incredulously.

"Yes" Keely replied even softer.

"Oh wow, I can't believe that! So didn't he wake you when he went to bed?"

"Umm, no he fell asleep as well, Remus is just waking him up to get dressed. Oh that reminds me, you're still going to play on the girl's side for quidditch this morning aren't you?"

"Yes of course, I asked Keira last night and she said she would, so it looks like it'll be three against three." Lily said with glee.

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"Come on Lily hurry up we need to go down and meet the boys for breakfast."

"Alright, I'm coming, are you sure that you aren't just desperate to see a certain tall black haired boy again?"

"No of course not, I'm just hungry and will need a lot of food to help us win the match."

"Ah, of course that's the reason," replied Lily with a smirk.

"Oh will you just come on!"

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The marauders were sat in the common waiting for Keely, Lily and Keira to come down so that they could go down to eat breakfast. James was very nervous, as this was the first time that they had organised to do anything that included Lily Evans. Inevitably when Lily came downstairs James was rendered speechless, as was the case whenever he saw her really. The most surprising thing was that so were Remus and Sirius and Peter, when they saw Keely walk down the stairs shouldering her broom. She was wearing skin-tight jeans, with a berry red polo neck jumper. Her hair was pulled back into a ponytail and she had delicate drop earrings in both ears. She looked ready for business. "Ready boys?" she asked over her shoulder as the girls walked past. It wasn't until Keely had walked past did Remus notice how beautiful Keira looked this morning. In fact they all looked lovely. Maybe some of Keely's magic was rubbing off on all three girls.

Just then Keely looked around to see all four marauders staring open mouthed at the three girls. She smiled to herself and said, "Are you four coming? Cos I don't know about you but I'm starving." With that she turned and walked with the two girls down to the Great Hall for breakfast.

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By the time James, Remus, Sirius and Peter managed to move and get down to breakfast, the girls were already settled and were chatting away over their breakfast. Not such an unusual sight one might think. Sirius saw that there was a space next to Keely still, so he went and sat next to her. He couldn't take his eyes off of her. She was so beautiful, and for the most part unaware of exactly how beautiful she was. When Remus reminded him that he needed to eat, he did eventually take his eyes away from her, only to have them widen in shock at her breakfast. It wasn't so much what she was eating that was the shock, it was how much. At this moment Keely was tucking into bacon and eggs, but she had obviously finished some cereal. It looked like she had some toast and jam ready and then an American bagel and then a chocolate muffin, and some fruit. The four marauders thought that only James and Sirius ate like that!

"Umm, Keely, are you going to finish that?" asked James looking eagerly at her chocolate muffin, that Keely was picking at whilst animatedly talking to Lily about something. "Yes, I am, why? There are plenty of others on that plate James". "Oh no reason, just wondered." James replied as they watched her finish the muffin and start peeling her orange. She had had some coffee too. "Remus, has she always eaten this much?" asked Sirius. "Not that I remember, why? Not changing your mind about her are you Padfoot?" Remus asked. "What! No, its just I've never seen a girl eat that much." he replied. "You know, my dad always said Breakfast like a King, lunch like a Prince and dine like a pauper. So I do, anyone got a problem with that?" asked Keely with a smile, who despite having her conversation with Lily and Keira this whole time, had somehow managed to hear the marauder's conversation as well. "Sirius, what would you have changed your mind about me on?" Keely asked looking at him for the first time since they sat down. She had a sparkle in her eye that spoke of mischief, and Sirius could feel himself wishing that he had the guts to just kiss her right here and now. But she was too beautiful for that. "Oh just that you are so tiny to eat so much." he responded.

"Oh, okay" Keely said and the sparkle in her eye had gone. Sirius immediately regretted not telling her the truth. But what was the truth, that he loved her, how could he? He had only met her the day before. This was something he needed to figure out.

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Keely finished the rest of her breakfast in silence, wishing that she hadn't asked Sirius that question. She got up and asked if everyone was ready to go down to the pitch to play their game of quidditch. They all agreed that they were. So they all started walking down to the pitch, discussing who would fill what roles on each team. It was decided that as there were only three on each team, and Peter refereeing, that they would have a keeper, a chaser and a seeker. The seeker would also do the job of the beaters. On Team Marauder, James was the seeker/beater, Sirius was the Chaser and Remus was the Keeper. Much to the boy's annoyance, the girls wouldn't tell them who was playing what position.

The boys thought that they had it figured out. Keira would be Seeker/Beater, Keely would be Keeper, as she had never played before, and Lily would be Chaser. They had one out of three right. As Keira rose up to take her place as Keeper, the boys started to worry that Lily might be Seeker/Beater and how worried they should be about James. But when Lily took the quaffle, it became clear that Keely was going to try and catch the snitch.

"Oi Keely, are you sure you want to do this? I'm very good you know," shouted James.

"Thanks James, but I'll do my best," she shouted back.

As the whistle blew the boys all resolved not to play to tournament standard as they were just girls and they didn't want to make them feel too bad.

By the time Keely caught the snitch, the boys were losing 100 points to 350. The boys looked very sorry for themselves as they all landed. "That was fun, wasn't it!" said Keely brightly as they met up with the boys at the edge of the pitch. Sirius replied grumpily "yeah we must do it again some time" His shoulder was hurting from where Keely had hit the bludger at him. Keely frowned but didn't question him. They all went up to the tower and showered and changed, and then met back in the common room. The marauder's were the first ones down, and Sirius was complaining about his shoulder "I didn't know that such a tiny girl could hit so hard!" he whinged. Keely heard this as she walked down the stairs, she did feel very bad, she had been aiming for his foot, but it was at the same moment that she had seen the snitch and her aim was off.

"Oh Sirius, I am so sorry about that" she said coming up behind him where he was sat on the floor watching Remus and James battle at wizard chess. She knelt behind him and started gently rubbing the place where she thought she had hit him on the shoulder, and said "is that the right place, does that feel any better?" Sirius didn't trust himself to respond, so he just nodded emphatically. Her hands felt wonderful like she had some kind of magic in them. He felt himself relax into her as she massaged his shoulder. If only they could stay like this forever he thought, I'd be a happy man. He closed his eyes and let out a small sigh that only Keely could hear. She smiled to herself.

"You shouldn't be doing that to him you know, he'll only get himself excited and then you'll get embarrassed." said a nasally voice. Sirius opened his eyes, and out of the corner of them he could see Samantha Hussey. He sighed again, although this time in despair, as he was sure the Keely would be much too embarrassed to continue rubbing his shoulder now. Well it was nice whilst it lasted, he thought, and she did decide to do it herself, I didn't ask her to. Keely turned round and said quite calmly "so what if he does get excited at my touch, that's no reason to be embarrassed, in fact if he gets excited, maybe I could help him with that too." With that she carried on massaging the shoulder and ignored Sirius choking, and the other three's wide eyes. Despite the daring of the comment, it had got rid of Samantha and the Sirius Black fan club. "I can't believe you said that Keely Morris!" said Lily as she walked over to them and gave James a consolatory pat on the back, just as Keira did the same to Remus. "Well it got rid of her didn't it? I wish I could have seen the look on your face though Sirius, if it was anything like Remus' I'd have died of laughter!" Keely said grinning. "Does it still hurt Sirius?" Sirius nodded his head, trusting himself even less after that comment from Keely. He felt Keely tug at his tee shirt and he knew she was looking at the bruise he had from the bludger. He knew it looked bad, and didn't want her to feel guilty, so he found his voice and said "It looks worse than it is, it doesn't hurt nearly so much now." "What it doesn't hurt as much now as a second ago?" Keely asked sceptically. "If you don't want me to look at your skin just say and I won't" Keely started to pull away, Sirius grabbed her hand and held it in place, and twisted round to look at her, "no, please if you can make it better, look at it all you want." "Okay then, hold still." Sirius felt a warm tingling sensation in his shoulder, and then the pain was all gone. If he could have seen what the others saw, he'd have looked just as gob smacked as they did. When Keely placed her had back over the bruise, she had closed her eyes, and then there had been a white light coming from her hand, and she pulled away after a few moments. She moved from behind Sirius and sat with the group and asked "So who's winning the game then?"

Sirius' shoulder didn't hurt at all. Sirius decided there and then that he loved this girl and that he needed to speak to her away from everyone else.