Remus rushed down the stairs to where they were supposed to meet. He was late already. He jogged down the last flight to find Dorcas leaning against the opposite wall with her arms crossed over her chest.

"Hi," he said, scratching his forehead, "Sorry I'm late. The boys were being a right pain."

"S'alright," she smiled, "Come on."

Remus and Dorcas were both getting itchy with the awkward silence. Remus really wanted to talk to her but didn't know where to start. And Dorcas was getting annoyed with his sighs, and what she thought were his obvious shows of impatience, because it wasn't like she was drawing it out on purpose. They were walking fairly fast, and if she walked any faster she'd be panting in seconds.

After the seventeenth sigh, Dorcas had had it.

"Listen. Let's split up, okay? I'll be quick, I promise."

Remus was a little taken aback by her sudden outburst. "Er..what?"

"What? You go that way, and I'll go thus way. It'll be quicker, and then you can go to the hospital win!" she said very fast.

If Remus was surprised before, he was bloody clueless now.

"Dorcas, what are you talking about?" he asked. Shaking his head to show that he didn't nderstand. "Why would I need to go to the hospital wing?"

Dorcas looked at him with her eyebrows furrowed for ten seconds. Remus counted. Then she blinked, "You don't want to go see Susan Bones?"

Deciding that instead of asking again what she was on about, he'd best just answer the question, he shook his head, "No."

There was a long pause, "Oh." She said. "Okay, then." And with that she started walking down thw corridor.

Remus hurried to catch up. He kept sneaking glances at her, wondering when would be the right time to ask. After about another ten minutes, she turned to him-

"So do you just not like me, then?"

WHAT?

"What?!" he blurted incredulously.

She shrugged,"I'm sorry, I had to ask. I mean I don't remember offending you ever, because I tend to do that a lot. Except for when I spilled hot chocolate on you in third year. But I did apologise-"

" !" he cut off her rambling . "Dorcas…I..I don't not like you." He said, looking at her with wide eyes.

She stopped walking and cocked her head to the side, "You don't?"

Remus shook his head vehemently.

'Okay, then." She said again, and started walking , a little slower this time.

They had walked the rest of the patrol in awkward silence. In which Remus thought that he hadn't been angry with her when she dropped hot chocolate on him because-firstly, the chocolate wasn'r exactle hot, and secondly, that shirt had smelled of chocolate for two weeks afterwards, and he loves chocolate. He didn't tell her that, of course. That was also the first time that he had noticed that she has nice hair. He didn't tell her that, either. But he did wish her goodnight before departing to go to their respectin=ve dormitories. To which she merely nodded.

Remus loosened his tie as he walked up the stairs to the seventh year boys' dormitories. When he opened the door, he was met with, what on his opinion was a rather suspicious scene. James had quickly shoved the map under his mattress and was leaning against his own bedpost with his arms crossed, Sirius was on Remus's bed with his legs crossed and Peter was sitting on the floor. This, however , was not the suspicious part. What was suspicious was that they were all facing the door through which he had just entered.

Remus raised his eyebrows at them, but got no reaction. Deciding that he didn't need any of theis theatrics after that disaster walk with Dorcas, he shook his hea, and went to his bed. Taking out the Charms essay he had finished earlier, he tossed it to James.

"Here. Now get off Padfoot. I wanna go to bed." He said tiredly.

"What a temoer," Sirius said in mock disapproval. "We know your little secret, Moony boy."

Remus sighed and rubbed a hand over his face.

"I distinctly remember having told you all that I'm a werewolf." He said.

"Not that secret. The other secret."Peter quipped.

"Which other secret, mate?" Remus asked, a little exasperated, now.

James cleared his throat from behind, "The one involving a bloke named Remus Lupin, maybe probably fancying a bifd named Dorcas Meadowes?" he finished on a question.

Remus choked, hand frozen half way to his hair. He then coughed, put the hand in his pocket and put on what he hoped was an innocent expression, "I don't know what you're talking about." he said.

Peter started laughing on the floor, James wore a smug smirk and Sirius had a huge grin on his face.

"How the boy lies…"he commented

"Own up, Moony," Peter sais, "we've got you cornered."

Remus sughed and sat down on his bed.

"Don't tell me you figured it out yourselves."he said finally.

James shrugged, "We had help."

Dorcas Meadowes was tire. She had had a long day.

She'd woken up early because of a nightmare, and hadn't been able to go back to sleep. She didn't have a single minute to herself since morning. She'd thrown food at a Slytherin at lunch for calling Lily names, and had served detention for aforementioned actions. Then she had to patrol with Remus. Remus was still on her mind, but she'd decided to think more about him the next day.

"Dorcas?"

She looked out to see Lily's head sticking out from behind her bed hangings.

"Hey, Lils. You still awake?"

"Yeah. Innocent question: What do you think of Remus Lupin?"

Dorcas didn't have the energy or the inclination to judg just how innocent that question was, so she thought a while.

"He's a curious boy.' Was what she settled on.

Curious. Lily could work with curious.

"If you think that we've forgotten, you're wrong, mate." Sirius told Remus at breakfast the next day.

Remus sighed,"Why don't you guys just drop it?" he asked finally.

"Drop it?"Peter asked incredulously. "We can't drop it!"

"And why not?"

"Because she;s the first girl you've evr fancied, and that;s\\'s got to mean something.. I mean, for Merlin's sake, you're bloody seventeen."

"That doesn't make any sense, Pete." Remus said. Before Peter could retort, James cut in.

"Actually, Moony, it does. We were beginning to think that maybe you fancy boys."

"Really?" Remus asks doubtfully.

"Okay, so maybe that's not true. But seriously, stop being stupid. Just go talk to her!"

"Maybe I don't want to." Remus argued.

"Sure, That's why you've been staring at her."

He looked around at his friends, silently challenging him to prove them wrong. And he wondered why they were doing this. Didn't they understand? He pushed away his half-eaten food and picked up his bag.

"I have Transfiguration."