Chapter Two

"Nice to meet you, Jessica." Remus held out his hand, but Jessica went in for a hug. Her body pushed into his outstretched hands; Remus noticed how much she was trembling.

"You too, Remus," Jessica glanced in James's direction to catch him nudging Sirius in the ribs.

"Sirius? When did you come back in?" said Remus, following Jessica's gaze. "I thought you were leaving." Remus found himself adding an extra emphasis on the end of 'leaving', as if trying to vocally force Sirius from the room. He really didn't need the added competition- having a girlfriend had never stopped Sirius before.

Sirius instantly caught on. "Yeah, I was," he started, his eyes roving the room guiltily. "But, but first, I had to, um, talking to my number one guy, James Potter!" Sirius thumped James's arm, to which James clutched it and shrugged away in an instant, complaining loudly of a skin disorder that had made his eyes well up. Sirius responded to this by pounding his other arm; the two boys swiftly began fighting on the floor, an angry dust cloud surrounding them.

Choking on the dust, Remus sighed. "Come on, Jessica. Library?"

"Sure," she murmured, unable to take her eyes from the pile of writhing boys on the floor. Remus walked through the open portrait door, calling after his shoulder. The brunette bit her lip as she stared at James's shirt rising up and up and up…

"Jess?"

"Coming."

"You read a lot of books, then?" Remus asked Jessica, his hands rubbing the spine of his favourite childhood novel, White Fang. He longed after the beautiful hybrid creature, half dog, half wolf, who lived his life as an outsider whilst vying for affection from other animals.

"Nah, not really. Who does nowadays? They're all so boring." Jessica blew on her nails, waiting for her venom red nail polish to dry.

"Books aren't boring," said Remus, narrowing his eyes. Narrow-minded people thought they were, but in fact they were a fantastically wonderful way to escape reality and land oneself in a foreign world. His mind flittered over all the hundreds of books in his life.

Jessica rolled her eyes. "Remus, I'm kidding! I love all those sorts of books. Like, um, Peter Rabbit? Have you heard of that classic?"

She was just joking, Remus thought with a sigh of relief. A bubble of laughter escaped from his lips and spread up into the air around the pair, the way a ray of sunlight breaks through an otherwise grey cloud.

"Lupin!" Madam Pince's voice broke through the barrier of laughter. Remus hastily apologised and looked at Jessica to realise she hadn't joined in the laugher. She had been deadly serious.

"I don't understand the joke," she said, her lips in full pout mode. "My mother used to read me Peter Rabbit all the time before she died of being splinched running away from my abusive Death Eater father."

Remus blinked. "Oh my God, Jessica, I'm so sorry…"

"I'm joking, you idiot!" Jessica flicked her hair from her face, laughing. Her face turned straight as she continued, "he wasn't a Death Eater." Jessica watched as Remus gasped, his hands digging into the cover of White Fang.

"That must have been so hard for you." Remus put his warm hand on Jessica's knee, caressing it with his thumb.

Jessica and Remus locked eye contact, the two of them beginning to feel a strange feeling welling up in their stomachs.

"It was," Jessica said, tears misting her vision. "My father committed suicide when he realised it was his fault."

"I am so sorry, Jessica." Remus blinked again. "I can't imagine what you've gone- are going through."

Jessica moved forward, just slightly, the smell of her hair falling in drifting towards Remus. Her breasts, pushed together, were inches from his hands. Remus crossed his legs intently.

"Remus, you're amazing."

Jessica rested one hand of Remus's left cheek, pulling him closer to her. "Remus, you are the most amazing man-" Remus breathed deeply, quickly, and impulsively crushed his mouth against hers. She melted into his lips, tasting passion and power. Remus let go of his book, not watching as it fell to the floor, joining thirteen other books the couple had left around them, all open. Madam Pince had disappeared behind her colossal desk again, flipping through The Art of Magic Marriage.

"There is nothing I want more in this world, right now, than you, Jessica. I don't know your last name, and I want you most."

They continued kissing, tasting, melting. "Alison," said Jessica, her tongue finding his.

Remus broke the kiss. "Remus. Not Alison."

Jessica grinned, and pulled him towards her again. "That's my name; Jessica Alison."

"Right. Kiss me again?"

There they sat, minutes turning into hours.