Disclaimer: I own three of the five characters in this chapter (not counting mentions), but I don't own anything else. Honest.

Chapter 4: The First of September

Previously: 'Oooh, a double date! How exciting!' said Sarah, only semi-sarcastically.

James grinned, and looked around at the group.

'Now that we've all got our NEWT results - O's in Charms, Defence and Transfiguration, an A in History of Magic, and the rest E's. before you ask– who wants to join a subversive reactionary vigilante group working in secret and extreme peril against Voldemort and his evil cronies?'

It was September the first, mused Sarah. All the Hogwarts students would be going back to school. So would she have been, a year ago. She desperately wanted to return to Hogwarts. It wasn't just like missing something, it was more than that; it was as if a part of her was gone. Ever since she had found out that she was magical, Hogwarts had been a major part of her life. She couldn't really imagine life going on without it, as shown by the fact that she didn't know what to do with herself now that it was gone. She had spent most of the morning up in her room, thinking about Hogwarts, and when she had finally come downstairs, she had sat in front of the television, watching banal Muggle soap operas and quiz shows, trying not to think about what was going on in the rest of her life, before giving up and retreating to her room again. She stopped staring out of the window at the sunset outside, and tried, once again, to think of something else.

Caroline, Sirius, James and she had all sent off their application forms to the Auror office, and had all been accepted. Lily had gone to speak with the Muggle Liaisons Office, and had finished her training to introduce Muggleborn children to the magical world ('Training! What a joke! For one, I'm a Muggleborn myself, for another, all I had to do was turn a teaspoon into a teapot, and it was over!'). Suzie had been going off to St. Mungo's every day since the twentieth of August, learning to become a Healer. Remus had had a bit of trouble getting into the Department of Mysteries, but, after showing them the results of his NEWTs and OWLs, he had finally been accepted. It didn't hurt that his recommendation had come Dumbledore himself, of course. Peter, meanwhile, had a job sorting out historical records at the Ministry of Magic, which earned him a steady, if small, income, while spending most of the rest of his time trying to find a teacher training course, although he had had no luck so far.

It was a long cry from their Hogwarts-days' togetherness.

Sarah sighed, and rolled over to bury her head in her pillow. She'd always hated change, ever since she was small. Everyone else seemed to be happy about moving on with their life, but all she wanted to do was return to Hogwarts. Knowing that she'd left her school, her safe place, knowing that it would never protect her again, scared her. She felt lost; not really knowing what she wanted to do with her life anymore. She'd always dreamed of being a policewoman, like her mother, and, when she'd discovered she was magical, an Auror, and so she should have been thrilled about her being accepted, but she wasn't; she felt almost numb with heartache for Hogwarts.

A girl with short brown hair which curled at the end, wearing a blue and grey school uniform, appeared in the doorway of Sarah's room. She was leaning against the doorframe, a concerned expression on her face. Sarah shifted her position on the bed to see her better, and waved sadly.

'Hello, Katie,' she said.

'Sarah?' Katie tilted her head slightly. Sarah and Katie had always been close, and since the death of their little sister Emma (when Sarah was eleven and Katie nine), they had been closer still. Katie could read Sarah like few others. 'Sarah, what's wrong?'

Sarah merely shook her head. It wasn't something she could really put into words, at least, not to her younger, Muggle sister.

'You… miss it, don't you? Hogwarts?' asked Katie.

Sarah smiled in spite of herself. Katie was far too perceptive for her own good sometimes. She nodded, and looked down. Katie hurried into the room and gave her sister a hug.

'Well, think about it this way,' she said. 'At least you had seven years at Hogwarts; I would have loved to be magical.'

'Yes, yes, I suppose,' said Sarah, not really feeling better, but not feeling any worse, either. 'You'd better go do your homework. Is Mum going to be late home from work again?'

When Katie nodded, Sarah's stomach squirmed, as it always did when faced with the knowledge that her mother was going to spend longer than necessary outside the relative safety of their home.

'I guess I'm making dinner then. Do you want omelette or pasta, Katie?'

'Um…' Katie grinned cheekily. 'Is both an option?'

'Both then, but don't expect this sort of generosity from me every day!' said Sarah, waggling her finger, and grinning. 'All right, let's go down.'

The two girls went downstairs, and Sarah entered the kitchen as Katie sat down in the living room. As she checked on the boiling water, and started breaking eggs in a small mixing bowl, Sarah reverted to feeling sorry for herself.

'Katie, I'm not going to have any,' she called. 'Will this be enough for you?'

She went into the doorway and held out the two bowls of food. Katie nodded, and then turned back to her textbook.

Sarah pulled a pan out of the drawer and started melting butter in it. She checked on the pasta and poured the egg mixture into the pan. She took out her wand and, when the omelette seemed partly done on one side, flicked her wand to flip it onto the other side. She felt like crying. When she had discovered she was magical, she never thought that she'd use her magic like this; cooking for her younger sister at the end of a long day of mooching around in her pyjamas.

Sarah got out cutlery as she turned the oven off, and with another couple of flicks of her wand, she had filled Katie's plate, and the two pans were lying in the sink.

'Katie! Food!' she called, setting the plate on the table. With two jabs and thoughts of "Scourgify!" the pots were clean, and, just when she thought she could sit down, the doorbell rang.

Sarah sighed, and padded out of the kitchen, as Katie entered it, and over to the front door. When she opened it, to her surprise, there was Remus. He was smiling broadly at her, and wearing a dinner jacket; it was the same one he had worn when they had performed Misty.

'Remus!' said Sarah, surprised. She looked down at her pyjamas and slippers, and blushed. 'Oh, I wasn't expecting… I… what are you doing here?'

'I've come to take you out,' said Remus, tactfully ignoring her outfit. 'I haven't seen much of you recently and we're both starting work soon, which might mean we'll see even less of each other, so…'

'Oh, um…' Sarah blushed again. 'Well, wait a minute, I need… I need to change. And I should probably tell Katie I'll be out.'

She went over to him, kissed him on the cheek, and disappeared up the stairs to her room. She went over to her wardrobe, trying to find something nice to wear for the evening among her dresses, which she hardly ever wore.

As she looked through them, she came across her old Hogwarts robes, which her mother had put away, forgetting to sell them off second-hand. She felt tears come to her eyes, but angrily wiped them away. Before long, she came down wearing a knee-length dress with a green skirt which faded to almost white around the neck.

She looked into the kitchen, to tell Katie that she was going to be out, and saw that Remus was sitting there chatting to her sister.

'I see you two have met,' said Sarah. 'Katie, Remus and I are going out this evening… Tell Mum where I am, all right?'

'Of course,' said Katie brightly, grinning, as Remus stood up to go. 'Have fun!'

Before Sarah and Remus had left the kitchen, however, Sarah saw Katie lift her head, and, very deliberately, look at Remus, and wink. Sarah looked at her suspiciously, but said nothing, and she and Remus left the house.

'Remus, where are we going?' asked Sarah when they had left. 'Do you know a restaurant?'

'Of course, I'd hardly ask you out to dinner if I didn't, would I? Wait a moment.'

He stuck out his right hand, and a huge triple-decker purple bus appeared from thin air. A pimpled young man, about their age, stepped off the bus, took a deep breath and launched into a prepared speech,

'Hello, my name is Ernie Prang and I will be your conductor this evening-'

'Thank you, Ernie,' said Remus, cutting him off. 'We would like to go to Bellany's, a muggle restaurant in London.'

'Erm, okay, ten sickles each.'

Ernie stepped back to let them on. As the sun was still up, there were armchairs on the Knight Bus instead of the beds that would later appear.

'So, Sarah,' said Remus once they had sat down. 'How have you been?'

Sarah took a look at him – surely he would know how she had been that day – but the look on his face was one of simple curiosity. 'All right. I was feeling awful today though, first of September and all.'

Remus put his arm around her. 'I know. That's why I asked you out today.' He smiled at her. 'What's your favourite thing to eat?'

'All those years at Hogwarts and you're still asking?'

'Yes, because they might not have served your absolute favourite dish there.'

She smiled, and said, 'Well, since I assume you're paying, oysters and caviar with white chocolate.'

He laughed. 'Look, if you get oysters and caviar, then you're paying. What's your actual favourite dish?'

'Well, a really good curry sometimes, but I think that my all-time favourite meal is magret de canard - duck breast. Is that allowed?'

'Of course. Whatever the lady wants. But I think we should limit ourselves to only the second most expensive champagne. It wouldn't do for me to exceed my income.'

After a few passengers were let off, it was their turn. They got off near a smart-looking restaurant in London. As Remus asked for a table for two, reserved under the name of Lupin, Sarah looked around. The restaurant was quite empty, and there were a few couples, but, Sarah noticed with a pang, no children or teenagers. She and Remus were definitely the youngest. They sat down at the table and were handed the menu, and the wine menu. Remus ordered a bottle of St. Emilion, and Sarah started looking through the menu for duck breast. At last, under meats, she found it.

'I see you've found what you're looking for,' she heard Remus say, intercepting her menu as she attempted to put it down. 'Mmm, it does sound nice. "Magret de canard with sautéed potatoes, asparagus and our special hollandaise sauce." It's not even particularly expensive. Good choice.' He grinned cheekily at her. 'But then again, you always do make good choices. Anyone who has the sense to choose me for their boyfriend is the epitome of good taste.'

She looked over at him with a weak smile. He looked concernedly at her, and seemed about to ask something when the wine arrived. He tasted it, nodded, and the waiter poured them both a glass.

'Are you ready to order now?'

Remus looked over to her, and she nodded.

'Yes, thanks. I'll have the coq au vin…'

'And I'll have the magret de canard. Thanks.'

The waiter took their menus, and they started to talk while they waited.

'No, really, Sarah, how are you? You don't seem… I don't know… all that good.'

'Well, I really miss Hogwarts. I can't believe we've actually left,' she took a sip of her wine, 'I mean, ever since I've known you, or Lily, or any of the others, we've been at Hogwarts. And now we're not there any more. It's horrible. It's like… I don't know… part of everything I know about you or anyone, part of all of my friendships… it's all been left behind. I can't stand it.'

'Oh, Sarah…' he said, reaching out his hand to pat her arm. 'It's not that bad, you know it's not…'

'I know it's not, Remus, but I… I don't know… Remus. There's something wrong with me, I swear.' She raised her tear-stained face to look at him. 'I mean, Lily and James can't stand to be apart, and Caroline and Sirius are living together, and I mean… just look at Suzie and Peter, but I miss Hogwarts so much, and… argh, this is going to sound awful, I can stand to be away from you. I just want to go back to Hogwarts. Why? Is it that I don't love you?'

She'd stopped crying now, and was staring intently at the table. How had she let herself get so emotional?

'Sarah,' said Remus after a while. She looked up at him, and wiped the last tear from her cheek. He took a deep breath and continued, 'I… well, I know that I love you, and, well, only you can decide whether you love me or not. I…' He shifted in his seat. 'I can't give you your old life back, but I can give you a new one.'

'What?'

'I… I… Oh, Sarah,' Remus pulled a small box out of his pocket, and suddenly Sarah realised what was happening, 'I love you, and… will you marry me?'

He was down on one knee, the rest of the restaurant forgotten. Sarah stared, and realised that not only Remus, but everyone else in the restaurant was holding their breath. They must have looked very strange; the youngest couple there, her crying about, well, nothing, really, him proposing, almost like to comfort her…

She looked at him. She hadn't been lying; she really didn't know exactly how she felt, but when she looked down at him, and thought about the disco on the last day of term, and how happy she had been when finally, after a year of waiting, she had found out that he liked her too. She thought of all the daydreams and half-made plans of what her life would be like with Remus, and how happy the idea of it made her, she knew the answer straight away.

'Yes,' she breathed, tears coming to her eyes again. 'Yes, I will,' she repeated, louder. He took the ring out of the box and slid it onto her finger, as everyone else clapped. Sarah looked at her ring for the first time. It was a thin gold band, with three diamonds set into it.

'Thank you,' she said, feeling stupid.

'You're welcome,' he said, smiling. 'It cheered you up, at least.'

Sorry for the delay in updating. It was the Easter holidays, so all three of us were away at different times, and had other distractions. Also, Larka and Hepsa are preparing for a school camping expedition, which took up some of our free time when back at school. It won't normally take this long. Credit to Lamia for Gammaing, and to Hepsa for Betaing and contributing a few bits.

Review replies:

englandrules – So so sorry it took so long. There are a long list of reasons, most of which are above. We were quite pleased with your pleading actually; it made us feel so loved. That's one of the many reasons we took so long to update – trying to work out if you'd leave a fourth review… (Kidding, kidding). Maths tests are just awful. They just are. I always get so majorly worked up before a maths exam, it's actually scary. I'm like, 'Aargh! No! No! I'm going to FAIL! I am! I don't know any of this! I'm going to fail, I'm going to fail, I'm going to fail… Oh Hepsa,' squeezes Hepsa's arm, 'tell me I'm not going to fail!'

'Larka, you're not going to fail…'

'Oh, but I am! I'm going to fail… Oh god! I have to go in now… wish me luck!'

Maths tests bring out the worst in me. They really do.

Cheese-iz-good – No, you had a really good point on the James thing, I think we've changed that now. About Petunia, though, I don't think she really hates Lily, she's just jealous, and she sort of bears a grudge. Lily was magical, see, and I'm sure Petunia would have loved to be magical. Then she married someone magical, too, someone who incidentally wrecked her (Petunia's) wedding, and then they had a magical kid. Then they die, and she gets dumped with the magical kid, when she's trying to lead her normal, happy life, forgetting that she had any relatives who were magical, and therefore somehow better than her. See? Good on you for making me write one of my longest review replies ever!

Moony07 - Yeah, the whole maths test thing is awful. OK, I could not believe our marks. Sure, they're never really bad, but you know. I got 83, Lamia got 95, but Hepsa really outdid herself. She got 100. Geez.

Hepsa: squees squees SQUEES SOME MORE

fanficcie reader – Thanks, and we do have a lot of fun writing. Just hope you have as much fun reading as we do writing, really!

Prongs76 – You might be on the right track there – trying not to give too much away – but hey. Here's the update.

pickles.are.good.acorns.are.evil – We're glad you liked it, and here's what happens next. We updated at long last.

Review topic: Clouds. There are some really gorgeous clouds out of the window right now, so yeah. Clouds.

Larka :)