Clutching My Emotions, Remembering the Moments Passed

"So wait," Harry said. "There was a bet? When did that happen?"

Remus smiled. "I guess I didn't tell you about that, did I? We asked Bry and Sirius later, when everyone had cooled down a bit. And I didn't mention what really happened at Hogsmeade, when I went to the bookstore. Sirius and Bryanna made the bet on the first day of school, after the feast…"

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"They really should have thought twice about making me Quidditch Captain and Headboy," James said as the Marauders walked out of the Great Hall.

Sirius soon followed after a girl and was walking up towards the stairs with James. "Yeah I think they really screwed the school over by giving you both those positions."

Remus smirked at James as they walked up the staircase. "They will realize their mistake soon enough." He wasn't looking where he as going as he talked to James, and ran right into a Ravenclaw girl and tripped, falling face-first onto the staircase. He blushed as he heard the laugher of the students around him, and pulled himself to his feet, glancing at the girl to make sure she was all right, only to find himself an inch away from Ashleigh White. He blushed harder. "Ummm… sorry…" he mumbled.

Bryanna erupted into laughter when Remus went face first into the staircase after tripping over Ashleigh, and couldn't help but say, "Look Remus, you fell for Ashleigh!" and watched as his face turned, if possible, an even deeper shade of red.

Ashleigh didn't know what happen until she saw Remus stand up and be so close to her. She hadn't noticed him before and was now an inch away from his face. He began to get embarrassed and was quickly saying sorry. She than looked down and was becoming tongue-tied. "Uh... it's okay." She looked back up at him feeling brave but lost it all when she heard Bryanna. Her cheeks turned red and she quickly ran past Remus and up the stairs heading to her common room without saying another word.

Sirius turned around just to see Ashleigh run on past them. He then looked down to see Bryanna laughing and a very embarrassed Remus. "Uh did we miss something?"

Bryanna just laughed harder and put an arm around Remus. "Remus here just decided to make a fool of himself by falling over Ashleigh."

"Well you had to go and make it worse by saying I fell for her, Bry!" Remus snapped.

Bryanna just smiled sweetly at him. "What was I supposed to do, not crack a joke at the perfect opportunity?" Remus threw his arms up and walked up to the dorms.

"Speaking of perfect opportunities," Bryanna raised her voice when both Remus and Ashleigh were gone, "I'm now taking bets on how long it will take for Remus and Ashleigh to hook up! Odds are 5:1 that they get together within two weeks! Any takers?" She grinned evilly as students swarmed around her to place their bets.

"I don't know if that's such a good idea," Peter said to James and Sirius, "What's going to happen when they find out?"

Sirius walked down to the couple looking like he was about to yell at Bryanna but stopped. "I'll place 20 galleons on them never getting together." He looked at Peter. "He is after all our best friend."

Bryanna grinned gleefully and jotted his name down on a piece of parchment she had gotten out. "Well then, the bet is on Sirius. I say they will get together within two weeks and you say they will never get together. Only one of us can come out right. Thanks for helping my little business, by the way."

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The day of the Hogsmeade trip, Remus was in the bookstore while all the other Marauders were outside, trying to figure out how to curse Lily's current boyfriend, Brian, without Lily finding out. The door to the store opened and Remus looked up to see Ashleigh White come in. He blushed slightly, thinking of how he had fallen over her the week before. Thankfully for him, she turned down a different aisle to look for books. He sighed and returned to reading A Guide to Arithmancy: Everything You'll Ever Need To Know About The Art Of Numbers.

"Oh crap!" he heard right before what sounded like a shelf crashed to the ground. He leapt up and walked over to where he had heard the noise to see Ashleigh frantically trying to shove a pile of books that were littered on the floor around her back onto a shelf.

"Here," Remus said, taking out his wand and performing a spell that made the mess disappear. He looked at her to see that she was blushing quite a bit, holding her head down. She had a quirky smile on her face, mixed with embarrassment and relief.

"Thanks," she said. "I forgot I had a wand, I was just trying to get the book on Arithmancy down but it was too high up and they fell when I tried to grab it, then I didn't know what to do and-"

"Here," Remus reached up and grabbed the book to hand it to her. "I was just reading that too, actually. Professor Vector has assigned a lot more homework, so I thought I might need some help." He realized he was starting to ramble too, and stopped himself.

Ashleigh was still embarrassed as she took a step forward to take the book that he handed to her. "Thanks again," she said, still looking down at her feet as she took another step towards him. She didn't notice that he was inching towards her too. She finally looked up to see his face close to hers and they both held their breath for a second.

DING!

The door opened once more and the couple looked between the cracks in the bookshelf to see Peter Pettigrew walk in, apparently looking for Remus. Remus groaned. "Ashleigh, I'd better go see-" he turned to see that she was gone. He looked down at the floor and saw her purple bag sitting against the shelf. He picked it up just in time for Peter to find him.

"There you are!" Peter said. "You'd better come, Sirius and James are exacting their revenge on Brian." He started leaving before realizing Remus wasn't following. "Come on!" he said, pulling his friend out of the shop.

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After Remus got away from his friends, he got back into Hogwarts and went to the library, looking for Ashleigh so he could return her bag and finally get the nerve to ask her out. Sure enough, Ashleigh was at a table, studying for History of Magic. He took a deep breath before walking over to the table.